The Best Short Stories of 1920 | Page 2

1919, To
September, 1920# 375
Addresses of American Magazines Publishing Short Stories 377
The Bibliographical Roll of Honor of American Short Stories 379
The Roll of Honor of Foreign Short Stories in American Magazines
390
The Best Books of Short Stories of 1920: A Critical Summary 392
Volumes of Short Stories Published, October, 1919, to September,
1920: A Index 414
Articles on the Short Stories: An Index 421

Index of Short Stories in Books, November, 1918, to September, 1920
434
Index of Short Stories Published in American Magazines, October,
1919, to September, 1920 456
FOOTNOTE:
[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
I suppose there is no one of us who can honestly deny that he is
interested in one way or another in the American short story. Indeed, it
is hard to find a man anywhere who does not enjoy telling a good story.
But there are some people born with the gift of telling a good story
better than others, and of telling it in such a way that a great many
people can enjoy its flavor. Most of you are acquainted with some one
who is a gifted story-teller, provided that he has an audience of not
more than one or two people. And if you chance to live in the same
house with such a man, I think you will find that, no matter how good
his story may have been when you first heard it, it tends to lose its
savor after he has become thoroughly accustomed to telling it and has
added it to his private repertory.
A writer of good stories is really a man who risks telling the same story
to many thousand people. Did you ever take such a risk? Did you ever
start to tell a story to a stranger, and try to make your point without
knowing what sort of a man he was? If you did, what was your
experience? You decided, didn't you, that story-telling was an art, and
you wondered perhaps if you were ever going to learn it.
The American story-teller in the magazines is in very much the same
position, except that we have much more patience with him. Usually he
is a man who has told his story a good many times before. The first

time he told it we clapped him on the back, as he deserved perhaps, and
said that he was a good fellow. His publishers said so too. And it was a
good story that he told. The trouble was that we wanted to hear it again,
and we paid him too well to repeat it. But just as your story became
rather less interesting the twenty-third time you told it, so the stories I
have been reading more often than not have made a similar impression
upon me. I find myself begging the author to think up another story.
Of course, you have not felt obliged to read so many stories, and I
cannot advise you to do so. But it has made it possible for me to see in
some sort of perspective, just where the American short story is going
as well as what it has already achieved. It has made me see how
American writers are weakening their substance by too frequent
repetition, and it has helped me to fix the blame where it really lies.
Now this is a matter of considerable importance. One of the things we
should be most anxious to learn is the psychology of the American
reader. We want to know how he reacts to what he reads in the
magazine, whether it is a short story, an article, or an advertisement.
We want to know, for example, what holds the interest of a reader of
the Atlantic Monthly, and what holds the interest of the reader of the
Ladies' Home Journal.
It is my belief that the difference between these various types of readers
is pretty largely an artificial difference, in so far as it affects the quality
of entertainment and imaginative interest that the short story has to
offer. Of course, there are exceptional cases, and I have some of these
in mind, but for the most part I can perceive no essential difference
between the best stories in the Saturday Evening Post and the best
stories in Harper's Magazine for example. The difference that every
one feels, and that exists, is one of emphasis rather than of type. It is a
difference which is shown by averages rather than one which affects
the best stories in either magazine. Human nature is the same
everywhere, and when an artist interprets it sympathetically, the reader
will respond to