Record Number: 32420
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'We have had a book of Yeats' prose out of the library, and this has revived my taste for things Gaelic and mystic. Ask Mullan's if he knows a book called "The Rosacrutian [sic] Cosmo Conception" or any on that subject.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Between 22 Nov 1916 and 3 Dec 1916
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'
(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Reader: Age:Child (0-17)
Gender:Male
Date of Birth:29 Nov 1898
Socio-Economic Group:Professional / academic / merchant / farmer
Occupation:Student
Religion:Church of England
Country of Origin:Northern Ireland
Country of Experience:England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
Lewis says 'we', so I think the Kirkpatricks and perhaps other members of the household were present for part of the time.
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:[unknown]
Genre:Fiction, History, Astrology / alchemy / occult, Irish legends, folk tales, esoteric tales combining Irish and Greek mythology
Form of Text:Print: Book
Publication Detailsn/a
Provenanceborrowed (public library)
Source Information:
Record ID:32420
Source:C. S. Lewis
Editor:Walter Hooper
Title:C. S. Lewis Collected Letters
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:2000
Vol:1
Page:260
Additional Comments:
(1) From a letter to Arthur Greeves, 29 November 1916. The book is: Heindel, Max: The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception or Mystic Christianity, published by The Rosicrucian Fellowship, 1909.
Citation:
C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 260, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32420, accessed: 18 July 2024
Additional Comments:
I think the most likely title is 'The Celtic Twilight', an anthology of stories first published in 1893. This is the best known collection, but there are three other possibilities: (1) 'The Secret Rose', 1897 (2) 'Stories of Red Hanrahan', 1897 (3) 'Rosa Alchemica, The Tables of the Law, The Adoration of the Magi', 1897. All of these were later published together under the title 'Mythologies', but this cannot be the book referred to because it includes 'Per Amica Silentia Lunae' which was first published in 1917. There is also a very early work: 'Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry', (1888), but this is a collection more edited by Yeats than an original work. Yeats belonged to a Rosicrucian society called The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.