Review by Choice Review
Carpenter defines modern as ``literary currents in drama since the last third of the nineteenth century and playwrights who lived at least part of their lives in the twentieth century''. The time frame of the bibliography is the 15 years indicated in the title. This will be an important work for scholars of dramatic literature of the modern period since Ibsen; it appears to succeed in bringing together into one work a wealth of citations (27,300) to thousands of scholarly books and more than 1,600 journals. The work is limited to scholarly items in Roman-alphabet languages; English is well represented but ``Germanic rather than Anglo-American scholarship predominates.'' The nationalities of playwrights included, however, are ``worldly.'' Emphasis lies on modern dramatic literature and its playwrights rather than theater, performers, or performances. Two indexes are included: the first is of the approximately 2,400 playwrights treated in the work, the second a 57-page index of all names used as entries as well as multiple reference numbers, when applicable, to each entry. This work will not be easy for the casual user; the in-depth researcher will find it valuable after becoming familiar with its format through the study and use of its 50-page introduction. Truly international and exhaustive, this work may justly make the claim that it ``supplements the MLA lists by roughly one-hundred percent for the period before 1970 and at least fifty percent for subsequent years.'' Upper-division and graduate libraries will find this a valuable addition.-R.G. Stephen, Rider College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
