British Author, Harold Acton,* was asked to perform at a Conservative Garden Fete.  He decided to recite [T. S. Eliot's] The Waste Land from beginning to end.  "His audience's good manners were severely tested, as this dirge for a godless civilization, delivered in Harold Acton's rich, resounding voice, swept irresistible above their heads;  and one or two old ladies, who were alarmed and horrified but thought that the reciter had such a 'nice, kind face,' rather than hurt the young man's feelings by getting up and leaving openly, were obliged to sink to their knees and creep away on all fours."

*(July 5, 1904 - February 27, 1994)


THE LITTLE, BROWN BOOK OF Anecdotes, Clifton Fadiman.