Herbert Read, poet, literary critic, and philosopher of modern art, was born on 4 December 1893, son of a tenant-farmer in North Yorkshire. The seemingly timeless agricultural patterns of his early rural life were interrupted by his father's death in 1903: the family left the farm and Read was sent to an orphan school in the industrial town of Halifax, West Yorkshire. The contrast he experienced between the 'natural' and the 'mechanical', sharpened and reinforced by the writings of Ruskin and Bergson, was to structure his poetry and thought throughout his life. Read excelled at his studies and in 1912 enrolled at the University of Leeds. Though initially intending to read for a degree in History, and later in Law, he read widely. Moreove

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First published 11 February 2001

Citation: Whitworth, Michael. "Sir Herbert Read". The Literary Encyclopedia. 11 February 2001.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3719, accessed 9 February 2010.]