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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 1370


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Percy Wall, jailed for defying draft notices in the First World War, was inspired in part by a copy of Queen Mab owned by his father, a Marxist railway worker. But neither father nor son applied ideological tests to literature. In the prison library - with some guidance from a fellow conscientious objector who happened to be an important publishing executive - Percy discovered Emerson, Macaulay, Bacon, Shakespeare and Lamb. It was their style rather than their politics he found liberating: from them "I learned self-expression and acquired or strengthened standards of literature".'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1914 and 1918

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

specific address: in prison

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Percy Wall

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1893

Socio-Economic Group:

Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder

Occupation:

son of railwayman

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

William Shakespeare

Title:

n/a

Genre:

Drama, Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (institution library)
Prison Library


Source Information:

Record ID:

1370

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

51

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 51, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1370, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

See Percy Wall "Hour at Eve", Brunel University Library archive of Working Class Autobiographies

   
   
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