Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of American Writers - Hardcover

Merriam-Webster

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Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0877790221 ISBN 13: 9780877790228

Publisher: Merriam Webster, 2001

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"A guide to America's literary tradition. Over 16,000 articles on writers, literary works, movements, and influential periodicals. More than 170 black-and-white photographs. The companion volume to C-Span's series American Writers: A Journey Through History."\\

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Review:

Published in conjunction with C-SPAN's American Writers series, this Dictionary of American Writers features capsule biographies of more than 1,100 American writers. Among them are "numerous American Indians, former slaves, and immigrants from every corner of the earth." There are writers of fiction, poetry, drama, history, essays, diaries, philosophy, and even screenplays. While some of these write-ups (on Emily Dickinson, Benjamin Franklin, and William Dean Howells, for example) are longer, most are around 150 words (and adapted from Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature). You can't say a lot in 150 words. There are dates and places to fit in, as well as titles of major works, and, in some cases, pronunciations (though why there are five listed for John Brougham's surname eludes us). The biographical sketches are, in other words, sketchy. Still, the book starts in with Edward Abbey and doggedly charts a path all the way to Louis Zukofsky.

If you're looking for a little information about an awful lot of American writers, this will suit your needs just fine. And there are interesting tidbits throughout: lawyer Louis Auchincloss, we learn, managed to pen 50 books in part because he would take a writing notebook to court; Frances Hodgson Burnett paid for writing paper by "gathering and selling wild grapes"; and Mary Higgins Clark worked as a flight attendant. Also included are more than 500 entries on literary works, and over 75 on groups, movements, and periodicals that have helped shape "the character of American literature." --Jane Steinberg

About the Author:

Since 1937. Merriam-Webster is America's foremost publisher of language-related reference works. The company publishes a diverse array of print and electronic products, including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate� Dictionary, Eleventh Edition – America's best-selling desk dictionary – and Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster can be considered the direct lexicographical heir of Noah Webster. In 1843, the company bought the rights to the 1841 edition of Webster's magnum opus, An American Dictionary of the English Language, Corrected and Enlarged. At the same time, they secured the rights to create revised editions of the work. Since that time, Merriam-Webster editors have carried forward Noah Webster's work, creating some of the most widely used and respected dictionaries and reference books in the world.

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