I published the first version of my bibliography, then called British and American Utopian Literature 1516-1975: An Annotated Bibliography, in 1979. A second version entitled British and American Utopian Literature, 1516-1985: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography was published in 1988. I also published New Zealand Utopian Literature: An Annotated Bibliography in 1997 and “Australian Utopian Literature: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography 1667-1999” and “Utopian Literature in English Canada: An Annotated, Chronological Bibliography 1852-1999” in 1999.

As the bibliography grew it became both more and less useful, which I consider the only appropriate measure for a bibliography. It became more because I added material and improved the annotations, but I became less useful as it grew because having it in my computer, I was the only person who could search it efficiently. But until recently I was told repeatedly that there was no way that such a large and complex bibliography could be put on line. While it proved difficult and the database used had to be modified to load the bibliography, it has now been done, by the Pennsylvania State University Library, the home of the Arthur O. Lewis Utopia Collection. I hope that funding enables Mark Mattson, who did the technical work that made this launch possible will be attend this launch.

This version, which contains over 8,500 entries (over twice the number in the first version), is a work in progress and will remain so. It will soon be available on line free to use by anyone anywhere. It will include a link so that users can let me know of errors (there is no such thing as an error-free bibliography) and omissions (there is no such thing as a complete bibliography, although I can’t guarantee that I’ll agree that a suggestion fits my definitions).