O. Henry memorial award prize stories of 1923

O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES of 1923
CHOSEN BY THE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS Author of “A Handbook on Story Writing,” “Our Short Story Writers,” Etc. Associate Professor of English, Hunter College of the City of New York Instructor in Story Writing, Columbia University ( Extension Teaching and Summer Session )
GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1924
COPYRIGHT, 1923, 1924, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Copyright, 1922, 1923, by The McCall Company and The Pictorial Review Company.
Copyright, 1923, by Harper & Brothers, The Curtis Publishing Company in the United States and Great Britain, McClure Publishing Company, New York; The Century Co., Pearson’s Magazine (The New Pearson’s), The Frank A. Munsey Company, P. F. Collier and Son Company in the United States and Great Britain, International Magazine Company, Consolidated Magazines Corporation (The Red Book Magazine.)
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

This collection is that of no single person, whose prejudices conceivably might emphasize one type or another; but of editors, critics, and writers of fiction, whose combined opinion insures catholicity of taste and freedom from bias.
In previous volumes the Committee have stated the requisites of a good story. Hag-ridden by no formulæ, the Committee believe that every worthy narrative—whether Hebraic tale, Greek myth, or American short story—must yet meet specific tests. For example, characters engage in a struggle or become involved in difficulties out of which they emerge successfully or unsuccessfully. Apply this limitation to the David-Goliath fight, Phaëton’s sun chariot drive, or to Papa Chibou’s rape of Napoleon; it generously includes all.
The Committee apprehend, a posteriori , the writer’s problems of structure, characterization, colour, rhythm; they recognize the skill indispensable to concealing technique; they feel the beauty of the finished work, whose joinings are not discernible but whose exquisite art and pulsing nature—if they may paraphrase O. Henry—take them by the throat like the quinsy. Every short story may appear, and should appear, a mature Pallas, though the sympathetic analyst may deduce, as the author will recall, the slow processes of birth and growth.