Thursday

Acquisitions (26): Norton Annotated Editions



Norton Annotated Editions (2000- ?)
[listed 18 August, 2019]:


For a long time now I've been collecting annotated editions of the classics: I suppose ever since I found a nice copy of William Baring-Gould's Annotated Sherlock Holmes in the shop-window of David Thomas's shop on Lorne St, for the very reasonable price of $40!

Baring-Gould, William S., ed. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and the Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 2 vols. 1967. London: John Murray, 1968.



There's a nice piece on the subject called For Love of Books: Norton Annotated Editions, posted by Erik Beck on 7 August, 2010.

[NB: I'd also, now - in 2024 - recommend Grace Lapointe's more recent article "How are Annotated Editions of Books Made?, Book Riot (23/8/22), as well as Jill O'Neill's "The Serious Reader: Scholarship and Annotated Editions", The Scholarly Kitchen (10/11/23)].

Erik Beck provides a useful list of the original annotated series published by Clarkson N. Potter - and their associated imprint Bramhall House - starting with Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice in 1960, and concluding with Edward Guiliano & Philip Collins's Annotated Dickens a quarter century later, in 1986.

As usual, I've marked the ones I own copies of in bold:
  1. The Annotated Alice, ed. Martin Gardner (1960)
  2. The Annotated Mother Goose, ed. William S. Baring-Gould & Ceil Baring-Gould (1962)
  3. The Annotated Snark, ed. Martin Gardner (1962)
  4. The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ed. Philip Van Doren Stern (1964)
  5. The Annotated Ancient Mariner, ed. Martin Gardner (1965)
  6. The Annotated Casey at the Bat, ed. Martin Gardner (1967)
  7. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, ed. William S. Baring-Gould, 2 vols (1967)
    1. from The Early Holmes (c. 1874-1887)
    2. to An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes (c.1889-1914)
  8. The Annotated Walden, ed. Philip Van Doren Stern (1970)
  9. The Annotated Wizard of Oz, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn (1973)
  10. The Annotated Dracula, ed. Leonard Wolf (1975)
  11. The Annotated Christmas Carol, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn (1977)
  12. The Annotated Frankenstein, ed. Leonard Wolf (1977)
  13. The Annotated Shakespeare, ed. A. L. Rowse, 3 vols (1978)
    1. Comedies
    2. Histories and Poems
    3. Tragedies and Romances
  14. The Annotated Gulliver’s Travels, ed. Isaac Asimov (1980)
  15. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn (1981)
  16. The Annotated Oscar Wilde, ed. H. Montgomery Hyde (1982)
  17. The Annotated Dickens, ed. Edward Guiliano & Philip Collins, 2 vols (1986)
    1. The Pickwick Papers / Oliver Twist / A Christmas Carol / Hard Times
    2. David Copperfield / A Tale of Two Cities / Great Expectations

  1. Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Illustrated by John Tenniel. 1865 & 1871. Ed. Martin Gardner. Bramhall House. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1960.
    2. Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Illustrations by John Tenniel. 1865 & 1871. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1960. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1965.


    Martin Gardner (1914-2020)



  2. Baring-Gould, William S. & Ceil Baring-Gould. The Annotated Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes Old and New, Arranged and Explained. Illustrated by Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, Kate Greenaway, Arthur Rackham, Maxfield Parrish, and Early Historical Woodcuts. With Chapter Decorations by E. M. Simon. New York: Bramhall House, 1962.
    3. Baring-Gould, William S. & Ceil. The Annotated Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes Old and New, Arranged and Explained. 1962. New York: New American Library, 1967.




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    Martin Gardner: The Annotated Snark (1962)


  3. Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Snark: The Hunting of the Snark – An Agony in Eight Fits. Illustrations by Henry Holiday. 1876. Ed. Martin Gardner. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1962.
    4. Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Snark: The Hunting of the Snark – An Agony in Eight Fits. Illustrations by Henry Holiday. 1876. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1962. Rev. ed. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973.

    Carroll, Lewis. The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits. Illustrated by Henry Holiday. 1876. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1962. Penguin Classics. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1995.

  4. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin. 1852. Ed. Philip van Doren Stern. Bramhall House. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1964.




  5. Gardner, Martin, ed. The Annotated Ancient Mariner: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 1798. Illustrations by Gustave Doré. 1798. London: Anthony Blond Limited, 1965.
    6. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Annotated Ancient Mariner: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Illustrations by Gustave Doré. 1798. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1965. A Meridian Book. New York: New American Library, 1974.

    Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. The Annotated Ancient Mariner: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Illustrations by Gustave Doré. 1798. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1965. 2nd ed. New York: Prometheus Books, 2003.

  6. Thayer, Ernest Lawrence. The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads about the Mighty Casey. 1888. Ed. Martin Gardner. Bramhall House. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1967.
    7. Thayer, Ernest Lawrence. The Annotated Casey at the Bat: A Collection of Ballads about the Mighty Casey. 1888. Ed. Martin Gardner. Bramhall House. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1967.


  7. Baring-Gould, William S., ed. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and the Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 2 vols. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1967.
    • Vol. 1 - from The Early Holmes (c. 1874-1887)
    • Vol. 2 - to An Epilogue of Sherlock Holmes (c.1889-1914)
    8. Baring-Gould, William S., ed. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and the Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 2 vols. 1967. London: John Murray, 1968.

  8. Baring-Gould, William S., ed. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Four Novels and the Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 1967. First Single Volume Edition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986.

  9. Thoreau, Henry David. The Annotated Walden: Walden; or, Life in the Woods, together with “Civil Disobedience,” a Detailed Chronology and Various Pieces about its author, the Writing and Publishing of the Book. Ed. Philip van Doren Stern. New York: Bramhall House, 1970.
    10. Thoreau, Henry David. The Annotated Walden: Walden; or, Life in the Woods, together with “Civil Disobedience,” a Detailed Chronology and Various Pieces about its author, the Writing and Publishing of the Book. 1854. Ed. Philip van Doren Stern. Bramhall House. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1970.


  10. Hearn, Michael Patrick, ed. The Annotated Wizard of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum. Pictures in Color by W. W. Denslow. 1900. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1973.




  11. Wolf, Leonard, ed. The Annotated Dracula: Dracula by Bram Stoker. 1897. Art by Sätty. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. / Publisher, 1975.



    12. Leonard Wolf (1923-2019)



  12. Hearn, Michael Patrick, ed. The Annotated Christmas Carol: A Christmas Carol in Prose, by Charles Dickens. 1843. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1977.


  13. Shelley, Mary. The Annotated Frankenstein. 1818. Ed. Leonard Wolf. Art by Marcia Huyette. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1977.


  14. Shakespeare, William. The Annotated Shakespeare: The Comedies, Histories, Sonnets and Other Poems, Tragedies and Romances Complete. Ed. A. L. Rowse. 3 vols. London: Orbis Publishing Limited, 1978.
    1. The Annotated Shakespeare - Complete Works Illustrated: Comedies
    2. The Annotated Shakespeare - Complete Works Illustrated: Histories and Poems
    3. The Annotated Shakespeare - Complete Works Illustrated: Tragedies and Romances
    15. Shakespeare, William. The Annotated Shakespeare: The Comedies, Histories, Sonnets and Other Poems, Tragedies and Romances Complete. Ed. A. L. Rowse. 3 vols. 1978. 2nd ed. London: Orbis Publishing Limited, 1979.
    1. Comedies
    2. Histories and Poems
    3. Tragedies and Romances


    A. L. Rowse (1903-1997)



  15. Swift, Jonathan. The Annotated Gulliver's Travels: Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift. 1726 / 1734 / 1896. Ed. Isaac Asimov. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. / Publishers, 1980.



    16. Isaac Asimov (1920-1992)



  16. Hearn, Michael Patrick, ed. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Illustrated by E. W. Kemble. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1981.


  17. Wilde, Oscar. The Annotated Oscar Wilde: Poems, Fiction, Plays, Lectures, Essays, and Letters. Ed. H. Montgomery Hyde. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1982.



    18. H. Montgomery Hyde (1907-1989)



  18. Dickens, Charles. The Annotated Dickens. Ed. Edward Guiliano & Philip Collins. 2 vols. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1986.
    • The Pickwick Papers (1836-37); Oliver Twist (1837-39); A Christmas Carol (1843); Hard Times (1854)
    • David Copperfield (1849-50); A Tale of Two Cities (1859); Great Expectations (1860-61)



Philip Collins (1923-2007)




Edward Guiliano (1950- )



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Martin Gardner: The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown (1987)
The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown: The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton. 1911. Ed. Martin Gardner. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.

