Books & eBooks

The Library’s collection also includes both academic eBooks and other fiction and non-fiction eBooks available through the Libby platform. All academic eBooks will appear in your search results in the Library catalogue. Those available through Libby are also in our catalogue but can also be searched separately through the Libby platform, which you also need in order to access these titles.

Art

The Library’s extensive collection of art books, shelved in the Art Room and on the mezzanine floor of T.S. Eliot House, naturally includes material related to the performing arts.

Books covering works in more than one medium (or, for instance, performance works) are shelved at A. Art, e.g. RoseLee Goldberg’s Performance now at A. Art, 4to., Claire Bishop’s Artificial hells: participatory art and the politics of spectatorship at A. Art, and Ming Tiampo’s Gutai: decentering modernism, also at A. Art.

Books on individual artists will be found under the subsection for the medium concerned, then under the artist’s name, e.g. Mona Hatoum at A. Sculpture, Hatoum, 4to.

Other relevant subsections include A. Cinema and A. Aesthetics, which include (respectively) works like Women in the Western and Adorno and performance. 

Bibliography

Bibliographies related to the performing arts are shelved on the 5th floor of the Central Stack. Relevant shelfmarks include Bibliog. Ballads &c., Bibliog. Drama (which includes titles on ballet), and Bibliog. Music.

Biography

Biographies and autobiographies of figures related to the performing arts can be found on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Central Stack, for instance Martha Graham’s Blood memory at Biog. Graham or Peter Guralnik’s Dream boogie: the triumph of Sam Cooke at Biog. Cooke.

Works containing collections of biographies of more than two persons can be found at the shelfmark Biographical Colls., e.g. Diana Souhami’s No modernism without lesbians and Richard Hutton’s Rhythm & colour: Hélène Vanel, Loïs Hutton & Margaret Morris.

The Library’s extensive collection of biographical dictionaries (shelved at R.R. Biographical Dicts.) includes a number of works on the performing arts, such as The new biographical dictionary of film.

Literature

The Library’s literature collection is spread across multiple levels of two buildings: the St. James’ building and the Central Stack. Shelfmarks of note here include (but are not limited to):

L. Drama, Hist. of (Gen.), which includes works like Debra Caplan’s Yiddish empire: the Vilna troupe, Jewish theater, and the art of itinerancy and Maria Shevtsova’s Rediscovering Stanislavsky.

Histories of the dramatic arts in particular languages – e.g. L. French Drama, Hist. of, containing the Dictionnaire universel du théâtre en France et du théâtre français à l'étranger.

Subsections for individuals, for instance L. English Lit., Shakespeare or L. French Lit., Molière. 

Reference Works

The Library’s reference works are held for consultation in the Reading Room on the first floor. Shelfmarks relating to the performing arts include:

R.R. Dicts., Art

R.R. Dicts., Cinema

R.R. Dicts., Dance

R.R. Dicts., Music

R.R. Biographical Dicts.

R.R. Lit. Dicts., Drama 

Science & Miscellaneous

S. Circus

S. Conjuring

S. Dancing

S. Ethnology &c.

S. Exhibitions

S. Music

S. Music-Halls &c.

S. Opera

It is always worth searching the online catalogue as well as browsing the shelves, as relevant items may be classified in unexpected locations – for instance, Christopher Andrew and Julius Green’s Stars and spies: intelligence operations and the entertainment business at S. Spies &c., James Andrew Miller’s Powerhouse: the untold story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency at S. Industries, or Entertaining children: the participation of youth in the entertainment industry at S. Children. 