The Norton Anthology

as Literary Data

Erik Fredner J.D. Porter

“Between Canon and Corpus”

Anthology as canon

Leah Price, The Anthology and the Rise of the Novel (2000)

“The canon wars of the 1980s were fought over anthologies’ tables of contents.”

“...extracts underwrite the discipline of literary criticism as we know it.”

Seth Lerer, “Medieval English Literature and the Idea of the Anthology” (2003)

“The mark of any culture’s literary sense of self lies in the way in which it makes anthologies.”

Works selected for an anthology implicitly become “essays on literariness.”

John Guillory, Cultural Capital (1993)

“...the canon is never other than an imaginary list; it never appears as a complete and uncontested list in any particular time and place, not even in the form of the omnibus anthology, which remains a selection from a larger list which does not itself appear anywhere in the anthology's table of contents.”

Anthology as product

Nina Baym, editor of NAAL

There exist “ideal canons and real anthologies.”

(Baym reflecting on editing the NAAL in an interview with Sharon Lewis at The University of Iowa, April 8, 1987.)

Sean Shesgreen, “Aiming a Canon”

“[The literary canon] is not determined by ideologies that are debated at the MLA. It is determined by economic and material principles.”

Shesgreen, quoted in Ayoub, The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2009.

David Damrosch, “The Best that has been Bought and Stolen” (2009)

A new anthology or a new edition of an existing anthology can rarely risk changing more than ten or fifteen percent of the selections previously available, or too many faculty will reject the innovations and not order the new book or the new edition. What looks like shameless borrowing from a rival may in reality be a concession to inertia among users in the field.

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TOCs: Claims to canonicity, or artifacts of publishing?

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Martin Puchner (editor, Norton World and Western) pointed to these factors:

Instructor surveys about text use determine which materials retained

World and Western primarily used outside of R1 universities

Permissions cost (> $500,000 per edition) a significant factor

“Editorial decisions came in at a distant third” among these

Canon wars benefit scholarship and publishers

The continual revision of the canon in the form of the anthology benefits scholarship (new discoveries, recuperations, and interventions), scholars (anthologies are useful for teaching, as objects of critique, provide directions for research, require editors), and publishers (planned obsolescence of previous editions, guaranteed sales from department lock-in, etc.)

Norton revision rate

The canonicity of the novel is a problem for anthologies,

but can be a benefit for publishers

Canon-products of

American literature

Textbooks, anthologies, and American canon-making

• L’Album Litteraire, journal des Jeunes Gens, Amateurs de Litterature, Arthur Lanusse. 1843.
• Outline Sketch of American Literature, Henry A. Beer. 1887.
• Library of American Literature, Edmund Clarence Stedman. 1888-1890.
• Builders of American Literature, Francis H. Underwood. 1893.
• American Writers of Today, Henry C. Vedder. 1894.
• Introduction to American Literature, Henry S. Pancoast. 1898.
• Literary History of America, Barrett Wendell. 1900.
• America’s Coming of Age, Van Wyck Brooks. 1915.
• The American Rhythm, Mary Austin. 1923.
• The New Negro, Alain Locke. 1925.
• Main Currents in American Thought, V.L. Parrington. 1927.
• The Great Tradition, Granville Hicks. 1933.
• American Renaissance, F.O. Matthiessen. 1941.

Inspiration for NAEL

The first edition of The American Tradition in Literature published by McGraw-Hill in 1956.

Norton editors realized that the American Tradition in Literature would be a good model for textbook production, and began work on an anthology of British literature on ATL’s model in 1960. NAEL 1 came out in 1962.

Heath Anthology

Explicit competitor to NAAL. First published in 1990.

The editorial preface features the slogan of the “Reconstructing American Literature” project:

“So that the work of Frederick Douglass, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Agnes Smedley, Zora Neale Hurston, and others is read with the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry James, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and others.”

The Norton as the anthology

Sean Shesgreen, “Canonizing the Canonizer” (2009)

“...a few years after its debut [the NAEL] had become the dominant anthology of English literature… [Norton] has maintained its superiority by vanquishing all challengers”

Robert Levine, “The Canon and the Survey” (2016)

Our most frequently taught author is Melville, followed by Hawthorne, Whitman, Douglass, Emerson… “We had been exposed!”

I hardly saw anything dire in the revelation that C-19 people remain interested in the authors we feature in our [the Norton] anthology.

Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, “An Incredible Shrunken History: A Response to Sean Shesgreen.” Critical Inquiry. 2009.

“Had [Shesgreen] studied the evolving tables of contents...he might have composed something more like an adequate history.”

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Selection, retention, removal

Anthology Histories: William Shakespeare

NAEL 1 (1962)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

SONGS FROM THE PLAYS

When Daisies Pied

…

The Phoenix and the Turtle

The First Part of King Henry IV

NAEL 4 (1979)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

SONGS FROM THE PLAYS

When Daisies Pied

…

The Phoenix and the Turtle

The First Part of King Henry IV

King Lear

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NAEL 7 (2000)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)

Sonnets 1, 3, 12...

Twelfth Night

King Lear

Anthologies as Contexts: Langston Hughes

Norton Anthology of World Literature

LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Danse Africaine

The Weary Blues

Hey Hey Blues

Theme for English B

Harlem

Norton Anthology of Western Literature

[not included]

Norton Anthology of Poetry

LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)

The Weary Blues

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Dream Variations

Cross

Bad Luck Card

Song for a Dark Girl

…

[9 total poems]

Anthologies as Contexts: Langston Hughes

Norton Anthology of American Literature

LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Mother to Son

I, Too

The Weary Blues

Mulatto

…

[10 total texts]

Norton Anthology of African American Literature

LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Mother to Son

Danse Africaine

Jazzonia

...

[30 total texts]

Comparing selection

Hughes texts in Af Am but not in American

Jazzonia

Dream Variations

Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret

Johannesburg Mines

Homesick Blues

Red Silk Stockings

Song for a Dark Girl

…

[25 total]

Hughes texts in American but not in Af Am

Genius Child

Visitors to the Black Belt

Notes on Commercial Theatre

Vagabonds

Words Like Freedom

Madam and Her Madam

Freedom [1]

Madam’s Calling Cards

Hughes texts in all four current anthologies

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

The Weary Blues

Theme for English B

Comparing selection historically

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

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I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

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My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

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I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

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My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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Restructuring TOCs

Reading the NAAL distantly

Basic stats

• 12,110 entries across all editions of NAAL
• Unique authors: 435
• Unique works: 3,237
• Unique top-level works: 2,136
• Longest work: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain)
• Shortest work: “In a station of the metro” (Pound)

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The selection economy

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The selection economy

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The selection economy

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The selection economy

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The selection economy

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The selection economy

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The selection economy: author continuity

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The selection economy: author continuity

