Reference Databases
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Credo Reference This link opens in a new windowScholarly reference database – over 2 million full text articles from over 900 dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, popular and scholarly encyclopedias, quote books and atlases
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OED (Oxford English Dictionary) This link opens in a new windowComplete digital access to the Oxford English Dictionary
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Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowScholarly reference database – over 2 million digitized entries accross Oxford University Press's Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias
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Oxford Handbooks: LiteratureHandbooks form Oxford University Press related to the field of literature. Related titles include The Oxford Handbook of Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, The Oxford Handbook of Transcendentalism, The Oxford Handbook of Early American Literature, and more!
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American Writers Collection This link opens in a new windowBio-critical essays on the lives and works of more than 1,400 important authors from around the world. Entries include concise essays, citations, and biographical information that places the author's work in personal and historical context.
Guides
An updated sixth edition of James L. Harner's book An Annotated Listing of Reference Sources in English Literary Studies is now freely available online via GitHub (https://oncomouse.github.io/literary-research-guide/). The Murdock Library has a print copy of the third edition at PR83 H34 1998.
Reference Works (Print & E-books)
The following list is meant to be a survey of reference titles recommended by your professors and librarian. It is not meant to be exhaustive. For more possibilities, check out the reference databases linked on the left of this page. If you ever encounter a reference citation in a database without full-text access, make sure to check to see if a print copy is available via Summit or Interlibrary Loan (ILL)
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The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature
Call Number: PS21 .E537 2004Available as e-book (linked) or in print. 4 volumes. 350 essays from leading scholars, encompassing the range and depth of American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. -
The Oxford Companion to American Literature
Call Number: PS21 .H3 1995Available as an e-book (linked) and in print. 6th edition. Over 5,000 total entries and over 2,000 biographical profiles, and more than 1,100 full summaries of important American novels, stories, essays, poems (with verse form noted), plays, biographies and autobiographies, tracts, narratives, and histories. -
The Oxford Companion to African American Literature
Call Number: PS153.N5 O96 1997Electronic access (linked) to the abridged and updated 2011 version, the The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Print access to the unabridged 1997 edition. -
The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Women's Writing
Call Number: PS147 .C36 2001We only have access to this volume in print – Providing an overview of the history of writing by women in the period, this 2001 Companion establishes the context in which this writing emerged, and traces the origin of the terms which have traditionally defined the debate. It includes essays on topics of recent concern, such as women and war, erotic violence, the liberating and disciplinary effects of religion, and examines the work of a variety of women writers, including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Rebecca Harding Davis and Louisa May Alcott. -
The Cambridge history of American literature
Call Number: PS88 .C3 1996 v.1-88 volumes, available in print or electronically. The link takes you to digital access via our Cambridge Histories subscription. Contents: V.1. 1590-1820 -- v. 2. Prose Writing, 1820-1865 -- v. 3. Prose Writing, 1860-1920 -- v. 4. Nineteenth Century Poetry, 1790-1920. -- v. 5. Poetry and criticism, 1910-1950. -- v. 6. Prose Writing, 1910-1950 -- v. 7. Prose Writing, 1940-1995 -- v. 8. Poetry and criticism, 1940-1995. -
The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature
E-book only, single volume – The Cambridge History of Latina/o American Literature emphasizes the importance of understanding Latina/o literature not simply as a US ethnic phenomenon but more broadly as an important element of a trans-American literary imagination. -
Keywords for American Cultural Studies, Second Edition
Second edition, an invaluable resource for understanding key terms and debates in the fields of American studies and cultural studies. See the accompanying website with additional essays here: https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/ -
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Call Number: E-book4th edition (most recent). Includes history, movements, genres, prosody, rhetorical devices, critical terms, and more. Over 1,000 entries.
