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 or
WORLDCAT. The library also owns numerous biographical references in other
subject areas and for other nationalities; for additional help, consult Reference.
Contemporary Authors
Brief biographical and bibliographical information on more than 130,000 authors from the United States and the rest of the world. While coverage is international, emphasis is given to the English-speaking world, with more than half the authors from the United States.
Literature Resource Center
A full text electronic database which provides online access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis of authors and their works from every age and literary discipline. Literature Resource Center covers more than 130,000 novelists, poets, essayists, journalists and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,000 of the most studied authors. Searchable fields include: Author Name, Title, Genre, Literary Movement, and Literary Themes. In addition, users can access current, full text critical essays on major authors via the Literature Resource Center's link to more than 260 prominent literary journals. Also includes links to nearly 5000 web sites focusing on major authors and their works. Aimed more at undergraduates than at advanced researchers, but still a useful site.
Marquis Who's Who on the Web
Brief biographical information on Americans in directory format. Common features include birth date and place, family, education and degree(s), career history, creative works, awards, military history, achievements, current memberships, interests/hobbies, and contact information. Includes more than 1.4 million biographies, with comprehensive coverage from 1985 to the present and historical biographies from 1607 onward.
American National Biography.
Updates 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, though the older set retains much interest.
ALEXANDER REF CT213.A68 1999 (24 volumes).
(Also Dana & Robeson)
British Biographical Archive.
ALEXANDER 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.
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.
(Also Dana & Robeson).
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
60 volumes. The long awaited update of the Dictionary of National Biography.
ALEXANDER REF DA 28.O95 2004.
(Also Dana).
