SOURCE: "The Sustained Effort," in The Bookman, Vol. 18, November, 1903, pp. 311-12.

In the following excerpt, Cooper describes the stories in A Deal in Wheat as fascinating exercises by a developing novelist.

Mr. Norris took himself and his work with great seriousness; his ideal in fiction was a lofty one, and he was steadily, persistently, indomitably, working towards it—indeed, in the opinion of many of those who best know his work, he had already crossed the threshold of achievement. Yet, whatever place is ultimately assigned him in the history of American letters, this at least is sure—that he was first and last an artist who depended upon bold lines and sweeping brush strokes, and that he could not be true to himself if hampered by a narrow canvas. To look to Frank Norris for short stories is as incongruous as to set a Rodin to carving cherry...