Kay Boyle drew a great deal of attention from literary stalwarts from her earliest publications in European journals and magazines. Later reprinted in the essay, "The Somnambulists," in 1929, William Carlos Williams wrote in transition that Boyle's stories were "of a high degree of excellence." He also noted that people with a "comprehensive" but "disturbing view of what takes place in the human understanding at moment of intense living," will not succeed with the American readership.