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<p>I was in New York's Morgan Library turning off my phone before
the performance by Patti Smith and her daughter, Jesse, in tribute
to Emily Dickinson. As I checked my email, I saw Georgia's name
and did not have to read any further. Knowing how much Georgia
loved poetry, the readings and singing by Patti Smith worked to
ease the shock.</p>
<p>I met Georgia more than 28 years ago -- when there was a Woolf
Society, but no conferences. The first conference, at Pace
University, and organized by Mark Hussey in 1991, was called <i>Virginia
Woolf Miscellanies. </i>I organized a panel, 'Virginia Woolf
and Her Experimentalist Contemporaries: Mansfield, Richardson and
Stein, and asked Georgia to do something on Stein. Her paper,
'After the Invention of the Gramophone: Hearing the Woman in
Stein's <i>Autobiography </i>and Woolf's<i> Three Guineas' </i>is
in the Proceedings of this first conference, edited by Mark Hussey
and Vara Neverow. Reading Jane Garrity's comments on Georgia's
monograph titled 'Gender as Textuality: a Modernist Methodology',
and her idea for conference on early 20th century women writers,
one finds the seeds for this later work in that first conference
paper on Woolf and Stein.</p>
<p>As Ann Fernald mentioned, Georgia's work on the essay was very
valuable for those of us who were writing our dissertations on the
essay. Her article, 'The Whole Achievement in Virginia Woolf's The
Common Reader', in <i>Essays on the Essay: Redefining the Genre,</i>
edited by Alexander J. Butrym (1989) included a bio that revealed
something else about Georgia: she used to teach creative writing.</p>
<p>And in another story about Georgia's conference in St. Louis: a
large group arrived at a venue ( probably a plenary), and it was
locked. Georgia did not have the key, and had to get someone to
bring one (this is pre-cell phones). As many have described
Georgia's calm and positive responses, her wonderful smile
prevailed, We waited quite a while, but she set the tone.</p>
<p>I last heard from her after the Leeds Conference, and her
wonderful spirit and courage came through. I can only echo all the
descriptions of Georgia that have come to this list, and feel so
happy that our paths crossed, and I got to know such a wonderful
woman.<br>
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