Record Number: 32937

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

‘Your parcels have arrived … You have my deepest assurances that the pleasure caused by your kindness has been considerable…. The reason I dared to ask for all these things is—we have been so busy and so much in the trenches, that it has been impossible to get these things ourselves, in the towns and villages. As for our canteen, the only one is certain of getting, is bootpolish … But now—the books. Shelley was very nice to get. Keats I haven’t touched yet. But O—Walt Whitman! I never dreamed he was so good … it has annoyed me to find so much in so tiny a book. I will go as far as to say that no present has very given me so much pleasure … Pip is a jolly book, and full of good descriptions of sport (O, what would a clean hit for four feel like now?) But there is [no] need to send me such … One can only read them once, then hand them on. True, a lot of men see them. But Walt Whitman—why he has after some fashion renewed me.’

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

1 Aug 1916

Country:

France

Time

n/a

Place:

county: Nord
Aubers Ridge, reserve trenches

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Ivor Bertie Gurney

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

28 Aug 1890

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Private, Gloucestershire Regiment

Religion:

Christian (Anglican)

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

France

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Walt Whitman

Title:

(Poems)

Genre:

Poetry

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

Probably in W. T. Stead's Penny Poets series (1896)

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

32937

Source:

Print

Author:

Ivor Gurney

Editor:

R. K. R. Thornton

Title:

Ivor Gurney: Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

Manchester

Date of Publication:

1991

Vol:

n/a

Page:

127-8

Additional Comments:

Letter to Marion Scott, violinist and musicologist, 1 August 1916, from Aubers Ridge

Citation:

Ivor Gurney, R. K. R. Thornton (ed.), Ivor Gurney: Collected Letters, (Manchester, 1991), p. 127-8, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32937, accessed: 21 December 2024

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Additional Comments:

None