ENGLISH 6110: SEMINAR IN AMERICAN LITERATURE I
Fall 2010
Dr. Patrick Erben
TEXTUAL RECOVERY AND EDITING PROJECT
GOALS OF THE ASSIGNMENT
Many of the texts we are read this semester have only recently become available for a general
audience and may have been entirely unknown for several centuries since their original
composition or publication. As in the case of Susanna Rowson, many writers of fiction had
a single enduring success, but their larger work has remained neglected or obscure. This
assignment will give you a sense of the exciting work involved in discovering,
editing/translating, and presenting with a scholarly introduction an early American text that
has been unknown or generally unavailable in a modern edition. (For the sake of this
assignment, I define “early American” as the anything originally published or written before
1900; usually “early American” is defined as the period up to 1800 or 1820/1830.) Beyond
locating a suitable text, you will choose, transcribe, and annotate a representative textual
selection (up to 10 pages) and prepare a substantial scholarly introduction (8-10 pages),
providing biographical, historical, or literary background information. The introduction may
also place the work into the context of the readings we have discussed throughout the
semester (if applicable; e.g. if you recover another work of fiction).
COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT:
1. “Discovery”: Finding a Source Text
The search for hitherto neglected or unknown texts has been considerably simplified
through the advent of digital search engines and electronic databases. Ultimately, it is most
exciting to browse physically through dusty archives and “discover” marvels of American
literary history such as a missing ur-text of Franklin’s Autobiography (this example is
completely fictional, so don’t go searching for this one!). However, modern databases can
provide you an exciting glimpse of the diversity and extent of publishing and writing in early
America.
Your assignment is to find a text that has never been published (a manuscript) or has not
been republished since colonial or early American times. If you find an edition of a text
published within this period which has been republished later, you may still use it as long as
it is not generally or widely available (if in doubt, please consult me!). You should use
WorldCat (see databases) to ascertain whether a text has been published in a recent edition
or not (further resources for this search can simply be Google or amazon.com).
Once you have excluded the possibility that your text has been republished (or at least
republished in a widely accessible source), print/photocopy/transcribe/photograph the entire
text if feasible. This will enable you to make a decision about the selection you want to edit
later and read the whole text. If this is not feasible (copying costs, manuscript too fragile to
be copied, etc.), then you need to read the piece on location (at the archive) and transcribe
directly from the source text. Laptops have made the work of the archival researcher much
easier.
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FULL TEXT DIGITAL/ELECTRONIC DATABASES: (AVAILABLE THROUGH OUR LIBRARY
OR ON THE INTERNET)

Annals of American History
Full text of over 2000 primary documents in American history, including historical accounts,
speeches, memoirs, poems, editorials, etc.

Early Americas Digital Archive
Collection of electronic texts and links to texts originally written in or about the Americas from
1492 to approximately 1820. Many of these texts are already transcriptions. If possible, try to
find an original version of the text.

Early American Fiction (University of VA)
Includes nearly 200 volumes of early American fiction dating from 1789-1850; includes full
color images of pages (many fall after 1865, but there are some earlier works).

Digital Library of Georgia
Georgia history and culture in digitized books, manuscripts, photographs, and other materials

Early American Imprints, Series I. Evans (1639-1800)
Definitive resource for information about every aspect of life in 17th- and 18th-century America,
including literature, music, religion, and much more.

Early American Imprints, Series II: Shaw-Shoemaker (1801-1819)
Primary source collection with full-text access to the 36,000 American books, pamphlets and
broadsides published in the early years of the 19th century

America's Historical Newspapers 1690-1922
Early American Newspaper Series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7, 1690-1922 and The Civil War:
Antebellum Period to Reconstruction, 1843-1877, African American Newspapers, 1827-1998.

Library of Congress: American Memory Project
Full-text from the collections of the Library of Congress and other institutions, chronicling
historical events, people, places, and ideas that have shaped America.

