Record Number: 32420

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'We have had a book of Yeats' prose out of the library, and this has revived my taste for things Gaelic and mystic. Ask Mullan's if he knows a book called "The Rosacrutian [sic] Cosmo Conception" or any on that subject.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 22 Nov 1916 and 3 Dec 1916

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'

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:

Clive Staples Lewis

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

29 Nov 1898

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Student

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

Northern Ireland

Country of Experience:

England

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

Lewis says 'we', so I think the Kirkpatricks and perhaps other members of the household were present for part of the time.

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

William Butler Yeats

Title:

[unknown]

Genre:

Fiction, History, Astrology / alchemy / occult, Irish legends, folk tales, esoteric tales combining Irish and Greek mythology

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

borrowed (public library)

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32420

Source:

Print

Author:

C. S. Lewis

Editor:

Walter Hooper

Title:

C. S. Lewis Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

2000

Vol:

1

Page:

260

Additional Comments:

(1) From a letter to Arthur Greeves, 29 November 1916. The book is: Heindel, Max: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception or Mystic Christianity, published by The Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1909.

Citation:

C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 260, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32420, accessed: 03 May 2024

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Additional Comments:

I think the most likely title is 'The Celtic Twilight', an anthology of stories first published in 1893. This is the best known collection, but there are three other possibilities: (1) 'The Secret Rose', 1897 (2) 'Stories of Red Hanrahan', 1897 (3) 'Rosa Alchemica, The Tables of the Law, The Adoration of the Magi', 1897. All of these were later published together under the title 'Mythologies', but this cannot be the book referred to because it includes 'Per Amica Silentia Lunae' which was first published in 1917. There is also a very early work: 'Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry', (1888), but this is a collection more edited by Yeats than an original work. Yeats belonged to a Rosicrucian society called The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.