WILLIAM MORRIS SOCIETY IN THE UNITED STATES
Newsletter July 2002

Beyond Oscar Wilde: Portraits Of Late Victorian Writers And Artists From The Mark Samuels Lasner Collection

September 5 - November 10, 2002, University Gallery, University Of Delaware

The University Gallery of the University of Delaware announces the exhibition, “Beyond Oscar Wilde: Portraits of Late Victorian Writers and Artists from the Mark Samuels Lasner Collection,” opening September 5 and running through November 10, 2002.The exhibition of over sixty-five works from this major private collection of Victorian literature and art includes drawings, lithographs, watercolors, oils, photographs, books, and illustrated letters that span the period 1870-1901.

Representations of Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) were crucial to launching and sustaining his career in the world of the arts and also to determining his unhappy fate. Thus, historians often focus on the meaning and importance of Wilde’s image, when discussing the late-nineteenth-century British cultural milieu. One of the highlights of this exhibition will be a previously unknown caricature of Wilde by Max Beerbohm. But the items on view will go “beyond” Wilde, to consider a fuller range of images of male and female writers and artists, in both portraits and self-portraits, including a George Du Maurier portrait of George Eliot; the poet Algernon Swinburne's personal photograph album; and self-portraits by Beerbohm, William Rothenstein, Walter Sickert, and Rudyard Kipling.

A special reception will take place between 4:00 and 8:00 p.m. On September 5 and will include a public lecture on the role of idealization, romanticizing, and caricature in late-Victorian portraiture by Dr. Debra N. Mancoff. Dr. Mancoff is an art historian and scholar in residence at the Newberry Library in Chicago. She has lectured and written extensively on Victorian art and culture. The University of Delaware Library is the co-sponsor of this event.

On Wednesday, October 30 at 12 noon, a walking tour of the exhibition will be presented by Dr. Margaret D. Stetz, currently Visiting Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, University of Delaware. Dr. Stetz is a noted scholar in Victorian and Women’s Studies and has lectured at countless institutions in the U.S. and abroad.

The collector, Mark Samuels Lasner, will also be on hand on October 30 to discuss the works on view. Mr. Samuels Lasner is a recognized expert on Victorian art and literature, the author of A Selective Checklist of the Published Work of Aubrey Beardsley (1995) and The Yellow Book: A Checklist and Index (1998), among other publications. He has organized, alone and with Dr. Stetz, exhibitions at Harvard University, the Grolier Club, Georgetown University, and the University of Virginia. Mr. Samuels Lasner, who serves on the boards of a number of bibliophile organizations, is currently Visiting Scholar, University of Delaware Library.

The University Gallery is located on the second floor of historic Old College, on the corner of Main Street and North College Avenue in downtown Newark. The museum presents exhibitions and educational programs of regional and national importance, and is a repository for art objects and cultural artifacts spanning the ancient period through the present. The University Gallery also provides professional development opportunities for students interested in careers in the museum field. Hours are 11:00-4:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and 1:00-4:00 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday.

The museum is closed on Mondays, during exhibition production, and all University holidays. The museum facility is barrier free and those individuals requesting other disability accommodations are encouraged to call at least ten days prior to a visit. All museum events are free to the public unless otherwise noted.

George Howard's pencil sketch of Edward Burne-Jones.

In Britain at the end of the nineteenth-century, new means of reproduction and distribution increased the availability and profitability of High Culture, whether literary or visual. The diffusion of contemporary texts and images drew greater attention, in turn, to the makers of them--to the writers and artists of many schools and movements, whose works were now reaching a mass market. Curiosity about their faces, bodies, clothing, domestic or professional circumstances, and poses (and about what could be learned or imitated from looking at these) helped to drive the profusion of portraits of creative figures. So, too, did the proliferation of galleries, museums, and other exhibition spaces; technical advances in photography and printing; scientific theories about the relationship of physical appearance to psychology; the dominance of both realism and impressionism as aesthetic aims; shifting notions of gender that encouraged the scrutiny of individual bodies for their conformity or non-conformity to conventional modes; the cult of personality and the commodification of fame in journalism and advertising; and the rise of literate working-class and lower-middle-class populations in search of models of deportment and achievement to emulate.

If, as historians have noted, the second half of the Victorian period saw a crisis of faith, it also witnessed the substitution of the human face for the Divine. The quest for the transcendent in the everyday led painters, illustrators, and photographers to locate beauty, distinction, spirituality, and especially “genius” in the faces of professional writers and artists. At the same time, the hard-edged cynicism and wit that set the tone for modern urban life produced a market for caricaturists who would debunk the Ideal and cut lofty figures down to size. This exhibition provides the viewer with a glimpse of both approaches.

For more information, contact:
Phone: (302) 831-8242
Fax (302) 831-8251
TDD (302) 831-4563.
http://www.museums.udel.edu

Victorian Related Courses At University Of Virginia’s Rare Book School

The Rare Book School is pleased to announce its 2002 Sessions, a collection of five-day, non-credit courses on topics concerning rare books, manuscripts, the history of books and printing, and special collections to be held at the University of Virginia. For an application form and electronic copies of the complete brochure and Rare Book School expanded course descriptions, providing additional details about the courses offered and other information about Rare Book School, visit their Web site at http://www.rarebookschool.org.

Lithography: The Popularization of Printing in the 19th Century (Monday-Friday, July 8-12)

Aimed at those concerned with books, prints, and ephemera, especially of the first two-thirds of the C19. Topics: Senefelder and the discovery of lithography; lithographic stones and presses; the work of the lithographic draftsman, letterer, and printer; the trade; early lithographed books and other printing; the development of particular genres, including music printing; chromolithography. Instructor: Michael Twyman, Emeritus Professor in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. He is the author of John Soulby, Printer, Ulverston (1966), Printing 1770-1970 (1970, reprinted 1998), The British Library Guide to Printing: History and Techniques (1998), and several books on lithography, including Lithography 1800-1850 (1970), Early Lithographed Books (1990), and Early Lithographed Music (1996). He has recently completed and edited Maurice Rickards's The Encyclopedia of Ephemera (2000). For more information, contact:
Rare Book School
Phone: 434/924-8851
114 Alderman Library
Fax: 434/924-8824
University of Virginia
Email: oldbooks@virginia.edu
Charlottesville, VA 22903 http://www.rarebookschool.org

New Limited Edition Of Kelmscott Chaucer Printed

From: The Washington Post, June 22, 2002, Saturday, Final Edition

“Olivetti's Black-Ribbon Legacy, Still Ringing Bells” by Linda Hales, Washington Post Staff Writer

The Folio Society has undertaken to recreate one of the most beautiful books of modern times, an elaborately decorated version of "The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer" designed and published in the late 19th century by William Morris. In a limited edition of 1,000, the London-based book club is producing a facsimile known as "the Kelmscott Chaucer." Bibliophiles and decorative-arts specialists will appreciate the lineage: Kelmscott Press was the 1890 creation of Morris, who founded Britain's Arts and Crafts movement. Morris gained renown for trying to counter the excesses of the Industrial Revolution. He urged people to surround themselves with objects that were useful, beautiful and good for the soul. A renewal of handcrafted artistry, notably furniture, stained glass, wallpaper and fabrics, followed. The 568-page volume, with its rich ornamentation and elaborate medieval "Chaucer" font, which Morris designed for the occasion, was a near-perfect example of a beautiful object. Folio trumpeted it as "the greatest book not just of the Arts and Crafts era, but of the entire history of the English private press." Morris died a few weeks after the run was finished. An 1896 original is locked in a safe in the William Morris Gallery at Walthamstow, spiritual home of the Arts and Crafts movement in what is now northeast London. New editions will begin shipping next month with white goatskin covers decorated with gold intertwined vines. At $ 995 each, the edition sold out. Stephen James, a Folio spokesman in London, says there is an ample waiting list. Bookless Morris fans can visit the Walthamstow museum at www.lbwf.gov.uk/wmg or the William Morris Society at www.morrissociety.org.

