SOURCE: "Rebuttal: No Defense for The Rocking-Horse Winner'," in College English, Vol. 24, No. 4, January, 1963, p. 323.

In this response to W. R. Martin's 1962 essay, Burroughs criticizes "The Rocking-Horse Winner, " commenting that the work is "an excellent technical masterpiece" but that the combination of didactic and fantastic elements in the story harms its overall effect. A response to Burroughs's argument is found in Donald Junkins's 1964 essay.

W. R. Martin ([College English] Oct. 1962) does not rescue "The Rocking-Horse Winner" from the limitations noted by Leavis [in D. H. Lawrence: Novelist] and Hough [in The Dark Sun]. Furthermore, Gordon and Tate in The House of Fiction note the same strictures in the story, although they add that it "approaches technical perfection." That Leavis and Hough have reservations about ["The Rocking-Horse Winner"] there is no doubt; however, the grounds for Leavis' reservations are vague: ["The Rocking-Horse Winner"] is not representative of Lawrence. Indeed...