Fresh Thoughts on the 2024 AGM
It is ever so difficult to characterize an annual general meeting (AGM) of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). There are so many different elements—local tours, specialty events, sometimes a major evening event, the plenary speeches open to all attendees. Multiple breakout sessions go simultaneously for two days so that no one person can enjoy more than a slice of the content. Even the size, shape, and location of the venue rooms can affect the mood.
All that said, the recent AGM in Cleveland was a breath of fresh air. Brilliantly clear autumn weather made this statement literally true. The hotel overlooks Lake Erie. The downtown is a spacious mix of traditional Midwest brick architecture and taller glass buildings. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is a short walk away—circling around green space and the Cleveland pro football stadium. A terrific art museum is a short drive away.
Photos show the traditional promenade after the Saturday night banquet along with a little of Cleveland's downtown. Horse-drawn carriages being unavailable, promenaders sometimes resorted to escalators.
Though breakouts and other sessions were on different floors, it was a quick escalator ride. The emporium, where people regularly gather to socialize and buy Austen-themed books, regalia, and other goods, was right outside the main lecture hall. The AGM felt cozy without being jammed.
There was a distinct upbeat vibe, partly because this AGM was ten years in the making, including a major delay caused by the covid crisis. Which meant that the coordinators, Jennifer Weinbrecht and her daughter Amy Patterson—plus others including JASNA’s senior leadership—had to pull together a totally new virtual AGM in less than a year in 2020 followed a few years later by this physical AGM. Quite the triumph!
Cool was in the air in other ways too. The same weekend featured the induction of the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, featuring Mary J. Blige, Jimmy Buffett, Cher, Dionne Warwick, and another dozen stars. On Friday, armed guards patrolled the hallways, indicating the arrival of some Eminent Presence.
Several people reported star sightings. I saw some blinged-out Hollywood dress, and I was jammed into elevators with various music people who were speaking of the more famous. But no music royalty. On the other hand, a friend got a selfie with Peter Frampton in the background, and to me he looked like any other old guy sitting in a hotel lobby.
Oh, yeah. We had Austen talks, too.
“We gathered to explore Jane Austen’s origin story: where she came from, the world of ideas in which her genius was steeped, and the revolutionary world that inspired her to lead her own revolution through her chosen art form—the novel.”
Topic was fulfilled in many ways. Susan Allen Ford’s opening plenary covered subtle but important connections between Mansfield Park and lengthy, obscure earlier works—which I’m glad I learned about without having to read. Susan’s lecture was so scintillating that her books immediately sold out at the emporium, leaving me and others to order a copy through Jane Austen Books.
Melissa Anderson spoke of the many French connections in Regency times, some of them surprising because the two countries were at war for nearly thirty years. Amanda Vickery provided the overall political context for women in Austen’s time.
Jim Nagle set out four substantive cultural and financial changes in the 125 years before Austen’s birth that provided the platform on which she could become a successful author. His discussion of the beginnings of the Industrial and Agricultural Revolutions set up my own breakout the next day. My topic was riots and insurrections, and the reasons for them, during Austen’s lifetime. The gist is that the Regency was not a serene time of teas and balls but a violent period of war and political violence—more often by the government against the people than the other way around.
Peter Sabor summarized the many connections, references, and allusions in Austen to Fanny Burney’s major works. Many other excellent talks I missed—and look forward catching up on via the published essays—because of the overlap of session breakouts.
Next year’s AGM is in Baltimore, where I am honored to be part of a plenary presentation. Tucson was announced as the site for the 2026 AGM.
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My new book, Jane Austen and the Creation of Modern Fiction: Six Novels in “a Style Entirely New,” investigates her development as a writer and shows how her innovations as a prose stylist set the course for modern fiction. It is available from Jane Austen Books at a discounted price.
The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen is also available from Jane Austen Books and Amazon. The trilogy traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions. A “boxed set” that combines all three in an e-book format is also available.