Aids for editing Walden

Text and Genre in Reconstruction: Effects of Digitalization on Ideas, Behaviours, Products and Institutions

“…An interesting early suggestion of a dynamic system was provided by Todd Bender in 1976 and was echoed by Donald Ross Jr. in 1981. Both scholars conceived of formal textual editing as a computer project that 'should be set up and preserved in such a way that future scholars can return to it and use it in its electronic form' (Bender 1976b: 194).…”

How Literary Works Exist: Implied, Represented, and Interpreted

“…An interesting early suggestion of a dynamic system was provided by Todd Bender in 1976 and was echoed by Donald Ross Jr. in 1981. Both scholars conceived of formal textual editing as a computer project that 'should be set up and preserved in such a way that future scholars can return to it and use it in its electronic form' (Bender 1976b: 194). After analysing the Platonic orientation of modern textual criticism, as advocated at the time by the CEA (College English Association), and the incompatibility of this method in the case of modern literary texts where 'the printed page is inherently incapable of representing the work accurately or fully' (Bender 1976b: 194), Bender introduced computer technology as offering the possibility of retaining 'a version which more closely approximates the essence of a work without disregarding all the mutations which exist in the manuscript and printed representations ' (1976b: 194).…”