[Cynthia J. Davis,Kathryn West] Women Writers in the United States : A Timeline of Literary, Cultural, and Social History(pdf){Zzzzz}[BЯ]

Women Writers in the United States is a celebration of the many forms of work--written and social, tangible and intangible--produced by American women. Davis and West document the variety and volume of women's work in the U.S. in a clear and accessible timeline format. They present information on the full spectrum of women's writing--including fiction, poetry, biography, political manifestos, essays, advice columns,and cookbooks, alongside a chronology of developments in social and cultural history that are especially pertinent to women's lives. This extensive chronology illustrates the diversity of women who have lived and written in the U.S. and creates a sense of the full trajectory of individual careers. A valuable and rich source of information on women's studies, literature, and history, Women Writers in the United States will enable readers to locate familiar and unfamiliar women's texts and to place them in the context out which they emerged.

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Pick any year in this chronology and you will find an array of interesting and revealing information. In 1920, for instance, Margaret Sanger's treatise on voluntary motherhood came out. Also published were Edith Wharton's Pulitzer prize^-winning The Age of Innocence and Angelina Weld Grimke's Rachel, the first drama by a black woman to be performed by professional black actors. This record of women's writing is presented on the left side of the page under the heading Texts, while on the right side Contexts places the writing in historical perspective. So one understands that Sanger's success meshed with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment (women's suffrage) and the formation of the League of Women Voters. The counterpoint of women's writing with the social, political, and cultural context in a time-line format makes absorbing browsing. Women's writing is broadly defined, including cookbooks, essays, journalism, and political writing as well as literature. The Context events include women's achievements and events of national and international importance. Other tidbits give us a sense of the parallel lives of women: 1920 was also the year Bessie Smith began her recording career.

The time-line approach grew out of research the authors, both English professors, did as research assistants for the brief chronology included in The Oxford Companion to Women's Writing in the United States [RBB Ja 1 95]. A bibliography of works consulted is appended, as well as an index of subjects, names, and magazine titles (but not book titles) with reference to page and column. Some of the subjects listed--Plays, African Americans, Autobiographies have too many page numbers to be really useful.

All in all, this is a fascinating work. One might quibble about what facts were left out of the context--1920 was also the first year of the cartoon strip "Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner" and the crowning of the first Miss America at Atlantic City--but this work is a valuable source of contextualized information about women's writing and women's lives. It is suitable for academic and large public library collections or any library with an interest in women's cultural studies.
Review

"Pick any year in this chronology and you will find an array of interesting and revealing information....this is a fascinating work....this work is a valuable source of contextualized information about women's writing and women's lives. It is suitable for academic and large public library collections or any library with an interest in women's cultural studies."--Booklist

Publisher: Oxford University Press; 1st edition (May 9, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0195090535
ISBN-13: 978-0195090536