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The selection economy: author continuity

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Representation

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Most represented generation: 1925-1950

Justin Kaplan * Flannery O'Connor * Gore Vidal * Malcolm X * A.R. Ammons * James Merrill * Allen Ginsberg * Frank O'Hara * Robert Creeley * Galway Kinnell * W.S. Merwin * James Wright * Edward Abbey * John Ashbery * Anne Sexton * Philip Levine * Philip K. Dick * Adrienne Rich * Martin Luther King Jr. * Ursula K. Le Guin * Paule Marshall * Gary Snyder * John Barth * Donald Barthelme * Tom Wolfe * Toni Morrison * Adrienne Kennedy * Ronald Sukenick * Sylvia Plath * David Ray * John Updike * Philip Roth * Susan Sontag * Audre Lorde * N. Scott Momaday * Gerald Vizenor * Joan Didion * Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) * Mary Oliver * Charles Wright * Don DeLillo * Lucille Clifton * Stephen Dixon * Clarence Major * Hunter S. Thompson * Thomas Pynchon * Rudolfo A. Anaya * Richard Foreman * Joanna Russ * Robert Stone * Raymond Carver * Ishmael Reed * Michael S. Harper * Brendan Galvin * Charles Simic * Joyce Carol Oates * Julius Lester * Toni Cade Bambara * Thomas McGuane * Frank Bidart * Fanny Howe * Robert Pinsky * Pattiann Rogers * Maxine Hong Kingston * Bobbie Ann Mason * Robert Haas * Simon J. Ortiz * Max Apple * Billy Collins * Alan Gribben * Diane Glancy * Gloria Anzaldúa * Sharon Olds * Barry Hannah * Sam Shepard * Louise Glück * Alfred Corn * Charles Ludlam * Alice Walker Douglas Crase * August Wilson * Annie Dillard * Barry Lopez * John Crawford * Kay Ryan * Lydia Davis * Yusef Komunyakaa * David Mamet * Ann Beattie * Leslie Marmon Silko * Art Spiegelman * Denise Chávez * Jane Smiley * C.D. Wright * Dorothy Allison * Jamaica Kincaid * Shelley Fisher Fishkin * Julia Alvarez * Jorie Graham * Edward P. Jones

The selection economy

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The selection economy

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Representation

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Representation

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Representation

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Representation

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Representation

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Representation

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Selections from the One-Timers Club

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Worth Adding, Part 1

According to Shesgreen, M.H. Abrams, long the general editor of the NAEL, had the “unmarketable view that he had ‘not found ten lines worth reading in any of the women added’ to his anthology...‘People want these [women] but don’t use them. And we have to put them in to be p.c.’” (Abrams in conversation with Sean Shesgreen in 2004, quoted in “Canonizing the Canonizer.”)

Worth Adding, Part 2

Zora Neale Hurston • Alice Walker • Audre Lorde • Zitkala Sâ (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) • Leslie Marmon Silko • Rita Dove • Harriet Jacobs • Toni Morrison • Toni Cade Bambara • Maxine Hong Kingston • Joy Harjo • Nella Larsen • Gloria Anzaldúa • Jane Johnston Schoolcraft • Sojourner Truth • Frances Ellen Watkins Harper • Jessie Redmon Fauset • Sarah Winnemucca • Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins • Ida B. Wells-Barnett • Sui Sin Far (Edith Maud Eaton) • Lucille Clifton • Amy Tan • Jhumpa Lahiri • Jamaica Kincaid • Edwidge Danticat

Two • Three • Four • Five • Six • Seven • Eight

Hughes revisited

Hughes revisited

“The Norton 100”

Authors in every edition

John Winthrop • William Bradford • Anne Bradstreet • Edward Taylor • Cotton Mather • Sarah Kemble Knight • William Byrd • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • John Woolman • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson • Philip Freneau • Phillis Wheatley • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • William Cullen Bryant • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Edgar Allan Poe • Abraham Lincoln • Margaret Fuller • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Henry David Thoreau • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman • Herman Melville • Emily Dickinson • Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) • Bret Harte • Henry Adams • Ambrose Bierce • Henry James • Joel Chandler Harris • Sarah Orne Jewett • Kate Chopin • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman • Booker T. Washington • Charles W. Chesnutt • Hamlin Garland • Edith Wharton • W.E.B. Du Bois • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Stephen Crane • Willa Cather • Gertrude Stein • Robert Frost • Sherwood Anderson • Jack London • Carl Sandburg • Wallace Stevens • William Carlos Williams • Ezra Pound • H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • Marianne Moore • T. S. Eliot • Katherine Anne Porter • Edna St. Vincent Millay • E.E. Cummings • Jean Toomer • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Dos Passos • William Faulkner • Hart Crane • Ernest Hemingway • Langston Hughes • Countee Cullen • Richard Wright • Theodore Roethke • Eudora Welty • Charles Olson • Elizabeth Bishop • Ralph Ellison • John Berryman • Randall Jarrell • Robert Lowell • Gwendolyn Brooks • Richard Wilbur • James Dickey • Denise Levertov • James Baldwin • Flannery O'Connor • A.R. Ammons • James Merrill • Allen Ginsberg • Frank O'Hara • W.S. Merwin • James Wright • John Ashbery • Anne Sexton • Adrienne Rich • Gary Snyder • Sylvia Plath • John Updike • Philip Roth • Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

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The Norton 100

John Winthrop • William Bradford • Anne Bradstreet • Edward Taylor • Cotton Mather • Sarah Kemble Knight • William Byrd • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • John Woolman • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson • Philip Freneau • Phillis Wheatley • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • William Cullen Bryant • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Edgar Allan Poe • Abraham Lincoln • Margaret Fuller • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Henry David Thoreau • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman • Herman Melville • Emily Dickinson • Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) • Bret Harte • Henry Adams • Ambrose Bierce • Henry James • Joel Chandler Harris • Sarah Orne Jewett • Kate Chopin • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman • Booker T. Washington • Charles W. Chesnutt • Hamlin Garland • Edith Wharton • W.E.B. Du Bois • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Stephen Crane • Willa Cather • Gertrude Stein • Robert Frost • Sherwood Anderson • Jack London • Carl Sandburg • Wallace Stevens • William Carlos Williams • Ezra Pound • H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • Marianne Moore • T. S. Eliot • Katherine Anne Porter • Edna St. Vincent Millay • E.E. Cummings • Jean Toomer • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Dos Passos • William Faulkner • Hart Crane • Ernest Hemingway • Langston Hughes • Countee Cullen • Richard Wright • Theodore Roethke • Eudora Welty • Charles Olson • Elizabeth Bishop • Ralph Ellison • John Berryman • Randall Jarrell • Robert Lowell • Gwendolyn Brooks • Richard Wilbur • James Dickey • Denise Levertov • James Baldwin • Flannery O'Connor • A.R. Ammons • James Merrill • Allen Ginsberg • Frank O'Hara • W.S. Merwin • James Wright • John Ashbery • Anne Sexton • Adrienne Rich • Gary Snyder • Sylvia Plath • John Updike • Philip Roth • Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

