Synopses & Reviews
This pathbreaking collection of original essays surveys an important but neglected topic: anonymous publication in England from the Elizabethan age to the present. An impressive group of scholars analyzes a wide range of literary phenomena including Shakespeare in 17th-century commonplace books; the phrase “By a Lady”; the implied author of an 18th-century queer fiction; Bentley and the battle of the books; essays by Equiano (?); the novel, 1750-1830; Frankensteins unnamed monster; the coauthored pseudonym Michael Field; 19th-century ghostwriting; and a postmodern hoax on national identity. The editors introduction places the essays within the context of the historical trajectory of anonymous authorship. Essential reading for anyone interested in authorship and the history of the book.
About the Author
Robert J. Griffin is Associate Professor of English at Tel Aviv University and the Associate Editor of
Poetics Today. He is author of
Wordsworths Pope: A Study in Literary Historiography and is completing a book-length manuscript on anonymity and authorship.
Table of Contents
Rehearsing the Absent Name: Reading Shakespeares Sonnets through Anonymity--Marcy North * Death of an Author - Constructions of Pseudonymity in the Battle of the Books--Kristine Haugen * “By a Lady": The Mask of the Feminine in Restoration, Early Eighteenth-Century Print Culture--Margaret Ezell * The Authors Queer Clothes: Authorship, Sex(uality) and The Travels and Adventure of Mademoiselle de Richelieu--Susan Lanser * More Letters by Gustavus Vasa or Olaudah Equiano?--Vincent Carretta * The Anonymous Novel in Britain and Ireland, 1750-1830--James Raven * Nothings Namelessness: Mary Shelleys Frankenstein--Susan Eilenberg * The Coathored Pseudonym: Two Women Named Michael Field--Holly A. Laird * From Ghostwriter to Typewriter: Delegating Authority at Fin de Siecle--Leah Price * “A Poet May Not Exist": Mock-Hoaxes and the Construction of National Identity--Brian McHale