HARDY FORUM ARCHIVE HO2036 6/1/02 " JULY 2002 ANNOUNCEMENTS" ============================================================ Date: Sat, 01 Jun 2002 14:35:56 -0500 From: Bill Morgan Subject: TTHA Poem of the Month for June Earlier today, I posted Hardy's four "She, to Him" sonnets as the TTHA Poem(s) of the Month for May 2002. This month's discussion will be the third in a series dedicated to Hardy's sonnets. I invite your contributions to a month-long on-line conversation about four of Hardy's earliest works (the poems date from 1866) in the sonnet form and what might be called the remnant of his early attempt at a sonnet sequence. You can find the TTHA Poem of the Month Discussion by following the links from the main TTHA page at http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/Welcome/welcomet.htm or by going directly to http://webboard.ilstu.edu/~TTHA_POTM_DISCUSSIONS Whichever route you take, when you arrive at the Poem of the Month site, you will encounter a program called WebBoard, which will give you the opportunity to read the poems as well as any comments they may have generated, compose a response, preview your response, edit it further if you wish, and then post it by using the button labeled Post the Message. If you are composing an intricate or long response, you may want to prepare your message in a word processing program, then copy it to your clipboard before pasting it into the message area of WebBoard. And if you prefer, feel free to send me your contribution as an e-mail, and I will post it for you: wwmorgan@ilstu.edu. At the present time, this month's discussion and those for January ("A New Year's Eve in War Time"), February ("The Oxen"), March ("A Drizzling Easter Morning"), April ("Hap"), and May ("At a Lunar Eclipse") are the only recent ones available at the site. I expect soon to have reconstructed the earlier discussions of poems with female narrators ("The Dark-Eyed Gentleman," "She At His Funeral," "Her Confession," "Tess's Lament," "The Pine-Planters," "The Pink Frock," "The Beauty," "I Rose and Went to Rou'tor Town," "An Upbraiding," "The Chapel-Organist," "A Sunday-Morning Tragedy," and "A Trampwoman's Tragedy") and when I have completed the work on them I will post them as well. I have finished reconstructing and have re-posted the discussions concerning Hardy's memorial poems ("The Last Signal," "Rome: At the Pyramid of Cestius near the Graves of Shelley and Keats," "Shelley's Skylark," "At a House in Hampstead," "At Lulworth Cove a Century Back," and "To Shakespeare After Three Hundred Years"). All of the older discussions will remain posted at the site until such time as they are edited and published in either *The Hardy Review* or in one of TTHA's Occasional Papers. The discussions for February, 1998 through November 1999 have been "closed" and their contents edited and published in *The Hardy Review* [I:1 (July 1998) and 2:1 (Summer 1999)]. Likewise, the conversations from 1999 about the "Emma" poems have been published as the second of the TTHA Occasional Series. And those concerning "Channel Firing," "Satires of Circumstance in 15 Glimpses," "After the Visit," "To Meet, or Otherwise," and "A Singer Asleep" have been published in *The Hardy Review*, III (Summer 2000). The discussions of "Nature's Questioning," "The Mother Mourns," "The Subalterns," "The Lacking Sense," "In a Wood," "To Outer Nature," "June Leaves and Autumn," "Wagtail and Baby," "On a Midsummer Eve," "Afterwards," "Shut Out That Moon," "The Last Chrysanthemum," "The Year's Awakening," and "The Night of the Dance" have been edited and published in *The Hardy Review*, IV (Summer 2001). All of these publications are available free or at a discounted price to TTHA members and may be ordered by others using an on-line form available at the main TTHA page (see the URL above). Welcome to the TTHA Poem of the Month Discussion for June 2002. cheers, Bill Morgan ========== Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 11:32:52 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: TTHA Checklist (Not a spam!) Greetings all: I had this news today from TTHA's CHECKLIST director, Bob Schweik, and thought you -- several of you being valued contributors to this wonderful resource on the *MEMBERS' RESEARCH" page -- would also be pleased and proud to read it (I have Bob's permission to print his words): ________ FROM BOB: "I just got copy of the latest two volumes of *The Thomas Hardy Yearbook," numbers 32 and 33, including a bibliography of books and articles on Hardy published in 2000-- derived, largely, from the MLA bibliography. It was to me an eye-opener. The TTHA "Checklist" for 2000--now long archived--must have some five or six times as many entries, and they're as frequently annotated. And, of course, we're well into 2002! I begin to realize that we now have not only the most current