The Best Short Stories of 1919 - and the Yearbook of the American Short Story

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• Publié par: filas
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 38
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Best Short Stories of 1919, by Various
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Title: The Best Short Stories of 1919
and the Yearbook of the American Short Story
Author: Various
Editor: Edward J. O'Brien
Release Date: November 11, 2007 [EBook #23445]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1919 ***
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THE
BEST SHORT STORIES
OF 1919
AND THE
YEARBOOK OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY
EDITED BY
EDWARD J. O'BRIEN
EDITOR OF "THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1915"
"THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1916"
"THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1917"
"THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF 1918," ETC.
BOSTON
SMALL, MAYNARD & COMPANY
PUBLISHERSCopyright, 1918, by Margaret C, Anderson, Charles Scribner's
Sons, Smart Set Company, Inc., and The Century Company.
Copyright, 1919, by The Boston Transcript Company.
Copyright, 1919, by The Century Company, Harper &
Brothers, The Bellman Company, The Pictorial Review
Company, The Ridgway Company, The Curtis Publishing
Company, The American Hebrew, and The McCall Company.
Copyright, 1920, by Gulielma Fell Alsop, Sherwood Anderson,
Edwina Stanton Babcock, Djuna Barnes, Frederick Orin Bartlett,
Agnes Mary Brownell, Maxwell Struthers Burt, James Branch
Cabell, Horace Fish, Susan Glaspell Cook, Henry Goodman,
Richard Matthews Hallet, Joseph Hergesheimer, Will E.
Ingersoll, Calvin Johnston, Howard Mumford Jones, Ellen N. La
Motte, Elias Lieberman, Mary Heaton O'Brien, and Anzia
Yezierska.
Copyright, 1920, by Small, Maynard & Company, Inc.
TO
ANZIA YEZIERSKA
BY WAY OF ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Grateful acknowledgment for permission to include the stories and other
material in this volume is made to the following authors, editors, and
publishers:
To the Century Company, Miss Margaret C. Anderson, Editor of The
Little Review, Harper & Brothers, The Bellman Company, The Pictorial
Review Company, Charles Scribner's Sons, The Ridgway Company, The
Curtis Publishing Company, The Smart Set Company, Inc., The Editor of
The American Hebrew, The McCall Company, Miss G. F. Alsop, Mr.
Sherwood Anderson, Miss Edwina Stanton Babcock, Miss Djuna Barnes,
Mr. Frederick Orin Bartlett, Miss Agnes Mary Brownell, Mr. Maxwell
Struthers Burt, Mr. James Branch Cabell, Mr. Horace Fish, Mrs. George
Cram Cook, Mr. Henry Goodman, Mr. Richard Matthews Hallet, Mr.
Joseph Hergesheimer, Mr. Will E. Ingersoll, Mr. Calvin Johnston, Mr.
Howard Mumford Jones, Miss Ellen N. La Motte, Mr. Elias Lieberman,
Mrs. Mary Heaton O'Brien, and Miss Anzia Yezierska.
Acknowledgments are specially due to The Boston Evening Transcript for
permission to reprint the large body of material previously published in its
pages.
I shall be grateful to my readers for corrections, and particularly for
suggestions leading to the wider usefulness of this annual volume. In
particular, I shall welcome the receipt, from authors, editors, and publishers,
of stories published during 1920 which have qualities of distinction, and yet
are not printed in periodicals falling under my regular notice. Such
communications may be addressed to me at Bass River, Cape Cod,
Massachusetts.E. J. O.
