Prior to his work in the 1960s and 1970s, few professional critics chose to take children's literature seriously, but Sale argued that it could and ought to be given the same respect and scrutiny as adult fiction.
In 1978, he published a book entitled Fairy Tales and After, which is essentially a collection of essays defending the literary value of children's literature, and then offering his critical perspective on authors from A.
[8] Surprisingly, although Sale's training and life's work focused on English literature, he is today perhaps best known as the author of a book of history—specifically Seattle, Past to Present, which the L.A. Times called "among the best interpretive histories of a major American city" when it was published in 1976,[9] and which Knute Berger, who wrote the introduction for the book's 2019 reissue, describes as a work that has "set a standard for subsequent histories" of Seattle.
[10] Roger Sale continued to be a vivid source of literary and intellectual stimulation for colleagues and students after his retirement.
He was a mentor to many young literary scholars, and graciously volunteered his time to teach literature courses for University Beyond Bars at Monroe Correctional Complex.