I wasn't going to reply to this, especially as several others have
suggested that the list at this point needs more Calidor (in his better
moments) and less Talus (he with the
flail), but as an editor myself who has been learning to deal with
presses and printers and authors I do want to put in a word for Ken Borris
and George Klawitter. Once a volume is in the hands of a press there are
moments when authors and editors can intervene, of course, but also a sort
of waiting period during which changes are difficult. In any case,
academic publishing is notoriously slow and it is quite usual to get
something to a press (like the Borris/Klawitter collection) and be in
production when a relevant essay or book appears that comes out too late
for anything except the sort of footnote we have all read ("Professor
Blumph's work on the Girondin press appeared too late
. . ." etc.). Stephen Whitworth's essay came out after the volume was
pretty much set and I, for one, had stopped thinking about Barnfield
so I could think about other projects until it is galleys time. If I do
see galleys then I can add a reference, but to do
more is very expensive for the press (hence those stern warnings we
get). It's too bad that things work this way, but work that way they
do. Even the MLA database can take some months to get an item noted. The
editors of the volume, I gather, did not know that the
essay was actually
out. So there's no blame here, I think, just the same force of Time that
makes desire so complex to think about. The volume itself should interest
Spenser scholars. I wish I knew what Spenser himself thought of
Barnfield's excited praise of him. Was he pleased? Amused? A trace
fussed? Anne Prescott.
On Fri, 20 Oct 2000, shirley sharon-zisser wrote:
> The essay was in print a year ago (July 1999). And before July 1999, the
> essay was known to you, and known by you to have been making its way into
> print.
>
> Shirley Sharon-Zisser
>
> At 07:26 20/10/00 -0500, you wrote:
> >I am sorry to see that Barnfield is at the bottom of some controversy on
> >the Spenser list serve. I would like to explain the progress of the
> >Barnfield volume of essays that Kenneth Borris (McGill Univ) and I have
> >edited for Susquehanna University Press. There are fifteen essays in the
> >book, and we hope that the book will appear this coming spring. In a long
> >introduction, Professor Borris covers the history of Barnfield criticism,
> >but the introduction does not deal, could not deal, with Barnfield essays
> >that were not already in print when the introduction was written a year ago.
> >
> >On another matter, as the first poet (the poem "Cynthia") to write using the
> >Spenserian stanza after Spenser himself, Barnfield is obviously a disciple.
> >Happily we have in the volume an essay by Anne Lake Prescott addressing
> >Spenser and Barnfield.
> >
> >
> >George Klawitter
> >St. Edward's University
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|