Inbook publishing, ananthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and genre-based anthologies.[1]
Complete collections of works are often called "complete works" or "opera omnia" (Latin equivalent).
The word entered the English language in the 17th century, from theGreek word, ἀνθολογία (anthologic, literally "a collection of blossoms", fromἄνθος,ánthos, flower), a reference to one of the earliest known anthologies,theGarland (Στέφανος,stéphanos), the introduction to which compares each of its anthologized poets to a flower. ThatGarland byMeléagros of Gadara formed the kernel for what has become known as theGreek Anthology.
Florilegium, a Latin derivative for a collection of flowers, was used in medieval Europe for an anthology of Latin proverbs and textual excerpts. Shortly before anthology had entered the language, English had begun using florilegium as a word for such a collection.[1]
The Palatine Anthology, discovered in thePalatine Library, Heidelberg in 1606, is a collection of Greek poems and epigrams that was based on the lost 10th Century Byzantine collection of Constantinus Cephalas, which in turn was based on older anthologies. In The Middle Ages, European collections offlorilegia became popular, bringing together extracts from various Christian and pagan philosophical texts. These evolved intocommonplace books andmiscellanies, including proverbs, quotes, letters, poems and prayers.[2]
Songes and Sonettes, usually calledTottel's Miscellany, was the first printed anthology of English poetry. It was published byRichard Tottel in 1557 in London and ran to many editions in the sixteenth century.[3] A widely read series of political anthologies,Poems on Affairs of State, began its publishing run in 1689, finishing in 1707.[4]
In Britain, one of the earliest national poetry anthologies to appear wasThe British Muse (1738), compiled byWilliam Oldys.Thomas Percy's influentialReliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), was the first of the great ballad collections, responsible for the ballad revival in English poetry that became a significant part of the Romantic movement.William Enfield'sThe Speaker; Or, Miscellaneous Pieces was published in 1774 and was a mainstay of 18th Century schoolrooms. Important nineteenth century anthologies included Palgrave'sGolden Treasury (1861),Edward Arber'sShakespeare Anthology (1899) and the first edition ofArthur Quiller Couch'sOxford Book of English Verse (1900).[4]
InEast Asian tradition, an anthology was a recognized form of compilation of a givenpoetic form. It was assumed that there was a cyclic development: any particular form, say thetanka inJapan, would be introduced at one point in history, be explored by masters during a subsequent time, and finally be subject to popularisation (and a certain dilution) when it achieved widespread recognition. In this model, which derives from Chinese tradition, the object of compiling an anthology was to preserve the best of a form, and cull the rest.
In the twentieth century, anthologies became an important part of poetry publishing for a number of reasons. ForEnglish poetry, theGeorgian poetry series[6] was trend-setting; it showed the potential success of publishing an identifiable group of younger poets marked out as a 'generation'. It was followed by numerous collections from the 'stable' of some literary editor, or collated from a given publication, or labelled in some fashion as 'poems of the year'. Academic publishing also followed suit, with the continuing success of the Quiller-CouchOxford Book of English Verse encouraging other collections not limited to modern poetry.[7] Not everyone approved.Robert Graves andLaura Riding published theirPamphlet Against Anthologies in 1928, arguing that they were based on commercial rather than artistic interests.[4]
Since publishers generally found anthology publication a more flexible medium than the collection of a single poet's work, and indeed rang innumerable changes on the idea as a way of marketing poetry, publication in an anthology (in the right company) became at times a sought-after form of recognition for poets. The self-definition of movements, dating back at least toEzra Pound's efforts on behalf ofImagism, could be linked on one front to the production of an anthology of the like-minded.[10]
Also, whilst not connected with poetry, publishers have produced collective works of fiction and non-fiction from a number of authors and used the term anthology to describe the collective nature of the text. These have been in a number of subjects, includingErotica, edited byMitzi Szereto, andAmerican Gothic Tales edited byJoyce Carol Oates.The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists, published in 2000, anthologises four centuries of diary entries into 365 'days'.[11]
