Background Info, Author Bios, and Overviews
- Gale eBooks
A great place to begin your research, Gale eBooks offers thousands of authoritative articles published in academic encyclopedias, and written by subject experts. Gale eBooks provides information you can not only trust, but cite in a paper as well. Formerly called GVRL: Gale Virtual Reference Library. - Dictionary of Literary Biography
"The most important thing about a writer is his writing. Accordingly, the entries in DLB are career biographies, tracing the development of the author's canon and the evolution of his reputation." - Literary Reference Plus
Literary Reference Source Plus (formerly Literary Reference Source Plus and Literary Reference Center Plus) features an expansive collection of author biographies, plot summaries and full-text essays from leading publishers. It also includes literary reference books and monographs, cover-to-cover full text for literary magazines and book reviews from the most prestigious publications. It offers poems from hundreds of sources, short stories, classic texts, author interviews and much more. Literary Reference Center Plus replaces MagillOnLiterature Plus. - Oxford African American Studies Center
The Oxford African American Studies Center combines the authority of carefully edited reference works with sophisticated technology to create the most comprehensive collection of scholarship available online to focus on the lives and events which have shaped African American and African history and culture. - North American Women's Letters and Diaries
North American Women's Letters and Diaries is the largest collection of women's diaries and correspondence ever assembled. Spanning more than 300 years, brings the personal experiences of some 1,325 women to researchers, students, and general readers. - North American Indian Thought and Culture
A collection focusing on the history of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Canadian First Peoples, North American Indian Thought and Culture contains autobiographies, biographies, Indian publications, oral histories, personal writings, photographs, drawings, and audio files. Much of this collection was previously unpublished, rare, or hard to find.
Critical Survey of Long FictionOffers 678 profiles of major writers of long fiction throughout history and the world, including analyses of their significant novels and novellas. Discusses the novel in overview essays by time period, country, ethnicity, and genre, and provides valuable resource material.
Critical Survey of Short Fiction: Topical Essays, Charles E. May, ed. 4thed.
Provides 53 overview essays organized into three categories: Theories, Themes & Types, History of Short Fiction, and Short Fiction Around the World.
Writers from the Americas
- African American Writers
- Asian American Writers
- Jewish Writers
- Latino Writers
- Native American Writers
- Canadian Writers
- Latin American Writers
Writers from African Diaspora
Writers from the Pacific
Writers from Asia and the Middle East
Writers from Western Europe
- British, Irish, and Commonwealth Writers
- French Writers
- German Writers
- Italian Writers
- Irish Writers
- Scottish Writers
- Spanish Writers
- Welsh Writers
Writers from Eastern Europe
Critical Survey of Poetry ed. 4thed. Rosemary M. Canfield Reisman
Profiles major poets throughout history and the world, including analyses of their significant individual poems or collections. This subset focuses on Topical Essays.
Writers from the Americas
Writers from African Diaspora
Writers from the Pacific
Writers from Asia and the Middle East
Writers from Western Europe
- Catalan Poetry
- East German Poetry
- English and Continental Poetry in the Fourteenth Century
- English Poetry in the Fifteenth Century
- English Poetry in the Sixteenth Century
- English Poetry in the Seventeenth Century
- English Poetry in the Eighteenth Century
- English and American Poetry in the Nineteenth Century
- English and American Poetry in the Twentieth Century
- European Oral and Epic Traditions
- French Poetry to 1700
- French Poetry Since 1700
- German Poetry to 1800
- German Poetry: 1800 to Reunification
- German Poetry Since Reunification
- Greek Poetry in Antiquity
- Greek Poetry Since 1820
- Hungarian Poetry
- Indian English Poetry
- Italian Poetry to 1800
- Italian Poetry Since 1800
- Latin Poetry
Writers from Eastern Europe