1960-1969

CamdenProfessor Carroll Camden begins planning for a new journal of literary criticism published by Rice University to meet the perceived demand for academic journals “devoted to the publication of English studies.” Since the “professional population has far exceeded, proportionately, the increase in periodicals,” backlogs of two or more years are common, and “in many cases” journals have had “to declare a virtual moratorium on acceptances.”

Photo: Carroll Camden, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

First CoverSEL Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 is launched. The first review essays are written by Arthur E. Barker (English Renaissance), Frank Kermode (Tudor and Stuart Drama), Donald J. Greene (Restoration and Eighteenth Century), and G. Robert Stange (Nineteenth Century).

Eighteenth century scholar, J. Paul Hunter, served as a graduate assistant to Professor Camden and worked on the first volume. He pointed out, at an anniversary reception, that the volume was not continuously numbered because the staff was not aware of that practice.

Featured article: Harry Berger Jr., “The Prospect of Imagination: Spenser and the Limits of Poetry”

Photo: Cover of Volume 1, Number 1

The second volume features a trio of influential articles from Maximillian E. Novak, Jack Stillinger and Eugene M. Waith.

Ronald Paulson writes the first of what will eventually be three review essays for Summer issues; the other two will appear in 1976 and 1983. Six people have published multiple reviews to date.

J. Hillis Miller publishes a two-part review of the nineteenth century, Autumn 1969 and Winter 1970. Average number of pages per volume during the decade: 621.