Page:O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories for 1919.pdf/12

viii It is significant that this committee had no sooner begun its round table conferences than the Society promised, through the Director, funds for two prizes. The first was fixed at $500, the second at $250.

At a meeting in January, 1919, the Committee of Award agreed upon the further conditions that the story must be the work of an American author, and must first appear in 1919 in an American publication. At the same time an Honorary Committee was established, composed of writers and editors, whose pleasure it might be to offer advice and propose stories for consideration. The Honorary Committee consisted of

Gertrude Atherton Edward J. O’Brien Fannie Hurst John Macy Burges Johnson Mrs. Edwin Markham Robert Morss Lovett John S. Phillips William Marion Reedy Virginia Roderick Walter Roberts Charles G. Norris Edward E. Hale Max Eastman Charles Caldwell Dobie Margaret Sherwood Hamlin Garland James Branch Cabell Stuart P. Sherman William Allen White Stephen Leacock Major Rupert Hughes Eugene Manlove Rhodes

The Committee of Award read throughout the year, month by month, scores of stories, rejecting many, debating over others, and passing up a comparative few for final judgment. pet accent out of the hundred or more remaining, they salvaged the following: