Short Stories in the Making

If Professor Neal's former book on the short story was of a sort to frighten beginners into deciding that they had better stick to some sort of knitting that appeared less formidable than short story writing, this recent volume will do much towards giving back to them that lively aspiration for authorship which Mr. Esenwein thinks is cherished by all but a few of our hundred and some million Americans. The reading of good short stories and appreciation of their technique seems to...
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If Professor Neal's former book on the short story was of a sort to frighten beginners into deciding that they had better stick to some sort of knitting that appeared less formidable than short story writing, this recent volume will do much towards giving back to them that lively aspiration for authorship which Mr. Esenwein thinks is cherished by all but a few of our hundred and some million Americans. The reading of good short stories and appreciation of their technique seems to encourage the normal human being to try to do likewise.
Teachers of the short story, too, should find "Today's Short Stories Analyzed" a stimulating piece of critical work or, at the very least, a labor-saver when students are to be shown how to conduct a short story clinic. Indeed, the book ought to prove helpful enough to muffle somewhat that call of the hoe or the broom which all good teachers sometimes think they hear. Mr. Neal has placed at the teacher's hand much excellent illustrative material handled in a manner to stimulate critical thinking.
The two books taken together-as the author intends that they shall be taken- will work admirably either in the class room or in the hands of the more or less experienced writer trying to become the captain of his own literary soul. Even the person who is merely an ultimate consumer of short stories will enjoy Mr. Neal's skill in setting forth this most delectable of fictional diets, with the correct proportions of protein, carbohydrate, and fat clearly indicated and with full explanations of all the caloric thrills.
In 1914 the author of "Short Stories in the Making" elaborated his theories of the technique of the conte, as he likes to call the short story. The book has less of illustrative material than one could wish. The present volume abundantly supplies the lack. In it Mr. Neal has collected twenty-two short stories published in various magazines during the past five years. Some of them are extremely short, notably "What the Vandals Leave," a "tremendous trifle" of hardly more than a hundred words. Some run to fifty pages or more. Each story represents a different author, most of whom are among the less widely known. All of the stories are accompanied by appreciative comment including numerous references to more extended discussion of technical matters in the earlier volume. If any reader of "Short Stories in the Making," felt that Mr. Neal kept too closely within the realm of "pure science," he is now offered a demonstration of theories applied to practice.
"They are actually doing it today just as I said it must be done," Mr. Neal may be imagined as saying to any unfriendly critic of the earlier work who might wish to propose Mr. Neal's name for membership in the society for the discouragement of harmless ambitions.
"Today's Short Stories Analyzed," is well printed on good paper and is attractively bound.
-The Graduate Magazine, Vol. 16 [1917]