'Philip Inman conveyed a ... specific sense of the uses of literacy for an early Labour MP. The son of a widowed charwoman, he bought up all the cheap reprints he could afford and kept notes on fifty-eight of them... There were Emerson's essays, Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, Holmes's Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Lamb's Essays of Elia, classic biogaphies (Boswell on Johnson, Lockhart on Scott, Carlyle on Sterling), several Waverley novels, Wuthering Heights, Don Quixote, Robinson Crusoe, Pilgrim's Progress, The Imitation of Christ, Shakespeare's sonnets, Tennyson, Browning, William Morris and Palgrave's Golden Treasury.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Philip Inman Print: Book
'In a Sunday school library set up by a cotton mill fire-beater, [Thomas Thompson] read Dickens, Thackeray, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Marcus Aurelius'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Thomas Thompson Print: Book
"I took in Mr Holmes' humorous poems & Davidson (a very jolly little friend of mine) another light work & we sat together with Romer in the furthest corner enjoying literature mixed with 'light conversation' after your style."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
'No doubt it is to you that I owe this pleasure, - of Buckle's 2d vol. Maria has been cutting and skimming, and she opines that I shall find it a very great treat indeed. My best thanks to you for it, dear friend. I am in the thick of a very different sort of book now, - "Elsie Venner", which I did not mean to read; but a look at the first page carried me on: How immensely clever some of these Americans are! and their style of tale so new! I dislike all the part connected with Elsie: but I enjoy the New England atmosphere of the thing, and the wonderful power of deep and incessant observation'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Book
'Friday, 5th March,
I worked late tonight which allowed me to get in a nice little talk with Pat on the value of the classic books of criticism, as apart from their literary value. It was my opinion that in nearly all cases, as the minds of readers has evolved with the changing times so the light in which the classic must be viewed has altered and therefore old criticism must, in nearly every case be superseded. At least, as regards the ?human? as distinct from the literary element in the book. I feel that we cannot ever completely reconstruct the life of a past age or enter into the minds of people who lived in other times. Pat remarked that he was constantly struck by the little progress made in thought and the things of the mind.
Read ? ?The Autocrat of the breakfast table? (O. W. Holmes).'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book
'15th March 1929
Miss M?ndel and I inspect my little library. We read some Brooks, Kipling, Holmes, Artemus Ward, de Quincey -- in short, a browse. We looked at ?Phiz? illustrations to ?Sketches by Boz? and she talked of Wilhelm Busch as the greatest of German pencil artists.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Gerald Moore Print: Book
'we have just been reading Elsie Venner & we were altogether [italics] very [end italics] American yesterday'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Gaskell and her daughter 'Meta' or Margaret Print: Book
'I was so sorry to see that Dr Wendell Holmes called England "The Lost Leader". - I went & read the poem to Meta, who did not know it; - & we did so grieve!'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell Print: Unknown
'I read a novel called the Guardian Angel to-day by the Author of "Elsie Vennor". It was quite up to the run of most novels & served to amuse me very well to-day. If it had not been for it & the papers I should have had dull times as I did'ent stir out at all.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Buckley Castieau Print: Book
'The Life & Works of Oliver W. Holmes were then dealt with. John J. Cooper read an interesting biographical paper, concluding with a reading "Latter Day Warnings" for The Autocrat.
Mrs Robson a reading from "The Poet at the Bt table"
Mrs Evans [ditto marks] from "Elsie Venner"
R.H. Robson read a paper dealing with the characters of "The Professor at the Bt table". The paper was illustrated by well selected readings from the book - making a most interesting communication.
C.I. Evans read "The Chambered Nautilus" & "The Wonderful One-hoss Shay".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John J. Cooper Print: Book
'The Life & Works of Oliver W. Holmes were then dealt with. John J. Cooper read an interesting biographical paper, concluding with a reading "Latter Day Warnings" for The Autocrat.
Mrs Robson a reading from "The Poet at the Bt table"
Mrs Evans [ditto marks] from "Elsie Venner"
R.H. Robson read a paper dealing with the characters of "The Professor at the Bt table". The paper was illustrated by well selected readings from the book - making a most interesting communication.
