Record Number: 19442
Reading Experience:
Evidence:
'Yesterday, I underwent one of the greatest experiences in my life - at a "Poets Reading" in aid of charity. The whole thing made one feel like a bird that has blundered into a room and is bumping its head against the ceiling in trying to get out. Bob Nichols read a whole Act (I suppose it was a whole Act, it certainly lasted for forty minutes) of his unpublished poetic drama "Don Juan" with appropriate face and gesture, but not, thank heavens, appropriate action. At moments one did not know if one was in Church or a Music-hall. But I expect Bob's "Don Juan" will do a lot of good, morally speaking, for if those who lead harum-scarum lives have got to be such a bore as that, nobody is going to risk it.'
Century:1900-1945
Date:Mar 1928
Country:England
Timen/a
Place:city: London
Type of Experience(Reader):
silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
(Listener):
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown
Reader / Listener / Reading Group:
Listener: Age:Adult (18-100+)
Gender:Female
Date of Birth:7 Sep 1887
Socio-Economic Group:Gentry
Occupation:Poet
Religion:Christian
Country of Origin:England
Country of Experience:England
Listeners present if any:e.g family, servants, friends
a number of others
Additional Comments:
n/a
Text Being Read:
Author: Title:Don Juan
Genre:Poetry
Form of Text:Manuscript: Unknown
Publication DetailsUnpublished at the time of the listening experience
Provenanceread in situ
Charity Poetry reading
Source Information:
Record ID:19442
Source:Edith Sitwell
Editor:Richard Greene
Title:Selected Letters of Edith Sitwell
Place of Publication:London
Date of Publication:1998
Vol:n/a
Page:90 - 91
Additional Comments:
This is an extract from a letter dated 30 March 1928 to E M Forster that uses this comment on Bob Nichols reading an Act of his 'Don Juan' to contrast with her reading of EM Forster's book of short stories The Eternal Moment (1928)
Citation:
Edith Sitwell, Richard Greene (ed.), Selected Letters of Edith Sitwell (London, 1998), p. 90 - 91, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=19442, accessed: 01 May 2024
Additional Comments:
Known for her vituperative comments on anyone who she considered an 'enemy' of the Sitwells, Edith's reaction to Robert Nichol's work here may not rest alone on an academic or aesthetic opinion. In 1934 Nichols made a lengthy satirical attack on Osbert Sitwell in 'Fisbo '. However, it is known that Nichols spent 30 years on his uncompleted Don Juan Tenorio the Great ' a tragi-comedy in the Tyrtaen mode' regaling his long -suffering friends on it's pioneering significance ( Hugh Cecil in 'Muddling Through his Tears' ,The Spectator Jun 21 2003).
