SOURCE: Roberts, Terry. “Finding Gavin Anderson: Elizabeth Spencer's Portrait of the Artist.” Southern Quarterly 35, no. 2 (winter 1997): 23-7.

In the following essay, Roberts examines the predominant themes of Spencer's story “The Finder.”

Elizabeth Spencer's popular short story “The Finder” was first published in the New Yorker on 23 January 1971, having been written during a rich and troubled period of growth in her artistic life. This powerful story is a landmark in Spencer's career because of the number of new concerns that surface thematically—the intrusion of the supernatural into the natural, the fusion of the erotic and the spiritual, and conflict of the individual creative spirit with the confining bonds of community. “The Finder” is also significant for a reason as yet unexplored in the critical response to the story. With Gavin Anderson, the story's protagonist, Spencer explores the problematic role of the artist in society, an exploration that is...