Athens, 0H: Ohio University Press, (1988) dj. Hardcover first edition - Includes an introduction on Lessing's readers and readings and eleven selected essays which look at different aspects of her work, both personal and political. Contributors include Frederick Stern, Molly Hite, Alvin Sullivan, Katherine Fishburn, Jeanne Murray Walker, Alizabeth Abel, Nicole Ward Jouvre, Victorial Middrleton, Crey Kaplan, Lorna Sage, and Eve Bertelsen. Notes at the end of each essay, appendix. 187 pp. ISBN: 0-821408917.

New York: Julian Messner, (1959) dj. Hardcover first edition - The dust jacket describes this as "At last the complete story of the 'Beats'- that hip, cool, frantic generation of new Bohemians who are turning the American scale of values inside out." Although Lipton was a prolific novelist, poet and columnist, this was the book that linked him to the Beat Generation literary movement. Lipton's home in Venice, California, served as an informal center for the arts, including the movement to restore poetry as a vocal art and experimenting with jazz long before the Beats became famous. Notes, glossary. 320 pp plus an 8 pp "Venice West Picture Essay" with 30 photographs.

New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. dj. Hardcover first edition - An exploratation on how the concept of blackness has evolved in Western thought and literature by this novelist and critic - a free-ranging book which covers early European attitudes during the days of the slave trade, slave narratives, books like 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' and modern writers like Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, Aime Cesaire as well as white writers like Norman Mailer and John Updike. 295 pp with index. ISBN: 0-19-5133706.

Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, (1983.) dj. Hardcover first edition - In this, the first serious study of London's novels - which have often been dismissed at the product of a talented hack and a literary barbarian - Watson examines their 'sources, their unifying themes, and their suggestion of real literary development.' Focusing on nine of the best novels -including 'Call of the Wild', 'The Iron Heel,' 'Martin Eden,' and others - he draws on original research to demonstrate London's literary dependence on personal experiences. Frontispiece, notes, chronology, index. xv, 304 pp/. ISBN: 0-29909300X.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, (1989). The authors "use Wittgenstein's theory of language games to examine the problem of justice. Structured as a Platonic dialogue recorded over a period of seven days, this was published in France in 1979 as 'Au juste.' . . Both authors probe the relationship of language to truth and the consequences, for ethics and politics, of any theoretical posture on this issue: Can we have a politics without the Idea of justice?" Translated by Wlad Godzich. Includes an afterword ("Literature: Just Making It") by Samuel Weber, translated by Brian Massumi. Notes, index. 128 pp. ISBN: 0-816612773.

New York: Basic Books, (1966.) dj. Hardcover first edition - A study of a subset of Victorian era literature, including a detailed examination of the 11-volume "My Secret Life," essays on Henry Spencer Ashbee and William Acton, and an analysis of four Victorian pornographic novels and a review of works devoted to flagellation. A title in the "Studies in Sex and Society" series, sponsored by the Institute for Sex Research, Indiana University. Index. xv, 292 pp.

Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1975. Hardcover first edition - Focuses on the major literary productions of the late English Renaissance, including works by Bacon, poems by Donne, Herbert & Marvel, Milton's Paradise Lost and eight plays by Shakespeare. 278 pgs., index.

Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, (1989). First edition - Gathers together 41 essays and reviews by James Ward Lee, Tom Pilkington, Ernestine P. Sewell, Mark Busby, Robert Flynn, Donald Barthelme, Louise Erdrich, Don Graham, Michael Mewshaw and more. Introduction by Clay Reynolds, and final accompanying essay by Hamlin Hill. Bibliography by Charles Williams. Notes on contributors. 444 pp. ISBN: 0-870742612.

San Bernardino, CA: R. Reginald / Borgo Press, 1978. First edition - While Morris is perhaps best known as a textile designer, printer and craftsman associated with the Arts and Craft movement, his contributions also helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, laying the foundation for Tolkien and others. This study looks at all of Morris's fiction as a distinctive, original and consistent body of work. Selected critical sources. The Milford Series, Popular Writers of Today Volume Thirteen. 63 pp. ISBN: 0-893702188.

New York: Vanguard, (1972) dj. Hardcover first edition - A collection of essays which examine the works of such writers as Shakespeare, Chekhov, Melville, Dostoevski, Thomas Mann, etc. Notes, 259 pp. ISBN: 0-814906753.

The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970. First edition - A thematic study of the prose writings of this influential avant-garde Flemish poet - who has also remained enduringly popular in his native Belgium. The first such study to be written in English, and the first to focus on his prose. A title in the 'Bibliotheca Neerlandica Exta Muros' series. Frontispiece portrait. Includes several appendices, chronology, bibliography, notes. x, 196 pp.

