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Book Review Digest Online

The Book Review Digest database brings together book reviews on a wide range of topics from a variety of sources, many from academic journals. Use this database to identify book reviews published between 1983 and the present.

NOTE: The full record may or may not include the full text of the review! If the full text of the review is not present (or if there is no link to the full text), find the journal in Seymour Library, online, or request it via interlibrary loan.

Book Review Digest in Print

For Books Published between 1900-1982, you must use the print Index Book Review Digest. To use the Book Review Digest:

  1. Determine the publication year for the book you want to find reviews of.
  2. Then look in the volume of Book Review Digest for that year. Note: You may want to look the volume for the following year as well; sometimes it takes a bit for the reviews to come out and be indexed.
  3. Look up the author, then find the title of the book under the author's name. The reviews will be listed underneath. 
  4. To get the review, find out if the journal or magazine is one we have in Seymour Library or if the publication is online in full text by searching Knox Primo. If the library has the issue you need, find it on the shelves (or click on the link to the full text in the catalog record). If it is not available at the library, use the ILLiad interlibrary loan system to request the article/review.

Reference Books on Analysis, Criticism and Bibliographic information

American Writers: Ref PS129.A55 v.1-4 +Supps.
British Writers: Ref PR85.B688 v.1-8 +Supps.
These collections of essays provide substantial biographical and literary information on each American or British author. The authors included in this set are from all periods of American and British literary history.

Contemporary Literary Criticism (CLC): Ref PN771.C59 v.1-
This set contains lengthy excerpts from criticism of the works of novelists, poets, playwrights, short story writers and script writers living from 1960 to the present. Use the cumulative index in the latest volume to find all references to an author in this set and related sets.

Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB): located in the PR and PS sections in the Reference room
Each volume features biographical essays on writers representing a particular topic, genre or nationality. Titles include: British Dramatists since WWII, Native American Writers in the United States, Medieval Japanese Writers, etc.