Beginning my Life’s Work

My dear readers! I have a very exciting announcement. At long last, after fourteen years, I have begun the project for which I have been preparing myself all my life.

I’m working on The Annotated Arthuriad of Charles Williams. That’s right! Ever since CW published The Region of the Summer Stars in 1944–or since Taliessin through Logres in 1938–or arguably even since Heroes and Kings in 1930, we’ve need an annotated edition of his dense and difficult poetry. I’ve wanted to create it since 2009. But a few important things had to happen first.

I had to read most of CW’s oeuvre.
I had to learn a bit about Arthuriana (which turned out to include editing The Inklings and King Arthur).
I had to learn a bit about modern occultism (which turned out to involve getting a PhD!)
…and then, I had to meet collaborators with whom I could work and who would keep me accountable.

That’s right! I’m delighted that this is not a solo project, but instead a joint effort with Dr. Carla Arnell of Lake Forest College in Illinois and one of her students, Sam Bickersteth. Among the three of us, we bring interests and expertise in literature, theology, and the occult, so we should be able to cover everything. We’ve got a plan laid out to include material from Williams’s prose explications, Lewis’s commentary, notes by Anne Ridler and others from among CW’s “disciples,” an MA thesis that attempted a similar project, and more. We’ll consult with various CW scholars on dubious points. We’ll make this as much of a community project as possible, so stay tuned for ways you can help out!

Meanwhile, there is much to be done. We have to work on getting the necessary permissions from the appropriate copyright holders of the texts we’d like to use. We have to decide what route we want to use for publication, then formally propose the project. We need to synchronize our various documents and annotation methods to come up with something relatively streamlined and definitely workable. Oh, and we have to carve out time for this enormous task from our day jobs, teaching, editing, taking courses, writing other papers and books and stories and poems, serving on committees, running a Press, running a Department, running on the soccer field, and much, much more. We crave your patience and support!

For practical purposes, we’ll probably start with just Taliessin Through Logres and see how that turns out. If it goes well, then of course we’d love to continue with The Region of the Summer Stars, and then perhaps one day go on to include the Arthurian poems from Heroes and Kings as well as the Advent of Galahad/Jupiter over Carbonek material. Wouldn’t a big, fat, complete Annotated Arthuriad be a thing of beauty and a joy forever?

Please stay tuned. I hope to update you now and then. I’m sorry I haven’t been blogging more regularly, but it’s a particularly full (and in many ways difficult) season of life. I find I’m still adjusting to the Editor-in-Chief position, living in a new community, setting up a homestead, taking care of my ailing parents, and much more.

Thank you for your support, dear readers!