Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers is published by Greenwood Press as a monographic series. Each volume discusses a single writer with the idea that it will provide biographical information, critical reviews of the writer’s extant works, and alternative readings such as Marxist readings, feminist readings and so on. From the series introduction: “The authors included in this series were chosen by an advisory board composed of high school English teachers and high school and public librarians. They ranked a list of best‐selling writers according to their popularity among different groups of readers. Writers in the top‐ranked group who had not received book‐length, academic literary analysis (or none in at least the past ten years) were chosen for the series. Because of this selection method, Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers meets a need that is not addressed elsewhere.” The authors are: V.C. Andrews; Pat Conroy; Ken Follett; Dean Koontz; Anne Rice; Tom Clancy; Robin Cook; James Herriot; Robert Ludlum; Tom Robbins; Mary Higgins Clark; Michael Crichton; Tony Hillerman; Anne McCaffrey; John Saul; Arthur C. Clarke; John Grisham; John Jakes; Colleen McCullough; Erich Segal; James Clavell; Howard Fast; Stephen King; James Michener; and Gore Vidal. The CD‐ROM version and the Web version replicate the printed text, although the formatting is different.
It was easy to install and access Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers. The CD‐ROM version had very few steps, and the Web site was easily identified from the main page of the publisher site (http://www.gem.greenwood.com). The accompanying documentation indicates that the CD requires 15Mb (16Mb for Windows NT) hard disk space, but I chose to run it from the CD drive. This turned out to slow down the response time, but it did not hamper access all that much.
I reached the Web site easily to look at the Web version, but I found that page‐by‐page access to the texts within the Critical Companions area was inconsistent. The response to a trial account request was immediate, so it was easy to get a full working preview of the site. However, during the few sessions I was online to write the review, I experienced some rather odd server responses during each session. Most of the odd responses included completely unrelated pages served up in place of the requested pages. For instance, at least twice I was reading the Tom Robbins text and on pressing the button to retrieve the next page, got pages from unrelated articles instead of the continuation of the Robbins material. Other than the mix ups, I found access to the material to be consistently good. The few graphics are kept at minimal size (usually small representations of the book being discussed), and the text shows up quickly and is consistently easy to read.
The initial screen for the electronic versions present all of the titles in the monographic series as a menu of hot links, so users can go directly to any title in the collection and read that title from beginning to end, using “next” or “previous” buttons. Users can also look at a table of contents consisting of hot links to each section of each text and navigate through the whole collection that way. The presentation and search engine used for the CD‐ROM version is FolioViews, and the Web site appears to be organized by GEMOnline (I looked at the online documentation), which I assume is designed by Greenwood Electronic Media. The presentation of the text is much as it appears in the print version: that is to say, it is a clean and clearly‐organized screen.
It is difficult to review the content of an entire monographic series of 25 titles; however, some individual titles have been reviewed in such journals as Reference and Research Book News. I was very happy to see that all the series authors are identified. The credentials of the editorial board are for the most part academic. The bibliographies are extensive and should be very helpful for the intended student and general library audience. Since the series was created with extensive input from librarians who felt that there was a lack of information about these popular writers, I feel that the intent of the publisher has been well implemented, with careful consideration that the information be documented and authoritative sources used.
It took me a few tries to understand the navigation schemes of both the CD‐ROM and Web versions; however, there are no “curve balls” that bear mentioning from my experience. Each version has means for querying all the texts using Boolean operators as well as supplemental navigation tools to keep track of hits as well as where users are in general. There are links to outside online resources concerning the popular writers. A few test searches revealed that the search engines are quite powerful and provide hits that are hot links to the appropriate texts, with easy navigation back to the list of hits so that users can quickly review the results and return to the original hit list.
Both the CD‐ROM and the Web version appear to support printing of a sort. I did not find any function that would allow downloading or electronic mailing of full text or selected text.
I found both the printed booklet for the CD and the Web documentation to be sufficient to help users understand the full functionality of the software. Free technical support is offered with both the CD‐ROM and the Web versions. I am not able to evaluate the service, other than to say that my call was not returned after a full working day, and I did not hold up writing the review in order to speak with a representative.
The most up‐to‐date information regarding licensing information is discussed in full on the Web site. Contact information is there so that any licensing questions can be answered by Greenwood representatives.
Since the Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers series has been published to fill in a noticeable gap in the literature, its only competition is articles scattered through the popular and scholarly press. This collection should be evaluated on the authors it contains, and it has selected wisely those who are highly recognized names, yet who have been passed over by the standard reference sources for literary criticism. It will be highly used by students of popular culture.
I found both the CD‐ROM and Web versions to be equally adequate. Judgment should be made based on estimations of use or particular circumstances and equipment configurations or availability. The obvious advantage of both over the print versions is the search capability provided in the electronic ones.
In summary, I recommend this title for any academic or public library collection serving users who study popular literature. With the rather full biographical sections for each author, it can also double as a biographical resource for these very popular celebrities. Considering the amount of material and the popularity of the writers, the price is certainly good, especially when one considers the difficulty of finding serious criticism for these authors.
