PRIZE STORIES 1961

The O. Henry awards for the year emphasize the achievement of style and accordingly indicate a type of selection that keeps the inclusions within a deifinite area. The first prize, Tillie (from New World Writing), is a long, close look at an old woman's dying; the second, Ivan Gold's The Nickel of George Washington reviews the stupid martyrdom and death of a colored soldier; the third, Reynolds Prize's (Encounter) has Faulkner tones for a girl's devotion to an elusive boy. Arthur Miller is present with I Don't Seed You Any More, John Updike with the wry Wile Peter Taylor with Heads of Houses and there are others by Jackson Burgess, Ellen Currie, Jessie Hill Ford, Ervin Krause, Jack Ludwig and David Shaber. There may be a feeling among the readers that they too have to conform to the critics' standards for while there is much to admire there is little to take to the heart.