'Zoe Proctor [sic] (b. 1867) describes how, during the 1870s, when her father was governor of
the County Gaol at Bury St Edmunds, she "could not gain sufficient solitude for reading my little
story books and was obliged to use the only secure retreat—the long, narrow W.C."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Zoe Procter Print: Book
'We are to make roads for the next few days. Out occasionally on work parties. Those officers
not on duty all stayed in bed (valises!) and so did the men. We ate, slept, read in our valises. It
was so cold outside. We had no fires, absolutely nothing, yet I really believed we enjoyed
ourselves. There was practically no shelling.'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Robert Lindsay Mackay
'I wish you would send me the Daily Mail every other day, & also magazines (Pearsons etc)
would be immensely appreciated. I see by a paper of the 18th that Whitby and Scarborough have
been bombarded. The photographs in it are very similar to sights very common here.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry William Williamson Print: Newspaper
'The newspapers amuse us here immensely — we read of the Ger[mans] being driven
back by our chaps — in reality he is walking away of his own free will, as slowly and as fast as
he likes to.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry William Williamson Print: Newspaper
'I received on the 3rd a parcel from you with biscuits and bulls eyes, and same time books and
jersey with letter. The books are very welcome. I shall enjoy reading what I read before the war,
but no matter.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry William Williamson Print: Book
'Still, it is a very fine tragedy. So is the Greek play that we are doing. It is quite unlike all that
stiff bombast which we are accustomed to associate with Greek tragedy. There is life and
character in it.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'I wonder did you notice the article on Nietzsche in last Sunday's Times Literary Supplement,
which demonstrates that although we have been told to regard Nietzsche as the indirect author
of this war, nothing could be farther removed from the spirit and letter of his teaching? It just
shows how we can be duped by an ignorant and loud mouthed cheap press. Kirk, who knows
something about N., had anticipated that article with us, and is in high glee at seeing the
blunder
"proclaimed on the housetops".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Newspaper, Serial / periodical
'Last week I got a copy of that little book of yours on Icelandic Sagas, which I found very
interesting, and as a result I have now bought a translation of the "Laxdaela Saga" in the
Temple
Classics edition.... they are tip top and justify the boast of 'elegance' made in their
advertisements.... As to the Saga itself I am very pleased with it indeed: if the brief, simple,
nervous style of the translation is a good copy of the original it must be very fine. The story,
tho', like most sagas, it loses unity, by being spread over two or three generations, is
thoroughly
interesting.... after the "Roots" a real saga is interesting. I must admit that ... the primitive
type
is far better than Morris's reproduction.'I
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'I have been reading nothing since Othello but a translation from the Icelandic'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'I went to a play that would have appealed to you — "Disraeli", which you will remember to have
seen reviewed in Punch's "At the play". If the real man was at all like the character in the piece
he certainly must have been a prince of cards. I suppose that most of the bons mots that I heard
at the Royalty are actual historic ones, preserved in his letters and so forth.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Serial / periodical
'I hope you noticed the leader in this week's Literary Supplement — on Edgar Allan Poe? I never
heard such affectation and preciosity; the man who thinks the "Raven" tawdry just because it is
easily appreciated, and says that in "The choice of words Poe has touched greater heights than
De Quincy" ought — well, what can we say of him?'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Serial / periodical
'Besides this [i.e. Sidney's "Arcadia"] I have read nothing lately, except a foolish modern novel
which I read at one sitting — or rather one lying on the sofa, this afternoon in the middle of a
terrible thunderstorm. I think, that if modern novels are to be read at all, they should be
taken like this, at one gulp, and then thrown away — preferably into the fire (that is if they
are not in one's own edition). Not that I despise them because they are modern, but really
most of them are pretty sickly with their everlasting problems.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'... remember that nearly all your reading is confined to about 150 years of one particular
country.... And so, if you suddenly go back to an Anglo-Saxon gleeman's lay, you come up
against something absolutely different — a different world. If you are to enjoy it, you must
forget your previous ideas of what a book should be and try and put yourself back in the
position of the people for whom it was first made. When I was reading it I tried to imagine
myself as an old Saxon thane sitting in my hall of a winter's night, with the wolves & storm
outside and the old fellow singing his story. In this way you get the atmosphere of terror that
runs through it — the horror of the old barbarous days when the land was all forests and when
you thought that a demon might come to your house any night & carry you off. The description
of Grendel stalking up from his "fen and fastness" thrilled me. Besides, I loved the simplicity
of the old life it represents: it comes as a relief to get away from all complications about
characters & "problems" to a time when hunting, fighting, eating, drinking & loving were all a
man had to think of it. And lastly, always remember it's a translation which spoils most
things.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'As a matter of fact I am at present reading a real "old french" romance "The High History of the
Holy Graal" translated in the lovely "Temple Classics". If I dared to advise you any longer -. It is
absolute heaven: it is more mystic and eerie than the "Morte" & has [a] more connected plot. I
think there are parts of it even you'd like.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
'After wandering about the place and buying a second-hand copy of the "Gesta Romanorum"
(of which more anon) I took my courage in both hands and knocked up the Master of
University.... The "Gesta Romanorum" ... is a collection of mediaeval tales with morals
attached to them: they are very like the Arabian Nights, tho' of course the characters and
setting are chivalric instead of Eastern. It is not a first class book but it only cost me 1/- and
helps to while away an hour or so between serious things.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Clive Staples Lewis Print: Book
‘The other day I read a Biography of Tennyson, which says he was
unhappy, even in the midst of his fame, wealth, and domestic serenity.
