One emphasis of this developing blog and website is on forensic method, a topic I’ve long studied and recently written about in the Journal of Forensic Document Examination (Vol. 27, 2017).

One way I’ve developed an understanding of forensic methods in literary studies is through the analysis of a document that I own, an 1846 words-and-pictures satire that has been independently assessed by handwriting expert Dr. Sargur Srihari, and co-authors Gregory R. Ball and Danjan Pu at the University of Buffalo’s Cedar-Fox Lab as being in the handwriting of Herman Melville.

The document is available on my other website, The Sea Serpent and the Valentines. There’s a lot happening with the research on this project and I will need to update the site, which I started a decade ago after three years of research.

In writing about the “Sea Monster” manuscript I feel I’ve learned a lot about how to blend kinds and qualities of evidence not normally all used in an argument, for example forensic handwriting analysis, linguistics, and literary-historical contextualization. I did that in my dissertation on the de Vere Bible, but with this document I’ve focused on making the integration of these elements of evidence as seamlessly entertaining as possible, to make the argument a good and detailed narrative that draws from several disciplines as needed.

The Valentines are another story altogether; click the link to find out.


More Anon.