John D. Cox, who is the DuMez Endowed Professor of English at Hope College, is one of 12 scholars who have been invited to join a seminar on "Theory and Practice of Editing" at the Folger Library in Washington, D.C.
The 10-week seminar will examine how editors deal
with early modern manuscripts and printed materials,
especially in light of recent changes in the field that have
resulted from contemporary theories of literature and the
availability of new electronic resources. The seminar will
be led by Barbara A. Mowat, coeditor of the New Folger
Library Shakespeare, with the help of other experienced
editors. Cox will travel to Washington each week to attend
the seminar sessions, which will run from late January
through early April.
Cox applied for the seminar because he is working
on a new edition of one of Shakespeare's early history
plays, "Henry VI, Part III," for the third Arden
Shakespeare.
One of the first editions to publish each of
Shakespeare's plays in a separate volume, the Arden
Shakespeare has been published twice before in the 20th
century by some of the best Shakespearean editors. The
Folger seminar will ensure that first-time editors are aware
of how the field is changing and will give them a chance to
consult with leading editors of Shakespeare's plays and of
other early modern texts.
The Folger Shakespeare Memorial Library, located
two blocks from the nation's capital and adjacent to the
Library of Congress, is an independent private research
facility with significant holdings in British and European
literature and history. Among its special collections is
one of the finest set of Shakespeare editions and
supplementary material. Each year the Folger offers a
number of seminars and colloquiums dealing with subjects
included in its holdings.
Cox earned his undergraduate degree from Hope
College in 1967 and his graduate degrees from the University
of Chicago. In 1979 he accepted a faculty appointment at
Hope, where he teaches Shakespeare regularly, in addition to
a variety of other courses in English literature and
interdisciplinary studies.
He is author of "Shakespeare and the Dramaturgy of
Power," published in 1989 by Princeton University Press, and
coeditor of "A New History of Early English Drama,"
published earlier this year by Columbia University Press.
He is also writing another book, "The Devil and Society in
Early English Drama."
Cox has won other awards, including a Mellon
Faculty Fellowship at Harvard in 1978-79, a research
fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities in
1985-86, and another research fellowship from the Pew
Charitable Trusts in 1995-96.