Overview

These bibliographies are the culmination of the work of many people. Permission to draw from the primary bibliography by Armin Paul Frank and Mechthild Frank and the secondary bibliography by William H. Rueckert, both published in Critical Responses to Kenneth Burke, 1924-1966 (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1969) was graciously provided by the editor of the volume, Professor Rueckert himself. Permission to draw from Richard H. Thames' "The Writings of Kenneth Burke, 1968-1986" and "A Selected Bibliography of Critical Responses to Kenneth Burke, 1968-1986 was granted by the University of Wisconsin Press, publisher of the volume in which it appeared, The Legacy of Kenneth Burke, edited by Herbert W. Simons and Trevor Melia (Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1989). Many new entries have been added and others updated with the research assistance of Christopher Milazzo and Jerald L. Ross. The secondary bibliography includes works in print up to the present. Electronic publications and a citations index will be included soon.

The database of primary works by Burke contains entries for 16 books (3 of which are translations), 31 works of fiction, 66 poems, 165 essays, 26 music reviews, 156 book reviews, 28 commentaries/interviews, 17 letters, 24 Burke translations, and 66 anthologies containing Burke's writing. Many individual entries contain cross-references to other entries in the bibliography where other versions of the work may be found. Users may search for individual entries or by category. The secondary bibliography presently contains 724 entries. A full copy of the print versions are available (see below) in PDF format and readable/printable using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

The entries in the bibliographies have been written to conform, in most cases, with the documentation style of the Modern Language Association. To make the researcher's task easier, additional information has been added when it might prove useful. [Bracketed] information points the reader to other works in which the particular work has been reprinted, either in Burke's own books or in edited anthologies. Terms in { } are designations enabling people who search the bibliography electronically to search for items in a particular category (e.g., {Fiction}). See "Search Notes" (below) for further information about how to conduct an efficient search.

Because the bibliography is designed primarily for electronic searching, and thus, for easy updating, each time the bibliographies are updated, they will be assigned a new version number (e.g., 1999A, 1999B, etc.). Users are encouraged to use the "Feedback" form to report possible mistakes or to suggest additional entries.

These bibliographies came online on May 20, 1999, the first day of the 1999 Triennial Conference of the Kenneth Burke Society, held in Iowa City, Iowa.

--David Blakesley, May 20, 1999

Search Tips:

Each search will return only those entries containing the term or sequence of terms that you enter. For example, entering "1923" (without the quotation marks) will return all those entries that contain that year. Entering "Rhetoric" will return all entries containing "Rhetoric," including variations like "Rhetorical" and "Rhetorician," but not "Rhetor" or "rhetoric" (without the capital letter). If you decide to enter two terms, you can choose, for example, to run a search for entries containing "Rhetoric" AND "Motive" or a search for entries containing "Rhetoric" OR "Motive."

• Since Burke is the author of all the works in the primary bibliography, his name has not been listed with each entry.
• Remember that the searches are case-sensitive. Since most words in the bibliograpies are capitalized, it is probably a good idea to begin your terms with capital letters.
• Each entry in the primary bibliography is coded with a key word to help people conduct searches for all entries in a particular category, as follows:

• Books
• Fiction
• Poetry
• Essays
• Music Criticism
• Reviews
• Letters
• Discussion
• Anthologized
• Commentary
• Interview

 

• Entries in the secondary bibliography have not yet been coded in this way, but will be in the future (so that you may run a search, for example, for all reviews of an author's book by entering "Review" AND "Author"; without the quotation marks, of course).

Further Notes and Feedback:

A viewable and printable version of the primary bibliography is available in PDF format using the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

View the Primary Bibliography (PDF Format; 154K)

View the Secondary Bibliography (PDF Format; 163K)

One important and ongoing purpose of this project is to keep the bibliographies current and accurate. If you notice a mistake in an entry or would like to suggest including entries, please enter your message (citing the full bibliographic information pertinent to the source, if available) in the comment box below. If you don't mind, please also provide your email address in case any follow-up questions are necessary. Your comments will be sent to David Blakesley (dblake@siu.edu).

• Copyright, 1999--David Blakesley
• Site sponsored by Southern Illinois University, Carbondale's Department of English
• and Morris Library's Instructional Support Services
• Last Updated: 20 May 1999--David Blakesley