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Syllabus for Literary Research: 2. Biography of Authors

 Literary Research Guides

Table of Contents:

This guide lists selected titles of books and databases containing biographical entries held by the UW-Whitewater Andersen Library. It is not a comprehensive list of available titles. Follow the examples under Finding Biographies below to find additional books held by the UW-Whitewater or other UW-System libraries.

Locations: Call numbers preceded by Main are in the Main Collection (3rd floor) and those preceded by Ref are in the Reference Collection (2nd floor). Items without call numbers are online indexes and databases accessible from the Indexes & Databases Arranged by Subject: Humanities webpage, or by clicking on the linked title.

Finding Biographies

To find books about an author's life, search the HALcat the Andersen library catalog. Select the Basic Search (default option), then select Subject Keyword from the menu by clicking on it. Click in the textbox and type a subject heading. Click on . For example:

twain mark biography

or select Keyword (use and, or not) from the menu and search for combinations of terms used in subject headings for a genre like "American literature," "American poetry" or "English literature," or categories like "Afro-American authors," "Irish authors," "poets English"  or "women authors," with a chronological period like "early modern," "17th century," "19th century" or "21st century" and the type of resource such as "biography" or "bio-bibliography." Enclose a phrase of two or more words between quotation marks. Combine multiple terms with Boolean operators (and, or, not). Click on . For example:

"women authors" and "20th century" and biography

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Biographical Dictionaries

General Biography

SEE: Guide to Locating Biographical Information

Literary Biography: Gale Publishing Company

For information about the life and work of a literary author, search Gale's Literature Criticism Online. Perform a search for Named Author. Most of the biographies will be there full text. For those that are not, do and Exact title search in HALcat, the library catalog, for the book series title .

  • Dictionary of Literary Biography
    The volumes in this series do not share the same call number or title and are not shelved together in the Reference Collection. To locate a volume search HALcat. Using the Basic Search (default option), select Keyword (use and, or, not) from the menu. Click in the textbox and type the following combination of terms including the cited volume number. Enclose a phrase of two or more words between quotation marks. Combine multiple terms with Boolean operators (and, or, not). Click on . For example:

    dictionary and "literary biography" and 11

  • Black Literature Criticism
    Ref   PS153 .N5 B556 1992

  • Contemporary Authors UW-W users only
    This is also available in print:

    Contemporary Authors; a Bio-bibliographical Guide to Current Authors and Their Works   vols. 1 - 44
    Ref   Z1224 .C59

    Contemporary Authors; a Bio-bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television and Other Fields.   vols. 1 - 164
    Ref   Z1224 .C6

    Other Contemporary Authors series:

    Autobiography Series   vols. 1 - 29
    Ref   Z1224 .C64x

    New Revision Series   vols. 1 - 68
    Ref   Z1224 .C63x

    Permanent Series   vols. 1 - 2
    Ref   Z1010 .C65

  • Contemporary Literary Criticism vols. 1 - 165
    Ref   PN771 .C59

  • Drama Criticism   vols. 1 - 18
    Ref   PN1655 .D73

  • Literature Criticism from 1400 to 1800
    Ref   PN86 .L56

  • Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism   vols. 1 - 118
    Ref   PN761 .N5

  • Poetry Criticism: Excerpts from Criticism of the Works of the Most Significant and Widely Studied Poets of World Literature   vols. 1 - 44
    Ref   PN1010 .P499

  • Short Story Criticism
    Ref   PN3373 .S386   vols. 1 - 56

  • Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism  vols. 1 - 129
    Ref   PN94 .T83x

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Literary Biography: Other Sources

  • General

    • A Guide to Twentieth Century Literature in English
      Main   PR471 .G78 1983

  • American

    • Afro-American Writers
      Main   Z1361 .N39 T78 1970a

    • Afro-American Writers...
      Main Oversize   PS153 .N5 A...

    • American Nature Writers   vols. 1 - 2
      Ref   PS163 .A6 1996

    • American Writers Before 1800: A Biographical and Critical Dictionary
      Ref   PS185 .A4 1983

    • A Bibliographical Guide to the Study of Southern Literature
      Ref   Z1225 .R8

    • Black American Writers Past and Present: A Biographical and Bibliographical Dictionary   vols. 1 - 2
      Ref   Z1229 .N39 R87

    • Fifty Western Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Sourcebook
      Main   PS271 .F5 1982

    • Index to Black American Writers in Collective Biographies
      Ref   Z1229 .N39 C35 1983

    • Southern Writers: A Biographical Dictionary
      Main   PS261 .S59 and Ref   PS261 .S59

    • Twentieth-Century American Western Writers (four series)
      Ref   PS271 .T84 1982, Main Oversize PS271 .T8 1999, Main Oversize PS271 .T83 1999, and Main Oversize PS271 .T833 2002

  • British

    • A Biographical Dictionary of Irish Writers
      Ref   PR8727 .B5 1985

    • A Biographical Dictionary of Renaissance Poets and Dramatists, 1520-1650
      Ref   PR421 .S33 1983

    • Companion to Scottish Literature
      Ref   PR8506 .R69 1983

    • The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature
      Ref   PR8706 .O88 1996

  • Women

    • American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present
      Ref   PS147 .A4   vols. 1 - 5

    • Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook
      Ref   PS153 .L46 C65 1993

    • A Dictionary of British and American Women Writers, 1660-1800
      Ref   PR113 .D5 1985

    • The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present
      Ref   PR111 .F45 1990b

    • Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-bibliographical Critical Sourcebook
      Ref   PS217 .W64 N56 1997

For assistance, contact a reference librarian at (262) 472-1032, by email or chat or in person at the Library's Reference Desk.

Last Revised: MS - 11/4/2009