The greatest difficulty confronting the compilers of any
anthology is involved in the necessary exclusion, through
lack of space, or else, in some instances, through lack of
unmistakable manifestation of literary merit, of some authors
and selections that would no doubt be welcomed by many
readers of the volume. In the present work it has been the
main purpose to set forth in due prominence the works of
those writers of our state who have displayed unmistakable
literary merit, and who have, beyond doubt, possessed both a
message and a marked facility in giving it to the world. We
now come to those who, usually despite the rigorous exactions
of hurried and anxious frontier lives, have sensed the
essential elements of poetry or story in their workaday
lives, and have had the courage and optimism necessary to
write and publish.
To show just what courage it took and just what spirit
impelled these writers, let us quote from the preface to