NYU Libraries subscribes to a variety of databases that provide biographical essays about notable people. Use these resources to establish context--to get general background information about someone, including the reasons for their notoriety, any important works or accomplishments, movements or time periods they belong(ed) to, or relationships with other key figures of their time.
Many notable figures will be described in encyclopedia and dictionary entries, and some research will benefit from the use of book-length biographical works.
Biographical information in library resources appears in a variety of formats. Here are two methods that will connect you with background information about a person of interest. If you are explicitly interested in databases with biographical essays, consult the resources in the sections below or get in touch with a subject specialist. For immediate support, use our Ask a Librarian chat service.
Depending on the resource, “biography” will appear in one or more subject headings and/or “biographies” will appear in the genre field. Performing a subject heading search for “biography” will automatically yield search results that identify “biography” and “biographies” in the subject/genre fields.
American National Biography (ANB) contains biographical essays and topical articles on the lives of noteworthy deceased Americans to the present. There are specially selected collections covering American Indian Heritage, Asian Pacific American Heritage, Black History, Hispanic Heritage, Women's History.
Indexes biographical listings in dictionaries and encyclopedias covering millions individuals, both living and deceased, from every field of activity and from all areas of the world.
The Dictionary of Irish Biography, a collaborative project between Cambridge University Press and the Royal Irish Academy, contains over 9,000 signed biographical articles which describe and assess the careers of subjects in all fields of endeavor, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.
WBIS Online is a comprehensive biographical database available, providing short biographical information on 5.9 Million people from the 8th century B.C. to the present. Included are 7.8 Million digital facsimile articles from biographical reference works on 5.56 Million people worldwide.
Literature Online includes full text of literary works in English from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. It is the single most extensive and wide-ranging online collection of English and American literature. Resources included in this database are: Columbia Companion to the 20th Century American Short Story, Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literary and Cultural Criticism, Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Encyclopedia of African Literature, Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century, Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900-2003, Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 vols.), Encyclopedia of the Novel, Handbook of African American Literature, New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, Penguin Classics Introductions, Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory, Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English (2nd Edition), Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature
Encyclopedia of Heads of States and Governments, 1900-1945
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The 100 Most Important People in Musical Theatre
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Latin American Classical Composers
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