Updated throughout and with much new material, A History of
American Literature, Second Edition, is the most up-to-date and
comprehensive survey available of the myriad forms of American
Literature from pre-Columbian times to the present.
* The most comprehensive and up-to-date history of American
literature available today
* Covers fiction, poetry, drama, and non-fiction, as well as
other forms of literature including folktale, spirituals, the
detective story, the thriller, and science fiction
* Explores the plural character of American literature, including
the contributions made by African American, Native American,
Hispanic and Asian American writers
* Considers how our understanding of American literature has
changed over the past?thirty years
* Situates American literature in the contexts of American
history, politics and society
* Offers an invaluable introduction to American literature for
students at all levels, academic and general readers
Circa l’autore
Richard Gray is Professor of Literature at the University of Essex and former Distinguished Visiting Professor at a number of universities in the United States. He is the first specialist in American literature to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy and has published over a dozen books on the topic, including the award-winning Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region (1986) and The Life of William Faulkner: A Critical Biography (1994). His History of American Literature (Blackwell, 2004) is widely considered to be one of the standard works on the subject.