Divine discontent! I can quite believe he never knew happiness for one
moment such as I have … But as for misery, was he ever frozen alive, with
dead men for comforters. Did he ever hear the moaning at the bar, not at
twilight and evening bell only, but at dawn, noon, and night, eating and
sleeping, walking and working, always the close moaning of the Bar; the
thunder, the hissing and the whining of the Bar?’
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Wilfred Owen Print: Book
'I am a week late in thanking you for your parcel and letter … and specially for
the book of sonnets which has been constantly either in my pocket or hand. It
is just the kind of thing one wants—that can be opened and closed again for
five or ten minutes that may come to hand. It contains many fine ones which I
had not met before: and altogether its possession is a great boon.’
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Hamilton Sorley Print: Book
'Did not get up until 7A.M. as I lay in the bed reading ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams
'I rec'd a letter and some newspapers from J. P. Prout with a letter enclosed
from my wife. I read a good bit from the papers & then wrote this it is now
time to go to bed about 8 P.M.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams Print: Newspaper
'After reading a good bit I went to bed about 10 A.M.'
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams
'Got out of the mine about 6 A.M. had some tea & read the paper a bit & saw
in the list of deaths, the death of Mary Ann wife of Lot Brewer. I think it is my
old school-mistress from Trelowth, St Austell.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams Print: Newspaper
'I went in & read a good bit from the news-papers
then Bob his Wife & baby came in & we stayed
chatting for a good while.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams Print: Newspaper
'Got up about 7A.M. had some tea & commenced to read.
I read a Christian Age & some from a book by Thos
Guthrie, 'Man & the Gospel' which I enjoy very much.
I then went down & read a good while to Mr Bennett
who is still very sick. I did not go out very much
for the day. After dinner I read to him again went
to bed about 7-30.'
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams
' ... read some papers to the old man ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams
'I read a good bit to the old man then came in & had
my tea & off to bed about 8-30 P.M.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams
'I wrote a letter and read some news to the old man ...'
Unknown
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams
' ... went to see the old man and read the newspaper to
him ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams Print: Newspaper
'I read some papers & then went to bed ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams Print: Newspaper
' ... had my dinner & read the Newspaper & boiled a pot of
potatoes ...'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: James Bennetts Williams Print: Newspaper
'Started raining at 6.0, so returned on board.
Reading & writing in gun room till 10.0, when we
turned in.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'Lunch 12.0, & afterwards went on leave, while hands
washed up the decks. Had a tremendous blow out at
Swiss Cafe, & purchased many items ... Went & read
at room at the disposal of the Cadets at Tower's
House. Returned on board at 7.45.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'General Quarters till 10.30. Went to Navigator's
cabin to write up log. When I finished I couldn't
find any cadets, so went back to Navigator's cabin &
eat chocolate, then went down to gun room & read.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'Fog did not lift, so we did not begin [patrol].
Spent afternoon in writing, reading etc. Leave for
Officers from 4.30-6.15. Went ashore ...'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'Came down and had breakfast at 8.0. Divisions at
9.45 & no General Quarters but physical training
from 11.15 till 12.0 ... Lunch at 12.0, & afterwards
I retired to the Comforts cabin, & had a ripping hot
bath. Smoked a pipe & then came up to Gun Room &
read a thrilling book.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer Print: Book
'Church at 10.30. Stopped a large & lusty ship at
12.0, but it turned out to be a false alarm as
usual. Lunch at 12.0. I read all the afternoon, &
got the PMO's gramophone during the evening.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer Print: Book
'Hoped to have 1" aiming rifle practice, but after
getting up ammunition & lots of fuss we cleared off
to lunch. Read during the afternoon & tea at 3.30.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'Sketched till 10.45, & then went to the Captain's
Cabin, where the P.M.O. gave us a long lecture on
diseases. Lunch at 12.0, & afterwards I read in the
Gun Room till tea time. No history lessons.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'... nothing much to do all morning, except for a
fairly short stay at General Quarters. There was
nothing for me to do at all in the afternoon, so I
simply sat in the Gun Room & read.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
' ... foul morning ... altogether rotten. I came up
for breakfast to find everyone feeling sick, &
nothing to eat. After some time I partook of a
frugal meal, in the middle of which Control Parties
was sounded off ... Frightfully thrilling. I had
nothing at all to do during the afternoon so I sat
in the Gun Room & read.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'... frightfully dull ... During the afternoon I
went out to the after superstructure for a time &
then came down to the Gun Room & read.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer
'I woke up feeling extremely bored with life ... it
was a foul day, like yesterday. I did exactly the
same things ... During the forenoon the sea gave
signs of going down much to my disgust, as I am
enjoying myself immensely as I am. We had lunch at
12.0, & I started another magazine in the afternoon.
