Biographical information may be significant to an understanding of influences upon a writer's life. The DNB is THE standard source for British persons, and the DLB series is primarily oriented toward Americans. Both The DLB and CA have separate index volumes. Alibone is an interesting curiosity, useful for English writers of the Victorian era and before. A search in ANNIE is often productive (you might try an H [Library of Congress Subject Heading] search for the author in question, then look for the subheading 'Biography').

 TITLE        Dictionary of national biography; ed. by Leslie Stephen and
                Sidney Lee ..
 PUBLISHER    London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1908-09.
 Leyburn Library        DA28 .D47 v. 1                 


 SERIES       Dictionary of literary biography 
 PUBLISHER    Detroit : Gale Research Co., 1978.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN451 .D5 vol. 1               


 TITLE        American writers before 1800 : a biographical and critical
                dictionary / edited by James A. Levernier and Douglas R.
                Wilmes.
 PUBLISHER    Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1983.
 Leyburn-Reference      PS185 .A4 1983 v. 1   

 
 TITLE        Contemporary authors : a bio-bibliographical guide to current
                writers in fiction, general nonfiction, poetry, journalism,
                drama, motion pictures, television and other fields.
 PUBLISHER    Detroit : Gale Research Co.
 PN771 .C623 Leyburn-Reference                                            

 
 AUTHOR       Allibone, Samuel Austin, 1816-1889.
 TITLE        A critical dictionary of English literature, and British and
                American authors, living and deceased, from the earliest
                accounts to the middle of the nineteenth century. Containing
                thirty thousand biographies and literary notices, with forty
                indexes of subjects. By S. Austin Allibone ...
 PUBLISHER    Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott & co. [etc.] 1858-71.
 Leyburn-Reference      PR83 .A44