Part 33

39. _His Escape_, by _Will Payne_ (Saturday Evening Post). I regard this as the best newspaper story published in America since “The Stolen Story.” It has quick dramatic action, well stressed conflict, clean-cut characterization, and a thoroughly adequate conclusion. If the style is somewhat staccato, this is perhaps in harmony with the character of the story.

40. _The Toast to Forty-Five_, by _William Dudley Pelley_ (Pictorial Review). Mr. Pelley has “the human touch.” His stories of Paris, Vermont, have a homely quality which never over-stresses the emotional values, even when it almost seems as if the author were going to sentimentalize them. No work could be more indigenous to the soil. Its very roughnesses are a product of environment. Though Mr. Pelley as yet entirely lacks style, there is a driving force within him which should finally shape a personal style in much the same manner as may be observed in the evolution of Irvin S. Cobb’s best work.

41. _The Poet_, by _Lawrence Perry_ (Harper’s Magazine). This story is a study in courage similar in quality to “A Certain Rich Man,” which I published last year in “The Best Short Stories of 1917.” It is very deliberately built up as a literary problem, but with unquestionable artistic sincerity. It would have been easy to key this story too tightly from an emotional point of view, but Mr. Perry’s feeling in the matter has been sure.

42. _Green Umbrellas_, by _Lucy Pratt_ (Pictorial Review). Symbolism is woven into this story as modestly as in “The Sun Chaser” by Jeannette Marks, which appeared in the same magazine during 1916. Miss Pratt has abandoned her negro character stories for the time being, and written about a little boy who brings his parents together. It is slightly sentimentalized, but this is a weakness which the other excellent qualities of the story largely neutralize.

43. _David and Jonathan_, by _Mary Brecht Pulver_ (Mother’s Magazine). This idyl of boyhood friendship, which may not have come to the attention of many readers, has interested me as much as Roland Pertwee’s notable study of adolescence, entitled “Red and White.” It is a study in loyalties seen from a boy’s point of view, mirroring as it does later, if no firmer, loyalties of men and women.

44. _The Sixth Man_, by _George Palmer Putnam_ (Ladies’ Home Journal). It is claimed by the author of this story that it is based on fact. Whether this is so or not, it is an interesting study of a possible historical situation woven around the death of Edith Cavell. It seems to me a made story rather than a told story, but granting this weakness which has not been sufficiently covered, it is noteworthy in its way.

45. _Extra Men_, by _Harrison Rhodes_ (Harper’s Magazine). This story is an instance of atmosphere perfectly realized in brief compass. But it is more than that. It is a new legend for American literature fairly comparable to Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and Hawthorne’s “The Gray Champion,” in its portraiture of Washington and all the armies of the American dead sailing for France with the American troopships in the morning.

46. _Daffodils_, by _Anne Douglas Sedgwick_ (Atlantic Monthly). Of the series of stories based on the symbolism of flowers which Mrs. de Sélincourt has contributed during the past few years to American magazines, “Daffodils” is probably the best. Full of the spirit of young England and the many thousand youths mown in Flanders like a field of daffodils in glad surrender, this story reflects the spiritual analogies of the flower in the human heart. It is the same spirit of eternal English youth which is reflected in Rupert Brooke’s last sonnets.

47. _Release_, by _Elsie Singmaster_ (Pictorial Review). One more memory of Lincoln, uniting the tradition of the Civil War with the tradition of the present war, is evoked by Elsie Singmaster in this story. There is very little action in “Release” of a physical kind, but the spiritual values are dynamic, and the story is told with a processional dignity attained in other stories only by this author.

48. _The Return_, by _Gordon Arthur Smith_ (Scribner’s Magazine). From the romantic fortunes of Ferdinand Taillandy, Mr. Smith has turned to a poignant study of French war life. With great reticence and gentleness he has idealized the return of a soldier home to his greatest desire, and so added one more to the notable chronicles of supernatural life which the war has evoked from American artists.

49. _Solitaire_, by _Fleta Campbell Springer_ (Harper’s Magazine). I regard this as one of the two best short stories of the year, though in saying so I wish to put forward no more than a personal judgment. The character whom Mrs. Springer has created is unlike any other in American fiction, and yet, in his modesty, efficiency, and sensitiveness, a most natural American individual. There are many different passions for perfection among men, most of them secret, and of these I think that the passion of Corey is not the least noble.

