"Realizing the importance of the subject of literary awards, the interest in short stories, and the value of good anthologies to the small library the writer chose for her study a short story award--The O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories. The first twenty-five years of that anthology paralleled an era in which she was interested. The study has been confined to the first, second and special prize-winning stories of those years (1919-1943). The study has followed these divisions: a history of the award and its purpose; an analysis of the stories as to types; a recording of the inclusion of these stories in lists of stories of note; a noting of their selection for publication in other anthologies; a tabulation of the types of magazine in which the stories first appeared; a consideration of the authors of the stories. The results of the study have been given, wherever possible, in tabular form with a summary for each table"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "January, 1955." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Agnes Gregory, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-91).