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The Norton 100

John Winthrop • William Bradford • Anne Bradstreet • Edward Taylor • Cotton Mather • Sarah Kemble Knight • William Byrd • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • John Woolman • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson • Philip Freneau • Phillis Wheatley • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • William Cullen Bryant • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Edgar Allan Poe • Abraham Lincoln • Margaret Fuller • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Henry David Thoreau • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman • Herman Melville • Emily Dickinson • Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) • Bret Harte • Henry Adams • Ambrose Bierce • Henry James • Joel Chandler Harris • Sarah Orne Jewett • Kate Chopin • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman • Booker T. Washington • Charles W. Chesnutt • Hamlin Garland • Edith Wharton • W.E.B. Du Bois • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Stephen Crane • Willa Cather • Gertrude Stein • Robert Frost • Sherwood Anderson • Jack London • Carl Sandburg • Wallace Stevens • William Carlos Williams • Ezra Pound • H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • Marianne Moore • T. S. Eliot • Katherine Anne Porter • Edna St. Vincent Millay • E.E. Cummings • Jean Toomer • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Dos Passos • William Faulkner • Hart Crane • Ernest Hemingway • Langston Hughes • Countee Cullen • Richard Wright • Theodore Roethke • Eudora Welty • Charles Olson • Elizabeth Bishop • Ralph Ellison • John Berryman • Randall Jarrell • Robert Lowell • Gwendolyn Brooks • Richard Wilbur • James Dickey • Denise Levertov • James Baldwin • Flannery O'Connor • A.R. Ammons • James Merrill • Allen Ginsberg • Frank O'Hara • W.S. Merwin • James Wright • John Ashbery • Anne Sexton • Adrienne Rich • Gary Snyder • Sylvia Plath • John Updike • Philip Roth • Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

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The Norton 100

John Winthrop • William Bradford • Anne Bradstreet • Edward Taylor • Cotton Mather • Sarah Kemble Knight • William Byrd • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • John Woolman • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson • Philip Freneau • Phillis Wheatley • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • William Cullen Bryant • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Edgar Allan Poe • Abraham Lincoln • Margaret Fuller • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Henry David Thoreau • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman • Herman Melville • Emily Dickinson • Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) • Bret Harte • Henry Adams • Ambrose Bierce • Henry James • Joel Chandler Harris • Sarah Orne Jewett • Kate Chopin • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman • Booker T. Washington • Charles W. Chesnutt • Hamlin Garland • Edith Wharton • W.E.B. Du Bois • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Stephen Crane • Willa Cather • Gertrude Stein • Robert Frost • Sherwood Anderson • Jack London • Carl Sandburg • Wallace Stevens • William Carlos Williams • Ezra Pound • H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • Marianne Moore • T. S. Eliot • Katherine Anne Porter • Edna St. Vincent Millay • E.E. Cummings • Jean Toomer • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Dos Passos • William Faulkner • Hart Crane • Ernest Hemingway • Langston Hughes • Countee Cullen • Richard Wright • Theodore Roethke • Eudora Welty • Charles Olson • Elizabeth Bishop • Ralph Ellison • John Berryman • Randall Jarrell • Robert Lowell • Gwendolyn Brooks • Richard Wilbur • James Dickey • Denise Levertov • James Baldwin • Flannery O'Connor • A.R. Ammons • James Merrill • Allen Ginsberg • Frank O'Hara • W.S. Merwin • James Wright • John Ashbery • Anne Sexton • Adrienne Rich • Gary Snyder • Sylvia Plath • John Updike • Philip Roth • Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

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The Norton 100

John Winthrop • William Bradford • Anne Bradstreet • Edward Taylor • Cotton Mather • Sarah Kemble Knight • William Byrd • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • John Woolman • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson • Philip Freneau • Phillis Wheatley • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • William Cullen Bryant • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Edgar Allan Poe • Abraham Lincoln • Margaret Fuller • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Henry David Thoreau • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman • Herman Melville • Emily Dickinson • Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) • Bret Harte • Henry Adams • Ambrose Bierce • Henry James • Joel Chandler Harris • Sarah Orne Jewett • Kate Chopin • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman • Booker T. Washington • Charles W. Chesnutt • Hamlin Garland • Edith Wharton • W.E.B. Du Bois • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Stephen Crane • Willa Cather • Gertrude Stein • Robert Frost • Sherwood Anderson • Jack London • Carl Sandburg • Wallace Stevens • William Carlos Williams • Ezra Pound • H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • Marianne Moore • T. S. Eliot • Katherine Anne Porter • Edna St. Vincent Millay • E.E. Cummings • Jean Toomer • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Dos Passos • William Faulkner • Hart Crane • Ernest Hemingway • Langston Hughes • Countee Cullen • Richard Wright • Theodore Roethke • Eudora Welty • Charles Olson • Elizabeth Bishop • Ralph Ellison • John Berryman • Randall Jarrell • Robert Lowell • Gwendolyn Brooks • Richard Wilbur • James Dickey • Denise Levertov • James Baldwin • Flannery O'Connor • A.R. Ammons • James Merrill • Allen Ginsberg • Frank O'Hara • W.S. Merwin • James Wright • John Ashbery • Anne Sexton • Adrienne Rich • Gary Snyder • Sylvia Plath • John Updike • Philip Roth • Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

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The Norton 100

John Winthrop • William Bradford • Anne Bradstreet • Edward Taylor • Cotton Mather • Sarah Kemble Knight • William Byrd • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • John Woolman • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson • Philip Freneau • Phillis Wheatley • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • William Cullen Bryant • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Edgar Allan Poe • Abraham Lincoln • Margaret Fuller • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Henry David Thoreau • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman • Herman Melville • Emily Dickinson • Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) • Bret Harte • Henry Adams • Ambrose Bierce • Henry James • Joel Chandler Harris • Sarah Orne Jewett • Kate Chopin • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman • Booker T. Washington • Charles W. Chesnutt • Hamlin Garland • Edith Wharton • W.E.B. Du Bois • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Stephen Crane • Willa Cather • Gertrude Stein • Robert Frost • Sherwood Anderson • Jack London • Carl Sandburg • Wallace Stevens • William Carlos Williams • Ezra Pound • H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • Marianne Moore • T. S. Eliot • Katherine Anne Porter • Edna St. Vincent Millay • E.E. Cummings • Jean Toomer • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Dos Passos • William Faulkner • Hart Crane • Ernest Hemingway • Langston Hughes • Countee Cullen • Richard Wright • Theodore Roethke • Eudora Welty • Charles Olson • Elizabeth Bishop • Ralph Ellison • John Berryman • Randall Jarrell • Robert Lowell • Gwendolyn Brooks • Richard Wilbur • James Dickey • Denise Levertov • James Baldwin • Flannery O'Connor • A.R. Ammons • James Merrill • Allen Ginsberg • Frank O'Hara • W.S. Merwin • James Wright • John Ashbery • Anne Sexton • Adrienne Rich • Gary Snyder • Sylvia Plath • John Updike • Philip Roth • Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

