The Norton Anthology of English Literature is an anthology of
English literature published by the
W. W. Norton & Company. First published in 1962, it has gone through nine editions in a half-century; as of 2006 there are over eight million copies in print, making it the publisher's best-selling anthology.
M. H. Abrams, a critic and scholar of
Romanticism, served as General Editor for its first seven editions, before handing the job to
Stephen Greenblatt, a
Shakespeare scholar and
Harvard professor. The anthology provides an overview of
poetry,
drama,
prose fiction,
essays, and letters from
Beowulf to the beginning of the 21st century.