Southern Writers: A New Biographical Dictionary (Southern Literary Studies) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0807131237 ISBN 13: 9780807131237

Publisher: LSU Press, 2006

Synopsis

This new edition of Southern Writers assumes its distinguished predecessor's place as the essential reference on literary artists of the American South. Broadly expanded and thoroughly revised, it boasts 604 entries-nearly double the earlier edition's-written by 264 scholars. For every figure major and minor, from the venerable and canonical to the fresh and innovative, a biographical sketch and chronological list of published works provide comprehensive, concise, up-to-date information. Here in one convenient source are the South's novelists and short story writers, poets and dramatists, memoirists and essayists, journalists, scholars, and biographers from the colonial period to the twenty-first century.

What constitutes a "southern writer" is always a matter for debate. Editors Joseph M. Flora and Amber Vogel have used a generous definition that turns on having a significant connection to the region, in either a personal or literary sense. New to this volume are younger writers who have emerged in the quarter century since the dictionary's original publication, as well as older talents previously unknown or unacknowledged. For almost every writer found in the previous edition, a new biography has been commissioned.

Drawn from the very best minds on southern literature and covering the full spectrum of its practitioners, Southern Writers is an indispensable reference book for anyone intrigued by the subject.

About this title

About the Author

Joseph M. Flora is Atlanta Professor of Southern Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of many books, including The Companion to Southern Literature: Themes, Genres, Places, People, Movements, and Motifs and the original Southern Writers: A Biographical Dictionary.

Amber Vogel is director of the DESTINY Traveling Science Learning Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A Californian by birth, she has lived in the South since a teenager and has been engaged in the region's culture and literature as an editor and educator for more than twenty years.

A native North Carolinian, Bryan Giemza is a visiting assistant professor of English at Wake Forest University.

Reviews

This revision covers writers connected to the South by birth, rearing, or subject matter. The first edition, published in 1979, proved popular with scholars and students, but much has changed in the 25 years since the original. This edition builds on a solid foundation and adds new authors to the pantheon of southern writers.

The format of the first edition was retained, but new tools such as the Internet have made revisions easier. The articles come in 3 lengths: 350 words for most authors, 750 for important figures, and 1,000 for the major ones. The 1979 edition had 379 entries, while the new edition has 604. For those writers with no new information, the original article was retained, but for others, revisions were made based on the latest scholarship, and new authors were added. Many of the newer southern writers, such as Rebecca Wells,are included. Unusual writers, such as Forrest Carter, who created the character Josey Wales, enliven the work.

The articles are arranged alphabetically by last name, and the table of contents lists author and contributor. The articles contain dates, education, marriages, children, and other biographical information that connects the writers to the South. There are some errors; for example, Margaret Mitchell's dates appear as 1889-1973 in the heading for her entry; the correct dates, which are noted in the entry text, are 1900-1949. Cross-references would have been helpful.

Southern Writers is a good, up-to-date reference work that will be of use where the previous edition was held. It is a useful guide to students, teachers, and devotees of southern literature who are interested in how an author's background affects his or her writing. Recommended for academic and large public libraries and for smaller libraries in the South. Abbie Vestal Landry
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: LSU Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807131237
• ISBN 13: 9780807131237
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 504
• Editor: Flora Joseph M., Vogel Amber