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The Norton 100

John Winthrop • William Bradford • Anne Bradstreet • Edward Taylor • Cotton Mather • Sarah Kemble Knight • William Byrd • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • John Woolman • J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison • Thomas Paine • Thomas Jefferson • Philip Freneau • Phillis Wheatley • Washington Irving • James Fenimore Cooper • William Cullen Bryant • Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nathaniel Hawthorne • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • John Greenleaf Whittier • Edgar Allan Poe • Abraham Lincoln • Margaret Fuller • Harriet Beecher Stowe • Henry David Thoreau • Frederick Douglass • Walt Whitman • Herman Melville • Emily Dickinson • Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) • Bret Harte • Henry Adams • Ambrose Bierce • Henry James • Joel Chandler Harris • Sarah Orne Jewett • Kate Chopin • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman • Booker T. Washington • Charles W. Chesnutt • Hamlin Garland • Edith Wharton • W.E.B. Du Bois • Edwin Arlington Robinson • Stephen Crane • Willa Cather • Gertrude Stein • Robert Frost • Sherwood Anderson • Jack London • Carl Sandburg • Wallace Stevens • William Carlos Williams • Ezra Pound • H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) • Marianne Moore • T. S. Eliot • Katherine Anne Porter • Edna St. Vincent Millay • E.E. Cummings • Jean Toomer • F. Scott Fitzgerald • John Dos Passos • William Faulkner • Hart Crane • Ernest Hemingway • Langston Hughes • Countee Cullen • Richard Wright • Theodore Roethke • Eudora Welty • Charles Olson • Elizabeth Bishop • Ralph Ellison • John Berryman • Randall Jarrell • Robert Lowell • Gwendolyn Brooks • Richard Wilbur • James Dickey • Denise Levertov • James Baldwin • Flannery O'Connor • A.R. Ammons • James Merrill • Allen Ginsberg • Frank O'Hara • W.S. Merwin • James Wright • John Ashbery • Anne Sexton • Adrienne Rich • Gary Snyder • Sylvia Plath • John Updike • Philip Roth • Imamu Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones)

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The Norton 100

“The Norton 301”

Selections in every edition

the separatist • The Prologue • The Flesh and the Spirit • The Author to Her Book • To My Dear and Loving Husband • A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment • In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet • Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House • As Weary Pilgrim • Preparatory Meditations • God’s Determinations • Huswifery • The Wonders of the Invisible World • Magnalia Christi Americana • The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York • Personal Narrative • On Sarah Pierpont • A Divine and Supernatural Light • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God • The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock • Sweeney among the Nightingales • Four Quartets • Notes on the State of Virginia • Tradition and the Individual Talent • The Way to Wealth • Information to Those Who Would Remove to America • Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America • The Autobiography • The Journal of John Woolman • Letters from an American Farmer • Common Sense • The Crisis, No. 1 • The Age of Reason • Chapter XI. Of the Theology of the Christians, and the True Theology • The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson • The Federalist Papers • The Indian Burial Ground • To Sir Toby • On Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man • On the Religion of Nature • On Being Brought from Africa to America • To the University of Cambridge, in New England • On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, 1770 • Thoughts on the Works of Providence • To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works • To His Excellency General Washington • Rip Van Winkle • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • The Pioneers • Thanatopsis • To a Waterfowl • The Prairies • Nature • The American Scholar • The Divinity School Address • Self-Reliance • The Poet • Thoreau • My Kinsman, Major Molineux • Young Goodman Brown • The May-Pole of Merry Mount • The Minister’s Black Veil • Rappaccini’s Daughter • The Scarlet Letter • Preface to The House of the Seven Gables • A Psalm of Life • My Lost Youth • Ichabod! • Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl • Sonnet—To Science • To Helen • Israfel • The City in the Sea • Alone • To ———. Ulalume: A Ballad • Annabel Lee • Ligeia • The Fall of the House of Usher • William Wilson. A Tale • The Man of the Crowd • The Purloined Letter • The Cask of Amontillado • The Philosophy of Composition • A House Divided: Speech Delivered at Springfield, Illinois, at the Close of the Republican State Convention, June 16, 1858 • Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863 • Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 • The Great Lawsuit • Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly • Resistance to Civil Government • Walden, or Life in the Woods • Slavery in Massachusetts • Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) • Inscriptions • Children of Adam • Calamus • Crossing Brooklyn Ferry • Sea-Drift • By the Roadside • Drum-Taps • Memories of President Lincoln • Hawthorne and His Mosses • Moby-Dick • Bartleby, the Scrivener • Benito Cereno • Battle-Pieces • Billy Budd, Sailor • 39 [49] [I never lost as much but twice-] • 122 [130] [These are the days when Birds come back - ] • 124 [216] [Safe in their Alabaster Chambers - ] • 202 [185] [“Faithâ€� is a fine invention] • 207 [214] [I taste a liquor never brewed - ] • 259 [287] [A Clock stopped - ] • 269 [249] [Wild nights - Wild nights!] • 279 [664] [Of all the Souls that stand create - ] • 320 [258] [There’s a certain Slant of light] • 339 [241] [I like a look of Agony] • 340 [280] [I felt a Funeral, in my Brain] • 347 [348] [I dreaded that first Robin, so] • 355 [510] [It was not Death, for I stood up] • 359 [328] [A Bird came down the Walk - ] • 372 [341] [After great pain, a formal feeling comes - ] • 373 [501] [This World is not conclusion] • 409 [303] [The Soul selects her own Society - ] • 411 [528] [Mine - by the Right of the White Election!] • 591 [465] [I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - ] • 598 [632] [The Brain - is wider than the Sky - ] • 620 [435] [Much Madness is divinest Sense - ] • 648 [547] [I’ve seen a Dying Eye] • 656 [520] [I started Early - Took my Dog - ] • 764 [754] [My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - ] • 788 [709] [Publication - is the Auction] • 1096 [986] [A narrow Fellow in the Grass] • 1108 [1078] [The Bustle in a House] • 1163 [1138] [A Spider sewed at Night] • 1454 [1397] [It sounded as if the Streets were running] • 1489 [1463] [A Route of Evanescence] • 1577 [1545] [The Bible is an antique Volume - ] • 1668 [1624] [Apparently with no surprise] • 1715 [1651] [A word made Flesh is seldom] • The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • The Education of Henry Adams • Daisy Miller: A Study • The Real Thing • The Beast in the Jungle • The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story • The Awakening • Up from Slavery • The Goophered Grapevine • Under the Lion’s Paw • The Souls of Black Folk • The Art of Fiction • The Open Boat • The Law of Life • Richard Cory • Miniver Cheevy • The Pasture • Mowing • Mending Wall • Home Burial • After Apple-Picking • The Wood-Pile • The Road Not Taken • The Oven Bird • Birches • “Out, Out—â€� • Nothing Gold Can Stay • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening • Desert Places • Design • Provide, Provide • The Gift Outright • The Figure a Poem Makes • Winesburg, Ohio • Chicago • Fog • Cool Tombs • Grass • A High-Toned Old Christian Woman • The Emperor of Ice-Cream • Sunday Morning • Anecdote of the Jar • Of Modern Poetry • Portrait of a Lady • Queen-Anne’s-Lace • The Widow’s Lament in Springtime • Spring and All • To Elsie • The Red Wheelbarrow • The Dead Baby • The Dance (“In Brueghel’s great picture, The Kermessâ€�) • Burning the Christmas Greens • To Whistler, American • Portrait d’une Femme • A Virginal • A Pact • The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter • Villanelle: The Psychological Hour • The Cantos • Oread • Leda • Fragment 113 • Helen • The Walls Do Not Fall • Poetry • To a Snail • The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing • In Distrust of Merits • Gerontion • Recuerdo • I Think I Should Have Loved You Presently • I Too beneath Your Moon, Almighty Sex • Thy fingers make early flowers of • in Just- • O sweet spontaneous • Buffalo Bill ’s • the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls • “next to of course god america i • anyone lived in a pretty how town • my father moved through dooms of love • pity this busy monster,manunkind • Cane • U.S.A. • Chaplinesque • At Melville’s Tomb • The Bridge • The Negro Speaks of Rivers • Mother to Son • Mulatto • Song for a Dark Girl • Yet Do I Marvel • Incident • Heritage • From the Dark Tower • Uncle Jim • Cuttings • Cuttings (later) • Weed Puller • Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze • My Papa’s Waltz • The Lost Son • I Knew a Woman • Wish for a Young Wife • In a Dark Time • The Fish • Over 2,000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance • At the Fishhouses • Questions of Travel • The Armadillo • In the Waiting Room • One Art • 90 North • The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner • Second Air Force • Homage to Mistress Bradstreet • The Dream Songs • Invisible Man • Colloquy in Black Rock • Mr. Edwards and the Spider • Memories of West Street and Lepke • Skunk Hour • For the Union Dead • A Street In Bronzeville • The Death of a Toad • “A World without Objects Is a Sensible Emptinessâ€� • The Heaven of Animals • Good Country People • So I Said I Am Ezra • Corsons Inlet • An Urban Convalescence • The Broken Home • Howl • A Supermarket in California • Sunflower Sutra • To Aunt Rose • To the Harbormaster • A Step Away from Them • The Day Lady Died • Illustration • Soonest Mended • Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror • The Drunk in the Furnace • For the Anniversary of My Death • A Blessing • Sylvia’s Death • A Valediction Forbidding Mourning • Diving into the Wreck • Milton by Firelight • Riprap • Morning Song • Lady Lazarus • Ariel • Daddy • Words • Blackberrying • Separating • Defender of the Faith • An Agony. As Now. • Will They Cry When You’re Gone, You Bet • A Model of Christian Charity • The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket

