Biographical Sources
Biographical reference sources provide information about people who are or were well-known: their birth and death dates and descriptions of their lives and accomplishments. There are two basic types of sources: sketches or essays containing biographical information; and indexes which refer the user to other biographical materials.
Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, 1995.
This desk-sized dictionary provides essential information about important people
in all professions, from around the world and throughout history: birth and
death dates, nationality, pronunciation of name, and primary accomplishments.
It is valuable for checking on lesser-known persons. If you can afford only
a single biographical reference for your collection, purchase this one.
Who's Who .... Marquis' Who's Who.
This publisher produces an entire family of biographical directories; all but
Who Was Who in America contain brief records on national and international contemporary
leaders from all fields of endeavor. Birth dates, family names, educational
and career highlights, and current contact information are included in each entry.
The cost will be a problem for smaller libraries; however, these titles are now
available, by subscription, on the Web at
http://www.marquiswhoswho.com.
Current Biography. H. W. Wilson Company.
This is an excellent source for accurate, up-to-date biographies of the men and
women who make today's headlines and tomorrow's history. Published eleven
times a year, each issue includes 18 to 20 profiles of newsworthy people, plus obituaries
of those profiled in previous issues. For an extra charge you may purchase
a cumulation of all eleven issues at the end of each year.
Contemporary Authors. Gale.
Something About the Author. Gale.
Users will find biographical information on more than 100,000 modern novelists,
poets, playwrights, nonfiction writers, journalists and scriptwriters in the
Contemporary Authors series. Something About the Author includes
information about an additional 10,000+ children's authors and illustrators.
Entries typically include personal information, addresses, career history, writings,
work in progress, biographical/critical sources and authors' comments and/or informative
essays about their lives and work. The Contemporary Authors series
is available in print and by subscription on the Web at
http://www.gale.com.
American National Biography. 24 volumes. Oxford University
Press, 1999.
Dictionary of American Biography. 20 volumes + index. Scribner's,
1989.
These are the two most comprehensive biographical encyclopedias for American history.
Both cover men and women who have made significant contributions to American life
from the time of the earliest European explorations up to the very recent past.
The Dictionary of American Biography contains almost 20,000 entries, while
the American National Biography lists about 17,500.
Concise Dictionary of American Biography. 5th ed. 2 volumes.
Scribner's, 1997.
This set contains all entries from the base set in an abridged form.
PolySearch - BIOGRAPHIES. Peter Jacso, creator/Webmaster.
Peter Jacso has designed PolySearch, a new type of meta-search engine which
allows the patron to run simple searches across several selected ready reference
databases at once. This PolySearch - BIOGRAPHIES site provides access
to biographical information about famous and infamous historical figures, politicians,
scientists, authors, artists and athletes. Since the biographical Web sites
were selected by Jacso, an award-winning reference librarian, they can be relied
upon for reasonably accurate information. You will find this free site at
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jacso/extra/egyeb/poly-bio.htm.
Biography Index. H. W. Wilson Company.
This source indexes biographical articles from more than 3,000 periodicals, current
books of individual and collective biography, and biographical material in otherwise
non-biographical books. In addition to biographies and autobiographies, there
are citations to interviews, obituaries, collections of letters, juvenile literature,
and bibliographies. Indexing covers people from antiquity to the present.
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