Search

Essays and Essayists

Librarian for Essays and Essayists

 

For questions related to essays and essayists, please visit or call the reference desk on the first floor of the library, or send an email to our Ask-a-Librarian service.

Telephone: 212.998.2500

 

NYU Links

At Bobst Library

At New York University

Related Subject Guides

Research Assistance

Internet Links

    • MHRA: Modern Humanities Research Association (Cambridge University)
    • MLA: Modern Language Association of America

Searching Bobcat

Below are some examples of keyword searches in BobCat that can be used to find books of essays:

By author:

  • Author= barbara kingsolver and Title= essays
  • Author= edgar allan poe and Subject= essays

About a person:

  • Subject= thomas pynchon and Subject= essays
  • Subject= eleanor roosevelt and Subject= essays

About a subject:

  • Subject= folklore and Subject= essays
  • Subject= women and Subject= employment and Subject= essays

About essays and essay writing:

  • Subject= essay
  • Subject= essays and Subject= authorship

For more information on conducting keyword searches in BobCat, please see: http://library.nyu.edu/research/tutorials/book.html

Finding Essays

  • Essay and General Literature Index. 1900-
    Bobst REF1 AI3 .E7
    URL: http://library.nyu.edu/collections/databases.html

    General Description:
    This index lists citations to collections containing essays. Each volume covers a range of years, so consulting multiple volumes is useful.
    Coverage:
    This source indexes only single-author essay collections. See Essay Annuals below for collections of essays by multiple authors.
    Organization:
    Entries are listed alphabetically by both writer and subject. The entries under writers' names also include a section of citations to essays about that writer and his/her work.

  • Chevalier, Tracy (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Essay. London; Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.
    Bobst REF1 PN4057 .E53 1997

    General Description:
    This encyclopedia is not intended to be comprehensive, therefore only those writers who have produced a significant body of work in essay form are included. The entries vary in content, but focus on literary aspects of writers' careers. Entries also include bibliographies of Essays and Related Prose by the writers and of Selected Writings about the writers and their work.
    Coverage:
    The Encyclopediaincludes entries on essayists from classical times to the present and also includes essayists from many different countries and various parts of the world.
    Organization:
    Entries are alphabetical by writer and subject, and an index is at the back of the volume.

  • Humanities Index. 1974-
    Bobst REF1 AI3 .H85n

    General Description:
    This index lists citations to articles published in periodicals. It includes coverage of periodicals which publish essays (for example, Grand Street and The Massachusetts Review).
    Coverage:
    400 journals are indexed in this source, covering a range of fields in the humanities.
    Organization:
    Entries are listed alphabetically by both writer and subject. Title entries are not included.

  • The Readers' Guide. 1890-1899
    Bobst REF1 AI3 .R4

    Readers' Guide Retrospective. 1890-1982
    http://library.nyu.edu/collections/databases.html

    Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature. 1983-Present
    http://library.nyu.edu/collections/databases.html

    General Description:
    This index lists citations to articles published in periodicals. It includes coverage of periodicals which publish essays (for example, Atlantic Monthly and New Yorker).
    Coverage:
    This source covers English language periodicals of general interest.
    Organization:
    Entries are listed alphabetically by both writer and subject. Entries under writers' names include sections of citations both by and about that writer.

Essay Annuals

Essays in the following sources can only be found by browsing the volumes themselves, they are not indexed.

  • Anchor Essay Annual. 1997-1998
    Bobst PN6142 .A53

    General Description:
    This series collects a variety of previously published essays by different authors, with varying subjects. The essays come from both books of essays and from journals.
    Coverage:
    Each volume covers one year, although occasionally older essays are included.
    Organization:
    Essays are in no particular order, but short biographical information about each writer is included at the back of each volume under Contributors' Notes.

  • The Best American Essays. 1986-
    Bobst PS688 .B47

    General Description:
    This series collects outstanding essays from periodicals published in the U.S. The essays must be on topics of general interest, not specialized scholarship.
    Coverage:
    Each volume covers one year.
    Organization:
    Essays are in alphabetical order by authors' surname. Short biographical information about each author is included at the back of the volume, as is a list of Notable Essays not included in the collection.

About Essayists

While the following sources provide primarily biographical and critical information about writers, some also include bibliographies of works by those writers. Not all of the writers covered in these sources are essayists.

