More than ten years in the making, this comprehensive single-volume literary survey is for the student, scholar, and general reader. The Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature represents a collaborative effort, involving 300 contributors from across the US and Canada. Composed of more than 1,100 signed biographical-critical entries, this Encyclopedia serves as both guide and companion to the study and appreciation of American literature. A special feature is the topical article, of which there are 70.
In her book Sarah Orne Jewett: Reconstructing Gender, Margaret Roman argues that one theme colors almost every short story and novel by the turn-of-the-century American author: each person, regardless of sex, must break free of the restrictive, polar-opposite norms of behavior traditionally assigned to men and women by a patriarchal society. That society, as seen from Jewett’s perspective during the late Victorian era, was one in which a competitive, active man dominates a passive, emotional woman. Frequently referring to Jewett’s own New England upbringing at the hands of an unusually progressive father, Roman demonstrates how the writer, through her personal quest for freedom and through the various characters she created, strove to eliminate the necessity for rigid and narrowly defined male-female roles and relationships. With the details of Jewett’s free-spirited life, Roman’s book represents a solid work of literary scholarship, which traces a gender-dissolving theme throughout Jewett’s writing. Whereas previous critics have focused primarily on her best-known works, including “A White Heron,” Deephaven, A Country Doctor, and The Country of the Pointed Firs, Roman encompasses within her own discussion virtually all of the stories found in the nineteen volumes Jewett published during her lifetime. And although much recent criticism has centered around Jewett’s strong female characters, Roman is the first to explore in depth Jewett’s male characters and married couples. The book progresses through distinct phases that roughly correspond to Jewett’s psychological development as a writer. In general, the characters in her early works exhibit one of two modes of behavior. Youngsters, free as Jewett was to explore the natural world of woods and field, glimpse the possibility of escape from the confining standards that society has set, though some experience turbulent and confusing adolescences where those norms have become more pressing, more demanding. At the opposite extreme are those who have mindlessly accepted the roles in which they have been trapped since youth—greedy, selfish men, dutiful women who tend emotionally empty houses, young couples unable to communicate either between themselves or with others—in short, characters who are too alienated within their roles to function as whole human beings. On the other hand, Jewett approaches the men and women of her later works with a higher degree of optimism, in that each person is free to live according to the dictates of his or her inherent personality—each character is able to measure life from within rather than from without. This group includes the self-confident men who are not reluctant to present a nurturing side, and the warm, giving women who are unafraid of displaying a decided inner strength. As Roman summarizes, “In her writings, Jewett attempts to shift society’s focus from a grasping power over people to the personal development of each member of society.” Ahead of her time in many ways, Sarah Orne Jewett confronted the Victorian polarized gender system, presaging the modern view that men and women should be encouraged to develop along whatever paths are most comfortable and most natural for them.
Women Writers in the United States is a celebration of the many forms of work--written and social, tangible and intangible--produced by American women. Davis and West document the variety and volume of women's work in the U.S. in a clear and accessible timeline format. They present information on the full spectrum of women's writing--including fiction, poetry, biography, political manifestos, essays, advice columns,and cookbooks, alongside a chronology of developments in social and cultural history that are especially pertinent to women's lives. This extensive chronology illustrates the diversity of women who have lived and written in the U.S. and creates a sense of the full trajectory of individual careers. A valuable and rich source of information on women's studies, literature, and history, Women Writers in the United States will enable readers to locate familiar and unfamiliar women's texts and to place them in the context out which they emerged.
An armchair tour of the homes of children's authors, such as Lucy Maud Montgomery, Robert Louis Stevenson and Laura Ingalls Wilder. Essays on each author's home focus on the relationship between that home and the books that were written (or imagined) there.
An Inkwell of Pen Names tells the stories of 100 authors’ pen names in a hundred short chapters. Many other authors who used pen names are discussed incidentally. Features of the compendium include pen names beginning with every letter of the alphabet, authors from twenty-five countries, the recipients of the Nobel Prize for literature who used pseudonyms, and a balanced selection of men and women authors.
Essays on American prose writers during a period marked by enormous cultural change in a short period of time. Like female sexuality, issues of race and ethnicity were some of the most volatile themes addressed in women's prose writings of this period. Some of the many ethnic and religious groups that emerged as significant literary voices were Jewish, Native American, African American, Euramericans, and Asian.
