The Short Story
by .
Devin-Adair, $3.75.
This is neither a conventional manual to short-story writing nor an exercise in literary criticism, but it is certainly an outstanding book about the short story — full of spirit, provocative ideas, and telling insights. The first section explores the “writing personalities” of Daudet, Chekov, and Maupassant. The middle chapters discuss “the technical struggle.” Then follow eight notable stories which illustrate O’Faolain’s points. What I like so much about the book is O’Faolain’s emphasis that, “in all art, about one tenth is skill and the rest is personality.” The quality that makes the great writer, he says, is “an assertively personal way of seeing and feeling . . . imperviousness to conventional ideas.”