93-10-28 A Previously Unpublished Samuel Johnson Manuscript and a Biography of Fredson Bowers Are Published By Biblio Society

A PREVIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED SAMUEL JOHNSON MANUSCRIPT
AND A BIOGRAPHY OF LITERARY SCHOLAR FREDSON BOWERS
ARE PUBLISHED BY VIRGINIA BIBLIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

       CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 28 -- The Bibliographical Society
of the University of Virginia has launched a new series of special
limited-edition publications with a previously unpublished work by
one of the greatest figures in English literature and a biography
of one of the 20th century's foremost literary scholars.
       The two fine-press publications are "Samuel Johnson's
Translation of Sallust," a facsimile and transcription of a rare
and once-missing manuscript by the 18th century English author, and
a biography of Fredson Bowers, this century's most influential
scholarly editor and a founder of the Virginia bibliographical
society. 
       The society, which today has a wide international membership
and is one of the three main organizations in its field in the
world, has long published a major journal, Studies in Bibliography,
founded at U.Va. by Bowers, as well as numerous papers and
monographs.  The new series of occasional publications will focus
on scholarly editions of literary works and bibliographical
writings, according to U.Va. English professor David L. Vander
Meulen, who has edited Studies in Bibliography since Bowers's death
in 1991.
       Another recent publication in the series, useful to 18th
century specialists, is a descriptive list of dozens of the
contemporary books to which Samuel Johnson, the leading literary
light of his era in England, is known to have "subscribed" by
ordering copies in advance to help support the authors.  
       Johnson's translation of an account by the Roman historian
Sallust is contained in a manuscript Johnson mentions in his
journal but which was long thought to have been destroyed or lost;
it was re-discovered almost 200 years later among the papers of
Johnson's famous biographer, James Boswell.
       Johnson, whose deep interest in translating Latin went back to
his school days, made the Sallust translation late in his life, as
an exercise both for his mind and hand after suffering a stroke,
according to Vander Meulen, co-editor of the booklet.
       The translation, part of Sallust's account of Cataline's
Conspiracy in Rome in 64 B.C., was never intended for publication
by Johnson in its present form, and in fact Boswell described it as
having "no very superior merit," Vander Meulen points out.  But for
literary scholars, the 40-page manuscript, full of deletions and
second-thoughts about word choices, gives "an intriguing glimpse
into the working of Johnson's mind near the end of his life" and
offers clues about his method of composition, the editor adds.
       Because of the difficulty in reading Johnson's failing
handwriting, Vander Meulen and co-editor G. Thomas Tanselle had to
use detective work involving other examples of Johnson's writing,
as well as relying on the original Latin, to decipher parts of the
manuscript.  They also devised a new method that they hope will
become a model for presenting a transcription of a manuscript in an
easy-to-read fashion.
       To avoid the distracting "barbed wire" of footnotes and
abbreviations peppering the texts of many scholarly editions, they
decided to describe in ordinary prose the author's changes in the
manuscript, recording them in brackets at the place where they
occur in the text.  The simple, concise method is meant to cause
minimal interruption to the flow of the text.
       The original manuscript is now one of the Johnsonian treasures
at the private Hyde Collection in New Jersey.  Two centuries after
the great man-of-letters practiced his translating skills with it,
and with only a few persons ever to have actually seen it, there
was a sense of satisfaction in finally bringing it into print, says
Vander Meulen.
       Such efforts would have surely pleased Fredson Bowers, the
internationally renowned theorist, editor and advocate of the use
of textual criticism in literary study who founded Studies in
Bibliography here in 1948.  Bowers's name was associated with a
most rigorous approach to editorial scholarship;  he was best known
for his work in analyzing the physical features of books and
manuscripts, noting even the most minute points about them, and
applying these insights to literary criticism and the preparation
of critical editions.  At times controversial, and always firm in
his views, he made Virginia synonymous with textual editing and the
study of books as physical objects.
       After teaching at Princeton, Bowers joined the English faculty
here in 1938.  He later became chairman of the  department, which
he helped build into one of the most distinguished in the country,
all the while editing dozens of volumes of definitive scholarly
editions of works by writers spanning many centuries.
       His way of doing it, advocating the most thorough examination
of all relevant manuscripts and editions of a work to see how
changes, errors and corrections have crept in and to arrive at an
author's "intentions," strongly affected 20th century scholarship
in many fields. At stake ultimately are what exact words or
versions of texts we attribute to, say, Shakespeare, Emily
Dickenson or James Joyce.  Bowers's "Principles of Bibliographical
Description," published in 1949, became a landmark book in 20th
century scholarship.
       In "The Life and Work of Fredson Bowers," Tanselle, his
biographer, longtime friend and fellow textual scholar, offers up,
as he says in his introduction, not only a "story of a great
scholar" but also "an account of a life lived to the full."
       Despite having an image of being "the grey eminence of
Virginia" because of his dedicated scholarship, Bowers actually had
a vast range of other interests and well-known colorful
personality, as Tanselle, who is president of the Virginia
bibliographical society and vice president of the Guggenheim
Foundation, shows.  Bowers loved and drove sports cars, bred and
wrote about Irish wolfhounds, and for many years wrote a regular
column on recorded classical music for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. 
He was also an authority on stamps, refused on principle to own a
television, and insisted on cutting his five acres of grass
himself.   During World War II he used his expertise in working
with literary texts to help break Japanese codes.
       Tanselle's biography shows how Bowers established the
scholarly techniques used by editors today and inspired modern
editing standards.  In doing this, Bowers himself scrupulously
edited the writings of dozens of writers as diverse John Dryden,
Vladimir Nabokov and Walt Whitman.
       The bibliographical tradition begun by Bowers remains strong
at U.Va. today, with Vander Meulen and other scholars training a
new generation of doctoral students in textual editing and analysis
of physical characteristics of books such as paper, type and
bindings.  Other strengths include the wide-ranging rare-book and
manuscript holdings of Alderman Library, especially the world-
renowned Barrett Collection in American literature, and the recent
arrival of University Professor Terry Belanger, a well-known book
historian, who previously taught at Columbia University and runs a
book-arts teaching laboratory here.
       As the era of the printed book is changing with the advent of
computers and electronic forms of communication, there is a growing
interest in the history of the book today, notes Vander Meulen. 
Beyond literary scholarship, the field contributes to knowledge in
such areas as economics and history, he points out.
       Bowers felt that by thoroughly examining a work's publishing
history to recover the text the author intended, the discipline of
textual editing is, as he once said, "at the base of all
intellectual endeavor in our cultural heritage."  Though that idea
is challenged by new trends in literary theory that give little
weight to an author's intent, Vander Meulen says, "Bowers realized
that small details can provide great insight.  We hope that
Virginia will remain synonymous for work in the spirit of that
tradition."
       To order any of the society's new publications, contact the
Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, Alderman
Library, Charlottesville 22903-2498, (804) 924-7013. 
                                               ###
                                                                             
 October 27, 1993
       [For additional information or interviews, David Vander Meulen
may be reached at (804) 924-6624 or 924-7105.]                               
   
 
Karen Castle, Office Services Specialist, University News Office
P.O. Box 9018, Booker House, Charlottesville, VA  22906
(804) 924-7116, kac@virginia.edu

[Submitted by: Karen A. Castle  (kac@uva.pcmail.virginia.edu)
               Thu, 28 Oct 93 09:11:21 EDT]