Literature & Writing: Background Sources

Includes the Oxford Book of English Verse, Yale Book of American Verse, reference works on quotation and usage as well as selected works of fiction.

Award-winning internet encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion. Here you will find everything from A-gskw to Zveda Vechanyaya, with plenty in between.

A work in progress, this site is attempting to create a digital and easily searchable version of the first edition of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, which was published in 1755 and, until the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 173 years later, was viewed as the pre-eminent English dictionary.

Original works with links to citations that reference specific parts of the work.

Oxford Dictionaries provides free access that allows users to: explore its current English dictionary and thesaurus; listen to audio pronunciations; browse the grammar hub; and much more.

Online journal devoted to English literature of the 16th and 17th Centuries.

Covers all aspects of the graphic novel, comic strip and comic book focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on the twentieth and the twenty-first centuries. The emphasis is on the production and consumption of comics in their cultural, institutional and creative contexts.

Identify electronic journals in the fields of Languages and Literatures that are scholarly, peer-reviewed, full text, and accessible without cost.

Publishes open access scholarship with no author-facing article processing charges (APCs). All of its academic articles are subject to rigorous peer review and the scholarship they publish showcases some of the most dynamic research taking place in the humanities disciplines today – from classics, modern languages and cultures, philosophy, theology and history, to political theory, sociology, anthropology, film and new media studies, and digital humanities.

(RaVoN) is an International Refereed Electronic Journal devoted to British Nineteenth-Century Literature.

The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world. It strives to contain the full breadth of human expression, from the written word, to works of art and culture, to records of America’s heritage, to the efforts and data of science.

A site readers can rely on for smart, engaged, entertaining writing about all things books. Each day—alongside original content and exclusive excerpts—Literary Hub is proud to showcase an editorial feature from one of its many partners from across the literary spectrum: publishers big and small, journals, bookstores, and non-profits.

Founded in 1883 by teachers and scholars, the MLA promotes the study and teaching of language and literature.

The Ohio State University Press, per their Open Access initiative, has put approximately 60 titles online as PDFs. Most of these titles are out of print and are focused on literary criticism.

From Purdue University, this resource will help you to begin the process of understanding literary theory and schools of criticism and how they are used in the academy.