Читать книгу Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories; Second Series - William Addleman Ganoe - Страница 3

Table of Contents

FOR those readers who have from early childhood been taught that the best things are the old things, it is oftentimes difficult to revert in imagination to the times when such classics as Paradise Lost, Pilgrim’s Progress, and Robinson Crusoe, new and unread, were just beginning to make their first tentative steps in the march toward the unknown and unseen goal of enduring fame. Yet the intrinsic literary worth of these classics was obviously just as firm in those far-off days of their initial appearance as in these present days of their acquired renown.

But in these present days, with the improved printing-presses moving at high speed and pouring forth everywhere their improvident and unsifted store, the best is too liable to be lost within the swift current of a vast and turbid abundance. It is, therefore, worth while for us—for those of us who have an abiding love of literature—to endeavor to rescue and place in more permanent form the choicest bits of this modern efflux of writing, and make it easily available for a more leisurely and intelligent perusal.

With this thought in mind, I have for several months been reading widely in the files of the Atlantic Monthly, with the idea of republishing the best of the recent stories in book form. A partial result of my labors is seen in Atlantic Narratives (First Series), published by the Atlantic Monthly Press in March of the current year. In selecting the twenty-three stories for that volume, I had the college student and the mature reader more definitely in mind. Some of these stories, accordingly, were perhaps a trifle too subtle and analytical for the younger student, though it is interesting to note that the volume immediately found an interested audience, not only among college students and the reading public, but also within the classrooms of some of our best schools and academies.

Several of the more prominent English teachers, however, expressed a wish for a group of narratives simpler, more direct, and filled with incidents of a commoner and more elemental experience—such as would make an immediate appeal to a younger class of readers. I have accordingly made the selections for this second volume of Atlantic Narratives with this particular request in mind. At the same time that I have discarded the subtler and more analytical themes, I have held rigorously to the demand for genuine literary excellence and artistic technique. Discriminating critics will agree that for a writer to limit himself to the narrower confines of the simple and the commonplace and the elemental, may, in particular cases, demand even a finer grace and a higher technique.

The stories here gathered together, while possessing the attributes and range which the English teachers have suggested, are widely varying in appeal and in centres of interest. Miss Mary Antin’s story, 'The Lie,' for example, reveals, in significant portrayal, a unique attitude of mind among the patriotic foreigners; Miss Elizabeth Ashe, Miss Kathleen Norris, and S. H. Kemper have, in their several manners, pleasantly revealed their appreciation of the humorous; Mrs. Comer and Miss Eastman and Mr. Meredith Nicholson have lent a note of idealism; Mr. Joseph Husband and Mr. E. Morlae have contributed true accounts of their personal experiences; and the remaining writers on the list have, in their various individual ways, found still other moods and themes appropriate to their individualities. The net result is a literary variety that merges appropriately, I trust, into a unit of genuine and abiding worth.

For helpful aid in the preparation of this volume, I am indebted to many English teachers, more particularly to Miss Anna Shaughnessy, of the English department in the Newton High School. Houghton Mifflin Company has generously granted me permission to use Mr. Husband’s 'The Story of a Coal-Mine.' Mr. George B. Ives, expert critic and proof-reader, of the Atlantic Monthly staff, has read and revised the proofs. Most of all, however, I am indebted to Mr. Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, whose friendly counsel and literary acumen have been of constant service.

C. S. T.

BOSTON, MASS.

July, 1918