The Norton Anthology of English Literature - Competing Anthologies

Competing Anthologies

The seventies saw the emergence of The Oxford Anthology of English Literature,; its editorial team included leading scholars Harold Bloom, Frank Kermode, and Lionel Trilling. It was discontinued. Bloom, a former student of Abrams', noted, “We were defeated in battle.”

The Longman Anthology of British Literature is also a competitor. Of this relationship, Joyce Jensen of the New York Times wrote in 1999, "The first stone in the war between Longman and W. W. Norton, the David and Goliath of the anthology publishing world, has been cast. With the recent publication of The Longman Anthology of British Literature, Longman has mounted a challenge to Norton to become the literary anthology of choice in colleges and universities around the country." Longman Anthology editor David Damrosch commented on the Seventh edition of the Norton Anthology, arguing:

Though I could wish that the new edition of the Norton had reflected more independent thought and less reactive borrowing of the most visible innovations of our table of contents, I am very glad that Norton has now also adopted the six-volume format.1 (footnote) Then again, perhaps the Norton hasn't simply been imitating us in its rapid inclusions of Marie de France, Hogarth, The Beggar's Opera, Frankenstein, and a range of new context groupings whose topics track ours with what may only appear to be beagle-like devotion. The Septuagint was produced by independent translators whose versions all came out alike, and this history may have repeated itself here.

The Norton Anthology responded that:

The new Norton is not (as Longman personnel have charged) simply an attempt to copy Longman… Norton has defined its scope by uniting works whose common bond is the English language, claiming that a shared vocabulary is essential to cultural unity.

Independent Canadian publisher Broadview Press also offers a 6 volume anthology of British literature that competes with the Norton and Longman anthologies, and a 2-volume Concise Edition that competes with Norton's 2-volume Major Authors Edition and Longman's 2-volume Masters of British Literature. The editorial team for The Broadview Anthology of British Literature includes leading scholars such as Kate Flint, Jerome J. McGann, and Anne Lake Prescott and has in general been very well received, though its sales have yet to match those of the competitors from the two larger publishers.