Descripciones mejoradas de Syndetics:

Six well-made, easy-to-handle volumes (each about 350 pp.) profile 190 writers from the 17th century to the present whose works represent a wide variety of American experiences and voices and who are central to any study of American literature. In the esteemed tradition of Magill surveys, this set is written according to strict style and format guidelines that include the following in each article: birth and death data; brief summary; biography; analysis of style, themes, and literary characteristics; separate sections on specific works, with data, analysis, and condensed description; summary; and bibliography. A photo is included with most entries. A glossary of literary terms appears in each volume along with a list of all authors profiled in the set. The writing is accessib le, yet without condescension; the articles will serve the casual reader as significant sources of information and insight and will be valuable to more serious readers as starting points for research. A valuable resource appropriate for public, school, and academic libraries. Annotation(c) 2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This new survey features 190 American writers and spans the 17th to late 20th centuries. Entries are arranged alphabetically by writer and each includes a portrait. Entry headings appear in easy-to-read type inside a highlighted box, along with the author's dates and places of birth and death. This encapsulated information is followed by another box labeled "Principal Literary Achievement" which contains a statement of the author's contribution to American literature in one or two sentences. A signed essay, ranging in length from 7 to 19 pages, completes each entry. Each essay includes a brief bibliography, an analysis of the author's work, separate sections featuring specific works, a boxed summary, and a bibliography for further study. The same glossary of literary terms and author index append each volume. There is a single title index at the end of Volume 6. Although attractive as a feature of ready-reference design, the boxed information used to organize each entry is too highly simplified to be worthwhile at college level. And although broad in scope, this work can not be called comprehensive. Authors selected serve as examples of their generation, genre, or cultural heritage "to represent a wide variety of American experiences and voices" (p.v), necessarily excluding others. Notable omissions include Peter DeVries, Paul Theroux, Shirley Jackson, and Amy Tan. The lack of a subject index linking authors to their special characteristics further reduces the scope of the survey. The encyclopedic arangement of information makes this a good place to begin research on a known author, but students of American literature would be well advised to use American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies, ed. by Leonard Unger (CH, Jan'75) or the various volumes on American authors in the "Dictionary of Literary Biography" series (1978- ) for lengthier analyses and fuller bibliographies of an author's work. Essays by contributors who have written for Magill about the same author before are either new, or revised versions of earlier works. Like other multivolume sets edited by Frank N. Magill, this one also complements his Literary Annual series and updates many of the essays published in his other literary surveys. Appropriate for libraries serving lower-division undergraduates and general readers and for large libraries, public, or academic, building extensive American literature reference collections.-J. W. Reit, University of Vermont