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.
Selling the Tudor Monarchy: Authority and Image in Sixteenth-Century England
Kevin Sharpe
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009)
The Tudor Monarchy ruled the Kingdom of England from 1485 with the rise of Henry Tudor until the death of Elizabeth I in 1603. Sharpe analyzes portraits of the monarchs, music they commissioned, speeches they gave, and ceremonies they performed to understand the dynamic relationship cultivated between the Tudors and their public. Sharpe examines the role of the public's increasing desire to romanticize their monarchs and thus to help create the image of the Tudors we still have today.
In preparing this book, Sharpe consulted the Pforzheimer Library of Early English Literature. Sharpe is Professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the University of London.
The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man who Created Alice in Wonderland
Jenny Woolf
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 2010)
Lewis Carroll's life and works were full of mystery, contradictions, and puzzles that have led to many scholarly debates about the author. Woolf draws on several newly discovered or previously overlooked sources—bank records, letters from the family of Alice Liddell, and Carroll's own correspondence—to weigh in on key issues like the rift between Carroll and the Liddells, the question of pedophilia, and Carroll's financial trouble.
In preparing this book, Woolf consulted the Charles Lutwidge Dodgson collection. Woolf is a writer, editor of a travel magazine, and author of Lewis Carroll in his Own Account.
The Ancient World on the Victorian and Edwardian Stage
Jeffrey Richards
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
The Victorian and Edwardian eras together lasted from 1837 until 1910. This book considers the ways that Victorian and Edwardian theater cultures represented the Ancient World. Richards analyzes plays such as Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Coriolanus and incorporates accounts of actors including Sir Henry Irving and Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. By focusing on the role played by actor-managers in producing plays and on the relationships between the theater and history, literature, religion, and the visual arts.
In preparing this book, Richards consulted the Theater Arts Manuscripts collection. Richards is Professor of Cultural History at Lancaster University.
The Two Cultures Controversy: Science, Literature, and Cultural Politics in Postwar Britain
Guy Ortolano
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
Scientist and novelist C. P. Snow posited the concept of an intellectual divide between "two cultures"—the arts and the sciences. Literary critic F. R. Leavis argued that Snow was an intellectual hack suggesting a false distinction because his own mind was not plastic enough to play across several disciplines. Ortolano follows the debate between these two public intellectuals, placing each within the cultural context of the 1960s.
In preparing this book, Ortolano consulted the C. P. Snow collection. Ortolano is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause
Carol Palsgrove
(Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009)
In the post-World War II period several writers and public intellectuals began a campaign aimed at ending British imperialism in Africa. Polsgrove analyzes the pamphlets, articles, books, and letters of several authors writing together to bring about the end of British rule. These political intellectuals united to form a community of writers all working together to build a vision of Africa free from British colonial control. Polsgrove traces the publishing history of this social movement and analyzes the literary works of this community as they sought political and social change.
In preparing this book, Polsgrove consulted the Nancy Cunard collection and the Alfred A. Knopf Inc. records. Polsgrove is Professor Emerita at the School of Journalism at Indiana University, Bloomington.
Above the Battlefield: Modernism and the Peace Movement in Britain, 1900–1918
Grace Brockington
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2010)
Brockington complicates our understanding of the effects of the first World War on British artistic expression by looking at the many ways in which artists, writers, and performers launched a secular peace movement. Rather than focusing on the violence that contributed to British modernism, Brockington focuses on the pacifist elements of the Bloomsbury group and a circle of theater workers in Chelsea. This book allows readers to see new connections between artistic modernism and political action.
In preparing this book, Brockington consulted the Mary Hutchinson papers. Brockington is Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Bristol.
The Brave Escape of Edith Wharton: A Biography
Connie Nordheilm Wooldridge
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010)
This biographical account of Edith Wharton offers younger readers an opportunity to learn more about the life and work of one of America's significant authors. The text is illustrated with several photographs and archival reproductions of Wharton's drawings and early writings. In addition to chapters on Wharton's early childhood, the biography also focuses on Wharton's marriage, her burgeoning success as an author, and her long literary friendship with Henry James.
