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Library Journal Review
the series' web site (www.americanwriters.org). The bulk of the work consists of 1000 biographical articles on influential American authors. Following is a section of briefer descriptive entries on over 500 literary works, including important novels, poems, plays, essays, and histories. The dictionary ends with a section that lists and describes 75 of the groups, movements, and periodicals that have shaped American literature. Each biographical entry includes full name, pronunciation (if necessary), birth and death dates and places, and a one-line pr?cis of the importance of the subject, in addition to the brief biographical article. Black-and-white thumbnail photos of the authors appear on alternating pages. As an accompaniment to the television series, this is a wonderful book, to be used for reference and read for enrichment. But as a comprehensive biographical dictionary for a library reference collection, it doesn't quite fit the bill. In size, shape, and format, it is like the line of dependable biographical, geographical, and other dictionaries produced by Merriam-Webster, but unlike those works, it is too selective. Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature (LJ 1/92) is still a better choice at the reference desk. Nevertheless, this book will be handy for the millions of library patrons who will be watching C-SPAN's year-long series. APaul D'Alessandro, Portland P.L., ME (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
CHOICE Review
Designed to complement C-SPAN's American Writers: A Journey through History series (airing March-December 2001), this collective biography, like the C-SPAN series, covers 45 influential American writers. Archived at , this work contains 1,600 alphabetically arranged entries, arranged in three sections: authors, literary works, and literary movements. Entries are identical to those on the Web site and consist of extremely brief biographies and limited descriptions of major works and movements. The book provides only rudimentary information extracted from Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (CH, Sep'95) and Encyclopaedia Britannica (to which virtually all libraries provide access), and a number of publications in the field are far more complete. Titles that spring to mind include Contemporary Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography, Encyclopedia of Literary Critics and Criticism, ed. by Chris Murray (CH, May'00) and Ross Murfin's The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (CH, Jun'98). Merriam resembles an updated version of Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature, ed. by George Perkins et al. (1991). Clearly designed as a ready-reference source for high school or lower-division undergraduate students, for whom it is recommended. E. S. Hierl North Carolina State University
Booklist Review
Designed for the average reader as a companion volume to C-SPAN's 38-part series American Writers: A Journey through History, this alphabetically arranged dictionary treats the 400-year literary history of the U.S., from the time of the earliest European colonists to the eve of the twenty-first century. Entries are arranged into three sections: "Authors," "Literary Works," and "Groups, Movements, and Periodicals." The first section, by far the largest, with more than 1,000 entries, covers a wide range of authors, including novelists, poets, dramatists, historians, diarists, essayists, journalists, philosophers, and even screenwriters. Entries, generally a paragraph or two in length, contain biographical information and a listing of important works, some cross-referenced to entries in the "Literary Works" section. Twentieth-century authors predominate, but writers from other time periods are well represented. America's pluralism is reflected, although several omissions were noted, among them Denise Chavez, Michael Dorris, and David Henry Hwang. Although fewer in number, the 500 entries of the "Literary Works" section are no less significant. They provide a brief publishing history, summary, and discussion of important poems, plays, novels, essays, autobiographies, short stories, and historical works. Coverage is thorough, except for the last category, which could have been enriched by the inclusion of the Declaration of Independence and Gettysburg Address. Excluded presumably because they are not considered literary works per se, their absence is surprising considering their routine appearance in many literary anthologies. In "Groups, Movements, and Periodicals," readers can explore the evolving nature of the American tradition in 75 entries as varied as the Hartford wits, Kenyon Review, and Transcendentalism. Overall, this resource has much to recommend it--clarity, ease of use, fine organization, and sound information, not to mention 150 black-and-white photographs. There are numerous other reference books covering the same topics, but generally in one alphabetical sequence; this volume's three-part arrangement offers a different approach. Although neither exhaustive nor definitive, it would make a nice addition to high-school, public, and academic libraries needing an affordable, accessible one-volume guide.
