Yuri Cowan
About
Yuri Cowan holds a doctorate from the University of Toronto, Canada, and came to NTNU in 2012 from a post-doctoral fellowship in the Research Project on Authorship as Performance (RAP) at Ghent University in Belgium, where he was again a visiting scholar in 2017-18. In the field of book history, he is interested in the material book, constructions of authorship, the history of collecting, and textual histories. He has worked on the form, publication, and recovery of medieval texts in the nineteenth century, such as William Morris's translations of The Ordination of Knighthood and Beowulf, which he edited for the Morris Archive. He has published various articles on Morris, book collectors in England and Norway, the Aesthetic Movement, ballad literature, Victorian sporting periodical literature, and the reprinting of Victorian fantasy in the 1970s; his monograph William Morris and Medieval Material Culture is in press. He is also beginning to write about the portrayal of book technologies in speculative fiction, as well as on SF's regional variations in Cascadia and California. He maintains the Oxford Bibliography of the Ballad for the nineteenth century; currently maintains the online catalogue of William Morris's library established by William and Sylvia Peterson; and is a founding editor (and was Managing Editor from 2011-2014) of the online peer-reviewed open-access journal Authorship.
Since 2019, he has been co-editor (with Greg Barnhisel and Alexandra Dane) of Book History, the journal of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading, and Publishing (SHARP). He is also a member of the advisory boards of the journals Authorship and English Studies.
Publications
2025
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2025)
Beyond the Garden of Forking Paths: Review of The Multiverse as Theory in Postmodern Speculative Fictional Narratives.
Science Fiction Studies
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2025)
Review of Beowulf: Poem, Poet, and Hero, by Heather O'Donoghue.
Journal of William Morris Studies
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2025)
Victorian Literature - The Ballad.
Oxford University Press
Encyclopedia
2024
-
Cowan, Yuri Allen.
(2024)
Eden Phillpotts's Pan and the Twins.
Academic chapter
2023
-
Cowan, Yuri Allen.
(2023)
The Ivory Gate: News from Nowhere and the Medieval Dream Vision.
Journal of William Morris Studies
Academic article
2022
-
Cowan, Yuri Allen.
(2022)
Norwegian Broadside Ballads and the Collecting Practices of Thorvald Boeck.
Mémoires du livre
Academic article
2021
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2021)
«En samler av guds nåde»: Thorvald Boeck og skillingsvisene
på 1800-tallet.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2021)
1924: Eileen Power and Madame Eglentyne.
Academic chapter
2020
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2020)
William Morris's Book Collecting.
Academic chapter
2019
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2019)
Review of Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1690‐1820s. Ed. Jennie Batchelor and Manushag N. Powell.
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Academic literature review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2019)
A Canticle for Leibowitz and Post-Apocalyptic Technologies of the Book.
RISS : magasin for studentar og tilsette ved Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitskap, Universitetet i Trondheim
Popular science article
2018
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2018)
Orality, Authenticity, and the Historiography of the Everyday:
The Ballad in Victorian Scholarship and Print Culture.
Academic chapter
2016
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2016)
Review of the UCSB English Broadside Ballad Archive.
SHARP News
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri;
Schelstraete, Jasper.
(2016)
De kranten van Asimov: Een geschiedenis van de toekomst van het boek.
nY: tijdschrift voor literatuur, kritiek & amusement
Popular science article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2016)
Review of The English Boccaccio: A History in Books (Guyda Armstrong, University of Toronto Press).
SHARP News
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2016)
Sporting Periodicals.
Academic chapter
2015
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2015)
Translation, Collaboration, and Reception: Editing Caxton for the Kelmscott Press.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2015)
Atavism, Beauty, and Power: The Body of the Deep Past in the Atlantis Romances of J. Allan Dunn and Arthur Conan Doyle.
RISS : magasin for studentar og tilsette ved Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitskap, Universitetet i Trondheim
Professional article
2014
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2014)
Pater, Decadent Historicism, and the Poetics of the Fragment: Gaston de Latour and "Denys l'Auxerrois".
The Journal of pre-Raphaelite studies (1992)
Academic article
2013
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2013)
Review of Inward of Poetry: George Johnston & Wm Blissett in Letters (Sean Kane, editor, Porcupine’s Quill, 432).
