Reference Series: multi-volume, cumulative research series published by The Shoe String Press, Inc.

"Much needed. . . Straightforward and convenient for users."– American Reference Books Annual

"Usefully gathers a wide variety of courses that explicate novels and would be most appropriate for libraries supporting undergraduate study of American fiction."–Choice (the magazine of the College and Research Libraries division of the American Library Association)

This is a new series that covers explications of U.S. and Canadian novels from their beginnings in the eighteenth century to the present. It is a continuation of two earlier works by George Hendrick and Donna Gerstenberger, The American Novel 1789-1959: A Checklist of Twentieth-Century Criticism, and The American Novel, Volume II: Criticism Written 1960-1968.

The first volume published covers the years 1991 through 1995. With the second volume, editor Catherine Glitsch goes back to 1969 to begin to fill the gap in the bibliography to 1980. Thereafter subsequent volumes will cover 1981-1985; and 1986-1990. The series will then be continuous and will go forward from 1995 in five-year increments.

This will make the body of explication published on the American novel continuous for the twentieth century, and well into the twenty-first. Because it concentrates on the American novel; goes back to the earliest novels; includes Canadian novelists writing in both French and English; is arranged by the title of the work being explicated, not by the title of the critical article, this series will become the most complete and definitive reference tool for all those working on the American novel at the high school level on up.

Catherine Glitsch is the former head of collection development in American and British literature at the Houston Public Library.

"Highly recommended for colleges and universities with English programs."–American Reference Books Annual
"The best first stop for researchers whose inquiry is focused on the novel."–Reference Books Bulletin of Booklist

For over twenty-five years, this series has been providing students and teachers of literature and reference librarians with a thorough, easy-to-use reference to interpretations of works by novelists from the United Kingdom.

The explications cited in these volumes are interpretations of the significance and the meaning of the novels, and can range from discussions of theme, imagery, or symbolism to diction or structure. All critical stances are included.

Christian Kloesel is Chairman of the English Department at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis.

"A truly essential tool for any library supporting an active interest in American drama." –American Reference Books Annual

Equally valuable for American literature and drama scholars and students, this series is a mainstay work for public, secondary school, and college libraries.

The series as a whole currently covers over 100 years of published material, and each volume lists references to American plays published in books, periodicals, and monographs, during specific time periods. Organized by name of playwright, each volume contains indexes to playwrights, plays, books, journals, and audiovisual media, as well as an index to critics and an index to adapted authors and works.

LaNelle Daniel is assistant professor of English at Floyd College, Georgia. She has taken over this series from Floyd E. Eddleman, its former editor.

"An invaluable book for anyone who has serious interest in American military history." –Military Affairs

"A principal source of historical literature. . . .The editors are tops in the field. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries."–Library Journal

Recognized as the definitive resource for an important dimension of American history and thought, this series brings together, in the form of chapter-length dissertations, title and bibliographic information for significant scholarly publications, books, and articles written during the last twenty-five years about U.S. military history.

Each supplement updates and continues well-focused essays that guide the inquiring reader to published works that are standard in each particular area, or on the cutting edge of new ideas and new methodologies.

Interdisciplinary in nature, these essays see military concerns as applicable to social history. Written by a team of historians from university, government, and military institutions, the aim of the series is to serve as a record of major research, and stimulate the ongoing study of American military history as human history by students and generalists alike.

European Background of American Military Affairs (Dennis Showalter); Colonial Forces, 1607-1776 (John Morgan Dederer); The U.S. Navy from 1789-1865 (Paul J. O’Pecko); Science and Technology in the 19th Century (Barton C. Hacker); World War I and the Peacetime Army, 1917-1941 (Daniel R. Beaver); Military and Naval Medicine (Mary C. Gillett); The U.S. Army, 1945-1991 (Boyd Dastrup); The Navy, 1941-1993 (John B. Hattendorf); U.S. Government Documentation (Timothy K. Nenninger); Military Dress and Insignia (Charles H. Cureton); The Military in Space (Roger G. Launius); Military and Martial Law Issues (Thomas C.Mackey); Museum Collections as Historical Sources (Benjamin H. Kristy).

Robin Higham is professor emeritus and Donald J. Mrozek is a professor of history at Kansas State University.