The Coleridge Collection Preface

An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism and Scholarship
Volumes I-III By
Walter B. Crawford
With the research and editorial assistance of
Ann M. Crawford

PREFACE

The pages in this website constitute a new edition of the Supplement to Samuel Taylor Coleridge: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism and Scholarship:

Volume I, 1793-1899, by Richard and Josephine Haven and Maurianne S. Adams, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1976.

Volume II, 1900-1939 (with additional entries for 1795-1899), by Walter B. Crawford and Edward S. Lauterbach, with the assistance of Ann M. Crawford, Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1983.

Volume III: Part I, 1793-1994, including Supplement to Volume I, 1793-1939; Comprehensive Bibliography, 1940-1965; Selective Bibliography, 1966-1994; and Part II, 1791-1993; by Walter B. Crawford with the research and editorial assistance of Ann M. Crawford, New York: G. K. Hall & Co., An Imprint of Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1996.

Principles of inclusion and exclusion. Supplement2002 incorporates all the items in all previous editions, including that separately published in 1996, that published in the Coleridge Bulletin (Spring 1995), 50-8, and the earlier editions of this online Supplement. Like the earlier editions, Supplement2002 is selective, following the principles of inclusion and exclusion explained in the Preface to volume III. In that volume, the enormous amount of eligible material required a cut-off of most Part I items at the end of the year 1965, even though a very large number of the post-1965 items had been seen and annotated. Fortunately, from the 1960s onward the principal annual literary bibliographies have become increasingly more inclusive. On the other hand, even the best of these follow a policy of excluding some categories of material which we have by policy included throughout the Bibliography (see Crawford, Coleridge Bulletin [W 1992-93], 2-4).

Because we believe that new critical editions (complete or selected) of Coleridge's works should be known, and that the best are essential in Coleridge studies, we include them. Because pedagogical treatments of Coleridge's works are pertinent to the everyday work of a large majority of students of Coleridge, and are often valuable, we include them. Because we believe that translations, artists' treatments, and musical settings are all modes of interpretation that often yield insights into Coleridge's poems as valuable as the verbal interpretation of conventional literary criticism, we include them also.

Our basic general rationale in volume III was to include post-1965 Part I items essential or important for basic Coleridge research and study, highly unusual or unique items, and items not likely to be listed in other bibliographies under Coleridge but containing substantial Coleridge-related material. More particularly, we include items in the overlapping categories set forth in detail in the volume III Preface.

Of Part II items, this Supplement includes any new items we have learned about in categories II.5 (continuations, completions), II.7-1 (music), II.10 (works of art), and II.8 (audio and audiovisual productions). Only the more unusual or substantial items in other Part II categories are included.

Annotations. The length of annotations in this Supplement is not necessarily an indication of the importance of the item annotated. What is important to one Coleridge reader or researcher may not be important to others. As stated in the volume III Preface, "the student cannot rely on annotations in any bibliography for a firm grasp of book-length studies of Coleridge, or even of shorter but complex treatments of Coleridge's thought." Some annotations merely call attention to unusual material in the work listed, e.g., good reproductions of Coleridge portraits. We would welcome authors' own abstracts or descriptions of their works, which we would--of course--attribute to the authors.

Arrangement. As in volumes I-III of the Coleridge Bibliography, items are arranged chronologically, then alphabetically by author, in Part I, and by author or title in the numbered sections of Part II. Whereas in volumes II and III each year's listing was divided into two alphabets, the first containing editions and translations of Coleridge's works, the second containing other works of scholarship and criticism, this online Supplement puts each year's listing in a single alphabet. Editions of Coleridge's works continue to be entered by name of editor, translator, or illustrator. Item numbers from the published volumes--e.g., (C1486)--indicate revisions here of published entries or annotations. Otherwise the style is that followed in volume III.

