O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921
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_O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES of 1921_
CHOSEN BY THE SOCIETY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS
1922
CONTENTS
THE HEART OF LITTLE SHIKARA. By Edison Marshall
THE MAN WHO CURSED THE LILIES. By Charles Tenney Jackson
THE URGE. By Maryland Allen
MUMMERY. By Thomas Beer
THE VICTIM OF HIS VISION. By Gerald Chittenden
MARTIN GERRITY GETS EVEN. By Courtney Ryley Cooper and Leo F. Creagan
STRANGER THINGS. By Mildred Cram
COMET. By Samuel A. Derieux
FIFTY-TWO WEEKS FOR FLORETTE. By Elizabeth Alexander Heermann
WILD EARTH. By Sophie Kerr
THE TRIBUTE. By Harry Anable Kniffin
THE GET-AWAY. By O.F. Lewis
"AURORE." By Ethel Watts Mumford
MR. DOWNEY SITS DOWN. By L.H. Robbins
THE MARRIAGE IN KAIRWAN. By Wilbur Daniel Steele
GRIT. By Tristram Tupper
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 associated with that work perpetually this tribute is hereby printed at the request of the Society of Arts and Sciences. E.J.W.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories of 1921
- 2: Mummery Saturday Evening Post
- 3: Old Scarface Pictorial Review
- 4: The American Pictorial Review
- 5: By Wilbur Daniel Steele Pictorial Review
- 6: Somerset Maugham's The Trembling of a Leaf
- 7: Not sordid realistic portrayal of earth grubbers
- 8: His ideal of short story requirements
- 9: But Edison Marshall's The Heart of Little Shikara
- 10: 1919 so convincing a work of art
- 11: Little Shikara said after one of these excursions
- 12: This was Little Shikara all over
- 13: Eager visage of Little Shikara
- 14: Little Shikara was very sleepy
- 15: All these things Nahara learned
- 16: Tawny cat that crept through the bamboos
- 17: The tigress sprawled down also
- 18: Make the beaters circle about the fringe of bamboos
- 19: Singhai suddenly splashed down into the water
- 20: He knew that his first work was to see how Singhai had fared
- 21: Nahara had returned to her hunting
- 22: Lastly Little Shikara went to his own father
- 23: Little Shikara blushed beneath the laughter
- 24: Lacerated by the mugger's bite
- 25: Nahara was steadily stealing toward him through the shadows
- 26: Then he whipped again into the vernacular and spoke swiftly
- 27: They were quite near now Nahara was almost in leaping range
- 28: Little Shikara trembled and raised his eyes
- 29: Tedge grimly knew what it meant
- 30: Tedge glowered on the Texan he hated him
- 31: Tedge was a master hand among the reefs and shoals
- 32: Hogjaw had shouted and run forward
- 33: Hogjaw knew nothing he never would know anything
- 34: Tedge flung himself by the first stubby grass clump
- 35: A narrow spit of white sand at high tide
- 36: Tedge's voice Tedge had not slept well
- 37: Tedge plunged on in fierce exultance
- 38: Tedge roared once again his hatred of them
- 39: Yards upon yards of point de Venise in her top bureau drawer
- 40: She only felt that queer gnawing beneath her breastbone
- 41: This boarder was a man with a past
- 42: The lodger laughed disagreeably
- 43: But booze was a very different proposition
- 44: Neither did the lodger care how the booze was procured
- 45: And hated a guy like youse do this Noyes
- 46: She heard the lodger crying Stop my God
- 47: Arthur Noyes lived in this place
- 48: Cake looked then at Arthur Noyes
- 49: Meier looked at Noyes and shook his head
- 50: Meier came and took her by the hand
- 51: Meier advanced and lifted her to her feet
- 52: It took Noyes a minute to recover
- 53: Think of Dammy being twenty one
- 54: Although he looked taller in wrestling tights
- 55: A farmhand stood on the grass by the outer steps
- 56: Here's Dammy comin' home Wednesday out of the Navy
- 57: Dammy likes 'em a little stale
- 58: There's a picture of Dammy in the movies
- 59: Edie ain't old enough to get married yet
- 60: Was a fellow on the Nevada they called Frisco Cooley
- 61: You didn't put up these quinces
- 62: Wait till I get you some more cider
- 63: Egg over the mummer's shoulder
- 64: And especially uneasy about sitting there with the drummer
- 65: That glimpse of Hayti would remain with him
- 66: Simpson glanced over his shoulder at it
- 67: She stared at Simpson and at the boy
- 68: Neither of them paid any attention to Simpson
- 69: And the proprietaire is a good Catholic
- 70: Witherbee and Bunsen chorused the word
- 71: The mamaloi the mamaloi high priestess of voodoo
- 72: Except for himself and Witherbee the pier was deserted
- 73: Witherbee glanced over his shoulder
- 74: The Haytian also that is excellent
- 75: Called twice before Simpson heard him
- 76: Witherbee could not resist that
- 77: I met Father Antoine on the way home
- 78: Thought this a little strange and spoke to Michaud about it
- 79: Simpson could not keep his eyes from it
- 80: For a moment he wondered if such passion were godly
- 81: Simpson nodded with compressed lips
- 82: On the other strode the mamaloi the child
- 83: The cripple and the mamaloi were beside him still
- 84: It had opened the doors of memory for Martin Garrity as
- 85: Lemuel Barstow was giving the final instructions
- 86: Asked Jewel Garrity as they sat at dinner
- 87: Scattering the freshly tamped gravel
- 88: Garrity had got the chief dispatcher
- 89: Martin suddenly had remembered something
- 90: Martin Garrity was pacing the floor
- 91: Within the giant auger a man turned to Garrity
- 92: Greater men than Grimshaw had written of Priam's tragedy
- 93: Esther Levenson was his mistress
- 94: He's writing again a play for Esther Levenson
