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List of biographical dictionaries of women writers in English

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There are a large and ever growing number of biographical dictionaries of women writers. These works reflect the emergence of women's literature as a flourishing field of academic study over the past few decades. The genre also draws on a much older literary tradition of biographical collections of exemplary women.

This list includes biobibliographical dictionaries, in which biographical detail is provided alongside bibliographical information.

The dictionaries

  • Adelaide, Debra. Australian Women Writers: a bibliographical guide. Pandora, 1988. ISBN 978-0-86358-148-9
  • Bell, Maureen, et al., eds. A Biographical Dictionary of English Women Writers 1580–1720. Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1990.
  • Berney, K. A., et al., eds. Contemporary Women Dramatists. St. James Press, 1994.
  • Blain, Virginia, et al., eds. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. New Haven and London: Yale UP, 1990.
    • entries for over 2700 women writing in English (in various national traditions)
  • Benbow-Pfalzgraf, Taryn. American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide: From Colonial Times to the Present. 2nd ed. Detroit: St. James Press, 2000.
    • Contains biographical and critical essays on 1,328 American women writers
  • Bloom, Abigail B. Nineteenth-century British Women Writers: a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-313-30439-2
    • entries for over 90 British women writers of the nineteenth century
  • Bloom, Harold, ed. British Women Fiction Writers of the 19th Century. Chelsea House, 1998.
  • Bloom, Harold, ed. Caribbean Women Writers. Chelsea House, 1997.
  • Bomariot, Jessica and Jeffrey W. Hunter, ed. Feminism in Literature: A Gale Critical Companion. 6 vols. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
    • Includes timelines and entries on individual authors: Vol. 1 from antiquity through the 18th century; vols. 2-3 on the 19th century; and vols. 4-6 on the 20th century.
  • Buck, Claire, ed. The Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature. Prentice Hall, 1992.
    • see List of women in Bloomsbury Guide to Women's Literature
  • Champion, Laurie and Austin, Rhonda, eds. Contemporary American women fiction writers : an A-to-Z guide. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
  • Colman, Anne U. Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Irish Women Poets. Kenny's Bookshop, 1996. Intended to complement Weekes Unveiling Treasures.
  • Dagg, Anne Innis. The Feminine Gaze: a Canadian compendium of non-fiction women authors and their books, 1836–1945. Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001.
    • includes brief biographies of 473 writers
  • Fister, Barbara, ed. Third World Women's Literatures: A Dictionary and Guide to Materials in English. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1995.
    • Listings by country and region and alphabetical by author; includes bibliography of criticism.
  • Gonzalez, Alexander G., ed. Irish Women Writers: an A-to-Z guide. Greenwood Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-313-32883-1
  • Hammill, Faye, et al., eds. Encyclopedia of British Women's Writing, 1900–1950. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
  • Harris, Sharon M., ed. American Women Prose Writers, 1870–1920. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. v. 221. Detroit: Gale Group, 2000.
    • entries on: Octavia Albert / Phoebe Jackson, Mary Antin / Betty Bergland, Mary Austin / Linda K. Karell, Amelia Edith Huddleston Barr / Rose Norman, Lillie Devereux Blake / Grace Farrell, S. Alice Callahan / Annette Van Dyke, Kate McPhelim Cleary / Susanne George Bloomfield, Anna Julia Cooper / Jennifer A. Kohout, Mary Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton) / Annmarie Pinarski, Alice Morse Earle / Katharine Gillespie, Edith Maude Eaton (Sui Sin Far) / Nicole Tonkovich, Winnifred Eaton (Onoto Watanna) / Maureen Honey, Sarah Barnwell Elliott / Susan Neal Mayberry, Annie Adams Fields / Deborah M. Evans, Mary Hallock Foote / Victoria Lamont, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman / Marylynne Diggs, Charlotte Perkins Gilman / Robin Miskolcze, Emma Goldman / Priscilla Wald, Anna Katharine Green / Marie T. Farr, Susan Hale / Karen Dandurand, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper / Maggie Montesinos Sale, Constance Cary Harrison (Mrs. Burton Harrison) / Kathy Ryder, Mary Jane Holmes / Barbara J. McGuire, Alice James / Kristin Bourdeau, Sarah Orne Jewett / Melanie Kisthardt, Mrs. A. E. Johnson (Amelia Johnson) / Wendy Wagner, Emma Dunham Kelley / Barbara McCaskill, Lucy Larcom / Shirley Marchalonis, Laura Jean Libbey / Jean Carwile Masteller, Queen Lili'uokalani / Lydia Kualapai, Victoria Earle Matthews / Shirley Wilson Logan, María Cristina Mena (María Cristina Chambers) / E. Thomson Shields, Mourning Dove (Humishuma) / Alanna Kathleen Brown, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps / Mary Bortnyk Rigsby, Agnes Repplier / Paul Hansom, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton / José F. Aranda, Amanda Smith / Venetria K. Patton, Harriet Prescott Spofford / Jennifer Putzi, Gene Stratton-Porter / Anne K. Phillips, Suzie King Taylor / Joycelyn K. Moody, Ida B. Wells-Barnett / Stephanie Athey, Frances E. Willard / Mary Hurd, Martha Wolfenstein / Rosalind G. Benjet, Constance Fenimore Woolson / Sharon L. Dean, Anzia Yezierska / Julie Prebel.
