About The Elizabeth-Goudge.com web site and its author.
This page is the work of Kate Lindemann, an out of print bookseller in the United States who has been researching Goudge's work and visiting the places where she lived since 1997.
I am very grateful to so many people. Librarians in England have been helpful as I sought to read some of her correspondence. People who now live in homes where Elizabeth lived during her lifetime have also been generous. And so many people in England, especially Sylvia Gower, who wrote the book, The World of Elizabeth Goudge, have been amazingly helpful.
When I started my Goudge pilgrimages with a trip to Oxofrd and Wells in 1997, I was surprised that there seemed to be little 'official' recognition of this author. At that time there were no web sites about her life or work. ( Now there is a wonderful site at http://www.elizabethgoudge.org/ ) and when I stopped in bookshops, few seemed to carry her work or know anything about Elizabeth Goudge. That was when I decided to do something to give her more recognition.
When I came back to the United States, I built a web page devoted to the author and her work. I also began corresponding with readers and some scholars who had published material about Goudge. Slowly I began to track down some of her letters that were archives at various libraries in the United States and England.
Some months later I received a letter from Sylvia Gower of East Anglia. It seemed that she had been researching the places where Goudge lived and when she arrived in Wells, someone passed along my name as another "Goudge fan". I had planned a second trip to visit Ely and Syliva invited me to her home. So generous!
We met and talked Goudge for hours. I learned that Sylvia was planning a book and so decided not to go ahead with mind. In the ensuing years we exchanged letters, information and became friends. Sylvia and her husband George were so generous with their time and on later visits they shared their friends and showed me parts of England I would never have know.
But in the meantime something unusualy happend. In talking of Goudge with the librarian at Mount Staint Mary College in Newburgh, New York the idea of setting up an Elizabeth Goudge archive arose. AT the time there was no single place devoted to Goudge. She certainly deserved such a place. I was receiving queries from graduate students and others who sought information about her life and works. I was concerned about having an archive for a British author located in the United States but finally decided to go ahead with it since no place in England seemed open to the idea. So, I offered to fund an Elizabeth Goudge archive over the next 10 to 20 years.
I am happy to report that the Elizabeth Goudge archive officially opened a few years ago in the Curtain Memoria Library at Mount Saint Mary College in Newbugh, New York. The aim of the archive is to become a resource with copies of her works, correspondence and other items relevant to the life and work of Elizabeth Goudge.
At present I am trying to build this new Goudge web site. I trust that you will enjoy reading it.
Kate
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