Lax wrote hundreds of poems and dozens of books in his long career, but never reached the level of recognition that some of his peers say he deserves. Jack Kerouac, whom he knew in New York, called Lax "one of the great original voices of our times ...a Pilgrim in search of beautiful innocence". "Circus of the Sun", a collection of poems metaphorically comparing the circus to Creation, was one of his most acclaimed works. On its publication in 1959, "The New York Times" hailed it as "perhaps the greatest English-language poem of this century." An excerpt was later distributed to those attending Lax's funeral at St. Bonaventure University on 29 September 29, 2000.