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

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Listings for Reader:  

Joseph Stamper

 

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Edward L. Wheeler : Deadwood Dick

'In the lower part of the newsagent's windows were the journals that catered for me. By would be reformers they were lumped together as "penny dreadfuls". One was "Deadwood Dick" -a cowboy who was always bumping off people in Deadman's Gulch or Gallow's Ravine, The reformers told me that my mind would become brutalised by reading Penny Dreadfuls... Besides "Deadwood Dick" in the shop window there was "Bronco Bill", with stories of a similar type. And there was "Jack Wright".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : Bronco Bill

'In the lower part of the newsagent's windows were the journals that catered for me. By would be reformers they were lumped together as "penny dreadfuls". One was "Deadwood Dick" -a cowboy who was always bumping off people in Deadman's Gulch or Gallow's Ravine, The reformers told me that my mind would become brutalised by reading Penny Dreadfuls... Besides "Deadwood Dick" in the shop window there was "Bronco Bill", with stories of a similar type. And there was "Jack Wright".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[unknown] : Jack Wright

'In the lower part of the newsagent's windows were the journals that catered for me. By would be reformers they were lumped together as "penny dreadfuls". One was "Deadwood Dick" -a cowboy who was always bumping off people in Deadman's Gulch or Gallow's Ravine, The reformers told me that my mind would become brutalised by reading Penny Dreadfuls... Besides "Deadwood Dick" in the shop window there was "Bronco Bill", with stories of a similar type. And there was "Jack Wright".'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Hiawatha

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow : Evangeline

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Alfred, Lord Tennyson : [unknown]

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

John Keats : [unknown]

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Homer : [unknown]

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Pliny the Younger : [unknown]

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Aesop : Fables

'Maybe to neutralise the Penny Dreadful, Cassells brought out the Penny Classics. These had a bluish-green cover and were world famous novels in abridged form, but sixty or seventy pages. And W.T. Stead brought out the Penny Poets. The covers of these were pimply surface-paper, a bright orange colour, and they contained selections from Longfellow, Tennyson, Keats, and many others. I first read "Hiawatha" and "Evangeline" in the Penny Poets and thought them marvellous; so marvellous that I began to write 'poetry' myself. Stead also brought out another penny book; this had a pink cover and contained selections from the ancient classics: stories from Homer, the writings of Pliny the younger, Aesop's "Fables". I took a strong fancy to Aesop, he was a Greek slave from Samos, in the sixth century BC, and workpeople were only just beginning to be called "wage slaves". I read all these; non-selective and Catholic my reading...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Holy Scriptures

'When I grew into a youth and read everything I got my hands on, from Penny Dreadfuls to the Holy Scriptures, I came across phrases that puzzled me, such as "sans-culotte", "shiftless rabble", "dregs of humanity", "ignorant masses". I wondered where all these worthless people lived. I could only think it must be London or some such place outside my ken. Then one day it dawned on me, these scornful and superior writers were writing about me, and the people who lived in our street. It knocked me sideways for a little time, till the temperament I had inherited from my mother pulled me straight again... The latest I have come across is Richard Church, for whom, as a poet and novelist, I have full respect...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : Penny Dreadfuls

'When I grew into a youth and read everything I got my hands on, from Penny Dreadfuls to the Holy Scriptures, I came across phrases that puzzled me, such as "sans-culotte", "shiftless rabble", "dregs of humanity", "ignorant masses". I wondered where all these worthless people lived. I could only think it must be London or some such place outside my ken. Then one day it dawned on me, these scornful and superior writers were writing about me, and the people who lived in our street. It knocked me sideways for a little time, till the temperament I had inherited from my mother pulled me straight again... The latest I have come across is Richard Church, for whom, as a poet and novelist, I have full respect...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Richard Church : [unknown]

'When I grew into a youth and read everything I got my hands on, from Penny Dreadfuls to the Holy Scriptures, I came across phrases that puzzled me, such as "sans-culotte", "shiftless rabble", "dregs of humanity", "ignorant masses". I wondered where all these worthless people lived. I could only think it must be London or some such place outside my ken. Then one day it dawned on me, these scornful and superior writers were writing about me, and the people who lived in our street. It knocked me sideways for a little time, till the temperament I had inherited from my mother pulled me straight again... The latest I have come across is Richard Church, for whom, as a poet and novelist, I have full respect...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Unknown

  

[unknown] : How to make friends and influence people

'When I was a youth I envied others having this capacity to make close friends. I even bought a book, "How To Make Friends and Influence People". I read the book, but it did me no good; so I must be a hopeless case.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood : East Lynne

'My mother used to read the novels of Miss Braddon and Mrs Henry Wood, and those in a series called "The Family Story Teller", that she got from the public library. My father got her "East Lynne" through a pub Literary Society, she read it over and over again. I read it when I was about nine. Heavens, the tears I gulped back over the death of Little Willie!'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [notice]

