k 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 B