Record Number: 29735

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Meeting held at 9 Denmark Road, 20 IV. 1934

F. E. Pollard in the chair

1. Minutes of last read & approved with one correction, in the absence of the secretary.

[...]

4. Howard R. Smith told us of Morris’s life. The meeting gasped with unanimity and amazement to learn that he (Morris i.e.) had read all the Waverley novels by the age of seven; we gathered that the background of his life had been a blend of Epping Forest & shares in a coppermine, and that his appearance accounted for his lifelong nickname of Topsy. Of his friendships, his labours to restore beauty to Victorian homes, to prevent vandals from restoring cathedrals & other ancient monuments, his Kelmscott Press, his poems & prose romances, his turning to Socialism as the only way to a society in which men would find happiness in sound and beautiful work – of all these things and many more which made up his extraordinarily full and fruitful life, it is impossible to make a summary.

5. Mary S. W. Pollard read a short extract from Percy Corder’s life of Robert Spence Watson telling of a visit of Wm Morris to Bensham Grove. Members afterwards inspected his signature in the Visitors’ book.

6. Ethel C. Stevens read an interesting account of Kelmscott Manor, revealing other sides of this vigorous and many sided personality.

7. R. H. Robson gathered together the artistic & socialist aspects of Morris’s work, emphasised the greatness of the man, & read extracts from MacKail’s Biography. It was clear that Morris would wish to cancel out the last four hundred years & start again on different lines. Time was wanting to reveal all the varieties of opinion that this might have elicited, & we parted in united awe at the mans capacity for work, & his important contributions to our life & ideals.

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

20 Apr 1934

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: Fairlight, 9 Denmark Road

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reading Group:

XII Book Club

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

n/a

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

Quaker or associated with the Friends

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

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

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

[Minutes of meeting of the XII Book Club held 20 March 1934]

Genre:

Minutes

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Notebook

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

reading group

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

29735

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

n/a

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

100–101

Additional Information:

Although Victor Alexander was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1931 to 1940, he was not present at this meeting and the author of this set of minutes remains unknown.

Citation:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938), private collection, 100–101, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=29735, accessed: 24 April 2024

---

Additional Comments:

The reader of the minutes of the last meeting was presumably the unidentified acting secretary of the XII Book Club.
Material by kind permission of the XII Book Club. For further information and permission to quote this source, contact the Reading Experience Database (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php).