The Great Modern American Stories: An Anthology, Compiled and edited with an introduction by William Dean Howells (Boni & Liveright). This is the best anthology of the American short story from about 1860 to 1910 which has been published, or which is likely to be published. It represents the mellow choice of an old man who was the contemporary, editor, and friend of most American writers of the past two generations, and in his reminiscent introduction Mr. Howells relates delightfully many of his personal adventures with American authors. Several of these stories will be unfamiliar to the general reader, and I am specially glad to observe in this volume two little-known masterpieces,—"The Little Room" by Madelene Yale Wynne, and "Aunt Sanna Terry," by Landon R. Dashiell. Mr. Howells' choice has been studiously limited to short stories of the older generation, and without infringing on his ground, it is to be hoped that a second series of "Great Modern American Stories" by more recent writers should be issued by the same publishers. The present volume contains an excellent bibliographical chapter on the history of the American short story, and an appendix with biographies and bibliographies of the writers included, which calls for more accurate revision.
Bedouins, by James Huneker (Charles Scribner's Sons). While this is primarily a volume of critical essays on painting, music, literature and life, it concludes with a series of seven short stories which serve as a postlude to Mr. Huneker's earlier volume, "Visionaries." They are chiefly interesting as the last dying glow of symbolism, derivative as they are from Huysmans and Mallarme. I cannot regard them as successful stories, but they have a certain experimental value which comes nearest to success in "The Cardinal's Fiddle."
Humoresque, by Fannie Hurst (Harper & Brothers). Miss Hurst's fourth volume of short stories shows a certain recession from her previous high standard, except for the title story which is told with an economy of detail unusual for her. All of these eight stories are distinctive, and six of them are admirable, but I seem to detect a tendency toward the fixation of a type, with a corresponding diminishment of faithful individual portrayal. The volume would make the reputation of a lesser writer, but Miss Hurst is after all the rightful successor of "O Henry," and we are entitled to demand from her nothing less than her best.
Legends, by Walter McLaren Imrie (The Midland Press, Glennie, Alcona Co., Mich.). I should like to call special attention to this little book by a medical officer in the Canadian army, because it seems to me to be a significant footnote to the poignant records of Barbusse, Duhamel, and Élie Faure. So far as I know, this is the only volume of fiction written in English portraying successfully from the artist's point of view the acrid monotony of war. I believe that it deserves to be placed on the same bookshelf as the volumes of the others whom I have just mentioned.
Travelling Companions, by Henry James (Boni & Liveright). These seven short stories by Henry James, which are now collected for the first time with a somewhat inept introduction by Albert Mordell, were written at the same time as the stories in his "Passionate Pilgrim." While they only serve to reveal a minor aspect of his genius, they are of considerable importance historically to the student of his literary evolution. Published between 1868 and 1874, they represent the first flush of his enthusiasm for the older civilization of Europe, and especially of Italy. He would not have wished them to be reprinted, but the present editor's course is justified by their quality, which won the admiration at the time of Tennyson and other weighty critics. Had Henry James reprinted them at all, he would have doubtless rewritten them in his later manner, and we should have lost these first clear outpourings of his sense of international contrasts.
The Best American Humorous Short Stories, Edited by Alexander Jessup (Boni & Liveright). This collection of eighteen humorous short stories furnish a tolerable conspectus of the period between 1839 and the present day. They are prefaced by an informative historical introduction which leaves little to be desired from the point of view of information. The general reader will find the book less interesting than the specialist, since a large portion of the volume is devoted to the somewhat crude beginnings of humor in our literature. Apart from the stories by Edward Everett Hale, Mark Twain, Frank R. Stockton, Bret Harte, and "O. Henry," the comparative poverty of rich understanding humor in American fiction is remarkable. The most noteworthy omission in the volume is the neglect of Irvin S. Cobb.
John Stuyvesant Ancestor and Other People, by Alvin Johnson (Harcourt, Brace & Howe). This collection of sketches, largely reprinted from the New Republic, is rather a series of studies in social and economic relations than a group of short stories. But they concern us here because of Mr. Johnson's penetrating analysis of character, which constitutes a document of no little value to the imaginative student of our institutions, and "Short Change" has no little value as a vividly etched short story.
Under the Rose, by Arthur Johnson (Harper & Brothers). With the publication of this volume, Mr. Johnson at last takes his rightful place among the best of the American short story writers who wish to continue the tradition of Henry James. In subtlety of portraiture he is the equal of Edith Wharton, and he excels her in ease and in his ability to subdue his substance to the environment in which it is set. He surpasses Mrs. Gerould by reason of the variety of his subject matter, and as a stylist he is equal to Anne Douglas Sedgwick. I have published two of these stories in previous volumes of this series, and there are at least four other stories in the volume which I should have liked to reprint.
Going West, by Basil King (Harper & Brothers). We have in this little book a reprint of one of the best short stories produced in America by the war. While it is emotionally somewhat overtaut, it has a good deal of reticence in portrayal, and there is a passion in it which transcends Mr. King's usual sentimentality.
Civilization: Tales of the Orient, by Ellen N. La Motte (George H. Doran Company). Miss La Motte is the most interesting of the new American story writers who deal with the Orient. She writes out of a long and deep background of experience with a subtle appreciation of both the Oriental and the Occidental points of view, and has developed a personal art out of a deliberately narrowed vision. "On the Heights," "Prisoners," "Under a Wineglass," and "Cosmic Justice" are the best of these stories. So definite a propagandist aim is usually fatal to fiction, but Miss La Motte succeeds by deft suggestion rather than underscored statement.