SOURCE: "Return of Glenway Wescott," in The New Republic, Vol. 103, No. 24, December 9, 1940, pp. 807-08.

In the laudatory assessment of The Pilgrim Hawk that follows, Dupee contrasts Wescott's novella against "the nostalgic lyricism of his early work," noting in particular the novella's complexity and objectivity.

In novels like The Grandmothers, Wescott anticipated by a decade our current pious preoccupation with the American past. For some reason, however, he has avoided native materials in The Pilgrim Hawk, which is his first story in several years. Perhaps the familiar nostalgic principle operates in Wescott's case: for his most ardently American tales were written, I believe, in Europe; while The Pilgrim Hawk, which is laid in France, comes out of a long stay at home.

But the nationalism, if we may call it that, of his earlier books was really incidental to another emotion: his passion for involvement in normal affairs. The...