Sourcepack

English 4100 The American Historical Novel
Instructor: John Evelev

Background Resources

• The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism.
• Literature and Its Times (Ref. PN50.L574 1997) Use the Literary Index to see which volume contains information on your author.
• Literature Online Reference includes a selection of literary reference works, including The Encyclopedia of the Novel.
• The Oxford Companion to American Literature.
• American Eras (Ref. E168.A5118 1997)
• Annals of America (Ref. E173.A793)
• Dictionary of American History (Ref. E174.D52 1976)
• Encyclopedia of American Cultural and Intellectual History (Ref. E169.1.E624 2001)
• Encyclopedia of American Social History (Ref. HN57.E58 1993)
• Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century (Ref. E169.1.E626 2001)
• Everyday Life: American Social History (Ref. HN57.E93 1998)
• The Gale Virtual Reference Library provides specialized online encyclopedias for background information. You can search across the entire collection, or within specific encyclopedias, such as:
  • American History Through Literature, 1820-1870
  • American History Through Literature, 1870-1920
  • American Decades
  • American Decades Primary Sources
  • Dictionary of American History
• The Oxford Companion to United States History.

Biographical Resources

• American National Biography (Ready Ref. CT213 .A68 1999)
• LION: Literature Online
  Click on Find Authors and type in your author's name, last name first.
• Dictionary of Literary Biography (Ref. PN451 .D43)
  Use the Literary Index or check the index in the last volume of this series to see which volume contains information on your author. The DLB also gives nice lists of the authors' works.
• Contemporary Authors (Ref. Z1224 .C62)
  This covers more recent authors than the DLB. Use the Literary Index or check the index in the last volume of this series to see which volume contains information on your author. Entries in CA also list reviews and interviews.
• For more detailed biographies, use the MERLIN catalog to do a subject search on your person's name, putting last name first. Scroll down the resulting list of subject headings to find biographies.

Finding Primary Sources

• Early American Imprints, Series I  contains the full text of books published in America 1639-1800.
• ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online provides the full text of works published in England in the 18th century.
• The American Periodicals Series Online (1740-1900) contains the full text of journals and magazines published in the American colonies and United States, 1740-1900, and into the beginning of the 20th century.
• C19: The Nineteenth Century Index lists books, journal and newspaper articles, archival materials published during the 19th century.
• 19th Century Masterfile (1802-1906) overlaps C19, but also lists some unique materials.
• The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (Ready Ref.AI3 .R48)  indexes articles published from 1890-present. It's the main index we have for the early 20th century.
• Literature Online provides online texts of many English and American literary works with a search mechanism to facilitate text analysis.
  From the main LION menu, choose Search Texts to search for words and phrases within a specific work or group of works. The advanced search feature allows you to define a corpus by period, literary movement, author's gender or ethnicity, and other criteria.
• The Google Books project indexes thousands of books and allows viewing of books that are in the public domain, including most books published prior to 1925.
• The Internet Archive provides access to many texts, among other things.
• Through MERLIN, using the advanced search option
  • limit by date
  • include in your search s: sources 
  • include in your search s: sources and nth cent* e.g., s: sources and 19th cent* and marriage
  • include in your search s: early works and nth cent* e.g., s: early works and 19th cent* and marriage
  • include in your search s: personal narratives

    MERLIN lists not only printed books, but also links to electronic books, and many items contained in large microfilm collections. Microforms and the equipment needed to view, print, or scan the materials are found in Special Collections. See the guide to the Microform Collection for detailed information on the microfilm sets, including some that are not analyzed in the MERLIN Catalog.

• See also the Chronological Listing of Periodicals by Decade.

• For visual resources, try the British Library Images Online. Use the advanced search option and put the century in the "production details" box.
• Google Images can also be useful, although not as precise.

Finding Critical Materials 

Books, journals, and other library materials can be found through library catalogs:

• The MERLIN catalog shows materials in the MU Libraries.
• The MOBIUS catalog shows materials from Missouri academic libraries.
• WorldCat shows materials from many libraries worldwide.

Use these databases to identify articles within journals.

• Literature Online is the main index for literary studies.
  • Choose Criticism & Reference from the sidebar.
  • Choose Criticism to search both the MLA International Bibliography and ABELL, the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature.
  • Choose Reference to search a variety of literary encyclopedias and handbooks.
  • Choose Web Sites for a select collection of links.
• The Literary Index indexes the many Gale literature criticism sets. These books excerpt literary criticism from all periods on individual authors.
  • Contemporary Literary Criticism (Ref. PN779.C6)
  • Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism (Ref. PN94.T88)
  • Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism (Ref. PN761.N5)
  • Literature Criticism, from 1400-1800 (Ref. PN80.L57)
  • Poetry Criticism (Ref. PN1010 .P499)
  • Short Story Criticism (Ref. PN3373 .S386 )

Use additional databases to explore publications from different disciplines or interest groups:

• Academic Search Premier provides the core journals in all fields.
• Alternative Press Index
• Gender Watch
• America: History and Life
• Index to Black Periodicals (Ref. AI3 .I552 -- Earlier volumes, including title changes, are in the circulating stacks.)
• Women Studies Astracts (Ref. Z7962 .W65)

Click on   to locate a copy of the article online, in the library, or through ILL@MU. You may also access this service from the Libraries gateway under Find a Specific Journal or Article.

Finding Book Reviews
Book reviews may not be as analytical or scholarly as criticism, but reflect more immediate reaction to a book upon publication.

• Academic Search Premier
  Choose the Advanced Search, and select Book Review in the Document Type menu.
• Lexis-Nexis Academic 
  Full text of newspapers and magazines from the mid-1980s on. Under the News tab, select sources "Book, movie, music, play, and video reviews". Search for the author and title of the book being reviewed. 
• ABELL  
  Carries reviews from 1917 on.  Search your author's name in the author slot (not subject!) and limit to reviews in the drop-down menu at the bottom.
• Book Review Digest (Ready Ref. Z1219 .C96 1905-2003)
• Book Review Index  (Ready Ref. Z1035.A1 B62  1965-present)
• Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (Ready Ref. AI3 .R48 1900-present)
  Look under the author of the book being reviewed, last name first.
• Nineteenth Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature (Ready Ref. AI3.R496 1890-1922)
  Look under the author of the book being reviewed, last name first.
• Literary Index to American Magazines 1850-1900 (Ref. PS 214.W38 1996)
• Literary Index to American Magazines, 1815-1865 (Ref. Z6513.W44)
• Literary Reviews in British Periodicals, 1789-1797 (Ref. Z2013.W36 1979)
• Literary Reviews in British Periodicals, 1798-1820 (Ref. Z2013.W36)

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