50. _The Dark Hour_ (Atlantic Monthly), 51. _A Taste of the Old Boy_ (Collier’s Weekly), and 52. _The Wages of Sin_ (Pictorial Review), by _Wilbur Daniel Steele_. Once more it is necessary to affirm that Wilbur Daniel Steele shares with Mrs. Katharine Fullerton Gerould the distinction of first place among contemporary American short-story artists. I still think that “Ching, Ching, Chinaman” is the best short story that Mr. Steele has yet written, and that its only close rival is “A White Horse Winter,” but “The Dark Hour” I should place third in an anthology of Mr. Steele’s stories, and first in an anthology of American war stories. In its message to the American people it yields in significance only to the best of President Wilson’s state papers, and serves to crystallize the issue before the country in this war as unforgetably as William Vaughn Moody crystallized the war issue less than twenty years ago in his “Ode in Time of Hesitation,” also published in the Atlantic Monthly. In the light of present events, Mr. Steele’s message has only increased in significance. Of the two other stories, “The Wages of Sin” takes its rightful place with the other Urkey Island stories which I have discussed in the past. “A Taste of the Old Boy” is one more war legend for our anthology.

53. _The Bird of Serbia_, by _Julian Street_ (Collier’s Weekly). Repeatedly in the course of this article I have had occasion to point out that the best of the year’s war stories are creating new legends. How a bird in a cage in a little Serbian village may have been the cause of the Great War is persuasively set forth by Mr. Street in this story. The conclusion is one of the best examples of a justifiable surprise ending that I know of, and the human quality of Mr. Street’s characterization renders its inherent improbability psychologically convincing.

54. _The Three Zoölogical Wishes_, by _Booth Tarkington_ (Collier’s Weekly). This is the most amusing study of adolescence that Mr. Tarkington has given us. It has countless subtle touches of observation which quietly build up two remarkably accurate portraits. I regard it as the best of the new series which Mr. Tarkington has been publishing in Collier’s Weekly.

55. _Five Rungs Gone_, by _Albert W. Tolman_ (Youth’s Companion). For many years the most interesting weekly feature of the Youth’s Companion has been the danger story in which the youthful hero escapes from extraordinary peril by virtue of courage and great intellectual ingenuity. Most of these stories are built on a regular formula and cannot claim much literary value. But now and then a situation is so vividly realized, and the situation so logically deduced, that the story has literary justification. And “Five Rungs Gone” is altogether exceptional in this respect.

56. _At Isham’s_, by _Edward C. Venable_ (Scribner’s Magazine). The zest of this story consists in the intellectual subtlety of mental conflict. It contrasts the characters of several _habitués_ of a New York café who form a little group each night for endless discussion. The value of the story rests in the manner in which events bring out variations in character, and the solution of the story is as absorbing as a chess problem.

57. _De Vilmarte’s Luck_ (Harper’s Magazine) and 58. _Huntington’s Credit_ (Harper’s Magazine), by _Mary Heaton Vorse_. In these two stories there is a marked contrast of subject matter. “De Vilmarte’s Luck” is a study of the artistic temperament, with fine ironies keenly portrayed. The war provides the story with a solution which reveals the finer grain. In “Huntington’s Credit” we have a study in suppressed desires, very quietly told, with a poignancy softened somehow by the quality of character. In these two stories Mary Heaton Vorse has given us the best work written by her in the last four years.

59. _The White Battalion_, by _Frances Gilchrist Wood_ (The Bookman). Here is the last of the fine supernatural legends inspired during the past year by the Great War. The White Battalion of the dead which fights on the side of the Allies is comparable to the marching host seen by Harrison Rhodes in “Extra Men,” but there is an _élan_ in this story which suggests a deeper spiritual background.

60. _In the House of Morphy_, by _John Seymour Wood_ (Scribner’s Magazine). This legend of old New Orleans has the romantic glow of Mr. Cable’s best novels linked to a well-developed plot with a fine quality of logical surprise. It is one of the best stories written by a fastidious artist of the old school who appears seldom in our magazines, and always with the finest substance that he can give.

