Record Number: 30417
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Meeting held at 7, Marlborough Avenue. 15th Jan, 1944
A. G. Joselin in the chair.
[...]
2. The minutes of the last meeting were read and signed
[...]
5. Howard Smith opened the evening on Shelley with a biographical sketch. [...]
6. We adjourned for refreshment[.]
7. F. E. Pollard read “Ode to the West Wind”
8. Margaret Dilks gave brief appreciation of Shelley’s poetry. This started a general
discussion in which nearly all took part — whether he influenced or was influenced by
his contempor[ar]ies , & what effect he had, if any, on future poets. On these
questions opinion varied, but all agreed with F. E. Pollard that Shelley’s verse is
supremely ‘poetical’.
9. To illustrate Shelley’s passion for liberty and reform Bruce Dilks read from “The
Masque of Anarchy” which was inspired by the Peterloo Massacre in 1819.
10. Rosamund Wallis read some stanzas from “Adonais”. F. E. Pollard read a short
poem entitled “A Lament”[.] Thus, our thoughts being with the departed, the meeting
ended on a lighter note. One member quoted a touching little verse from the
Berkshire Chronicle In Memoriam notices, which another capped by some lines written
by a school-boy on the relative merits of perpetual roasting and eternal hymn-singing.
Lines which gained the boy a severe reprimand from his head-master, and a ‘Fiver’
from his father.
[signed as a true record by] S A Reynolds 14/2/44'
1900-1945
Date:Until: 15 Jan 1944
Country:England
Timeevening
Place:city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: 7, Marlborough Avenue
(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary reactive unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:1880
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
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:[unknown texts on the life of Shelley]
Genre:Biography
Form of Text:Print: Unknown
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceunknown
Source Information:
Record ID:30417
Source:Manuscript
Author:Margaret Dilks
Title:XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1944-1952)
Location:private collection
Call No:n/a
Page/Folio:0-2
Additional Information:
Margaret Dilks was secretary to the XII Book Club from 1940 to 1970. It is inferred from this, and from the handwriting, that she was the author of this set of minutes.
Citation:
Margaret Dilks, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1944-1952) , private collection, 0-2, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30417, accessed: 17 August 2024
Additional Comments:
Texts consulted in the preparation of a paper on the life of Shelley read to the XII Book Club on 15 Jan 1944.
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).