The reference sources listed here provide quick information on primarily English and American literature. These can be very broad or very specific in nature: for example, an encyclopedia on American literature or an encyclopedia on Mark Twain. The following list is only a sampling of the many resources available, whether in print or online.
American National Biography (Oxford)
Authoritative biographies of deceased Americans.
Biographical Dictionary of Transcendentalism
Bloomsbury Dictionary of English Literature
Cambridge Companions
Search for companions to authors, works, theories, etc. (examples: Allegory, American Gay and Lesbian Fiction, Anthony Trollope)
Chambers Dictionary of Literary Characters
Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Contemporary Authors (incorporated into Gale Literary Sources)
Biographical sketches of 20th-century authors who have written in English or have had their works translated into English.
Critical Survey of Literary Theory
Edited by Frank N. Magill
Salem Press, c1987
Main Ref PN45 .C74 1987
Dictionary of Literary Biography (incorporated into Gale Literary Sources)
"The essays of DLB outline the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres and summarize the critical response to their work." Personal information, principals works, and further readings also are covered.
Dictionary of Literary Symbols
"Explains and illustrates the literary symbols that we all frequently encounter (such as swan, rose, moon, gold), and gives hundreds of cross-references and quotations. The dictionary concentrates on English literature, but its entries range widely from the Bible and classical authors to the twentieth century, taking in American and European literatures."
Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs
Edited by Jean-Charles Seigneuret
Greenwood Press, 1988
Main Ref PN43.D48 1988
Dictionary of National Biography
Biographies of deceased British writers.
Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English
Encyclopedia of Postmodernism
Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era
Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Literature
Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory and Criticism
The Guide includes... "entries on critics and theorists, critical schools and movements, and the critical and theoretical innovations of specific countries and historical periods."
Literature Resource Center
Biographies,bibliographies, critical essays, work overviews, author-relatedwebsites, and timeline events. LRC is drawn in full, or in part, fromthese titles: Contemporary Authors; Contemporary Literary Criticism (selected), Dictionary of Literary Biography; Scribner Writer Series; Twayne's English Authors; Twayne's U.S. Authors; Twayne's World Authors; and several other sources.
Middle English Compendium
"The Middle English Compendium has been designed to offer easy access toand interconnectivity between three major Middle English electronicresources: an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary, aHyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MEDbibliographies, and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, as wellas links to an associated network of electronic resources."
The New Dictionary of the History of Ideas
A venerable dictionary. Many literary terms, themes and motifs are discussed.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: American Literature
A curated list of core books and articles in the study of American literature.
Oxford English Dictionary
Oxford African American Studies Center
The Oxford Handbook of English Literature and Theology. Chapters on The Protestant and Catholic Reformations, The Enlightenment, The Victorians, Modernism, etc. as well as specific chapters on Joyce, Hardy, George Eliot, Newman and more.
The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Literature. Chapters on Lyric, Satire, Epic, Tragedy, Pastoral, Realism, etc.
Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
Jay Parini, editor in chief
Oxford University Press, 2004
Main Ref PS21.E537 2004
Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature
Oxford University Press, 2006
"The Encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of literature fromthe Abbey Theatre to Israel Zangwill, covering the entire history ofliterature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in themajor literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish,and Latin). It includes substantial accounts of individual authors(e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and detailed histories of particularthemes, movements, genres, and institutions, whose impact upon thewriting or the reading of literature was significant (e.g., TheStationers' Company, the sonnet, the School of Night, or the Sublime)"
Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature
Oxford Reference Online--Literature.
Great for quick, factual look-ups. Includes sources like the The Oxford Companion to American Literature, The Oxford Companion to English Literature, and the The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare.
Poetry
Locating Poems
In addition to searching under an author's name in the library's catalog, consider these indexes and web sites:
Granger's Index to Poetry
H.W. Wilson, 1904-
Main Ref PN1021.G72
Index to Poetry in Periodicals
Granger Book Co., c1981-
Main Ref PS324 .I4
Covers poems published in American magazines and newspapers, 1915-1929
The American Verse Project
Volumes of American poetry prior to 1920.
