The Editor's Fence

23^ THE EDITOR'S FENCE 1. MIA Division Programs (San Francisco,1979): The two programs (The Other Moderns and Eminent Moderns) of the Division on Late 19th- and Early 20th-century English Literature this year will concentrate on writers who may have been too long underestimated and on others who have only in recent years found their way to the threshhold of Parnassus. In any event, Bennett, Moore, Wells, some dramatists, Pater, Wilde, and Hardy have been given relatively little formal attention by various appropriate major MLA groups. Yet major scholarship which enables us to reassess, reconsider, or revaluate many of these writers has been published and is now in progress. At this year's MLA meetings we hope to compensate for our possible oversights, to correct the vagaries of literary criticism and literary history, to broaden our historical vision. What we hope to do by means of the two Division programs is, in fact, what ELT has sought to do for twenty-two years. Insofar as it is possible, it is what ELT will continue to be committed to in the future. We do not intend to suggest that critics and literary historians should not recognize giants. We do insist that literary history and, even more, cultural history are not made by giants alone. We also insist that giants have their weaknesses , that artists of more modest stature have strengths, that perspectives and valuations are subject to change in the course of time. Commonplaces? Yes, but they are the kind of commonplaces we often forget as we cling to views which have become comfortable, if not merely convenient or safe. For details on the two Division programs see ELT, 22¡ 3 (1979). 158. 2. Studies of Henry Arthur Jones and Robert Hichensi Professor David Welsh, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Michigan, is collaborating on a monograph about Henry Arthur Jones. Professor Welsh is also preparing a study of Robert Hichens. Professor Welsh welcomes suggestions from persons interested in these two authors. Address: David Welsh, 555 E. William Street, #16 J, Ann Arbor, MI (48108). 3. Victorian Popular Culture Papers 1 The Midwest Victorian Studies Association is soliciting proposals for formal papers and discussion groups for its annual spring meeting, to be held on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, March 28 and 29, 1980. The theme of the conference will be Victorian popular culture. Papers and proposals should be sent no later than December 1, 1979. Address: Lawrence Poston, Department of English, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Box 4-348, Chicago IL (6068O). 4. Northeast Victorian Studies Association Conference: NVSA plans a conference at University of Pennsylvania, April II-I3, I98O. The theme of the conference will be "War and Violence." For details on the theme and submission of materials address Joanne Hutchinson, Department of English, Haverford College, Haverford, PA (1904-1). ...