About At the Circulating Library

History

At the Circulating Library (ATCL) was created by Troy J. Bassett, assistant professor of English and Linguistics at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, to provide biographical and bibliographical data about the countless authors, publishers, and novels of the Victorian period (1837-1901). It has been greatly inspired by the two bibliographical websites British Fiction 1800-1829 and The English Novel, 1830-36. ATCL aims to continue where these two predecessors end. In addition, the website draws heavily on John Sutherland's brilliant and indispensable book The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction as a model for its entries.

The beta version of the website appeared in summer 2007 with a test database of approximately 1700 titles. In 2008, the database began including serialization information. As of September 2009, the database accounts for all of the three-volume novels published during the Victorian period. As of October 2010, the database accounts for all of the two- and four-volume novels published during the Victorian period. Currently, more author and serialization information is being added.

Acknowledgments

The project has been funded by:

  • National Endowment of the Humanities Summer Stipend (2010)
  • The Bibliographical Society Fredson Bowers Award (2010)
  • IPFW Summer Faculty Research Grant (2008)

A special thank you to Patrick Leary who generously hosts ATCL at his website Victoria Research Web. I would also like to thank the following individuals for their help and support: John Addy, Martha Burgin, Jen R. Crowell, Sara R. Danger, Tony Drewry, Simon Eliot, Dorice Elliott, Michael Demy-Geroe, Peter Garside, Katherine D. Harris, Naomi Hunt, Andrew King, Graham Law, Patrick Leary, Kirsten Macleod, Robert L. Patten, Jennifer Phegley, Catherine Pope, Jonathan Rose, Patrick Spedding, John Sutherland, Colin Wallace, and Daphne Wing.

Contributors

If you would like to contribute corrections, data entry, author biographies, publisher biographies, title summaries, or serialization information, please contact Troy J. Bassett (bassettt@ipfw.edu).

How to Cite

Bassett, Troy J. At the Circulating Library: A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837-1901. [date of update]. Victorian Research Web. [date of access] (http://www.victorianresearch.org/atcl).

About the Illustration

The illustration is a detail from "Light Reading with a Vengeance" which appeared in the 27 January 1877 issue of Punch, found on-line at The Victorian Web.

Technical Notes

This website was written on a Macintosh using a MySQL database and PHP.

© 2011 Troy J. Bassett | Contact: bassettt@ipfw.edu | Last Updated: 10 July 2011