Review by Choice Review
This work resembles the Research Guide to Biography and Criticism of poets and writers of fiction (CH, Dec '85) from the same editor and press and treats 144 dramatists plus two nonplaywrights, Aristotle and Stanislavsky. The format follows the earlier publication: very brief chronology; bibliography; overview and evaluation of biographical sources; autobiographical sources; overview and evaluation of critical materials; other materials. The criterion for inclusion was the editor's and consultants' estimate that these are the figures most likely to be studied for whom material is accessible. Arguing about exclusions could go on forever, but the list (extending from Aeschylus to Zeami) is heavy with East Europeans and light on contemporaries, presumably for lack of solid critical work. These men and women can be found in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama (2nd ed., 1984) with better biographical information, but there is no other work that does the job of evaluating the sources that this one does or equals it for the student's first approach to research. Publications with imprints through 1985 are included. There are two indexes, one merely a precis of the dramatists and works cited, the other a combined index to the figures treated in this volume and its predecessor. The book is well made, but meticulous users will note some problems that a proofreader should have caught. For libraries serving undergraduate students of the drama.-R.W. Evans, SUNY College at Purchase
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
