James D. Hart – författare

For nearly half a century, James D. Hart's Oxford Companion to American Literature has offered a matchless guided tour through American literary culture, both past and present. Hart now presents the first abridgement of the Companion in a paperback edition, making the entries of the greatest general interest from the original volume available to a much wider audience.Compact and affordable, The Concise Oxford Companion to American Literature contains over 2,000 entries, including brief biographies of important authors, plot summaries of individual works, descriptions of important literary movements, and a wealth of information on other aspects of American literary life and history from the Colonial period to the modern era. It devotes approximately 325 of the biographical entries to contemporary writers, introducing such newcomers to the Companion as William Kennedy, Grace Paley, and Raymond Carver. The more specialized and esoteric entries from the original have been omitted.Like its predecessor, The Concise Oxford Companion contains a thorough system of cross references to guide the reader to related information on a given topic, as well as a chronological Index outlining significant events in the literary and social history of the United States.

For more than a half a century, James Hart's Oxford Companion to American Literature has been a matchless guide through the myriad paths and byways of American literary culture. It has been revised regularly since its first publication in 1941, although Hart died in 1990, before he could complete this new edition. The experienced reference book editor Phillip Leininger has completed the revisions for the sixth edition of this classic work .Nearly 200 new entries range from major new literary talents (Don Delillo, Thomas Flanagan, William Kennedy, Cormac MacCarthy) to playwrights and theatre people (Harvey Fierstein, John Guare, Stephen Sondheim, August Wilson), and science fiction and popular authors (Raymond Carver, Stephen King, Harold Robbins, Theodore Sturgeon). Many more entries have been expanded to take account of work written since the publication of the last edition (Saul Bellow, Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike). Leininger has also endeavoured to widen the scope of the book by adding entries on women (M. F. K. Fisher, Ursula Le Guin, Bobbie Ann Mason, Gloria Steinhem), as well as African Americans, Native Americans, and other ethnic groups. The Companions Chronological Index includes new literary and social notes that bring it right up to date.While there are a number of reference works dealing with American literature, none of them have the stature and authority of the Oxford Companion, a delight for both the casual browser and the serious student.

This work is intended as a useful companion for anybody interested in general or basic knowledge about any aspect of the most populous state in the Union. It is designed to be serviceable to a wide variety of readers and consultants, whose range might include residents and tourists, high-school and college students, as well as scholars seeking a ready reference. At present no single volume comprehends such a scope as this one and although it treats its subjects briefly, many an entry also includes data not found elsewhere in a single place. Reference to hundreds of books and articles would be required to provide the information that is here between the two covers.

The Popular Book: A History of America’s Literary Taste by James D. Hart traces how ordinary readers across four centuries have shaped, and been shaped by, what they read. Beginning with the utilitarian choices of the Mayflower settlers, Hart follows the growth of a reading public that consumed everything from psalm books, almanacs, and captivity narratives to sentimental novels, Gothic romances, and practical manuals. He reveals how America’s literary marketplace grew in tandem with shifting social, religious, and political contexts—from Puritan piety and Enlightenment rationalism to Revolutionary pamphleteering, the sentimentalism of the early republic, and the rise of mass-market fiction. Through detailed case studies of best sellers like Pilgrim’s Progress, Common Sense, Charlotte Temple, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book demonstrates how popular texts mirrored and molded cultural values.Far from a simple chronology of American letters, Hart’s work situates literature within the everyday life of communities, households, and circulating libraries, emphasizing how reading habits illuminate broader cultural transformations. By examining probate inventories, publishers’ invoices, and anecdotal evidence, he uncovers the texture of ordinary literary experience and challenges traditional hierarchies of taste. The Popular Book ultimately presents a vivid cultural history of how Americans—from colonial settlers to nineteenth-century consumers—defined themselves through what they chose to read, offering essential insights into the dynamics of literary popularity and the evolving relationship between print and public.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1950.

The Popular Book: A History of America’s Literary Taste by James D. Hart traces how ordinary readers across four centuries have shaped, and been shaped by, what they read. Beginning with the utilitarian choices of the Mayflower settlers, Hart follows the growth of a reading public that consumed everything from psalm books, almanacs, and captivity narratives to sentimental novels, Gothic romances, and practical manuals. He reveals how America’s literary marketplace grew in tandem with shifting social, religious, and political contexts—from Puritan piety and Enlightenment rationalism to Revolutionary pamphleteering, the sentimentalism of the early republic, and the rise of mass-market fiction. Through detailed case studies of best sellers like Pilgrim’s Progress, Common Sense, Charlotte Temple, and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the book demonstrates how popular texts mirrored and molded cultural values.Far from a simple chronology of American letters, Hart’s work situates literature within the everyday life of communities, households, and circulating libraries, emphasizing how reading habits illuminate broader cultural transformations. By examining probate inventories, publishers’ invoices, and anecdotal evidence, he uncovers the texture of ordinary literary experience and challenges traditional hierarchies of taste. The Popular Book ultimately presents a vivid cultural history of how Americans—from colonial settlers to nineteenth-century consumers—defined themselves through what they chose to read, offering essential insights into the dynamics of literary popularity and the evolving relationship between print and public.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1950.

This thoroughly revised second edition provides insightful learning exercises to help students develop their imaginative and creative abilities. It Illustrates the creative and practical dimensions of entrepreneurship, presenting ideas and time-tested techniques that contribute towards problem-solving and value creation while increasing the likelihood of novel solutions emerging.With 80 original and effective exercises applicable to an entire entrepreneurial process, James Hart outlines the pedagogical method of Creative Entrepreneurship. Hart introduces an assessment tool for learning as well as a reflection tool for student use, alongside useful tips for teaching. Featuring games, simulations, demonstrations and projects, each exercise can be easily adapted for specific teaching needs and incorporates clear learning objectives to ensure a dynamic classroom experience.This is an invaluable read for educators and students of entrepreneurship and business and management. It offers experiential learning insights to gain the most out of teaching and learning this complex topic. The tools and exercises also benefit governmental and private sector trainers when leading/teaching professional development enhancement courses.