The Best Short Stories of 1917 | Page 3

the United States. All communications and volumes submitted for review in "The Best Short Stories of 1918" maybe addressed to me at South Yarmouth, Massachusetts. For such assistance, I shall make due and grateful acknowledgment in next year's annual.
If I have been guilty of any omissions in these acknowledgments, it is quite unintentional, and I trust that I shall be absolved for my good intentions.
E. J. O.
* * *

CONTENTS[1]
PAGE
INTRODUCTION. By the Editor xvii
THE EXCURSION. By Edwina Stanton Babcock 1 (From The Pictorial Review)
ONNIE. By Thomas Beer 20 (From The Century Magazine)
A CUP OF TEA. By Maxwell Struthers Burt 45 (From Scribner's Magazine)
LONELY PLACES. By Francis Buzzell 70 (From The Pictorial Review)
BOYS WILL BE BOYS. By Irvin S. Cobb 86 (From The Saturday Evening Post)
LAUGHTER. By Charles Caldwell Dobie 128 (From Harper's Magazine)
THE EMPEROR OF ELAM. By H. G. Dwight 147 (From The Century Magazine)
THE GAY OLD DOG. By Edna Ferber 208 (From The Metropolitan Magazine)
THE KNIGHT'S MOVE. By Katharine Fullerton Gerould 234 (From The Atlantic Monthly)
A JURY OF HER PEERS. By Susan Glaspell 256 (From Every Week)
THE BUNKER MOUSE. By Frederick Stuart Greene 283 (From The Century Magazine)
RAINBOW PETE. By Richard Matthews Hallet 307 (From The Pictorial Review)
GET READY THE WREATHS. By Fannie Hurst 326 (From The Cosmopolitan Magazine)
THE STRANGE-LOOKING MAN. By Fanny Kemble Johnson 361 (From The Pagan)
THE CALLER IN THE NIGHT. By Burton Kline 365 (From The Stratford Journal)
THE INTERVAL. By Vincent O'Sullivan 383 (From The Boston Evening Transcript)
"A CERTAIN RICH MAN--." By Lawrence Perry 391 (From Scribner's Magazine)
THE PATH OF GLORY. By Mary Brecht Pulver 412 (From The Saturday Evening Post)
CHING, CHING, CHINAMAN. By Wilbur Daniel Steele 441 (From The Pictorial Review)
NONE SO BLIND. By Mary Synon 468 (From Harper's Magazine)
THE YEARBOOK OF THE AMERICAN SHORT STORY FOR 1917 483
Addresses of American Magazines Publishing Short Stories 485
The Biographical Roll of Honor of American Short Stories for 1917 487
The Roll of Honor of Foreign Short Stories in American Magazines for 1917 506
The Best Books of Short Stories of 1917: A Critical Summary 509
Volumes of Short Stories Published During 1917: An Index 521
The Best Sixty-three American Short Stories of 1917: A Critical Summary 536
Magazine Averages for 1917 541
Index of Short Stories for 1917 544
[Note 1: The order in which the stories in this volume are printed is not intended as an indication of their comparative excellence; the arrangement is alphabetical by authors.]

INTRODUCTION
A year ago, in the introduction to "The Best Short Stories of 1916," I pointed out that the American short story cannot be reduced to a literary formula, because the art in which it finds its concrete embodiment is a growing art. The critic, when he approaches American literature, cannot regard it as he can regard any foreign literature. Setting aside the question of whether our cosmopolitan population, with its widely different kinds of racial heritage, is at an advantage or a disadvantage because of its conflicting traditions, we must accept the variety in substance and attempt to find in it a new kind of national unity, hitherto unknown in the history of the world. The message voiced in President Wilson's words on several occasions during the past year is a true reflection of the message implicit in American literature. Various in substance, it finds its unity in the new freedom of democracy, and English and French, German and Slav, Italian and Scandinavian bring to the common melting-pot ideals which are fused in a national unity of democratic utterance.
It is inevitable, therefore, that in this stage of our national literary development, our newly conscious speech lacks the sophisticated technique of older literatures. But, perhaps because of this very limitation, it is much more alert to the variety and life of the human substance with which it deals. It does not take the whole of life for granted and it often reveals the fresh na?veté of childhood in its discovery of life. When its sophistication is complete, it is the sophistication of English rather than of American literature, and is derivative rather than original, for the most part, in its criticism of life. I would specifically except, however, from this criticism the work of three writers, at least, whose sophistication is the embodiment of a new American technique. Katharine Fullerton Gerould, Wilbur Daniel Steele, and H. G. Dwight have each attained a distinction in our contemporary literature which places them at the head of their craft.
During the past year there has been much pessimistic criticism of the American short story, some of it by Americans, and some by Europeans who are now residing in our midst. To the European mind, trained in a tradition where technique in story-writing is paramount, it is natural that the American short story should seem to reveal grave deficiencies. I am by no means disposed to minimize the weakness of American craftsmanship, but I