In Dante the Maker, Anderson attempts not one but three monumental tasks: a literary biography of one of the most elusive and mysterious figures in Western literature, an intellectual history of a period of extraordinary complexity, and an exploration of the creative process that produced La Vita Nuova and the Commedia.
-Russell, J Stephen. Romance Philology; Berkeley Vol. 38, Iss. 4, (May 1, 1985): 552-555.