More than fifty specialists have contributed to this new edition of volume 4 of The Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. The design of the original work has established itself so firmly as a workable solution to the immense problems of analysis, articulation and coordination that it has been retained in all its essentials for the new edition. The task of the new contributors has been to revise and integrate the lists of 1940 and 1957, to add materials of the following decade, to correct and refine the bibliographical details already available, and to re-shape the whole according to a new series of conventions devised to give greater clarity and consistency to the entries.

This handbook is intended for the reader of any age who is entering the serious study of English or American literature. Here are the principal editions and commentaries that such a reader may reasonably be expected to know about if they are to explore any of the classics or classical areas of English and American literature to the present day.

A world list of books in the English language.