"The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer. It has never yet melted."― D. H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature (1923)Studies in Classic American Literature (1923) by D. H. Lawrence is considered culturally important to Western culture in its literary criticism of multiple American authors: Benjamin Franklin, Poe, Melville, Whitman, and Fenimore Cooper, among others. Even though the prose is informal, the ideas are lofty. Lawrence's writing highlights the American consciousness found in eighteenth and nineteenth century literature and is a must-read for lovers of history and the timeless authors of classic American literature.