The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-13
AMERICAN SHORT STORIES.
Taking a Ballot on the Twelve Best
Ones bv American Authors-.Clever
Stories by Yankee Writers That
Merit Attention..

The New York Critic has opened the
lists for general vote by it's readers
on the twelve best short stories by
American authors. The result of this
appeal to a popular verdict will be high
ly interesting, while it may reveal some
surprises in the general public taste
Twelve different authors should be
gathered in a truly representative
group, since the selection of more than
one story from the same writer (even
in the case of Poe) would be to narrow
the true catholicity and richness of the
list. The Record would respectfully
submit the following dozen tales
as its choice: Washington Irv-
ings's RIP Van Winkle;" Edgar
Allan Poes Gold Rug" Nathan
iel Hawthorne's Great Stone Face"
Edward Everett Hales Man With
out County" Bret Hartes "Out-
casts Of Poker Flat" Mark Twain's
THE Jumping Frog" Thomas Nelson
Pages Burial of the Guns" Joel
Chandler Harris, an Uncle Remus"
tale; Richard Malcolm Johnston. one of
the 'Dukesborough Tales" Francis
HopkinsOn Smiths Colonel Garter of
Cartersville;" Mary n Murfree, "a tale
| In the Tennessee Mountains" and
Tiger"
| There are number of brilliant short
| story writer's excluded from this list
owing to the arbitrary limit of number.
| Mrs. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, with her
| Madonna of the Tubs" or Octave
| Thanet Miss French), with one of her
| Western tales, are among this esteemed
| but unincorporated COterie. Probably,
! in the opinion of the Record. there is
| no thirteenth name equal to any of
| these twelve in the American short
| story realm. Poe stands unsurpassed
| in his versatility of invention and types
| of tales. Bret Harte made Rudyard
| Kipling and the modern school possible.
| Hawthorne must take third rank in this
particular class of fiction. AS for Irv
| ing, he was rather an essayist than a
| story teller. Zip van Wrinkle is best
| known TO Americans through the play
first written by Charles Burke, and re-
vised so triumphantly by Dion Bouci-
cault and Joseph jefferson. In the
sketch Book" Rip is great deal of a
| shadow, and Irving utterly failed in
the development of human interest in
| the character. Nevertheless, his Cats
kill legend is a great American master
| piece. Poe's Gold Bug" is selected as
| the fOrerunner or type-the detective
story-and as best revealing his analy-
tical ingenuity, which was so admira-
bly, displayed in his famous forecast OF
Dickens "Barnaby Rudge." Otherwise
THE Murders of Rue Morgue" might
be substituted as his best known and
most popularity appreciated story Haw'
thorne's Wakefield" or his tale OF
Ethan Brand and the objectionable Sir
or his romance of the yelled minister
might any one be cited; but the "Mys'
terry of the Great Stone Face" attracted
universal attention upon its publlca'
tion. Mark Twains Jumping Frog
gave him his leap into fame, as die
Harte's Luck of Roaring Camp" In
the "Outcasts of Poker Flat" occurs
however, that inimitable portrait OF
John Oakhurst, gambler.
| Edward Everett Hale's Man With
out a Country" is the great story OF
the civil war. While it concerns the
old treason of Aaron Burr. it was, new
ertheless, written with a patriotic mo-
tive during the war between the North
and the South and the character OF
| Philip Nolan stirred all Union hearts
with a new inspiration of love for tine