Record Number: 20627

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Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Thank you for sending me your novel. I think that there is much good writing, and that you have a strong visual sense, but I do get tired of the perpetual pillow fights. Frankly, don't either of you young men know anybody who is capable of getting into his own bed and staying there? If you do for goodness sake cultivate his acquaintance, and write about him next time for a change. Also, calling a spade a spade never made the spade interesting yet. Take my advice, leave spades alone, or if you must mention them, then mention the garden too. All the miners round here - they are not an expressive race- use words which recur over and over again on your pages. But I don't find they add anything to my consciousness. No, no, you[should] develop your talent along different lines, and let us have some more writing like that page about the girl and the sailor - with the last phrase left out. P.S I mean that our forefathers, though an ignorant lot in some ways, were no more ignorant of the process of excretion than are their descendents today. But apart from medical treatises, these things do not in themselves make interesting reading. The prose rythms of your book really do deserve a more worthy subject, next time.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between Jul 1933 and 23 Aug 1933

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

city: Renishaw
county: Yorkshire
specific address: Renishaw Hall,

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

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Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Edith Sitwell

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

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

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Text Being Read:

Author:

Charles Henri Ford ( with Parker Tyler)

Title:

The Young and the Evil

Genre:

Fiction

Form of Text:

Print: Book

Publication Details

1933 Obelisk Press, Paris

Provenance

owned

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Source Information:

Record ID:

20627

Source:

Print

Author:

Edith Sitwell

Editor:

Richard Greene

Title:

Selected Letters of Edith Sitwell

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

1998

Vol:

n/a

Page:

145

Additional Comments:

n/a

Citation:

Edith Sitwell, Richard Greene (ed.), Selected Letters of Edith Sitwell (London, 1998), p. 145, http://can-red-lec.library.dal.ca/Arts/RED/record_details.php?id=20627, accessed: 26 April 2024

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Additional Comments:

Principally a poet, artist and later fim maker this is Ford's only novel and written in collaboration with Parker Tyler;it was banned in England and America. Ford was close to Pavel Tchelitchew who was the idol of Edith Sitwell and presumably this is how it came about that Ford sent the book to her. Later (1949) she would write a preface to a book of Ford's poetry ' Sleep in a Nest of Flames'. The extract here is in the form of a letter to Ford dated 23rd August 1933. In a subsequent letter to Allen Turner later that month (precise date unknown) Edith comments 'By the way,that book which was sent to me to read is both boring and foul.'