This book analyzes the distinctive contribution to literary history of early-seventeenth-century hand-written English poetry anthologies. Compiled by manuscript verse collectors, these anthologies preserved a number of pieces by major authors of the English Renaissance, yet they tended to surround them with unprintable verses on sex and politics. Manuscript Verse Collectors, Joshua Eckhardt's first book, is a pioneering study of English manuscript poetry which uses extensive textual evidence to inform stimulating readings of poetry and politics in the early seventeenth century ... the scholarship here is impressive ... his methodologies should prove indispensible to future researchers in this field.