Lawrence asserted that ´the proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it´. In these highly individual, penetrating essays he has exposed ´the American whole soul´ within some of that continent´s major works of literature. In seeking to establish the status of writings by such authors as Poe, Melville, Fenimore Cooper and Whitman, Lawrence himself has created a classic work. "Studies in Classic American Literature" is valuable not only for the light it sheds on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American consciousness, telling ´the truth of the day´, but also as a prime example of Lawrence´s learning, passion and integrity of judgement.