There are of course collections, and it is a good question, what counts exactly. I think the Berlant book might qualify, although it does make an effort to present itself as a coherent “project” while still consisting of largely standalone essays. That is not an unusual model, the non-monograph monograph, and not quite what I had in mind. I am thinking more of something like the Said book, that one is more frankly miscellaneous as I remember it.

I am wondering in what genres this is possible: both of these figures were (a.) stars (b.) in cultural theory—but could someone working on the 19th-c. novel publish a collection of essays like F.R. Leavis did? I have a sense that lesser academic beings (not the Saids and Berlants, but the average 1-2-3 book academics who become full profs and retire, who are mostly doing work specific to their discipline without the transferable quality of the writing of the Saids and Berlants) the single-author essay collection is not really available as a genre. And only poets and very-very big stars can put together collections of their more miscellaneous essays, if at all.

It was just a thought, don’t have a solid set of examples—also, don’t have numbers. Your posts were eye-opening because you found the right metrics.

For academic stuff, one could look at book reviews. The TLS? “Literary criticism” including theory, for one year in every decade? What is the book—monograph, essay collection, somewhere in between? Would be a fair amount of work. And I may be completely wrong.