Literary Resources
Web Del Sol is another more avant-garde resource for creative writing links.
Single Authors
Cather Archive
Searchable full-text scholarly editions of O Pioneers! and My Ántonia, James Woodress' Willa Cather: A Literary Life, and complete access to past editions of Cather Studies. See also Teaching Cather and The Mowers' Tree.
Dickinson Archive
Some useful letters, but most of the articles available here are outdated. The Dickinson Archive also exists in synergy with the Whitman Archive at The Classroom Electric, a searchable "constellation of websites" devoted to teaching Whitman and Dickinson.
Faulkner Archive
Ole Miss has gathered a rich collection of materials here that will be more useful for teaching than for research. A recording of Faulkner's Nobel Prize speech is available, along with maps of both Yoknapatawpha County and Oxford, Mississippi, that invite discussions of fact and fiction. See also Teaching Faulkner.
Hawthorne Home Page
Eldred's site is mostly useful for its digital texts, which include all of Hawthorne's works, but the biography and criticism links are also worth browsing. See also the Nathaniel Hawthorne Society. Another new site is Hawthorne in Salem.
Hurston Archive
The manuscript collections link is useful for research, and the secondary bibliography is a helpful guide. The summary of contemporary reviews and biographical timeline are both terrific teaching tools.
Whitman Archive
While the Dickinson Archive seems somewhat bewildered as to its purpose, the Whitman Archive is a first-rate research tool with access to nearly as many archival materials as the Cather Archive.
Historical Periods and Literary Movements
A Literary History of the American West
A collaborative project published by Texas Christian UP and sponsored by the Western Literature Association. First-rate resources for research and teaching.
American Authors, Timelines, and Literary Movements
Donna Campbell's website is one of the most reputable electronic references for early American literature.
American Literature on the Web
Ishikawa's site is likely the most comprehensive survey of digital resources for American literature, which means that it also has many dead links.
American Memory from the Library of Congress
Historical documents and photos: excellent teaching resource.
American Transcendentalism Web
Ann Woodlief's study texts are thoughtful and accessible to undergraduates. Resources for individual authors are strong, if not comprehensive, since Transcendentalism extended beyond this clutch of names.
Crossroads
UVA's collection of hypertexts for American Studies is an indispensable resource for teaching and can be a useful starting point for research.
Literary Resources on the Net
Jack Lynch's links are well organized and well maintained: an essential literary site.
Making of America (Cornell and Michigan)
From the preface: "The collection is particularly strong in the subject areas of education, psychology, American history, sociology, religion, and science and technology. This site provides access to 267 monograph volumes and over 100,000 journal articles with 19th century imprints. The project represents a major collaborative endeavor in preservation and electronic access to historical texts."
Outline of American Literature
A survey of American literary periods that may be useful for both teaching and research.
PAL: Perspectives in American Literature
Paul Reuben's site is one of the oldest web resources for American literature. Its purpose is to provide bibliographies for individual authors, though some links may include hypertexts and biographical sketches. Reuben's prefatory remarks on the project illuminate his purpose: "Found useful by students and teachers around the world, [PAL] is a research and reference tool, not a term paper factory. This site is particularly useful for those who have no or limited access to university libraries and databases."
Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive
The trial transcripts are most useful for research. The profiles of individual figures, such as Tituba and John Proctor, are also models of exemplary student writing.
Timeline of American Thought
The range of materials here is astounding. Shook's Table of Contents and chronological sections make navigation simple.
Voice of the Shuttle
I find myself using this site less and less because of the proliferation of dead links among the resources for individual literary authors, but it has long been a standard reference for American literature on the web. Other categories, such as Cultural Studies, may be better maintained than the resources for American Literature.
Voices from the Gaps
From the website's preface: "VG/Voices from the Gaps is a web-based trans-national academic community including students, teachers, artists, and scholars....VG contains biographical and critical analysis, pedagogical information, and histories of translation."