The Hand of the Present

The following essay is the presidential address delivered at the conference of the Society for Textual Scholarship at Loyola University, Chicago, on 8 March 2013. It is only slightly altered here, with the addition of some concluding remarks on literary study written for but not delivered on the night and also limited bibliographical notices. It retains its spoken-voice flavour. In particular it briefly revisits my work in Securing the Past (2009) and considers the musical and literary work’s “workhood” and the editor’s complex but essential role in the relationship between material document and the meanings raised from it at any one time by readers.