Find Page One on APPLE PODCASTS or STITCHER.

(Background noise might make this episode a challenging listen.)

Season 1 Episodes

This edition of Page One goes live at about the same time as the financial year comes to an end*. Charles Adrian turns to history, then, and digs out a few of his more interesting discoveries in this field, as well as a collected Oscar Wilde. This last is labelled Everyman’s Library number 858 and is covered in a dustcover of a somewhat oppressive green colour.

*Please see Correction below.

Correction: The end of the 2012-2013 financial year in the UK was the 5th April, not the 30th of April as stated in this episode.

This episode was recorded at the Wilton Way Café for London Fields Radio.

This episode has been edited to remove music that is no longer covered by licence for this podcast.

A transcript of this episode is below.

Episode released: 30th April, 2013.

Book listing:

Victoriana by Jüri Gabriel

History Of The United States From 1865 To The Present by James P. Shenton

Svetlana by Martin Ebon

Plays, Prose Writings and Poems by Oscar Wilde

Links:

Charles Adrian

Episode transcript:

Jingle
You're listening... you're listening to London Fields Radio.

Charles Adrian
Hello and welcome to the 33rd Page One. I'm Charles Adrian and I'm in the Wilton Way Cafe for London Fields Radio. This is going to go up onto the website on about the 30th of April, which by my reckoning is the end of the financial year*. Hoo! So we'll be all... we'll all be looking back with fond regrets on everything we've spent and we'll be listening to tracks like this one: The End by Green Day... sorry: In The End by Green Day from their album Dookie [/dʊəki/]... or Dookie [/duːki/]... or [fading out] whatever.

Music
[In The End by Green Day]

Charles Adrian
So that was Green Day with In The End.

Now, I've dug out some history for this week's Page One, starting with a book which I've read from already in the dim, distant past. I may take that recording offline so I don't know whether you're going to be able to find it or not. This is Victoriana by Jüri Gabriel. It cost me £1.50 and I would say it's worth at least twenty-five percent of that. It's an illustrated history of Victorian craft. It's, in fact, part of the Hamlin All Colour Paperbacks series. On the first page are pictures of a Goss Parian bust of Queen Victoria from 1886 - she's looking pretty grumpy - and, for comparison purposes, a mahogany chair circa 1820 and a mahogany chair circa 1835. You can imagine, if you like, a series of mahogany chairs captured at fifteen year intervals all the way up to 2010. Although the comparison would fast become irrelevant. This is... This is Victoriana by Jüri Gabriel:

VICTORIANA
Though art is a fluid process and, as such, is not bound by the life and death cycle of monarchy, one cannot help feeling that the Prince Regent provided something of an exception to this rule. When he died in 1830 as George IV, the Regency spirit died with him. By the time Victoria came to the throne, though furniture - to take but one form of applied art - had changed relatively little in outward appearance, its whole mood was different. Regency furniture, even at its most exaggerated, had an air of gaiety and that particular easy elegance one senses in people who are certain of their own taste. This certainty the new early-Victorian middle class lacked. It had not had the benefit of the aesthetic hothouse of inherited wealth, nor was its earned income sufficient to indulge in the Georgian hobby of individual patronage. What the average middle class client wanted was value for money and so, instead of commissioning something to meet his specific needs, he chose, in a shop, what he liked best from a range of items produced ‘on spec’. Thus, aesthetic judgment became increasingly the affair of the commercially efficient manufacturer, often the person least equipped to be an arbiter of taste. The result was conservatism, partly because the manufacturer saw no real reason to go to the expense of radically new designs while his main market remained aesthetically uncommitted and partly because new designs often involved pay disputes. Whereas the London Cabinet-Makers' Union Book Of Rules gave agreed rates of pay for existing designs, the establishment of a similar scale for any new design could - and often did - involve time-consuming negotiation. Yet, in spite of this innate conservatism, the Regency style was gradually superseded as a result of natural stylistic evolution - few manufacturers can resist the temptation of slightly im...

