Talk about a tangled web! Cengage Learning, the publisher of the eminent Arden Shakespeare collection has terminated the contract of the senior researcher, Patricia Parker, a professor at Stanford University, who was charged with editing a new edition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for the Arden series. At least 180 supporters have a signed a petition on Ms. Parker's behalf. The publisher, Ronald G. Dunn of Cengage, has said only that this is a "confidential contract matter." Is the "sinister hand of commercialism" to blame? -- See Chronicle of Higher Education, Friday, August 15, 2008, "Firing of Arden Editor Causes Tempest in Shakespeare Studies," by Jennifer Howard.
http://chronicle.com/daily/2008/08/4252n.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en