Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Bibliography, Cultural Studies, And Rare Book Librarianship: Tennyson's "Crossing The Bar" And The Cultural Significance Of Unauthoritative Texts, Patrick G. Scott

Faculty Publications

For a conference discussion of textual bibliographers and rare book librarians on the topic "Who needs textual studies?," this paper examines three different appearances of Alfred Tennyson's poem "Crossing the Bar": (1) a manuscript facsimile, (ii) its reuse as a hymn and in a giftbook; and (iii) the paperback Armed Services Edition distributed to US troops overseas during World War II, and argues that with the shift from literary studies to cultural studies such later "unauthoritative texts" have a new importance for scholars and students, and deserve increased attention from bibliographers, collectors, and rare book librarians. Originally presented at the …