I am looking for historiographic material on the whys and wherefores of bibliographies, especially bibliographies of the works of scientists, as ends in themselves (e.g., documentary evidence) and as means to ends (e.g., tools for quantitative history). Any suggestions?

-- Edward K. Morris (ekm@ku.edu), July 09, 2001

Answers

[Forwarded for EIT by cdg.]

I recall that Robert I. Watson was very big on bibliographies. Possibly he actually wrote something on them as method.

Also, I have a section on them in a course I teach at Saybrook Graduate School for those students writing a non-quantitative dissertation in psychology. The course is called Advanced Methods in the History and Philosophy of Psychology, although it has also been presented at Saybrook residential conferences as simply "The Archival Method." The slant on the history of psychology is from an existential-humanistic and transpersonal perspective, so the net gets cast a little wider than normal history of psychology courses. The bibliographies we study are:

Ralph Barton Perry, J. J. McDermott, et al.(1977). An annotated chronological bibliography of the writings of William James. In J. J. McDermott, The writings of William James. (pp. 811-28) Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.

E. I. Taylor (1996). Appendix: An annotated bibliography of psychologists writing on James. In E. I. Taylor, William James on Consciousness beyond the margin. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.

John Gray (ed)(1989). Ashe, Traditional Religion and Healing in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Diaspora; A Classified Internl. Bibliography. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.

Anne Carson,(1992). Goddesses & Wise Women: The Literature of Feminist Spirituality 1980-1992 : An Annotated Bibliography. Freedom, CA : Crossing Press.

The course gets into the political use of bibliographies as a tool that can be used to overwhelm psychologists who have a bad attitude toward historical methods as legitimate in psychology in the first place. (altho' I think this is opposite from Ed Morris's intentions, however).

The Intermediate course in history and systems of psychology that I offer gets into reconstructing the life and work of important psychologists by asking Gordon Allport's question "How shall a life history be written?" One answer is to build a chronology of major events in that person's life, collect all the obits and biograhical statements you can find, and then reconstruct their entire bibliography, if possible. Seems obvious.

The introductory course, History and Systems of Psychology" which instructs through narrative outlines and targeted bibliographies, surveys the three streams in the history of American psychology -- experimental, clinical, and folk-psychology. The course is based on the assumption that since there are many definitions of psychology in common currency, there must be more than one history of psychology. Thus the model of the three streams.

-- Eugene I. Taylor (etaylor@IGC.ORG), July 12, 2001.

[Forwarded for HVK by cdg.]

I have the volume of Watson's selected papers, and it includes nothing on bibliography, which isn't even a word in the index. It does, however, include a bibliography of Watson's writings, which suggests that Brozek and Evans must consider bibliographies important 'in themselves.' :)

-- Hendrika Vande Kemp (hendrika@FULLER.EDU), July 12, 2001.

[Forwarded for RKT by cdg.]

Robert I. Watson (1974). Eminent Contributors to Psychology. Volume I. A Bibliography of Primary References. New York: Springer Publishing Co.

-- Roger K. Thomas (rkthomas@ARCHES.UGA.EDU), July 12, 2001.

[Forwarded for ASW by cdg.]

One person who would be very likely to have extensive knowledge of the history of bibliographies is Maurizio Martino, of Martino Fine Books and Publishing, Mansfield Centre, Connecticut.

He specializes in republishing rare bibliographies, and in buying and selling rare bibliographies, especially of the "antiquarian" sort. If there is a published history of bibliography, or other works on the topic of bibliography, I think he would probably know about it. His email is drago1959@hotmail.com

-- Andrew S. Winston (awinston@uoguelph.ca), July 13, 2001.

[Forwaded for EKM by cdg.]

A Selective, Mostly Modern Bibliography of Bibliography for Historians of Psychology

Edward K. Morris
University of Kansas

Modern Texts

The literature on bibliography "has a long past, but a short history." The list below mostly reflects the latter. The canonical references may be culled from its references, along with historically important bibliographies, themselves. The literature generally covers the history of bibliography, as well as its two main types. The first is analytical or critical bibliography, which is the study of books as physical objects. These may be historical (e.g., editions, impressions, issues), textual (i.e., the relation between the author's original prose and the final text), and descriptive (e.g., binding, paper, ink, format, illustrations). Most of the literature on bibliography is given over to bibliography of this sort. This is classical bibliography. The second type of bibliography is enumerative or systematic bibliography, which is more akin to reference lists. Bibliography of this type comes in several varieties, mainly, national and regional; library, archival, and museum; period and era; personal and author; subject matter; and as bibliography of bibliographies. This is newer bibliography, but only of secondary interest to classicists.

Bowers, F. T. (1994). Principles of bibliographical description. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press. (Original work published 1949)

Davison, P. (Ed,). (1998). The book encompassed: Studies in twentieth-century bibliography. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Press.

Frances, F. C. (1976). Bibliography. Encyclopaedia Britannica (15th ed.). Macropedia (Vol. 2, pp. 978-981). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Greetham, D. C. (1994). Textual scholarship: An introduction. New Brunswik, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

Harmon, R. B. (1998). Elements of bibliography: A guide to information sources and practical applications (3rd ed.). Lantham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Krummel, D. W. (1984). Bibliographies: Their aims and methods. London: Mansell.

Padwick, E. W. (1969). Bibliographic method: An introductory survey. Cambridge, England: James Clarke.

Stokes, R. (1969). The function of bibliography. London: Andre Deutsch.

Bibliography on the Web

The Bibliographical Society of America has a web site through which the discipline and the profession of bibliography, and its literature, may be accessed. Its address is www. bibsocamer.org. (As for bibliographies created for the web, there are "webliographies.")

Publishers

Some publishers devote entire book series solely to bibliographies and indexes, for instance, see Greenwood Press's "Bibliographies and Indexes in Education," which may be accessed through the web. For bibliographies of largely historical content and interest, see (a) Martino Fine Books and Publishing, P.O. Box 373, Mansfield Centre, CT 06250; ph: 860.429. 4569; fax: 860.429.4619; e-mail: drago@neca. com and (b) Oak Knoll Books, Oak Knoll Press, and St. Paul's Bibliographies, 310 Delaware Street, New Castle, DE 19720; ph: 302.328.7232; fax: 302.328.7274; e-mail: oakknoll@oakknoll. com.

-- Edward K. Morris (ekm@ukans.edu), November 07, 2001.