American Drama reflects American dramatic writing in all its richness and diversity: plays in verse, farces, melodramas, minstrel shows, realist plays, frontier plays, temperance dialogues and a range of other genres are represented. The collection creates context for frequently studied plays by major dramatists with their lesser-known contemporaries and rare and rediscovered plays.

American Drama covers two full centuries of rare and classic dramatic works that together form the internationally recognized voice that is American theatre: It includes the first American play, the first African-American play and extensive coverage of American women playwrights - 153 plays so far.

The newest release allows users to pinpoint results with two new search fields, Nationality and Ethnicity. The former allows users to restrict searches to works by European dramatists (such as Dion Boucicault) and plays adapted by American dramatists from foreign originals. MARC records are also available now.

The fourth release, scheduled for early 2004, will complete the database with additions up to 1915, with a total of 2,000 plays and a new interface with additional functionality. It will include African-American content for the post-Civil War era and the emergence of other ethnic dramatic writing, including women writers not always known for their dramatic contributions – Louisa May Alcott, Emma Lazarus.

Users may access the hard-to-find works with the collection's powerful search capabilities. ProQuest's pioneering indexing offers 10 search fields and 18 search limiters across all 2,000 plays in the complete database. Concise information on the literary and theatrical context of the plays in American Drama is provided by newly commissioned author biographies. Plays are also cross-searchable according to a range of criteria, including date and place of first performance and the nationality and ethnicity of the author.

American Drama 1714-1915 is available to all institutions that subscribe to Literature Online or as a stand-alone purchase. Free trials are available. Libraries may receive more information by contacting their account representative at 1-800-521-0600, ext. 3183 or 3452 (outside the U.S., call +44-1-223-215-512) or pqsales@il.proquest.com . Editors may call 1-800-521-0600, ext. 6489 or email pr@il.proquest.com.

ProQuest Information and Learning is a world leader in collecting, organizing, and publishing information worldwide for researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. Known widely for its strength in business and economics, general reference, humanities, social sciences, and STM content, the company develops premium databases comprising periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 8,500 publishers worldwide.  Users access the information through the ProQuest® Web-based online information system, Chadwyck-Healey^TM electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary^TM and SIRS® educational resources, and XanEdu^TM online faculty and student resources.  For more information about ProQuest Information and Learning, visit www.il.proquest.com.