This string is a treasure trove. My deepest thanks to all our wonderful colleagues, and best wishes to you all, Harry
P.S. Especially Andrew—the greatest of us all.
> On Apr 6, 2018, at 8:21 PM, Susanne Woods <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Just a reminder that the Women Writers Project, now at Northeastern
> under the direction of Julia Flanders, is able to do custom textbooks
> of early women writers, and very inexpensively. I have copied her in
> case anyone is interested in pursuing something like this model for
> the male poets.
>
> Susanne
>
> On 4/6/18, Tom Bishop <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> The OSEO is an excellent resource, but it was beyond our library to afford.
>> We made earnest representations, but they simply sent us the cost and asked
>> us what journals we would recommend unsubscribing to in our field in order
>> to take up OSEO instead! We live in the wonderful world of constrained
>> resources.
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>> Tom Bishop
>> Professor of English
>> University of Auckland.
>>
>>
>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> on
>> behalf of andrew zurcher <[log in to unmask]>
>> Reply-To: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Saturday, 7 April 2018 at 11:18 AM
>> To: "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: Books out of print
>>
>>
>> Dear all,
>>
>>
>> Just a quick note to remind you all of the existence of Oxford Scholarly
>> Editions Online (OSEO) -- OUP's project to re-key its entire back catalogue
>> of annotated scholarly editions. OUP charges for this resource, but many
>> institutional libraries can afford it, and the huge range of English poetry,
>> prose, and drama to which it provides access includes some pretty impressive
>> editorial and glossatorial work. Not only OUP editions feature here, nor
>> only English literature; many other presses have contributed important
>> editions, and the corpus also includes a substantial chunk of OUP's
>> important Latin and Greek editions, too. It's also worth saying, I think
>> (because I'm in sales mode), that the OSEO texts are richly linked to the
>> Oxford Dictionary of National Biography and the OED -- handy for students.
>>
>> www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com<http://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com>
>>
>> See the full list of editions (including 25 new editions last month), here:
>>
>> http://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/page/18/title-lists
>>
>>
>> andrew
>> wearing my OSEO hat
>>
>>
>> On 06/04/2018 22:33, William Oram wrote:
>> It occurs to me that, as David implies, nobody's ideal anthology is going to
>> be anyone else's. But that doesn't mean that a group of us might not work
>> together to create--for instance--an online sixteenth-century poetry
>> anthology out of which instructors could pick their own preferred readings.
>> What Luminarium, Renascence editions, etc. offer is invaluable, but the
>> glossing is often limited or nonexistent (thus Luminarium's Bowge of Court
>> is glossed, but its Philip Sparrow excerpts are not). And undergraduates
>> especially need the kind of help that, for instance, the Norton Anthologies
>> provide. If there were online texts available for our courses, we would
>> still not have dealt with with the problem of undergraduates turning away
>> from anything they haven't heard of, but if one had a course one might put
>> together one's own anthology. It might interrupt the cycle Cathy Butler
>> writes of at one point. The larger problem of enrollments is one I'm not
>> sure how to tackle. Bill
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 4:46 PM, Tom Bishop
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>> Perhaps this very list (or someone on it) could organise to recommend,
>> assemble and host a “virtual anthology” to which students worldwide in our
>> classes could be directed as a single focussed resource. Luminarium etc
>> serve something of this function, of course, but they also more voluminous
>> than our needs. It might not even be such a big job if the poets themselves
>> were “adopted” by a plurality of scholars. It would certainly save the
>> labour of each in compiling “course readers” piecemeal.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> on
>> behalf of John Staines
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Reply-To: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Date: Saturday, 7 April 2018 at 2:27 AM
>> To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>"
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>>
>> Subject: Re: FW: Books out of print
>>
>> Hannibal-- For the piece I wrote for MLQ (which was a special edition on
>> "Milton and the Politics of Periodization"), I skimmed through the MLA Job
>> Lists since their origins in mimeographed, typewritten leaflets, and the
>> pattern is clear: in the past 20 years, the Renaissance/Early Modern jobs
>> increasingly conflate the period with Shakespeare and drama, which the
>> collapse of the field in the past decade has hardened into the basic
>> structure of the Early Modern. Even the increasingly rare Renaissance poetry
>> ads will ask for 15 other requirements, including "An ability to teach
>> Shakespeare and drama." There use to be ads that mentioned Spenser by name
>> (and that was in the 60s, where the postings were closer in length and style
>> to newspaper classified ads), but Milton is (I think) the only other named
>> writer in recent years, even as the ads have grown to hundreds of words in
>> length. My conclusion is that advisors would be derelict in their duties
>> not to push students to have a Shakespeare chapter in their dissertations,
>> no matter how intellectually unjustified that would be. That's not writing
>> for the fashions of the times, which is most often terrible advice, but
>> writing for a job market reality that is unlikely to change any time soon.
