Scott McCracken
Thanks to Joanne Winning and Birkbeck College, the Dorothy Richardson conference on Pointed Roofs was a great success. Wonderful papers from PhD students and academics from around the world. We had delegates from Germany, Sweden, the US, France, Spain, and Italy. John Hodgkin came from the Powys Society, bringing copies of the Powys-Richardson Letters edited by Janet Fouli. Selected papers from the conference will be published in the Journal in 2009 and 2010.
At the meeting of the Richardson Society at the end, we discussed the advantages and pitfalls of focusing on one of the ‘Chapters’ of Pilgrimage. It was agreed that this might be too restrictive and, with a biennial conference, would take too long. The next conference, in 2011, will have panels on Backwater and Honeycomb, but will offer the opportunity to give papers on any Richardsonian topic. Dauntingly, for the organisers, there was enthusiasm for a two-day conference next time. Suzette Henke generously offered the Society a panel at the University of Louisville, Kentucky Conference on Literature and Culture since 1900 on 18 February. I reported on the progress of the Letters project. Joanne Winning said it would be good to have a small Richardson event in 2010. Then, as is now traditional, the conference retired to ‘Donizetti’s’ aka Sardos in Grafton Way for dinner.
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