Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2024 February 29

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February 29

BBC radio archives

Hello, I'm looking for information about archival WWII-era, BBC radio recordings consisting of four separate radio programs read by E. Graham Howe. The lectures or shows were titled "Cross Purposes", "Create and Share", "How Long", and "The Great Unseen". There is evidently information about these BBC radio shows in the book Where this War Hits You: Four Broadcast Talks (1941) OCLC 2174883, which represents an edited transcript in book form. I'm hoping the book also includes more information about the broadcast. Obviously, I do not have access to this work. What's odd, is that the four shows were supposed to be somewhat controversial, but I can find nothing about the controversy. I'm wondering if the chaos of this war-time era is responsible for the dearth of information on this subject. So I guess what I'm asking is, can anyone find anything else about these BBC radio broadcasts by Howe? Internet Archive has a few words here and there, but not much I can add to the article on Howe. On Google Books, I noticed at least one major work about BBC radio during WWII, but nothing about Howe. Even stranger, I can find nothing regarding his death in 1975, neither an obituary nor a death notice nor a courtesy notice in a professional journal, which is also very odd. Viriditas (talk) 08:25, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

A bit of synthesis/OR: Graham Howe was inspired by Buddhism and knew the (German-born) Buddhist monk Nyanaponika Thera personally.^[1] Part of his approach to dealing with difficult and distressing situations in which one may feel helpless was rooted in Buddhist spirituality, and has been described as trying to "synthesize Christianity and Buddhism".^[2] If his lectures were interpreted by some doctrinal Christians as engaging in such synthesis, they may have been alarmed. Another possible point of contention may have been his advocacy of "peaceful acceptance", an "acceptance of both sides", as recorded in his earlier book War Dance,^[3][4] which, like Where this War Hits You, was based on a series of lectures.  --Lambiam 11:30, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Alternatively, they may not have been considered particularly notable at the time. I imagine that there are a very large number of wartime BBC radio broadcasts that escaped contemporary critical comment. Alansplodge (talk) 13:11, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Right, but that’s why I was even looking in the first place. Several sources asserted they were notable broadcasts that generated controversy, yet I can find nothing. I suspect the book says something, but what I really wanted to do was to listen to the archival lectures, which I was hoping the BBC had put online. Viriditas (talk) 22:09, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Apologies, my comments sound rather flippant in retrospect, but my point was that in wartime, the BBC broadcast a huge number of lectures (what we might now call podcasts) by some of the most eminent minds in the country, from archbishops to trade unionists, so one being unremarked upon might not be too surprising.

However, a bit of digging reveals that there is a brief book review in The Theosophist; Vol. 63, No. 10, July 1942 p. 320 (81/89 of the pdf file).

A Google search result shows that the book is also mentioned in War Aims and Peace Aims V by Helen Lidell. My JSTOR account doesn't allow me to see more than the front page, but someone at WikiProject Resource Exchange might be able to help. That's all I could find, except that the British Library must have a copy of the book, but how you would access that, I don't know. Alansplodge (talk) 23:08, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Update: I was able to access the JSTOR article through the Wikipedia Library, but it only says:

"Individual and shared creativeness" is the phrase used by Professor Huxley for the motive force of the new democratic society in the picture he draws in the last of his broadcast talks. [footnote 2: Democracy Marches. By Julian Huxley. 1941. (London, Chatto & Windus, 126 pp. 3s. 6d.)] The biologist and publicist is here supported in almost identical terms by a psychologist, Dr. Graham Howe, in another series of broadcasts.

Alansplodge (talk) 23:27, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

I take it that you've seen The Druid of Harley Street: The Spiritual Psychology of E. Graham Howe which has a lengthy preview on Google Books? The forward and the first chapter have some biographical details. It sounds as though he was at odds with the mainstream psychiatric community, which might explain why they didn't mark his passing. Alansplodge (talk) 23:51, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Yes, I have access to all of the sources mentioned in this discussion, many of which appear in his biography article that I linked to up above. What I’m looking for is access to archival British newspaper indexes which might have noted his passing or the BBC radio lectures. I don’t think any of these are online or easily accessible. Viriditas (talk) 00:18, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

Someone at WikiProject Resource Exchange might be able to help with newspaper archives. The BBC Sound Archive doesn't seem to be easily accessible to the public. Alansplodge (talk) 12:07, 2 March 2024 (UTC)

Yes, that was one of my primary concerns. It's not just a problem with the BBC Sound Archive, it's a problem with sound archives everywhere. One of the most fascinating sound archives that documents the counterculture of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s in the US is held by KPFA. It's a treasure trove for researchers, but I don't think even 1% of it is online. A few years ago, I found a comprehensive index to these recordings online. I was hoping the BBC sound archives would at least have the same kind of index for the public. Viriditas (talk) 20:22, 8 March 2024 (UTC)