The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy

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Topical Guide 106

peterleroy.substack.com
A Topical Guide to the Personal History

Topical Guide 106

Mark Dorset

Eric Kraft
Oct 8, 2021
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Topical Guide 106

peterleroy.substack.com
pershistitlesmall.jpg

Childhood

     “I think it isn’t the right atmosphere for Peter,” she said. … “I think we should take him out of the school. … [If] they’re going to be reading that sort of story, I think it’s just not the right sort of atmosphere for a child.” Several of the mothers were using the same phrase that evening. It had originated with Mrs. Hosmer, who, entirely by coincidence, had been reading a magazine article on the importance of the right atmosphere in child-rearing on the very morning of the fox-and-clam incident at the Misses Leighton’s School. … “There’s time enough later for them to see the misery and unhappiness of life. They should be allowed to spend some time on that mountaintop, in the sun—”

Little Follies, “The Fox and the Clam”

One’s age should be tranquil, as childhood should be playful. Hard work at either extremity of life seems out of place. At midday the sun may burn, and men labor under it; but the morning and evening should be alike calm and cheerful.

Thomas Arnold, educator (1795-1842)

[I haven’t been able to find the source of this quotation. MD]

We all have two lives: The true, the one we dreamed of in childhood and go on dreaming of as adults in a substratum of mist; the false, the one we love when we live with others, the practical, the useful, the one we end up by being put in a coffin. In the other there are no coffins, no deaths, only childhood pictures: big colored books to look at but not to read.

Fernando Pessoa, as Bernardo Soares, The Book of Disquiet, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

[more to come on Monday, October 11, 2021]

Have you missed an episode or two or several?

  • You can catch up by visiting the archive or consulting the index to the Topical Guide.

  • You can listen to the episodes on the Personal History podcast. Begin at the beginning or scroll through the episodes to find what you’ve missed.

  • At Apple Books you can download free eBooks of “My Mother Takes a Tumble,” “Do Clams Bite?,” “Life on the Bolotomy,” and “The Static of the Spheres,” the first four novellas in Little Follies.

  • You’ll find an overview of the entire work in  An Introduction to The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy. It’s a pdf document.

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The serialization of The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences & Observations of Peter Leroy is supported by its readers. I sometimes earn affiliate fees when you click through the affiliate links in a post. EK
The illustration in the banner that opens each episode is from an illustration by Stewart Rouse that first appeared on the cover of the August 1931 issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions.
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Topical Guide 106

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