I really must remember to send home for some books.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Richard Romer Print: Serial / periodical
'Thou kindly asks whether I am pursuing my favourite reading. To this I must return a decided no
— several books from our Book Society having come upon us suddenly, and one which I
particularly wish to read, has prevented my exclusive reading on Geology.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Ellis Print: Book
'I have scarcely read anything except an occasional short pity article in some review, on looked
within the pages of some book, and turned away with an oppressed heart when I recollected, that
at least for the present, books are a hidden treasure beyond my reach.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Ellis Print: Serial / periodical
'I have scarcely read anything except an occasional short pity article in some review, on looked
within the pages of some book, and turned away with an oppressed heart when I recollected, that
at least for the present, books are a hidden treasure beyond my reach.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Ellis Print: Book
'Do you take Chambers's Journal? The opening article I like very much, on that beautiful line from
Keats, 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever'; another of the leading articles pleased me greatly, as it
so precisely coincides with my view of the question; it is on Female Education, and is really
excellent and full of truth.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Eliza Ellis Print: Serial / periodical
'Just reading a book called Us and the Americans ... what they do not understand, and what they
like. Our gardens impress everyone.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vere Hodgson Print: Book
'Off parade there was little enough to do. La
Thieuloye was a desolate hole, a mere hamlet with
hardly a shop for miles ... Our barn was a fine
roomy one and we were quite comfortable there ...
leaving our rifles and bulkier equipment in our
places in the barn, we pitched a sort of camp in a
field or orchard at the back of the barn and
mainly lived out there ... the Bachelor's Debating
Society continued to be in very good form and our
time off parade was a jolly one. "G.R."
[unidentified] was at this time supplying us with
reading matter in the shape of Sheffield
Telegraph threepenny novelettes, some of which
caused considerable hilarity. Billy was much
amused, in his perusal of one, to find the
following brilliant epigram put in the mouth of
one of the characters: "Misogyny covers a
multitude of past indiscretions". As "G.R." had
been giving vent to certain anti-feminist
sentiments lately it pleased Billy to apply this
saying to him and we pulled his leg by inventing a
fairly lurid, Don Juan-ish past for our friend.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Geoffrey Ratcliff Husbands Print: Newspaper
'We set off early along a dry river-bed green with
date palms on either bank, pursued by thousands of
flies which we could not get rid off until we
reached the colder climate of the plateaux [...]
we halted for lunch while it was still quite
early, and their beduin spread out carpets on the
sandy river bed in the shade of a large rock, and
placed cushions for our backs. I realized then
that the Hadhramis had a better idea about travel
comfort than cluttered-up safari-minded Europeans,
for it was all so simple and yet so adequate.
Seiyid Salim inhaled long puffs from the hubble-
bubble while Seiyid Hamid read aloud an ode to a
railway train from a book of poems, and so the
time passed pleasantly until our lunch of rice and
dried shark was ready. This was followed by green
tea.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Doreen Ingrams Print: Book, Read in Arabic
'When we returned to Mukalla from the East Indies
there was more work than ever; the war meant a
number of new regulations which had to be enforced
including the censorship of letters. Every morning
Muhammad Ba Matraf, the Residency interpreter, and
I sat down to large batches of letters addressed
to East Africa, India, Aden, or the East Indies.
