Review 19: About Us
 


WHO WE ARE AND WHY WE'RE HERE
A MESSAGE FROM THE EDITORS

We are here to revolutionize academic reviewing. We aim to do so by assessing new books on English and American literature of the nineteenth century within ninety days of their publication, by inviting authors to respond to each review within thirty days of its submission, by linking key words in each review to other online sites, by posting relevant pictures along with our reviews, and by inviting comments from visitors to the site.

Background. On August 1 and 2, 2008, a proposal to launch an online review of books on literature was discussed at a conference generously sponsored by the Leslie Humanities Center of Dartmouth College (See list of participants below.) Incorporating the rationale for the conference as well as a number of suggestions that arose from it, we drafted a Prospectus that has been circulated to interested parties during the past year.

The Need. At present, most books published by university presses must wait at least two years to be reviewed in print by academic journals. In other words, academic reviewing remains bound to the glacial pace of printing schedules. We find this pace intolerably slow and grossly unfair to any author who has already spent several years writing a book, another year waiting to get it accepted, and still another year waiting to have it produced.

Our reviews so far.  Since launching the site in September 2009, we have posted just over 180 reviews as of 5 September 2011. For an update on this project as well as further news of online book reviewing generally, click above on NEWS.

Our reviewers. Ranging from doctoral candidates to chaired professors and emeriti, our reviewers constitute a cross section of specialists in literature. We strongly appreciate their exceptional contributions to this project and hope you will enjoy reading their work.

Books Announced and Topical Index. Every book that we review or plan to review is listed with its reviewer in the Books Announced list, which is alphabetical by author's surname. We also furnish a topic index to all the books reviewed.

Institutional Support. At Dartmouth College, the English Department, the Dean of the Humanities Division, and the Office of the Provost have generously funded this project.

Technical Support. Built by Geethmala Sridaran of India, an M.A. candidate in Computer Science at Dartmouth, this site is technically managed by Andy Foust, candidate for a Master’s degree in English at the University of Virginia.

Advisory and Editorial Boards. For the Advisory Board and Board of Editors, see the Masthead. We are enormously grateful to our advisers and editors for the indispensable part they have played in launching this review.

 

James Heffernan, Founding Editor 

Thomas Luxon, Associate Editor for Technical Guidance

 

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE CONFERENCE ON THE CASE FOR LAUNCHING

AN ONLINE REVIEW OF BOOKS ON LITERATURE

                                                August 1 and 2, 2008

 

REVIEW/ WEBSITE EDITORS:

 

George Landow, Professor of English, Brown University; Editor, The Victorian Web

Laura Mandell, Associate Professor of English, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio; Founding Editor of Nines, website for studies in nineteenth-century English and American culture

 

UNIVERSITY PRESS DIRECTORS AND EDITORS

 

Phyllis Deutsch, Editor in Chief, University Press of New England

Philip Pochoda, Director, University of Michigan Press

William P. Sisler, Director, Harvard University Press

 

REPRESENTATIVES OF GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN ENGLISH

AND COMPARATIVE LITERATURE

 

Pericles Lewis, Department of English, Yale University

Marianne Hirsch, Professor of Comparative Literature, Columbia University and former editor of PMLA.

 

DARTMOUTH PARTICIPANTS

 

James Heffernan, Emeritus Professor of English, Dartmouth College

Jeff Horrell, Librarian, Dartmouth College

Julie Lirot, Adjunct Professor of Spanish and Portugese

Elizabeth Kirk, Associate Librarian for Information Resources, Dartmouth College Library

Thomas Luxon, Department of English, Cheheyl Professor and Director, Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning

Adrian Randolph, Leon Williams Professor of Art History and Director, Leslie Humanities Center, Dartmouth College

David Seaman, Associate Librarian for Information Management, Baker-Berry Library, Dartmouth College

Thomas Summerall, President, Media-Lab

Mark Williams, Associate Professor and Chair of Film and Television Studies and Founding Editor, Journal of e-Media Studies.