in Shanghai A group of 30 professional and amateur writers has formed the Short Story Club of Shanghai. Their purpose is to study the short story and to write it. At the end of the club season the short stories produced by members will be printed in a book.
The initial meeting of the club was held recently at Shanghai College when the organizers were the guests of Miss M. Louise Loehr at a picnic supper and' moonlight swimming party. Miss Loehr's party was preceded by a business meeting and 'a literary programme, conducted by Mr. Verne Dyson, editor of "Rea's Far Eastern Manual."' Mrs. J. J. Connell gave answers to the question, "What is a short story?' Rev. C. M. Drury outlined the history and development of the story-telling art. Other features of the study were discussed by Dr. A. H. Swan and Mr. P. L. Bryant.
The organizers voted to limit the active membership to 30. The wives and husbands of active members were taken in as associate members and invited to attend all meetings.
As a stimulus to literary production it was provided in the constitution that any member who does not write at least one finished short story of about 3,000 words during the club year is automatically dropped from the membership. These are the charter members of the club:
Verne Dyson, J. L. Butts, Mrs. J. J. Connell, Dr. A. H. Swan, Rev. C. M. Drury, Mrs. M. A. Loehr, Miss 'M. Louise Loehr, George R. Loehr, Miss Ann White, R. B. Libby, P. L. Bryant, Miss Ruth Benedict, Mrs. C. H. Lavers, Mrs. Carleton Lacy. Miss Lucile Douglass, and Carroll Lunt (Peking).
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.