They were sad letters, mostly written on behalf of
women whose husbands had left them penniless and
to soften the heart of an errant husband they
often included the footprint of a child he had
perhaps never seen; but the letters were unlikely
to be of interest to an enemy, though just
occasionally there were remarks about local events
which had to be cut out.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Doreen Ingrams Manuscript: Letter
'The chief of the post, pushing his long hair out of
his eyes and leaning on his gun, slowly read the
address of my letter of introduction to the
Governor at Alishtar. This letter was an "Open
Sesame": its quite insignificant contents were
luckily sealed up but the name on the envelope had
already served to get me through the entanglements
of the Nihavend police.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Letter
'The Squire of Bijeno was a reader. We spent the
evening over the history of Alexander and over
'"Memoirs of the Boxer Rising", translated into
Persian from the French - a strange waif of a book
that I came upon again in a wild part of Luristan,
amusing the leisure hours of a tribal chief.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
'The Squire of Bijeno was a reader. We spent the
evening over the history of Alexander and over
"Memoirs of the Boxer Rising", translated into
Persian from the French - a strange waif of a book
that I came upon again in a wild part of Luristan,
amusing the leisure hours of a tribal chief.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
'Rutba is the palace planted in the wilderness when
Aladdin's uncle rubbed the lamp; how else can it
have got there? It is 200 empty miles from
anywhere. It has beds to sleep in and waiters who
spontaneously think of hot water. You walk into a
room and dine on salmon mayonnaise and other
refinements and read notices on the walls like
those of an English club house in the country. The
British, returning from summer leave, are all
talking shop or shootings and look nice and clean.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Sheet, notices on walls
'He had the daily paper folded under his arm with
his forage cap or sidara, and his latchkey, as
long and as heavy, and in fact an exact duplicate
of mine, in his hand. Having climbed to my room,
smoked a cigarette, drunk a cup of coffee and
exchanged the news of the day, he would open the
paper out upon my table and lead me, with many
halts and interruptions, through the Baghdad
journalist' flowers of invective, chiefly directed
against our British crimes. It was the fashionable
thing to be anti-British in Baghdad at the time.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Newspaper
'I lie contentedly enough, and amuse myself with a
book which Qasim, seeing me in pain, has brought
me in his kindness. It is his most treasured
possession, a life of the Prophet in big lettering
on rough paper, brown-black on brown-white, with
flowered borders and headlines with the name of
Allah, the author's name in a lunette at the top
of every page, and the number of the page in a
little flowered frame of its own on the margin. It
gives one pleasure to handle anything done, even
by mechanical means, with so much loving care. The
book itself is written guilelessly, and tells the
legends of Muhammad; how Amina, his mother, bore
him without weight or discomfort, and in sleep saw
the prophets month by month in turn, and in the
last month the Prophet Jesus - for the substance
of Muhammad, a drop from the River of Paradise,
had been in the bodies of all the Prophets before
him, beginning with Adam.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
'In the evenings, if I have no one else below, I
climb upstairs to sit in comfort except for
mosquitoes - enormous creatures with white rings
round their legs - that infest this region.
Alinur, now recovered, is by the table with a
book, in a comfortable domestic atmosphere; the
Archaeologist is on a terrace in the distance,
with 'Time and Tide' and the 'Spectator' (very
old) strewn about her. A lantern on her right hand
and the moon on her left illuminate the neat
blouse, and grey hair whose brushed waves still
keep a faint rebellious grace of girlhood.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Elinor Wight Gardner Print: Book
'I have a copyist now - a thin-faced student in a
long gown who writes out for me the manuscript of
the Sultan of Qatn for which I have no time: it is
six hundred pages and tells, under red and green
headings, the history of sixteenth century in
Yemen. It is called the Sirat al Mutawakkiliya and
was written in A.D. 1600, and in it are described
scraps with the Ferangi (probably the Dutch) in
the Red Sea, and a mission from Yemen to Abyssinia
and news too of this land. Whether it is known or
not in Europe I have no means of telling, but it
is good enough in itself to be worth the copying,
and it is a pleasure to perpetuate learning by
this slow and ancient means. It is very expensive,
for every two sheets of paper cost a quarter of a
dollar (4 1/2d.), apart from the scribe's time;
and it is difficult too to deal with, for none of
the pages are numbered.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Codex, Arabic history of Yemen
'In the evening all the boys came rushing excited to
my terrace with baskets full of pots. They are
rough and ugly, but they have pre-Islamic letters
scratched on them, which will presumably help to
date them: one has the word "mat" (he died),
incised upon its edge.'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
'Hasan, smoking wisps of paper filled with green
tobacco, walked on reciting poems composed by his
father about Harold and the R.A.F. and chucked his
long brown fingers to explain the verses to us and
to the donkey behind him [12 lines of verse are
translated and quoted by Stark, with an
interruption from her midway, showing this is a
reactive listening experience]'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
When I reached home I found a man with a qasida in
praise of Harold in his hand. 'He has broken the
horns of the wicked', it says. I wonder if this has
any relationship with the Bible phrase: 'His horn
shall be exalted?'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Sheet
I have spent a meandering day taking last pictures
in the town with the Qadhi, who read out the carved
inscriptions of the tombs, and standing with
upturned palms while he chanted his prayer for the
dead, smiled in his gentle way as I said 'Amen'.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
It is a huge citadel, nearly a mile in length I
should guess, on a low and stony ridge going east
and west [...] the inscription is inside the
southern gateway and tells how the governor of the
fortress rebuilt the wall with stone and wood and
binding (mortar), and calls it by the name of
Meifa'a, which has not changed. I sat and copied
and kept a running flow of conversation to hold my
crowd in hand, telling them the Arabic names of the
letters as I wrote them down.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
Great black blocks, roughly cut, show the seawall
protecting the citadel's approach; and on a ledge
east of the causeway the two inscriptions in the
rock are clear as on the day that they were cut
[...] as through a rift in clouds, they show for a
moment the history of Cana in the past. The
citadel itself was called Mawiya, and the Governor
of Cana here, in the shorter inscription, recorded
his presence. The longer one was dated and tells
how the tribes of Himyar, having made an
expedition into Abyssinia, were harassed by the
Abyssinians in their turn; with their lands
invaded, their king killed, they shut themselves
up in this fortress, and restored its single
gateway, its cisterns and walls in the year A.D.
