NICE NEIGHBOURS. By Mary S. Watts 229 NOT WANTED. By Jesse Lynch Williams 247 INTRODUCTION This collection is that of no single person, whose prejudices conceivably might emphasize one type or another; but of editors, critics, and writers of fiction, whose combined opinion insures catholicity of taste and freedom from bias. The fifth annual volume presented by the Committee from the Society of Arts and Sciences, it contains in the judgment of the Committee twenty-five or thirty per cent. of the best stories published in 1923.[A] In previous volumes the Committee have stated the requisites of a good story. Hag-ridden by no formulæ, the Committee believe that every worthy narrative--whether Hebraic tale, Greek myth, or American short story--must yet meet specific tests. For example, characters engage in a struggle or become involved in difficulties out of which they emerge successfully or unsuccessfully. Apply this limitation to the David-Goliath fight, Phaëton’s sun chariot drive, or to Papa Chibou’s rape of Napoleon; it generously includes all. The Committee apprehend, _a posteriori_, the writer’s problems of structure, characterization, colour, rhythm; they recognize the skill indispensable to concealing technique; they feel the beauty of the finished work, whose joinings are not discernible but whose exquisite art and pulsing nature--if they may paraphrase O. Henry--take them by the throat like the quinsy. Every short story may appear, and should appear, a mature Pallas, though the sympathetic analyst may deduce, as the author will recall, the slow processes of birth and growth. Over the value of this year’s fiction compared with that of recent years, the Committee disagree. The pessimist says the level is lower; the optimist declares it higher. “A fair plateau marked by a few peaks,” says another. They agree on the following list as ranking first: Babcock, Edwina Stanton, Mr. Cardeezer (_Harper’s_, May). Beer, Thomas, Dolceda (_Saturday Evening Post_, November 3). Benet, Stephen Vincent, The Golden Bessie (_Everybody’s_, June). Buckley, F. R., Habit (_Adventure_, April 30). Byrne, Donn, A Story Against Women (_Collier’s_, December 8). Cobb, Irvin S., Red-Handed (_Cosmopolitan_, June); The Unbroken Chain (_Cosmopolitan_, September). Connell, Richard, A New York Knight (_Saturday Evening Post_, April 21); A Friend of Napoleon (_Saturday Evening Post_, June 30); The Unfamiliar (_Century_, September). Dell, Floyd, Phantom Adventure (_Century_, December). Edholm, Charles Lawrence, The Rotten Board (_Century_, November). Edwards, Harry Stilwell, The Blue Hen’s Chicken (_Scribner’s_ October). Faragoh, Francis Edwards, The Distant Street (_The New Pearson’s_, March). Folsom, Elizabeth Irons, Towers of Fame (_McClure’s_, August).