BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Louisa May Alcott is one of America's most well known writers of juvenile fiction.  She was one of the first writers for young adults to be taken seriously by critics.  Her novel Little Women is still widely read and written about more than 130 years after its first publication.  Alcott was also very active in the causes of temperance and women's suffrage.  (Biography Resource Center)

REFERENCE SOURCES:
The following reference books can be used to get both biographical and critical information about authors.   Each book has one or more volumes.  Check the index (located either in the back of the book or a separate volume) for your author's name and/or a title of his or her work.
BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES:
American Authors, 1600-1800
REF PS 21 .K8

American Writers for Children Before 1900 (Dictionary of Literary Biography )
REF PS 221 .D5 V. 42

CRITICAL SOURCES:
American Writers
REF PS 129 .A55

Great Women Writers
REF PN 471 .G74

Great Writers of the English Language
REF PR 85 .G66

American Women Writers
REF PS 147 .A4

Writers for Children
REF PN 1009 .A1 W73

Yesterday's Authors of Books for Children
REF PN 451 .Y4

Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism
REF PN 761 .N5

Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors
REF PR 83 .M73

Library of Literary Criticism: The Critical Temper
REF PR 83 .C764

Masterplots II: Women's Literature Series
REF PN 471 .M37

LINCCWeb Searching:
The library catalog online (LINCCWeb) allows you to search for materials about or written by your author.  Click on the links below to view sample searches within the library catalog. 

Sample LINCC Keyword Search: "Louisa May Alcott"
Sample LINCC Author Search: Alcott, Louisa May

BROWSE THESE CALL NUMBERS:

PS 1016 .L56 through PS 1017 .I54

FULL-TEXT DATABASES:
Search for articles and criticism about your author. (Highly recommended are highlighted)
From your home computer, login using your borrower id ( the 14 digit number on the back of your student ID) and your pin (EITHER the last 4 digits of your SSN for returning users OR the last 4 digits of your VID number for new students).

Academic Search Premier

Biography Resource Center

Book Index with Reviews

Book Review Digest Plus

Critical Companions to Popular Contemporary Writers

eBooks/netLibrary

Essay & General Literature Index

Expanded Academic ASAP

Granger's World of Poetry

Humanities Full Text

InfoTrac OneFile

JSTOR

Literature Resource Center

LitFinder

MagillOnLiteraturePlus

OmniFile Full Text Mega

Valencia's Play & Short Story Index (Search for items owned by the library)

WEB SITES:

About the Author: Louisa May Alcott
Little Women
Louisa May Alcott: Orchard House
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott: Teacher Resources
Louisa May Alcott: Online texts from the University of Maryland
Literary Resources on the Net
Internet Public Library: Literary Criticism

SAMPLE GOOGLE SEARCHES:

intitle:"louisa may alcott" site:edu
(title phrase and domain search)
intitle:"little women" alcott
(phrase with default AND keyword search)

EVALUATE YOUR SOURCES:

Distinguishing Between Popular and Scholarly Sources
Evaluating Data
Evaluating Internet Sources
Using Primary and Secondary Sources

DOCUMENT YOUR SOURCES:

APA Documentation of Print Sources
APA Documentation of Electronic Sources

MLA Documentation of Print Sources
MLA Documentation of Electronic Sources

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