Editing Edith Wharton in a Digital Age

About the event

Editing Edith Wharton in a Digital Age

What goes into making a scholarly edition of an author such as Edith Wharton?

For the past two years, the Lewis A. and Stella G. Buchanan-sponsored project “Editing Edith Wharton in a Digital Age” has brought together graduate students and professionals in the field to prepare an edition of Wharton’s 1905 novel The House of Mirth, part of 30-volume series of her works to be published by Oxford University Press. We have worked on this novel, Wharton’s first bestseller, from her earliest manuscripts through the last printing in 1936,. Together we’ve discussed editorial theory, collated multiple printings and editions by hand and through digital means, and learned to work collaboratively even when we could not meet in person. This presentation describes our experiences and what we’ve learned, and in the process, we’ll share some surprising (unpublished) discoveries about the novel.

Presenters: Matthew Kollmer, Nazua Idris, Randal Houle, Jana Argersinger, Jessica McCarthy, and Prof. Donna Campbell