  • Horwitz, Barbara J. British Women Writers, 1700–1850: An Annotated Bibliography of Their Works and Works about Them. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press; Pasadena CA: Salem Press, 1997.
  • Hudock, Amy E. & Rodier, Katharine, eds. American Women Prose Writers: 1820–1870. Gale Group, 2001.
  • Kester-Shelton, Pamela. Feminist Writers. Detroit: St. James, 1996.
    • entries on almost 300 writers (mostly American or British), including biography, bibliography, and critical bibliography. An appendix provides a brief paragraph or identifying phrase for an additional 177 writers.
  • Klein, Kathleen G., ed. Great Women Mystery Writers: classic to contemporary. Greenwood Press, 1994.
  • Knight, Denise D., and Emmanuel S. Nelson. Nineteenth-Century American Women Writers: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1997.
  • Lindsay, Elizabeth Blakesley. Great Women Mystery Writers - 2nd ed. Westport, Conn.:Greenwood Press, 2007
  • Mainiero, Lina, American Women Writers: A Critical Reference Guide from Colonial Times to the Present. New York: Ungar, 1979.
  • Mann, David, et al. Women Playwrights in England, Ireland, and Scotland, 1660–1823. Indiana University Press, 1996.
  • Miller, Jane Eldridge, ed. Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing. Routledge, 2001.
    • entries on over 400 writers whose careers began from the 1960s onwards
  • Mulford, Carla, et al., eds. American Women Prose Writers to 1820. Detroit: Gale Research, 1999.
    • entries on: Abigail Adams, Hannah Adams, Susanna Anthony, Elizabeth Ashbridge, Abigail Abbot Bailey, Martha Moore Ballard, Ann Eliza Bleecker, Bathsheba Bowers, Esther Edwards Burr, Jane Colden, Hannah Mather Crocker, Elizabeth Drinker, Hannah Duston, Sarah Pierpont Edwards, Jenny Fenno, Hannah Webster Foster, Winifred Marshall Gales, Grace Growden Galloway, Sarah Prince Gill, Anne MacVicar Grant, Sarah Ewing Hall, Elizabeth Hanson, Anne Hart, Elizabeth Hart, Jane Fenn Hoskens, Anne Hulton, Sophia Hume, Susan Mansfield Huntington, Susanna Johnson, Mary Kinnan, Sarah Kemble Knight, Anne Home Livingston, Deborah Norris Logan, Martha Daniell Logan, Margaret Morris, Judith Sargent Murray, Sarah Osborn, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, Martha Laurens Ramsay, Martha Meredith Read, Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer, Mary Rowlandson, Susanna Rowson, Rebecca Rush, Leonora Sansay, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Eunice Smith, Sarah Pogson Smith, Tabitha Gilman Tenney, Caroline Matilda Warren Thayer, Mary Palmer Tyler, Sukey Vickery, Mercy Otis Warren, Helena Wells, Eliza Yonge Wilkinson, Anna Green Winslow, Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, Sarah Wister, Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood.
  • O'Toole, Tina, ed. Dictionary of Munster Women Writers 1800–2000. Cork University Press, 2005.
  • Partow, Elaine T. The Female Dramatist: Profiles of Women Playwrights from the Middle Ages to Contemporary Times. New York: Facts on File, 1998.
  • Pollack, Sandra, et al., eds. Contemporary Lesbian Writers of the United States: a bio-bibliographical critical sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 1993.
  • Richardson, Sarah, et al., eds. Writing on the Line: 20th century working-class women writers: an annotated list. Working Press, 1996.
  • Sage, Lorna, ed. The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English. Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-521-49525-3
  • Schlueter, Paul, and June Schlueter, eds. An Encyclopedia of British Women Writers. Revised and expanded edition. Rutgers University Press, 1998.
    • approx. 600 biographical-critical entries, arranged alphabetically by name: 'In part, the project was a recovery effort, validating the work of a large cast of women writers, many of whom wrote anonymously or under male pseudonyms or who, in their time, were for the most part, neglected.'
  • Shapiro, Ann R., ed. Jewish American Women Writers: a bio-bibliographical and critical sourcebook. Greenwood Press, 1994.
  • Shattock, Joanne, ed. The Oxford Guide to British Women Writers. Oxford University Press, 1993.
  • Shelton, Pamela L., ed. Contemporary women poets. St. James Press, 1998. ISBN 978-1-55862-356-9
    • 250 entries, each including a biography, listing of works, personal statement by the poet, and a critical essay.
  • Showalter, Elaine, et al., eds. Modern American Women Writers. Maxwell Macmillan International, 1991.
  • Thesing, William B., ed. Victorian Women Poets. Gale Group, 1999.
  • Thesing, William B., ed. Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-century British Women Poets. Gale Group, 2001.
  • Todd, Janet, ed. British Women Writers: a critical reference guide. London: Routledge, 1989.
  • Todd, Janet, ed. A Dictionary of British and American women writers, 1660–1800. Rowman & Allanheld, 1985.
    • 450 entries, 68 of which are American
  • Weekes, Ann Owens. Unveiling Treasures: the Attic guide to the published works of Irish women literary writer: drama, fiction, poetry
  • Wilson, Katherina M., et al. An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Vol. v. 698. New York: Garland Pub., 1991.
  • Wilson, Katharina M., et al. Women Writers of Great Britain and Europe: an encyclopedia. Garland Pub., 1997.
    • Reprints, with photos, selections from An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers (above)

External links

See also

  • List of female rhetoricians
  • Women's writing (literary category)
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