TRIBUTES

TO

JAMES GIBSON

 

ROBERT SCHWEIK
 4/17/2005
Sadly, I've learned today of the death of Jim Gibson, a dear friend and one of the most outstanding Hardy scholars and editors in our generation. He will best be remembered for his Variorum Edition of The Complete Poems of Thomas Hardy -- one of the two standard editions of Hardy's poems -- an achievement which alone guarantees his stature as one of the first-rank scholars in his field. He was enormously productive. As well as The Complete Poems, he also edited The Chosen Poems of Thomas Hardy, and Thomas Hardy: Interviews and Recollections. and was joint editor of the Casebook: Thomas Hardy's Poems -- continuously in print for 25 years. Among his many other public-ations was a splendid brief biography of Hardy entitled Thomas Hardy: A Literary Life.  But I think of him in more personal ways.  I recall at one of the earliest of the Thomas Hardy Society conferences going to a seminar on Hardy's poetry that he was conducting.  I was cynical and didn't expect much.  But what a revelation!  Jim's comments on the Hardy poems he had selected were remarkable for their sophistication and illuminating quality. And who of us could forget his memorable visits to Weymouth Beach for after dark readings of  Hardy's poetry -- and, on one occasion, at least, being arrested by the Weymouth police for what they took to be (and perhaps we were) rowdy intruders! 
     He was a great scholar.  More importantly -- far more importantly -- he was, in Marty South's memorable words, "a good man who did good things."  I treasure his many kindnesses to me. Jim -- for so much I and so many more owe you -- thanks!   -- Bob.
  
ROSEMARIE MORGAN
4/18/2005
Let it befall that One will call,
   'Soul, I have need of thee:'
What then? Joy-jaunts, impassioned flings,
   Love, and its ecstasy,
Will always have been great things,
   Great things to me!
"Great Things" was one of Jim's favourite poems. As we sat under the stars on Weymouth beach last August these lines came to him without recourse to flashlight and book. He knew them by heart. Indeed,  Jim's own life and career was a "great thing" in itself. Losing his father at the tender age of 2 and his mother at 13 Jim faced tragedy and deep loss at a very early age.
    In his late teens he joined the army. Military life proved to be deeply formative for Jim -- so much so that when he was recovering from the drowse of anaesthesia after knee surgery a few years ago he "returrned" to Egypt, vividly reliving (out loud!) his time there as a young man.
      Jim loved to recount his experiences of army life. One of his favourite stories concerned his first love, John Keats. He tells of a lecture to be given to the NCOs which was announced by the sergeant:
"Roll Up! Roll Up! come on lads, you're gonna learn all about the keats." 
     Gaining a higher education after leaving the army Jim moved on to civilian life and teaching -- first as a schoolmaster at Dulwich College and  eventually as lecturer at Christ Church College, Kent. Shortly after producing Hardy's Complete Poems he moved to Dorset where he took on editorship of the Hardy Journal  and became the king pin of the Hardy Society.
    Jim's funeral will take place at Stinsford Church (where Hardy is buried) and his ashes will be taken, later, to St Juliot where he said he always felt completely at peace.
     Great Scholar, Beloved  Friend -- farewell!
  --  Rosemarie
  
