The New York Times

The New York Times enters the critical record of The Power of the Dog through a citation to the New York Times Book Review, linking the newspaper to the novel’s reception in the late 1960s. The evidence identifies the publication as a source in the discussion of contemporary reviews, but does not provide enough detail to attribute a particular interpretation or judgment to the newspaper itself.

Appearance in the Critical Record

A note attached to the account of the novel’s early reviews identifies Eliot Fremont-Smith’s New York Times Book Review as a source. The citation establishes the newspaper’s presence in the book’s reception history; it does not, by itself, specify the content or conclusion of Fremont-Smith’s review.

The Novel’s Reception Context

The surrounding discussion characterizes many late-1960s reviewers as acknowledging the novel’s interior tragedy while sidestepping its homosexuality. Instead, they often framed the story as a contest between good and evil, cruelty and kindness, or compulsion and intelligence. This is the critical climate in which the New York Times Book Review is cited, though the evidence does not establish that Fremont-Smith adopted any one of those formulations.

Place in the Broader Reception

The novel received strong critical praise but sold few copies. The account records enthusiastic judgments from several reviewers and separately attributes a judgment about the novel’s importance to Roger Sale in The Hudson Review. These examples show the wider contrast between praise and limited readership; they should not be mistaken for statements made by The New York Times. The newspaper’s supported role here is narrower: it is a named publication in the record of contemporary criticism.