Modern American literature is too vast and varied to be studied between the covers of a single book. Although limited by space, a sincere effort has been made in this anthology to put together deeply perceptive articles on some of the most influential and representative American authors and literary works. Among the writers studied here are Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Earnest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Toni Morrison, Harold Robbins, Eugene ONeill and Edward Albee who represent most of the important genres and trends in American literature today. Thoreau and Whitman have been included not because they are modern but because of their immense contribution to the evolution of the American thought and literature. The novels and plays specially focussed upon are: The Old Man and the Sea, Look Homeward, Angel, The Bluest Eye, Sula, Where Love Has Gone, Desire Under the Elms, A Streetcar Named Desire, A Delicate Balance and Tiny Alice. It is earnestly hoped that teachers, research students and scholars interested in American literature will find this book immensely useful.