SOURCE: “Fuller of Chicago: A Study in Frustration,” in American Quarterly, Vol. VI, No. 2, Summer, 1954, pp. 137-46.

In the following essay, Lawrence explores autobiographical aspects of Fuller's life, in particular his personal and professional frustrations.

Henry B. Fuller who died in 1929, is now only a footnote in the history of American writing, but in the 1890's, on the strength of The Cliff-Dwellers and With the Procession, he was hailed by critics as the rising star of Midwestern realism. The decline of his reputation was even more spectacular than this suggests, for by 1900 he was already being referred to by some critics as “the late Mr. Fuller.”¹ A reading of Fuller's writing after 1900 will bear out the justice of this verdict.

An explanation of Fuller's eclipse can be found in the biographical details that have come down to us, in Fuller's own pronouncements on his craft, and most of...