SOURCE: "The Local Colorisi as Social Reformer (1888-1890)," in Hamlin Garland's Early Work and Career, University of California Press, 1960, pp. 59-78.

Pizer is an American critic and educator and a prominent authority on Garland's life and works, having served as editor for the author's Diaries (1968) and the novel Rose of Dutcher's Coolly (1970). In the following excerpt, the critic analyzes Main-Travelled Roads and Prairie Folks, asserting that the high quality of the two collections results from Garland's emphasis on issues of social life and social injustice.

Most of the stories Garland wrote during 1888-1890 were collected in Main-Travelled Roads and Prairie Folks. Since he later made additions to both of these volumes, it should be clear that in referring to them I mean the 1891 edition of Main-Travelled Roads, which contained six stories, and the 1893 Prairie Folks, containing nine stories. Though Prairie Folks followed Main-Travelled Roads by two years, its...