Guide

How to verify an author's bibliography

A reliable bibliography is built from institutional sources, such as prize bodies and national libraries, and checked against at least one independent reference. Where sources disagree, authorrecord.org records both and explains the choice.

• Prize bodies publish bibliographies of laureates. The Swedish Academy issued a bio-bibliography for Abdulrazak Gurnah in 2021 listing first publishers and years.¹
• National libraries publish selective bibliographies. The Bibliothèque nationale de France issued one for Annie Ernaux in November 2022 listing publisher and year for each book.²
• The Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication programme prepares a bibliographic record before a book is published, which the publisher prints on the back of the title page.³
• Sources can conflict on basic facts. The Nobel Prize facts page gives Mo Yan's birth date as 25 March 1956, while Britannica gives 5 March 1955.^4,5

Sources

1. Swedish Academy, Nobel Committee for Literature, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Bio-bibliography, Nobel Prize in Literature 2021 (October 2021)
2. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Annie Ernaux, prix Nobel de littérature 2022, bibliographie sélective (November 2022)
3. Library of Congress, Cataloging in Publication Program (accessed 2026-10-28)
4. Nobel Prize Outreach, Mo Yan, Facts, Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 (accessed 2026-10-28)
5. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Mo Yan, Encyclopaedia Britannica (accessed 2026-10-28)