Mr. Taylor knows his own limitations. We can see this most obviously if we notice how homogeneous is the body of work he has been willing to put into book form. His characteristic product is the leisurely and, within its genre, fairly lengthy short story. (p. 561)

When the history of an earlier time enters a Taylor story, it always enters in a way that he could have experienced it—that is, as reading or legend or old folks' talk…. [The] actual self-limitation that Mr. Taylor operates under here seems clear enough. He must work from first-hand observation. This means that, though the facts of one man's life may be suppressed or changed at will or created entirely or in part out of the imagination, Mr. Taylor must have known someone who shared his cultural heritage. For though an individual life may be altered as the needs of the...