Record Number: 29715

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at School House, Leighton Park, 16.I.34.
    Francis E. Pollard in the chair

1. The Chairman offered the Club’s greetings to our new members, though only one of them was able to be present.

2. We much regretted the absence of George and Celia Burrow on account of the former’s illness, and of Mary Pollard who had gone to see Caroline in Birmingham where she had had the bad luck to come in for a motoring accident.

3. Minutes of last were then read and approved.

[...]

7. The subject for the evening then claimed our attention, & Charles Stansfield read us a paper on Lewis Carroll’s life. It contained much material that was new to most of us, and was so & absorbingly retailed that the Secretary completely omitted to take notes on it

8. This was followed by extracts from his letters read to us by Dorothy Brain. She chose them all, I think, from letters to little girls thus wisely focussing our interest upon the author & making him very real behind his nom de plume.

9. After the interval Dorothy Brain’s players—Frank Pollard, Janet Rawlings, Reginald Robson & Victor Alexander performed an unrehearsed tea party. Whether the performance was comic, gruesome or grotesque I would not venture to suggest. To one actor, unseeing and unseen beneath his mask it was a little like a cross between a modernist nightmare & old-fasioned blind man’s buff.

10. Readings were then given by
Ethel C. Stevens : from Alice through the Looking Glass
Howard R. Smith : [from] Sylvie and Bruno
Francis E. Pollard : [from] the Hunting of the Snark
C. E. Stansfield : [from] Hiawatha’s Photographing

11. It was decided to have a subscription of 6/- for the current year.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

16 Jan 1934

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: School House, Leighton Park

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:

Francis E. Pollard

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1872

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Formerly schoolmaster, now occasional lecturer and supply teacher, and supported also by wife's unearned income

Religion:

Quaker or associated with the Friends

Country of Origin:

n/a

Country of Experience:

England

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

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Lewis Carroll [pseud.]

Title:

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Genre:

Fiction, Children's Lit

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

29715

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

84–7

Additional Information:

Victor Alexander was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1931 to 1940. It is inferred from this that he was the author of this set of minutes.

Citation:

Victor Alexander, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 3 (1931-1938), private collection, 84–7, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=29715, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

Note: contribution to an unrehearsed group reading/performance of Chapter 7: ‘A Mad Tea Party’.

Material by kind permission of the XII Book Club. For further information and permission to quote this source, contact the Reading Experience Database (http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/contacts.php).