Anne Tyler is one of America's most significant contemporary writers. This book is a solid introduction to her life and work. It includes the first biography of Tyler, along with a record of her writings and the response to her work. It incorporates source materials from the Anne Tyler Papers at Duke University and letters from Tyler to the author. The volume lists all of Tyler's novels, short stories, articles, and book reviews and provides an annotated bibliography of critical studies. The first half of the book is a biography of Tyler. The author describes her childhood in a North Carolina commune, her high school years in Raleigh, her college years at Duke, and her earliest writing efforts. The biography charts the development of her life and career through her marriage, motherhood, early novels and stories, her life in Baltimore and career as a book reviewer, her rise to fame, and the themes of her major works. The bibliography that follows lists her novels, short stories, nonfiction articles and essays, poetry, children's books, book reviews, and the manuscripts in her papers at Duke University, along with an annotated secondary bibliography.

Anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is one of the most significant African American writers of the 20th century. Born in Alabama, she grew up in a small town in Florida, where she developed an interest in African American folklore. In 1925 she moved to New York and became part of the Harlem Renaissance, meeting such figures as Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten. She continued her anthropological research at Barnard under Franz Boas, and African American folklore became central to her fiction. She is best remembered as the author of DEGREESIJonah's Gourd Vine, DEGREESR DEGREESITheir Eyes Were Watching God, DEGREESR and DEGREESIMules and Men, DEGREESR her study of African American folklore of the South.

This reference is a convenient and thorough guide to her life and writings. A chronology outlines the major events in her life and her most significant accomplishments, while a short biography offers a narrative assessment of her career. The heart of the book is a collection of hundreds of alphabetically arranged entries. These cover her works, characters, themes, motifs, family members, and acquaintances. Entries for the most important topics include suggestions for further reading, and the volume closes with extensive primary and secondary bibliographies.

A major contemporary writer, Anne Tyler has published 13 novels and almost 50 short stories. Her earliest fiction was published in the Duke University literary magazine during her undergraduate years. In 1964, she published her first novel, If Morning Ever Comes. She attained fame with The Accidental Tourist (1985), which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was made into a movie. Her next novel, Breathing Lessons (1988), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and she has acquired a loyal following of readers. She has also written numerous reviews, and her short fiction has appeared in an assortment of magazines over the last 30 years. Tyler's broad popularity has been matched by a rise in scholarly interest in her works, and each year sees an increasing number of books and articles published about her writings. Many of her readers are interested in knowing more about her life, artistic development, and earlier works. And because much of her short fiction is inaccessible, even scholars have difficulty forming a comprehensive view of her literary career. This reference book is a comprehensive and detailed guide to Anne Tyler's fictional worlds. The volume begins with an introductory essay that overviews her life as a writer. The book then provides alphabetically arranged entries for her novels, short stories, and characters. Entries for novels are primarily critical. But because her short fiction is less available, entries for those works also provide extensive plot summaries. There are also numerous entries for the various themes and motifs that flavor her work, such as "Aging," "Diaries," Games," "Holidays," and "Radios." Many entries cite reviews and criticisms, and the volumecloses with an extensive bibliography and appendices.