Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes essays on Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edith Wharton, Anne Douglas Sedgwick, Booth Tarkington, Willa Cather and others.

I. The foundations of American fiction -- II. Charles Brockden Brown and the establishment of romance -- III. Washington Irving and other pioneers -- IV. James Fenimore Cooper -- V. Edgar Allan Poe and the establishment of the short story -- VI. The development of idealistic romance -- VII. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the romance of the moral life -- VIII. Herman Melville and the exotic romance -- IX. The transition to realism -- X. The fiction of fantasy -- XI. Bret Harte and the fiction of moral contrast -- XII. Mark Twain and the romance of youth -- XIII. William Dean Howells and the establishment of realism -- XIV. Henry James and the fiction of international relations -- XV. Weir Mitchell, pioneer and patrician -- XVI. Place and race in American fiction -- XVII. Joel Chandler Harris and the fiction of folklore -- XVIII. Francis Marion Crawford and the cosmopolitan novel -- XIX. The urbane note in American fiction -- XX. The development of realism -- XXI. James Lane Allen and the novel of the spirit -- XXII. The romance of history and politics -- XXIII. Lafcadio Hearn and the later exotic romance -- XXIV. The journalists -- XXV. Edith Wharton -- XXVI. Anne Douglas Sedgwick -- XXVII. Booth Tarkington and the later romance -- XXVIII. Critics and satirists--the liberals -- XXIX. Critics and satirists--the radicals -- XXX. Ellen Glasgow and the New South -- XXXI. Willa Cather -- XXXII. The celebration of the individual -- XXXIII. Retrospect and prospect.