recommended fundamental studies in textual scholarship
This is a short but highly selective list of studies in textual bibliography. That is, the classic theories and approaches related to the establishment of authoritative texts. These theories take into account multiple versions and editions of a single work; the ‘intentions’ of the author; printed variants in the text; and the issues arising from authorial revisions.
Jaques Barzun, On Writing, Editing and Publishing, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.
George Bornstein (ed), Representing Modernist Texts: Editing as Interpretation, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1991.
Fredson Bowers, Textual and Literary Criticism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959.
Fredson Bowers, Bibliography and Textual Criticism, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964.
Fredson Bowers, Essays in Bibliography, Text, and Editing, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1975.
Peter Davison, The Book Encompased: Studies in Twentieth Century Bibliography, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Philip Gaskell, From Writer to Reader: Studies in Editorial Method, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
Ronald Gottesman and Scott Bennett, Art and Error: Modern textual editing, London: Methuen, 1970.
D.C. Greetham, Textual Scholarship: An Introduction, New York: Garland, 1994.
John Lennard, But I Digress: The Exploitation of Parentheses in English Printed Verse, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
G. Thomas Tanselle, A Rationale of Textual Criticism, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.
G. Thomas Tanselle, Textual Criticism since Greg: A Chronicle, Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987.
[NB! Greetham’s excellent book Textual Scholarship contains a 106 page bibliography covering all aspects of the subject.]
© Roy Johnson 2009
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