Research Resources:
Subject Research Guides:
Literatures in English:
Biographical Sources
Use to find information, brief or comprehensive, on literary figures, living and dead, famous and obscure.
Full-length biographies of literary figures can be found by checking the individual as subject in
IRIS, the Card Catalog, or
EUREKA, or
WORLDCAT. The library also owns numerous biographical references in other
subject areas and for other nationalities; for additional help, consult Reference.
African-American Writers: A Dictionary.
ALEXANDER REF PS153.N5A3444 2000.
Age of Milton: An Encyclopedia of Major 17th Century British and American Authors.
ALEXANDER REF PR 431.A36 2004.
American National Biography.
Replaces Dictionary of American Biography (DAB--ALEXANDER REF E 176.D563), the American counterpart to the British
Dictionary of National Biography which had many of the same strengths and weaknesses. The new set is much better in its coverage of women and minorities.
ALEXANDER REF CT213.A68 1999 (24 volumes).
American Women Writers.
Women had traditionally been under-represented
in works like the DNB and
DAB, so titles like this four-volume set and the
previous listing help to compensate for the omissions.
Brief biographical articles with primary and secondary bibliographies on
hundreds of American women.
ALEXANDER REF PS 147.A4.
British Biographical Archive.
Microfiche 469.
A compilation of 324 biographical reference works published between 1601 and 1929, providing information on more than 170,000
names. See the four volume index, British Biographical Index,
at ALEXANDER REF CT 773.B75 1990.
Contemporary Authors.
ALEXANDER REF CT 101.C65.
Now available
online.
Brief biographical and bibliographical data, mostly
on living or recently deceased authors.
A good source for information on writers just reaching prominence.
See also the following three titles with narrower focus: Contemporary Dramatists (ALEXANDER REF PN1625.V5);
Contemporary Novelists (ALEXANDER REF PR 883.C67); and Contemporary Poets (ALEXANDER REF PR 603.C6).
Dictionary of British and American Women Writers, 1660-1800.
ALEXANDER REF PR 113.D5. 1985
Another revisionist work. See also the following three titles--Encyclopedia of British Women Writers (ALEXANDER REF PR 111.E54 1998),
British Women Writers (Ref PR 111.B75 1989),
and Biographical Dictionary of English Women Writers, 1580-1720
(ALEXANDER REF PR 113.B46 1990).
Dictionary of Literary Biography.
ALEXANDER REF PS 88.D57.
A huge set (around 290 volumes published, with no end in sight) offering biographical and critical overviews of
American, British, and world authors. Probably designed more for undergraduates, but still of use to advanced students.
Arranged thematically, chronologically, generically, and nationally, with good brief bibliographies. Recent issues have
included volumes on major publishing houses. See also the spinoff Documentary Series (ALEXANDER REF PS 129.D48) for
photographs, facsimiles of manuscripts and typescripts, and other interesting documents relating to authors and
literary movements. As of 2003, the libraries will be acquiring these volumes only through the online
Literature Resource Center
which includes most of the DLB material.
(The easiest access is to search IRIS for Literature Resource Center and then link directly to the database).
Dictionary of National Biography.
The famous multi-volume set chronicling deceased Britons from all periods. Helpful in tracking down obscure writers or peripheral literary figures. Be warned, however, that many of the biographies are more than a century-old, and thus lag well behind recent scholarship and often manifest marked
biases. A fascinating look into the late Victorian mind-set.
See the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, below.
ALEXANDER DA 28.D48.
Notable American Women, 1607-1950.
Also a supplementary volume.
ALEXANDER REF CT 3620.N57.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
60 volumes. The long awaited update of the Dictionary of National Biography.
ALEXANDER REF DA 28.O95 2004.
Full-length biographies of literary figures can be found by checking the individual as subject in
IRIS, the Card Catalog,
EUREKA, or
WORLDCAT.
The library also owns numerous biographical references in other subject areas and for
other nationalities; for additional help, consult Reference.