[1]CONTENTS
Page
Introduction. By the Editor xiii
The Kitchen Gods. By G. F. Alsop 3
(From The Century)
An Awakening. By Sherwood Anderson 24
(From The Little Review)
Willum's Vanilla. By Edwina Stanton Babcock 34
(From Harper's Magazine)
A Night Among the Horses. By Djuna Barnes 65
(From The Little Review)
Long, Long Ago. By Frederick Orin Bartlett 74
(From The Bellman)
Dishes. By Agnes Mary Brownell 82
(From The Pictorial Review)
The Blood-Red One. By Maxwell Struthers Burt 96
(From Scribner's Magazine)
The Wedding-Jest. By James Branch Cabell 108
(From The Century)
The Wrists on the Door. By Horace Fish 123
(From Everybody's Magazine)
"Government Goat." By Susan Glaspell 147
(From The Pictorial Review)
The Stone. By Henry Goodman 167
(From The Pictorial Review)
To the Bitter End. By Richard Matthews Hallet 178
(From The Saturday Evening Post)
The Meeker Ritual. By Joseph Hergesheimer 200
(From The Century)
The Centenarian. By Will E. Ingersoll 225
(From Harper's Magazine)
Messengers. By Calvin Johnston 237
(From The Saturday Evening Post)
Mrs. Drainger's Veil. By Howard Mumford Jones 269
(From The Smart Set)Under a Wine-glass. By Ellen N. La Motte 297
(From The Century)
A Thing of Beauty. By Elias Lieberman 305
(From The American Hebrew)
The Other Room. By Mary Heaton Vorse 312
(From McCall's Magazine)
"The Fat of the Land." By Anzia Yezierska 326
(From The Century)
The Yearbook of the American Short Story, November, to
351
September, 1919
Addresses of American Magazines Publishing Short 353
The Biographical Roll of Honor of American Short 355
The Roll of Honor of Foreign Short Stories in American
364
Magazines
Volumes of Short Stories Published, November, 1918, to
366
September, 1919: An Index
Articles on the Short Story, October, 1918, to September, 1919 372
Magazine Averages, November, 1918, to September, 1919 381
Index of Short Stories Published in American Magazines,
384
November, 1918, to September, 1919
[Pg xiii]INTRODUCTION
I should like to take the text for my remarks this year on the American
Short Story from that notable volume of criticism, "Our America" by Waldo
Frank. For the past year, it has been a source of much questioning to me to
determine why American fiction, as well as the other arts, fails so
conspicuously in presenting a national soul, why it fails to measure sincerely
the heights and depths of our aspirations and failures as a nation, and why it
lacks the vital élan which is so characteristic of other literatures. We know,
of course, that we are present at the birth of a new national consciousness in
our people, but why is it that this national consciousness seems so tangled in
evasion of reality and in deep inhibitions that stultify it? Mr. Frank suggests
for the first time the root of the cancer, and like a skilful surgeon points out
how it may be healed. His book is the first courageous diagnosis of our
weakness, and I think that the attentive and honest reader will not feel that
he is unduly harsh or spiritually alienated from us. Briefly put, he finds that
our failure lies in not distinguishing between idealism in itself and
idealization of ourselves. We regard a man who challenges our self
righteousness and self admiration as an enemy of the people. What we call
our idealism is rooted in materialism and the goal we set ourselves
virtuously is a goal of material comfort for ourselves, and, that once
attained, perhaps also for others.
"No American can hope to run a journal, win public office, successfully
advertise a soap or write a popular novel who does not insist upon the
idealistic basis of his country. A peculiar sort of ethical rapture has earnedthe term American.... And the reason is probably at least in part the fact that
no land has ever sprung so nakedly as ours from a direct and consciously
material impulse...."
[Pg xiv]Mr. Frank goes on to point out that because our dreams are founded on a
material earth, they none the less have a hope of heaven, and that the
American story is really a debased form of wish fulfilment. "While the
American was active in the external world—mature and conscious there—
his starved inner life stunted his spiritual powers to infantile dimensions....
What would satisfy him must be a picture of the contents of real life,
simplified and stunted to the dream-dimensions of the infant. And with just
this sort of thing, our army of commercialised writers and dramatists and
editors has kept him constantly supplied.
"There is nothing more horrible than a physically mature body moved by a
childish mind. And if the average American production repels the sensitive
American reader the reason is that he is witnessing just this condition.... The
American is aware of the individual and social problems which inspire the
current literatures of Europe. He is conscious of the conflicts of family and
sex, of the contrasts of poverty and wealth. Of such stuff, also, are his
books. Their body is mature: but their mental and spiritual motivation
remains infantile. At once, it is reduced to an abortive simplification
whereby the reality is maimed, the reader's wish fulfilled as it could only be
in fairyland. But the fairyland is missing: the sweet moods of fairyland have
withered in the arid sophistications of American life.... And yet the authors
of this sort of book are hailed as realists, their work is acclaimed as social
criticism and American interpretation. And when at times a solitary voice
emerges with the truth, its m