Background Sources
- The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature This four-volume set covers American literature, from the European discovery of America to the present, with entries in alphabetical order. It includes 350 substantive critical and interpretive essays on the most-studied American authors literary masterworks, and genres or movements.
- The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson, one of the most important American poets of the nineteenth century, remains an intriguing and fascinating writer. The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson includes eleven new essays by accomplished Dickinson scholars. They cover Dickinson's biography, publication history, poetic themes and strategies, and her historical and cultural contexts.
- The Cambridge Companion to Sylvia Plath The controversies that surround Sylvia Plath's life and work mean that her poems are more read and studied now than ever before. This Companion provides a comprehensive and authoritative overview of Sylvia Plath's poetry, prose, letters and journals and of their place in twentieth-century culture.
- The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop Elizabeth Bishop is increasingly recognized as one of the twentieth century's most important and original poets. Initially celebrated for the minute detail of her descriptions, what John Ashbery memorably called her 'thinginess', Bishop's reputation has risen dramatically since her death, in part due to the publication of new work, including letters, stories, and visual art, as well as a controversial volume of uncollected poems, drafts, and fragments.
- The Cambridge Companion to American Poets The Cambridge Companion to American Poets brings together thirty-one essays on some fifty-four American poets, spanning nearly 400 years, from Anne Bradstreet to contemporary performance poetry.
- The Cambridge Companion to Nineteenth-Century American Poetry This Companion is the first critical collection of its kind devoted solely to American poetry of the nineteenth century. It covers a wide variety of authors, many of whom are currently being rediscovered. A number of anthologies in the recent past have been devoted to the verse of groups such as Native Americans, African-Americans and women. This volume offers essays covering these groups as well as more familiar figures such as Dickinson, Whitman, Longfellow and Melville.
- Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century See entry for Emily Dickinson.
- Encyclopedia of American poetry. The twentieth century See entries for Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath.
- Literary Trail of Greater Boston Modeled after the famous Freedom Trail, Boston's new Literary Trail spans three hundred years and writers ranging from Cotton Mather to John Updike. This unusual guidebook features lively snippets of the writers' own works along with short essays by well-known contemporary writers.
- Poetry Foundation: Elizabeth Bishop The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
- Poetry Foundation: Sylvia Plath The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
- Poetry Foundation: Emily Dickinson The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience.
- Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window Searchable database of full-text articles, essays, book reviews, plot summaries, poems, short stories, plays, and interviews with contemporary writers.
- Emily Dickinson Museum: Poetry The Emily Dickinson Museum comprises two historic houses in the center of Amherst, Massachusetts associated with the poet Emily Dickinson and members of her family during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
