David L. Vander Meulen is professor of English at the University of Virginia and has been editor of the journal of the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, Studies in Bibliography since 1991. [1] He is author of The Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia: The First Fifty Years. [2]
David L. Vander Meulen earned degrees at Calvin College, B.A., 1970; University of Wisconsin–Madison, M.A. 1971, PhD. [3]
Vander Meulen is professor of English at the University of Virginia, where he teaches eighteenth-century English literature, bibliography, textual criticism and scholarly editing. He has observed: "Although bibliography, textual criticism, and book history are parts of a common enterprise, each employs distinctive approaches and makes unique contributions." [4]
He gave the Engelhard Lecture in Bibliography at the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress in 1987. [5]
Vander Meulen's editorial projects include an historical account of the composition and production of the Alexander Pope poem, "The Dunciad" through the 1728 edition: Pope’s Dunciad of 1728: A History and Facsimile. [6] Of this historical account, Nicolas Barker observed "a text can be achieved that is eclectic but also soundly based." [7] Other editorial projects include translations of Sallust by Samuel Johnson; [8] and a facsimile and transcription of the University of Virginia holograph manuscript by William Faulkner of the novel, Mosquitoes. [9] [10]
Vander Meulen also teaches at the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia.. [11]
Textual criticism is a branch of textual scholarship, philology, and literary criticism that is concerned with the identification of textual variants, or different versions, of either manuscripts (mss) or of printed books. Such texts may range in dates from the earliest writing in cuneiform, impressed on clay, for example, to multiple unpublished versions of a 21st-century author's work. Historically, scribes who were paid to copy documents may have been literate, but many were simply copyists, mimicking the shapes of letters without necessarily understanding what they meant. This means that unintentional alterations were common when copying manuscripts by hand. Intentional alterations may have been made as well, for example, the censoring of printed work for political, religious or cultural reasons.
John Arbuthnot FRS, often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club, and for inventing the figure of John Bull.
Bibliography, as a discipline, is traditionally the academic study of books as physical, cultural objects; in this sense, it is also known as bibliology. English author and bibliographer John Carter describes bibliography as a word having two senses: one, a list of books for further study or of works consulted by an author ; the other one, applicable for collectors, is "the study of books as physical objects" and "the systematic description of books as objects".
The Library of Congress's Center for the Book was founded in 1977 by Daniel J. Boorstin, the Librarian of Congress, to promote literacy, libraries, and reading and an understanding of the history and heritage of American literature. The Center for the Book is mainly supported by tax-deductible donations.
Lewis Theobald, English textual editor and author, was a landmark figure both in the history of Shakespearean editing and in literary satire. He was vital for the establishment of fair texts for Shakespeare, and he was the first avatar of Dulness in Alexander Pope's The Dunciad.
The Dunciad is a landmark, mock-heroic, narrative poem by Alexander Pope published in three different versions at different times from 1728 to 1743. The poem celebrates a goddess, Dulness, and the progress of her chosen agents as they bring decay, imbecility, and tastelessness to the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Emanuel Tov is a Dutch–Israeli biblical scholar and linguist, emeritus J. L. Magnes Professor of Bible Studies in the Department of Bible at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has been intimately involved with the Dead Sea Scrolls for many decades, and from 1991, he was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Dead Sea Scrolls Publication Project.
Louis Daniel Brodsky was an American poet, short story writer, and Faulkner scholar.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
The Bibliographical Society of America (BSA) is a North American organization that fosters the study of books and manuscripts. It was constituted from the earlier Bibliographical Society of Chicago as the national membership began to exceed local membership. The organization publishes the scholarly journal, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, as well as books on topics of bibliographic interest.
Norman Fiering is an American historian, and Director and Librarian, Emeritus, of the John Carter Brown Library.
Fredson Thayer Bowers (1905–1991) was an American bibliographer and scholar of textual editing.
Terry Belanger is the founding director of Rare Book School (RBS), an institute concerned with education for the history of books and printing, and with rare books and special collections librarianship. He is University Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia (UVa), where RBS has its home base. Between 1972 and 1992, he devised and ran a master's program for the training of rare book librarians and antiquarian booksellers at the Columbia University School of Library Service. He is a 2005 MacArthur Fellow.
Textual scholarship is an umbrella term for disciplines that deal with describing, transcribing, editing or annotating texts and physical documents.
George Thomas Tanselle is an American textual critic, bibliographer, and book collector, especially known for his work on Herman Melville. He was Vice President of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation from 1978 to 2006.
Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia is a learned society founded in 1947 at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville to promote interest in books and manuscripts, maps, printing, the graphic arts, and bibliography and textual criticism. The society sponsors exhibitions, contests for student book collectors and Virginia printers, an international speakers’ series, and an active publications program which has produced over 175 separate publications in addition to its journal Studies in Bibliography.
The Wishing Tree is a 1927 children's book by William Faulkner. The plot is written as a morality tale.
Wallace Kirsop is an eminent Australian scholar in French studies and in book trade history.
The A.S.W. Rosenbach Lectures are an endowed lectureship in bibliography established in 1928 by rare-book and manuscript dealer A. S. W. Rosenbach at the University of Pennsylvania.