“This is an amazing encyclopedia that most high-school libraries should include in their collections. The 90 American and Canadian authors that are profiled are those that ‘most frequently appear in high-school and college anthologies or have had a profound influence upon some of the most notable authors of the twentieth century’-a balanced collection of classic (Theodore Dreiser, William Faulkner) and modern (Maya Angelou, Amy Tan), and popular (Judy Blume) and literary (Saul Bellow), fiction (Carson McCullers, John Irving) and nonfiction (James Agee), poetry (E. E. Cummings), drama (Lorraine Hansberry) and song (Bob Dylan).

Each volume profiles seven or eight writers in chapters that are up to 25 pages long. Arrangement is alphabetical. The first page of a chapter has a picture of the author and lists birth and death dates and locations. Also found on this page are an ‘Identification’ that defines the author’s genres and what he or she is most noted for, and a paragraph that summarizes the details of the longer profile that follows. A biographical essay, ‘The Writer’s Life,’ chronicles upbringing, education, adult family life, work history, and writing history and is accompanied by a chronology. The discussions include details about hardships and mistakes as well as successes. For instance, the biography about Truman Capone tells about his wild partying and alcoholism. ‘The Writer’s Work’ summarizes the literary career and includes a table listing works by genre and date.

The next section, ‘Reader’s Guide to Major Works,’ analyzes two or three of the most important writings in terms of plot, character, themes, and impacts. A bibliography of secondary sources is attached to each title entry. ‘Other Works’ briefly discusses some additional writings. Each chapter concludes with a list of resources, including archival collections, videos, and web sites. The illustrations that enhance most pages are a blend of photographs and well-chosen examples of American artwork. The artwork is beautifully reproduced in full color, and is large enough for students to see important details. In addition to artist’s name and title of the work, each caption relates the artwork to some aspect of the author’s life and writing. It is rare to see the fine arts so well represented in a resource about literature. Other illustrations show book covers, movie posters, or album covers.

The final, index volume has a glossary, lists of award winners, and a list of writers by genre. Multiple indexes provide access by writers, literary works, visual artworks, visual artists, films, literary characters, and geographic location.

This is one of several outstanding works Marshall Cavendish has been publishing for young adults. The contributors are experts in their fields and have a good sense of how to present the material in a manner that is informative without being boring or verbose. Great American Writers is a work that a reviewer is happy to read cover to cover, and, most importantly, that makes a librarian excited to (finally!) have something to give a student who is trying to write that literary criticism research paper for a hard-driving English teacher.”

“This 13-volume set from Marshall Cavendish introduces students to notable U.S. and Canadian writers. While some of the writers included were born in the nineteenth century, all of the writers included in this set published their works during the twentieth century. Overall, this set covers trendsetters that broke away from the genteel writing of the nineteenth century-such as Jack London, Upton Sinclair, and Gertrude Stein-along with groundbreaking authors throughout the twentieth century, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Toni Morrison, and Margaret Atwood, Playwrights, such as Eugene O’Neill, Arthur Miller, and Tennessee Williams are also covered.

The alphabetic entries begin with a summary of the vital facts about the author (i.e., birth and death dates and writing genres) and a paragraph about the writer’s significance in American literature followed by four main sections. ‘The Writer’s Life’ discusses important events in the writer’s life and ‘The Writer’s Work’ focuses on the writer’s literature contributions, including issues they addressed, recurrent themes, and character development. The ‘Reader’s Guide to Major Works’ section provides essays on a selection of the writer’s most notable and representative works. This section also includes lists of sources for further study. The section, ‘Other Works,’ briefly summarizes the writer’s other works not covered in the previous section. The entries then conclude with an additional list of resources, including books, Web sites, and videos.

Color photographs and illustrations are present throughout the volumes. Each volume contains a volume-specific index and volume 13 contains a comprehensive index for the entire set. This volume also includes a glossary; a list of Noble Prize winners in literature; a list of Pulitzer Prize winners; a further reading list; a guide to the writers by genre; and additional indexes by literary works, visual arts, visual artists, films, literary characters, and geographical locations. At nearly $460, this set is recommended for larger middle school, high school, and college libraries and smaller libraries that can afford it. It is a good introductory resource to many of the writers that are commonly studied in today’s curriculum.”

“Successfully collecting the works of popular writers and classic writers, fiction writers and nonfiction writers, and poets and songwriters into on interesting and well-organized resource makes this selection one that every high school should own. Listed alphabetically, each volume features between seven and nine writers. Each extensive entry contains a photograph and proves to be an excellent mini-biography of the writer's life and literary works. ‘A Writer's Life’ offers information on the childhood, education, adult life, and writing history of the writer.

Accompanied by a chronology, this offers readers a balanced look at their successes as well as failures in life. A table listing all of their works along with publication dates and genre accompanies details of the writer’s accomplishments. The two following sections offer a more in-depth look at several of the author's best-known works, as well as shorter examples of works outside of this category. Superb artwork and illustrations are featured throughout each volume, making this a visually rich as well as information-rich resource. The final, index volume has a glossary, lists of award winners, and a list of writers by genre. Multiple indexes provide access by writers, literary works, visual artworks, visual artists, films, literary characters, and geographic location. Highly Recommended.”