Author: Andrew Stauffer

Byron’s Complete Poetical Works at 40

Next year’s MLA (2020 in Seattle) will mark the 40^th anniversary of the release of the first volumes of Jerome McGann’s Lord Byron: The Complete Poetical Works. This panel invites presentations on the legacy of McGann’s scholarly edition, asking participants to consider the impact of Complete Poetical Works on the modern reception of Byron’s poetry, on practices of textual editing, and on material and bibliographical approaches to Byron more generally.

Please send proposals of no more than 300 words, plus a short, one-page c.v., to Michelle Levy (mnl@sfu.ca) by March 15, 2019. To encourage a diversity of voices and perspectives, this session is being planned as a roundtable, with 5-6 presentations of 8-10 minutes.

The BSA is proud to announce the publication of The Leslie A. Marchand Memorial Lectures, 2000-2015: A Legacy in Byron Studies, edited by Katherine Kernberger (Rowman & Littlefield/ U of Delaware Press, 2017). Based on the BSA Marchand lecture series, this unique collection of essays honors the pioneering work in Byron studies of Leslie Alexis Marchand, who has had an enduring influence on the appreciation and study of Lord Byron for sixty years. Use this form to order the book at at 30% discount:

Marchand volume 30% discount form

Table of Contents:

Introduction by Katherine Kernberger
“She Walks in Beauty” by Lord Byron
Leslie Marchand in Florida by Hermione de Almeida
The Ever-Present Leslie Alexis Marchand by Marios Byron Raizis
“The Pilgrim on his Way”: Leslie A. Marchand and the Founding of the Byron Society of America and the Byron Society Collection by Marsha Manns
Chapter 1: Romantic Scholarship and Culture, 1960-2000: A Byronic View
by Jerome J. McGann
Chapter 2: The Moods of Lord Byron by Kay Redfield Jamison
Chapter 3: Lord Byron from the Sidelines by John R. Murray VII
Chapter 4: Three Byronic Heroes: Leslie Marchand, Don Quixote, Don Juan by Carl Woodring
Chapter 5: Byron in My Life by Romulus Linney
Chapter 6: The Delirium of the Brave: Byron and The United Irishmen by Malcolm Kelsall
Chapter 7: Beethoven, Byron, Napoleon, and the Ideals of the French Revolution by John Clubbe
Chapter 8: The Haunting of Don Juan by Peter W. Graham
Chapter 9: Selecting Byron by Alice Levine
Chapter 10: Byron and Hazlitt: Inclining Their Ears Towards Each Other by Charles E. Robinson
Leslie A. Marchand Chronology by Peter X. Accardo
Leslie A. Marchand: A Bibliographical Checklist Compiled by Peter X. Accardo
Index
About the Contributors
In Remembrance

It is with great sadness and fond memories that the Byron Society of America recognizes the death of Peter Cochran, one of the most visible and influential Byron scholars of the past decades. The author and editor of numerous books on Byron and his circle, Peter was also a generous supporter of younger scholars, a formidable interlocutor on all matters of Regency life and letters, a loyal attendee of the International Byron Conferences, and a great storyteller, singer, and actor. He will be sorely missed by all of us.

A Letter from Peter’s Daughters, Abi and Emily:

 May 21, 2015

Dear Loved ones and Friends of Peter,

Our adorable dad Peter sadly but quite wonderfully died last night. It was as though he’d written and directed the whole scene in advance.

He had a brain hemorrhage on Monday morning, the Doctors said he’d probably just last a few hours. 60 hours later he finally expired.

He was unresponsive and barely moving apart from a labored breath, it seemed unlikely he could hear us or was aware of anything. We stayed with him almost the whole time and talked to him occasionally regardless. We played him poetry and music that we knew he loved.

On Wednesday evening we were exhausted and distressed. After a day of playing him the Ring Cycle (his favourite 9 hour opera) we decided to read him highlights from the large pile of messages and cards he’d been sent over the past couple of weeks. We told him how much he was appreciated and loved, how many people had been grateful for all his work, teachings, writing and help over the years – signs of a life well lived. That all the people he’d inspired with his love of drama and literature would go on to inspire others, that he’d live on in all his writing and his grandchildren who loved him too.

We put his headphones back on and noticed his eyes had welled up.
We told him again how much he was loved, that it was ok to let go now, not to worry about anything, that we’d look after each other and take care of his work. Just a moment later his breathing slowed dramatically and then stopped.

We are still stunned and the strength of his spirit, to hold on so long, and to let go at will. We’ve been deeply grateful for the messages sent from all over the world in these past days – it has been a great comfort to all of us to know how loved he was.

Feel free to share your memories of him, we’ll be adding photos and recent work to his website. Please feel free to share this message with friends of Peter.

We’ll be planning a memorial service in the coming months.

Thanks and Warm wishes,

Abi and Emily Cochran

The Pforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle at the NYPL has recently acquired a photograph of a lost painting of the young Lord Byron, allegedly painted by the well-known portraitist Sir Henry Raeburn in 1805, when the poet at 17 years old.

The painting was seen briefly in the 1890s and was sold for $2000 in the early twentieth century to an anonymous buyer (via the dealer William Clausen, in the Salvador de Mendonca sale). It has since disappeared from view. This photograph, which was discovered in an album of Byroniana acquired by the Pforzheimer in 2014, is now our best witness to this compelling lost portrait of Lord Byron.

When he sat for this portrait, Byron would have just finished his term at Harrow or perhaps begun his studies at Trinity College, Cambridge.  He had become Lord Byron in 1798, but his poetic career was still ahead of him at this point. One sees the recognizable high forehead, curly hair, and wide collar that would become part of the signature Byronic look.

Some have cast doubt on the authenticity of the painting, as no record of Byron sitting for Raeburn seems to exist. However, Raeburn did paint a picture of the wife of Byron’s godfather, Mrs. Robert Duff, around this time.  Anyone with more information about the painting is encouraged to contact us.

A rather poor copy of the painting was published in Byron the Poet, ed. Walter A. Briscoe (London, 1924):

It was also imperfectly copied for Munsey’s Magazine 17 (p. 332), as part of a report on the Mendonca sale of Byron relics.

Each year, the BSA underwrites a travel grants program for graduate students with scholarly interests in Byron. The Society offers up to four small grants to help students attend conferences at which they will deliver papers on Byron, with priority given to students presenting at the International Byron Conference, followed by students presenting at the International Student Byron Conference in Messolonghi, Greece. Although preference will be given to citizens of the United States and Canada, citizens of other countries who are enrolled in universities in the United States or Canada are also eligible to apply. A student who receives an offer of funding must be a member of the Byron Society of America before the grant will be awarded.

Click HERE for more information.