Faculty note: Prof. Nesvet has a new publication

Prof. Rebecca Nesvet (English, Women’s and Gender Studies, Humanities) has contributed two articles to the forthcoming PALGRAVE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WOMEN’S WRITING, edited by Lesa Scholl (University of Queensland, Australia). The articles concern “Victorian Vegetarianism” and its female literary advocates and detractors, and “Julia Constance Fletcher (1853-1938).” An American travel writer, novelist, translator and playwright born in South America, Fletcher spent most of her adult life in Italy, writing for British audiences. She was the first author to base a literary character on her friend Oscar Wilde, who dedicated his undergraduate poem RAVENNA, winner of Oxford University’s prestigious Newdigate Prize for Poetry, to her. Fletcher’s literary achievements include her proto-feminist travel romance MIRAGE, her translation of the Italian Renaissance poet Gaspara Stampa, and her play THE FANTASTICKS. Loosely adapted from Edmond Rostand’s LES ROMANESQUES, THE FANTASTICKS was later(1960) adapted by Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones to create the world’s longest-running musical–without attribution to Fletcher.