Dear Milton Society of America member,

Welcome to 2022 and the third year of our global pandemic. In teaching a Milton course for the first time since Covid-19 hit, I’m struck anew by the autobiographical portion of Reason of Church-Government and Milton’s twin convictions that, in the midst of England’s political crisis, there are things more important than writing poetry—and that poetry nevertheless fulfils an essential civic, moral, and human function.

If you have, like me, found it sometimes difficult to concentrate on teaching and scholarship as the world burns, let’s just covenant with the knowing reader that we may go on trust for some few years toward the payment of those debts.      

MSA Happenings

1. Nominations, publications for annual booklet, etc.:

• Terms on the MSA Executive Committee for last three years, and we encourage nominations (including self-nominations) for new committee members for the term that starts in 2023.
• We also invite nominations for the 2023 Honored Scholar
• Please keep sending your list of recent & forthcoming publications for inclusion in the MSA annual booklet

All of which you can direct to MSA Secretary Eric Song, via our new email address MiltonSocietySec@gmail.com

2. Milton Society of America First Book Assistance (MSA FBA) Program

Beginning in 2014, the Milton Society of America provides annually a single $500 reimbursement to support the publication of an outstanding first book devoted substantially to John Milton. The prize recognizes the originality, scope, and scholarly rigor of the book chosen. Applicants must belong to the Milton Society of America. Applicants need not hold the Ph.D.; those who do must have completed their Ph.D.s no longer than six years prior to applying.

The reimbursement may be used to offset costs from the press associated with copy-editing; preparation of an index; permissions for photographs, artwork, and the like; color reproductions; and preparation of graphs and maps. Ineligible expenses include computer and other equipment, travel, and income replacement. The reimbursement is intended to aid scholars undertaking an original, first-time, book-length work in Milton studies. No anthologies, chapters, essays, edited collections, etc., will be considered for this funding.

The application consists of

• A cover letter indicating that the applicant has a completed manuscript
• A provisional or final contract
• An abstract of the book,
• A sample chapter

The successful applicant will be required to

1. send to the MSA Treasurer a) a completed MSA FBA Form and b) an invoice or invoices from the press for costs incurred during the application year and/or the subsequent year — for this year’s program, either 2022 or 2023.
2. acknowledge the support of “the Milton Society of America First Book Assistance Program” in the publication.

Applications should be sent by June 1 of the year in which the grant will be awarded to the MSA Secretary, Eric Song (esong1@swarthmore.edu). Applicants will be notified by November 1.

2. New Website

Please remember that we’ve moved to a new website! Be sure to add us to your bookmarks and remember to keep us informed of your publications, awards, and events. Click here to submit any updates for inclusion in the newsletter, specifically–which as you know comes out approximately four times a year, and thus more often than the annual booklet. (You may also send them to me directly, at the email listed below.)

It seems that, since our move, some members’ newsletters and other MSA communications may be getting caught in their spam or junk folders, possibly as a result of our new email management service. If you haven’t received any updates lately, please check those folders and update your settings.

Member Publications, Talks, Awards, and Activities

1. Marissa Greenberg has recently released a podcast, Promiscuous Listening: A John Milton Podcast, which features many other MSA members as guest speakers; each episode in this first season is keyed to a different book of Paradise Lost but range widely over each speaker’s interests and area of Miltonic expertise. Marissa writes: “I created this resource for teachers and students, especially in remote learning environments, and in accordance with the social justice commitments that I outline in a short text/audio piece titled “Podcast Pedagogy” and published in January in The Sundial. I am optimistic that it will prove helpful to our colleagues — and spur interest in a second season.” Episodes of Promiscuous Listening are available on Marissa’s website and on Spotify.
2. Joe Moshenska has just published Making Darkness Light, a biography of Milton for a non-academic readership.
3. Islam Issa‘s new book, Shakespeare and Terrorism has been published by Routledge.
4. Paul Stanwood has recently published The Metaphorical Metaphysic of John Donne (Mellen P, 2021).
5. Paul has also recently reviewed The Complete Works of John Milton, vol. XI: Manuscript Writings, ed. William Poole, in Seventeenth-Century News 78 (2020), 107-111 (check both)
6. Jude Welburn has published “Heaven’s Laughter and the Genesis of Tyranny: Milton’s Reading of the Story of Babel” in ELH 88:4 (December 2021).

In addition, there are some excellent articles and reviews in the last two issues of MQ. (My institutional journal subscriptions are burdened by delays, so apologies for the fact that this “news” is running a bit behind!).

Milton Quarterly 54:4 (December 2020)

Articles

• Lynne Greenberg, “ ‘Whordoms and adulteries’: Sexual Crimes and Legal Reform in Milton’s Prose”
• Stephen B. Dobranski, “What Do Adam and Eve Look Like after the Fall?: Appearance in Paradise Lost”
• Joshua R. Held, “Milton and Genealogical Poetry: Paul, Aratus, Lucretius, and Hesiod in Paradise Lost”

Reviews

• D. C. Serjeantson on the late Michael Cavanagh’s Paradise Lost: A Primer (ed. Scott Newstok).
• John Morrill on Peter Lake and Michael Questier, All Hail to the Archpriest: Confessional Conflict, Toleration, and the Politics of Publicity in Post‐Reformation England
• Ryan Netzley on The Oxford Handbook of Andrew Marvell, ed. Martin Dzelzainis and Edward Holberton.
• Joel Halcomb on Matthew C. Bingham’s Orthodox Radicals: Baptist Identity in the English Revolution.

