English 200: Resources for Research

Indexes to Scholarly Research Published in Periodicals and Books | Biographical Information | Histories of Publishing Houses | Sales Information | Locating Manuscripts | Reception History | Full Text of Literary Works | Full Text E-Journals | Subject Directories and Gateway Pages

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Indexes to Scholarly Research Published in Periodicals and Books

Modern Language Association International Bibliography (MLAIB or MLA) (UCB only) The largest index to scholarly literary criticism. The web version reproduces almost all the entries of the print and now covers 1926-present. Direct links to articles contained in JSTOR and indexing for all of them. Does not include most book-length works, so use online catalogs and Essay and General Literature index too.

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) (UCB only) Indexes literary criticism and book reviews of scholarly works about literature written in English. Web version covers 1920-present.

Periodicals Index Online (UCB only) Indexes over 4,700 international journals published 1665-1995.

Periodicals Archive Online (UCB only) Online archive of 475 journals, published 1802-1995, in the humanities and social sciences.

Essay and General Literature Index (UCB only) Essay and General Literature Index is most useful for collections of essays which MLAIB has traditionally not covered very thoroughly. The paper version begins with 1900; the web version covers 1985-present.

ProQuest Digital Dissertations (UCB only) Lists U.S. dissertations from 1861-present (abstracts for 1980 on) and master's theses from 1988-present. (abstracts for all). Free access to the text of UC dissertations from 1997-present.

Arts and Humanities Citation Index (UCB only) Need to find out who's citing whom? This index allows you to search footnoted citations and also serves as an index to over 1000 journals starting in 1975.

International Medieval Bibliography (UCB only) Covers articles, collections of essays on Europe and the Byzantine Empire from 400-1500. Some brief annotations.

ITER: Gateway to the Renaissance (UCB only) A bibliography of articles and reviews drawn from more than a thousand medieval and Renaissance journal titles covering the years 400-1700.

Victorian Database Online (UCB only) Index to scholarship in all fields of nineteenth-century British studies published from 1945-present.

C19: the Nineteenth Century Index (UCB only) An index that searches the Nineteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue, Poole's Index to Periodical Literature, the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals 1824-1900, and the following Chadwyck-Healey databases: American Periodicals, British Periodicals, Archives USA, House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, Palmer's Index to The Times, Periodicals Index Online and Periodicals Archives Online.

Curran Index Additions to and Corrections of the Wellesley Index The Wellesley Index, which can be accessed through C19, indexes prose pieces in 43 major periodicals and identifies the authors of unsigned or pseudonymous articles. Eileen Curran's site adds new information to the Wellesley Index.

Indexes with Text:

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe (UCB only) Indexes a variety of newspapers, journals, newspapers, reference works, radio and television programs. Especially useful for finding recent information about an author or publisher and for getting recent book reviews.

Research Library (ProQuest) (UCB only) 1971- Indexes and abstracts over 3,800 magazines and journals, and includes full-text for over 2500 of them.

Humanities International Complete (UCB only) Indexes over 2,000 periodicals and contains full-text for 750 of them.

Expanded Academic (UCB only) Index more than 3,500 titles from all disciplines; most are peer-reviewed and many are full-text. Coverage begins in 1980. Sometimes includes articles before other services have indexed. Useful for book reviews too.

Biographical Information

American National Biography (UCB only)

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (UCB only)

Who's Who (UCB only)

Biography and Genealogy Master Index (UCB only)

Biography Reference Bank (UCB only)

Literature Resource Center (UCB only)

In addition, do a subject begins with browse in Pathfinder under the author's name.

Histories of Publishing Houses

Some places to start (the Gale volumes have bibliographies):

British literary publishing houses, 1820-1880 / edited by Patricia Anderson and Jonathan Rose. Detroit : Gale Research, c1991. Dictionary of literary biography ; v. 106

Doe Ref PS129.D5 v.106

Moffitt PS129.D5 v.106

British literary publishing houses, 1881-1965 / edited by Jonathan Rose and Patricia J. Anderson.Detroit : Gale Research, c1991. Dictionary of literary biography ; v. 112

Doe Ref PS129.D5 v.112

Moffitt PS129.D5 v.112

American literary publishing houses, 1638-1899 / edited by Peter Dzwonkoski.Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., c1986. Dictionary of Literary biography ; v. 49

Doe Reference PS129.D5 v.49 Library has: pt. 1-2 (c1986)

Moffitt PS129.D5 v.49

American literary publishing houses, 1900-1980. Trade and paperback / edited by Peter Dzwonkoski.Detroit, Mich. : Gale Research Co., c1986. Dictionary of literary biography ; v. 46

Doe Ref PS129.D5 v.46

Moffitt PS129.D5 v.46

Alex Weedon's Guide to Archives of 19th Century British Publishers An updated and expanded version of this list may be found in: Weedon, Alexis. British book trade archives 1830-1939 : a location register. Bristol : Simon Eliot and Michael Turner, 1996.

