ENG248: American Literature from 1865 to 1914



	Research > Library Research Guides > ENG248: American Literature from 1865 to 1914

Spring 2002 - F. Cheung
reference contact: Bruce Sajdak x2967

Learning About America | Reviews | Criticism

LEARNING ABOUT AMERICA

History

Reference Source	Reference Call Number
Historical Atlas of the United States Look at maps to see where things were	ref Atlas Case G 1201 .S1 N3 1988
Oxford Companion to United States History Just published – standard one-volume guide	ref E 174 .O94 2001
Dictionary of American History Used to be the standard multi-vol. Set – HAS VALUABLE SUPPLEMENT VOLUMES to bring it up to date	ref E 174 .A43 1976 plus 2 supplements
Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates A “chronology” – year-by-year history of what happened	ref E 174.5 .C3 1997
American National Biography The standard biographical set for dead Americans – you’ll want to be in here some day a long time from now	ref CT 213 .A68 1999 OR click here

Literature

Reference Source	Reference Call Number
Dictionary of Literary Biography Standard biographical source for all sorts of literary figures	ref PN 451 .D53
American Writers Overview essays on many major American authors	ref PS 129 .A55 & many supplements
Oxford Companion to American Literature Standard one-volume encyclopedia of American literature	ref PS 21 .H3 1995

FINDING REVIEWS

You MUST know the date of the first publication of your book before you look for its contemporary reviews. For this information consult the Dictionary of Literary Biography (see above). Remember that a review might be published as late as three or four years after the original publication of your book.

Collections of Reviews

Although for the purpose of this assignment YOU MAY NOT USE REPRINTED REVIEWS, you should know that on reserve are several volumes of the "Critical Heritage" and "Critical Reception" series. These volumes are useful compilations of older reviews and may be useful in work on your author outside the scope of this specific assignment.

Using Indexes and Bibliographies

Look at these sources for lists of reviews. Ignore those covering the wrong dates for your review:

Reference Source	Reference Call Number
Book Review Digest (1905+)	ref index tables
Readers Guide to Periodical Literature (1900-1905) After 1905, most reviews went into the Book Review Digest	ref index tables
Nineteenth Century Readers Guide (1890-1900)	ref index tables
Nineteenth Century Master File (Poole's Plus) (1802-1906)	click here
Periodical Contents Index (1770-1990) Searches only the words in tables of contents – useful but if you don’t find it, don’t despair.	click here
Literary Index to American Magazines, 1850-1900 Look for the name of the book under the authors name followed by rev.	ref PS 214 .W38 1996
American Literary and Drama Reviews: An Index to Late Nineteenth Century Periodicals	ref PN 2556 .M37 1984
Many book-length bibliographies devoted to scholarship on authors contain complete lists of reviews. Look in the library catalog under SUBJECTS such as: dickinson emily bibliography or james henry criticism and interpretation bibliography	4-college catalog UMASS catalog

Other Possibilities

If you're still hankering for more, skim the standard biographies of your author for footnotes to reviews.

FINDING CRITICISM

Unlike reviews, criticism appears in scholarly periodicals usually some time after the publication of a book. To locate criticism on your author consult one or more of these databases:

Humanities Abstracts (1983+)
Start here - small database but many core journals.

Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature (ABELL) (1920+)
Oldest annual index to American literature online; comes from Cambridge.

Modern Language Association (MLA) International Bibliography (1963+)
Standard American index to criticism; comes from New York City.

CONTACT THE REFERENCE LIBRARIAN

Contact Bruce Sajdak, the instructor for your library session: bsajdak@smith.edu

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Last Updated: November 20, 2006