Ceil Huntington
Regional Member Profile
By Vonnie Alto, Secretary

Here is Ceil Huntington, philanthropist and patron of the arts, at the Mirabella Portland retirement community. She graciously agreed to an impromptu photo shoot just because we love her! Ceil was our 2017 Co-Honoree for our region's Tribute Grant.  We are so thankful for her contributions to JASNA and also for promoting great literature!. 

Ceil is both an original member of our region and also a longtime volunteer for the Literary Arts: 31 years on the Oregon Book Awards & Fellowship Advisory Council. More recently, she served as a tremendous fundraiser for the Brian Booth Writers’ Fund, an endowment for emerging writers. Ceil was also our spokeswoman for the 2010 AGM which we hosted and the face of our region in an article published about the Portland AGM in The Oregonian that same year. She has inspired the membership by arranging many of our meetings at beautiful locations, including hosting many Reading Groups at the elegant Mirabella Portland retirement community in Portland.

We couldn't resist photographing Ceil following our November reading group discussion. What a lovely woman!

Hostess: Alexandra Guerra
Meeting recap by Vonnie Alto, Secretary

In November, our region gathered at the lovely home of Alexandra Guerra who had previously donated her entire teacup collection to our region before departing with her family for an extended stay in her native Ecuador. We are delighted that she is back!

We held our first meeting with both Margaret Christmann and Marcia Hamley as Regional Co-Coordinators! We had so much to discuss that we tabled our book discussion of Jane Austen: Secret Radical by Nancy Kelly for January 2020. Instead, we focused on our region. We enjoyed delectable food, each other’s company, and voted for our 2020 reading group topics.

Those who attended the AGM in Williamsburg, VA treated us to a recap of their adventures there:

•  Our own, Collins Hemingway gave a breakout session titled, "Northanger Abbey: The Bridge to Jane Austen's Mature Works."  Collins showed how Jane Austen developed as a fiction writer from her early juvenile parody into novels with complex characterizations and relationships.  
  
• Our Tribute Grant recipient, Lauren Brusse thanked our region for the opportunity. She is really grateful for the experience as she is now "informed enough to be dangerous."  Lauren took an English County Dance class and participated in a Regency murder mystery of "Who Killed Mrs. Thorpe?"
  
• Margaret Christmann and Lisa Perrine loved Willamsburg. Following the AGM, they added on another 1.5 days to see the surrounding tourist sites.
  
• Arnie Perlstein loved the Plenary Talks. His favorite talk was given by Roger Moore on the Reformation titled,  "Northanger Before The Tilneys: Austen's Abbey & the Religious Past."  
  
• Mary Margaret and Lauri Conway both raved about Jim Nagle who gave a breakout session titled, "The British Army: Its Importance to Regency England And To Jane Austen."  Lauri always makes a point to attend his talks.
  
• Lauri also loved the Glass Armonica, a Benjamin Franklin invention. The crystal concert was her favorite event.
  

Marcia Hamley offered a list of the talks/speakers she enjoyed:

• Sisterhood: A History of Cassandra and Jane Austen in Four Objects” by Kelly McDonald.
  • McDonald showed several historical objects that the Austen sisters would have had: a portable writing slant desk, letters, a diary, a commonplace book (similar to a scrapbook), some silhouettes, and a piece of mourning jewelry.
• “The Magnificent Miss Moreland” by Jocelyn Harris.
  • Catherine has lots of strength and shows personal growth throughout the story. Marcia says that Henry was intellectually teasing Catherine because he respected her ability to give as good as she got.
• “The Lost Copies of Northanger Abbey” by Janine Barchas.
  • Cheaper printings of Austen’s books for the masses.
  • Barchas did a lot of research on the topic for all of Jane Austen’s books, and has a fully illustrated book about it called, The Lost Books of Jane Austen.
• “The Gothic Key to Northanger Abbey” by Marsha Huff.
  • Background information on gothics in general.
  • The metafictional “wink” at readers in Austen’s style of writing.
  • A detailed analysis of the references in NA to the plot of The Mysteries of Udolpho. Marcia says that Pauline Beard’s talk at our September meeting prepared her well for Huff’s analysis of Gothics.
• “The Words And Wisdom of Northanger Abbey” by Devoney Looser.
  • Novels were looked down as not worthy literature.
  • NA is one of Austen’s least adaptable novels but filled with many wonderful quotable quips.
  • A discussion of Austen’s word choices, including the name, “Northanger.” Abbey. The speaker passed out a handout about the discussion on Beechen Cliff about the word, “nice” and all its varied meanings. The handout included all the meanings in the OED that were possible at the time.
  • Looser also argued that NA was not just a “transitional” work between the Juvenilia and her “mature works", but that it also deserved consideration among all novels.

What a lovely afternoon of regional business, excellent conversation, and Jane Austen fun!
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