Linda Wagner-Martin

Hanes Professor of English and Comparative Literature Linda Wagner-Martin, Prof

Given in memory of Ethel A. Tsutsui, Ph. D. and Minoru Tsutsui, Ph. D.

A Biography

Sylvia Plath

A reading of the oeuvre of Toni Morrison—fiction, non-fiction, and other—drawing extensively from her many interviews as well as her primary texts, Toni Morrison: A Literary Life, second edition provides an overview of Morrison’s intellectual growth as an artist. Linda Wagner-Martin aligns Morrison's novels with the works of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, assessing her works as among the most innovative, and most significant, worldwide, of the past fifty plus years. The revised edition includes new discussion of God Help the Child, The Origin of Others, and The Source of Self-Regard. These additions present and intensify scholarship on Morrison’s major literary contributions, but also trace her significant role as a public intellectual, bringing to light the consistency of Morrison’s aesthetic and political visions.

A Literary Life

Toni Morrison

This book aims to both describe and analyze the way Steinbeck learned the writing craft. It begins with his immersion in the short story, some years after he stopped attending Stanford University. Aside from a weak first novel, his professional writing career began with the publication in 1932 of The Pastures of Heaven, stories set in the Salinas Valley and dedicated to his parents. From that book he wrote truly commanding stories such as The Red Pony. Intermixed with Steinbeck’s journalism about California’s labor difficulties, his writing skill led to his 1930 masterpieces, Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle, and The Grapes of Wrath. The latter novel, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1940, led eventually to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. He continued producing such wide-ranging works as The Pearl, East of Eden, The Winter of Our Discontent, and Travels with Charley up to just a few months before his death in 1968.

John Steinbeck

Kelly Reames

The most substantial collection of critical essays on Morrison to appear since her death in mid-2019, this book contains previously unpublished essays which both acknowledge the universal significance of her writing even as they map new directions. Essayists include pre-eminent Morrison scholars, as well as scholars who work in cultural criticism, African American letters, American modernism, and women's writing. The book includes work on Morrison as a public intellectual; work which places Morrison's writing within today's currents of contemporary fiction; work which draws together Morrison's “trilogy” of Beloved, Jazz, and Paradise alongside Dos Passos' USA trilogy; work which links Morrison to such Black Atlantic artists as Lubaina Himid and others as well as work which offers a reading of “influence” that goes both directions between Morrison and Faulkner. Another cluster of essays treats seldom-discussed works by Morrison, including an essay on Morrison as writer of children's books and as speaker for children's education. In addition, a “Teaching Morrison” section is designed to help teachers and critics who teach Morrison in undergraduate classes. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Toni Morrison is wide-ranging, provocative, and satisfying; a fitting tribute to one of the greatest American novelists.

The Bloomsbury Handbook to Toni Morrison

Laura Rattray

Publishing to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby, this collection offers readers both general overviews of Fitzgerald's background, influences, and cultural contexts while also advancing some vital new research approaches to understanding Fitzgerald's body of work.

The Bloomsbury Handbook to F. Scott Fitzgerald

Bringing together leading voices from across the globe, The Bloomsbury Handbook to F. Scott Fitzgerald presents state-of-the-art scholarship on the renowned Jazz Age writer, as well as offering an approachable overview of his background, influences, and cultural context. This comprehensive volume features: - A variety of national and transnational perspectives - Essays which consider Fitzgerald's work via key contemporary approaches such as race studies, whiteness studies, queer studies, the digital humanities, literary geography, and ecocriticism - New comparative approaches that consider the author in the context of his contemporaries, including writers of the Harlem Renaissance and modernism - An innovative cluster of short essays by practitioners, reflecting on their work with Fitzgerald materials Offering an indispensable resource for researchers and students alike, this handbook brings together the most exciting scholarship one a true giant of American literature.

From the heart of the Great Depression to the turbulent 1960s, the mid-century in America was a vibrant literary era. Linda Wagner-Martins comprehensive study encompasses the political literature that flourished in the 1930s, the beat movement of the 1950s, and the multicultural literature of the 1960s. Wagner-Martin includes in her critical consideration African-American women writers, Jewish writers, and gay and lesbian writers who have been unjustly forgotten in earlier assessments of this period. The inclusion of popular writers in such genres as detective fiction also adds to the depth of this study. 01

The Mid-century American Novel, 1935-1965

This book explores Toni Morrison's use of family in her narratives, particularly on the roles of mother and child. .

From «the Bluest Eye» to «God Help the Child», Revised Edition

Toni Morrison and the Maternal

Four Decades of Criticism

William Faulkner

Sylvia Plath a Biography

This Reader's Guide is an ideal starting point for students wanting a clear introduction to Plath's life. It studies her relationship with Ted Hughes and his influence on her poetry and its reception and gives close guidance on reading her poetry focusing particularly on the most commonly studied groups of poems. It includes a survey of Plath's critical reception and a guide to further reading.

Sylvia Plath's Poetry

A revised and updated edition of a comprehensive biographical and critical reading of the works of American poet and memoirist Maya Angelou (1928-2014). Linda Wagner-Martin covers all six of Angelou's autobiographies, as well as her essay and poetry collections, whilst also exploring Angelou's life as an African American in the United States, her career as stage and film performer, her thoughtful participation in the Civil Rights actions of the 1960s, and her travels abroad in Egypt, Africa, and Europe. In her discussion of Angelou's methods of writing her stunning autobiography, which began with the 1970 publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Wagner-Martin writes about the influences of the Harlem Writers Group (led by James Baldwin, Paule Marshall, and John O. Killens) as well as Angelou's significant friendships with Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other leaders from both international and African American United States cultures. Crucial concepts throughout include the role of oral traditions, of song and dance, of the spiritualism of art based on religious belief, of Angelou's voiced rhythms and her polished use of dialogue to convey more abstract meaning. Wagner-Martin shows that, viewing herself as a global citizen, Angelou never lost her spirit of adventure and discovery as well as her ability to overcome. Named an Outstanding Academic Title of the Year by Choice in 2015, this new edition includes two new chapters on Angelou's connections to Africa and on her final years.

Adventurous Spirit

Maya Angelou

Essays in Fiction and Poetry

American Modern

Reexamines Hemingway as America's modernist writer, and explores historical and biographical details of the writer's life, as well as the unexpected dimensions of his accomplishments and influence.

Linda Wagner-Martin

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