The characters I created and placed in situations which would best prove my thesis."

Mr. Kniffin is the author of numerous stories which he has sold to magazines including the following: Telling Tales, American, Brief Stories, Movie Weekly, Weird Tales, Live Stories, and Delineator.

Genevieve Larsson. Born in a log cabin in Western Wisconsin. Of Scandinavian parents; gypsy grandfather. Worked her way through school at Durand, Wisconsin. Taught in country schools. Four years teacher of English in Pueblo, Colorado. Came to New York in 1920, taking in addition to the course in story writing, one in magazine writing with Dr. Donald Clark and one in prosody with Dr. Haller. Unmarried. "Witch Mary", written for the class in 1922, was published in Pictorial Review, January, 1923, was listed as one of the best stories of the year, by Edward O'Brien, and was also included as one of the best in O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories, chosen by the Committee from the Society of Arts and Sciences.

Miss Larsson says she began with the character of an old Swedish woman. The main difficulty she experienced was in weaving the past events-Black Eric's evil love for Mary's daughter, the girl's death by drowning, the mother's grief, and so on-into the story of the present action, and then to carry on the action from the moment those things were clear. "It seemed to me a logical thing for the farmers to be gathered in the country store, and that the conversation about Witch Mary should arise, and her story be rehashed among them. Had I told it in straight narrative, spinning over a length of many years, all unity would have been lost. The mood, also, would have been

hard to retain. By having unity of time and place (the store as center, Mary's hut on the hill behind, the river flowing past), and by shuttling in the back action, I was able, fairly well, I believe, to preserve the illusion of truth.

"The next difficulty lay in creating the witch real, and yet not too real. I have her appear only when Black Eric is near; some people see her, others do not. She does not exist, in fact, except in the guilty conscience of Black Eric, and, through the power of his fear, in the minds of others. The reader does not know her as she is, a lonely old woman who has grieved herself to death on her daughter's grave, until the end, when the farmers discover her skeleton."

Other stories by Miss Larsson:

"Three Blocks," Brief Stories, January, 1923. "Black Eric's Son," Pictorial Review, September,

1923.

"The Saga of a Tree," Live Stories, September 14, 1923.

Helen Redington. Born in Chicago. A. B., A. M., University of Nebraska. "I was a good little girl: always got all my lessons most conscientiously: chief aim in life was to get the first seat in the front row, which would label me as 'best in the class.' I never did, though I did reach third, once. Outside of school I spent all daylight hours on my bicycle and all the evenings reading fiction. . . . The life I know best is almost exclusively that of big cities." Miss Redington was married, August 30, 1923, to Horace Johnson, musician. She first came to Columbia in 1919 for the summer session, and remained through the two terms, 1919-1920, of the regular college year. She has worked two subsequent, though not consecutive, terms in the short story course. "The Questing

Thirties," written for the class, was published in Good Housekeeping, October, 1922, and reprinted in the English edition of the magazine.

Mrs. Johnson says: ""The Questing Thirties,' as

so often happens with me, grew from an idea, and the idea from a conversation a propos of the unfortunate, undignified, and unnecessary propensity of successful women in their thirties to chase a love affair. The idea was bigger than the story. Meditation brought the conclusion that the early thirties seems to be a time for taking stock. A person may have attained the first goal he set himself in first youth, or be in sight of it, and he is looking for new worlds. Taking one aspect of the story, I chose to develop the search. of the woman who has given her first years to business for the love she feels she has missed. And, as a comment upon her technique, to hint that application of direct-attack methods does not succeed in a man hunt, the gentleman who is too openly pursued invariably showing a disposition toward escape."

Other stories by Mrs. Johnson include:

"Marrying Off the School-ma'am," People's Popular Magazine, February, 1921.

"The Winning Sister," Everybody's, July, 1921. "Picking a Live One," Love Stories, November, 1921.

"Her Family," Everybody's, February, 1922.

"The New House," Everybody's, September, 1922. "Silver Shoon," collaborated with Isabel Walker, pending publication in The Delineator.

"Rose Sidney" is the pen name of an army officer's wife, who prefers to conceal her identity. She was born in Toledɔ,

Ohio, 1888. She received her education from the public schools; her first training in writing, through newspaper work. She was married June 25, 1913. For five years she worked, as her health permitted, at long range with the compiler of these stories. Her chief interests are people and the theatre.

"Butterflies," published in Pictorial Review, September, 1920, was applauded one of the best stories of the year by the O. Henry Memorial Committee and was reprinted in O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories, 1920. It was also reprinted in "The Best Short Stories, 1920."

Regarding the genesis of "Butterflies," the author

says:

"We lived in the first row of houses below a wooded hill in the Presidio of San Francisco. An agonized cry for help was heard in the night, and although search was made, no trace of the man who called out could be found. The next morning the search for the man was continued. It seemed to me that his body might be hidden in any one of the clumps of dark cedars, and it was horrible to me to see the yellow butterflies floating in and out among the trees. They had the unhealthy look of things preying upon the dead. And so the thought of butterflies and a cedar covered hill and horror became interwoven in my mind. From this experience came 'Butterflies'."

"Rose Sidney" is the author, also, of "Grapes of the San Jacinto," Pictorial Review, September, 1919.

Harriet Welles. Born in New York City. Married, October 17, 1908, Commander (now Rear-Admiral) Roger Welles, U. S. N. Chief interests, aside from writing, are travel, reading, making gardens, and hunting for antique furniture. Mrs. Welles came to Columbia in 1916, studied through the summer

and on to the spring of 1917. "The Wall," written for the class, was published in Scribner's Magazine, March, 1918. It is included in "Anchors Aweigh," Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1919.

Mrs. Welles writes: to me by the sight of an exquisitely lovely but sad and silent young Chinese noblewoman from whom-during an afternoon call on her sister-in-law in one of the old Chinese palaces-I could hardly keep my eyes. The reason for her sadness is given in my story. Later, when the sister-in-law had to cancel the engagement she had made to have tea with us aboard my husband's cruiser, 'because of a tragic occurrence,' I imagined this story. Needless to say if what I have pictured really happened, the secret would be locked forever inside the wall of silence surrounding the Chinese great. As originally written, the story left what happened in doubt. But the class arose and counseled me that no editor would consider the story in that form, and they were probably right. The dialogue is imaginary, excepting the part about the age of the Drum Tower. As I remember it, our talk that afternoon was of gardens. The ladies of this household were killed, the place sacked and burned, the wall and gardens razed, during the recent revolution which overthrew the Manchu Dynasty.'

""The Wall' was suggested

Other stories by Mrs. Welles, include:

"The Admiral's Birthday," Scribner's, December, 1916.

"Anchors Aweigh," Scribner's, August, 1917. Reprinted in "To-day's Short Stories Analyzed," by Robert Wilson Neal, Oxford University Press.

"Holding Mast," Scribner's, October, 1917.