Record Number: 30013

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at Reckitt House, LP. 21.10.36
    E. B. Castle in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read + approved.

[...]

5. E. B. Castle gave us some biographical facts of G. K Chesterton’s career.

6. We then had a part of a paper written by Kenneth F. Nicholson on Chesterton. He gave us a good picture of G.K.C. as a man, showing the essentials of the later Chesterton already there in his earlier career. Kenneth Nicholson stressed the simplicity and genuineness of G.K.C.’s poetry, and his great love of the English characteristics. K. F. Nicholson also read very tellingly several extracts from his poetry

7. Elizabeth Alexander read a short paper on G.K.C. contributed by H. M. Wallis on the corruscations[?] and back somersaults thrown by Chesterton in earlier years, and on his association with Bernard Shaw. While anxious to credit any assertion of H.M.W.’s some members of the Book Club, who knew of Chesterton only in the last 40 years of his life, found it difficult to accept the suggestion that G.K.C. never carried much weight.

This paper was concluded by a reading of Chesterton’s “The Donkey.”

8. R. H. Robson then read two or three extracts from the Critical Essays, with particular reference to Bernard Shaw and Dante.

9. V. W. Alexander read The Hammer of God, a short story from “The Innocence of Father Brown[”].'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

21 Oct 1936

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

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

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:

Elizabeth T. Alexander

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

n/a

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:

G. K. Chesterton

Title:

The Donkey

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

30013

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

178–9

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, 178–9, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30013, accessed: 22 November 2024

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Additional Comments:

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).