Branch 197 ~The
Friends of Dickens New York ~The Dickens Fellowship ~September 25, 2015
Our Monthly Letter
We Are Fun, Friendship and Learning
Our Monthly Quote!
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Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
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Feb 27, 1807–March 24, 1882
American Poet, Educator
and Translator
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Mr. Venus surrounded by the Trophies of his Art by Marcus Stone.
I$
Under a spreading chestnut
tree$
The village smithy stands;$
The smith, a mighty man is
he,$
With large and sinewy hands;$
And the muscles of his
brawny arms$
Are strong as iron bands.$
!
III$
We e k i n , w e e k o u t , f r o m
morn till night,$
Yo u c a n h e a r t h e b e l l o w s
blow;$
You can hear him swing his
heavy sledge,$
With measured beat and slow,$
L i ke a s e x to n r i n g i n g t h e
village bell,$
When the evening sun is low. $
The Village Blacksmith (1840)
Our September
Meeting
Danielle Cammarota,
our September Meeting
Moderator, presented us
with a fa scinating and
well researched slide
lecture about the
problems of Dust (or
garbage): its collection, its
removal and the manifold
economic considerations
associated with it. The huge
“dust mound” on Mr. Boffin’s
p r o p e r t y t h a t D i c ke n s
d e s c r i b e s i n O u r Mu t u a l
Friend would be indicative of
similar mounds throughout
the kingdom. (Continued on
next page)
$
Our October Meeting!
Saturday, October 3, 2015
1:00pm-4:00pm
NYPL Kips Bay$
446 3rd Avenue$
New York, NY 10016
Tel. (212) 683-2520
Program$
Our Mutual Friend$
Book I Chapters 8-17$
Theme: Death and Rebirth
in Our Mutual Friend!
Moderator; Mike J. Quinn
P.O. Box 630074, Riverdale, NY 10463 • Email: [email protected]
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Branch 197 ~The
Friends of Dickens New York ~The Dickens Fellowship ~September 25, 2015
Continued from page 1$
Danielle also shared with us
little seen images from the
Yale Librar y that she was
able to access due to her
hard work and a ssiduous
preparation. $
A number of these images
f rom popular nineteenth
centur y British culture
showed the evolution of a
particular dustman wearing
his cap with its back flap a la
that of Alf red Doolittle,
Eliza’s father, in Shaw’s play
Pygmalion, that identified
him as a dustman. Said
evolution went from quasiscoundrel to quasi beau-ideal
over period of time. $
Danielle was aptly assisted
b y Ta m a r a B e d i c w h o
operated the slide projector. $
After a break we turned
our attention to chapter 1 of
Our Mutual Friend wherein,
on a chill autumn evening we
found Gaffer Hexam in his
boat on the Thames. His
beautiful
d a r k- h a i r e d
daughter, Lizzie rows but she
averts her face at the sight of
a corpse that her father has
just hauled into the boat.
From there the scene moves
to Mr. and Mrs. Veneering,
“bran-new people in a brannew house in a bran-new
quarter of London.” They
are entertaining Mortimer
Lightwood, a lawyer who
before arriving for dinner
had been summoned to look
at the corpse that Gaffer
Hexam had towed ashore.
Although Lightwood could
not identify the man, papers
found on his person show
him to be John Harmon, a
young man recently returned
from abroad to whom a large
fortune has been left by his
father, an old and very rich
dustman.$
As we move ahead we will
continue to unravel this and
many other fascinating
developments in the saga of
Our Mutual Friend.!
Me m b e r s i n a t t e n d a n c e
w e r e : L e o n a Ad a m s ,
Ja m e s
A r m s t ro n g ,
Ma r i l y n B a r a n o s k i ,
Tamara Bedic, Danielle
C a m m a ro t a , K r i s t i n
Dennehy, Susan Detrich,
Gela Kline, Carrie Lee,
Ma r y Ja n e Ma l l o n e e ,
Joseph Palladino, Kevin
Q u i n n , M i ke a n d S u
Quinn, Mike and Ruthy
Rosen, Susan Romanoff,
Adair Russell, Dorothy
Smith, Ber nice Stein,
Ma v i s T h o m p s o n a n d
Ken Wachtell.
We also gladly welcomed
v i s i t o r s Ly n n C h e r r y,
Laurie Henderson, Lena
Hu a r t h s ,
Beatrice
Indursky and Mary Ann
Quinn.
We received regrets for
missing the meeting from
Je r r y
and
L o re t t a
Frohnhoefer, Jeannette
Rosen and Rosa Smith.
We hope to see all of you
a gain at our October 3
meeting. We wish you all
Fun, Friendship and Learning.$
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The Friends Bulletin
Board!
O u r O c t o b e r Ha p p y
Birthday wishes go to
Jerry Frohnhoefer who
celebrates on the 30th. To
h i m a n d a l l o u r O c to b e r
Birthday celebrants we wish
a n o t h e r y e a r o f Fu n ,
Friendship and Learning.!
NEWS: The Charles Dickens
Museum has announced the
appointment of Dr Cindy
Sughr ue OBE as its new
Director. We congratulate her
and wish her every success.
The Dickens Circle!
!
Clarkson Stanfield!
Dec 3, 179-May 18, 1867
Clarkson Stanfield was the
son of an Irish-born actor and
a Catholic. After several years
in the Royal Navy he
turned his talents
to
art
and
eventually became
the resident scenepainter in London’s
Drur y
Lane
Theater. He first met Charles
Dickens in 1838 and toured
Cornwall with him in 1843.
He was one of the illustrators
of Dickens’s The Battle of Life
and The Haunted Man. After
S t a n f i e l d ’s d e a t h i n 1 8 6 7
Dickens wrote thusly to his
son: “No one of your father’s
friends can ever have loved
h i m m o re d e a r l y t h a n I
always did, or can have better
known the worth of his noble
character.” Stanfield is buried
in London’s Kensal Green
Catholic Cemetery.
P.O. Box 630074, Riverdale, NY 10463 • Email: [email protected]
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Branch 197 ~The
Friends of Dickens New York ~The Dickens Fellowship ~September 25, 2015
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P.O. Box 630074, Riverdale, NY 10463 • Email: [email protected]
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