  • Contemporary Authors. 1962- [165+ volumes]
    Contemporary Authors New Revised Edition. 1981- [70+ volumes]
    Available Electronically via Literature Resource Center

    General Description:
    These series contain basic biographical facts about writers, with notes on the writers' books and quotes from reviews. Entries include lists of Writings and Biographical/Critical Sources.
    Coverage:
    These series include almost any writer who has published a book of any kind in the U.S. within the last 35 years. Journalists, fiction and non-fiction writers, poets, screenwriters, and more are included.
    Organization:
    Default search is by author.

  • Contemporary Literary Criticism [CLC]. 1973- [100+ volumes]
    Available Electronically via Literature Resource Center

    General Description:
    This source contains extensive extracts from books and journal articles about writers and their work. Entries on a writer can appear in more than one volume, and contain a section headed Principal Works, which lists the most prominent works by that writer.
    Coverage:
    CLC covers present-day writers, the majority of which are living writers who continue to publish.
    Organization:
    Default search is by author.
    See also:
    Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism [70+ volumes, Bobst REF1 PN94 .T83n]
    Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism [65+ volumes, Bobst REF1 PN761 .N5]
    Literature Criticism from 1400-1800 [40+ volumes, Bobst REF1 PN86 .L53 1984]

  • Dictionary of Literary Biography [DLB].

  • Available Electronically via Literature Resource Center .
    Check BobCat for call number location(s) of specific volume(s).

  • General Description:
    This is a series of biographical encyclopedias with lengthy articles about writers. The entries focus on literary aspects of writers' lives, but also include biographical information. All entries are illustrated and have a bibliography of works by the writer covered.
    Coverage:
    There are volumes that cover specific periods, countries, genres, and ethnicities. For example, Afro-American Writers and Modern British Essayists.
    Organization:
    Default search is by author.

  • Scriber Writers Series
    Check BobCat for call number location(s) of specific volume(s).

    General Description:
    The Scribner Writers Series is a group of encyclopedias about writers with long entries, which focus on the literary aspect of the writers' lives. Each entry has a different author, so the contents vary considerably. Each entry has a selected bibliography of works by the writer covered.
    Coverage:
    There are volumes for American, English, African, European, Latin American, and Ancient writers.
    Organization:
    Consult the index, which is located at the first floor reference desk (REF1 / DESK PN451 .S35 1998). The index will indicate which volume (and page numbers) contain an entry on a particular writer. Look in BobCat for the call number(s) of the volume(s).

Electronic Resources

  • Contemporary Literary Criticism - Select.
    http://library.nyu.edu/collections/databases.html

    General Description:
    CLC - Select is an electronic version of the print CLC series [see above]. The electronic version includes only a portion of the printed series - about 250 writers as of December 1998. Additions are to be made as new volumes are published. Each entry contains a short biographical essay, a list of the writers' major works, critical essays or extracts from books and journals, and a bibliography of additional reading.
    Coverage:
    This resource covers novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers, and other writers now living or who died after 1959.
    For assistance using this resource, ask at the Reference Desk on the 1st floor of Bobst Library.

  • MLA Bibliography. 1963-
    http://library.nyu.edu/collections/databases.html
    [see also print version Bobst REF1 Index Z7006 .M64 1921-]

    General Description:
    This source is primarily useful in finding critical works about a writer and his/her work. It does not include book reviews or general/personal essays from the journals it covers.
    Coverage:
    Indexes journal articles (except book reviews), books, collections and festschriften, audiovisual materials, reference works, conference papers and proceedings on literature, language, linguistics, folklore and film. Covers sources in many languages. Covers 1963-present.
    For assistance using this resource, ask at the Reference Desk on the 1st floor of Bobst Library.

  • Proquest Research Library and Newspaper Collections.
    http://library.nyu.edu/collections/databases.html

    From the database selection screen, select "Research Library" and any of the Newspaper titles of interest.

    General Description:
    This source includes both book reviews and general/personal essays. To find reviews of a writer's work, type the writer's name normally (i.e., Thomas Pynchon). To find essays by a writer, type the writer's name last name first (i.e., Pynchon, Thomas).
    Coverage:
    Offers citations from a wide range of English language academic journals, news magazines, and full coverage of New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and several more newspapers.
    For assistance using this resource, ask at the Reference Desk on the 1st floor of Bobst Library.
Log In to OmniUpdate