Literary Anthologies

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I am always interested in looking at the editorial choices behind literary anthologies, (collection of works by various authors, rather than a book of writings by a single writer). A book like Best Ghost Stories Of All Time or Comedy Poems, etc., is put together much like top ten lists we see here on here. The editorial process of picking what should or shouldn’t go in the book can be quite a challenge. I would fully expect a horror story collection to include works by Poe, Lovecraft, Bloch, etc. A selection of Elizabethan Verse could hardly leave out Shakespeare, but with 150 Sonnets to choose from, which ones go in and which are to be left out? . When buying anthologies or borrowing them from libraries I check the contents to make sure I haven’t read most or all the included material before. Collections I dislike are those including extracts from longer works, such as selected passages from Milton’s Paradise Lost, or three chapters from a Hemmingway Novel. If it isn’t the complete text, I don’t want to know. There are exceptions such as Lewis Carroll’s poems from the Alice In Wonderland books, as these are self contained complete works in their own right, simply inserted as tales told by various characters including Tweedledee And Tweedledum. I have actually had a few of my own poems and stories in anthology collections. Most of these include only work by new upcoming authors though one book centred on poetry from my home county, Lancashire, puts my work alongside material by William Wordsworth, Sam Bamford and other major poets, which is awesome company to share a book with. Arthur Chappell