Your Librarian
Anne Zald
she/her
Contact:
Anne Zald
Subjects: Government Information; Regulatory Compliance; Gender & Sexuality Studies
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Make an Appointment
Subjects: Government Information; Regulatory Compliance; Gender & Sexuality Studies
Northwestern University Library
1970 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Make an Appointment
847-467-6441
Build Background on Your Topic
Somewhere in between your initial idea and settling on a research question, you'll need to do background research on how scholars in a particular subject area have discussed your topic. You may find background research in your textbook or class readings, academic books in the library's collection, or reference sources. In addition to ideas for focusing your question, you will gain terminology used by experts to discuss the topic and citations to previously published literature thereby jump starting your research process!
The resources below have been selected for the assignments in the class and focus on American literature, history, and the history of the book.
Jump to: Reference Collections | Biographical Sources |
Reference Collections
- Oxford Bibliographies This link opens in a new windowOffers annotated bibliographies of the most important books and articles on specific topics in a growing range of subject areas. Particularly useful for anyone beginning research.
- Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new windowOnline version of many Oxford University Press reference works, ranging from specialized dictionaries and companions to major reference works such as the Encyclopedia of Human Rights, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Economic History, among many others.
Biographical Sources
Additional biographical sources are available that include information
about people from other countries and professions
- African American Biographical Database This link opens in a new windowFrom July 1, 2023 AABD became a component of ProQuest Black Studies Center. Biographical sketches and essays on African Americans from 1790 to 1950. The Database corresponds to the printed Black Biographical Dictionaries. These sketches have been assembled from biographical dictionaries, yearbooks, directories, histories, personal accounts, and other published sources. The full text of 300 rare books is displayed and searchable in page images, intact with images and illustrations.
- American National Biography This link opens in a new windowThere is no need to sign in at website to access this resource. Begin searching or browsing for articles. The American National Biography is the premier, authoritative, historical biographical encyclopedia for the United States. Over 18,700 men and women are included, and the resource is updated quarterly with new entries and revisions of previously published entries to enhance their accuracy and currency. Articles are by established scholars. Living individuals are not included.
- Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new windowProvides access to biographies, bibliographies, and critical analayses of authors from every age and literary discipline. Covers more than 120,000 novelists, essayist, poets, journalists, and other writers, with in-depth coverage of 2,500 of the most-studied authors. Includes links to: Dictionary of literary biography, Contemporary authors, Contemporary literary criticism, and more.
- World Biographical Information System WBIS This link opens in a new windowOver 3.6 million short biographical entries for individuals who lived across the world from ancient times to the present. Includes full text images of the original sources, usually older biographical dictionaries. Especially valuable for locating information on hard-to-find individuals from the past.
Miscellaneous Reference Works
A very selective list, all found using subject searches in NUSearch. Sample subject headings:
- American poetry -- 19th century
- American Poetry – 19th century – history and criticism
- Poets, American – 19th century
- Poets, American – 19th century -- history and criticism
- African American poets
- Indians of North America -- Poetry
- Women poets, American
- American literature -- Hispanic American authors
- American literature -- Jewish authors
- American literature -- Catholic authors
- American poetry -- Chinese American authors
- American poetry -- Indian authors
- Spanish American literature -- Translations into English
- Indian poetry -- Translations into English
- Authors and readers -- United States -- History -- 19th century
- Books and reading -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century
- Book industries and trade -- United States -- History
- Publishers and publishing -- United States -- History
- Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 19th century
- Women -- Books and reading -- United States -- History -- 19th century
African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song (LOA #333) by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; PS591.B53 A37 2020ISBN: 9781598536669Publication Date: 2020Taking the measure of the tradition in a single indispensable volume, African American Poetry: 250 Years of Struggle and Song sets a new standard for a genuinely deep engagement with Black poetry and its essential expression of American genius.
American Poetry: the Nineteenth Century (2 volumes) by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; 811.308 A5122 v.1-2ISBN: 0940450607Publication Date: 1993In nineteenth-century America, poetry was an integral part of everyday life. The two volumes of The Library of America's American Poetry- The Nineteenth Century reveal the vigor and diversity of a tradition embracing solitary visionaries and congenial storytellers, humorists and dissidents, songwriters and philosophers ... the anthology includes newly researched biographical sketches of each poet, a year-by-year chronology of poets and poetry from 1800 to 1900, and extensive notes.
The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Poetry by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; 811.09 C178ISBN: 9780521145800Publication Date: 2011This Companion is the first critical collection of its kind devoted solely to American poetry of the nineteenth century ... The contents are divided between broad topics of concern such as the poetry of the Civil War or the development of the 'poetess' role and articles featuring specific authors such as Edgar Allan Poe or Sarah Piatt.
