Most people prefer short stories to novels. Magazines, newspapers and books, printed in millions of copies every month, often supply the demand for short fiction. In the US today the short story is the most popular form of current literature. Perhaps it is the modern manner of living that demands that all current fiction be short. In the present society people do everything with a fast pace. Literature shares its place in the favor of the crowd with amusements undreamed of 100 years ago. The time for leisurely reading of ten-volume novels appears to have passed. The fiction readers demand a form that best fits their habits. Long introductions and detailed descriptive passages became the special joy of a particular kind of reader, whereas the crowd chooses the short story for pleasure. Small wonder that many writers have turned their talents to the short story.