Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Anthology
Definition:
When it comes to books, the anthology is a one-stop shop.
An anthology rounds up a big collection of writings—poems, essays, short stories, just about anything—and compiles them in a single book.
Sometimes, anthologies gather up the work of a single author, like the Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. Other times, an anthology revolves around a single subject, like City of the Big Shoulders: An Anthology of Chicago Poetry; or a single genre, like the annual Best American Mystery Stories anthology. They can even focus on a single nightmare-inducing theme, like The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, which will have you sleeping with the lights on and a militia of stuffed animals gathered at the foot of your bed.