I was looking at the latest volume of DLB received by the Library's Reference Department today and was reminded what a treasure the documentary volumes of DLB can be. The DLB is known for its high quality of scholarship, but I think the Documentary Volumes are where it shines even brighter. Case in point: "Thomas Carlyle: A Documentary Volume" (DLB 338).  Beginning with a very in-depth author chronology, the volume goes on to reproduce many examples of primary literature, including letters to and from Carlyle, reviews of Carlyle's works in publications of the time, such as The Edinburgh Review, and an extraordinary amount of illustrations (handwritten manuscripts, portraits, even a scrap of the burned manuscript for "The French Revolution" ).  While certain portions of DLB volumes are available through the online Literature Resource Database, please keep in mind that none of the visual supplements are included there. The only way to really appreciate the DLB is to come to the library and get your hands on the real thing.

Some of the other documentary volumes in the DLB series focus on authors such as Tennessee Williams, James Dickey, F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Raymond Chandler, and groups of authors like Southern Women Writers (Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter, Eudora Welty). The entire series can be found in the Reference Area in Tier 2 of Parks Library at REF PS3 D5x.