Making the Archives Talk

“This collection of essays is enthralling to read for many reasons: the author’s unique perspective on book history, his insight into the field of scholarly editing, and, especially, a scholar’s detailed use of archival collections.”

—Cheryl Oestreicher Archival Issues

“Jim West’s stories about, and his reflections on, his many years editing the works of such major literary writers as Fitzgerald and Styron are told in a humane, reflective, and pragmatic spirit. West brings intriguing evidence to bear. He shows how the Realpolitik of the book trade, the technical concerns of bibliography, and the crises of cultural politics crisscross the editorial arena, complicating the whole endeavor. 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. The ten previously published essays selected for this volume have been significantly revised so that this book is the single most authoritative reference for these works. . . . Even those who have participated in his luminous career will be eager to read the two new essays. 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

“James West is one of our most accomplished editors and critics. 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. A leading intentionalist scholar, West brings a lifetime’s knowledge to bear on important works and on the process of constructing them.”

—George Bornstein, University of Michigan

“James West adopts and defends a biographer’s approach to textual studies and scholarly editing. For the biographer, there is no source of information, no point of view about the evidence, and no conflicting opinion that is rejected or neglected. The central theme of this book is that textual editing involves constructing narrative explanations for the surviving evidence, giving us purchase on the interpretive consequences of textual variation. As West says, ‘This is fun. It’s what textual editors do.’”

—Peter L. Shillingsburg, Loyola University