The Howellsian
Volume 2, Number 2 (January,
1998)
A record number of abstracts submitted for consideration for the next American Literature Association conference (28-31 May 1998) resulted in a request made to Professor Jeanne Campbell Reesman, chair of the conference and a member of the Howells Society, for the Society to sponsor two sessions in San Diego. Her enthusiastic response in turn allows the Society to hear promising papers from six Howells scholars. The first session, "Howells and the Romantic Tradition," continues the pattern set in Howells sessions at previous ALA meetings of writers: Susan M. Stone from the University of South Carolina will read "Transcendental Realism: Howells, 'Higher Laws,' and the Thoreauvian Presence in A Modern Instance"; L. Terry Oggel from Virginia Commonwealth University will deliver "Howells's 'Ideal Grasshopper': What Really 'Bugged' Howells about Tennyson"; and Sanford E. Marovitz, recently retired from Kent State University, will present "Howells and the Writing of Billy Budd."
More eclectic in nature, the second session, "Howells as Humorist, Stylist, Moralist," explores various aspects of Howells's own writing: Christine H. King from the University of California, Davis, will open this session with "Bartley has the Last Laugh in A Modern Instance"; Cynthia J. Davis from the University of South Carolina will read "Howellsian Literary Realism: All Substance, No Style?"; and Elsa Nettels from the College of William and Mary will conclude the session with "Should They Marry: Conflicting Voices in Howells's Fiction." The Society will also hold its annual business meeting during the ALA conference in San Diego.
If interest in Howells, as determined by the number and quality of paper submissions, continues, two session devoted to the Dean at future ALA conferences could easily become the norm. Please send abstracts or papers of no more than ten double-spaced typed pages for consideration for such sessions at the 1999 ALA conference by 1 November 1998 to Jesse S. Crisler (3127 JKHB, English Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602).
Donna Campbell, secretary-treasurer of the Society, has designed a Howells web page on the Internet, which can be accessed at index.html; the page includes the text of all past issues of The Howellsian, a bibliography of recent scholarship devoted to Howells, information about the Society and its activities, and links to several other Howells sites including the texts of many of his works as well as those of several contemporaries. Donna has also mounted a Howells discussion list, enabling those so desiring to share thoughts and submit queries concerning Howells and his work; to subscribe, send a message to howells-l-request@gonzaga.edu: be sure to leave the subject line blank, and type SUBSCRIBE as the body of the message. Future issues of the newsletter will continue to be available on the Society's web page, as will other material of interest to Society members.