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Record Number: 32927

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

�Your book�my book [Davies, "Child Lovers"] has just arrived, and it is finished. Only to increasing certainty that Davies was once an exquisite poet�of which time he has now but occasional memories, and that he knows himself to be failing in power and is bitter at the knowledge. I happen to know it is true, from private information, but anyone who knows his earlier work must feel sad � Thank you very much for such a charming present � Thank you also for sending me the "Times Literary Supplement", but I have one sent already. However both are passed on, and read with enthusiasm by one and another � I might be a good soldier if I could forget music and books. Indeed I try to full my still-sick mind with thoughts of these. Which makes a strange combination, as you may imagine.�

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Jun 1916 and 21 Jun 1916

Country:

France

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Laventie
county: Pas-de-Calais
other location: billets

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:

Ivor Bertie Gurney

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

28 Aug 1890

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Private, Gloucestershire Regiment

Religion:

Christian (Anglican)

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

France

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Title:

Times Literary Supplement

Genre:

Essays / Criticism

Form of Text:

Print: Newspaper, Serial / periodical

Publication Details

1916, probably either 8 or 15 June issues

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32927

Source:

Print

Author:

Ivor Gurney

Editor:

R. K. R. Thornton

Title:

Ivor Gurney: Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

Manchester

Date of Publication:

1991

Vol:

n/a

Page:

102

Additional Comments:

Letter to Marion Scott, 21 June 1916, from billets at Laventie.

Citation:

Ivor Gurney, R. K. R. Thornton (ed.), Ivor Gurney: Collected Letters, (Manchester, 1991), p. 102, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32927, accessed: 21 March 2026

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Additional Comments:

The 8 June issue of the TLS includes a review of W. H. Davies "The Child Lovers" (see also ID 32926).