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Memorandum

To: From: Date: Joseph Bryant, Associate Director, Rare Books Florence M. Paisey, Librarian March 22, 2013

Subject: Acquisitions: William Wordsworth, Lyrical Ballads As discussed in a previous memo, Florida State Universitys Department of English has recently started up the History of Text Technologies (HoTT) program. It is interdisciplinary in nature with valuable resources in Victorian book history. Strengthening primary resources in support of this program will deepen research and pedagogical opportunities related to the program. Modern print culture and publishing history reveal authorial and publisher communications, showing the complexity and the tensions surrounding writers, their publishers and the interchange of reader reception and trade on a text and editions. Understanding the dynamics of this process without hands-on materials is problematic. One book with a complex print, publication and reception history is William Wordsworths, Lyrical Ballads. The three initial editions, 1798, 1800 and 1802, illustrate the complexity of publishing history, textual content and material bibliography. In addition, Lyrical Ballads is frequently associated with the start of the Romantic period in English literature, so its reception history, cultural impact and how the text was interpreted are fertile subjects for investigation. The 1798 one-volume edition of Lyrical Ballads with a Few Other Poems initiates a particular poetic style and the turbulent collaboration between Wordsworth and Coleridge. It includes an introductory Advertisement describing the poetrys simplicity and conversational style as experiment. The following edition in 1800 comprises two volumes. The first volume eliminates the 1798 Advertisement in favor of a formal Preface, elaborating Wordworths poetic rationale. In addition, the 1800 edition reorders the poems of the 1798 edition. The poetry in the first volume of the 1802 edition is generally the same as the 1800 edition, but the version of the Preface differs, forming the source of the 1805 edition. This particular book Lyrical Ballads offers unusual pedagogical potential involving the vagaries of printing, copyright (of the nation and era), publishing, reception as well as the materiality of the book and its cultural impact. It exemplifies key aspects of bibliography, publishing history and the interplay among sociological elements. In short, the primary editions of Lyrical Ballads offer immense educational and scholarly promise directly connected to the HoTT program and Victorian studies.

While Florida State University holds many rare Victorian volumes, including an 1851 posthumously published collection of Wordsworths poems, the university does not hold primary of editions 1798, 1800 and 1802 of Lyrical Ballads. These most important volumes would substantially contribute to scholarly endeavors as well as serve as a pedagogical resource for the HoTT program, particularly in text production, text transmission, book history and Victorian studies. Therefore, I propose taking a major step in deepening the resources available to support the HoTT program. Ideally, Florida State University would hold the three primary editions along with variants and on through later editions. However, it is propitious to recognize the holdings of a nearby research library that already owns part of these resources. The University of Florida holds a 1798 primary edition as well as an 1800 second edition. That said, I recommend that Florida State University obtain either an 1800 primary edition or an 1802 primary edition. The 1800 primary edition of Lyrical Ballads is available at ABE books for $9,340.44. Of the two editions available the 1800 and the 1802 the 1800 primary edition would be the most desirable acquisition, from a scholarly perspective. Scholars of book history, publishing and print history, bibliographers, Victorian scholars and cultural theorists will find this an invaluable resource for their own research, exhibitions and lectures as well as teaching.

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