SPAB “Beloved Buildings” Architectural Love Poetry Contest

Working with Images of England, the SPAB is launching a poetry competition as part of their 125th anniversary celebrations. They invite you “to write a love poem dedicated to the building, which for you, is the architectural love of your life. It could be your childhood sweetheart, a holiday romance, lifelong companion or the love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name.

For inspiration, “use http://www.imagesofengland.org.uk. The website, run by English Heritage, contains information on each of the 370,000 listed buildings in England, many accompanied by a photograph. For teachers English Heritage education department have written guidelines. Judges are poets Tony Mitton and Jehane Markham, the Guardian's architecture correspondent Jonathan Glancey, Channel Four's Grand Desgins presenter Kevin mccloud and actor Roger Lloyd Pack. There are £3000 worth of prizes! Why a Poetry competition? “Since its formation the SPAB has been a repository of technical knowledge regarding the appropriate methods of conserving our ancient buildings. In our anniversary year we are remembering that all our campaigning, educating, lobbying, advising and conserving Is motivated by one thing - LOVE! “The Society was inspired by John Ruskin and William Morris, who saw buildings as works of art and craftsmanship that should be treated with the same care and consideration as any painting or sculpture.”

They are accepting entries from anywhere, but cannot pay travel expenses for winners outside of the UK. For more information, visit the website at: http://www.spab.org.uk.

Exposed: The Victiorian Nude To Make Only United States Stop On Internation Tour At The Brooklyn Museum Of Art, September 6, 2002-January 5, 2003

Exposed: The Victorian Nude, the first exhibition to survey the full range of representations of the nude, both male and female, during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901, will make its only stop in North America at the Brooklyn Museum of Art from September 6, 2002, through January 5, 2003. Organized by the Tate Britain, where it inaugurated the new Linbury Galleries, it includes some 150 paintings, sculptures, works on paper, photographs, popular illustrations, and films, among them works by Frederic Leighton, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, and Edward Coley Burne-Jones. One of the most controversial issues in Victorian art, the representation of the nude figure occasioned continuing debate over whether it was associated with High Culture or constituted an assault on public morality.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century in England anxiety about nudity and sexuality abounded, while at the same time there was a considerable increase in the production of images of the nude. The exhibition has been organized around six major themes that encompass these issues and reflect the stylistic changes of the nineteenth century, from the Old Masters style of the early Victorian period through the Pre-Raphaelites, Aestheticism, High Victorian Classicism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism.

The first section titled The English Nude explores the emergence of a distinctively English manner of painting the nude that emerged in the 1840s. Its practitioners were influenced by the Venetian Renaissance and by Rubens and the Flemish school as seen in art that had been brought in to England during the Napoleanic Wars. Other inspirations for images of the nude included Greek art; Spenser’s Faerie Queen, with its wealth of pictorial incident of pagan sensuality and Christian allegory; as well as the works of Milton; and the legend of Lady Godiva. These sources helped to make a broader public receptive to the work of artists such as William Etty, the first British artist to paint the nude with seriousness and consistency; William Mulready; and Edwin Landseer. The proliferation of a new type of porcelain called Parian ware provided another means of bringing nude images to the middle classes.

The Classical Tradition includes work by a group of artists, many educated abroad, who sought to elevate the representation of the nude through an increased emphasis on draftsmanship, classical themes, and style. Among them were Edward Poynter, whose academic composition Diadumené became the focus of a controversy over the propriety of including representations of the nude in public exhibitions; the frieze-like The Bowlers, painted by Sir William Blake Richmond, who lived in Italy where there was a more relaxed attitude toward the body; as well as works by other artists, who also lived and worked in Italy, such as John Gibson and Alfred Gilbert. Gilbert’s bronze sculpture Perseus Arming, in part a tribute to Donatello’s David, was the first in a succession of male nudes by the artist. The classical influence was also evidenced in ephemera such as photographs by Edward Linley Sambourne, among them Hygieia, which exemplified a growing public interest in sanitation and health, and through Henry Van der Weyde’s widely circulated photographs of the body builder Eugen Sandow that were used to promote his performances and collected by both men and women.

While the nude was included in exhibitions and disseminated through ephemera, there was also an abundance of more sensual works, including those that used the new technology of photography, as well as paintings, that were not deemed suitable for public viewing, among them homoerotic and androgynous images. The section The Private Nude includes works such as William Etty’s Candaules, King of Lydia Shews His Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed; drawings by Aubrey Beardsley, who was inspired by Japanese erotic prints and figures on Greek vases; Edward Linley Sambourne’s soft pornography photographs masquerading as academic studies; and one of five surviving photographs of nude children by Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll.

In The Artist’s Studio explores the process of working from the nude model is transformed in to work of art is explored through such examples as Frederic Leighton’s studies in which he transformed a male model into a female subject, as well as through various works inspired by the Pygmalion myth, such as The Wife of Pygmalion by George Frederic Watt, and a series of Pygmalion-related paintings by Edward Coley Burne-Jones.

In the late Victorian period, the treatment of the nude often became more daring and the body was shown in varying states and often on a large scale. Although history and Greek myths were still a strong source of inspiration, there was greater diversity in nude subjects, which represented a wide range of allegorical themes. Among the works included in this section Sensation! The Nude in High Art are Evelyn demorgan’s Cadmus and Harmonia, inspired by an obscure tale from Ovid’s Metamorphoses and one of the first nudes painted by a woman to be publicly exhibited; Herbert Draper’s Ulysses and the Sirens, which was painted in the Edwardian era but is a classic Victorian image of female predatory sexuality; and the Whistler protégé William Stott’s The Birth of Venus, which caused a controversy that resulted in the estrangement of the two artists.

The Modern Nude includes works created in the closing decades of the nineteenth century that show the nude subject both in intimate moments and outdoors. Moving away from any connection with the classical myth these domestic and plein-air images are often painted in a British version of Impressionism that was greeted with disapproval by conservative critics and academicians. Included are John Singer Sargent’s A Nude Boy on a Beach, painted in Italy as a study for a larger painting; Thomas Alexander Harrison’s large-scale In Arcadia, whose nude subject is treated naturalistically rather than heroically, and William Orpen’s A Nude Girl Seated on a Bed, an example of the “boudoir nude.”

Exposed: The Victorian Nude was conceived by Dr. Alison Smith, Senior Programme Curator, Tate Britain, and author of The Victorian Nude: Sexuality, Morality and Art (Manchester University Press, 1996). Dr. Smith is also editor of the fully illustrated catalogue that accompanies the exhibition. It was co-curated with Dr. Martin Myrone, Programme Curator for pre-1900 British Art at the Tate Gallery of British Art, and Robert Upstone, Tate Collections Curator specializing in nineteenth-century art. Dr. Barbara Dayer Gallati, Curator, Department of American Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, will coordinate the exhibition at the BMA.

