Reference Books for Literature

Introduction
The library has a huge collection of reference books for literary criticism. These are located on the main floor near the reference office in the PN section. Here is a list of some of the most commonly used titles. Many of these are multi-volume sets. Usually the last volume contains an index. This could be either an author index or a title index or both. Use the index to figure out which volume contains the information you need.

General Criticism and Biography

• Dictionary of Literary Biography - PN466 .D52 - A 200+ volume biographical series. Use the last cumulative index volume to find the volume including your author.
• Literary Movements for Students - PN597 .L58 - Research literary movements such as realism, renaissance, romanticism, modernism, naturalism, and surrealism.
• Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism - PN761 .N5 - Authors who died between 1800 and 1899.
• The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature PS21 .E537 - Includes major American authors as well as literary genres.
• Contemporary Literary Criticism - PN771 .C6 - Authors now living or who died after December 31, 1999.
• Twentieth Century Literary Criticism - PN771 .T73 - Authors who died between 1900 and 1999.

Novel

• Survey of Contemporary Literature - PN44 .M34
• Novels for Students - PN3385 .N68
• Critical Survey of Long Fiction - PN3451 .C7

Short Story

• Critical Survey of Short Fiction - PN3321 .C7
• Short Story Writers - PN3373 .S398
• Short Stories for Students - PN3373 .S56

Poetry

• Poetry Criticism - PN1035 .P635
• Poetry for Students - PN1101 .P64
• Critical Survey of Poetry - PN1111 .C7 1992

MLA Citation
Here is an example of an MLA citation for an edited book in a series. Please refer to MLA Handbook (pg. 171) or A Writer's Reference (pg. 385) for more information.

Trogdon, Robert W., ed. Ernest Hemingway: A Documentary Volume. Dictionary of Literary Biography 210. Detroit: Gale, 1999.