... issues of Resources for American Literary Study, and the occasional book from Scarecrow or piece in a journal such as American Literary Realism, a once-respected field of literary study has dried up over the past decade. Instead, we have author society blogs and a glut of glib “companions...

... of Justice Joseph Story’s legal opinions. Yet three significant collections of essays appear: The New Cambridge Companion to Herman Melville, ed. Robert S. Levine; A Political Companion to Herman Melville, ed. Jason Frank; and Melville as Poet, a collection initiated by Douglas Robillard...

... be assigned to high schoolers or college undergraduates that Evans ignores, and he discusses some novels often challenged or even banned from classrooms (e.g., Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Catcher in the Rye, and Lolita). A Companion to American Literary Studies, ed. Caroline F. Levander...

...—especially the appearance of new Cambridge Companions and Cambridge Histories—dominate this market niche. While these ana- lytical volumes and chronicles are valuable teaching tools because they consolidate research in emerging fields, they break little new ground, unlike bibliographies, once...

... parading before me this year lessen my concern. Handbooks and companions continue to proliferate, but dictionaries and encyclopedias have certainly not been crowded off the reference shelf altogether. The current array of publications includes solid work with a historical orientation, interesting...

... specific to her, and she is mentioned in a single sentence in the essay “Civil Rights Movement.” The market for reference tools on Native American literature and cul- ture remains strong, too. The appearance of theCambridge Companion Gary Scharnhorst 531...

... afraid, at least in part to the burgeon- ing number of mediocre reference tools designed exclusively for sale to libraries. Like foul air in a balloon, they expand to Žll the available space. But to begin with the good news: A Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry features 48 essays on a wide...

... and companion are interchangeable as terms identifying works constituted of essay materials both offering a densely intellectual introduction to a topic and surveying the significant published contri- butions to that topic. From Blackwell comes A Companion to American Cultural History, ed. Karen...

... and factual. The year’s yield of publications focused primarily on people is mixed and curious. The most substantial contribution is A Companion to Afri- can American Literature, some of whose materials are commented upon by other contributors to this volume of American Literary Scholarship. David J...

... accessibility of essays gathered into these and the other collections identified in publishers series of hand- books and guides and companions. Too few of these important scholarly documents make their way into formal bibliographical records, even years after publication. Publishers and editors should...

... organization of a core of factual information. Some recent publications from traditional publishers of reference material retain the keywords that mark that territory, but coverage and intent have changed. The Oxford Companion to American Literature, last issued in print form in 1995, was a virtually...

...) Luczak, Breeding and Eugenics in Ekphrasis in American Poetry / the American Literary Imagination: Sandra Lee Kleppe, ed., Ekphrasis Heredity Rules in the Twentieth in American Poetry: The Colonial Century (Palgrave) Period to the Twenty-First Century Cambridge Companion...

... Porte and Saundra Morris have gathered 13 new essays on all facets of Emerson’s works and influence in their Cambridge Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson (Cambridge). Other important work included Jonathan Levin’s contribution to the pragmatist reading of Emerson and Gustaaf Van...

... and Michael R. Strickland (ABC-CLIO), sets out almost 500 pages of Oxford Companion–style entries on writers, journals (like Opportunity and Crisis), movements (Harlem Renaissance, Black Arts), even themes. The signed entries also include information about sources and collections, and the definition...

..., including Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, federal legislation, and the plat- form statements of parties and political movements. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: A Student Companion, by Elisabeth Israels Perry and Karen Manners Smith (Oxford), also has an encyclopedia format, with 250...

... the reevaluation of the political stances of a number of poets. The slant of several essays attests to the growing prominence of the still eclectic approach known as ‘‘ecocriticism,’ ’ something that may account for the increasing interest in the poems and verse dramas of Robinson Je Vers. i A Companion...

... and Yoknapatawpha, 2007 (Miss.) A Companion to African American From the Modernist Annex / Karin Literature / Gene Andrew Roffman, From the Modernist Jarrett, ed., A Companion to Annex: American Women Writers African American Literature in Museums and Libraries (Wiley-Blackwell...

... Companion to American Poets was also published this year. In addition, David E. Chinitz and Gail McDonald have edited Companion to Modernist Poetry. Because of space limitations, however, only the last title is covered. i  Introduction Scholars offer new ways to conceive of modernism and expand...

... Practice and Cambridge Companion to Harlem Cultural Production 1500–1900 Renaissance / George Hutchinson, (Delaware) ed., The Cambridge Companion American Literary Regionalism / to the Harlem Renaissance Philip Joseph, American Literary (Cambridge) Regionalism...

... Practice and Cambridge Companion to Harlem Cultural Production 1500–1900 Renaissance / George Hutchinson, (Delaware) ed., The Cambridge Companion American Literary Regionalism / to the Harlem Renaissance Philip Joseph, American Literary (Cambridge) Regionalism...