The questions raised by Craig and Terry are important,
and some serious consideration of them has begun. I
think the most important user groups haven't been heard
from yet: younger scholars, from graduate students
through the recently tenured. They are in the best
positions to tell us about the present and long-term
value of an old-fashioned undertaking, which requires
selfless and largely tedious labor on the part of the
bibliographer. I envy younger scholars their early
habituation to search engines and strategies that I
haven't mastered, having been both diligent and very
lucky, when it most mattered, with books and articles
that jumped out at me from shelves and pages not, on the
whole, devoted centrally to Spenser. I have gained
more, in the past, from the reviews of books and
abstracts of articles and conference papers, than from
the later wrap-ups in the Newsletter and other annual
bibliographies.
I have, however, gotten a great deal over the years from
review essays in various journals: reviews of the year's
work in issues of SEL, for example, and topically
organized reviews in Renaissance Quarterly. The
officers of the Spenser Society and Terry with her far-
flung and various contributing editors might consider
arranging for an essay, annually or on some other
periodic schedule, that surveys a crop of articles
and/or books, including some that may deal tangentially
or not at all with Spenser, offering some evaluation,
some lamentation when the state of things deserves it,
some commentary on trends and emergent possibilities
that Spenserians might pursue.
Cheers, Jon Quitslund (Emeritus Professor, Geo.
Washington Univ.)
> [Terry is having trouble posting to the list and asked me to pass
> this along. While we get her e-mail situation straightened out,
> please take a moment to peruse the following and let us know what you
> think on or off list. C.B.]
>
> Dear Spenserians,
>
> In my capacity as editor of the Spenser Review, I'm obliged
> to give some thought to the possibility of discontinuing the annual
> bibliography update. As you'll see in the latest issue (now being
> printed), we've lost our longtime bibliographer and, times being what
> they are in our profession, not many people are both willing and able
> to take over the job. (For instance, I've decided against having
> pre-tenured faculty doing it.) For the present, Craig Berry has
> agreed to help create a bibliography update this spring and summer
> (thanks, Craig). But he and I are wondering about the uses to which
> it's put. So here are some questions. If you have time and something
> to say, please hit "Reply" and let me know:
>
> * Do you use the annual bibliographical update in the Spenser
> Newsletter/Spenser Review?
> * How much do you use it?
> * Can you specify how you use it, e.g. as primary research tool, as a
> way of catching up once a year, etc.?
> * What, if anything, do you find in the bibliography that you might
> not find elsewhere, for instance in electronic search engines that
> didn't exist when the bibliography was first planned?
> * Do you have any stories about your using the bibliography to good
> or ill effect?
>
> Thanks in advance for the feedback, which Craig and I will ponder,
> Terry
>
> Theresa Krier Dept. of English
> Editor, The Spenser Review University of Notre Dame
> 616/782-8906 Notre Dame, IN 46556
> [log in to unmask] 219/631-7226
>
> --
> ________________________________________
> Craig A. Berry
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
>
> "... getting out of a sonnet is much more
> difficult than getting in."
> Brad Leithauser
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