In this seventh edition of Anthology of American Literature, Volume I, we have followed the same principles of selection successfully sued for all previous editions:
- To select works primarily for their literary significance
- To represent authors by extensive samplings of their works
- To include, where possible, long works in their entiety
- To provide concise, informative introductions and headnotes suited to the student reader
- To explain unfamiliar terms and allusions through liberal use of foot-notes
- To present author bibliographies that are selective and current
This new edition continues the presentation of the complete Emily Dickin-son selection and the complete Walt Whitman selection in both Volume I and Volume II. Because of that repetition of complete selection of complete selections, instructors may begin a course or end a course with Dickinson or Whitman or both or neither.
Among changes in Volume I are the addition of Navajo and Hopi legends and Poe's "William Wilson." The anthology also now presents the complete text of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which therby joins the list of otter long works included in their entirety: A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, Franklin's Autobiography, Emerson's Nature, Hawthorne's The Scarlet Latter, Melville's Billy Budd, Thoreau's Walden, Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, and Whitman's song of Myself.
- Christopher Columbus
- Captain John Smith
- Native American Voices
- William Bradford
- Thomas Morton
- John Winthrop
- Roger Williams
- The Bay Psalm Book
- The New England Primer
- Anne Bradstreet
,etc.