The International Byron Societies 2009–2010
- The International Byron Societies 2009–2010
(For reports from other societies for 2009–2010, see the first 2010 issue of The Byron Journal.)
- Byron Society of America
2010 proved a full year for the Byron Society of America (BSA). In July, we hosted the 36th International Byron Society Conference, on 'Byron and the Book', in Boston and Cambridge. This issue of The Byron Journal carries a full report of the conference, but official thanks from the Society are due to the planning team, Stuart Peterfreund (Northeastern) and Peter Accardo (Houghton Library), to the conference's academic organiser, Andrew Stauffer (Virginia), and to Sonia Hofkosh (Tufts), for an intellectually stimulating and richly diverse experience at this, the third IBS conference sponsored by the Byron Society of America.
During the conference, the newly elected BSA President, Peter Graham, gave the eighth Leslie A. Marchand Memorial Lecture, 'Why Should the Twenty-first Century Read Byron?'. In presenting this talk, Professor Graham joined Jerome McGann, Kay Redfield Jamison, John R. Murray, Carl Woodring, Romulus Linney, Malcolm Kelsall and John Clubbe in paying tribute to Leslie Marchand for his immense contribution to Byron scholarship. He also gave form to Leslie's hopes for the future of the Byron Society, its impact on generations of Byron scholars and its interconnectedness with Byron's readers.
At Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, there is much excitement on campus about the recently arrived Byron Society Collection. Cataloguing is underway and stories about the collection are in development for the news media and the library's newsletter. A donation and acquisitions policy will soon be in place for the collection and we will be letting Byron Society members who have expressed an interest in donating know its parameters. In the meantime, updates on progress with the collection will be issued through BSA's 'Member News' e-blasts.
Just over a year ago, in September 2009, the BSA lost its beloved founding member, Carl Woodring. As a tribute to his exemplary life and work, Jonathan Gross, Carl's student at Columbia, has organised a special 2011 MLA session titled 'Carl Woodring and the Rise of New Historicism', with contributions from three of Carl's most distinguished students: Nina Auerbach, Steven Jones and Anne Mellor. The BSA's regular session, this year on 'Lord Byron's Lives and Afterlives', is organised by Cheryl Guiliano, with papers by John Clubbe, Tom Mole and Catherine Siemann. Further details about these forthcoming coming sessions can be found on BSA's website (www.byronsociety.org).
With the common goals of developing interest in Byron and cultivating scholarly research skills, Professor Graham and David Radcliffe offered an autumn 2010 'Honors Colloquim' at Virginia Tech, while Andrew Stauffer gave a concurrent graduate seminar at the University of Virginia. Besides sharing a syllabus and scholarly resources, Peter, David and Andrew have also been moving back and forth between the two classrooms. [End Page 201]
Happily, the BSA continues to welcome new members from all walks of life–and looks forward to their creative participation in its programmes and events in the year ahead.
- French Byron Society
Studies of Byron by members of the French Byron Society have recently increased both in number and in visibility. In 2009, in addition to the conference at the AGM, three papers were given at international events: two in Messolonghi at the International Byron Society Conference, and one in Tirana at the Albanian International Byron Symposium.
After the 2009 AGM of 21 March, saddened by the absence of Gilbert Gillet, our Webmaster, who had passed away a few days before, Guy Rachet gave us a highly entertaining and beautifully documented paper on 'The Gothic Novel, Romanticism and Byron', in which he showed the continuity of themes and topics running from the origins of the Gothic through to some of the most famous of Byron's works.
The 2008 Bulletin was completed during summer, so that it would be ready for the autumn meeting and could be offered to select eminent Byronists at the IBS conference in Greece, and at the Symposium in Albania.
In Messolonghi, Marguerite Rousselot revealed the results...
