The 4-vol. main set consists of 97 of the pamphlets originally published as the University of Minnesota pamphlets on American writers; some have been rev. and updated. The supplements cover writers not included in the original series. Supplement 2, <4 > have editor in chief, A. Walton Litz ; Retrospective suppl. 1, c1998, was edited by A. Walton Litz & Molly Weigel ; Suppl. 5-7 have as editor-in-chief, Jay Parini.

v. 1. Henry Adams to T.S. Eliot -- v. 2. Ralph Waldo Emerson to Carson McCullers -- v. 3. Archibald MacLeish to George Santayana -- v. 4. Isaac Bashevis Singer to Richard Wright -- Supplement[s]: 1, pt. 1. Jane Addams to Sidney Lanier. 1, pt. 2. Vachel Lindsay to Elinor Wylie. 2, pt. 1. W.H. Auden to O. Henry. 2, pt. 2. Robinson Jeffers to Yvor Winters. -- 4, pt. 1. Maya Angelou to Linda Hogan. 4, pt. 2. Susan Howe to Gore Vidal -- Suppl. 5. Russell Banks to Charles Wright -- Suppl. 6. Don Delillo to W.D. Snodgrass -- Suppl. 7. Julia Alvarez to Tobias Wolf.