The work is to be published by the Oxford University Press this September. The translation has been around for quite some time, but was attributed to George Soane, even though it was published as “Anonymous.” Coleridge had already attempted and abandoned a translation of Faustus for another publisher, and possibly feared that he would be in breach of contract (he had been paid a £100 advance,) if it was discovered that he completed the work for another publisher.
Paul Zall began trying to connect Coleridge to the work in 1971. He passed the project onto McKusick in 1989:
Professor McKusick used a computer analysis called “stylometrics”, a system that suggests every writer uses a characteristic vocabulary, to compare the anonymous translation with Coleridge’s body of works, as well as writings of other leading contenders for its authorship, including Soane.
With the help of the mathematics department at his university, he examined the use of functional keywords in the Faust translation and Coleridge’s play Remorse, and found they showed a nearly exact match. Results from other authors whom academics believe may have been responsible for the translation did not even come close on the stylometrics system, he said.
Coleridge acolytes are not yet convinced it seems though.