In preparing this book, Wooldrige consulted the Edith Wharton correspondence with Morton Fullerton. Wooldrige is the author of several works for young people.
The Complete Letters of Henry James, 1872–1876, Vol. 2.
Pierre Walker and Greg W. Zacharias, eds.
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009)
Author, playwright, and literary critic Henry James left behind more than 10,000 letters when he died. This volume marks the second in a set of three that bring together all of James's letters between the years 1872–1876. James wrote several letters a week so the volume serves as an almost daily chronicle of his life and his thoughts about his work, about art, and about criticism.
In preparing this book, Walker and Zacharias consulted the H. Montgomery Hyde Collection. Walker is Professor of English at Salem State University, and Zacharias is Professor of English and Director of the Center for Henry James Studies at Creighton University.
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters
Bill Morgan and David Stanford, eds.
(New York: Viking Penguin, 2010)
Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road and Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl redefined American literature in the mid-twentieth century, making them the most well-known and influential writers of the Beat generation. This collection of correspondence between Kerouac and Ginsberg spans the entire length of their close friendship, beginning after they met in 1944 until Kerouac's death in 1969. Their intimate exchanges include critiques of one another's work, accounts of travels and adventures, and each man's determination to fulfill his unique literary vision.
In preparing this book, Morgan consulted the Allen Ginsberg collection. Morgan is the author of two books on the Beat Generation and the editor of The Letters of Allen Ginsberg. Stanford is an independent editor who worked on numerous Kerouac projects during his decade at Viking Penguin.
Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
Thomas Travisano and Saskia Hamilton, eds.
(New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2008)
In the world of twentieth-century American poetry, few writers were as successful and renowned as Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. After being introduced at a party in 1947, Bishop and Lowell sustained a close friendship that spanned decades and continents, though they rarely saw one another in person. This collection of their correspondence reflects the poets' deep respect and admiration for one another. They write about their work, gossip about literary contemporaries, and recount personal dramas with wit and candor.
In preparing this book, Travisano consulted the Robert Lowell papers. Travisano is Chair of the Department of English & Theatre Arts at Hartwick College. He has written and edited several books on twentieth-century American poetry. Hamilton is an American poet and teaches at Barnard College.
William Carlos Williams, Frank O'Hara, and the New York Art Scene
Paul R. Cappucci
(Madison: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2010)
Art and poetry collided often in New York City after World War II. Both artists and poets were eager to find a new language that was distinctly American. William Carlos Williams was one of the first poets of his generation to employ simple language to convey ideas, emotions, and images. His poetry was highly influential to the younger New York poet Frank O'Hara. Both poets championed the modern art movement led by the New York School of painters. Through their mutual influence, these painters and poets created a new American artistic language, both verbal and visual.
In preparing this book, Cappucci consulted the William Carlos Williams collection. He is Associate Professor of English at Georgian Court University and the author of William Carlos Williams' Poetic Response to the 1913 Paterson Silk Strike.
Imagist Dialogues: Letters between Aldington, Flint and Others
Michael Copp, ed.
(Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2009)
Richard Aldington and F. S. Flint were not only highly active in the formation of Imagism, an early modernist movement that employed concise and unsentimental language, but also the best of friends. Copp gathers many letters between the two poets that have never before been published. The letters reflect the intellectual interests of Aldington and Flint, as well as their meditations on the political, cultural, and geographical turmoil caused by World War I and its aftermath.
In preparing this book, Copp consulted the Richard Aldington collection and the F. S. Flint collection. He is the editor of several volumes of Imagist poetry, including An Imagist at War: The Complete War Poems of Richard Aldington and The Fourth Imagist: Selected Poems of F. S. Flint.
Constructing Coleridge: The Posthumous Life of the Author
Alan D. Vardy
(New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge is perhaps one of today's most famous Romantic poets. This is due in large part to the way his survivors remember him as a Romantic luminary with a complex, heroic personality. Coleridge's family began constructing his heroic literary image immediately after his death in 1834. Vardy recounts Coleridge's reputation during his life as a controversial and scandalous figure, then traces how his family set about restoring Coleridge's stature as a literary genius through the careful editing of his body of work.
