American Literature Resource Guide: Internet Resources

The IPL (Internet Public Library) used to maintain a "Books Collection" of over 20,000 titles. Now they simply maintain an annotated list of other full-text portals for literature studies. This is still a good place to start when you are trying to find an archive of original texts to suit your needs. Another useful general directory of electronic journals and texts can be found at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Digital Libraries webpage.

The oldest free internet book text project, dating back to 1971, Project Gutenberg contains the no-frills text of over 6200 examples of "Fine Literature Digitally Re-Published." Search by author, title, subject or use the browse feature. Still qualifying as a labor of love by those involved, Project Gutenberg continues to welcome volunteers and donors to contribute to this ongoing effort.

Materials are in fifteen languages and cover all of the humanities. Some items (marked "UVA Only" in red) are available only to members of the University of Virginia community, but the great majority of these primary materials are freely available. American subject collections include African-American, Native American, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman.

John Mark Ockerbloom at the University of Pennsylvania created and continues to edit this directory of 20,000 English language works in various formats that are "freely readable over the Internet." Search or browse the books by author, title, and subject, or search by author name or words in title. The website also includes a long page of links to other large collections of online texts and a page listing collections of magazines, journals, and newspapers. A partner site, A Celebration of Women Writers, provides access to online versions of published books on a wide range of subjects written by women through the ages.

Initiative and the University of Michigan Press reproduces the text of American poetry written prior to 1920. The site allows for basic search, proximity searches and Boolean searching. There is also a word index that allows you to browse for unique words in the text. Or browse the main list of sources which is in alphabetical order by author or title of poem.

Part of the Digital Library Program of Indiana University, this impressive collection of over 2,800 volumes of American fiction reflects the entries in a well-known bibliography written by librarian Lyle Wright, first published in 1957. You will find the full-text of works by writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Mark Twain here, as well as hundreds of lesser known authors. A very valuable digital archive.

Besides high-culture literature, we learn much by studying the popular literature of an era. "Stanford's Dime Novel and Story Paper Collection consists of over 8,000 individual items, and includes long runs of the major dime novel series (Frank Leslie's Boys of America, Happy Days, Beadle's New York Dime Library, etc.) and equally strong holdings of story papers like the New York Ledger and Saturday Night." These texts were all originally published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Non-Stanford folks may read a small number of of these texts online.

The official website of the Eugene O'Neill Society is a wonderful resource for his readers. There is a lot of full-text on this website including selected plays, reviews of productions of his plays, essays about the plays, and Contour in Time, Travis Bogard's book about O'Neill's work (also you will also find the complete archives of The Eugene O'Neill Newsletter, which was superseded by The Eugene O'Neill Review which is published by Suffolk University in cooperation with the Eugene O'Neill Society.)

The goal of this website is to become "a single site for access to images of all surviving Dickinson autograph manuscripts." Many images of manuscripts already available here plus a lexicon of words found in Dickinson's poems.

Another impressive digital collection, this one from New York Public's Digital Schomburg. After entering the site, you may browse by title, author, or by type of work. Useful biographies of included authors are also available at the site.

Bartleby.com is a useful commercial site that posts web versions of classic reference volumes now in the public domain. This particular page presents the text of eighteen volumes of literary history published between 1907 and 1921. Bartleby says of the work: "Considered the most important work of literary history and criticism ever published, the Cambridge History contains over 303 chapters and 11,000 pages, with essay topics ranging from poetry, fiction, drama and essays to history, theology and political writing. The set encompasses a wide selection of writing on orators, humorists, poets, newspaper columnists, religious leaders, economists, Native Americans, song writers, and even non-English writing, such as Yiddish and Creole." Browse through sections, or use the search engine on the opening page. And try to ignore the annoying ads.

This impressive meta-site is the work of Paul P. Reuben of California State University at Stanislaus. Professor Reuben breaks down American literature into time periods and then provides a specific page of information and bibliographic references on individual authors. Tied to these individual PAL pages you will also find "Outside Link" pages that are worthwhile.

A major American poets group produces this website, so you can find out about major poetry events like National Poetry Month here. Use the "Find a Poet" link to the left to find short introductions to poets. The "Find a Poem" link is also useful. If you forget who wrote that short poem about a "red wheelbarrow," you can search those keywords and pull up the text of the poem by William Carlos Williams. (Keep in mind, the original poems can only be reproduced if they are in the "public domain" or if the poetry.org site was able to get permission to reprint. Therefore, only selected poems are available here.) Although this is the website of an American group, it has some very useful content for English Literature studies as well.

Select a writer, a work, or a literary locale. Not only literary authors are profiled here. Since C-SPAN records American political life, social thinkers from James Madison to Sojourner Truth are also included in the first series. And the second series showcases authors of the twentieth century from Upton Sinclair to Betty Friedan.

"This website grew out of the experience of editing the Anthology of Modern American Poetry for Oxford University Press" (Sawyer Library PS613 .A54 2000), edited by Cary Nelson. At the individual pages for the poets, you will find both biographical and critical materials, plus external links to more relevant webpages.

This website is the product of Donna Campbell of Gonzaga University. Her timeline puts literary events in America (pre-1620 to 1920) side by side with political and social events at the same time. Very interesting to peruse! Also, check out the icons at the top of the screen. Professor Campbell also provides useful pages on "American Authors," "Literary Movements" and other "American Literature Sites."

Although the opening graphic is a bit startling, and you might not be interested in the virtual greeting cards and Amazon.com links, this regularly updated website, created by Karen M. Strom, still does a good job of covering its stated scope. Listings are both alphabetical by author name, and also by tribal affiliation.