Finding literary criticism : Biographical info
Sample reference books with literary criticism and author bios
Below is a sample listing of some of the many books in our print collection for literary criticism:
Critical survey of poetryCall Number: Library Storage PN1021.C7 2003Publication Date: 2003Articles are alphabetical by poet, and include biographical information as well as analysis of themes, imagery, and writing style
The Oxford companion to twentieth century poetryCall Number: Main Collection PR601.O9 1994Publication Date: 1994Short, but useful, overviews of the poet and the work.- American writers: A collection of literary biographiesCall Number: Library Reference PS129.A55Publication Date: 1981Long discussions of significant examples of the work of the most famous writers.
Masterpieces of African-American literatureCall Number: Main Collection PS153.N5M264 1992Publication Date: 1992Clearly presented summaries and literary criticism, in alphabetical order, by title.- The Oxford companion to African American literatureCall Number: Reference PS153.N5O96 1997Publication Date: 1997
Gale Literary Criticism series
What's the Gale literary criticism series, and where are they?
The publisher Gale publishes series of literary criticism for specific time periods and genres. In the TCC Library, the:
- NCLC (19th Century Literary Criticism),
- CLC (Contemporary Literary Criticism),
- TCLC (20th Century Literary Criticism), and
- Poetry Criticism books
are kept in reference storage (ask a librarian to help you find these).
Browse Gale's literary criticism series online:
- Literary Index (Gale)An electronic index to the many print volumes of literary biography and criticism published by the Gale publishing company.
Keep in mind that the TCC library may not own all of the volumes in all of the series -- a librarian can help you find what we do have.
Biographical library databases
The TCC Library subscribes to several databases that include biographical information about authors.
Explore library databases with biographical info:
- Biography Reference Center This link opens in a new window
Full text biographies on notable people from around the world, including writers and artists. - Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new window
This database also provides short biographies of authors, information about themes found in their writing, as well as literary criticism. - Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new window
(Ebsco) Information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and time frames. - Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Gale Virtual Reference Library (GVRL) is a digitized collection of reference books (primarily specialized encyclopedias). It includes many biographical and literary criticism titles.
Sample search in Literary Reference Center for biographical info:
- Type in the author's name in the search box -- note that capitalization is not important, but spelling is!
- You can limit your results to specific date ranges for publication
- You can limit your results to specific types of articles -- including biographies!
- Click on the title of the article to read the full text of the article
- Below the article title is information about the author, publication date, page ranges, etc.
- There are two main types of full text, PDF Full Text (a scanned image of the original source) and HTML Full Text (just the text, no images)
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