DO WE NEED A SHORT STORY INDEX?
Is not this the day of the index? Have we not Poole, the Reader's Guide, the Portrait and the Engineering Indexes, Granger's Index to Poetry and Recitations, and the Index to Victrola Records? What Granger is to poetry, may we not compile for the short story? For if this is the day of the index, is it any less that of the short story?
If we agree to omit fairy stories and folk tales and most juveniles what is the extent of short story literature? In a very brief survey of the field did I not find 404 English and American authors and 37 foreign authors in English translation whose stories have attained book form?
Let us credit each author with ten titles and we have at once 4,400 stories worthy of recognition. And these do not include the vast horde of stories—literally thousands—that have appeared and are appearing monthly, weekly, yea even daily, in the magazines of the hour.
How recent then shall we make our list? Shall we anticipate the Get-rich-quick Wallingford tale announced for next month? Where shall we draw our line?
How inclusive shall our list be made? Shall the Saturday Evening Post and the two Sunday magazines be indexed? Or shall we stay within the circle of the Readers' Guide and the Magazine subject index? How many of the news-stand best sellers shall be admitted? Mr. Wyer shows us the million circulation figures of the Woman's World, Comfort, the Vickery and Hill list of three (Happy Hours, Hearth and Home, and Good Stories), yet these are not taken by our libraries and if indexed could be consulted with difficulty. Where shall we draw this line?
Again, how far abroad shall we go? Shall the short stories in foreign tongues fraternize with their English cousins? Or shall they be aliens and only admitted when really anglicized? Do we need an index? Let us test our present resources. How do you find in which volume of Kipling is printed "Thrawn Janet" or his "Man who would be king?" How many copies of "The necklace" can you supply? Granger tells you it is in Cody's "World's greatest short stories" and your catalog may show it in De Maupassant's works, or his "Odd number." But how would you find out that this classic is also in "Little French masterpieces," in Esenwein's book on the short story, and probably in several other places.
Somebody comes in and asks for "Napoleon Jackson" and you do not find it in the volumes you have by Ruth McEnery Stuart. Perhaps it is loaned out. Would not such an index show that this story appeared in the Century for January, 1902, under the title "The gentleman of the plush rocker"?
Vainly have I searched through catalogs and bibliographies and even biographies to find in which book of stories by "Adirondack" Murray may be found "A busted ex-Texan." The book itself must be in hand to find this information. Try to search down a particular title by Stockton, or Bret Harte and you will soon despair.