Guides: English Literatures: 20th & 21st Centuries

Background Information

Cassell's Companion to Twentieth-Century Britain
LAU Ref Stacks DA566 .T48 2001
Encyclopedia of American Cultural & Intellectual History
LAU Ref Stacks E169.1 .E624 2001 v. 1-3
Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English
LAU Ref Stacks PR9080.A52 E53 2005 v. 1-3
Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance
LAU Ref Stacks NX512.3.A35 E53 2004 v. 1-2
Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century
LAU Ref Stacks PN771 .E5 1999 v. 1-4
The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature
LAU Ref Stacks PS153.M56 G74 2005 v. 1-5
A Historical Companion to Postcolonial Thought in English
LAU Ref Stacks PR9080.A52 H57 2005

20th & 21st c. Primary Sources

African American Newspapers, Series 1, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Provides online access to approximately 270 U.S. newspapers chronicling a century and a half of the African American experience. Features papers from 39 states.
American Periodicals Series Online (1740 to 1940) This link opens in a new window
Digital images of historically significant American periodicals from 1740 to 1900, including literary and professional journals, children's and women's magazines, and popular magazines.
American Slavery Collection, 1820-1922 This link opens in a new window
This digital edition of the American Antiquarian Society’s extraordinary holdings of slavery and abolition materials delivers more than 3,500 works published over the course of more than 100 years.
America's Historical Newspapers: Evening Star This link opens in a new window
Selected digitized issues of the Washington Evening Star, 1852-1981.
Archives of Sexuality & Gender This link opens in a new window
The Archives of Sexuality and Gender program provides a robust and significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender.

We have access to the following Archives:

International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture

LGBTQ History and Culture since 1940, Part I

LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Part II

Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century
Gale Primary Sources This link opens in a new window
Searches across Gale primary source collections, including Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO); Nineteenth Century Collections Online (NCCO); Sabin Americana, 1500-1926; The Making of Modern Law; and The Making of the Modern World.
You can select the Primary Source collections from the Gale Product menu by selecting, "Primary Sources".
British Periodicals This link opens in a new window
Facsimile page images and searchable full text for nearly 500 British periodicals published from the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Topics covered include literature, philosophy, history, science, the fine arts, archaeology, architecture, and the social sciences.
Gale Primary Source Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Provides cross-searching capabilities for several Gale digital collections, including 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers, 19th Century British Library Newspapers, 19th Century UK Periodicals, Illustrated London News Historical Archive 1842-2003, Times Digital Archive 1785-1985, Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive 1902-2006, Picture Post Historical Archive 1938-1957.
HarpWeek: The Civil War Era, Reconstruction I & II and Gilded Age I (1857-1912) This link opens in a new window
Provides electronic access to all issues of Harper's Weekly (including all illustrations and advertisements) published between 1857 (first issue) and 1912.
Illustrated London News Historical Archive This link opens in a new window
A digital archive of world's first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, covering 1842 to 2003. Areas covered include politics, social history, fashion, theatre, media, literature, advertising, graphic design, and genealogy.
Independent Voices This link opens in a new window
Over 400 underground and alternative newspapers spanning the 1960s to 1980s. Includes campus zines, armed forces newsletters, feminist periodicals, and small press literary magazines.
Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
Fully searchable library of more than 350,000 full-text works of English and American poetry, drama, and fiction with complementary criticism, reference resources, and websites. Includes over 800 clips of poets reading their own and other poets' work.
Allows you to:
--search both the MLA International Bibliography and the Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, with links to full-text articles from over 200 literature journals.
--find a list of works by or about a particular author
--search simultaneously across primary works and secondary sources
--access 1,550 author biographies

Includes full-text databases such as African-American Poetry, Twentieth-Century American Poetry, Early English Prose Fiction, Eighteenth-Century Fiction, English Drama, English Poetry.

