MLA Style Guide

Definition:

A book is usually a single volume, a.k.a. "monograph," that is not part of a larger container. However, they themselves may be containers for multiple works. 

Basic Citation Format:

Author's Last Name, First Name or Initials as Published. Title of work. Publisher, Year of Publication. 

One Author

Mazzotta, Giuseppe. Dante, Poet of the Desert: History and Allegory in the Divine Comedy. Princeton UP, 1979.

Leiter, Samuel L., editor. Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre. Greenwood, 2006.

Two Authors

Santelli, Robert, and Emily Davidson. Hard Travelin: The Life and Legacy of Woody Guthrie. Wesleyan UP, 1999.

Three or More Authors or Editors

Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1985.

Two or More Books by the Same Author

McCausland, Elizabeth. Charles W. Hawthorne, an American Figure Painter. American Artists Group, 1947.

---, George Inness, an American Landscape Painter, 1825-1894. American Artists Group, 1946.

Anonymous Author

New York Public Library Performing Arts Desk Reference. Macmillan,1994.

Chapter in an Anthology

Harris, Kenton. "No Dance is a Fake." Ethics and the Arts: An Anthology, edited by David E. W. Fenner, Garland, 1995, pp.115-139.

Book in a Series

Gutiérrez, Ramón A., and Richard J. Orsi, editors. Contested Eden: California Before the Gold Rush. U of California P, 1998. California History Sesquicentennial Series 1.