MLA Style: Citing Books

Sample reference entry in MLA formatted with a hanging indent.

1. Book with one author
2. Book with two authors (or editors)
3. Book with three or more authors
4. An edition of a book
5. Book with editor or translator
6. Book with group/corporate author
7. Book with no given author, including The Bible
8. Book available online
9. Ebook
10. Comic book

Book With One Author

In-text Citation

(Lem 202)

Works Cited

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example:

Lem, Winnie. Cultivating Dissent: Work, Identity and Praxis in Rural Languedoc. State U of New York P, 1999.

Notice:

• When identifying the publisher, abbreviations can be used, for example, U for “University” and P for “Press”.

Book with Two Authors (or Editors)

In-Text citation

Include all the authors' names. Precede the last name with "and."

(Arp and Johnson 67)

Works Cited 

First Author’s Last Name, First Author’s First Name, and Second Author’s First Name, Second Author’s Last Name. Title of Book. Number of edition, Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example:

Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. 10th ed., Heinle, 2002. 

Book with Three or More Authors

In-Text Citation

(Messenger et al. 416)

Works Cited

First Author's Name, Last Name First, et al. Title of Book. Number of ed., Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example:

Messenger, William E., et al. The Canadian Writer's Handbook. 4th ed., Oxford UP, 2005. 

Notice:

• The phrase “et al.” is Latin. There is a period after “al.” because the phrase is actually short for “et alii”, which means “and others”. So the second word in the phrase is actually an abbreviation, and therefore is followed by a period.

An Edition of a Book

In-Text citation

Include both authors' names. Precede the second name with "and."

(Arp and Johnson 67)

Works Cited

First Author’s Last Name, First Author’s First Name, and Second Author’s First Name, Second Author’s Last Name. Title of Book. Number of edition, Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example:

Arp, Thomas R., and Greg Johnson. Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry. 10th ed., Heinle, 2002. 

Book with Editor or Translator

In-Text Citation

(Gilman 19)

(Cervantes 302)

Works Cited - Editor

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Edited by Editor’s Name, Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example:

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. Herland and Selected Stories. Edited by Barbara H. Solomon, Signet Classics, 1992.

Works Cited - Translator

Author's Name, Last Name First. Title of Book. Translated by Translator Name, edited by Editor’s Name (note: not all translated books will also have an editor), Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example:

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote. Translated by Tobias Smollett, edited by Robin Chapman, The Folio Society, 1995. 

Notice:

• The names of the editor or translator are put in the usual order, first name followed by surname.
• The second example shows a book with both a translator and an editor. The translator comes before the editor; a comma separates these elements.

Reference to Editor or Translator

Sometimes you may wish to refer to the edited material of a book, or to the comments of the translator. In such cases, follow the examples given below.

In-Text Citation

(Solomon, xv)

(Smollet xxxix) (Chapman xv)

Works Cited

Solomon, Barbara. H., editor. Herland and Selected Stories. By Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Signet Classics, 1992.

Smollet, T., translator. The History and Adventures of the Renowned Don Quixote. By Miguel do Cervantes Saavedra, edited by Robin Chapman, The Folio Society, 1995.

Book with Group, Corporate or Entity Author

Often, the group author and the publisher are the same. In that case, list the title first; then list the group author as the publisher. Sometimes, the group author and the publisher are different. In that case, put the group author at the beginning of the entry.

In-Text Citation

When the group author and the publisher are the same, the entry begins with the title, which is what appears in the in-text citation:

(MLA Handbook 20)

When the group author and the publisher are different, the entry begins with the group author, which is what appears in the in-text citation:

(American Allergy Association 30)

Works Cited

Group author and publisher the same

Title of Book. Number of ed., Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example:

MLA Handbook. 8th ed., The Modern Language Association of America, 2016. 

Group author and publisher different

Group Author's Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example:

National Audubon Society. Field Guide to African Wildlife. Knopf, 1995.

Notice:

• A group author may include an organization, commission, committee, government agency, or any entity that does not give individual authors on its title page.

Book with No Given Author, including the Bible

For the in-text citation, put the title where you would usually put the author’s last name, followed by a space and then the page number. You may shorten the title if it is long.

For the Bible, include the version, followed by a comma and then, instead of the page number, put book, chapter, verse.

In-Text Citation

(The Holy Bible. King James Version, Gen. 1.31)

Works Cited

Title. Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example:

The Holy Bible. King James Version, Penguin, 1974. 

For The Bible, the title is followed by the version, then a comma, and then the publisher.

Notice:

• The full title, if brief, or an abbreviated version goes in the parenthetical in-text citation, followed by page number or other identification.
  • There is usually no comma between the title and the page number or other identification. As the example is from the Bible, the version, followed by a comma, the book (title abbreviated), chapter and verse are given.
• When abbreviating a title for a parenthetical citation, start with the word under which the title is alphabetized in the works cited list, in this example: "Holy."
• The full title name goes in the works cited list; however, alphabetize the source excluding "a" "an" or "the." The example here would go under "H" not "T."
• Editions of the Bible are based on named versions of the text. The name of the version, in this example, the King James Version, follows the title. 

Book Available Online

In-Text Citation

Often a book found online has no stable numbered pages. If the work is divided into stable numbered sections, such as chapters, then use these sections with a label to indicate what it is: for example, us “ch.” to indicate “chapter.”

(Montgomery, ch.1)

Works Cited

Author’s Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Publisher, Year of Publication. Title of Website, URL, or permalink.

Example:

Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables. L.C. Page & Co., 1908. Project Gutenberg, www.gutenberg.org/files/45/45-h/45-h.htm#link2HCH0001.

If your source offers a stable URL or permalink, use that. If a doi is available, use that over a URL or a stable URL. For the URL, https:// is not necessary.

Ebook

An ebook does not have a URL and requires an ebook reader such as Kindle or Kobe or software to read on a computer or other electronic device. According to the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook, an ebook is a “version” in the template of core elements, so include an identifier such as Kindle, Kobe, iPAd, EPUB after the title or original publicaiton date.

More and more ebooks are using stable page numbers (the page numbers remain the same despite change in device, screen size or font size), over location numbers on reflowable pages.

In-Text Citation

If the ebook has stable page numbers, the citation will look the same as a citation for a print book:

(Austen 45).

If the ebook has reflowable pages, do not use these location numbers. Instead, cite the section or chapter if possible, or cite the whole work:

 (Ludovici, 4. The Danger)

(Austen, ch. 9)

(Austen)

Works Cited

Author's Last Name, First Name. Title of Book. Year of Original Publication If Book Republished (optional). Version, Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example:

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. 1813. Kindle ed., W.W. Norton, 2000.

Notice:

• As the example is a republished book, the date of the original publication can be put before the publication information. This information is considered optional, according to MLA 9th edition.
• For version, Kindle file is also correct.

Comic Book

In-Text Citation

(Classics Comic Store and Charles Dickens 6)

Works Cited

Comic books are often part of a series. Both the title of the comic and the title of the series are italicized. If the comic and the series have the same name, it just needs to be stated once followed by a period.

Author's Last Name, Author’s First Name. Title of Comic Book. Title of Series, Series number, Publisher, Year of Publication. 

Example:

Classics Comic Store and Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist. Classics Illustrated, no. 23, Eisner & Iger, 1945.