New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, (1999) dj. Hardcover first edition - A book by this noted Israeli author which analyzes the opening sections of novels and short stories by such writers as Agnon, Gogol, Kafka, Chekhov, Garcia Marquez, and Raymond Carver. Translated from the Hebrew by Maggie Bar-Tura. 118 pp. ISBN: 0-151002975.

Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. (1993.). An innovative look at why we should still read the 'white, male, canonical writers of antiquity and early England.' As one review said 'even those who disagree with Patterson's arguments will respect the extraordinary ease with which she crosses the boundaries between the disciplines of history and literary studies.' 339 pp with index. ISBN: 0-299-135446.

Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., (1967) dj. Hardcover first edition - A collection of essays which discuss the relationship between the fiction and the drama of this revolutionary playwright-poet-novelist, and his influence on other writers, including showing that "his intuition of absurdity anticipated Sartre and Camus, his insights foreshadowed Beckett, and that his approach to conflict predated Albee and Pinter." Includes a chronology, notes on the contributors and a brief selected bibliography. A title in the Twentieth Century Views series. Erratum slip tipped in. 182 pp.

New York: Oxford University Press, 1969. dj. Hardcover first edition - A study of Poe which focuses on his career as a journalist between 1835-1840 and places him in the perspective of the British literary tradition. 253 pgs including notes & index.

New York: Random House, 1985. dj. Hardcover first edition - 46 brief critical essays on writers ranging from Henry Fielding to Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Virgnia Woolf, and from Twain and Faulkner to Nathaniel West and Camus and Tugenov, etc.

New York: Kennikat Press, 1971. dj. Hardcover first edition - A title in the National University Publications Series on Literary Criticism. Included are essays on Shakespeare (MacBeth and Hamlet), Keats, Melville and Yeats. ISBN: 0-8046-90162.

New York: Norton, (1975.). In addition to a selection of Rich's early poems, this includes critical essays by W. H. Auden, Randall Jarrell, Erica Jong and Nancy Milford, among others. A title in the Norton Critical Edition series. 215 pp. ISBN: 0-393-092410.

New York: Norton, (1975.). In addition to a selection of Rich's early poems, this includes critical essays by W. H. Auden, Randall Jarrell, Erica Jong and Nancy Milford, among others. A title in the Norton Critical Edition series. 215 pp. ISBN: 0-393-092410.

Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, (1974) dj. Hardcover first edition - An early study of the Sherlock Holmes stories, "The book reads like a detective story itself as the author encounters the people who knew Conan Doyle and who turned up in his stories; unravels clue after clue about Sir Arthur himself; and discovers the real meaning behind the Sherlock Holmes mysteries. Doyle was the creator of one of the world's most enduring fictional characters, and a serious artist as well." Index. 203 pp. ISBN: 0-672519143.

Boston: Schocken, 1988. dj. Hardcover first edition - The first study of Sagan's novels to dissect her serious literary concerns as well as her contributions to popular culture. Index, bibliography.

New York: Grove Press, (1992) dj. Hardcover first edition - A look at the "second wave" of expatriate American writers who took up residence in Paris between 1944-1960, "some seeking the exciting ambiance of art and the bohemian life that Paris has offered earlier generations, some escaping from racist and materialistic aspects of the United States." Among these writers were Richard Wright, James Baldwin, James Jones, William Styron, Chester Himes, George Plimpton, John Ashbery, Harry Matthews, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Alexander Trocchi, Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin, and William S. Burroughs. This book is an anecdotal account of the friendships and associations the writers formed, the cross-cultural influences they experienced, what they discovered, and what they brought back. Photographs, notes, selected bibliography, index. x,345 pp. ISBN: 0-802113710.

Columbia: The University of Missouri, 1937. First edition - Original publication of this scholarly and wide-ranging survey. Index. 198 pp. Slightly oversized format measuring 10 1/2 by 7 1/2 inches.

New York: Random House, (2006). First edition - A book which "focuses on cutting-edge controversies about the true source of Shakespeares enchantment and illumination - the astonishing language itself. . . [It] takes readers into the midst of fierce battles among the most brilliant Shakespearean scholars and directors over just how to delve deeper into the Shakespearean experience." xvii, 550 pp.

Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, Inc. (1995.). Looks at the treatment of 5 American classics by academic critics: Hawthrone's The Scarlet Letter, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, Melville's Moby Dick and Billy Budd and James's The Bostonians. 203 pp. with notes and index. ISBN: 1-56663-0959.

Atlanta:
Longstreet Press, (1992) dj. Hardcover first edition - Writers, including Madison Smartt Bell, Fred Chappell, Jim Barnes, Reginald McKnight, Scott Russell Sanders, and many others, talk about their writing. Includes a photograph and brief bilbliography of each author. xiv. 416 pp. ISBN: 1-563520281.

Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1966. A pocket paperback original originally published in 1960 - includes commentary by or about Robertson Davies, Morley Callaghan, Stephen Leacock, Malcolm Lowry and others.