This anthology of literature from the many American cultures as well as cultures around the world is intended for use in today's college composition and introductory literature courses. Offering a blend of classic favorites and selections from other cultures, the anthology contains some 300 stories, poems, and plays from the six habitable continents of the world. The works in the anthology, by many prize-winning authors, living and dead, celebrate the diversity of the expanded literary canon. Within each section in the anthology, readers/students will encounter sections on fiction, poetry, and drama. An introductions opens each chapter, while questions for discussion and writing follow many selections. End-of-section apparatus permits comparative assessment of authors. Sections are divided thematically, as follows: Children and Families; Women and Men; Caste and Class; War and Peace; and Faith and Doubt. Biographical profiles of the authors and a useful glossary of literary terms conclude the anthology. (NKA)