Compendium, second recalled by writer (American) (7)
I believe the answer is:
omnibus
'compendium' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'second recalled by writer american' is the wordplay.
'second' becomes 'mo' (both are short periods of time).
'recalled' is a reversal indicator.
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'writer' becomes 'nib' (something which writes).
'american' becomes 'us' (abbreviation for United States).
'mo' back-to-front is 'om'.
'om'+'nib'+'us'='OMNIBUS'
(Other definitions for omnibus that I've seen before include "Old vehicle - volume of works" , "Carrier" , "One progresses by stages" , "Large passenger vehicle - collection of printed works in one volume" , "Book containing several works by same author" .)