Marian Johnson joined W. W. Norton in 1978 as an intern.
How does one go about making and maintaining something as comprehensive and significant as a Norton Anthology?
With a large team of brilliant scholar editors and brilliant and practical Nortonians, a good amount of time (more than five years for a new anthology; two or so years for a new edition), a generous budget to purchase the rights to include copyrighted works (these numbers are higher than you think), and boots on the ground in the marketplace (our amazing marketers, specialists, and sales reps)!
What surprised you most to learn as you entered the editorial process for these books?
How carefully Norton listens to what a wide range of professors say and how widely divergent their requests are! Instructors want anthologies to be both cutting-edge and classic; to contain all great literature but also to be reasonably sized and priced; and to make the editorial material as student-friendly as possible while keeping it rigorous and scholarly. One of Norton’s biggest challenges is to absorb these competing desires and still publish a book that’s as distinctive as a Norton Anthology must be.
Why is an anthology important?
Anthologies are important because they help to democratize literature—that is, they make a broad swathe of different works available to students at all kinds of schools, students who may take just one literature or humanities class during their undergraduate days. I truly believe that reading literature is good for people—period. The availability of anthologies ensures that as many students as possible read novels, stories, plays, essays, and poems. Ironically (perhaps to some), in today’s world of constant content, one can’t discount the value of expertise: Norton’s editors assemble the texts with great care and provide helpful headnotes and annotations. What Norton delivers is good for students—and great for instructors, who, having assigned an anthology, are free to teach at a high level rather than spend time assembling masses of course content.
How have you navigated canon criticisms, perceptions, and demands?
Over the years I learned so much from the outside editors (Stephen Greenblatt, Robert Levine, Henry Louis Gates, and others) and of course from Norton president and former anthology editor, Julia Reidhead. Norton’s navigation of the so-called canon wars of the 1980s and 1990s was brilliant. As scholars expanded their interest into works beyond the classics, teachers clamored to be able to bring those works into their classrooms. While some parts of particular anthologies may not have adjusted enough to changes in instructors’ expectations, most Norton volumes adapted nicely, retaining crucial classic works, and adding important works by groups not previously represented to an adequate degree: women writers and writers of color. We worked hard to bring such literature into the anthologies, but sometimes people weren’t ready to teach those works, both because they were unfamiliar with the traditions and because those works didn’t align with the norms of traditional Western/European greatness. For example, the demand that we add more works by Native Americans to The Norton Anthology of American Literature was loud, but after we met that demand, surveys showed that few people were teaching those works. This is one of the conundrums of decanonization or even of just broadening the canon—the disjunction between what people say must be in the books and what they actually teach. Still, it’s a conundrum with which Norton must grapple. That grappling keeps the anthologies alive!
How do you navigate the various demands of individual classrooms, student levels, teaching times, etc.? How can the anthology serve them all?
All the anthology can do is make available a reasonably representative array of writing, preferably great writing, and provide helpful introductions and annotations. From there, most everything else is up to the teacher. Norton can provide all the resources in the world, but if the teacher is not teaching with passion, if the teacher is not teaching with imagination and with a deep sense that literature is important for everyone, then students will lose out, no matter how good an anthology is. I’ve always found it refreshing when a professor reminds me that the textbook is not the whole class, when they stake a claim to their own responsibility in making a class successful. Too often we in textbook publishing think we’re “giving” teachers a class. We’re not, but we do provide things that are extraordinarily valuable.
Norton is known for producing authoritative, comprehensive anthologies. Can you describe what that vetting process looks like behind the scenes?
People should know that Norton works closely with hundreds of instructors to shape the tables of contents for every edition of every anthology. Deep reviews and wide-ranging surveys are the most important tools that editors have at their disposal. Norton (and our general editors) “vet” new editors for both their scholarship and their achievements as teachers; the editors, most often people with excellent contacts within their areas of expertise, consult with colleagues during the selection process and the process of drafting introductions, headnotes, and footnotes. Norton editors and respected freelancers work hand in hand with the external editorial team in every respect.
One extremely important and interesting aspect of producing a good anthology is the process for obtaining permission to use copyrighted readings, especially for translated and contemporary works. Norton offers a generous budget for permissive (copyrighted) works. Sometimes, though, a rightsholder says no or insists on payment that would bust the budget. Dealing with such issues and solving them so that the anthology remains as representative as possible is an important part of editing these collections.
Finally, can you share a text or an author you’ve worked on that feels especially meaningful to you?
I’ve been introduced to so much extraordinary literature through my work on the anthologies, literature that I’m sure I would never have encountered otherwise. Here are a few examples from over the years and across the anthologies: Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country (The Norton Anthology of World Literature); Ann Petry, “Like a Winding Sheet” (The Norton Anthology of American Literature); and J. G. Ballard, The Drowned World (The Norton Anthology of English Literature). Each of these selections blew me away with the beauty of the writing, the complexity of the relationships and events portrayed, and the feeling I had with all of them of discovery, of venturing into worlds so unlike my own. I’m a very experiential and emotional reader, not a hugely analytical one (one reason I didn’t major in philosophy!).
Bringing things together in one place, supporting instructors in their work while also opening up astonishing worlds of literature to all types of readers (students, instructors, and lifelong learners alike): These are just some of the reasons that the Norton Anthologies continue to thrive. Continuity and change: Norton’s literature list embraces both of these realities. I’m proud to have been a part of the list’s evolution and excited to see it continue into the future.
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MEET THE AUTHOR
Marian Johnson joined W. W. Norton in 1978 as an intern. She held various jobs over the years, from editorial assistant to freelance copy editor to managing editor. After working with Julia Reidhead on many college titles, she became the literature editor when Julia became president of the company. Among the books Marian has worked on are The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Norton Anthology of American Literature, The Norton Shakespeare, and The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. In 2024, she stepped back from the literature editor role, but she still helps the team with part-time work from her home in Midcoast Maine.