In preparing this book, Vardy consulted the Coleridge family archive. He is Associate Professor of English at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Byron: The Image of the Poet
Christine Kenyon Jones, ed.
(Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008)
The Romantic poet George Gordon Byron was a celebrity during his lifetime. Even after his death, artists drew on Byron's reputation as a young and handsome but slightly dangerous gentleman to represent the ideal Romantic poet. This book explores how Byron's image functioned not only during his life but also after his death. Visual representations of the poet have appeared on medals, in numerous paintings and prints, as well as on film. Even portrayals of Byron's most famous literary characters share Byron's distinctive physical traits, truly uniting the image of the artist with his art.
In preparing this book, Jones consulted the George Gordon Byron collection. She is a Research Fellow in the Department of English at King's College London, and a member of the Executive Committee of the London Byron Society.
The English Virtuoso: Art, Medicine, and Antiquarianism in the Age of Empiricism
Craig Ashley Hanson
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2009)
The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge was the major professional organization for London's physicians. They became the first nonaristocratic collectors of art and antiquities in Britain. Hanson's study of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English virtuosi and of these men's interests and collecting practices dispels the common notion that an intellectual institution with a deep appreciation for the relationship between art and science did not exist until a century later.
In preparing this book, Hanson consulted the Ransom Center's book collection. He is Assistant Professor of Art History at Calvin College.
The Brontës in the World of the Arts
Sandra Hagan and Juliette Wells, eds.
(Burlington: Ashgate, 2008)
The four Brontës—Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne—were very precocious artistic siblings. This book of essays includes contributions from a wide variety of scholars in various fields, which situate the Brontës within several artistic contexts. Discussions include analyses of the role of painting in Charlotte's Jane Eyre and the role of music in Emily's Wuthering Heights. Collaborations between the siblings and their influences upon one another's artistic output take the forefront in this collection as scholars map the different relationships each sibling fostered with various art forms and practices.
In preparing this book, Wells consulted the Brontë̈ family collection. Hagan is Professor of English at Vancouver Island University, Canada. Wells is Assistant Professor of English at Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York.
Arthur Miller
Christopher Bigsby
(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2009)
Through classics such as Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, and The Crucible, Arthur Miller captivated post-war America and built a body of work that serves as a main pillar of twentieth-century American drama. In 1956, his refusal to name names before the House Un-American Activities Committee and his marriage to the actress Marilyn Monroe captivated the public. Extensive insight gathered from Miller's papers illuminate these events in this new biography.
In preparing this book, Bigsby consulted the Arthur Miller collection. Bigsby is Professor of American Studies and the Director of the Arthur Miller Centre at the University of East Anglia.
Hollywood's Tennessee: The Williams Films and Postwar America
R. Barton Palmer and William Robert Bray
(Austin: The University of Texas Press, 2009)
Tennessee Williams has had more plays adapted for the screen than any other American dramatist. This book draws on archival research to flesh out Williams's arduous screenwriting process during the heyday of the Production Code Administration (PCA). Using evidence from diverse materials such as billboard art, press books, and other production material, the authors show that Williams used innovative efforts to bend the code when adapting plays such as A Streetcar Named Desire, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Suddenly, Last Summer for the screen.
In preparing this book, Palmer and Bray consulted the Tennessee Williams collection. Palmer is the Calhoun Lemon Professor of Literature at Clemson University in South Carolina, and Bray is a professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro and is the founding editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review.
A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E. M. Forster
Wendy Moffat
(New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2010)
With the posthumous publication of his long-suppressed novel Maurice in 1970, E. M. Forster came out as a homosexual. Though that revelation barely made a ripple in his literary reputation, Moffat argues that Forster's homosexuality was the central facet of his life. He preserved an archive of his private life, a history of the gay experience he believed would find its audience in a happier time.
In preparing this book, Moffat consulted the E. M. Forster collection and the J. R. Ackerley collection. She is an associate professor of English at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters
Bill Morgan and David Stanford
(New York: Viking, 2010)
Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg are the most celebrated members of the Beat Generation, linked together not only by their shared artistic sensibility but also by a deep and abiding friendship, one that colored their lives and greatly affected their writing. Editors Bill Morgan and David Stanford shed new light on this influential relationship in this exhilarating exchange of letters between Kerouac and Ginsberg, two thirds of which have never been published before.
