Mr. Bowen’s aim is to place in perspective the enormous range of Colum’s work, as has not been done before, and to assess critically its literary and historical position. Drawing upon his intimate knowledge of Colum’s writings, Bowen rates Colum’s plays as something less than the masterpieces they were thought to be, and he gives a valuable reading of Colum’s novels and especially useful categorization and evaluation of Colum’s children’s literature.