'Yesterday my Elizabeth and I went to the most remarkable poets' Reading I have ever attended. It was held at Lord Byron's beautiful house in Piccadilly... I was moved by Mr de la Mare reading five poems of great beauty. Elizabeth was thrilled at seeing for the first time W.H. Davies, a strange tiny poet. He read "Love's Silent Hour" and three others. Hilary [Hilaire Belloc] read "The Poor of London" and "the Dons". He got a big reception'.
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter de la Mare
'1944 My Favourite:
Books: "Peter Abelard". "The Story of San Michele"
Authors: Henry Williamson, B. Nichols
Poems: Hiawatha. Arabia
Writers: Shaw. Dorothy Sayers'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
[List of books read during 1944]:
'The Specialist; All This and Heaven Too; Antony; Uncle Tom's Cabin; Roper's Row; Tom Brown's Schooldays; Life's a Circus; The Keys of the Kingdom; Two Survived; Hamlet; King's Nurse, Beggar's Nurse; The Snow Goose; Gerald; Early Stages; Cross Creek; Footnotes to the Ballet; The Great Ship; Hungry Hill; Hiawatha; Captain Blood; Scaramouche; Heartbreak House; Fortune's Fool; Fifth Form at St Dominic's; Cold Comfort Farm; The Lost King; The count of Monte Cristo; Diary of a Provincial Lady; Frenchman's Creek; Song of Bernadette; Romeo and Juliet; Rebecca; The Surgeon's Destiny; The Killer and the Slain; Anna; King Solomon's Mines; The Black Moth; Have His Carcase; Peacock Pie; Alice in Wonderland; The Citadel; Good Companions; Our Hearts were Young and Gay; Memoirs of a Fox-hunting Man; The Healing Knife; First Year Out; Saint Joan; Stars Look Down; Bridge of San Luis Rey; Rogue Herries; Caesar and Cleopatra; Xmas at Cold Comfort Farm; Dark Lady of the Sonnets; The Velvet Deer; Leaves from a Surgeon's Case Book; A Christmas Carol; Craft of Comedy; As You Like It; Lottie Dundass; Plays of John Galsworthy; Provincial Lady in America; She Shanties; Peter Abelard; Actor, Soldier, Poet; The Best of Lamb; Some Essay of Elia; Poems, Plays etc; The White Cliffs; Three Men in a Boat; Confessions of an Opium Eater; In Search of England; Wuthering Heights; Pericles, Prince of Tyre; Poems of Contemporary Women; Crime at the Club; Quality Street; Villette; Major Barbara; Pygmalion; You Never Can Tell; King John; Doctor's Dilemma'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
'Read "Henry Brocken" all evening, as had finished prep. It's enchanting.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Hilary Spalding Print: Book
E. M. Forster to Malcolm Darling, 12 March 1912:
'I seem to have read several good books -- William James's Memories and Studies, Walter de la Mare's The Return -- supernatural, profound, and fine --: The Reward of Virtue by Amber Reeves [...] Foemina is interesting on L'Ame des Anglais, though she theorises too much.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
‘There is an excellent article in this week Saturday Westminster, a paper of
which I am very fond. It is a review by Walter de la Mare, and is that poet’s
confession of Faith … My leave starts on Thursday—5 whole days … Do you
not like Laurence Binyon’s verses in the Times Supplement? Those and
Hardy’s and Kipling’s are the best of the bunch. Though I like Watson
Grenfell and Noyes. Hardy’s grows on one. Did you ever read his last book
of Short Stories—"The Changed Man"? … Have you read any of D F
Lawrence? I have just finished an extraordinary book called "The White
Peacock", full of arresting studies of character and most essentially
breathing of earth and clouds and flowers—though not a pleasant book …
we had Zeps here about a fortnight ago. Two bombs were dropped on
Chelmsford itself, both on or near the Glosters billeting area. The damage
was perhaps 5£ worth. It cured an old lady of muscular rheumatism, indeed
it made an athlete, a sprinter of her—she went down the street in her
nightgown like a comet or some gravity-defying ghost.’
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ivor Bertie Gurney Print: Newspaper
