Talk:Alexander Ross (writer)

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The only modern biography of Alexander Ross from primary sources is the brief essay in the introduction to my University of Illinois doctoral dissertation, submitted in 1978 and later published as A Critical Edition of Alexander Ross's 1647 'Mystagogus Poeticus, or the Muses Interpreter', in The Renaissance Imagination, Vol. 31 (New York & London: Garland, 1987). Included is a woodcut portrait of Ross from the frontispiece of Mystagogus.

This dissertation is also the only serious attempt at a complete bibliography of works by and pertaining to Ross, including foreign-language editions and manuscript sources bearing on his life and writings, both public and private; plus a large number of citations related to the Medieval-Renaissance mythographical tradition.

For a more concise account of Ross's life and work (with Ross's picture), see my article in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 151, pp. 278-284 (Gale Research, 1995).

My dissertation, centering as it does on the 1647 text of Mystagogus, the first and shortest edition of that work, is by no means the last word on Ross. I'd love to go back, correct the errors, and generally approach things differently.

And yet, the study remains essential for its additions and corrections to the biographical and bibliographical record, all based upon primary sources. Few historical figures have been more burdened with misinformation than Ross, and I was determined not to continue the chain of error. Fortunately, I was able to do most of my research in the incredibly rich Rare Book Room of the University of Illinois and in the libraries and record offices in London and throughout the U.K., where I was a Fulbright-Hays Fellow. Accordingly, except as otherwise obvious, I was able to verify first-hand nearly every document cited, either with the original "hard copy" before my eyes or in microfilm form. All biographical facts and bibliographical entries, as far as they go, are therefore highly reliable.

John 153 (talk) 23:11, 26 November 2007 (UTC)John R. Glenn