Compiled by Karen Dobrusky and Lisa Gordis
 8 October 2002

Researching Nineteenth-century American Women Writers

Reference books:

• American Historical Association’s Guide to Historical literature. Mary Beth Norton. ed. 1995.
  A bibliography of writings on American history. A source to use to find an AHA recommended book about a particular aspect of 19th century American history, including education, health, family history, religion and more.
  D20 .A55 1995g  (reference)

• American Literary Scholarship. Annual: 1963 – 2000.
  Annual publication which discusses the current research and literature of the past year and which is presented in essay form. Included is a section devoted to 19^th century writers including a section on women writers. There is an index of the authors discussed in the back of the volume.
  PS3 .A47 (reference)

• American Women’s Fiction, 1790-1899; A Reference Guide. Barbara A. White. 1990.
  A bibliography of books and articles about 19^th century women writers. There is a convenient author list in the back, which refers you to material about your author.
  PS374 .W6 W49 1990g (reference)

• Colonial and nineteenth-century; Guide to American Poetry Explication. James Ruppert. 1989.
  A bibliography of critical articles on poetry; can search by author and then a specific poem.
  PS201 .R66 1989g

• Dictionary of Literary Biography. (265 + volumes)
  Provides overview articles on writers with bibliographies to other resources listed at the end of the article. Check the last volume to locate in which volume(s) your author is located. Most of the authors you are reading are included in at least one volume.
  PS159 .D5 (reference)

• An Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia.  Jane Donohue Eberwein, editor. 1998.
  Dictionary of people, ideas and topics related to Emily Dickinson.
  PS1541.Z49 E47 1998. (reference)

• Encyclopedia of American Social History. 3 vols. 1993. 
  Scholarly articles on a vast array of topics related American social history. Bibliographies are attached to the articles.
  HN57 .E58 1993 (reference)

• Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 3 vols. 200. 
  Scholarly articles with attached bibliographies on many aspects of nineteenth century America. Topics range from Abolition and Slavery to Zoos.
  E169.1 .E626 2002

•  Handbook of American Women’s History. Angela Howard, ed.
  Contains short and concise articles on a wide variety of historical topics useful for background reading, such as domestic feminism, nineteenth century women’s movement, slavery and marriage. These short articles have selective bibliographies.
  HQ1410 .H36 1990 (reference)

• Louisa May Alcott Encyclopedia. Gregory Eiselein and Anne C. Phillips eds.
  Dictionary of events, people and topics related to Louisa May Alcott.
  PS1018 .A3 2001 (reference) 

• Nineteenth Century American Women Writers; A Bio-Bibliographical Sourcebook.  Denise D. Knight ed. 1997.
  Overview articles on selected 19^th century American women authors. Bibliographies included.

• Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism. (75 volumes) includes topical articles, such as:
  Volume 52, p1-59 : article on American humor writing
  Volume 52, p 60-135: children’s literature
  Volume 20, p 1-91: article on slave narratives
  PN761 .N56 (reference)

• Oxford Companion to Women’s Writing in the United States. Cathy N. Davidson, et. al. eds. 1995
  Contains short and concise articles on the authors you are reading as well as articles on autobiography, race, women’s magazines, humor, suffrage movement, frontier writing and spirituality.
  PS147 .0994 1995 (reference) 

• Poems of Emily Dickinson: An Annotated Guide to Commentary published in English, 1978-1989. Joseph Duchac. 1993
  Bibliography of critical materials.

• Nineteenth-century Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, 1890-1899. 2 vol.
  A13 .R496 (reference)

• Poole’s Index to Periodical Literature. (6 vol. in 7)
  A13 .P7 1938g (reference)  (See also Nineetenth Century Masterfile below.)

• Victorian America, 1876 to 1913. Crandall A. Shifflett. 1996.
  Primarily a factbook. There are sections devoted to many topics including religion, education, arts & letters, popular culture and sports.
  E168 .S55 1996 (reference)

• Victorian American Women: 1840 –1880. An Annotated Bibliography.
  Contains overview articles on selected topics of the Victorian era such as fashion, society, domesticity etc. A bibliography of primary and secondary sources is also included.
  Z7964 .U49 M43 1992 (reference)

Databases:

• MLA (Modern Language Association Bibliography)
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/mla-bibl.html
  Major database in languages and literature.  Includes citations only. 

• Humanities Abstracts.  
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/humanities-abs.html
  General humanities database. Includes literature, history and more. Citations only.

• LION: Literature Online
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/lion.html  
  Database of citations to periodical articles about English-Language literature. Includes some full text articles.

• Women’s Resources International.
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/women-writers.html 
  Database for women’s studies, gender studies and feminist studies and criticism. Citations only

• America: History and Life.
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/amer-hist-life.html  
  Major database for finding articles about American history. Citations only.

Electronic journal collections:

• Columbia E-Journals page:
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/ejournals/
  Browse electronic journal collections or search for a journal by title.

• American Periodical Series
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/am-per-ser.html.
  Searchable full-text and page images of several hundred American periodicals of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

• ProQuest Direct.  
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/proquest-direct.html
  Interdisciplinary database with many full text periodical/journal articles. Includes the journal American    Literature.

• JSTOR  
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/jstor.html 
  A searchable collection of journals available with full text. Includes the first volume of the journal but excludes the last 3-5 years. Included are sets of journals on topics in Language & Literature and  African-American studies. 

• Project Muse  
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/muse.html
   An interdisciplinary collection of journals available with full text. Latest 3-5 years of the journal only are included. Includes American Literary History, Callaloo. Emily Dickinson Journal and many more.

Other resources:

• Accessible Archives
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/access-archives.html

• American Civil War: letters and diaries
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/am-civil-war-ld.html

• Amercian Memory:  A collection of texts and images from the Library of Congress.
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/am-memory-proj.html

• Gerritsen Collection of Women's History Online
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/gerritsen.html

• Nineteenth Century Masterfile
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/pooles-plus.html

• North American Women's Letters and Diaries.  
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/na-womens-ld.html
  A searchable full-text collection of letters and diaries from the colonial period to 1950.

• Useful Resources in American Literature and Culture:  My list of useful resources.  I have not had time to update this list fully since I returned from leave, so it is not comprehensive and also includes some outdated links.

• Women’s studies online subject guide.  http://www.colulmbia.edu/cu/libraries/subjects/womensstudies/fmjnls2.html

• Women Writers Online
  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indexes/women-writers.html