But the fruit of all that labor isn't a book. It's a web site. Now that's a little different. It is available to browsers by subscription only. McGann has long been at the forefront of the application of computer technology in the study of the humanities at U.Va.
Computers offer a revolution in scholarly study.
The computer offers a new tool to study texts, he said. One of my chief interests is in textuality and the theory of texts. This allows me to edit things that are impossible to edit in book form. As of last semester, the site contained some 14,000 files that he and a changing group of graduate students have compiled for more than six years. Finding a publisher for the web site was problematic, McGann said.