Note: Due to copyright, the great majority of online literature collections on the public part of the Web are of authors before the 20th Century.
(Arranged in order of general collections, then by specific authors from old to new)
General literature collections
The Academy of American Poets http://www.poets.org/index.php
The texts of over 600 poems, both old and new. A "listening booth" provides sound files of more than 100 poets (requires Real Audio 3.0).
Alex: A Catalog of Electronic Texts http://www.infomotions.com/alex/
Covers American and English authors.
All Info-About Poetry http://www.allinfoaboutpoetry.com/
Texts of poems by contemporary poets. Also has information on the study of poetry.
American Verse Project http://www.hti.umich.edu/a/amverse/
Electronic versions of volumes of American poetry, published before 1920, can be searched, read and downloaded. May be particularly useful to students of American poetry for research.
Bartleby http://bartleby.com/
The full text of many books of fiction, poetry, and reference works related to literature, reserarch, and writing.
British Poetry, 1780-1910 http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/britpo.html
Hypertext Archives of Scholarly Editions, from the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia.
Literary Encyclopedia http://www.litencyc.com/
Information about specific authors and specific literary works and more general literary topics (for example, allegory or melodrama).
Modern & Contemporary American Poetry http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/home.html
From the University of Pennsylvania.
netLibrary http://netlibrary.com
This site covers all topics, not just literary. Any visitor can access some free full-text books, mainly older titles that are out of copyright. If you are using this from an Austin Community College computer you will also be able to access the "library collection" that includes newer titles. (From off-campus ACC students can use this collection using their name and ACC ID number.)
The On-line Books Page http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/
Over 12,000 full-text books from Carnegie Mellon University. Most but not all are literature.
The Poetry Archive http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/home.do
Sound files of poets reading their works. You can look up poems by author, title, theme, or form.
Poetry Magazines http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk
Searchable digital archive of 19th and 20th century poetry magazines.
Representative Poetry Online http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/index.cfm
Thousands of poems from hundreds of poets, mainly pre-20th century, all in English. Most poets are British. There are also links to criticism and a timeline and glossary. From the University of Toronto.
The University of Virginia Electronic Text Center http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/collections/languages/
Several thousand full-text books and poems. Some are restricted to University of Virginia users. Also there is a good list of "Other Web Resources."
Yahoo list of electronic literaturehttp://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/Literature/Electronic_Literature/Collections/
Extensive list of links to collections of electronic texts.
Specific Authors, Time Periods, or Groups
A Celebration of Women Writers http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/
"Recognizes the contributions of women writers throughout history" with the goal of promoting "awareness of the breadth and variety of women's writing." Browse by author name, by century or by country.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare http://www-tech.mit.edu/Shakespeare/works.htmlDigital Dante Project http://dante.ilt.columbia.edu/new/
at Columbia University.
Geoffrey Chaucer http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/
In addition to the text of the stories, there are translations and lots of background information. From Harvard University.
Knowing Poe http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/default_flash.asp
The life and works of Edgar Allan Poe are explored in this attractive site.
Middle English Prose and Verse http://www.hti.umich.edu/c/cme/
A searchable, browsable collection of Middle English texts, assembled from works contributed by University of Michigan faculty and from texts provided by the Oxford Text Archive.
Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/
A guide to Shakespearean resources on the Internet by Terry A. Gray.
The Victorian Women Writers Project http://www.indiana.edu/~letrs/vwwp/
Full texts of many works by 19th Century British women.
Walt Whitman Archive http://www.whitmanarchive.org
Texts of poetry (including sound recordings), biographical info, and criticism of the American poet.