Call For Entries: 2003 Niche Awards Recognizing The Best Of American Craft

The Rosen Group is now accepting applications for the 2003 NICHE Awards. The NICHE Awards, sponsored by NICHE Magazine, recognize the outstanding creative achievements of American craft artists who produce work for craft galleries and retail stores. Entry deadline for professionals is August 31, 2002.
Categories include Glass, Ceramics, Jewelry, Wood, Metal, Fiber, Mixed and Miscellaneous Media, Clocks, Narrative, Judaica, Garden Art/Sculpture, Goblets, Teapots, Furniture, Clothing, Decorative Fiber, Fashion Accessories, Lighting (candlesticks and lamps) and Recycled.
Judging criteria are based on three main distinctions:

• technical mastery and creativity, both in surface design and form
• market viability
• a distinct quality of unique and original thought

Finalists are invited to display their work in the NICHE Awards exhibit at the February Buyers Market of American Craft, February 14-19, 2003, and will be included in the Winter 2003 issue of NICHE magazine. Winners will be announced at the February 2003 Buyers Market.
Applications for the NICHE Awards are available online at www.americancraft.com or by emailing info@rosengrp.com.

Red House Open On Limited Schedule

Although Red House is not opening as usual in 2002, the owners - the Hollamby family - have kindly agreed to allow the Friends of Red House to run two charitable fundraising weekends. For those of you who will be in the area, the House will be open from 10.30 - 5.00 on June 29th and 30th and August 10th and 11th. Guided tours of the House will take place every hour. Admission will be free though contributions to the raffle and/or donations will be welcome.

For further information, and to book a tour, contact: Pam Hewitt on (020 8301 2881) or email pamela.hewitt@btopenworld.com.

Further information is also available at www.friends-red-house.co.uk.

Living The Arts And Crafts Lifestyle Program At Gustave Stickley House, September 21st And 22nd

Gustav Stickley, a well-known spokesman for the Arts and Crafts movement, like Morris combined the roles of furniture designer and manufacturer, architect, publisher, philosopher and social critic. His home, Craftsman Farms, is owned by the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills and operated by The Craftsman Farms Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation incorporated in the State of New Jersey. Craftsman Farms is also the location of the Gustav Stickley Museum. On September 21 & 22, Craftman Farms will host “Living the Arts & Crafts Lifestyle 7”, which will include a craft fair, lectures, open house, access to the Museum Shop, a family activity corner, and, on Saturday evening, a benefit dinner & silent auction

For more information, contact the Museum at:
2352 Rt. 10-West, # 5
Morris Plains, NJ 07950
Phone: 973-540-1165
Fax: 973-540-1167
E-mail address: craftsmanfarms@att.net

“Creating The Useful And The Beautiful” Exhibition At The Huntington Gallery, April 9-September 22, 2002

The Huntingdon Gallery will be celebrating Morris’s multifarious talents in an exhibition showcasing their impressive collections. The exhibition will feature Morris’s stained glass, ceramics, wallpapers, and textile designs, as well as books from the Kelmscott Press. For more information, visit the exhibition’s website at: www.huntington.org/artdiv/morris.html.
Or contact the Library at:
The Huntington Library
Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Phone: 626-405-2100

The 2002 J. Ben Lieberman Memorial Lecture, October 24 , 7pm, Getty Center, Los Angeles

From the Press Release:

The American Printing History Association is pleased to announce that Jack Stauffacher, the renowned San Francisco printer/ typographer, will give the 2002 Lieberman lecture on 24 October at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, California. Jack Stauffacher, who has been called “a national treasure” is one of the preeminent printers and designers of our time. The founder of the Greenwood Press, he is recognized for his fine book design, typography, and letterpress printing. Stauffacher has also, for more than forty years, engaged in a series of typographic experiments using wood type which are the subject of a current exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Enchanted with type and printing as a boy, Stauffacher started the first incarnation of the Greenwood Press in 1936, naming it for the street where he and his father built it, behind the family home in San Mateo, California. In 1955 he received a Fulbright scholarship for study in Italy; later, he held an academic post at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon) and served as Typographic Director at Stanford University Press. The Greenwood Press was reopened in 1966 in San Francisco, where it continues to flourish. In this presentation Jack Stauffacher will discuss his work and ideas “in conversation” with prominent type designer Matthew Carter, a recipient of numerous awards which include the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, the Type Directors Club Medal, and the AIGA Medal. The event will take place on Thursday, 24 October, 7 p.m., in the Museum Lecture Hall at the Getty Center, 1100 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. A reception will follow the lecture. Admission is free. Reservations are, however, required and are available beginning 25 September.
Please call: (310) 440-7300 (English or Spanish) for reservations and information.
The Getty's TTY line for callers who are deaf or hearing impaired is (310) 440-7305.
Parking is $5.00 (parking on surrounding streets is restricted).
For more information visit: www.getty.edu.
For more information on the American Printing History Association, visit the website: www.printinghistory.org.
Or contact:
Mark Samuels Lasner
Vice-President for Programs
APHA
P.O. Box 4922
Grand Central Station
New York, N.Y. 10163
Phone: (302) 831-3250
E-mail:programs@printinghistory.org

For a digital version of this announcement go to: www.printinghistory.org/htm/misc/lieberman/2002.html

Talks from the SHARP conference in London and visits to new exhibits in the Museum of Printing will take place on Sunday, 27 October, 2002, at the Museum of Printing, 1:00-3:00pm. The talks are timed to coincide with the Boston Antiquarian Book Fair and are free and open to the public.

For more information, visit the website: www.museumofprinting.org.
Museum Address:
Museum of Printing
800 Massachusetts Avenue
Boston, MA
Phone: (978) 686-0450

APHA Announces 2003 Fellowship In Printing History: DEADLINE: December 1, 2002

The American Printing History Association (APHA) is delighted to announce a new fellowship award for the study of printing history. For 2003, an award of up to $2,000 is available for research in any area of the history of printing in all its forms, including all the arts and technologies relevant to printing, the book arts, and letter forms. Applications are especially welcome from those working in the area of American printing history, but the subject of research has no geographical or chronological imitations, and may be national or regional in scope, biographical, analytical, technical, or bibliographical in nature. Printing history-related study with a recognized printer or book artist may also be supported. The fellowship can be used to pay for travel, living, and other expenses. APHA fellowships are open to individuals of any nationality. Applicants need not be academics and an advanced degree is not required. Applicants are asked to submit an application form, a resumé, and a one-page proposal. Two confidential letters of recommendation specific to this fellowship should be sent separately by the recommenders. Submission of materials by electronic mail is not acceptable. An announcement of the award will be made at the APHA annual meeting, to take place in New York at the end of January 2003. To receive an application form or for further information contact:
Fellowship Committee
APHA
P.O. Box 4922
Grand Central Station
New York, N.Y. 10163
or visit the APHA website: www.printinghistory.org.

Boos, Florence S., ed. The Earthly Paradise. By William Morris. 2 vols. New York and London: Routledge Press, 2002. ISBN: 0-8153-2104-X. Cloth, $295.00/£195.

Florence Boos’s long-awaited two volume edition of Morris’s The Earthly Paradise will be a most valued resource for Morris scholars. A new edition has not appeared for many years, and a real critical edition not at all. In the words of the publisher, “this annotated critical edition is the first attempt to make Morris’s 42,000 word verse sequence accessible to a modern audience.” Accessible it is, and obviously a labor of love. In keeping with Morris’s principles that objects be beautiful as well as useful, and with his final vision of how this poem should be presented, Boos has provided readers with as close to a definitive version of The Earthly Paradise as is possible.

Based on evidence from the letters of William Morris, May Morris, and Sidney Cockerell, as well as manuscript alterations in Morris’s own hand, Boos has concluded that the 1896 Kelmscott edition—the last Morris himself had a part in—is the closest to a “final” text and bases her own edition most closely to it. “This edition will thus tend far more toward ‘preservationism’ than toward ‘critical reconstruction’” (41). With this in mind, included here are facsimile pages of the Kelmscott edition, providing the reader with an idea of the book’s original form. Illuminated capitals, leaf ornaments, and other punctuation idiosyncrasies are also retained, which sets a mood not simply formed by the text itself, but by visual impact paired with words. Also included here are many of the sketches completed by Edward Burne-Jones for inclusion in the planned illustrated Kelmscott edition, “the book that never was.” Finally, copies of Morris chintz and wallpaper patterns enable the reader to directly compare them to border designs in The Earthly Paradise, an important connection to the thread of continuity in Morris’s vision of life.

