The Editor's Fence

11 THE EDITOR'S FENCE 1. The Conrad Seminar (Denver. I969): A Report. Despite a poorly attended MLA meeting, a good deal of difficulty getting from widely scattered hotels to awkwardly located meeting rooms, and the scheduling of the Seminar on the morning of the last day, 0ver twenty persons attended. Discussion was lively and, I think, fruitful Insofar as It raised many questions about Conrad's later works. Although many aspects of Conrad's work were discussed (the role of women In the later works, angle-of-narratlon, Marlow's role, etc.), a central question to which discussion frequently returned had to do with the "achlevement-and-decllne" thesis a number of critics have proposed In connection with the novelist's later work. There was considerable debate about the qualitative relationship of Conrad's later to his earlier work and about his later work having coherent features that distinguish it from his earlier. While no conclusions were agreed on in these exploratory discussions, there was general agreement that the later fiction, especially Chance. The Arrow of Gold, and The Rover warrant more serious and closer study than it has had. 2. Secondary Annotated Bibliography Seminar (Denver. 1969): A Report: At a small meeting, the discussion leader distributed a tentative selective mock-up of the format for the series based on Conrad materials and including five sample indexes. Questions and comments focussed on the style of the abstracts, the rationale for the several indexes, and the methods and problems of compiling these secondary bibliographies. 3. Proposed ELT Seminar for New York MLA Meetings (1970): At a meeting of the Bibliography and Research Committee in Denver several topics for a proposed Seminar in 1970 were considered. Tentatively , we plan to apply for approval of a Seminar on the Aesthetics of Realisms: 1880-1920. Since articles which will serve as a basis for discussion at the Seminar are published in ELT prior to the MLA meetings, manuscripts should be submitted to the Editor of ELT as soon before September 15 as possible. We welcome articles on theories of realism, on specific aspects of the subject (setting, characterization, prose style, etc.), and on specific writers (critics, novelists, short story writers, playwrights , poets). Articles should deal with literary theory and practice evidenced in British literature from about 1880 to about I92O. ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. The "Otago" Hull Recovered: Edmund A. Bojarski, as a result ...