Research Guides: English: Primary Sources

Primary Texts by Period

The Library provides networked access to many more full-text, primary source databases than can be listed here. Others may be located through the Library Catalog and Databases, which contains an alphabetical list of online resources related to Language and Literature.

All Periods/Long Full-Text Coverage

LitFinder
LitFinder provides the opportunity for complete appreciation and study of great literary works by offering access to more than 135¸000 full-text poems¸ stories¸ plays and more. It puts complete works - and additional information sources such as biographies¸ essays and explanations - into the hands of students and researchers for further study¸ evaluation and enjoyment
American Poetry 1600-1900
A collection of 1,200 books and anthologies of early American poetry providing access to 40,000 poems of American writers from the 17th to the early 20th century. This database contains the works of all major American poets, including Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Phillis Wheatley, Walt Whitman, and John Greenleaf Whittier. It also covers many less familiar names
Coverage: Full Text 1600 - 1900
English Poetry Database
The English Poetry Full-Text Database (EPD)¸ published by Chadwyck-Healey¸ contains the full text of over 160¸000 poems written in English by approximately 1¸350 poets between the years 600 and 1900.
Coverage: Full Text; 600 - 1900
English Prose Drama 1280-1915
Based on plays listed in the New Cambridge bibliography of English literature that were written or intended for the stage and wholly or primarily in prose. EPD contains more than 1,800 plays by approximately 400 authors from the Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century
English Verse Drama
Database contains over 2,200 works by over 500 named authors and over 300 anonymous works from the Shrewsbury Fragments of the late thirteenth century through the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods to the end of the nineteenth century. A verse drama is generally defined as a work acted on or intended for the stage which is either completely in verse or includes significant verse content. EVD complements and extends the English Poetry database. It adds six centuries of poetry intended for the stage. The bibliographic basis is the New Cambridge Bibliography of English Literature. The database includes the works of all writers of verse drama listed in NCBEL and principally active before 1900. Editions chosen are usually contemporary with their authors. Masques and short dramatic pieces written primarily in verse, selected translations, works written for children and numerous adaptations are included. The entire text of each verse drama is included, together with any accompanying text written by the original author.
Fiction Core Collection
The selective list presented in this collection features classic and contemporary works of fiction recommended for a general adult audience¸ written in or translated into English. The best authors and their most widely-read works in literary and popular fictionâ€”old and newâ€”are listed¸ including mysteries¸ science fiction¸ fantasy¸ Westerns and romance.
Shakespeare in Performance: Prompt Books from the Folger Shakespeare Library
Shakespeare in Performance showcases rare and unique prompt books from the world-famous Folger Shakespeare Library. These prompt books tell the story of Shakespeare’s plays as they were performed in theatres throughout Great Britain, the United States and internationally, between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Supported by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center.

Middle English

Corpus of Middle English Prose & Verse
A collection of Middle English texts including Chaucer's Canterbury Tales & Troilus and Criseyde¸ Langland's Piers Plowman¸ Malory's Morte Darthur¸ Sir Gawain and the Green Knight¸ Everyman¸ and many others.
Coverage: 1066 - mid-to-late 15th Century

Early Modern

Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare
Editions and Adaptations of Shakespeare includes the complete text of eleven major editions of Shakespeares works, from the First Folio (1623) to the Cambridge edition of 1863-6. It also includes twenty-four separate contemporary printings of individual plays, selected apocrypha and related works, and more than 100 adaptations, sequels, and burlesques from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
Early American Fiction
Early American Fiction contains 440 works of 80 novelists and short-story writers¸ 1774-1850. This database comprises the full texts of the first editions of American novels and short stories written before 1850 by authors of significance during their lifetimes.
Coverage: 1774-1850
Early English Books Online
Early English Books Online (EEBO) contains over 125¸000 titles listed in Pollard & Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue (1475-1640)¸ Wing's Short-Title Catalogue (1641-1700)¸ and the Thomason Tracts (1640-1661). The Early English Books Tract Supplements will also be added to EEBO soon. Among the thousands of titles featured in EEBO are works by Malory¸ Bacon¸ More¸ Erasmus¸ Boyle¸ Newton¸ Galileo; musical exercises by Henry Purcell and novels by Aphra Behn; prayer books¸ pamphlets¸ and proclamations; almanacs¸ calendars¸ and many other primary sources.
Coverage:Full Text; 1473-1700
Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
The Eighteenth Century Collections Online provides access to the digital images of every page of 150¸000 books published during the 18th Century. With full-text searching of approximately 33 million pages¸ the product allows researchers new methods of access to critical information in fields of history¸ literature¸ religion¸ law¸ fine arts¸ and sermons to advertisements-and works by many well-known and lesser-known authors¸ all providing a diverse collection of material for the researcher of the eighteenth century. Included are works from women writers of the eighteenth century; collections on the French Revolution; and numerous editions of the works of Shakespeare. Multiple editions of each individual work are offered to enable scholars to make textual comparisons of the works. Supported by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center.
Eighteenth Century Fiction
Full text of 96 works of prose fiction written in the British Isles.
Coverage: Full Text; 1700 - 1780

