Patrick Orpen Dudgeon
M. A. (Cantab.)
London, 1914 – Buenos Aires, 2012
Patrick Dudgeon y a su derecha Jeannette Seyahian
With love and gratitude I remember the man who was my teacher, my mentor, and lately my friend, my bosom friend.
Mister Dudgeon arrived to Argentina in 1936, he dedicated his whole long life to teaching and writing. His good humor, his gentleman like attitude, his handsome looks made this scholar and outstanding human being.
I remember in the sixties at the Cultural Inglesa, high level studies in Juncal Street , females, including myself were dumbed the moment he entered the class. This Englishman’s good looks were stunning. His knowledge of the language superb, his methodology unique. Mister Dudgeon was Master of Arts (Cambridge University) .He lived in Buenos Aires, he taught at the Cultural Inglesa, at the Profesorado de Lenguas Vivas, and at Santo Tomás Moro, the English Institude he founded.
He had a dominion of Latin, French, German and Spanish, he had a knowledge of Greek, too, though poor, he used to say.
He also founded a play reading circle in Mar del Plata in the year 2000.
He was President of JASBA Comitee, (Jane Austin Society of Buenos Aires), also President of the Buenos Aires Branch of the Dickens Fellowship (the latter was founded by Miguel Alfredo Olivera) in 1961. Jorge Luis Borges, Eduardo Mallea, Miguel Alfredo Olivera and Patrick Dudgeon were the four presidents of the Dickens fellowship.
He promoted conferences, invited Patrick Morgan, Jorge Luis Borges and others. Among his friends were Graham Green, Lawrence Durrell, Vivian Leigh, Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Luis Borges, Eduardo Mallea, and Miguel Alfredo Olivera, his close friend. He enjoyed life at the utmost, .he enjoyed his daily whiskey, and he always remarked that his good health was due to this habit. He used to say “It’s my medicine “. His long life may well be a proof of this. He had a close relationship among some of his students, Alejandro Cabrera Bourgeois was one of them who accompanied and attended him lately.
If not a renowned writer of poet, he will nevertheless be always be present in our lives, the lives of people who love English and English Literature.
His writings and essays can be found in the appendix of “A Story of English Literature” by Sainstbury where he resumes the story from 1870 up to 1950 approximately, published by Editorial Losada in 1957.
He published in the magazine ”Realidad” (1948 - 1949) about T.S. Eliot: a study of his writings by several hands, also about George Orwell and H.G .Wells. In 1959 “Teatro Inglés del Siglo XX” (en colaboración con Miguel Alfredo Olivera). He founded and directed the literary polyglot magazine “Agonía¨ which had collaborations in Spanish, English, French , German and Italian. In poetry he wrote THE FANATIC HEART (30 poems in English ) published in 1949. He made translations from Spanish to English of Miguel Alfredo Olivera’s works.
Generous , humble ,highly esteemed man, you will always be in my mind.
Mister Dudgeon arrived to Argentina in 1936, he dedicated his whole long life to teaching and writing. His good humor, his gentleman like attitude, his handsome looks made this scholar and outstanding human being.
I remember in the sixties at the Cultural Inglesa, high level studies in Juncal Street , females, including myself were dumbed the moment he entered the class. This Englishman’s good looks were stunning. His knowledge of the language superb, his methodology unique. Mister Dudgeon was Master of Arts (Cambridge University) .He lived in Buenos Aires, he taught at the Cultural Inglesa, at the Profesorado de Lenguas Vivas, and at Santo Tomás Moro, the English Institude he founded.
He had a dominion of Latin, French, German and Spanish, he had a knowledge of Greek, too, though poor, he used to say.
He also founded a play reading circle in Mar del Plata in the year 2000.
He was President of JASBA Comitee, (Jane Austin Society of Buenos Aires), also President of the Buenos Aires Branch of the Dickens Fellowship (the latter was founded by Miguel Alfredo Olivera) in 1961. Jorge Luis Borges, Eduardo Mallea, Miguel Alfredo Olivera and Patrick Dudgeon were the four presidents of the Dickens fellowship.
He promoted conferences, invited Patrick Morgan, Jorge Luis Borges and others. Among his friends were Graham Green, Lawrence Durrell, Vivian Leigh, Victoria Ocampo, Jorge Luis Borges, Eduardo Mallea, and Miguel Alfredo Olivera, his close friend. He enjoyed life at the utmost, .he enjoyed his daily whiskey, and he always remarked that his good health was due to this habit. He used to say “It’s my medicine “. His long life may well be a proof of this. He had a close relationship among some of his students, Alejandro Cabrera Bourgeois was one of them who accompanied and attended him lately.
If not a renowned writer of poet, he will nevertheless be always be present in our lives, the lives of people who love English and English Literature.
His writings and essays can be found in the appendix of “A Story of English Literature” by Sainstbury where he resumes the story from 1870 up to 1950 approximately, published by Editorial Losada in 1957.
He published in the magazine ”Realidad” (1948 - 1949) about T.S. Eliot: a study of his writings by several hands, also about George Orwell and H.G .Wells. In 1959 “Teatro Inglés del Siglo XX” (en colaboración con Miguel Alfredo Olivera). He founded and directed the literary polyglot magazine “Agonía¨ which had collaborations in Spanish, English, French , German and Italian. In poetry he wrote THE FANATIC HEART (30 poems in English ) published in 1949. He made translations from Spanish to English of Miguel Alfredo Olivera’s works.
