EDITOR'S COMMENTARY
QUARTO, with this issue, now concludes its fifth year as the literary organ of the largest division of Columbia University, The School of General Studies. . . . These five years have unquestionably held ups and downs for the magazine, but the able leadership of my predecessors, Mr. Bonter and Mr. Fondacaro, has been responsible for an average increase per issue, in size of thirty-two pages. . . . The same leadership has likewise been responsible for the adornment of our pages by such men as Peter Viereck and Charles Angoff, former Editor of The American Mercury. . . . In nine issues of publication so far, QUARTO stories have been included twice in Best American Short Stories of the Year, the second of these being Vurrell Yentzen's story, The Rock, which appeared here last Spring. Speaking of Mr. Yentzen, I would like to say that his story in this issue, The Gold Earring, is atypical as far as he is concerned, since he is inclined to deal with problems of a more fundamental nature. However, we thought it would do nicely to show you his lighter side, a side which too many so-called modern writers lack. Having read a good deal of his work, it is a surprise to me that his efforts have not been crowned with success earlier. But better late than never: his first published novel, A Feast For The Forgiven, has been published by Appleton, Century this Spring. It is a story of the region in which Mr. Yentzen was born and raised, the Bayou. It is a mature, perceptive and moving work and is endowed with a universality seldom seen in a novel so impregnated with the atmosphere of a specific part of the world Its major shortcoming is the blurb on the inside of the dustjacket, which reads like the third page of the scandal-sheet. However, the blurb does in a way add to the pleasure to be had in the book, for it leaves us entirely unprepared for the quality of writing that lies between the covers. Many men, over the years, have cursed the intrinsic limitations in the Short Story medium. The Short Story has neither the pro-
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