Record Number: 30533

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at 7 Marlborough Avenue, 21.XI.44
    A. G. Joselin in the chair.

[...]

2. The minutes of the last meeting were read and after considerable discussion & some alteration, signed.

5. After adjourning for refreshment we listened with very great interest to some letters from Ralph Smith and also one from a repatriated Prisoner of War giving first hand news of him.

6. Knox Taylor opened our evening of controversial subjects by a defence of ‘Vice’. He maintained that drinking and gambling in moderation were harmless in themselves when dissociated from their social evils. In the discussion which followed members seemed on the whole to favour a life of virtue, being unwilling thus to separate cause from effect.

7. Elsie Harrod spoke on the housing question and after putting forward the many problems which must be considered by those responsible for building the houses for this generation, she proposed that the only way of meeting all requirements was to pass a law that no house should be built to last for more than 10 years. The chief argument which was put forward against this was that if the house was guaranteed to decay in 10 years what would it be like in the 2 or 3 years preceding this limit.

8. In a vehement and convincing discourse F. E. Pollard defended Reason against this Age of Unreason. A lively discussion which followed showed that the speaker had largely carried his audience with him along the path of Reason, although some of us were unwilling to part with our sub-conscious minds.

[signed as a true record by] Muriel M. Stevens 16-12-44'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

21 Nov 1944

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: 7, Marlborough Avenue

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Francis E. Pollard

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1872

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Formerly schoolmaster, now occasional lecturer and supply teacher, and supported also by wife's unearned income

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

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Francis E. Pollard

Title:

[a defence of reason in an age of unreason]

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, Social Science, Philosophy

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

30533

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Margaret Dilks

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 5 (1944-1952)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

22-24

Additional Information:

Margaret Dilks was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1940 to 1970. It is inferred from this, and from the handwriting, that she was the author of this set of minutes.

Citation:

Margaret Dilks, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 5 (1944-1952), private collection, 22-24, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30533, accessed: 03 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

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).