Folks,

A couple of mudcat lurkers have asked that I post the latest "exciting things happening in our world of digital folk music publishing" to this group.

First: ============================================
Digital editions of:
"Early Ballad Collections of James Maidment" (intro by Ed Cray) and
"Northern Garlands by Joseph Ritson" are now available (PC-Windows).

"The Ballad Collections of George Ritchie Kinloch" with digitized music will be available on Labor Day 2004.

XML versions (Mac and PC compatible) versions of Child's "English and Scottish Popular Ballads" and these new smaller digital editions are about to be released as "The Heritage Collectors(tm) Digital Library - Shelf 1" for academic and public library subscription through NetLibrary. These on-line editions are also section 508 compliant.

The texts are interlinked and cross-searchable whether you are on the stand-alone versions or the new web-delivered versions. Ask in your university or local public library of access starting 1st quarter of 2005.

Second: ============================================
Because we now have an XML version, the Mac compatible edition will be available (with somewhat limited features) this fall semester.

Third: ============================================

I thought that you all might be interested in this latest news (see the note below) from one of our scholar/writers. For those who don't know her, Fiona is Professor of Drama and Literature at SUNY-Purchase. She did her doctoral work on Shakespeare at Columbia (as a Fulbright Scholar) and has a special interest in the working songs and women's songs in Elizabethan theatre.

Dear David:

I have had the honor of being asked to write the ballad entry for the new edition of the Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature. The editor of the Arden Shakespeare was so impressed by my essay for your collection that he asked me personally. This will be the first time in a long time there's been an entirely new edition, and the ballad entry will then be the most up to date and accurate. The Cambridge Encyclopedia is online, but it is horribly out of date and just plain inaccurate, given all the research done since it was written. The Oxford collection will go into hardback and online.

...

This is a great thing, and I think your collection deserves to be noted well in this encyclopedia. It should be in the bibliography that will go with the entry. ...

Anyway, thanks for asking me in the first place to write about ballads. ...

Best wishes,
Fiona McNeil


Fiona's essay on "History of the Ballads", written for us, was originally intended for inclusion in the ESPB (digital edition) but is being re-edited and moved to the web-site as part of our content development.

Lastly: ============================================
Also, keep an eye out in the following publications for reviews and articles on the ESPB (digital edition) and on Heritage Muse, Inc. over next few months:

Living Traditions Magazine (UK)
Sing Out! Magazine (US)
Journal of Scottish Studies (UK)
Journal of American Folklore (US)
International Journal of Folklore (US)
Songs of Freedom (Cable TV - Northeast US)

And if you missed the review/article in Dirty Linen a couple of months ago, a PDF of the text and images will be available on our website the week after Labor Day.

Regards,
David M. Kleiman
President & CEO
Heritage Muse, Inc. & ESPB Publishing, Ltd.
165 West End Avenue - Suite 12D
New York, NY 10023
212-721-9382
www.heritagemuse.com
info@heritagemuse.com