The Editor's Fence

THE EDITOR'S FENCE Old Faces of 1959: The Conference art Chicago: A deta i led report on the meet ing in Chicago appears on pages 1-2 of this number of EFT. Here I want only to say a few words about some administrative changes, I have served as Discussion Leader of the Conference for three years, I now feel that the Conference is firmly enough established and has a large enough faithful following to warrant, perhaps to necessitate, some change of faces„ While I shall continue to serve as ex officio liaison officer between subscribers to EFT and the Conference, I think that the Discussion Leader should be elected by majority vote, initially, of EFT subscribers. The assumption of initiative on the part of and the energy of one individual do not, of course, provide for democratic procedures. To bring about a change of face, 1 requested about twelve frequent members of the Conference to suggest candidates for Discussion Leader. I then wrote to each nominee requesting his permission to place his name on a ballot. Ballots and a petition requesting the Executive Secretary of the MLA to authorize the Conference for the Philadelphia meetings were then mailed with a description of the topic to be discussed at the meeting. New Faces of I960: The Conference at Philadelphia: The Discussion Leader elected by a majority of the individual subscribers to EFT is: Professor Richard Stang Car letón Col lege Nort'nfield, Minnesota The topic for discussion will he "Theories of Fiction (1880-1920)." We plan to have two reports on which discussions will be based. These reports will be circulated prior to the meeting in Philadelphia, very likely by means of a special number of EFT. These written reports should be as specific as possible in providing evidence from the writings of practicing novelists and those of influential critics, and they should make allusions to specific novels as examples of current practice, Papers should be submitted to the Discussion Leader, who will be the first reader. He wi11 in turn send them to me for a second reading, and, in some instances, I shall consult a third reader. We shall try to report on these papers in one month to six weeks. Please enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope. If authors of papers can submit two copies, we can expedite our reports on them. Moore, EFT, and the Exhaustive Fallacy: This issue contains a supplement to the annotated bibliography of writings about George Moore published in EFT, 11,2, Parts I and M (1359), 3-91. The original bibliography and the supplement together list about Π00 items. We shall go on practicing as vigorously as possible the "exhaustive fallacy.1' We shall continue to note relatively slight items, but we shall label them as slight. We hope we give adequate recognition to the really worthwhile material we also encounter. Gissing, EFT, and More Exhaustiveness: In the first number of EFT, Jacob Korg provided a selected annotated bibliography of writings about Gissing !V« since 19*ίΟ, 5 have sîpce 'her continued to list Gissing items as they appeared in print and, with suggestions from Mr. Malbone and others, I have supplemented our earlier post-JS^O listing. In the present issue I print an annotated bibliography of pre-19^0 writings about Gissing^. compiled and annotated by Joseph Wolff. Although with this issue I shall consider that writings about Gissing to the present have been surveyed nearly as thoroughly as those on Ford Madox Ford, Galsworthy, Forster, and Moore, I shall continue to welcome additions to fill gaps we have inadvertently left open. Kipling, EFT, and Sti11 More Exhaust iveness: We are going to devote a considerable amount of effort and space, probably a double number of EFT, to Kipling. We believe that Kipling's work is worth at least a second look by serious, modern critics. Conrad, who was a most exacting judge of other men's work, respected Kipling's fiction; T. S. Eliot learned to respect Kipling. Why should not we? In fact, following the hiatus in Kipling scholarship after the deluge of the 1930's. serious scholarship has recently again been devoted to Kipling...