Subject Guides: Biographical Resources: Humanities Biographies

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International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2012
Call Number: Ref PN 451 I5 (Earlier editions in AU Library Stacks)

ISBN: 9781857436167

Publication Date: 2011-10-07

A valuable and practical source of biographical information on more than 8,000 personalities and organizations of the literary world. Revised and updated annually. Biographical details are listed for writers of all kinds, including novelists, playwrights, screenwriters, essayists, editors, columnists, journalists, as well as literary agents and publishers.
Contemporary Authors
Call Number: AU Electronic Resource

A bio-bibliographical guide to more than 130,000 modern writers in fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalism, drama, motion pictures, television, and other fields. Sketches typically include personal information, contact information, career history, writings, biographical and critical sources, authors' comments, and informative essays about their lives and work. A softcover cumulative index is published twice per year Restricted to AU users.

America: History & Life (EBSCO)
An index of scholarly literature on the history and culture of the United States and Canada.
Cambridge Companions Complete Collection
Access to hundreds of electronic books, introductions to the major works and figures in the areas of literature, philosophy, religion and the classics.
Gale Literature Criticism
In-depth information on the lives and writings of nearly 100,000 authors along with critical reaction to their works.
Includes:
Literature Criticism featuring Contemporary Literary Criticism, Drama Criticism, Poetry Criticism, Shakespearean Criticism, and more

In support of the University's budget mitigation efforts, AU Library had to make cuts to our collection and cancel some resources. Unfortunately, Contemporary Authors and Dictionary of Literary Biography are no longer be available as of October 31, 2025.
For more information about the library’s cancellation process, please see the Scholarly Resource Cancellations Subject Guide.

Historial Abstracts (EBSCO)
Companion to America: History and Life, this index covers world histsory excluding the US and Canada. Use the Document Type box and select "Biography."
Literature Online
Literature Online now contains over 4,750 biographies. Author biographies are specially commissioned for Literature Online, and give an authoritative and accessible overview of the author's life, work and critical reception. These biographies can be found by following links from Author Pages, by using Search: Criticism & Reference, or simply by entering an author's name in Quick Search.