Representative Poetry On-line
Early medieval period to the beginning of the twentieth century. From University of Toronto. Unlike many collections of verse on the Web, this one is edited by scholars. Poems tend to be British and American and number over 3,000.
Reference, Poetic Terms and Concepts
Dictionary of Literary Biography
"The essays of DLB outline the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres and summarize the critical response to their work." Personal information, principals works, and further readings also are covered.
New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Edited by Alex Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan
Princeton University Press, 1993
Main Ref PN1021 .N39 1993
Dictionary of Poetic Terms
By Jack Myers and Don Charles Wukasch
University of North Texas Press, c2003
Main Ref PN1042 .M93 2003
Criticism
See also the Journal Articles and Books & E-books sections.
Critical Survey of Poetry
Edited by Philip K. Jason
Salem Press, c2003
Main Ref PN1021 .C7 2003
Includes biographies and analysis
Poetry Explication : A checklist of Interpretation Since 1925 of British and American Poems Past and Present
By Joseph M. Kuntz and Nancy Conrad Martinez
G. K. Hall, c1980
Main Ref PN1022.K8 1980
Guide to British Poetry Explication
By Nancy C. Martinez and Joseph G.R. Martinez
G.K. Hall, 1991-c1995
Main Ref. PN1022.M34 1991 (v.1 Old English - Medieval; v.3 Restoration - Romantic; v.4 Victorian - Contemporary)
American and British Poetry : A Guide to the Criticism, 1925-1978
By Harriet Semmes Alexander
Swallow Press, c1984
Main Ref PN1022.A44 1984
Guide to American Poetry Explication: Colonial and Nineteenth-Century
By James Ruppert
G.K. Hall, c1989
Main Ref Z1231.P7 R66 1989
Guide to American Poetry Explication: Modern and Contemporary
By John R. Leo
G.K. Hall, c1989
Main Ref Z1231.P7 L46 1989
The Explicator Cyclopedia
Edited by Charles Child Walcutt and J. Edwin Whitesell
Quadrangle books, 1966-68
Main Ref PR401 .E9
Short Stories
Locating Short Stories
Index to Best American Short Stories and O. Henry Prize Stories
By Ray Lewis White
G.K. Hall, c1988
Main Ref Z1231.F4 W52 1988
Short Story Index: An Index to 60,000 Stories in 4,320 Collections
Compiled by Dorothy E. Cook and Isabel S. Monro
H. W. Wilson, 1953
Main Ref Z5917.S5 C6
Supplement: 1950-1983
Main Ref Z5917.S5 C62 (7 vols.)
Chicorel Index to Short Stories in Anthologies and Collections
Edited by Marietta Chicorel
Chicorel Library Pub. Corp., 1974
Main Ref Z5781 .C485
Index to Short Stories
Compiled by Ina Ten Eyck Firkins
H.W. Wilson company, 1915
Main Ref Z5917.S5 F5
Supplement
Main Ref Z5917.S5 F5 Suppl
The Standard Index of Short Stories, 1900-1914
Compiled by Francis J. Hannigan
Small, Maynard & Company, c1918
Main Ref Z5917.S5 H2
Reference & Criticism
Note: See also articles and books sections.
Columbia Companion to the 20th-Century American Short Story
Dictionary of Literary Biography
"The essays of DLB outline the lives and careers of authors from all eras and genres and summarize the critical response to their work." Personal information, principals works, and further readings also are covered. Especially good coverage of short story writers.
A Reader's Companion to the Short Story in English
Reference Guide to Short Fiction
Edited by Noelle Watson
St. James Press, c1994
Main Ref PN3373 .R36 1994
Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication ...
