Bulletin of the Santayana Society, No. 18 Fall 2000

              The Santayana Edition
It has been almost a year since the offices of the Santayana Edition moved from Texas
A&M to Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis [IUPUI], following the
General Editor, Herman J. Saatkamp Jr, who became Dean of the School of Liberal
Arts in 1998. Kristine W. Frost, the long-time Associate Editor of the project, oversaw
the move and deserves high praise for organizing the packing and unpacking of the many
boxes with files, books, hardware, and software. The project's suite in Cavanaugh Hall
which includes the editorial offices and library was fully furnished, staffed, and
operational by the time the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy [saap]
held Its annual meeting in Indianapolis in March 2000. The Santayana Edition was one
of the sponsoring Indianapolis Editions, together with the Peirce Edition Project and the
Frederick Douglass Papers, and hosted an open house for the conference participants.
The meeting afforded an excellent opportunity to showcase the Santayana Edition and
it seemed rather fitting that Herman J. Saatkamp Jr began his tenure as president of the
SAAP at that time.
With generous support from the School and the University, the project was
able to set up operations in newly renovated, spacious quarters and also to upgrade Its
computers so that work on Volume V, The Letters of George Santayana, could progress
significantly despite the disruption caused by the move. At this time the first of eight
books of Volume V is about to be sent to MIT Press. We are awaiting the inspection
report of the Committee on Scholarly Editions before final adjustments are made to the
electronic proofs sent to the publisher for typesetting. Publication of the first book of
Letters is scheduled for Spring 2001. The staff of the project, and especially its newest
full-time member, Joshua B. Garrison, have labored hard to make the desktop publishing
program work for the critical edition of the letters. Since William Holzberger first
started on the collection and transcription of Santayana's letters, many more have been
found and added to the edition. In all, more than 3,000 letters have been gathered for
the edition, which meant that the projected number of four books in Volume V had to be
expanded to eight, a much more massive undertaking than originally planned.
The excitement and satisfaction about the progress with the Letters volume has
been tempered, however, by the lack of support from the National Endowment for the
Humanities. The project did not receive funding and it is questionable whether the NEH
will continue to support any of the long-term editorial projects. The Association for
Documentary Editing, the saap, and other professional associations are working hard to
educate those who make decisions about the kinds of projects worthy of government
support that drastic changes In funding policy would affect scholarly editions very
negatively. We call on all of you to be of help in this fight. Please get in touch with us
with any ideas you may have for persuading the NEH to continue with Its well-
established funding policy and also with any other suggestions for support that may help
the project to continue with its mission to publish ail the works of George Santayana in
aciitical edition.
MARIANNE S. WOKECK
Editor, Santayana Edition Project
Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis
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