SOURCE: "Edna Ferber's Volume of Short Stories," in The New York Times Book Review, May 14, 1933, p. 7.

In the following review of They Brought Their Women, Walton argues that while she has the talent to write realistic and exciting short stories, "depth, subtlety, intensity are beyond Miss Ferber."

In a somewhat unexpected preface to this volume of tales [They Brought Their Women] which is her first since Mother Knows Best—Edna Ferber makes several generalizations about the short story.

"By its very form and brevity," she says, "it is restricted from penetrating deeply into the fundamentals of life. Profound human emotion demands a larger canvas." Lest this sound disheartening, she has, however, something to add in defense.

"It may be," she says further, "that the terrific tempo of the past fifteen years will prove to have been too much for the wind and limb of the novelist—the short...