Romantic Circles Blog

The William Blake Archive is pleased to announce that the Archive has been designated an Approved Edition by the Modern Language Association. This is the first time the organization has awarded its “seal” to an electronic edition. The MLA’s Committee on Scholarly Editions has been fostering rigorous editorial standards for printed editions since 1976. David V. Erdman’s Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake received the MLA seal in 1981. The Committee’s guidelines for electronic editions were first published in 2004 as part of a major revision of the Committee’s editorial guidelines; see also Burnard, O’Keefe, and Unsworth, Electronic Textual Editing, MLA/TEI, forthcoming 2006). Previously, the Archive was the recipient of the MLA’s Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition, 2003.

This week’s addition to Romantic Circles’ Poets on Poets MP3 archive: Michael Collier, Professor of English at the University of Maryland and director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Middlebury College, reads two poems by John Clare.

Curtis Bauer, winner of the 2003 John Ciardi Prize for Poetry and co-director of the Writing Studio at Cornell College in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, reads Keats’s “To Autumn”–the MP3 is now available at Romantic Circle’s Poets on Poets site.

The Byron Society of America is pleased to announce that Professor MALCOLM M. KELSALL, from Cardiff University, will deliver the 6th Annual Leslie A. Marchand Memorial Lecture at the University of Delaware on Friday, 30 September 2005, at 4:00 p.m., in Room 127 Memorial Hall. The lecture will be “The Delirium of the Brave: Byron and the United Irishman.”

A reception for all in attendance will follow from 5:15 until approximately 7:30 p.m. Those planning to attend should RSVP. Those seeking directions to the University of Delaware may email or call me for information.

Kelsall’s extensive work in Byron studies included his important 1987 book, Byron’s Politics (awarded the Elma Dangerfield Prize) and numerous essays, articles, and lectures on Byron and Romanticism. His extensive publications also include editions of works by William Congreve, Sarah Fielding, John Cam Hobhouse, Thomas Otway, J. M. Synge, and Joseph Trapp. His most recent books are Jefferson and the Iconography of Romanticism: Folk, Land, Culture and the Romantic Nation (Macmillan, 1999) and Literary Representations of the Irish Country House: Civilisation and Savagery under the Union (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).

In addition to his distinguished career at Cardiff, Kelsall has also been a visiting scholar and professor at the following institutions: University of Paris VII; University of Hiroshima; Charles University, Prague; University of Wisconsin, Madison; University of Glasgow; and the International Center for Jefferson Studies.

Please join us at the University of Delaware for this 6th Annual Marchand Memorial Lecture.

Charles E. Robinson, Executive Director
Byron Society of America
c/o English Department
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
robinson@udel.edu

As in previous years, The Keats-Shelley Association of America will award two Carl H. Pforzheimer Jr. Research Grants of $2,500 each this year to advanced graduate students, independent scholars, or untenured faculty members pursuing research on British Romanticism and literary culture between 1789 and 1832, with preference given to projects involving authors and subjects featured in the Keats Shelley Journal Bibliography. The deadline is 1 November 2005. Further information and application forms may be obtained at the KSAA Website, or applicants may write to Grants Committee, Keats-Shelley Association of America, Inc., New York Public Library, Room 226, 476 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10018-2788.

Doucet Fischer, Grants Administrator

This week’s MP3 on the Poets on Poets audio archive is Patrick Donnelly reading Keats’s “This Living Hand.”

This week’s Poets on Poets MP3 installment is Joel Brouwer reading John Keats’s “This Living Hand,” along with commentary by Brouwer.

The latest addition to the Poets on Poets audio archive features Lisa Lewis reading Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” and Keats’s “To Autumn.”

NEWSTEAD ABBEY, 4 NOVEMBER 2005

A one-day conference held by the centre for regional cultures, School of English Studies, University of Nottingham and the School of English, Nottingham Trent Unviersity, in Association with Newstead Abbey and the Midlands Romantic Seminar.

In the past decade and a half, scholarship on late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writing has highlighted both the narrowness of traditional conceptions of Romanticism’ and the possibilities inherent in activities such as expanding the canon and rehistoricising authors, texts and contexts. In so doing, the multiple correspondences and connections of romantic period culture are finally starting to be revealed.

The organisers (Tim Fulford [NTU] and Lynda Pratt [University of Nottingham]) invite papers on all aspects of romantic correspondence(s). Topics for discussion could include: connections between canonical, non-canonical, male and female writers; European and/or transatlantic Romanticism; the influence of romantic period authors on later writers; letter-writing; editing the correspondence of romantic period authors; genre; Romanticism and history, science or exploration.

The conference will be held at Newstead Abbey, the magnificent ancestral home of Lord Byron. Plenary speakers will include: Professor Caroline Franklin (University of Wales, Swansea), Professor Marilyn Gaull (New York University), and Dr Pamela Clemit (University of Durham).

Proposals for papers should be sent to Dr Lynda Pratt, School of English Studies, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD (Lynda.Pratt@nottingham.ac.uk) or Professor Tim Fulford, (tim.fulford@ntu.ac.uk)