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Overview
Nothing better represented the early spirit of American expansion than the railroad. Dominant in daily life as well as in the popular imagination, the railroad appealed strongly to creative writers. For many years, fiction of railroad life and travel was plentiful and varied. As the nineteenth century receded, the railroad's allure faded, as did railroad fiction.
Today, it is hard to sense what the railroad once meant to Americans. The fiction of the railroad-often by railroaders themselves-recaptures that sense, and provides valuable insights on American cultural history.
This extensively annotated bibliography lists and discusses in 956 entries novels and short stories from the 1840s to the present in which the railroad is important. Each entry includes plot and character description to help the reader make an informed decision on the source's merit. A detailed introduction discusses the history of railroad fiction and highlights common themes such as strikes, hoboes, and the roles of women and African-Americans.
Such writers of "pure" railroad fiction as Harry Bedwell, Frank Packard, and Cy Warman are well represented, along with such literary artists as Mark Twain, Thomas Wolfe, Flannery O'Connor, and Ellen Glasgow. Work by minority writers, including Jean Toomer, Richard Wright, Frank Chin, and Toni Morrison, also receives close attention. An appendix organizes entries by decade of publication, and the work is indexed by subject and title.
Grant Burns is assistant library director with the Frances Willson Thompson Library at the University of Michigan-Flint. He has contributed articles to Library Journal and Library Quarterly. Also the author of McFarland's Email Users Handbook (2002) and Librarians in Fiction: A Critical Bibliography (1998), he lives in East Lansing, Michigan.
Synopsis
Rail imagery from the 1840s to the 21st century rolls across the pages in entries on 956 novels and short stories. Each entry includes plot and character descriptions in addition to basic bibliographic data. A detailed introduction discusses the history of railroad fiction and highlights common themes such as strikes, hoboes, and rail heroes. An appendix organizes entries by decade of publication, and the reference is indexed by subject and title. Burns is assistant director at the Frances Willson Thompson Library, U. of Michigan- Flint. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR