Biographical Resources

Provides information on the history of science through articles on the professional lives of scientists. All periods of science from classical antiquity to modern times are represented.

Provides biographical information on important figures in today's musical arena, covering artists working in all genres of modern music, including rock, jazz, pop, rap, rhythm and blues, folk, New Age, country, gospel and reggae.

Biographical up-to-date profiles of men and women of contemporary importance since 1940.

Who's Who 2017 is the 169th edition of the world's longest established and most comprehensive general reference book, brought right up to date for the year ahead. The first autobiographical reference book in the world and, after 169 years, still the most accurate and reliable resource for information supplied and checked by the entrants themselves.

Entries on almost five hundred women representing a wide range of fields of endeavor are featured in a collection of biographical essays that integrate each woman's personal life with her professional achievements, set in the context of historical developments.

This edition contains all 19,173 entries from the base set in abridged form. Some 1,063 new biographies, covering people who died between 1970-1980, have been added since the fourth edition. A new 2-vol. format, as well as indexes to birthplaces and occupations, enhances accessibility.

First published in 1984, Gerald Bordman's Oxford Companion to American Theatre is the standard one-volume source on our national theatre. Critics have hailed its "wealth of authoritative information" (Back Stage), its "fascinating picture of the volatile American stage" (The Guardian), and its"well-chosen, illuminating facts" (Newsday). Now thoroughly revised, this distinguished volume once again provides an up-to-date guide to the American stage from its beginnings to the present. Completely updated by theater professor Thomas Hischak, the volume includes playwrights, plays, actors, directors, producers, songwriters, famousplayhouses, dramatic movements, and much more. The book covers not only classic works (such as Death of a Salesman) but also many commercially successful plays (such as Getting Gertie's Garter), plus entries on foreign figures that have influenced our dramatic development (from Shakespeare toBeckett and Pinter). New entries include recent plays such as Angels in America and Six Degrees of Separation, performers such as Eric Bogosian and Bill Irwin, playwrights like David Henry Hwang and Wendy Wasserstein, and relevant developments and issues including AIDS in American theatre,theatrical producing by Disney, and the rise in solo performance. Accessible and authoritative, this valuable A-Z reference is ideal not only for students and scholars of theater, but everyone with a passion for the stage.

Women have been active in American business since the eighteenth century, and while they have made enormous contributions, they have also had to overcome tremendous obstacles. This encyclopedia chronicles the accomplishments of women in American business since the colonial era and discusses the historical events and issues that have concerned them. The encyclopedia additionally summarizes important legislation and organizations and covers such industries as accounting, advertising, banking, and manufacturing. Quotations from the women profiled capture their experiences in their own words. Included are more than 300 alphabetically arranged entries on such American businesswomen as Lucille Ball, Clara Brown, Hattie Carnegie, Liz Claiborne, Abby Joseph Cohen, Jenny Craig, Carleton S. Fiorina, Jamie Gorelick, Rosa Maria Hinojosa de Balli, Abigail Pierrepont Johnson, Estee Lauder, Christine Liang, Martha Stewart, and many more. Entries discuss the lives and careers of these women and cite works for further reading. The encyclopedia also includes roughly 100 interspersed entries on topics central to American businesswomen, including career planning, childcare, diversity, education, the finance industry, flexible work arrangements, golf, and real estate. Appendices list the most influential businesswomen in America, the top women-owned American companies, and women business leaders from particular ethnic and cultural groups, historical periods, and industries. A chronology details important events in the history of women in business, and an extensive bibliography concludes the encyclopedia.

The Underground Railroad was perhaps the best example in U.S. history of blacks and whites working together for the common good. People of the Underground Railroad is the largest in-depth collection of profiles of those individuals involved in the spiriting of black slaves to freedom in the northern states and Canada beginning around 1800 and lasting to the early Civil War years. One hundred entries introduce people who had a significant role in the rescuing, harboring, or conducting of the fugitives--from abolitionists, evangelical ministers, Quakers, philanthropists, lawyers, judges, physicians, journalists, educators, to novelists, feminists, and barbers--as well as notable runaways. The selections are geographically representational of the broad railroad network. There is renewed interest in the Underground Railroad, exemplified by the new National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati and energized scholarly inquiry. People of the Underground Railroad presents authoritative information gathered from the latest research and established sources, many of them from period publications. Designed for student research and general browsing, in-depth essay entries include further reading. Numerous sidebars complement the entries. A timeline, illustrations, and map help put the profiles into context.

During the 1800s, the United States progressed at a remarkable rate. Commerce gave rise to regional specialization and contributed to the growth of cities. By 1860 the nation had prospered to the extent that it no longer depended on Europe to purchase its goods. Innovations in technology helped increase production, especially in textiles, and transportation projects helped reduce costs of certain products. As the country progressed, so did its citizenry and their attention to certain interests: movements on issues like women's rights, capital punishment, workers' rights, education, and mental health swept across the country. As these groups advanced their causes, a kind of journalism began to capture readers' attention: the exposZ. Although examples similar to it had appeared occasionally in various publications years before, it became more prevalent at the turn of the century. In the spring of 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered a speech in which he compared certain crusading journalists to a character in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress: 'There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muckrake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed.' In Muckrakers: A Biographical Dictionary of Writers and Editors, Professor Edd Applegate profiles the men and women who either wrote muckraking journalism or edited publications that featured muckraking articles. Some of the most important figures of journalism are here, including Nellie Bly, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, George Kennan, Jack London, Frank Norris, Rachel Carson, George Seldes, and I.F. Stone. The book contains more than fifty entries, each discussing the subject's professional career and major works. In some cases, comments about the subject's work by others have been included, as well as suggestions for further reading. As a resource guide, Muckrakers will be of interest to professors, scholars, and students interested in learning more about the individuals who played such significant roles in muckraking journalism.

This is a one-of-a-kind reference work to the history of vaudeville, performance art, burlesque, revue, and comic opera. Most of these artists are not profiled in other reference books and the author has done deep research, including archival work and personal interviews, to uncover the rich history of this American artform. This will be a must-have for students of theater history and performance art, but it is also essential for anyone insterested in the cultural history of America.

Modern American Environmentalists profiles the lives and contributions of nearly 140 major figures during the twentieth-century environmental movement. Included are iconic environmentalists such as Rachel Carson, E. O. Wilson, Gifford Pinchot, and Al Gore, and important but less expected names, including John Steinbeck and Allen Ginsberg. The entries recount how each individual became active in environmental conservation, detail his or her significant contributions, trace the influence of each on future efforts, and discuss the person's legacy. The individuals selected for the book displayed either an unparalleled commitment to the conservation, preservation, restoration, and enhancement of the natural environment or made a major contribution to the growth of environmentalism during its first century. With a foreword by environmental historian Everett I. Mendolsohn, a time line of key environmental events, a bibliography of groundbreaking works, and an index organized by specialization, this biographical encyclopedia is a handy and complete guide to the major people involved in the modern American environmental movement.