Considers the state of the art of publishing and how far it has gone astray from its original standards of literary excellence. (RK)

Discusses the plight of the contemporary literary critic using as examples, Paul de Man, J. Hillis Miller, Harold Bloom, and Geoffrey Hartman. All four men, among the most learned and talented of contemporary critics, reside at Yale University. (Author/RK)

By bringing his own life into works of American literature, F. O. Matthiessen clarified as well as intensified their meaning. Here, his life and work as a teacher are reviewed. (Author/RK)

Author reviewed his feelings about a teacher who was a model of critical dissent and who brought his own unusual stamp of analysis to American literature. (RK)

Discusses the Dropoutsville interpretation of "Huckleberry Finn" and suggests that, since novels are modes of prediction that insinuate visions of human relations not to be found in official rules or precepts or admonitions, English teachers take a fresh look, along with their students, at the book and its real social and moral values.…

Generally accepted interpretations and criticisms of Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" since the 1920s are chronicled and critiqued from the point of view of an admitted "Finnophile". (MSE)

The literary and personal relationship of Theodore Dreiser and H. L. Mencken as it appears in their correspondence with each other is traced and examined. (MSE)

The author describes how early America adopted a standard of literature study expressing the nation's predominately English/European heritage. Since the 1970 census indicates that European Americans are no longer the majority, he suggests that it's time to broaden literature study to other cultures and to America itself. (SJL)