Literary Societies put you in touch with people around the world

This was my experience.

In the late nineties I went online and searched the name of one of my favorite authors - Anthony Powell. He wrote a twelve volume series called A Dance to the Music of Time.

I discovered an email list group called The Anthony Powell Society, and quickly joined it.

For a year or two I read and enjoyed the postings, sometimes posting myself. It amazed me to see the range of countries represented in the postings. People from England, Japan, The Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, the United States and Canada were regular contributors.

From an email list to a live society
In the year 2000, Anthony Powell died. Keith Marshall, organizer of the email list proposed that we start a live group and hold live conferences to celebrate Anthony Powell's works.

That was the beginning of an amazing experience for me. In no time I found myself leaving for England to join the first Anthony Powell Conference. It was held at Eton College outside London.

Since then I have been to a conference at Oxford University, at the Wallace Collection Museum in London,

Afternoon tea at the author's house.
In September of 2007 we held a conference at the University of Bath.

The highlight of our trip to Bath was a side journey to Anthony Powell's house about an hour from Bath.

There we enjoyed afternoon tea hosted by his son John, and a rare opportunity to see the house and grounds.

Imagine! From browsing for the name of a favorite author to ending up having afternoon tea in his house on another continent.

In between conferences various chapters hold meetings and I have been to New York City and Greenwich Connecticut to attend chapter meetings with a small group of delightful people.

This year we have started a new group in Toronto. It's very small, but also delightful. We will be meeting in a midtown pub every few months.

• The Jane Austen Society
• The Sherlock Holmes Society
• The Robert Frost Society
• The Rider Haggard Society

You can get a large listing of these groups from The Alliance of Literary Societies. They list over 100 societies.

Check it out. You might just be meeting up with like-minded people on another continent yourself one of these days.

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