Realism to the Present

American Literature: Vol. 2 / 0-13-083815-2 My long-standing impression formed in childhood that American literature is intrinsically boring was completely reversed by this anthology. This volume includes hundreds of wonderful examples of superb American literature, particularly and especially from minority voices. The short stories provided by female and African American authors whom I had previously never even heard about are absolutely wonderful, and they provide an important contrast to the "white male authors" taught predominantly in grade schools. Which isn't to say that the "white male authors" aren't good authors in their own right, just that the contrast provided here by the multitude of author "types" is absolutely crucial to the appreciation of the evolution of American literature. I highly recommend this volume for any private library, and I would bet that even the most well-read enthusiast can find at least one new author here to enjoy. REALISM LITERATURE - Adams, Henry - Bierce, Ambrose - Dickenson, Emily - Cable, George Washington - Chesnutt, Charles Waddell - Chopin, Kate - Crane, Stephen - Dreiser, Theodore - Freeman, Mary E. Wilkins - Gilman, Charlotte Perkins - Harris, Joel Chandler - Harte, Bret - Howells, William Dean - James, Henry - Jewett, Sarah Orne - London, Jack - Norris, Frank - Twain, Mark - Wharton, Edith - Whitman, Walt TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERATURE - Albee, Edward - Ammons, A.R. - Anderson, Sherwood - Baldwin, James - Bambara, Toni Cade - Baraka, Amiri (LeRoi Jones) - Barthelme, Donald - Beattie, Ann - Bellow, Saul - Bishop, Elizabeth - Brooks, Gwendolyn - Carver, Raymond - Cather, Willa - Cisneros, Sandra - Crane, Hart - Cullen, Countee - Cummings, E.E. - DeLillo, Don - Dickey, James - dos Passos, John - Dove, Rita - Eliot, T.S. - Ellison, Ralph - Erdrich, Louise - Faulkner, William - Fitzgerald, F. Scott - Frost, Robert - Ginsberg, Allen - Glasgow, Ellen - Gluck, Louise - Hansberry, Lorraine - Hemingway, Ernest - Howe, Tina - Hughes, Langston - Hurston, Zora Neale - Jarrell, Randall - Jeffers, Robinson - Kingston, Maxine Hong - Levertov, Denise - Lowell, Robert - Malamud, Bernard - Mason, Bobbie Ann - Merwin, W.S. - Miller, Arthur - Moore, Marianne - Morrison, Toni - Naylor, Gloria - O'Conner, Flannery - O'Neill, Eugene - Oates, Joyce Carol - Olson, Tillie - Plath, Sylvia - Porter, Katherine Anne - Pound, Ezra - Pynchon, Thomas - Rich, Adrienne - Rivera, Tomas - Robinson, Edwin Arlington - Roethke, Theodore - Roth, Philip - Sanchez, Sonia - Sandburg, Carl - Sexton, Anne - Silko, Leslie Marmon - Stein, Gertrude - Steinbeck, John - Stevens, Wallace - Tan, Amy - Toomer, Jean - Updike, James - Walker, Alice - Welty, Eudora - Wilbur, Richard - Williams, Tennesee - Williams, William Carlos - Wolfe, Thomas - Wright, Richard

This huge textbook is a steal: hundreds of major works from the last century and a half, printed on quality paper, bound with a strong but flexible gum binding. If this were a hardcover, you'd pay twice the price for what it includes. It's thorough and scholarly, a tome that defines the Big League of anthologies. It's not for the shallow reader, though, who's accustomed to the sensuous audio-visuals of TV and the Internet. This is TEXT. Time to resuscitate the thinking mind, the patient intellect, the autonomous imagination.

I, on the other hand, think its a great collection of American literature, but maybe just a bit too pricey for what it offers. I would suggest it more as something to use as a reference than as something that should be read cover to cover, I mean, geeze, its 2060 pages long.