I have been reading THE SHADOW OF THE UNATTAINED this week, and yet again noticed several references to Nora May French. I was sure I had a sampling of her poetry and an article about this young woman somewhere in the house, but instead seem to have been lured into a false sense of familiarity with her through recently reading so many short references to her in works about or by Smith, Sterling, Lovecraft, and others. I was sure NYCTALOPS or ETCHINGS & ODYSSEYS had included something, but it was in no copy of these magazines in my library. Is there any plan to reprint her book of verse, about which Smith, Sterling, and Lovecraft were so fond?

Jim

I do not believe there are any reprints. However, the Bancroft library at UC Berkeley has many rare things concerning her, like pictures, etc. I pulled out a rare 1910 version of her selected poems and made copies for Phillip here (voleboy). I can make you a copy of it if you are interested. Let me know.

Another thought is I could also post a poem or two a week for the benefit of the group, if you or anyone else would prefer.

That would be wonderful. Let me know what I will owe you for copying and postage.

Jim
(Not sure why your second reply arrived in my mailbox, but not this one)

Just to add to NightHalo's remarks, Mary Rudge, a contemporary of ours, published a volume of her work. She had offered to allow me to look at a copy, if I could find a library local to my area that would be interested in taking the copy but to no avail. There have been a vew volumes published about her as well, although I don't have their titles at hand. Maybe some research via the internet is in order, as Ms French is a poet whose memory is well worth preserving. She should not be forgotten as she is, and I am honoured to be considered an admirer of her work.

With luck, I may in the coming years be able to write about her work, in a major essay or else a book or booklet.

*Author of Strange Gardens [www.lulu.com]


*Editor of Calenture: a Journal of Studies in Speculative Verse [calenture.fcpages.com]

*Visit my homepage: [voleboy.freewebpages.org]

There was a reprint of her book POEMS several years by a feminist publisher here in Kalifornia. Randy Everts of The Strange Co. and ETCHINGS AND ODDYSEYS interviewed her sister, as did Donald Sidney-Fryer, and he published a lot of information about her in early mailings of the Esoteric Order of Dagon apa (which I, alas! no longer have). Don Fryer just did some research on her at the Huntington Library, and Richard Hughey informs me that some of her poems have been selected for inclusion in a modern anthology from someplace like the Library of America, along with some of George Sterling's (but not, I am sorry to say, any of CAS.... :( ) I've seen photos of her, and she was a true beauty.
Best,
Scott

Check out this URL for some additional information on Nora May:

[www.stillness.com]

Scott

I have not heard of Nora French before. It would be much appreciated if you could let myself and others know more about her writing.

Julian (aka Raven10)

Julian L Hawksworth

Donald Sidney-Fryer is currently working on a MSS that will include all of Nora May French's published poems, plus a half dozen (so far) recently discovered. The book will also contain a full biographical sketch and critical introduction. So, with a little luck this neglected member of the Califoria Romantics will soon be back in print!
-Ron

This is very good news, Ron. Thanks also to everyone else for the information they have imparted on this subject. According to a friend, Everts published a very short biographical piece on French via the EOD (I had thought I remembered something in E&O, but it must simply have been an ad from The Strange Company).

Jim

For the past several years, I have been working on what will be the first full-length biography of the California poet Nora May French, so I was delighted to discover this thread about her. I was also glad to learn that Donald Sidney-Fryer is planning a much-needed new edition of her poems. I hope that within a few years, she will be much better known!

Welcome, Pamela. Please keep us abreast of your progress on this biography.

Jim

If people are interested and more important willing to help, I could whip up a web site for Nora May French containing as much of her work as people are willing to provide to me.

Are people interested and willing?

Nora_May_French.org doesnt sound the most enticing, suggestions welcome for a domain name.

For the moment, I could type out the poems from her Selected Poetry for you.

Typeing is painfull, got a scanner? could sendthem to some one who has (includes me)?

how much material can you lay your hands on?

I do have a scanner, but in reality, it takes the same amount of time for me to type the poems as it does for me to scan them. Most of her poems are fairly small, so it would not take too long to type out. But if you insist, I can scan them and send them sometime in the near future.

I know Bancroft library has :

1. Nora May French : her poems / <1986>
Uniform Title: Poems.Selections
Author: French, Nora May, 1881-1907
Published: Oakland, Calif. : Star Rover House, 1986.


2. The life and writing of Nora May French. <1963>
Author: Allen, Judith.
Published: [Oakland?, Calif.], 1963.


3. Poems / <1936>
Uniform Title: Poems.Selections
Author: French, Nora May, 1881-1907
Published: San Francisco : Published for its members by the Book Club of California, 1936


4. Poems / <1910>

Author: French, Nora May, 1881-1907.
Published: San Francisco, Calif. : The Strange Co., 1910.




I have copies of the Strange Company's Selected Poems of 1910, but right now I cannot promise anything aside from this. I had to take my littlest cat to the emergency room today. She has fluid around her lungs, and is rather sick, so aside from the cat and thesis work...things have me too exausted to do much more. I will keep typing out the contents you need for the bibliography of CAS however.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 7 Mar 06 | 08:01PM by NightHalo.

I expect jimrockhill2001 and voleboy to help out with provideing typeing scanning as NightHalo has provided you with texts.

Some of Nora May French's earliest poems were published in the Los Angeles Times or in Charles Lummis's magazine Land of Sunshine (later called Out West), but were never reprinted in the 1910 Poems. A few others, which have never been published at all as far as I know, are in various papers at the Bancroft. I have copies of these and could add them to your collection if people are interested.

