Literature (in English): Primary Literature

This guide covers all genres of American and British Literature

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What Does Primary Mean?

Primary literature refers to original texts, which may include various formats--diaries, newspaper articles, or sermons, for example. Search MARQCAT to discover the library's editions of a particular author. The library collections on this page are digital collections of primary works--books and newspapers --mostly from earlier centuries.

Full text collections

Literature Online from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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LION contains the full text of English and American poetry, drama, and prose from the Anglo-Saxon period through the twentieth century. Includes literary criticism, biography and reference sources.
Literary criticism includes ABELL (Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, of scholarly books, articles, & reviews and the full text from 160 journals. Literary texts range from the seventh to the twentieth century. Journal full text covers from 1988 to the present.

Important Digital Collections

Access to these collections is limited to Marquette users, including off campus use via these procedures. Find a full list of primary literature databases here.

American Antiquarian Society Historical Periodicals Collection from EBSCO This link opens in a new window
Contains periodicals that detail American history and culture form the late 17th century through the late 19th century. Consists of 50 subsets, covering history, religion, business, science, and women's movements.
See the MARQCAT catalog record for the full list of topics and links to individual modules.
American Periodicals from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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Searches digitized images/text of American periodicals from 1740 to 1940. Coverage varies by title.
From the Center for Research Libraries. Full description here. Highlights:
  –  89 journals published between 1740 and 1800
  –  Many titles from the first half of the 19th century (including more than 20 women's magazines)
  –  118 periodicals published during the Civil War (1861-1865) and Reconstruction (1865-1877) eras
  –  Trade magazines from the 19th and early 20th centuries
Early American Imprint Series 1: Evans, 1639-1800 from Readex This link opens in a new window
Searchable full-text of publications, excluding journals and newspapers, produced in colonial America and the early republic. 1639-1800.
Also known as the "Evans Bibliography."
Early English Books Online (EEBO) from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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Digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in English, 1473-1700.
The collection contains over 100,000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640) and Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700), as well as the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661). A wealth of subject areas includes English literature, history, philosophy, linguistics, theology, music, fine arts, education, mathematics, and science. The Basic search mode allows searching using a combination of the following fields: keywords, author, title, subject, bibliographic number (from the short-title catalogues), or date. More about EEBO.
Eighteenth Century Collection Online (ECCO) from Gale This link opens in a new window
An electronic edition of The Eighteenth Century, the world’s largest collection of microfilmed printed books. See also: Artemis Primary Sources.
The collection contains works and literature in seven broad categories: history and geography; social sciences and fine arts; medicine, science, and technology; literature and language; religion and philosophy; reference works; and law. Covers more than 180,000 English and foreign-language works published in the U.K., along with thousands of important works from the Americas. With works from both major and minor authors of the period, this digitized collection of books, broadsides, sermons, pamphlets, bibles, and other rare materials offers researchers access to over 33 millions pages of text from the British Library and 1,500 libraries worldwide. Included in this resource are the complete works of 28 prominent eighteenth-century authors, such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Johnson, Thomas Paine, Alexander Pope, Adam Smith, Jonathan Swift, and John Wesley. The database features full text searching, plus search and browsing capabilities via keyword, general subject area, title, author, language, date, and more.
Empire Online from Adam Matthew This link opens in a new window
Full-text digital reproductions of primary documents relating to the British Empire. 1492-1969.
Documents are organized under five themes: Cultural Contacts, c. 1492-1969; Empire Writing & the Literature of Empire; the Visible Empire; Religion & Empire; and Race, Class & Colonialism, c. 1783-1969.
Everyday Life and Women in America, c1820-1900 from Adam Matthew This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of 650+ documents relating to women in America. 1800-1900.
Includes periodicals, broadsides, books, and pamphlets encapsulates more than a century of social, cultural and historical documentation of American life. VPN required for off-campus access.
Periodicals Archive Online from ProQuest This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of English and foreign language journals in the humanities and social science. 1800-1995.

Women Writers Online
Out-of-print and manuscript works by women 1400-1850
Publishers Weekly Digital Archive (1872-present)
Continuously published since 1872, Publishers Weekly has been the voice for US publishing industry news and book reviews. The archive includes nearly 200,000+ book reviews, and bestseller lists. (6-month delay in availability for current issues)