Presents five works from American writer John Steinbeck, all portraying life in rural California.

Presents a selection of poems from eighty-five American poets written between the beginning of the twentieth century and the end of World War II; arranged chronologically by the birthdate of the author, from 1838 to 1893.

With the publication of her first book, Against Interpretation, in 1966, Susan Sontag placed herself at the forefront of an era of cultural and political transformation. "What is important now," she wrote, "is to recover our senses ... In place of a hermeneutics we need an erotics of art." She would remain a catalyzing presence, whether writing about camp sensibility, the films of Jean-Luc Godard and Alain Resnais, her experiences as a traveler to...

In his 1970 classic The Omni-Americans, Albert Murray (1916-2013) took aim at protest writers and social scientists who accentuated the "pathology" of race in American life. Against narratives of marginalization and victimhood, Murray argued that black art and culture, particularly jazz and blues, stand at the very headwaters of the American mainstream, and that much of what is best in American art embodies the "blues-hero tradition"- a heritage of...

"Texas troubadour, convicted embezzler, and adopted New Yorker William Sidney Porter--better known as O. Henry--was one of the world's great storytellers. A master of cunning plots and a gifted humorist, he is best known today for his beloved tale "The Gift of the Magi." But O. Henry's palette of moods and methods was as expansive as his exuberant imagination. This Library of America volume offers a fresh look at the full range of his literary genius....