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Summary
Summary
From John Smith to Jack Kerouc, Cotton Mather to Toni Morrison, Edgar Allan Poe to Stephen King, the story of American literature is many stories - of ancient-indigenous peoples, early settlers, men and women enslaved and liberated, war and peace, and immigrants seeking better lives.
Reviews (3)
Booklist Review
This is a one-volume snapshot of the current canon of American literature, its development, its luminaries, and its legacy of "commonality and diversity." It is intended as a comprehensive survey of literature from colonial times to the present, "that is by definition American in scope." The editors, one an editor of other important reference works such as titles in the Dictionary of Literary Biography series and the other the founder of the American Literature Association, have gathered more than 300 contributors to write 1,100 biographical and critical articles and 70 topical essays. The former vary in length and coverage depending on the prominence of the subject (for example, F. Scott Fitzgerald earns more than twice the space as Isaac Asimov), but they have the same basic elements: birth and death dates and places, a critical examination of the subject's life and works, a summary paragraph that justifies the subject's inclusion in the encyclopedia, and a brief bibliography of further reading. The topical entries are much more focused on the development and influence of a genre, region, or theme. Examples are African American literature, the detective story, language and dialect, modernism, and the South. The entry on science fiction is about 1,500 words and surveys the history of the genre, beginning with the early versions (Mary Shelley and Jules Verne) before focusing on the genre's development in America from Hugo Gernsback's Ralph 124C 41+ (1911) to Gregory Benford's Cosm (1998). Index entries are primarily personal names, although some groups of writers (cyberpunk fiction, writers of; expatriates) are also listed. For individuals, index entries provide birth and death dates in addition to page numbers. This volume is less comprehensive than The Oxford Companion to American Literature [RBB O 1 95], now in its sixth edition. Oxford has more than 5,000 entries and includes characters, titles, and more topical entries, in addition to authors. Entries in Encyclopedia of American Literature, on the other hand, are generally longer: almost a page for Grace Paley, as opposed to seven lines in Oxford; five pages on romance, which Oxford covers in 15 lines. Both volumes treat authors not found in the other. Encyclopedia of American Literature is a worthy addition to literature reference collections in academic and public libraries.
Choice Review
Compiled by two English professors who have edited other literary reference works, this encyclopedia of American literature, Colonial times to the present, consists of one- to six-page essays of two types: critical essays on authors, and 70 assorted topical essays on "genre, period, ethnicity and discipline"--e.g., "The Detective Story," "Film and Literature," "The Confidence Man." The biographical essays are primarily critical reviews of works but include brief biographical information as well. All essays are signed and contain cross-references and brief bibliographies. The 300 contributors are US and Canadian, but their affiliations beyond that are not named. The volume includes a one-page "Guide to Topical Articles" and a name-subject index. The editors intended to be fairly comprehensive, and there seem few glaring omissions. The source's principal contributions, compared to other similar American literature reference sources, are its topical essays and the inclusion of recent authors. The prose style is colloquial and quite accessible to undergraduates and above. N. G. Stewart; Georgetown University
Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-From Edward Abbey to Louis Zukofsky, this wonderfully browsable volume will be a grand addition to any collection. It includes more than 1100 signed entries covering the Colonial period to the present and examines such topics as "Children's Literature," "Gay Male Literature," "Transcendentalism," and "Utopia." The articles are well written, well researched, and, well, quite readable. They vary in length from six paragraphs on the pop-culturalist Tama Janowitz to seven pages on Herman Melville. Unfortunately, there are a couple of glaring gaps in the otherwise inclusive articles. The entry on John Guare contains no mention of Marco Polo Sings a Solo (one of his most popular and often revived plays), and Jane Kenyon, an important contemporary poet, is mentioned only as the wife of poet Donald Hall. The index does not include the titles of works (only people and a few subjects). Despite these flaws and the fact that there are a number of typos, this is a good book.-Herman Sutter, Saint Agnes Academy, Houston, TX (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.