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This essay proposes to read the paratext of books published in seventeenth-century england as a form of multi-perspective, multi-generic, and multi-modal life writing, since information on the author is not only provided in chronological "life of the author" narratives, but by all elements of the paratext. Drawing on the paratext of William Cartwright's Comedies, Tragi-Comedies, With other Poems, published posthumously in 1651, it is shown how conventional paratextual strategies are combined with individualising "biographemes" (r. Barthes) to create a multi-faceted presentation of the author, in which the reader's role to reconstruct the author's life emerges as central.

In 1641, Thomas Beedome’s first and only book, Poems Divine, and Humane, was published posthumously. Considering this volume of poetry in the context of a proliferation of poetry publishing in mid-seventeenth century England and accepting the idea that early modern paratexts provided an ideal site for the renegotiation and manifestation of authorship, I argue that throughout the front matter of Beedome’s book, the largest part of which is taken up by commendatory poetry, a concept of the author, not only as singular creator, but also as proprietor of his work, is created. This essay shows how the writers of the commendatory verses try to single out Beedome by almost obsessively labelling him as a worthy author, comparing him favourably with classical and contemporary poets, and affirming the proprietary relationship between Beedome and his poems.

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Teaching Life Writing, Part II