A Theodore Dreiser Encyclopedia by Keith NewlinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Okay, it's not like I have read this all the way through, but it's a nifty resource for building up knowledge of modern literature in general, while supplying us with a kind of periscope back into Theodore Dreiser's era, roughly late 1800s to 1930s. I learned about left-leaning journal of the early 1930s, "The American Spectator," the case of Chester Gillete who killed his pregnant girlfriend in 1906, the existence and contents of individual essays like "On Being Poor," "True Art Speaks Plainly," "The Novel Demueble" by Willa Cather, "Sanctuary," the influence of social Darwinism and Herbert Spencer, the influence of critics, especially H.L. Mencken and William Dean Howells, and more books and stories to read, like A Traveler At Forty, "The Problem," The Financier, Life in the Iron Mills, Documents of American Realism and Naturalism, and a new interest in the work of Frank Norris, Hart Crane, Harold Frederrico, Emile Zola, the brothers Edmund and Jules de Concourt.
This whole genre of writing, encyclopedias on narrow subjects and influential writers, or national literatures, seems super interesting to me this year. Browsing them is a great way to build knowledge fast; also, I'm procrastinating grading papers.This one is published by Greenwood, which contracts out to scholars. I remember doing one entry on LGBT culture in Malaysia, with my friend from that country. Recently, I've also discovered volumes from Facts on File, like the Facts on File Encyclopedia of American Literature, the Encyclopedia of British Writers 2 Volume Set, and the Encyclopedia of Literature and Criticism. I'm not too sure about quality in these matters, but it does feel more substantial than hanging out on Wikipedia for my single source of background information.
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