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Books

The following is the format for citing books. 

In standard  MLA Format, the information should appear as follows.

** Citation in text appears in Grey following the Works Cited Notation**

Author's Last Name, First Name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Date.

Following are examples of different situations you may encounter.  Use your best judgment when citing a source.

One Author Book in a Series
Two or Three Authors  Introduction / Preface
No Author Publisher’s Imprint
 An Editor  Republished Book
Two or More Works by the Same Author   A Translation
Multi Volume Work Works from an Anthology or Collection
Classical Works The Bible

 

§         Book by one author:

Fairbanks, Carol.  Prairie Women: Images in American and Canadian Fiction.  New Haven: Yale UP, 1986.

(Fairbanks 24)

§         Book by two or three authors:

Jones, William J., and Franklin White.  The Ancient Tribute.  Chicago: Dunlap, 1979.

(Jones and White 72)

Note: For more than three authors, you may name only the first and add “et al.” (meaning and others), or you may give all names in the order in which they appear on the title page. (i.e. Smith, John, et al.  A Dictionary . . .)

§         Book with no author given:

Franklin's Guide to American Literature.  Springfield: Merriam, 1985.

Mention in your text: "According to Voss..." See section 6.4.1 of the MLA Handbook for more information.

§         Book with an editor:

Beier, Ulli, ed.  An Anthology of Critical Writing. Chicago: Northwestern UP, 1970.

(Beier 42)

§         Two or more works by the same author:

Gilbert, Sandra M.  Acts of Attention: The Poems of D. H. Lawrence.  Ithaca:  Cornell UP, 1972.

- - -.  Emily's Bread:  Poems.  New York: Norton, 1987.

(Gilbert 202)

§         Multi-volume work:

o       If only one volume is used

Churchill, Winston S.  The Age of Revolution.  New York: Dodd, 1957.  Vol. 3 of A History of the English Speaking Peoples.  4 vols.  1956-58.

(Churchill 471)

o       If more than one volume is used:

Churchill, Winston S.  A History of the English-Speaking Peoples.  4 vols.  New York: Dodd, 1956-58.

(Churchill 121)

§         Book in a series: (for example, Twayne's United Authors Series, Modern Critical Interpretations, Bloom's Major Dramatists); place series' name immediately before publisher information.

Falk, Signi Leana.  Tennessee Williams.  Twayne's United States Authors Series. New York: Twayne, 1961.

(Falk 531)

§         Introduction, preface, etc.:

o       Written by book's author:

Bradbury, Ray.  Introduction.  The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit and Other Plays.  New York: Bantam, 1972. vi-xiv.

(Bradbury 12)

o       Written by someone other than book's author:

Auden. W.H.  Introduction.  The Star Thrower.  By Loren Eisley.  New York: Harcourt, 1978.  15-24.

Mention in your text: "According to Auden..." See section 6.4.1 of the MLA Handbook for more information.

§         Publisher's imprint: (printed on the title page, an imprint is a special name a publisher gives to a group of books; separate the imprint and the publisher with a hyphen)

Dillard, Annie.  Holy the Firm.  New York: Perennial Library-Harper, 1988.

(Dillard 1)

§         Republished book: (for example, paperback version of a hardback)

Doctorow, E.L..  Welcome to Hard Times.  1960. New York: Vintage - Random, 1988.

(Doctorow 12)

§         A Translation:

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia.  One Hundred Years of Solitude.  Trans. Gregory Rabassa.  New York: Harper Perennial-Harper Collins, 1991.

(Marquez 58)

§         Single work from an anthology or collection:

White, E. B.  "Once More to the Lake."  The Writer's Presence: A Pool of Readings.  3rd ed.  Eds. Donald McQuade and Robert Atwan.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000.  292-297.

(White 293)

§         Multiple works from an anthology or collection: (create an entry for the anthology/collection; then create a cross reference for each individual entry); list alphabetically in Works Cited.

Gould, Stephen Jay.  "Sex, Drugs, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs."  McQuade and Atwan 396-404.

(Gould 397)

McQuade, Donald and Robert Atwan, eds.  The Writer's Presence: A Pool of Readings.  3rd ed.  Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000.

(McQuade and Atwan 72)

White, E. B.  "Once More to the Lake."  McQuade and Atwan 292-297.

(White 293)

§         Classical works:

Homer.  The Iliad.  Trans. Richmond Lattimore.  Chicago: U of Chicago Press, 1951.

(Homer 43)

§         The Bible:

      The Bible.  [denotes King James Version]

      The Bible.  Revised Standard Version.