810. Books on American literature in English

Further Reading

Herb Boyd Brotherman: The Odyssey of Black Men in America—An Anthology, 1996.

From Frederick Douglass to Cornell West, Black men share what their lives are like in this anthology. Using historical narratives, poems, essays, short stories, and more, this work provides a mosaic of male Black culture in the United States.

Lauro Fores The Floating Borderlands: Twenty-Five Years of U.S. Hispanic Literature, 1998.

This collection shares early works of contemporary Hispanic writers from The Americas Review’s literary journal and reflects writers across the diverse Latino community.

Alfred Kazin God and the American Writer, 1998.

Alfred Kazin looks at the meaning of God in the writings of American authors from the colonial days through the twentieth century. Using quotations from famous works, he provides a portrait of God as seen through American eyes.

Olivia Laing The Trip to Echo Spring: On Writers and Drinking, 2013.

Many of America’s greatest writers have been alcoholics. Olivia Laing looks at the phenomenon by focusing on six American writers: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, John Berryman, John Cheever, and Raymond Carver.

Shirley Geok-lin Lim The Forbidden Stitch: An Asian American Women’s Anthology, 1989.

This is the first anthology of Asian American women’s literature.

Iris Morales Latinas: Struggles & Protests in 21st Century USA, 2019.

Using poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and artwork written by Hispanic women across time, Iris Morales shares how they have faced inequality for their gender, ethnicity, class, and immigration status.

Elizabeth D. Samet Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature through Peace and War at West Point, 2007.

Elizabeth D. Samet taught literature to future soldiers at West Point, where the students would actually face combat scenes similar to those in their studies. She looks at issues the literary works bring up in light of contemporary military developments.

Edmund Wilson Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War, 1962.

American literary and social critic Edmund Wilson examines the works of American figures from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Oliver Wendell Holmes to see how they presented the horrors of the Civil War.

For more information on the Further Reading series, see Further Reading: Start Here.