Chapter II: Foreword

This volume is a companion to Miss Nicolson’s _The Art of Description_. They constitute the beginning of a series which, when completed, will furnish new illustrative material for the various types of writing. The purpose in planning such a series was first, of course, to provide specimens for analysis and for use as models that would be unhackneyed both to teacher and students. Second, there was the desire to put before the students examples of current if not contemporary practice in so far as it was possible to secure permission to reprint them. But most important of all was the intent to stimulate the imagination of both teacher and student by including many different kinds of writing which have been neglected in the more conventional volumes of illustrative material.

The editors of this volume have been most happy in their choice of material to carry out these three purposes. Out of the large number of selections reprinted there are only three, from Macaulay, Froude, and Parkman, which may be considered as classics; and these three are all illustrative of “Historical Narrative.” Of the more modern there is only one, John Corbin’s _A Day in an Oxford College_, which I recall as having appeared in a similar volume. A glance at the names of the authors in the Table of Contents will suffice to show to what extent the work of contemporary writers has been used. It is, I hope, not improper for me to call the attention of those who have had no experience in the editing of books of this kind to the increasing difficulty--and expense--of securing permission to reprint copyrighted material. The work of the editors of this volume has been more than doubled by their inability to reprint a large part of what they had originally chosen. Under these circumstances they are to be congratulated on their achievement.

But most of all it is the catholicity of their conception of “narrative writing,” the variety of types of narrative that they have analyzed and illustrated which is to me the outstanding merit of their work. For a good many years I have had a steadily growing feeling that altogether too much time and energy in our schools and colleges have been devoted to teaching students the art of story-telling. This feeling has grown into what may be called by some a pedagogical obsession. There can of course be no possible objection to developing whatever talent students may have for the writing of stories. The point of the criticism is that this should be considered the only talent worth cultivating. That one who can write short stories may be able to write more simple forms of narrative may perhaps be granted. The converse of the proposition is, however, far from axiomatic. Have those who fail to write even acceptably mediocre stories thereby demonstrated their inability to write other types of narrative? Certainly this volume will give an opportunity to test and to develop other talents and to cultivate a versatility that an exclusive interest in the short-story is likely to forfeit.

When one has worked long and harmoniously with colleagues who are gifted with imagination and generous with happy suggestions, it is difficult to say to what extent ideas which now seem his own may not be due to the invention of others. For a long time I have been insisting that students should at least be reminded that all narrative is not included under the category of the mechanized short-story of the correspondence schools. I have even published an experimental chapter in a text book calling the attention of teachers and students to various forms of narrative of fact that might be worth their cultivation. Perhaps that idea may have originally come from the editors of this book. Certainly Miss Chase and Mrs. del Plaine have gone far beyond this by enlarging also the scope of imaginative writing. There is in this volume something to appeal to anyone who has a gift for any form of narrative, except drama.

One great merit of this book is due not so much to its admirable plan as to the excellence of illustrative material that has been chosen. The majority of young people are likely to be absorbed in stories because they have a belief that other kinds of writing are likely to be non-entertaining or even dull. Here is a collection of narratives that ought to disabuse them of any such prejudice. Whatever other merits these selections may have--and they are neither inconspicuous nor inconsiderable--their outstanding quality is interestingness. One reads them with almost the voluptuous absorption which according to Stevenson is the essential of romance. And this is as it should be.

J. M. THOMAS

Minneapolis, Minn. March 8, 1926

CONTENTS

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