MICHAEL MILLGATE
4/20/2005
I was deeply shocked by Jim's death, even though he had so calmly predicted it when we last met, at the 2004 Dorchester confer-ence.  He had been an important presence throughout the entirety of my own involvement in Hardy studies --always in the picture, always actively engaged, always a resource, and always "living" Hardy with an unmatched intensity and devotion. His departure creates a sense of loss commensurate with his personal vitality and vividness and with the scale of his achievements, but we can at least be confident that his memory will long survive and that the importance of his work, especially his work on and for Hardy's poetry, is permanently assured.
 -- Michael
RICHARD NEMESVARI
4/18/2005
The world of Hardy scholarship is saddened by the recent death of Dr.James Gibson.  Jim was the editor of several crucial works in the field, including his Variorum Edition of the Complete Works of Thomas Hardy, Thomas Hardy: The Complete Poems, and Thomas Hardy: Interviews and Recollections.  He also published the biography Thomas Hardy: A Literary Life, the Casebook: Thomas Hardy's Poems, along with many articles. He served as the editor of The Thomas Hardy Journal and was a vital member of the Thomas Hardy Society.
     Jim's unfailing generosity and support could always be counted on by the younger scholars he met and encouraged at the International Thomas Hardy Conference in Dorchester. As his long-time friend Robert Schweik has said, "he was, in Marty South's memorable words, 'a good man who did good things.'" He will be missed.
  --  Richard
BETTY CORTUS
4/17/2005
This is a sad day for all lovers of Hardy.  It was Jim's edition of the Complete Poems that first drew me to seriously consider devoting my studies to Hardy's works.  When I first met him in 1996 on my first visit to Dorchester, I felt honored to be in his presence.  Since then he has become a cherished friend.  Both John and I will truly miss him.  We send our sincere condolences to Helen, and a sad  farewell to a great scholar and a good man. -- Betty and John Cortus
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    BIRGIT PLIETZSCH
    4/18/2005
  • I first met Jim at the Jude the Obscure centenary weekend in Oxford, almost exactly ten years ago. A university under-graduate and very much a novice to Hardy and the Hardy Society at the time Jim made me feel more than welcome.  It was Jim who encouraged me to work on Hardy and since then had always been happy to discuss my ideas with me, straightening out numerous problems in the process. I recall many conversations with him on his work and mine, and on many other things Hardyan. During my research trips to Dorset meetings with Jim always were an unforgettable highlight providing me with an insight to the world of Hardy I would not have obtained otherwise.  Jim generously offered me his academic advice and guidance and more than that --his friendship. Many thanks, Jim. I will always be in your debt.  --   -- Birgit
  • DENNIS TAYLOR
    4/28/2005
    Jim has been my Hardy mentor from the time of my first book.  I sent him a copy of it, and he led me to Macmillan and publication.    He opened the door, as he continued to do, in Canterbury, in Cerne Abbas, in the halls of Dorchester, on the beaches of Weymouth.  There should be a statue to him in High Street.  -- Dennis
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    JULIAN WHIPPLE
    4/26/2005
    I first met Jim in 1996, which was also my first Hardy Conference. I had read much of his work and was a bit too humbled to speak with him much more than over occasional drinks in the Corn Exchange. In 1998 I was privileged to spend a bit more time with him in the Corn Exchange pub, then in 2000 to share a delightful lunch in a Cerne Abbas pub whose name escapes me.  In 2002 and 2004 I spent some time in Helen and Jim's gracious home and was gifted with several signed volumes of Jim's work.  Their warmth, grace, and generosity to this humble high school teacher touched my spirit beyond any words. I do remember those 1996 nights of poetry  on the beach as well as pub gatherings, but the memory I treasure most is when Jim asked about my own writing and stayed interested in my replies; we then went on to speak about teaching and the many relations between writing and teaching, his own being astonishing in their range from the Second War to this very year.
       As with every one who knew him, I feel as if the world is suddenly dimmer and sadder and absent a beloved inspiration.  Thanks, Jim, for your presence in our lives, and all love to Helen.

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    In 1996, I attended my first THS Conference with a colleague named Jan.  She and I were not romantically involved though close friends, so I was much amused and pleased by how much attention Jim Gibson gave her in the bar of the Corn Exchange.  There was nothing, of course, even vaguely improper, but as an American, she was much flattered and quite pleased by his giving her a (cheek-chaste) good-night kiss as we departed for the two-kilometer walk to our rooms at Lower Burton Farm.  I believe we stopped in at The Sun, straight across the road from our lodgings, for one more pint and to reflect on our respective experiences.  We both boasted of our moments with Jim and speak of them to each other even today.  Jan met him only once more, but I was fortunate enough to spend many times with him and Helen.  Yet Jan and I remember him and Helen as fondly as all who were fortunate enough to fall into their very wide circle.  We are aware of a light that has dimmed our world by his passing.   --    Julian.
    PETER COXON
    4/30/2005
    On Friday I'd taken the train from Bruton to Dorchester West and walked to Patrick Tolfree's house for a bowl of soup before driving out to Jim's funeral service at Stinsford. St Michael's Church is where TH was baptised and where he regularly attended services from his early youth. The rector in Hardy's time - the Revd. Arthur Shirley - was an Eton/Christ Church man holding to what Hardy once described as the old "high and dry way". Lots of poems and stories recall this time ("Afternoon Service", "The Oxen" etc).  
         How different the full church looked on Friday to the doleful affair in January 1928 when Hardy's funeral service took its course. And how differrent the the participants! Now the vicar is a woman, Revd. Janet Smith, and doing an excellent job in the parish. She conducted the service with quiet dignity. Jim's widow, Helen Gibson, in light-coloured skirt and top, sitting with her family sitting, including her sister who had flown 'home' from South Africa, lots of grand-children running around, Jim's 3 children, now grown and none a spitten image of their father - until the son spoke. Jim then came alive with that voice, every 'r' a 'w'.
         Mourners local and from further afield (including a scholar from Yale, a Swiss friend from Geneva, and a representative of Macmillan's) filled the tiny church. The organist, Barry Ferguson, manipulated the small organ brilliantly - he is a fine musician and played some of his own music, as he has in TH conferences of the past. Hardy loved the Elijah story (I Kings) and throughout his life noted down (at least 5 times) whenever he heard it read in church. It was that 'still small voice' that did it for the great man and was taken up in the last verse of the opening hymn - 'O still small voice of calm!'
         Claire, Tony & Tessa spoke as a trio - standing together with linked arms, and contributing their offerings in no particular order. They stood under the chancel arch close to Jim's coffin which bore a lovely wreath of white roses strewn with with blue irises. They spoke of their father with great love and affection, naturally and with no mawkishness, of his immense energy and enthusiasm, of hours spent in the study, of his tireless interest in what they did, the goals which he encouraged them to reach, the long walks he dragged them on (wife + 4 children), drives in the summer hols to France and Italy, never passing a book shop without a quick nip in, arriving at a dreadful camp-site in Italy after a long tiring drive and straightway turning around - 'I know a bwilliant place near Venice', of the 50 books he wrote ('Hardy has looked after me vewy well'), of reading Hardy poetry at midnight on the pebbles at Weymouth, of his wicked sense of humour, busy social life, love of conversation, stories from the past, family picnics and parties, in the early seventies inveterate brewer of beer, in the late seventies enthusiasm for home made cider, the immense tragedy of the death by suicide of one of his sons - and his love of Hardy and attempts to bring the man and his poetry to the public. "WE LOVE HIM AND WE WILL MISS HIM".
        Tessa Taylor, a family friend of many years, read beautifully a fine prayer composed by an American scholar, David Jones (he has preached the opening sermon at the start of a number of Hardy conferences) - self-confessedly 'Jim's greatest admirer'. He described Jim's courage in war and danger, courage in illness and courage in personal tragedy. That he had recognised that despite life's suffering 'love lures life on'. Jim was extraordinarily generous to those who sought to know more about Thomas Hardy. The TH Journal, the TH Soc. grew under his leadership and 'we bless his life loyalties' - 'We cherish the works he has given us' - 'We take courage from his life to renew our life'.
         The Oxen' was read with quiet dignity by Sue Theobald whose own hus-band had died suddenly a few years ago shortly before he was to take up the reins of Chairman of the TH Society, thus following in Jim's footsteps. And no greater hymn than 'The Old Hundredth' - one of Hardy's favourites - brought the service to an end just before a lovely prayer by the vicar. 
         On to Max Gate and the faces of many mutual friends and some new ones as we talked of Jim, each with their own special recollections, enjoyed refreshments, including a glass of good red wine, the sort that often trembled in Jim's hand as he told another tale. -- Peter.
    		  
