Women Writers in the United States: »

Cynthia J. Davis is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (OUP, 1995). Kathryn West is Assistant Professor of English at Bellarmine College. She was a contributor to The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States (OUP, 1995).

Women Writers in the United States is a celebration of the many forms of work—written and social, tangible and intangible—produced by American women. Davis and West document the variety and volume of women's work in the U.S. in a clear and accessible timeline format. They present information on the full spectrum of women's writing—including fiction, poetry, biography, political manifestos, essays, advice columns,and cookbooks, alongside a chronology of developments in social and cultural history that are especially pertinent to women's lives. This extensive chronology illustrates the diversity of women who have lived and written in the U.S. and creates a sense of the full trajectory of individual careers. A valuable and rich source of information on women's studies, literature, and history, Women Writers in the United States will enable readers to locate familiar and unfamiliar women's texts and to place them in the context out which they emerged.

Booknews

A reference guide to women's writing in the US presenting authors and their work side by side with social and cultural events during the same period in a "timeline format." Beginning with an acknowledgement of Native American oral traditions, the next entry is 1645 when Edward Hopkins, governor of Hartfod, took his wife Anne to Boston for medical help because she'd "lost her wits" and was writing books. From this rather inauspicious beginning the whole of women's authorship is represented including fiction, poetry, biography, political manifestos, essays, columns, and cookbooks. The final entries include Anna Deavere Smith, Gloria Steinem, and Dorothy West--quite a long way distance from that doctor's office. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)