Main Stack Z325.W444 1996

Nan Bowman Albinski's Guide to Publisher's Archives in the United States

The National Archives (Great Britain) An annual list of publisher materials acquired by British libraries between 1984 and 2006. This link is for 2006; use the drop down menu to get to previous years.

University of Reading Library. Archives of Publishing or Printing Firms The Library has a solid collection of materials for the study of book production and printing, including the archives of some major publishers. The scope notes for each collection include a history of each firm and other useful information.

Do a title word search in Melvyl or Pathfinder using the name of the company. Also try the subject heading:

Literature publishing--Name of Country--History--19th century (or whatever century you need)

Sales Information

Start with books about the publisher, author biographies, author-publisher correspondence.

Subject search in Pathfinder/Melvyl using the subject headings:

Best sellers

Best sellers--Bibliography

Best sellers--Great Britain

Best sellers--Great Britain--Bibliography

Best sellers--Great Britain--History

Best sellers--United States

Best sellers--United States--Bibliography

Best sellers--United States--History

Books and reading--Name of Country--History--Century

Altick, Richard Daniel. The English Common Reader: A Social History of the Mass Reading Public, 1800-1900. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1957.

Main Stack Z1003.A57

Altick, Richard D.: "Nineteenth-Century English Best-Sellers: A Further List." Studies in Bibliography: papers of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) , XXII, 197-206. (1969)

Altick, Richard D.: "Nineteenth-century best-sellers: a third list." Studies in Bibliography: papers of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA) (39) 235-41. (1986)

Bloom, Clive.  Bestsellers: Popular Fiction since 1900.  Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002. 

Main Stack   PR888.P68.B58 2002

Bowker Annual of Library and Book Trade Information.

Doe Reference Z1007.A513

Hart, James D. The popular book; a history of America's literary taste. New York: Oxford UP, 1950.

Main Stack Z1003.H33

Hinckley, Karen.  American Best Sellers: a Reader's Guide to Popular Fiction.  Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1989.

Main Stack PS374.B45.H56 1989

Justice, Keith L.  Bestseller Index: All Books, by Author, on the Lists of Publishers Weekly and the New York Times through 1990. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 1998.  

Moffitt Reference   Z1033.B3.J87 1998

Korda, Michael.  Making the List: a Cultural History of the American Bestseller, 1900-1999 as Seen through the Annual Bestseller Lists of Publishers Weekly. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2001.

Main and Moffitt   Z1033.B3.K67 2001

McAleer, Joseph. Popular reading and publishing in Britain, 1914-1950. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Main Stack Z1003.5.G7.M39 1992

St. Clair, William.  The reading nation in the Romantic period. Cambridge, U.K. ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.

Main Stack Z1003.S77 2004

Sutherland, John. Reading the Decades: Fifty Years of the Nation's Bestselling Books. London : BBC, 2002.

Main Stack Z1003.5.G7.S88 2002

20th-Century American Bestsellers

Global Books in Print (UCB only)

Can do annual searches of the Publisher's Weekly bestseller lists back to 1895. Can also search bestseller lists published 1998-2002 in a variety of sources.

Bestseller Lists 1990-1995

List developed and maintained by Cader Books and People Magazine; they appear to compile the list from information supplied by Publisher's Weekly.

Locating Manuscripts

Archive Grid (UCB only) This resource is quite helpful in locating manuscripts because it draws together information from thousands of libraries, museums and archives. Use this one before any of the others in this section.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) The NUCMC began in 1959 as a cooperative cataloging program for manuscript repositories. To access the records for 1959-1985, you must use the printed catalogs.

Doe Reference Z106.4.U52.N24

National Register of Archives The National Archives covers England, Wales, and the United Kingdom, and was formed by bringing together the Public Record Office and the Historical Manuscripts Commission. The National Register of Archives contains information on British manuscripts and historical records.

British Library Manuscripts Catalogue Information about many British Library manuscripts and links to other archives. Includes manuscripts acquired since 1793 with some notable exceptions such as illuminated manuscripts, manuscripts acquired from 1783-1835, and some large collections whose records could not be scanned.

Location register of twentieth-century English literary manuscripts and letters : a union list of papers of modern English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh authors in the British Isles. Boston, MA : G.K. Hall, 1988.

Doe Reference PR471.A12.L63 1988

Location register of English literary manuscripts and letters, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, edited by David C. Sutton. London : British Library, 1995.

Doe Reference PR441.A12.L63 1995

Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room Use the catalogs and finding aids located at this site.

ArchivesUSA (UCB only)

Index of English Literary Manuscripts (work in progress)

Doe Reference PR83.A12.I5

Robbins, J. Albert (John Albert), 1914-: American literary manuscripts : a checklist of holdings academic, historical, and public... 2d ed. Athens : University of Georgia Press, c1977.

