The publisher of the distinguished Arden Shakespeare series has outraged many Shakespearians with its decision to terminate the contract of Patricia Parker, a senior scholar who has been working on a new Arden edition of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” for more than a decade. Why did Cengage, Arden’s publisher, pull the plug on Parker’s contract? Was she taking too long to finish? Is this the sinister hand of commerce at work, or is a scholars’ battle to blame? Read more in the story I did for today’s Chronicle (subscription, sorry).
Free links: Parker’s supporters have created an online petition demanding her reinstatement, with 215 signatures and counting. On the website reinstatepatparker.com, you can read a copy of the Aug. 2 letter Parker wrote to Arden’s publisher, telling her side of the story.
