Conferences and Events: Frances Hodgson Burnett Conference

Press Release

February 14, 2003

California State University, Fresno / Henry Madden Library / 5200 N. Barton Ave. M/S ML 34 / Fresno CA 93740-8014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Angelica Carpenter, Curator
Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature
Phone: (559) 278-8116
E-mail: angelica@csufresno.edu
Web site: www.arnenixoncenter.org

FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT CONFERENCE

The Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature at California State University, Fresno, will host the first conference ever to examine the life and works of Frances Hodgson Burnett, April 25-27, 2003, in Fresno.

Frances Hodgson Burnett is renowned for her classic children's books: The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and A Little Princess. The fact that most of her 60+ best-selling novels were written for adults is not so well known. These books, with subjects like working women, single motherhood, abusive marriages, and the interaction of cultures, are sparking new, international interest. The conference will bring together all major authors who have written about Burnett and will present new research by international experts in children's literature.

Burnett's novel The Making of a Marchioness has recently been republished in England with an afterword by the conference's keynote speaker, Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina. Gerzina is a Vassar Professor of English whose new biography of Burnett will be published by Rutgers University Press in 2003. Her keynote speech is entitled "Not Just for Children: The Life and Legacy of Frances Hodgson Burnett."

Alison Lurie, who teaches children's literature at Cornell University, will deliver a lecture at the conference on Burnett's adult novel The Making of a Marchioness. Lurie, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Foreign Affairs, is the author of Boys and Girls Forever: Children's Classics from Cinderella to Harry Potter, and Don't Tell the Grown-Ups: The Subversive Power of Children's Literature.

Ann Thwaite, Burnett's principal biographer, author of Waiting for the Party: The Life of Frances Hodgson Burnett, will also be a featured speaker. Thwaite, the esteemed British author of A. A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh, will deliver a pre-conference lecture, "Who Wrote Winnie-the-Pooh?" at the Satellite Student Union at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 24, as part of the University Lecture Series.

Other featured speakers at the conference will include Phyllis Bixler, author of Frances Hodgson Burnett; Angelica Shirley Carpenter, Curator of the Arne Nixon Center and author of Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond the Secret Garden; Michael Cart, librarian, teacher, Booklist columnist, and author of From Romance to Realism, a History of Young Adult Literature; and Penny Deupree, Frances Hodgson Burnett's great-granddaughter.

Conference presenters include Carole Dunbar, Lecturer, St. Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Ireland; Jerry Griswold, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State University, author of Audacious Kids: Coming of Age in America's Classic Children's Books; Ariko Kawabata, Assistant Professor, Aichi Prefectural University, Japan; Anne Lundin, Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Wisconsin, author of Victorian Horizons: The Reception of the Picture Books of Walter Crane, Randolph Caldecott, and Kate Greenaway; Tim Morris, Professor and Chair in the English Department, University of Texas at Arlington, author of You're Only Young Twice: Children's Literature and Film; Midori Todayama, Associate Professor, Hachinohe National College of Technology, Japan; and many more.

The deadline for conference registration is April 11. For more information, check the Center's Web site at www.arnenixoncenter.org, or contact the Center by E-mail at anc@listserv.csufresno.edu, or by calling (559) 278-8116.

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