american literature

Presents alphabetized biographical profiles of 150 African-American writers, describing their works and their significance in literary history, and provides a further reading list for each entry, a bibliography, and three reference lists.

Profiles eighteen important works of American literature, including novels, poems, and short story collections, each with an analysis, a discussion of its impact and influence, an author chronology, and a bibliography.

Contains profiles of twelve commonly read novels, each including an introduction to the story and its author, a plot summary, descriptions of characters, analysis of themes and style, discussion of historical context, a critical overview, and other related information.

Profiles fourteen commonly studied novels by such authors as Alice McDermott, Salman Rushdie, and Carol Shields, providing plot summaries, biographical and historical context, examples of criticism, and discussion of characters, themes, and style.

Presents alphabetized biographical profiles of more than 260 American novelists, short story writers, poets, dramatists, essayists, and nonfiction authors of diverse ethnicity from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century, providing further reading lists for each; and includes three subject indexes.

Collects critical essays on significant authors in English who were writing or were an influence on other writers between 1975 and 2002, and includes a biographical sketch with each. This volume covers A. R. Ammons through Alison Lurie.

Contains entries that provide information about thirteen novels, each with an author biography, plot summary, character analyses, discussion of themes and style, a historical context essay, a critical overview, a selection of criticism, and suggestions for further reading.

Traces the development of the literary canon in the United States throughout the twentieth century, examining more than eighty anthologies published since 1919 and tracing the evolution of entire genres and groupings of authors.

An annual anthology of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from small publishers.

Chronicles the history of American literature from 1582 to 1999, presenting entries on over 8,400 works of fiction, nonfiction, theater, poetry, literary criticism, and scholarship by five thousand authors, and includes year-by-year lists of best-sellers, awards and prizes, and author births and deaths.