Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories

Henry Seidel Canby

1878–1961

A leading American critic and editor, he helped bring serious literature to a wide general audience in the early 20th century. Best known for his work at Yale, The Yale Review, and the founding of the Saturday Review of Literature, he became an influential voice in American reading life.

Cornelia A. P. (Cornelia Atwood Pratt) Comer

1865–1929

A journalist turned novelist and story writer, she brought a sharp eye for people and social pressures to her fiction. Her work moves easily between magazine realism, family drama, and an early brush with speculative mystery.

Charles Caldwell Dobie

1881–1943

A lifelong San Franciscan, this early-20th-century novelist and historian turned the city’s streets, legends, and neighborhoods into vivid stories. His work ranges from fiction to warmly detailed books about San Francisco’s past, including its famous Chinatown.

Madeleine Z. (Madeleine Zabriskie) Doty

1877–1963

A restless reformer and vivid observer of modern life, she turned her work as a lawyer, journalist, and peace activist into books that feel both adventurous and deeply humane. Her writing often blends firsthand reporting with a sharp concern for justice.

Born in Constantinople to an American missionary family, this travel writer brought Ottoman life to English-speaking readers with an insider's eye and a storyteller's feel for place. His books linger on the city’s streets, customs, and changing moods rather than just its monuments.

John Galsworthy

1867–1933

A keen observer of English society, John Galsworthy turned family tensions, class, property, and changing social values into compelling fiction and drama. He is best known for The Forsyte Saga, the sweeping family chronicle that earned him the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Katharine Fullerton Gerould

1879–1944

A sharp, widely published American writer, Katharine Fullerton Gerould brought keen observation and social insight to her short stories, novels, and essays. Her work appeared in leading magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, Scribner’s, and The Century.

Best known for a memoir published after her death, she wrote with unusual honesty about illness, independence, and the hard-won pleasures of ordinary life. Her work turns a difficult childhood into something vivid, witty, and deeply human.

Zephine Humphrey

1874–1956

A thoughtful American writer with deep ties to Vermont, she wrote novels, essays, poems, and local history with a strong feeling for place. Her work often joined literary grace with a serious interest in social and spiritual questions.

Mary Lerner

1882–1938

A little-known American short story writer, she published a cluster of striking magazine stories in the 1910s that quickly won notice. Her best-known work, "Little Selves," was chosen for major annual short-story collections and helped secure her small but lasting place in American literary history.

Best known today for the short story "What Road Goeth He?," this elusive early-20th-century writer appears in the pages of The Atlantic and in the 1918 collection Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories.

E. V. (Edward Verrall) Lucas

1868–1938

A wonderfully versatile English man of letters, he wrote with warmth, wit, and an easy charm that made everyday life feel worth noticing. Best known for essays, travel writing, and literary work on Charles Lamb, he was one of the most readable popular authors of his time.

Margaret Lynn

1870–1958

A writer and professor with ties to Kansas literary life, she published short fiction in major magazines and later became known for novels of mystery and suspense. Her work ranges from early magazine pieces to books that kept finding new readers well into the mid-20th century.

A little-known writer whose work survives through vintage fiction and later reprints, leaving more mystery than biography behind. The scarcity of personal details only adds to the old-world charm of stories such as The Garden of Memories and collections issued under the name Atlantic Narratives.

Margaret Prescott Montague

1878–1955

Best known for vivid stories and novels rooted in the southern mountains, this early twentieth-century American writer brought West Virginia landscapes and local life onto the page. Her work ranges from regional fiction to sharper social satire, showing both affection and wit.

E. (Edith) Nesbit

1858–1924

Best known for blending everyday family life with sudden magic and adventure, this classic author helped shape modern children's fantasy. Her stories, including The Railway Children and Five Children and It, still feel lively, funny, and warmly human.

Anne Douglas Sedgwick

1873–1935

An American-born British novelist with a sharp eye for the tensions between Europe and America, she became known for elegant fiction about manners, emotions, and cultural misunderstandings. Her stories often pair social comedy with a keen sense of inner life.

Dallas Lore Sharp

1870–1929

Best known for warm, observant nature writing, this American author brought fields, birds, and changing seasons to life for early 20th-century readers. He also taught literature and writing, pairing a naturalist’s eye with a teacher’s clear, inviting voice.

Margaret Pollock Sherwood

1864–1955

A longtime Wellesley professor who also wrote novels, stories, poems, and essays, she moved easily between scholarship and storytelling. Her work often mixes literary grace with a thoughtful interest in ideas, education, and everyday moral choices.

A little-known early 20th-century short-story writer, he is remembered today for "The Clearer Sight," a story that appeared in The Atlantic Monthly and later in the anthology Atlantic Narratives: Modern Short Stories. His surviving record is slim, which gives his work an appealing air of literary rediscovery.

Best remembered for warm, lively stories for children, this early 20th-century American writer brought everyday adventures to life with humor and kindness. Her books, including P-Penny and His Little Red Cart, have kept a quiet charm that still feels inviting today.

Arthur Russell Taylor

1862–1918

An Episcopal rector as well as a writer, he left behind a small but memorable literary footprint. His work turns up in early 20th-century magazine fiction and anthologies, giving readers a glimpse of a thoughtful voice from another era.