Biographical Sources
If you do a comprehensive evaluation of your retrieved information following the guidelines from Cornell, you may need to check the background of the author. While Who's Who in America may answer the basic factual information about a more famous author cited in your bibliographies such as Bruno Bettleheim, you may need to consult Contemporary Authors for many of other names such as Jay Robert Lifton or Terrence Des Pres, author of The Survivor.If you didn't try the index first in this case, you might never find the citation as there are more than 200 volumes in this series. Contemporary Authors is not the only source but is one of the most comprehensive as indicated by its subtitle: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Writers in Fiction, General Nonfiction, Poetry, Journalism, Drama, Motion Pictures, Television, and Other Fields. You may want to keep this source in mind for background on a living writer.
If you haven't noticed, there is usually more than one way to find the information you need. For example, for a historical figure (one who is dead), try biographical sources such as the Dictionary of American Biography, which begins coverage in 1607. Current Biography includes comprehensive, lengthy sketches about living sports, television or film personalities as well as politicians and business people.
Biographical information can be found on the Internet, but it may not be as complete or comprehensive as that in print.
Let's search for information about Terrence Des Pres in the Literature Resource Center. This access tool contains information from the print version of Contemporary Authors.
