Biographical Companion to Literature in English

This first U.S. editon of Collins Biographical Dictionary of English Literature (1993) was prepared with the the general reader in mind and students of literature of all ages.

The lives and principal literary achievements of over 1500 writers are outlined in brief essays that emphasize the links between the life and art of each writer.

Authors of works in other languages are included if they are widely read in English or have influenced the development of literature in English.

Kamm also pays special attention to black, Jewish, and women's writing. Kamm takes into account the contributions of individual authors to the development of national literatures and cultural traditions.

He covers novelists in numerous genres, from Petronius to Bellow, Stephen King to Vargas Llosa; short story writers from Hawthorne and Henry James to Mavis Gallant, Alice Munro and Eudora Welty; poets from Homer, Virgil, and Petrarch, to Heaney, Denise Levertov, and Walcott; dramatists from Sophocles to Shepard; diarists from Pepys to Anne Frank; as well as travelers, historians, biographers, critics, philosophers, clerics, religious reformers, and children's writers. The many suggestions for further reading have been chosen for their accessibility.

The latest edition is listed for each, together with comprehensive bibliographical details, including subtitle and full name of translator and editors where appropriate.