Abraham Cowley. Line engraving by W. Faithorne, 1687, after Sir P. Lely. Wellcome Collection. Source: Wellcome Collection. Licence: Public Domain Mark.
Greg Clingham, Bucknell University
Joshua Swidzinski, University of Portland
The English poet Abraham Cowley (1618–1667) was one of the most popular and versatile writers of his era, an important witness to the English Civil Wars, and a significant influence upon seventeenth- and eighteenth-century writers such as Milton, Dryden, Behn, Pope, Swift, and Johnson (the last of whom deemed Cowley the finest of the metaphysical poets). In 1989, the University of Delaware Press began publishing a multi-volume edition of Cowley’s works comprising his poetry, prose, and plays, in English and Latin. The Collected Works of Abraham Cowley was intended to be the first complete modern edition of the poet’s writings, and two well-received volumes were published in 1989 and 1993. However, the project lapsed after the death of its founding editor, Thomas O. Calhoun.
With the support of the University of Delaware Press, a new team of editors will complete this much-needed edition through the publication of seven further volumes encompassing Cowley’s poetry, plays, prose, and letters. These volumes will also include works of questionable authorship often attributed to Cowley, seventeenth-century musical settings of his poetry, and influential accounts of the poet’s life published shortly after his death. When completed, the nine-volume Collected Works will be a valuable resource for undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars working in the fields of literature, history, and culture. The edition’s textual and critical commentary, assembled by qualified scholars from a variety of disciplines (literary studies, classics, history, and musicology), will represent a significant improvement over A. R. Waller’s The English Writings of Abraham Cowley (Cambridge, 1905–06), the most recent edition to have attempted (and even then, only partially) a full survey of Cowley’s influential body of work.
Niall Allsopp, University of Exeter
Liza Blake, University of Toronto
Ian Calvert, University of Bristol
Philip Hardie, University of Cambridge
Maggie Kilgour, McGill University
J. Daniel Kinney, University of Virginia
John Kuhn, Binghamton University
Alexander Lindsay, Independent Scholar
Victoria Moul, University College London / Sorbonne
Lois Potter, University of Delaware
Henry Power, University of Exeter
Caroline Spearing, University of Exeter
Ernest W Sullivan II, Virginia Tech
Thomas Ward, United States Naval Academy
Bryan White, University of Leeds
For further information, please contact swidzins@up.edu.