but, retrospectively, the fullest bibliography of Hardy studies. Period. And that, of course, means that the "Archived" parts of the TTHA Checklist will be valuable in and of themselves--apart from the currency they once had. There's a special delight I take in being part of the team that has created such a splendid research resource -- above all, that we've provided a valuable *service* to scholars. This is the chief reward." _____________ I should also add that as of yesterday the contents of the May issue *The Thomas Hardy Journal* were included in the updated *CHECKLIST'*. So if you have not yet received your May copy -- I received mine a few days ago- you'll be able to browse it's contents ahead of time! We are deeply indebted to Bob for his tireless energy and magisterial scholarship without which there would be no *CHECKLIST" to celebrate. Thank you, my dear friend. Grateful thanks also to Seth Lachterman for his internet aid in uploading the Checklist page. Back later with DemBoids -- Cheers, Rosemarie ========= Date: Mon, 3 Jun 2002 08:54:37 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: WARNING MEMBERS, PLEASE DO NOT OPEN ANY ATTACHMENTS COMING TO THE LIST. THEY ARE NOT LEGITIMATE, AND MAY CONTAIN VIRUSES. I have requested all subscribers to refrain from sending messages with attachments to the list, so these are not from any of our members. I, personally, delete all messages coming to the list which have attachments without even opening them, as we have been warned some of those containing viruses open automatically once you open the message. They may even appear to be sent by someone known to us. Here's hoping our next problem is something simpler--a plague of locusts for eg. Betty ========== Date: Mon, 03 Jun 2002 12:35:56 -0400 From: Robert Schweik Subject: Thanks : I want to add here to Rosemarie's recent kind message some thanks of my own to Seth Lachterman for the exceptionally fine work he has done in managing the TTHA "Checklist of Recent Hardy Publications" files. That they are so up-to-date is the result of his scrupulously prompt postings of files which arrive sometimes only a week apart--and in special cases at even shorter intervals. Thanks, Seth! Bob Schweik schweik@fredonia.edu schweikr@localnet.com ========== Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 15:53:13 -0400 To: HARDY-L@csusm.edu From: Rosemarie Morgan Greetings all! In this week of heady celebrations in Hardy's "green and pleasant land" there was also a proud moment for TTHA when our *Short Stories* Director Martin Ray stepped into the editorial shoes of Simon Curtis and took over the production of *The Hardy Journal.* (What is the sound of hands clapping three thousand miles away Martin?) First edition -- May issue-- is now out. Hearty Congratulations to our new editor! I know of some of Martin's long term plans for the *Journal* but I hadn't expected to see his delightfully witty imprint quite so soon: the cover of the *Journal" features an illustration (Harper's, 1981) of two "Crusted Characters" "Talk[ing] Over Their Affairs" at a pub meal, and howsoever one interprets the mood of this scene one thing is certain, it is a heart-to-heart of a very significant kind. Martin tells me that he "was trying to set an appropriate mood for the conference!" (hmm--congenial? mellowed-out? or-- to follow Poorgrass, simply cultivating the "mutiplying eye"?) -- I love it! Anyway, dear friend, on behalf of TTHA and all its enthusiastic members worldwide we wish you every success in your new venture! Long May it Live! Besties, Rosemarie ========== Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 18:30:16 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Martin Ray Status: ooopps! I am b... a....a...a..d this week-- should be "1891" of course-- sorry! (and "multiplying"..) Slow Down! RM >the *Journal" features an illustration (Harper's, 1981) of two "Crusted > to follow Poorgrass, >simply cultivating the "mutiplying eye"?) -- ========== From: "Alan Shelston" Subject: Re: Martin Ray Date: Fri, 7 Jun 2002 08:59:43 +0100 : Status: Yes, congratulations to Martin - and thanks too for taking it on. As I know from experience editing a literary society's journal is no easy task, not least because of the range of expectations one strives to satisfy. So, many thanks to Simon Curtis for the work he has done over the past few years. Editors have their own styles, and I have always looked forward to the variety of material that Simon managed to include in his Editor's Notes, from the whimsical right through to the really informative. Best wishes to both - although it will need snail-mail to get them through to Simon! Alan Shelston ========== From: "rushmere" Subject: Date: Sun, 9 Jun 2002 17:03:04 +0100 Please can anybody send me any info on this years meeting in Dorchester I am often a silent member but would be very keen to attend