>> Obviously that limits the kinds of dissertations students can write, and
>> leads to a cycle that further marginalizes all other perspectives into
>> oblivion.
>>
>> John D. Staines
>> Associate Professor
>> Major Coordinator and Advisor
>> Department of English
>> John Jay College of Criminal Justice
>> The City University of New York
>> 524 West 59th Street, Room
>> 7<https://maps.google.com/?q=524+West+59th+Street,+Room+7&entry=gmail&source=g>.63.06
>> New York, NY 10019
>> ________________________________
>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>> [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] on
>> behalf of Hannibal Hamlin
>> [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
>> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2018 10:03 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: FW: Books out of print
>> Thanks for forwarding this, John, and thanks to all for interesting replies.
>> Peter's point is no surprise, since we all know about supply and demand, but
>> it aligns with my point about the trend in our profession toward Shakespeare
>> and drama. Or is this just my perception? We had a job available this year
>> at Ohio State, so I was able to survey what was probably most of the
>> Renaissance people on the market, and most -- no surprise -- were in drama.
>> Of course, the job ad stressed Shakespeare too, since that is THE bread and
>> butter course for early modernists. The obligatory Shakespeare chapter is
>> not a myth (or a joke). So I suppose if we are not teaching Vaughan or
>> Traherne, they go out of print. (I noticed the same thing some years ago
>> with pastoral, which used to have a number of excellent anthologies in
>> print, now none.) It would be interesting, too, to know if the Penguin
>> classics, and other such editions, depend entirely on the academic market,
>> or whether there were sales to that rare beast, the general educated
>> reader.
>>
>> Hannibal
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 9:49 AM, John Staines
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>> Peter Herman asked me to forward this contribution. --jds
>>
>> ________________________________
>> From: Peter Herman [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
>> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2018 9:47 AM
>> To: John Staines
>> Subject: Fwd: Books out of print
>> Hi John,
>>
>> My email address changed, and so I'm temporarily unable to post to
>> Sidney-Spenser list. I've sent a note begging to be reinstated, but in the
>> interim, could I ask you to post the response below?
>>
>> Thanks in advance,
>>
>> pch
>> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: Peter Herman <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> Date: Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 6:41 AM
>> Subject: Re: Books out of print
>> To: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>>
>> At SDSU, we are also encouraged to find the cheapest possible product, and
>> our "bookstore" (really more of a totchke store) also offers textbook
>> "rentals" and the like. At the end of every exam, you will also find
>> students lining up to return or sell their books. I swear I've seen the same
>> copy of a few books I've ordered show up in class after class.
>>
>> But publishers are responding to changes in the market: Thomas Browne went
>> out of print not because of a plot against him, but because nobody ordered
>> the book. The result is a circle of death: because nobody orders these books
>> (or few people) do, the books go out of print, so nobody reads these
>> authors, so there's no demand. And if one tries to buck the trend and offer
>> a volume of a worthy author without a modern edition, it molders in a
>> warehouse. Broadview took a chance on a student edition of Thomas Deloney's
>> Jack of Newbury, a terrific read with all sorts of fun politics--imagine a
>> cloth worker, even a wealthy one, telling Henry VIII "you come to me, I
>> don't come to you"--and it sold all of 150 copies. I doubt Broadview will be
>> taking a similar chance in the future.
