Miss Pym and a Friend
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
The Crimes of Charlotte Bronte
Well, I don't know about this book. It is a fascinating story, but the implication that Charlotte and Arthur Bell Nichols were serial killers who murdered her family is disturbing, too disturbing. I fell in love with Charlotte's work early on, and with her after I read her letters and Gaskell's biography. Unquiet soul she was, but a murderer? I wonder how anyone can imply it.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
New Jane Eyre and Pym News
Check out the new JE film, and Bronte Sisters action figures on YouTube. Below, some oldies, but goodies from the Barbara Pym Society:
AGM Dates: The dates for the 2011 Annual General Meeting and conference at St Hilda's College in Oxford have just been finalized. The AGM will be held on 26-28 August, which is the Summer Bank Holiday weekend. The conference theme is Crampton Hodnet.
Calls for Papers: Proposals for papers to be presented at the March 2011 North American Conference at Harvard are due by 1 December 2010. Preference will be given to papers related in some way to No Fond Return of Love, but all topics are welcome. Registration and meals fees are waived for North American conference speakers and there is a small honorarium. Please send a 100-150 word proposal to barbarapymsociety@gmail.com.
Proposals for papers to be presented at the August 2011 Annual General Meeting in Oxford are due by 14 January 2011. Preference will be given to papers related in some way to Crampton Hodnet. Please send a 100-150 word proposal to barbarapymsociety@gmail.com.
Finally, this Saturday 6 November is the fall tea in Boston. The reply deadline has passed, but we can always put a little more hot water in the pot; if you would like to attend and are not already on our guest list, please let us know immediately.
And finally, I had to share this Pym sighting: New York jazz musician Rob Price, who entitled one of his tracks "Dashiell Hammett and Barbara Pym," found this in Richard Davenport-Hines's review of Paul Willetts's Members Only: The Life and Times of Paul Raymond, which appeared in the TLS (22 October 2010):
"… In 1952, he started the Paul Raymond Variety Agency, based in three attic rooms above Ferrari's coffee bar in Charing Cross Road, and staged such shows as 'We Strip Tonight' and "Folies Parisienne', advertised as including "The Banned Reefer Dance, performed by the Dangerous Girl with the Low Neckline'. Soon he had made enough money to move in with his wife, who choreographed the shows, to the London suburbs, where he lived next door to Barbara Pym."
D.J. Taylor also mentioned the Pym connection when he reviewed the book for The Independent.
Best wishes,
Tom Sopko, North American Organizer
Dec. 2010:
Greetings! The program for the 2011 North American Conference of the Barbara Pym Society, focused on No Fond Return of Love, has been finalized. The speakers include returning favorites Gloria Nakamura, Sandra Goldstein, and BPS Archivist Yvonne Cocking, as well as newcomers Thad Cockrill, Associate Professor of English at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis, and journalist Martha Wilson, who writes a weekly column for Nova Scotia’s main daily newspaper.
We will return to last year's highly suitable venues. On Friday evening March 18 we will meet at the Church of the Advent on Beacon Hill for a buffet Candlelight Super and Hymn Sing, and on Saturday and Sunday March 19-20 we'll be back at Harvard University's Barker Center for the conference. The group dinner on Saturday evening and post-conference lunch on Sunday will be at the Grafton Street Pub, which is less than a block from the Barker Center. We have tried to keep costs as low as possible, and have actually reduced the registration fees by $5 from last year. Also, for the first time we are able to take credit and debit cards for payment; we are using PayPal to process the transactions, but you do not need a PayPal account to pay by credit card.
The complete conference schedule, registration forms and details about venues and accommodations are available on the Society web site. The deadline for registration is March 11, but the Barker Center cannot accommodate more than 95 people, so please don't wait until the last minute and risk being turned away.
