The Woman’s Home Companion
Fiction is a very large element in our program. We publish not less than five short stories in each issue and not less than six serials a year.
These are the requirements which make a fiction manuscript available:
It must tell a story.
It must tell it well—that is, according to accepted standards of good writing.
The story must be worth telling.
The theme must be interesting to the average normal human being.
It may be a story of love, mystery, humor, pathos, childhood, youth, old age, men, women, home life, business life; its scene may be laid anywhere on earth, in the past, present or future. It may have plot and action, or merely atmosphere. It may be by an unknown writer or by the most famous. We merely want to be convinced that a great number of our readers will enjoy reading it.
Of all the stories the Woman’s Home Companion published in 1920, I put at the head of the list, “According to Ruskin,” by Harriet Welles.
It answers the requirements I have outlined. It tells a story, a poignant and appealing story. It tells it well, with skill, directness and restraint, and with power. The theme is that of sacrifice, one that has held its appeal for hundreds of years, a theme around which many of the greatest stories of all times have been written. It has both plot and atmosphere.
It was not altogether easy to choose the best story of the year’s issues, and it would not be easy to choose the second or third in rank. But there are several that I wish to mention as illustrative of what we consider good stories and the kind of fiction we like to publish.
“The Neighbor” by Katharine Holland Brown is a difficult thing well done. Written with less skill and feeling it would lack the beauty that distinguishes it. It is a type of story that is seldom successful, but in Miss Brown’s skilful hands it is a masterly piece of work.
“Shooting Stars” is one of Alice Brown’s New England tales, well told and absorbing in its carefully-presented setting and its analysis of character.
“The Boy in the Corner” by M. C. L. Pickthall is a story of the West, of a mining town, in its setting and atmosphere. In plot it is a study in spiritual values simply and dramatically related.
Two stories, dealing in widely different ways with love and poverty in the relation of a mother to a young daughter, are “The Genius” by Sophie Kerr, and “A Sweater for Mabel” by Elsie Singmaster. They are both admirable examples of narrative, woven around plots of universal interest.
“The Master Passion” by Mary Heaton Vorse is a piece of work that is distinguished by its keen realization of situations and values and by the mingling of emotion and reason which the story discloses.
Of lighter tone and somewhat slighter structure is “Thursday and the King and Queen” by Theodora DuBois. This is an excellent example of a pleasing humorous story, with a real plot and real people, plenty of incident and amusing situations, the kind of story we delight in.
“The Torch” by Anna Branson Hillyard is an example of a serious and sincere story dealing with one of the problems of present day young people. It is earnest without being preachy, and it has a purpose without being propaganda.
“But I Knew You’d Understand” by Ruth Comfort Mitchell is a graphic and sympathetic picture of young married life. It has a variety of well-drawn characters and an atmosphere that bears the sure touch of reality.
These are the stories that I feel I cannot pass over without mention. These stories come up to our requirements for a good piece of fiction and in every case they offer to the story-reader value that is pressed down and running over.
I am glad to have had the opportunity to publish these stories and I am happy to recommend them as examples of good contemporary fiction.
Gertrude B. Lane.
Woman’s Home Companion.
381 Fourth Avenue,
New York City.