Summary

Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman, Editors

Editorial Board:
John Unrue, University of Nevada-Las Vegas; Darlene Unrue, University of Nevada-Las Vegas; and Park Bucker, University of South Carolina-Sumter

Student’s Encyclopedia of American Literary Characters is a comprehensive four-volume set designed to help students approach American literature in what is often the most appealing way—through the most memorable characters of the greatest works. Approximately 900 in-depth character entries, ranging from about 1,000 to 1,400 words each, are organized alphabetically by author and then by work. Each entry features an assessment of the character’s traits, as well as an indication of the character’s role in the work.

Two to five discussion questions accompany each entry and help provide topics for papers or classroom discussion. Many questions draw parallels between various works of literature, encouraging students to make connections between literary texts, as emphasized by English Language Arts standards. This invaluable, clearly organized reference also includes further reading lists and an appendix of specialized indexes.

Entries include:

• Captain Ahab from Moby-Dick
• Frank Bascombe from Independence Day
• Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby
• Robert Cohn from The Sun Also Rises
• Janie Crawford from Their Eyes Were Watching God
• Ponyboy Curtis from The Outsiders
• Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird
• Huckleberry Finn from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Esther Greenwood from The Bell Jar
• The Lambert Family from The Corrections
• Hatsue Miyamoto from Snow Falling on Cedars
• Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind
• Edna Pontellier from The Awakening
• Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter
• Edmund Tyrone from Long Day’s Journey into Night
• John Wheelwright from A Prayer for Owen Meany
• Amanda Wingfield from The Glass Menagerie
• The Younger family from A Raisin in the Sun.

Specifications

Index. Appendix. Further reading. In four volumes.

About the Author(s)

Matthew J. Bruccoli wrote or edited more than 100 volumes on American literature. He was president of Bruccoli Clark Layman Publishers and Manly, Inc. and Emily Brown Jefferies Professor of English Emeritus at the University of South Carolina until his death in 2008. Student's Encyclopedia of American Literary Characters is the last major reference work of his distinguished career.

Judith S. Baughman is the author of Literary Masters: F. Scott Fitzgerald, the editor of American Decades: 1920–1929, and the coeditor of books on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, John Hall Wheelock, James Dickey, and Nelson Algren.