Generous , humble ,highly esteemed man, you will always be in my mind.
Jeannette Seyahian
Por haber conocido y admirado al distinguido scholar que fue Mr Patrick Orpen Dudgeon, me asocio al sentido homenaje que en su memoria ha escrito para este blog la Profesora Jeannette Seyahian, entusiasta seguidora de sus enseñanzas que mantiene “encendidos los fuegos” del Círculo de Lecturas creado en Mar del Plata por aquél. Nada añado a lo que la discípula ha expresado con justicia y claridad sobre los méritos del maestro, pero quiero rescatar una muestra del personal estilo de este último y reproduzco a ese fin un fragmento de lo que dijo al recordarse las actividades de una de las instituciones culturales que contribuyó a forjar.- C.E.Haller. 29 de octubre, 2012
THE HISTORY OF "THE JANE AUSTEN SOCIETY"
It all began quite quietly and simply -as the nice things in this world usually do- about sixty years ago, in 1940, to be precise. Dorothy Darnell had the bright idea and it caught on. It has today about twelve branches and close on two thousand members.
Then, in 1975, Canadian-born Joan Austen-Leigh, great-great-great-niece of the novelist, met Jack Grey of New York, a fellow Janeite, at Chawton, and they decided to launch JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America, covering the U.S.A. and Canada. JASNA has today between four and five thousand members.
JASNA gave birth to JASA, the Jane Austen Society of Australia, with independent centres at Sidney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Nora Walker founded JASA in about 1990. They have today about four hundred and fifty members.(...)
We were the first (...) Jane Austen Society in South America. Be proud of the fact, keep the home fires burning, organize your events, publish your proceedings, make our Centre as good as any other. But we have no money, you cry. Yes, you have. It’s in your own pockets and purses.
I founded The Buenos Aires or B.A. Jane Austen Society on August 26th, 1997, at 2934 Güemes Street, and the Act of Foundation hangs framed in my room at 2932 Güemes Street for anyone to see. In other words, we have been going, in existence for just over three years. In that short space of time we have re-read the six famous novels, read the three unfinished ones, and viewed the superb B.B.C. videograms. No mean achievement! I doubt whether as much has been done in so short a space of time by any other Jane Austen Society anywhere else in the world.
This sounds like blowing your own trumpet, which you are not supposed to do in polite society. But, as I always say, if you don’t, who else will? Perhaps, though, we shouldn’t crow too loud or think we’re the cat’s whiskers. Let us remember that Jane Austen herself, in the seven years she lived at Chawton, revised her first three novels and wrote another three. All in the parlour of the little house at Chawton, with all the interruptions you can imagine because she was a housekeeper as well as a writer, on a little rectangular writing-desk (inherited by Joan Austen-Leigh and presented by her to the British Library) with a quill pen and ink and in longhand. No shorthand for her, or secretaries, fountain or ballpoint pens or biromes, or copying agencies, or computers or any of the gadgets we pampered children of the Technological Revolution resort to!
Patrick Dudgeon M.A. (Cantab.)
It all began quite quietly and simply -as the nice things in this world usually do- about sixty years ago, in 1940, to be precise. Dorothy Darnell had the bright idea and it caught on. It has today about twelve branches and close on two thousand members.
Then, in 1975, Canadian-born Joan Austen-Leigh, great-great-great-niece of the novelist, met Jack Grey of New York, a fellow Janeite, at Chawton, and they decided to launch JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America, covering the U.S.A. and Canada. JASNA has today between four and five thousand members.
JASNA gave birth to JASA, the Jane Austen Society of Australia, with independent centres at Sidney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Nora Walker founded JASA in about 1990. They have today about four hundred and fifty members.(...)
We were the first (...) Jane Austen Society in South America. Be proud of the fact, keep the home fires burning, organize your events, publish your proceedings, make our Centre as good as any other. But we have no money, you cry. Yes, you have. It’s in your own pockets and purses.
I founded The Buenos Aires or B.A. Jane Austen Society on August 26th, 1997, at 2934 Güemes Street, and the Act of Foundation hangs framed in my room at 2932 Güemes Street for anyone to see. In other words, we have been going, in existence for just over three years. In that short space of time we have re-read the six famous novels, read the three unfinished ones, and viewed the superb B.B.C. videograms. No mean achievement! I doubt whether as much has been done in so short a space of time by any other Jane Austen Society anywhere else in the world.
This sounds like blowing your own trumpet, which you are not supposed to do in polite society. But, as I always say, if you don’t, who else will? Perhaps, though, we shouldn’t crow too loud or think we’re the cat’s whiskers. Let us remember that Jane Austen herself, in the seven years she lived at Chawton, revised her first three novels and wrote another three. All in the parlour of the little house at Chawton, with all the interruptions you can imagine because she was a housekeeper as well as a writer, on a little rectangular writing-desk (inherited by Joan Austen-Leigh and presented by her to the British Library) with a quill pen and ink and in longhand. No shorthand for her, or secretaries, fountain or ballpoint pens or biromes, or copying agencies, or computers or any of the gadgets we pampered children of the Technological Revolution resort to!
Patrick Dudgeon M.A. (Cantab.)
RSS Feed