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Persuasions #2, 1980 Pages 3-4 FROM THE PRESIDENT
… and parties on the water were made and accomplished as often as a showery October would allow. The water, on this occasion, was Chesapeake Bay and we omitted the showers that graced our l979 meeting in New York. All 130 who attended this year’s Jane Austen weekend in Baltimore proclaimed it a resounding success (see speeches elsewhere). I would be exceedingly neglectful were I to begin this Message without thanking the members of our planning committee there: Elsa Solender, Harry Burke, Sally Jones, Shiffra Rubin and Hilda Levyne. By Sunday afternoon they had the group: Feverish with hopes and fears, soup and negus, sore-footed and fatigued, restless and agitated, yet feeling, in spite of everything that ‘our ball’ was indeed delightful. Our meeting in 1981 will take place in San Francisco, October 9-11. Marilyn Sachs has organized a committee (Dotty Myers, David Miller, Bette Pepper, Neff Rotter and Susan Meyers) and the dinner menu has already been drawn up. Dotty Myers will host a welcoming reception at her Victorian Gothic, Divisadero Street, home. Professor Ian Watt of Stanford University will be our dinner speaker. He is the editor of: Jane Austen: A Collection of Critical Essays (Prentice Hall, 1963), one of the most important books that has ever appeared on the subject. The novel under scrutiny that weekend will be JA’s ‘western’ – of England, that is – Sense and Sensibility. Rusty Goodman, just moved from Delaware to Colorado, has offered to present a film which she edited that focuses on the Hampshire countryside of the Austens and the events that transpired during the 1975 bi-centenary festivities there. Two suggested culminating activities (Sunday) are: a Bay Cruise or a buffet lunch at the San Francisco Historical Society followed by a guided walk in that area (Pacific Heights). Preferences can be sent to Mrs. Sachs. Details concerning the conference will be sent out in the spring, but plan your 1981 vacations accordingly. It is such a pleasure when nice people get together. And they always do. In the latter part of 1980 regional meetings were held, or are being planned, in St. Louis, Toronto, New York – at the kind invitation of Elizabeth Riley – and Boston with music of Jane Austen’s time accompanying the dinner, and a speech by Robin Miller, a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard, on JA entitled, “In Training for a Heroine”. Throughout the year, Los Angeles, Chicago, Baltimore-D.C., Victoria and San Francisco were the scenes of formal and informal meetings. It should be added, here, that a discussion of by-laws applicable to regional organizations was tabled at the AGM until next year’s meeting. Since this will require amendments to the Constitution, suggestions would be most welcome. As this is being written we are in the process of being entertained by Fay Weldon’s five-part dramatization of Pride and Prejudice. Miss Weldon has graciously contributed a copy of the typescript to the Society’s archives. We are certain that the production provided fodder enough for all the December 16th birthday parties that were being planned. Another British-American television venture, Jane Austen in Manhattan, was shown early in the summer in England. Your President was invited to a screening in New York in August and came away with extremely mixed emotions. The scenario was built around the recently discovered (and supposed composition by JA) dramatization of one of her favorite novels, Richardson’s Sir Charles Grandison. At the time of the annual General Meeting the Society sported an impressive bank balance of $5,141.41. By the time of this publication, however, that amount will have been depleted by over $4,000 in liquidating our Baltimore expenses. All monies received are deposited into the same account (N.B. exception below). Obviously, not enough funds remain in our treasury even to pay for this newsletter* but we anticipate that membership renewals, now due, will place us far enough back in the black to underwrite both this and next year’s issues. The members in attendance at the AGM voted two new categories of annual subscription: Sustaining, at $25 and Contributing at $10. This motion enjoyed overwhelming support and it is hoped that its passing obviates the necessity for raising the regular annual dues of $5.00. Life membership (now numbering 27) remains at $50 for the nonce. This money has been placed in both Canada and the U.S.A. in separate, interest-bearing savings accounts. Seventy members contributed a total of $1242 toward the restoration of St. Nicholas Church, Steventon, Hampshire. This is a continuing drive and members are urged to act immediately so that we might send our collective donation early in 1981. Last year JASNA received almost $300 in donations. Of that, $100 was generously given by Lee Stoughton (NY) for the purpose of sending a mailing announcing our existence to one thousand departments of English. Lee originally wrote: “Reading what is in hand has made me wonder whether the Society’s treasury holds ample funds to cover comfortably the costs of printing, mailings, expenses for meetings, etcetera.” There were some noteworthy omissions from “Persuasion, Number One” for which we humbly apologize. Joan Austen-Leigh’s husband, Denis Mason Hurley, who might rightfully be dubbed “The Father of Our Society”, was thanklessly left off the list of Charter Members. We neglected to mention that Tad Mosel, who conducts the annual TadPoll at our dinners, is a member of our Board of Directors. I would like, here, to thank the three members of the Society without whom 1980 would not have been possible – Roz Van Praag, Marino Romero and Helene Ingram. They assisted in both the lofty and most mundane activities that sustain this organization. A five-member nominating committee was formed, at the AGM, of volunteers whose addresses appear elsewhere in this issue. Please note how well they are dispersed, geographically. Toward the end of next summer you will be asked to nominate members for the election of officers (President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer) and to the Board of Directors (5) whose terms expire in 1981. The following Board Members were re-elected to serve until 1982: Henry Burke, Donald Greene, Janet Todd, Roz van Praag and Gene Koppel. Helen Storm Corsa suggests a column of Personal Desiderata – particular editions of the novels, biographies or specific titles of literary criticism, etc. In response to several queries, the only new edition of JA’s work that we can recommend is the “Oxford Illustrated Edition” (six volumes) published by the Oxford University Press. Thanks to all members who are keeping our clipping files up to date. A specially treasured title from The Christian Science Monitor February 28, 1980: “Did Jane Austen Need the Draft?” Fellow literary societies who either belong to or have been in correspondence with us: The Milton Society, The Johnsonian Newsletter, The Hardy Society, The Richard III Society, The Wordsworth Circle, and Women and Literature. The Editor of the last named, our Board member, Janet Todd, promises a Jane Austen issue for 1982 which will print complete texts of the talks that were delivered in Baltimore. A West German member, John Odmark, has published: An Understanding of Jane Austen’s Novels: Character, Value and Ironic Perspective (Blackwell’s, Oxford). It will be published in this country either by the OUP or The Johns Hopkins University Press .… A copy of Hilma Barrett’s “The Incomparable Jane Austen”, which appeared in the November, 1980, issue of “Maine Life”, may be obtained by sending $1 to: Maine Life, Sedgwick, ME 04676 … “Performing Heroinism in Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and Emma, by South Carolina’s Merike Tamm, appeared in the Fall ’79 issue of “Papers on Language and Literature” … Janet Todd’s Women’s Friendship and Literature (Columbia) and David Monaghan’s two books, Jane Austen: Structure and Social Vision and Jane Austen in a Social Context (both Macmillan) also appeared in 1980. Minutes of the past meeting and the revised Constitution are available upon receipt of a SAE. Copies of the Baltimore program, menu, etc. can also be supplied as long as the demand allows. ($2.00)
J. DAVID GREY
*The cost of “Persuasion, No. 1”, 700 copies, was $1178.68 including envelopes and mailing. |
