New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-09-24

IA MANI Raymond Woodbury. Pence,
II who has placed eighteen selected
stories between its covers, an
nounces that the collection "has been
made with the primary idea of stlmu-
laring an interest in the snort story
on the part of the reader-of the
reader who may never expect tn write
short stori"e H. whose pressure in
reading them may be. increased by q
surer knowledge of what goes into
their making" Professor Pence I'M
doubtediy will succeed in his avowed
object as an editor if any reader can
be found who will properly react to the
stimulus of stories conscientjously
labeled and indexed as "stories of (a)
plot, OBJ character, (c) setting, (d)
theme, (e) mood" and the various sub
divisions thereof.
1t is my firm belief that A. Neil
Lyons never set foot in a classroom
where such an "art" was taught and
that he never read text-book on the
subject nor such a collection of stories
as the worthy professor has made to
find out how the thing is done. 1t ia
quite apparent that he knows nothing
about writing short stories. His latest
collection, "a Market Bundle" (Dodd
Mead & Coz, is entirely lacking in
such thing as technique. | doubt
very much if the poor fellow ever
knows whether he Is writing a story of
plot or mood, of character or theme
Indeed, these little fragments are not
even stories in the usual sense of the
WORD, for they seem to have no proper
beginning or ending. He starts in to
write and when he has written a while
he stops. There is no apparent reason
about it at all. Perhaps the window
In his study was open and it raned in
and he stopped writing. Perhaps the
pencil point broke and he had no knife
in his pocket and he stopped writing.
And when he started again he thought
of something else and decided to write
about that for while He may per
haps have heard of o. Henry's remark.
There are ten rules for writing a short
story FIRST, write to please yourself
and the other nine rules you can learn
from Professor Bliss Perry" But it
is an even chance that Lyons never
heard of Professor Bliss Perry and
therefore entirely missed "the other
nine rules"
In spite of these obvious defects as a
short story writer that would bar A.
Neil Lyons from any art
group | have strong suspicion that
the man is something of genius, and
that he knows far more about life as
1T is actually lived and as it should be
interpreted upon sheets of white paper
imam any one on Professor Pence's Sc
lected list. Add to that that Lyons pos
sesses a sense of the ludicrous that ex-
plodes mines of merriment by swiftly
laid train of whimsical incident and
you have him in his full stature as an
artist.
Lyons's cockney characters are not
the droll carcatures of w. w. Jacobs
but they possess, for all their solid
flesh and racing blood, the same power
to tickle forcefully ope's disabilities.
ana, because they are so human in
their laughable follies, we find our
pity stirring before the laughter has
died away. | do not wish to friehten
the light hearted reader from the de-
lectable treat that "A Market Bundlen
undoubtedly will afford him, but l can
not forbear mentioning that there is
more than little keen social philoso-
ply beneath these whimsical fragments.
1t is not obtrusive, but it is there Just
the same If Lyons has any rabid socio-
logical theories he conceals them sue
cessfully, but his sympathy and under
standing Of human insists, the deni-
zens of the London cutters, are evil
dent in every line he writes.
His touch is sure and the words.
which seem to flow so swiftly, never
jangle out of tune. Valuing them so
much he is sparing in their use. No
effect is achieved with two words where
one will suffice. The result is a clarity
of style that no American writer on
Professor Fences selected list has ever
attained. And because Lyons has the
power to suggegt such wealth of de-
tail with few short words and to tell
the whole tragic-comic story of gut
ter wastrel with a short paragraph
we call him a writer of fragments. )"
His art" begins where the schools and
the textbooks leave off-and he spells
it with a little ga"