Cheers Jonathan ========== Date: Sun, 09 Jun 2002 22:08:42 -0500 From: Bill Morgan Subject: The Dorchester Conference Dear Jonathan and John, Assuming you mean the Hardy Society's Conference in Dorchester, the easiest source of information is probably the Society's website: http://www.hardysociety.org/index.htm That's the Welcome page, from whence you can navigate to the Conference page; or you can go directly to the information about the Conference at: http://www.hardysociety.org/conference.htm If you're members of the Hardy Society, you will have received information about the Conference with your new copy of the *Journal*. I've been attending Hardy Conferences (originally they were called Summer Schools) since 1978, and I highly recommend them--intellectually substantial and socially exhilirating. I'll be there again this year, and I'm happy to try to answer questions--as I'm sure several of the list's other veterans would be--if you have any. Best of luck. cheers, Bill Morgan ========== Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 06:35:19 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: TH JOURNAL With apologies to all for sending a personal gripe to the Forum, I have still not received my copy of the May *Thomas Hardy Journal*, and wondered if other members were in the same predicament. I sent an note inquiring about it to the T.H.Society's U.K. e-mail address four days ago, but have not received a reply as yet. If any of our U.K. members can advise me on what to do next I would be most grateful. To Jonathan and John, let me reiterate Bill Morgan's remarks about the Dorchester Conference. I will be attending my fourth one this summer and have found them to be a wonderful experience, both intellectually and socially. I hope to meet as many Forum members as possible at this year's Conference. Best Wishes Betty Cortus hardycor@owl.csusm.edu ========== Date: Sun, 09 Jun 2002 14:49:07 -0400 From: Shannon Rogers Subject: Book Reviews Page Update Hello Everyone, Following up on Rosemarie's recent post and update, I would like to announce some new and upcoming additions to the Book Reviews Page. The page is really growing and becoming a valuable resource for scholars. The updates will be included shortly: ¥ Philip Allingham's review of The Spirit and the Flesh in Seven Hardy Novels by Wayne Burns ¥ My review of Thomas Hardy: A Beginner's Guide by Rob Abbott and Charlie Bell ¥ A response from Shanta Dutta to Rosemarie Morgan's review of Ambivalence in Hardy In addition, the page will soon be reverting to the Member's Only section of the website. As always, I welcome submissions and titles for review. When submitting, please include your review as a WORD attachment. Also, please include the following information in order to expedite the appearance of your work: ¥ Author name ¥ Book title ¥ Place, date, and publishing house ¥ ISBN ¥ Cloth or paperback ¥ Number of Pages ¥ Price Cheers! Shannon ========== Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 00:49:03 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Richard Nemesvari Yet more congratulations! This time to Richard Nemesvari, Director of the TTHA's *LIFE* page who has just been appointed to the Chair of his Department of English at St Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia. Richard, you may recall, was also my co-editor of the Festchrift for Michael Millgate, entitled *Human Shows* (The Hardy Association Press, 2000), and was suitably blessed at the last Hardy Conference where, at a congenial lunch following Richard's excellent lecture, Jim Gibson turned to him and said, with characteristic warmth and spontaniety, "You will go far, young man!" Amen. Many good wishes to Richard, on behalf of TTHA and its worldwide membership -- hearty congratulations! Cheers, Rosemarie. ========== Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 02:20:39 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: Richard Nemesvari well-- someone has just told me they like "spontaniety" so I won't apologise this time... -------- lecture, Jim Gibson turned to him and said, with characteristic warmth and spontaniety, "You will go far, young man!" Amen. Many good wishes to Richard, on behalf of TTHA and its worldwide membership -- hearty congratulations! Cheers, Rosemarie. ========== Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2002 02:35:17 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL : Betty-- I'm afraid your "personal ' gripe is public. I've been told that such is the parlous state of the Society's book-keeping that over 200 people never received their *Journal *copy. I hear that all of this has something to do with their new office computer: that it mis-spells names and mistakes addresses and is generally computer-illiterate. I also hear that a vote was passed at the last Council meeting to vote Professor Dennis Taylor