Next Steps

• Reading the data
• How to measure contentiousness of selection? How to interpret editorial inaction?
• Measuring churn at the level of the author
• Making use of the data
• Public release of TOC data?
• Norton corpora?
• Recycling author data to analyze and filter existing corpora (e.g. Gale American)
• Eventually: Use database structure to continue gathering other anthology entries
• NAEL, NA West, NA World, NA Af-Am, NA Latino, NA Literature by Women, etc.
• Use implicit anthology geographic hierarchies to weight author and work selections

Thanks to David McClure

For helping us design the Django database

People who worked on this include:

Ena Alvarado, Joe Bourdage, Erik Fredner, Ryan Heuser,

Asha Isaacs, Nika Mavrody, David McClure, Kelsey Reardon, Sarah Thomas, Olivia Witting

Appendix

Representation

​

​

The Author to Her Book • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God • The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock • Four Quartets • Notes on the State of Virginia • Tradition and the Individual Talent • The Way to Wealth • The Autobiography • Letters from an American Farmer • Common Sense • The Federalist Papers • On Being Brought from Africa to America • Rip Van Winkle • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • The Pioneers • Nature • The American Scholar • The Divinity School Address • Self-Reliance • The Poet • Thoreau • My Kinsman, Major Molineux • Young Goodman Brown • The Scarlet Letter • Preface to The House of the Seven Gables • Annabel Lee • The Fall of the House of Usher • The Purloined Letter • The Cask of Amontillado • The Philosophy of Composition • A House Divided: Speech Delivered at Springfield, Illinois, at the Close of the Republican State Convention, June 16, 1858 • Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863 • Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly • Resistance to Civil Government • Walden, or Life in the Woods • Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) • Crossing Brooklyn Ferry • Drum-Taps • Hawthorne and His Mosses • Moby-Dick • Bartleby, the Scrivener • Benito Cereno • Battle-Pieces • Billy Budd, Sailor • 39 [49] [I never lost as much but twice-] • 122 [130] [These are the days when Birds come back - ] • 124 [216] [Safe in their Alabaster Chambers - ] • 202 [185] [“Faithâ€� is a fine invention] • 207 [214] [I taste a liquor never brewed - ] • 259 [287] [A Clock stopped - ] • 269 [249] [Wild nights - Wild nights!] • 279 [664] [Of all the Souls that stand create - ] • 320 [258] [There’s a certain Slant of light] • 339 [241] [I like a look of Agony] • 340 [280] [I felt a Funeral, in my Brain] • 347 [348] [I dreaded that first Robin, so] • 355 [510] [It was not Death, for I stood up] • 359 [328] [A Bird came down the Walk - ] • 372 [341] [After great pain, a formal feeling comes - ] • 373 [501] [This World is not conclusion] • 409 [303] [The Soul selects her own Society - ] • 411 [528] [Mine - by the Right of the White Election!] • 591 [465] [I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - ] • 598 [632] [The Brain - is wider than the Sky - ] • 620 [435] [Much Madness is divinest Sense - ] • 648 [547] [I’ve seen a Dying Eye] • 656 [520] [I started Early - Took my Dog - ] • 764 [754] [My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - ] • 788 [709] [Publication - is the Auction] • 1096 [986] [A narrow Fellow in the Grass] • 1108 [1078] [The Bustle in a House] • 1163 [1138] [A Spider sewed at Night] • 1454 [1397] [It sounded as if the Streets were running] • 1489 [1463] [A Route of Evanescence] • 1577 [1545] [The Bible is an antique Volume - ] • 1668 [1624] [Apparently with no surprise] • 1715 [1651] [A word made Flesh is seldom] • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • The Education of Henry Adams • Daisy Miller: A Study • The Real Thing • The Beast in the Jungle • The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story • The Awakening • Up from Slavery • The Goophered Grapevine • Under the Lion’s Paw • The Souls of Black Folk • The Art of Fiction • Richard Cory • The Road Not Taken • Nothing Gold Can Stay • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening • The Figure a Poem Makes • Winesburg, Ohio • The Emperor of Ice-Cream • Sunday Morning • Anecdote of the Jar • Of Modern Poetry • Portrait of a Lady • Spring and All • The Red Wheelbarrow • The Cantos • Poetry • anyone lived in a pretty how town • Cane • U.S.A. • The Bridge • The Negro Speaks of Rivers • Yet Do I Marvel • My Papa’s Waltz • The Fish • At the Fishhouses • One Art • Homage to Mistress Bradstreet • The Dream Songs • Invisible Man • Skunk Hour • Good Country People • Howl • A Supermarket in California • Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror • A Valediction Forbidding Mourning • Diving into the Wreck • Lady Lazarus • Ariel • Daddy • An Agony. As Now. • The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket

the separatist • The Prologue • The Flesh and the Spirit • The Author to Her Book • To My Dear and Loving Husband • A Letter to Her Husband, Absent upon Public Employment • In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet • Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House • As Weary Pilgrim • Preparatory Meditations • God’s Determinations • Huswifery • The Wonders of the Invisible World • Magnalia Christi Americana • The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York • Personal Narrative • On Sarah Pierpont • A Divine and Supernatural Light • Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God • The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock • Sweeney among the Nightingales • Four Quartets • Notes on the State of Virginia • Tradition and the Individual Talent • The Way to Wealth • Information to Those Who Would Remove to America • Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America • The Autobiography • The Journal of John Woolman • Letters from an American Farmer • Common Sense • The Crisis, No. 1 • The Age of Reason • Chapter XI. Of the Theology of the Christians, and the True Theology • The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson • The Federalist Papers • The Indian Burial Ground • To Sir Toby • On Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man • On the Religion of Nature • On Being Brought from Africa to America • To the University of Cambridge, in New England • On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield, 1770 • Thoughts on the Works of Providence • To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works • To His Excellency General Washington • Rip Van Winkle • The Legend of Sleepy Hollow • The Pioneers • Thanatopsis • To a Waterfowl • The Prairies • Nature • The American Scholar • The Divinity School Address • Self-Reliance • The Poet • Thoreau • My Kinsman, Major Molineux • Young Goodman Brown • The May-Pole of Merry Mount • The Minister’s Black Veil • Rappaccini’s Daughter

The Norton 301

• The Scarlet Letter • Preface to The House of the Seven Gables • A Psalm of Life • My Lost Youth • Ichabod! • Snow-Bound: A Winter Idyl • Sonnet—To Science • To Helen • Israfel • The City in the Sea • Alone • To ———. Ulalume: A Ballad • Annabel Lee • Ligeia • The Fall of the House of Usher • William Wilson. A Tale • The Man of the Crowd • The Purloined Letter • The Cask of Amontillado • The Philosophy of Composition • A House Divided: Speech Delivered at Springfield, Illinois, at the Close of the Republican State Convention, June 16, 1858 • Address Delivered at the Dedication of the Cemetery at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863 • Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 • The Great Lawsuit • Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly • Resistance to Civil Government • Walden, or Life in the Woods • Slavery in Massachusetts • Preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) • Inscriptions • Children of Adam • Calamus • Crossing Brooklyn Ferry • Sea-Drift • By the Roadside • Drum-Taps • Memories of President Lincoln • Hawthorne and His Mosses • Moby-Dick • Bartleby, the Scrivener • Benito Cereno • Battle-Pieces • Billy Budd, Sailor • 39 [49] [I never lost as much but twice-] • 122 [130] [These are the days when Birds come back - ] • 124 [216] [Safe in their Alabaster Chambers - ] • 202 [185] [“Faithâ€� is a fine invention] • 207 [214] [I taste a liquor never brewed - ] • 259 [287] [A Clock stopped - ] • 269 [249] [Wild nights - Wild nights!] • 279 [664] [Of all the Souls that stand create - ] • 320 [258] [There’s a certain Slant of light] • 339 [241] [I like a look of Agony] • 340 [280] [I felt a Funeral, in my Brain] • 347 [348] [I dreaded that first Robin, so] • 355 [510] [It was not Death, for I stood up] • 359 [328] [A Bird came down the Walk - ] • 372 [341] [After great pain, a formal feeling comes - ] • 373 [501] [This World is not conclusion] • 409 [303] [The Soul selects her own Society - ] • 411 [528] [Mine - by the Right of the White Election!]

The Norton 301

• 591 [465] [I heard a Fly buzz - when I died - ] • 598 [632] [The Brain - is wider than the Sky - ] • 620 [435] [Much Madness is divinest Sense - ] • 648 [547] [I’ve seen a Dying Eye] • 656 [520] [I started Early - Took my Dog - ] • 764 [754] [My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - ] • 788 [709] [Publication - is the Auction] • 1096 [986] [A narrow Fellow in the Grass] • 1108 [1078] [The Bustle in a House] • 1163 [1138] [A Spider sewed at Night] • 1454 [1397] [It sounded as if the Streets were running] • 1489 [1463] [A Route of Evanescence] • 1577 [1545] [The Bible is an antique Volume - ] • 1668 [1624] [Apparently with no surprise] • 1715 [1651] [A word made Flesh is seldom] • The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • The Education of Henry Adams • Daisy Miller: A Study • The Real Thing • The Beast in the Jungle • The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story • The Awakening • Up from Slavery • The Goophered Grapevine • Under the Lion’s Paw • The Souls of Black Folk • The Art of Fiction • The Open Boat • The Law of Life • Richard Cory • Miniver Cheevy • The Pasture • Mowing • Mending Wall • Home Burial • After Apple-Picking • The Wood-Pile • The Road Not Taken • The Oven Bird • Birches • “Out, Out—â€� • Nothing Gold Can Stay • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening • Desert Places • Design • Provide, Provide • The Gift Outright • The Figure a Poem Makes • Winesburg, Ohio • Chicago • Fog • Cool Tombs • Grass • A High-Toned Old Christian Woman • The Emperor of Ice-Cream • Sunday Morning • Anecdote of the Jar • Of Modern Poetry • Portrait of a Lady • Queen-Anne’s-Lace • The Widow’s Lament in Springtime • Spring and All • To Elsie • The Red Wheelbarrow • The Dead Baby • The Dance (“In Brueghel’s great picture, The Kermessâ€�) • Burning the Christmas Greens • To Whistler, American • Portrait d’une Femme • A Virginal • A Pact •

