Making Meaning: "Printers of the Mind" and Other Essays

by D. McKenzie, Peter D. McDonald, Michael F. Suarez, D. F. McKenzie

Overview

The greatest bibliographer of our time, was how historian Robert Darnton described D. F. McKenzie. Yet until now many of McKenzie's major essays, scattered in specialist journals and inaccessible publications, have circulated mainly in tattered photocopies. This volume, edited by two of McKenzie's former students, brings together for the first time a wide range of his writings on bibliography, the book trade, and the "sociology of texts." Selected by the author himself before his sudden death in 1999, the essays range from the material transmission of Shakespeare's plays in the seventeenth century to the connections among oral, manuscript, and print cultures.

Making Meaning reflects McKenzie's virtuosity as a traditional bibliographer and reveals how his thought-provoking scholarship made him a driving force in the genesis and development of the new interdisciplinary field of book history. His refusal to recognize the traditional boundary between bibliography and literary history re-energized the study of the social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of book production and reception.

The editors' introduction and headnotes situate McKenzie's innovative and controversial thinking in the debates of his time.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558493360
Publisher:	University of Massachusetts Press
Publication date:	06/28/2002
Series:	Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	296
Sales rank:	997,381
Product dimensions:	6.06(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

D. F. McKenzie was professor of bibliography and textual criticism at Oxford University.Peter D. McDonald is university lecturer and tutorial fellow at St. Hugh's College, Oxford University.Michael F. Suarez, S.J. is associate professor of English at Fordham University.

What People are Saying About This

Michael Winship

Not only does McKenzie address major bibliographical issues in ways that question and reformulate fundamental assumptions and procedures, he also demonstrates just how bibliography illuminates an entire range of scholarship in literary, cultural, and political history. It is this breadth of perspective, which he everywhere insists on, that makes this an important collection, one that should have broad appeal.

Editorial Reviews

"Not only does McKenzie address major bibliographical issues in ways that question and reformulate fundamental assumptions and procedures, he also demonstrates just how bibliography illuminates an entire range of scholarship in literary, cultural, and political history. It is this breadth of perspective, which he everywhere insists on, that makes this an important collection, one that should have broad appeal."—Michael Winship, University of Texas, Austin

From the Publisher

Not only does McKenzie address major bibliographical issues in ways that question and reformulate fundamental assumptions and procedures,he also demonstrates just how bibliography illuminates an entire range of scholarship in literary,cultural,and political history. It is this breadth of perspective,which he everywhere insists on,that makes this an important collection,one that should have broad appeal.

Michael Winship

The problem of how to relate the history of book production to the considerations of literary studies occupied scholarly bibliographer McKenzie for his entire career. Ten of his previously published essays are presented here and reflect that concern and his advocacy for a theoretical viewpoint rooted in "the sociology of texts." Among the topics presented are how the investigation of work habits of 17th century printers calls into question previous bibliographic assumptions, the relation of the London book trade to book production, and theoretical considerations of the practice of bibliography. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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