Long Ever Ago, by Rupert Hughes (Harper & Brothers). During the past few years I have had frequent occasion to comment upon these admirable studies of Irish American life as they first appeared in the magazines. I regard them as the definitive chronicle of the first Irish American generation in its process of assimilation by New York. But it is more than this, for it is a series of richly humorous little dramas, with an inimitable flavor of their own.
Tales From a Famished Land, by Edward Eyre Hunt (Doubleday, Page & Co.). Mr. Hunt has been a prominent official of the American Relief Commission in Belgium, and these poignant stories, continuing as they do the record of Mr. Hunt’s earlier book, “War Bread,” are largely based on actual happenings. But the author has looked upon events with the imaginative eye of a born story writer, and it is hard to forget such finely wrought pictures as “Ghosts” and “Saint Dympna’s Miracle.”
Gaslight Sonatas, by Fannie Hurst (Harper & Brothers). I have expressed my opinion so frequently as to the permanent human values of Miss Hurst’s work that I can only remark here that “Gaslight Sonatas” is one of the very few permanent short story books. Of the seven stories in the volume two have been previously published in volumes of this annual.
Abraham’s Bosom, by Basil King (Harper & Brothers). This short story, now republished in book form from the Saturday Evening Post, is an imaginative rendering of spiritual experience independent of sensory phenomena. Its effectiveness is due to its direct sense of reality and incisive characterization.
Modern Short Stories: A Book for High Schools, Edited with Introduction and Notes by Frederick Houk Law (Century Company). This collection of twenty-two stories drawn entirely from contemporary work is a most persuasive introduction of the short story to young readers. The selection is catholic, and should make the student familiar with many types of plot, characterization and style. The selection ranges from Lafcadio Hearn to Tolstoy, and from Richard Harding Davis to Fiona Macleod. Such notable stories of the past year or two as Phyllis Bottome’s “Brother Leo” and Stacy Aumonier’s “A Source of Irritation” afford a refreshing change from the conventional routine. Mr. Law has succeeded almost admirably in coating the educational pill.
The Land Where the Sunsets Go, by Orville H. Leonard (Sherman, French & Company). This volume was published in 1917 somewhat obscurely, but it has certain remarkable qualities which would make me sorry to neglect it. These sketches of the American desert are divided somewhat evenly between verse and prose. The verse is very bad, and the prose is very good. While the prose sketches are not short stories in the strict sense of the word, they contain much fine characterization and a pictorial value which place them easily first among all imaginative records of the American desert.
The Red One, by Jack London (The Macmillan Company). These four short stories include the best of the work upon which Mr. London was engaged at the time of his death. “Like Argus of the Ancient Times” is a true saga full of the open spaces and the zest of youth lingering on into old age. “The Hussy” also takes its place among the best of Mr. London’s later stories. While the other stories are distinctive I cannot report upon them so favorably.
Canadian Wonder Tales, by Cyrus Macmillan (John Lane Company). These stories are drawn from all parts of Canada and include both Indian and French Canadian legends. While they lack the naïve reality of the folk storyteller’s method, the selection is excellent, and should prove a revelation to the American reader of the rich, though neglected, treasures which lie at our back door. Until Mr. C. M. Barbeau of Ottawa renders his invaluable collections accessible in more popular form, this collection will be practically the only introduction of these treasures to the general reader.
Famous Ghost Stories, edited by J. Walker McSpadden (The Thomas Y. Crowell Company). This selection follows more conventional lines than that of Mr. French, which I spoke of above, but it contains Defoe’s “True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal,” which is perhaps the best ghost story ever written, and which has the advantage of relative unfamiliarity. The other thirteen stories are by Sir Walter Scott, Mrs. Gaskell, Bulwer-Lytton, H. B. Marryat, Fitz-James O’Brien, Hawthorne, Irving, Poe, Kipling, and Dickens. The publisher should be congratulated on the best piece of bookmaking of the year.
E. K. Means (G. P. Putnam’s Sons). This book is so good that it needs no title, but raises the question as to what its successor will be called. It is a series of negro farces in narrative form chronicling the joys and tribulations of Vinegar Atts, Figger Bush, Pap Curtain, Hitch Diamond and other Louisiana negroes. The town of Tickfall will have its pilgrims some day if this book finds the audience it so richly deserves.