'In the realm of spectacular literary scholarship and criticism there has been nothing to approach Elaine Showalter's magisterial A Jury Of Her Peers. Showalter is the ideal guide through this maze-like landscape: she is sympathetic, informed, canny and at times very funny ? as in her commentary on Gertrude Stein. This is the most imaginative and brilliantly executed book of Showalter's fearless career' Joyce Carol Oates, Guardian, Books of the Year 'A superb literary survey' Sunday Times 'The first comprehensive overview of the achievement of American women writers ... A daunting task, and few could carry it off with such aplomb ... She magisterially offers judicious assessment, adroit synopsis and astonishing breadth and range of reference' Sarah Churchwell, Guardian 'An authoritative study of American female literary production ... A woman writer's female peers can best understand and judge her words ? and Showalter is your woman. There is no other critic who could produce such a clear, seamless history of women's writing, relating it so elegantly and wittily to literary, social and political contexts ... Showalter has given us a huge feast of information, ideas, quotations and gossip' Helen Taylor, Independent 'Although the central virtue of A Jury of Her Peers is its vast scope, it also provides compelling glimpses into the lives of nearly forgotten artists' Stephen Amidon, Sunday Times 'Cutting a swathe through 350 years of litcrit is not for the faint-hearted. Maybe it took so long because it required someone of Elaine Showalter's grip and pre-eminence to take it on ... While the book is necessarily twinned with a timeline, Showaler's genius in pairing unlikely contemporaries ... Elaine Showalter has triumphed in producing a highly readable and provoking survey of the American literary scene. It shouldn't be viewed as the end of an old debate, but the first round in a new one' Mary Morrissy, Irish Times 'A magnificent, scholarly history of American women's literature ... like the scores of writes Showalter so engagingly describes, she knows how to tell a story ... A clever combination of the human and the critical ... The range of this book is astonishing ... A Jury of Her Peers is an exceptional literary history, written with verve and gusto by one of the world's most distinguished scholars' Alison Kelly, Observer 'Vigorously argued, enthusiastic, opinionated, thickly historical and robustly ambitious' Hermione Lee, TLS 'Showalter is celebrated on both sides of the Atlantic for her scholarship, wit and lucid prose. This prodigious undertaking reflects these qualities and moreover is written with a great generosity of spirit that leaves the reader inspired and humbled' Elspeth Barker, Literary Review 'In this magisterial work, the distinguished US professor turns her attention to the writings of her own countrywomen ... Erudite and fascinating' Metro

Elaine Showalter was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1941. From 1967 to 1984 she taught English and Women's Studies at Rutgers University, and she now chairs the department of English at Princeton University.