Bibliography for fans of the bibliomystery genre
Librarians in Fiction is a detailed, annotated bibliography of the images of librarians and libraries in fiction and drama. Its author, Grant Burns, is himself a reference librarian. He introduces his bibliography with an informative essay on the stereotypes, both positive and negative, of librarians in literature. He also explains why he has left out some of the better known novels featuring libraries and librarians, i.e. those books which only incidentally portray librarians didn't make the cut. Were I to write a similar bibliography, I would certainly include some of the great novels which have been omitted here - among them, Henry James's The Bostonians, Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game, A. S. Byatt's Possession and Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes. Apart from those few glaring omissions, this bibliography is remarkably comprehensive. It is also quite clear from the annotations that Grant Burns has read or skimmed every one of the books, short stories, plays, essays and articles listed.
The book is divided into five parts: novels (he describes no less than 226 librarian novels), short stories (104 are listed), drama (12 plays), secondary sources (over 3o articles and reference sources are featured) and a short section titled Bibilographer's Choice: Works Not to Miss.
I recommend this book for collection development librarians, library science students, and anyone interested in the library fiction and bibliomystery genres.
