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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 1420


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'By age fourteen Durham collier Jack Lawson... would find... emancipation at the Boldon Miners' Institute... "And didn't I follow the literary trail, once I found it. Like a Fenimore Cooper Indian I was tireless and silent once I started. Scott; Charles Reade, George Eliot; the Brontes; later on Hardy; Hugo; Dumas and scores of others. Then came Shakespeare; the Bible; Milton and the line of poets generally. I was hardly sixteen when I picked up James Thomson's Seasons, in Stead's 'Penny Poets'... I wept for the shepherd who died in the snow".'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

Between 1895 and 1897

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Durham

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:

Jack Lawson

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

n/a

Date of Birth:

1881

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (non-agricultural)

Occupation:

collier

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:

Walter Scott

Title:

n/a

Genre:

Fiction, Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown
From Boldon Miners' Institute - uncertain whether borrowed or read in situ


Source Information:

Record ID:

1420

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:

52

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 52, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1420, accessed: 28 March 2024


Additional Comments:

See Jack Lawson, 'A Man's Life' (London, 1932) p.77

   
   
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