artist in every act of creation, rather than something already present,
and accordingly a fact or a group of facts in a story only attain
substantial embodiment when the artist's power of compelling
imaginative persuasion transforms them into a living truth. The first
test of a short story, therefore, in any qualitative analysis is to
report upon how vitally compelling the writer makes his selected facts
or incidents. This test may be conveniently called the test of
substance.

But a second test is necessary if the story is to take rank above other
stories. The true artist will seek to shape this living substance into
the most beautiful and satisfying form, by skillful selection and
arrangement of his materials, and by the most direct and appealing
presentation of it in portrayal and characterization.

The short stories which we have examined in this study have fallen
naturally into three groups. The first consists of those stories which
fail, in our opinion, to survive both the test of substance and the
test of form. These we have not chronicled.

The second group includes such narratives as may lay convincing claim
to further consideration, because each of them has survived in a
measure both tests, the test of substance and the test of form. Stories
included in this group are chronicled in the list which immediately
follows the "Roll of Honour."

Finally we have recorded the names of a smaller group of stories which
possess, we believe, the distinction of uniting genuine substance and
artistic form in a closely woven pattern with such sincerity that they
are worthy of being reprinted. If all of these stories were