Record Number: 1368
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Percy Wall, jailed for defying draft notices in the First World War, was inspired in part by a copy of Queen Mab owned by his father, a Marxist railway worker. But neither father nor son applied ideological tests to literature. In the prison library - with some guidance from a fellow conscientious objector who happened to be an important publishing executive - Percy discovered Emerson, Macaulay, Bacon, Shakespeare and Lamb. It was their style rather than their politics he found liberating: from them "I learned self-expression and acquired or strengthened standards of literature".'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 1914 and 1918
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:specific address: in prison
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:1893
Socio-Economic Group:Clerk / tradesman / artisan / smallholder
Occupation:son of railwayman
Religion:n/a
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
n/a
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:n/a
Genre:Essays / Criticism
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceborrowed (institution library)
Prison Library
Source Information:
Record ID:1368
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:51
Additional Comments:
n/a
Citation:
Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 51, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=1368, accessed: 25 November 2024
Additional Comments:
See Percy Wall "Hour at Eve", Brunel University Library archive of Working Class Autobiographies
