James L. W. West III is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Penn State University. He is the author of many books, including American Authors and the Literary Marketplace since 1900, an expansion of his 1983 Rosenbach Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania, available from the University of Pennsylvania Press. His most recent books are William Styron, a Life (1998) and The Perfect Hour: The Romance of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ginevra King (2005).

"The best American novel I have ever read, with the lonesome but Himalayan exception of Huckleberry Finn." (H. L. Mencken) "For Dreiser, Jennie Gerhardt was a good career move. Now, with this Pennsylvania edition, we know that it is also a great novel." (New York Times)

• Introduction Suggestions for Further Reading A Note on the Text JENNIE GERHARDT Explanatory Notes