Best of the Web: Arts & Humanities » Literature & Linguistics » Literary Forms & Popular Genres

Biographical information, bibliographic resources, a newsletter, message boards.

Although a portion of the site is devoted to Doyle's other works, the focus of most of the material in on the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Features biography and a selected bibliography and suggestions for further reading.

Official website. Biographical and bibliographical material, excerpts from her work, links to online stories, information on public appearances.

Biography, bibliography, full-text of several short pieces.

Features information about the society, a short biography, a bibliography of works, and a very extensive list of related lins.

Directory and guide for romance readers. Includes reviews, a monthly essay about a particular novel, links to reader awards, message boards, discussion lists.

Searchable collection of hundreds of collected works of poetry, mostly from the 19th century, although a few 18th and early 20th century texts are included. From the University of Michigan.

A directory of links to romance writers' websites.

From the holdings of the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library. Archive currently holds work by Coleridge, Tennyson, Lewis Carroll, and many others.

Definitions and recommended readings.

Annotated directory of relevant resources.

This Connecticut College site "is an electronic archive designed to make out-of-print volumes of poetry available to readers, scholars, and researchers. The books are stored as individual text-only files accessible via the World Wide Web on the Internet." Arranged alphabetically by author. In some instances, limited biographical information about the poets is provided.

"An archive of crime and mystery fiction reviewed by Marilyn Stasio since January 1997, arranged by author." From the New York Times. Registration required.

Online British crime, mystery, suspense publication.

An academic site designed to "explore different critical approaches to the study of crime literature/film."

Stanford University Libraries "Dime Novel and Story Paper Collectionconsists of over 8,000 individual items, and includes long runs of the major dime novel series (Frank Leslie's, Boys of America, Happy Days, Beadle's New York Dime Library, etc.) and equally strong holdings of story papers like the New York Ledger and Saturday Night." The collection can be browsed by title, feature, or image, or searched by Dime Novel titles, story titles and captions, graphics or subject features, or by text. Includes a timeline to chart these once-popular genres.

This State University of Buffalo site contains an alphabetical list of poets, critics, writers, and an in-progress list of poetry-related sites and resources, both electronic and in print.

This site offers works of and about fiction collected from its members, contributing authors worldwide, and texts in the public domain.

Full text of numerous novels and stories, arranged by author.

Exhibit on the development of science fiction literature.

Poetic terms and their definitions. Browsable alphabetically.

Links to ancient Greek theatre resources.

A crime fiction content database based on the George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection at the University of Buffalo, the State University of New York. It "currently provides an in-depth look at 185 detective and mystery novels originally published during the period 1930-1960."

Resources for "writing and researching and thinking about hypertext fiction."

The IGA (founded in 1991) has developed this site to provide a wide and up-to-date range of helpful information on the study of the Gothic. One of the Association's main goals is to disseminate information and research/teaching prospects on theGothic as widely and usefully as possible. Contains an excellent list of Gothic web links.

This project connects to the concordances of ten plays which can be searched, counted, and printed.

A browsable site from Southern Illinois University which serves as a "guide to all things concerned with literary Gothicism, which includes ghost stories, 'classic' Gothic novels and gothic fiction (1764-1820), and related pre- and post-Gothic and supernaturalist literature written prior to the mid-c20."

This site "helps teachers explore eighteen American songs and poems from the digital collections of the Library of Congress. Each song and poem is represented by an original primary source document, along with historical background information and, in many cases, sound recordings and alternate versions."

A well-organized and categorized set of links to reliable sites on various facets of medieval drama, dance and song.

A multimedia companion to Anthology of Modern American Poetry (Oxford University Press, 2000). This massive site devoted to critical information and resources on American poets contains analyses of poems, biographical information on poets, relevant illustrations, drafts of poems, bibliographies, historical background, statements on poetics, interviews, mini-essays on important issues pertinent to the poet, book reviews, archival resources, and study questions.

Called the "booklover's guide to mysteries and thriller," this site offers features in the following categories: Mystery Authors & Books,Suspense & Thrillers, Crime & Noir,Book Reviews, Author Interviews,Reference & Recommendations,Awards & Top 10 Lists, Books Into Movies, Links.

This organization, "the largest mystery fan/reader organization in the world, is open to all readers, fans, critics,editors, publishers, and writers."

The homepage of "a non-profit international literary and educational organization for the study, discussion, and enjoyment of fantasy and mythic literature, especially the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. Members of the Mythopoeic Society include scholars, writers, and readers of mythic and fantasy literature. The Society sponsors anannual Mythopoeic Conference (Mythcon), Discussion and Special InterestGroups, the Mythopoeic Awards, and three periodical publications."

Links to Online Poetry journals, Poetry resource sites, West Coast Independent Bookshops, Japanese forms, Poets of Great Renown, and Contemporary Poets on the Web.

Information for poets.

Home page of the Academy of American Poets. Founded in 1934 to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation os contemporary poetry, this is the largest organization in the country dedicated specifically to the art of poetry

This project has been established to document and analyse the theatrical and literary surge of interest in Greek texts and drama which is a phenomenon of the late twentieth century.

"An online index to over 60,000 historical and critical items about science fiction, fantasy and horror." Can be searched by author, title, imprint, or subject.

This diverse directory of science fiction sites includes art and artists, authors, awards, comics, animation, conventions, costuming, magazines and e-zines, fandom, movies, music, television, and more.

With more than 10.000 pages of Science Fiction and Fantasy related content, this site features stories, articles, book reviews, excerpts and synopses, author interviews and profiles, television and movie reviews, and discussion forums.

"Sisters in Crime is an international organization of writers, readers, booksellers, librarians, agents, editors, reviewers and teachers interested in promoting the work of women mystery writers."

Interviews with horror authors, and a number of relevant articles with bibliographies.

This colelction "is comprised of well over 25,000 pulp-fiction books and magazines. The earliest date from the 1940s. The Collection contains hundreds of paperbacks from this period, and thousands from the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these never appeared in hardcover. The remainder are paperback originals published in the 1970s and 1980s. Detective and mystery stories make up the largest part of the Collection, followed by science fiction paperbacks and magazines." From Special Collections, University Libraries, University at Buffalo.

An undergraduate site "designed to help you develop strategies for reading and understanding plays, as well as to find ideas and develop them in writing."

A website devoted to the 30-year history of this influential pulp magazine, which published the likes of H. P Lovecraft,Ray Bradbury, Robert Howard, Robert Bloch, Manly Wade Wellman, Donald Wandrei, and even TennesseeWilliams.

Describes the elements of a story, including plot, point of view, characters, setting, and theme, using as an example A Jury of Her Peers, by Susan Glaspell.

Companion to a course at the University of Evansville features links to interviews and other information concerning a dozen women authors in the field.