Mr. Caldwell is a literary child of the "occult" magazines…. What I dissent from in Mr. Whipple's review [see excerpt above] is that he attacks precisely the portion of "American Earth" in which the author's original qualities are most evident.
I refer, of course, to the "disconnected bits of fact and phantasy" which compose the third section of the book. Here Mr. Caldwell achieves a sort of violent poetry, simple, romantic, arbitrary and effective; it is a mood unique in American prose…. His figures of speech are expressed in terms of hyperbolic action. (p. 131)
This is a free excerpt of 94 words. There are 226 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Caldwell, Erskine 1903–: Critical Essay by Malcolm Cowley Access Pass.