625 or thereabout, many centuries after the
Periplus speaks of the ancient harbour [...] these
things I turned idly over while copying out the
inscriptions through the quiet solitary hours of
the afternoon.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
I was also pained but amused at the pink, paper-
bound novels that went about: I asked my neighbour
to read me a paragraph, and this was it: "'Good
God,' said Susanna: 'what will my mother say when
she hears that I have dropped my new eyelashes into
the champagne?'"
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
The people in the beds near me also kept quiet
during the days before the operation, when I lay
busily reading about South Arabia, and this
delicacy I have always remembered with gratitude.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
I have been rather feeble and depressed all
summer, and it will probably do a lot of good to
walk about the hills of Arabia. I have been
reading books about it and it sounds a good
country though uncomfortable.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
I am reading the Periplus of the Erythrean Sea
(how much prettier a name than Red Sea): it was an
old commercial chart by an unknown Greek of
Alexandria in the first century - the first
account of these shores, which the Arabian traders
tried to keep wrapped in mystery so that Roman
commerce should not enter. It is very pleasant to
sit and read it on deck while the gulfs and bays
unroll before one.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
'Last night I sent a field service card just to
let you know that I received the parcel alright
on Sunday. It was packed very well. There was a
lot of stuff in it, and it was quite exciting
exploring it, which I did just before going to
Church ... Now I must thank you for all the
good things you have sent ... It is quiet here
now. Not many patients in. One in our ward was
shot in the side below the ribs, and the bullet
is up in his neck. He was digging at the time
in the dark. He is propped up in bed and quite
cheerful, eating, reading and sleeping ... The
Advertisers were interesting. I read them both
yesterday afternoon, and all of young
Corbishley's letters.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Anon Anon Print: Unknown
'Well, I have got another change. Am on night
duty again, but among the officers. Have been
doing it just a week ... It is 5.45 now and I
will soon take a cup of tea to each patient.
Then take water round for them to wash. At
seven I finish. In the night I get an easy
chair out of the sitting room and a book, and
sit here in the small kitchen till a bell rings
for me. Two Australian officers came in a night
or two ago. One is a chaplain and now
dangerously ill with bronchitis. I have to wear
a clean white coat and look as clean as
possible ... This job is all very well for a
change, but I don't think I shall be satisfied
with it for too long.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Wainwright Print: Book
'This letter will probably not be finished this
evening, for I am writing it in the YMCA hut at 6
o'clock and there is such a noise of chairs and
tables being moved in preparation for a concert by
men from a neighbouring hospital ... The piano is
now playing and the hut is full. Am writing this
on a book. The concert has begun ... Do you read
much? I have taken it up a bit since I was sick
and I've read some nice stories. It helps one
forget troubles.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Wainwright Print: Book
'Yesterday I was given half the day off. In the
afternoon I went to my tent and lay down to read
and sleep. In the evening I sat in the Salvation
Army room and read, for it was raining, and being
on "Fire Picket" this week, I am not allowed to
leave the hospital vicinity.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Wainwright Print: Book
'This afternoon I was off duty so got into my
blankets at 1.45 and read a book until I fell
asleep, and woke at 4.30.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Wainwright Print: Book
'I would not, I could not, give up the rides and
rambles that took up so much of my time, but I
would try to overcome my disinclination to serious
reading. There were plenty of books in the house —
it was always a puzzle to me how we came to have
so many. I was familiar with their appearance on
the shelves — they had been before me since I
first opened my eyes — their shape, size, colours,
even their titles, and that was all I knew about
them. A general Natural History and two little
works by James Rennie on the habits and faculties
of birds was all the literature suited to my wants
in the entire collection of three or four hundred
volumes. For the rest I had read a few story-books
and novels: but we had no novels; when one came
into the house it would be read and lent to our
next neighbour five or six miles away, and he in
turn would lend to another twenty miles further
on, until it disappeared into space'. I made a
beginning with Rollin's "Ancient History" in two
huge quarto volumes; I fancy it was the large
clear type and numerous plates [...] that
determined my choice. Rollin the good old
priest, opened a new, wonderful world to me, and
instead of the tedious task I feared the reading
would prove,it was as delightful as it had
formerly been to listen to my brother's endless
histories of imaginary heroes and their wars and
adventures. Still athirst for history, after
finishing Rollin I began fingering other works of
that kind: there was Whiston's "Josephus", too
ponderous a book to be held in the hands when read
out of doors; and there was Gibbon in six stately
volumes. I was not yet able to appreciate the lofty
artificial style, and soon fell upon something
better suited to my boyish taste in letters - a
"History of Christianity" in, I think, sixteen or
eighteen volumes of a convenient size. [...] These
biographies sent me to another old book, "Leland
on Revelation", which told me much I was curious
to know about the mythologies and systems of
philosophy of the ancients [...]. Next came
Carlyle's "French Revolution", and at last Gibbon,
and I was still deep in the "Decline and Fall"
when disaster came to us, my father was
