Record Number: 4928

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Mary Lakeman, a Cornish fisherman's daughter, confirmed what George Orwell had written in "Riding Down from Bangor": "Little Women", "Good Wives", "What Katy Did", "Avonlea", "Tom Sawyer", "Huckleberry Finn", and "The Last of the Mohicans" all created a romantic childhood vision of unlimited freedom and open space. "For me Jo, Beth and Laurie are right at the heart of a permanent unalterable American scene", she wrote, "and I can turn on Louisa M. Alcott and others so powerfully that Nixon and Watergate are completely blacked out".'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

unknown

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

county: Cornwall

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

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Mary Lakeman

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Female

Date of Birth:

n/a

Socio-Economic Group:

Labourer (agricultural)

Occupation:

fisherman's daughter

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

England

Country of Experience:

England

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

James Fenimore Cooper

Title:

The Last of the Mohicans

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

n/a

Provenance

unknown

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

4928

Source:

Print

Author:

Jonathan Rose

Editor:

n/a

Title:

The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes

Place of Publication:

New Haven

Date of Publication:

2001

Vol:

n/a

Page:

355

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Jonathan Rose, The Intellectual Life of the British Working Classes, (New Haven, 2001), p. 355, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=4928, accessed: 22 November 2024

---

Additional Comments:

See Mary Lakeman, 'An Early Tide' pp. 170-1.