Other new additions to the web site include Barbara's radio talk Finding a Voice, which is posted with the kind permission of the BBC and Hazel Holt, and the archives of Green Leaves from 1999 through 2008. Volumes 1 through 4 are being scanned and will be added soon, but newer issues will not be posted online for two years after publication. When combined with Hazel Bell's updated Green Leaves index, this provides a wonderful trove of information for Pym scholars and fans alike.
Best regards and Season's Greetings,
Tom Sopko
North American Organizer
AGM Dates: The dates for the 2011 Annual General Meeting and conference at St Hilda's College in Oxford have just been finalized. The AGM will be held on 26-28 August, which is the Summer Bank Holiday weekend. The conference theme is Crampton Hodnet.
Calls for Papers: Proposals for papers to be presented at the March 2011 North American Conference at Harvard are due by 1 December 2010. Preference will be given to papers related in some way to No Fond Return of Love, but all topics are welcome. Registration and meals fees are waived for North American conference speakers and there is a small honorarium. Please send a 100-150 word proposal to barbarapymsociety@gmail.com.
Proposals for papers to be presented at the August 2011 Annual General Meeting in Oxford are due by 14 January 2011. Preference will be given to papers related in some way to Crampton Hodnet. Please send a 100-150 word proposal to barbarapymsociety@gmail.com.
Finally, this Saturday 6 November is the fall tea in Boston. The reply deadline has passed, but we can always put a little more hot water in the pot; if you would like to attend and are not already on our guest list, please let us know immediately.
And finally, I had to share this Pym sighting: New York jazz musician Rob Price, who entitled one of his tracks "Dashiell Hammett and Barbara Pym," found this in Richard Davenport-Hines's review of Paul Willetts's Members Only: The Life and Times of Paul Raymond, which appeared in the TLS (22 October 2010):
"… In 1952, he started the Paul Raymond Variety Agency, based in three attic rooms above Ferrari's coffee bar in Charing Cross Road, and staged such shows as 'We Strip Tonight' and "Folies Parisienne', advertised as including "The Banned Reefer Dance, performed by the Dangerous Girl with the Low Neckline'. Soon he had made enough money to move in with his wife, who choreographed the shows, to the London suburbs, where he lived next door to Barbara Pym."
D.J. Taylor also mentioned the Pym connection when he reviewed the book for The Independent.
Best wishes,
Tom Sopko, North American Organizer
Dec. 2010:
Greetings! The program for the 2011 North American Conference of the Barbara Pym Society, focused on No Fond Return of Love, has been finalized. The speakers include returning favorites Gloria Nakamura, Sandra Goldstein, and BPS Archivist Yvonne Cocking, as well as newcomers Thad Cockrill, Associate Professor of English at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis, and journalist Martha Wilson, who writes a weekly column for Nova Scotia’s main daily newspaper.
We will return to last year's highly suitable venues. On Friday evening March 18 we will meet at the Church of the Advent on Beacon Hill for a buffet Candlelight Super and Hymn Sing, and on Saturday and Sunday March 19-20 we'll be back at Harvard University's Barker Center for the conference. The group dinner on Saturday evening and post-conference lunch on Sunday will be at the Grafton Street Pub, which is less than a block from the Barker Center. We have tried to keep costs as low as possible, and have actually reduced the registration fees by $5 from last year. Also, for the first time we are able to take credit and debit cards for payment; we are using PayPal to process the transactions, but you do not need a PayPal account to pay by credit card.
The complete conference schedule, registration forms and details about venues and accommodations are available on the Society web site. The deadline for registration is March 11, but the Barker Center cannot accommodate more than 95 people, so please don't wait until the last minute and risk being turned away.
Other new additions to the web site include Barbara's radio talk Finding a Voice, which is posted with the kind permission of the BBC and Hazel Holt, and the archives of Green Leaves from 1999 through 2008. Volumes 1 through 4 are being scanned and will be added soon, but newer issues will not be posted online for two years after publication. When combined with Hazel Bell's updated Green Leaves index, this provides a wonderful trove of information for Pym scholars and fans alike.
Best regards and Season's Greetings,
Tom Sopko
North American Organizer
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