Kiowa County Public Library District

"Debating literature's greatest heroines with a friend, playwright Samantha Ellis has a revelation--"My whole life, I'd been trying to be Cathy, when I should have been trying to be Jane." With this discovery, she embarks on a retrospective look at the literary ladies--the characters and the writers--whom she has loved since childhood. From early obsessions with the March sisters to later idolizations of Sylvia Plath, Ellis evaluates how her heroines...

In a narrative of immense scope and fascination--spanning nearly 400 years and brimming with Showalter's characteristic wit and incisive opinions--readers are introduced to more than 250 female writers, both famous and little known.

Critical essays examine the life of African-American author Maya Angelou, and explore her use of autobiographical fiction.

Examines women's issues in "The Awakening," such as female identity, inequality, and independence

This pioneering work, first published in 1986, documents the continuing vitality of the American Indian tradition and of women's leadership within that tradition. In her new preface to this edition, Allen reflects on the remarkable resurgence of American Indian pride and culture in recent times.

Examines the life of the nineteenth-century author famous for the novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which denounced slavery and intensified the disagreement between the North and South.

"Upon its publication in 1850, The Scarlet Letter shocked the nation by boldly confronting 'forbidden' topics including the sexual misconduct of society's leaders, the plight of single mothers, and the separation of church and state. Ironically, the novel's moral and social themes, which at the time inspired such scandal, are now the source of its continued vitality since those very issues occupy America's conscience today. Now, no study of American...