Contemporary Southern Writers Edition 1. (Contemporary Writers) [Hardcover]

St James Press (Author), Roger Matuz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1558623701 | ISBN-13: 978-1558623705 | Publication Date: November 3, 1998 | Edition: 1

From Anne Rice's haunting vampire sagas to Anne Tyler's moving character portrayals, Southern writers have made a distinct and unique contribution to contemporary literature. Until now, uncovering the stories behind these important authors has taken frustrated researchers to many diverse sources for information. Now, St. James Press offers Contemporary Southern Writers.

This single title far surpasses competing resources with its 250 biocritical, signed entries on today's most frequently studied Southern novelists, short story writers, poets, dramatists, editors, journalists and writers of nonfiction. And, by carrying on the highly praised St. James tradition of excellence Contemporary Southern Writers provides students of literature with a one-stop, comprehensive academic reference created specifically for students, instructors and librarians.

Contemporary Southern Writers focuses on current and up-and-coming Southern authors whose works focus on the southern United States. Researchers will learn about such intriguing Southern writers as:

• A.R. Ammons
• Maya Angelou
• Wendell Berry
• Dorris Betts
• Harry Crews
• Clyde Edgerton
• Richard Ford
• Ernest J. Gaines
• Kaye Gibbons
• Jill McCorkle
• Larry McMurtry
• Reynolds Price
• Anne Rice
• Sonia Sanchez
• Dori Sanders
• Lee Smith
• Anne Tyler
• Eudora Welty

All entries are signed and range from one to three pages. An easy-to-scan data section begins the entries, providing personal information on the author, a bibliography or works arranged by genre, a list of works adapted for the media, a list of published bibliographies and criticisms and more. The main body focuses on the authors, illuminating their careers, personal lives, works and themes.

Contemporary Southern Writers offers added value with several extra features. An overview essay discussed the Southern literary tradition and its place in American literature, providing background and perspective to the contemporary authors featured in the main entries. A timeline highlights key events in the development of Southern literature, covering colonial times to the present day, providing a general historical backdrop of the people and works covered in the main entries. (20000424)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This attractive volume exhibits all of St. James's editorial hallmarksAcrisp typography, an easy-to-use format, a comprehensive title index, notes on advisers and contributors, and an added bonus: a nine-page time line of Southern literary history. Each of the 244 entries provides the author's career highlights, awards, and a contact address, as well as a complete bibliography, including uncollected short works, media adaptations, and critical studies. The signed essays vary in length and coverage of the author's individual works, but each discusses the author in the context of the Southern literary tradition. The authors covered represent nearly all categoriesApoetry, fiction, plays, humor, children's literature, genres, criticism, and nonfictionAand their reputations range from up-and-coming to legendary. Several of the newer writers are not listed in Contemporary Authors. One drawback is the broad-based definition of a Southern writer. The advisers chose those who were born in, lived in, or had "more than a casual acquaintance" with the South. Thus, writers like Sue Grafton and Richard Ford, whom many would identify as Western writers, are included, while Russell Baker and Edna Buchanan, whose Southern ties are undeniable, are left out. Not essential but recommended for large public and academic libraries, especially in the South.AVivian Reed, Long Beach P.L., CA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Southern writers are identified as writers born and raised in the South or who have lived and worked in the South for a significant part of their lives. The defining characteristic is their experience of living there rather than necessarily that the South or southern themes are a focus of the works. Names one would expect to find are here--James Dickey, Shelby Foote, Walker Percy, Eudora Welty. But the scope also includes mystery writer Sue Grafton, born and educated in Kentucky, but not a "southern" writer unless you count the southern California landscape of her detective. Contemporary is defined as those writers living in the late 1990s or, if recently deceased, who published new works in the 1990s. Writers of poetry, fiction, drama and nonfiction are included, 244 in all.

Entries have brief biographical data, a list of publications, and a critical essay. Many of the entries include a comment from the writers on their own work. References to critical studies are usually, but not always, included. Supplementary materials to the alphabetical entries include a time line of southern literary history and a title index. An index categorizing entries by literary form might also be useful. Some of the signed essays are overall critical assessments of the writers' works and themes; and others, more a series of summaries of novels or other works.

Information on the better-known authors in this book is available in other places. Most are included in Gale's Contemporary Authors if not their Dictionary of Literary Biography. St. James Press also publishes several reference books on contemporary writers, including the sixth edition of Contemporary Poets (1996), the sixth edition of Contemporary Novelists (1996), and the fifth edition of Contemporary Dramatists (1993). One expects a certain amount of duplication and spinning-off these days with reference publishers. Although most of the Contemporary Southern Writers entries seem to be, except for the basic information, newly written, at least one entry, that for poet Henry Taylor, is identical to that in Contemporary Poets. The entries on novelists Larry McMurtry and Richard Ford are by different authors than those in Contemporary Novelists. However, essentially the same ground is covered, and that brings up the question of how necessary yet another book of this type is. As noted, most of the subjects can be found in other literary biographical dictionaries, and the treatment of the writers is not as in-depth as that in the more selective Contemporary Poets, Dramatists, Essayists, and Novelists of the South (Greenwood, 1994). Although the information here is perfectly acceptable, up-to-date, and suitable for large public and academic libraries, most can probably live without it.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 442 pages
• Publisher: St. James Press; 1 edition (November 3, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558623701
• ISBN-13: 978-1558623705
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,948,424 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)