Boos’s general introduction provides both literary and biographical context, placing its provenance “in classical and medieval histories and legends; other Victorian long poems; and contemporary ethnographies, histories, and conceptions of history” (4-5). Her critical attention here is important in again tracing the continuity of Morris’s vision over the course of his life, as she finds hints of his later socialism both here and in his earlier works, although most of The Defence of Guenevere was based on “aristocratic” works. As Morris moves across the seasons in the cycle of The Earthly Paradise, his themes develop from royalty and topics of immortality toward folk tales and sexual desire as primary motivator in the later seasons. Boos interprets this as a movement toward Morris’s later principle that love—platonic, sexual, or simple good fellowship—should motivate all urges, a tenet central to his very personalized view of socialism’s principles.

Boos also addresses Morris’s much discussed “historicism,” making his often faulty interpretations of past events an excusable and necessary part of his doctrine of the poet as historian (24). “Even in his essays on socialism and popular art, he remained preoccupied with the need to recreate and reinterpret the past” (21). For Morris, it was not the events of the past that mattered, but the legends and the emotions that people carried with them and passed on as a legacy to future generations. He read old sources to tap those emotions, and then filtered them through his own experience in order to make them relevant to his own society. Therefore, for Morris, the poet achieved the real goal of the historian. Heroes and battles come and go, but passions are eternal.

In order to place this work critically, Boos helpfully provides an overview of assessments up to the present day. The poem was received well by Morris’s contemporaries who drew the obvious connections to Chaucer. Instead of making the same parallels to The Canterbury Tales, however, she quite accurately sees The Earthly Paradise as being closer to the Chaucer of Troilus and Criseyde and the dream poems. Of course, Boos’s own critical voice has been an important one in modern Morris scholarship and it is when she approaches each individual section of the sequence that her critical skills come to the fore. She provides criticism and sources prior to each entry: Apology, Prologue, the seasonal tales, and Epilogue. Along with explanatory footnotes in the text, these critical essays provide both the scholar with a wealth of information and the beginning student with guideposts to navigating this immense and daunting work. This edition should help to bring a new generation of readers to what many would call Morris’s masterpiece. It indeed fulfills the publisher’s promise to “encourage the reader to explore the weft and texture of one of the most beautiful verbal tapestries any English poet ever wrought.”

Mitchell, Rosemary. Picturing the Past: English History in Text and Image 1830-1870. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-19-820844-8. Cloth, $85.00.

Barczewski, Stephanie L. Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 0-19-820728-X. Cloth, $65.00.

For William Morris, the visual and the legendary were key to interpreting the past and understanding history. Through the use of Arthurian myth and artistic designs, he created powerful and lingering images of what the medieval past presumably looked like. While his own attempts at writing history were often questionable and quite subjective, his use of the past was indicative of trends within his period, as these two recent titles from Oxford University Press demonstrate. Although neither author spends much time at all upon Morris’s own ideas (Mitchell, in fact, mentions him only once) their subjects fall very near to Morris’s own interests and concerns. In Picturing the Past, Mitchell focuses on illustrated histories of Britain: textbooks, broad national histories, children’s histories and historical fiction. By concentrating upon the pictures that accompanied these texts, she attempts to address three main questions that indirectly shed some light upon Morris’s own views of history and the past. What conception of history did the Victorians hold? How does a society see its past? How does a society construct a national identity? These are questions that Barczewski also tackles through her exploration of the contrasting English national myths of King Arthur and Robin Hood in Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Both writers conclude that national identities are in large part artificial, but necessary, constructs.

Mitchell begins her study with Sir Walter Scott, one of Morris’s favorite writers, and his theories of teaching history. Scott’s belief was that stories of the past must necessarily amuse in order to instruct and, thus, building an appreciation that was often visual formed a large part of the learning process. Her study elaborates upon the importance of the visual in representations of British and specifically English history, ranging from philosophical to picturesque to scientific history. She makes the apt point that in the nineteenth century, “historical awareness was a democratizing force,” and she demonstrates the ways in which print culture helped to foster patriotism and historical interest to both the literate and illiterate (20). Instead of adding to the voluminous literature attempting to date the rise of an English or British national identity, Mitchell instead focuses on its development during one period—a key period since the empire reached its greatest breadth under Victoria. She makes the point that there are hitches in any attempt to define a national identity as “monolithic” or “inevitable” because the Middle Class, those accepted arbiters of Victorian taste, were not so homogeneous or organized as general scholarship would imply.

In each of her chapters, she focuses on a separate sphere of historical writing and the ways in which the accompanying illustrations reveal changing attitudes to history. She makes the point that even in a philosophical and critical (for its time) work like David Hume’s history, illustrations were considered essential by readers and publishers alike. Early in the century, Shakespeare’s history plays inspired many of those illustrations and scenes were chosen more for object lessons or to create a pleasing image than for accuracy. As the century progressed, these illustrations became more authentic, mirroring the increased demand for scientific history. All of the areas she explores tend to follow this pattern. Children’s histories, for instance, were mostly written by amateurs, during the early part of the century. As Mitchell puts it, titles like Mrs. Markham’s The History of England (1823) and Maria Calcott’s Little Arthur’s History of England (1835) were designed as bedtime reading for those stumped by Hume. Because women mainly wrote them, these little histories focused more on domesticity, morality, and creating good citizens rather than on battles and great men. Later in the century, more of these texts were written by teachers of history, reflecting the growth of an “institutionalized” discipline (73). The illustrations become more authentic, less anecdotal, but there was a marked reluctance in spite of the new scientific approach to drop the anecdotal stories, like Alfred and the cakes, or Queen Eleanor sucking poison from Edward I’s wound.

Chapter 4 is perhaps the most relevant to William Morris. Here, Mitchell looks at picturesque histories and, in particular the novels of William Harrison Ainsworth, and the increasing role played by architectural remains in enabling people to literally “picture the past.” The illustrations to Ainsworth’s novels feature elaborate architectural detail and, combined with his open admonitions in the novels to save what remained of these old buildings, she argues that he helped to foster the habit of reading buildings as “texts of the past” (102). Much like Morris and the SPAB, “In their attempts to reconstruct history, both Ainsworth and his illustrators share an obsession with the face of the past. Above all, they wanted to show not what the past meant, but what it looked like.” (108). She closes the chapter with a return to the theme of the changing climate post-1850s, including the SPAB itself, which tried to preserve, not for picturesque purposes, buildings as they were.

Mitchell sees this as an end to the picturesque phase, and yet, one could argue that the work of Morris and Co., and the growing popularity of medievalism—certainly a picturesque preoccupation in many regards—reflect not an end, but a continuation of sorts. Certainly, the study of history itself was turning more scientific; authors were being held accountable for having their facts straight and for critical approaches to their material. However, there still remained a heavy dose of romanticism and escapism within the society, which Mitchell really fails to address. By ignoring the Gothic Revival nearly entirely, she is missing a key element to her study. She argues that the Pre-Raphaelites were turning toward contemporary issues after the 1850s and paintings such as Found (1854), The Awakening Conscience (1853), Work (1852-68), The Last of England (1855), and Too Late (1858) certainly support this notion. But even Ford Maddox Ford would return to historical subjects with a vengeance in John Wycliffe on Trial (1880-93) and his Manchester paintings, Bradshaw’s Defense of Manchester (1880-93) and Expulsion of the Danes from Manchester (1880-93). And then there is the incredible outpouring of works by Rossetti and Burne-Jones alone on strictly medieval or medievalist subjects, not to mention the work of Morris himself.

