Library Services
Authors, Literary Criticism and Plot Summaries
Use the library's Online Catalog to find biographical material on an author, or critical material on their work. Authors may write plays, poetry, articles for newspapers and magazines, novels or short stories. There are specialized reference works that document these different forms, or styles, of writing.
- Example: Search
by Subject = "(Author's last name, first name)"
"biography - dictionaries"
"literature, modern"
"women - biography"
These sources include indexes of where to find biographies, short sketches of one or two paragraphs, and longer, multi-page sketches of authors. Paper indexes include:
- Author biographies master index R808.016 A939
- Biography
and genealogy master index Rq920.073 B615
(1980-1990 updated and available online at SPL terminals only)
Other sources with biographical sketches and indexes include:
- Contemporary American authors R810.9 M653
- Contemporary authors R928 C7613
- Current biography R920 C976
- Cyclopedia of World Authors R809 C995
- Dictionary of literary biography R809 D5542
- Great women writers R809.89287 G786
- Modern women writers R813.016 M689
- Twentieth century authors R928 K96t
- Who was who among English and European authors R809.04 W628
- Who's who in America R920 W623
- World authors
- World poets
- See also "Electronic Resources"
Criticisms:
- Contemporary literary criticism R809 C761
- Critical survey of long fiction R823.09 C934
- Critical survey of mystery and detective fiction R809.3872 C934
- Critical survey of poetry 809.1 C934
- Critical survey of short fiction R809.3 C934
- Feminist companion to literature in English R820.9 F3292
- Twentieth century literary criticism R809 T971
- See also "Electronic Resources"
Plot Summaries:
Plot summaries give short descriptions and outlines of an author's work.
- Magill's literary annual (1977-1991) R808.3 M1942
- Masterplots R808.3 M194t
- See Also "Internet Resources."
Electronic Resources:
From the Sacramento Public Library homepage, select "Find Articles/Databases," then choose Biography to see the first two choices, and Books & Reading to see the last two choices:
- Biography and
Genealogy Master Index
An Index to more than 12.7 million sketches of world figures - Biography Resource
Center
Database of more than 185,000 people throughout history. - Literature Resource
Center
Biographies, bibliographies, and critical analysis - Novelist
Criticism, reviews, series, find books by author or plot.
Internet Resources:
- Cambridge History of English and American Literature (http://www.bartleby.com/cambridge)
- English
Literature on the Web (http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EngLit.html)
A portal to university and other websites. - London
Review of Books (http://www.lrb.co.uk)
A web site of Bimonthly London Review of Books. - New
York Times on the Web: Books (http://www.nytimes.com/books)
Current reviews, special features, and searchable database. - Alex
Catalogue of Electronic Texts (http://www.infomotions.com/alex)
A collection of public domain literature. - Bartleby.com
(http://www.bartleby.com)
Unlimited access free of charge to public domain works - SparkNotes
(http://www.sparknotes.com)
Full texts of classic literature and plot summaries.