Harry Ransom CenterThe University of Texas at Austin

Scholarly Publications

There is a long history of celebrated works that resulted from research conducted in the Ransom Center's collections. Some recent publications follow.

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Leaves of Grass: The Sesquicentennial Essays

Ed Folsom, Susan Belasco, and Kenneth M. Price, Eds.
(Lincoln: Nebraska University Press, 2007)

This volume of essays draws its inspiration from the proceedings of "Leaves of Grass: The 150th Anniversary Conference," held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2005. More than 150 scholars, musicians, poets, and enthusiasts gathered to celebrate the publication of Leaves of Grass, and the resulting essays invite readers to re-examine Whitman's familiar text in the light of the innovative approaches discussed at the conference.

In preparing this volume, Ed Folsom consulted the Ransom Center's Walt Whitman papers. Folsom is the Carver Professor of English at the University of Iowa.

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Tennessee Williams Notebooks

Margaret Bradham Thornton, Ed.
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006)

This remarkable edition of Tennessee Williams's never-before-published Notebooks, meticulously edited and annotated by Margaret Bradham Thornton, presents the author's own record of his extraordinary life. The Notebooks follow Williams from his undergraduate days to the height of his literary accomplishment and contain his most private thoughts and reflections on his writing and personal experiences.

In preparing this edition, Bradham Thornton consulted the Tennessee Williams papers. Bradham Thornton is a writer and independent scholar.

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T. H. White's Troubled Heart: Women in The Once and Future King

Kurth Sprague
(Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2007)

Kurth Sprague's comprehensive study explores the editing process by which T. H. White shaped The Once and Future King and attempted to expunge echoes of his own troubled relationship with his mother from early drafts of the book. Based on a unique knowledge of White's drafts, letters, life, and journals, Sprague traces the development of White's female characters and the book's development into a sophisticated political fantasy.

In preparing this critical study, Sprague consulted the T. H. White papers. Sprague was a novelist, poet, and professor at The University of Texas at Austin.

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The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes: The Life and Times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Andrew Lycett
(New York: Free Press, 2007)

Andrew Lycett, author of a critically acclaimed biography of Dylan Thomas, draws on correspondence, diaries, and original manuscripts to explore the central mystery of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's life: how the scientifically minded creator of a proverbially rational detective also became fanatically devoted to the obsessive research of supernatural phenomena. The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes examines Conan Doyle's many contradictions and creates a compelling and sympathetic biographical portrait.

In preparing this book, Lycett consulted the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle papers. Lycett is a writer of biographies and a former foreign news correspondent.

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Edith Wharton and the Conversations of Literary Modernism

Jennifer Haytock
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)

In Edith Wharton and the Conversations of Literary Modernism, Jennifer Haytock examines Edith Wharton's place in the modernist canon and adopts a thematic approach that places Wharton in conversation with other modernist literatures. Though Wharton did not identify herself as a modernist, Haytock argues that Wharton's works do engage with the cultural issues that defined modernism, noting Wharton's employment of an impressionistic writing style in The Reef and her treatment of feelings of alienation, isolation, and failed communication in Twilight Sleep.

In preparing this study, Haytock consulted the Edith Wharton letters to Morton Fullerton. Haytock is Associate Professor of English at SUNY College, Brockport.

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In Search of Nella Larsen

George Hutchinson
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2006)

Born to a Danish seamstress and a black West Indian cook in one of the Western Hemisphere's most infamous vice districts, Nella Larsen (1891-1964) lived her life in the shadows of America's racial divide. She wrote about that life, was briefly celebrated in her time, then was lost to later generations—only to be rediscovered and hailed by many as the best black novelist of her generation.

Hutchinson consulted the Alfred A. Knopf records in preparing this book

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The Lost Orwell

Peter Davison
(London: Timewell Press Limited, 2006)

Peter Davison's 20-volume edition of The Complete Works of George Orwell was published to international acclaim in 1998. The Lost Orwell assembles all the new material discovered in the past eight years—a treasure trove of letters and documents that will substantially redefine our image of one of the twentieth century's most important writers.

This book includes six letters discovered by Gordon Bowker in the John Courtenay Trewin collection.

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Roses and Rain: A Biography of James Elroy Flecker

Heather Walker
(Ely: Melrose Press Limited, 2006)

Roses and Rain is a comprehensive exploration of the life and work of poet, playwright, and novelist James Elroy Flecker. Walker's research provides an insight into not only Flecker's short life but also the lives of other notable contemporaries such as Rupert Brooke, Ronald Firbank, and Lawrence of Arabia. The narrative builds a picture of the formative events in Flecker's life, which enables the reader to observe the evolution of this gifted poet.

Walker used materials from the James Elroy Flecker collection in preparing this biography.

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Men in the Middle: Searching for Masculinity in the 1950s

James Gilbert
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005)

While the 1950s have been popularly portrayed—on television and in the movies and literature—as a conformist and conservative age, the decade is better understood as a revolutionary time for politics, economy, mass media, and family life. Magazines, films, newspapers, and television of the day scrutinized every aspect of this changing society, paying special attention to the lifestyles of the middle-class men and their families who were moving to the suburbs newly springing up outside American cities.

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Correspondance (1872-1918)

D. Herlin, F. Lesure, & G. Liebert, Eds.
(Paris: Éditions Gallimard)

Rare are the composers who are also great letter writers. Among the French, Debussy is one. We are able to see Debussy's many facets: the perfectionist musician, the curious and attentive reader, the loyal and amusing friend, and the affectionate father. Even while one cannot darken an existence that has known so much satisfaction and success, the artist's intransigent solitude appears in marked relief.

Herlin used manuscripts from the Carlton Lake collection while producing annotations and introductory remarks for this publication.