Barczewski, on the other hand, sees the fabrication of national identity through “historical” subjects (or perhaps, more to the point, through manipulation of “the past”) as a continuing phenomenon throughout the course of the century, one that lingered beyond WWII. An historian herself, she acknowledges that within the academy, the scientific nature of the historical discipline certainly evolved after the 1850s and that new emphasis on critical and accurate history definitely became a hallmark of the discipline. However, outside the academy there was a great deal of fabrication and myth-mongering, and the creation of Arthur and Robin Hood as national English heroes was a byproduct of that fabrication. She astutely delineates the differences between the two legends. For the duration of the century, Arthur stood for order, stability and authority. He was often used as an exemplar of military leaders (comparisons to Arthur Wellesley were one obvious upshot). Robin Hood, on the other hand, while maintaining an outward appearance of gentility and good manners, symbolized chaos, sedition and disorder. He was the quintessential freeborn Englishman and the defender of people’s rights (Ch. 1). “While Arthur served as a potent reminder of Britain’s past and, thorough the link with Wellington, present military success, Robin Hood’s presence in radical circles demonstrated that not everything regarding the nation’s future would be determined on the battlefield (43). In Chapter 6, she explores the importance of place names with regard to the nature of each legend. Arthur’s kingdom is by the sea, perhaps at Tintagel, and thus seems to look outward, implying Imperialism. She notes that the grail quest was not connected to the legend until the 1857 Indian Mutiny, which awakened a great deal of anxiety about the empire’s future. There was a growing fear that the quest of empire was doomed—like that of the knights—but an enterprise well worth the effort, no matter the outcome. As for Robin Hood, tied to the insularity and isolation of the forest, the ideal of “splendid isolation” was venerated, as well as the spirit of the freedom of the forest as a primeval world apart. Thus these conflicting British ideals were curiously paired in these two medieval legends.

Contrary to Mitchell’s findings, Barczewski cites the massive up swell of Arthurian paintings from the 1860s on, and the number of stained glass and tapestry commissions taken on by Morris and Co., indicating that not everyone was demanding scientifically accurate historical renderings. King Arthur, of course, was based on a shadowy historical record, requiring some connection to fact, but one that was so vague as to be malleable. Interestingly, in regard to his status as the archetypal English king, the historical record reveals Arthur to be a Celtic warlord battling the Saxon invaders. Barczewski deftly explores the ways in which that fact was handily obscured in spite of the demand for historical accuracy, thanks to the growing pro-Teutonic atmosphere of English nationalism (a racial leaning Morris shared with his contemporaries). She credits Tennyson as the most influential promoter of the idea of Arthur’s legend as a purely English one, separated from its Celtic, anti-Saxon roots. As the century drew forward, contrary to patterns of scholarly history, the historical Arthur grew further and further apart from the Arthur of legend.

In Chapter 5, Barczewski refers directly to Morris’s work in her examination of the role of women in Arthurian legend. She finds that of all the women in Arthurian legend—Vivien the prostitute/sorceress, Elaine the passive watcher in the mirror—Guinevere the adulteress fares the worst in Victorian treatments. Only Morris is willing to defend her outright, “in his support for a single, rather than double, standard of romantic and marital obligation” (188). And yet, in the end, she finds that he like so many others, still emphasizes her helplessness, only defining her through her relationships with men, and thus still relegates her to the private sphere of wife, not independent woman. Maid Marian, curiously, despite her very assertive and physical characterizations, never faced the same approbation among Victorian writers.

Barczewski’s work raises further questions about Morris’s interests and the things that seemed not to interest him. Why, given his later radical phase, didn’t he embrace Robin Hood? Were his later female characters, like the tanned and physically assured Ellen in News from Nowhere a nod to Maid Marian? And why didn’t he join the EETS (Early English Text Society), which was founded in 1864 and dedicated to the publication of old texts. Certainly this would appear to be the sort of philanthropic scheme Morris would support.

One final point, in terms of layout, is that chapter subdivision headings are rather small and inconspicuous in the text. They would be more useful as breaks if enlarged a bit or put into bold text.

Overall, both are fine woks that will interest scholars of Morris or of the creation of myth in the 19th century. Barczewski, however, seems more historically grounded and of greater direct interest to Morrisian scholars and enthusiasts.

P22 Type Foundry Releases William Morris And Art Nouveau Font Sets

P22 type foundry has recently released two font packages that may be of interest to Morrisian enthusiasts. The “Art Nouveau” package features two styles, Bistro and Café, including a series of “extras” which are alternate characters and ornamentations. The Morris set features “digitally re-created” versions of the Golden and Troy type faces and a set of more than 50 decorative ornaments and illuminated initial letters. Both are compatible with Macintosh or PC and will work with any word processing or desktop publishing program. They are simple to use and very accurate replicas of Morris’s fonts. The section titles, symbols, and header of this newsletter have been altered to incorporate these fonts.

Each font package retails for $23.95 and can be ordered from the P22 website: www.p22.com/products/index.html. P22 has been recognized by the Guggenheim, LAMOCA, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. These museums (and others) have commissioned P22 to develop digital font sets to sell in their gift shops—in fact they are the only type foundry that is commonly found in museum gift shops and catalogs as well as stationary and rubber stamp stores. Other sets include the Frank Lloyd Wright series produced inconjunction with the FLLW Foundation and the Arts and Crafts font sets developed in conjunction with the Burchfield-Penney Art Center and Dard Hunter III. These fonts have been used in the aid of book design, store front signage and wedding invitations to site some examples. According to Jim Chambers, of P22’s Sales and Marketing, “We feel that P22 shares an affinity with William Morris. Before becoming a full fledge digital type foundry, the interests of P22 were steeped in other artistic pursuits including book design, poetry, and a rebellious mail art program that pushed the limits of the US Postal Service.” See http://www.p22.com/who.html for more details. Look for an interview with Jim Chambers on P22’s Morrisian principles in action in the next newsletter. For more information, contact:
P22 type foundry, Inc.
PO Box 770
Buffalo, NY 14213
http://www.p22.com
Phone: 716-885-4490
Fax: 716-885-4482

Introducing Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide

The Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art (AHNCA) has launched Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, the first scholarly, peer-reviewed E-journal devoted to nineteenth-century painting, sculpture, graphic arts, photography, architecture, and decorative arts across the globe. The first issue was launched in February 2002, and is now free to all at www.19thc-artworldwide.org. Published three times annually, this journal is open to various historical and theoretical approaches; its chronological scope is the "long" 19th century, stretching from the American and French Revolutions to World War I. Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide seeks to expand the periodical’s canon and highlight the interconnectedness of the different nations’ artistic achievements. Articles are 4,000-6,000 words long and can include up to 10 illustrations, all of which appear in color. The next deadline for article submissions is September 15, 2002 for publication in February 2003. Suggestions for book and exhibition reviews are invited. Please visit www.19thc-artworldwide.org to see Issue #1, a vision statement, a list of editors and editorial advisory board members, and a style sheet.

