There is something good about Miss Ferber's fighting character that comes through [her autobiography, A Kind of Magic,] and warms the reader's heart—especially if he is not very energetic himself or as good as he thinks he should be. She is very energetic, brave, affectionate and kind. Her talent as a writer—mostly of novels about different parts of America at different times—is not in the highest rank but she can communicate her enthusiasms, they are many, and is a sharp observer of scenes and people…. She loves America, even the noise and smells, and even though she has often been in trouble, especially in Texas, because of criticising. It is a pity that goodness of character, love of life, love of the characters one puts in one's stories, bear no relation to talent: nor the pains one takes either.

Stevie Smith, "Euphoria," in The New...