A scholarly edition of letters and prose writings by William Cowper. The edition presents an authoritative text, together with an introduction, commentary notes, and scholarly apparatus.
When completed, this edition will contain about 1300 letters, 1000 of which will be printed from the original MSS. About two-thirds of the letters will contain material that has hitherto been unpublished.
A model of editorial tact, thoroughness, and clarity. Not only does it greatly enlarge the canon of Cowper's prose, it provides at every point, unobtrusively and economically, exactly what the reader needs: a chronology of Cowper's life at the beginning of each volume, brief introductory characterizations of the volume as a whole and of Cowper's individual correspondents during the relevant period, precise textual information, concise annotation, lists of letters included and of those known to be missing, a fine index...indispensable.
