Research Guides: English: A Research Guide: Reference Books

Online Reference Databases

Literary Reference Center Plus
Provides the most relevant information on thousands of authors and their works across literary disciplines and timeframes focusing on plays/drama, poetry, religious literature and children's literature. Also includes volumes of fantasy/science fiction, contemporary literature, world philosophy and religious literature, and literary study guides covering American Literature, English Literature and literary genres.
Literature Online (LION)
A large collection of full-text works of prose, poetry and drama. Works may be located by author or title, or searched full-text for specific words or phrases. Also includes secondary sources of biographical and critical pieces on authors and their works.
OED - Oxford English Dictionary
The accepted authority on the English language and a guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature by Jay Parini (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook Version
ISBN: 9780195156539
Publication Date: 2004-01-29
This award-winning Encyclopedia surveys the vibrant terrain of American literature in 350 essays from leading scholars, encompassing the range and depth of American literary history from the 1600s to the present day. The Encyclopedia includes essays on poets, playwrights, essayists, and novelists, as well as major works and essays on literary movements, periods, and themes. No mere catalog of dates, events, and synopses, the Encyclopedia's articles offer historical perspective and social context along with a range of possibilities with regard to critical approach.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature by David Scott Kastan (Editor)
Call Number: Ebook Version
ISBN: 9780195169218
Publication Date: 2006-03-03
The Encyclopedia provides comprehensive coverage of literature from the Abbey Theatre to Israel Zangwill, covering the entire history of literature in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland in the major literary languages (Anglo-Saxon, English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, and Latin). It includes substantial accounts of individual authors (e.g., Spenser, Pope, Austen) and detailed histories of particular themes, movements, genres, and institutions, whose impact upon the writing or the reading of literature was significant (e.g., The Stationers' Company, the sonnet, the ‘School of Night, ’ or the Sublime).