Citation Style. In other publications, items in the Coleridge Bibliography are most easily identified and cited by their item numbers: "Hnnn" for items in the Havens' volume I and "Cnnn" for items in the Crawfords' volumes II and III. In this Supplement, each entry starts with "S" followed by Part number and date; citations of these items should add the author's name or the keyword of the title for title entries, thus: "S II.1 1992 Roe" and "S II.8 1993 Visions."

Limits of the Supplement. It should be understood that this Supplement is not based on new systematic research. We are technically "retired" and although we continue to spend time on Coleridge Bibliography matters, we are focusing more and more on family matters and on expanding and organizing the Crawford Coleridge Collection (abbreviated CCC hereafter). We have acquired a great many more new items for the CCC than we have time to write up for this Supplement. For those reasons, we list here only serendipitous findings of our own and interesting items about which we are informed by other Coleridgeans and friends.

Japanese publications. Now in this Supplement are revised and new listings of 45 Japanese publications which have been acquired by the CCC. Some of these books are listed in volumes II or III of the Coleridge Bibliography, but since they are now in the CCC these have been examined again and some corrections or improvements have been made in their entries and annotations, sometimes with the invaluable help of Nobuo Takayama (NT), Junko and Mark A Richardson (JR & MAR), Emiko Samard, and other Japanese friends.

The romanizing of Japanese "kana" letters will seem inconsistent to native readers of English. The reason is that many Japanese words can have more than one pronunciation, and Japanese spellings represent pronunciations. Thus different romanizings represent different pronunciations. Our Japanese collaborator, Professor Takayama, says that we could impose a single form of romanizing to the "kana" forms of words like "Coleridge," but he prefers to follow the authors' spelling/pronunciation case by case--and we adopt his romanizations.

Added or revised items since the 2000 edition. To make it easy for the users of this Supplement to discover what items have been added since the 2000 edition, we have added a section listing just the identifying line for each new or revised item, enabling a user to determine quickly the location of the full entry and annotation of each new or revised item.

WANTED: NEW COLERIDGE BIBLIOGRAPER(S)

Volume IV of the Coleridge Bibliography. We have no more time--in more than one sense of the word--to take on the challenge of continuing to make the Coleridge Bibliography as comprehensive, and as stimulating, even as entertaining, as possible--a project we began in all innocence more than three decades ago. Unless a qualified someone or group comes forward to take up this challenge, this online Supplement may be the last "published" start on volume IV.

Although we will make available to the qualified compiler(s) of volume IV our computer files containing hundreds of already annotated post-1965 items for which there was no space in volume III, and probably an equal number of entries for not yet seen or annotated items, all these will be just a start on volume IV. What volume IV needs is a team of scholars. Besides the coordinator and chief editor, for best results individual members of the team could take the responsibility for gathering and annotating items in special categories: for example, items in Part II.7-1 (Musical Settings of Coleridge), II.8 (Audio and Audiovisual Productions, including live performances), II.10 (Other Art), fine press publications, etc. (see volume III, x-xiii). Also scholars who are native speakers of languages other than English and who are working in their own countries could add very considerably to the number of non-English language Coleridge studies and translations included in volumes I-III.

"What will happen when volume IV is completed?" asks Morton D Paley in his review of volume III in SiR, 38 (Su 1999), 322. "Fortunately," he continues, "a solution that would have seemed only a something in the sky in 1976 or even in 1983 is now realizable. The entire Bibliography could be put on CD-ROM and/or the World Wide Web, the selective Bibliography of Part I made comprehensive, and the indexes for all three volumes combined. A Web version could subsequently be adjusted for the material to come. The result would indeed be a miracle of rare device, making students of Coleridge all the more grateful to the scholarship of the Crawfords".

Your help solicited. Any updated versions of this Supplement can be made much more extensive and interesting by contributions from others, which will be gratefully acknowledged. We will also appreciate corrections of any mistakes found in this Supplement. Contributors may send us information via postal service or by email. Physical copies of items sent to the University Library to facilitate annotations will be deposited in the Crawford Coleridge Collection in the Special Collections Department, University Library, California State University, Long Beach, CA 90840, and will then be gratefully acknowledged by the Dean, University Library.