"Proofs of Genius: Collected Editions from the American Revolution to the Digital Age"is the first extensive study of the collected edition as an editorial genre within American literary history. Unlike editions of an author s selected works or thematic anthologies, which clearly indicate the presence of non-authorial editorial intervention, collected editions have typically been arranged to imply an unmediated documentary completeness. By design, the collected edition obscures its own role in shaping the cultural reception of the author.
In"Proofs of Genius," Amanda Gailey argues that...