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  • Incipitque Semper
  • Richard Macksey

This Comparative Literature issue has been seen to press thanks to the combined efforts of two gifted and dedicated Editorial Assistants. Scott Gottbreht generously agreed to continue working with projects he had begun last year, while Ben DeForest joined the crew and ably saw the number through production. His attention to detail and critical tact were invaluable in working with authors on final revisions of their manuscripts. The participation of Scott and Ben made for some lively but always good humored triangular debates about editorial matters.

Once again, we are also indebted to Myrta Byrum at the Johns Hopkins University Press for seeing this issue through production with her customary fidelity, patience, and professional wisdom. Finally, we thank our (perforce anonymous) external referees for their guidance in assessing contributions.

Bench Marks

The Johns Hopkins University Press, supported by a $750,000 grant from the Hodson Trust, has launched a major publishing project, The Complete Prose of T. S. Eliot. The edition, which is scheduled to appear in seven volumes copublished with Eliot’s old firm, Faber & Faber, is under the editorial directorship of Ronald Schuchard at Emory. He notes that “only about 10% of Eliot’s prose writing has ever been published and available.” Hopkins will also develop an electronic edition that will enhance access to the work and its usability for scholars and students around the world. The Press has also mounted an electronic edition of its bench-mark reference work, The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism, which will be updated annually.

The Press’s pioneer venture in electronic journal publishing, Project Muse, has announced 46 new titles for 2009, bringing its current total of full-access content to over 400 journals representing nearly 100 not-for-profit scholarly publishers.

The MIT Press inaugurates in March an ambitious publishing project, “The Irving Singer Library,” making available in a re-edited, uniform edition the classic works of this wide-ranging philosopher. The first four titles in the venture will be issued in March 2009, bringing together the philosopher’s classic trilogy The Nature of Love (I. Plato to Luther; II. Courtly and Romantic; III. The Modern), joined by a new volume, Philosophy of Love: A Partial Summing-Up, [End Page 1229] reflecting on the trajectory, over decades, of Singer’s thoughts on love and related topics.

Hopkinsiana

The graduate students in the Humanities Center will sponsor a symposium entitled “Inside / Outside” dedicated to the legacy of German Idealism. Among the invited speakers are Espen Hammer and Terry P. Pinkard. (A review of Hammer’s most recent book German Idealism: Contemporary Perspectives, appears in this issue; this edited volume also includes an essay by Pinkard.) Additional information about the symposium, which will be held on April 2–3, may be obtained fromvanity@jhu.edu.

JHU, which last fall sold its historic research base in Florence, the Villa Spelman, announced at the same time that the Singleton Center, previously housed at the Villa, will continue to operate in a new incarnation as a sponsor of research in Pre-Modern European Studies through consortial arrangements with a number of universities on the Continent, a center perhaps designed by Nicholas of Cusa. Christopher Celenza, Director of the Singleton Center, said he hopes that in its facilitating role it will serve to bring together scholars from across the university’s divisions, adding that the Center will also establish a presence on the Homewood campus as a “regional hub” for scholars of the period through lectures and programming. An inaugural lecture by Anthony Grafton is scheduled in Baltimore for March. Information about the Center’s projected activities can be found atlloret@jhu.edu.

René Girard, a former editor of this journal, was honored at the MLA meetings in San Francisco with a “lifetime award.” He had previously donned the tricorne of the Académie Française [2005]. [End Page 1230]

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