“A Merry Christmas” (1887) from Glances Backward
The following is an excerpt from Glances Backward: An Anthology of American Homosexual Writing, 1830-1920, edited by James J. Gifford. This anthology brings together in one volume a broad selection of nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century American writings about gay male love, including love stories, Westerns, ghostly tales, poetry, drama, essays, letters, and memoirs. We have…
Editing The Great Irish Famine
[Karen Sonnelitter reflects upon her experience editing her book in the Broadview Sources Series, The Great Irish Famine.] The greatest challenge of producing an edited primary source collection on the Irish Potato Famine is choosing what to include. The Famine is perhaps the most well-studied topic in Irish history, and reducing it to a brief introduction…
On Still Learning to Write
[Laurie McMillan, author of Focus on Writing shares her thoughts on the process of learning to write.] One of my healthiest coping mechanisms is my ability to laugh at myself. I had plenty of occasion to do so as I worked on Focus on Writing: What College Students Want to Know for Broadview Press. This composition textbook…
Where in the World/Conference Circuit is Broadview Press this Fall?
It is the start of a new term, so we bet you are all wondering which conferences we will be exhibiting at in the next few months. Here is the info on where you will be able to see us this fall: Jane Austen Society of North America AGM, Kansas City, September 28-30. This is our…
Trying to Make Sure Your Students Are On the Same Page
In recent years I’ve been hearing more and more frequently from academics across North America that they are having difficulty getting their students to work from the assigned texts. Even if a particular edition of Frankenstein or Utilitarianism is specified as required, many report that their students will often try to get by with a…
Quest of the Holy Grail and Medieval Manuscripts
[Judith Shoaf, editor of our new edition of Quest of the Holy Grail, shares some tips from her experience finding medieval manuscripts online and incorporating images into her new Broadview Edition.] In researching this translation of the Old French Quest of the Holy Grail, I had the luxury of being able to consult, from the comfort of…
On The Piazza Tales and Its Literary Contemporaries
[Brian Yothers, editor of our new edition of Melville’s Piazza Tales shares his thoughts on reading the stories in their literary contexts.] We often read “Bartleby, the Scrivener,” Herman Melville’s most famous short story, as if it is detached from the literary history of its time. One of Melville’s earliest reviewers, however, noted important connections among…
The New Face of Broadview’s Jane Austen
We imagine that you would be hard pressed to find a university campus in North America where Jane Austen is not taught. Indeed, the Broadview editions that we offer of her novels are among the most popular books that we publish. Because our Austen editions were published over a wide span of years, the covers―while…
Tracking Our Goals: Recycled Paper
Broadview has recently decided to more clearly identify and track some of our social and environmental goals, beginning with one particular area: the type of paper being used in our books. A number of environmental organizations (most notably the Environmental Paper Network and Canopy) have gathered data on the environmental impact of different sorts of…
R. v. Machekequonabe – From Canadian Cases in the Philosophy of Law
What follows is a case from the fifth edition of Canadian Cases in the Philosophy of Law. This new edition includes many contemporary and historical cases, making it easy for students to compare historical court decisions such as the below to those from the present day. R. v. Machekequonabe Ontario Court of Appeal (1897) 28 O.R. 309…
Editing Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy
[Koritha Mitchell, editor of our new edition of Frances E. W. Harper’s Iola Leroy, shares her thoughts on editing the text.] I have taught Iola Leroy almost every year since I joined the faculty at Ohio State University twelve years ago, so when I finally decided to prepare a scholarly edition of it, I was…
Spring 2018 Conferences
With the new year comes a whole new season of conferences. Here’s a list of where we’ll be, and when we’ll be there. We hope you will come by to say hello and pick up some new reads! January Modern Language Association January 4-7, New York, NY March Conference on College Composition and Communication March…
Reflections on Philosophy and Math
