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Frances Hodgson Burnett Society
formed at Fresno State Conference

Penny Deupree, left, Frances Hodgson Burnett's great-granddaughter, and Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, the keynote speaker pose with two velvet suits that belonged to Penny's grandfather, Vivian Burnett, son of Frances Hodgson Burnett. He was the model for the character and the illustrations for "Little Lord Fauntleroy."

A new literary society tentatively titled The Frances Hodgson Burnett Society was founded in Fresno on Saturday, April 26, by participants at the "Frances Hodgson Burnett: Beyond The Secret Garden Conference" sponsored by the Arne Nixon Center for the Study of Children's Literature.

The society will study the works, life and influence of the famous author of "The Secret Garden," "Little Lord Fauntleroy" and "A Little Princess." It also will study the author's many adult novels.

The Burnett conference, the first of its kind in the world, was held April 25-27, and attracted a hundred people from four continents.

Volunteers to lead the new society include Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, whose biography of Burnett will be published in the spring of 2004; Deborah Bellew, a Burnett collector and bibliographer from Philadelphia; Diana Burch from Santa Monica, whose job is reading novels for a major movie studio; Lisa Bartle, a librarian from San Bernardino, who has created a distinguished children's literature Web site; Penny Deupree, Burnett's great-granddaughter; and Angelica Carpenter, conference organizer and curator of the Arne Nixon Center. Peter E. Hanff, president of the International Wizard of Oz Club, volunteered to serve as a consultant to the new society.

More information about the new society will be published in "The Magic Mirror," the newsletter of the Arne Nixon Center.

Back to University Journal, 5/03 Issue