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American Literature Research Guide

Databases

Dictionaries & Encyclopedias - General and background information on a topic.

Oxford English Dictionary -- REF PE 1625 087 1989
Cyclopedia of Literary Characters -- REF PN 44 M3 1963

Electronic Resources

The Academy of American Poets An index of poets with biographies, photos, poems and tips on how to read poetry.

Alex Catalogue of Electronic Texts A collection of digital documents including items from American literature, English literature, and Western philosophy. Allows users to make their own ebook version, including PDF documents.

American Authors on the Web

American Verse Project The American Verse Project is a collaborative project between the University of Michigan Humanities Text Initiative (HTI) and the University of Michigan Press. The project is assembling an electronic archive of volumes of American poetry prior to 1920.

AnythingSouthern.com - Article Focuses on Southern literature and writers.

Children's Literature Web Guide Internet resources related to books for children and young adults.

Documenting the American South A collection of sources on Southern history, literature and culture from the colonial period through the first decades of the 20^th century.

English Literature and Composition Resources on the Internet This site contains a list of links to sites with information on English literature, composition/rhetoric and writing.

English Literature on the Web Extensive list of links to literary resources.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Centenary Contains information about the life and writings of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

LitLinks Provides annotations on web sites specializing in literature - drama, poetry, essays, critical theory and fiction.

Literary Resources on the Net Links to web sites dealing specifically with English and American literature, excluding most single electronic texts, and limited to collections of information useful to academics.

Project CROW:American Literature Surveys Resource for online teaching and learning of American literature.

Walt Whitman Archive The Walt Whitman Archive is an electronic research and teaching tool that sets out to make Whitman’s vast work, for the first time, easily and conveniently accessible to scholars, students, and general readers.

Biographical Resources - General and background information on an author.

American Authors, 1600-1900 -- REF PS 21 K8
American Women Writers -- REF PS 147 A4
American Writers Before 1800 -- REF PS 185 A4 1983
American Writers to 1900 -- REF PS 21 A4
American Writers Since 1900 -- REF PS 21 A45
Current Biography -- REF CT 100 C8
Southern Writers -- REF PS 261 S59
Women's Writings in the United States -- REF PS 147 O94 1995
Modern American Literature -- REF PS 221 C8 1969

Literary Criticism - Analyzes, compares and contrasts, interprets, or evaluates works of literature. Contains biographical information on authors and critical essays regarding their literary works. Choose the title that is most related to your author and literary time period. NOTE: An index in the last bound volume indexes all of the titles and volumes by title or author. The excerpts in the "criticism" resources are actual reprints from scholarly journals and books. Each article or book excerpt/reprint can be used as a quote or source in a research paper.

Contemporary Literary Criticism -- REF PN 771 .C59
Literature Criticism from 1400-1800 -- REF PN 86 L56
Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism -- REF PN 761 .N56
Twentieth Century Literary Criticism -- REF PN 771.G27
Poetry Criticism -- REF PN 1010.P499
Short Story Criticism -- REF PN 3373 S 386
Survey of Long Fiction -- REF PN 81 C7 1983
Black Literature Criticism -- REF PS 153 N5 B556
Critical Survey of Short Fiction -- REF PN 3321 C7

Print Indexes

Granger's Anthology: The World's Best Poetry -- REF PN 6101 W5
Granger's Index to Poetry -- REF PN 1022 G7 1986 - Locates a poem in an anthology or collection of poems. First line, then title of poem, then abbreviation of book in which it can be found. The abbreviations are clarified in the beginning of this index.

Plot Summaries - Includes type of work (drama, poetry, biography, novel, history, speech, treatise, etc.), characters, a critique or short critical analysis of the book and a plot summary.

Magill's Masterpieces of World Literature -- REF PN 44 M3 1952
Magill's Critical Survey of Poetry (Foreign Language Series) -- REF PN 1111.C7 1984
Masterplots American Fiction Series -- REF PN 846.M37
Masterplots American Fiction Series Revised Category Edition, 1985 -- REF PN 843.M15
Masterplots Digests of World Literature -- REF PN 44 M33 1976
Masterplots II Short Story Series, 1907 -- REF PN 3326.M27
Masterplots II Women's Literature Series -- REF PN 471.M37 1995