Introduction

As a relatively recent field of study, early American literature has seen its canonical outlines increase exponentially in the last several decades.  With the publication of the first Norton Anthology of American Literature in 1979, the first attempts were made to define the content of this growing field.  As the Norton anthologies continued to expand over the coming years, they found healthy competition from the Heath Anthologies of American Literature, which offered a more expansive interpretation of anthologized content.  Both anthologies tell a story—in fact, multiple stories—of the developing field of early American literature, stories which often only come into view once the data has been gathered, sorted, and displayed.

The following website and its composite data are a collaborative project between faculty, staff, and graduate students at Washington University-St. Louis.  We invite you to explore the many options available and discover new stories to tell.

A Brief Guide to the Website

• Source Data: Click the link to find the spreadsheet which contains the raw data.
• Top 10 Authors: Click the link to find the top ten authors (by page count) for each volume and edition.
• First 5 Authors: Click the link to find the first five authors in order of appearance for each volume and edition.
• Type of Editions to Use: You can choose to isolate or compare a variety of anthology types among the Norton and Heath editions.  The “short” editions are the more compact versions of the “full” (N.B. Heath appears to have discontinued their short editions, while Norton continues to publish them).
• Include > 1800/1820?: This allows you to choose whether to compare the data to the rest of the entire edition with post-1820 texts (N.B. only total page count is available from those post-1820 editions, not authors or demographics).
• Feature to Chart: This allows you to choose a variety of demographic categories, which can then be further narrowed by selecting/deselecting the desired demographic options. 
• For Authors and Titles: Multiple authors or titles can be selected and compared.
• Adjust Author Demographics: This allows you to adjust demographic data for individual use (N.B. these are not permanent changes to the website’s data, only temporary for the user’s web session).

This project is directed by Abram Van Engen with assistance from Katie Collins, Tim DeCelle, and Hannah Wakefield.  Special thanks to Douglas Knox and Stephen Pentecost of Washington University’s Humanities Digital Workshop for creating the website and for their vital insights into its preparation and execution.