O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921 Part 1

O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921.

by Various.

FOUNDER OF THE O. HENRY MEMORIAL COMMITTEE

The plan for the creation of the O. Henry Memorial Committee was conceived and the work of the Committee inaugurated in the year 1918 by the late John F. Tucker, LL.M., then Directing Manager of the Society of Arts and Sciences. The Society promptly approved the plan and appropriated the sum necessary to inaugurate its work and to make the award.

The Committee is, therefore, in a sense, a memorial to Mr. Tucker, as well as to O. Henry. Up to the time of his death Mr. Tucker was a constant adviser of the Committee and an attendant at most of its meetings.

Born in New York City in 1871 and educated for the law, Mr. Tucker's inclinations quickly swept him into a much wider stream of intellectual development, literary, artistic, and sociological. He joined others in reviving the Twilight Club (now the Society of Arts and Sciences), for the broad discussion of public questions, and to the genius he developed for such a task the success of the Society up to the time of his death was chiefly due. The remarkable series of dinner discussions conducted under his management, for many years, in New York City, have helped to mould public opinion along liberal lines, to educate and inspire. Nothing he did gave him greater pride than the inception of the O. Henry Memorial Committee, and that his name should be a.s.sociated with that work perpetually this tribute is hereby printed at the request of the Society of Arts and Sciences.

E.J.W.

INTRODUCTION

In 1918 the Society of Arts and Sciences established, through its Managing Director, John F. Tucker, the O. Henry Memorial. Since that year the nature of the annual prize and the work of the Committee awarding it have become familiar to writer, editor, and reader of short stories. To the best short story written by an American and published in America the sum of $500 is awarded; to the second best, the sum of $250. In 1919 the prize winning story was Margaret Prescott Montague's "England to America"; in 1920 it was Maxwell Struthers Hurt's "Each in His Generation." Second winners were: 1919, Wilbur Daniel Steele's "For They Know Not What They Do," and, 1920, Frances Noyes Hart's "Contact!" [The prizes were delivered on June 2, 1920, and on March 14, 1921, at the annual memorial dinner, Hotel Astor.]

In 1921 the Committee of Award consisted of these members:

BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS, Ph. D., Chairman EDWARD J. WHEELER, Litt. D.

ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD FRANCES GILCHRIST WOOD GROVE E. WILSON

And the Committee of Administration:

JOHN F. TUCKER, [Deceased, February 27, 1921.], Founder of the O.

Henry Memorial EDWARD J. WHEELER, Litt.D.

GLENN FRANK, Editor of _The Century Magazine_ GEORGE C. HOWARD, Attorney.

As in previous years each member of the Committee of Award held himself responsible for reviewing the brief fiction of certain magazines and for circulating such stories as warranted reading by other members.

Results in 1921 differ in a number of respects from those of 1919 and 1920. In the earlier half year, January excepted, every reader reported a low average of current fiction, so low as to excite apprehension lest the art of the short story was rapidly declining.

The latter six months, however, marked a reaction, with a higher percentage of values in November and December. Explanation of the low level lies in the financial depression which forced a number of editors to buy fewer stories, to buy cheaply, or to search their vaults for remnant of purchases made in happier days. Improvement began with the return to better financial conditions.

The several members of the Committee have seldom agreed on the comparative excellence of stories, few being of sufficient superiority in the opinion of the Committee as a whole to justify setting them aside for future consideration. The following three dozen candidates, more or less, average highest:

Addington, Sarah, Another Cactus Blooms (_Smart Set_, December).

Alexander, Elizabeth, Fifty-Two Weeks for Florette [Reprinted as by Elizabeth Alexander Heermann.] (_Sat.u.r.day Evening Post_, August 13).

Allen, Maryland, The Urge (_Everybody's_, September).

Arbuckle, Mary, Wasted (_Midland_, May).

Beer, Thomas, Mummery (_Sat.u.r.day Evening Post_, July 30).

Burt, Maxwell Struthers, Buchanan Hears the Wind (_Harper's_, August).

Byrne, Donn, Reynardine (_McClure's_, May).

Chittenden, Gerald, The Victim of His Vision (_Scribner's_, May).

Comfort, Will Levington, and Dost, Zamin Ki, The Deadly Karait (_Asia_, August).

Cooper, Courtney Ryley, and Creagan, Leo F. Martin, Gerrity Gets Even (_American_, July).

Cooper, Courtney Ryley, Old Scarface (_Pictorial Review_, April).

Cram, Mildred, Stranger Things--(_Metropolitan_, January).

Derieux, Samuel A., Comet (_American_, December).

Hull Helen R., Waiting (_Touchstone_, February).

Jackson, Charles Tenney, The Man who Cursed the Lilies (_Short Stories_, December 10).

Kerr, Sophie, Wild Earth (_Sat.u.r.day Evening Post_, April 2).

Kniffin, Harry Anable, The Tribute (_Brief Stories_, September).

Lewis, O.F., The Get-A way (_Red Book_, February); The Day of Judgment (_Red Book_, October).

Mahoney, James, Wilfrid Reginald and the Dark Horse (_Century_, August).

Marshall, Edison, The Heart of Little s.h.i.+kara (_Everybody's_, January).

Morris, Gouverneur, Groot's Macaw (_Cosmopolitan_, November); Just One Thing More (_Cosmopolitan_, December).

Mumford, Ethel Watts, "Aurore" (_Pictorial Review_, February); The Crowned Dead (_Short Stories_, July); Funeral Frank (_Detective Stories_, October 29).

Robbins, L.H., Mr. Downey Sits Down (_Everybody's_, June).

Steele, Wilbur Daniel, 'Toinette of Maissonnoir (_Pictorial Review_, July); The Marriage in Kairwan (_Harper's_, December).

Street, Julian, A Voice in the Hall (_Harper's_, September).

Stringer, Arthur, A Lion Must Eat (_McClure's_, March).

Tupper, Tristram, Grit (_Metropolitan_, March).

Vorse, Mary Heaton, The Halfway House (_Harper's_, October).

Wolff, William Almon, Thala.s.sa! Thala.s.sa! (_Everybody's_, July).