ARTICLES ON THE SHORT STORY, JANUARY TO OCTOBER, 1918

_The following abbreviations are used in this index:—_

_Atl._ .....................Atlantic Monthly _Bel._ .....................Bellman _B. E. T._ ................Boston Evening Transcript _Bk. News Mo._ ........Book News Monthly _Book._ ...............Bookman _Cen._ ................Century Magazine _C. O._ ...............Current Opinion _Cos._ ................Cosmopolitan _F. A. Suppl._ ........Fine Arts Supplement _For._ ................Forum _Lit. R._ .............Little Review _Liv. Age_ ............Living Age _Mir._ ................Reedy’s Mirror _N. A. Rev._ ..........North American Review _N. Rep._ .............New Republic _Outl. (London)_ ......London Outlook _So. Atl. Quart._ .....South Atlantic Quarterly _Strat. J._ ...........Stratford Journal _Yale R._ .............Yale Review _(161)_ ...............Page 161 _(11:161)_ ............Volume 11, page 161

American Short Stories of 1917, The Best Sixty-Three. By Edward J. O’Brien. Book. Feb. (46:696.)

American Short Story. By William Stanley Braithwaite. B. E. T. May 15. (pt. 2. p. 6.)

_Anonymous._ Short Story Art and the Magazines. Strat. J. July-Aug. (78.)

Artzibashev, Michael. _See_ Russian Revolutions and Literature.

Asch, Sholom. _See_ Yiddish Writers.

_Ashmun, Margaret._ Ivan Turgenev. B. E. T. Oct. 19. (pt. 3. p. 4.)

_Beaucrispin, Raoul de._ Edgar Allan Poe. Bk. News Mo. April. (36:281.)

_Belshaw, Alexander._ Review of Moore’s “A Story Teller’s Holiday.” Chicago Daily News. Aug. 21.

Bennett’s Books, Arnold. By Randolph Edgar. Bel. July 13. (25:48.)

_Bergengren, Ralph._ Review of Morley’s “Shandygaff.” B. E. T. June 12. (pt. 2. p. 6.)

Best Short Stories of 1917. By Edward J. O’Brien. B. E. T. Jan. 19. (pt 3. p. 5.)

Best Sixty-Three American Short Stories of 1917. By Edward J. O’Brien. Book. Feb. (46:696.)

Bierce, Ambrose. C. O. Sept. (65:184.)

Bierce, Ambrose: America’s Neglected Satirist. By Wilson Follett. Dial. July 18. (65:49.)

Bierce, Ambrose: A Rejected Guest. By Louise Gebhard Cann. Strat. J. June. (38.)

_Bourne, Randolph._ Review of Latzko’s “Men in War.” Dial. May 23. (64:486.)

_Boynton, H. W._ Told and Made. (Reviews of Short-Story Collections.) Nation. April 4. (106:394.)

_Bradley, William Aspenwall._ “A Queer Fellow.” (Booth Tarkington.) Dial. March 28. (64:297.)

_Braithwaite, William Stanley._ American Short Story. B. E. T. May 15. (pt. 2. p. 6.)

_Brégy, Katherine._ Lord Dunsany. America. June 15. (19:241.)

_Brooks, Van Wyck._ On Creating a Usable Past. Dial. April 11. (64:337.)

Brown, Alice. Reviews of “The Flying Teuton.” Nation. May 11. (106:575.) By Dorothea Lawrance Mann. B. E. T. July 10. (pt. 2. p. 6.)

Burgess, Gelett (The Irritating Mr. Burgess.) By Vincent Starrett. Mir. Oct. 11. (27:511.)

Burt, Maxwell Struthers. _See_ Tricks and Inventions.

_Burton, Richard._ A Debauch of O. Henry. Bel. Jan. 26. (24:93.)

Cabell, James Branch. By Wilson Follett. Dial. April 25. (64:392.) By Ben Hecht. Chicago Daily News. April 10. By Vincent Starrett. Chicago Herald and Examiner. F. A. Suppl. May 11. (I.)

_Canby, Henry Seidel._ On a Certain Condescension Toward Fiction. Cen. Feb. (95:549.) Sentimental America. Atl. April. (121:500.)

_Cann, Louise Gebhard._ Ambrose Bierce: A Rejected Guest. Strat. J. June. (38.)

Chambers, Art of Robert W. By Rupert Hughes. Cos. June. (80.)