So there we go. I think that first page already contains some fascinating information. I had no idea that commissioning a new design would involve negotiating with the London Cabinet-Makers' Union.

My next track, which continues my theme, is by Placebo and it's called The Bitter End.

Music
[The Bitter End by Placebo]

Charles Adrian
Placebo with The Bitter End.

My second book is a History of the United States from 1865 to the Present - the present being, in this case, 1964. It's by James P. Shenton and it's a great book. I have no idea where I bought it. It was reduced from £3 to £2 and I think it's probably worth... I would say, a hundred percent more than that. I... I read this over a fairly relaxed period, I think, and I learned a huge amount about the politics, farming, manufacturing, urbanisation, foreign policy, general warfare and social movements of what we might call, I suppose, the adolescent United States. I've forgotten most of it, of course, but I do remember that I was quite surprised to discover that the Democrats in 1865 were closer to what we would call Republicans nowadays. So take that fact home with you. I'm sure all the other information is lurking somewhere inside my brain ready to be called up.

This... This purports to be a history of “The significant men, events, and historical themes that shaped America's course from the Civil War to the New Frontier. A survey with particular attention to the cultural, economic, and political motives underlying the events.” And indeed it is. Here's the first page. Here's the Preface:

The Civil War was a major turning point in American history: a new tradition had to be established, new values had to be found, new directions charted. Throughout the century that has elapsed since the Civil War, it has been the continuing quest of the citizens of the United States, and of their leaders, to achieve a workable and satisfactory national identity, philosophy, and objective. This book tells the story of that hundred-year quest.
The text has been written to explain American history since 1865 in all its dimensions. Beginning with the chaos and conflict of the post-war period, it examines the nation's growth in material terms and the nation's progress in ideological terms. Detailed attention is given to the specific personalities and events of the past hundred years. And this factual material is expanded and enriched by discussion of the major historical movements and themes which have influenced or resulted from American growth: urbanization, industrialization, corruption and reform, physical expansion, the swelling of the population by immigrants, the decline of agriculture, the increasing interaction and interdependence with the other nations of the world. America, a nation that in 1865 was economically wracked, militarily depleted, and concerned almost exclusively with her domestic tensions and needs, has become, in 1964, a nation of supreme material wealth and military power, whose every move is of potential international consequence.
A companion volume to History of the United States to 1865, this text is broad and inclusive in its coverage so as to meet the varying needs of individuals in their study of American history. Intended to provide the fundamentals of a general introductory college course in American history, suitable both for study and for review, the text aims to be clear and understandable in plan and detail. A reader who wishes to use it for home study may well do so.

[aside] Thanks.

The book is divided into four parts: The Reunited Republic, The Industrial Republic, The Progressive Republic, and The New Republic. A number of maps, graphs, and charts depict various significant aspects of American history. The tables of Presidents and political par-...

Now, I also want to read you the first page of the History proper because it's full of figures and I absolutely love these kind of figures. They make my mind boggle. Remember that we're talking about a hundred and fifty years ago, which is not that long in the life of a nation but it's quite long in the life of an economy, I would say.

Chapter 1
Reconstruction in the South

April 9, 1865: the Civil War was over; the peace had not yet begun. Grant and Sherman had revolutionized the conduct of war, leaving much of the South in rubble; and there were men in Washington who were determined that when the South was rebuilt, it would be along new social and political lines.

THE COST OF THE CIVIL WAR
The loss of life in the four years of conflict had been staggering. Altogether, 359,528 soldiers are known to have died for the Union; for the Confederacy, whose records are incomplete, the estimated deaths total 258,000. The number of wounded on both sides ran into the hundreds of thousands, and no one is certain how many of these men were permanently maimed. The scale of loss in the South is suggested by the fact that, in those Southern counties where the necessary records have survived, more than half of the white female population after the war consisted of widows. It had cost the federal government more than $3,400,000,000 to carry on the war, the cost of federal pensions after the war exceeded $8,200,000,000. If similar costs are estimated for the Confederacy, the direct and indirect charges of the war approach $20,000,000,000. And yet, even this figure does not include the staggering cost of cities wholly or partly destroyed; of the ruined plantations and farms of the South; of the twisted rail routes and burned bridges that marked the paths of the...

