Primary Sources / Secondary Sources
"Primary sources
are by definition the surviving sources closest to the events and people whose
stories we seek to tell. They may be letters, diaries, and
books published by participants in events. Woodrow Wilson,
Thomas More, Martin Luther King, Jr., Virginia Woolf, Eleanor
Roosevelt, and Toni Morrison all wrote extensively or spoke so that
their words were recorded by others. These written materials
are primary sources for their lives. Or primary sources may be
the earliest reports of those who knew or claimed to know figures in
the past whom we study in the present.
--Richard Marius and Melvin E. Paige,
A
Short Guide to Writing about History,
5th ed. (New York: Longman’s, 2004), p. vii.
"
"Primary sources are those closest in time or connection to any
subject of investigation. They could be written, created, or used by
the subjects you are writing about. S
"
--Richard Marius and Melvin E. Paige, A
Short Guide to Writing about History,
9th ed. (New York:
Pearson, 2015), pp.
13, 60, and 66.
Definition
of primary sources as published by the Society of American
Archivists: