The Autobiography of Anthony Wood

FAIN: FA-50016-04

Nicolas K. Kiessling
Washington State University (Pullman, WA 99164-0001)

I am editing the autobiography of Anthony Wood (1632-1695), the Oxford historian whose publications and notes for posthumous publications remain our major source of information about Oxford University and daily life in Oxford before 1695. Wood's commitment to writing clear unadorned prose and to present the truth as he saw it, along with his introduction of a genre new to England, the bio-bibliography, set him apart from his contemporaries and looked forward to practices which are standard today. His need to write the "truth" led to problems: a formal trial, expulsion from the University, and the public burning of the second volume of his Athenae Oxonienses. Manuscripts of the autobiography survive in two versions, and none of the previous four editions, the last of which was published in 1891-94, has taken into account the changes from the first to the second versions. I will present an edition with a clean text of Wood's narrative followed by textual notes and commentary in appendices. In the introduction I will discuss how he presented himself, what he thought were challenges and achievements, why he chose his details, and what he rejected or overlooked. Wood was not an elitist and regarded himself as an outsider in Oxford. He graduated from Merton College, but he was not invited to be an active member of the college. Yet he numbered among his acquaintances a host of Oxford persons as well as others such as Elias Ashmole, John Aubrey, William Dugdale, and Increase Mather. He is a marvelous example of a person who discovered a purpose, dedicated himself to that purpose, and accomplished far more than any of the university scholars who marginalized him because he was neither of their class nor a full member of the university. His autobiography ends in the year 1672, and I will reconstruct the latter years, to 1695, from his own words as he recorded them in his diaries, in his annotations in his personal collection of printed books, and in his manuscripts.

Associated Products

The Life of Anthony Wood in his own Words (Book)
Title: The Life of Anthony Wood in his own Words
Abstract: Anthony Wood is one of the most colorful and informative chroniclers of seventeenth-century Britain. He describes the skirmishes between parliamentarian and royalist forces in the 1640s and the return of King Charles II in 1660. His account of his own life is peppered with famous people, including Christopher Wren and John Locke
Year: 2009
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/life-of-anthony-wood-in-his-own-words/oclc/318873982&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: World Cat URL
Publisher: Bodleian Library, Oxford
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9781851243082

The Autobiographies of Anthony Wood (Article)
Title: The Autobiographies of Anthony Wood
Author: Nicolas K. Kiessling
Abstract: An analysis of the manuscripts of Wood's autobiography.
Year: 2006
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/the-autobiographies-of-anthony-wood/oclc/123737939&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: World Cat
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Bodleian Library Record
Publisher: Bodleian Library, Oxford

The anatomy of melancholy (Book)
Title: The anatomy of melancholy
Author: Kiessling, Nicolas K.
Primary URL: https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=9780198123309
Primary URL Description: WorldCat entry
Publisher: Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780198123309

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