Short Stories of the New America, Selected and Edited by Mary A. Laselle (Henry Holt and Company). While this is primarily a volume of supplementary reading for secondary schools, compiled with a view to the "americanization" of the immigrant, it contains four short stories of more or less permanent value, three of which I have included in previous volumes of this series. It also draws attention to the admirable Indian stories of Grace Coolidge. The volume would be improved if three of these stories were omitted.
Chill Hours, by Helen Mackay (Duffield and Company). We have come to expect from Mrs. Mackay a somewhat tense but restrained mirroring of little human accidents, in which action is of less importance than its effects. She has a dry, nervous, unornamented style which sets down details in separate but related strokes which build up a picture whose art is not altogether successfully concealed. The present volume, which reflects Mrs. Mackay's experiences in France during the war, is more even in quality than her previous books, and "The Second Hay," "One or Another," and "He Cost Us So Much" are noteworthy stories.
Children in the Mist, by George Madden Martin (D. Appleton & Company), and More E. K. Means (G. P. Putnam's Sons). Both of these volumes represent traditional attitudes of the Southern white proprietor to the negro, and both fail in artistic achievement because of their excessive realization of the gulf between the two races. Mrs. Martin's book is the more artistic and the less sympathetic, though it has more professions of sympathy than that of Mr. Means. They both display considerable talent, the one in historical portraiture of reconstruction times, and the other in genial caricature of the more childish side of the less-educated negro. The negroes whom Mr. Means has invented have still to be born in the flesh, but there is an infectious humor in his nightmare world which he may plead as a justification for the misuse of his very real ability.
The Gift, England to America, and Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge, by Margaret Prescott Montague (E.P. Dutton & Company, and Doubleday, Page & Company). These three short stories are all spiritual studies of human reactions and moods generated by the war, set down with a deft hand in a neutral style, somewhat over-repressed perhaps, but thoroughly successful in the achievement of what Miss Montague set out to do. The second and best of these won the first prize offered last year as a memorial to "O. Henry" by The Society of Arts and Sciences of New York City. Good as it is, I am tempted to disagree with its interpretation of the English attitude toward America in general, although it may very well be true in many an individual case. Miss Montague suffers from a certain imaginative poverty which is becoming more and more characteristic of puritan art and life in America. From the point of view of style, however, these stories share distinction in the Henry James tradition only with Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Anne Douglas Sedgwick, Arthur Johnson and H. G. Dwight.
From the Life, by Harvey O'Higgins (Harper & Brothers). This volume should be read in connection with "Twelve Men," by Theodore Dreiser. Where Mr. Dreiser identifies himself with his subjects, Mr. O'Higgins stands apart in the most strict detachment. These nine studies in contemporary American life take as their point of departure in each case some tiny and apparently insignificant happening which altered the whole course of a life. Artists, actors, politicians, and business men all date their change of fortune from some ironic accident, and in three of these nine stories the author's analysis merits close re-reading by students of short story technique. Behind the apparent looseness of structure you will find a new and interesting method of presentation which is as effective as it is deliberate. I regard "From the Life" as one of the more important books of 1919.
The Mystery at the Blue Villa, by Melville Davisson Post (D. Appleton and Company), and Silent, White and Beautiful, by Tod Robbins (Boni and Liveright). These two volumes furnish an interesting contrast. The subject-matter of both is rather shoddy, but Mr. Post displays a technique in the mystery story which is quite unrivalled since Poe in its inevitable relentlessness of plot based on human weakness, while Mr. Robbins shows a wild fertility of imagination of extraordinary promise, although it is now wasted on unworthy material. I think that both books will grip the reader by their quality of suspense, and I shall look forward to Mr. Robbins' next book with eager interest.
The Best Ghost Stories. Introduction by Arthur B. Reeve (Boni and Liveright, Inc.). Mr. French's new collection of ghost stories supplements his volume entitled "Great Ghost Stories," published in the previous year. I consider it the better collection of the two, and should particularly like to call attention to the stories by Leopold Kompert and Ellis Parker Butler. The latter is Mr. Butler's best story and has, so far as I know, not been reprinted elsewhere. For the rest, the volume ranges over familiar ground.
High Life, by Harrison Rhodes (Robert M. McBride & Co.). Setting aside the title story which, as a novelette, does not concern us here, this volume is chiefly noteworthy for the reprint of "Spring-Time." When I read this story for the first time many years ago, it seemed to me one that Mr. Arthur Sherburne Hardy would have been proud to sign. It is not perhaps readily realized how difficult it is to write a story so deftly touched with sentiment, while maintaining the necessary economy of personal emotion. "The Sad Case of Quag" exemplifies the gallic aspect of Mr. Rhodes' talent.
The Red Mark, by John Russell (Alfred A. Knopf). This uneven volume of short stories by a writer of real though undisciplined talent is full of color and kaleidoscopic hurrying of events. Apart from "The Adversary," which is successful to a degree, the book is uncertain in its rendering of character, though Mr. Russell's handling of plot leaves little to be desired.
The Pagan, by Gordon Arthur Smith (Charles Scribner's Sons). It was expected that when Mr. Smith's first volume of short stories should appear, it would take its place at once as pre-eminent in the romantic revival which is beginning to be apparent in the American short story. This volume does not disappoint our expectations, although it would have gained in authority had it been confined to the five Taillandy Stories, "Jeanne, the Maid," and "The Return." Mr. Smith's output has always been wisely limited, and "The Pagan" represents the best work of nine years. These stories are only second in their kind to those of James Branch Cabell and Stephen French Whitman.