Eric Steinhart, author of More Precisely: The Math You Need to Do Philosophy, shares his thoughts on the new edition of his book, and the practice of using math in philosophy. Philosophers are increasingly using mathematical tools to make their arguments and to construct their theories. Analytic philosophers have long used mathematics, but recently philosophers usually…
A Toast to a New Stamp Act Sourcebook
What better way to celebrate a victory than with a series of toasts. A group calling themselves the Sons of Liberty did just that on the occasion of the repeal of the Stamp Act. This document is included in Jonathan Mercantini’s newly published The Stamp Act of 1765, the second title to appear in the…
“avowedly a literary orgie:” A Contemporary Review of A Marriage Below Zero
The following is a review of A Marriage Below Zero published in Belford’s Magazine in June of 1889 upon the novel’s first publication. This review, among others, is featured in our new edition of A Marriage Below Zero, edited by Richard A. Kaye. In producing this book the writer, who wisely conceals his identity under an evident pseudonym, has touched…
The Socialist Circle of 1880’s London: Engels on A City Girl
The following is an excerpt from Appendix A of our recently published edition of Margaret Harkness’s A City Girl, in which Friedrich Engels responds to the novel. [The following letter from Friedrich Engels (1820–95) to Harkness about A City Girl has perhaps generated more concentrated attention from critics than the novel itself. Engels, the German-born philosopher…
Fall 2017 Conferences
Like many of you, Broadview is also preparing to attend some conferences this fall. This is when and where you’ll be able to find us in the next few months. Don’t forget to drop by our table to see what’s new! September SUNY Council on Writing Conference September 8-9, Onondaga Community College, NY Global Reformations…
On Editing Mary Shelley’s Mathilda
[Michelle Faubert, editor of our new edition of Mary Shelley’s Mathilda, shares her thoughts on editing the text.] Editing Mary Shelley’s Mathilda (1819; first published 1959) for Broadview Press has been hugely exciting for me, not least because I transcribed it from the manuscript. In 1959, Elizabeth Nitchie first transcribed Mathilda for publication from a…
Pedagogy and International Students
I thought I would write this week about the extraordinary growth over the past generation in the number of international students attending North American universities, the pedagogical challenges this growth has presented—and about one aspect of the latest edition of our Broadview Anthology of Expository Prose that represents a response to these challenges. Thirty years ago EAL*…
A Change to the Managing Editorship of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature
On August 1st 2017, in its 11th year of publication, the Managing Editorship of The Broadview Anthology of British Literature will be changing hands. The anthology was conceived of and spearheaded by Don LePan, founder and CEO of Broadview Press. His Managing Editor role will now be taken on by Laura Buzzard, Senior Editor at…
The Evolution of the Writing Handbook
Broadview’s most successful book thus far this year is the sixth edition of our Broadview Guide to Writing. It’s a success that I’m sure has come in large part as a result of They Say / I Say authors Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s comment on the latest edition: “Even the most useful reference guides…
Charlotte Smith’s “tender and exquisite effusions”
[To celebrate the recent publication of our new edition of Charlotte Smith: Major Poetic Works, we are sharing an excerpt from a review included in the appendices of the new edition. This glowing review was published in Gentlemen’s Magazine in April of 1786, in response to Smith’s Elegiac Sonnets.] It has been suggested by a…
Celebrating Canada Book Day with Lucy Maud Montgomery
To celebrate Canada Book Day this year, we thought we would share a brief excerpt from one of our favourite Canadian writers, Lucy Maud Montgomery! The following is excerpted from Appendix B of our edition of Anne of Green Gables, “Montgomery on Writing:‘The Way to Make a Book.’” Write, I beseech you, of things cheerful,…
Conferences for Spring 2017
Broadview will be exhibiting at the following conferences in the next two months. For those attending, be sure to stop by the book display to say hello! APRIL: APA Pacific April 12-15 in Seattle, WA Victorian Studies Association of Western Canada April 28-29 in Vancouver, BC May: International Congress on Medieval Studies May 11-14 in…