MLA book citation
The MLA 9th edition format for a book, a finished example, and a generator below that fills it in for you.
Author Last, First. Title of Book. Xth ed., Publisher, Year.
Kahneman, Daniel. Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011.
Parenthetical: (Kahneman 45)
Watch out: MLA 9 leaves out the city of publication; just the publisher and year.
Your citation types itself here as you fill in the form — or auto-fill it above.
Formatting runs in your browser. Auto-fill uses Crossref (DOI), Open Library and Google Books (ISBN) and the page’s own metadata (URL). Always check against the source.
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Tips for citing a book
- APA 7 dropped the publisher location; MLA 9 and Chicago 18 also leave it out. Harvard (Cite Them Right) still includes the place of publication.
- Only list the edition when it is not the first: (3rd ed.) in APA, 3rd ed. in MLA and Chicago, 3rd edn. in Harvard.
- Textbooks are cited like any book. If you used an online reader, APA adds the URL only if the book has no print equivalent.
- Citing one chapter in an edited book? Cite the chapter author and chapter title, followed by “In” and the editors.
See this source in all four styles side by side: how to cite a book. For the rest of the paper, read the MLA format guide.
MLA book citation questions
What is the MLA format for a book?
Author Last, First. Title of Book. Xth ed., Publisher, Year.
What do students most often get wrong?
MLA 9 leaves out the city of publication; just the publisher and year.
Where do I find the publication year?
On the copyright page (the back of the title page). Use the year of the edition you read, not the first printing of the original.
Is the book title italicised?
Yes, in all four styles. APA uses sentence case (only the first word and proper nouns capitalised); MLA, Chicago and Harvard (in our output) use title case.
What if the ISBN lookup finds the wrong edition?
Open Library sometimes groups editions together. Check the year and edition against your copy and correct them in the form before you copy the citation.