practically ruined.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson Print: Book
'It was not strange in these circumstances
[suffering from cardiac complications of rheumatic
fever] that I became more and more absorbed in the
religious literature of which we had a good deal
on our bookshelves — theology, sermons,
meditations for every day in the year, "The Whole
Duty of Man", "A Call to the Unconverted", and
many other old works of a similar character. Among
these I found one entitled, if I remember
rightly,"An Answer to the Infidel", and this work,
which I took up eagerly in the expectation that it
would allay those maddening doubts perpetually
arising in my mind [...] reading one of the
religious books entitled "The Saints Everlasting
Rest" in which the pious author, Richard Baxter
expatiates on and labours to make his readers
realize the condition of the eternally damned
[....]'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson Print: Book
'One of the books I read then for the first time
was White's "Selborne", given to me by an old
friend of the family, a merchant in Buenos Ayres
[sic], who had been accustomed to stay a week or
two with us with us once a year when he took his
holiday. He had been on a visit to Europe, and one
day, he told me, when in London on the eve of his
departure, he was in a bookshop, and seeing this
book on the counter and glancing at a page or two,
it occurred to him that it was just the right
thing to get for that bird-loving boy out on the
pampas. I read and re-read it many times, for
nothing so good of its kind had ever come to me,
but it did not reveal to me the secret of my own
feeling for Nature [...] I found it in other
works: in Brown's "Philosophy" — another of the
ancient tomes on our shelves, and in an old volume
containing appreciations of the early nineteenth
century; also in other works.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson Print: Book
I am reading some Yemeni legends and tales. One
nice one about two rival doctors, a good and a bad
one: the King said he would take as his family
physician the one who succeeded in poisoning the
other [summary of the tale follows]
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
I have been studying the little pamphlet [on the
Arabs] in the train and feel that, though you have
improved the language, the whole thing is so
ineffective that it is not worth bothering about.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
A delightful Persian in Basra, Mirza Muhammed,
keeps — entirely for his own pleasure — a
priceless collection of Persian and Arabian MSS. I
can't tell you what a lovely morning I spent
there. An MS. belonging to Saladin, with his name
in it, an MS. of the 8th century A.D., and one
stamped by the 4th Sultan of the family of
Tamerlane — and such lovely illuminated pages in
the later ones — treasures beyond price.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Codex
A delightful Persian in Basra, Mirza Muhammed,
keeps — entirely for his own pleasure — a
priceless collection of Persian and Arabian MSS. I
can't tell you what a lovely morning I spent
there. An MS. belonging to Saladin, with his name
in it, an MS. of the 8th century A.D., and one
stamped by the 4th Sultan of the family of
Tamerlane — and such lovely illuminated pages in
the later ones — treasures beyond price.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Codex
A delightful Persian in Basra, Mirza Muhammed,
keeps — entirely for his own pleasure — a
priceless collection of Persian and Arabian MSS. I
can't tell you what a lovely morning I spent
there. An MS. belonging to Saladin, with his name
in it, an MS. of the 8th century A.D., and one
stamped by the 4th Sultan of the family of
Tamerlane — and such lovely illuminated pages in
the later ones — treasures beyond price.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Codex, illuminated manuscript
We went to St. Tropez to see my Alsatian friends
and pushed on to lunch at Paradou, and found A.
Besse very cheerful with 7 ladies (including
ourselves) around him, therefore fully in his
element [...] spent the afternoon reading accounts
from his agents in Abyssinia which made me quite
sick almost physically.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
I sat on my roof and went on with my manuscripts,
distracted by bevies of women wanting medicines
for what they call 'wind', i.e. pains from sitting
in their perpetual draughts with no clothes under
their gowns. The manuscripts are pleasant to read
here: all the raids and battles, talk of the
places I know, and the turbulent medieval life
rises vivid before one.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Unknown
I am getting hold of a copyist as there are
various exciting manuscripts here and I can't deal
with all myself. I have nearly finished one and it
is full of useful information — for instance it
gives the date when the old Himyaritic ruin we
went to see east of Tarim was renovated by the
Arabs and finally ruined.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Manuscript: Unknown
'By the time my wife goes to bed at 9 or soon after,
I feel too tired to do anything except sit by the
fire and read a little poetry, then go to bed
myself—without doing any work or answering a
letter.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: William Henry Hudson Print: Book
'...and in the little bays I have damaged myself on rocks. I had
been reading there on a cliff seat I constructed for about 5
hours on Sunday afternoon, when I woke up to the knowledge
that the tide had cut me off; of course I had chosen a place
where the cliff was climable (?), but it took rather long with all
my books in my hand.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence Print: Book, 'books' 'with all my books in my hand'
'To fill up this rather mixed letter I will give you a sketch of one
of my days here. I wake at 7. and get up at 7.30. At eight I take
"petit dejuner", and after inspecting my bicycle I read and write
till a few minutes to twelve'.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence
'"The day was fair and sunny, sea and sky
"Drank its inspiring radiance, and the wind
"Swept strongly from the shore, blackening the waves."
