Record Number: 18096

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

6 March 1920: 'On Thursday, dine with the MacCarthys, & the first Memoir Club meeting [hosted by MacCarthys]. A highly interesting occasion. Seven people read -- & Lord knows what I didnt read into their reading. Sydney [Waterlow] [...] signified as much by reading us a dream [...] altogether a queer, self-conscious, self analytic performance [...] Clive purely objective; Nessa starting matter of fact: then overcome by the emotional depths to be traversed; & unable to read aloud what she had written. Duncan fantastic & tongue -- not tied -- tongue enchanted. Molly literary about tendencies & William Morris, carefully composed at first, & even formal: suddenly saying "Oh this is absurd -- I can't go on" shuffling all her sheets; beginning on the wrong page; firmly but waveringly, & carrying through to the end [...] Roger well composed; story of a coachman who stole geraniums & went to prison.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

4 Mar 1920

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

n/a

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Vanessa Bell

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

1879

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Artist

Religion:

unknown

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

Virginia Woolf Desmond and Molly MacCarthy Clive Bell Duncan Grant Sydney Waterlow Roger Fry

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Vanessa Bell

Title:

autobiographical essay

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, Autobiog / Diary

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

18096

Source:

Print

Author:

Virginia Woolf

Editor:

Anne Olivier Bell

Title:

The Diary of Virginia Woolf

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1978

Vol:

2

Page:

23

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Virginia Woolf, Anne Olivier Bell (ed.), The Diary of Virginia Woolf, (London, 1978), 2, p. 23, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=18096, accessed: 18 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Source ed. notes: 'The Memoir Club [...] was invented by Molly MacCarthy in the hope of inducing Desmond MacCarthy to write something other than journalism. The members -- about a dozen old friends -- were expected every month [...] to foregather in one or another of the members' houses and each read a chapter of what was to become a full-length autobiography' (see p.23 n.9).