O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920

O. Henry Memorial Award Prize
Stories of 1920

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1920, by Various, et al
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Title: O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920
Author: Various
Release Date: March 25, 2004 [eBook #11721]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK O. HENRY
MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES OF 1920***
E-text prepared by Stan Goodman

O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES 1920
Chosen by the Society of Arts and Sciences
With an Introduction by Blanche Colton Williams
Author of "A Handbook on Story Writing," "Our Short Story Writers,"
Etc.
Associate Professor of English, Hunter College of the City of New
York.
Instructor in Story Writing, Columbia University (Extension Teaching

and Summer Session).

CONTENTS
EACH IN HIS GENERATION. By Maxwell Struthers Burt
"CONTACT!" By Frances Noyes Hart
THE CAMEL'S BACK. By F. Scott Fitzgerald
BREAK-NECK HILL. By Esther Forbes
BLACK ART AND AMBROSE. By Guy Gilpatric
THE JUDGMENT OF VULCAN. By Lee Foster Hartman
THE ARGOSIES. By Alexander Hull
ALMA MATER. By O. F. Lewis
SLOW POISON. By Alice Duer Miller
THE FACE IN THE WINDOW. By William Dudley Pelley
A MATTER OF LOYALTY. By Lawrence Perry
PROFESSOR TODD'S USED CAR. By L.H. Robbins
THE THING THEY LOVED. By "Marice Rutledge"
BUTTERFLIES. By "Rose Sidney"
NO FLOWERS. By Gordon Arthur Smith
FOOTFALLS. By Wilbur Daniel Steele
THE LAST ROOM OF ALL. By Stephen French Whitman

INTRODUCTION
O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES 1919, in its
introduction, rendered a brief account of the origin of this monument to
O. Henry's genius. Founded in 1918 by the Society of Arts and
Sciences, through the initiative of Managing Director John F. Tucker, it
took the form of two annual prizes of $500 and $250 for, respectively,
the best and second-best stories written by Americans and published in
America.
The Committee of Award sifted the periodicals of 1919 and found
thirty-two which, in their opinion, were superior specimens of
short-story art. The prize-winners, determined in the manner set forth,
were Margaret Prescott Montague's "England to America" and Wilbur
Daniel Steele's "For They Know Not What They Do." For these stories
the authors duly received the awards, on the occasion of the O. Henry
Memorial dinner which was given by the Society at the Hotel Astor,

June 2, 1920.
Since it appeared to be a fitting extension of the memorial to
incorporate in volume form the narratives chosen, they were included,
either by title or reprint, in the first book of the series of which this is
the second. Thus grouped, they are testimony to unprejudiced selection
on the part of the Committee of Award as they are evidence of ability
on the part of their authors.
The first volume has met favour from critics and from laymen. For the
recognition of tedious, if pleasant, hours necessary to a meticulous
survey of twelve months' brief fiction, the Committee of Award are
grateful, as they are indebted to the generous coöperation of authors
and publishers, but for whom the work would have been impossible of
continuation.
The committee express thanks for the approval which affirms that "No
more fitting tribute to the genius of William Sidney Porter (O. Henry)
could possibly have been devised than that of this 'Memorial Award,'"
[1] which recognizes each story as "a definite expression of American
life--as O. Henry's was," [2] which knows by inescapable logic that a
story ranking second with five judges is superior to one ranking first
with only one of these. A number of reviewers graciously showed
awareness of this fact.
[Footnote 1: _New York Times_, June 2, 1920.]
[Footnote 2: _Chicago Tribune_, Paris Edition, August 7, 1920.]
The Committee of Award for 1920 consisted of
BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS, Ph.D., Chairman | EDWARD J.
WHEELER, Litt.D. | JUDGES ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD |
MERLE ST. CROIX WRIGHT, D.D. | and JOHN F. TUCKER,
Managing Director of the Society, Founder of the O. Henry Memorial.
As in preceding years the Committee held regular meetings at which
they weighed the merits of every story-candidate presented. By January,
1921, one hundred and twenty-five remained, among which those rated
highest are as follows:[3]
Babcock, Edwina Stanton, Gargoyle (_Harper's_, Sept.) Barrett,
Richmond Brooks, The Daughter of the Bernsteins (_Smart Set_, July).
"Belden, Jacques," The Duke's Opera (_Munsey's_, October). Benét,
Stephen Vincent, The Funeral of John Bixby (_Munsey's_, July).
Brooks, Jonathan, Bills Playable (_Collier's_, September 18). Burt,

Maxwell Struthers, A Dream or Two (_Harper's_, May); Each in His
Generation (_Scribner's_, July). Cabell, James Branch, The Designs of