[Milton-L] Kerrigan, Rumrich, Fallon edn.
FLANNAGAN, ROY
ROY at uscb.edu
Sun Mar 16 13:43:30 EDT 2008
I would add to Hannibal Hamlin's words of good sense that professors and students tend to be driven to used copies of texts by inverse greed, to get something for nothing (or at least no profit goes to publishers or editors in the secondhand market). Publishers, on the other hand, have to make a profit to succeed. Hence Random House is offering the Kerrigan et al. edition at a lower price but not giving review copies or perhaps even desk copies to professors: you have to save money somewhere. Houghton Mifflin (I am guessing) has had to keep raising its price because of high inventory or warehousing costs, costs of correction, or competition with the after-market for used copies. The Riverside started out at about $50 in 1998 and has gone up year by year. One reason for students noticing typos is that they are using out-of-date copies.
It would be nice if the first copies of authoritative texts were perfect, but they aren't. Barbara Lewalski's great biography had something over 100 substantive errors that were corrected between the first and second printings, I think, and nothing was said about what might have been wrong with the primary edition.
Scholarly texts are just not produced with the timeless attention to detail that might have been true of Hughes's editions, that took over 25 years to assemble into one book, and Hughes's introductions and notes are now out of date and some of his information sadly misguided (I say that having known and respected Merritt Hughes and having used his edition for years). David Kastan has done some revision of Hughes, but I doubt whether the edition has been brought up to speed by comparison with Kerrigan et al., Flannagan, Lewalski, or Leonard.
Roy Flannagan
________________________________
From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu on behalf of HANNIBAL HAMLIN
Sent: Sun 3/16/2008 12:39 PM
To: John Milton Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Milton-L] Kerrigan, Rumrich, Fallon edn.
I don't tend to preach about such things (and I've sometimes been irritated by those who do), but I do feel there is an issue of concern in recommending secondhand copies to students. On the one hand, I entirely sympathize with their desire to save money, especially given the horrendous cost of some textbooks. And of course I buy secondhand copies of things myself. On the other hand, given that publishers are geared to the bottom line, if new books/editions don't sell, they will not be motivated to produce them. Reduced sales also serve to keep the prices high. There is also the question of the financial concerns of living scholars. Whoever is reaping the profits from the ongoing sales of the Hughes, it certainly isn't Hughes, whereas the Riverside and Modern Library edtiors are very much with us. Something to think about anyway.
Hannibal
Hannibal Hamlin
Associate Professor of English
The Ohio State University
Book Review Editor and Associate Editor, Reformation
Mailing Address (2007-2009):
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Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-1--317801658 --Apple-Mail-1--317801658 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Content-Disposition: inline I've tried a couple of editions, but I always come back to Hughes. No, it doesn't have everything, but I don't have time to teach everything, so fair enough. One good thing about its long tenure is that there are lots of used copies out there, which helps the $tudents. I've never tried the Riverside, however -- the typos are legendary. julia On Mar 15, 2008, at 6:36 PM, Peter C. Herman wrote: > The Riverside Milton is, according to amazon.com $96.36; the Modern > Library is $55.00 (hardcover). > > Peter C. Herman > > At 02:46 PM 3/15/2008, you wrote: >> Dollar for dollar, how does the Modern Library stack up against >> the Riverside? >> >> ---- Original message ---- >> >Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:55:42 -0700 >> >From: "Reeves, Margaret" >> >Subject: RE: [Milton-L] Kerrigan, Rumrich, Fallon edn. >> >To: "John Milton Discussion List" >> > >> >Dear Feisal: >> > >> >This is so helpful, and especially timely as my book orders are >> due at the end of the month. Thanks! >> > >> >By the way, I agree with you on the question of excerpts. When >> they are too short, it is quite frustrating. >> > >> >Cheers, >> >Margaret Reeves >> > >> >* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * >> >Margaret Reeves >> >Arts 178, Department of Critical Studies (English) >> >University of British Columbia-Okanagan >> >3333 University Way, Kelowna, B.C. V1V 1V7 >> >Phone: 250-807-9639 | Fax: 250-807-9900 >> >margaret.reeves at ubc.ca < mailto:margaret.reeves at ubc.ca> >> > >> > >> >________________________________ >> > >> >From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu on behalf of Feisal >> Mohamed >> >Sent: Sat 15/03/2008 10:08 AM >> >To: John Milton Discussion List >> >Subject: [Milton-L] Kerrigan, Rumrich, Fallon edn. >> > >> > >> > >> > >> >Dear Milton-L, >> > >> >Because this is a time of year when people are likely thinking of >> fall book orders, it might be timely to mention the strengths of >> the new Kerrigan, Rumrich, and Fallon Modern Library Milton (ISBN >> 978-0-679-64253-4; US $ 55). I've adopted it this term for a >> course where I needed access to both poetry and prose and been >> very pleased: the texts have proven to be reliable (as far as I >> have seen at this point), and the apparatus provides helpful (and >> not obtrusive) guidance with headnotes economically introducing >> the works and pointing to current scholarship. Both spelling and >> punctuation have been thoroughly modernized throughout, which >> constitutes a significant improvement over Hughes-though some will >> prefer the original spelling of the ongoing Blackwell Milton, >> which will become an interesting rival when complete (my personal >> view is that a modern-spelling edition is preferable for >> undergraduates, original spelling for graduate students). A >> couple of nice additions are se! >> l! >> > ections from Aubrey's notes on his life of Milton and ten >> familiar letters. >> > >> >My one complaint-one always has a complaint, after all-is that >> some prose works are excerpted where one would like to see them >> offered in their entirety. Where Hughes provides _The Reason of >> Church Government_ in full, here one has only the autobiographical >> preface to the second book. _The Tenure_ is also excerpted. The >> selections from _The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce_ and from >> _De doctrina_ are, however, much more robust than those available >> in Hughes, and added are selections from _Tetrachordon_. >> > >> >Another point on which one might grumble is that the publisher, >> as far as I know, is not offering gratis examination copies. But >> I don't think that those who take the plunge in placing an order >> will be disappointed. >> > >> >It appears to me that the Hughes edition may now enjoy a richly >> earned retirement-has there ever been a course text in any >> discipline so widely adopted for half a century? >> > >> >Looking forward to others' thoughts, >> >Feisal Mohamed >> >University of Illinois >> > >> > >> >_________________________________________________________________ >> >Your chance to win great prizes with Windows Live Mail and Rogers >> MobileMail. Click here to learn how. >> > http://g.msn.ca/ca55/207 >> >_______________________________________________ >> >Milton-L mailing list >> >Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu >> >Manage your list membership and access list archives at http:// >> lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l >> > >> > >> >________________ >> >TNEF14137.rtf (14k bytes) >> >________________ >> >_______________________________________________ >> >Milton-L mailing list >> >Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu >> >Manage your list membership and access list archives at http:// >> lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l >> Nathan P. Gilmour >> http://ngilmour.myweb.uga.edu/index.html >> ngilmour at uga.edu >> _______________________________________________ >> Milton-L mailing list >> Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu >> Manage your list membership and access list archives at http:// >> lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l > _______________________________________________ > Milton-L mailing list > Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu > Manage your list membership and access list archives at http:// > lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l -- BEGIN-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS ------------------------------------------------------ Teach CanIt if this mail (ID 571653980) is spam: Spam: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?c=s&i=571653980&m=f13bb6aed576 Not spam: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?c=n&i=571653980&m=f13bb6aed576 Forget vote: https://antispam.osu.edu/b.php?c=f&i=571653980&m=f13bb6aed576 ------------------------------------------------------ END-ANTISPAM-VOTING-LINKS --Apple-Mail-1--317801658 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline I've tried a couple of editions, but I always come back to Hughes. =A0No, i= t doesn't have everything, but I don't have time to teach everything, so fa= ir enough. =A0One good thing about its long tenure is that there are lots o= f used copies out there, which helps the $tudents.
I've never tried the= Riverside, however -- the typos are legendary.
julia
On Mar 15, 2008, at 6:36 PM, Peter C. H= erman wrote:
The Riverside Milton is, according to amazon.com $96.36; = the Modern Library is $55.00 (hardcover).
Peter C. Herman
= At 02:46 PM 3/15/2008, you wrote:
Dollar for dollar, how does the Modern Library stack up again= st the Riverside?
