Fable Scholarship

I was adding to the collection steadily and even seeing to the creation of catalogues. I was finding more and more surprising objects illustrating fables.

What is a fable?

In an article, "Fables Invite Perception," written for Bestisa, Vol. 5 (1993), I reviewed the good work offered by scholars Ben Edwin Perry, Pan Ziolkowski, and Pack Carnes on defining fables. I offered this definition:

The upshot of reading Perry, Ziolkowski, and Carnes is that Aesopic fable is a short past-tense fictional narrative with a metaphoric or teaching purpose of some sort. For Perry, this purpose was "illustrating and ethical truth." For Ziolkowski, this is the purpose "beyond entertainment." For Carnes, it is the "point" which fable is invariably called on to make. "What sort of purpose?" and "What sort of point?" are the questions I address here. In answer, the definition I have come to espouse is: An Aesopic fable is a short past-tense fictional narrative that invites perception of a point about how to live life. The definition I offer specifies the teaching character of fable by insisting that the story itself invites perception of a point about how to live life. A fable does not command perception or deliver it. Above all it does not specify entirely the point to be perceived. Its form is such that a hearer experiences being invited to learn something particular and definite about how to live.

I could hardly believe it then in 1989 when a good friend, also interested in fables, told me of a "Beast Fable Society"! I thought she was joking. An organization like that was for me a dream come true! This society had already met in Agadir, Morocco, and in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their meetings combined scholarly talks, including some by leading experts, with local cultural presentations and more creative presentations by members. An entrepreneurial founder - president, Ben Bennani, from what is now Truman State University in Missouri, managed to bring together invitations from local venues with generous offers from hotels and airlines to create wonderful experiences. I was eager to join and to try out ideas with colleagues, and so I traveled to Mayaguez in Puerto Rico to take part in their third conference. I was delighted there to meet established scholars who knew much more about fables than I did. And I found them welcoming what I was learning!

Collector's Comment: This entry into scholarship interchange was a major turning point. I met, among other, Pack Carnes who soon became a mentor to me. Pack was the great bibliographer of editions and of fable scholarship, as I was on my way to becoming a serious collector of fable editions and object. We attended meetings together and researched libraries together. I stayed with him at his Berkley home. I submitted drafts for his helpful criticism. The Beast Fable Society would go on to hold seven more international conferences, and I was able to attend them all and offer a paper at each. I was asked to give the keynote address at Marrakesh, Morocco. I had three articles published in their journal, Bestia. What a gift to have knowledgeable colleagues eager to encourage and help! Travel to places like Glasgow and Caraccas for BFS conferences gave me more opportunities to visit used bookshops. When I arrived at administrative or professional meetings, colleagues would ask "Where are the museums and best restaurants?" I would ask about antiquarian bookshops and flea markets!
It was through the unfortunately short-lived Beast Fable Society that I met members of the Renard Society. This group of mostly European scholars meets every other year for serious scholarly conferences centerd on Renard the fox, especially in the medieval Roman de Renard but also in fables. I have enjoyed several conferences with them, most recently a year ago in Prague. 
Unfortunately, the European summer break often spills into the American fall semester, and so I have had to miss some of their meetings. I have also enjoyed contributing to their lovely journal, Reinardus. I never dreamed as I began to collect Aesopic fable books that it would introduce me to the world of scholarship surrounding these fascinating stories, and I am indebted to those who helped me learn from and contributte to that scholarly community.

A Sample of Articles and Other Writings of Mine:

Bestia:

"Horace's and Today's Town and Country Mice," Bestia, Vol. 4 (1992).

"Fables Invite Perception," Bestia, Vol. 5 (1993).

"A Ridiculous Bet?," Bestia, Vol. 8 (2001-2002).

Reinardus:

"Four American Aesopic Parodists: Bierce, Thurber, Zimler, and Eichenberg," Reinardus 10, 1997.

"Nine Great Moments in the History of Published Fable Illustration," Les Actes du Colloque Renardien de Tokyo, The Renard Society, January 1998.

The Classical Outlook:

Review of The Complete Fables of Aesop by Olivia Temple and Robert Temple, Vol. 76, Number 3, Spring 1999.

Bryn Mawr Classical Review (online):

Review of Francisco Rodríguez Adrados, History of the Graeco-Latin Fable, Volume One: Introduction and from the Origins to the Hellenistic Age. Mnemosyne Supplements 201. Leiden: Brill, 1999, April 1, 2001.

Festschrift für Fritz-Heiner Mutschlet zum 65. Geburtstag:

"Phaedrus, a Fable, and Fun," in Andreas Heil, Matthias Korn, and Jochen Sauer, editors, Noctes Sinenses. 2011. Kalliope - Studien zur griechischen und lateinischen Poesie, Band 11. Heidelberg: Universitaetsverlag Winter.

A Sample of Other Formal Presentations I Have Made:

American Classical League: "The Last Five Years of Fables," Tufts University, June 28, 1991.

Classical Association of the Middle-West and South: "Avianus Makes Fable History by Making Natural History into Fable," Nashville, April 12, 1996.

Rettig Lecture, Xavier University, Cincinnati: "Aesop and the Classical Tradition in the U.S.A.," November 5, 2006.

International Beast Fable Society:

"Beautifying the Beast: Disney's Domestication of Aesopic Fable." Seventh International Beast Fable Congress, October 14, 1994, Kirksville, Missouri.

"'Always the Same and Always Different': Variety in the World of Fables." Keynote Address to the Eighth International Beast Fable Congress, Marrakesh, Morocco, July 6, 2001.

"The Commonality of Rascality: Bitter Bierce," Tenth International Beast Fable Congress, Tampa, July 14, 2003.

Renard Society:

"How Some of Caxton's Fables Got To Be As They Are." 13th International Colloquium, International Renard Society, Poitiers, August 25, 1999.

"From Phaedrus to Caxton, Part II: How Some More Favorite Fables Changed Shape." 14th International Colloquium, International Reynard Society, Hull, England, August 10, 2001.

"What John Ogilby Did for Aesop." 23rd Colloquium of the International Renard Society. Prague, The Czech Republic, July 12, 2019.

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