University of Toronto quarterly
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2013)
Introduction: Textual Histories.
Mémoires du livre
Academic article
2012
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2012)
"Reading Material Bibliography and Digital Editions".
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2012)
"Walter Scott and Victorian Ballad Anthologies: Authorship, Editing, and Authority".
Zeitschrift für Anglistik and Amerikanistik
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2012)
"Industrializing Print, Sport, and Authorship: Nimrod, Surtees, and the New Sporting Magazine".
Critical Survey
Academic article
2011
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2011)
Review of Masking the Text: Essays on Literature & Mediation in the 1890s. By Nicholas Frankel.
SHARP News
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2011)
Review of Field & Tuer, the Leadenhall Press: a Checklist. By Matthew McLennan Young.
SHARP News
Book review
2010
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2010)
Recovering the Barbarians: Reprinting 'Forgotten Fantasy' in the 1970s.
Mémoires du livre
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2010)
Everyday Material Culture in the Medieval Tales of The Earthly Paradise.
Academic chapter
2008
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2008)
William Morris and Medieval Material Culture.
University of Toronto
Doctoral thesis
2007
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2007)
'Paradyse Erthly': John Ball and the Medieval Dream-Vision.
Academic chapter
2006
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2006)
Allegory and Aestheticism in the Fantasies of George MacDonald.
North Wind : A Journal of George MacDonald Studies
Academic article
2004
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2004)
William Allingham's Ballad Book and its Victorian Readers.
University of Toronto quarterly
Academic article
Journal publications
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2025)
Beyond the Garden of Forking Paths: Review of The Multiverse as Theory in Postmodern Speculative Fictional Narratives.
Science Fiction Studies
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2025)
Review of Beowulf: Poem, Poet, and Hero, by Heather O'Donoghue.
Journal of William Morris Studies
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2016)
Review of the UCSB English Broadside Ballad Archive.
SHARP News
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri Allen.
(2023)
The Ivory Gate: News from Nowhere and the Medieval Dream Vision.
Journal of William Morris Studies
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2004)
William Allingham's Ballad Book and its Victorian Readers.
University of Toronto quarterly
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2006)
Allegory and Aestheticism in the Fantasies of George MacDonald.
North Wind : A Journal of George MacDonald Studies
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri;
Schelstraete, Jasper.
(2016)
De kranten van Asimov: Een geschiedenis van de toekomst van het boek.
nY: tijdschrift voor literatuur, kritiek & amusement
Popular science article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2010)
Recovering the Barbarians: Reprinting 'Forgotten Fantasy' in the 1970s.
Mémoires du livre
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2011)
Review of Masking the Text: Essays on Literature & Mediation in the 1890s. By Nicholas Frankel.
SHARP News
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2011)
Review of Field & Tuer, the Leadenhall Press: a Checklist. By Matthew McLennan Young.
SHARP News
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2016)
Review of The English Boccaccio: A History in Books (Guyda Armstrong, University of Toronto Press).
SHARP News
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2012)
"Walter Scott and Victorian Ballad Anthologies: Authorship, Editing, and Authority".
Zeitschrift für Anglistik and Amerikanistik
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2012)
"Industrializing Print, Sport, and Authorship: Nimrod, Surtees, and the New Sporting Magazine".
Critical Survey
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri Allen.
(2022)
Norwegian Broadside Ballads and the Collecting Practices of Thorvald Boeck.
Mémoires du livre
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2014)
Pater, Decadent Historicism, and the Poetics of the Fragment: Gaston de Latour and "Denys l'Auxerrois".
The Journal of pre-Raphaelite studies (1992)
Academic article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2013)
Review of Inward of Poetry: George Johnston & Wm Blissett in Letters (Sean Kane, editor, Porcupine’s Quill, 432).
University of Toronto quarterly
Book review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2019)
Review of Women's Periodicals and Print Culture in Britain, 1690‐1820s. Ed. Jennie Batchelor and Manushag N. Powell.
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies
Academic literature review
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2019)
A Canticle for Leibowitz and Post-Apocalyptic Technologies of the Book.
