'I tried to read Read on poetry - Words words words, - and all polysyllabic. That isn't poetry; not even the explanation of it.'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Vita Sackville-West
Friday 15 November 1940: 'I am reading Read's Aut[obiograph]y: a tight packed unsympathetic mind, all good cabinet making.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Monday 18 November 1940: 'These queer little sand castles, I was thinking; I was finishing Herbert Read's autobiography this morning at breakfast. Little boys making sand castles. This refers to H. Read; Tom Eliot; Santayana; Wells. Each is weathertight, & gives shelter to the occupant. I think I can follow Read's building; so far as one can follow what one cannot build. But I am the sea which demolishes these castles [...] meaning that owing to Read's article on Roger [Fry, or Woolf's biography of Fry], his self that built the castle is to me destructive of its architecture [comments further] [...] I am carrying on, while I read, the idea of women discovering, like the 19th century rationalists, agnostics, that man is no longer God. My position, ceasing to accept the religion, is quite unlike Read's, Wells', Tom's, or Santayana's. It is essential to remain outside; & realise my own beliefs: or rather not to accept theirs.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
