Produced by Stan Goodman, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team
O. HENRY MEMORIAL AWARD PRIZE STORIES of 1921
1922
THE HEART OF LITTLE SHIKARA. By Edison Marshall
THE MAN WHO CURSED THE LILIES. By Charles Tenney Jackson
THE URGE. By Maryland Allen
MUMMERY. By Thomas Beer
THE VICTIM OF HIS VISION. By Gerald Chittenden
MARTIN GERRITY GETS EVEN. By Courtney Ryley Cooper and Leo F. Creagan
STRANGER THINGS. By Mildred Cram
COMET. By Samuel A. Derieux
FIFTY-TWO WEEKS FOR FLORETTE. By Elizabeth Alexander Heermann
WILD EARTH. By Sophie Kerr
THE TRIBUTE. By Harry Anable Kniffin
THE GET-AWAY. By O.F. Lewis
"AURORE." By Ethel Watts Mumford
MR. DOWNEY SITS DOWN. By L.H. Robbins
THE MARRIAGE IN KAIRWAN. By Wilbur Daniel Steele
GRIT. By Tristram Tupper
The plan for the creation of the O. Henry Memorial Committee wasconceived and the work of the Committee inaugurated in the year 1918by the late John F. Tucker, LL.M., then Directing Manager of theSociety of Arts and Sciences. The Society promptly approved the planand appropriated the sum necessary to inaugurate its work and to makethe award.
The Committee is, therefore, in a sense, a memorial to Mr. Tucker, aswell as to O. Henry. Up to the time of his death Mr. Tucker was aconstant adviser of the Committee and an attendant at most of itsmeetings.
Born in New York City in 1871 and educated for the law, Mr. Tucker'sinclinations quickly swept him into a much wider stream ofintellectual development, literary, artistic, and sociological. Hejoined others in reviving the Twilight Club (now the Society of Artsand Sciences), for the broad discussion of public questions, and tothe genius he developed for such a task the success of the Society upto the time of his death was chiefly due. The remarkable series ofdinner discussions conducted under his management, for many years, inNew York City, have helped to mould public opinion along liberallines, to educate and inspire. Nothing he did gave him greater pridethan the inception of the O. Henry Memorial Committee, and that hisname should be associated with that work perpetually this tribute ishereby printed at the request of the Society of Arts and Sciences.E.J.W.
In 1918 the Society of Arts and Sciences established, through itsManaging Director, John F. Tucker, the O. Henry Memorial. Since thatyear the nature of the annual prize and the work of the Committeeawarding it have become familiar to writer, editor, and reader ofshort stories. To the best short story written by an American andpublished in America the sum of $500 is awarded; to the second best,the sum of $250. In 1919 the prize winning story was Margaret PrescottMontague's "England to America"; in 1920 it was Maxwell StruthersHurt's "Each in His Generation." Second winners were: 1919, WilburDaniel Steele's "For They Know Not What They Do," and, 1920, FrancesNoyes Hart's "Contact!" [The prizes were delivered on June 2, 1920,and o