A Book of Short Stories

by Blanche Colton Williams

A COLLECTION FOR USE IN HIGH SCHOOLS, COM- PILED AND EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, AND BIOGRAPHIES OF THE AUTHORS

Legend of the Moor's legacy / Washington Irving
The cask of Amontillado / Edgar Allan Poe
Tennessee's partner / Bret Harte
The last lesson / Alphonse Daudet
The Sire de Male troit's door / Robert Louis Stevenson
The necklace / Guy de Maupassant
A gala dress / Mary Wilkins Freeman
Under the lion's paw / Hamlin Garland
On the stairs / Arthur Morrison
A blackjack bargainer / "O. Henry" (William Sydney Porter)
The well / William Wydmark Jacobs
The comforter / Elizabeth Jordan
"Molly McGuire, fourteen" / Frederick Stuart Greene.

291 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Blanche Colton Williams (born 1879) was an American author, editor, professor of English literature, and head of the English department at Hunter College.

Williams graduated from the Industrial Institute and College (now the Mississippi University for Women) in Columbus, Mississippi in 1898. She taught English at Stanton College in Natchez, Mississippi and at Grenada College in Grenada, Mississippi, becoming department head before her departure for New York City in 1907. Williams earned a master's degree from Columbia University in 1908 and a doctorate in 1913. She was hired as an instructor at Hunter College in 1910 as well.

Williams was the first editor of the O. Henry Prize Stories, serving in that position from 1918 to 1932. In 1924, Williams served as one of the judges of the first Opportunity story contest. She was promoted to full professor and head of the English department at Hunter College in 1926. She retired from her position at Hunter College in 1939 in order to travel and write.

Hunter College awards a graduate fellowship named for Williams. The Mississippi University for Women library houses her collection of George Eliot first editions as well as copies of Williams's own books.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Mbuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent anthology of short stories, but not necessarily for High School alone! Published in 1918, the collection has several much-anthologised stories such as Poe’s ‘Cask of Amontillado,’ ‘ Maupassant’s ‘Necklace,’ and Stevenson’s ‘The Sire of Malétroit’s Door,’ but by far it consists of lesser known classics, such as Alphonse Daudet’s ‘The Last Lesson,’ or ’The Well’ by W.W. Jacobs. This is explained by the editor as a deliberate decision to introduce the student to a wider choice of stories.

The selection of stories includes British and French writers as well as American. The suggestions for further reading at the end of each story are also unusual today. They mention other or similar stories by the author whose work they have just finished reading; in addition, the editor suggests such stories by other authors if the reader liked what they just finished reading; and these include Russian, French, Anglo-Indian, besides British and American. After each story is an easily-digestible biography of the writer.

Educational tastes and needs have obviously changed in more than a century. Most of the selection is geared to the literary, classical and historical, whereas the needs of society today are more scientific and speculative.

[Missy]

Never have read this book, bought it primarily because I love old books and it looked cool. :)