Seven hundred fans and scholars met in Minneapolis at the end of September for immersion in All Things Jane. Victoria here, relating my experience celebrating two hundred years of Pride and Prejudice with so many of those who love it too. Many thanks to Dave O’Brien for the use of his excellent photos, more of which can be seen on the JASNA-WI website.
Minneapolis, 2013
As always at an AGM, part of the fun is touring the city and surroundings…and we had perfect weather to enjoy such treats as the Guthrie Theatre, the Mill Museum, tours devoted to F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sherlock Holmes, plus the art museums and pub crawls.
The Emporium
Another popular feature of an AGM the Emporium where JASNA chapters and commercial providers have their sales tables. Books, hats, fans, pens and paper, English antique tea cups, all sorts of temptations abound.
Kathy O’Brien entertains the Queen, Liz Cooper and a customer for
JASNA-WI’s 2014 Calendar.
To order yours, click here.
Below, editor Tim Bullamore collects subscribers to Jane Austen’s Regency World magazine.
For more information on JARW, click here.
Jane Austen Books is always a popular vendor.
The Regency Room featured the antique collection of author Candice Hern, left
with JASNA President Iris Lutz (in May 2013 in Madison, WI)
For more on Candice’s Collections, click here.
As in the past few years, the JASNA AGM events have become so numerous that many are held on the day before the official Keynote. In additions to tours and workshops, Thursday’s speakers included Candice Hern on Regency Magazines; Bruce Richardson on the History of Tea and Jane Austen; a High Tea and Fashion Show; and Curtain Raiser Jocelyn Harris speaking on “Introducing Elizabeth Bennet.”
William Phillips of Chicago, a JASNA favorite speaker, spoke on card games:
“Pride, Prejudice and Piquet”
Friday morning was also crowded with tours, workshops dance lessons and excellent presentations.
Sandy Lerner spoke on “Pen and Parsimony: Carriages in the Novels of Jane Austen”
Steve Lawrence, CEO of Chawton House Library, updated us on events there.
I attended the Frances Burney Society AGM, Luncheon, and excellent talk by Dr. Lorna Clark who spoke about Burney’s private writings in the context of her work editing a new edition of two volumes of The Court Journals and Letters of Frances Burney.
Dr. Lorna Clark
The Opening Plenary Session of the 2013 JASNA AGM,
The Carol Medine Moss Keynote Lecture,
a very entertaining and insightful session.
Professor James Mullan of University College London
Speechless in Pride and Prejudice
author of What Matters in Jane Austen: 20 Crucial Puzzles Solved
My turn for a Break-out Session
She is SERIOUS!
ABC Nightline filmed my entire presentation, but I fear I ended up on the cutting room floor.
Here I am at the book signing on Friday evening. In the middle is the Japanese Manga version of
Miss Milford’s Mistake. I’d brought it as an object of curiosity, but a lady bought it to send to a library in Japan. What fun! Thanks to Julie Klassen for the picture!
Here are some other views of Break-out speakers.
Juliet McMaster
Jeffrey Nigro
The Bingley Sisters: Liz Philosophos Cooper and Molly Philosophos
Susan Forgue
Teresa Kinney, Joan Ray, and Cheryl Kinney
Plenary speaker Joan K. Ray on “Do Elizabeth and Darcy Really Improve Upon Acquaintance?”
Dr. Ray challenged us with a new approach to Darcy’s tolerance and Elizabeth’s grudge.
Plenary speaker Janine Barchas discussed “Naming Names in Pride and Prejudice” particularly the Fitzwilliam family of Wentworth Woodhouse and other “celebrity teasers” hidden in plain sight. These and other interesting sidelights on Jane Austen’s characters can be found in Barchas’s book, Matters of Fact in Jane Austen.
Nili Olay and Jerry Vetowich, after the Saturday Banquet
The Bingley Sisters lead the costumed promenade through the neighborhood
Bill Pierson instructs us on tasting “Libations In the Regency Manner”
Sunday’s Closing Brunch
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries team on how they adapted Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
for You-Tube episodes and won an Emmy!
After packing in so many activities in just a few days, we say farewell to the Minneapolis AGM and look forward to Montreal in 2014
Thanks again to Dave O’Brien for most of the photos. See more at