When in 1910 I undertook the teaching Of the short-story to a class of undergraduates at Hunter College, I found a dearth of books on the theory of story writing. There were Poe's examples and his body Of criticism, from which help might be de duced; there was the pioneer Philosophy Of Pro fessor Matthews, and there were two or three texts whose chief value lay in their exposition Of the genre. After no great length of time a growing suspicion asserted itself that although my students could write unusually well, frequently with suggestion of charm and power, yet they were not always writing stories. They fell short Of modern narrative requirement.