Editor's Fence and Announcements

222 EDITOR'S FENCE AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. The ELT Press: ELT has helped establish the years 18801920 as a recognized literary period, for the journal has provided one of the principal outlets for contemporary criticism on lesser-known works from this era. However, the absence of a Press to provide the same consistent outlet for book-length studies that ELT does for shorter criticism remains troubling. In view of this need, Michael Case and I have decided to form a press, the ELT Press, dedicated to publishing books on literature within the ELT purview. Scholars in our area will benefit from having a better chance to place manuscripts on "minor" figures, which the larger presses frequently deem unprofitable. Perhaps the ELT Press, in a small but meaningful way, will even more firmly establish the stature of our area in literary history. What we need now are manuscripts—good manuscripts. Doubtlessly some of you have in hand such a manuscript which has been rejected by a larger press only because the subject was considered too narrow or esoteric. Anyone who has a book-length study—300 double-spaced pages maximum—on an ELT figure or work is invited to submit it to ELT Press, English Department, A.S.O., Tempe, AZ 85287. The only subjects we wish to avoid are major figures such as Conrad, Hardy, Joyce, Lawrence, Woolf, and Yeats, about whom, rumor has it, many books have already been written. Please pass the word, and write to us if you have a manuscript, even one in progress. 2. The New MLA Documentation: As you might expect, the new form of documentation mandated by the second edition of the MLA Handbook, a contemporary dispensation, poses a tiresome dilemma. Recently a few essays have arrived documented according to the new guidelines. Most of the submissions to ELT, however, follow the previous format. This makes sense, after a fashion, since even editors must purchase the new edict. It is of little profit to dwell on the merits and demerits inherent in each format, or for that matter any such plan: the whole issue gives a more certain meaning to the proverbial comment "it's a moot question." At this juncture it seems unreasonable to trash one estimable modern bibliographical rune at the expense of another; that would only make busy work for everyone concerned. In obeisance to common sense, then, ELT will accept both kinds of documentation to facilitate a transition of yet unspecified length. Our friends abroad, I'm told, amuse themselves with American scholarship's remarkable equivocation in such matters. One version of the truth holds that it does not matter what kind of format scholars use to document their homework; it matters more that they have done the research thoroughly, consistently marked it in full, and written an intelligent essay. 223 3. The Kipling Issues, 29:1 and 2 (1986): The response to the forthcoming Kipling issues has been encouraging, and a TLS advertisement this fall should bring them more notice. By coincidence David Stewart (Texas A&M) is planning a session on Kipling for the Chicago MLA and thus I've received some submissions based on proposals for that meeting. I will not make all final decisions on 29:1 and 2 until October; at this time I can only say that there will be studies on a range of Kipling's work: early and late, short stories and poetry. I believe this collection of articles will be a fitting tribute to Kipling. It is appropriate, fifty years after his death, to place his political and ideological temperaments in the background and to appreciate the richness of his art. 4. Corrections Due: In 27:3 (1984), Ian Fletcher wrote an admirable review of Affectionate Cousins: T. Sturge Moore and Marie Appie. Unfortunately the book was erroneously said to be authored by Sylvia Sprigge. Rather, the author is Sylvia Legge. We apologize. Professor Fletcher, ever vigilant of uncalculated as well as calculated misstatements, notes, moreover, that "George Edward Moore was not, as I stated, a half-brother but a full brother of Sturge Moore." 5. Foreign Reports: Many of you have commented favorably on the reports from ELT correspondents. In this issue...