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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

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Various

  

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various  : A Handbook for Travellers on the Continent

'Dear Sir, Before saying any thing on the subject of my own prospects I wish to notice two trifling inaccuracies in the 'Handbook' in compliance with the invitation there given, for it is a sort of public duty to assist in rendering so useful and creditable a work as free as possible from even the slightest errors.'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: William Gladstone      Print: Book

  

various authors  : correspondence and other papers

'I am employing myself at present, in looking over & sorting, & classing my Correspondencies and other Papers. This, when done, will amuse me by reading over again, a very ample Correspondence: & in comparing the Sentiments of my Correspondents, at the time, with their present; and improving from both'.

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Samuel Richardson      Manuscript: Letter, letters and papers

  

[various]  : [various works]

[compiling the anthology "The Female Reader", Mary Wollstonecraft spent] 'long hours reading, for the extracts included came from widely scattered sources and might consist of only a few lines from a long work.'

Century: 1700-1799     Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Wollstonecraft      Print: Unknown

  

Various  : Autographs

'On the other hand, the most pleasurable thing, which has befallen me was receiving two packets, from England, in the same night: the one a letter of fifteen pages from Mr Baillie; the other a collection of autographs from his Opposite. What do you think? among these were a letter from Goethe, and a fragment of a letter from Byron!'

Century: 1800-1849     Reader/Listener/Group: Jane Baillie Welsh      Manuscript: Autographs

  

unknown/various  : [legal documents]

'Meeting held at Frensham. 6th Oct. 1943 Howard R. Smith in the chair.
1. Minutes of the last meeting were read & approved.
[...]
5. Kenneth Nicholson discoursed to us on ‘Style’. He confessed that the more he had gone into the subject the further he had got out of his depth, but this fact was not apparent, for what he said was most interesting and illuminating. He gave as his four essentials for good style: Clarity, Rhythm, Sincerity and the Emergence of Personality. Kenneth Nicholson illustrated these qualities by quotations from such varied sources as: The Telephone Directory; an advertisement for Sanitas powder; the Dean of Harvard; Charles Morgan; Walter Pater; C. E. Montague; G. K Chesterton; H. G. Wells; T. E. Lawrence; a Leighton Park boy and a Press reporter. In the discussion which followed, some members thought that good style could be achieved without sincerity, and reference was made to the regrettable absence of clarity in legal documents and official forms.
6. F. E. Pollard then read 7 examples of prose writing and we were asked to write down the authors. It was only to be expected that Kenneth Nicholson, who had been studying the subject, should come out top with 5 right answers. [...]

[signed as a true record by] A. B. Dilks 8.11.43. [at the club meeting held at 39 Eastern Avenue: see Minute Book, p. 165]'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: unknown members of the XII Book Club      

  

unknown/various  : [official forms]

'Meeting held at Frensham. 6th Oct. 1943 Howard R. Smith in the chair.
1. Minutes of the last meeting were read & approved.
[...]
5. Kenneth Nicholson discoursed to us on ‘Style’. He confessed that the more he had gone into the subject the further he had got out of his depth, but this fact was not apparent, for what he said was most interesting and illuminating. He gave as his four essentials for good style: Clarity, Rhythm, Sincerity and the Emergence of Personality. Kenneth Nicholson illustrated these qualities by quotations from such varied sources as: The Telephone Directory; an advertisement for Sanitas powder; the Dean of Harvard; Charles Morgan; Walter Pater; C. E. Montague; G. K Chesterton; H. G. Wells; T. E. Lawrence; a Leighton Park boy and a Press reporter. In the discussion which followed, some members thought that good style could be achieved without sincerity, and reference was made to the regrettable absence of clarity in legal documents and official forms.
6. F. E. Pollard then read 7 examples of prose writing and we were asked to write down the authors. It was only to be expected that Kenneth Nicholson, who had been studying the subject, should come out top with 5 right answers. [...]

[signed as a true record by] A. B. Dilks 8.11.43. [at the club meeting held at 39 Eastern Avenue: see Minute Book, p. 165]'

Unknown
Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: unknown members of the XII Book Club      

  

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