Author: B.M. Fullerton

Introduction: Carol Van Doren

Publisher/Date: CT: Ox Bow Press (1989 reprint)

Format/Condition: NEW cloth hardcover in near fine condition: slight bow to text block, tiny spot on front cover. 327 pages, index. Measures 6 ¼ x 9 ¼ inches.

Description: A marvelous book, first published in 1932, and here reprinted from the second edition (Dial Press, 1936). It’s less a bibliography than brief history—and many of the authors now seem less than important—but Fullerton’s evaluations are generally fair and extremely readable. Genuine Americana.

From the foreword:

The book is designed to serve as a guide to noteworthy achievements in American letters between the years 1775 and 1900, rather than in any way as a complete check list or bibliography. As such it selects from among the many writers who have graced that period only those who have the greater or lesser degree made a definite contribution to the form, trend or substance of American literature, or the Nation’s true intellectual development, and from among their works to choose only such as are representative of them at their best.