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Editions of American Writers, 1963: A Preliminary Survey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

William M. Gibson  and
Edwin H. Cady
William M. Gibson
Affiliation:
New York UniversityNew York 3
Edwin H. Cady
Affiliation:
Indiana UniversityBloomington
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Extract

That this has become an age of criticism is a commonplace. But that the very fact of our critical concern has also produced in the United States a generation of sensitive and, for historical and technical reasons, uniquely competent editors of literary texts is far less generally known. Critical concentration on the verbal subtlety of novelists as well as poets has strengthened the desire to read “clear text.” Attention paid to textual revisions has sharpened critical insight just as regard for the whole effects of whole works has enriched response. The need to know all a writer wrote in order to interpret truly any part of it is once more recognized as essential by the serious critic. New editions of letters and collections of criticism appear. Critics compile bibliographies. Biography and literary history flourish.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 78 , Issue 4-Part2 , September 1963 , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1963

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References

1 For example, the collating schedule of The Scarlet Letter was as follows:

1st edition (1850, type) vs 2nd edition (1850, standing type and re-set type). Machine and sight.

1st edition vs 3d edition (1850, re-set, plated). Sight.

1st edition vs English edition (1851, new, unauthorized). Sight.

1st edition vs Little Classics (1875, new, plated). Sight.

1st edition vs Red-Line (1878, new, plated). Sight.

1st edition vs Riverside (1883, new, plated). Sight.

1st edition vs Autograph (1900, new, plated). Sight.

3d edition vs New Fireside (same plates but 1886). Machine.

Little Classics vs Concord(same plates but 1899). Machine.

Riverside vs Fireside (same plates but 1909). Machine.

Autograph vs Old Manse (same plates but 1904). Machine.

Red-Line vs Red-Line (same plates but 1880). Machine.

Eight copies of the first edition were cross-collated on the machine, and five copies of the second edition were similarly cross-collated.