This guide is not necessarily meant for research on literature and literary criticisms, it is intended to help students in both classes study for their classes or understand the materials covered. Therefore, for purposes of research please use our Gateway Search for more appropriate research.
Use our Gateway Search to search all of our databases or choose a specific database to narrow your search. Below are a few specific databases that you may want to try. For resources or assistance searching our databases please go to the Help tab.
is a comprehensive bibliographic guide, providing nearly 40,000 records of the literary works of approximately 300 American writers from the American Revolution to 1930. BAL lists every reprint and variant edition of an authors works, including obscure and fugitive appearances in anthologies, broadsides, and gift books. It also includes details on bindings and physical features of the editions.
BAL originally appeared in print in nine volumes, published for the Bibliographical Society of America by Yale University Press between 1955 and 1991. All nine volumes of BAL are fully searchable together.
includes the complete text of eleven major editions of Shakespeares works, from the First Folio (1623) to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6. It also includes twenty-four separate contemporary printings of individual plays, selected apocrypha and related works, and more than 100 adaptations, sequels, and burlesques from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
Contains the complete text of 96 works of English prose from the period 1700-1780, by writers from the British Isles. All of the most widely-studied texts are in the database, alongside others long neglected or unavailable. The complete text of each work is included. First editions have been used unless considered unreliable.
Contains over 44,000 poems by 288 poets, incorporating the Modern Poetry Collection and The Faber Poetry Library. The complete text of each poem is included, and any integral images are also scanned. Introductions and prefaces to the volumes are included, as are all notes and any prose sections.
Now offered as part of the American and English Literature Collection.
is based on plays listed in the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature that were written or intended for the stage and wholly or primarily in prose. EPD contains more than 1,800 plays by approximately 400 authors from the Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century. Early, and where appropriate, collected editions are generally selected. If a contemporary edition is considered unreliable, a later edition may be used. In certain cases, modern critical editions are included. The full text of each drama is included with any accompanying text written by the author and forming an integral part of the work. Selected images are directly accessible from the relevant points in the text. English Prose Drama complements English Verse Drama.
This unique database indexes classic and historical plays, along with the works of contemporary playwrights. Play Index covers new editions and translations, and includes descriptive annotations to summarize the plot and indicate musical requirements.
Now offered as part of the American and English Literature Collection.
The William Butler Yeats Collection is a complete electronic edition of William Butler Yeats work, bringing together 22 printed volumes and including critical and fictional prose, poetry, plays, and autobiographical works.
Contains 12,000 poems by more than 100 African-American poets, including Audre Lorde, Langston Hughes, Rita Dove, and emerging poets. Biographical profiles accompany each poets work.
Contains 52,000 poems from collected works and individual volumes of poetry covering the works of most major twentieth-century American poets. The database includes the works of most major twentieth-century American poets, beginning with the traditionalists; continuing through the modernists, represented by such poets as Wallace Stevens; and moving on to the contemporary works of the 1990s.
The broad coverage of Twentieth-Century American Poetry includes collected works and individual volumes of poetry from all the major movements and schools, including the New School, the Chicago School, the Southern School, the Confessionals, the Beats, and the Black Mountain poets. For early American poetry, see American Poetry 1600-1900.
This collection in the OhioLINK Electronic Book Center currently contains more than 700 plays from over 300 dramatists of American dramatic literature.
contains 440 works of 80 novelists and short-story writers, 1774-1850. This database comprises the full texts of the first editions of American novels and short stories written before 1850 by authors of significance during their lifetimes.
Now offered as part of the American and English Literature Collection.
English Poetry 600-1900 contains the full text of over 175,000 poems by over 1,400 poets from British Commonwealth and ex-colonial countries, between the years 600 and 1900. This database contains the full text of over 4400 poetry collections listed in the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. Many of these collections are rare books, unavailable in print form. The database includes the works of writers listed as poets, writers whose main entry appears under another genre but who are cross-referenced to poetry and a few additional writers of poetry not cross-referenced. Works in English of Welsh, Scottish, and Irish poets are included. The full-text and any relevant accompanying text written by the poet.
This list is by no means exhaustive, but it gives the student some basic aid for their classes. Please utilize the databases listed for more in-depth research.
Again, these are to help the student grasp the course material. If you need research, please access the Gateway Search link.