[Vwoolf] Editions of Woolf for teaching

Mon Jan 4 11:40:56 EST 2021

Dear Caroline,

It's not the tail end of the conversation! Your observations are very valuable and interesting. Cunningham pops up everywhere--he is a contributor to The Mrs. Dalloway Reader edited by Francine Prose (with a Foreword by Mark Hussey). He contributed to Lit Hub in 2019 (see https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://lithub.com/michael-cunningham-on-the-novel-that-would-become-mrs-dalloway-2/__;!!KGKeukY!ihu_QpyLSLPIY22u2WnyEcEhq4sRIlkcWIqYa8Edjd52Pd6jz9koY3B7yE6-7nVci9Q$ ). As Kristin Czarnecki mentioned, the Introduction to the SP Books manuscript of The Hours (Mrs. Dalloway) is by Cunningham. He's the go-to person if someone mentions Mrs. Dalloway. But he really doesn't seem to have any worthy insights regarding the novel.

As to what is cheaper for the publishers, I am not sure that choosing Cunningham or another famous author would be less expensive than selecting a respected Woolf scholar in the US. There is generally very little compensation for intellectual contributions in the form of royalties or even in lump sum payments. The publishers don't seem to view the acquisition of these texts for the classroom as a serious source of revenue. Perhaps they are right. Students tend not to purchase new books if they can find used versions of the edition or be able to rent it.

On a related thread, I love teaching with Oxford World's editions. These volumes have stellar materials that support and inform the reader--whether common or otherwise. I am hoping that publishers such as W. W. Norton will start to publish Woolf's novels as well as A Room of One's Own and Three Guineas as they come out of copyright.

Best,

Vara

Vara Neverow
Department of English
Southern Connecticut State University
New Haven, CT 06515
203-392-6717
neverowv1 at southernct.edu

________________________________
From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+neverowv1=southernct.edu at lists.osu.edu> on behalf of Caroline Webb via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 3, 2021 11:55 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Editions of Woolf for teaching

P.S. I didn’t realise I was responding to the tail end of a discussion, sorry.  I’d left the US before the Harcourt annotated editions came out, and am sorry I didn’t have the chance to work with them, as I gathered that they were excellent.

I’ve always found the introductions and (usually) endnotes by scholars, not to mention actual editing, lend great value to Oxford World’s Classics, Penguin Classics, etc.  As far as I can tell from my students’ choices, however, they are picking up what is cheapest rather than looking for an editor/introducer of either scholarly or popular-cultural status.  I doubt they’d pay attention to an introduction having been written by Cunningham, especially at this stage—The Hours is no more (and probably less) a current bestseller than Mrs Dalloway itself, and I don’t think his more recent writing has been particularly successful in this country at least.

Caroline Webb

The University of Newcastle, Australia

From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces at lists.osu.edu> On Behalf Of Caroline Webb via Vwoolf
Sent: Monday, 4 January 2021 3:22 PM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Editions of Woolf for teaching

Where copyright still exists, different publishers often hold the rights to authors’ works in different countries—it can sometimes be a maze getting quotation rights if one is working on several books with complicated publishing histories.  For years Penguin didn’t publish in the US as most books to which it held the copyrights in the UK and most of the Commonwealth were owned by different publishers in the US and sometimes Canada.  The recent mergers of publishers into a few vast international behemoths is changing that.  (I never expected to see 1950s American sf texts offered by Hachette!)

Mrs Dalloway, like Woolf’s other work, came out of copyright about ten years ago in Australia and I think many other countries, as copyright on published work here expires 70 years after the death of the author.

Caroline Webb

The University of Newcastle, Australia

From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+caroline.webb=newcastle.edu.au at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf-bounces+caroline.webb=newcastle.edu.au at lists.osu.edu>> On Behalf Of Diana Swanson via Vwoolf
Sent: Wednesday, 30 December 2020 2:22 AM
To: mhussey at verizon.net<mailto:mhussey at verizon.net>
Cc: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>; Dr T Tate <tt206 at cam.ac.uk<mailto:tt206 at cam.ac.uk>>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Editions of Woolf for teaching

Isn’t the issue US copyright law? As I understand it, Mrs Dalloway comes out of copyright in the US in 2021. Or am I mistaken?

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 29, 2020, at 9:02 AM, Mark Hussey via Vwoolf <vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>> wrote:
>
> The Harcourt editions are not available in the UK, I know, but are the OUP
> ones available in the USA? I couldn't tell from the website just now (though
> there is a notice about the effects of Brexit on placing orders from the
> EU!). I always liked the Penguin editions (Julia Briggs et al.) but they
> were never available in Americanland.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+mhussey=verizon.net at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf-bounces+mhussey=verizon.net at lists.osu.edu>> On Behalf Of
> Dr T Tate via Vwoolf
> Sent: Tuesday, December 29, 2020 9:34 AM
> To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
> Subject: [Vwoolf] Editions of Woolf for teaching
>
> Dear Woolfians,
>
> Re. the discussion of editions of Woolf for teaching.
>
> I find the Oxford World Classics good for teaching. They usually have a
> readable introduction by a good scholar, and the notes are generally useful
> and useable but not overwhelming. The font has become rather tiny in recent
> years, which is difficult for some readers (not least we ageing teachers)
> but apart from that issue I think they are usually very good.
>
> Do lecturers in the US find the Oxford World Classics useful?
>
> Best wishes,
> Trudi
>
> ---
> Dr Trudi Tate
> Assistant Senior Tutor
> Clare Hall
> Cambridge CB3 9AL
>
>
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