SOURCE: "The Role of the Short Stories," in Erskine Caldwell, Twayne Publishers, 1984, pp. 114-32.

In the following excerpt from his book-length study of Caldwell, Devlin assesses the language, imagery, themes, and other facets of the author's short fiction.

From the late twenties until about 1959, when he virtually abandoned the short story to concentrate on the novel, Caldwell published about 150 short stories. These run broadly parallel to the novels in theme and style, declining in quality as they do, and finally disappearing at the end of the same decade in which the death knell sounded for his popular reputation. But the importance of this body of stories cannot be exaggerated, for . . . they were the great trying ground for the novels. Here in the short stories, Caldwell developed the themes of his novels and molded his prose style. But because his novels remain episodic and anecdotal throughout his career, the...