Michael Suarez
University Professor; Professor of English; Director, Rare Book School; Hon. Curator, UVA Special Collections
114 Alderman Library
Office Hours: Tuesdays from 2:30 to 4:30, Pavilion III.
Class Schedule: Tu 5:00pm - 7:30pm
Degrees
1995–99: D.Phil. in English Literature, Oxford University.
1994–95: M.St. in English Literature, Oxford University.
1993–94: Th.M. [with distinction], Weston Jesuit School of Theology, Cambridge MA.
1990–93: M.Div. [with distinction], Weston Jesuit School of Theology.
1987–88: philosophical studies: prolegomenon to theology, Fordham University.
1984–87: B.A./M.A. Oxon. [first class hons.], English Language and Literature,Oxford University.
1978–82: B.A. [Departmental hons.], triple major in biology, English literature, sociology, Bucknell University.
Books
Co-Editor (with Lesley Higgins), The Dublin Notebook, Volume 7 of The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins (Oxford University Press, 2014), xxii +1–304pp.
Co-General Editor (with Henry Woudhuysen), The Book: A Global History (Oxford UP, 2013), xx + 748pp.
Co-General Editor (with Henry Woudhuysen), The Oxford Companion to the Book. (Oxford University Press, 2010), 2 vols., lxii + 1,327pp. This million-word reference work was published in February 2010. Reviews (selected): the Bookdealer (“monumental” “hard to over-praise”); Booklist (starred review, “highly recommended”); the Independent (“food for endless thought about the past, present and future of the written text”); the Sunday Telegraph (“colossal” “a paradise for book lovers”); the Wall Street Journal (“a fount of knowledge where the Internet is but a slot machine”). American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association Outstanding Reference Source winner.
Co-Editor (with Michael Turner), The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume 5, 1695–1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2009), xxvi + 1,020pp. Selected as a Best Book of the Year in the Times Literary Supplement.
Co-General Editor (with Lesley Higgins), The Collected Works of Gerard Manley Hopkins. This eight-volume project, the first ever ‘complete works’ edition, is in progress for Oxford University Press, 2006–17.
Co- Editor (with Peter D. McDonald), Making Meaning: “Printers of the Mind” and Other Essays, by D. F. McKenzie (U. of Massachusetts Press [Studies in Print Culture and the History of the Book]), 2002. Reviews in Le Monde (Paris), The Times Literary Supplement (London), The New York Review of Books, etc. A modified version of the Introduction has been translated into Italian (Milano, 2002).
Consultant Editor, The Oxford Chronology of English Literature, Michael Cox, gen. ed. (Oxford University Press, 2002). In addition to being in charge of the eighteenth-century and commissioning period advisors, I provided more general expertise for the planning and execution of the volume.
Advisory Editor, The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 6th. edn., Margaret Drabble, gen. ed. (Oxford University Press, 2000).
Editor, A Collection of Poems by Several Hands (1782) 6 vols. (London: Routledge/Thoemmes Press, 1997).
Books in Progress
Co-General Editor (with James McLaverty, Valerie Rumbold, Marcus Walsh, and H. R. Woudhuysen), The Collected Works of Alexander Pope, 23 vols. for Oxford University Press.
The Reach of Bibliography The Lyell Lectures in Bibliography at Oxford University (Oxford University Press, 2017).
Digital Projects
Editor-in-Chief, Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (OSEO), Oxford University Press, 2010– , a twelve-year project producing hundreds of digital scholarly editions, creating fully searchable digital corpora with expert markup and unprecedented interrogation capabilities. See http://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/. I led the design, development, and implementation strategies for the project. Some 950 editions (more than 50,000 works) are online to date. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1T2OrTkstc. A Library Journal review called OSEO “game-changing.” For an introduction to the project and its scholarly rationale, see:
Chapters in Books
“Alice and Global Bibliography: Reading the Whole Book,” in Alice in a World of Wonderlands, Jon A. Lindseth, gen. ed, and Alan Tannenbaum, technical ed., 3 vols (New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press, 2015), 1:42–6.
“How to Read a Bibliography: Using Descriptive Bibliographies for Book-Historical Research,” in The Cambridge Companion to the History of the Book, Leslie Howsam, ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2014), 199–218.
“The Book Trade”, in Samuel Johnson in Context, Jack Lynch ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 134–42.
