From the introduction:

"Cowboy Kate", and the supporting stories, could have been made only by somebody like Sam Haskins. It has a lyrical fragrance which harks back to Spenser or Ben Jonson. The main story is a sort of allegory with a theme as old as the folklore of humanity. Nostalgically, it guys the props, the conventions, and the sentimentality of vintage westerns, but the point it makes is the triumph of being a lovely girl and rejoicing in the knowledge. "Sunday" is a pervading sense of fun—you will notice it particularly in "The Apprentice". Finally, there is a classic quality about the way in which Sam Haskins exploits every subtle gradation of the grey scale with a mastery few can equal. This capacity for extracting just what he requires from the complete range of tone, this gift of selection, of emphasis or suppression, and his unerring sense of design, make Cowboy Kate one of the most impressive pieces of sustained photography I have seen. Spiritually, it is a song of praise for the loveliness of women, and it has beauty—an agreeable mixture of fun and hyperbole, extravagance and restraint. Technically, the telling has more in common with a slick ballet sequence from a well-directed film than with the conventional picture story. It flows, it tingles. It has continuity and superb presentation. Nothing is just plain statement, so that the reader has the pleasure of exercising his powers of interpretation. It is certainly one of the few great photographic books of all time."