The Heath Anthology of American Literature

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This best-selling anthology has shaped the teaching of the American literary canon in classrooms nationwide. The editors continue to enhance its strengths, focusing on diverse reading selections and robust ancillary materials. With contributions from over 200 specialists, the anthology includes updated biographical and critical information, along with new works appealing to both instructors and students. The Fourth Edition emphasizes the varied communities and voices that make up the United States, past and present. Volume 1 covers Native American oral literatures up to 1865, featuring writers like Whitman and Dickinson. Volume 2 begins with African American folk tales and regional writers, adding new sections on the Beat Movement and the Vietnam Conflict. Full-length texts, such as The Scarlet Letter and The Awakening, are integrated throughout. The accompanying website offers a searchable multimedia timeline with literary, historical, and cultural information, author profiles, research links, and an online Instructor's Guide. The Southern literature section includes works by William Faulkner and H.L. Mencken, while border literature features novelist María Amparo Ruíz de Burton. Additionally, gay and lesbian writers like Dorothy Allison, James Merrill, and Richard Rodriguez are represented throughout the anthology.