In 1921 the Committee of Award consisted of these members:
BLANCHE COLTON WILLIAMS, Ph. D., Chairman EDWARD J. WHEELER, Litt. D. ETHEL WATTS MUMFORD FRANCES GILCHRIST WOOD GROVE E. WILSON
JOHN F. TUCKER, [Deceased, February 27, 1921.], Founder of the O. Henry Memorial EDWARD J. WHEELER, Litt.D. GLENN FRANK, Editor of _The Century Magazine_ GEORGE C. HOWARD, Attorney.
As in previous years each member of the Committee of Award held himself responsible for reviewing the brief fiction of certain magazines and for circulating such stories as warranted reading by other members.
Results in 1921 differ in a number of respects from those of 1919 and 1920. In the earlier half year, January excepted, every reader reported a low average of current fiction, so low as to excite apprehension lest the art of the short story was rapidly declining. The latter six months, however, marked a reaction, with a higher percentage of values in November and December. Explanation of the low level lies in the financial depression which forced a number of editors to buy fewer stories, to buy cheaply, or to search their vaults for remnant of purchases made in happier days. Improvement began with the return to better financial conditions.
The several members of the Committee have seldom agreed on the comparative excellence of stories, few being of sufficient superiority in the opinion of the Committee as a whole to justify setting them aside for future consideration. The following three dozen candidates, more or less, average highest:
Addington, Sarah, Another Cactus Blooms (_Smart Set_, December).
Alexander, Elizabeth, Fifty-Two Weeks for Florette [Reprinted as by Elizabeth Alexander Heermann.] (_Saturday Evening Post_, August 13).
Allen, Maryland, The Urge (_Everybody's_, September).
Beer, Thomas, Mummery (_Saturday Evening Post_, July 30).
Burt, Maxwell Struthers, Buchanan Hears the Wind (_Harper's_, August).
Byrne, Donn, Reynardine (_McClure's_, May).
Chittenden, Gerald, The Victim of His Vision (_Scribner's_, May).
Comfort, Will Levington, and Dost, Zamin Ki, The Deadly Karait (_Asia_, August).
Cooper, Courtney Ryley, and Creagan, Leo F. Martin, Gerrity Gets Even (_American_, July).
Cooper, Courtney Ryley, Old Scarface (_Pictorial Review_, April).