LibGuides: English: Biographies

Literary Biographies

American National Biography
Nearly 20,000 biographies of men and women from all eras. Includes 900 articles from the acclaimed "Oxford Companion to United States History" to offer historical context to biographical profiles.

American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present
Ref PS 147 A42 2000
American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies
Ref PS 129 A55
Biography in Context
The online version of dozens of Gale biographical sources, including Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Black Biography, Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, and St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers.
British Writers
Ref PR 85 B688
Dictionary of Literary Biography
DLB provides biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres. The online format matches the exact look and feel of the original 400+ print volumes of Dictionary of Literary Biography series and includes nearly all original images. Updated regularly.
Encyclopedia of British Women Writers
Ref PR111 .E54 1998
Encyclopedia of World Biography
Index to Literary Biography
Ref Z 6511 H38
Literature Online (LION)
Contains nearly 5,000 author biographies. From the Advanced Search, enter your author's name in the text box, then scroll down the page to the Document Type box and click "Biography." You can also use the Browse function and browse by author name.
Literature Resource Center
From the Advanced Search, click "Person Search" at the top of the page. From your results page, you'll see a "Biographies" link in the right margin.
Notable American Novelists
Ref PS 371 N68 2001
Notable American Women (1607 - present)
Multiple volumes accessible online through "Women and Social Movements in the United States," from Alexander Street Press.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Online version of the renowned 60-volume reference set that provides scholarly biographies of nearly 60,000 important people in British history who died in or before the year 2010.
Scribner Writers Online
Bio-critical essays on the lives and works of more than 1,400 authors from around the world. Entries include concise essays, citations, and biographical information that places the author's work in personal and historical context.

Library Catalog

The library contains both full-length biographies of significant people, and books that contain shorter, chapter-length biographies. In UC Library Search use the keyword "biography" combined with the person's last name, first name, and dates. Examples:

For biographies of specific people:

Kipling, Rudyard 1865-1936 biography

Edwidge Danticat biography

For biographies within genres or groups of people, do a keyword search that includes the word "biography" combined with other terms:

Authors English 17th century biography

Asian American novelists biography