The George Herbert Society promotes knowledge and appreciation of Herbert’s life and work by sponsoring international and regional events, publications, awards and prizes, and an ongoing website. While emphasizing scholarly approaches to Herbert, the Society is open to all who share an interest in his life, work, and lasting influence; while non-sectarian, the Society welcomes varied religious uses and appreciations of Herbert and celebrates his living legacies as one of the world’s great poets and spiritual writers.
Since its founding in 2005, the George Herbert Society has established an impressive record of memorable and good-sized international gatherings. Symposia and conferences have met where Herbert lived, studied, spoke, and ministered in Great Britain, but also in more “outlandish” places: not only in Cambridge (2005) and Salisbury/Bemerton (2007), but also in Greensboro, North Carolina (2008), home to the GHS and one of the world’s largest rare Herbert collections. We’ve gathered in Powys, Wales (2011), site of his birth and home to his still living relations, the Earls of Powis, and also in Charleston, South Carolina (2010) and Grove City, Pennsylvania (2013), outposts of the widening Atlantic World that Herbert envisioned.
The George Herbert Festival of July 10-13, 2014 drew thousands to the site of Herbert’s last years in Salisbury/Bemerton; while our Fourth Triennial George Herbert Society Conference, October 16-18, 2014 in Phoenix/Tempe Arizona, saw the presentation of the first Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award; on October 29-November 1, 2015, we returned to Herbert’s Welsh childhood haunts for The Marcher Metaphysicals Conference, at Gregynog Hall, Tregynon, Mid-Wales; and then, on May 18-21, 2017, we crossed la Manche to Paris for our Fifth Triennial Conference. Most recently, after two postponements enforced by the Coronavirus, we met for the Sixth “Triennial” Conference at Cambridge University during June 23-26, 2022. We now look forward to our Seventh (roughly!) Triennial Conference on the topic of “George Herbert and the Americas” coming to a North American university in 2024 or 2025, and to the next George Herbert Festival, returning to Salisbury/Bemerton in July of 2024.
The George Herbert Society Fund, developed from previous conference surpluses and from new membership dues, serves at least the following purposes: to subsidize the costs of producing, enhancing, promoting, and delivering the George Herbert Journal; to provide seed money for GHS events (conferences, symposia, special panels and speakers) and site restorations; to underwrite the Chauncey Wood Dissertation Award; to aid and advance the George Herbert Heritage Centre in Lower Bemerton, England; and to sponsor travel grants for (post)graduate students and some select younger faculty for attending our events. The Fund is overseen by the GHS Allocations Committee. To apply for modest GHS funding, please see Guidelines. You may have participated in a past George Herbert Society event, expressed interest in our work, published on Herbert, or all—or none—of the above. But we hope you’ll join us now.
Please download the membership form here.
Dues Structure
Yearly Membership (October 1-September 30):
(plus $10 for out-of-U.S. George Herbert Journal mailing)
Lifetime Membership: $200
Yearly Membership will bring a year’s George Herbert Journal subscription and eligibility to vote for and serve in any future GHS offices and committees; and preferred application status for GHS funding. Lifetime Membership brings these benefits permanently.
Dues can be paid online or by check
The George Herbert Society
Department of English, MHRA 3143
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
1111 Spring Garden Street
Greensboro, NC 27412 USA
Each dues payment will be answered by an emailed receipt. The George Herbert Society, Inc. is a non-profit corporation in the State of North Carolina, USA. Charitable contributions to the George Herbert Society are deductible in the USA under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
