Thirty thousand works by 4,000 authors range from 1474-2000. Works are mostly by British authors published in Britain, but also included are exceptions made for foreign authors who have made their home in Britain (Henry James and V.S. Naipaul), and for authors of the colonial period who published principally with British houses. In addition to the chronology, the indexes in the second volume allow searches by author, translated author, and title. Content is dominated by works of the imagination (poetry, drama, novels, and short stories); but biographies, letters, criticism, philosophical and religious texts, and reference works are also covered. The first volume, the chronology, begins in 1474 with a work of fiction, Wm. Caxton's . The entry conveys that this was the first book printed by Caxton in English, probably in Bruges by Caxton's company, W. Caxton and C. Mansion, and brought out in subsequent editions in 1502, 1553, 1597. Also shown is that Caxton was born around 1422 and alive at the time of publication (the birth year allows a calculation of the author's age at the time of publication). Other entries provide the same kind of information. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)