MICHAEL MEYER (Ph.D., University of Connecticut) has taught introductory writing and literature courses for more than thirty years — since 1981 at the University of Connecticut and before that at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the College of William and Mary. His articles have appeared in such distinguished journals as American Literature, Studies in American Renaissance, and the Virginia Quarterly Review, and he is former president of the Thoreau Society and coauthor (with Walter Harding) of The New Thoreau Handbook, a standard reference source. His other books for Bedford/St. Martin’s include The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Eighth Edition, Poetry: An Introduction, Fifth Edition, and Thinking and Writing About Literature, Second Edition.