Although Shane touched a national myth already widely exploited in formulaic Westerns, Schaefer's prose style takes the book beyond the limits of the genre. In Shane and the books that followed, he demonstrated that he was a natural storyteller, a skill that considerably enhanced the power of his novels and tales. He could, moreover, write as convincingly about carpenters and wives as about gunfighters and troopers. Hollywood found Schaefer's work appealing. In addition to Shane, both Company of Cowards and Monte Walsh were adapted for the cinema, the former released as Advance to the Rear in 1964 and the latter as Monte Walsh in 1970.
Nevertheless, Schaefer's critical reputation inexplicably faded before his death on 24 January 1991. Perhaps he not only became too successful too quickly, but was also seen as a nonwestern "poacher" by some territorial Western writers and critics. He may also have written too clearly, requiring no professors to ferret out his meaning; thus, Shane has often been consigned to "Younger Readers" lists. Schaefer could be an irascible person, too, especially late in life. Yet, if authors are to be judged simply on the quality of their published work, he belongs in the first rank of American regionalist writers.
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