Chekhov, Anton. By Louis S. Friedland. Dial. Jan. 3. (64:27.) By George Rapall Noyes. Nation. Oct 12. (107:406.) _See also_ Russian Revolutions and Literature.

_Colum, Padraic._ Conquistadore. (R. B. Cunninghame-Graham.) N. Rep. July 6. (15:296.) Irishry. (With review of Pearse’s “Collected Works.”) Nation. Sept. 21. (107:317.)

Conrad, Joseph. By J. M. Robertson. N. A. Rev. Sept (208:439.) By Arthur L. Salmon. Bk. News Mo. Aug. (36:442.)

Cunninghame-Graham, R. B. By Padraic Colum. N. Rep. July 6. (15:296.) By Amy Wellington. Book. April. (47:155.)

Davis, Richard Harding. By Francis Hackett. N. Rep. March 2. (14:149.)

Dostoevsky, Fedor. _See_ Russian Revolutions and Literature.

Doyle, A. Conan. _See_ Starrett, Vincent.

Dreiser, Theodore. Review of “Free.” By Edwin F. Edgett. B. E. T. Aug. 28. (pt. 2. p. 6.)

Dunsany, Lord. By Katherine Brégy. America. June 15. (19:241.)

_Eaton, Walter Prichard._ Diogenes in Search of a “Hero.” B. E. T. Oct. 16. (pt 2. p. 4.)

_Edgar, Randolph._ Arnold Bennett’s Books. Bel. July 13. (25:48.)

_Edgett, Edwin F._ Review of Dreiser’s “Free.” B. E. T. Aug. 28. (pt 2. p. 6.) Review of Ferber’s “Cheerful—By Request.” B. E. T. Sept 14. (pt 3. p. 6.) Review of Galsworthy’s “Five Tales.” B. E. T. April 10. (pt. 2. p. 8.) Review of Harris’s “Life of Joel Chandler Harris.” B. E. T. Sept 18. (pt. 2. p. 6.) Review of Harris’s “Uncle Remus Returns.” B. E. T. Aug. 21. (pt 2. p. 6.) Review of Hergesheimer’s “Gold and Iron.” B. E. T. May 15. (pt 2. p. 6.)

Editor’s Way, In the. By Isaac Goldberg. B. E. T. Feb. 16. (pt 3. p. 5.)

Farrère, Claude. _See_ French Literature During the War and After.

Ferber, Edna. Review of “Cheerful—By Request,” by Edwin F. Edgett. B. E. T. Sept. 14. (pt 3. p. 6.)

_Follett, Wilson._ America’s Neglected Satirist. (Ambrose Bierce.) Dial. July 18. (65:49.) Gossip on James Branch Cabell. Dial. April 25. (64:392.) Humanism and Fiction. Atl. Oct. (122:503.)

French Literature During the War and After (with Notices of Farrère and Mille). By Theodore Stanton. Strat. J. (2:40.)

_Friedland, Louis S._ Anton Chekhov. Dial. Jan. 3. (64:27.)

Galsworthy, John. Reviews of “Five Tales.” London Nation. Sept 28. (23:692.) By A. C. N. N. Rep. Aug. 10. (16:53.) By E. F. Edgett. B. E. T. April 10. (pt 2. p. 8.) By Frank Swinnerton. Outl. (London.) Aug. 10. (42:131.)

_Garnett, Edward._ Edward Thomas. Dial. Feb. 14. (64:135.)

_Gerould, Katharine Fullerton._ War Novels [and Short Stories]. Yale R. Oct. (8:159.)

_Goldberg, Isaac._ East Side Unearths a Dickens. (H. Gutman.) B. E. T. Sept 11. (pt. 2. p. 5.) In the Editor’s Way. B. E. T. Feb. 16. (pt. 3. p. 5.) New York’s Yiddish Writers. (Pinski, Asch, Raisin, Libin, Kobrin.) Book. Feb. (46:684.) Pinski, Maeterlinck of America. B. E. T. July 17. (pt. 2. p. 4.) Tales from the Yiddish. (Leon Kobrin.) B. E. T. Aug. 14. (pt. 2. p. 6.) Touching on the Impersonal. B. E. T. Aug. 21. (pt 2. p. 4.)

