Indexes to Primary Sources
Use these tools to help locate primary sources. You may need to use Interlibrary Loan to acquire the actual primary sources.
- Elizabethan Poetry: A Bibliography and First-Line Index of English Verse, 1559-1603Call Number: PR531 .M39 2004
- First-Line Index of Englisih Poetry; 1500-1800 in manuscripts of the Bodleian Library, OxfordCall Number: PR1204 .F5 1969 v.1-2
- English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC)Indexes over 460,000 that were published between 1473 and 1800 primarily in Britain and North America. Works are predominantly in English and are from the collections of the British Library and over 2,000 other libraries.
Primary Sources
The definition of primary source varies widely from discipline to discipline. In literature, primary sources are the original, creative work of an author, including poetry, plays, nonfiction prose, novels, and short stories. An author's correspondence or journals are also considered primary sources.
- African-American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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Full text of almost 3,000 poems written between 1760 and 1900. - African Writers Series This link opens in a new windowKey texts of modern African literature, including hundreds of volumes of fiction, poetry, drama and non-fictional prose.
- American Poetry This link opens in a new window
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Works of the most influential American poets, colonial period to the early twentieth century; includes six landmark anthologies of American poetry. - Black Women Writers This link opens in a new windowFiction, nonfiction and poetry by women from North America, Africa and the Caribbean.
- ECCO: Eighteenth Century Collections Online This link opens in a new windowDigital editions of nearly all books published in Great Britain in the 18th century as well as important books from the Americas.
- English Poetry, 600-1900 This link opens in a new window
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Full-text English and British poems from the Anglo-Saxon period to the end of 19th century. - English Verse Drama This link opens in a new window
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Full-text of works by named and anonymous authors from the Shrewsbury Fragments of the late 13th century, through the Elizabethan and Jacobean period, to British poets of the 19th century.
Subject Guide
Quick Tip
Downloading a Book from Early English Books Online [EEBO]:
You may download an entire book from EEBO, or a custom range of pages. On your list of results, or if you are viewing the Full Record or Document Images for an item, you will see a checkbox to "Add to your Marked List." Check that box, and then select the "Marked List" option from the black menu along the top of each page. On the Marked List page you will see a short citation for the item, and a PDF icon and link to "Download document images in PDF." If you click that link you will see two options to either download a page range or the entire document in PDF format. Wait a few moments while the pages are converted to PDF. When that is completed, please "confirm" that you want to download the file and then you will see an option to open it or save it.