O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921

Henry Memorial Award Prize
Stories of 1921, by Various

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Title: O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921
Author: Various
Release Date: March 8, 2004 [EBook #11512]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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STORIES OF 1921 ***

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O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES of 1921
CHOSEN BY THE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS
1922

CONTENTS
THE HEART OF LITTLE SHIKARA. By Edison Marshall
THE MAN WHO CURSED THE LILIES. By Charles Tenney Jackson
THE URGE. By Maryland Allen
MUMMERY. By Thomas Beer
THE VICTIM OF HIS VISION. By Gerald Chittenden
MARTIN GERRITY GETS EVEN. By Courtney Ryley Cooper and
Leo F. Creagan
STRANGER THINGS. By Mildred Cram
COMET. By Samuel A. Derieux
FIFTY-TWO WEEKS FOR FLORETTE. By Elizabeth Alexander
Heermann
WILD EARTH. By Sophie Kerr
THE TRIBUTE. By Harry Anable Kniffin
THE GET-AWAY. By O.F. Lewis
"AURORE." By Ethel Watts Mumford
MR. DOWNEY SITS DOWN. By L.H. Robbins
THE MARRIAGE IN KAIRWAN. By Wilbur Daniel Steele

GRIT. By Tristram Tupper

FOUNDER OF THE O. HENRY MEMORIAL COMMITTEE
The plan for the creation of the O. Henry Memorial Committee was
conceived and the work of the Committee inaugurated in the year 1918
by the late John F. Tucker, LL.M., then Directing Manager of the
Society of Arts and Sciences. The Society promptly approved the plan
and appropriated the sum necessary to inaugurate its work and to make
the award.
The Committee is, therefore, in a sense, a memorial to Mr. Tucker, as
well as to O. Henry. Up to the time of his death Mr. Tucker was a
constant adviser of the Committee and an attendant at most of its
meetings.
Born in New York City in 1871 and educated for the law, Mr. Tucker's
inclinations quickly swept him into a much wider stream of intellectual
development, literary, artistic, and sociological. He joined others in
reviving the Twilight Club (now the Society of Arts and Sciences), for
the broad discussion of public questions, and to the genius he
developed for such a task the success of the Society up to the time of
his death was chiefly due. The remarkable series of dinner discussions
conducted under his management, for many years, in New York City,
have helped to mould public opinion along liberal lines, to educate and
inspire. Nothing he did gave him greater pride than the inception of the
O. Henry Memorial Committee, and that his name should be associated
with that work perpetually this tribute is hereby printed at the request of
the Society of Arts and Sciences. E.J.W.

INTRODUCTION
In 1918 the Society of Arts and Sciences established, through its
Managing Director, John F. Tucker, the O. Henry Memorial. Since that
year the nature of the annual prize and the work of the Committee

awarding it have become familiar to writer, editor, and reader of short
stories. To the best short story written by an American and published in
America the sum of $500 is awarded; to the second best, the sum of
$250. In 1919 the prize winning story was Margaret Prescott
Montague's "England to America"; in 1920 it was Maxwell Struthers
Hurt's "Each in His Generation." Second winners were: 1919, Wilbur
Daniel Steele's "For They Know Not What They Do," and, 1920,
Frances Noyes Hart's "Contact!" [The prizes were delivered on June 2,
1920, and on March 14, 1921, at the annual memorial dinner, Hotel
Astor.]
In 1921 the Committee of Award consisted of these members:
BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS, Ph. D., Chairman EDWARD J.
WHEELER, Litt. D. ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD FRANCES
GILCHRIST WOOD GROVE E. WILSON
And the Committee of Administration:
JOHN F. TUCKER, [Deceased, February 27, 1921.], Founder of the O.
Henry Memorial EDWARD J. WHEELER, Litt.D. GLENN FRANK,
Editor of The Century Magazine GEORGE C. HOWARD, Attorney.
As in previous years each member of the Committee of Award held
himself responsible for reviewing the brief fiction of certain magazines
and for circulating such stories as warranted reading by other members.
Results in 1921 differ in a number of respects from those of 1919 and
1920. In the earlier half year, January excepted, every reader reported a
low average of current fiction, so low as to excite apprehension lest the
art of the short story was rapidly declining. The latter six months,
however, marked a reaction, with a