In preparing this book, Morgan and Stanford consulted the Ginsberg papers. Morgan is the author and editor of more than a dozen books about the Beat writers, including the biography, I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg. Stanford is an independent editor who worked on various Kerouac projects, including Some of the Dharma, during his decade at Viking.
New Selected Essays: Where I Live
Tennessee Williams, edited by John S. Bak
(New York: New Directions, 2009)
This new collection, edited by John S. Bak, illuminates the life of Tennessee Williams through his candid prose writing. Ranging in date from the playwright's student days to 1981, these essays offer Williams's reflections upon his plays, his literary contemporaries, his relationships with actors and actresses, his failures, and the "catastrophe of success."
In preparing this edition, Bak consulted the Tennessee Williams papers at the Ransom Center. Bak is Maître de Conférences (Associate Professor) at the Université Nancy 2, France.
On the Dirty Plate Trail: Remembering the Dust Bowl Refugee Camps
Douglas Wixson, Ed.
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007)
This book presents Sanora Babb's vivid firsthand accounts of the Dust Bowl refugee camps of the 1930s. The volume draws on the field notes the young writer took while visiting California's migrant labor camps for the Farm Security Administration in 1938-39. Douglas Wixson assembles selections from Babb's published articles and fiction, as well as amateur photographs taken by her sister Dorothy. On the Dirty Plate Trail offers an intimate view of the dispossessed farmers' lives and the growth of labor activism in the agricultural valleys along California's Highway 99, the "Dirty Plate Trail."
In preparing this edition, Wixson consulted the Sanora Babb papers at the Ransom Center. Wixson is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now the Missouri University of Science and Technology) and recently curated an online exhibition about Sanora Babb on the Ransom Center's website.
Visit the web exhibition Sanora Babb: Stories from the American High Plains
The Letters of Samuel Beckett, 1929-1940
Martha Dow Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck, Eds.
(Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009)
This volume, covering the years 1929-1940, is the first of a four-part series offering a comprehensive range of Samuel Beckett's letters. At the core of this installment are Beckett's letters to Irish art historian, poet, and critic Thomas McGreevy; the edition, however, also features correspondence with James Joyce, Samuel Putnam, George Reavey, Mary Manning Howe, Maria Jolas, and others. In these letters we see Beckett wrestling with aesthetic ideas, composing his works, and struggling to be published (Beckett's translation of Rimbaud's "Le Bateau ivre," for example, was bounced from one little magazine in favor of a letter by Ezra Pound criticizing surrealism). Martha Dow Fehsenfeld and Lois More Overbeck's detailed editorial apparatus includes translations, explanatory notes, chronologies, and profiles of major correspondents.
In compiling this edition, the editors consulted the Samuel Beckett papers at the Ransom Center. Dow Fehsenfeld is an independent scholar and authorized editor of Samuel Beckett's correspondence. More Overbeck is a research associate in the Graduate School at Emory University.
Hidden Talent: The Emergence of Hollywood Agents
Tom Kemper
(University of California Press, 2009)
Katharine Hepburn, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall—behind each of these stars was a hidden force: the talent agent. In this history of Hollywood agents, Tom Kemper mines agency archives to present an insider's view of their tooth-and-claw rise to power during the studio era. A tale of ambitious characters, savvy calculation, muckraking, financial ruin, and ultimate triumph, this work establishes the agent's vital role in the Hollywood business world. Existing studies characterize agents as a product of the 1950s, but Kemper revises the record to show how agents emerged from the primordial film industry during the late 1920s and carved themselves a permanent niche. Through case studies of key figures like Myron Selznick and Charles Feldman, we see that the agent's character and social relationships functioned within a business structure—a good reputation and powerful connections were his most precious assets. With wit and precision, Kemper locates Hollywood agents at the crossroads of talent and profit, and captures their central and enduring role in the burgeoning film industry.
Kemper used the Myron Selznick papers, as well as the David O. Selznick collection, for personal correspondence and reflections on the brothers' relationship and business interactions.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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