Literature (in English): Biography

This guide covers all genres of American and British Literature

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Finding Author Biographies

American National Biography
Provides biographies of thousands of Americans throughout history.
Biography in Context
Text, video, audio clips and images about 250,000+ people from throughout history, and across all disciplines and subject areas.

Literary Reference Center from EBSCO
Comprehensive index of biography and criticism from antiquity to the present day.
Literature Online from ProQuest
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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.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Nearly 60,000 biographies of individuals related to British history, from early Roman times to the 21st century.

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The biographical entries contain bibliographies, and there are over 10,000 images. One can search in the full text as well as by place, date, and fields of interest. A guide for citing the biographies is included (four formats - Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Chicago [notes], Chicago [bibliography], and MLA). Covers the 4th century through 2000.

Books about Authors

Search for full-length biographies in MARQCAT's Subject mode, last name first, such as Morrison, Toni. For authors with voluminous critical books, look for subheadings such as "Biography," "Interviews," or "Encyclopedias."

Biographical Articles

Academic Search Complete from EBSCO
Searches 7000+ journals and magazines across all disciplines, mostly full-text. Emphasis on scholarly journals. 1985 - present.
ProQuest Research Library from ProQuest
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Searches more than 6,000 magazines and journals from a wide range of subject areas; mostly full-text; mid-1980's to present.