What do you think?
Short Stories from Life: The 81 Prize Stories in Life's Shortest Story Contest
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
370 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1916
About the author
Thomas L. Masson
71 books1 followerThomas Lansing Masson was Literary and managing editor of the comic weekly Life, 1893–1922, and associate editor of The Saturday Evening Post, 1922–30.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 24, 2022
May 23, 915pm ~~ Back in 1916 the editors of Life magazine announced a contest. They wanted to see how short a short story could be and still be considered a story. So they put out the call, received thousands of entries, filtered them down to four winners, and published those and 77 others in this collection. Yep, 81 stories in all, and many of them short enough to fit completely on the computer screen with no scrolling necessary.
The editor's introduction explained how the contest was developed and judged, and also explained the pay scale. In order to push people to write the shortest stories possible, the authors were paid according to the length of their story, but with a twist. The shorter the story, the higher the per word pay was.
Life received entries from all over the world: from professionals and amateurs, and one even from the trenches of WWI, which was of course raging at the time. The majority of the stories dealt with the war in some way, but since all the stories are so short I don't want to give specific details of any of them. It would be too easy to accidentally spoil many plots that way!
A few of my favorites with a war theme were Somewhere in Belgium, The Black Door, The Aviator, and The Arm At Gravelotte.
Romantic favorites were Lost And Found and A Mexican Vivandiere.
General topics favorites were The Old Things, Ben T. Allen Atty vs. HImself, and Strictly Business.
There were murderers who explained why they did it, innocent men who explained why they didn't do it, and lots of twisty endings that were supposed to punch a reader in the gut and sometimes did. It was an interesting collection to read, even though they did all start to run together towards the end. I thought it was a cool idea for the times. The short short story has always appealed to me. Not that I have ever managed to write a proper one, but there is always hope.
Oh, the first place story was co-written by the author of The Lilac Girl, a book I finished reading right before starting this one. How's that for coincidence? It was called Thicker Than Water and was a bit of a tear jerker and not especially one of my favorites. But I wasn't judging the contest, was I. lol
The editor's introduction explained how the contest was developed and judged, and also explained the pay scale. In order to push people to write the shortest stories possible, the authors were paid according to the length of their story, but with a twist. The shorter the story, the higher the per word pay was.
Life received entries from all over the world: from professionals and amateurs, and one even from the trenches of WWI, which was of course raging at the time. The majority of the stories dealt with the war in some way, but since all the stories are so short I don't want to give specific details of any of them. It would be too easy to accidentally spoil many plots that way!
A few of my favorites with a war theme were Somewhere in Belgium, The Black Door, The Aviator, and The Arm At Gravelotte.
Romantic favorites were Lost And Found and A Mexican Vivandiere.
General topics favorites were The Old Things, Ben T. Allen Atty vs. HImself, and Strictly Business.
There were murderers who explained why they did it, innocent men who explained why they didn't do it, and lots of twisty endings that were supposed to punch a reader in the gut and sometimes did. It was an interesting collection to read, even though they did all start to run together towards the end. I thought it was a cool idea for the times. The short short story has always appealed to me. Not that I have ever managed to write a proper one, but there is always hope.
Oh, the first place story was co-written by the author of The Lilac Girl, a book I finished reading right before starting this one. How's that for coincidence? It was called Thicker Than Water and was a bit of a tear jerker and not especially one of my favorites. But I wasn't judging the contest, was I. lol
August 28, 2023
It was at a luncheon party that the idea of Life’s Short Story Contest was first suggested by Mr. Lincoln Steffens, (an investigative journalist at the time and obviously he knew the editor of Life Magazine if they were at a luncheon party).
Of the over thirty thousand manuscripts received the same Lincoln Steffens had three short stories published. Joseph Hall and Hornell Hart also had three short stories published. Lyman Bryson and Lewis Allen had two stories published. All men.
As stated out of over thirty thousand manuscripts received a number of these men had multiple stories published including the originator of the idea for the contest. Also, Lyman Bryson at the time was a writer on social change – and also very likely would have known the editors of Life Magazine. Nepotism at its finest.
I’m stating the above because once I started reading this book most of the stories started to sound and feel the same. Most likely because they were written by the same type of people, friends of the editor of Life.
For a book that had over thirty thousand manuscripts received it is a disappointing selection. Most did not grab your attention at all. Most were war stories (naturally due to the time of the first world war). Very disappointing selection of short stories in general. Spend your time elsewhere.
Of the over thirty thousand manuscripts received the same Lincoln Steffens had three short stories published. Joseph Hall and Hornell Hart also had three short stories published. Lyman Bryson and Lewis Allen had two stories published. All men.
As stated out of over thirty thousand manuscripts received a number of these men had multiple stories published including the originator of the idea for the contest. Also, Lyman Bryson at the time was a writer on social change – and also very likely would have known the editors of Life Magazine. Nepotism at its finest.
I’m stating the above because once I started reading this book most of the stories started to sound and feel the same. Most likely because they were written by the same type of people, friends of the editor of Life.
For a book that had over thirty thousand manuscripts received it is a disappointing selection. Most did not grab your attention at all. Most were war stories (naturally due to the time of the first world war). Very disappointing selection of short stories in general. Spend your time elsewhere.
October 19, 2024
🖍️ A cornucopia of flash fiction stories presented by Life magazine as a result of a writing contest they presented. See introduction for details!
📕 Published in 1915 by Life magazine.
☞Why this book? Short stories are swell!
જ⁀➴🟢The e-book version can be found HERE on Project Gutenberg .
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
📕 Published in 1915 by Life magazine.
☞Why this book? Short stories are swell!
જ⁀➴🟢The e-book version can be found HERE on Project Gutenberg .
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
November 23, 2025
Overall, I thought these were very good, enjoyable stories. a handful were mediocre, but more than a handful were excellent. It was fascinating to see what was on the minds of America's amateur writers between the two World Wars.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews