The George Sand Association at Thirty: Sand’s literary legacy.3 An invitation from A Collaborative Essay on the First Ten Natalie to appear at Hofstra was also part of his itinerary. The response of the scholars who Years (1976-1986) attended M. Lubin’s talks inspired her to (Written on the Occasion of the Thirtieth Anniversary organize a conference, “The George Sand of the Founding of the GSA) Centennial, November 1976.” The following history has emerged from documents from our “It all began in the spring of 1976,” Natalie archives, as well as from the records and recollections of others in addition to the four Datlof recalled, as we sat around a table at a 4 Chinese restaurant in Greenwich Village. The mentioned above. four of us—Natalie, Marie Collins, Alex Szogyi, Sponsored jointly by various Hofstra and Thelma Jurgrau—founding members of the departments, the conference program focused on Friends of George Sand, from which the George Sand within the social, political, and cultural Sand Association originated—met to go back to context of her time and place. In his message of that historical moment in our collective memory. welcome, President James Shuart paid tribute to At that time, Natalie was attending Professor her as “an extraordinary woman who dominated Edwin L. Dunbaugh’s seminar in European the cultural world in her lifetime.” Two of Cultural History at Hofstra University. Assigned eleven presenters focused on Sand’s writing— to choose an influential nineteenth-century Nancy Rogers on social protest in Sand’s early figure, she chose George Sand for her role as the work, and Alex Szogyi on the narrative voice in unofficial Minister of Propaganda who wrote a Lucrezia Floriani. Others were concerned with series of unsigned “Letters to the People,” for linking Sand to her contemporaries in Russia the 1848 Republican government of France. (Leslie Herrmann and Carole Karp); in England Natalie was responding to the growing influence (Paul Blount and Thelma Jurgrau); and in France of the Women’s Movement in academia as she (Janis Glasgow and Aaron Noland). Professor questioned the anonymity of Sand’s role. The Noland may be remembered for his strong realization that Sand had died a century earlier identification with Sand’s critic, Pierre-Joseph added to the historian’s interest in this Proudhon, which prompted him to play devil’s accomplished woman whose reputation as a advocate to the generally pro-Sand audience at novelist had been eclipsed by preoccupation the conference. Dennis O’Brien spoke on the with her exceptional life. Coincidentally, PBS question of Sand’s feminism, and Enid presented a seven-part series, “Notorious Standring, on the musical connection between Woman,” starring Rosemary Harris as George Sand and Berlioz. A musician who rarely Sand. The confluence of those events—seminar, appeared without her two clarinets in tow, television show, centennial, and rising interest in Professor Standring not only added color to our Women’s Studies—gave birth to the idea to early conferences but was also among the first celebrate a figure so central to the nineteenth Sandistes to go beyond the obvious Chopin century. connection. Thelma remembered that 1976 was also the year The importance of music in Sand’s work was that brought Georges Lubin to New York as part further acknowledged by a performance, on the of a speaking tour sponsored by the French first evening, by the Hofstra String Quartet, of Cultural Services. She had just finished her Romantic chamber music by Schubert and dissertation on the country novels of George Brahms. The following afternoon there was a Sand and George Eliot,1 research that relied on recital of pieces by Chopin and Liszt performed M. Lubin’s edition of Sand’s Œuvres by two students. On the last night, Bizet’s opera autobiographiques, published in 1970.2 Ellen The Pearl Fishers was performed by the Concert Moers, a pioneer in Women’s Studies, invited Orchestra and Choir of Long Island under the him to the CUNY Graduate Center to meet baton of Maestro Laszlo Halascz. interested faculty and students, many of whom were already familiar with his contribution to The last day of the conference was still vivid in Proceedings, 1976, containing papers by the Thelma’s mind as she recalled the five or six Sandistes referred to earlier, whose names are participants who attended the first in a series of still familiar to us thirty years later. workshops she would lead for the purpose of The hope of the FGS was to provide an ongoing organizing a group translation of Histoire de ma forum for scholars to share ideas on Sand’s life, vie. Sixty-five translators were eventually work, and influence. That hope took wing when recruited to complete the 72-chapter work, a a special session devoted to her work was project that took ten years. SUNY Press scheduled at the Modern Language published Story of My Life, the first unabridged Association’s meeting in Chicago the following translation into English of Sand’s year, 1977. The call for papers for this