Research Guides (LibGuides): English LibGuide: Finding Handbooks &amp; Biographical Overviews

Reference Sources

Handbooks / Companions

Consult these sources to add insight and details about the literature you are reading.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) This link opens in a new window
"The definitive record of the English language."
Cambridge Histories Online This link opens in a new window
The Cambridge Histories is a globally respected series of over 400 volumes spanning fifteen subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, with a concentration on political and cultural history, literature, philosophy, religious studies, music and the arts.
Oxford Reference Online (ORO) This link opens in a new window
The Premium Collection offers a huge range of fully-indexed, extensively linked, up to date, and cross-searchable dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press, including detailed information across a broad subject range from titles in the world-renowned Oxford Companions series.

Learn about the Authors

Biography Reference Bank This link opens in a new window
This biographical database offers the in-depth, original profiles from the Current Biography and World Authors series
Biography and Genealogy Master Index This link opens in a new window
Biography and Genealogy Master Index contains citations that point to over 15 million biographies on nearly 5 million people, living and deceased, from all time periods, geographical locations, and fields of endeavor.
Biography Reference Center This link opens in a new window
This database offers a collection of full-text biographies and unique narrative biographies. Including coverage for several of the most popular and heavily-researched biographies and genres, including those contained within Biography Today and Biography (both dating back to the first issue published).
Dictionary of Literary Biography Complete This link opens in a new window
The series provides information on authors and their works while placing writers in the larger perspective of literary history.

Contemporary Authors - 1945 to the Present by Britannica Educational Publishing Staff; Adam Augustyn (Editor)
ISBN: 9781622750153
Publication Date: 2013-07-15
Contemporary literature encompasses so many genres, literary forms, and themes that it would seem almost impossible to identify a unifying thread between them. Yet in the tradition established by literary heavyweights who came before, modern writers of all stripes and backgrounds have continued to entertain and to confront the social, cultural, and psychological realities of the timesOCoincluding everything from racial identity to war to technologyOCowith their own flair and insight. The diversity of authors profiled hereinOCofrom Toni Morrison to Sylvia Plath to Stephen King to David Foster WallaceOCoattests to the scope and complexity of modern society."