The volume begins with an extensive introduction by Edward J. O'Brien, who uses Waldo Frank's critique of American culture to argue that native fiction suffers from infantile spiritual motivation and a cowardly evasion of real experience in favor of optimistic wish fulfillment. O'Brien outlines his principles of selection, testing short stories first for organic substance—the compelling imaginative life brought to the material—and second for artistic form. He divides the fiction published between November nineteen eighteen and September nineteen nineteen into four groups, culminating in a select Roll of Honor and the stories chosen for republication.
Among the included works is Gulielma Fell Alsop's 'The Kitchen Gods,' a poignant narrative of a Chinese woman whose traditional life and quiet devotion to her master and household gods are subtly disrupted by the introduction of Western faith. Sherwood Anderson's 'An Awakening' follows George Willard, a young reporter in Winesburg, who experiences a sudden surge of intellectual and physical power during a solitary walk, only to be humiliated by the fierce bartender Ed Handby while courting Belle Carpenter. Edwina Stanton Babcock's 'Willum's Vanilla' paints a humorous picture of a rural American community startled by the return of an orphan boy with an aristocratic European wife and their eccentric plans for a grand estate.
Djuna Barnes contributes 'A Night Among the Horses,' tracing the psychological unease of a groom caught between the conventional society of his wealthy mistress and his raw, primitive affinity for the animals he tends. Frederick Orin Bartlett's 'Long, Long Ago' captures the bittersweet nostalgia of a journalist returning to New York after five years away, only to find the setting unchanged while the human actors have been replaced by a new generation. Agnes Mary Brownell's 'Dishes' portrays an old mother-in-law who resorts to secretly breaking fine heirlooms to claim the simple right of using beautiful things and wearing nice clothes in her daily life. Finally, Maxwell Struthers Burt's 'The Blood-Red One' presents a strange, atmospheric tale of haunting retribution and psychological terror.
The volume concludes with an exhaustive yearbook section compiled by O'Brien. This includes addresses of American magazines publishing short fiction, the biographical roll of honor, a roll of foreign short stories in American magazines, and comprehensive indices of volumes, articles, and individual stories published during the year, alongside magazine averages.