Doe Reference PS88.R6 1977

Reception History

C19: the Nineteenth Century Index (UCB only)

Readers’ Guide to Retrospective (UCB only)

Indexes over 500 US journals published between 1892-1982

Literature Research Center (UCB only) and Gale sets, including:

Literature Criticism from 1400-1800 Doe Ref PN86.L53; Shakespearean Criticism Doe Ref PR2965.S43; Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism Doe Ref PN761.N5; Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism Doe Ref PN2.T82; Contemporary Literary Criticism Doe Ref PN80.C6

Book Review Digest Plus (UCB only) 1983-

Book Review Digest Retrospective (UCB only) 1905-1982

Global Books in Print (UCB only)

TLS, the Times Literary Supplement Centenary Archive (UCB only) 1902-1990

New York Review of Books1963-

New York Times Book Review 1997- Free, but registration is required to read reviews.

Combined Retrospective Index to Book Reviews in Humanities Journals 1802-1974

Doe Reference Z1035.Al.C62 1982

Book Review Index 1965-present

Doe Reference Z1035.A1.B62

Full Text of Literary Works and Digitized Collections

Literature Online (UCB only) Good source for English and American poetry, novels and drama. Can be searched in a variety of ways, including for single words or phrases.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) (UCB only) When finished, this collection will contain images of almost every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700. In essence, reproductions of the works listed in Pollard & Redgrave, Wing, and the Thomason Tracts.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO) (UCB only) When completed, this collection will contain images of almost every work printed in Great Britain or its colonies from 1701-1800.

Archive of Americana (UCB only) A grouping of full-text books, pamphlets, newspapers and government publications. Titles include those listed in Early American Imprints, Series 1 (1639-1800), which is based on the American Bibliography by Charles Evans and covers every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America. It also includes Early American Imprints, Series II (1801-1819), which is based on the Shaw/Shoemaker extension of Evans. The Archive also consists of Early American Newspapers, Series I (1690-1876), American State Papers, 1789-1838, and the U. S. Congressional Serial Set, 1817-1970.

Making of America (Cornell) and Making of America (Michigan) together contain over 10,000 monographs and thousands of journal articles published in the U.S. in the 19th century.

Empire Online (UCB only) Primary texts relating to Empire Studies.

Google Book Search UC has now become part of what may be the largest scan in history. Who knows, maybe you'll be able to read the entire UC collection online before you graduate.

Internet Archive: Text Archive Working with an impressive list of participants, including the University of California, Brewster Kahle and the Internet Archive are scanning public domain texts and making them freely available.

Universal Library The Million Books Project is the first part of establishing the Universal Library, which aims to provide free access to all human knowledge. The MBP adheres to current U.S. copyright law so is concentrating on books in the public domain.

Books Online Good database with links to over 25,000 electronic texts. Can search by author, title, subject.

Bartleby Library A "national digital library" of various texts and reference works ranging from Leaves of Grass to Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

Oxford Text Archive Simple and advanced search options. Be aware that some texts have access restrictions.

Middle English Compendium (UCB only) The Middle English Compendium offers easy access to and interconnectivity with three major Middle English electronic resources: an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary, a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies, and an associated network of electronic resources, including a large collection of Middle English texts.

Dictionary of Old English/Old English Corpus (UCB only) A complete record of most surviving Old English (over 3000 texts).

Project Gutenberg This first site with free electronic books now has over 20,000 titles.

Electronic Journals

Project Muse (Johns Hopkins Univ) (UCB only) Contains full-text of an ever-expanding list of scholarly journals. Includes such standards as ELH, Postmodern Culture, and New Literary History.  Can search the text.

JSTOR (UCB only) Archive of back issues of scholarly journals in various disciplines. Including Representations.

American Periodicals Series Online, 1749-1900 (UCB only) Can also be searched through C19. Contains digitized images of 1,100 journals and magazines.

Subject Directories and Gateway Pages: Places to Start

Web pages with lots of links organized around a topic. They allow you to benefit from the experience, expertise, and search achievements of others.

Voice of the Shuttle: English Literature Main Page A good place to begin noodling around on the web in the field of literature. Lists full-text sources, online journals, listservs. A very useful resource; all links have been vetted for scholarly worth.

Intute: Arts & Humanities Useful links to other web resources.  Getting better all the time.

The Labyrinth: Resources for Medieval Studies The best web resources for medievalists; it's the product of an international collaborative project.

Victorian Web Woven by George Landow at Brown, this is an example of what an intelligently done web site can be. Useful for many aspects of Victorian life.

Librarians' Internet Index: Websites You Can Trust Over 13,000 web sites selected by California librarians for reliability.

Infomine: Scholarly Internet Resource Collections Thousands of web sites for academic research.

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