An Edition of the Prose Letters of John Donne

FAIN: FT-53871-06

Marvin Thomas Hester
North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC 27695-0001)

Readers wishing to read or to study the prose letters of Donne face three problems: (1) the canon of his letters has not been established, (2) the many artifacts are widely scattered and not readily accessible, and (3) the texts of the letters are either difficult to read (because of 17th-century manuscript conventions) or unreliable (because of corruption by 17th- century and modern editors). This edition of all surviving Donne letters will solve these problems by (1) establishing the authorship and dates of Donne's letters, (2) collecting them in order, along with related items of use and interest to readers of Donne's letters, and (3)providing the most reliable and readable texts possible of all these documents.