Record Number: 24691

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Today I bought and read Aldous Huxley's essay Vulgarity in Literature. It's a surprisingly powerful thing, one of those treats in reading, of which our modern authors never afford me more than one a year. But much of the lighter pleasure it gave me was due to my having met him last week at your house & all the time he seemed to be saying it inside your amber drawing-room; ( where by the way I usually feel like a fly in amber). so I think I must thank you for what a great pleasure my last visit has brought me.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

1 Apr 1931

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: London
specific address: 19 Stourcliffe Street W1

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:

Walter D'Arcy Cresswell

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

22 Jan 1896

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Poet

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

New Zealand

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Aldous Huxley

Title:

Vulgarity in Literature

Genre:

Essays / Criticism

Form of Text:

Print: Pamphlet

Publication Details

1930

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

24691

Source:

Print

Author:

Walter D'Arcy Cresswell

Editor:

Helen Shaw

Title:

Dear Lady Ginger an exchange of letters between Lady Ottoline Morrell and D'Arcy Cresswell together with Ottoline's Morrell's essay on Katherine Mansfield

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1984

Vol:

n/a

Page:

23

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Walter D'Arcy Cresswell, Helen Shaw (ed.), Dear Lady Ginger an exchange of letters between Lady Ottoline Morrell and D'Arcy Cresswell together with Ottoline's Morrell's essay on Katherine Mansfield, (London , 1984), p. 23, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=24691, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

This is an extract from a letter to Ottoline Morrell with whom D'Arcy Cresswell maintained a correspondence from 1930 until her death in April 1938. The occasion of meeting Huxley that D'Arcy Cresswell refers to would have doubtless been at one of her 'Thursdays' at 10 Gower Street to which she invited writers, artists and philosophers; acting as hostess and patron, encouraging them to meet and build relationships to further their talents. A young New Zealand poet, Cresswell had been lionized by the literary world following the 1930 publication of an autobiographical prose work 'The Poet's Progress'. As a notable influence on both Cresswell and Ottoline Morrell, Aldous Huxley was to continue to be a subject of letters between the two.