Biographer, book historian, and scholarly editor, James L. W. West III is Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University.

"West admirably and lucidly stalks an important theoretical point-the relationship between aesthetic and commercial factors in the production of serious American literature."-American Literature"The first systematic, scholarly examination of authorship in our own time. . . . A valuable and stimulating book."-Library Quarterly"An absorbing account of the mechanics and economics of American writing."-Encounter"[West] bulids a convincing case for the way market forces shape a writer's career, subject matter, and narrative form."-Review in American Studies