There we go. I think it's gripping and I'm tempted to even start reading it again. History... hoo!

This... This now - this track - is going to be Psalm and it's from Matthew Ward's album - or M... M. Ward, if you follow his terminology - M. Ward's album The End Of Amnesia.

Music
[Psalm by M. Ward]

That was M. Ward's Psalm from The End Of Amnesia.

My next book is called Svetlana and is subtitled The Incredible Story Of Stalin's Daughter. Did you even know that Stalin had a daughter? I didn't. It's by Martin Ebon and my copy has been covered in some kind of translucent paper. It's fascinating. It's a cross between tracing paper and... and greaseproof paper. Listen to it, see if you can hear it... [sound of cover paper rustling] rattle. Do you have... Do you have an image of that? It's advertised as having “TWENTY-ONE PHOTOGRAPHS” and “LARGE CLEAR TYPE” and I can attest to that: it does have large clear type. It was published by Signet in 1967, when Martin Ebon was a teacher, lecturer, and the author of World Communism Today and Malenkov: Stalin's Successor, so he's definitely the right man for the job. Once more, I want to read you from the Prologue and the first page of the book itself.

Prologue: From Tragedy To Rebirth

The daughter of Joseph Stalin was walking through the streets of India's holy city of Benares on the Ganges River. As she passed one of the famous ghats - the terraces through which the bodies of the dead are taken for cremation - a friend drew Svetlana's attention to a corpse being carried by mourners. But she covered her eyes with her hand and cried out: “I have seen thousands of them at home. I can't see any more.”
That was on February 24th, 1967, less than two months after the ashes of her Indian communist husband had been scattered on the Ganges. On April 21st, 1967, Svetlana Alliluyeva Stalina stepped out of a plane at New York's Kennedy International Airport. Her manner was enthusiastic, her smile contagious. She walked up to a cluster of microphones and said: “Hello there everybody. I am happy to be here.”
The plane that brought her to the United States from Switzerland completed Svetlana's exodus from a life of tragedy. She had spent some forty years in the Soviet Union in the shadow of her famous - and infamous - father. Now she was ready to begin a new life. In the following pages, we shall trace Svetlana's life journey through the years of tragedy to the moment of her spiritual rebirth.

So there we go. That is, in fact, the whole Prologue. And now the first page:

Chapter One: Decision In Paradise

A small off-white dog named Pommy, friendly and nondescript, is the inhabitant of Kalakankar with whom Svetlana Alleluyeva Stalina spent most of her time during the sixty-seven days she stayed in this serene, remote and friendly Indian village. Weeks after she had left, a visitor took a photograph of Svetlana out of its frame and Pommy ran up, stood on his hind legs, his short tail wagging, and tried to lick the face on the picture. In New York, Svetlana said that she did not need many material possessions but that she hoped for a car and for a dog - a gypsy dog, footloose as she was. Pommy had been a good companion to the uprooted daughter of Joseph Stalin.
Kalakankar had been paradise to Svetlana. It seemed like the embodiment of all she had ever wanted: the peaceful green of trees and bushes and grassy slopes that led to the sprawling Ganges river, the solid square stones of the terrace outside her window, and moist sand she could run through her fingers as she sat at the riverbank with her pain, her memor-...

Jingle
London Fields Radio... it's London Fields Radio.

Charles Adrian
It is, it's London Fields Radio. This is Charles Adrian. I'm here in the Wilton Way Cafe for the 33rd Page One.

