Record Number: 31877

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Meeting held at 39, Eastern Avenue: 24. 11. 39.
    A Bruce Dilks in the chair.

1. Minutes of last [two meetings] read & approved.

[...]

7. F. E. Pollard gave a brief introduction to American literature, introducing a large number of names including Benjamin Franklin, John Woolman, Tom Paine, Washington Irving, Fennimore Cooper, the poet Bryant, the historians Bancroft, Prescott and Motley, Louisa M. Alcott, Emerson, Longfellow & Whittier, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Hermann Dick, J. R. Lowell, Walt Whitman, Henry Hames, Winston Churchill, O. Henry, & Mark Twain. He attempted very briefly to assess the place of these & some others.

8. C. E. Stansfield read from the Autocrat at the Breakfast Table an extract in praise of Meerschaums, Violins & Poems. We felt from the caressing tones of his voice that like the Autocrat he gave pride of place to the Meerschaums.

9. A. B. Dilks, after a brief reference to the career and mystical experience of Walt Whitman read from his Poems on the Sea.

10. R. D. L. Moore read a dramatic passage from the ‘Bridge of San Luis Rey[’], describing the last hours of Brother Juniper.

11 We were, finally, introduced to Babbitt – those of us who had not previously met him — by R. H. Robson. We were suitably amused at the manner in which St.Clair Lewis makes his hero rise and shave.


[signed] R. D. L. Moore
19.XII.39'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

24 Nov 1939

Country:

England

Time

evening

Place:

city: Reading
county: Berkshire
specific address: 39, Eastern 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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Charles E. Stansfield

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

1865

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Retired schoolmaster, then administrator

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:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Title:

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table

Genre:

Essays / Criticism, American literature

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

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Source Information:

Record ID:

31877

Source:

Manuscript

Author:

Victor Alexander

Title:

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

Location:

private collection

Call No:

n/a

Page/Folio:

49–51

Additional Information:

Victor Alexander’s authorship is inferred from the fact that he was secretary to the XII Book Club at this time, and from the handwriting.

Citation:

Victor Alexander, XII Book Club Minute Book, Vol. 4 (1938-1943), private collection, 49–51, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=31877, 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).