It is very much to Mr. Harris's credit that, in writing ["Trumpet to the World," a story] of a Negro educated and loved by a white woman, persecuted in the army as well as in civilian life, he avoids the bitterness, the emotionalism, and the loss of perspective which mark so many of the books which attempt to deal with the plight of the American Negro. Mr. Harris never loses his perspective; his Willie Jim never loses his perspective; and what emerges is a fine and sensitive study of a very strong character, of his relationships with other human beings, his attitudes, his misfortunes, his triumphs. (p. 13)

Probably the most outstanding feature of Mr. Harris's novel, however, is his ability to combine a profound sympathy for the group and the problems of the group with a genuine insight into the individual mind and emotion, never losing sight of...