The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
General
The best short stories of 1918, and the yearbook of the American short story
American fiction -- 20th century; Short stories -- 20th century -- Bibliography; Short stories -- 20th century -- Indexes; Short stories, American
_Gentlemen at Arms_, by “_Centurion_” (Doubleday, Page & Co.). This
volume stands out as a distinguished record from the host of personal
experiences which the war has produced. I think it quite the best of the
English collection, and a volume which the earlier Kipling might have
been proud to sign. There is a poignancy about these studies which is
relieved by a well-considered art.
_Under the Hermes_, by “_Richard Dehan_” (Dodd, Mead & Company). This
book is written solely with the worthy object of entertaining the
reader. Five or six years ago, I remember steaming down the Labrador in
a decrepit little boat called, rather magnificently, the _Stella Maris_
(and fisherman’s rumor had it that Lady Morris was so honored by the
christening), and my only companion for a week in the stuffy cabin was
an independent fur trader on his way to his winter post near Nain. His
baggage consisted of two crates of jam and two volumes by “Richard
Dehan,” and I remember how we banished sleep for several nights and days
by reading them to each other, and then beginning all over again. If I
knew where Richard White was now, I would send him a copy of “Under the
Hermes” to see if the old magic still lingered. It is a collection of
good stories imaginatively told.
_Tales of War_, by _Lord Dunsany_ (Little, Brown & Company). This volume
is a series of sketches and essays dealing with Lord Dunsany’s
experiences in the Great War, but it contains one of his best short
stories,—“The Prayer of the Men of Daleswood,”—and several fine
imaginative fables.
_Five Tales_, by _John Galsworthy_ (Charles Scribner’s Sons). This
collection of short stories and novelettes should be set on the book
shelf beside “The Dark Flower” as one of Galsworthy’s two most signal
contributions to the poetic interpretation of life. It is not too much
to say that this volume takes its place in the great English line.
_The Quest of the Face_, by _Stephen Graham_ (The Macmillan Company).
This volume does not represent the author at his best, but the
passionate mysticism which Mr. Graham has voiced so nobly in his Russian
books still flames through these pages, and there are several sketches
in the volume which I should have felt sorry to have missed.
_Children of the Dear Cotswolds_, by _L. Allen Harker_ (Charles
Scribner’s Sons). These quiet pastoral studies, to be fully enjoyed,
should be read aloud slowly by the winter fire, and I think the reader
will agree with me that they are a very delicate series of studies in
place. Mrs. Harker’s readers have a freemasonry of their own to which
the password is a love for England and its forgotten Cotswold places.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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