"An intimate biography of legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century-including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath"-- "Legendary editor Judith Jones, the woman behind some of the most important authors of the 20th century-including Julia Child, Anne Frank, Edna Lewis, John Updike, and Sylvia Plath-finally gets her due in this intimate biography.When twenty-five-year-old...

This introduction to American literature and culture from 1900 to 1960 is organized around four major ideas about America: that is it “big”, “new”, “rich”, and “free”.

Illustrates the artistic and social climate in the USA during this period.

Juxtaposes discussion of history, popular culture, literature and other art forms in ways that foster discussion,

...

"In the summer of 1977, Allen Ginsberg decided it was time to teach a course on the literary history of the Beat Generation. This was twenty years after the publication of his landmark poem "Howl," and Jack Kerouac's seminal book On the Road. Through the creation of this course, which he ended up teaching five times, first at the Naropa Institute and later at Brooklyn College, Ginsberg saw an opportunity to make a record of the history of Beat Literature....

"A pastor and teacher demonstrates how Black experience, as shown in the literature of great African American writers, can guide us all toward sharper theological thinking and more faithful living"--

Classics and Commercials: A Literary Chronicle of the Forties showcases Edmund Wilson's critical writings spanning decades and continents. Many of these essays first appeared in the New Yorker. Here is Wilson on Jane Austen, Thackeray, Edith Wharton, Tolstoy, Swift (the classics) as well as brilliant observations on Poe, H.P Lovecraft, detective stories, and other commercial literature. This wide-ranging study from one of the most influential man...

"Harold Bloom is our greatest living student of literature, "a colossus among critics" (The New York Times) and a "master entertainer" (Newsweek). Over the course of a remarkable career spanning more than half a century, in such best-selling books as The Western Canon and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, he transformed the way we look at the masterworks of western literature. Now, in the first collection devoted to his illuminating writings...

"On-the-water interviews with thirteen writers, scientists, conservationists, and artists connecting nature to the creative process"--

Alfred Kazin, one of the central figures of America's intellectual life in the 20th century, takes us into his own life and times. His autobiography encompasses, within a single large, fluent narrative, a personal story openly told; an inside look at New York's innermost intellectual circles; and brilliantly astute observations of the literary accomplishments, atmosphere, and fads of the 1940's, '50's, and '60's in the context of America's shifting...