570 College & Research Libraries November 1990 can teach students about the library as it speare'' is used in at least three different exists now, and we can communicate the ways: to refer to the historic person, to notion that libraries are organized system­ "the man and his works," and "to some atically and that these systems can be kind of socio-cultural or spiritual origin, learned, but we cannot pretend that the source, or presence." The last of these he skills we teach will be valid for life.-Eva links with the nostalgic bent of much Sartori, University of Nebraska, Lincoln. scholarship in the humanities. America's adoption of Shakespeare in the nine­ Bristol, Michael D. Shakespeare's America, teenth century provided ''an otherwise America's Shakespeare. London, New lacking depth of cultural tradition'' for the York: Routledge, 1990. ix, 237p. $40 new nation, "in relation to the European (ISBN 0-415-01538-3). LC 89-6057. longue dunk" Gibson, James M. The Philadelphia Shake­ It was Emerson who most clearly voiced speare Story: Horace Howard Furness and the American attraction to Shakespeare's the Variorum Shakespeare. New York: ''originality,'' ''expressive autonomy,'' AMS Press, 1990. viii, 308p. alk. paper, and "moral sentiment, a natural impulse $42.50 (ISBN 0-404-62293-3) LC 87­ towards higher forms of emulation or of 45801 (AMS Studies in the Renaissance; self-interest,'' which seemed to coincide 23) with the promise offered by life in the Shakespeare is one of the most success­ New World. Bristol goes on to show how ful products ever imported into America; Emerson's ideas were adopted and so successful, in fact, that the interna­ adapted by prominent American Shake­ tional Shakespeare industry (comprised spearian scholars, including George Ly­ of scholarship, production, and tourism) man Kittredge, Arthur Oncken Lovejoy, is now largely supported by Americans, and Hardin Craig, down to the present. with the Japanese beginning to run a Emerson also had a profound influence strong second. The history of America's on both Horace Howard Furness and adoption of Shakespeare is examined in Henry Clay Folger, and it is Bristol's chap­ two new books that complement each ter on "The Function of the Archive" that other in their coverage and style. Michael will most interest librarians. He begins by Bristol's Shakespeare's America explores the discussing the paradox of libraries: the philosophical and cultural background conservative principles of their construc­ that gave rise to Shakespearemania in the tion ''as the expression of large monopo­ nineteenth century and that has sup­ listic accumulations of wealth and ported its various manifestations down to power," which contrarily make possible the present day. James Gibson's The Phila­ "the creation of radical, action-orienting delphia Shakespeare Story focuses on the life research programs." He touches on the and work of one man who almost single­ funding of public libraries by the Carnegie handedly shifted the responsibility of Foundation during the later nineteenth Shakespeare scholarship from the Old century and explores in more detail the World to the New. concurrent development of great private A professor of English at McGill Univer­ libraries, such as those of Furness and sity, Bristol approaches his subject with a Folger. degree of critical jargon that some outside Bristol shows how Furness's library and the academy may find offputting. It is editorial project were tied to the social re­ worth bearing with him, however, be­ lationships among American and British cause his Marxist slant gives rise to a intelligentsia at the time, and to the found­ healthy degree of scepticism. His probing ing of the English Department at the Uni­ questions about the reasons for America's versity of Pennsylvania. This institution­ bardolatry impinge on the current argu­ alizing of literary study would provide the ment about the canon, which has recently death knell to the gentleman scholar. Bris­ made its way out of the ivory tower and tol then explores the relationship between onto the pages of the popular press. Bris­ Folger's private collecting project and the tol points out that the term "Shake- public politics of his library's Washington Recent Publications 571 setting and goes on to discuss the changes with materials from his own collection, in the philosophy governing development but also recommended the London book­ and use of the collection under its early li­ dealer, Alfred Russell Smith. Through brarians, Joseph Quincy Adams and Louis Smith, Furness purchased many of his B. Wright. He reminds us that "special­ treasures, including the First, Third, and ized research libraries exert a shaping in­ Fourth Folios from the Corser Library sale fluence on scholarly research through pol­ in 1871; he also obtained the 1611 Hamlet icies that decide not only what is worth and three Pavier Quartos, "which had be­ collecting but also what constitutes a com­ longed to the Shakespearian editor plete and coherent body of materials." In Edward Capell." By the mid-1870s he had the end, however, although "Libraries over 2,000 volumes, and "his collection of can lock their doors1 or . . . restrict access German and French editions of Shake­ to their resources . . . libraries as orga­ speare . . . {was] judged to be the most nized collections of books and other arti­ complete in the United States." facts cannot directly control what their cli­ Along with the history of these ents will produce." nineteenth-century Shakespearian collec­ While Bristol examines the philosophi­ tions and of the social relationships cal background and cultural context of pri­ among scholars and bibliophiles in this vate collecting in the nineteenth century, period, librarians will find much to profit James Gibson provides a detailed and from in Bristol's description of the chang­ readable account of one Shakespeare col­ ing cultural climate that has given rise to lector, Horace Howard Furness. The son the various movements in Shakespeare of a prominent Abolitionist Unitarian min­ criticism down to our day.-Georgianna ister, and himself a student of law, Fur­ Ziegler, University of Pennsylvania, Philadel­ ness carne from a genteel and cultured, phia, ·Pennsylvania. though not scholarly, background. He was thus typical of many "gentleman Kimball, Roger. Tenured Radicals: How scholars'' of the period, though what be­ Politics Has Corrupted Our Higher Educa­ gan for him as a kind of hobby grew into a tion. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. lifelong obsession that would have been 204p. $18.95 (ISBN 0-06-016190). LC 89­ the death of many university men. His ini­ 45049. tial dabbling with the Bard at meetings of American educational institutions have the Shakespeare Society of Philadelphia come under much scrutiny in recent (all males, mainly of the legal persuasion) years, often in the form of trenchant criti­ led to his first venture at editing a Shake­ cism of aims and objectives, as well as of spearian text (Romeo an1 Juliet, 1871) and methods. While much attention has been eventually to his establishment of the first focused on elementary and secondary ed­ fifteen volumes of the monumental vario­ ucation, higher education has certainly rum Shakespeare. not been spared. Allan Bloom's The ·Clos­ In a period in which Henry Clay Folger ing ofthe American Mind set the tone for an was just beginning his collection, no ongoing controversy, of which academic American library had the resources to sup­ librarians need to be aware. port such a scholarly undertaking as the Roger Kimball, managing editor of The variorum. Furness accordingly set out to New Criterion, attempts here to ride this re­ form his own collection. His first attempt, cent wave of criticism. Kimball is espe­ a bid to purchase ''the Shakespearian por­ cially critical of ''recent developments in tion of the library of Thomas Pennant Bar­ the academic study of the humanities," ton,'' failed when a decision was reached especially deconstruction, feminist stud­ not to split the collection but to sell the ies, and other movements to undermine whole to the Boston Public Library. Fur­ the traditional canon of liberal studies. He ness received help in his endeavor, how­ regales us with illustrations of the obscu­ ever, from the British Shakespeare scholar rity or just plain silliness of many of the and bibliographer, J. 0. Halliwell-Phil­ latest modes of criticism, especially liter­ lipps, who not only provided Furness ary criticism, but his indictment goes