“To What Degree Did the Statute of Anne (8 Anne, c. 19, [1709]) Effect Commercial Practices of the Book Trade in Eighteenth-Century England? Some Provisional Answers about Copyright, Chiefly from Bibliography and Book History,” in Global Copyright: Three Hundred Years Since the Statute of Anne, from 1709 to Cyberspace, Lionel Bently, Uma Suthersanen, and Paul Torremans, eds. (Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2010).
“Jonathan Swift’s Uses of the Bible,” in The Blackwell Companion to the Bible in English Literature, Christopher Rowland, et al., eds. (Oxford: Blackwell’s Publishing, 2009).
Introduction, “The Worldliness of Print,” and three chapters: Chapter 1, “Toward a Bibliometric Analysis of the Surviving Record, 1701–1800;” Chapter 34, “Publishing Contemporary English Literature, 1695–1774;” and Chapter 49, “Mining the Archive: A Guide to Present and Future Book-Historical Research Resources,” in Suarez & Turner, eds., The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Volume 5, 1695–1830 (CUP, 2009) [see above].
“‘The most Blasphemous Book that ever was Publish’d’: Ridicule, Reception, and Censorship in Eighteenth-Century England,” in The Commonwealth of Books: Essays and Studies in Honour of Ian Willison, ed. Wallace Kirsop (Melbourne: Centre for the Book, Monash University [distributed by The British Library], 2007), 48–77.
“Mock-Biblical Satire from Medieval to Modern,” in A Companion to Satire from the Biblical World to the Present, Ruben Quintero, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell’s Publishing, 2006), 525–49.
“Swift’s Satire and Parody” in The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Swift, Christopher Fox, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 112–27.
“Extended Evidence: D. F. McKenzie and the Forms of Bibliographical Knowledge” in Books and Bibliography: Essays in Commemoration of Don McKenzie, John Thomson, ed. (Wellington: Victoria University Press, 2002), 36–56. A modified version of this essay has been translated into Italian, “D. F. McKenzie e le forme di conoscenza bibliographia,” and used for the Introduction to Stampatori della mente, the second volume of a two-volume edition of McKenzie’s selected essays in Italian, published by Edizioni Sylvestre Bonnard (Milano, 2003), 7–27 [ISBN 88-86842-57-0].
“The Production and Consumption of the Eighteenth-Century Poetic Miscellany” in Books and Their Readers in Eighteenth-Century England--Volume 2, Isabel Rivers, ed. (London: Continuum, 2001), 217–51.
“The Business of Literature: The Book Trade in England from Milton to Blake,” in A Companion to English Literature from Milton to Blake, David Womersley, ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000), 131–47.
“‘In dreams begins responsibility’: Novels, Promises, and the Electronic Editor.” Textual Studies and the Common Reader, Alexander Pettit, ed. (Athens, GA and London: University of Georgia Press, 2000), 160–79.
“‘This Necessary Knowledge’: Thomas Chatterton and the Ways of the London Book Trade.” Thomas Chatterton, and Romantic Culture, Nick Groom, ed. (London: Macmillan Press, Ltd., 1999), 96–118.
Editor of works by Swift and Pope in The Longman’s Anthology of English Literature (New York, Addison/Wesley/Longman, 1998) [editing, modernizing, annotating, and writing head notes for more than 200 printed pages of text].
“Samuel Johnson’s Christian Thought.” The Cambridge Companion to Samuel Johnson, Greg Clingham, ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 192–208.
Syndicated in the Fulcrum web site, September 2007: www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk
Fifteen signed entries: “Biblical Criticism,” “Caricature,” “Samuel Clarke,” “Clerical Profession,” “Congregationalism,” “George Cruikshank,” “Philip Doddridge,” “Evangelicalism,” “William Hogarth,” “Latitudinarianism,” “Robert Lowth,” “Political Prints,” “Religious Revivalism,” “Thomas Rowlandson,” and “Sermons.” Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714-1837: An Encyclopedia, Gerald Newman, gen. ed. New York: Garland Publishing, 1997). I was made a Consulting Editor for the Encyclopedia in 1993.
“Asserting the Negative: ‘Child’ Clarissa and the Problem of the ‘Determined Girl’,” in New Essays on Samuel Richardson, Albert J. Rivero, ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996), 69–84.
