A Brief Handbook of English Authors

A Brief Handbook of English Authors is a pocket reference by Oscar Fay Adams (1855-1919), the American editor and anthologist who later compiled the much larger Dictionary of American Authors. First issued by Houghton Mifflin in the 1880s, it gives compact biographical and critical notes on hundreds of English writers, arranged for quick consultation. Little books like this were the working tools of readers and students before encyclopaedias reached every shelf, and it preserves how the Victorian canon looked from Boston. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.