The Norton 301

The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter • Villanelle: The Psychological Hour • The Cantos • Oread • Leda • Fragment 113 • Helen • The Walls Do Not Fall • Poetry • To a Snail • The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing • In Distrust of Merits • Gerontion • Recuerdo • I Think I Should Have Loved You Presently • I Too beneath Your Moon, Almighty Sex • Thy fingers make early flowers of • in Just- • O sweet spontaneous • Buffalo Bill ’s • the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls • “next to of course god america i • anyone lived in a pretty how town • my father moved through dooms of love • pity this busy monster,manunkind • Cane • U.S.A. • Chaplinesque • At Melville’s Tomb • The Bridge • The Negro Speaks of Rivers • Mother to Son • Mulatto • Song for a Dark Girl • Yet Do I Marvel • Incident • Heritage • From the Dark Tower • Uncle Jim • Cuttings • Cuttings (later) • Weed Puller • Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze • My Papa’s Waltz • The Lost Son • I Knew a Woman • Wish for a Young Wife • In a Dark Time • The Fish • Over 2,000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance • At the Fishhouses • Questions of Travel • The Armadillo • In the Waiting Room • One Art • 90 North • The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner • Second Air Force • Homage to Mistress Bradstreet • The Dream Songs • Invisible Man • Colloquy in Black Rock • Mr. Edwards and the Spider • Memories of West Street and Lepke • Skunk Hour • For the Union Dead • A Street In Bronzeville • The Death of a Toad • “A World without Objects Is a Sensible Emptinessâ€� • The Heaven of Animals • Good Country People • So I Said I Am Ezra • Corsons Inlet • An Urban Convalescence • The Broken Home • Howl • A Supermarket in California • Sunflower Sutra • To Aunt Rose • To the Harbormaster • A Step Away from Them • The Day Lady Died • Illustration • Soonest Mended • Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror • The Drunk in the Furnace

​

The Norton 301

• For the Anniversary of My Death • A Blessing • Sylvia’s Death • A Valediction Forbidding Mourning • Diving into the Wreck • Milton by Firelight • Riprap • Morning Song • Lady Lazarus • Ariel • Daddy • Words • Blackberrying • Separating • Defender of the Faith • An Agony. As Now. • Will They Cry When You’re Gone, You Bet • A Model of Christian Charity • The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket •

The Norton 301

Most Represented Generation:

118 authors, born 1919—1949 (ordered by birth year)

Louise Bennett Doris Lessing Leo Marx Robert Duncan Richard Hillary Keith Douglas Richard Wilbur Philip Larkin Jack Kerouac Kurt Vonnegut Grace Paley Nadine Gordimer James Dickey Denise Levertov William H. Gass James Baldwin Justin Kaplan Flannery O'Connor Frank O'Hara A.R. Ammons James Merrill Robert Creeley Allen Ginsberg Galway Kinnell John Ashbery W.S. Merwin James Wright Edward Abbey Philip Levine Anne Sexton A. K. Ramanujan Thom Gunn Adrienne Rich Martin Luther King Jr. Ursula K. Le Guin Brian Friel Kamau Brathwaite Derek Walcott Ted Hughes Harold Pinter Chinua Achebe Gary Snyder Alice Munro Toni Morrison Donald Barthelme Geoffrey Hill V. S. Naipaul Ronald Sukenick Sylvia Plath John Updike David Ray Edna O'Brien Philip Roth Wole Soyinka Audre Lorde Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) N. Scott Momaday Joan Didion Gerald Vizenor Fleur Adcock Charles Wright Mary Oliver Lucille Clifton Stephen Dixon Tom Stoppard Hunter S. Thompson Rudolfo A. Anaya Thomas Pynchon Tony Harrison Anita Desai Ngugi Wa Thiong'o Les Murray Raymond Carver Ishmael Reed Charles Simic Michael S. Harper Brendan Galvin Seamus Heaney Margaret Atwood Julius Lester Toni Cade Bambara Thomas McGuane J. M. Coetzee Maxine Hong Kingston Fanny Howe Robert Pinsky Pattiann Rogers Robert Haas Simon J. Ortiz Billy Collins Max Apple Gloria Anzaldúa Sharon Olds Sam Shepard Louise Glück Eavan Boland Alice Walker Craig Raine August Wilson Annie Dillard Kay Ryan Barry Lopez John Crawford Nourbese Philip Salman Rushdie Ann Beattie David Mamet Yusef Komunyakaa Ian McEwan Leslie Marmon Silko Art Spiegelman Jane Smiley Jamaica Kincaid Dorothy Allison C.D. Wright D. Nurkse John Agard James Fenton

Authors Ordered by Work Count

Emily Dickinson (80 works) Unknown William Wordsworth Sir Philip Sidney John Donne William Blake William Shakespeare William Butler Yeats Percy Bysshe Shelley Walt Whitman John Keats Samuel Taylor Coleridge Ben Jonson Edmund Spenser George Gordon, Lord Byron Robert Browning Alfred, Lord Tennyson George Herbert Herman Melville Robert Herrick Robert Frost Thomas Hardy Samuel Johnson Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder Anne Bradstreet Christina Rossetti Edgar Allan Poe Geoffrey Chaucer Ralph Waldo Emerson Matthew Arnold Gerard Manley Hopkins Langston Hughes Edward Taylor Theodore Roethke William Carlos Williams John Dryden John Milton Wallace Stevens William Bradford Andrew Marvell Elizabeth I Jonathan Swift Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney Mary Wroth Zitkala Sâ (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin) D. H. Lawrence Elizabeth Barrett Browning Harriet Beecher Stowe James Boswell Rita Dove Sir Francis Bacon Thomas Carlyle W. H. Auden Alexander Pope E.E. Cummings Elizabeth Bishop Ezra Pound John Clare Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele Olaudah Equiano Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gwendolyn Brooks Henry Vaughan Lucille Clifton Margery Kempe Mary Wollstonecraft Phillis Wheatley Robert Burns Robert Graves Roger Williams Seamus Heaney T. S. Eliot Fanny Fern (Sarah Willis Parton) Fanny Howe John Adams and Abigail Adams Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) Nathaniel Hawthorne Philip Larkin Sir Walter Ralegh Wilfred Owen (10 works)

Weaknesses of the Work Count: Authors with a Single Work (A-Z)

