See also brochures: Literature: Prose, Literature: Poetry, and Literature: Drama

A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. 3rd ed. Ref/PN/41/C83/1991

The Harper Handbook to Literature. Ref/PN/41/F75/1985

Cassell's Encyclopaedia of World Literature. 2d ed. 3v. Ref/PN/41/C3/1973

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia. 3d ed. Ref/PN/41/B4/1987. Reference Desk.

Chambers's Cyclopedia of English Literature. 3v. Ref/PR/83/C4/1978

The Cambridge Guide to English Literature. Ref/PR/85/C28/1983

The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Ref/PR/85//C29/1993

The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 5th ed. Ref/PR/19/D73/1985

Literary History of the United States: History. Ref/PS/88/L522/1974/v.1

The Oxford Companion to American Literature. 5th ed. Ref/PS/21/H3/1983

Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature. Ref/PN/41/B4/1991

MLA International Bibliography of Books and Articles on the Modern Languages and Literatures. Ref/Z/7006/M642. Available on computer through GALILEO (coverage 1963-present).

An annual, international listing of articles and books published each year on literary topics. Criticism and explication of short stories, poems, plays, novels, etc. are listed under the author of the work in question. Authors are listed according to their nationality, and then chronologically and alphabetically. Beginning in 1981, a second volume containing subject and author indexes is provided each year.

Humanities Index. Ref/AI/3/H85. Available on computer through GALILEO.

Issued quarterly. Indexes articles by subject and author from approximately 200 periodicals in the humanities. Subject fields covered include language, literature, and literary criticism. There is a bound cumulative annual volume.

Abstracts of English Studies. Ref/Z/7003/A2. Henderson Library has years 1958-1991.

Issued monthly. Summarizes articles from selected American and foreign periodicals on English, American, and Commonwealth literature and on English philology. Subject index in each issue and cumulated annual index.

Literary Criticism Register. Ref/Z/2011/L76. Henderson Library has years 1983-1991.

Issued monthly. Lists forthcoming articles on English and American literature in over 300 scholarly journals. There are monthly, semiannual, and annual subject and author indexes.

Magill's Bibliography of Literary Criticism. 4v. Ref/Z/6511/M25

Lists scholarly criticism of over 2500 novels, short stories, plays, and poems from all countries.

Articles on Twentieth Century Literature: An Annotated Bibliography, 1954-1970. 7v. Ref/Z/6519/P66

An expanded cumulation of the "Current Bibliography" section of the journal Twentieth Century Literature.

New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. 5v. Ref/Z/2011/N45

A chronological treatment of English literature from its beginning through 1950. Bibliographies for each author include both works by and about the author. Critical books and articles on individual authors are listed, for the most part, in a separate section under each author's name. Lists some critical commentaries from as recently as the late 1960's and early 1970's.

The Shorter New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Ref/Z/2011/S417/1981

Literary History of the United States: Bibliography. 4th rev. ed. Ref/PS/88/L522/1974/v.2

Written in bibliographical essay form and divided into four main sections: (1) Guide to resources; (2) Literature and culture; (3) Movements and influences; (4) Individual authors. Under each of the over 220 indivudual authors covered is a list of works by the author and a selective, evaluative section giving biographies and critical studies.

Articles on American Literature, 1900-1950. Ref/Z/1225/A77/1900-50

Articles on American Literature, 1950-1967. Ref/Z/1225/A77/1950-67

Articles on American Literature, 1968-1975. Ref/Z/1225/A77/1968-1975

A compilation and expansion of the unannotated lists of articles on American literature published quarterly in the journal American Literature. Covers criticism, 1900-1975, of authors, works, and topics in American literature from 1607 through the mid 1970's.

Bibliography of American Literature. Compiled by Jacob Blanck for the Bibliographical Society of America. Ref/Z/1225/B55

This mostly lists primary works of authors, but it includes a few secondary works, as well. It includes many less well-known authors.

Research Guide to Biography and Criticism. 2v. Ref/Z/2011/R47/1985

While this book does contain some direct information, it is mainly a guide to critical and biographical information about British and American poets, novelists, and prose writiers that appears in other books and in journal articles.

DISCovering Authors. A database accessible from the Henderson Library homepage on the World Wide Web.

Covers most of the authors commonly studied in high school and college courses. Offers full-text biographical and critical essays and excerpts from critical articles.

American Writers. 10v. Ref/PS/129/A55

Provides long biographical essays about the lives, careers, and works of major American authors.

Magill's Survey of American Literature. 6v. Ref/PS/21/M34/1991

Covers 190 American writers from the seventeenth to the late twentieth centuries.

African American Writers. Ref/PS/153/N5/A344/1991

Modern American Women Writers. Ref/PS/151/M54/1990

British Writers. 9v. Ref/PR/85/B688

Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. 2v. Ref/PR/9081/A52/E53/1994

European Writers. 14v. Ref/PN/501/E9/1983

An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. 2v. Ref/PN/481/E5/1991

Latin American Writers. 3v. Ref/PQ/7081/A1/L37/1989

Ancient Writers: Greece and Rome. 2v. Ref/PA/3002/A5/1982

Dictionary of Literary Biography. Ongoing series. Ref/PN/80/D5. Incomplete version available on computer through GALILEO.

Each volume covers both major and minor writers who fall within a particular category. There is an index to all previous volumes in the back of each volume. Supplemented by the Dictionary of Literary Biography Documentary Series, which provides key documents on which essays in DLB are based, and the Dictionary of Literary Biography Yearbook, which updates articles that have appeared in DLB.

Contemporary Authors. Ongoing series. Ref/Z/1224//C6. Available on computer through GALILEO.

Covers a wide range of authors who are currenty in the news. Includes non-fiction writers, journalists, and screenwriters, as well as fiction writers and poets.

The Critical Perspective. 10v. Ref/PR/85/C76/1986

Includes twentieth-century criticism of English-language authors whose major works predate 1904.

A Library of Literary Criticism: Modern British Literature. 5v. Ref/PR/473/T4

Excerpts from critical writings on modern British writers. Excerpts are selected to describe the author's qualities, define his status and literary reputation, etc.

A Library of Literary Criticism: Modern American Literature. 5v. Ref/PS/221/C8/1969

Excerpts from critical writings on over 300 20th century American writers and their works.

A Library of Literary Criticism: Modern Romance Literatures. Ref/PN/813/C8

Excerpts from English language criticism of a select group of 20th century European authors writing in Romance languages.

Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism. Ongoing series. Ref/PN/761/N5

Presents significant passages from published criticism on authors who died between 1800 and 1900.

Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ongoing series. Ref/PN/771/G27

Contains excerpts from criticism of the works of novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and other creative writers for the period 1900-1960.

Twentieth-Century American Literature. 7v. Ref/PS/221/T834/1985

Covers criticism of modern authors from the United States and Canada.

Twentieth-Century British Literature. 5v. Ref/PR/473/T84/1985

Contains criticism of modern authors from the United Kingdom and its former colonies.

Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ongoing series. Ref/PN/771/C59. Incomplete version available on computer through GALILEO.

An ongoing series of excerpts from critical writings on well-known contemporary authors, American and foreign. Writers treated are those currently living or those who have died since January 1960. The "Cumulative Author Index" at the back of the latest volume indexes all previous volumes, not only of this set, but also of Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism, Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism, and a few other works published by Gale.

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