Record Number: 4467
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
[Communist activists often displayed hostility to literature, including Willie Gallacher. However his 'hostility to literature abated' in later years and in his later memoirs] 'he confessed a liking for Burns, Scott, the Brontes, Mrs Gaskell, children's comics and Olivier's film of Hamlet... Of course he admired Dickens, and not only the obvious Oliver Twist: the communist MP was prepared to admit that he appreciated the satire of the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit'.
Century:1900-1945
Date:unknown
Country:Scotland
Timen/a
Place:n/a
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:25 Dec 1881
Socio-Economic Group:Labourer (non-agricultural)
Occupation:brass fitter, later Communist MP
Religion:n/a
Country of Origin:Scotland
Country of Experience:Scotland
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:[children's comics]
Genre:Ephemera
Form of Text:Print: Serial / periodical
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:4467
Source:Jonathan Rose
Editor:n/a
Title:The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes
Place of Publication:New Haven
Date of Publication:2001
Vol:n/a
Page:319
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 319, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=4467, accessed: 20 April 2024
Additional Comments:
See William Gallacher, 'Rise Like Lions' (London, 1951), pp. 129-30, 180; and The Last Memoirs of William Gallacher (London, 1966), pp. 25, 35.
