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

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Record Number: 26041


Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Dear Lady London,the Lawrence letters & Hogarth Living Poets have arrived......I am not half-way thro' it yet, as it takes turn with Shakespeare and Gibbon, & catching the English mail which leaves tomorrow.....The same night they arrived I had a huge fire in my shack outside & read nearly thro' the 'Living Poets'. Do not feel your kindness was wasted if I say I loved its company more than its contents. I loved its blue cover, crisp new paper & Londonish presence in my lonely Antarctic room. It took me back to London people and parties, the talk & the fashions & the jungle of reputations. This is how you solaced & delghted me for an evening by sending it......By adding the 'Poets' to the Letters you added a delicate melting sweet to a meal. It was just to my taste. The Lawrence letters are so far delightful. he is among the great letter-writers, of a lighter kind. I have been lately reading the Keats' letters you gave me in London. His matter is more searching and profound. His far greater fame attracts a far greater attention. How unbearably sad they are at the end. I had to to rush to the poems to reassure myself, that such a life was not a tragedy but a triumph.......Last night by a log-fire, I seemed the loneliest most contented man in the world. I was reading Romeo and Juliet and beginning this letter to you...'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 1 Jun 1933 and 12 Jun 1933

Country:

New Zealand

Time

evening

Place:

specific address: Barnswood, hinds-mayfield R.D., South Canterbury
other location: Outdoor shack

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:

Walter D'Arcy Cresswell

Age:

Adult (18-100+)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

22 Jan 1896

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Poet

Religion:

n/a

Country of Origin:

New Zealand

Country of Experience:

New Zealand

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

n/a


Additional Comments:

n/a



Text Being Read:

Author:

D H Lawrence

Title:

Letters

Genre:

Biography, Letters

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

1932 , London edited by Aldous Huxley

Provenance

owned


Source Information:

Record ID:

26041

Source:

Print

Author:

Walter D'Arcy Cresswell

Editor:

Helen Shaw

Title:

Dear Lady Ginger an exchange of letters between lady Ottoline Morrell and D'Arcy Cresswell together with Ottoline Morrell's essay on Katherine Mansfield

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1984

Vol:

n/a

Page:

59-62

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Walter D'Arcy Cresswell, Helen Shaw (ed.), Dear Lady Ginger an exchange of letters between lady Ottoline Morrell and D'Arcy Cresswell together with Ottoline Morrell's essay on Katherine Mansfield (London, 1984), p. 59-62, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=26041, accessed: 29 March 2024


Additional Comments:

D'Arcy Cresswell had been a frequent guest at Ottoline Morrell's 'Thursdays' hence his reference to memories of London where, amongst others, he had met DH Lawrence. No longer able to afford to remain in England, he had returned to his native New Zealand and was at this time living in the home of his parents. He kept up a regular correspondence with Ottoline until her death and she frequently sent him books and journals including in particular,works of literature and poetry. This is an extract from a long letter in which D'Arcy Cresswell continues to consider Lawrence's letters and ends with a lyrical description of his garden in the moonlight. ( Perhaps inspired by Romeo and Juliet?).

   
   
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