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the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Record Number: 30726


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

Meeting held at Gower Cottage. 2nd. Dec. 1943 Muriel Stevens in the chair.
1. Minutes of last meeting read & signed.
2. The treasurer reported on the club’s finances. No accounts were presented for inspection, indeed the only member near enough to the treasurer to get a glimpse of his A/C book protested that the figures read out in no way corresponded to those written down. Amid a good deal of flippant comment a balance in hand of 6/3 was revealed. A vote of confidence in the treasurer was moved and his report accepted.
[...]
5. After a refreshing interval we proceeded to the ever more difficult task of selecting books for this year’s reading. The Committee [Knox Taylor, Muriel Stevens and Rosamund Wallis – see minutes of the meeting held 6 October, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4, p. 162] had gone to a good deal of trouble in order to put before us a list of books which it was possible to get. However, these did not meet with very general approval, so we proceeded to vote on the list of much more interesting books many of which the committee had ascertained were already out of print & unobtainable. [...]

[signed as a true record by] Arnold G. Joselin 15th Jan. 1944 [at the club meeting held at 7, Marlborough Avenue: see XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 5 (1944-1952), p. 0 – i.e. the page before the first numbered page]

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

2 Dec 1943

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: Gower Cottage, Elm Road

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:

Reading Group:

Members of the XII Book Club

Age:

Unknown

Gender:

Unknown

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



Text Being Read:

Author:

[a Committee of the XII Book Club comprising Knox Taylor, Muriel Stevens and Rosamund Wallis]

Title:

[An alternative list of books proposed for purchase by the XII Book Club from December 1943]

Genre:

Committee papers, Book lists

Form of Text:

Manuscript: Unknown

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

reading group


Source Information:

Record ID:

30726

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Margaret Dilks

Title:

XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943)

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

168–170

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 (1938-1943), private collection, 168–170, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=30726, accessed: 24 November 2024


Additional Comments:

The book list may have been circulated and read by the members individually, or read aloud by an unidentified person, or both.
Source 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).

   
   
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