Bulletin of the Santayana Society, No. 06 Fall 1988

              The Santayana Edition
This has been another significant year for the Santayana Edition. Persons and
Placeswas published in 1987, and it has received widespread reviews in popular
and professional publications: The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review,
The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, The London Times, The Financial Times,
The New York Review of Books, The Village Voice Literary Supplement, The Christian
Science Monitor, American Literature, The London Review of Books, Book World, The
New Criterion, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Whig-Standard Magazine, Harvard
Magazine, and Dallas Times Herald. This fall a number of professional reviews
will appear, e.g., one by Nathan Houser in Documentary Editing. Overall, the
attention to the volume as well as the sales of the volume have been excellent.
It is of particular importance that this publication has brought renewed
interest in Santayana scholarship. The General Editor and the staff at Texas
ABcM have been corresponding with a growing number of scholars who are
working on various aspects of Santayana's philosophical and literary
contributions.
Volume Two, The Sense of Beauty, will be published this fall. Arthur Danto
has written the introduction which he calls "a philosopher's tribute to a
philosopher." The Modern Language Association's Committee on Scholarly
Editions recently awarded us the seal of aAn Approved Edition" for the second
volume. Hence, our first two volumes have met the highest standards in critical
editing, and I am particularly grateful to the Textual Editor, William
Holzberger, and the Associate Editor, Donna Hanna-Calvert, for the careful
and diligent work that assured the successful editing of the first two volumes.
The Sense of Beauty should be published by mid-fall, hardback first and then a
paperback edition later. I am waiting for the last check of the "blues" (the
sheets from which the printed volumes will be produced) before I give the final
OK for publication,
Volume Three, Interpretations of Poetry and Religion, is scheduled for spring
publication. Joel Porte has written the introduction, and this volume like the
preceding two, should prove quite a success.
The General Editor is working with John Friedman, President of Memory
Films, Inc., in an effort to produce a film based on The Last Puritan. Friedman's
last film, Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie, recently won the
Critic's Award at the Cannes Film Festival. John and I are preparing a grant
proposal for NEH to support the scripting for this project.
I am grateful for the support of the Editorial Board, NEH, MIT, and the
many persons who have made it possible for the Santayana Edition to come
into existence and to succeed. Thank you.
Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr.
General Editor