Milton Quarterly 55:1 (March 2021)

Articles

• Justin W. Keena, “The Reception of C. S. Lewis’s A Preface to Paradise Lost in Milton Scholarship, 1990‐2015”
• Jeffrey Gore, “Conscience and Collective Life: A Review Essay”

Reviews

• Phillip J. Donnelly on John K. Hale’s Milton’s Scriptural Theology: Confronting De Doctrina Christiana.
• Jason A. Kerr on John Milton: Epistolarum Familiarum Liber Unus and Uncollected Letters, Estelle Haan, ed. and trans.
• Jameela Lares on Church Life: Pastors, Congregations, and the Experience of Dissent in Seventeenth‐Century England, ed.Michael Davies, Anne Dunan‐Page, Joel Halcomb.
• Elizabeth Skerpan‐Wheeler on Emergent Nation: Early Modern British Literature in Transition, 1660‐1714, ed. Elizabeth Sauer

And finally, in a clear sign that Miltonists’ efforts to take over the Renaissance Society of America (RSA) are bearing fruit, please note the following (partial?) list of scholars who have made contributions to Milton studies and/or are MSA members and who are currently serving in the RSA.

Associate Organizations

• Bibliographical Society of America Representative: Aaron Pratt
• Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University Representative: Sara van den Berg
• Chicago Area Faculty Renaissance Seminar Representative: Richard Strier
• International Margaret Cavendish Society Representative: Lara Dodds
• Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance Representative: Randa El Khatib
• Medieval-Renaissance Colloquium at Rutgers University Representative: Thomas Fulton
• Milton Society of America Representative: Alison A. Chapman
• Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Princeton University Representative: Nigel Smith
• South Central Renaissance Conference (SCRC) Representative: Brendan Prawdzik
• University of Pennsylvania Medieval and Renaissance Seminar Representative: Melissa Sanchez
• Yale University Renaissance Studies Representative: Ayesha Ramachandran

Board Committees

Nominating Committee (two elected by Board from its members and three at-large elected by RSA Members) Feisal Mohamed, Yale University (At-large)

Board of Directors

Interim Conference Chair (2022–24): Angelica Duran

Discipline Representative

Rhetoric: Elizabeth Skerpan-Wheeler

Events

MSA@RSA 2022

Although much remains up in the air about this conference, for now the expectation seems to be that it will take place in person. Here are our MSA sponsored panels, as originally planned and approved. However, given the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and international travel, it is very possible that some of these papers or panels may not occur this year. Please look for updates from the RSA about the conference as a whole and be sure to check the online program for the latest information about  individual panels:

1. Multilingual Milton

Chair: MSA Secretary, Eric B. Song

Presenters:

2. Critical Race Milton

Chair: MSA Exec Committee Member Amrita Dhar

Presenters:

• Marissa Greenberg, “Caucusing in the Milton Classroom”
• MSA Treasurer Lauren Shohet, “Infernally Uncountable: Milton’s Demons as Subaltern Crowd”
• José Villagrana, “The Racialized Colonial Origins of Milton’s Conception of Innocence”

3. John Milton: A General Session

Chair: MSA President, Brooke Conti

Presenters:

• MSA Vice-President Alison A. Chapman, “Milton and the Irish Boyles”
• MSA Exec Committee Member Stephen Fallon, “Paradise Lost and the Mystery of Original Evil”
• Edward J. Jones, “Nomenclature, Taxes, and Misunderstandings about Milton in the Restoration”

4. Roundtable: John Milton and Margaret Cavendish: Harmonies and Discords 

Chair: MSA Exec Committee Member Stephen Fallon

Discussants:

• Lara Dodds, Mississippi State University
• Stephen Fallon, University of Notre Dame
• Tom Fulton, Rutgers University
• Jessie Hock, Vanderbilt University
• Erin Murphy, Boston University

5. Roundtable: John Milton and Margaret Cavendish: Politics and Love

(co-sponsored with the Rutgers Medieval Renaissance Colloquium)

Chair: Sylvester Cruz

Discussants:

• Ann Baynes Coiro, Rutgers U
• Julie Crawford, Columbia U
• Emily Griffiths Jones, U of South Florida
• Laura Knoppers, U of Notre Dame
• Raphael Magarik, U of Illinois-Chicago
• Mihoko Suzuki, U of Miami

Unexpected Milton Sightings

MSA Secretary Eric Song sends along this screenshot from the 1992 movie Light Sleeper, which captures a journal entry by Willem Dafoe playing a small-time drug dealer:

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Until next time, friends—
 
Brooke (b.conti@csuohio.edu)
MSA President