This biography of American poet Frederick Goddard Tuckerman focuses on his development as both a "Romantic," whose work was influenced by Keats, Emerson, and Tennyson, and as an "anti-Romantic," in the mold of Hawthorne, Melville, and Dickinson. Using previously unexamined letters, family records, and notes by Tuckerman, Eugene England traces the poet's unique combination of Anglican rationalism, legal training, and skill in natural observation (under the tutelage of his brother Edward, a noted botanist), all of which caused him to depart from the orthodox Emersonian Romanticism in unusual and instructive ways. England examines Tuckerman's challenging resolution to basic aesthetic and epistemological dilemmas posed by Romanticism and demonstrates that his poems are a first-rate artistic achievement of continuing value. Beyond Romanticism includes a general bibliography as well as a complete bibliography of Tuckerman's writings and works about him and his poetry.

This volume is the most comprehensive bibliography of purely biographical material written by Americans. It covers every possible field of life but, by design, excludes autobiographies, diaries, and journals.

The importance of Chicago in American culture has made the city's place in the American imagination a crucial topic for literary scholars and cultural historians. While databases of bibliographical information on Chicago-centered fiction are available, they are of little use to scholars researching works written before the 1980s. In The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide, James A. Kaser provides detailed synopses for more than 1,200 works of fiction significantly set in Chicago and published between 1852 and 1980. The synopses include plot summaries, names of major characters, and an indication of physical settings. An appendix provides bibliographical information for works dating from 1981 well into the 21st century, while a biographical section provides basic information about the authors, some of whom are obscure and would be difficult to find in other sources. Written to assist researchers in locating works of fiction for analysis, the plot summaries highlight ways in which the works touch on major aspects of social history and cultural studies (i.e., class, ethnicity, gender, immigrant experience, and race). The book is also a useful reader advisory tool for librarians and readers who want to identify materials for leisure reading, particularly since genre, juvenile, and young adult fiction, as well as literary fiction, are included.