So courteous conge both did give and take,
With right hands plighted, pledges of good will.
—The Faerie Queene, II.i.34.1-2
I don’t know if there’s precedent for an editor of The Spenser Review presuming to say goodbye, as though comings and goings in the office were a matter of consequence. I hope my break with this tradition of modesty won’t come across as hubris.
It seems to me that the emergence of this born-digital venue has been very much a collective work of the Spenser community. I feel lucky to have been there to facilitate and see it happen. All sorts of scholars, from all over the globe, have contributed, and the high quality of those contributions, to a venue whose history could confer little in the way of prestige, says something quite wonderful about the moment and the community that has made it happen.
I mean no disrespect to the previous embodiments of the Review. To roam through back issues online is to marvel at the dedication and intelligence of the editors, A. Kent Hieatt and Elizabeth Bieman, who mimeographed the first issue in the fall of 1970—and at that of the contributors, the corresponding editors, the editorial assistants, and the later editors, all of whom have kept this enterprise going, and thriving, for love and not for profit for the past 47 years.
I want to thank Julian Lethbridge, who did so much as Book Review Editor to broaden the international reach of the Review—an indispensable contribution. Washington University in St. Louis, in the persons of Joseph Loewenstein and Douglas Knox, has made everything possible with the technical support they provide. Jessica Junqueira has been the dream of what an editorial assistant might be. Richard Danson Brown, who continues as Book Review Editor, has been in equal parts conscientious, good-natured, and witty, all qualities that make the collaboration memorable.
Scholarship is sometimes described as lonely work, not without reason. Spenserians pride themselves on making the work less lonely, more collegial. There has been nothing lonely about my five years editing The Spenser Review, and for that I am grateful to you all.
To Jane Grogan and Andrew Hadfield, who along with Richard will take the Review into the future, thanks for your willingness to step up, and enthusiastic best wishes for your five years at the helm, with all the innovations that will bring!
47.3.40
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There has been nothing lonely about my five years editing The Spenser Review, and for that I am grateful to you all.
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