An Edition of the Prose Letters of John Donne

FAIN: RQ-50223-06

North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC 27695-0001)
Marvin Thomas Hester (Project Director: November 2005 to November 2017)

An edition of the Prose Letters of John Donne. (24 months)

Anyone wishing to read or to study the prose letters of the English poet and preacher John Donne (1572-1631) faces three difficulties: the canon of his letters has not been established, the many artifacts are widely scattered and often inaccessible, and the texts of the letters are either difficult to read or unreliable. This edition will establish the authorship and dates of his letters, collect them in order (along with related items of use to students and scholars of letters), and provide the most reliable and readable texts possible of these documents; equally important, this first complete edition of Donne's letters will make them accessible by providing their biographical, cultural, historical, political, and theological context.