The Best Short Stories of 1917 | Page 3

are not printed in periodicals falling under my
regular notice. It is also my intention during 1918 to review all volumes
of short stories published during that year in 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 naïveté 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