More than two hundred years ago Samuel Johnson observed, "Just as a hero's life proceeds from battle to battle, so does an author's life proceed from book to book." Bibliography is the foundation of literary biography, providing a map of an author's career. Accordingly, the University of South Carolina Center for Literary Biography has a strong bibliographical component, one part of which is a series of author checklists (LitCheck) available online. In its initial stage this project will cover something over seven hundred English-language authors whose first book appeared in 1950 or later.

Originally it was intended to publish the checklist as a book; but, as bibliographical information, especially for writers still alive and publishing, is ever increasing, it is more convenient to establish an online data base which can be updated, revised, and corrected as new information becomes available. Online availability also has the advantage of allowing scholars and collectors to download and print out the author checklists of interest.

The checklists derive from the Dictionary of Literary Biography (DLB) and First Printings of American Authors (FPAA), supplemented by the online catalogue records of the British Library, Indiana University (including the Lilly Library), the University of South Carolina, and the University of Texas--Austin (including the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center). Further information has been garnered from published author bibliographies as well as from booksellers' catalogues. Inevitably, some publications will have escaped the net, and some inconsistencies, especially where the amount of information varies from one online library catalogue to another, will be found. Addenda and corrigenda should be sent to Prof. Patrick Scott (spcoll@sc.edu) or Prof. Matthew J. Bruccoli, Thomas Cooper Library, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.

While it is not possible for a checklist to include the detailed information found in a full-dressed bibliography, LitCheck provides a useful overview of its authors' work and should facilitate or encourage the collecting of contemporary writers.

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