Thanks for the anecdote, John. I was introduced to her by Kemp Malone
(anybody remember him?) at a Johns Hopkins cash-bar cocktail party at MLA.
We were all on all fours. The reason is, Tuve didn't have a purse but she
had some coins secreted somewhere on her person, but when she reached down
her bodice to get some to buy herself a drink, one of them fell through
onto the floor. Don't know if we ever found it; expect Kemp Malone like the
southern gentleman he was bought her a drink so we all could stand up.
Putting his arm around what he could reach of her waist (he was rather
short and she was 6 feet tall), he said "Ros is the brightest star in my
crown."
At 04:00 AM 1/2/2003 +0000, you wrote:
>Carol's bringing together of Frances Yates and Rosamond Tuve recalls a story
>from the seminar gossip during my first year of graduate study, when Professor
>Tuve was visiting at Princeton: she was both an exciting and an excitable
>presence, given to wonderful arias full of digressions.  As I recall the story
>(I wasn't there, but I think Tom was), in the midst of one associative leap,
>her eyes gleaming, hair in disarray, someone brought in the name of Frances
>Yates; she stopped short and exclaimed, 'Frances Yates! Now THERE'S a strange
>woman!'
>
>How I wish I had sought out more time with either or both of them.  The new
>series will be a great service to us all.
>
>Cheers, Jon Quitslund
> > Marvelous idea, marvelous title. I could do one if I can have next summer
> > (2003) to do it, I'm overcommitted until then. I'd like to write up one of
> > my role models: Rosamund Tuve, Kathleen Williams, or Frances Yates. Having
> > edited Ficino's De Vita and thus become conversant with her Giordano Bruno
> > and the Hermetic Tradition, I can lay claim to some expertise on Dame
> > Frances, whereas Tom Roche knows more than I do about Ros Tuve.
> >   At 09:10 AM 1/1/03 -0500, you wrote:
> > >Dear Spenserians and Sidneians,
> > >Please write to me with proposals for brief pieces you'd like to
> > >contribute for the new series in *The Spenser Review*  described here.
> > >(Thanks to Roland Greene for discovering the right name of the series;
> > >thanks to everyone whose roll-calls of women scholars convinced me even
> > >more than I was that we need to do this series.)
> > >Many thanks,
> > >Terry
> > >
> > >De Mulieribus claris
> > >
> > >The Spenser Review announces a new series, of short pieces remembering the
> > >careers of women scholars of medieval and Renaissance literature from the
> > >early days of the profession until 1975:  until postmodernism and
> > >second-wave feminism changed the face of literary scholarship.  In keeping
> > >with the Review's mission of documenting and preserving scholarship and
> > >its local, specific contexts, we invite pieces written as memoir; analyses
> > >of individual women's careers and the nature of their structural roles in
> > >the profession and the institution; surveys of a woman scholar's work;
> > >investigations of specific events like the five articles by women in a
> > >1926 PMLA or the University of Virginia dissertation from the 1930s on
> > >16th and 17th-century women writers.  The work and careers of many
> > >remarkable women call for intelligent documentation and analysis, among
> > >them Marjorie Hope Allen, Josephine Waters Bennett, Muriel Bradbrook, Lily
> > >Bess Campbell, Rosalie Colie, Madeleine Doran, Enid Ellis-Fermor, Helen
> > >Gardner,  Isabel MacCaffrey, Marjorie Hope Nicolson, Rosemond Tuve, Joan
> > >Webber, Enid Welsford, Helen C. White, Kathleen Williams, Lilian
> > >Winstanley, Frances Yates.  Note that this series isn't limited to women
> > >scholars who worked on Spenser.
> > >
> > >The series will be supervised by current Spenser Review editor Theresa
> > >Krier, with the assistance of a board comprised of Judith H. Anderson,
> > >Heather Dubrow, Andrew Hadfield, and Debora Shuger. Some pieces will be
> > >commissioned, but we hope that many people will send proposals for pieces
> > >they would like to contribute.
> > >
> > >We anticipate being able to print one piece per issue, of a maximum of
> > >3000 words.  If authors strongly wish to contribute longer pieces, we
> > >suggest writing an essay in sections, such that it could be serialized.
> > >
> > >Please send all inquiries to the editor, Theresa Krier, at
> [log in to unmask] or
> > >Theresa Krier, editor
> > >The Spenser Review
> > >Department of English
> > >University of Notre Dame
> > >Notre Dame, Indiana  46556
> > >U.S.A.