SOURCE: "Armenian Picaresque," in The Saturday Review of Literature, Vol. 23, No. 10, December 28, 1940, p. 5.

Canby was a professor of English at Yale University and one of the founders of the Saturday Review of Literature, where he served as editor in chief from 1924 to 1936. He was the author of many books, including The Short Story in English (1909), a history of that genre which was long considered the standard text for college students. In the following review of My Name Is Aram, Canby hails the artistry of Saroyan's accounts of a young Armenian boy in America who experiences are strongly colored by his heritage.

I intend to be enthusiastic about this book, and so I should like to make it clear, first of all, that I am no bought-andsold admirer of Mr. Saroyan. I didn't much like The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, thought it too clever by half...