Editing Lives: Essays in Contemporary Textual and Biographical Studies in Honor of O M Brack, Jr.

Central to all post-Renaissance scholarship, textual studies continues to evolve, both in its techniques and methods as well as in the illumination it affords all other areas of modern knowledge. The life of our fellow human beings, and how we know and tell lives, is one such area of modern knowledge that is foundationally affected by theories and practices of textual creation, transmission, and apprehension. This collection of new essays and studies by internationally acclaimed scholars, along with a select few who are less acclaimed but of distinct promise, provides a view into the contemporary state of scholarship in textual and biographical studies. The collection also means to be of especial interest to scholars of the British eighteenth century, by concentrating its evidence and argument on topics and subjects important to contemporary eighteenth-century studies. The volume is inspired by the extensive contributions to the fields by the late O M Brack, Jr.

Table of Contents:
Contents Skip Brack: A Tribute from a Colleague and Friend Jerry Beasley Print Borne and Born Digital: Considering Careers, My Father’s and My Own Matthew Brack List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Jesse G. Swan Part I: Textual Studies 1Collecting Samuel Johnson and His Circle Loren Rothschild 2Some Notes on the Textual Fidelity of Eighteenth-Century Reprint Editions James E. May 3Learning from Don Bilioso’s Adventures: Visualizing a Critical Edition of the Printed Works of John Arbuthnot Walter H. Keithley 4The Solicitation in Two Acts: James Robinson Planché’s Vampires on Stage, in Color, and under Cover Jennifer M. Santos Part II: Biographical Studies 5Samuel Parr’s Epitaph for Johnson, His Library, and His Unwritten Biography Robert DeMaria, Jr. 6Samuel Johnson’s Shakespearean Exit: Emendation and Amendment Gordon Turnbull 7Searching for the Invisible Man: The Images of Francis Barber Michael Bundock 8Alceste: Tobias Smollett’s Early Career Leslie Chilton 9Gender, State Power, and the Rhetoric of the Funeral Sermons for Queen Mary II Martine W. Brownley 10Swift’s Politics Reconsidered Thomas Kaminski 11The Work of a Professional Biographer: Oliver Goldsmith’s The Life of Richard Nash, ESQ Christopher D. Johnson Part III: Edition 12Frances Burney on Hester Thrale Piozzi: “une petite histoire” Translated and edited by Peter Sabor Coda, “But when I come, let me have the benefit of your advice, and the consolation of your company”: The Career, with a Listing of Publications, of O M Brack, Jr. Jesse G. Swan Bibliography About the Contributors Index

About the Author :
Jesse G. Swan is professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa.

Review :
Students of literary studies typically tend to view bibliographical and textual criticism as the most austere and objective areas of our cognitive domain, those methodologies aspiring most convincingly toward the status of the hard sciences. Many of the essays in Jesse Swan’s fine Editing Lives support this reputation. However, by belonging to the genre of festschrift, the present volume also embraces a moving and subjective humanity, as it celebrates the life and career of the eminent Johnsonian whom friends and colleagues fondly called “Skip.” All who knew him will surely acknowledge Skip to be a rarely fine human being as well as a top drawer scholar. The apparatus of Editing Lives, that bookend these essays, offer eloquent testimony to these claims. . . .The editor has divided the book into three sections: 1. “Textual Studies,” 2. “Biographical Studies,” and 3. “Edition.” Within these heads are arranged eleven scholarly essays and a translation. . . .[which] serves as a fitting conclusion to a sound and rewarding excellent volume.