The best short stories of 1922, and the yearbook of the American short story
"The best short stories of 1922, and the yearbook of the American short story" by Edward J. O’Brien is a collection of short stories written in the early 20th century. The anthology gathers notable American magazine fiction alongside a “yearbook” of trends, indexes, and honors, framed by the editor’s critical introduction. It showcases a broad range of styles—from modernist experiments to popular narratives—charting themes of work, family, war, identity, and a shifting
national mood. The opening of the volume offers front matter and O’Brien’s introduction, where he warns of “disintegration” in American letters—both the lazy commercial formula and shallow imitation of European avant-gardes—then explains his selection tests of substance and form and his star-based ranking. The fiction begins with The Dark City, a twilight study of a suburban father whose evening routines and gardening yield to a recurring vision of a silent, menacing city; continues with I’m a Fool, a stablehand’s rueful confession after lying about his identity to impress a girl at the races; and follows with The Death of Murdo, in which a Romani chief, newly healed, engineers a fatal test to secure his tribe’s faith in a successor. It then turns to An Unknown Warrior, opening on a lone soldier entering a snow-shrouded Westminster Abbey. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
The dark city / by Conrad Aiken -- I'm a fool / by Sherwood Anderson -- The death of Murdo / by Konrad Bercovici -- An unknown warrior / by Susan M. Boogher -- The helpless ones / by Frederick Booth -- Forest cover / by Edna Bryner -- Natalka's portion / by Rose Gollup Cohen -- The shame of gold / by Charles J. Finger -- Two for a cent / by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- John the Baptist / by Waldo Frank -- Mendel Marantz: housewife / by David Freedman -- Belshazzar's letter / by Katharine Fullerton Gerould -- Winkelburg / by Ben Hecht -- The token / by Joseph Hergesheimer -- The resurrection and the life / by William Jitro -- The golden honeymoon / by Ring W. Lardner -- He laughed at the gods / by James Oppenheim -- In the metropolis / by Benjamin Rosenblatt -- From the other side of the south / by Wilbur Daniel Steele -- The coffin / by Clement Wood.
Credits
Carol Brown, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Reading Level
Reading ease score: 84.5 (6th grade). Easy to read.
