A Response from Regina Hewitt
When I read this blog, I was at first stunned and then moved by the (overly) kind comments my colleagues made. I felt that the direction of the sentiments should be reversed: I should be thanking them for the privilege of working with them and thanking the Keats-Shelley Association for the privilege of serving on the Pforzheimer Grants Committee.
The invitation to join Doucet Devin Fischer and Robert Ryan on the Committee was both thrilling and intimidating—thrilling because it offered a chance to work closely with scholars I admired and intimidating because I was conscious of how distant from them I was in research skills, interpretive aptitude and editorial expertise. But I wanted to emulate them, and thanks to their patience and generosity, Committee service was also a wonderful learning experience for me.
We always met at Thanksgiving time, and I came to associate the Pforzheimer awards with the bounty of the season. The applications were a cornucopia of ideas and the awards a sharing of resources. I loved reading the applications and discussing their implications with Doucet and Bob, especially because their commitment to fairness and consensus decision-making shed light on the merits of every proposal. That pleasure in discovery and collaboration continued when Olivia Moy succeeded Doucet as Grants Chair and other scholars rotated on and off the Committee. Olivia’s ability to modernize and expedite our procedures while reinforcing fairness and consensus made me realize how important the grants could continue to be in a changing scholarly world.
Looking back on twenty years’ worth of proposals, I am struck by both continuity and change. The writings of Keats, Shelley and others in their Circle continue to inspire value inquiry even as the nature of that inquiry changes and “print” has become a topic of investigation as much as a means of conveying results. I have enjoyed watching grant projects come to fruition and grant recipients publish their work and advance in their careers. And I have been most delighted by and grateful for the collaboration that grew between Michael Demson and me when he invited me to help give form to his vision of a volume on Peterloo and, later, on law, equity and Romantic writing.
Michael’s vision of Romantic-era writing as animated with concerns for justice and effective in conscious raising impressed me from the first time that his work on Percy Shelley and Pauline Newman crossed my desk when I was co-editing the European Romantic Review. While many of us assert that Romantic-era writers spurred their readers to action, Michael provided evidence of such inspiration by conducting research in labor archives—a source at once outstandingly relevant and most often overlooked. His article and later graphic novel on this topic were a starting point for many succeeding projects showing how literature and art can protest, resist and dispel the routines of social control—even when facing prison hulks stationed at British ports. I admire Michael’s innovative thinking, moral sensibility and unlimited energy, and I would be delighted if there’s another joint project in our future.
Meanwhile, I am continuing to learn about scholarly and editorial excellence from Angela Esterhammer, who is an ideal role model. Having little experience at textual editing, I hesitated to take on the preparation of a volume in the Edinburgh Edition of the Works of John Galt, which is thriving under what I will call her “comprehensive” editorship, as “general” editorship does not begin to describe the concern she shows for matters from accuracy and aesthetics to technical procedures and working relationships. With Angela’s encouragement and guidance, I dared to embark on editing Lawrie Todd, which became one of my most pleasant and rewarding endeavors. I am honored to be still involved with Angela and with other volume editors with this uniquely collaborative edition and eagerly anticipate the publication of forthcoming volumes.
And so, dear colleagues, I can only conclude with repeated thanks for the privilege of working with you and a promise to keep trying to approach your standards.