News letter 47

 

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ISSN 1461-5223

THE WILLIAM BARNES SOCIETY

NEWSLETTER NO. 48
May 2004 page 3 & 4

Ah! how the looks o' sky an' ground
Do change wi' months a-stealen round

Dear Members,

    Welcome to the May 2004 Newsletter in which, as you will see, there is much to report and which I hope will prove full of interest (one very special point of note being the results of the auction at Hy. Duke & Son in Dorchester on 11 th March, reported here in the Notes and Queries section).

    Two particularly relevant flyers have been included this time. One gives the details of Wessex Memories, a new collection that has just been published of Country Essays, mostly from the 1930s, by Llewelyn Powys (who particularly admired William Barnes), edited and illustrated by Peter Foss - a very nicely produced little book and a fascinating read. The other refers to Notes & Queries/or Somerset and Dorset, the twice-yearly publication (with which many members may already be familiar) which is always full of interest, and at the modest annual subscription of £5.00 is a real bargain. Also included here is the booking form for the Summer Lunch in Dorchester on Saturday, 12th June and if you would like to attend this please do return the form (with payment) to our Treasurer as soon as possible (and before Saturday, 5th June).

    No action has been taken as yet concerning the possible "rotation" of different images of William Barnes on the front cover of successive issues of the Newsletter that was mentioned in the previous Newsletter (No.47, p.4). This is definitely being borne in mind, however. It had also been mentioned there that a detachable membership application form would be included in subsequent issues, but it now seems more practical to spread awareness of the Society via the Internet once more (see the Notes and Queries section of this issue). If members do have relatives or friends who might wish to join the Society, however, our Treasurer would always be pleased to' receive details.

    The Index to Lucy Baxter's Life of William Barnes that our member Elizabeth Lawrence, who died on 10th January, had painstakingly put together, has yet to be finally completed, but it is my firm intention to achieve this as soon as possible now and to keep members posted. Progress is being made with two other major projects. Firstly, the sets of notelets, which it is hoped will have great appeal to members, are nearing the printing stage (the finished versions of the engravings to accompany the poems on the front of these notelets having been completed). Full details will be mailed out to members before the next Newsletter appears in November. The second project is the completion of the bibliography of all of Barnes's writings that our President had originally started to compile. Our member Dr. Tom Burton of Adelaide is prepared to undertake this, subject to the success of grant applications that he has made for the necessary funding. The outcome of his applications will not be known for some time, but it will be wonderful news if this important work can go ahead.  

    Plans for publication of a further volume of the Society's Proceedings (these not having appeared since 1992) are currently being considered by the Committee. Another piece of good news is that further attention has recently been drawn to Barnes on the other side of the Atlantic. At the annual conference of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics, held in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2003, our member Professor Christopher Ricks of Boston University gave a talk on some of Barnes's poems and, subsequently, a most appreciative article written by him on "The Hill-Shade' was published in the Winter 2004 issue of The Threepenny Review (Berkeley, California).

    A final piece of news is that in the magazine Dorset Life No. 298, January 2004, the leading article was entitled 'William Barnes's Home Winterborne Came Rectory'. It was written by John Newth, Publisher and Editor of the magazine, following a visit he made there, and illustrated with fine photographs, not the least of these being the one that showed so pleasingly how Mr. Warren Davis and Mr. Phil Leach have had the verandah faithfully restored to the original construction with which Barnes would have been so familiar.

    Once again, my grateful thanks are due to everyone who has contributed to this Newsletter, and for all the help I have received with my queries. Needless to say, members' contributions to the Newsletter are always most welcome, whether long or short pieces, notes and queries, or sequels to something that has already appeared.

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