Western American novelists /

Western American Novelists is the first volume in a series of bibliographies that promise to cover Western American "novelists who came to prominence in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s." More narrow in focus than R.W. Etulain's A Bibliographical Guide to the Study of Western American Literature (2nd ed., 1995) or A Literary History of the American West (CH, Sep'87), the present book nicely complements those earlier volumes. Kich introduces each author with a few paragraphs that sum up the author's critical reputation and suggest areas for further research. The bibliographies themselves are divided into primary and secondary sources. The primary source bibliographies strive to include everything written by the author in question, listing not only books and short stories but also such hard-to-find works as newspaper articles and book reviews. Secondary sources are given similarly thorough coverage, with the sources listed ranging from book-length treatments of each author's works to articles in journals and reference books, book reviews, and obituary notices. Perhaps the book's greatest strength is Kich's annotations, some of which run to several pages. Even advanced scholars could learn from reading the annotations, and a new student can get a thorough grounding in an author's work by reading through a complete set of annotations. There is no index. A valuable addition to any collection serving undergraduate through postgraduate scholars of Western American literature. D. A. Barclay New Mexico State University