Changes in editorial content made in volume 6 have been continued with good effect in volume 8. The most significant of these involve expansion of the Annotations (Editorial Notes in volumes 1–3; Notes in volumes 4–5). In both volumes 6 and 8, the Annotations section is more comprehensive and includes significant quotations from Peirce’s preliminary drafts, variant fragments and working notes that were not selected for publication in the edition. The Chronological Catalog (Chronological List in volumes 1–5) also includes more information about writings of the volume period that were not selected for publication.
One further change in presentation is reflected in volume 8’s use of the Times font in place of the Caledonia family of fonts employed in the production of earlier volumes. As a result of this change, volume 8 holds more lines per page than volume 6 but preserves the readability of all previous volumes. Another reason for choosing the Times font was that it more effectively blends with the fonts used for scientific, logical, and mathematical characters. This font change, however, is merely transitional; in the longer run the Project intends to switch to another font that combines similar attributes with greater aesthetic appeal.
Taken together, these minor realignments and extensions of editorial matter and the recent modifications to volume design make it easier to navigate Peirce’s texts as well as the scholarship that documents their compositional and editing history. The editors have not changed the fundamental methods put in place early on to establish reliable texts for Peirce’s interdisciplinary writings, many of which never reached print (or even fair copy form) during his lifetime. As in earlier volumes, the texts of the volume 8 period are carefully annotated and are supported by an apparatus that lists historical variations and identifies all editorial emendations. The refinement of presentation outlined above is a natural progression for a series of this scope; in making these changes, the editors have been attentive to the need for continuity with the earlier volumes of the edition, and hope that readers will make their way seamlessly into Peirce’s writings of the 1890s—a decade that would prove to be the most stressful period of his life.
A special episode of editorial history deserves notice, for it explains why a particular expectation placed upon this volume could not in the end be fulfilled. Until the beginning of 2007, the press-work for volume 8 contained 59 selections instead of the current 56. The last three selections consisted of three untitled poems that Peirce hand-wrote some time in the spring of 1892, and that were eventually placed in folder R 1565 of the Harvard Peirce Papers (see entry 1892.94 in this volume’s Chronological Catalog). Besides the material artifact itself, with its penned alterations, and a related entry on an interleaf of Peirce’s copy of the Century Dictionary, there had been several reasons that made Peirce’s authorship of these poems seem plausible, including the fact that none of the experts consulted nor any of our extensive electronic searches could provide an alternate identification. In early January 2007, however, an obscure book that was part of the holdings of the New York Public Library was digitized and made searchable on-line as part of the collaborative partnership between that library and Google Books Library Project. A subsequent Internet search revealed this book as the true source of the poems, and thus we finally learned that Peirce’s daring poetic experiment had never taken place. The poems came from an anonymous book titled Sand Key (The Key to All) printed in London by the Chiswick Press in 1890 (see the Bibliography of Peirce’s References under “Anonymous”). The book appears to be a private publication, and the few copies so far located are all found in U.S. libraries. Peirce’s transcription of the poems (excerpted from the beginning of the book’s first part, “The Figure of True Representation”) contains a few modifications affecting punctuation and even the wording of some verses. We subsequently discovered that even these modifications could not be attributed to Peirce. Another copy of Sand Key was identified through Google Books, this time from the Widener Library at Harvard University. That copy’s inscriptions indicate that it was once the property of Harvard’s Dean of Theology, Prof. Charles Carroll Everett (1829–1900). Everett’s copy contains many inked alterations throughout, all presumably in the poet’s hand (not Everett’s hand), and Peirce’s modifications precisely match those alterations. We can therefore infer that some time in the spring of 1892, likely toward the end of May when he was in Cambridge, Peirce visited Everett, was shown the curious book, and, struck by its unusual content, asked to transcribe a few passages. Everett must have known the anonymous author pretty well—perhaps it was a student of his, since Everett also taught and wrote about poetry—but efforts to identify that person have so far failed. At any rate, if Peirce’s interest may serve as a recommendation, Sand Key is in several regards a highly original avant-garde production, well deserving of the attention of poetry scholars.
The strong institutional support provided by Indiana University, our host institution, continues to make production of these volumes possible. Former IUPUI Executive Vice Chancellor and Dean of Faculties William M. Plater and former Deans Herman Saatkamp and Robert White of the School of Liberal Arts led a successful campaign to establish the Peirce Project as a major component of the Institute for American Thought. Our current Dean, William A. Blomquist, shares his predecessors’ conviction that our operation is central to the School’s mission, and we are grateful for his staunch backing. The University’s steady support for the core staff positions of the Peirce Edition has been instrumental in securing continuous federal and private-sector grant commitments during the period that this volume was researched, edited and published. The edition’s technical staff members, who have made in-house volume preparation a reality, have been supported to a large degree through grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We are especially grateful to many individuals who have demonstrated their support by making private contributions through the Indiana University Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities matching grant challenges. Among them we owe special marks of gratitude to the late Arthur Burks and his wife Alice, to Emily Maverick, Janice Deledalle-Rhodes, Paul and Catherine Nagy, and Charls and Claire Pearson. Gail Plater, Assistant Dean for Development & External Affairs in the School of Liberal Arts, has worked tirelessly to coordinate matching grants and develop new fundraising initiatives for volume production. We thank Gail and her Associate Director, Gen Shaker, for spotlighting the Peirce Edition in annual university fund drives and launching new development initiatives.
Acknowledgement is due as well to the Harvard University Department of Philosophy for permission to use the original manuscripts, and to the officers of the Houghton Library, especially Manuscripts Curator Leslie Morris, for their cooperation regarding the Charles S. Peirce Papers. We owe a great deal of thanks as well to Jennie Rathbun and Susan Halpert of the Houghton Reading Room staff, who coordinated several of our proofreading trips to the Harvard Peirce papers. Jennie Rathbun also worked (with the assistance of Tom Ford) to arrange and process the photographic orders for the Harvard manuscript illustrations in this volume.
Research for volume 8 brought us into the period when Peirce began to write for the Monist and Open Court journals edited by Dr. Paul Carus for Edward Hegeler’s Open Court Company in LaSalle, Illinois. The archives of these philosophical journals are now in the Special Collections Research Center of the Morris Library of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, and we are grateful to former Special Collections Dean David Koch and his successor Director Pam Hackbart-Dean, as well as to archivists Katie Salzmann and Karen Drickamer, for arranging access and permissions to publish from Peirce’s submitted manuscripts. Diane Worrell of Special Collections was instrumental in providing electronic images for the volume’s Monist series manuscript illustrations.
Special thanks go to many individual scholars who have provided important research support, including Webb Dordick, who worked with our proofreading teams on location at the Houghton and provided general bibliographical research assistance in the Houghton and other Harvard libraries; Professor José Vericat, for assistance in identifying the editions of reference books used by Peirce; to the Interlibrary Loan department of IUPUI’s University Library for facilitating our bibliographical research; to graduate assistants Tara Morrall and Michelle Boardman, who helped significantly with the electronic aspects of volume production, and