Library Guides: Creative Writing: Advanced Nonfiction Workshop: Biographical Research

Books about a person

Search in the library catalog for the person's name and the word biography, e.g., Abraham Lincoln biography. If you search for the terms as a subject search, the results will all be biographies of Abraham Lincoln.

For memoirs, or writings the person wrote about themself, use the term personal narratives. You might also want to look for diaries or correspondence.

Biographical reference sources

There are some basic biographical reference sources that can give you common information about someone, either so that you don't have to bore the person by asking obvious questions yourself, or so that you don't have to fact-check the internet. That said, Who's Who is not the most reliable of sources, either, so when in doubt, ask a librarian.

Online resources

American National Biography This link opens in a new window
Licensed for one user at a time.
Offers portraits of more than 17,400 men & women from all eras and walks of life whose lives have shaped the nation. The database includes only deceased individuals.
Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window
Provides complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors.
Biography Index This link opens in a new window
Biography Index covers biographical information from more than 2,700 English-language periodicals It indexes articles and books, autobiographies, bibliographies, biographies, critical studies, fiction, drama, pictorial works, poetry, juvenile literature, obituaries, journals, collections of letters, book reviews, and interviews.
Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window
Provides nearly 10,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.

Dictionary of American Biography
& more less...
a biographical classic, was published in 20 volumes between 1928 and 1934, and 10 supplements have been published between 1944 and 1995, providing scholarly biographies of over 19,000 Americans who died by December 31, 1980. In its electronic form, accessed from workstation in Joseph Regenstein Library first-floor reading room, the text is searchbable by keywords.

Dictionary of Canadian Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographies of people who played an important role in the formation of what is now Canada. This first phase presents persons who died between the years 1000 and 1930 or whose last known date of activity falls within these years.
World Biographical Information System Online (WBIS) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive biographical database providing short biographical information on 3.6 million persons with a historical coverage. Digital facsimile articles from more than 2,300 reference works are also included for 1.3 persons.
Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new window
Covers "Earliest Times" to 2002. Subjects include Irish people and people who have had influence on Ireland
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographical dictionary of people of distinction in the British Isles and its colonies who died before December 31, 2005. Provides signed articles, each with a bibliography of resource materials, written by specialists.

News

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How do I find news broadcasts or transcripts?
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Your person might have been in the news, if not national, most local news sources have gone online.

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