SOURCE: Introduction to The Collected Stories of Ellen Glasgow, edited by Richard K. Meeker, Louisiana State University Press, 1963, pp. 3-23.

In the following essay, which is the earliest substantial consideration of Glasgow's short fiction, Meeker argues that the stories mark an important transition in Glasgow's development as a writer.

On November 22, 1897, after publishing her first novel, The Descendant, Ellen Glasgow wrote to Walter Hines Page, then an editor on the Atlantic Monthly, "As regards my work I shall follow your advice in full. I shall write no more short stories and I shall not divide my power or risk my future reputation. I will become a great novelist or none at all."¹ Literary history has already recorded and applauded the eighteen novels which she wrote thereafter; however, history has failed to notice how often Miss Glasgow broke that promise to Page. As a matter of fact, she published...