The introductory essay in this volume serves as a meditation on Fitzgerald's enduring relevance, pointing out how the major themes persisting across his workwealth, success, love, youth, and tragedyare also enduring themes within the American consciousness. Other essays discuss Fitzgerald's interpretation of the American Dream, his place within American popular culture and survey the critical reception of the novels and short stories to demonstrate the rise, fall, and resurgence of Fitzgerald's reputation as a major American author. Finally, novelist and screenwriter Budd Schulberg offers a...

Easily one of America's most important novelists, John Steinbeck has been a favorite among readers of all kinds for decades. New essays describe the social and historical contexts to which Steinbeck responded in his work, evaluate the novelist's relationship with literary naturalism, and offer an ecofeminist reading of the stories of The Long Valley. Other essay selections introduce readers to key issues in the critical discussion of Steinbeck, and include examinations of Tortilla Flats, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden.

They will not be relegated to simply "sidekick" status. These proud individuals can, and will, stand up in the face of a world that can be over-sized and unfeeling. They will strive and survive. These are their stories... their SHORT STORIES.

"Every place I visited," says Hudson Strode, "was like a surprise package to be opened, and I untied the strings with high expectations." Reading The Eleventh House: Memoirs is like going to a party of smartly dressed guests.

Strode starts his foreign travels in Sorrento with Dante's descendant Count Dante Serego-Alighieri as his guide. He takes a Russian cattle boat to Tunisia and lunches with the lovely Countess de Brazza. Then he embarks on a whirlwind tour of South America and writes South by Thunderbird. Later, in England, he visits Rebecca West at her country home and...

Fiction. Women's Studies. BELLES' LETTERS 2 affords a variety of fiction being written by Alabama women. A number of stories are love stories--first loves, lost loves, strange loves, from transient, feckless, grotesque, even abusive, to permanent and heartwarming. Featuring 39 authors, including Lee Smith, Sena Naslund, Fannie Flagg, Gail Godwin, and Vicki Covington.