in as a Vice-President to the Society. This struck me as even more odd than omitting 200 members from the mailing list given that Dennis has been a THSoc Vice President for over 20 years (maybe I missed something?) Good Luck! And Keep going ------- to info@hardysociety.org I'm sure someone will hear you eventually, Cheers -- Here's to the Dorchester Moment! R PS I received 8 copies of the May *Journal* for some reason. If you'd like one of my copies please let me know.... ========== From: "helen.gibson" Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2002 21:44:00 +0100 : Just to confirm that by now members should have received their May issue of The Thomas Hardy Journal. If you have not yet done so, I can only echo the advice to contact Lorelei Edwin, the Membership Officer, at info@hardysociety.org It is not too late to book for the Hardy Society conference at the end of July. For those wanting accommodation in Dorchester - the booking form does not include Bed & Breakfast in Dorchester - BUT THIS IS A MISTAKE, AND THERE IS SOME AVAILABLE, in addition to the other accommodation on the list. (www.hardysociety.org) ========== From: "Shanta Dutta" Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 19:37:53 +0530 Dear Betty, Perhaps it will come as a small consolation to you to hear that I too have not received my May issue of the Thomas Hardy Journal. I've e-mailed the U. K. Society office but have had no reply from them as yet. Here's hoping all of us receive our copies in the not too distant future. Best wishes, Shanta Dutta.== ========== Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 07:55:21 -0700 From: Betty Cortus Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Dear Shanta and Julian, I am beginning to wonder if anyone at the Hardy Society UK reads the e-mails sent to them. I'm still waiting for a reply, or better yet, my Journal. Betty ========== From: "Julian W. Whipple" Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 11:20:21 -0400 Strange how this is happening just after they invested money for new personnel, equipment and programming when what they had for nothing but good will seemed to work well! All best wishes, Julian ========== From: "patmann" Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 16:46:49 +0100 I wonder that too, Betty and John. I asked to have my web site included on the UK site on March 13th of this year and I'm still waiting for a reply. Good luck re the Journal. Patricia ========== Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 13:05:25 -0400 From: Rosemarie Morgan Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Greetings Everyone, I feel the need to step in here-- in my other life I am a Hardy Society Vice President as are 3 other TTHA directors, Jim Gibson, Bob Schweik and Dennis Taylor, and we all deeply regret the current hiatus at THSoc's HQ. The causes are, as many of you know already, due to internecine troubles and, more recently, the difficulties HQ is experiencing in embracing the computer age. Helen Gibson worked long and hard, over several years, to get the Society computerised with a web page but unfortunately she was not engaged by the Society to follow through with her work. We all know Helen -- of Literary Babies fame -- to be adept at computer work but for some reason (not known to the VPs) someone else was brought in by the Society to "manage" the computer for the folks at HQ. The upshot seems to be that, among other shortcomings, the website lacks staff to work with it -- competent staff, that is. It also lacks detailing -- for example, no officer of the Society has been set up with a private email (on the Society Web page) to deal with such things as accounting, conference housing, walks and tours etc etc.-- unlike TTHA there is no Vice Presidents' page to visit where individual Hardy experts can be consulted on individual matters. There is also no Forum for airing discussion, as here and, certainly no manager of Betty's calibre to manage it. It appears that street mail still works reasonably well for the Hardy Society and I would recommend that course instead of trying their email. It is for all these reasons and more that TTHA regrets that it can no longer provide a dual membership plan with the Hardy Society, but will give, instead, full details to those wishing to become dual members (how to make a separate application to the Dorchester-based organisation etc). Again, on behalf of the Vice Presidents of the Hardy Society I express my fullest regret for the current inefficiency of the organisation and strongly advise all who wish to communicate with the Society to go back to street mail. We all pray for the day when someone like Helen (if there could any such thing!) might be encouraged to take on management of the Society's computer and its website. Those of us who will be present at the AGM in Dorchester this