From Writer to Reader. Studies in Editorial Method

Reissue. octavo, boards in dust jacket. (xvi), 268pp. St. Paul's, The definitive work on the nature of textual bibliography and criticism which has established itself as an essential tool for students of bibliography and for anyone else concerned witht he editing of serious literature. It is based ont he study of extracts from the early texts of 12 works of literature, ranging from Harington's Orlando Furioso, 1591; to Dickens' David Copperfield, 1850; to Tom Stoppard's Travesties, 1974. By tracing the texts through their many stages from writer to reader, Gaskell reveals how a work is subject to variations of composition (e.g., an author's revision of the printed proof) and variations of transmission, resulting from the process of copying, printing, and publicaiton. Gaskell categorizes the role of the editor as that of textual bibliographer, one who establishes texts and readings by finding out how and with what intentions they were written and reproduced. He presents the editor also as a literary critic who judges texts as works of art and states preferences for different readings. Examples show how, by combining a critical judgment with an understanding of textual bibliography, an editor can establish "critical text" that is as authoritative as the evidence allows, and then present it in the form best suited to its intended audience. Light scuffing to surface of dust jacket.…