The Bedford Reader
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The Bedford Reader is a literature textbook published by the Bedford-St. Martin's publishing company. It is edited by X. J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron.
The book is composed of over seventy essays, a few short stories, and one poem. It is divided into eight sections by the various methods of development: narration, description, example, comparison and contrast, analysis, classification, process analysis, cause and effect, definition, and argument and persuasion, as well as a chapter on "mixing the methods".
[edit] Famous works and authors
Numerous essays and stories by noted authors are included in The Bedford Reader. These include:
- An excerpt from Maya Angelou's I Know why the Caged Bird Sings"
- "Shooting Dad", the essay that made Sarah Vowell famous
- An essay by Dave Barry.
- "Remembering my Childhood on the Continent of Africa", from David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day
- "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker
- Jessica Mitford's "Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain"
- Horace Miner's "Body Ritual Among the Nacirema"
- A story by Russell Baker
- Gore Vidal's "Drugs"
- Gloria Naylor's "The Meanings of a Word"
- William F. Buckley, Jr.'s "Why Don't We Complain?"
- Peter Singer's "A Vegetarian Philosophy"
- Stephen Jay Gould's "A Biological Homage to Mickey Mouse"
- Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech
- Edward Said's "Clashing Civilizations?"
Because of the diversity of works and authors, The Bedford Reader is popular among Advanced Placement English teachers, specifically those teaching to the AP English Language and Composition test.
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/highschool/book.asp?2001003034
