Record Number: 17357

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'I have read aloud my death-cycles from Walt Whitman this evening. I was very much affected myself, never so much before, and it fetched the auditory considerable. Reading these things that I like aloud when I am painfully excited is the keenest artistic pleasure I know: it does seem strange that these dependant arts ? singing, acting and in its small way, reading aloud ? seem the best rewarded of all arts. I am sure it is more exciting for me to read, than it was for W.W. to write: and how much more must this be so with singing!'

Century:

1850-1899

Date:

16 Jul 1874

Country:

Scotland

Time

evening

Place:

city: Swanston (according to the editors)

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

13 Nov 1850

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Aspiring writer and intermittent law student

Religion:

Church of Scotland (wavering)

Country of Origin:

Scotland

Country of Experience:

Scotland

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

Number of listeners not indicated.

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Walt Whitman

Title:

probably Leaves of Grass

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Probably 1867; see Section Three, Additional Comments

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

17357

Source:

Print

Author:

Robert Louis Stevenson

Editor:

Bradford A. Booth

Title:

Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879

Place of Publication:

New Haven and London

Date of Publication:

1994

Vol:

2

Page:

31

Additional Comments:

From section dated Thursday [16 July 1874] of Letter 294, To Frances Sitwell.Co-editor Ernest Mehew. Date in square brackets has been added by the editors.

Citation:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Bradford A. Booth (ed.), Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, April 1874-July1879, (New Haven and London, 1994), 2, p. 31, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=17357, accessed: 30 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

Claire Harman, in her Robert Louis Stevenson, London: Harper Perennial, 2006, pbk, writes on p.73: ?Stevenson had discovered Leaves of Grass soon after its publication in 1867, and kept a copy hidden..."