Shoe String Press, 1961-
Main Ref Z5917.S5 W3 and supplements
Main Ref Z5917.S5 W33 and supplements
Covers 1800-
American Short-Fiction Criticism and Scholarship, 1959-1977 : A Checklist
By Joe Weixlmann
Swallow Press, c1982
Main Ref Z1231.F4 W43
Shakespeare
Reference
There are many, many reference sources for all aspects of Shakespeare study -- biographical, theatrical, criticism, textual analysis, etc. Here is short sample:
Biblical References in Shakespeare's Plays. Main Ref PR 3012 S53 1999.
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy. (e-book) 2002.
A Complete and Systematic Concordance to the Works of Shakespeare. Main Ref PR 2892 S6 1970. Six volumes.
A Dictionary of Shakespeare. (e-book) 1998.
The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare. (e-book) 2001.
Shakespearean Characterization: A Guide for Students and Actors. (e-book) 2002.
Shakespeare: from Stage to Screen. (e-book) 2004.
Shakespeare after Shakespeare:And Encyclopedia of the Bard in Mass Media and Popular Culture. Main Ref PR 2880 S48 2007.
Criticism
There is no end, it seems, to Shakespeare criticism. You will want to search for books and journal articles-- please refer to the Books and Journal Articles section. in both cases, you can do a keyword search, for example, for Shakespeare and Hamlet or Shakespeare and Women. Or do a subject search of Shakespeare and browse the subject headings or other phrases to narrow down your search.
Shakespearean Criticism Yearbook: Excerpts from the criticism of William Shakespeare's plays and poetry, from the first published appraisals to current evaluation. Main Ref PR2965 .S43 1984.
Web Sites
General Gateway Sites
Voice of the Shuttle: Web Page for Humanities Research
Excellent collection of links from Alan Liu, English Dept, UCSB.
Full-text Resources
Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts
A full-text indexed collection of classic American and English literature
The American Verse Project
Volumes of American poetry prior to 1920.
Online Books Page
From the University of Pennsylvania -- access to over 30,000 books on the Web.
Representative Poetry On-line
Early medieval period to the beginning of the twentieth century. From University of Toronto. Unlike many collections of verse on the Web, this one is edited by scholars. Poems tend to be British and American and number over 3,000.
Bartleby Library
Literature, reference, and verse.
English Language Resources: The Electronic Text Center
A variety of electronic texts and illustrations made available over the Internet from the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia. Some contents available only to UV students.
Victorian Women Writers Project
British women writers of the late 19th century. A collection of anthologies, novels, political pamphlets, and volumes of poetry.
General Internet Sources
The Cambridge History of English and American Literature
An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes According to Bartleby.com this source "is considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published on writings in the English language. Compiled over fourteen years, from 1907 to 1921."
The Children's Literature Web Guide
The Children's Literature Web Guide is an attempt to gather together and categorize the growing number of Internet resources related to books for Children and Young Adults. From the University of Calgary.
Labyrinth: The World Wide Web Server for Medieval Studies
A comprehensive resource for Medieval Studies: bibliographies, European cultural studies, pedagogical resources, electronic texts, music.
Luminarium
Anthologies of Middle, Renaissance, and 17th Century English literature. A great introduction to the major authors of these periods. Beautiful graphics. Includes biographies, criticism, bibliographies and much more. Very useful as an overview.
Maine Writers Index
Over 350 Maine writers, past and present.
New York Times Books (free but registration required to use New York Times' sites.)
Includes the complete Sunday Book Review, daily book related news and reviews, a searchable archive of over 50,000 New York Times Book Reviews going back to 1980, and more.
PAL: perspectives in American Literature
Covers major movements, narrower themes, and links to individual web pages to nearly 400 authors
The Writers' Workshop Online Resources for Writers (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne)
This page links to the many resources produced by this workshop, as well as links to outside resources for writers. Includes the Grammar Handbook, the Bibliography Styles Handbook, and the Writing Process Handbook. Check out their annotated list of "Best Web Sites for Writers."
