1. H.G. Wells, science and sex in the modern library, 1917-31 -- 2. 'The modern library is something magnificent' : Sherwood Anderson and the canon of American literature -- 3. Blurring the boundaries : detective fiction and Joyce's A portrait of the artist as a young man in the moder library -- 4. Woolf in the modern library : bridging the gap between professional and common readers -- 5. Canonical in the 1930s : Willa Cather's Death comes for the archbishop in the modern library series -- 6. 'If it's like any introduction you ever read, I'll eat the jacket' : Faulkner's Sanctuary, the modern library and the literary canon