Dear Edith Wharton Society Members,
In the past two years or so, we’ve learned that Edith Wharton is hotter than ever–the subject of a Vogue spread (September 2012), a New Yorker profile (February 2012), record-breaking attendance at our conference in Florence (June 2012), and increasingly vibrant scholarship and teaching. By now, you’ve probably received your new edition of the Edith Wharton Review, and know that we here at the Edith Wharton Review hope to keep Wharton’s image and her work very much alive in the 21st century.
With our 30th anniversary on the way, we’ve changed the layout and design of the journal; added new members to our editorial Board, including Elizabeth Ammons as Special Advisory Editor; and expanded to include more sections, including sections on pedagogy, archival materials, and Wharton’s status in the contemporary public eye. We went from a typical total of 36 pages to over 90 pages in the most recent issue. We’ve signed a contract with ProQuest, which will distribute on-line versions of our content to libraries around the world. In addition, the journal now carries an ISSN, which facilitates its cataloguing by libraries, thus making the content of the journal more readily available to scholars. Our goal has been to continue the important work accomplished by Carole Shaffer-Koros, who edited the Review as a labor of love for many years, and Annette Zilversmit, founder of the Edith Wharton Society. We aim to emphasize the importance of the Review to Wharton studies and to the study of American women’s writing more generally.
What this means is that the journal you recently received in the mail is much more expensive to produce than the previous version. Membership has gone up at a very modest rate, but production costs have increased substantially. We aim to provide a high-quality product, but we can’t maintain the quality to which we aspire without support from our members.
All of these exciting changes cannot be fully solidified without your help! In particular, we would greatly appreciate the support of lifetime members, who have been receiving the journal at no cost for many years. Your donation is essential in supporting the Society and assuring our contribution to scholarship through publication of the Edith Wharton Review. You may return the check to us at the address below, or give through our secure PayPal link at the Edith Wharton Society website (https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/membership/).
____ Friends of Edith: $50; ____ Happy Few: $100; _____ Inner Circle: $200
____ Other Amount: $ ___
Thank you for your continued commitment to Wharton studies. We are very grateful for your part in preserving Edith Wharton’s legacy.
Sincerely,
Meredith Goldsmith
President, Edith Wharton Society/ Editor, Edith Wharton Review
Ursinus College, Department of English
601 E. Main Street, Collegeville, PA 19426-1000
The Edith Wharton Society 