African-American Poetry: 1760-1900

American Periodical Series (APS) Online
Full-text of 1,100+ periodicals that first began publishing between 1740 and 1900
Search Engines for Researching Archives
a. Archive Finder (including Archives USA);
http://archives.chadwyck.com/home.do
b. Archive Grid; http://archivegrid.org/web/index.jsp
Also, please consider the resources listed in Frances Smith Foster’s anthology Love and
Marriage!
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SPECIAL COLLECTIONS/MANUSCRIPT LIBRARIES:
Traditionally, archival research in special collections and manuscript libraries has been the
only method to find unpublished or rare materials. Such archives range from divisions of
university libraries to state or local historical societies to endowed institutions especially
dedicated to the preservation of original source materials on a variety of subjects. Most of
these institutions have not been able to enter each item in their manuscript collections into
digital databases. Therefore, researchers who want to do work at these institutions can
follow several search strategies:
a) Rely on the expertise of the archivist/special collections librarian.
b) Follow specific leads on authors or so-called “collections” or “papers.” For
instance, a variety of items may be collated under the personal name of a certain
collector who bequeathed his/her collection to the library. Or, a library may own a
swath of documents relating to a certain individual
c) Search in printed finding aides or collections guides published by the library.
Some special collections libraries or archives located in the greater Atlanta area are:
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Georgia State University, Pullen Library Special Collections
Emory University, Woodruff Library, Special Collections
The University of Georgia, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript
The Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA. http://www.sos.ga.gov/archives/
Other archives in the State of Georgia:
 Georgia Historical Society, Savannah, GA. http://www.georgiahistory.com/
 List of Georgia Historical Societies: http://sos.georgia.gov/cgi-bin/ghor.asp
2. Introduction, including bibliography of secondary texts.
Your introduction should provide relevant biographical, historical, or literary background
information that will help the reader of the text place the work in a context, understand its
literary techniques, or assess its cultural subjectivity. Please list all secondary works you used
in researching this introduction.
Note: I will conduct a workshop on the editorial process during a class meeting
(October 11, 2010).
3. Transcription/Copytext
Your first step should be to establish a copytext from which to work further. Thus, you will
transcribe YOUR SELECTION from the source text into your word-processing program.
All illegible parts of the text should be indicated as “lacunae,” i.e. square brackets that
indicate omissions from the text [. . .]. (This issue primarily arises if you are working from a
manuscript.) If you can make an educated guess as to a word or letter that is not legible, put
this word or letter in square brackets [Franklin]; [Fr]anklin. Make a list of the type of changes
you made (e.g. converting all long-s’s into regular s’s). Your final project should include a
brief editorial note (I will provide examples) that states your editorial principles and overall
changes you made to the original text.
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4. Annotation of primary text.
Once you have established a copytext, your work as an editor really begins. You need to
establish a consistent practice of modernizing unusual or inconsistent spellings etc. In most
recent editorial practices, these changes are kept to a minimum. Also, you need to annotate
any names, places names, dates, or references that would have been familiar or accessible to
readers at the time, but not readers today. Your annotations should not be interpretive, but
rather informative. If you are doing a translation, you may provide alternative meanings that
would influence the interpretation of the piece. All annotations should be done in
footnotes.
EXAMPLES
The following edition of an early American manuscript book provides both an excellent
example of a scholarly introduction as well as a useful precedent for editorial practices
(annotations etc.): Wulf, Karin A. and Catherine La Courreye Blecki. Milcah Martha Moore’s
Book: A Commonplace Book from Revolutionary America. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP,
1997. [PS530 M46 1997] I will also post a few examples by students on the website!
DOCUMENT STYLE
Please use MLA style for quotations, document format, citations in your introduction (all
citations in your introduction should be parenthetical) etc. Annotations of the primary text
should be in footnotes.
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STEPS TOWARD COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT
1) PAPER PROPOSAL (DUE 11/1)
a. In about 300-400 words (1-2 pages), identify the text you want to recover,
edit, and introduce. Discuss briefly what you know about the author, period,
genre, and general topic of the text. Describe the research you will do situate
the text in its historical, literary, sociological, and cultural context
(introduction).
2) ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (DUE 11/1)
a. Submit as a separate document with your paper proposal. This alphabetical
bibliography (formatted MLA style) should list the secondary sources (i.e.
literary criticism, historiography, etc.) as well as primary sources other than
your recovered text which you plan on using for your introduction. You do
not have to have read the sources yet; rather, simply say in one or at most
two sentences what the source is generally about and how you will use it.
3) DRAFT (11/22)
a. Your draft should be as close as possible to your final paper. It should
include the primary text (or text selections), annotations, the introduction
and a list of works cited (here, you only list the works you actually cite or
reference in your introduction).
4) FINAL PAPER (12/6)
a. The final paper should have all components included in a single document,
following the following order:
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i. Cover page, with cover art (preferably, a historical image relating to
your text
ii. Your introduction
iii. Works Cited
iv. Editorial Note
v. The primary text or textual selections with annotations (as footnotes).
1. This section should begin with an MLA style citation of your
primary text (including the archive or library owning an
original manuscript, if applicable).