Includes reference sources such as The Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English, Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, Encyclopedia of the Novel, New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, the King James Bible, and Webster's Third New International Dictionary.
Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
Collection of digital facsimile images of 61,000 works of literature on economics and business published from 1450 through 1945. Covers commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.
Includes:
Part I: The Goldsmiths'-Kress Collection, 1450-1850
Part II, 1851-1914
New York Times (Historical) This link opens in a new window
Complete, full-text archive of the New York Times, from its first issue on September 18, 1851, through 2009. NOTE: The newspaper was titled the New York Daily Times from 1851 to 1857. In 1857, its name was changed to the New York Times.
ProQuest Historical African American Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Full text of the following historical African American newspapers: Chicago Defender, The Baltimore Afro-American, New York Amsterdam News, Pittsburgh Courier, Los Angeles Sentinel, Atlanta Daily World, The Norfolk Journal and Guide, The Philadelphia Tribune, and Cleveland Call and Post. Click the "more" link below for direct links.
Historical coverage of The Chicago Defender, The Baltimore Afro-American, Pittsburgh Courier, The Los Angeles Sentinel, The Atlanta Daily World, The Norfolk Journal & Guide, New York Amsterdam News,The Philadelphia Tribune, and The Cleveland Call & Post.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window
Complete historical coverage of The Atlanta Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, South China Morning Post, The Times of India, Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. Click the "more" link below for direct links.
Historical coverage of The Atlanta Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, South China Morning Post, and The Times of India.
ProQuest Trench Journals and Unit Magazines of the First World War This link opens in a new window
An archival research resource containing a vast collection of rare magazines by and for servicemen and women of all nations during the First World War. Over 1,500 periodicals written and illustrated by serving members of the armed forces and associated welfare organisations published between 1914 and the end of 1919 are included. Magazines have been scanned cover-to-cover, in full colour or greyscale, and with granular indexing of all articles and specialist indexing of publications.
Sabin Americana, 1500-1926 This link opens in a new window
Based on Joseph Sabin's landmark bibliography, this collection contains works about the Americas published throughout the world from 1500 to the early 1900s. Included are books, pamphlets, serials and other documents that provide original accounts of exploration, trade, colonialism, slavery and abolition, the western movement, Native Americans, military actions and much more.
Times Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
Searchable, electronic version of The Times, Britain's newspaper of record, essential for primary source research in British history, politics, and culture. Provides a complete full-text and full-image archive of The Times from 1785 to 1985.
Times Literary Supplement, 1902-2014 This link opens in a new window
First appearing in 1902 as a supplement to The Times, the venerable Times Literary Supplement (TLS) is a weekly literary review published in London. See TLS for literary culture and book reviews. TLS Historical Archive contains every page of every issue of the Times Literary Supplement published 1902-5 years ago.
For more current issues see:
HoyaSearch TLS Entry

Research Guides

Use the below guides to go deeper into your research.

20th & 21st c. Primary Source Indexes

American Literary Manuscripts
A checklist of literary manuscript holdings in academic, historical, and public libraries, museums, and authors' homes in the United States.
ArchiveGrid
A searchable collection of finding aids to primary source material held in archives, special collections, and manuscript collections around the world. Includes historical documents, personal papers, family histories, and more.
Location Register of 20th Century English Literary Manuscripts
A standard reference source for identifying manuscript holdings for literary authors of all genres.

Browsing Areas

The following sections are good for browsing for books on 18th and 19th century English and American literature, which are shelved on the 5th floor of Lauinger Library.

English Language

PE1001-1693 – Modern English

English Literature

PR471-479 – 20th century

PR481-489 – 21st century

PR6000-6049 – 1900-1960

PR6050-6076 – 1961-2000

PR6100-6126 – 2001-

American Literature

PS221-228 – 20th century

PS229-231 – 21st century

PS3500-3549 – Individual authors - 1900-1960

PS3550-3576 – Individual authors - 1961-2000

PS3600-3626 – Individual authors 2001-