Shakespeare Electronic Conference, Vol. 5, No. 0001. January, 1, 1994.
From: Hardy M. Cook <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Saturday, January 1, 1994
Subject: New Year's Greetings
Dear SHAKSPEReans,
I wish you all the best for this New Year. Much has happened on this
conference in 1993, and we have much to look forward to in 1994.
SHAKSPER was founded on July 16, 1990, by Ken Steele and a group of thirteen or
so interested Shakespeareans (including myself), many of whom had met at the
1990 Annual Meeting of the Shakespeare Association of America in Philadelphia.
I became SHAKSPER's coeditor in February 1992 and editor in June of 1992.
Despite the July founding date, our year begins with January 1, so we are now
entering our fifth year as the above header indicates.
One of the things that has happened to SHAKSPER this past year is that it has
grown. We currently have 462 members from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand,
South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Canada and the United States. The SHAKSPER
FileServer contains a file -- SHAKSPER MEMBERS -- that lists all of SHAKSPER's
member in alphabetical order by node. I will send in a moment that file out to
all our members. It is essentially a directory of the membership and can be
used to search for the e-mail address of any of SHAKSPER's members. If you are
interested in learning more about our members, you can examine the Biography
files. If you would like to get copies of all the SHAKSPER Member
Biographies, you should send a one-line mail message (without a subject line)
to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., reading "GET BIOGRAFY PACKAGE SHAKSPER."
The second major SHAKSPERean happening of 1993 was the quality and the amount
of the discussions. In 1993, there were 978 digests, and these digests
generally contained contributions of many members. To give you an idea of
how much was discussed this year, here are the numbers for our past three
years: in 1990, there were 142 digests; in 1991, 336; in 1992, 407. Something
is clearly happening here. The FileSever also contains files recounting
our past discussions. Yesterday, I brought the 1994 Index up-to-date. If
you would be interested in obtaining a copy, send a one-line mail message to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., reading "GET DISCUSS INDEX_4 SHAKSPER."
I have been delighted with SHAKSPER in 1993, and I look with great anticipation
to our discussions of 1994. I know full well that it is the membership that
makes SHAKSPER the interesting community it is. Currently, we are
Shakespearean textual scholars and bibliographers, editors and critics, but we
are also professors and high school teachers, undergraduate and graduate
students, actors, poets, playwrights, theatre professionals, librarians,
computer scientists, and interested bystanders. This variety is essential to
the success of this conference.
Again, best wishes for the New Year to you all.
Hardy M. Cook
Editor of SHAKSPER