Richard S. Wheeler has written of Shane and its author: "This was Jack Schaefer’s first novel. He preferred in later years to write stories less mythic and more attuned to the real West.... Although he is little known, and the volume of his work is small, he surely ranks as one of this nation’s greatest."[10] The novel has frequently been honored by the Western Writers of America as one of the best of the modern genre.[4]
Marc Simmons wrote, "By any standard of measurement, Jack Schaefer's Shane rates as a classic in the literature of the American West.[11] William Nauenberg wrote in The Objective Standard that "Shane by Jack Schaefer is an invigorating tale of heroism that celebrates the fundamental power of the good in human life and its ability to defeat evil."[12]
