Floyd Dell was a contemporary of Sinclair Lewis. Dell's previous book, The Moon-Calf was a best seller, following the fortunes of Felix Fay, a young man from an impoverished background who was just burning to be a writer, even though he went about it in a very awkward way. The Briary-Bush follows Felix's fortunes to Chicago where he gets a job on a newspaper, gets married, and writes a play. It's all too easy for him, so he moans and philosophizes, and drives the reader crazy. One can see why Lewis is still read and Dell is not.