A most important recent bibliography is found in H. C. Bolton's "Catalogue of Scientific and Technical Periodicals, 1665-1895," Washington, 1897.
There are also many sale catalogues of American books, with prices, some of which may be noted, e. g. J. R. Smith, Bibliotheca Americana, London, 1865; F. Müller, Catalogue of books and pamphlets relating to America, Amsterdam, 1877, and later years. Ternaux-Compans, "Bibliothèque Américaine;" books printed before 1700, Paris, 1837: P. Trömel, "Bibliothèque Américaine," Leipzig, 1861: D. B. Warden, "Bibliothèque Américaine," Paris, 1840: R. Clarke & Co., "Bibliotheca Americana," Cincinnati, 1874, 1878, 1887, 1891, and 1893.
There are, besides, important catalogues of some private libraries, devoted wholly or chiefly to books relating to America. Among these, the most extensive and costly is John R. Bartlett's catalogue of the library of J. Carter Brown, of Providence, in four sumptuous volumes, with fac-similes of early title-pages, of which bibliography only fifty copies were printed. It is entitled, "Bibliotheca Americana: a catalogue of books relating to North and South America," 1482-1800, 4 vols. large 8vo., Providence, 1870-82. The Carter Brown Library is now the richest collection of Americana in any private library in the world.
Among catalogues of libraries sold by auction, and composed largely of American books, are those of John A. Rice, New York, 1870: W. Menzies, New York, 1875: George Brinley, in five volumes, sold 1878 to 1886: Henry C. Murphy, New York, 1884: S. L. M. Barlow, New York, 1889: and Brayton Ives, New York, 1891.
The wide field of bibliography of English literature has given birth to many books. Only the more comprehensive can here be noted.
R. Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica, in four quarto volumes, Edinburgh, 1824, although now old, is still an indispensable work of reference, giving multitudes of titles of English books and pamphlets not found in any other bibliography. It of course abounds in errors, most of which have been copied in Allibone's Dictionary of English literature. This extensive work is a monument of labor, to which the industrious compiler devoted many years, dying of too intense study, at Glasgow, at the early age of forty-five, in the year 1819. The issue of the work in 1824, being thus posthumous, its errors and omissions are largely accounted for by the author's inability to correct the press. The plan of the work is unique. Vols. 1 and 2 contain the alphabet of authors and titles, with dates and publishers' prices when known. Vols. 3 and 4 contain an alphabet of subjects, in which the titles re-appear, with a key alphabet in italic letters attached to each title, by which reference is made to the author-catalogue, at a fixed place, where all the works of the author are recorded.
The work is printed in small type, with two crowded columns on a page, thus containing an enormous amount of matter. The key is quickly learned, and by its aid, and the alphabet of subjects, the librarian can find out the authors of many anonymous books. Watt is the only general bibliography of English literature which gives most of the obscure writers and their works.
Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual of English Literature, in its second edition, enlarged by H. G. Bohn, is a most indispensable bibliography. This work is arranged alphabetically by authors' names, and aims to record all important books published in Great Britain, from the earliest times to about A. D. 1834. It is in eleven parts, or 6 vols. 16 mo. of very portable size, Lond., 1857-65. While it gives collations of the more important works, with publishers and dates, it fails to record many editions of the same work. Its quoted prices represent the original publisher's price, with very frequent additions of the sale prices obtained at book auctions. The chief defect of Lowndes' Manual is its total lack of any index of subjects.
S. Austin Allibone's "Critical Dictionary of English literature," Philadelphia, 1858-71, 3 volumes, with supplement by John F. Kirk, in 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1891, is a copious reference book, which, in spite of its many errors and crudities, should be in all libraries. It contains in abbreviated form most of the titles in Watt and Lowndes, with the addition of American authors, and of British books published since the period covered by Lowndes. The three volumes of Allibone accompany the titles of works by noted authors with many critical remarks, copied mostly from reviews and literary journals. This feature of the book, which makes it rather a work of literary history and criticism than a bibliography pure and simple, has been dropped in Mr. Kirk's supplement, which thus becomes properly a bibliography. The publications of England and America, from about 1850 to 1890, are more fully chronicled in this work of Kirk than in any other bibliography.
The important "English Catalogue of Books," from A. D. 1835 to 1897, in 5 vols., with its valuable Index of Subjects, in 4 vols., from 1857 up to 1889, is so constantly useful as to be almost indispensable in a public library. It records, in provokingly brief one-line titles, with publisher's name, year of issue, and price, all books published in Great Britain whose titles could be secured. It thus subserves the same purpose for English publications, which the American Catalogue fulfills for those of the United States. Both are in effect greatly condensed bibliographies, enabling the librarian to locate most of the published literature in the English language for many years back. The English catalogue, from 1897 to date, is supplemented by its annual issues, entitled "the English Catalogue of Books for 1898," etc.