Dorothy O. Helly Lecture: Women Writing Women’s Lives

“Nothing can happen nowhere”: The Biographer in Elizabeth Bowen’s Hythe, England

Patricia Laurence's talk will focus on the importance of “place” in biography, particularly in relation to the Anglo-Irish novelist, Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973). Her sensitivity to mood and place in her writing will be traced through the biographer’s travel to Dublin and Farahy, Ireland, and most recently to Hythe and London, England -- not only places where Bowen lived, but gathering places for history and feeling.