A History of American Poetry

A History of American Poetry presents a comprehensiveexploration of the development of American poetic traditions fromtheir pre–Columbian origins to the present day. Richard Gray, oneof the leading authorities on American literature, situates thestory of American poetry within the historical, political,cultural, and societal contexts that contributed to shaping thegenre. Through close readings of individual poems, Gray reveals howAmerican poetry evolved to reflect the rich diversity andmulticultural character of the United States. While the primaryfocus is on poetry of the 20th– and 21st–centuries, numerousformative and influential figures from the colonial andrevolutionary eras through the 19th century are not overlooked,with coverage of voices ranging from Edward Taylor, AnneBradstreet, and Phillis Wheatley to Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson.Presenting the full breadth of American poetry in an accessible andengagingly written manner, A History of American Poetry isan invaluable guide to all facets of this essential componentof the nation s rich literary heritage.

Richard Gray has been Professor or Distinguished Visiting Professorat several universities in the UK and USA, including Essex, Georgiaand South Carolina. He is the first specialist in Americanliterature to be elected a Fellow of the British Academy and haspublished over a dozen books on the topic, including theaward–winning Writing the South: Ideas of an American Region(1986) and The Life of William Faulkner: A CriticalBiography (1994).