COPYRIGHT 1919 BY All Rights Reserved Published December 1919 Composed and Printed By PREFATORY NOTE The accompanying list is designed primarily to serve as the basis of observations by the instructor and as a guide to the students in English 150 (Bibliography and Methods of English Literary History) in the Graduate School of the University of Chicago. It is hoped, however, that the material may prove useful to other investigators who, bewildered by a seeming multiplicity or nonplussed by an apparent absence of sources, labor under the delusion that the collection of bibliography is largely a matter of luck and that consequently it makes little difference where they begin. Special attention is therefore called to the Universal Bibliographies (section III), the Bibliographies of Bibliographies (section IV), the indexes and classified lists of books and articles (sections V-VI), and the bibliographies of dissertations (section IX). Students are urged to exhaust these general sources of information before following the desultory method frequently adopted even by otherwise respectable scholars.1 They are reminded that the most efficient investigator, by acquainting himself at the outset with previous collections of material on his subject, avoids the necessity of repeating operations already performed by others, and spares himself the possible mortification of discovering at length by accident that the matter under discussion has already been adequately treated and that therefore his labor has been in vain. In order to avoid confusing the beginner by a multitude of references, the compiler has included only a few of the most useful or comprehensive sources. Although the choice has generally been restricted to books and articles which are strictly bibliographical or contain bibliographical features and which deal with English literature, a number of works not usually included in bibliographies of English literature have been introduced because they furnish information on subjects which are allied to English and which sometimes demand the attention of the literary investigator at a time when he has little bibliographical information outside his special territory. It should be added, however, that the lists of special bibliographies and treatises given in sections XI, XIII, and XIV are not intended to dispense with the consultation of the general repertories enumerated in sections III-VI and IX. For the sake of convenience the literature of America has been classified separately. The list is followed by an index of the most important entries. I "Sans doute, on arrive peu à peu, de soi-même, à s'initier au maniement des principaux répertoires, . . . mais ce n'est jamais sans tâtonnements ni sans déboires, et il est rare que la science, acquise ainsi de pièces et de morceaux, soit intégrale" (Charles-V. Langlois, Manuel de bibliographie historique [2. éd., Paris, 1901], I, viii f.). iii 349317 |