I don't really know how complete this list can be said to be. Many of Martin Gardner's annotated editions appeared from other publishers, so are not strictly part of the Clarkson N. Potter canon:
  1. The Annotated Innocence of Father Brown: G. K. Chesterton's "The Innocence of Father Brown" (Oxford: OUP, 1987)
  2. The Annotated Night Before Christmas: A Collection of Sequels, Parodies & Imitations of Clement Moore's Immortal Ballad About Santa Claus (New York: Summit, 1991)
  3. The Annotated Thursday: G. K. Chesterton's Masterpiece "The Man Who Was Thursday" (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999)

Martin Gardner: The Annotated Night Before Christmas (1991)
The Annotated Night Before Christmas: A Collection of Sequels, Parodies & Imitations of Clement Moore's Immortal Ballad About Santa Claus. 1823. Ed. Martin Gardner. Summit Books. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1991.

But then, the same is true of The Annotated Snark, above, published by Simon & Schuster rather than Potter or Bramhall House. So perhaps the true number of works in the series should be 16 rather than 17.


Martin Gardner: The Annotated Thursday (1999)
G. K. Chesterton. The Annotated Thursday: G. K. Chesterton’s Masterpiece The Man Who Was Thursday. 1908. Ed. Martin Gardner. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1999.

In any case, of the 17 titles actually listed above, I estimate that I own 13 (Alice, Mother Goose, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Casey at the Bat, Sherlock Holmes, Walden , Dracula, Frankenstein, Shakespeare, Gulliver’s Travels, Oscar Wilde, and Dickens) in the original hardback editions; I also have four (Alice, Mother Goose, The Hunting of the Snark, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner) in paperback reprints.

More to the point, I own all five of the books which have been reprinted in revised and updated Norton editions (Alice, The Wizard of Oz, Huckleberry Finn, A Christmas Carol, and The Hunting of the Snark), as detailed below:



Around the turn of the millennium, a decade after the original series had gone out of print, W. W. Norton decided to revive it, and started to republish revised versions of some of the original titles, along with new annotated editions of their own, starting with Maria Tatar's Classic Fairy Tales in 2002. This is where they've got to so far:
  1. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, ed. Martin Gardner (1999)
    • The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition, ed. Martin Gardner & Mark Burstein (2015)
  2. The Annotated Wizard of Oz, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn (2000)
  3. The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn (2001)
  4. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales, ed. Maria Tatar (2002)
  5. The Annotated Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, ed. Maria Tatar (2004)
  6. The Annotated Christmas Carol, ed. Michael Patrick Hearn (2004)
  7. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, ed. Leslie S. Klinger, 3 vols (2005-6)
    1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (2005)
    2. The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow & The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (2005)
    3. A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles & The Valley of Fear (2006)
  8. The Annotated Hunting of the Snark, ed. Martin Gardner (2006)
  9. The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & Hollis Robbins (2007)
  10. The Annotated Secret Garden, ed. Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina (2007)
  11. The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen, ed. Maria Tatar & Julie K. Allen (2007)
  12. The New Annotated Dracula, ed. Leslie S. Klinger (2008)
  13. The Annotated Wind in the Willows, ed. Annie Gauger (2009)
  14. The Annotated Peter Pan, ed. Maria Tatar (2011)
  15. The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft, ed. Leslie S. Klinger (2014)
  16. The Annotated Little Women, ed. John Matteson (2015)
  17. The New Annotated Frankenstein, ed. Leslie S. Klinger (2017)
  18. The Annotated African American Folktales, ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & Maria Tatar (2018)
  19. The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway, ed. Merve Emre (2021)
  20. The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights, ed. Paulo Lemos Horta (2021)


  1. Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. Illustrations by John Tenniel. 1865 & 1871. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1960 & 1990. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 1999.
    2. Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass. Illustrations by John Tenniel. 1865 & 1871. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1960, 1990, 2000. London: Penguin, 2001.
    Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Alice: 150th Anniversary Deluxe Edition. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass. Illustrations by John Tenniel. 1865 & 1871. Ed. Martin Gardner & Mark Burstein. 1960, 1990 & 1999. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2015.

    Mark Burstein (1950- )



  2. Baum, L. Frank. The Annotated Wizard of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Pictures by W. W. Denslow. 1900. Ed. Michael Patrick Hearn. 1973. Centennial Edition. Preface by Martin Gardner. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.