session, autobiography, in 1990, but the impulse came organized by Paul Blount and Thelma Jurgrau, from that first conference. caught the eye of a prospective member who Greetings by various dignitaries focusing on the would lead us to maturity as president of our woman herself enhanced the celebratory organization for the last eight years. Annabelle atmosphere of the 1976 gathering. André Rea remembers that her paper on Sand’s use of Gadaud, Cultural Counselor to the French fairy tales and myths was later published with Embassy, wrote: “Not only does [the the others from that session, in Blount’s Studies conference] show the importance of this great in the Literary Imagination 12.2 (1979): 37-47. French writer and the relevance of her work to The MLA connection provided further outreach our contemporaries, but it also indicates the very to US institutions such as Rutgers University in particular role played in 19th-century France by Newark, where Marie Collins had been Chair of this great lady….” Henri Peyre contributed a the Foreign Language and Literature piece on “The Presence of George Sand Among department. Marie became one of the founding Us,” and Joseph Barry, author of Infamous members, along with the others whose names Woman: The Life of George Sand, wrote: “To be still appear on the masthead of GSS. She recalled George Sand—to break the mold and become attending many of the MLA sessions devoted to herself—was perhaps the most feminist act of Sand annually from that time to the present. It the nineteenth century.” In addition, Gérard was via Marie Collins, who hired her as an Roubichou, Cultural Attaché to the French instructor in French, in 1977, that Isabelle Embassy, presented an award to actress Naginski was first drawn into Sand studies. Rosemary Harris, who had brought George Sand Marie asked her to review the Espinosa to life on the TV screens of millions of translation of Lélia for the FGS Newsletter, the Americans. very first review Isabelle ever wrote. Again Ever interested in the George Sand phenomenon, through Marie, she participated in a roundtable, Alex remembered sitting in his office (he was “Le Phénomène George Sand,” organized by then chairman of the Romance Languages Alex and sponsored by the AATF, where she department of Hunter College) and taking time met Peter Sourian, husband of Ève, who hired out to call Natalie at Hofstra to share his delight her to teach at Bard College. Isabelle feels that on receiving a flier announcing the conference. much of her career as a Sandiste is owing to She invited him to participate in forming a new Marie and Alex. Sand society, a vision intensified by the Our network was widened the following year, excitement of shared interest and knowledge 1978, at a second conference at Hofstra, generated at the conference. Among those who organized by Natalie: “George Sand: Her Life, had sent wishes for success was Martine Her Works, Her Influence.” Members of our Beaufils, founder of Les Amis de George Sand. initial group—Janis Glasgow, Nancy Rogers, A number of us began meeting with the idea in Paul Blount, Thelma Jurgrau, Marie Collins, mind of forming a counterpart to Les Amis and returned as participants, and new scholars publishing a newsletter for scholars in the US. joined, whose names are still familiar—Marie- The conference also resulted in the publication Jacques Hoog, Marilyn Yalom, Lucy Schwartz, of The George Sand Papers: Conference Pierrette Daly, Ève Sourian, Michael Danahy, of Colorado. “George Sand: The Woman and Robert Jones, Sergine Dixon, Tatiana Greene. Her World” was a project conceived by Lydia On that occasion, interest in Sand’s links to Grey and implemented by the Woman’s Studies writers were expanded to include American Program. According to the catalogue, the month connections, while relations with her of October was devoted to dramatic events and compatriots were enlarged beyond Balzac to discussions. Performances included a puppet include Delacroix and Madame de Staël. But play by Maurice Sand, Rosemary Harris’s more attention than at the first conference was recreations of Sand’s life and work, and paid to particular novels—Consuelo, Indiana, Chopin’s music from his time with Sand. Jacques, Lélia, La Petite Fadette. (At that time Presentations by Pierrette Daly, Janis Glasgow, few of Sand’s works were as yet available in and Nancy Rogers, among others, covered inexpensive editions.) A second publication of Sand’s feminism, her travels, and her style. conference proceedings followed, containing a The month-long exhibit displayed 233 items bibliography by Gaylord Brynolfson, literature ranging from personal artifacts to paintings, bibliographer at Princeton University, listing photographs and written material from the 485 items published from 1964 to 1980, collection of Christiane Sand, whom Alex including more than 30 dissertations by scholars credits with being among the major figures who in the US, France, Canada, the UK, West devoted herself to resurrecting the reputation of Germany, and the Soviet Union.