Foreign Correspondence

56 Since 1976, the Division has met five times, usually providing double programs, and offered excellent and well attended programs. The ELT period has been receiving more attention and more conference time than ever before. This is further borne out by the burgeoning number of progiacs of all kinds that include individual ELT authors or topics relevant to the period. A perusal of the program for the MLA meeting in Houston provides ample evidence of interest in the period. The following topics and ELT authors were included in various programs at the Houston meeting: Decadence, Impressionism, 1880 in English Literature, Foreign influences on English Literature (Bennett, Maugham, Wells, Wilde), Chesterton, Conrad, Forster, Lawrence , Pater, Shaw, and others. Thirdly, various regional Victorian studies associations are also including ELT authors and topics in their programs more frequently. I note these in ELT whenever such meetings are brought to my attention . Fourthly, newsletters, journals, and societies on many individual ELT authors now exist and are very active (e.g., on Bennett, Butler, Chesterton, Conrad, Gissing, Hardy, Kipling, Lawrence, Pater, Shaw, Wells, and others). There are additional signs of a growing activity relevant to the period: Ph. D. theses on the period increase in number annually¡ the ASB Series now records seven volumes in print, with probably two volumes forthcoming in 1981¡ books on ELT authors, even the so-called minor ones, are appearing in greater numbers¡ articles on ELT authors and topics are appearing more frequently in journals other than ELTi and copies of early editions of titles by ELT authors are becoming more scarce and prices are rising rapidly. In light of all this, one is justified in wondering, What next? Many readers of ELT no doubt have vested interests in the answers to that question. I invite suggestions of topics that still need investigation , for example, on drama, minor poetry, criticism, popular literature, the periodicals and newspapers of the time, and so on. We might all remember that some of the subjects which were byways in the ELT period are now fairly well marked roads. Surely, other by-ways warrant exploration. FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE 1. Hardy, Pater, and Shaw in Japan: Japanese scholars continue to pursue their interest in a wide range of English literature from I88O to 1920. Three meetings sponsored by major-author societies have veen announced for the last few months of this year: The Thomas Hardy Society of Japan at Chuo University, Tokyo, on 19 0ct¡ The Pater Society of Japan at Kwansei Gakuin University, Nishinomiya , on 25 Oct; and The Bernard Shaw Society of Japan probably at Rissho University, Tokyo, on 13 Dec. To commemorate the semi-centennial of D. H. Lawrence's death,the November, I98O issue of EIGO SEINEN features articles on him. — Masahiko Masumoto (Nagoya University ) , Correspondent. 57 2. Gissing Everywhere; The life and work of George Gissing have been receiving a good deal of attention in recent months and there is every reason to believe that the steady flow of Gissing publications will not decrease in the next few years. One may first note that some titles in inexpensive series are doing well, the Penguin edition of New Grub Street is now in its fifth printing (1980) and the Norton paperback edition of The Odd Women has now reached the seventh impression. The University of Washington Press has reissued Jacob Korg's George Gissing. a Critical Biography, first published seventeen years ago. This new'paperback edition contains a number of corrections as did the Methuen edition which appeared in 1965. Simultaneously, the Harvester Press has published both a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same title. Two illustrated booklets covering significant aspects of Gissing's work in connection with his life have recently appeared, George Gissing and Wakefield, by Clifford Brook, with an introductory essay by Pierre Coustillas (Wakefield Historical Publications) , and r.gm-gp üissing in Exeter, by W. J. West (Exeter Rare Books), which throws new light on Denzil Quarrier (I892) as the former booklet does on Δ Life's Morning (1888). Meanwhile Japanese publishers keep in print a wide spectrum of Gissing publications, mainly short stories and editions of Henry Rvecroft and B_jt the Tnnian Sea, as well as translations...