    WILLIAM W. MORGAN
    5/01/2005
    Jim was an immensely learned man, a fierce advocate for Hardy's greatness ("second only to Shakespeare," as he said many a time), and a superbly generous friend. 
       I met him (as I met so many others--Ian Gregor, Michael Irwin, Desmond Hawkins, etc.) in the summer of 1978 when I made my first trip to the DCM to work my way through the Hardy letters there and attended my first Hardy Summer School (as they were called back then).  He and I had corresponded about some textual matters in Hardy's poems, and I was anxious to meet him.  At the time Jim lived in Canterbury, so I drove over from Dorchester one Friday afternoon, expecting to meet with him and his family for dinner, have a bit of conversation, and stay over in a hotel.  He met me out-
    side his house, fed me dinner, took me off to his study where he gave me Hardy Ale to drink and kept me up until about 2:30 talking about Hardy.  I stayed over, and the next day he took me on a marvelous tour of Canterbury--the cathedral, St Agatha's Church, the Conrad Memorial, etc.  As we were standing outside his house before my departure, he was till imparting gener
    ous "tips": "Did you know that the paper on which Hardy's holographs of his poems are written has a dated watermark?"  Well, of course I didn't; I suspect he was the only person on earth who did know that in 1978.  It was typical of him to give away that kind of information--the kind a more career-oriented academic would guard jealously.
        It became my custom to see Jim in Canterbury and later Jim and Helen in Cerne Abbas every time I was in England.  And when I started bringing groups of stu-
    dents over to study Hardy on location, Jim became a regular visitor to those classes, always coming in for an afternoon to deliver a stunning exposition of Hardy's formal complexity and a rousing endorsement of Hardy's unrivalled wisdom.  Those presentations and the evenings with him among his books are some of my favorite memories of him.  Incidentally, I don't think anyone has mentioned how much he knew about Hardy's books as books: he was a superb bookman and Hardy collector, knowing the points of this or that edition of Tess or Moments of Vision right down to the footnotes in Purdy.  His Hardy collection was one of the best in the world when he sold most of it a few years back.  (And of course he couldn't resist a bargain, so he started over; the last time I was with him and Helen in Cerne in 2004, he was showing me some new acquisit-ions to the Gibson Collection, v. II.)  Jim could be strikingly stubborn and irascible, but one never had the feeling that his stiffness was unloving: I have left his house after hours of agreeing on little and disagreeing on much, but still with a keen sense of having been in the presence of a good friend and a loving and loveable man. 
         I'm a secular person, but I know a blessing when I see one: Jim Gibson was a blessing.  We are all diminished by his passing.    --  Bill Morgan