Grim Thirteen, The. (_Review._) By Louis Untermeyer. Dial. Jan. 17. (64:70.)

Gutman, H. (East Side Unearths a Dickens.) By Isaac Goldberg. B. E. T. Sept 11. (pt. 2. p. 5.)

_Hackett, Francis._ Richard Harding Davis. N. Rep. March 2. (14:149.)

_Harman, H. E._ Joel Chandler Harris: The Prose Poet of the South. So. Atl. Quart. July. (17:243.)

Harris, Joel Chandler. Joel Chandler Harris. By H. E. Harman. So. Atl. Quart. July. (17:243.) Review of His “Life and Letters.” By E. F. Edgett. B. E. T. Sept. 18. (pt. 2. p. 6.) Review of “Uncle Remus Returns.” By E. F. Edgett. B. E. T. Aug. 21. (pt. 2. p. 6.)

_Hecht, Ben._ Concerning James Branch Cabell. Chicago Daily News. April 10.

“Henry, O.” By C. Alphonso Smith. Nation. May 11. (106:567.) By Richard Burton. Bel. Jan. 26. (24:93.) Letters of “O. Henry.” By G. H. Sargent B. E. T. April 27. (pt. 3. p. 4.)

_Hergesheimer, Joseph._ Some Veracious Paragraphs. Book. Sept. (48:8.)

Hergesheimer, Joseph. Review of “Gold and Iron.” By Edwin F. Edgett B. E. T. May 15. (pt. 2. p. 6.)

_Hughes, Rupert._ Art of Robert W. Chambers. Cos. June. (80.)

Hughes, Interview with Rupert. By “Pendennis.” For. Jan. (59:77.)

Humanism and Fiction. By Wilson Follett Atl. Oct. (122:503.)

Hurst, Fannie: Genius of the Short Story. By Kathleen Norris. Cos. Sept (93.)

_Hutchings, Emily Grant._ Review of Tagore’s “Mashi.” Mir. Oct 4. (27:500.)

Irishry. (With review of Pearse’s “Collected Works.”) By Padraic Colum. Nation. Sept. 21. (107:317.)

Is American Life Divorced from American Literature? C. O. March. (64:206.)

James, Henry. Articles by. Ethel Colburn Mayne, Ezra Pound, A. R. Orage, T. S. Eliot, John Rodker, and Theodora Bosanquet. Lit. R. Aug. (pp. 1-64.) Sept. (pp. 50-53.) By Francis X. Talbot, S. J. America. Oct 12. (20:19.)

Joyce, James. By Scofield Thayer. Dial. Sept. 19. (65:201.)

_Kadison, Alexander._ Ovid as a Short-Story Writer in the Light of Modern Technique. Poet-Lore. March-April. (29:206.)

Kipling Anatomized. (Review of Hart’s “Kipling the Story Writer.”) Nation. Sept. 28. (107:350.)

Kobrin, Leon. (Tales from the Yiddish.) By Isaac Goldberg. B. E. T. Aug. 14. (pt. 2. p. 6.) _See also_ Yiddish Writers.

_Lansing, Ruth._ Robert Louis Stevenson’s French Reading As Shown in His Correspondence. Poet-Lore. March-April (29:218.)

Latzko, Andreas. “Men in War.” Review by Randolph Bourne. Dial. May 23. (64:486.)

Lemaitre, Jules. By Desmond MacCarthy. New Statesman. April 27. (11:71.)

Libin, Zalmon. _See_ Yiddish Writers.

_Lighton, William R._ Something Rotten in the State of Fiction. B. E. T. Aug. 14. (pt. 2. p. 5.)

Lincoln, Joseph C. By Reed, Charles Francis. For. Feb. (59:219.)

Lyons, A. Neil. By Constance Mayfield Rourke. N. Rep. June 8. (15:180.)

_MacCarthy, Desmond._ Jules Lemaitre. New Statesman. April 27. (11:71.)

_McIntire, Ruth._ Imperturbable Artist. (Leonard Merrick.) Dial. June 6. (64:527.)

_Mann, Dorothea Lawrance._ Review of Brown’s “The Flying Teuton.” B. E. T. July 10. (pt. 2. p. 6.) Review of Train’s “Mortmain.” B. E. T. Sept. 21. (pt. 3. p. 6.)

