the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

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T. E. Lawrence : [unspecified text]

'Meeting held at Frensham. 6th Oct. 1943 Howard R. Smith in the chair.
1. Minutes of the last meeting were read & approved.
[...]
5. Kenneth Nicholson discoursed to us on ‘Style’. He confessed that the more he had gone into the subject the further he had got out of his depth, but this fact was not apparent, for what he said was most interesting and illuminating. He gave as his four essentials for good style: Clarity, Rhythm, Sincerity and the Emergence of Personality. Kenneth Nicholson illustrated these qualities by quotations from such varied sources as: The Telephone Directory; an advertisement for Sanitas powder; the Dean of Harvard; Charles Morgan; Walter Pater; C. E. Montague; G. K Chesterton; H. G. Wells; T. E. Lawrence; a Leighton Park boy and a Press reporter. In the discussion which followed, some members thought that good style could be achieved without sincerity, and reference was made to the regrettable absence of clarity in legal documents and official forms.
6. F. E. Pollard then read 7 examples of prose writing and we were asked to write down the authors. It was only to be expected that Kenneth Nicholson, who had been studying the subject, should come out top with 5 right answers. [...]

[signed as a true record by] A. B. Dilks 8.11.43. [at the club meeting held at 39 Eastern Avenue: see Minute Book, p. 165]'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Kenneth F. Nicholson      Print: Book

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