And now, my last book. This is a wild card. It is, in fact, an Everyman edition of Oscar Wilde's PLAYS, PROSE WRITINGS, AND POEMS. It was published in 1936 and is covered in a horrid green dust jacket. Apparently it's number 858 in Everyman's Library. Can you imagine? Eight hundred and fifty-eight! The bookmark, which is inside, which is clearly an original bookmark, contains “SOME OPINIONS ON EVERYMAN'S ENCYCLOPAEDIA”. The Rt. Hon. SIR A. CHAMBERLAIN says: “Admirably written and edited, it contains a surprising amount of information. The pages open freely and the print is clear.” Sir JOSIAH STAMP says: “I have used Everyman's Encyclopedia constantly. It is an invaluable work. J. B. PRIESTLY says: “At the price it is a most extraordinary production. It is easy and pleasant to read and has been edited with great skill.” SIR ARTHUR KEITH says: “I have searched its pages and found without fail an accurate and adequate statement of the best and latest known. It is a veritable triumph.” And finally VISCOUNTESS SNOWDEN says: “A wonderful production. These 12 volumes form a library in themselves, a never-failing source of information and delight.”

One feels that, perhaps, this kind of PR was in its infancy when that was produced.

So this is... this is a collection of all kinds of writing. In the introduction, the editor talks about Wilde's success and disgrace and says: “The execrations and ecstasies of both periods are now...” [aside] remember, in 1936... “are now forgotten. We may view the man, his period and his work, in a spirit of detachment. And, having done so, we may even risk the prophecy that his gay humour will outlive his sad history.” I think we probably might risk that prophecy. I'm going to read you the first page of:

THE CRITIC AS ARTIST
SOME [sic] REMARKS UPON THE IMPORTANCE OF DOING NOTHING
A DIALOGUE. Part I. Persons : Gilbert and Ernest. Scene : the library of a house in Piccadilly, overlooking the Green Park.

[aside] How lovely.

Gilbert. [At the piano.] My dear Ernest, what are you laughing at?
Ernest. [Looking up.] At a capital story that I have just come across in this volume of Reminiscences that I have found on your table.
Gilbert. What is the book? Ah! I see. I have not read it yet. Is it good?
Ernest. Well, while you have been playing, I have been turning over the pages with some amusement, though, as a rule, I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering ; which, however, is, no doubt, the true explanation of their popularity, as the English public always feels perfectly at its ease when a mediocrity is talking to it.
Gilbert. Yes : the public is wonderfully tolerant. It forgives everything except genius. But I must confess that I like all memoirs. I like them for their form, just as much as for their matter. In literature mere egotism is delightful. It is what fascinates us in the letters of personalities so different as Cicero and Balzac, Flaubert and Berlioz, Byron and Madame de Sévigné. Whenever we come across it, and, strangely enough, it is rather rare, we cannot but welcome it, and do not easily forget it. Humanity will always love Rousseau for having confessed his sins, not to a priest, but to the world, and the couchant nymphs that Cellini wrought in bronze for the castle of King Francis, the green and gold Perseus, even, that in the open Loggia at Florence shows the moon the dead terror that once turned life to stone, have not given it more pleasure than has that autobiography in which the supreme scoundrel of the Renaissance relates the story of his splendour and his shame. The opinions, the character, the achievements of the man, matter very little. He may be a sceptic like the gentle Sieur de Montaigne, or a saint like the bitter son of Monica, but when he tells us his own secrets he can always charm our ears to listening and our lips to silence. The mode of thought that Cardinal...

And on it goes. I... I confess that I've never actually got beyond the first page of that. I did pick it up like a while ago and started reading but... it just seems endless. And it goes on for pages and pages. Maybe I'll have another go at some point. I'm not against Wilde, I just find him a little tedious from time to time. So read on... read on yourself also.

This has been, as I have said, the 33rd Page One. I have been Charles Adrian, recording for London Fields Radio in the Wilton Way Cafe. I'm going to finish this week with a track by The Rag And Bone Club, which... I love this album and this track is called Start Again.

Music
[Start Again by The Rag And Bone Club]

* Please see the correction in the episode notes above

[Initial transcription by https://otter.ai]