“Trafficking In The Muse: Dodsley’s Collection Of Poems and the Question of Canon,” in Tradition in Transition: Women Writers, Marginal Texts, and the Eighteenth-Century Canon,
Alvaro Ribeiro and James G. Basker, eds. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 297–313.
“Against Satan, Sin, and Death: Thomas Traherne and the ‘Inward Work’ of Conversion,” in Reform and Counterreform: The Dialectics of the Religious Imagination, John C. Hawley, ed. (Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1994), 77–103.
“Hymen’s Muse: Eighteenth-Century Marriage Dialogues and the Poetics of Power,” in Compendious Conversations: The Method of Dialogue in the Early Enlightenment, K. L. Cope, ed. (Frankfurt and New York: Peter Lang International, 1992), 105–15.
Journal Articles (selected)
“Hard Cases: Confronting Bibliographical Difficulty in Eighteenth-Century Texts,” forthcoming in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 110 (2016).
“Secular Lessons: Biblical Satire, Parody, Imitation, and Emulation in Eighteenth-Century Chronicles of British Politics,” The Age of Johnson, A Scholarly Annual, 19 (2008): 69–128.
“John Clare’s Career and the Early Nineteenth-Century English Book Trade,” (co-authored with Sarah M. Zimmerman) Studies in Romanticism 45 (2006): 377–96.
“Historiographical Problems and Possibilities in Book History and National Histories of the Book,” Studies in Bibliography 56 (2003-2004 [2006]): 141–70.
“A Crisis in English Public Life: the Popish Plot, Naboth’s Vineyard (1679), and Mock-Biblical Satire’s Exemplary Redress,” Huntington Library Quarterly 67.4 (December, 2004): 529–52.
“Uncertain Proofs: Alexander Pope, Lewis Theobald, and Questions of Patronage,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 96 (2002): 404–34.
“‘The odious, canting, worthless author of this book’: Edmond Malone’s Annotations to Sir John Hawkins’ Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1787),” The Yale University Library Gazette 77 (2002): 22–38. This article is a reprint of the keepsake to mark 55th annual meeting of The Johnsonians, September 2001, The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University (privately printed by the university printer).
“English Book Sale Catalogues as Bibliographical Evidence: Methodological Considerations Illustrated by a Case Study in the Provenance and Distribution of Dodsley’s Collection of Poems, 1750-1795,” The Library, 6th ser., 21 (1999): 321–60.
“The Shortest Way to Heaven? Moll Flanders’ Repentance Reconsidered,” 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, & Inquiries in the Early Modern Era 3 (1997): 3–28.
“A New Collection of English Recusant Manuscript Poetry from the Late-Sixteenth Century: Extraordinary Devotion in the Liturgical Season of ‘Ordinary Time’,” Yale University Library Gazette, 69 (1994): 42–52. An expanded version of this article appears in Recusant History 22 (1995): 306–18.
“Dodsley’s Collection of Poems and the Ghost of Pope: The Politics of Literary Reputation,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 88 (1994): 189–206.
“What Thomas Knew: Chatterton and the Business of Getting into Print,” Angelaki 1 (1994): 83–94.
“Making History: William Temple and the Politics of Publishing,” The Book Collector 42 (1993): 213–28. Reprinted with permission in Yale University Library Gazette, 68 (1993): 43–59.
“Bibles, Libels, and Bute: The Development of Scriptural Satire in the 18th-Century Political Print,” The Age of Johnson, A Scholarly Annual 5 (1992): 341–89.
Book Reviews
Signed reviews in: Modern Philology, The Times Literary Supplement, The Times Higher Education Supplement, The Library, Johnsonian News Letter, Review of English Studies, and Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Poetry
Original works have appeared in publications from America magazine to The Wallace Stevens Journal.
Institutional Work (selected)
Member, Board of Trustees, The Library Company of Philadelphia, 2014–
Member, Advisory Board, Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program (The David M. Rubenstein Prize, The American Prize, and The International Prize) 2014–
President, Phi Beta Kappa, University of Virginia (Beta of Virginia), 2016– (VP, 2013–16)
The Bibliographical Society of America, Member of Council (i.e., Trustee), 2013–
Planning Committee, International Summit of the Book, Library of Congress, 2012
Member, Board of Managers, Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University (lifetime trustee, 2011– )
Member, Editorial Boards: Material Texts, U. of Pennsylvania Press; The Library; The Library of the Written Word, the Handpress World, Brill Press (Leiden); Religion in the Age of Enlightenment; Journal of Scholarly Publishing; and manuscriptlink (http://tundra.csd.sc.edu/manuscriptlink_prod/).
