To commemorate the 50th
Anniversary of his death in 1948, the University of Manitoba is hosting an International FPG Symposium
for Frederick Philip Grove. The Canadian author
lived in Manitoba from 1912 to 1929, and obtained
a B.A. as well as an Honorary Doctorate from this University. Invited are contributions from Grove/Greve scholars
in Canada, the United States, and abroad, particularly
from Germany where FPG was born, raised and educated
(1879-1909). Papers in a variety of related fields are equally encouraged.
Deadline for submissions: February 15, 1998
Send a title and a one-page abstract of your proposal
for a 20-minute presentation, your name &
affiliation, and a brief biographical note to the Program Chair:
Dr. Gaby Divay, 339, Bldg. Dafoe, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Man. R3T 2N2
Fax (204) 474 75 77; Tel. 474 6483 ; e-mail: divay@cc.umanitoba.ca
or to the Conference Coordinator:
Professor Myroslav Shkandrij, Head, Dept. of German
& Slavic Studies,
326, Bldg. Fletcher Argue, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, Man. R3T 2N2
Fax (204) 474 76 01 ; Tel. 474 6605 ; e-mail:
shkandr@cc.umanitoba.ca.
For Further Information about the conference and
the University of Manitoba Archives’ FPG Collections: http://www.umanitoba.ca/libraries/units/archives/collections/fpg/
SUGGESTED TOPICS:
FPG'S LIVES in
Europe and North America:
FPG’s Studies at the universities of Bonn,
Munich and Manitoba; FPG’s Teaching Career in Manitoba; Manitoba Topography; FPG’s tenure at
a Bonanza Farm near Fargo; FPG’s Contacts
With Contemporaries (Stefan George; K. Wolfskehl;
A. Endell; A. Furtwängler; Th. Mann; Gide; H. G.
Wells; H. Hesse; J. Conrad; G. Meredith; A.
Swinburne; K. Hamsun; L. Hémon, and others);
FPG’s Relationships With Women (Helene Klages; Else von Freytag-Loringhoven; Catherine Wiens); Publishers (Insel-Verlag; J.C.C.
Bruns; Oesterheld; Reiss; McClelland & Stewart;
Graphic Publishers (Henry Miller); At the mercury
Press (Louis Carrier); Macmillan; Ryerson); Role Models
(O. Wilde, Flaubert, Swift, Stefan George, Heine,
Goethe, Nietzsche, Rousseau, Thoreau, etc.);
Pseudonyms (F. C. Gerden, Konrad Thorer, Andrew Rutherford)
FPG'S WORKS:
creative works in poetry, fiction & prose; Critical Writings; Lecture Tours; Autobiographies; Fictionalized Experiences (Sparta, Ky., in Settlers of the Marsh;
Bonanza Farm in Fruits of the Earth & Master
of the Mill; early life in A Search for America &
In Search of Myself); Translating in Germany and
Canada
ELSE BARONESS VON
FREYTAG-LORINGHOVEN (b. Else Ploetz, divorced Endell,
1874-1927:
FPG's"wife", 1903-1911): Berlin, Italy, Dachau,
Munich, Wollerau, Paris-Plage, Pittsburgh, Sparta,
Ky., Cincinnati, New York, Berlin again, Paris; Else’s Contribution to New York Dada & The Little Review,
Broom, The Liberator, etc; Else’s Relations
with Marcus Behmer, Melchior Lechter, Ernst Hardt,, August Endell, Richard & O.A.H. Schmitz; Man Ray,
Marcel Duchamp, Djuna Barnes, Bernice Abbott,
W. C. Williams, Hart Crane; Else’s Memories of
FPG in her autobiography, letters and poems; Reflections
of Else in FPG's Fanny Essler (1905) and Settlers
of the Marsh (1925); their jointly created "Fanny
Essler" Poems (1904/5), etc. --
COMPARATIVE APPROACHES:
Prairie Literature; Realism; Decadence; Archaeology
& Classical Philology, ca. 1900; Aesthetist
vs. Realistic Poetry; Neo-Romantic vs. Expressionist Style; Literary Journals; Publishing & the Book
Trade, 1900-1950; Literary Archives; Psychology
(i.e., Jung/Hesse); Intellectual Life in Hamburg, Bonn, Munich, Rome, Paris, Zürich, Berlin, London,
1900-1910; Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Sparta, Ky.,
New York, Fargo & Casselton, N.D.; Halifax, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Simcoe, Toronto, Montreal, 1910-1950.
Biographical Note About FPG (Greve/Grove)
Frederick Philip
Grove came to Manitoba in September -- not December!
-- 1912. He claimed to be of Anglo-Swedish
descent and made himself seven years older, but
he was actually born as Felix
Paul Greve in 1879 in Radomno, "a Russian-German border town." Raised in Hamburg, he graduated
from the famous Gymnasium Johanneum in 1898.
He then studied classical philology and archaeology
in Bonn and Munich where he frequented circles surrounding
Stefan George, the leading poet of his time.
In Berlin he became involved with Else, wife of his
friend, the architect August Endell, and all three
set out for Palermo in January 1903. After
Greve had served a prison term for fraud in Bonn
in 1903/04,
"the Greves" lived in Switzerland, France,
and Berlin until the now highly prolific translator
abruptly left for America in 1909. Else joined
him in Pittsburgh a year later. Greve left her on
a farm near Sparta, Kentucky, in 1911, and
made his way towards Canada. Else posed in Cincinnati,
Philadelphia and New York where she married and
became known as the dadaist Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven.
After a decade of teaching in remote districts
of Manitoba, Grove started his career as a Canadian
writer from Rapid City in 1922. His very first
publication had been the essay "Rousseau
als Erzieher"
(Der Nordwesten, 1914). He was an extra-mural
student at the University of Manitoba since 1915,
and obtained his B.A. in French and German in
1922. In 1914, he had married his fellow teacher
Catherine Wiens. After their daughter died shortly
before her twelfth birthday in 1927, the Groves left Manitoba
to settle in Ontario in 1929. Their son Leonard
was born in Ottawa in 1930, while Grove was involved
with Graphic Publishers. In spite of ill health, Grove
continued to write and publish from his Simcoe
estate until his death on August 19, 1948.
Among other honours, he received an Honorary Doctorate
from the University of Manitoba in 1946. -- The
UM acquired Grove's manuscripts in the early
1960s. Since then, a host of related papers have
been added to the FPG collections, notably,
the Spettigue Collections documenting FPG's German
identity (1986/1995); Stobie's papers, exploring
Grove's teaching in Manitoba (1974); Divay's sources (1990-), including
poetry by Greve and Else, a 1910 Pittsburgh
directory entry, and Bonanza Farm material. Grove's
library was donated by Leonard Grove in 1992, and
letters to A. L. Phelps were acquired in 1997. |
