Dictionary of Literary Biography

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The Dictionary of Literary Biography (abbreviated DLB) is a monumental 338-volume encyclopedia published by Thomson-Gale. It is available both in print and online. The biographical material covered extends beyond novelists to include screenwriters, poets, and playwrights.

[edit] History

The Dictionary of Literary Biography first appeared in 1978, focusing on North American writers. British literature was added in the early 1980s, and when the series expanded to include modern European literature, the first non-Anglo-American volume to appear was "German Fiction Writers, 1914-1945," edited by James Hardin. He inherited the DLB format, which provides for each author a list of publications; a "career biography" (DLB Advisory Board's term) covering the writer's life and major works, proportionate in length to his/her stature; editions of letters; biographies; other selected secondary literature including interviews, websites, and obituraries; and numerous photographs, manuscript and book cover reproductions, which the Advisory Board in its introduction calls "the iconography of literature." The Dictionary is still being expanded, with a volume being added issued every other month. Eventually, Thomson Gale hopes to cover every writer from 1700 onwards.

In 1987–89, in response to requests from smaller libraries, Gale issued the Concise dictionary of American literary biography (Gale, 1987–89. $380/set). This six-volume set covers major American authors from the seventeenth century to the present. In 1991–92, Gale issued the Concise dictionary of British literary biography (Gale, 1991–92. $500/set). This eight-volume work covers the major British literary figures of all eras.

[edit] Assessment

The DLB's bibliographies are among the most comprehensive available. Besides being a reliable and user-friendly reference work, the DLB's value lies in its presentation of writers ranging from the mainstays of the canon through various gradations of lesser-known authors to the infamous-yet-once-influential. Although some volumes cover writers from earlier ages, modern Western authors are given the most emphasis overall. The quality of the contributions are high, and although on occasion a critic's judgment may raise a reader's eyebrow, expectations are amply fulfilled. In encyclopedic undertakings such as this, the contributors' task is weighty but relatively unrewarding—conceptual originality must be suppressed in order to produce a concise, factual, generally dispassionate life-and-works account.

However, the print version can be difficult to use, as the volumes are organized by subject, rather than alphabetically. Volumes are classified either by topic, period, or genre. Nevertheless, each print volume or set of volumes contains a cumulative index of all previous DLB publications and the authors within each volume are arranged alphabetically. The online version provides the functionality of searching by author name. The online version also provides critical essays on many authors' works. However, the features included depend on the type of Gale literature database that the library in question subscribes to as there are several to choose from.