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Historical Figures & Fictional Characters

Music/Drama Library > Drama Research Guide > Research a Play > Figures/Characters

A knowledge of historical figures, fictional characters, meanings of names, and literary allusions may be useful for theater research, design, criticism, or interpretation. (This is a broad area. Consult a librarian if you do not find what you need. For theater criticism, see Literary Biography and Criticism.)

Biographical Sources

• Biographies (PDF) -- This guide lists a broad range of biographical resources.

• Biography and Genealogy Master Index -- Electronic resource. Citations to biographical sketches in reference books; covers contemporary and historical figures. Very thorough.
• Gale Literary Databases -- This full-text database has biographies, overviews of playwrights' work, critical essays, works lists, and bibliographies.

• Merriam-Webster's Biographical Dictionary. Babbidge Ref. CT 103 M47 1995

• New Century Cyclopedia of Names. Babbidge Ref. PE 1625 C43 1954 v. 1-3
• For additional biographical dictionaries, try the following Subject Heading searches in HOMER:

Biography--Dictionaries
Names, Personal--Dictionaries (or Names--Dictionaries)

Fictional Characters

• Brewer, Ebenezer Cobham. The Reader's Handbook of Famous Names in Fiction, Allusions, References, Proverbs, Plots, Stories, and Poems. 1899. Babbidge Ref. PN 43 B7 1965 v.1-2

• Magill, Frank. Cyclopedia of Literary Characters. Babbidge Ref. PN 44 M3 1963

• Magill, Frank. Cyclopedia of Literary Characters II. Babbidge Ref. PN 44 M3 1990 v.1-4

• For additional "character" or literary dictionaries, try these Subject Heading searches in HOMER:

Characters and characteristics in literature
Fiction--Dictionaries
Literature--Dictionaries
Literature--Stories, plots, etc.

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