The Editors' Fence

THE EDITORS' FENCE 1. The Seventh ELT Conference, Chicago, 1963: The Conference topic this year will be Poetry (I88O-I9OO): Content, Form, Quality. Time and Place wi11 be announced in the next number of ELT. Once more no papers will be read in detail, although the authors of accepted papers, to be published in ELT, Vl: k (1963) prior to the meeting, will be asked to present the highpoints of their thesis. We have been considering papers on individual poets (eg, Symons, Symonds, Dowson, Davidson, Johnson, Wilde, and others) and on more general aspects (ecstasy, inaction , decadence, and so on) of the poetry published between about I88O and 1900. The number of persons who can be admitted to the Conference is limited to about 35 by the MLA. Please apply to Co-Discussion Leaders Helmut E. Gerber and Edward S. Lauterbach, Department of English, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, Indiana. 2. Research in Progress: We would like to call our readers' attention to ELT Research in Progress: 1963-64, which appears for the first time in this number. Though we plan to make this an annual compilation which will appear in each September issue, the continuation of ELT Research in Progress will depend entirely on the correspondence we have with scholars active in the El5T field. We request that those wishing to be listed send us a postcard including their name, address, and brief summary of their work. Furthermore, interested scholars are requested to submit a new card each year for annual listing in ELT Research in Progress. The deadline for inclusion is June 30. 3. Are There Other ELT Societies? In a forthcoming number ELT hopes to list all literary groups currently devoted to the study of individual British authors who wrote chiefly between I88O-1920. We know, of course, about the newly founded Conan Doyle Society, the Kipling Society, the New York Shavians, and the H. G. Wells Society. We hsve also heard that there is an Arnold Bennett Society. We wonder if there are not societies devoted to such figures as R. L. Stevenson and W. B. Yeats? If any of our readers know of formal organizations which concentrate on an ELT figure, we would appreciate receiving information about them. A card or letter to ELT Associate Editor E. S. Lauterbach will help us in the preparation of this survey. k. Courses in the ELT Period? To help us compile evidence of the growing academic interest in the ELT period, we would appreciate hearing about courses now being offered in the literature from I88O to 1920. We would like to have descriptions (syllabi, if possible) of courses whose content is predominantly made up of English literature (criticism, short and long fiction, poetry, and/or drama) published between about I88O and 1920 and whose main intention is to recognize a body of literature distinct from Victorian and Modern. Included might be survey courses, genre courses, single-figure courses on all levels (undergraduate, graduate, dual). The following form Is msrely a guide to the kind of information we would like to have. Course number and title: Graduate_______ Undergraduate_______ Dual Level_______ Types: Drama_____ Poetry_____ Short Story_____ Novel_______ Criticism, General Survey (include "Post-Victorian," "Eighteen-Ninetees," Edwardian, Georgian) VI Major Figure courses: (eg, Shaw, Yeats, Hardy, etc) Brief description (or syllabus attached) Frequency: Annually______ Alternate years______ Irregularly______ Your Institution____________________________ 5. The ELT Forum: We shall allow space, whenever our readers require it, for relatively informal comments on articles or reviews we publish or on discussions during the annual meeting of the Conference. We would also be delighted to publish letters to the editor, but writers must indicate that such letters are intended for publication. ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. People: Dan Laurence (NYU) spent part of the summer in England working on his multifarious projects, but chiefly on Shaw. James G. Hepburn (University of Rhode Island) once more made his nearly annual summer research jaunt to London to continue his researches on Arnold Bennett. Charles Burkhart (Temple) will spend much of academic 1963-1964 in France, where he will teach a course in "Great Books" at American College in Paris. He promises to make occasional diversionary Channel crossings to England in behalf of ELT. Anchor...