Jim Welsh: In Appreciation of a Pioneer

Abstract

We do not believe film should be used merely illustrate classics of literature. This was James M. Welsh setting tone for a day-long 1977 Rockefeller Foundation invitational conference entitled Film and Humanities. A humanities course that takes as its substance cinema of Ingmar Bergman, he continued, to take one unassailable example, makes as much sense as one concentrating on plays of Shakespeare or Eugene O'Neill. As historians committed study of film and television in context of our own discipline, we of Film & History could not have agreed more. At that point, in mid 1970s, both Film & History and Literature/Film Quarterly, journal Welsh had co-founded several years before, were just beginning help shape their emerging fields of study. Our efforts were within context of American Historical Association, often through Historians Film Committee. Welsh and his journal worked within Modern Language Association (MLA) and brought many litterateurs cause of visual literacy. The current issues of journals are now in their thirty-fourth year of publication with libraries world-wide subscribing and sending manuscripts for consideration by these peer-reviewed publications. Now, as he approaches retirement from his long and productive teaching career, we need recognize Jim Welsh's considerable contributions work we all seek do well in classroom, in archives, and in broader public realm urging all viewers appreciate film and television as more than an evening's entertainment. In early 1970s, straight from graduate training at University of Kansas, Welsh joined English Department at Maryland's Salisbury State College (now Salisbury University), what was then referred as the little college on shore. There he found a colleague, Tom Erskine, who had also spent some time at Kansas. With a start-up grant from university they were able establish journal which filled for literature studies same function Film & History was trying supply for its discipline. It became a support network for literature professors integrating film into their scholarship and teaching and also provided an outlet for their work, which was largely spurned by existing journals. Along way, he shared many projects with John Tibbetts. John C. Tibbetts, who later edited American Classic Screen for National Film Society and coordinated film workshops and conferences with Jim Welsh, met Welsh in 1968 at University of Kansas, where they both became involved in KU Film Society, a series that brought campus filmmakers ranging from Jonas Mekas King Vidor Jean-Luc Godard. (Steve Allen, Kevin Brownlow, and Tony Palmer would follow later.) Tibbetts and Welsh first collaborated on His Majesty American: The Cinema of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (A.S. Barnes, 1977) before going on later collaborate on The Cinema of Tony Richardson: Essay s and Interviews (SUNY Press, 1999) and several other projects for Facts On File Publishers, starting with The Encyclopedia of Novels into Film (first published in 1998, with an expanded and revised version scheduled for publication in 2004). Tibbetts, a skilled illustrator as well as an editor and teacher, provided many covers for LFQ over years, as well as interviews and essays, such as Opera on Film, lead piece for first issue of LFQ in 2004. John Tibbetts has been a wonderful working partner Welsh over years while maintaining his own publishing interests in area of film music; he is a popular teacher at Kansas State University and a trusted correspondent for a number of film groups around world. Mrs. Anne Welsh deserves much credit for success of most ventures listed in this encomium. With her experience in publication, Anne has been invaluable continued production of LFQ over past 20 years. In addition overseeing state bidding process and being responsible for subscription renewals as Business Manager, she also took care of layout and design (working closely with editor) and even handled many general mailings. …