I went to my seat on the cliff and read; beneath this
projecting rock the sea
"On bare black pointed islets ever beats
"With heaving surge."' [The quotation however is 'On black
bare pointed islets ever beat / With sluggish surge']. 'As I
have started giving quotations you will have to endure
more, or burn the letter [...] I reached there before two today
and stayed till seven. I think an August afternoon is the best
time of the year...'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence
'While walking about there before continuing my reading I
fell into a little lake, between two rocks, and I wet all my
legs. It was
"A still salt pool, locked in with bars of sand
"Left on the shore." [Quoted from "The Palace of Art",
Tennyson]
From my reading desk
"I see the waves upon the shore
"Like Light dissolved in star-showers thrown."'[Quoted from
"Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples", Shelley].
'...I have got into the habit of quoting any appropriate lines
to myself, and this time I thought I would put them on
record'.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence
'I rode to Montbard...and thence here, which is a tiny village
about 15 miles from Vezelay "the grandest Norman church in
Europe" (or outside it I presume) the guide-books all sing in
chorus. I'll let you know tomorrow about that'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Edward Lawrence Print: Book
I sat at my table and studied verbs and nouns,
wrapped in more clothes than I wore to climb the
Matterhorn, and looked with a wary eye at the
sunshine outside, dazzling and hard, and able to
freeze one to the bone. In spite of this
inclemency, I flourished, attended to by Mlle Rose
with the same care as that which she devoted to
her begonias; they flowered in the middle of the
winter on her marble floor.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark Print: Book
I am grateful for the leisure of my years,
whether voluntary or enforced — for long
stretches of sickness or of holiday, and also for
small snippets like those produced by the habit
of dressing for the evening. It meant a casting
away as it were of the day's business. After
dinner, in Asolo, Herbert Young would read aloud
while we embroidered; later on, he and my mother
took to bridge; and in any case all solitary
activities were laid aside and a sort of
emptiness built around the folding of the day.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Freya Stark
I am grateful for the leisure of my years,
whether voluntary or enforced — for long
stretches of sickness or of holiday, and also for
small snippets like those produced by the habit
of dressing for the evening. It meant a casting
away as it were of the day's business. After
dinner, in Asolo, Herbert Young would read aloud
while we embroidered; later on, he and my mother
took to bridge; and in any case all solitary
activities were laid aside and a sort of
emptiness built around the folding of the day.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Flora Stark
I am grateful for the leisure of my years,
whether voluntary or enforced — for long
stretches of sickness or of holiday, and also for
small snippets like those produced by the habit
of dressing for the evening. It meant a casting
away as it were of the day's business. After
dinner, in Asolo, Herbert Young would read aloud
while we embroidered; later on, he and my mother
took to bridge; and in any case all solitary
activities were laid aside and a sort of
emptiness built around the folding of the day.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Herbert Young
'I have lately re-read here the complete works of Conrad and Henry James and am engaged on
reading all the books of Stephen Crane that I can lay my hands on—for the to me astounding
fact is that the works of these three writers are here out of print and practically unobtainable,
such being glory! I had to borrow the Conrad and James from Doubleday and Scribner's
respectively and Knopf has only been able to lend me Crane’s "George's Mother". . . after ringing
up more than twenty new and second hand booksellers. Of Conrad I was most re-impressed by
"Under Western Eyes", "Nostromo" and the "Secret Agent"; of James the "Spoils of Poynton", the
"Wings of the Dove", the "Turn of the Screw" and a dozen short stories. I have also been reading
during a fortnight in Tennessee from which I have just returned, the "Agricultural Census" of the
United States, several lives of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Boone, Crockett and minor Southern
Notabilities, the new (as yet unpublished) volume of poems by Allen Tate; the new (as yet
unpublished) novel of Robert Penn Warren—both these admirable; and a number of other works
in ms. Of lately published work I have vivid recollections of and admiration for “Aleck Maury,
Sportsman”, by Caroline Gordon, “Act of Darkness” by John Peale Bishop,” Walls Against the
Wind” by Frances Park, “Little Candle’s Beam” by Isa Glenn and Graham Greene’s “It’s a
Battlefield” and Arnold Gingrich’s “Cast Down the Laurel”.'
[Ford then indicates his intended shipboard reading between New York and Naples on the S.S.
"Roma" including Crane and W. H. Hudson over the next week or so.]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book
'I have lately re-read here the complete works of Conrad and Henry James and am engaged on
reading all the books of Stephen Crane that I can lay my hands on—for the to me astounding
fact is that the works of these three writers are here out of print and practically unobtainable,
such being glory! I had to borrow the Conrad and James from Doubleday and Scribner's
respectively and Knopf has only been able to lend me Crane’s "George's Mother". . . after ringing
up more than twenty new and second hand booksellers. Of Conrad I was most re-impressed by
"Under Western Eyes", "Nostromo" and the "Secret Agent"; of James the "Spoils of Poynton", the
"Wings of the Dove", the "Turn of the Screw" and a dozen short stories. I have also been reading
during a fortnight in Tennessee from which I have just returned, the "Agricultural Census" of the
United States, several lives of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Boone, Crockett and minor Southern
Notabilities, the new (as yet unpublished) volume of poems by Allen Tate; the new (as yet
unpublished) novel of Robert Penn Warren—both these admirable; and a number of other works
in ms. Of lately published work I have vivid recollections of and admiration for “Aleck Maury,
Sportsman”, by Caroline Gordon, “Act of Darkness” by John Peale Bishop,” Walls Against the
Wind” by Frances Park, “Little Candle’s Beam” by Isa Glenn and Graham Greene’s “It’s a
Battlefield” and Arnold Gingrich’s “Cast Down the Laurel”.'
