O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1919 | Page 3

differed over their findings. One member would have
awarded the prize to "La Guiablesse" on its original motif--a ship is
jealous of a woman--on its masterful employment of suggestion, unique
presentation of events, and on all the other counts. Another, while
recognizing the essential bigness of the tale, regards it as somewhat
crudely constructed and as extending the use of suggestion into the mist
of obscurity.
Or, take characterization. Mary Hastings Bradley's "The Fairest Sex"
represents, in the climax, a reporter's fiancee betraying the whereabouts
of a young woman who is, technically, a criminal. One of the
Committee held that, under the circumstances, the psychology is false:
others "believed" that particular girl did that particular thing.
Best narrative always compels belief: the longer the period of belief the
greater the story. This business of convincing the reader requires more
labour than the average writer seems to care about performing. Any
reader is willing to be held--for a time. But how many stories compel

recollection of plot and characters as indubitably a part of all that one
has met?
Too frequently the writer neglects the value of atmosphere, forgetful of
its weight in producing conviction. The tale predominantly of
atmosphere (illustrated in the classic "Fall of the House of Usher"),
revealing wherever found the ability of the author to hold a dominant
mood in which as in a calcium light characters and arts are coloured,
this tale occurs so rarely as to challenge admiration when it does occur.
"For They Know not What They Do" lures the reader into its exotic air
and holds him until he, too, is suffused, convinced.
... The Committee were not insensible to style. But expert phrasing,
glowing appreciation of words and exquisite sense of values, the
texture of the story fabric--all dropped into the abyss of the
unimportant after the material they incorporated had been judged. No
man brings home beefsteak in silk or sells figs as thistles.
The Committee accepted style as the fit medium for conveying the
matter....
Since the Committee confess to catholicity of taste, the chosen stories
reveal predilection for no one type. They like detective stories, and
particularly those of Melville Davisson Post. A follower of the founder
of this school of fiction, he has none the less advanced beyond his
master and has discovered other ways than those of the Rue Morgue.
"Five Thousand Dollars Reward" in its brisk action, strong suspense,
and humorous denouement carries on the technique so neatly achieved
in "The Doomdorf Mystery" and other tales about Uncle Abner.
The Committee value, also, the story about animals: universal interest
in puzzles, in the science of ratiocination, is not more pronounced than
the interest in rationalizing the brute. "The Mottled Slayer" and "The
Elephant Remembers" offer sympathetic studies of struggles in the
animal world. Mr. Marshall's white elephant will linger as a memory,
even as his ghost remains, longer than the sagacious play-fellow of Mr.
Gilbert's little Indian; but nobody can forget the battle the latter fought
with the python.
For stories about the home the Committee have a weakness: Miss
Ferber's "April Twenty-fifth As Usual," cheerfully proclaiming the
inevitableness of spring cleaning, might be published with the sub-title,
An Epic of the Housekeeper.

They were alert for reflections of life--in America and elsewhere. The
politics of "Gum Shoes, 4-B"; the local court of law in "Tom Belcher's
Store"; the frozen west of "Turkey Red" seemed to them to meet the
demand that art must hold the mirror up to nature.
In particular, the Committee hoped to find good stories of the war. Now
that fiction containing anything of the Great Struggle is anathema to
editors, and must wait for that indefinite time of its revival, it was like
getting a last bargain to read "Facing It," "Humoresque," "Contact,"
"Autumn Crocuses," and "England to America." In these small
masterpieces is celebrated either manhood which keeps a rendezvous
with death.
The Committee accepted style as the fit medium for conveying the
matter....
Since the Committee confess to catholicity of taste, the chosen stories
reveal predilection for no one type. They like detective stories, and
particularly those of Melville Davisson Post. A follower of the founder
of this school of fiction, he has none the less advanced beyond his
master and has discovered other ways than those of the Rue Morgue.
"Five Thousand Dollars Reward" in its brisk action, strong suspense,
and humorous denouement carries on the technique so neatly achieved
in "The Doomdorf Mystery" and other tales about Uncle Abner.
The Committee value, also, the story about animals: universal interest
in puzzles, in the science of ratiocination, is not more pronounced than
the interest in rationalizing the brute. "The Mottled Slayer" and "The
Elephant Remembers" offer sympathetic studies of struggles in the
animal world. Mr. Marshall's white elephant will linger