This is the first book to examine the literary history of the United States in terms of the chronological occurrence of significant events and activities. This comprehensive volume lists the dates of birth and death of literary figures, important historical facts, and the authors and titles of works published for each year, from Colonial times to the present. The compiler's introduction offers an interesting and informative discussion of how, from little more than a list of author's titles, and events, we may observe a year in the history of a nation, through the political, scientific, and social developments that fired the imaginations of America's writers, and fed the appetites of a growing reading public.