O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1920 | Page 4

the human types, it is a matter of
observation that they exist in many moods and ages as they exist in real
life. A revenant who lived one hundred years ago might pick up this
volume and secure a fairly accurate idea of society to-day. A visitor
from another country might find it a guide to national intelligence and
feeling.
A few stories appealed to the Committee for their poetry. "The Funeral
of John Bixby," by Stephen Vincent Benét, and "The Duke's Opera," by
"Jacques Belden" (the first an allegorical fantasy and the second a
poetic-romance) are at the head of this division. With these should be
included Don Marquis's "Death and Old Man Murtrie," for its sardonic
allegory, and "The Designs of Miramon," by James Branch Cabell, for
its social satire. Individual members of the Committee would have
liked to include these--different members preferring different ones of
the four--but the Committee as a whole saw the allegory or satire or
poetry predominant over story values.
The mysterious and the tragic are found in the work of Mildred Cram
and Wilbur Daniel Steele. "Odell" and "Wind" illustrate Miss Cram's

particular genius in this direction: but "The Ember," it is voted, ranks
first of her publications. Mr. Steele's "Both Judge and Jury" and "God's
Mercy" are exotic, perhaps, but the atmosphere he creates is beguiling
in comparison with that of mere everyday. "Footfalls" was selected out
of an embarrassment of riches offered by this author. The best horror
story of the year is Rose Sidney's "Butterflies." It is a Greek tragedy,
unrelieved, to be taken or left without palliation.
Athletics, no one will deny, constitutes a definite phase of American
life. The sport-struggle is best illustrated in the fiction of Lawrence
Perry, whether it be that of a polo match, tennis game, or crew race. "A
Matter of Loyalty" is representative of this contest, and in the combined
judgment of the Committee the highest ranking of all Mr. Perry's
stories. "Bills Playable," by Jonathan Brooks, conceives athletics in a
more humorous spirit.
Animal stories fill page upon page of 1920 magazines. Edison Marshall,
represented in the 1919 volume, by "The Elephant Remembers," has
delivered the epic of "Brother Bill the Elk." In spite of its length, some
fifteen thousand words, the Committee were mightily tempted to
request it for republication. Its Western author knows the animals in
their native lairs. "Break-Neck Hill," for which a member of the
Committee suggests the more poignant "Heart-Break Hill" as title,
expresses sympathy for the horse in a way the Committee believe
hitherto unexploited. "Aliens" received more votes as the best dog story
of the year.
Among a number of sea-tales are those by Richard Matthews Hallet,
wherein Big Captain Hat appears. The woman sea-captain is by way of
being, for the moment, a novel figure.
Anecdotal stories and very brief tales appear to have received editorial
sanction in 1920. "No Flowers" is of the former _genre_, and whereas
certain of the Committee see in the same author's "The Aristocrat" a
larger story, they agree with the majority that the scintillance of this
well-polished gem should give it setting here.
Variety of setting and diversity of emotion the reader will find in
greater measure, perhaps, than in the first volume of this series.
"Butterflies," for example, spells unrelieved horror; "The Face in the
Window" demands sympathetic admiration for its heroine; to read
"Contact!" means to suffer the familiar Aristotelian purging of the

emotions through tears. And their locales are as widely dissimilar as are
their emotional appeals. With these, all of which are reprinted herein,
the reader will do well to compare Dorothy Scarborough's "Drought,"
for the pathos of a situation brought about by the elements of nature in
Texas.
The Committee could not agree upon the first and second prize stories.
The leaders were: "Each in His Generation," "Contact!" "The Thing
They Loved," "The Last Room of All," "Slow Poison," "God's Mercy"
and "Alma Mater." No story headed more than one list. The point
system, to which resort was made, resulted in the first prize falling to
"Each in His Generation," by Maxwell Struthers Burt, and the second
to "Contact!", by Frances Newbold Noyes (now Frances Noyes Hart).
Mr. Burt's story of Henry McCain and his nephew Adrian compresses
within legitimate story limits the antagonism between successive
generations. Each representative, bound by traditions and customs of
the particular age to which he belongs, is bound also by the chain of
inheritance. One interested in the outcome of the struggle between the
inexorable thrall of "period" and the inevitable bond of race will find
the solution of the problem satisfactory, as will the reader who enjoys
the individual situation and wishes most to find out whether Uncle
Henry left his money to Adrian or rejected that choice