Almost all writers would like critical appraisals of their work to consider the corpus, not the individual book. In the case of R. V. Cassill there is some difficulty in this approach. The texture of his literary interests and accomplishments is uneven; yet, like the work of Faulkner and Fitzgerald, even in his less illuminated moments his fiction challenges the intellect and imagination of his readers. In such paperback originals as The Wound of Love (1956) and Night School (1961) there is the unmistakable mark of the sensitive mind playing with the blatantly commercial requirement of erotic fiction. These two early paperback novels, plus some ten others published by Lion, Ace, Avon, Gold Medal, and the New American Library, constitute one side of Cassill--the professional craftsman--and for the genre, they are well done. But if this genre were all, Cassill would indeed be mere craftsman. He is, in fact, much...