Library & Cultural Services: Creative Writing: Primary Sources

Primary Sources

The library subscribes to a number of resources which you can use to access primary texts (e.g. novels, plays and other literary works) and other original source material. You can use the links on this page to access these.

Poetry, Prose and Drama collections

ProQuest One Literature (includes Literature Online)
A fully searchable library of English and American literature. It contains over 350,000 works of poetry, prose and drama in full text written between 600 A.D. and the present day. It also includes secondary material, such as biographies of major writers and the full text of over 330 literature journals.
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Drama online
Drama Online is a large collection of plays, critical analysis and filmed performances. It also offers expert guidance in the form of scholarly notes, annotated texts, critical analysis and contextual information.
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Alexander Street Press. Drama texts collection (e-book platform)
Drama Texts Collection from ProQuest is a foundational collection of over 13,000 plays spanning nearly a millennium of dramatic writing, covering the core works of the Western canon alongside important yet forgotten contemporaries.
Historical texts
Digitised versions of more than 65,000 first editions from the 19th century, covering philosophy, history, poetry and literature. The collection extends to over 25 million pages of previously rare and inaccessible content, and includes the original typeface and illustrations for each book. JISC Historic Books enables you to cross-search over 300,000 historical books published in English or in England before 1800 and 65,000 19th century books from the following historically significant collections: Early English Books Online (EEBO); Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO); 19th Century books from the British Library collection (never available before online)
Screen studies (e-book platform)
Screen Studies is a dynamic digital platform designed to support moving-image studies. It offers a broad range of content including over 100 screenplays.
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Other Digitised Primary Sources

Archives of primary source - documents, correspondence, diaries, etc. - can help with background research or even provide inspiration for your creative writing. A few of the major digitised primary source archives to which the library provides access are listed below. For a more comprehensive list, as well as links to open access archives, see the History subject guide.

Archives of Sexuality and Gender
A significant collection of primary sources for the historical study of sex, sexuality, and gender. With material dating back to the sixteenth century, researchers and scholars can examine how sexual norms have changed over time, health and hygiene, the development of sex education, the rise of sexology, changing gender roles, social movements and activism, erotica, and many other interesting topical areas. The library has access to the following collections: LGBTQ History and Culture Since 1940, Parts I & II; Sex and Sexuality, Sixteenth to Twentieth Century; International Perspectives on LGBTQ Activism and Culture

First World War Portal
From personal collections and rare printed material, to military files, ephemera and artwork, The First World War highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians and governments on both sides of the conflict and in multiple theatres of war. Covering an array of international perspectives, the resource showcases intimate personal narratives, wartime propaganda and recruitment material, the truly global reach of the conflict, and the role of women in war through various documentary and visual forms.
Gender : identity and social change
Essential primary sources documenting the changing representations and lived experiences of gender roles and relations from the nineteenth century to the present. This expansive collection offers sources for the study of women's suffrage, the feminist movement, the mens movement, employment, education, the body, the family, and government and politics.
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LGBT magazine archive
Archival runs of 26 of the most influential, longest-running serial publications covering LGBT interests. Includes the pre-eminent US and UK titles The Advocate and Gay Times, respectively. Chronicles more than six decades of the history and culture of the LGBT community. In addition to LGBT/gender/sexuality studies, this material also serves related disciplines such as sociology, political science, psychology, health, and the arts. Some publications may contain explicit content.
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Mass observation online
This resource offers revolutionary access to one of the most important archives for the study of social history in the modern era (1937-1956). Explore original manuscript and typescript papers created and collected by the Mass Observation organisation, as well as printed publications, photographs and interactive features.
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Mass Observation Project
Launched in 1981 by the University of Sussex as a rebirth of the original 1937 Mass Observation, its founders' aim was to document the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers to write about their lives and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. This collection consists of the directives (questionnaires) sent out by Mass Observation in the 1980s and 1990s and the thousands of responses to them from the hundreds of Mass Observers. The directives and responses from the 2000s will follow in 2022.
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Romanticism: life, literature & landscape
Romanticism: Life, Literature and Landscape offers unique access to rare and priceless literary sources that are indispensible for scholars and students studying William Wordsworth and the Romantic period. The collection offers an insight into the working methods of the poet and the wider social, political and natural environment that shaped much of his work and that of his contemporaries. In addition, this collection makes available the writings of Dorothy Wordsworth through her much celebrated Grasmere Journals, Alfoxden diary and travel journals. Verse manuscripts and correspondence from leading literary lights of the Romantic period such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey and Robert Southey are also made available in this powerful digital resource.
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Women's magazine archive
An archival research resource comprising the backfiles of leading women's interest consumer magazines. Issues are scanned in high-resolution color and feature detailed article-level indexing. Coverage ranges from the late-19th century through to 2005 and these key primary sources permit the examination of the events, trends, and attitudes of this period. Among the research fields served by this material are gender studies, social history, economics/marketing, media, fashion, politics, and popular culture.
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Special Collections and Archives

Many libraries have special collections and archives which include a wide range of primary source material, from personal letters and diaries to recorded interviews and ephemera. Have a look at our Special Collections pages to see what archives are available here at the University of Essex, or use Archives Hub to discover collections held at institutions across the UK.