It is significant that this committee had no sooner begun its round table conferences than the Society promised, through the Director, funds for two prizes. The first was fixed at $500, the second at $250.
At a meeting in January, 1919, the Committee of Award agreed upon the further conditions that the story must be the work of an American author, and must first appear in 1919 in an American publication. At the same time an Honorary Committee was established, composed of writers and editors, whose pleasure it might be to offer advice and propose stories for consideration. The Honorary Committee consisted of
Gertrude Atherton
Edward J. O’Brien
Fannie Hurst
John Macy
Burges Johnson
Mrs. Edwin Markham
Robert Morss Lovett
John S. Phillips
William Marion Reedy
Virginia Roderick
Walter Roberts
Charles G. Norris
Edward E. Hale
Max Eastman
Charles Caldwell Dobie
Margaret Sherwood
Hamlin Garland
James Branch Cabell
Stuart P. Sherman
William Allen White
Stephen Leacock
Major Rupert Hughes
Eugene Manlove Rhodes
The Committee of Award read throughout the year, month by month, scores of stories, rejecting many, debating over others, and passing up a comparative few for final judgment. pet accent out of the hundred or more remaining, they salvaged the following:
