Record Number: 29994

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at Oakdene, Northcourt Avenue: 17. 4. 36.
    Ethel C. Stevens in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last were read.
Professor Hawkins pointed out that there was an inaccuracy, not of fact, but of theory in one of them, which read that the Professor “was already preparing a paper for the British “Ass” [British Association] which he would be very willing to try beforehand on the dog.” And this, he felt, failed to convey both the honour in which he held the Club & the pleasure with which he accepted its invitation.

[...]

6. After the Chairman had gracefully welcomed Professor Hawkins, we spent the rest of the evening listening to and discussing the Fact of Evolution.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

17 Apr 1936

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: Oakdene, Northcourt Avenue

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Herbert Leader Hawkins

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1887

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Geologist and palaeontologist, professor of geology at Reading University

Religion:

Born into a Quaker family

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

Members of the XII Book Club

Additional Comments:

For H L Hawkins see ODNB and P. Allen, ‘Herbert Leader Hawkins: 1887-1968’, in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 16 (1970), 315-329.

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Herbert Leader Hawkins

Title:

The Fact of Evolution

Genre:

Science

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

29994

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

167–170

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, 167–170, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=29994, accessed: 22 November 2024

---

Additional Comments:

[The paper given was a draft for the presidential address to Section C (Geology) of the British Association, delivered at Blackpool on September 14 1936. Published as ‘Palaeontology and humanity’, British Association Sectional Address, Section C, pp. 57–80. Extracts were published in Nature 138, 534–37. See George Sarton and Frances Siegel, ‘Forty-Ninth Critical Bibliography of the History and Philosophy of Science and of the History of Civilization’ Isis, 27 (1937), 117-200 (p. 183); and P. Allen, ‘Herbert Leader Hawkins: 1887-1968’, in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, 16 (1970), 315-329.] 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).