JB: I wrote a book called the Identity of Man. I never saw the cover of the English edition until the book reached me in print. And yet the artist had understood exactly what was in my mind, by putting on the cover a drawing of the brain and the Mona Lisa, one on top of the other

Experiment - a Cambridge student literary magazine






AT CAMBRIDGE, Bronowski produced the literary magazine Experiment with William Empson (qv.). The many poems he wrote include those reproduced below, which appeared in 1929.

October Casuistry

City Summer

For Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands


Sir William Empson (1906 - 1984)
was educated at Winchester and at Magdalene College, Cambridge, earning degrees in mathematics and English literature. His most influential work is a work of criticism, Seven Types of Ambiguity, first published in 1930. He taught in Japan and in China and was subsequently China editor for the BBC in WWII. He later became professor of English at Sheffield University. He was knighted in 1979.

James Reeves (1909 - 1978) was educated at Stowe and at Cambridge University. He was a schoolteacher until 1952 and subsequently a freelance editor and broadcaster. His publications include The Wandering Moon, The Questioning Tiger and many books for children.





The Ascent of Jacob Bronowski



Copyright © 2000 by Stephen Moss. All rights reserved.