The Best Short Stories of 1917 | Page 6

however, in the
American "Roll of Honor," an asterisk is prefixed, and this asterisk, I
must confess, reveals in some measure a personal preference. It is from
this final short list that the stories reprinted in this volume have been
selected.
It has been a point of honor with me not to republish an English story,
nor a translation from a foreign author. I have also made it a rule not to
include more than one story by an individual author in the volume. The
general and particular results of my study will be found explained and
carefully detailed in the supplementary part of the volume.
The Yearbook for 1917 contains three new features. The Roll of Honor
of American Short Stories includes a short biographical sketch of each
author; a selection from the volumes of short stories published during
the past year is reviewed at some length; and, in response to numerous
requests, a list of American magazines publishing short stories, with
their editorial addresses, has been compiled.
Wilbur Daniel Steele and Katharine Fullerton Gerould are still at the
head of their craft. But during the past year the ten published stories by
Maxwell Struthers Burt and Charles Caldwell Dobie seem to promise a
future in our literature of equal importance to the later work of these
writers. Sherwood Anderson and Waldo Frank emerge as writers with a
great deal of importance to say, although they have not yet fully
mastered the art of saying it. The three new short story writers who

show most promise are Gertrude Nafe and Thomas Beer, whose first
stories appeared in the Century Magazine during 1917, and Elizabeth
Stead Taber, whose story, "The Scar," when it appeared in the Seven
Arts, attracted much favorable comment. Edwina Stanton Babcock and
Lee Foster Hartman have both published memorable stories, and "The
Interval," which was Vincent O'Sullivan's sole contribution to an
American periodical during 1917, compels us to wonder why an artist,
for whom men of such widely different temperaments as Lionel
Johnson, Remy de Gourmont, and Edward Garnett had high critical
esteem, finds the American public so indifferent to his art.
Addison Lewis has published during the past year a series of stories in
Reedy's Mirror which have more of O. Henry's magic than the thousand
writers who have endeavored to imitate him to the everlasting injury of
American literature. Frederick Stuart Greene, in "The Bunker Mouse"
and "Molly McGuire, Fourteen," shows marked literary development,
and reinforces my belief that in him we have an important new
story-teller. I suppose the best war story of the year is "The Flying
Teuton," by Alice Brown, soon to be reprinted in book form.
I do not know whether it is an effect of the war or not, but during 1917,
even more than during 1916, American magazines have been almost
absolutely devoid of humor. Save for Irvin S. Cobb, on whom the
mantle of Mark Twain has surely fallen, and for Seumas O'Brien,
whom Mr. Dooley must envy, I have found American fiction to be
sufficiently solemn and imperturbable.
I need not emphasize again the fine art of Fannie Hurst. Two years ago
Mr. Howells stated more truly than I can the significance of her work.
Comparing her with two other contemporaries, he wrote: "Miss Fannie
Hurst shows the same artistic quality, the same instinct for reality, the
same confident recognition of the superficial cheapness and
commonness of the stuff she handles; but in her stories she also attests
the right to be named with them for the gift of penetrating to the heart
of life. No one with the love of the grotesque which is the American
portion of the human tastes or passions, can fail of his joy in the play of
the obvious traits and motives of her Hebrew comedy, but he will fail

of something precious if he does not sound the depths of true and
beautiful feeling which underlies the comedy."
A similar distinction marks Edna Ferber's story entitled "The Gay Old
Dog."
Of the English short story writers who have published during the past
year in American periodicals, Mr. Galsworthy has presented the most
evenly distinguished work. Hardly second to his best are the six stories
by J. D. Beresford and D. H. Lawrence, both well known realists of the
younger generation. Stacy Aumonier has continued the promise of "The
Friends" with three new stories written in the same key. Although the
vein of his talent is a narrow one, it reveals pure gold. Good
Housekeeping has published three war stories by an Englishwoman, I.
A. R. Wylie, which I should have coveted for this book had they been
by an American author. But perhaps the best English short story of the
year in an American magazine was "The Coming of the Terror,"