August will certainly make our voices heard. As ever. Rosemarie ========== From: Martin Ray Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Date: Sat, 22 Jun 2002 12:56:32 +0100 (BST) Dear All, As you can no doubt imagine, I am very concerned indeed about the failure of the Society to distribute copies of the Journal to all members. The office in Dorchester is responsible for sending the address labels to the highly efficient printers in Kent, but with the February issue it would appear that the office failed to send some three hundred labels. With the May issue, I would imagine that the same problem has occurred, but I have received no explanation from them, so I am afraid that I cannot give you any more information than we already have. Contacting the office by e-mail is pointless: I have never received a reply to an e-mail. In addition to postal mail, which Rosemarie recommended yesterday, I would also recommend fax, since they do seem able to receive faxes. The number is +44 (0)1305-251501. May I please urge all members who have not received their May copy of the Journal to contact me privately, so that I can make representations on your behalf and also so that I can have a sense of the scale of the problems with distribution. Thank you. Martin. Dr Martin Ray Department of English University of Aberdeen Aberdeen AB24 2UB Scotland, UK m.ray@abdn.ac.uk ========== From: Martin Ray Subject: Re: TH JOURNAL Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2002 11:10:36 +0100 (BST) : Dear All I have received a worrying number of private e-mails over the weekend from members who have not received their May copy of the Journal. I have sent details of all such complaints to the THSoc office and have asked them to sort out this problem as a matter of urgency. A recurring anxiety is that members are concerned that they have not received a copy of the sign-up sheet for afternoon excursions during the conference and they fear that events will be fully booked by the time they arrive in Dorchester. If you would like a copy of the sign-up sheet, please send me your fax number and I shall send you a copy by return. This is an obvious example of how the Society website could have posted a copy of the sign-up form, but the website seems to have been in deep freeze for the last six months. To help me get as much necessary information as possible about the failings of the Soc office, I urge members to let me know any other problems they have had in receiving copies of the Journal or in communicating with the office. For instance, I would be curious to know if ANYONE has ever received a reply from them to an e-mail.... Many members are rightly upset because the Journal is their principal, or sole, means of keeping in touch with the Society. May I assure you that I and many others will be spending a great deal of time during the conference to ensure that changes are made to the administration which will, I hope, prevent such a shambles from continuing any longer. As a member of the Council of Management since February, I shall propose at the AGM that it be renamed the Council of Mismanagement! All best wishes Martin Dr Martin Ray Department of English University of Aberdeen Aberdeen AB24 2UB Scotland, UK m.ray@abdn.ac.uk ========== Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 20:27:30 -0400 From: Robert Schweik Subject: TTHA "Links" Update I have just completed the regular bi-annual updating of the TTHA "Links to Other Sites" that now comprises more than 300 pages. The number is considerable, but, nevertheless, highly selective. The primary objective of the TTHA "Links" is to provide connections to and comment on sites that are likely to be of importance for Hardy scholars. With respect to such sites, "Links" is intended to be as comprehensive as possible. But, secondarily, our TTHA "Links" is intended to provide a generous representative sampling of other kinds of Hardy-related sites around the world, as well as of many "Reference" and "Commercial" sites likely to be useful for anyone interested in Hardy. An analytic title-subject index is provided for the whole, and that is a good place to browse to get some sense of what 'Links" has to offer. For example, a glance at the multiple *Tess of the d'Urbervilles* entries in the Index will give some partial indication of what kinds of information "Links" can provide, and links to etexts of Hardy's poetry and prose take up some three "pages" of the Index. Any suggestions for additional links, or comment on, or corrections of, present ones, would be most welcome. Bob Schweik schweik@fredonia.edu schweikr@localnet.com ========== NOTE: ANNOUNCEMENTS REGARDING THE ATTEMPT TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE VIRUS AND SPAM PROBLEMS ON HARDY-L, WERE NOT INCLUDED IN THE JUNE 2002 ANNOUCEMNTS. THESE CAN BE FOUND IN THE BMC FORUM FILE OF ORIGINAL MESSAGES.