>>
>> pch
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 6, 2018 at 6:30 AM, John Staines
>> <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:
>> I didn't realize Penguin was pulling back on its list--I suppose someone
>> could write a history of literary criticism and university curricula from
>> what those publishers put in and out of print over time. And any such study
>> would note the continued proliferation of Shakespeare editions, in every
>> size and shape imaginable. (I touch on this in an article on Milton and
>> Shakespeare in last fall's MLQ.) Oxford Authors does have a new edition of
>> Browne just out in paperback, which fits the return of Browne in criticism.
>> Norton continues to keep Mario Di Cesare's 40-year old Herbert and the 17th
>> C. Religious Poets in print, but someone on this list should convince them
>> to create a new volume. Otherwise, crafting a syllabi becomes a maze of
>> PDFs--with the added wrinkle that we here in NY are under pressure from the
>> governor to have our classes labeled "Zero Textbook Cost," which shows up as
>> a searchable label for courses when students are selecting classes for the
>> semester and as a denotation next to the course on their transcripts. I
>> cannot fathom the reasoning behind the transcript note, but probably it's
>> there so Cuomo can point it out when he speechifies about all he is doing to
>> bring down the cost of college. We in the humanities are angry that a course
>> with $50 in paperbacks is being lumped in with science and social science
>> courses with $500 textbooks. I'm sure other states are putting on similar
>> pressures.
>>
>> John D. Staines
>> Associate Professor
>> Major Coordinator and Advisor
>> Department of English
>> John Jay College of Criminal Justice
>> The City University of New York
>> 524 West 59th Street, Room
>> <https://maps.google.com/?q=524+West+59th+Street,+Room++7&entry=gmail&source=g>
>> 7<https://maps.google.com/?q=524+West+59th+Street,+Room%0D%0A+7&entry=gmail&source=g>.63.06
>> New York, NY 10019
>> ________________________________
>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>> [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>] on
>> behalf of Hannibal Hamlin
>> [[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>]
>> Sent: Friday, April 06, 2018 8:13 AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Books out of print
>> In teaching a course on literature and religion in the seventeenth century,
>> I've been struck by how many major authors are no longer in print, mainly, I
>> think, because of the disappearance of good Penguin editions. Thomas Browne
>> is gone, as are Henry Vaughan and Thomas Traherne. And there are no viable
>> alternatives. Has anyone else noticed this, and are there other authors who
>> have dropped out of circulation?
>>
>> I guess I have a couple of ideas about this development. The first is that
>> the interest in poetry in general has waned over the last several decades,
>> perhaps due in part to the focus of much popular theory on the novel. (I
>> note with surprise how little the critical bibliography on
>> seventeenth-century poets, except Milton, has developed since the 80s.) The
>> other thought is that the dwindling job market has resulted in an unhealthy
>> focus on Shakespeare and drama, since as the Humanities sink below the
>> waves, Shakespeare is the last Renaissance writer to go under.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> Hannibal
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Hannibal Hamlin
>> Professor of English
>> The Ohio State University
>> Author of The Bible in Shakespeare, now available through all good
>> bookshops, or direct from Oxford University Press at
>> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199677610.do
>> 164 Annie
>> <https://maps.google.com/?q=164+Annie++John+Glenn+Ave&entry=gmail&source=g>
>> & John Glenn
>> Ave<https://maps.google.com/?q=164+Annie++John+Glenn+Ave&entry=gmail&source=g>.,
>> 421 Denney Hall
>> Columbus, OH 43210-1340
>> [log in to unmask]<[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Hannibal Hamlin
>> Professor of English
>> The Ohio State University
>> Author of The Bible in Shakespeare, now available through all good
>> bookshops, or direct from Oxford University Press at
>> http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/product/9780199677610.do
>> 164 Annie
>> <https://maps.google.com/?q=164+Annie++John+Glenn+Ave&entry=gmail&source=g>
>> & John Glenn Ave., 421 Denney Hall
>> Columbus, OH 43210-1340
>> [log in to unmask]<[log in to unmask]" target="_blank">http:[log in to unmask]>
>> [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> William Oram
>> Helen Means Professor of English
>> Smith College
>> Northampton, MA 01063
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Dr Andrew Zurcher
>>
>> Queens' College
>>
>> Cambridge CB3 9ET
>>
>> United Kingdom
>>
>> +44 1223 335 572
>>
>>
>>
>> hast hast post hast for lyfe
>>
>> leap heart / the wind will catch you --
>>
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