SHIP : ARMADA 

The modern short story anthology has its roots in annual giftbooks that were published during the nineteenth century. Before then, shorter fiction occasionally appeared in random publications, such as miscellanies and chapbooks, but these titles were not devoted exclusively to fiction and made no stipulations upon the length of the texts. From the second quarter of the nineteenth century, elegant publications such as The Keepsake (1828-1857) in Britain and Godey’s Lady’s Book (1830-1898) in the United States published original fiction on the basis that it was no more than ten thousand words. The success of the annuals depended upon their “appearance, an impressive list of contributors, a variety (or at least multiplicity) of offerings. and the eschewal of anything which anybody might find offensive.” The giftbooks were, consequently, an important outlet for the development of the short story, but while they featured [respected] writers such as [William] Harrison Ainsworth, Mary Russell Mitford and Walter Scott (in Britain) and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and Harriet Beecher Stowe (in the United States), much of what they published were sentimental tales of love and heroism. Despite the restriction upon length, the giftbooks did little to enhance the aesthetics of short fiction. Many of the contributions tended to be sketches or remnants from longer works. What the giftbooks did introduce, however, was the idea of an edited anthology, in which tales were included according to criteria other than a miscellaneous arrangement. While they were morally and artistically conservative. the giftbooks lent their fictions a recognizable identity and a niche within the marketplace. Moreover, the influence of annuals in America can be seen in the cultural tastes of periodicals, such as Harper’s, which began publishing in the second half of the century. The subsequent boom in short story publication further encouraged the use of anthologies as compendiums of recently published fiction. Anthologies became a means of highlighting the best in short fiction, of marking the current state of the art in the fast-moving traffic of magazine publication. and of informing the reader’s own appreciation. Whereas stories published in newspapers and periodicals were disposable, anthologies lent them a degree of permanence. Today, this illusion (or “aura” as it might be termed) is defined by the type of anthology in which the stories appear: the publisher and the choice of editor, the selection of material, the intended uses and readership. At the same time, anthologies that publish new writing do so with clear commercial and aesthetic aims; to play upon current trends in publishing or to reinvigorate the tradition of the short story. The author suggests that the “idea of an edited anthology” 

Four of the ships sought a passage along a southern ___.