Abiezer Coppe Abraham Cahan Ada Nield Chew Alan Seeger Albert Beveridge Alice Munro Anita Desai Anna Trapnel Annie Besant Arthur Miller Bernard Malamud Bernard Shaw Brian Friel Charles Kingsley Charles Mackay Coventry Patmore Dinah Maria Mulock Doris Lessing Edith Sitwell Eliza Cook Eudora Welty Eugene O'Neill F. S. Flint and Ezra Pound F.T. Marinetti Florence Nightingale Friedrich Engels Hannah Webster Foster Harold Pinter Harriet Martineau Helen Hunt Jackson Henry Mayhew Hunter S. Thompson Ian McEwan Ida B. Wells-Barnett Isabella Whitney J. A. Hobson J. M. Coetzee James Anthony Froude James Baldwin Jessie Redmon Fauset John Agard John Allan Wyeth, Jr. John Cheever John Gower John Jacob Thomas John Lilburne John M. Oskison John Steinbeck John Underhill John Woolman José Martí Joseph Chamberlain Kiran Desai Kurt Vonnegut Leonard Huxley Margaretta Faugéres Martha Moulsworth Mary Rowlandson Michael Wigglesworth Mona Caird Nadine Gordimer Nella Larsen Nourbese Philip Pietro di Donato Pontiac Richard Wright Robert Henryson Robert Louis Stevenson Ronald Sukenick Royall Tyler Rupert Brooke Samson Occom Sarah Stickney Ellis Saul Bellow Simon Armitage Sioux People Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Henry John Newbolt Susan Glaspell T. N. Mukharji Tecumseh Tennessee Williams The Children’s Employment Commission Thomas Hoccleve Thomas of England Thomas Wolfe Upton Sinclair V. S. Naipaul Valentine McGillycuddy Walter Besant William Bradford and Edward Winslow William Byrd William H. Gass William Howard Russell William Michael Rossetti Wole Soyinka Zadie Smith

Weaknesses of the Work Count: Authors with a Single Work (A-Z)

Abiezer Coppe Abraham Cahan Ada Nield Chew Alan Seeger Albert Beveridge Alice Munro Anita Desai Anna Trapnel Annie Besant Arthur Miller Bernard Malamud Bernard Shaw Brian Friel Charles Kingsley Charles Mackay Coventry Patmore Dinah Maria Mulock Doris Lessing Edith Sitwell Eliza Cook Eudora Welty Eugene O'Neill F. S. Flint and Ezra Pound F.T. Marinetti Florence Nightingale Friedrich Engels Hannah Webster Foster Harold Pinter Harriet Martineau Helen Hunt Jackson Henry Mayhew Hunter S. Thompson Ian McEwan Ida B. Wells-Barnett Isabella Whitney J. A. Hobson J. M. Coetzee James Anthony Froude James Baldwin Jessie Redmon Fauset John Agard John Allan Wyeth, Jr. John Cheever John Gower John Jacob Thomas John Lilburne John M. Oskison John Steinbeck John Underhill John Woolman José Martí Joseph Chamberlain Kiran Desai Kurt Vonnegut Leonard Huxley Margaretta Faugéres Martha Moulsworth Mary Rowlandson Michael Wigglesworth Mona Caird Nadine Gordimer Nella Larsen Nourbese Philip Pietro di Donato Pontiac Richard Wright Robert Henryson Robert Louis Stevenson Ronald Sukenick Royall Tyler Rupert Brooke Samson Occom Sarah Stickney Ellis Saul Bellow Simon Armitage Sioux People Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Henry John Newbolt Susan Glaspell T. N. Mukharji Tecumseh Tennessee Williams The Children’s Employment Commission Thomas Hoccleve Thomas of England Thomas Wolfe Upton Sinclair V. S. Naipaul Valentine McGillycuddy Walter Besant William Bradford and Edward Winslow William Byrd William H. Gass William Howard Russell William Michael Rossetti Wole Soyinka Zadie Smith

Nina Baym, “Rewriting the Scribbling Women” (1985)

“Is it not, then, appropriate to question the idea of literary merit itself, a hierarchical and exclusionary ideal that seems to bear the trace of patriarchy? Yes, but. We all feel intensely that some works are better than others; we all know intensely that we are moved by some works and not by others; at some point every one of us has dismissed some piece of writing (even a piece of writing that we treasure!) as trash. It is not only literary criticism, but literature itself, that feeds on such feelings. To study texts only as cultural artifacts is to remove oneself from the kinds of responses to literature on which its ultimate survival—by no means certain—depends.

​

Nortons have changed (with) the canon

1979 NAAL: The historical scope of “American Literature” began in 1620

Today, this anthology opens with works from Native American oral traditions, and, later, accounts of the new world from the 15th century.

“We make lists, canons, of what we decide is valuable, and these, in the interests of that humanity, we may press on other people, our successors. Some of the reasons we give for doing so may be false or self-serving, or at any rate fallible. But the cause is a good one. And pleasure is at the heart of it.”

​

Frank Kermode, Pleasure and Change

Marjorie Perloff, “Big Anthologies, Bad Textbooks” (1999)

But how long can this expansion of the canon continue? At what point, in other words, does expansion make the very notion of canonicity absurd?

…

I am by no means questioning the role and value of anthologies in general. But there is a major difference between the anthology designed as textbook, usually produced by a team of scholars, and the literary anthology, produced for the pleasure and edification of readers outside the classroom.

Fifteen Minutes a Day: The Reading Guide (1930)

How Dr. Eliot Solved Your Reading Problem

DR. CHARLES W. ELIOT for forty years President of Harvard University, acclaimed without question America’s greatest scholar and educator, was eminently fitted to select out of the world’s literature, a well-rounded library of liberal education...

“My aim was not to select the best fifty, or best hundred, books in the world, but to give, in twenty-three thousand pages or thereabouts, a picture of the progress of the human race within historical times, so far as that progress can be depicted in books.”

Robert Levine, Preface to NAAL9 (2017)

“Aims” of the anthology:

“First, to present a rich and substantial enough variety of works to enable teachers to build courses according to their own vision of American literary history…; second, to make the anthology self-sufficient by featuring many works in their entirety along with extensive selections for individual authors; third, to balance traditional interests with developing critical concerns in a way that allows for the complex, rigorous, and capacious study of American literary traditions.”

Nortons have changed (with) the canon

According to Shesgreen, M.H. Abrams, long the general editor of the NAEL, had the “unmarketable view that he had ‘not found ten lines worth reading in any of the women added’ to his anthology...‘People want these [women] but don’t use them. And we have to put them in to be p.c.’” (Abrams in conversation with Sean Shesgreen in 2004, quoted in “Canonizing the Canonizer.”)

​

1962 NAEL 1: The earliest female author is Elizabeth Barrett Browning (b. 1806).

The only other female authors in the anthology are Emily Brontë, Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Woolf, and Christina Rossetti.

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