C.I. Evans read "The Chambered Nautilus" & "The Wonderful One-hoss Shay".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Robson Print: Book
'The Life & Works of Oliver W. Holmes were then dealt with. John J. Cooper read an interesting biographical paper, concluding with a reading "Latter Day Warnings" for The Autocrat.
Mrs Robson a reading from "The Poet at the Bt table"
Mrs Evans [ditto marks] from "Elsie Venner"
R.H. Robson read a paper dealing with the characters of "The Professor at the Bt table". The paper was illustrated by well selected readings from the book - making a most interesting communication.
C.I. Evans read "The Chambered Nautilus" & "The Wonderful One-hoss Shay".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Reginald Robson Print: Book
'The Life & Works of Oliver W. Holmes were then dealt with. John J. Cooper read an interesting biographical paper, concluding with a reading "Latter Day Warnings" for The Autocrat.
Mrs Robson a reading from "The Poet at the Bt table"
Mrs Evans [ditto marks] from "Elsie Venner"
R.H. Robson read a paper dealing with the characters of "The Professor at the Bt table". The paper was illustrated by well selected readings from the book - making a most interesting communication.
C.I. Evans read "The Chambered Nautilus" & "The Wonderful One-hoss Shay".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: K. Evans Print: Book
'The Life & Works of Oliver W. Holmes were then dealt with. John J. Cooper read an interesting biographical paper, concluding with a reading "Latter Day Warnings" for The Autocrat.
Mrs Robson a reading from "The Poet at the Bt table"
Mrs Evans [ditto marks] from "Elsie Venner"
R.H. Robson read a paper dealing with the characters of "The Professor at the Bt table". The paper was illustrated by well selected readings from the book - making a most interesting communication.
C.I. Evans read "The Chambered Nautilus" & "The Wonderful One-hoss Shay".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book
'The Life & Works of Oliver W. Holmes were then dealt with. John J. Cooper read an interesting biographical paper, concluding with a reading "Latter Day Warnings" for The Autocrat.
Mrs Robson a reading from "The Poet at the Bt table"
Mrs Evans [ditto marks] from "Elsie Venner"
R.H. Robson read a paper dealing with the characters of "The Professor at the Bt table". The paper was illustrated by well selected readings from the book - making a most interesting communication.
C.I. Evans read "The Chambered Nautilus" & "The Wonderful One-hoss Shay".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Evans Print: Book
'Meeting held at 39, Eastern Avenue: 24. 11. 39.
A Bruce Dilks in the chair.
1. Minutes of last [two meetings] read & approved.
[...]
7. F. E. Pollard gave a brief introduction to American literature, introducing a large
number of names including Benjamin Franklin, John Woolman, Tom Paine,
Washington Irving, Fennimore Cooper, the poet Bryant, the historians Bancroft,
Prescott and Motley, Louisa M. Alcott, Emerson, Longfellow & Whittier, Nathaniel
Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thoreau, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Hermann Dick, J. R. Lowell, Walt Whitman, Henry Hames, Winston
Churchill, O. Henry, & Mark Twain. He attempted very briefly to assess the place
of these & some others.
8. C. E. Stansfield read from the Autocrat at the Breakfast Table an extract in
praise of Meerschaums, Violins & Poems. We felt from the caressing tones of his
voice that like the Autocrat he gave pride of place to the Meerschaums.
9. A. B. Dilks, after a brief reference to the career and mystical experience of
Walt Whitman read from his Poems on the Sea.
10. R. D. L. Moore read a dramatic passage from the ‘Bridge of San Luis Rey[’],
describing the last hours of Brother Juniper.
11 We were, finally, introduced to Babbitt – those of us who had not previously
met him — by R. H. Robson. We were suitably amused at the manner in which
St.Clair Lewis makes his hero rise and shave.
[signed] R. D. L. Moore
19.XII.39'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles E. Stansfield Print: Book
