O'Brien, Edward J. (Edward Joseph), 1890-1941. The best short stories
Associate Professor of English, Hunter College of the City of New York; Instructor in Short-Story Writing, Columbia University (Extension Teaching and Summer Session). Author of “Gnomic Poetry in Anglo-Saxon,” “A Handbook on Story Writing,” etc.; Editor of “A Book of Short Sto...
Associate Professor of English, Hunter College of the City of New York; Instructor in Short-Story Writing, Columbia University (Extension Teaching and Summer Session). Author of...
2. Part 2_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: 1. Nag Hong Fah pays cash to Yung Long, whom heretofore he has paid on ninety days’ leeway. (What does this signify as to the relations of the tw...
3. Part 3GERMINAL IDEA. “The genesis of ‘Onnie’ was a desire to record the dialect of one Patrick Qualey, a gardener, now extinct. Patrick had preserved to the age of seventy his Celtic...
4. Part 4_Steps toward Dramatic Climax_: The importance of himself comes home to Morton (“The second high light”). “The third did not come until fifteen years later” (Bewsher has been in...
5. Part 5Note on page 100 the first indication that Peep’s sanity may be suspected (Speech of Mr. Quarles). This question of his sanity joins Dwyer’s interest in securing the money--a do...
6. Part 6PROPORTION. One of the greatest problems in developing the action of a story which covers twenty-three years is that of proportion. To hover over the “purple patches,” to skip t...
7. Part 7FACTS OF THE PLOT. Minnie Foster marries John Wright. Basis for trouble lies in the fact that Minnie is a lively girl, with a love for color and action, while John is a hard man...
8. Part 8_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The carver finds himself a hero. It is decided to erect a tombstone over the dead aviator, with the inscription “Here lies a fallen German.”...
9. Part 9PRESENTATION. The story is recounted ten years later, after a formal dinner, by the student whom Miss Haviland had helplessly, impulsively, taken into her half-confidence. Her a...
10. Part 10“Technique defeats itself. The more nearly perfect it becomes, the nearer it is to stagnation. This rule holds true whether it be applied to ecclesiastical ceremony, to that hum...
11. Part 11PROPORTION. This essential is placed first, here, as being the chief means by which the effect is obtained. This effect comes, cumulatively, and is increased by giving climactic...
12. Part 12_Steps toward the Climax of Action_: The letter telling of Nat’s death. Mrs. Haynes’s stony grief. The second letter; Nat’s funeral and the _croix de guerre_. “Maw” awakes; she...
13. Part 13“The opening scene of ‘Solitaire’ is an exact transcript of one of those visual impressions. I did see the man who afterward became ‘Corey’ in the restaurant of a small Paris ho...
14. Part 14Page 457, in the paragraph beginning, “I shall never forget the picture,” occurs preparation for the “China way” departure. What is it? In the same paragraph what excellent bit...
15. Part 15CHARACTERS. In Hazelton, the dominant character, Mrs. Vorse presents an interesting study of dual personality. She gains the reader’s sympathy for him chiefly by showing that hi...