This classic survey of American literature from its sixteenth-century origins to its flourishing present features the work of over 260 writers, with 34 newly included. Among the 36 works reproduced in their entirety are "Franklin's Autobiography"; "The Scarlet Letter"; "Walden"; "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn"; "The Awakening"; "My Antonia"; "As I Lay Dying"; "A Streetcar Named Desire"; "Quicksand"; ""Howl" and Glengarry Glen Ross". This edition pays increased attention to cultural contexts through the inclusion of 45 colour plates, 12 contextual clusters, updated maps and timelines, and through extensively revised section introductions, headnotes, footnotes and bibliographies.