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

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 31840


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at Oakdene, 27. III. 1939
S. A. Reynolds in the chair.

[...]

2. Minutes of last read + approved.

3. A. B. Dilks read from Sir James Jeans’ ‘Universe around Us’. Man’s insignificance was not even tempered by the possibility of life on Mars.

4. Muriel Stevens brought us to more homely surroundings with passages from Eleanor Acland’s ‘Goodbye for the Present.’

5. Hilaire Belloc’s descriptive power was illustrated by R. H. Robson’s reading from ‘The Eyewitness’, telling of Napoleon’s pursuit of of Sir John Moore + a snow storm in the Sierras.

6. Ethel C. Stevens’s extract from Agnes Hunt’s Reminiscences dealt with experiences in the Tasmanian Bush.

7. R. D. L Moore read from T Jefferson Hogg – from a book published in 1833 – an account of Shelley at Oxford.

8. Dorothea Taylor gave us Taine’s impressions of England written in 1871.

[...]


[signed] R. H. Robson
19. 5. 39'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

27 Mar 1939

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: Oakdene, Northcourt 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


Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Bruce Dilks

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1904

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



Text Being Read:

Author:

James Jeans

Title:

The Universe Around Us

Genre:

Science

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown


Source Information:

Record ID:

31840

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

n/a

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

40–1

Additional Information:

Although Victor Alexander was secretary to the XII Book Club at this time, it is clear from the handwriting that he was not the author of these minutes.

Citation:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 40–1, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=31840, accessed: 12 October 2024


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).

   
   
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