Q. Which is the best database for English and American Literature?

There are a few databases that you can use for information on authors and their works. Start with Literary Reference Center. LRC features full text author biographies, plot summaries & work overviews, essays, reference books & monographs, periodicals, book reviews, poems from hundreds of sources, short stories, classic texts, author interviews, and more.

For in-depth criticism and scholarly journal articles, try any of the following databases:
MLA International Biography - is an essential tool for research in all aspects of modern languages and literature containing journal articles, books, Web sites, and other publications; contains foreign language publications.

Literature Online (LION) - Includes audio and video content through its Poets on Screen recordings of poets reading their own and others' works and the Shakespeare Audio Plays collection, in addition to criticism, peer-reviewed articles, and more.

Literature Resource Center - Easy to use; contains criticism, biographies (130,000), primary sources, and multimedia.

Project Muse - contains books and journal articles in the humanities and social sciences from university presses and societies.

JSTOR - broad coverage of literary studies and language with journal titles spanning the literary culture of many countries