If you are looking to brush up on your literary knowledge, check a favorite author's work, or see a year's bestsellers at a glance, The Chronology of American Literature is the perfect resource. At once an authoritative reference and an ideal browser's guide, this book outlines the indispensable information in America's rich literary past--from major publications to lesser-known gems--while also identifying larger trends along the literary timeline. Who wrote the first published book in America? When did Edgar Allan Poe achieve notoriety as a mystery writer? What was Hemingway's breakout title? With more than 8,000 works by 5,000 authors, The Chronology makes it easy to find answers to these questions and more. Authors and their works are grouped within each year by category: fiction and nonfiction; poems; drama; literary criticism; and publishing events. Short, concise entries describe an author's major works for a particular year while placing them within the larger context of that writer's career. The result is a fascinating glimpse into the evolution of some of America's most prominent writers. Perhaps most important, The Chronology offers an invaluable line through our literary past, tying literature to the American experience--war and peace, boom and bust, and reaction to social change. You'll find everything here from Benjamin Franklin's "Experiments and Observations on Electricity," to Davy Crockett's first memoir; from Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience" to Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome; from meditations by James Weldon Johnson and James Agee to poetry by Elizabeth Bishop. Also included here are seminal works by authors such as Rachel Carson, Toni Morrison, John Updike, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Lavishly illustrated--and rounded out with handy bestseller lists throughout the twentieth century, lists of literary awards and prizes, and authors'birth and death dates--The Chronology of American Literature belongs on the shelf of every bibliophile and literary enthusiast. It is the essential link to our literary past and present.

IntroductionThe chronology of American Literature is a record of Americas literary achievements from the beginning of European exploration and settlement through the end of the twentieth century. It describes more than eighty-four hundred works by some five thousand writers, in abroad survey of American writing wide enough to include authors and works that contemporaries have esteemed as well as those that later literary opinion has rescued from obscurity. Works popular in their day, which may have disappeared from modern view or been relegated to the cabinet of historical curiosities, are noted, as well as important rediscovered figures who were unread or undervalued by their contemporaries, such as Emily Dickinson and Herman Melville. Our goal is to include a wide range of works providing the fullest sense of Americas rich and complex literary history-not just the standard canon of "serious" literature but also key popular or representative minor works as well. Their inclusion helps define each eras culture and sets the literary context from which major works emerged. Proceeding year by year (rather than by author, era, region, or theme-the more traditional formats for examining the literary record), this book allows the entire sequence of Americas literary history to become clear. A chronology enhances the readers ability to evaluate American literary achievement comparatively. By examining American literature as it unfolded over time, the reader can correlate literary expression with historical and social developments that affected literature-war and peace, boom and bust, social change and reaction to change. Unlike a focus on the "great authors" (which, like the "great man" theory of history, elevates some and diminishes others, resulting in a loss of context), a wide-angle perspective offers a greater sampling of significant documents and, we hope, promotes a better grasp of the myriad forces that have helped shape the literary culture of America. The Chronology is divided into five sections, corresponding to major stages in American literary history. Each work is briefly described to indicate what it is about and why it is included. Key birth and death dates and literary prizes are listed in sidebars, along with annual bestseller lists beginning in 1895. The result is intended as a convenient and useful single- volume guide to American literature, helpful to the student and researcher, stimulating for the general reader, and entertaining for the browser. Section I covers the colonial and Revolutionary periods up to George Washingtons inauguration as the first president of the United States in 1789. Within each year, entries in this section are arranged by six category headings: Diaries, Journals, and Letters; Essays and Philosophy; Nonfiction; Poetry, Fiction, and Drama; Publications and Events; and Sermons and Religious Writing. The American literature of this period begins with letters home-the attempt by early explor

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Excerpted from The Chronology of American Literature: America's Literary Achievements from the Colonial Era to Modern Times
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