Quality over quantity. Do not give me any extraneous information (it will not earn you any credit); just answer the question. One the other hand, use everything you know; use the terminology and the principles you have learned to solve these problems. Refer to articles, authors, texts that will help you clarify your arguments. You should be able to answer the questions (at least adequately) fairly easily, so don't panic--think.
I. (30%) If the collation formula is 8o: $2, A-D8, X8, F-K8, L6,
1. Assuming that X [chi] is paginated, what page number probably appears on L6v?
(You might want to do your arithmetic on scrap paper and then copy it onto your test paper so that you can go back over it easily to check it before you hand your exam in.)
2. If D is made of two sheets folded in quarto, with what leaf is
the top of D3 conjugate (before the book is "opened")
(Refer to your printed material and/or fold some paper.)
3. From what you know of the way books are usually made up, what seems to have taken place in the course of the manufacture of this book?
(On the basis of what you can "read" from the collation formula, I am asking you to speculate on what happened.)
II. (70%) The following comments are all from paperback editions of the works of American authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries taken from my own shelves. Would you trust these texts? Evaluate as many as you have time for, in whatever order you choose. You may address them individually (a series of brief essays) or discuss them as a group (a single, long essay). I expect properly written English prose. Read carefully. THINK before you write. Do not try to do them all.
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem, Viking, 1949 [33rd printing October 1967].
[No note on the text, but this on the back of the title page:] This play in its printed form is designed for the reading public only. All dramatic rights in it are fully protected by copyrights . . . [etc. On the following page, Viking announces the w ork as] A New Play by Arthur Miller, Staged by Elia Kazan. [This is followed by a list of the characters and the cast (Lee J. Cobb as Willie Loman) of the 1949 New York production.]James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, "With an Afterword by James Franklin Beard," Signet, 1962.
A Note on the Text: The text of this edition is based on the W.A. Townsend and Co. edition published in 1859 and reprinted by the Riverside Press in their collected edition of Cooper's works in 1870. The Author's Introduction is the one he wrote for th e 1850 revised edition. The spelling and punctuation have been brought into conformity with modern American usage.
Henry David Thoreau, Walden; or, Life in the Wood, Introduction by Norman Holmes Pearson ["Introduction copyright, 1948, by N.H. Pearson"], Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1964.
[No note on the text, but the following is printed on the outside of the back cover:] Rinehart Editions. A distinguished series of paperbound books, containing a broad selection of British, Continental, and American literature.-Accurate, authoritative texts; carefully chosen translations.
-Critical introductions and helpful bibliographies and notes prepared by outstanding scholars and writers.
-Typography and design repeatedly honored by the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, "The Centenary Text," Introduction by Stephen A. Black, Harper Classic, 1968.
The text of The Scarlet Letter reprinted here is that prepared under the editorship of William Charvat, Roy Harvey Pearce, Claude M. Simpson, Matthew J. Bruccoli and Fredson Bowers for The Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorn e, published with textual apparatus as Volume I of the edition in 1962 by the Ohio State University Center for Textual Studies and the Ohio State University Press.The Pocket Book of Robert Frost's Poems, With an Introduction & Commentary by Louis Untermeyer, Pocket Library, 1956.
In 1943 Louis Untermeyer made a selection from the work of Robert Frost . . . . This book, entitled Come In, was published by Henry Holt and Co. . . . Now Mr. Untermeyer has extended Come In especially for Pocket Books, Inc., and the p resent volume contains thirty additional poems and a greatly enlarged commentary. [The following from the verso of the title page:] The poems quoted in this volume are from A Boy's Will, North of Boston, . . . and Come In.
Great Short Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. Frederick C. Crews, Harper & Row, 1967.
[On the back of the title page, in a handsome, scrolled border:Check everything. I am not responsible for correcting your work; you are.
Center for Editions of American AuthorsAN APPROVED TEXT
Modern Language Association of America
1. What is the (historical) letter form that "explains" the evolution of the Roman square capital E into our modern lowercase e. (One letter form is all I want--not an explanation.)
2. Where would you expect to find:
3. Name three methods for preserving not-yet-embrittled documents and the pros and cons of each method.
Essay questions (take home):
[Handout taken from the introduction to an unidentified edition of Hardy, giving details of Hardy's five revisions, including a "stemma."]
II. 90 minutes (75%)
Present a reasoned discussion, using as much of the proper terminology and argumentation as you can, of the ways in which Hardy's Woodlanders could or should be edited. Begin (briefly) with McKerrow, and then follow out the pros and cons of the Greg-Bowers method and then those of more recent editors and editorial theorists, pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of each. Be thorough. You need not mention every name Greetham does; I am more interested (as always) in principles (i.e ., important differences and the reasons for them) than in "a foolish consistency."
If you have any questions or woulc like clarification of any aspect of the problem, please call (389-8175). See you Wednesday.
Rev 11/97