Table of Contents for Issue #1 of Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide
Annette Blaugrund, Werner Busch, Henri Dorra, Lynda Nead, Linda Nochlin, “Whither Nineteenth-Century Art History?”
Julia Ballerini, “Young Women in Old Clothes: The Politics of Adolphe Braun's Personifications of Alsace and Lorraine”
Walther K. Lang, “The Legendary Zaporozhian Cossacks: Anarchy and Nationalism in the Conception of Ilya Repin and Nicolai Gogol”
Judith Meighan, “In Praise of Motherhood: The Promise and Failure of Painting for Social Reform in Late Nineteenth-Century Italy”
Stephen Pinson, “Trompe l'oeil: Photography's Illusion Reconsidered”
Joy Sperling, “’Art Cheap and Good’: the Art Union and the Middling Classes in England and the United States, 1840-1860”
Michelle Tolni, “’Beetle-Abominations’ and Birds on Bonnets: Zoological Fantasy in Late Nineteenth-Century Dress”
Victoria M. Young, “Pugin's Mount Saint Bernard Abbey: the International Character of England's Nineteenth-Century Monastic Revival”

The issue also includes reviews of books and exhibitions:
Elizabeth Mansfield on Lynda Nead’s Victorian Babylon and Susan Sidlauskas’ Body, Place and Self in Nineteenth-Century Painting
Jane Mayo Roos on Beyond the Easel
Sura Levine on James Ensor Drawings
William Hauptman on Louise Breslau
Elizabeth K. Menon on Patricia Mathews’ Passionate Discontent and Nancy Locke’s Manet and Family Romance
Pamela Gerrish Nunn on Frederick Sandys, John Brett and Janice Helland’s Professional Women Painters in Nineteenth-Century Scotland

The Victorian Studies Association Of Western Canada, 31st Annual Conference, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg: September 27-29, 2002.
The conference theme is “Crime and Punishment” and keynote speakers will be James Eli Adams (Cornell University), and Martin J. Wiener (Rice University).
For more information, contact:
Lisa Surridge
President, VSAWC
Department of English
University of Victoria
P.O. Box 3070, STN CSC
Victoria, B.C. V8W 3W1
Phone: (250) 721-7246
Fax: (250) 721-6498
E-mail: lsurridg@uvic.ca

The Victorians Institute Annual Conference will be held at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, from October 4-5, 2002.
The topic for this year is “The Military in Victorian England” and featured speaker will be John R. Reed, Distinguished Professor of English, Wayne State University.
For more information, contact:
Suzanne Ozment (suzanne.ozment@citadel.edu) or
Frances Frame (framef@citadel.edu)
The Citadel
171 Moultrie Street
Charleston, SC 29409.

The Victorian Inter-Disciplinary Studies Association Of The Western United States (Visawus) 7th Annual Conference, will be held at the Boise State University, Boise, ID, from October 10-12, 2002.
The conference theme is “Victorian Institutions” and the keynote speaker will be Linda K. Hughes, Addie Prof. Of English at TCU. Her two recent books on serial fiction, The Victorian Serial and Victorian Publishing and Mrs. Gaskell's Work, have already become standard in the field. She has also published on Tennyson (The Many-faced Glass), Henley (Strange Bedfellows: W.E. Henley and Feminist Fashion History) and biography (Biographical Passages), and is a regular contributor to leading Victorian studies journals. For more information on local hotels, fees, and registration, contact:
Carol Martin, Conference Chair
English Department
MS 1525
Boise State University
Boise, ID 83725-1525
Cmartin@boisestate.edu.

The Persistence Of Gothic: Exploring The Boundaries Of Gothic From 1750 To The Present” Conference At The University Of Greenwich, will be held at the Greenwich Maritime Site on October 12, 2002
Keynote speakers will be Fred Botting, David Punter, Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik. Cost £25-00, student rate £10-00. For more information, contact:
John Williams
University of Greenwich
School of Humanities
Maritime Greenwich Campus
Park Row, Greenwich,
SE10 9LS
j.r.williams@greenwich.ac.uk

The Seventeenth Annual International Meeting Of The Conference On Medievalism will be held at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls from October 18-19, 2002.
This year’s conference theme is Postmodern Medievalisms. Distinguished Plenary Speakers:
Verlyn Flieger (University of Maryland, College Park), John Ganim (University of California, Riverside), William Paden (Northwestern University), and Bonnie Wheeler (Southern Methodist University). Proposals for individual papers, entire sessions (three twenty-minute papers), or other forms of address are currently being solicited for the 2002 Conference on Medievalism. Medievalism concerns documenting and exploring all instances of the evocation of what is taken to be “medieval.” Typical questions of a scholar of medievalism might include “why does a certain pattern of sound in a modern symphony evoke a sense of the medieval?” Or “how does a film represent the medieval and to what purposes?” From its inception, the “medieval” has been an historiographical, aesthetic, political concept, and studies in medievalism endeavors self-consciously to understand these and other dimensions of this powerfully defining concept. This year, we are particularly concerned to see how the postmodern broadly defined ­conceptualizes the medieval. The Conference on Medievalism has proven to be an annual event of collegial exchange among scholars from fields usually kept separate by the structure of American as well as international academia. It has also proven to be fertile ground for both Studies in Medievalism and The Year’s Work in Medievalism, two highly interdisciplinary journals devoted to the advancement of studying the ways and purposes people invoke the medieval.
DEADLINE: AUGUST 2, 2002
Please send proposals to the hosts, who will acknowledge all correspondence. For information, please contact:
Department of English Language and Literature
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, IA, 50614-0502
Richard Utz: (319) 273-3879
email: Richard.Utz@uni.edu
Jesse Swan: (319) 273-2089
email: jesse.swan@uni.edu

Information about the conference can also be obtained from:
Gwendolyn Morgan
Director of Conferences: Studies in Medievalism
Department of English
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59717
Phone: (406) 994-5190
http://www.uni.edu/~utz/medievalism

Midwest Conference On British Studies Annual Meeting will be held at Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, from October 18-20, 2002.
Tentative plenary speakers will be Gareth Stedman-Jones and Miri Rubin. For more information, visit the website: http://www.eiu.edu/~localite/britain/mwcbs/.

The Modernist Studies Association Fourth Annual Conference will be held at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, from 31 October - 3 November, 2002.
The conference will be held at the Monona Terrace Convention Center, a building designed by Frank Lloyd Wright on the shores of Lake Monona in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the conference will feature plenaries, panels, seminars, poetry readings, and film screenings related to the study of modernism and modernity. For a full listing of seminar and panel topics, please see the website: http://msa.press.jhu.edu/.

Conference On “The Future History Of The Book”, The Hague, Netherlands will be held at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek on November 7-8, November 2002.
“Since 1998, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, the National Library of the Netherlands, has been engaged in a project to create an electronic information system on the history of the printed book in the Netherlands. This project has resulted in an interactive tool, entitled Bibliopolis, based on World Wide Web technology. Bibliopolis consists of various components: a concise history of the printed book in the Netherlands; an image database; biographical and bibliographical data; full text digital copies of important book-historical studies; and various bibliographic tools. This project of the KB has been developed in close co-operation with the universities of Amsterdam, Leiden, Nijmegen and Utrecht, and the Nederlandse Boekhistorische Vereniging. Financial support was provided by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). “Bibliopolis will be presented during an international conference on 7-8 November 2002 at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague. The theme of this conference, entitled “The Future History of the Book”, will be: the influence of new media on book-historical research and new directions in book history. The conference language is English. On 9 November an optional excursion will be organised to the KB's major exhibition on children's books in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam. Keynote speakers will be Robert Darnton (Princeton University) and David mckitterick (Wren Librarian, Trinity College, Cambridge). The plenary morning sessions will be devoted to Bibliopolis and the history of the book in the Netherlands. In the afternoon sessions, parallel workshops will be held. One session will be organised by CERL (Consortium of European Research Libraries) and one session will be devoted to Bibliopolis itself. For more information, contact:
Bibliopolis Conference
Koninklijke Bibliotheek
Department of Special Collections
P.O. Box 90407
2509 LK The Hague
The Netherlands
bibliopolisconference@kb.nl
Or visit the website:
www.kb.nl/coop/bibliopoliscongres

