Record Number: 30611

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at 7 Marlborough Avenue 22/10/45
Arnold G. Joselin in the chair

1. The minutes of the previous meeting were read & signed.

[...]

3. Dr Taylor read from Kingdon Ward’s Modern Exploration giving us some idea of the History of Exploration. Early man was immobile. Exploration has kept step with Civilization. Exploration of the Earths surface is nearly finished, now we go either up or down.

4. We adjourned for refreshment.

5. H. R. Smith read Smythe’s account of his singlehanded assault on the Everest on the Everest summit.

6. Elsie Harrod from Gino Watkins by J M Scott first the description of suitable diet for Greenland and second an account of travel over the Greenland Icecap. Very Vivid.

7. Cyril Langford read from Hanno [half-emended, correctly, to ‘Hanno’] by J. Leslie Mitchell on the ideas of what the earth is like deep beneath our feet. We got a picture of a vast Hollow echoing caverns & great underground seas.

8. Thos Hopkins read extracts from Richard Bird [sic] in the Antarctic all alone being slowly poisoned by Carbon Monoxide the fumes from his stove slowly escaping a very introspective depressing story. Taking the evening as a whole it was perhaps felt that there was rather a lot of physchology [sic] stirred into the adventures.

[signed as a true record by] A. Austin Miller 28.XI.45 [at the club meeting held at 67 Eastern Avenue: see Minute Book, p. 44.]'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

22 Oct 1945

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:

Thomas Hopkins

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

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

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Richard Evelyn Byrd

Title:

[memoir of an Antarctic expedition]

Genre:

Autobiog / Diary, Geography / Travel

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

This is perhaps the account of his second Antarctic Expedition entitled Alone. But there are other possibilities.

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

30611

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

n/a

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

43–44

Additional Information:

Although Margaret Dilks was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1940 to 1970, and normally wrote the minutes, the handwriting shows clearly that she was not the author of this set.

Citation:

[An acting secretary of the XII Book Club] , XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 5 (1944-1952), private collection, 43–44, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30611, accessed: 26 April 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).