Library Guides: English Literature: Reference Sources

Handbooks & Companions

Cambridge Companions Online This link opens in a new window
This database offers subject or theme based collections of content within a richly functional, fully cross-searchable online environment. The books in these series survey scholarship on individual writers or other notable people, on schools of thought, and other topics. They serve as textbooks, as excellent starting places for research, and as scholarly works in their own right.
Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature This link opens in a new window
Covers American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. The Encyclopedia includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements, periods, and themes.
Oxford Companion to Australian Literature This link opens in a new window
Covers Australian writing from European settlement to the early 1990s. The Companion contains entries on writers, plays, novels, poems, newspapers, journals, anthologies, literary prizes, movements, and professional organizations. It also includes useful plot summaries, detailed biographies, and a number of essay-length articles on key areas, such as Aboriginal writing and science fiction.
Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature This link opens in a new window
Covers the history of literature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the major 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 particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions (e.g., The Stationers' Company, the sonnet, the School of Night, or the Sublime).
Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature This link opens in a new window
Covers fiction, prose, poetry, drama, prominent writers, literary magazines, publishers, and more general topics.
Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature This link opens in a new window
Covers sixteen centuries of the literature and literary culture of Ireland. From the ogam alphabet in the 4th century, to contemporary writers such as Roddy Doyle and Seamus Heaney. Contains information on writers and their works, movements, genres, topics, folklore, and historical, religious, and cultural events.
Oxford Companion to New Zealand Literature This link opens in a new window
Over 1,500 entries on writers, novels, plays, poetry, journals, periodicals, anthologies, literary movements, and professional organisations.
Modern American Poetry This link opens in a new window
Scholarly commentary on poets & specific poems.

Dictionaries, Encyclopedias & other Reference Sources

Oxford Bibliographies Online - Literary and Critical Theory This link opens in a new window
Literary theory has become the hegemonic methodology for the study of text and is often regarded both as a sub-discipline in itself and as a critical tool through which to liberate deeper and more complex meanings from texts. It encompasses a massive range of topics, including periods, movements, themes and works that make it a dynamic field of study. Given that literary theory draws from other disciplines such as linguistics, philosophy, psychoanalysis, sociology, the social sciences and work from non-Anglophone cultures and traditions, the very scope which makes it a necessary tool for contemporary academics and intellectuals can be off-putting in terms of locating a starting point for any specific inquiry. Oxford Bibliographies in Literary and Critical Theory will offer clearly-signposted pathways through the different areas, and will make clear references to the other disciplines which feed in to, and are often transformed by, literary theory.
New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics This link opens in a new window

A Dictionary of Literary Symbols by Michael Ferber
Publication Date: 2017

Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past.
The accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Selection of reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to accountancy and literature to law.
Selection of reference books including encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, as well as a range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to accountancy and literature to law.

Biographical Sources

If the person is dead, you may also want to check for obituaries in newspapers.

Literary Biographies

Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new window
Biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of influential literary figures.
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.
Contemporary Authors This link opens in a new window
Biographical and bibliographical information for U.S. and International authors.
Provides complete biographical and bibliographical information and references on more than 120,000 U.S. and international authors.

Database of Canada’s Early Women Writers
Basic information about English-language Canadian women who published their first works in or before 1950, recording authors' name, alternative names, dates and places of birth and death, residences, titles written, and collections and periodicals to which they contributed.

National Biographies

American National Biography This link opens in a new window
Offers portraits of men and women whose lives have shaped the nation.
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.
Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new window
Subjects include Irish people and people who have had influence on Ireland from 'earliest times' to 2002.
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.
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.
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.
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.

Library Catalogs

WorldCat (OCLC) This link opens in a new window
WorldCat is a database that allows researchers to search the combined catalogs of hundreds of libraries around the world. It contains more than 52 million records for books, journals, audiovisual materials and more. This source can help researchers find items, verify citations, and identify which libraries hold a particular title.

Library Hub Discover
The "WorldCat of the UK"

Subject Specialist

Meredith Gozo

She, Her, Hers

Send Email

Contact:

Regenstein Library Room 364

773-702-8448