The fifty-ninth volume of Studies in Bibliography continues its tradition of presenting a wide range of articles by international scholars on bibliography, textual criticism, and other aspects of the study of books.

This volume opens with an excerpt from a forthcoming memoir by the eminent bibliographical and textual scholar G. Thomas Tanselle. Articles range in topic from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century and from manuscript production to the distribution of books by American bookstores. In a tour de force of bibliographical analysis, one piece examines the implications of inked pages that leave their images on adjacent leaves, and another provides new insights into the vexed question of the canon of Daniel Defoe. An advertisement for an early piracy of writings by Mark Twain and Bret Harte provides a springboard for a deeply contextual essay that demonstrates the complex interrelationships of the world of publishing and authorship, while another article on nineteenth-century books brings to light rare bindings issued by a major English publisher.

Among the articles and their authors are:

"Extracts from The Living Room: A Memoir," G. Thomas Tanselle, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation; "Merton College, MS 68: Production and Texts," Ralph Hanna, Keble College, Oxford; "Beyond Furbank and Owens: A New Consideration of the Evidence for the ‘Defoe’ Canon," Ashley Marshall, University of Nevada, Reno; "Offset Evidence in Edward Young’s The Centaur Not Fabulous," James E. May, Penn State University, DuBois; "Mark Twain and Bret Harte: A Mysterious Early Piracy in Context," Richard Bucci, Mark Twain Project; "Wilkie Collins in Smith, Elder Boards 1865-66," Geoffrey Hargreaves; "Directories of American Bookstores to 1950: Addenda & Corrigenda," Michael Winship, University of Texas at Austin.

Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia