The George Herbert Society
Mission and Purposes: The George Herbert Society promotes knowledge and appreciation of Herbert's life and work by sponsoring international and regional events, publications, awards and prizes, and an ongoing website. While emphasizing scholarly approaches to Herbert, the Society is open to all who share an interest in his life, work, and lasting influence; while non-sectarian, the Society welcomes varied religious uses and appreciations of Herbert, and celebrates his living legacies as one of the world's great poets and spiritual writers.
NOW AVAILABLE FOR ELECTRONIC PREVIEW FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA PRESS:
The Digital Temple A Documentary Edition of George Herbert's English Verse
Edited by Robert Whalen and Christopher Hodgkins
NOW IN PRINT AND E-BOOK FROM UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE PRESS:
George Herbert's Travels: International Print and Cultural Legacies Selected essays from the Greensboro 2008 George Herbert Society Conference, Edited by Christopher Hodgkins
George Herbert's Pastoral: New Essays on the Poet and Priest of Bemerton Selected essays from the Salisbury 2007 George Herbert Society Conference, Edited by Christopher Hodgkins
Locating George Herbert: Family, Place, Traditions
October 13-16, 2011
Gregynog Conference Center, Newtown, Powys, Wales
Plenary Speakers:
Gillian Clarke, National Poet of Wales
Greg Miller, Millsaps College
reading from their poetry
John Drury, Chaplain and Fellow of All Souls, Oxford
‘Friend and Brother: George Herbert, Lancelot Andrewes and Edward Herbert’
Achsah Guibbory, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of English, Barnard College of Columbia University
‘Devotional Poetry and the Temple of God’
Christopher Hodgkins, Professor of English, University of North Carolina at Greensboro ‘Family Relations and Aesthetic Anxiety in “The Forerunners”’
The George Herbert Society met at Gregynog Hall in mid-Wales on October 13-16, 2011 for our latest international, interdisciplinary conference. We explored Herbert's origins and earliest influences: in the gifted and competitive Herbert family, in the Welsh border country around his Montgomery birthplace, and in the literary, spiritual, and aesthetic traditions of Celtic culture. Conference activities included plenary speakers and poetry readings, a rich range of paper panels and discussion sessions, a choral concert and an optional worship service. The conference brought together literary scholars, historians, theologians, poets and musicians to present and discuss Herbert from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, and especially in relation to issues of family, spirituality, literary tradition, place and Celtic cultural traditions.
Panel topics included
- Herbert’s near family connections, especially to his father Richard Herbert, his mother Magdalen Newport Herbert, and to his brothers Lord Edward Herbert of Cherbury and Sir Henry Herbert, Master of the Revels;
- Herbert’s connections to his cousins and later kinsmen the Earls of Pembroke, Montgomery, and Powis;
- questions of border politics and cultural intersection in late medieval and Tudor-Stuart Wales;
- Herbert’s relation to Welsh language and poetic forms, and to Celtic spirituality;
- his debt to and influence on Welsh poets;
- Herbert’s poetic debt to architecture and landscapes;
- Herbert and music;
- his international connections;
- his ‘location’ in the wider literary, theological and cultural contexts of his time.
- See Program link for full details.
In addition to these many rich plenary addresses and panels, conference-goers also enjoyed many unforgettable locales and sights. We visited the Herbert family monuments in St. Nicholas Church, Montgomery, and heard a concert of Stuart-era sacred music by the Brabant Singers; we toured the Herbert family castles of Montgomery and Powis with the Earl of Powis himself, John Herbert; we saw the workings of the Gregynog Press; we enjoyed a friendly supper served by our local hosts in the historic Montgomery Town Hall; and we saved plenty of time for quiet walks, convivial teas and drinks, and shared meals in the Gregynog dining room. Many thanks are due to Helen Wilcox of Bangor University; to her assistant Linda Jones; and to the helpful staff of Gregynog Hall.
Please enjoy a photographic retrospective of our conference!
For further information please contact Helen Wilcox (helen.wilcox@bangor.ac.uk), Christopher Hodgkins (herbconf@uncg.edu), or Linda Jones (l.c.jones@bangor.ac.uk)