  3. Twain, Mark (Samuel L. Clemens). The Annotated Huckleberry Finn: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade). Illustrations by E. W. Kemble. 1884. Ed. Michael Patrick Hearn. 1981. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2001.


  4. Tatar, Maria, ed & trans. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2002.



    5. Maria Tatar (1945- )



  5. Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm. The Annotated Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales. Ed & trans. Maria Tatar. Introduction by A. S. Byatt. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2004.


  6. Dickens, Charles. The Annotated Christmas Carol: A Christmas Carol in Prose. Illustrations by John Leech. 1843. Ed. Michael Patrick Hearn. 1976. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2004.


  7. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes, 3 vols (2005-6)
    • Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 1: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes & The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. 1892 & 1894. Ed. Leslie S. Klinger. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2005.
    • Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 2: The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow & The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. 1905, 1917 & 1927. Ed. Leslie S. Klinger. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2005.
    • Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes. Vol. 3: A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles & The Valley of Fear. 1887, 1890, 1902 & 1915. Ed. Leslie S. Klinger. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2006.




  8. Carroll, Lewis. The Annotated Hunting of the Snark: The Definitive Edition. Illustrated by Henry Holiday. 1876. Ed. Martin Gardner. 1962. Introduction by Adam Gopnik. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2006.


  9. Stowe, Harriet Beecher. The Annotated Uncle Tom’s Cabin. 1852. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. & Hollis Robbins. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2007.





    10. Hollis Robbins (1963- )



  10. Burnett, Frances Hodgson. The Annotated Secret Garden. 1911. Ed. Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2007.




  11. Tatar, Maria, ed. The Annotated Hans Christian Andersen. Trans. Maria Tatar & Julie K. Allen. Introduction by A. S. Byatt. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007.




  12. Stoker, Bram. The New Annotated Dracula. 1897. Edited by Leslie S. Klinger. Additional Research by Janet Byrne. Introduction by Neil Gaiman. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Inc., 2008.


  13. Grahame, Kenneth. The Annotated Wind in the Willows. 1908. Ed. Annie Gauger. Introduction by Brian Jacques. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2009.




  14. Barrie, J. M. The Annotated Peter Pan: Centennial Edition. 1911. Ed. Maria Tatar. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011.


  15. Klinger, Leslie S., ed. The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft. Introduction by Alan Moore. Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2014.


  16. Klinger, Leslie S., ed. The New Annotated H. P. Lovecraft: Beyond Arkham. Introduction by Victor LaValle. Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2019.


  17. Alcott, Louisa May. The Annotated Little Women. 1868-69. Ed. John Matteson. Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2015.



    18. John Matteson (1961- )



  18. Shelley, Mary. The New Annotated Frankenstein: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. 1818. Rev. ed. 1831. Ed. Leslie S. Klinger. Introduction by Guillermo del Toro. Afterword by Anne K. Mellor. Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Inc., 2017.


  19. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. & Maria Tatar, ed. The Annotated African American Folktales. Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2018.


  20. Woolf, Virginia. The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway. 1925. Ed. Merve Emre. Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.




  21. Horta, Paulo Lemos, ed. The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights. Trans. Yasmine Seale. Foreword by Omar El Akkad. Afterword by Robert Irwin. Liveright Publishing Corporation. New York & London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2021.



    22. Gabriel Roth Horta: Paulo Lemos Horta



    Yasmine Seale (1989- )


I now have all of these. Only five of them, it should be stressed, are actually (updated) reprints: Martin Gardner's two Lewis Carroll books, The Annotated Alice and The Annotated Snark, and Michael Patrick Hearn's three annotated editions of, respectively, L. Frank Baum, Charles Dickens, and Mark Twain. The others are either entirely new projects, or else re-edited versions of classics such as Sherlock Holmes and Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

These first three of these 'repeats' - Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, and Frankenstein - are included in completely new versions by the terrifyingly prolific Leslie S. Klinger. Uncle Tom’s Cabin has also been fully re-visioned to accommodate the cultural changes of the past few decades. Whether each of them is an improvement on its original is a matter of taste. Not in all cases, I'd say, but perhaps that's because I'm still so much in thrall to William S. Baring-Gould's eccentric masterpiece, The Annotated Sherlock Holmes.