Pamela Herr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have copies of these
> and could add them to your collection if people
> are interested.

Very.

Send them to me i will be launching a Nora May French website in a few days.

[www.nora-may-french.org]


The site is now up. I would appreciate it if anyone with anything to contribute would get in touch (use sites' contact form) asap so I can get organised with whats coming from where.

B.

Very neat design on the www.nora-may-french.org website, Boyd. Have you heard of Marlow Moss (1890-1958)? Her artwork is kind of similar.

Two Poems by Nora May French [for there seems to be an interest in her work]

Born Aurora, New York 4/26/1881
Died Carmel, California 11/14/1907 (age: 26)

BY MOONLIGHT

Is this the world I knew? Beneath the day
It glowed with golden heat, with vivid hues --
Mountains and sky that merged in melting blues
And hazy air that shimmered far away.

This world is white beneath a silver sky --
White with pale brightness, luminously chill.
The moon reigns queen, but faintly shining still
The dim stars glimmer on the hilltops high.

Here, where long grasses touch across the stream
That threads with babbling laugh its narrow way,
My face turned upward to pale gleams that stray
Through whispering willow boughs . . . I dream
. . . and dream.

THINK NOT, O LILIAS

Think not, O Lilias, that the love of this night will endure in the sun. Hast thou beheld fungi, white, evil, rosy-lined, poisonous, shrivel in the eyes of day?

In this wilderness of strange hearts it is not thine alone that concerns me. Many brave hearts of men are more to me than thine. The hearts of men breathe deeply. As for thy heart, it runs from me, it is quicksilver, it does not concern me greatly.

I am so pleased to have found this forum. I worked on Nora May French's biography and poems extensively during my Master's program. It will be a real pleasure to see her get recognition. I have gone through everything at Bancroft that relates to NMF, includeing Jimmy Hopper boxes/papers and both material from both Sterlings. I have copies of several handwritten, unpublished and I believe unknown, poems by NMF from these sources. I also have extensive correspondence between NMF and Henry Lafler. from both Huntington and Bancroft. I would love to share info and ideas and be of help in getting her name and works back into circulation.

Drop me a line any time, cynray, and we can chat about her work if you'd like. What have you written on her?

*Author of Strange Gardens [www.lulu.com]


*Editor of Calenture: a Journal of Studies in Speculative Verse [calenture.fcpages.com]

*Visit my homepage: [voleboy.freewebpages.org]

Donald Sidney-Fryer has asked for help in contacting the Judith Allen who wrote/compiled "The Life and Writing of Nora May French" as a Masters thesis at Mills College, Oakland, CA. This contact is instrumental to the completion of his Nora May French project, which is otherwise very nearly finished. Any help or leads would be greatly appreciated!
-Ron

When I was in Berkeley, I am rather positive I could have found Judith Allen through some contacts since Mills was just up the hill from us, but now I am on the other side of the country.

I wish I could help. Somebody should have asked me sooner. :(

I had a quick look for her around the internet at one stage with out luck, perhaps you could try:

Contacting Alumnae

I also tried a few searches without any luck before I posted here. The thesis was written some 43 years ago, which of course complicates things. I've passed the phone # to the Mills College Alumnae contacts along to DSF, which is probably the best hope available. Many thanks to Boyd and Alycia for their efforts, and I'll continue to post updates on "The Outer Gate and Other Poems" as things progress.
-Ron

Sorry to bring up an old thread, but I thought it appropriate to post this here. I don't think this has been mentioned on the forum yet, but Kessinger Publishing has recently issued Poems by Nora May French. Oddly, the book is not yet listed on the Kessinger Publishing site.

But it is listed on abebooks and Amazon, and there is a hardcover and paperback issue.

hardcover:
[www.amazon.com]

paperback:
[www.amazon.com]


Edit: I should add that Kessinger books are not, in my experience, very well made or printed books. But thankfully they do re-issue books that no one else ever would.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 6 Dec 07 | 10:52PM by Tantalus.

Dear friends, I wrote some time ago that Donald Sydney-Fryer had joined me in recording the love poetry of CAS. In the process Don wanted to record some Nora mae French which we in fact did.
The other works are nearly edited and ready for those who may wish to have them - however, we did not wish to go to the trouble of editing French and some other things we were doing for ourselves.
Nevertheless, with the interest in Nora Mae exhibited here, I am willing to make an undedited copy of the CD, with no fancy imprint or brochure - just bare bones - My time, cost of packaging and shipping - $10 -- Although it is not a finished product, it is copyright protected, so Boyd may copy 2 or three to the site as a sampler if he wishes, but Don needs the money (starving artist), so if you would want to hear it, send me the relevant info, and I will get a copy to you if it interests you at all -- even though not clean, it is extraordinarily good. The copies of the CAS works is truly superb - Don, as you know has made his living reciting Ashton and Spenser - I have been in theatre all my life, sang with the Opera all over the country, won various recitation awards, taught voice for almost 45 years, and in general, read poetry pretty well - the Smith CD's will be out around the first of the year.(I hope) - getting them done depends on the free time of a devoted volunteer who has the skill (not me) to do this stuff on the computer - Don is very pleased with the quality of the sound on the French CD - so that's good enough for me. We also did a James Belknap Long, but I would have to ask Don if he wants that available, he really did it just for himself.
Happy Yule, Y'all

Hippocampus Press is listing The Outer Gate: The Collected Poems of Nora May French for a September 2009 release. It is not on the front page, but I discovered it when poking around among the sub-menus:

[www.hippocampuspress.com]