Literary Reference Works

Before the innovative work of Zora Neale Hurston, folklorists from the Hampton Institute collected, studied, and wrote about African American folkl...

In The Story-Time of the British Empire, author Sadhana Naithani examines folklore collections compiled by British colonial administrators, militar...

Its been barely twenty years since Dave Eggers (b. 1970) burst onto the American literary scene with the publication of his memoir, A Heartbreaking...

Paul Auster (b. 1947) is one of the most critically acclaimed and intensely studied authors in America today. His varied career as a novelist, poet...

Contributions by Lauren R. Carmacci, Keridiana Chez, Kate Glassman, John Granger, Marie Schilling Grogan, Beatrice Groves, Tolonda Henderson, Nusai...

Tennessee Williams (1911-1983) was one of the most acclaimed, popular, and controversial American playwrights of the twentieth century. The Glass M...

In 1925 William Faulkner began his professional writing career in earnest while living in the French Quarter of New Orleans. He had published a vol...

John Clellon Holmes met Jack Kerouac on a hot New York City weekend in 1948, and until the end of Kerouac's life they were--in Holmes's words--Brot...

A Tyrannous Eye: Eudora Welty's Nonfiction and Photographs is the first book-length study of Eudora Welty's full range of achievements in nonfictio...

The fascinations of John Clare's life are manifold. A labouring-class poet and naturalist, he was lionised in the early 1820s but spent his final d...

The fascinations of John Clare's life are manifold. A labouring-class poet and naturalist, he was lionised in the early 1820s but spent his final d...

Known internationally for his Japanese-style poetry, Lenard D. Moore (b. 1958) has published eight poetry collections over the course of his career...

Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullesta lively, enlightening, an...

Between 1967 and 1972, a previously obscure group of authors entered the US cultural spotlight. During this five-year period, at least thirty antho...

Between 1967 and 1972, a previously obscure group of authors entered the US cultural spotlight. During this five-year period, at least thirty antho...

The Child Gaze: Narrating Resistance in American Literature theorizes the child gaze as a narrative strategy for social critique in twentieth- and ...

In contemporary Western society, childhood appears more protected than ever to the casual onlooker. Yet, we are increasingly fascinated by narrativ...

In The Sides of the Sea: Caribbean Women Writing Diaspora, Johanna X. K. Garvey examines the works of contemporary writers from eight Caribbean cou...

When an essay is due and dreaded exams loom, here's the lit-crit help students need to succeed! SparkNotes Literature Guides make studying smarter,...

The Western, with its stoic cowboys and quickhanded gunslingers, is an instantly recognizable American genre that has achieved worldwide success. C...

Contributions by Ann Mulloy Ashmore, Rudine Sims Bishop, Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Jennifer Brannock, Carolyn J. Brown, Ramona Caponegro, Lorinda Cohoo...

Novel Competition describes the literary and institutional struggle to make American novels matter between 1965 and 1999. As corporations took over...

Love, sex, death, boredom, ecstasy, existential angst, political upheaval - the history of literature offers a rich and varied exploration of the h...