How to Cite a Book in Chicago
Updated July 2026
Citing a book in Chicago comes down to one template and a handful of rules. Below: the exact 17th edition format, a real example produced by our citation engine, and the in-text form — or paste your source into the generator and copy the finished citation.
The Chicago format
Author Last, First. Title of Book. Edition ed. Publisher, Year.
Chicago (17th edition) formats a book reference as shown above. A real example, generated by our citation engine:
Martin, Robert C. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship. Prentice Hall, 2008.
Finding the pieces
Or skip the hunt: Paste the ISBN (copyright page or back cover) into the generator's ISBN tab, and every field is filled from the source's own record — then select Chicago on the result.
- Author(s) — as printed on the title page
- Year — the copyright (©) year of your edition, on the copyright page
- Title and subtitle — from the title page; subtitles follow a colon
- Edition and publisher — also on the copyright page; first editions go unmarked
Chicago's formatting rules at work
- First author inverted, additional authors in natural order
- Titles use Title Case; articles in quotes, containers in italics
- Reads like prose: the year sits in parentheses before the page range for articles
- Pairs with footnotes — the same data in sentence form with commas
Book-specific pitfalls
- Use the copyright year of your edition, not the latest printing year
- Edited books put the editors in the author slot with an (Ed.)/(Eds.) or 'edited by' marker
- For a chapter in an edited collection, cite the chapter author, then the book and editors
In-text citations in Chicago
Chicago's notes-bibliography system cites with footnotes: a superscript number in the text pointing to a note with the source details and page. The bibliography entry shown here contains everything the footnote needs — un-invert the author's name and swap most periods for commas to form the note.
No author? The note and bibliography entry begin with the title; alphabetize by it (ignoring A/An/The).
Building the Bibliography
Every in-text citation pairs with a full entry on the Bibliography page, alphabetized by author. Add each citation to your bibliography as you generate it, and the Bibliography Builder assembles and exports the finished page to Word with the title, ordering, and indentation Chicago requires.
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Go Premium — $5/monthFrequently asked questions
- What's the basic Chicago format for a book?
- Author Last, First. Title of Book. Edition ed. Publisher, Year. — see the worked example above, generated by the same engine that powers the free citation tool.
- Does the ISBN appear in the citation?
- No — ISBNs never appear in any style's citation. But pasting the ISBN into the generator is the fastest way to build it, since the book's registry record fills every field.
- How do I cite a book in Chicago in-text?
- With a footnote: a superscript number pointing to a note with the source details and the specific page.
- Can I get this citation in other styles too?
- Yes — every result in the generator renders APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and IEEE simultaneously. Generate once, switch styles with one click.