The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry [Five Volumes]

Subjects:

• Literature » American Literature
• Literature » Literature (General)

Awards:

• Booklist Editors' Choice 2006

Reviews:

• This very scholarly and accessible reference work is the largest ever on American poetry: it expands beyond just "American" poets to cover the Anglophone poetry of North America and the Caribbean, thus including entries for such poets as the Canadian-born David Bromage and Edward Kaman Braithwaite of Barbados.... The main competitors for this set are Gale's 2006 Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) and Fitzroy Dearborn's 2001 Encyclopedia of American Poetry (EAP). Greenwood's title has the advantage of being the newest, but, more important, it includes many more poets--some fairly obscure--than either of the other sets....Greenwood is the most authoritative.
  —Library Journal April 15, 2006
• Over 900 essays by scholars and poets cover the major authors, influences, movements, and literary techniques in American poetry from the Colonial era to the present. Alphabetical author entries present biographical information, place the poets in historical and critical context, and discuss themes and literary techniques. Many entries include lines from significant poems for illustration....Topical essays, crafted to reflect how specific American writers apply poetic forms or fit into various genres or movements, also summarize differing critical perspectives. Many essays provide a surprising amount of detail....Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above, as well as poets and educators.
  —Choice September 2006
• Public libraries looking for a comprehensive resource about contemporary English language poetry and American poetry specifically need look no further.
  —Reference Reviews February 2007
• This comprehensive, scholarly survey of American poetry covers nearly 400 years of verse....This excellent guide is the most important reference tool since the New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics to focus on poetry, and the most substantial to ever survey American poetry. This title is highly recommended for high school, public and academic libraries.
  —Lawrence Looks at Books December 2006
• This encyclopedia provides a surprisingly complete collection of entries on American poetry and poets from the early colonial to the contemporary era....[i]t deserves a place in public, seminary and college libraries that have an interest in American poetry.
  —Christian Century August 22, 2006
• Deeply read scholars with all kinds of specialties and general readers have, in these five volumes a feast of education that is pleasurable and rewarding. The range of conversational poets and their works is wide, but what is probably most surprising and rewarding is the inclusion of popular songs and their authors, and minstrelsy, its songs and other forms of poetry. This inclusion is certainly as it should be, for if one is going to chart the poetry of the American people one must surely include the voice poetry that nearly everyone exercises and loves. This, then, is a comprehensive charting of the routes of American poets and their works. Further, it is written in a style that is down-to-earth and pleasurable to read. The set is certainly a required reference set for every library and each individual who likes to reaffirm or get know the road of American poetry.
  —The Journal of American Culture September 2006
• There is no comparable encyclopedia covering American poetry....[T]he Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry provides an excellent overview for students learning about American poetry, and is recommended for libraries wishing to provide basic reference information on American poetry for high school and undergraduate students.
  —Reference & User Services Quarterly Fall 2006
• [T]his encyclopedia contains some 900 alphabetical entries temporally spanning from prior to the existence of the United States to the beginning of the 21st century. Gray and his collaborators include articles on well-know, lesser known, and emerging poets; key schools; movements; theories; practices; and poetic terms coined in America or specifically related to American poetic practice.... Each entry provides a brief guide to further reading and, at the end of the final volume, a non- annotated bibliography guides the reader towards other works, including poetry anthologies, anthologies of essays by poets on poetry, critical studies, reference works, and websites.
  —Reference & Research Book News May 2006
• Edited by Jeffrey Grey, this five-volume encyclopedia contains more than 900 articles by close to 350 scholars. However, it is the comprehensive nature of the coverage that is most impressive....[t]here is no other set with the comprehensive, up-to-date focus on American poetry offered in these five volumes. Main and branch public libraries, as well as high school and undergraduate collections should give it serious consideration.
  —Against the Grain June 2006
• Starred Review This monumental reference work addresses 802 authors and 117 topics. Alphabetical cross-referenced entries range from 1,000 to 5,000 words words, and all are followed by lists for further reading,broken down into primary and secondary sources....The editor leads an impressive roster of contributors, many of them highly regarded scholars in their fields. Nothing quite compares to the present work--to get the breadth and depth of this encyclopedia, users would have to combine several outstanding reference works....The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Poets and Poetry is useful for a wide readership, especially high-school and college students. Highly recommended.
  —Booklist/Reference Books Bulletin May 15, 2006
• Any collection strong in the topic--particularly college-level holdings--will want to include this in their reference section. It's the most comprehensive reference on American poetry in print, offering nearly a thousand alphabetically arranged entries contributed by over three hundred genre scholars.
  —The Midwest Book Review - California Bookwatch April 2006
• Packed into this steamer trunk of memories and mythologies is a fair amount of fine opinion and friendly introduction. Of the more than 900 alphabetically arranged articles found here, approximately one third deal with writers and movements prior to the 20th century. The rest cover 20th- and 21st-century poets and poetry movements. Profiles of individuals run from one to six pages and generally present a brief biographical sketch and critical assessment, peppered with a handful of quotes.... The set does have its rewards and sparks-one can readily imagine Walt Whitman joyously thumbing through its pages.
  —School Library Journal April 2006

Table of Contents:

• Alphabetic List of Entries
• Topical List of Entries
• Preface
• Introduction
• A-to-Z Entries
• General Bibliography
• About the Editors, Advisors, and Contributors
• Index

PDF Catalogs:
Award Winners Catalog.pdf	Greenwood Literature Spring 2008.pdf