Magill's Literary Annual began publication in 1954 as an update to Masterplots. Retrospective reviews of one hundred noteworthy books published the previous year in critical essays of 1,500 words kept librarians and library patrons abreast of the best books published annually. By 1977, the Annual had taken on a life independent of Masterplots. Coverage was expanded to review two hundred books in critical essays of some 2,000 words, allowing reviewers a wide range in critical commentary, a format that continues to the present. The 1973 Annual featured a dust jacket with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, whose life was examined in a biography reviewed that year, Cecil Wooham-Smith's Queen Victoria. In 2005, we returned to an illustrated cover (no more paper dust jackets) for the first time since 1976, with a concert photo of Bob Dylan, whose autobiography, Chronicles, is reviewed in the 2005 Annual, as is Christopher Rick's critical study Dylan's Vision of Sin. Each June libraries add this reader's guide to their collections, giving patrons an opportunity to read about those works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama that the editors have selected as outstanding books of the year and determine which one might be the right book to read next. Magill's Literary Annual has become the starting point for reading groups, students of contemporary literature, librarians providing readers' advisory, and students of current affairs.

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