Announcements

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-decline" 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 Hi of a gift of $900 from Edward J. Piszek, a Philadelphia philanthropist , is arranging to have the remains of the hull of the Otago made into "a Conrad memorial on a Hobart [Tasmania] street corner." Portions of the hull may be distributed to various marine museums or used to produce some Conrad medals. [Reported in The Abilene Reporter News, December 14, I969.J 2. A Gissing Revival? If Professor Coustillas (University Lille) does not set a Glssing revival in motion, it will certainly not be for lack of energy and enthusiasm. The Harvester Press (10 The Garden House, Clifton Place, Brighton BN 1 3FN, Sussex) is bringing out critical editions of three Gissing novels: Demos (1886, first one-volume ed), ed by Pierre Coustillas (Spring 1971; about $7.20); Isabel Clarendon (1886, 2 vols), ed, with a critical Introduction , textual and bibliographical notes, by Pierre Coustillas (Autumn, I969; $12.60); and The Nether World (1890, first onevolume ed), ed by James Haydock (Spring 1970; about $7.20). Coustillas and John Spiers, a Harvester Press general editor, are also organizing a Gissing Exhibition in collaboration with the National Book League for January 1971 In London. Professor Coustillas has completed a full-scale biography; his edition of unpublished Gissing material in the Pforzheimer Library and a short story in the Berg Collection is soon to be published by the Johns Hopkins Press; several of his Enitharmon Press pamphlets on Gissing are ready for publication; and in collaboration with John Spiers, he is preparing a comphrehenslve bibliography on Gissing. Further, Gollancz is to publish a new edition of Born in Exile In March; Alfred Gissing and Anthony Curtis are said to b~ê preparing biographical studies; and a steady stream of articles, as the Bibliography, News and Notes section suggests, is appearing in scholarly...