I’ve been reading the biography of A. T. Robertson (ATR) and the history of Southern Seminary lately. I just ran across some comments regarding the publication of his major grammar, A Grammar of the Greek NT in the Light of Historical Research. It’s a rather different picture than I expected. Here’s the description.
At times Dr. Robertson nearly despaired of ever getting it [his Grammar] published. He borrowed against his life insurance policies and from other sources and still was unable to meet the demands of the publishers. One day he said to Dr. Carver that this venture would utterly ruin him. “I wish the whole thing were in the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.”
At this critical juncture Dr. Mullins, realizing the great importance to the Seminary of Dr. Robertson’s work, came to the rescue. A publishing fund was authorized by the trustees to the amount of ten thousand dollars, later supplemented by an additional four thousand, which made possible the eventual publication of Robertson’s Grammar. Though he had to assign all royalties from his great work for the reimbursing of this fund, Dr. Robertson derived great satisfaction from the wide acceptance of the effort on which he had spent twenty-six years of his life.
Wm. Mueller, A History of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Broadman, 1959), 204.
(Dr. Carver was a colleague on the faculty and Dr. Mullins the president of Southern Seminary.)
$14,000! And that was in 1914!
So apparently “subventions” are not a recent development in academic publishing! (For those of you unaware, authors pay multiple thousands of dollars to have their books published with academic publishers such as Brill, Lang, Mellen, etc.)
Another interesting tidbit, an unnamed scholar was quoted to the effect that he wondered how Paul could have written his epistles without Dr. Robertson’s big Grammar! (Tongue in cheek, I hope!)
Dr. Decker,
I wanted to thank you for this bit of interesting information from the life of such an influential figure in the history of NT Studies. It is amazing how easily we can neglet to honor the dilligence and sacrifice of many of our predecessors!
I thought you might be interested to know that Logos Bible Software has made available a 14 volume collection of works by A. T. Robertson. The collection includes his giant Greek Grammar, his work on Textual Criticism and several commentaries and lectures.
You can take look at it here:
A. T. Robertson Collection (14 Vols.)
That would be an interesting 14 vol. set (though some of the “vols.” are pretty slim publications, so it’s not as large a set as “14 vols.” might sound. The URL you list also indicates that this set is only “Gathering Interest” and not really available. And present interest looks to be only in the 5% range…
Let us know if it ever materializes.
Dr. Decker,
I am following up on your request. The ATR collection has gathered enough interest to head into production. This product will be available in a few months. For now, it is available on Pre-Order for a considerably discounted price.
A. T. Robertson Collection (14 Vols.)