For American or British people who are no longer living, consult the following general reference works:
American National Biography
Sawyer REF E176 .A447 1999 (24 vols)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Sawyer REF DA28 .O95 2004 (60 vols)
Biographical reference sources for theatre are likely to give more in-depth profiles of playwrights, actors, and directors including dates of productions. Some of these sources include:
Biography Resource Center [online database]
Provides longer (narrative) and shorter (thumbnail and Who's Who) biographies from reference books as well as magazine articles and web sites. Includes Contemporary Authors, Contemporary Dramatists, Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, and International Dictionary of Theatre, Volume 2: Playwrights.Dictionary of Literary Biography
Each volume in this series focuses on a specific literary genre and/or time period. The volumes are shelved in the reference collection according to their subject, not shelved together as a set. To identify volumes about dramatists, do an advanced search in FRANCIS for title "dictionary of literary biography" and subject drama*.
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama
Sawyer REF PN1625 .M3 1984 (5 vols)
To find book-length biographies, search FRANCIS by subject, entering the last name first. Look at the sources listed under the main heading and the subheading "Biography".
Example: Brecht, Bertolt
Hint: After choosing a heading, click the Limit/Sort Search button and select Language: English to remove items in other languages from your results.
To expand your search beyond William's collection, search WorldCat , a combined catalog of over 9,000 libraries in the U.S. and around the world. Items found in WorldCat can be borrowed through ILLiad (interlibrary loan).