In Memoriam, Dorothea Krook

THE HENRY JAMES REVIEW Volume 11, Number 2 Spring, 1990 Table of Contents A Calendar of the Published Letters of Henry James: Part II. By Steven H. Jobe................................................77 Henry James in a "Venetian" Diary. By Rosella Mamoli Zorzi..............101 James's Morality in Roderick Hudson. By Greg W. Zacharias..............115 Nietzsche Contra Derrida: Two Views of Henry James's "The Birthplace." By Henry McDonald..........................133 Review of Joyce A. Rowe, Equivocal Endings in Classic American Novels. By Craig A. Milliman.........................149 In Memoriam, Dorothea Krook We record here with sadness the death in November, 1989, of Dorothea Krook, who made an indelible contribution to James studies some three decades ago in The Ordeal of Consciousness in Henry James (1962). Professor Krook's book on James was distinguished by the philosophical seriousness and admirable clarity she brought to her elucidation of Henry James's fiction. In focusing on "the exploration and definition of consciousness in James's particular meaning of the term," Krook opened up critical territory that has been explored by some of the best subsequent commentators on James—among many others, Ruth Bernard Yeazell, John Carlos Rowe, Carolyn Porter, and Sharon Cameron. Dorothea Krook was born in Riga, Latvia, moved at age eight to South Africa with her family, and, after receiving her B.A. at Cape Town University, entered Newnham College, Cambridge, under a scholarship. There she earned her Ph.D. and spent fourteen years as a research fellow and assistant lecturer. In 1959, she published her first book, Three Traditions of Moral Thought. The following year, Professor Krook joined the faculty of Hebrew University , in Jerusalem. She married the poet Zerubavel Gilead in 1968, took up residence with him at Kibbutz Ein Harod, and joined the English Department at Tel Aviv University. Designated "resident researcher" at Ein Harod, Krook brought out a book of English translations of her husband's poems in 1983 (A Pomegranate Tree in Jerusalem) and co-authored with him a book about the kibbutz and his life, Gideon's Spring (1985). Gilead died in 1988. A member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Krook received the Israel Prize in 1973 for Elements of Tragedy (1969). She kept up her interest in Henry James throughout the final decades of her life, publishing occasional articles on his fiction (one of which appeared in our special Portrait of a Lady issue). At the time of her unexpected death, at age 69, Professor Krook was at work on a book-length study of The Ambassadors; a portion of that study was read at a memorial service for her in Israel. Whatever the fate of that last manuscript will be—and we would certainly hope that Professor Krook's literary executor will arrange for its publication in some form—Dorothea Krook left us in The Ordeal of Consciousness one of the genuine classics of James criticism, a study dyed through and through with its author's passion for the intelligence and good faith that she saw Henry James himself as affirming in his novels.—DMF From the Editor Last December, during the MLA convention in Washington, we had a very productive joint meeting of members of the HJR editorial board and the Henry James Society Board of Directors. Present were Carol Holly (1989 Society president ), William MacNaughton (1990 president), Julie Rivkin (1991 president), James Society Board members Anthony Mazella, Cheryl Torsney, and William Veeder (so that, with the HJR editor, an ex officio member of the James Society Board, all of the current Directors were present), and editorial board members Jean Frantz Blackall, Charles Caramello, Alfred Habegger, Richard Hocks, Carren Kaston, Bonney MacDonald, and James Tuttleton. There were six items on our agenda and very little time—the usual 75 minute MLA meeting slot—in which to discuss them. Nevertheless, the entire agenda was addressed. First, Alfred Bendixen kindly attended the first portion of the meeting and answered our questions about an invitation he had addressed to the Society to join the newly formed American Literature Association, which will hold its first annual meeting next June in San Diego. The members of both boards were unanimous in their agreement that the Society should affiliate. Affiliation...