ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an analysis of criticism published in newspapers and journals of opinion on the work of the five novelists (Michael DeCapite, Jerre Mangione, Thomas Bell, Vera Lebedeff, and Ben Field) and then their own thoughts, opinions, and experiences in regard to publishers' acceptance of their work. Mount Allegro was seen as dealing with American identity by only one reviewer, Isaac Rosenfeld, and he hedges his analysis by writing not that Mangione himself had accepted or rejected American identity but that Mangione's "generation has accepted America". Ben Field's early novels are treated as regional literature because of their explicit descriptions of farm life and rural towns, not as novels of maturation and personal growth. Bell's works were seen as realistic by most reviewers, notably Frances Woodward, who wrote a very perceptive explanation of Bell's writing. Bell's novels were generally well-received, although not universally given high praise.
