Record Number: 30744

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at School House, Leighton Park. Jan 27th 1942 J. Knox Taylor in the Chair.
1. In the absence of the Secretary the minutes of the last meeting were read by Alice Joselin.
2. With reference to Minute 6 of the last meeting, i.e. the selection of books for reading this year, it was decided that as two of the selected books could not be procured, Margaret Dilks and Mary S. W. Pollard should be asked to select two alternatives from the last list. The minutes were then approved and signed.
4. After partaking of coffee, the excellence of which & the enjoyment thereof, being in no way impaired by the introduction of powdered milk, (despite our host’s perturbation at this war-time inclusion!) we settled down with eager expectations and interest to the main business of the evening.
5. The subject was a provocative one “Modern Poetry” & we very gladly welcomed Kenneth Nicholson into our midst, as he had kindly consented to come & talk to us about modern poetry & to lead us into the strange regions of this somewhat unknown world.
6. Gerard Manley Hopkins & W. B. Yeats were apparently the leaders in breaking away from the old traditions of poetry-making, & of setting up a new form, even expressing a new spirit. We then listened to poems of T. S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen & W. Auden, & saw how this new way progressed & was elaborated.
We were bewildered, astounded & intrigued by turns! Through the intracacies [sic] of “sprung rhythm”, down the “arterial roads” of poetical imagery of the early 1920’s to the more apparently intelligible sombreness of recent poetry, we were led gently but inexorably, by our persuasive speaker, to see & realise that however strangely we might regard this literature of our age, we must acknowledge the urgency & sincerity of what the modern poet had to say.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

27 Jan 1942

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: School House, Leighton Park School

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:

[a member of the XII Book Club – one of Isabel Taylor, Roger Moore, Margaret Dilks, A. G. Joselin, or F. E. Pollard]

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Unknown

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

Religion:

Quaker

Country of Origin:

Unknown

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:

Steven Spender

Title:

[unknown]

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

30744

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

n/a

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

109–112

Additional Information:

n/a

Citation:

[unidentified acting secretary of the XII Book Club] , XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 109–112, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30744, accessed: 20 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).