Traditionally hailed as a champion of various forms of liberty and toleration, and creator of a new-modeled Eden, Milton came to occupy a privileged place in genealogies of liberalism, modernity, and the history of revolution against repression. In the decades immediately following the American Revolution alone (1765–1783), Milton’s collected poems were produced in about 28 different Anglo-American editions, and more recently his influence in Latin American writing has been noted. This collection showcases Miltonic encounters within the Americas—early modern to contemporary—and multiple ways of gauging those encounters, surveying how Milton is received, translated, rewritten, and appropriated to speak anew, generating a rich array of literary and critical afterlives throughout the American continents.
