Shirley Editorial Management

(some thoughts, based on the relationship established at the Shirley Editorial Workshop at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, July 2005)

Establishment of editorial principles, a process begun in the workshop where two sections of Shirley’s work were sample edited by two GEs and the whole Board discussed decisions and decided upon general principles. The GEs are in process of drafting editorial principles as the minutes of this Workshop dictate. The other members of the EB will then read and comment upon the draft editorial principles, the final version of which will be inaugurated at the next summer workshop. The draft principles have been informed by the Oxford Shakespeare, the Cambridge Jonson and the Penguin Shakespeare guidelines.
Establishment of timetable for the project. This was discussed at the 2005 workshop.
Board members have individual strengths which they have indicated that they are willing to put at the disposal of the EB as required. These include editorial and project management experience and expertise in specific fields of seventeenth-century culture. In forming the Board the GEs made a deliberate decision to include scholars with diverse skills.

The GEs are in the process of drafting editorial principles as were determined at the 2005 meeting of the EB.
Each GE will be responsible for the practical management of 3 (or 4 in some cases) volumes of the edition.
Each GE will read and comment on every submission for the Works, though the ultimate responsibility will lie with the GE into whose volume that submission falls.
At least one other member of the EB will read and comment upon every final submission.
Additionally the early sample scene which the CEs’ contracts stipulate will be circulated to the whole EB, and any improvements requested to and criticisms made of this will be at the joint request and authority of the EB. CEs will therefore be aware that the responses to their submissions are the corporate view of the Board, not the opinion of one individual.
As volume editors the GEs will enforce the timetable for their volumes. However, they will have the formal authority of the whole EB when faced with difficulties. On occasion the GEs may also, as appropriate, ask individual EB members to make informal contact with CEs.

Have been and will be invited to contribute by the GE of their volume, after discussion with the other GEs and the advice of the other members of the EB. Their primary practical contact will be with their GE, but it is made clear to them that their work is being submitted to the whole Board to review, not to the GE alone.
In one case, that of the Poems, the contributing editor will also be the editor of that volume. Timetabling and some editorial principles specifically relevant to this volume have been determined already in discussion with OUP, the GEs and the EB. One GE will, however, be responsible for ensuring that the volume is delivered on time and in accordance with the agreed principles.

Durham-based is the responsibility of Dr Ravelhofer
ARU-based the responsibility of Dr Giddens
It is the responsibility of Drs Ravelhofer and Giddens to read and feed appropriate research to the relevant GE so that it can be passed on to the CE.

The responsibility of Dr Grant
It is the responsibility of Dr Grant to read and feed appropriate research to the relevant GE so that it can be passed on to the CE.