The Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society Newsletter Newsletter No. 16 www.emrsociety.com March 2015 17th Annual Nothing Lost: Always Found was largely devoted to illuminating the Roberts Conference PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE works and words of Elizabeth Madox Roberts. At the International Imagism / The Elizabeth Madox Rob- MATTHEW NICKEL Richard Aldington Conference in Venice, erts Society will hold its June 2014, Roberts was the subject of Jane Keller’s paper and was mentioned in XVII Annual Conference Stoneback and others. The Roberts Society in Shaker Village of Pleas- Nothing is lost, ever lost! at last continues to hold two affiliated sessions at ant Hill and in Springfield you understood. —Robert Penn Warren SAMLA in November, and we will have (Saint Catharine College), panels at both the American Literature Kentucky, April 24-27, In the world of Roberts Scholarship— Association Conference in Boston, May 2015. We are excited to that’s right, world—many things may 2015, and at the Society for the Study of move our conference head- not be immediately discernible in what American Women Writers in Philadelphia, quarters to Shaker Village we do and in how we work. It may seem November 2015. of Pleasant Hill—a loca- to those currently affected by a kind tion quintessentially Ken- of post-traumatic-MLA-syndrome, at The Roberts Society is also proud to say tuckian, an agrarian and first glance, that we gather as a group of that the Reading Roberts Series, under historic venue rich with provincial students and scholars scattered the General Editor H. R. Stoneback, is resonances of Roberts across a few states—mostly emanating progressing according to schedule. Gregg Country. Academic paper from upstate New York—to trek toward Neikirk’s play, Coming Home: A Vision of sessions will be held at Kentucky every year for what may seem Elizabeth Madox Roberts is in production Saint Catharine College, to be a minor conference—just moments and will be published in time for our April Conference. Jane Keller’s biography of just outside of Springfield, of fried chicken, BBQ, and a few scholarly Roberts is moving along. And the critical Roberts’ hometown. attempts at reading The Time of Man. But those who have lived through the books on A Buried Treasure and the Roberts experience know it is more than Roberts short stories are also well under merely sentimental, more than simply the way. enjoyment of a few days in the captivation Please direct conference of Roberts’ landscapes. It becomes a living Most of this begins in Kentucky every April inquiries (registration, thing, resembling communion. where Stoney, our pilgrim guide, brings us lodging, special events, to the deep heart’s core of Roberts’ writing etc.) to the Co-Conference The world of Roberts continues to and landscapes. And those in Kentucky Directors: expand beyond our own turnings, and open doors that lead us onward beyond the local into the universal. Compared H. R. Stoneback, English we are excited to welcome many new Roberts enthusiasts and scholars here to most other single author societies, our Dept., SUNY-New Paltz, and abroad. This past year has seen a attendance and presence is overwhelming. New Paltz, NY 12561 and rapid growth in Roberts interest, evident And our dedication to endure and prevail Matthew Nickel, English by our well-attended panels at national illustrates one fundamental way the Dept., Misericordia Uni- and international conferences and by our academic world really works—beyond the versity, 301 Lake Street, new members (see Stoneback’s welcome narrow halls of the MLA: if we are excited Dallas, PA 18612 or at: within this Newsletter). At CEA in about a writer and keep talking about Baltimore, March 2014, Roberts scholars her and writing about her and bringing <[email protected]> Jane Keller, Jessica Nickel, and Matthew others into her world—and if she is good <[email protected]> Nickel participated on a special Roberts enough—nothing is lost, ever lost! panel, and H. R. Stoneback’s keynote 2 Welcome New EMRS Members The EMR Issue of Firsts: The Book Collector’s Magazine H. R. STONEBACK H. R. STONEBACK Delighted to report that Roberts Society membership continues to grow, we are pleased to welcome new members from Misericordia University in This is to report that one of the major events in Roberts studies in Pennsylvania and, as always, many new members recent years has occurred—the magazine Firsts has just published from the perennial Roberts wellspring at the its extraordinary issue devoted primarily to Roberts and her State University of New York in New Paltz. We work (January/February 2015 Volume 25: Number 1 & 2), which also particularly welcome our new member from features Roberts on the cover and contains two articles on EMR by Ohio, Don Scriven, an attorney (Scott Scriven & Don Scriven. Wahoff LLP) and writer and Roberts aficionado from Columbus and one