Merrick, Leonard. By Ruth McIntire. Dial. June 6. (64:527.) By R. Ellis Roberts. Liv. Age. Sept. 28. (298:775.) Review of “While Paris Laughed.” By Rebecca West Outl. (London.) Aug. 17. (42:159.)

Mille, Pierre. _See_ French Literature During the War and After.

Moore, George. “A Story Teller’s Holiday.” Review by Alexander Belshaw. Chicago Daily News. Aug. 21.

Morley, Christopher. “Shandygaff.” Review by Ralph Bergengren. B. E. T. June 12. (pt 2. p. 6.)

N., A. C. Interior Fiction. (Galsworthy’s “Five Tales.”) N. Rep. Aug. 10. (16:53.)

_Norris, Kathleen._ Genius of the Short Story. (Fannie Hurst.) Cos. Sept. (93.)

_Noyes, George Rapall._ Chekhov. Nation. Oct 12. (107:406.)

_O’Brien, Edward J._ Best Short Stories of 1917. B. E. T. Jan. 19. (pt 3. p. 5.) Best Sixty-Three American Short Stories of 1917. Book. Feb. (46:696.) Review of Williams’s “Handbook of Story-Writing.” Book. Jan. (46:612.) Some Books of Short Stories. Book. May. (47:299.)

_Olgin, Moissaye J._ Survey of Russian Literature. (I.) Book. Oct. (48:191.)

Ovid as a Short-Story Writer. By Alexander Kadison. Poet-Lore. March-April. (29:206.)

Pearse, Padraic. _See_ Irishry.

“_Pendennis._” “My Types”—Rupert Hughes. For. Jan. (59:77.)

_Phelps, William Lyon._ Russian Revolutions and Literature. (With reviews of Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Artzibashev.) Yale R. Oct. (8:191.)

Pinski, David, Maeterlinck of America. By Isaac Goldberg. B. E. T. July 17. (pt 2. p. 4.) _See also_ Yiddish Writers.

Poe, Edgar Allan. By Raoul de Beaucrispin. Bk. News Mo. April. (36:281.) By Francis X. Talbot, S. J. America. June 1. (19:193.)

Post, Melville Davisson. _See_ Tricks and Inventions.

Raisin, Abraham. _See_ Yiddish Writers.

_Reed, Charles Francis._ Joseph C. Lincoln. For. Feb. (59:219.)

“Renaissance in the Eighties.” Nation. Oct. 12. (107:404.)

_Roberts, R. Ellis._ Leonard Merrick. Liv. Age. Sept 28. (298:775.)

_Robertson, J. M._ Art of Joseph Conrad. N. A. Rev. Sept (208:439.)

_Rourke, Constance Mayfield._ English Raconteur. (A. Neil Lyons.) N. Rep. June 8. (15:180.)

Russian Literature, Survey of. (I.) By Moissaye J. Olgin. Book. Oct. (48:191.)

Russian Revolutions and Literature. (With reviews of Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Artzibashev.) By William Lyon Phelps. Yale R. Oct. (8:191.)

Sabatini, Rafael. “Historical Nights’ Entertainment.” (Review.) Nation (London.) Feb. 2. (22:577.)

_Salmon, Arthur L._ Joseph Conrad. Bk. News Mo. Aug. (36:442.)

Saltus, Edgar. C. O. Oct. (65:254.)

_Sargent, George H._ Letters of “O. Henry.” B. E. T. April 27. (pt. 3. p. 4.)

_Scarborough, Dorothy._ Review of Steele’s “Land’s End.” N. Y. Sun. Books and Book World. Sept. 29. (10.)

Sélincourt, Hugh de. Review of “Nine Tales.” By Myron R. Williams. Dial. March 14. (64:241.)

Sherlock Holmes, In Praise of. By Vincent Starrett. Mir. Feb. 22. (27:106.)

Short-Story Art and the Magazines. By a Magazine Editor. Strat. J. July-Aug. (78.)

Smith, Arthur Cosslett. By Vincent Starrett. Mir. Oct. 18. (27:522.)

_Smith, C. Alphonso._ “O. Henry.” Nation. May 11. (106:567.)

_Stanton, Theodore._ French Literature During the War and After. (With Notices of Farrère and Mille.) Strat. J. (2:40.)