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Ellis Library Sourcepack for English 1300
Midwest Fiction

Instructor: Jason Arthur  
107 Tate Hall, MU English Department, Office phone (573) 882-6421

Biographical Sources

Basic biographical information can be found in the following sources.  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.

LION: Literature Online  
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 .C6
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.

Dictionary of Midwestern Literature Ref. PS273.D53 2001

Identities and Issues in Literature Ref. PS153.M56 I34

Book Reviews
Finding book reviews is usually a two step process. 1) Use the following databases and indexes to see what reviews have been published and where.  If you're looking for reviews from a specific time period, be sure to use an index or database that covers publications from that time. 2) If the full text of the review is not provided in the database, use the MERLIN catalog to see if we have the journal or newspaper and where we keep it. You may also check Find it @ MU to see if the journal's available electronically. Feel free to ask a librarian for help.
Book Review Digest Ready Ref. Z1219 .C96  1905-present
Book Review Index  Ready Ref. Z1035.A1 B62  1965-present
Academic Search Premier
Choose the Advanced search mode, search the title of the book being reviewed as a keyword and limit to book review as the document type.
Lexis-Nexis Academic 
Full text of newspapers and magazines from the mid-1980s on. Choose the "Guided News Search", category "Arts & Sports News", news source "Book, movie, music & play reviews". Search for the author and title of the book being reviewed. 
Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Ready Ref. 12 AI3 .R48
Indexes journals and magazines from 1900-present. Look under the author of the book being reviewed, last name first.
Nineteenth Century Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature Ready Ref. 12 AI3.R496
Indexes journals and magazines 1890-1922.  Look under the author of the book being reviewed, last name first.
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.
American Periodical Series  
Full text of American magazines and journals 1740-1900, when complete. Search your author and/or book title as keywords.
19th Century Masterfile  
An index to many 19th century publications. Search your author and/or book title as keywords.
Literary Index to American Magazines 1850-1900 Ref. PS 214.W38 1996
Look under the author of the book being reviewed. Reviews are indicated by "rev". 
Literary Index  
This indexes many reference books, such as Contemporary Literary Criticism, Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism, etc. These sets reproduce parts of articles, including reviews and criticism, from earlier publications.

Contemporary Newspapers 

Lexis-Nexis Academic
Provides the full text of many newspapers, generally from the mid-1980s to the present, although coverage varies depending on the newspaper. To find regional news, go to "Guided Search" and select the news category "U.S. News". Under news source, select a region or state. Click on "Source list" to see which papers and dates are covered. 

The New York Times Index Ref. AI21.N44
1851-present. One of very few long running newspaper indexes. 
ProQuest Historical Newspapers contains the full text of the New York Times (1851-1999) and the Wall Street Journal (1889-1985)

You'll find many newspapers on microfilm in Special Collections in the NW corner of the 4th floor. Many are not indexed, so you'll need to browse by date to find things.  Here's a geographical listing of newspapers in Special Collections.
The State Historical Society's Newspaper Library also holds many Missouri newspapers, of which some are available online through The Historic Missouri Newspaper Project.

Additional Background Sources

Note: With most of these it pays to use the index at the back of the final volume in the set.

Encyclopedia of the Midwest Ref. F351.C33 1989   

American Decades Ready Ref. E169.12 .A419 1994

American Eras Ref. E168.A5118 1997 

Encyclopedia of American Social History Ref. HN57.E58 1993 

Literature and Its Times Ref. PN50.L574 1997 

Citation Guides
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers is available in Ready Ref. LB2369.G53 2003   
Our Citation Guides page contains many resources to help format your list of resources.
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