19th Century

African American Poetry 1760-1900
African-American Poetry 1760-1900¸ published by ProQuest, and formerly by Chadwyck-Healey¸ contains the full text of almost 3¸000 poems written between 1760 and 1900. Poets included are among those listed in Afro-American Poetry and Drama¸ 1760-1975¸ by W.P. French et al.
Coverage: 1760 - 1900
Nineteenth Century Collections Online
Nineteenth Century Collections Online is a global digitization and publishing program focusing on primary source collections of the nineteenth century. Designed specifically with the researcher in mind¸ Nineteenth Century Collections Online has been built on a research platform that offers the robust search functionality and annotation and tagging tools necessary for scholarly work. The database includes a variety of content types--monographs¸ newspapers¸ pamphlets¸ manuscripts¸ photographs¸ ephemera¸ maps¸ statistics¸ and more--and unites them in one central¸ cross-searchable location. This database now includes parts 1 to 8: 1)Asia and the West: Diplomacy and Cultural Exchange¸ 2) British Politics and Society¸ 3) British Theatre¸ Music and Literature: High and Popular Culture¸ and 4) European Literature¸ 1790-1840: The Corvey Collection¸ 5) Europe and Africa: Commerce¸ Christianity¸ Civilization¸ and Conquest¸ 6) Photography: The World Through the Lens¸ 7) Science¸ Technology and Medicine¸ 1780-1925¸ and 8) Women: Transnational Networks
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape, which includes the manuscript collections of the Wordsworth Trust, offers students and researchers of the Romantic period unique access to the working notebooks, verse manuscripts and correspondence of William Wordsworth and his fellow writers, including Dorothy Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey and Robert Southey. Also contains a collection of fine art pieces by such artists as J.M.W. Turner, John Constable and Benjamin Robert Haydon. All of the documents are digitized in colour and include: verse manuscripts, printed manuscripts, prose manuscripts, printed verse, correspondence, diaries, travel journals, autograph albums, guide books, fine art and maps. Supported by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center.
William Blake Archive
A free site on the World Wide Web since 1996¸ the Blake Archive was conceived as an international public resource that would provide unified access to major works of visual and literary art that are highly disparate¸ widely dispersed¸ and more and more often severely restricted as a result of their value¸ rarity¸ and extreme fragility. A growing number of contributors has given the Archive permission to include thousands of Blake's images and texts without fees.

Modern and Contemporary

African Writers Series
The African Writers Series offers access to key works from the highly acclaimed Heinemann's African Writers Series. This series provides seminal works from the canon of African literature of the twentieth century¸ covering such authors as Steve Biko¸ Ama Ata Aidoo¸ and Buchi Emecheta. Top novels and short stories¸ along with drama and poetry¸ are fully searchable and richly indexed. Author biographies are included.
Coverage: 1962 - present
Short Story Index
Short Story Index includes more than 84¸000 stories-plus the full text of more than 1¸600 stories. For the reader seeking short fiction by a favorite author¸ the teacher looking for the quintessential example of a particular genre¸ or the student researching the body of work of a literary figure¸ Short Story Index is a practical resource. The periodicals included are those indexed in Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature and Humanities Index. Coverage: Indexing 1984+, "select" Full Text 1994+