External Consultant, Digital Miscellanies Index, http://digitalmiscellaniesindex.org/
Secretary, The James Marshall Osborn Research Fellowship Nominating Committee, The Beinecke Library, Yale University, 2001–06
Member, Selection Committee, Ralph Waldo Emerson Award, Phi Beta Kappa, 2013– .
Member, Selection Committee, Louis Gottschalk Prize, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2011; Committee Chair, 2012.
President, Northeast American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (NEASECS), 2002.
Elected Member, Executive Board (Trustee), NEASECS, 2005–8; 2009–12.
Trustee, Canisius College, Buffalo, NY, 2002–08.
Chair, Academic Affairs Committee & member, Executive Committee, 2007–08 academic year.
Fellowship referee, The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, 2007– .
Founding Member and Secretary, The McKenzie Trust, Oxford, 1996–present.
Honors, Grants, and Awards (selected)
Nominee, National Council on the Humanities, 2015. Nominated by President Barack Obama (August 2015) to a seat on this body, which functions as the board of the NEH. (Confirmed by the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee of the U.S. Senate, but never voted on by the full Senate.)
Distinguished Presidential Fellow, Council on Library and Information Resources, 2015–16. I am working on humanities digitization, digital curation, and mentoring CLIR post-doctoral fellows.
Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2014. PI for $279,830 grant from IMLS (Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program) to fund fellowships to help educate and contribute to the professional development of early-career special collections librarians, particularly from minority groups or from institutions serving minorities.
The Fredson Bowers Award of the Bibliographical Society of America, 2014.
Elected to the J. P. R. Lyell Readership in Bibliography, Oxford University, 2014–15,
“The Reach of Bibliography: Looking Beyond Letterpress in Eighteenth-Century Texts.” See: http://livestream.com/oxuni/lyell
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. PI for $896,000 grant to support the Mellon Fellowship in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School, 2013–15; for a 2nd grant of $783,000 to support a 2nd cohort of Fellows, 2014–16; and for a third grant of $757,000 to support a 3rd cohort, 2015–17.
American Printing History Association Annual Award, 2012. Given “for a distinguished contribution to the study, recording, preservation or dissemination of printing history.”
Elected Member, American Antiquarian Society, 2011; Massachusetts Historical Society, 2014.
Outstanding Reference Source, American Library Association’s Reference and User Services Association, the Oxford Companion to the Book (Oxford University Press, 2010).
A Best Book of the Year, Times Literary Supplement, 2009, 2010, 2012.
for The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain Volume 5, 1695–1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2009), Oxford Companion to the Book (Oxford University Press, 2010) & Oxford Scholarly Editions Online (2012– ).
Research Fellowships from: the Folger Shakespeare Library; the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University; the National Endowment for the Humanities; the American Council of Learned Societies; the Bibliographical Society (London); the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University; the Bibliographical Society of America, &c.
Overseas Research Award, 1994–97. Committee of Vice-Chancellors of the Universities of the UK.
Finalist, Samuel Levinson Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching, Harvard University, 1992, 1993. Certificate of Distinction for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Harvard University, 1992.
National Endowment for the Humanities [NEH] Summer Fellow, 1990.
Marshall Scholar, Oxford University, 1984–87.
Sir Roger Newdigate Poetry Prize, Oxford University, 1987. The Newdigate is the oldest poetry prize in the English-speaking world. (Other recipients include Matthew Arnold, Oscar Wilde, and the recent British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.)
Chancellor’s English Essay Prize, Oxford University, 1987. In 1987, I became the first person in the history of Oxford University to win both the Newdigate and the Chancellor’s prizes in the same year.
Other poetry awards include: The Foley Poetry Award, America Magazine; The Firman Houghton Award, The New England Poetry Club; and The Martin Starkie Poetry Prize, Oxford University Poetry Society.
Other Oxford University prizes include: The Matthew Arnold Memorial Prize for Literary Criticism; The Jane Willis Kirkaldy Prize for the History of Science; & The Gordon Duff Prize for Bibliography.