SHORT-STORY WRITERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 221, 11 June 1908, Page 5

SHORT-STORY WRITERS.

V The Bookman " for.- April contains an I article on some women short-story writers, in which'it shows-thaValthough■ Farnce.has brought the. short: storjp'-to, .perfection, ■ the" women writers that means of literary expression ;and also ;. that, though England "has : produced'-'a ~ long list of feminine writers of. fame, it'is" always . the. long- novel'rather; than 'the short story -. in . which the//shine. ■the, Frenchwoman, .-it ■■ isValleged; -always :.de-' , velops into a novelette, while it' would be hard to.imgaine any English authoress, from Fannyßurney and Jane Austen down to Mrs. Humphry Ward and Lucas Malet, expressing ■ herself in that form. >. / ■ ■.:In America, on thp.contrary* '.there has 1 been an array of female >short-story writers which has far outnumbered the novelists,' and these women .who have made , their names by books, such as Margaret .Deland arid Edith Wharton, by 'no means despise the short story as a modium. :It is in emotional studies and character sketches rather than' in incident tliat the American short-story writer succeeds;. arid Jn'-the: vdst 'diversity.', of' types' to be found throughout America tlio writer has a rich field ,to glean from. In a great measure the same thing is'ttrue of Australia. ' We can count our women novelists on the fingers of one hand; but.the namo of tho story-writer is. legion. .Every paper and magazine' produced contains ,'at least ono story by a woman, and .they ; equal the work of men in-their, quality.. Short, concise, and to ' the point, they , often! paint, in a few touches a ; whole character, or suggest an ontiro life. . \. . ' The vogue of the short story in America is easily explained. The innumerable magazines, with their demands, for stories, create a demand, which must be supplied; and in that land, where life whirls along so.rapidly the average reader chafes under anything, that requires sustained attention.' Writers too, must bo affected-by, the: strain of life which rushes along,.and cannot wait for details which-necessitate thought arid time .. I? A ,", s m al i? (say ? a writer in the Sydney _HeraJd ) there is not the same reason. We have not the same number of hungry periodicals, nor do wo'livo at anything like the same high pressure. And yet, while we have-a score of excellent short-storv writers we have hardly a novelist worthy-the name amongst us. it r is that we are too far removed from other nations to bo able to see our own characteristics in tho troo perspective, which can only come from comparison, or whether our country is still too new to produce, deep thinkers, tho fact remains that : though brightness, even ' brilliancy, appears in many.of our writers* work the steady thought, the experience of life' and-the keen.insight which go to tho making of a novel, are seldom found.