BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

"In a literary career that spanned almost 50 years, Ambrose Bierce distinguished himself as perhaps the most notable American journalist of the 19th century, writing thousands of editorial articles, totalling several million words, for a variety of newspapers and magazines in San Francisco and London. But since the vast majority of this work is not currently available, Bierce has instead achieved renown as one of Poe's most able successors in tales of psychological and supernatural horror."

"Ambrose (Gwinnet) Bierce." St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers. St. James Press, 1998.
Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC

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, 1600-1900
REF PS 21 .K8

Dictionary of Literary Biography
REF PS 221 .D5

CRITICAL SOURCES:
Critical Survey of Short Fiction
REF PN 3321 .C7

Critical Survey Mystery and Detective Fiction
REF PN 3448 .D4 C75 1988

Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature
REF PN 56 .F34 S97

American Writers
REF PS 129 .A55

Supernatural Fiction Writers: Fantasy and Horror
REF PN 3435 .S96

Twentieth Century Literary Criticism
REF PN 771 .G27

Short Story Criticism
REF PN 3321 .S5

Reference Guide to Short Fiction
REF PN 3373 .R36

Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism: Twentieth Century American Literature
REF PN 221 .T834

Library of Literary Criticism: Modern American Literature
REF PS 221 .N9

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

Masterplots II: Short Story Series
REF PN 3326 .M27 1986

Short Stories for Students
REF PN 3330 .S3886

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: "Ambrose Bierce"
Sample LINCC Author Search: Bierce, Ambrose
To search for a specific short story, try the Short Story Index

BROWSE THESE CALL NUMBERS:

PS1097 .A1  through  PS1097 F3

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:

Literary Resources on the Net
Wired for Books: Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary
Perspectives in American Literature: Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Online Books: Ambrose Bierce
Internet Public Library: Literary Criticism

SAMPLE GOOGLE SEARCHES:

intitle:"Ambrose Bierce" site:edu
(title phrase and domain 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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