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“. . . she entered into conversation . . .
doing it with so much sympathy
and natural grace, as shewed
the kindest consideration for all.”
{Jane Austen, Persuasion}
The Jane Austen Society of North America Massachusetts Region lost a great leader, scholar and friend on April 16, 2025, when Marcia McClintock Folsom passed away after a brief illness. Marcia was a life member of JASNA and frequent presenter at Annual General Meetings (AGMs). Many of her essays and reviews (among them, “The Privilege of My Own Profession: The Living Legacy of Austen in the Classroom”) may be found in Persuasions and Persuasions Online.
In 2000, she was the co-chair with Isa Schaff, of the Boston AGM, Pride and Prejudice: Past, Present and Future. Most recently she served as co-regional coordinator of the region.
Marcia was a professor of Literature at Wheelock College for 48 years, serving also as vice president for academic affairs for several years. She was at heart a teacher who loved introducing her students to Austen and inspiring teachers on how to teach Austen. She was the editor of four books for the MLA’s series Approaches to Teaching World Literature. She edited two by herself, those focused on Pride and Prejudice and Emma. She collaborated with John Wiltshire on Mansfield Park and Persuasion for the same series.
After the loss of our old meeting place, JASNA Massachusetts found a new home at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation, thanks to Marcia. She had a personal relationship to the place: her late husband, Michael Folsom, was one of the founders of the museum and she served for many years on the board of the foundation. Always the scholar, she loved to point out that Francis Cabot Lowell, an icon of the American Industrial Revolution, whose factories included that very building, was born in 1775 and died in 1817, just like Jane Austen.
Anyone who attended one of our meetings remembers being warmly welcomed by Marcia and her willingness to answer questions and engage in discussions. If more was required than could be answered at a meeting, she would sometimes send the questioner a detailed response by email.
She will be missed by the JASNA community for her intelligence, knowledge, wit and even her sense of style. Above all, we will miss her welcoming and gracious presence.
“There is nothing so bad as
parting with one’s friends,
one seems so forlorn without them.”
{Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice}
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