Paradise Lost was composed after 1652, when Milton had gone blind, dictated from memory to a secretary. Of that transcription, only a manuscript for Book I survives, in the collection of the Morgan Library in New York City, its spelling, punctuation, capitalization altered in the earliest printed versions. Professor John T. Shawcross, an eminent Miltonist at the University of Kentucky, has developed a new modernized text for the Arion edition. His appended "Note on the Text" explains the modifications. Helen Vendler, the respected literary critic and University Professor at Harvard, has contributed to several Arion Press books. Her substantial essay introducing Paradise Lost was done in preparation for a planned study of the work, which she feels deserves renewed attention.