Sources for Author's Biographical and Bibliographical Data

GrannyGrump · 10-26-2017, 04:13 AM

Sometimes Wikipedia fails us when we are determining public domain works.

I recently found this useful blog, that has biographical information about a number of lesser-known writers. I found the birth & death dates of translator Margaret Armour on this blog, and I thank google for sending me there.
http://desturmobed.blogspot.jp/

I hope you might find it useful, along with
http://www.booksandwriters.co.uk/

Here is a link that pdurrant shared some time ago that is *really* extensive ---
http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/

Here is a good resource for *magazine articles*:
http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/a/a4.htm

The PhilSP site is ENORMOUS and has lots of cross-referenced magazine databases. --- Once you have the magazine issue information, you can use
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ to seek the magazines, or go directly to HathiTrust https://www.hathitrust.org/ and hunt them down there.

Also, just as a note of interest, HathiTrust often displays the author birth & death dates on the "catalog entry" for the book title. archive.org does also.

Do you have similar resources to share?

AlexBell · 10-26-2017, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

Do you have similar resources to share?

Thanks so much for the information. I don't have any similar resources, but I suggest that similar information for translators would be also very helpful. I think that's even harder to find.

doubleshuffle · 10-27-2017, 01:51 AM

Great post, thanks a lot, Granny!

Just one caveat about birth and death dates on the Internet Archive: for lesser known folks, they are often quite unreliable. Most recent example for me was a book illustrator who, according to IA, died in 1898. He really died in 1925.

AlexBell · 10-27-2017, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Great post, thanks a lot, Granny!

Just one caveat about birth and death dates on the Internet Archive: for lesser known folks, they are often quite unreliable. Most recent example for me was a book illustrator who, according to IA, died in 1898. He really died in 1925.

May I ask where you found the 1925 information? Was it from one of the sites GrannyGrump has given?

doubleshuffle · 10-27-2017, 02:30 AM

No, it wasn't from one of those sites. I did a web search for "william hyde", had far too many hits for different people of the same name, narrowed it down to "william hyde artist" still many hits, but the style of his illustrations made it possible to identify him. The best info I finally got from a website dedicated to the artist. Not an ideal source situation, but good enough, I decided.

AlexBell · 10-28-2017, 11:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrannyGrump

Do you have similar resources to share?

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Categ...abetical_order

give years of birth and death for many authors, and for Constance Garnett and Isabel F. Hapgood (but not Rochelle S. Townsend) as translators. No doubt they have other translators and illustrators on the list.

I don't know where they get the information.

AlexBell · 10-28-2017, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

No, it wasn't from one of those sites. I did a web search for "william hyde", had far too many hits for different people of the same name, narrowed it down to "william hyde artist" still many hits, but the style of his illustrations made it possible to identify him. The best info I finally got from a website dedicated to the artist. Not an ideal source situation, but good enough, I decided.

Thanks

10-26-2017, 04:13 AM	#1
GrannyGrump Obsessively Dedicated... Posts: 3,200 Karma: 34977896 Join Date: May 2011 Location: JAPAN (US expatriate) Device: Sony PRS-T2, ADE on PC	Sources for Author's Biographical and Bibliographical Data Sometimes Wikipedia fails us when we are determining public domain works. I recently found this useful blog, that has biographical information about a number of lesser-known writers. I found the birth & death dates of translator Margaret Armour on this blog, and I thank google for sending me there. http://desturmobed.blogspot.jp/ I hope you might find it useful, along with http://www.booksandwriters.co.uk/ Here is a link that pdurrant shared some time ago that is really extensive --- http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/ngcoba/ Here is a good resource for magazine articles: http://www.philsp.com/homeville/fmi/a/a4.htm The PhilSP site is ENORMOUS and has lots of cross-referenced magazine databases. --- Once you have the magazine issue information, you can use http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/ to seek the magazines, or go directly to HathiTrust https://www.hathitrust.org/ and hunt them down there. Also, just as a note of interest, HathiTrust often displays the author birth & death dates on the "catalog entry" for the book title. archive.org does also. Do you have similar resources to share? Last edited by GrannyGrump; 10-26-2017 at 04:22 AM.

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10-27-2017, 01:51 AM	#3
doubleshuffle Unicycle Daredevil Posts: 13,923 Karma: 185041098 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Planet of the Pudding Brains Device: Aura HD (R.I.P. After six years the USB socket died.) tolino shine 3	Great post, thanks a lot, Granny! Just one caveat about birth and death dates on the Internet Archive: for lesser known folks, they are often quite unreliable. Most recent example for me was a book illustrator who, according to IA, died in 1898. He really died in 1925.

10-27-2017, 02:30 AM	#5
doubleshuffle Unicycle Daredevil Posts: 13,923 Karma: 185041098 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Planet of the Pudding Brains Device: Aura HD (R.I.P. After six years the USB socket died.) tolino shine 3	No, it wasn't from one of those sites. I did a web search for "william hyde", had far too many hits for different people of the same name, narrowed it down to "william hyde artist" still many hits, but the style of his illustrations made it possible to identify him. The best info I finally got from a website dedicated to the artist. Not an ideal source situation, but good enough, I decided.

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