'My father took me to see them sold up. He must have been off work again, foundry work was little better than casual labour then. The auctioneer's man had taken the two halves of the sash window out. On the wall by the window was written in chalk: "Owing to Arrears of Rent and by Order of the Landlord. Sale this day at 2.30".'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Manuscript: Graffito

  

[n/a] : Bible

'There is a book you may have come across, and that was read a lot when I was young, called the Bible. I used to read it, too, when I learned to read; it is a bit old fashioned but very interesting when you get used to its archaic English. In the forty-first chapter of Genesis another Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dream...'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [notice]

'Whilst waiting my turn and having observed all these things, I started to spell out a notice above the mirror, I could read enough. It said "Haircut: Men 3d., Boys 2d., Shaving, 1d." That was in 1893, near enough. Prices have gone up a little since then.'

Century: 1850-1899     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Advertisement, Poster

  

Charles Henry Ross : Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday

'None of the periodicals shown there are alive today. There was "Ally Sloper's Half-Holiday", my favourite comic. When Father had a spot of overtime in, he used to buy a copy on Saturday, coming home from work with his wages and give it to me. Ally Sloper was always front page and full page. He was a comical man with a great bulbous nose, a wide grin, and he wore a tall hat that had a definite waist. He had a ma-in-law, and other relatives who were always making difficulties for him, but he always scored off them in the end. R.I.P. Ally.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Police News

'There was the "Police News" and the "Police Budget". I don't think these had any connection, officially, with the police, that was just their name. They specialised in depicting crime in pictures, and also the manly arts of boxing and wrestling. The most sensational crime of the previous week was always given on the front page; and if it was murder by knife or gunshot, there was always oceans of blood sloshed about the picture, and the dying man's face was horrific with his agony. These journals were printed on pink newsprint.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Police Budget

'There was the "Police News" and the "Police Budget". I don't think these had any connection, officially, with the police, that was just their name. They specialised in depicting crime in pictures, and also the manly arts of boxing and wrestling. The most sensational crime of the previous week was always given on the front page; and if it was murder by knife or gunshot, there was always oceans of blood sloshed about the picture, and the dying man's face was horrific with his agony. These journals were printed on pink newsprint.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Sketchy Bits

'Also on pink newsprint were "Sketchy Bits" and "Photo Bits". Most of the "bits" in these journals had huge nude thighs and huge, almost nude, bosoms, with the absolute minimum of clothing... These two "Bits" journals - that I sometimes bought for a halfpenny each at the second-hand periodical stall in the market -catered to some extent to masochists. There were pages of letters supposed to be written by readers to the editor -though it would not surprise me if they had all been written by the same journalist -that I did not quite understand as a boy. I read everything I came across, from the Bible to "Deadwood Dick", so I read these letters also.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Photo Bits

'Also on pink newsprint were "Sketchy Bits" and "Photo Bits". Most of the "bits" in these journals had huge nude thighs and huge, almost nude, bosoms, with the absolute minimum of clothing... These two "Bits" journals - that I sometimes bought for a halfpenny each at the second-hand periodical stall in the market -catered to some extent to masochists. There were pages of letters supposed to be written by readers to the editor -though it would not surprise me if they had all been written by the same journalist -that I did not quite understand as a boy. I read everything I came across, from the Bible to "Deadwood Dick", so I read these letters also.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Edward L. Wheeler : Deadwood Dick

'Also on pink newsprint were "Sketchy Bits" and "Photo Bits". Most of the "bits" in these journals had huge nude thighs and huge, almost nude, bosoms, with the absolute minimum of clothing... These two "Bits" journals - that I sometimes bought for a halfpenny each at the second-hand periodical stall in the market -catered to some extent to masochists. There were pages of letters supposed to be written by readers to the editor -though it would not surprise me if they had all been written by the same journalist -that I did not quite understand as a boy. I read everything I came across, from the Bible to "Deadwood Dick", so I read these letters also.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Heartsease Library

'Now that we had gas I found it much easier and pleasanter to read. When I had read all my own periodicals I used to read Mother's literature. Sometimes she bought a novelette; the "Heartsease Library" was one, a penny per week. She was in the public library, too. I read "The Channings" by Mrs Henry Wood, and "Lady Audley's Secret" by Miss Braddon, and others by these two who were my mother's favourite authors.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Mrs Henry [Ellen] Wood : The Channings

'Now that we had gas I found it much easier and pleasanter to read. When I had read all my own periodicals I used to read Mother's literature. Sometimes she bought a novelette; the "Heartsease Library" was one, a penny per week. She was in the public library, too. I read "The Channings" by Mrs Henry Wood, and "Lady Audley's Secret" by Miss Braddon, and others by these two who were my mother's favourite authors.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Mary Elizabeth Braddon : Lady Audley's Secret

