If you could have only one book to keep with you in hard times, what would you choose? I don’t mean a favourite book but one that will give you everything you need. In 1939 the great art and literary critic, philosopher and poet Herbert Read attempted an answer.
‘The Knapsack’ published by Routledge in 1939 is an anthology intended for a soldier to carry in his kit when there might be room for no more than one book. It’s a compact, robust book which gives confidence. Read had served in the First World War receiving both the Military Cross and the DSO.
As Read makes clear in the Preface to ‘The Knapsack’, the First World War had made him aware of the need for such a book and the need for the contents of such a book to be robust and active.
“I felt that I wanted, at any rate in a good part of my moods, something more objective, something more aware of material things, of flesh and blood, of action and experience.”
More of the pieces which spoke to Read in this way next post.
The Solitary Reader 