18. “Beloved Husband” (Harper’s Magazine) and 19. “Poor Ed” (The Liberator), by Susan Glaspell. Susan Glaspell has already won a high reputation in three equally difficult fields, those of the novel, the drama, and the short story. Considering her as a short-story writer only, we may say that these two stories reflect the best that she has done, with the possible exception of the story entitled “A Jury of Her Peers,” which I reprinted in “The Best Short Stories of 1917.” Both are studies in suppressed ambition, set forth with a gentle humor which does not fail by virtue of overstress. Susan Glaspell is at her best in “Poor Ed,” a study in the triumph of failure.
20. Sinjinn Surviving, by Armistead C. Gordon (Harper’s Magazine). This story is one more addition to Mr. Gordon’s studies of Virginia negro plantation life. It introduces us once more to Ommirandy and Uncle Jonas, and is a quiet idyl of the life that survived in Virginia after the fall of the Confederacy.
21. Even So, by Charles Boardman Hawes (The Bellman). The art of Mr. Hawes has developed so quietly during the past few years that it has not attracted the attention it richly deserves. This study of life and death many years ago in the Southern Seas recaptures much of the magic of the old sailing-ship days when the Helen of Troy and other American clippers came bravely into port. The story has a fine legendary quality.
22. Decay, by Ben Hecht (Little Review). When Mr. Hecht published “Life” in the Little Review some few years ago I predicted that the future would reveal the fulfilment of his remarkable promise, although I was not quite sure whether Mr. Hecht would find himself most fully in the short story or in the novel. During these years his output has been small but distinguished, and the present study of Chicago life shows a marked advance in technique. Nevertheless I now think that the novel is Mr. Hecht’s natural vehicle, and that when his first novel appears it will create a profound literary impression.
23. Their War, by Hetty Hemenway (Atlantic Monthly). When Miss Hemenway published “Four Days” in the Atlantic Monthly last year, it created more discussion than any other war story of the year. Her new story, which is in as quiet a key, represents an advance in her art, and the two stories taken together represent one of the few important contributions America has made to the imaginative literature of the war. The war has taught us that youth is old enough, under the stress of events, to speak for itself, and there is a brave frankness about Mrs. Richard’s exposition of this truth which brings it home to all.
24. At the Back of God Speed, by Rupert Hughes (Hearst’s Magazine). Three years ago Mr. Hughes published in the Metropolitan Magazine two stories which were as fine in their way as the best of Irvin Cobb’s humorous stories. In “Michaeleen! Michaelawn!” and “Sent for Out” Mr. Hughes depicted with his wonted kindliness and pathos the first generation of successful Irish immigrants. “At the Back of God Speed” now completes the series, which form as a whole the most faithful portrait yet drawn of the Americanized Irishman.
25. The Father’s Hand, by George Humphrey (The Bookman). Although Mr. Humphrey was born in England he has now definitely adopted us and I suppose we may claim him as an American writer. This brief and touching study of one minor incident in the Great War shows a fine sense of human values, whose artistic effect is enhanced by deliberate understatement.
26. Her’s NOT to Reason Why, by Fannie Hurst (Cosmopolitan). This story was published in 1917, when it unaccountably failed to attract my attention, and as an act of prosaic justice I now chronicle it, because I believe it to be the best story Miss Hurst has yet published. The temptation to oversentimentalize the theme must have been almost irresistible, but the author has not failed in reticence and this study of a certain aspect of New York life will not be soon forgotten.
27. The Little Family (Harper’s Magazine) and 28. The Visit of the Master (Harper’s Magazine), by Arthur Johnson. These stories have nothing in common except the fact that they reinforce Mr. Johnson’s claim this year to rank with Mrs. Gerould, Wilbur Daniel Steele, H. G. Dwight, and Charles Caldwell Dobie as one of the most finished artists in America to-day. “The Visit of the Master” is an altogether delightful social comedy, not without a moral. “The Little Family,” on the other hand, is a poignant study of the effect of war on the gentle imaginations of two lonely men. Its quality makes us think of the relation between Stevenson and his old nurse, and stylistically it is admirable. I suggest with all diffidence, and from a point of view of frank personal preference that it is very possibly the best short story of the year.
29. In the Open Code, by Burton Kline (The Stratford Journal). This brief tale in sharp outline recounts a single human incident. Romantic in treatment, it is told with the eye on the object. It is a finished piece of workmanship.