'Now that we had gas I found it much easier and pleasanter to read. When I had read all my own periodicals I used to read Mother's literature. Sometimes she bought a novelette; the "Heartsease Library" was one, a penny per week. She was in the public library, too. I read "The Channings" by Mrs Henry Wood, and "Lady Audley's Secret" by Miss Braddon, and others by these two who were my mother's favourite authors.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'...went along to the reference room of the public library to look up data on African trees. I searched the shelves and found just the book I wanted: a scientific work that gave full details of African trees. I sat studying it and making notes...'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : Young People's First Book of Trees

'[given an alternative text by the librarian, entitled 'Young People's First Book of Trees'] Every time the man came through the room I slipped the African book on to my knees under the table and was intently studying the Young People's book...'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : Strand Magazine

'I was reading a lot of magazine stories now. There was a boys' reading-room at the public library; the magazines were brought second-hand out of the men's reading-room when displaced by a new monthly issue: the "Strand Magazine", "Windsor", "Pearson's", and others...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Windsor

'I was reading a lot of magazine stories now. There was a boys' reading-room at the public library; the magazines were brought second-hand out of the men's reading-room when displaced by a new monthly issue: the "Strand Magazine", "Windsor", "Pearson's", and others...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

[n/a] : Pearson's

'I was reading a lot of magazine stories now. There was a boys' reading-room at the public library; the magazines were brought second-hand out of the men's reading-room when displaced by a new monthly issue: the "Strand Magazine", "Windsor", "Pearson's", and others...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Serial / periodical

  

Thomas More : Utopia

'These artless idealists had their favourite authors, which I now proceeded to read...Their piece de resistance was Sir Thomas More's "Utopia", closely followed by the prose works of William Morris, "The Story of the Unknown Church", and the like. There was quite a spate of novels with this ideology, but the only one that has come down to the present day is Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

William Morris : [prose works]

'These artless idealists had their favourite authors, which I now proceeded to read...Their piece de resistance was Sir Thomas More's "Utopia", closely followed by the prose works of William Morris, "The Story of the Unknown Church", and the like. There was quite a spate of novels with this ideology, but the only one that has come down to the present day is Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

William Morris : The Story of the Unknown Church

'These artless idealists had their favourite authors, which I now proceeded to read...Their piece de resistance was Sir Thomas More's "Utopia", closely followed by the prose works of William Morris, "The Story of the Unknown Church", and the like. There was quite a spate of novels with this ideology, but the only one that has come down to the present day is Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

Edward Bellamy : Looking Backwards

'These artless idealists had their favourite authors, which I now proceeded to read...Their piece de resistance was Sir Thomas More's "Utopia", closely followed by the prose works of William Morris, "The Story of the Unknown Church", and the like. There was quite a spate of novels with this ideology, but the only one that has come down to the present day is Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward".'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[anon] : Guy's Expositor

'The following Saturday afternoon [father] was a bit late getting home from work; he must have gone to the second-hand bookstall in the market. ...he handed me a book that was dropping to pieces. It was thin, with a dark green back. There were about fifty pages; there had been a lot more but the others must have dropped out. All the pages were loose. It was called "Guy's Expositor". It was just lists of words, but it told you where they had come from, and how their meaning had varied through the ages so that some words, eventually, came to mean just the opposite from what they had meant long ago. I was thrilled to the marrow with it...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[n/a] : [Penny Poets]

'I had started to write "poetry". I was reading masses of it in the Penny Poets, and I thought I would like to be a poet myself...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [unknown]

'And the female crocodile does make a nest! I had read all about it in a book from the library...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : Quain's Anatomy

'I was getting a lot of stiff reading out of the public library, now, "for my father". One work was "Quain's Anatomy" in two volumes. The first volume was anatomy and physiology. I read all about bones, muscles, lungs, liver, kidneys, ductless glands, all the whole issue. The second volume was on reproduction and embryology. I was completely fascinated...'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [Astronomy and spectrum analysis]

'I read a lot of astronomy and that, too, was wonderful. The world is full of wonders if one only looks for them. One book I got was on spectrum analysis, as applied to astronomy. I was fascinated by this too. I could not put the book down. One evening Mother had not a penny for the gas, and there was no paraffin in the lamp she still had. I crouched on the fender, reading by the red glow of the fire, so close that my hair was singed.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

  

[unknown] : [Astronomy and spectrum analysis]

'I was so interested in spectrum analysis that I took the big book to school with me, to read in playtime. The desks we had were box-type, there was a lid to lift and you could keep books inside. I had my book in there. We were doing composition. I had my head under the lid and inside the desk, reading more of the library book.'

Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Joseph Stamper      Print: Book

 

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