Literature

Nobelprize.org, the official web site of the Nobel Foundation, is a vast, informative, and well-designed site on the Nobel Prize, Nobel Laureates, and related topics. The site offers a searchable database with information on all Nobel Laureates to date, including biographical information, presentation speeches, Nobel Lectures, and press releases. Data may also be browsed within each Prize area (Physics, Chemistry, Physiology/Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics).

This web site is an annotated bibliography of etiquette and "conduct of life" books for girls intended to mold young women according to the prevailing values of the time. The titles and notations are organized into themes and presented in rough chronological order. Some of the organizing themes are early literature, Christian upbringing, etiquette books, nursing, outdoor adventure, girl detectives, tomboys and working girls, heroines, and a special section on books from Lollipop Power Press.

This site features biographies of more than 60 important African Americans, such as Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey, Condoleezza Rice, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Visitors to this web site also can read synopses of selected literary works by African American authors and view a time line of events in African American history. The site also features annotated links to Black History resources, as well as activities for students at the elementary, middle school, and secondary levels.

This site, maintained by Gale of Cengage Learning, provides free resources for students and teachers of poetry. These resources include biographies of more than 30 poets; a sampling of some well-known poems from the 19th and 20th centuries, with critical analysis; a time line of events in poetic history; and an instructor's guide. There are also annotated links to a handful of poetry resources on the Web and to sources for buying poetry reference works.

The Western Writers of America (WWA) was founded in 1953 to "promote the literature of the American West." Visitors to this web site can view membership information, conference information, a directory of Western authors (with contact information), a list of the best Western novels and authors of the 20th Century, and winners of the organization's Spur Awards. Selected articles of the latest issue of Roundup Magazine are online, along with information on subscribing.

The G. Robert Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University is the largest academic voice library in the nation, and houses various notable speeches, performances, lectures, interviews, broadcasts, and other recordings from the last 100 years. The Library's web site provides a sampling of recordings titled "U.S. Presidents of the 20th Century," a collection spanning from Benjamin Harrison to George W. Bush, available as RealAudio streams or downloadable MP3 files.

The Internet Public Library (IPL) began in 1995 as a graduate seminar in the School of Information and Library Studies at the University of Michigan. The Native American Authors portion of the IPL currently contains information on several hundred North American authors (or oral story tellers) and on more than 1800 works. Visitors may browse the virtual library by author, work title, or tribe.

The Poetry Society's (PS) web site offers a poem of the month and podcasts of readings, slams, or poetry-related interviews. In addition, the Society posts schedules for readings at its Poetry Cafe, Poetry Day, and other PS events. A poetry in the news feature is posted and a map of poetry landmarks in Great Britain is available. Nearly hidden in the links at the bottom of the opening page are pointers to resources for poets, librarians, teachers, and students.

The goal of this site is to translate all of Leon Trotsky's writings in as many languages as possible. The "Written Archive" section is a collection of writings (sorted by year) deemed to be his most significant contributions. There is also a photo gallery (sorted by year), a non-English archive, a number of biographies of Trotsky, and a link to the Encyclopedia of Trotskyism Online.

This web site, part of the American Memory collections, contains the scanned images of about 400 pamphlets from the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress. These pamphlets, which were published between 1824-1909, present an overview of important topics in African-American history, including slavery, African colonization, Emancipation, and Reconstruction. Featured authors include Frederick Douglass, Mary Church Terrell, and Booker T. Washington. Visitors can browse the imaged pamphlets by title, author, or subject, or search them via keywords.