Text: An Interdisciplinary Annual of Textual Studies

by W. Speed Hill (Editor), Edward M. Burns (Editor), Peter L. Shillingsburg (Editor)

Text 11 features eleven substantial essays, beginning with Jerome McGann's presidential address to the Society for Textual Scholarship, "Hideous Progeny, Rough Editing as a Theoretical Pursuit." Other highlights include Kathryn Sutherland's examination of the relationship--and the changing relations--between "material text" and electronic textual formats, Kenneth Womack's study "Editing the Beatles," and Robin G. Schulze's exploration of textual development from an evolutionary perspective in "Textual Marianne Moore, the Text of Evolution, and the Evolving Text."
The volume also includes a host of review essays and book reviews that consider recent textual and editorial approaches to Shakespeare, Henry James, Pound, Dickinson, Bakhtin, and Thackeray, among others.
W. Speed Hill is Professor of English, Lehman College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York. Edward M. Burns is Professor of English, William Paterson College. Peter Shillingsburg is Professor of English, Mississippi State University.

448 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1999

About the author

After six years of contending with Parkinson's disease, W. Speed Hill died May 8, 2007.

Speed was internationally renowned in the field of textual editing, the discerning of the relative authenticity of manuscripts from times when copyrighting was unknown. His life's work was to lead a scholarly team in the creation of a multivolume compilation with commentary of the works of Richard Hooker, a wise and remarkable English Renaissance theologian.

Speed was associated with the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and was co-founder of the Society for Textual Scholarship. He served as professor of English at Lehman College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York until his retirement several years ago, after which he continued to lecture at academic societies. At a memorial service, former students, many now in academia, cited their gratitude for his help in their careers, their admiration for his intellect, and their pleasure in his wit.

A native of Lexington, Ky., Speed attended Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. He obtained his doctorate from Harvard. He is survived by Linda, his wife of 23 years; three children, Julie Beck, Christopher, and Madeleine; and a brother, Eugene.