The North American Conference On British Studies In Conjunction With The Southern Conference On British Studies Annual Meeting, will be held from November 9-10, 2002 in Baltimore, Maryland at the Holidy Inn. Plenary speakers at the conference will be James Walvin, Professor of History at York University, and author most recently of Making the Black Atlantic (2000), and Margaret J.M. Ezell, John Paul Abbott Professor of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M University, whose latest book is Social Authorship and the Advent of Print (2000).
For more information, contact:
Angela Woollacott
NACBS Program Chair
History Department
Case Western Reserve University,
11201 Euclid Ave.
Cleveland, OH 44106-7107
Phone: (216) 368-4165
Fax: (216) 368-4681
Email: AXW11@po.cwru.edu

The South Atlantic Modern Language Association 2002 Convention will be held at the Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor Hotel, Baltimore, Maryland, from 15 - 17 November 2002.
The Conference topic will be “The Medievals Confront the Monstrous ‘Other.’” Just as we in the twenty-first century are constantly having to reach some understanding of the "other"-of the people or ideas that do not fit with what is accepted-so too did the medievals confront the "other," those who look different, think differently, act differently. For more information, consult the website: http://www.samla.org/.

Language – Communication – Culture Conference will be held in Evora, Portugal on November 27-30, 2002
The conference theme will be “Ideas and Values in British History: Early Modern Age to World War II”
In the broad framework of this session, we wish to address issues connected with the origin of modern values and ideas, their development into concepts, and their circulation through time and space. Ideas and concepts such as liberty, freedom, tolerance and toleration, democracy and citizenship have particular histories, as they undergo philosophical treatment in works by authors such as Milton, Hobbes, Locke, Paine, Burke, or J. S. Mill, and are appropriated by different countries, groups and communities. The same applies to concepts like ideology, power or hegemony, as discussed by Foucault or Gramsci, and to manners and codes of social behavior related to marriage and family as well. Values associated with specific moral issues such as honesty, loyalty, work, and their reverse profligacy, infidelity, idleness, etc. Also deserve attention, as they have evolved over time and been ascribed varying ranks of supremacy. Papers illustrating the interdisciplinary approach to the history of ideas / intellectual history, drawing on historical, philosophical, scientific, religious, literary and visual sources will be particularly welcome.
DEADLINE: September 10, 2002
Please send 150-word abstracts to the conference organizers:
Luisa Leal de Faria
lealfaria@yahoo.com
J. Carlos Viana Ferreira
cviana@esoterica.pt

Call For Papers, Victorian Literature And Culture , special Editor's Topic section on Victorian Ireland.
The editor seeks papers dealing with any aspect of the literature and culture of the period, including diasporic Irish literature and culture. DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1, 2002
For more information, or to submit, contact:
Abigail Burnhan Bloom
54 Riverside Drive, 15D
New York, NY 10024

The Centre For Medieval Studies, University Of Toronto Interdisciplinary Conference will be held February 22, 2003.
The conference theme is “Perceptions of the Past / Visions of the Future.” Nearly all world cultures view the present in relation to concepts of past and future. Origins and end-times book-end the present or provide vanishing points for perspectives on the past and future. Proposed papers should explore aspects of how medieval cultures related their present to the past or the future. Discussions of literary settings and historical studies are a natural starting point for inquiry into this topic, but studies could explore a broad range of ways in which medieval women and men depicted or commemorated past events, or presented visions of the future in the medieval present. Technologies of time-keeping, calendars, genealogy, and the social and legal implications of past and future time are among many topics which may be investigated.
DEADLINE: September 16, 2002
Abstracts (1 page maximum) may be submitted by e-mail, fax or post. Please address them to the attention of:
2003 CMS Conference Committee.
Centre for Medieval Studies
University of Toronto
39 Queen's Park Crescent East
Toronto ON, Canada, M5S 2C3
fax: (416) 971 - 1398
email: medieval@chass.utoronto.ca

Graduate Conference On Repression And Subversion In The Nineteenth Century will be held at the University of South Carolina on March 14 and 15, 2003.
In both Great Britain and the United States, the nineteenth century was a time of conflict on urban, industrial, social, religious, and scientific fronts. Naturally, the literature of this period correlated with these frictions. The Transcendentalists’ challenges to Unitarianism and the Gothic’s darker expressions of social bifurcation show that novels, poems, essays, and plays had a strong relationship with the cultural conflicts of the time. Still, this relationship is hardly cut-and-dry. In fact, the concepts of repression and subversion, as they apply to nineteenth century documents, are fairly complicated, and therefore, different denotations of these concepts lead to different interpretations of the texts.
In some cases, a piece of literature seems to mirror cultural conflicts. For instance, one might say there was an opposition to industrialization in the nineteenth century, and the literature of the time period reflected those repressed and subverted ideologies that were contrary to industry. However, a slightly different approach is to understand that nineteenth century literature is simply a product of cultural conflicts, and so the job of the modern-day reader is to tease out of the text the repressed and subverted ideologies of the time in which the text was written. To muddy the waters a bit more, there are also times when nineteenth century literature can be seen as a device for cultural change--one that actively subverted the dominant mindsets of the 1800s by empowering repressed ideologies. Certainly, these are not the only the only ways that nineteenth century repression and subversion can be discussed, and therefore, any presentation that will clarify our title is welcome. More specifically, we invite papers from graduate students in both American and British literary studies that will explain how particular nineteenth century texts deal with the concepts of repression and subversion. Topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

• The Gothic and its evolving tradition
• Industrialism
• Religious/philosophical movements
• The New Woman
• Censorship
• The military
• Race/nationalism issues
• Travel narratives
• Class structure
• Links to Modernism
• Transatlantic issues

The Interdisciplinary Nineteenth-Century Studies Association (INCS) 18th Annual Conference will be held at the University of California at Santa Cruz on March 20-23, 2003

They are inviting papers or paper proposals that explore the intersections between structures of "sex" and the discourses of law, science, medicine, history, religion, empire, and cultural taste, to name a select few. They particularly encourage papers working across national boundaries and/or beyond the Anglo-American sphere. The conference proposes to think through the myriad constructions of nineteenth-century sex. Possible paper topics might include, but are not limited to:

• Sexology/Sex Experts Censorship and Taboo
• Race and Sexuality
• Sex and Travel
• The Erotics of Spirituality
• Erogenous Zones/Geographies
• Flirting and other mating rituals
• Pleasures & Perversion
• Material Cultures of/and Sex
• Purity and Danger
• Displaying Sex/Sex & Fashion Genders/Bodies
• Sexual Selection (Plants/Animals/Humans)
• Family Values
• Sexual Economies/Sex & Money
• Sexualized Violence
• Criminalized Sexualities
• Teaching Sex
• Sexual Rebellion and Resistance
• Menages a trios
• Reproduction/Childbirth/Maternity
• Languages of Sex
• Children's Sexuality
• Visualizing Sex

