Primary Sources
Primary sources in literature include any original, uninterpreted information relevant to your literary research topic. Examples include original works by the author, letters, diaries, and interviews. The resources listed on this page focus primarily on finding original works.
When trying to classify a source as primary or secondary, consider how you intend to it. For example, a contemporary review of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises would be a secondary source if your topic is an analysis of the text, but would be considered a primary source if you're researching the critical reception of Hemingway's work.
Books & eBooks
- Searching for Books & eBooksA guide on how to locate and access print and electronic books in Daemen's collections.
Databases
- Literary Reference Center This link opens in a new windowLRC contains thousands of classic and contemporary poems, short stories, author interviews, and novels.
Digital Text Archives
You can find many full-text classics and rare older publications in these databases and archives.
- Project GutenbergA source of free, downloadable ebooks. Fairly clean plain text.
- HathiTrust Digital LibraryA collection of millions of titles digitized from around the world. This is particularly useful for discovering older materials that have fallen into the public domain and examining scans of original early editions of books that would become classics.
- Oxford Text ArchiveA repository of full-text literary and linguistic resources with an emphasis on early English texts.
- Digital Bodleian LibraryThe Bodleian Libraries are the research libraries of Oxford University. Digital Bodleian brings together over 650,000 digital objects (including maps, manuscripts, images, historical documents and records, etc.). They are freely available and downloadable.
- 19th Century American Women WritersAn archive of full-text works by 19th Century American Women Writers.
- African American Women Writers of the 19th CenturyA digital collection hosted by the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center. This collections the works and biographies of a wide range of 19th Century African American Women Writers.
- Wright American FictionAn extensive, searchable bibliography of 19th century American fiction. Records include book images as well as text and PDF versions of texts.