ATG Book of the Week: Making the Archives Talk: New and Selected Essays in Bibliography, Editing, and Book History

Title: Making the Archives Talk: New and Selected Essays in Bibliography, Editing, and Book History

Author: James L. W. West III

ISBN: Hardcover:978-0-271-05067-6
Price: Hardcover: $60
Imprint:University Park: Penn State University Press: 2011, 160 pages.

“Making the Archives Talk is a collection of twelve essays by editor, biographer, bibliographer, and book historian James L. W. West III. In these essays, West sets forth his views of editorial theory, archival use, textual emendation, and scholarly annotation. He has published editions of major writings by Theodore Dreiser, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Styron. Drawing on these editions for examples, West defends intentionalist editing and the eclectic emendation of texts. He discusses the treatment of both public documents (novels, stories, and nonfiction) and private texts (letters, diaries, journals, and working papers)…”

“This welcome new collection of essays on modernist prose writers shows him at his best, weaving expertly between general principles and particular texts by Dreiser, Fitzgerald, Styron, and others.” – George Bornstein, University of Michigan

“This engaging book is a narrative capstone to a distinguished career in scholarly editing and book history.” —Paul Eggert, University of New South Wales at ADFA, Australian Research Council

“For many years Jim West has shown that editing literary works is an intensely critical and humane activity that engages the full range of an editor’s learning and abilities… He is one of very few biblio-textual writers whose works are ‘a good read.” —T. H. Howard-Hill, University of South Carolina, editor of the Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America