Shandygaff, by Christopher Morley (Doubleday, Page & Co.). Mr. Morley says that this book contains short stories and I will leave to the reader the delightful task of hunting them. Meanwhile I beg the question and step aside after introducing the reader to good discourse on many subjects by a man who knows how to talk.
Uncle Abner, by Melville Davisson Post (D. Appleton and Company). Few writers have so conscientious a technique as Mr. Post, or such a fine sense of plot. This collection of mystery stories is woven around the personality of Uncle Abner, whose Greek sense of justice is inflexible. All of these stories are masterly examples of the justifiable surprise ending, yet have the logic and dramatic power which we have come to associate with Athenian tragedy. Their effectiveness is largely due to the value of under statement.
Sketches in Duneland, by Earl H. Reed (John Lane Company). These studies of the dune country of Lake Michigan fall into two groups. The second and larger group consists of character studies drawn from the quaint denizens of this district with skilful humor and fine characterization. “Holy Zeke,” “The Love Affair of Happy Cal,” and “The Resurrection of Bill Saunders” are the best stories in this collection, though the whole is very good indeed.
Miss Mink’s Soldier, by Alice Hegan Rice (Century Company). This is a pleasant collection of Mrs. Rice’s better short stories. They will give quiet pleasure to the reader who is not too exacting and show a wide range of human interest.
The Key of the Fields and Boldero, by Henry Milner Rideout (Duffield & Company). These two picaresque novelettes have the magical glamor of fairy tales set in Maxfield Parrish landscapes. They have given me great pleasure by reason of their prismatic quality and their whimsical humor. Mr. Rideout is a conscious stylist who never falls into preciosity, but we must accept his world without qualification if we are to enter properly into the spirit of his work.
The Best College Short Stories, edited by Henry T. Schnittkind (The Stratford Company). Mr. Schnittkind aims to consider annually the best short stories in college magazines, following the same principles which I have adopted in the present series of volumes. The idea is excellent, and the results are surprisingly good. I find in this collection three stories which would have won a place on my annual Roll of Honor: “The Tomte Gubbe” by Alma P. Abrahamson, “The Dead City” by Isidor Schneider, and “Angèle” by John Jones Sharon. The volume includes a large amount of valuable illustrative material, including contributions by many magazine editors and successful writers.
The Scar that Tripled, by William G. Shepherd (Harper & Brothers). In this short story Mr. Shepherd relates with vivid detail the true story of the lad whose meeting with Richard Harding Davis at Salonica suggested to the latter the story of “The Deserter.” To my mind it is a better story than “The Deserter,” and one which will have a quiet life of its own for some time.
Land’s End and Other Stories, by Wilbur Daniel Steele (Harper & Brothers). I consider this the best volume of short stories by an American author published this year. It rightly claims a place in our literature by virtue of Mr. Steele’s sensitive fidelity to the more abiding romance of ordinary life. These stories have a quality of romantic escape which is rare. Behind the complications which his men and women weave for one another looms the eternal but ever-changing pattern of the sea. Few writers show such economy in the use of their material. These stories will last because of their imaginative reality, their warm color, and their finality of artistic execution.
Mr. Squem and Some Male Triangles, by Arthur Russell Taylor (George H. Doran Company). These sketches have an American philosophy with more background than the casual reader may at first realize. They help to interpret much that would bewilder the foreigner, and their unassuming excellence is noteworthy.
Atlantic Narratives (First and second series), edited with an Introduction by Charles Swain Thomas (The Atlantic Monthly Press). These two volumes are a well chosen selection from the rich store of short stories published in the Atlantic Monthly during the past few years. Edited for college and high school use, the second series is specially adapted to younger readers. Speaking generally, I should say that these collections would be of more use in classes in English narrative than in short story classes, but my personal emphasis would be on the special pleasure they will give the general reader, who will find such old favorites as “Little Selves” by Mary Lerner, “In No Strange Land” by Katharine Butler, “The Garden of Memories” by C. A. Mercer, and “Babanchik” by Christina Krysto reprinted in a format which is a delight to the eye. It would be pleasant if these collections should prove to be the forerunners of an annual series of Atlantic stories.