SOURCE: "William Saroyan," in English Journal, Vol. XXVIII, No. 3, March, 1939, pp. 169-77.

An American educator who served for over fifteen years as the president of The University of Michigan, Hatcher published works about the modern novel and modern drama as well as histories of the Great Lakes region. In the following excerpt, he contends that the strengths and weakness of Saroyan' s short fiction are directly related to his personality and outlook on life.

Saroyan has kept himself in the spotlight almost continuously by his singular penchant for writing to the letter columns of the papers and magazines to protest criticisms of him by reviewers as his collections of stories keep coming from the press. Six volumes have already appeared in four years, magazines of all sorts are currently carrying his work, and there is no sign of the well going dry. That is to say, Saroyan has...