The competition can get a bit baroque at times, though. I once wrote a long blogpost on the strange world of the competing annotated versions of Dracula. Leslie S. Klinger's - with its weird convention of pretending that all of the events in the story actually happened - is certainly not the pick of that particular bunch:



Raymond McNally & Radu Florescu, ed.: The Essential Dracula (1979)


  1. Wolf, Leonard, ed. The Annotated Dracula: Dracula by Bram Stoker. 1897. Art by Sätty. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, Inc. / Publisher, 1975.
  2. McNally, Raymond & Radu Florescu, ed. The Essential Dracula: A Completely Illustrated & Annotated Edition of Bram Stoker’s Classic Novel. 1897. New York: Mayflower Books, 1979.
  3. Wolf, Leonard, ed. The Essential Dracula: Including the Complete Novel by Bram Stoker. 1897. Ed. Leonard Wolf. 1975. Notes, Bibliography and Filmography Revised in Collaboration with Roxana Stuart. Illustrations by Christopher Bing. A Byron Preiss Book. New York: Plume, 1993.
  4. Stoker, Bram. The New Annotated Dracula. 1897. Edited by Leslie S. Klinger. Additional Research by Janet Byrne. Introduction by Neil Gaiman. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Inc., 2008.



Leonard Wolf, ed.: The Essential Dracula (1993)


Another Leonard Wolf title complementary to The Annotated Dracula and The Annotated Frankenstein is his Essential Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2005), subtitled 'The Definitive Annotated Edition':



Leonard Wolf, ed.: The Essential Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (2005)

Leonard Wolf, ed. The Essential Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: Including the Complete Novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. Illustrations by Michael Lark. 1995. New York: ibooks, 2005.


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Annie Gauger, ed.: The Annotated Wind in the Willows (2009)


Then there was the knock-down battle of the Winds in the Willows (or should that be The Wind in the Willowses?). Two annotated versions appeared within months of each other - more-or-less in the centenary year of the Kenneth Grahame's immortal masterpiece. For all its faults, I'd have to award the crown to Annie Gauger's version there for sheer inclusiveness, but there is a quiet dignity - though perhaps too great a dependence on dictionary definitions of fairly familiar terms - to the Seth Lerer book:

  1. Grahame, Kenneth. The Annotated Wind in the Willows. 1908. Ed. Annie Gauger. Introduction by Brian Jacques. New York & London: W. W. Norton, 2009.
  2. Grahame, Kenneth. The Wind in the Willows: An Annotated Edition. 1908. Ed. Seth Lerer. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2009.





There's always been a small number of odd annotated editions appearing from other publishers, whether or not they could be said to constitute a 'series.' Here are a pair of Jules Verne novels:

  1. Verne, Jules. The Annotated Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea. The Only Completely Restored and Annotated Edition. ['Vingt mille lieues sous les mers', 1869-70]. Ed. Walter James Miller. New York: Thomas J. Crowell, Publishers, 1976.
  2. Verne, Jules. The Annotated Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon - Direct in Ninety-seven Hours and 20 Minutes. The Only Completely Rendered and Annotated Edition. ['De la Terre à la Lune, trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes', 1865]. Ed. & trans. Walter James Miller. New York: Thomas J. Crowell, Publishers, 1978.





And here are a couple of American children's classics:

  1. Juster, Norton. The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth. Illustrated by Jules Feiffer. 1961. Ed. Leonard S. Marcus. Knopf Books for Young Readers. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
  2. White, E. B. The Annotated Charlotte’s Web. Illustrated by Garth Williams. 1952. Ed. Peter F. Neumeyer. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994.





And, finally, there's Douglas A. Anderson's Hobbit double-act. Of this, Erik Beck comments:
As an interesting side note, back in the late 80’s, The Annotated Hobbit was published. It later went out of print, but was re-printed and updated in 2002. It was perfect timing, of course, because interest in Tolkien was peaking due to the films. But, it’s interesting to note that the new version looks curiously like the Norton books, even though it’s printed by Houghton Mifflin.
  1. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Annotated Hobbit: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. 1937. Ed. Douglas A. Anderson. London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.
  2. Tolkien, J. R. R. The Annotated Hobbit: Revised and Expanded Edition. 1937. Ed. Douglas A. Anderson. 1988. Rev. ed. 2002. London: HarperCollins, 2003.




There's clearly much more to be said on the subject, and many more - hopefully - of these handsome (and definitely addictive!) tomes to be collected. I'm glad to be able to build on Erik Beck's very useful work nearly a decade on from his original post, however.


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