Baylor University's 2003 Art & Soul Festival will be held on campus on March 20-23, 2003.
The theme of the festival will be “Mystery and Meaning in the Arts”. “Mystery pervades good art, whether literary, musical, theatrical or visual. Indeed, the presence of mystery in the arts helps express the subtleties of meaning and complexities of interpretation that distinguish lasting works from the merely faddish. This no doubt is because mystery is an integral part of life, a tenet long acknowledged within theological reflection. After all, our finite standing before an infinite God necessitates ambiguity, something that can occasion wonderment as well as despair. Thus, to deprive either art or our lives of mystery misguidedly impoverishes them both, to our detriment. Understanding the role of mystery-if not mysteries themselves-has constituted a central preoccupation of many of the world's finest thinkers, writers and artists, and constitutes a unifying theme for our 2003 Art & Soul program. The fourth annual Art & Soul Festival will include public lectures and readings, writing workshops, lecture-recitals, art exhibits, film screenings, and a scholarly conference, and will feature returning guests and new faces like Jeremy Begbie (Beholding the Glory: Incarnation through the Arts), Frederica Mathewes-Green (The Illumined Heart and Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy), Ralph mcinerny (Father Dowling mystery series, Notre Dame mystery series, and numerous works of Thomist philosophy), Michael O'Brien (Father Elijah, Strangers and Sojourners, Eclipse of the Sun, and Plague Journal), and Nicholas Samaras (Hands of the Saddlemaker and Survivors of the Moving Earth). We welcome proposals for individual or panel presentations related to this theme, more generally addressing religion and the arts, or involving creative works by those of faith or dealing with issues of faith. DEADLINE: September 30, 2002 Abstracts should not be more than 750 words; and should include title, author, position, mailing address, e-mail address and text of abstract. Send abstracts to: IFL@baylor.edu or
Baylor University
Institute for Faith and Learning
P.O. Box 97270
Waco, TX 76798
See http://www.baylor.edu/Rel_Lit for further information.

Inglenook Textiles Arts and Crafts
240 North Grand Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91103

• Embroidery Kits designed by Ann Chaves

Dover Books
Dover Publications, Inc.
31 E. 2nd Street
Mineola, NY 11501
www.doverpublications.com

• Ornamentation and Illustrations from the Kelmscott Chaucer, William Morris. Contains all 87 Burne-Jones woodcuts, every Morris border and decoration. 128pp, #22970-x Pa $8.95
• Decorative Title Pages, ed. Alexander Nesbitt. 1478-1920s. Baskervile,Beardsley, Morris, Pyle and others. 213 pp. #21264-5 Pa $8.95
• William Morris Stained Glass Coloring Book, Designed by A. G. Smith. 16 Illustrations, adaptations of wallpaper and textile designs as well as stained glass. #41042-0 PA $4.95
• English Floral Place Cards and Watching Napkin Holders in Full Color. 12 sets. All Morris Designs. #26967-1 Pa $3.50
• William Morris Postcards #26105-0, $4.95
• William Morris Decorative Notebook. 64pp blank paper, 4 3/16" x 5 3/4". #25600-6, $1.00
• William Morris Address Book, 64pp, divided alphabetically. #26459-9, $1.00
• William Morris Giftwrap Paper font-family: #26820-9, $4.50
• William Morris Bookmarks. 12 full-color, laminated bookmarks. #41357-8, $1.00

Toscano (800) 525-0733
www.designtoscano.com

• “Rossetti Necklace and Earrings”, glass beaded necklace with pewter-toned filigree; teardrop earrings on wires, green glass; Necklace w/ Box, #TE-0110, $24.95; Earrings alone, #TE-1083, $9.95; Rossetti’s Complete set, #TE-9083, $29.95
• “The Arming and Departure of the Knights Tapestry”, jacquard loom woven in France. 51" x 36", #TX-2445, $395.00; 66" x 48", #TX-2447, $895; 89" x 61", #TX-2450, $1,375.00; Rod and Finials, #NG-295531, $59.95; Tassels, #TD-1800, $69.95
• “The Accolade” by Edmund B. Leighton, Framed replica on artist’s grade canvas. Small: 15"w x 20"h, DN-2569, $225; Medium: 23"w x 28"h, DN-2813, $295; Large: 33"w x 42"h, DN-2338, $395
• “St. Cecilia”, by J. W. Waterhouse, Framed replica on artist’s grade canvas. 24” x36”, DN-3733, $298
• “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by Sir Frank Dicksee, canvas replica in high-relief, gold toned hardwood frame with solid brass museum plate. 17” x 14”, DN-2570, $179; 26” x 21”, DN-3159, $249; 32” x 25”, DN-2557, $298; 39” x 29”, DN-3159, $398
• “The Forest” tapestry by Morris, woven of cotton in France on a jacquard loom. Accommodates optional rod and finials or hands on metal hangers in lining. 33” x 20”, TX-77945, $179; 47” x 29”, TX-77940, $298
• “Flaming June” by Lord Leighton, replica on artist’s grade canvas: 16" x 16", #DN-2568, $145; 21"x24", #DN-2769, $245; 33"x 33", #DN-2564, $375
• “Circe Individiosa”, by J. W. Waterhouse, in a goldtone, carved hardwood frame, complete with brass museum plate. Medium, 14" x 24", #DN-2955, $185.00; Large, 21" x 40", #DN-2956, $295.00

• Morris Tulip Tote Bag. 12” x 14 ½”, 52776, $17.95
• Morris Trellis Throw, reflects designs of Morris’s bed at Kelmscott Manor. Pure cotton, machine washable. 106” x 71”, 51690, $45
• Morris Knitted Coat. 74% wool, 25% acrylic, 1% polyamide. Dry clean/ Hand wash. 48 ½” length, 52829, $125
• Morris Poppy Watch, 52813, $35
• Morris Paperknife and Bookmark Set, decorated with poppies. Knife and Mark, 53425, $22.50; Paperknife, 52821, $17.95; Bookmark, 52822, $6.95
• William Morris Anemone Cache-Pot, 5 ½” x 6”, 52827, $19.95
• William Morris Mugs, poppy pattern in three colors. Dishwasher safe. 3 Mugs, 52993, $35; Green, 52825, $12.95; Blue, 52826, $12.95; Cream, 52824, $12.95
• Kelmscott Chest. Wooden chest for storing curios. 3 drawers, carved with scrolling foliage design. 13 ¾” x 10”, 52823, $55
• Acanthus Pot-Pourri Box, filled with lemon verbena pot-pourri. 53316, $24.95
• Morris Silk Scarf, made in Italy. 55” x 17”, 52815, $39.50
• Acanthus Candle, scented with lemon verbena. Candle, 5 ½”, 02938, $7.95; Brass Holder, 52389, $4.95
• Morris Leather Wallet, Organizer and Handbag. Decorated with Parrot Tulip design. Handbag and Wallet, 52818, $115; Handbag, 9 ½” x 8 ½”, 52816, $95; Wallet, 6 ½” x 4”, 52817, $29.95; Organizer, 7” x 4 ½”, 52819, $55

• William Morris Edenton Carpet, hand-tufted and knotted in India of 100% wool pile. #33020. 3'x5', $195; 5'x8'6", $450; 7'x9'6", $795; 8'x11'6", $950
• William Morris Silk Tie, made in Italy, 100% silk, 3 ¾” wide. 2016, $30
• Acanthus Rug, hand-hooked, inspired by Acanthus and Vine design. Skid-resistant backing, 100% wool, imported. Sizes approximate. 33084: Green; 33095: Beige. Specify: 1’9” x 2’9”, $49; 2’3” x 8’ runner, $175; 2’6” x 4’2”, $95; 3’6” x 5’6”, $175; 5’3” x 8’3”, $395; 7’6” x 9’6” oval, $695; 8’ x 11’, $850.

This newsletter was written and edited by Shannon L. Rogers, and web-enabled by Thomas J. Tobin. Items for inclusion, books for review, news from or about members, calls for papers, conference announcements, event notifications, and comments are welcomed:
Shannon Rogers
321 W Montgomery Ave
North Wales, PA 19454
e-mail: us_news@morrissociety.org

For updates on Morris (and associated) events, please visit the William Morris Home Page at: http://www.morrissociety.org/.