Biographical Information
In writing your essay, you may find that some biographical information about your author will add to your analysis. The following databases can help you find biographical information about your author, as well as some discussion of their works.
Note: While these sources are more authoritative than a Wikipedia article, they would not take the place of the two scholarly works that you are required to cite. Be sure to include any biographical sources that you use in your notes and bibliographies!
- Gale in Context: Biography This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive database of biographical information on more than one million people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas.
- Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) This link opens in a new windowProvides biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.
NOTE: For some reason it only shows partial pages in the initial view. To work around this, use the browser to view the full image to get the entire page.
Historical Articles About Your Author
Articles from the field of history may give you valuable insight into your author and their works. Try a search in Historical Abstracts to see what you can find. Consult the "Finding the Articles" tab to learn how to get to the full text if it is not in the database.
Tip: Search on just the author's name. Because these are history databases you probably won't find articles on a specific short story. After searching, use the "Limit to: Peer Reviewed" option to get articles that will count as one of your two scholarly works.
- Historical Abstracts This link opens in a new windowHistorical Abstracts is a bibliographic database containing citations to articles on the history of the world from 1450 to the present (excluding the United States and Canada, which are covered in America: History and Life).
If your author emigrated to the United States or Canada, you might also want to search the database that covers US and Canadian history:
- America: History and Life This link opens in a new windowAmerica: History and Life is a bibliographic database containing citations to articles on the history of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present.