Gloria Sybil Gross, Professor of English at California State University, Northridge, was a beloved and prominent member of JASNA-SW, who generously contributed her talents to the group and to the cause of Jane Austen studies over many years. We have innumerable fond memories of her at Austen events, and of her many excellent talks, most notably at the 1992 JASNA AGM in Santa Monica, where she spoke on "Flights into Illness: Some Characters in Jane Austen," discussing the ironical dynamics of hypochondria. Gloria was a loyal member of the Santa Monica reading group, though she had to drive a long way from her home in the Valley, but whenever she attended we delighted in her sage professorial insights, combined with her insouciant humor. Emma was her favorite Austen novel, and she was especially fascinated and diverted by Mr. Woodhouse, always saying, when she couldn't come to a group meeting, that she was "doing a Mr. Woodhouse." Another of her favorite themes was her adored golden Chow Chow dog, Mordechai Sensation, in whose honor she wrote an article for our Newsletter. "Mordechai loves Jane Austen," Gloria wrote, "having devoured the entire Oxford Series, in addition to several biographies and critical studies."
In addition to Jane Austen, Gloria had other lifelong literary favorites, including Anthony Trollope and Isaac B. Singer, but perhaps her greatest love of all was for Samuel Johnson. She would light up with enthusiasm when talking about him, and her first published book was This Invisible Riot of the Mind: Samuel Johnson's Psychological Theory (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992). She admired and revered her teacher, the late eminent Johnsonian scholar Professor Donald Greene, founder of the Samuel Johnson Society of Southern California, and she edited a posthumous volume of his selected essays. Gloria attended the Johnson Society dinner almost every year, where she would hobnob spiritedly with a host of old friends. Her last book appropriately explored the literary relation of her two favorite authors, and was charmingly entitled In a Fast Coach with a Pretty Woman: Jane Austen and Samuel Johnson (AMS Press, 2002). In her acknowledgements, Gloria graciously thanked "our own especial set, the Jane Austen Reading Group of Santa Monica, principally Diana Birchall and Sheila Ober-Brown, who preside over high tea, conversation and books." Gloria dedicated the book to Donald Greene, with the words, "Let Johnson speak for me when he honors his mentor: 'Such was his amplitude of learning and such his copiousness of communication that it may be doubted whether a day now passes in which I have not some advantage from his friendship.'" (Lives of the Poets, II, 21.) The same can very truly be said for the advantages we have received, over a period of more than twenty years, from our friendship with Gloria.
We remember her warmth and wit, her sympathy and acuity. We also remember that she fought with depression, and would occasionally muse that her beloved Dr. Johnson suffered from "melancholia," too. She lost her battle with depression on September 10, 2007, at the age of fifty-nine.
Condolences may be sent to her father.
Mr. Julius Gross
556 North Croft Ave. #1
Los Angeles,
CA 90048
The Department of English at CSUN will hold an on-campus memorial service in her honor in the Student Union Building Thousand Oaks Room, on Friday, October 19, 2007, starting at 3:00 p.m.