RISS : magasin for studentar og tilsette ved Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitskap, Universitetet i Trondheim
Popular science article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2015)
Atavism, Beauty, and Power: The Body of the Deep Past in the Atlantis Romances of J. Allan Dunn and Arthur Conan Doyle.
RISS : magasin for studentar og tilsette ved Institutt for nordistikk og litteraturvitskap, Universitetet i Trondheim
Professional article
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2013)
Introduction: Textual Histories.
Mémoires du livre
Academic article
Books
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2025)
Victorian Literature - The Ballad.
Oxford University Press
Encyclopedia
Part of book/report
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2021)
«En samler av guds nåde»: Thorvald Boeck og skillingsvisene
på 1800-tallet.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2018)
Orality, Authenticity, and the Historiography of the Everyday:
The Ballad in Victorian Scholarship and Print Culture.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2015)
Translation, Collaboration, and Reception: Editing Caxton for the Kelmscott Press.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2007)
'Paradyse Erthly': John Ball and the Medieval Dream-Vision.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2010)
Everyday Material Culture in the Medieval Tales of The Earthly Paradise.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2020)
William Morris's Book Collecting.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2012)
"Reading Material Bibliography and Digital Editions".
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2016)
Sporting Periodicals.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri Allen.
(2024)
Eden Phillpotts's Pan and the Twins.
Academic chapter
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2021)
1924: Eileen Power and Madame Eglentyne.
Academic chapter
Student thesis or dissertation
-
Cowan, Yuri.
(2008)
William Morris and Medieval Material Culture.
University of Toronto
Doctoral thesis
Outreach
2024
-
Conference lectureCowan, Yuri Allen. (2024) Book history to the people: Some practicalities of open access. SHARP 2024
2023
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri Allen. (2023) William Morris and the Kelmscott Canon. European Society for Textual Studies 2023 conference
2022
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LectureCowan, Yuri Allen. (2022) Presentasjon av kapittelet "'En samler av guds nåde': Thorvald Boeck og skillingsvisene på 1800-tallet". Boklansering Skillingsvisene i Norge 1550-1950
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2022) Round Table: "1922: Beyond Modernism". European Society for the Study of English Conference 2022
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Conference lecture
2021
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2021) The Texts and Editors of the Kelmscott Press. The Kelmscott Press and its Legacies symposium
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2021) "Buried in the Transformation": The Treachery of the Written Word in SF. The Reader in the Book: Books, Reading and Libraries in Fiction
2020
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LectureCowan, Yuri. (2020) Is Anything Truly Lowbrow? A Book History Perspective. Lenge Leve Lavkulturen! - Litterær Salong
2019
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2019) "Pretty Well Known, I Think": William Morris in the French and Norwegian Periodical Press. Literary Citizenship Conference
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2019) Asimov's Newspapers: The Material Book in SF from the Golden Age to the New Weird. Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
2018
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2018) The Authorial Presence of William Morris in Victorian Periodical Culture. CEL19 Lecture Series
2017
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2017) Material Culture and Society in the Late Romances of William Morris. The Victorian Novel lecture series
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2017) 'A Great Instance of our Frugality of Words': Reporting the Local and Global Eighteenth Century in 140 Characters. The Rise of the Newspaper in Europe and America, 1600-1900
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LectureCowan, Yuri. (2017) Tree-Huggers and Terraformers: Science Fiction on the West Coast. Starmus in the City
2016
-
Conference lecture
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LectureCowan, Yuri. (2016) The Small Press Movement, Book Design, and the Origins of Modernism. Ugress 2016
2015
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2015) 'The Handiest of Men and Skilled in Everything': Morris and the Domestic Idiom of the Saga. Modern Language Association of America annual conference
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2015) 'A Detail of Curious Traditionary Facts': The Justified Sinner and the Scots Mummy In and Out of the Pages of Blackwood's. James Hogg Society 2015 conference
2014
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2014) Charting a Popular Readership for Medieval Literature in the Nineteenth Century. NTNUs Middelalderseminar
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LectureCowan, Yuri. (2014) Worlds Die, Books Survive: Post-Apocalyptic Knowledge and Technology. Torucon 2014
2013
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Conference lectureCowan, Yuri. (2013) "The Rationale of Victorian Hypertext: Nineteenth-Century Networks of Textual Recovery and Editing". Digital Humanities and Early Modern Studies