I am happy to announce the publication of Volume 463 of Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Published by Gale Literature Criticism, in association with Layman Poupard Publishing and edited by Carol A. Schwartz, the volume “assembles critical responses to the works of 20th-century authors of all genres—novelists, poets, playwrights, journalists, philosophers, political leaders, scientists, mathematicians and other creative writers from every region of the world. The series currently covers nearly 1,200 authors and includes thousands of entries on literary topics and individual works.”
As noted in the volume:
Since its inception Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (TCLC) has been purchased and used by some 10,000 school, public, and college or university libraries. … No other reference source has surveyed the critical response to twentieth-century authors and literature as thoroughly as TCLC. In the words of one reviewer, “there is nothing comparable available.” TCLC “is a gold mine of information—dates, pseudonyms, biographical information, and criticism from books and periodicals—which many librarians would have difficulty assembling on their own.”
TCLC is designed to serve as an introduction to authors who died between 1900 and 1999 and to the most significant interpretations of these author’s works. The great poets, novelists, short-story writers, playwrights, and philosophers of the period are frequently studied in high school and college literature courses. In organizing and reprinting the vast amount of critical material written on these authors, TCLC helps students develop valuable insight into literary history, promotes a better understanding of the texts, and sparks ideas for papers and assignments. Each entry in TCLC presents a comprehensive survey of an author’s career or an individual work of literature and provides the user with a multiplicity of interpretations and assessments. Such variety allows students to pursue their own interests; furthermore, it fosters an awareness that literature is dynamic and responsive to many different opinions.
Last summer, I was asked to sign on as an academic advisor to Gale-Cengage Resources to adapt the previous entry on Ayn Rand that had been published in 2012 (Volume 261). That volume included a selection from chapter 8 of my book, Ayn Rand: The Russian Radical among its entries. The current volume reflects the enormous growth in the Rand scholarly literature over the past twelve years.
In my capacity as advisor to the project, I edited the previous entry on Ayn Rand, as well as sections on “Principal Works” and “Criticism”. I also recommended, as a primary source, Rand’s Los Angeles Times article, which presented her philosophy “while standing on one foot.” I provided an extensive, annotated, and fully updated guide to “Further Reading”, which included sections on “Biographies” and “Criticism”. Finally, I made some recommendations on selections that appear in full or in part in this comprehensive volume. The finished product includes excerpts from works by a wide variety of Rand scholars and interpreters, including Stephen Cox, Tore Boeckmann, Cynthia Burack, Gene Bell-Villada, Claudia Franziska Brühwiler, Ed Younkins, Jerry Kirkpatrick, Lisa Duggan, Aaron Weinacht, Derek Offord, and Timothy Sandefur, among others.
This volume stands as yet another example of Rand’s growing representation in the literary and philosophical canon. I’m proud to have been associated with the project.
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