Sandra Donaldson in London for book launch

Sandra Donaldson, one of the world’s top scholars of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, is set for a London launch of her latest book about the world-famous poet. The book—Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning—was published in five volumes earlier this year by London-based Pickering and Chatto. The company is a top world publisher of critical editions of literary works, such as Donaldson’s latest Barrett Browning work. The London book launch is sponsored by the Browning Society.

“We will soon have an Elizabeth Barrett Browning Web site on the UND server,” said Donaldson, who is a Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor in the UND College of Arts and Sciences Department of English and an affiliate of the Women Studies Program. “Its primary feature will be full presentation of all versions of fourteen substantially revised poems in a manner that allows line by line comparison.”

Donaldson explains the project.

“Each project generates its own requirements,” she said. “This one involved my coordinating the efforts of half a dozen subeditors—scholars from the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom—as well as a great deal of original research and writing.”

It’s a complex task, especially in the case of a historically famous and popular writer such as Barrett Browning.

“An edition of an author’s works includes writing annotations for each item as well as several introductions—one for each poem or prose item, one for each collection within a volume, one for each volume, and one for the edition as a whole,” Donaldson said. “Or, actually, two for the edition overall, one providing critical and historical context and a second one describing editorial procedures, such as when we emend a text, how we chose the “copytext” or basis of a work, and similar decisions agreed to by us all beforehand.”

This painstaking process was undertaken for a very compelling reason.

“Surprisingly there had not been a complete scholarly edition of this famous and influential author’s works for over a century,” said Donaldson, who has published numerous scholarly studies about Barrett Browning and her work. “A very well researched scholarly edition had been produced in 1900, edited by Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke, in six volumes. They focused mainly on historical references and literary and biblical allusions. In the hundred or so years since that time, expectations for scholarly editions became considerably more demanding, particularly in terms of the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the materials included.”

Also, when the Brownings’ only child died, in 1912, no will was located and the numerous cousins and other relatives—Barrett Browning was the eldest of eleven children to survive to adulthood—could not agree about who would get what and how the poets’ books and manuscripts would be made available to the public, if at all, Donaldson explained.

“So an auction of their effects was held, spanning six full days. Individual letters and manuscripts went hither and yon because both poets were loved and admired by many,” she said.

“During the twentieth century most noted authors’ works received careful scholarly treatment; at present, for example, there are four versions of the collected works of Robert Browning underway,” Donaldson said. “That there had been none of Elizabeth’s in a hundred years seemed quite stunning. I agreed to coordinate the group, write the grant proposals, find a publisher, do whatever research and writing the other group members had not claimed, and generally keep us all on track.”

In addition to putting their work into a print edition, Donaldson and her literary cohorts are making good use of new digital media, .

“The Web site at UND that houses the collection substantially revised poems by Barrett Browning, with UND’s Crystal Alberts, the project’s technical editor. Over the course of the four volumes titled ‘Poems,’ Barrett Browning made either considerable or significant changes, for example, the small change to the title ‘An Island’ from ‘The Island’—small but significant. The project’s editorial associate is UND graduate Jane Stewart Laux, whose masters thesis involved examining the various versions of ‘An Island.’”

This is Donaldson’s second work on Barrett Browning in two years.

“Last year, Wedgeston Press published ‘Florentine Friends,’ co-edited with the general editor of ‘The Brownings’ Correspondence,’ Philip Kelley,” Donaldson said. “It’s a collection of letters that she wrote to a close friend in the last decade or so of her life, while the Brownings lived in Italy (1847-61). Most of the 232 letters are from Elizabeth; those from Robert reveal a warmth and cordiality not usually found in his correspondence. The work involved considerable original research and writing.”

Also last year, Donaldson unearthed a previously unknown manuscript of what is considered to be Barrett Browning’s masterpiece, “Sonnets from the Portuguese.”

“We identified a rough draft of one of the sonnets in a manuscript notebook that had been in private hands since 1915. This unique document is the author’s draft of ‘Sonnet Five,’ which opens ‘I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,’” Donaldson said.

Another of Donaldson’s works—“Critical Essays on Elizabeth Barrett Browning”—is listed on the Web among the “Top 10” books about the poet (see http://classiclit.about.com/od/browningelizabethbarrett/tp/aatp_ebbrowning.htm ).