SOURCE: Flora, Joseph M. “The Early Power of Vardis Fisher.” American Book Collector 14, no. 1 (September 1963): 15, 17-19.

In the following essay, Flora discusses Toilers of the Hills as an example of the high quality of Fisher's early novels.

Vardis Fisher's advent as a novelist was an auspicious one. His first two published novels did not make him famous, but they received very favorable reviews. Fisher was quickly marked as a novelist to be watched. When the third novel, In Tragic Life, appeared, many critics felt convinced that a major novelist was at hand.

For various reasons, however, Fisher has not been given his laurels, and even at the height of his reputation with Children of God few bothered to look back at those early novels. In the past few years Fisher is again widely available in print, and a new generation of readers is discovering his power. As readers...