[Jayne Osborn]

Originally Posted by Catherine Chandler

I recently approved the dust jacket for The Frangible Hour . . . The book should be available around December 6. Will keep you all posted!

Originally Posted by John (J.D.) Smith

This sounds great. I look forward to reading.

Me too, Cathy. That is good news!

Jayne

[Simon Hunt]

This is about to fall off the front page, so I'm risking your ire to bump it up. I like reading your good news, damn it, and I have this to report of my own.

I'm just back from a wonderful trip to the UK: two big family parties--my mother's 70th birthday and my cousin's wedding; an Eratosphere lunch; a great play at the Wanamaker; a lovely evening at Keats's house; etc.

Last night, back in California, I went to a book launch inSanta Cruz for the new book put out by the publisher who will be doing mine down the road: The Night Bridge by Wilma Marcus Chandler, Hummingbird Press, 2016. Big success and most handsome volume, so congratulations to Wilma.

But here's what I really want to tell you: in England, while browsing in Foyle's, I renewed my intention to get hold of a copy of the poems of John Clare and spend some real time with them. Limited pounds sterling and limited luggage space kept me from buying a small Selected in London, but last night I found a used Essential Clare in Santa Cruz--the perfect pocket sized paperback for my ambitions. Well, $4.80 seemed a tad steep for a dinky, aging paperback. But when I leafed through it, I found it had been signed by its editor, poet Carolyn Kizer, who had added this inscription: "for Adrienne, with love from Carolyn, the New Year 1993." Santa Cruz, remember--so this has to have been Adrienne Rich's book, right?, and sold to the shop after Rich's death... I don't know Kizer's work at all, but I'm enjoying her essay on Clare. I do like much of Rich. But I thought some of you might enjoy this adventure in marginalia, which is tickling me greatly: these poems have gone from Clare's hands to Kizer's to Rich's, and now they're all mine for less than five bucks.

[Clive Watkins]

A wonderful story about your copy of Clare, Simon! – Jonathan Bate’s fine Biography for Picador / Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2003) has an excellent appendix that surveys the vexed question of the ownership of the copyright in Clare’s verse and the way it has affected publication over the past fifty years or so. Bate’s Selected (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2003, Faber and Faber 2004) is also a most useful volume.

No especial news to add, except that, as an atheist, I am attending a carol concert this evening at the church in Penistone, Yorkshire, not far from where I live. It looks to be a night of typical Pennine weather.

Clive Watkins

[Jayne Osborn]

Simon,

You needn't worry about bumping this thread - we all love to hear good news and it's about time it was revived anyway!

It was great to see you in London for the Spherean lunch with John, David and Nico - and to hear your news of finding that book on arriving back in California. We didn't get around to talking about the Isle of Man and Maughold though, did we?

Clive,
After last week's gathering I was reminded of the one we had at The Trout in Oxford; it was over five years ago, amazingly. How time flies!

My good news is that my husband and I have decided to revamp part of our house, starting over Christmas while he's on holiday, which involves some demolition and re-building; I don't enjoy the mess and the hard work, but I love the results afterwards!

So, it's a hard hat for me over the festive season, not a paper one . . . (Bah humbug!)

Jayne