Listings for Reader:
Walter D'Arcy Cresswell
Click here to select all entries:
Aldous Huxley : Vulgarity in Literature
'Today I bought and read Aldous Huxley's essay Vulgarity in Literature. It's a surprisingly powerful thing, one of those treats in reading, of which our modern authors never afford me more than one a year. But much of the lighter pleasure it gave me was due to my having met him last week at your house & all the time he seemed to be saying it inside your amber drawing-room; ( where by the way I usually feel like a fly in amber). so I think I must thank you for what a great pleasure my last visit has brought me.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell
Matthew Arnold : unknown
'This morning I have been reading Matthew Arnold, for my Anthology, in an easy chair in the sun. This afternoon I shall do some gardening. I have a garden-bed, under my window, which is my own but the whole surrounding the house must be got ready for the reception of Ceres. My chief and most regular exercise is wood-chopping, which I do in honour of Ares.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell Print: Book
D H Lawrence : Letters
'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 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell Print: Book
Dorothy Wellesley : Hogarth Living Poets
'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 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell Print: Book
William Shakespeare : Romeo and Juliet
'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. I had a kitten & my terrier Mick, (who shiver and stare at each other) & the wireless muttering and playing music ever so distantly.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell Print: Book
David Herbert Lawrence : Lady Chatterley's Lover
'On the way up I read Lady Chatterley's Lover, in the new full continental edition a friend got from Germany. I now retract what I said that DHL's letters are more important than his novel. Lady C. is a vastly important book. I understand it. I understand it as necessary. It is delicate and pure. One of the purest things I have ever read. It is far too long. But the strong necessary teaching is there. In parts its as direct and simple as the Bible. Its an amazing love-song; no not a love-song, a life-song. It has given me confidence and courage. It could purge the world.Nevertheless I feel its a thing, a teaching, I must take and pass. I could not stay just in that region. That was Lawrence. But I feel that my goal is quite different. I salute Lady Chatterley, & I will not say leave it behind, but leave it aside. As I said in my last, sex is to art what sleep is to waking life. Full spiritual wakefulness is without sex & is a new innocence, a new childishness if you like.'
