[In the following review of The Valley of Vision, Wagenknecht comments that Fisher offers an engaging fictional story based on solid historical knowledge in “a fresh and stimulating interpretation of biblical history.”]

Vardis Fisher, the Idaho novelist, first challenged fame with the possibly autobiographical “Vridar Hunter” tetralogy—In Tragic Life and its successors—titled from Meredith's Modern Love. Perhaps his best known novel is the one about the Mormons, Children of God, which won a Harper prize. He is now engaged upon a series of twelve novels known collectively as “Testament of Man,” in which the book in hand, [The Valley of Vision] subtitled A Novel of King Solomon and His Time, is Number Six.

Like the Thomas Mann tetralogy, The Valley of Vision rests on solid historical knowledge. Mr. Fisher seems to have read all the great Old Testament scholars, and his summary of their findings, in his appendix, is I think fair and able [though he states the Kenite hypothesis of the origin of Israelitish religion as fact]. He admits frankly that the scholars do not support his conception of Solomon as a wise, able, and humane king, centuries ahead of his time, who tried to bring tolerance, civilization, and humanity into Israel, out of Egypt and elsewhere, while the prophets continued to cling stubbornly to the old bloodthirsty god of the desert.

Ahijah is the villain of the story, backing Jeroboam, who is somewhat startlingly made the prophet's illegitimate son; Naamah, mother of Rehoboam, is the most tireless intriguer. The heroine is Solomon's Egyptian wife, Khate,

Mr. Fisher writes a good narrative, but his character drawing is conventional. Aside from the challenge of his unorthodox reading of Bible history, perhaps his greatest appeal lies in his rich Oriental backgrounds, which will surely be appreciated by those who relished The Egyptian.

All in all, The Valley of Vision is a fresh and stimulating interpretation of biblical history. Mr. Fisher's point of view makes quite as good a frame of reference for fiction as the orthodox view. But even if we are willing to grant that the orthodox view is arbitrary and one-sided, Mr. Fisher has surely gone to the opposite extreme.