When
I was reading Godwin and the others, I kept a 4x6 notecard on each title I
read, and on that card I recorded not just the bibliographical information but
also where I acquired the title. As I turn over those Godwin cards now, I see the
wide array of sources my passion required.
I
used OhioLink, a consortium of Ohio’s academic libraries interlibrary loan, to
borrow Four Early Pamphlets, his play
Antonio, his novels Cloudesley: A Tale and Deloraine and Fleetwood; or, The New Man of Feeling Fables: Ancient and Modern (a
two-volume children’s book), “The Genius of Christianity Unveiled,” “Letter of
Advice to a Young American on the Course of Studies It Might Be Most
Advantageous for Him to Pursue” (on microform—took a trip to KSU Library to
print the document), Of Population, The Pantheon: or Ancient History of the
Gods of Greece and Rome (for children), Thoughts
on Man, His Nature, Productions, and Discoveries.
At
Cleveland Public Library, I found his Essay
on Sepulchres and Faulkener: A
Tragedy (microform); History of
Greece and History of Rome (for
children); Imogen: A Pastoral Romance;
Life of Geoffrey Chaucer; Life of Lady Jane Grey, and of Lord
Guildford, Her Husband (microform); Lives
of Edward and John Phillips, Nephews and Pupils of Milton; Lives of the Necromancers.
In
June 2001, Joyce and I drove to Athens, Ohio, to visit the special collections
division of the Ohio University Library, where I read Godwin’s children’s book The History of England, for the Use of Schools
and Young Persons.
From
the Huntington Library (San Marino, California) I acquired a photocopy of a key
letter from Godwin to his daughter Mary, dated 22 July 1823, the key letter
about the premiere on the London stage of Presumption;
or, The Fate of Frankenstein.
The
eminent Mary Shelley scholar Betty Bennett sent me a photocopy of Godwin’s
“Memoir of the Author,” a foreword to his son’s novel, Transfusion (1835).
As
I sit here now (June 2014), I imagine many (most? all?) of these documents are
now available in digital format. I’ll check something obscure, right now. Let’s
try The Life of Lady Jane Grey, which
I acquired about fifteen years ago … [mere
seconds pass] … yes … it’s available in a variety of formats. If I were
beginning this project now, I could sit at my desk and find just about every
Godwin document I need. It’s a powerful fact now (and an even more powerful cliché)
that scholarly research is so much quicker … though how much better? That still depends on the
complexity of the choreography of The Dance of the Scholar and His Sources.
Some
other Godwin titles I purchased online and kept on my shelf: Caleb Williams, St Leon, Damon and Delia,
The Enquirer: Reflections on Education,
Manners and Literature, Enquiry
Concerning Political Justice, Italian
Letters, Mandeville: A Tale of the
Seventeenth Century in England, Memoirs
of the Author of “The Rights of Woman.”
Later, on
an already stressed credit card, I added $150 for a Godwin signature (I framed
it with an engraving of him and one of Mary Wollstonecraft) and $556.30 to buy
the eight-volume Pickering & Chatto Collected
Novels and Memoirs of William Godwin. Among those memoirs is what surely
was the most painful book he ever wrote—a tribute to his late wife, Mary
Wollstonecraft. He tells the story of her life, of their meeting, of their
falling for each other: It was friendship
melting into love, he wrote.
Link to The Life of Lady Jane Grey ...
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