Constance Fulmer Papers

While compiling an annotated bibliography on George Eliot at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, Connie discovered Edith Simcox’s journal, Autobiography of a Shirtmaker. Twenty-five years later, after a decade-long career in medical education, she returned to academia and rekindled her interest in Simcox. She ordered a microfiche copy of the journal and began the painstaking work of transcription, eventually spending seven consecutive summers conducting research at the British Library in London and the Bodleian in Oxford, investigating the people, places, and events referenced in Simcox’s writings.

After completing the transcription, Connie submitted the manuscript to various publishers. During one such submission, wildfires threatened Malibu, prompting evacuations. She was relieved to know the manuscript was safely out of the area—only to find it returned, covered in ash, at her doorstep when residents were allowed back home. Ultimately, Garland Publishing released the work in 1998 under the title A Monument to the Memory of George Eliot: Edith J. Simcox’s Autobiography of a Shirtmaker, at their request to include Eliot’s name. The title echoes Simcox’s own words: “I want all I accomplish to be a monument to the memory of George Eliot.” Connie later secured a contract to publish three volumes of primary sources related to Simcox and had also begun work on a full biography of the writer.