This book locates and describes the surviving manuscripts of 11 British 18th century writers, providing information on the nature of the MS, date, variant title(s), state of completion, provenance and location, date and first form of publication, any scholarly use made of the MS, and existence of any published facsimiles. Information is drawn from material in libraries, record offices and private collections throughout the world. The listing of each author's manuscripts is preceded by an introduction.

This text is an introduction to the full range of standard reference tools in all branches of English studies. More than 10,000 titles are included. The Reference Guide covers all the areas traditionally defined as English studies and all the field of inquiry more recently associated with English studies. British and Irish, American and world literatures written in English are included. Other fields covered are folklore, film, literary theory, general and comparative literature, language and linguistics, rhetoric and composition, bibliography and textual criticism and women's studies.