- 95: The woman sent for me Levenson
- 96: Esther Levenson lied to save him
- 97: Waram was still thinking of Dagmar
- 98: And there is Dagmar in England
- 99: But Waram disappeared between the larches
- 100: He passed through Salvan with his head in the air
- 101: She had not buried his body at Broadenham
- 102: The sun was low before Grimshaw left them
- 103: He finally heard that Dagmar had married Waram
- 104: Grimshaw was sobered instantly
- 105: Grimshaw stared at her without hearing
- 106: Pierre Pilleux was a humanitarian
- 107: He read everything that Pilleux wrote with eagerness
- 108: He thought Waram has come because Dagmar is dead
- 109: Doctor Waram straightened his shoulders
- 110: We'll turn over some of the others to Swygert
- 111: Had Larsen gained his confidence
- 112: Almost splitting his tender eardrums
- 113: Old Swygert came in with a gun
- 114: Swygert picked up the gun and fired
- 115: Straining at the leash held by old Swygert
- 116: But still Swygert had not come back
- 117: Larsen had pulled both triggers at once
- 118: You should never have taken Freddy
- 119: He held Florette while she swung upside down
- 120: Florette flung herself upright
- 121: For Florette lavished all her beauty
- 122: Florette Florette was dozing
- 123: But Florette flushed and looked annoyed
- 124: Retorted Florette under her breath
- 125: But Florette flung herself between them and caught the blow
- 126: Bert Brannigan stared at the ladies
- 127: Me an' Florette was ole friends
- 128: You you ain't seen Florette anywheres
- 129: Florette liked the way I talked all right
- 130: You always bin a lot of help to Florette
- 131: Margarita d'Avala bit her lips and paced the floor
- 132: Florette wouldn't wear their clo'es to a dog fight
- 133: And they looked at Freddy compassionately
- 134: Exclaimed Freddy incredulously
- 135: The girl's smile helped Wesley a great deal
- 136: They're good gingham and real well made
- 137: As Wesley Dean was desperately aware
- 138: He poked the box of caramels at her
- 139: Wesley ordered an oyster stew for himself
- 140: My name's not Anita it's Annie
- 141: Maybe richest in the whole United States
- 142: Well let's go in and see Aunt Dolcey
- 143: But he nevah stahtle me with no marryin' befo'
- 144: I gotta go out and fix my disker
- 145: But the haht gwine carry you froo
- 146: She had been married a week now
- 147: Aunt Dolcey stuck out her underlip
- 148: Left to her and Aunt Dolcey after the first spading
- 149: Let Aunt Dolcey finish up dat cheese
- 150: And Annie did not follow the primitive psychology of it
- 151: And the incensed biddy pecked viciously
- 152: Answered Aunt Dolcey with equal brevity
- 153: Brought to Annie a cessation of her purpose
- 154: She heard the rattle and clack of the returning coffeepot
- 155: The wheat can rot in the fields
- 156: Seems Harrison won't send his thresher up this far
- 157: You hitch up the horses to the reaper
- 158: Behind her came Unc' Zenas and Aunt Dolcey
- 159: Sullen eyes the progress of the reaper
- 160: The Little Chap looked up at him questioningly
- 161: I guess he must 've been a good hatter
- 162: While the hatter was both poor and humble
- 163: Lay panting side by side in the pitch dark dugout
- 164: In a few minutes they couldn't help discovering Slattery
- 165: They also took his mind off Slattery
- 166: It was a wall the conduit wall
- 167: Without replying Detroit Jim resumed his picking
- 168: Detroit Jim groped his way across the room
- 169: And I thought to see what happens at the Falls of the Bijou
- 170: Her great eyes turned from Crossman to the Cure
- 171: She is here with Antoine Marceau
- 172: Aurore would have left their mid day meal ready
- 173: Crossman marvelled at his temerity
- 174: And with scant courtesy Jakapa sped his guest's departure
- 175: Jakapa cursed and crouched low
- 176: Crossman waited and loneliness is not good for a sick soul
- 177: And Monsieur Jakapa have turn back
- 178: Wilbram had just returned from Florida
- 179: Wilbram this was at a Chamber of Commerce banquet
- 180: No I be ding if Ile igscuse you says Pa
- 181: Lincoln Wilbram wanted the dog bone
- 182: Lincoln Wilbrams had servants again
- 183: What the Jones Nonpareil service is
- 184: The slander is founded on fact
- 185: Wilbram without making the matter worse
- 186: Wilbram really Has he discovered
- 187: Habib ben Habib emerged from the shadow of a door arch and
- 188: When Habib had laughed for a moment he would grow silent
- 189: Habib laughed under his breath
- 190: Habib ben Habib walked out of the gate Djelladin
- 191: Bel Kalfate watched him away through the thinning crowd
- 192: My sire Thou shalt be content
- 193: ' Ai Ai There was a silence
- 194: From moonset till half past three
- 195: The comrade of long ago Houseen in silk of wine and silver
- 196: Moulay was dead now many years
- 197: Habib ben Habib was born again
- 198: In the house of bel Kalfate the Jewess danced
- 199: Habib followed him tardily as far as the outer door
- 200: Grit had wrested an existence from the debris of this city
- 201: Were the tattered pages of a coverless book
- 202: I'm not going into the junk business
- 203: Why couldn't Grit have talked like that
- 204: Great Taylor mumbled disparagingly
- 205: Replacing the jug on the shelf
- 206: Ain't I got enough junk without that
- 207: Pushing a junk cart ain't so easy
- 208: Bickering and bargaining with men of all classes
- 209: She looked down upon the old junk cart
- 210: They think of you just as you used to think of Grit
- 211: Her voice becoming fainter and fainter Rags