Record Number: 32934

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

‘ [ … ] it was nice … to get the "Evening Standard" packed up with the rest [of the parcel]. I do adore newspapers in certain moods. For frivolling time away they are incomparable … Why was the "Daily Telegraph" one page sent? For the College awards? Or for the review of Colles’ latest book? … I asked for a book to be sent in the parcel. That means any sort of book. A twopenny box in London would give me acute joy, but if you are debarred from such, Nelson’s 6d Classics would be more than excellent. What a washout most of the "Golden Treasury" is! As for the period of Pope, the selection is simply lamentable. Only the Elizabethan and Wordsworth period have much real stuff in them. Could you steal and small dirty copy of Shelley or Keats and sent it me? I have tried to get these in the penny Poets, but they must be out of print. The Everymans are too big, or my pack too small. "Macbeth" is with me, but there is too much real tragedy about to find it pleasant. Milton I can read (and have) particularly the Ode on Time which is terrific … Palgrave makes me feel what a lot of good stuff I miss by reading anthologies.

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 21 Jun 1916 and 17 Jul 1916

Country:

France

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Estaires
county: Nord

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:

Francis Turner Palgrave

Title:

Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

First published 1861: not known which edition read.

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32934

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:

118-20

Additional Comments:

Letter to Marion Scott, violinist and musicologist, 17 July 1916, from Estaires

Citation:

Ivor Gurney, R. K. R. Thornton (ed.), Ivor Gurney: Collected Letters, (Manchester, 1991), p. 118-20, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32934, accessed: 20 March 2025

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Additional Comments:

None