Paul Eggert, in his essay “Apparatus, text, and interface”, argues that creating an edition of text is “inevitably a critical act” (104). Eggert states that every edition necessarily embodies an argument about the text that dictates the editor’s approach to the work (98). This process of mediation means that no text reaches its audience without being framed in some manner to fulfill a specified purpose or goal (98). Below are reading versions of the three editions discussed in the Introduction to Dorothy Wordsworth’s Grasmere Journal that represent the critical and interpretative power of edition building.
William Knight 1897
Ernest de Selincourt 1941
Susan Levin 2009
The Common Place 