Preliminary Announcement & List of Members Society for Pure English, Tract 01 (1919)

In the uneasy calm after the Great War, a handful of literary enthusiasts reconvened to launch the Society for Pure English, a modest collective determined to give the English language the thoughtful stewardship it seemed to lack. Their opening statement, dated October 1919, frames the organization as a response to wartime disruption, hoping to rekindle public interest in the craft of writing and to nurture a more conscientious approach to the words that shape everyday life.

The prospectus outlines practical matters—how the Society will fund itself through voluntary donations rather than mandatory dues, its plans to issue regular tracts on language matters, and an invitation for anyone genuinely concerned with English to join. It also hints at a broader ambition: to provide a forum for rigorous discussion, encouraging contributors to share insights while avoiding the imposition of a single orthodoxy. For listeners, the document offers a snapshot of early‑twentieth‑century literary self‑examination and the earnest desire to guide a language in flux.