Background Information - Biography
These resources are all FULL TEXT, and great places to start your research. NOTE: Encyclopedias and biographies are great ways to get started, but not considered as Scholarly or Academic sources. These 3 are considered GENERAL biographies; for literature specific see box below.
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American National BiographyBiographical essays on anyone deceased individuals "whose significant actions occurred during his or her residence within what is now the United States or whose life or career directly influenced the course of American history."
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Biography in ContextProvides biographical information of more than one million people throughout history, around the world and across all disciplines and subject areas. Searchable by birth and death years and places, nationality, ethnicity, occupation or gender.
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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB)An illustrated collection of 50,000 specially written biographies of the men and women who shaped all aspects of Britain's past, beginning with the fourth century BC, but not including living people.
Background Information - Encyclopedias & Literature Resources
These resources are all FULL TEXT, and great places to start your research. NOTE: Encyclopedias and biographies are great ways to get started, but not considered as Scholarly or Academic sources.
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American Decades1900-1999, by decade. Divided into all facets of life.
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Dictionary of Literary BiographyA categorical guide to the first 220 volumes of DLB. (Archived from U. of Indiana). Alden Library has all 400+ volumes. You will need to find the volume you need in the library catalog.
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Dictionary of Literary Biography ONLINEProvides biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres. Contains:
Dictionary of literary biography, Dictionary of literary biography yearbook, and Dictionary of literary biography documentary series -
Gale Literature Resource CenterProvides information on literary figures from all time periods writing in such genres as fiction, nonfiction, poetry, drama, history, journalism and more. Includes biographical, bibliographical, and critical content.
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Literary Reference Center (LRC)Literary Reference Center (LRC) is a comprehensive literary reference database that provides a broad spectrum of reference information from antiquity to the present day. LRC is a completely full-text database that combines information from over 1,000 books and monographs, major literary encyclopedias and reference works, hundreds of literary journals, and unique sources not available anywhere else.
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Literature Criticism Online
Online full-text critical essays on literature of various places and times. Author entries provide good background information. -
Literature Resource CenterSTART HERE FOR BASICS ON AUTHOR/PLAY
Similar in nature (and in name!) to the preceding, this database also provides information on world literature from selected resources. Both are worth looking at. -
Routledge Encyclopedia of ModernismInterdisciplinary content about the Modernist period.
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Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation StudiesReference source on theory and methodology of translation.
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Routledge Encyclopedia of PhilosophyReference source on philosophy from the ancient period to the 20th century.