Finding Author Background Info

Author Biographies

Search library biographical databases to find lists of complete works for your author.

The library has a number of biographical databases. Start with the one below by running a search on your author's full name. (If you are having trouble, try searching some of the other biographical databases.)

Biography Resource Center
A great place to start for biographical and bibliographical information. Look for Contemporary Authors as the source. It contains the most complete entries with a short biographical essay and a list of complete works broken down into different subjects.

Author Bibliographies

Browse the Reference Section to find specific and specialty bibliographies about your author.

Browsing additional specialty reference books might help you turn up some information on current or lesser known authors. Some reference books to get you started are below.

• Modern Latin-American fiction writers
  edited by William Luis and Ann González
  SAWYER REF PQ7082.N7 M55 1994
• Russian novelists in the age of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky
  edited by J. Alexander Ogden and Judith E. Kalb
  SAWYER REF PG3098.3 .R874 2001
• French novelists, 1930-1960
  edited by Catharine Savage Brosman
  SAWYER REF PQ671 .F68 1988
• Native American writers of the United States
  edited by Kenneth M. Roemer
  SAWYER REF PS153.I52 N39 1997
• Native North American literature : biographical and critical information on native writers and orators from the United States and Canada from historical times to the present
  Janet Witalec, editor, Jeffery Chapman, Christopher Giroux, associate editors
  PS508.I5 N38 1994
• American writers; a collection of literary biographies
  Leonard Unger, editor in chief
  SAWYER REF PS129 .A55 1974
• British writers
  edited under the auspices of the British Council, Ian Scott-Kilvert, general editor
  SAWYER REF PR85 .B688 1979