Synopsis:
An authoritative, concise reference guide recounts the lives and summarizes and evaluates the works of 135 of the world's most important female writers, from antiquity to the present, in all genres of writing, including Jane Austen, Christine de Pisan, and Nadine Gordimer.
From Library Journal:
This reference volume contains articles on women writers worldwide throughout the centuries, from the ancient Greek poet Sappho to the contemporary Chicana fiction writer Sandra Cisneros. The articles, each averaging four to five pages, follow a uniform format covering principal work in the genre for which the writer is best known, work in other literary forms, literary achievements, biography, analysis of writings, other major works, and a bibliography of biographical and critical works. According to the introduction, each article was prepared by an academic specialist, but the articles are unsigned, and only a list of contributing reviewers is included. Although these 135 writers, individually and as a group, represent a diversity of language, culture, and literary genres, it is unclear how they were selected. Among the many writers noticeably missing is Aphra Behn, the first Englishwoman to become a professional writer, who is mentioned in the introduction but not included as an entry. Over 80 percent of the writers are from the 20th century, and over 50 percent are U.S.-born. For a much broader representation of women writers throughout the ages and a greater sense of women's literary history, see Claire Buck's The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature (Prentice-Hall, 1992). Since it does provide brief bibliographies of biographical and critical works and includes an index to writers' names and specific titles or works, this work could be useful to small public and school libraries with limited literature reference collections.
Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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