---- Original message ----
>Date: Sat, 15 = Mar 2008 10:55:42 -0700
>From: "Reeves, Margaret" <Margaret.Reeves at ubc.ca>=A0
>Subj= ect: RE: [Milton-L] Kerrigan, Rumrich, Fallon edn.=A0
>To: "John Mi= lton Discussion List" <mi= lton-l at lists.richmond.edu>
>
>Dear Feisal:
> >This is so helpful, and especially timely as my book orders are due = at the end of the month. Thanks!
>
>By the way, I agree with= you on the question of excerpts. When they are too short, it is quite frus= trating.
>
>Cheers,
>Margaret Reeves
>
&= gt;* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>Margaret Reeves
= >Arts 178, Department of Critical Studies (English)
>University o= f British Columbia-Okanagan
>3333 University Way, Kelowna, B.C. V1V = 1V7
>Phone: 250-807-9639 | Fax:=A0=A0=A0=A0 250-807-9900
>margaret.reeves at ubc.ca < mailto:margaret.r= eeves at ubc.ca>
>
>
>__________________________= ______
>
>From: milton-l-bounces at lists.richmond.edu on behalf of Feisal Moham= ed
>Sent: Sat 15/03/2008 10:08 AM
>To: John Milton Discussion= List
>Subject: [Milton-L] Kerrigan, Rumrich, Fallon edn.
> >
>
>
>Dear Milton-L,
>
>Because t= his is a time of year when people are likely thinking of fall book orders, = it might be timely to mention the strengths of the new Kerrigan, Rumrich, a= nd Fallon Modern Library Milton (ISBN 978-0-679-64253-4; US $ 55).=A0 I've = adopted it this term for a course where I needed access to both poetry and = prose and been very pleased: the texts have proven to be reliable (as far a= s I have seen at this point), and the apparatus provides helpful (and not o= btrusive) guidance with headnotes economically introducing the works and po= inting to current scholarship.=A0 Both spelling and punctuation have been t= horoughly modernized throughout, which constitutes a significant improvemen= t over Hughes-though some will prefer the original spelling of the ongoing = Blackwell Milton, which will become an interesting rival when complete (my = personal view is that a modern-spelling edition is preferable for undergrad= uates, original spelling for graduate students).=A0 A couple of nice additi= ons are se!
=A0l!
> ections from Aubrey's notes on his life of M= ilton and ten familiar letters.
>
>My one complaint-one alway= s has a complaint, after all-is that some prose works are excerpted where o= ne would like to see them offered in their entirety.=A0 Where Hughes provid= es _The Reason of Church Government_ in full, here one has only the autobio= graphical preface to the second book.=A0 _The Tenure_ is also excerpted.=A0= The selections from _The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce_ and from _De = doctrina_ are, however, much more robust than those available in Hughes, an= d added are selections from _Tetrachordon_.
>
>Another point = on which one might grumble is that the publisher, as far as I know, is not = offering gratis examination copies.=A0 But I don't think that those who tak= e the plunge in placing an order will be disappointed.
>
>It = appears to me that the Hughes edition may now enjoy a richly earned retirem= ent-has there ever been a course text in any discipline so widely adopted f= or half a century?
>
>Looking forward to others' thoughts,
>Feisal Mohamed
>University of Illinois
>
>
&= gt;_________________________________________________________________
&g= t;Your chance to win great prizes with Windows Live Mail and Rogers MobileM= ail. Click here to learn how.
> http://g.msn.ca/ca55/207
>__________________= _____________________________
>Milton-L mailing list
>Milton-L at lists.richmond.edu <https://web.mail.sc.edu/exchange/ROY/Drafts/3D>
= >Manage your list membership and access list archives at http:= //lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l
>
>
&g= t;________________
>TNEF14137.rtf (14k bytes)
>______________= __
>_______________________________________________
>Milton-L= mailing list
>Milton= -L at lists.richmond.edu
>Manage your list membership and access li= st archives at http://lists.richmond.edu/mailman/listinfo/milton-l=
Nathan P. Gilmour
http://ngilmour.myweb.uga.edu/index.html ngilmour at uga.edu
___________= ____________________________________
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