Textual Studies and the Enlarged Eighteenth Century: Precision as Profusion

Kevin L. Cope is professor of English and of comparative literature at Louisiana State University. The author of three books and the editor of ten volumes as well as the general editor of two periodicals, ECCB: The Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography and 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era, Dr Cope is presently at work on a comprehensive study of the subterranean world (caves, volcanoes, mines, and earthquakes) in the long eighteenth century. Dr Cope is also active in university governance and higher education policy. Robert C. Leitz, III is the curator of The James Smith Noel Collection and the holder of the Ruth Herring Noel Endowed Chair at Louisiana State University in Shreveport. Both a bibliographer and originally an expert on Jack London, Charles Chesnutt, William Dean Howells, and American prose, Dr Leitz has turned his efforts in recent years to the issues pertaining to rare book libraries and special collections. He is the Co-General Editor of ECCB: The Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography as well as of several collections of essays in the area of eighteenth-century studies.