SOURCE: "The Sacrilege of Alan Kent and the Apprenticeship of Erskine Caldwell," in The Southern literary Journal, Vol. XII, No. 1, Fall, 1979, pp. 36-46.

Owen was an American poet, novelist, critic, and educator. In this essay, he closely studies The Sacrilege of Alan Kent within the context of Caldwell's fledgling writing career.

When Erskine Caldwell's The Sacrilege of Alan Kent was reprinted in 1976, it went virtually unnoticed. No doubt the price of $1,500 per boxed volume put it beyond the reach of most Caldwell readers—though, to be sure, Caldwell is no longer fashionable among critics, as he was in the 1930's. (There is still no biography of him and only one small book on his work.) Yet this short novel, or novella, is the most daringly original of Caldwell's apprentice fiction, and a study of it illuminates his major novels such as Tobacco Road (1932) and God's little Acre (1933).

Before...