English: Books

This guide recommends resources for research in English language studies, British and American literature, and other literatures written in English.

UW Libraries Search

E-Books: Contemporary

The library has access to many digitized books. Sample collections are listed below, or search the UW Catalog for a specific title.

E-Book Collections (Guide to Ebook Collections by Subject)
HathiTrust
Open Access Books
Project Muse E-Books
ACLS Humanities E-Books

E-books: Historical

Early American Imprints
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Based on Charles Evan's American Bibliography and on Shaw-Shoemaker's American Bibliography, EAI contains the full text of all known existing books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed in the United States (or British American colonies prior to Independence) from 1639 through 1800.
Eighteenth Century Collections Online
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Based on the English Short Title Catalogue, ECCO includes over 180,000 titles (200,000 volumes) published in the UK during the 18th century. Books, pamphlets, essays, broadsides and more are primarily in English, but other languages are represented as well.

Early English Books Online (EEBO) This link opens in a new window
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Digital reproductions of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and British North America and works in English printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.

Finding Print Books on the Shelves of the UW Libraries

The UW Libraries uses the Library of Congress Classification system to organize items in the collection. This is a method that always has some letters followed by numbers. The following Library of Congress ranges might be useful to people studying English & American literature:

English and American literature: PR and PS
English language history: PE
Celtic languages and literatures: PB
Books with lists of authors, works, and literary subjects: Z5051- 8999