Description: An entirely new understanding of what literary naturalism is and why it matters
Review Quotes: "Fighting Words is written in graceful prose and is an outstanding addition to the press's Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism series."
--Gary Scharnhorst, author of more than thirty monographs or collections, including Sinclair Lewis Remembered
"Fighting Words elegantly argues the significance of polemics in three naturalist authors--Norris, Dreiser, and Wright--who were strongly influenced by H. L. Mencken's notion of using words to 'fight.' It is impressive."
--Jeanne Campbell Reesman, author of Jack London's Racial Lives: A Critical Biography and Speaking the Other Self: American Women Writers