For the scholar, teacher, and librarian who consulted with pleasure and profit Articles on American Literature 1900-1950, the newest volume of this compilation is a welcome event. Encompassing another two decades of literary scholarship, the book provides an impressing listing of periodical contributions to the study of American literature. The purpose of this collection has been as useful as possible. With the present work this goal is still the guideline for a masterful bibliography, and the volume takes its place as an indispensable tool of reference for both the student and teacher of American literature.
This compilation is collaborative; its core is a conflation of items based on the quarterly checklists of "Articles on American Literature Appearing in Current Periodicals" in American Literature from January 1951 through January 1958. Other items have been added frot the annual bibliographies in the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, the American Quarterly, and the New England Quarterly. And finally, there have been added listings from other more specialized bibliographies on genres or authors.
The accumulated listings are arranged in a single author alphabet, with miscellaneous articles divided into convenient categories. That this volume is nearly twice the length of its predecessor is an indication of the burgeoning scholarship devoted to American literature in the last twenty years. It is of the greatest importance then that the scholar have the kind of comprehensive guide which will free him from the time -consuming task of searching out materials. Lewis Leary's book provides just such a guide.
Appearing concurrently with this volume is a reprinting of the popular Articles on American Literature 1900-1950, originally published in 1954. This compilation (itself a revision and extension of the 1947 Articles on American Literature Appearing in Current Periodicals, 1920-1945) is an alphabetical listing of articles on American literature, primarily in English, appearing in periodicals from 1900 through 1950.