The best-built short stories of the past decade have not
been the most popular, have not even been the best. No popular
writer but could have been (so I profoundly believe) more popular
if he had written better. But good writing is not a specific for
unpopularity. The excellent writing of Howells could not give him
Mark Twain's audience. The weak and tedious construction of
Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra," the flat style of Harold
Bell Wright's narratives, has not prevented them from being liked.
Form is only a first step toward popularity.
Far more important is an appeal to the emotions, which good
technique can only make more strong. But what is an appeal to the
emotions? "Uncle Tom's Cabin" appealed to the emotions, and so
does "Get-Rich-Quick Wallingford." To what emotions does the
popular book appeal? What makes "Treasure Island" popular? Why did
"Main Street" have such an unexpected and still reverberating
success?
"Treasure Island" is popular because it stirs and satisfies two
instinctive cravings of mankind, the love of romantic adventure,
and the desire for sudden wealth. This is not true, or rather it
is not the whole, or even the important, truth, in "Main Street.
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