This site consists of two interlinked hypertext editions, The Complete Poems of E.J. Pratt and The Complete Letters of E.J. Pratt. It is being prepared under the auspices of the E.J. Pratt Publication Project in co-operation with the Victoria University Library (Toronto, Ontario) and the University of Toronto Press, with funding provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
In order to inform the scholarly community of the project and to solicit
responses to it, we have prepared a sample edition of one poem, Behind
the Log
At the top of each page, there will be a "linking frame." This frame will take three basic forms, but in each case it will contain the "Sea-Gulls" icon.
This icon, depending on the "linking frame" within which it occurs, will provide a link to a particular section of the Home Page of the edition (i.e., a version of this page):
For the origins and significance of the "Sea-Gulls" icon, click here.
The linking frame will have a blue background. A grey background will be used for the critical apparatus, and a white background will be used for the texts of Pratt's poems and letters.
Other icons used in this edition are:
poems
letters
page images (images of the pages of the texts
which have been included in this edition)
other images (photographs, drawings, paintings,
certificates, programmes, maps, etc.)
audio recordings (Pratt's readings and commentaries
on his poems, and his reminiscences)
entry in the timeline
entry in the annotations
The critical apparatus to which the Home Page will be linked in the completed edition will consist of the following:
The Hypertext Edition of the Complete Poems of E.J. Pratt
To go directly to a sample edition click here.
The aim of The Complete Poems of E.J. Pratt: A Hypertext Edition is to provide a fully annotated edition of the poetry of E.J. Pratt, incorporating all completed versions of every poem, linked to scanned-in images of every page of every version.
The edition is being prepared by Sandra Djwa, Professor of English Literature at Simon Fraser University and Zailig Pollock, Professor of English Literature at Trent University. Professor Pollock will be responsible for the hypertext structure of the edition and for the textual editing; Professor Djwa will be responsible for the critical introduction; responsibility for the annotations will be shared by both.
The Complete Poems will ultimately include some 200 poems, and will be mounted on the World Wide Web. Discussions are currently underway with the University of Toronto Press concerning the publication of a new print edition, to be keyed to the hypertext edition: it will contain a single version of each poem and minimal scholarly apparatus (a brief introduction, a glossary, no textual notes). The hypertext edition of the poems will eventually be linked to a hypertext edition of the letters, edited by David G. Pitt, Professor Emeritus, Memorial University and Elizabeth Popham, Professor of English Literature at Trent University.
Please e-mail any comments concerning The Complete Poems of E.J. Pratt: A Hypertext Edition to Sandra Djwa (djwa@sfu.ca) or Zailig Pollock (zpollock@trentu.ca).
NOTE: In descriptions of screen layout, "top," "bottom," and"middle" refer to the frames below the linking frame.
In addition to this Home Page, the edition will include an individual Poem Page for each poem. The Poem Page will provide links to the various versions of the poem and to the relevant critical apparatus.
The Poetry section of the Home Page will provide 2 kinds of links:
| Version | Transcribed | Edited | Collated | Annotated |
| 10. CP58 Collected Poems (University of Toronto Press 1958), 312-343 |  |
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The Table of Texts lists every version of the poem, and provides links to the 4 formats (see below) in which texts are presented in the edition.
Each row of the table is divided into two main parts.
In the first part of the table, consisting of the first column, the version is identified. This identification consists of:
Click here to go to an edition of Behind the Log.The Hypertext Edition of Pratt's Letters
To go directly to a sample edition of the Letters, click here.
The Complete Letters of E.J. Pratt: A Hypertext Edition is being prepared by David G. Pitt, Professor Emeritus at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and Elizabeth Popham, Associate Professor at Trent University. Professor Pitt collected over 1,000 letters while researching his award-winning two volume biography of E.J. Pratt, The Truant Years and The Master Years, and has annotated these for the print and hypertext editions. (Over 100 additional letters have been found in the past three years, and more are turning up all the time.) Professor Popham is responsible for the textual editing of both the hypertext edition of Pratt's letters and the print edition, and for the hypertext structure, developed in cooperation with Professor Zailig Pollock who is designing the hypertext edition of The Complete Poems of E.J. Pratt.
The print edition will by no means be superseded by hypertext, but the hypertext edition has distinct advantages as a research tool, allowing us to include all of the more than 1,100 letters collected by Professor Pitt and, more recently, by Professor Popham, as well as any letters which may be discovered after initial publication. In addition, hypertext allows an extremely flexible access to letters by chronology, correspondent, subject, and source, as well as links to the hypertext edition of Pratt's Complete Poems.
Please e-mail any comments concerning The Complete Letters of E.J. Pratt: A Hypertext Edition to Elizabeth Popham (epopham@trentu.ca).
The Letters section of the Home Page will provide 2 kinds of links:
These chronological groupings will correspond to the major divisions in the print edition of the Letters:
The Indices of Letters will remain in the top right frame throughout the session, allowing the reader to alter the principle of organization of the letters at any point.
Each letter will contain the following links:
1. Date of Composition
The Date of Composition is linked to the appropriate location on the Timeline: i.e., the date on which Pratt composed the letter.
2. Correspondent
The Correspondent's name is linked to the entry on this figure in the Biographical Dictionary.
3. Annotations
Additional annotations to material in the text of the letter will be linked to Endnotes at the bottom of the Letter Page.
5. Additional Links
In addition, as appropriate, links will be provided, from the text and the notes, to
Links are provided to the Letter Page of any relevent prior correspondence, as well as to the Poem Page(s) of the poem(s) mentioned in the letters. Where the reference is general, the link will be to the Table of Texts for the poem; where the reference is to a particular version of the poem, the link will be to the text of that specific version. Where there is a reference to format or design of the book, the link will be to the scanned image of the text, illustration, or cover.
Click here to go to the sample edition (May 1945 to December 1947).