WR151: American Misfits

This new selection of Thoreau's essays traces his trajectory as a writer for the outlets of his day--the periodical press, newspapers, and compendiums--and as a frequent presenter on the local lecture circuit. By arranging the writings chronologically, the volume re-creates the experience of Thoreau's readers as they followed his developing ideas over time.

Here are Melville's masterpieces: Moby-Dick in its entirety; Billy Budd; "Bartleby, The Scrivener"; "The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles"; the essay "Hawthorne and His Mosses"; and 21 poems, including "The House-top", an anguished response to the New York draft riots.

Larsen's status as a Harlem Renaissance woman writer was rivaled by only Zora Neale Hurston's. This Norton Critical Edition of her electrifying 1929 novel includes Carla Kaplan's detailed and thought-provoking introduction, thorough explanatory annotations, and a Note on the Text. An unusually rich "Background and Contexts" section connects the novel to the historical events of the day, most notably the sensational Rhinelander/Jones case of 1925

With the success of Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Kurt Vonnegut cemented his reputation as America's funniest and most original satirist. This third volume of the definitive edition of his fiction collects four novels written in the 1970s and '80s, when Vonnegut was at the height of his storytelling powers.