Writers of the American Renaissance: An A-to-Z Guide

(Hardback)

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Description

The American literary canon has undergone revision and expansion in recent years, and our notions of the 19th-century renaissance have been reevaluated. Mainstream anthologies have been revised to reflect the expanding literary canon, yet resources for readers have remained widely scattered. This book expands earlier definitions of the 19th-century American Renaissance as represented by canonical writers such as Emerson and Poe, covering writers who published popular fiction and dominated the literary marketplace of the day. Included is generous coverage of women writers and writers of color. The volume provides alphabetically arranged entries for more than 70 writers of the period, including Louisa May Alcott, Emily Dickinson, Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and many more. Each entry was written by an expert contributor and includes a brief biography, a discussion of major works and themes, a survey of the writer's critical reception, and primary and secondary bibliographies.

Reviews

[A] solid contribution to the field....Highly recommended. General readers; undergraduates; graduate students.-Choice
Starred Review This volume provides a comprehensive reference tool for students doing author studies and will add greatly to any high school library collection. Highly Recommended.-Library Media Connection
"A solid contribution to the field....Highly recommended. General readers; undergraduates; graduate students."-Choice
"[A] solid contribution to the field....Highly recommended. General readers; undergraduates; graduate students."-Choice
"Starred Review This volume provides a comprehensive reference tool for students doing author studies and will add greatly to any high school library collection. Highly Recommended."-Library Media Connection

Author Bio

DENISE D. KNIGHT is Professor of English and Director of Graduate Studies in English at the State University of New York, Cortland. She is the author of several books, including Writers of the American Renaissance: An A-to-Z Guide (Greenwood, 2003), Charlotte Perkins Gilman: A Study of the Short Fiction (1997), and Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (Greenwood, 1997), and coauthor of Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook (Greenwood, 1993).