The Latest from Devoney (March '23)
Sister Novelists on the East Coast, Sanditon Season 3, & More
Dear Janeite-Friends, Porter Sister-Novelist Friends, and Fellow Admirers of Strong Women:
Happy March, aka Women’s History Month! Were you there, too, when it all started? It’s been celebrated as a full month in the US, since 1987, after being upgraded from a day (est. 1909) then a week (est. 1982). Did you know the first International Women’s Day was organized by the Socialist Party of America, in honor of New York’s female garment workers, who’d been on strike over working conditions? It’s one more reason that I’m grateful to be able to travel to the NYC area for several Sister Novelists / Women’s History Month events in the coming weeks. (More info below.)
Jane Austen, of course, would have had no inkling any of this was on the horizon, but I do appreciate her recognition of the economic and structural unfairness. As she wrote in a letter to her niece, “Single Women have a dreadful propensity for being poor” (13 March 1817). A powerful piece on ending poverty was published in the New York Times Magazine earlier this month, although it doesn’t specifically highlight women’s struggles. Here’s a shorter version of the argument to abolish poverty, by the same author, Matthew Desmond.
ORLANDO DATABASE FREE TO USE DURING WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH
Do you already know about the Cambridge Orlando text base of women’s writing in the British Isles? I highly recommend it, as the endorsement below shows. It’s normally requires a subscription, but it’s free to use during the month of March. I couldn’t have written Sister Novelists without it. It showed me connections among women writers that I didn’t know existed.
(UPDATE: Here’s the free access info: http://orlando.cambridge.org Email address: OrlandoOpen@ualberta.ca Password: free-Orlando)
SISTER NOVELISTS ON THE EAST COAST, ALONG WITH A STAR ACTOR
I’ve got three East Coast book events coming up in the next two weeks, in New York (3.27), New Jersey (3.25), and Long Island (4.3). Even if you’re not in the area, please join us virtually for the livestream from the New York Public Library. The in-person location was just changed to the Stavros Niarchos Library (across the street from the Schwartzman Building), after event registrations outgrew capacity there. The new location may well sell out, too! If you want to go, do register ASAP. No doubt the crowd’s going to be large because actor *Beanie Feldstein* will be reading from the Porter sisters’ letters! I still can’t quite believe it. As a fun teaser, here’s a photo of Sister Novelists on NYC’s 5th Avenue Barnes and Noble, where they’ve shelved the book in the Entertainment section.
JANE AUSTEN IN THE NEWS: SANDITON SEASON 3 AND MORE
A few quick, fun pieces of Jane Austen or Austen-adjacent things in the news this week:
PBS Masterpiece Sanditon Season 3 starts tomorrow, Sunday, March 19th. I’ll definitely be watching, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you think about this “final” season.
Books in the news: An early set of Austen’s major writings (first and second editions) is for sale. The price being reported is in the neighborhood of £140,000.
If you have a spare £8.5 million handy, then maybe you’ll want to buy the house on the land where Austen was born. (The house isn’t the same house—misleading headlines abound!—but it is the same location.)
That’s it for now! Thanks so much for staying in touch with me, and as ever, if you have something Austen, Porter sisters, or C18/C19 women-related fun thing you think I should know about, please reach out? And if you’ve enjoyed Sister Novelists, consider adding your voice to the mix with a rating or a review. (Links below.) It would mean a lot. Ratings and reviews help extend the reach of the book—and the Porter sisters’ wrongly and too-long neglected story. May more of them be told this month and all the year round.
Sincerely,
Devoney
P. S. MIGHT YOU HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT Sister Novelists?
Sister Novelists has an online reader’s guide for book groups.
The book is also available on Audible and in audiobook format.
Does your public library, or college/university library, have a copy in its collections? If not, please suggest it for purchase.
Add Sister Novelists to your Want to Read on Goodreads, then return later to review it.
Forward this newsletter to a friend.
UPCOMING EVENTS WITH DEVONEY: SISTER NOVELISTS BOOK TOUR
Plainsboro, NJ, at Plainsboro Public Library, with JASNA-NJ, (Saturday, March 25th, 2 p.m. ET).
New York City (and Livestream): New York Public Library (Monday., March 27th, 6:30 p.m. ET), with critic/biographer Ruth Franklin and actor Beanie Feldstein.
Stony Brook, NY, University at Stony Brook, Sir Run-Run Shaw Lecture (Monday, April 3rd, 4:30 p.m. ET).
Went to an amazing bookstore while in Savannah, E Shaver. They have a Jane Austen book club so I told them about the Rosenbach’s Pride and Prejudice series. I told them that you had spoken on it and also told them about your book. The lady was not familiar with it, but it turns out they had several copies in the store and of course I purchased one. Now she will read it and tell others. I have only read the introduction so far but I am so enthralled with your writing style and interest in bringing these ladies the attention they deserve. Keep up the good work.