In 1931 The Press Launched Two Definitive Works in Poetry: The Works of John Milton and the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series
In observance of International Poetry Month, today’s Throwback Thursday takes us back eighty-seven years when the Press launched the first volumes of two definitive works in poetry.
The Works Of John Milton
In 1931, Columbia University Press published the first four volumes of what eventually became a definitive eighteen-volume edition of John Milton’s works. By its completion in 1938, Columbia’s Works of John Milton became the premiere completed edition. An early review said that it “would have delighted the artistic and fastidious poet himself.”
The Anglo Saxon Poetic Record series
In 1931, the Press also inaugurated the Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records series with The Junius Manuscript edited George Phillip Krapp. The Anglo-Saxon Poetic Records, which included six volumes, was intended to include every surviving poetic work in old English. It remains the standard reference work for Old English Poetry to this day.
The contents of both of these works are available on The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry Online.
