John Grisham is one of the most prolific and beloved mystery writers today, still reaching the top of the bestseller lists with books like The Testament (1999) and King of Torts (2003). In recent times, he has also experimented with different genres, such as A Painted House (2001), a semi-autobiographical work, and Skipping Christmas (2001), a holiday narrative. This volume follows up the critical analysis of Grisham's work in John Grisham: A Critical Companion, examining his writing from 1997 to the present.

"Critical Companion to Emily Dickinson" is an encyclopedic guide to the life and works of Emily Dickinson, one of the most famous and widely studied American poets of the 19th century. Known for her wit and preference for seclusion from the outside world, Dickinson rarely left her home in Amherst, Mass., preferring instead to write quietly from the confines of her bedroom. This new title contains close readings and critical analyses of more than 150 of Dickinson's best-known poems, including "Because I could not stop for Death," "I felt a funeral, in my Brain," "I died for Beauty - but was scarce," and "I like to see it lap the miles."

Grade 9 Up–This excellent resource is divided into three parts: Biography, Works A-Z, and Related People, Places, and Topics. The first and shortest section provides a summary of Steinbecks birth, early childhood, education, and career. The bulk of the book offers descriptions of all of his works–published and unpublished. Many of these entries include background information, critical summaries, discussions of the works early reception and contemporary perspectives, chapter-by-chapter synopses, information on film adaptations, and further-reading suggestions.

"Critical Companion to Walt Whitman" contains entries on every one of Walt Whitman's poems, from the widely recognized "Song of Myself," "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," and "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking," to his minor works. His major prose works, such as "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" and "Democratic Vistas", each edition of "Leaves of Grass", and unique terms used or coined by Whitman, such as "Eidolons" and "Paumanok," are also covered. Helping readers understand the influences on his life are entries on Whitman's family, friends, relatives, and acquaintances; important places where he lived and worked; and ideas important to his work.

Rossignol's Critical Companion to Chaucer is a revised and expanded edition of her Chaucer A to Z (1999), but its contents have been reconfigured to conform to other volumes in the Critical Companion series. Rather than the previous straightforward alphabetical arrangement, the work is now divided into four sections. Part 1 consists of a nine-page biography of Chaucer, while part 2 provides individual entries on Chaucer's works. In most cases, the entry on each work includes a synopsis, critical commentary, subentries for characters within the work, and a narrative bibliography of sources for further reading.