Changing Is Not Vanishing by Call Number: Main Library Book Nook Exhibit ; 811.00808 C456ISBN: 9780812242621Publication Date: 2011Until now, the study of American Indian literature has tended to concentrate on contemporary writing. Although the field has grown rapidly, early works--especially poetry--remain mostly unknown and inaccessible. Changing Is Not Vanishing simultaneously reinvents the early history of American Indian literature and the history of American poetry by presenting a vast but forgotten archive of American Indian poems. Through extensive archival research in small-circulation newspapers and magazines, manuscripts, pamphlets, rare books, and scrapbooks, Robert Dale Parker has uncovered the work of more than 140 early Indian poets who wrote before 1930. Changing Is Not Vanishing includes poems by 82 writers and provides a full bibliography of all the poets Parker has identified
Encyclopedia of American Poetry: the Nineteenth Century by Call Number: Main Library Stacks Large Section ; Large 811.309 E56 AND Oak Grove Library Center Off Site - Request Online ; 811.309 E56ISBN: 1579580084Publication Date: 1998With contributions from over 100 scholars, the Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Centry provides essays on the careers, works, and backgrounds of more than 100 nineteenth-century poets. It also provides entries on specialized categories of twentieth-century verse such as hymns, folk ballads, spirituals, Civil War songs, and Native American poetry. Besides presenting essential factual information, each entry amounts to an in-depth critical essay, and includes a bibliography that directs readers to other works by and about a particular poet.- The female poets of America byCall Number: Main Library Stacks ; 811.08 G87f.2Publication Date: 1854, 2nd editionIn addition to print edition in the library there are a few ebooks editions.
EBook - 1848 edition
EBook 1852 2nd edition
EBook, 1858 ediiton
EBook, 1873 edition - The female poets of America : with portraits, biographical notices, and specimens of their writings byCall Number: Oak Grove Library Center Off Site - Request Online - non-circulating item for in-library use only ; 811.08 R284Publication Date: 1857 7th edition print format
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Latino Literature by Call Number: EBOOKISBN: 9780313087004Publication Date: 20082nd Ebook edition available. This encyclopedia surveys the vast landscape of Latino literature from the colonial era to the present. Aiming to be as broad and inclusive as possible, the encyclopedia covers all of native North American Latino literature as well as that created by authors originating in virtually every country of Spanish America and Spain. Included are more than 700 alphabetically arranged entries written by roughly 60 expert contributors.
A History of Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; PS147 .H57 2017ISBN: 9781107083981Publication Date: 2016EBOOK edition also available
A History of Nineteenth-Century American Women's Poetry is the first book to construct a coherent history of the field and focus entirely on women's poetry of the period.
The Latino Reader by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; 810.80868 L357ISBN: 0395765293Publication Date: 1997
Nineteenth Century American Women Poets by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; PS589 .N5 1998ISBN: 9780631203988Publication Date: 1998Paula Bernat's anthology, based on seven years of pioneering archival research, establishes nineteenth-century American women's poetry as a major field in American literature and American women's history.
Over the River and Through the Wood : an anthology of nineteenth-century American children's poetry by Call Number: Oak Grove Library Center Off Site - Request Online ; 370.005 O961ISBN: 9781421411392Publication Date: 2013Rediscover nineteenth-century American children's poetry with period illustrations. ... Most American poets wrote for children--from famous names such as Ralph Waldo Emerson to less familiar figures like Christina Moody, an African American author who published her first book at sixteen ... it has languished--inaccessible and unread--in old periodicals, gift books, and primers.
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino Literature by Call Number: EBOOKISBN: 9780190624316Publication Date: 2020The Oxford Encyclopedia of Latina and Latino Literature offers a sweeping introduction to a variety of genres and themes in Latina/o literature from its Latin American origins in the precolonial period to contemporary texts and perspectives.
Reading Acts: : U.S. Readers’ Interactions with Literature, 1800-1950. by Call Number: Oak Grove Library Center Off Site - Request Online ; 028.90973 R2867 AND Main Library Special Collections ; 028.90973 R2867ISBN: 1572331828Publication Date: 2002Drawing on such original sources as diaries, commonplace books, fan mail to authors, booksellers' reports, and student papers, the contributors to Reading Acts recover a wealth of important historical information that expands our understanding of reading in the United States during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Reading Books : essays on the material text and literature in America by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; 810.9 R287ISBN: 0585142149Publication Date: 1996
The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; 810.9868 R869ISBN: 9780415666060Publication Date: 2012The Routledge Companion to Latino/a Literature presents over forty essays by leading and emerging international scholars of Latino/a literature
The Routledge Concise History of Latino/a Literature by Call Number: Main Library Stacks ; 810.9868 A357rISBN: 9780415667876Publication Date: 2013The book's student-friendly features such as a glossary, guide to further reading, explanatory text boxes and chapter summaries, make this the ideal text for anyone approaching the area for the first time.- Spanish-American literature in translation. byCall Number: Oak Grove Library Center Off Site - Request Online ; 868.908 J79spv. 1. A selection of prose, poetry, and drama before 1888.
v. 2. A selection of poetry, fiction, and drama since l888.
Build a Question
After you have an initial project idea, you can think deeper about the idea by developing a "Topic + Question + Significance" sentence. This formula came from Kate Turabian's Student's Guide to Writing College Papers. Turabian notes that you can use it plan and test your question, but do not incorporate this sentence directly into your paper (p. 13):
TOPIC: I am working on the topic of __________,
QUESTION: because I want to find out __________,
SIGNIFICANCE: so that I can help others understand __________.
Remember: the shorter your final paper, the narrower your topic needs to be. Having trouble?
- Which specific subset of the topic you can focus on? Specific people, places, or times?
- Is there a cause and effect relationship you can explore?
- Is there something about this topic that is not addressed in scholarship?
Turabian, Kate L. Student's Guide to Writing College Papers. 4th edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2010