Library Resources: Primary Sources: Literature

A digital collection of 52 published works by 19th-century black women writers. A part of the Digital Schomburg, this collection provides access to the thought, perspectives and creative abilities of black women as captured in books and pamphlets published prior to 1920.

British Library site devoted to the history of book production, illustration, and publishing in the Nineteenth Century, including penny dreadfuls, children's books, and much more. Site includes cover images of books, but no text.

A large collection of ballad broadsides, from the Bodleian Library.

Searchable collection of more than 10,000 letters of Thomas and Jane Welsh Carlyle. Offering insights into the Victorian era, the letters feature some of the most influential artistic, philosophic, and literary personalities of the day.

Digital editions of Cervantes' works.

1288 volumes of American poetry.

Over 4,000 volumes of English poetry.

Digitized editions of American fiction written between 1789-1875. Collection has 886 volumes, representing 136 authors.

This collection contains over 10,000 books published between 1473 and 1800 mainly, but not exclusively, in English in the British Isles and North America.

Contains the full text original language versions of classical literature as well as the English translations.

English literature of the Medieval, Renaissance, 17th Century and Restoration periods.

The Library of Congress offers 18 American songs and poetry, presented chronologically to represent distinct eras in American history.

Includes an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary; a hyperbibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies; and a Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.

This website seeks to document the rise of the Modernist movement in English language literature by providing searchable texts of key literary and cultural periodicals from the period 1890-1922, including the 1912-1922 issues of Poetry.

A large archive of recorded poetry.

Provides thousands of public domain e-texts, ranging from classical literature to modern works from authors who support the project's goals. Most in ASCII format, but also other formats such as PDF or audio.

Collection of medieval literature.

Transcriptions of works by British women writers of the 19th century.

Collection of manuscripts and books. Use limiters in left column to focus search on a specific geography, date range or topic.

Collection of 19th century American fiction.