Reviews

This solid volume profiles many of the writers included in the "core curriculum" of high schools and colleges--e.g., Louisa May Alcott, Herman Wouk, Jack London, Steven Crane, and Ken Kesey. For each author, Rollyson (English, CUNY) has gathered a biography, a critical overview, brief analyses of major works, and a short bibliography of critical studies. These sketches, most of which originally appeared in Critical Survey of Long Fiction, English Language Series (Salem, 1991. rev. ed.), provide reliable, nontechnical analyses for young readers. Although ten new essays and 46 updated ones have been included, the remaining 64 essays have only updated bibliographies. The result is a good reference tool for public and academic libraries with limited budgets, but it shouldn't be a high priority for those with sets such as Gale's Dictionary of Literary Biography or Scribner's American Writers.--Peter A. Dollard, Alma Coll. Lib., MI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Gr 9 Up-An evocative image of an Underwood typewriter alongside a stack of books adorns the volumes in this sturdy and useful reference work on 120 best-known writers of the 19th and 20th centuries. The selected authors are novelists whose works are included in the core curriculum of high school and undergraduate literature studies. Louisa May Alcott, Ernest Hemingway, J. D. Salinger, and Mark Twain appear along with John Irving, Jamaica Kincaid, Stephen King, and Amy Tan. The alphabetically arranged entries average 10-to-12 pages in length; most include a black-and-white portrait. Each one lists principal works and achievements, and includes a biographical sketch and an annotated bibliography. Authoritative analyses of selected works form the bulk of the entries. While 10 of the articles are new, the remainder have been updated from Frank N. Magill's Critical Survey of Long Fiction (Salem, 1991). As in any subjective collection, readers may question some of the choices; nonetheless, students will find this a practical reference tool that illuminates the talents of many of America's finest novelists.-Mary Ann Carcich, Suffolk County Community College Library, Riverhead, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.