Dorothy Richardson 1873 – 1957
Dorothy Richardson Society
Report on the 2009 Meeting of the Dorothy Richardson Society
8 July 2009
Birkbeck College
Chair: Scott McCracken
Present: Rebecca Bowler, Maria Llantada Diaz, Howard Finn, Frances Frigerio, Marie Anne Guerin, Annika Hagström, Gillian Hanscombe, John Hodgson, Lena Inger, Suzette Henke, Eveline Kilian, Scott McCracken, Bryony Randall, Juliet Yates, Yvonne Wong.
1. Conference. In the light of the day’s conference on Pointed Roofs, the meeting discussed the advantages and pitfalls of focusing on one of the ‘Chapters’ of Pilgrimage. It was agreed that this might be too restrictive and, with a biennial conference, would take too long. It was decided that the next conference, in 2011, will have panels on Backwater and Honeycomb, but will offer the opportunity to give papers on any Richardsonian topic. Dauntingly, for the organisers, there was enthusiasm for a two-day conference next time, particularly as many delegates had travelled a long way.
2. Suzette Henke generously offered the Society a panel at the University of Louisville, Kentucky Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900 on 18 February. Scott McCracken undertook to try and arrange this through the Society, but warned that it might be difficult for British Richardsonians to get to Kentucky at the at time of year.
3. Scott McCracken reported on the progress of the Letters project. OUP have accepted a proposal for the Collected Letters to be edited by Scott McCracken (General Editor), Gillian Hanscombe, Laura Marcus, Deborah Parsons, George H. Thomson, Joanne Winning. So far no progress on getting Richardson’s fiction republished, but there is still strong support for this. Virago still has rights to the paperback.
4. Joanne Winning said it would be good to have a small Richardson event in 2010. She offered to see what she could do to organise it.
5. Then, as is now traditional, the conference retired to ‘Donizetti’s’ aka Sardos in Grafton Way for dinner.