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.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| [Prelude.] By Edgar Valentine Smith | [1] |
| [A Friend of Napoleon.] By Richard Connell | [19] |
| [Towers of Fame.] By Elizabeth Irons Folsom | [38] |
| [Phantom Adventure.] By Floyd Dell | [46] |
| [The Distant Street.] By Francis Edwards Faragoh | [59] |
| [The Wager.] By Isa Urquhart Glenn | [75] |
| [Célestine.] By James Hopper | [92] |
| [Witch Mary.] By Genevieve Larsson | [104] |
| [The Bamboo Trap.] By Robert S. Lemmon | [120] |
| [The Hat of Eight Reflections.] By James Mahoney | [134] |
| [Home-Brew.] By Grace Sartwell Mason | [159] |
| [Derrick’s Return.] By Gouverneur Morris | [182] |
| [Shadowed.] By Mary Synon | [193] |
| [The One Hundred Dollar Bill.] By Booth Tarkington | [211] |
| [Nice Neighbours.] By Mary S. Watts | [229] |
| [Not Wanted.] By Jesse Lynch Williams | [247] |
INTRODUCTION
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.
The fifth annual volume presented by the Committee from the Society of Arts and Sciences, it contains in the judgment of the Committee twenty-five or thirty per cent. of the best stories published in 1923.[A]
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.