[Ford then indicates his intended shipboard reading between New York and Naples on the S.S.
"Roma" including Crane and W. H. Hudson over the next week or so.]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book
'I have lately re-read here the complete works of Conrad and Henry James and am engaged on
reading all the books of Stephen Crane that I can lay my hands on—for the to me astounding
fact is that the works of these three writers are here out of print and practically unobtainable,
such being glory! I had to borrow the Conrad and James from Doubleday and Scribner's
respectively and Knopf has only been able to lend me Crane’s "George's Mother". . . after ringing
up more than twenty new and second hand booksellers. Of Conrad I was most re-impressed by
"Under Western Eyes", "Nostromo" and the "Secret Agent"; of James the "Spoils of Poynton", the
"Wings of the Dove", the "Turn of the Screw" and a dozen short stories. I have also been reading
during a fortnight in Tennessee from which I have just returned, the "Agricultural Census" of the
United States, several lives of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Boone, Crockett and minor Southern
Notabilities, the new (as yet unpublished) volume of poems by Allen Tate; the new (as yet
unpublished) novel of Robert Penn Warren—both these admirable; and a number of other works
in ms. Of lately published work I have vivid recollections of and admiration for “Aleck Maury,
Sportsman”, by Caroline Gordon, “Act of Darkness” by John Peale Bishop,” Walls Against the
Wind” by Frances Park, “Little Candle’s Beam” by Isa Glenn and Graham Greene’s “It’s a
Battlefield” and Arnold Gingrich’s “Cast Down the Laurel”.'
[Ford then indicates his intended shipboard reading between New York and Naples on the S.S.
"Roma" including Crane and W. H. Hudson over the next week or so.]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book
'I have lately re-read here the complete works of Conrad and Henry James and am engaged on
reading all the books of Stephen Crane that I can lay my hands on—for the to me astounding
fact is that the works of these three writers are here out of print and practically unobtainable,
such being glory! I had to borrow the Conrad and James from Doubleday and Scribner's
respectively and Knopf has only been able to lend me Crane’s "George's Mother". . . after ringing
up more than twenty new and second hand booksellers. Of Conrad I was most re-impressed by
"Under Western Eyes", "Nostromo" and the "Secret Agent"; of James the "Spoils of Poynton", the
"Wings of the Dove", the "Turn of the Screw" and a dozen short stories. I have also been reading
during a fortnight in Tennessee from which I have just returned, the "Agricultural Census" of the
United States, several lives of Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Boone, Crockett and minor Southern
Notabilities, the new (as yet unpublished) volume of poems by Allen Tate; the new (as yet
unpublished) novel of Robert Penn Warren—both these admirable; and a number of other works
in ms. Of lately published work I have vivid recollections of and admiration for “Aleck Maury,
Sportsman”, by Caroline Gordon, “Act of Darkness” by John Peale Bishop,” Walls Against the
Wind” by Frances Park, “Little Candle’s Beam” by Isa Glenn and Graham Greene’s “It’s a
Battlefield” and Arnold Gingrich’s “Cast Down the Laurel”.'
[Ford then indicates his intended shipboard reading between New York and Naples on the S.S.
"Roma" including Crane and W. H. Hudson over the next week or so.]
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book
'Notes on Colossians'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Good Print: Unknown
'Notes on Thessalonians'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Sarah Good Print: Unknown
'David Watson, M.A. of St. Andrews University, used to spend every spare moment of his day
and whole Sundays on end with this writer [Ford] standing beside him at his pulpit and
construing for him every imaginable kind of book from “Ataxerxes” of Madame de Scudéry and
“Les Enfants de [sic] Capitaine Grant” by Jules Verne, to ode after ode of Tibullus, Fouqué’s
“Udine”, all of the “Inferno”, the greater part of “Lazarillo de Tormes” and “Don Quixote” in the
original[…]
In addition, Mr. Watson had this writer translate for him orally into French “The Two Admirals”,
“The Deerslayer”, and “The Last of the Mohicans”—which made this writer appreciate what a
magnificent prose writer Cooper was.’
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Ford Madox Ford Print: Book
'Lottie's kind of reading, though I could
manage
it, was not mine; it was usually fiction
conducive
of the domestic virtues. At the club, my father
discovered a number of volumes which to me were
very heaven. The author was Jules Verne. I was
quite convinced that he told the truth, and in
The
Mysterious Island (with an organ on a
submarine) I
lived in perfect joy and felicity. [...] He
eclipsed Marryat and Ballantyne and Kingston
for
me; and Henty never fully caught my attention.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charlotte Margaret Blunden Print: Book