of our keynote speakers at The magazine cover reproduces the dust jacket illustration from the the 2015 conference; and our latest member from first edition of The Time of Man, an image that is, we might note, abroad—swelling the ranks of our international far more telling and accurate as a depiction of the spirit of Ellen membership (an optimist might say)—we welcome Chesser and the novel than the Clare Leighton illustrations familiar Frances Kearney from Northern Ireland, a PhD to most readers from later editions of The Time of Man. It is worthy candidate at the University of Ulster, where she of note for Roberts aficionados that this issue of Firsts contains has just completed her dissertation on Hemingway a six-page essay on another southern woman novelist, the once and will, at this April’s conference, present her celebrated now truly neglected Evelyn Scott; a five-page essay on paper marking her first foray into Roberts studies. William Faulkner; and a four-page article on Ernest Hemingway. Society membership—new members recruited, Thus the Roberts articles, a total of sixteen pages, surpass the old members renewed—is the foundation of the combined page allotment for Faulkner, Hemingway, and Scott. ongoing Roberts Renascence. Recruit! Renew! The longer essay by Scriven carries the full title: Elizabeth Madox Roberts: Kentucky’s Understated Feminist Writer Extraordinaire and the précis in the table of contents reads as follows: Over the last 50 years a number of female authors have Right: An image of been rediscovered, but Roberts remains neglected. Her great the first edition of The Time of Man novels, among them The Time of Man, are not polemical or stridently rebellious as many of those accorded canonical “far more accurate status by those who would define feminist literature. They as a depiction of are just better. (My emphasis) the spirit of Ellen Chesser” The second essay, entitled Elizabeth Madox Roberts: An Annotated Checklist of First Editions is summarized in this fashion: Roberts’ works are scarce, and since those who know her books covet them, pricey. (For further commentary on the content of Scriven’s essays, see the notes by Matthew Nickel elsewhere in this Newsletter.) Speaking personally, I would add that one of the real pleasures of Left: Clare Leighton the past two years has been my correspondence with Don Scriven, illustrations on later about Roberts and the world. And I am pleased to report that he has editions accepted my invitation to be a keynote speaker at our conference this April, where he will display items from his Roberts collection. In addition, I asked, barely hoping this good news would be realized: through the generosity of Scriven and the publishers, copies of the Roberts issue of Firsts—a very attractive addition to every Roberts collection—will be distributed at the conference. 3 Elizabeth Madox Roberts Stamp and worsening health plagued her through her remaining years. Yet, in two decades, she published JAMIE STAMANT twelve books, several of which were translated—into French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Norse. The pre-eminent Southern literature scholar of the last half century, Lewis P. Simpson, numbers her with The Elizabeth Madox Roberts Society is currently tak- Faulkner, Warren, Eudora Welty, Katherine Anne ing steps to put Roberts’s image on a United States postal Porter, Andrew Lytle and Thomas Wolfe as a major stamp. Ultimately, the decision will be in the hands of The southern writer. And, it should be noted, Warren Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC), which is (who was honored with a stamp in 2005) was greatly appointed by the Postmaster General. In order to win the influenced by Roberts, and his work owes much to committee’s favor, the EMR Society has drafted a letter to that inspiration. send to prominent members of the Kentucky government and community; the letter urges them to support our initia- A New York Times review of The Time of Man and tive and will be circulated soon in the hope that we might Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises opined that achieve our goal within the next few years. The text of the Roberts’ was the more certain of a long life. When letter is as follows: a group of writers were asked to comment on Ezra Pound’s Cantos, she was one of only two women asked to contribute (the other the English poet H.D.). I write to urge your support for an initiative to honor The Time of Man was a Book of the Month selection; Elizabeth Madox Roberts by placing her image on she was the first writer whose work was selected a United States postage stamp. Born in Perryville, twice by the Literary Guild. Carl Van Doren wrote Elizabeth Roberts was a Springfield, Kentucky, poet, that the Editorial Board had agreed that “they must novelist, and short story writer who achieved pre- if possible avoid the selection of books by writers eminence in the 1920s and 1930s.