From the author: "Although when I wrote them I was never conscious of any central theme in these stories, it seems to me they are all concerned with the conflict in man between his violence and his gentleness. I don't know the outcome of this conflict, but I must keep trying to find out."

"I started A High New House tonight and just couldn't stop till I finished. I think it's wonderful. Thomas Williams sees afresh." —Herbert Gold

Thomas Williams published eight novels and a collection of short stories over three decades beginning in 1955. In 1975 he won a National Book Award for The Hair of Harold Roux, which, like several of his works, was set in the fictionalized Leah, New Hampshire.