Early Reading I
According to Brasch, John Keats was 'the first poet I came to know as a person.' He had read his mother's own copy of the poet's works, and his cousins Mary and Dora de Beer had given him a copy of Colvin's Life. He eventually obtained his own copy of the Complete Poems despite his father's protestations. Toss Woollaston was obviously aware of the importance of Keats to Brasch. The card accompanying this modern work on Keats has the note: 'For Xmas with much love from us both. If you already have it - I don't know what to suggest - give it to someone else?' Brasch was a good collector and he valued Woollaston's friendship. It was kept.
The first poetry that Brasch remembered clearly was in Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. Although the poems had a 'doggy, faintly lachrymose quality', lines such as 'Dark brown is the river, Golden is the sand…' remained etched in his mind. Stevenson provided other early reading material. This Tusitala copy of The Wrecker contains the earliest record of ownership by Brasch. It is signed and dated on the front endpapers: 'C. Brasch, 27.7.25.'
Sara Fels, Brasch's grandmother, gave him a copy of Selma Lagerlöf's The Wonderful Adventures of Nils. This Swedish classic about the boy who was turned into an elf because of naughtiness and who flew on a big white gander captivated Brasch. It was 'the book I loved above all others.' He also devoured the sequel. This second copy of The Further Adventures was given to Brasch much later by two children and has the accompanying note: 'Dear Charles, Jonathan and I send our love and hope you enjoy this book. This morning we bought some anemone seeds and Jonathan has just finished planting them. We think of you and hope you will get better soon. Love, Katie.' Undoubtedly he was touched by this gift.
Winsome Milner lived with her parents at Waitaki before heading off to University, and according to Brasch, her arrival brought a 'charge of raw electricity' into the school. Brasch was strongly attracted to her and wrote her many letters and poems. She introduced Brasch to jazz songs like 'Barcelona' and 'Picador', and encouraged him to read Shaw, Galsworthy and William Morris. About this time Brasch acquired a copy of Flecker's Collected poems which they read together. In Brasch's Indirections, his autobiographical work, he records how the dark romantic Flecker with a chrysanthemum over one ear 'made us free of a fantastic eastern Mediterranean world that existed only in his poems.'
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| Selma Lagerlöf, The further adventures of Nils. London: Dent, 1953. |
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