For undergraduate and graduate students and scholars, Sivils (Iowa State U.) and Walker (Oklahoma State U.) bring together 10 articles by American studies and literature scholars from the US on
literature during the period of 1789 to 1851 (the year of the death of James Fenimore Cooper). Articles consist of studies of individual authors and their works, including Philip Freneau and
Nathaniel Hawthorne; Cooper's The Crater, "The Littlepage Manuscripts," and The Ways of the Hour; comparisons between Cooper and Jane Austen and Juan Le籀n Mera; and issues such as the slave
narrative tradition, the naval ballad, and the use of American landscape painting. It is the first volume in the annual series. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
