Norman Holmes Pearson

30 September 1938

Dear Bill:

Your enclosed note from the Book of the Month Club sounded damned encouraging. At least we can know that the book actually did reach their attention; and that is a hell of a lot more than we could have been sure of had it been left entirely to the Oxford Press. I'm very grateful to you! There was an ominous undernote to the effect that there were several slight objections to the book as a dividend: one I imagine will be its shipping weight etc. But do your damnedest, and let the Oxford Press settle such matters if there's the slightest chance of its being taken. At least see if you can't get the anthology placed on their recommended list.

I've asked the Press to get busy with the contracts, so they may call you up at any moment. I've asked for a day or so leeway to look over mine. We might have a talk over the telephone about it, or exchange a letter or two. Don't sign without going over every detail carefully. The terms which I gave Lowry as agreeable to us both (you remember we discussed it together) were that they should pay for all permissions; we, to receive and divide 10% of the list price of trade or educational editions as the sale might be for the first 20,000 copies sold of the book no matter which edition. We to receive and divide 15% of ditto for all sales between 20,000 and 30,000 copies ditto. Above 30,000 copies ditto our division to be 20% of ditto. The reason for the first high figure for 10% is to compensate them for the extremely high fees for permissions. I have talked this over with another publisher, *sub rosa*, and he felt this to be a fair term. Our advantage is that we receive payment immediately instead of waiting until the permissions fee is paid off. There may be the usual Book of the Month Club clause, which we will have to accept.

These are the terms as I gave them to Lowry. Whether they will be agreeable to Willert I don't know. Aside from them is the agreement made between ourselves earlier for, was it?, $350 to be paid me from your royalties as an adjustment for secretarial fees etc etc. If this is still agreeable, it ought to be included. If you don't feel you want to include it we can talk it over later.

The Press evidently intends still to have the book reviewed by every possible paper, and have sent me a long list which runs the gamut from the Paducah Sun-Democrat to Cardinal Hayes Literature Committee. I'll ask them to send you a list. Thanks for your notes to the Times and the Tribune. We might as well have an impressive list of negations, if the Press will foot the bill.

Norman Holmes Pearson

It looks like no celebration for the birthday of the anthology between the two of us until after the first of the year. Alas, and alack, I am leaving next week for Chicago to have an operation on my hip that will keep me away from my desk until February. I stopped in Chicago on my way back east to visit friends and to look over the files of correspondence of letters written to Harriet Monroe while editor of *Poetry*. (By the way, there are a number there from Elinor, in case the editor of her letters doesn't already know it). As a result of this and that (overwork, bad cold, broken love affair, general dampness, etc) I went halt, and took advantage of the proximity of the University of Chicago clinics to have a once-over. They found that, probably apart from the list above, a bone-graft which I had had done eight years ago in order to immobilize my hip had begun to disintegrate, that I now had a very dangerous degree of movement in my hip, that they could chip and chisel profitably in other ways as well, but that there was no time like the present to have a new immobilization done. And I had no good answer to the contrary, so—voila! I'll stay at the University of Chicago Hospitals for about a month or so, like a little worm in a cocoon, wrapt from head to both feet in plaster; then may go to my parents home in Gardner, and by February ought to be able to return to New Haven and normal life again. Wonderful, aint it! A swell chance for a lot of spiritual discipline, and novel- and poetry-reading. At any rate, there couldn't be a better time than the present in which to have it done.

For reasons connected with the above, I didn't get to see Fanny Butcher, much as I should have liked to. You can drop her a note if you want to. And if she wants an interview about the book from the deathbed, send her along to me.

Have seen Fitts once or twice, and he came back from Peterboro
full of tremendous enthusiasm for the Colony and for you. Both of which
I could agree with heartily. Best of all was the news he brought that
your son was about to come back from Spain. Christamighty what a relief
it must be for you. I'm particularly damned sorry that I wont be able to
meet him and thank him for all that he's done. A kid needs an experience
like that somehow; if you never get the idea that there's pain in the
world you slip into a kind of perpetual immaturity. War is a tough way to
have to get it, but at least it's one way. And a better way through Spain
than through the last way. This kid of yours knows where he's going.
There isn't going to be any lost generation sort of wailing from his group,
unless I'm much mistaken; and none of the *Ambulance Boys at the Front*
literature coming out of this war as it did from the last.

We stand today faced perhaps not with war, after the Munich Four Power Conference, but with the situation of four nations saying what the hell is to happen to everyone else. A reduction of all small nations to dependencies of this new entente. It's but one more step towards collectivism of one kind or another. Perhaps it would be better to be lost—who knows?

I was very much upset by Tom Wolfe's death. Earlier in the
spring we had planned to drive out together to Colorado before he went on

Norman Holmes Pearson

to the Northwest—the last section of America which was unknown to him. I've lost other great friends, but none who seemed so much a symbol of life in himself. I shivered in the rain in Chicago when I thought of his being buried in Ashville on the same day. He accomplished something unique in his writing. Nowhere in the English language is there anything quite like his synthesis of physical reactions on the sensibilities of a single man. No one else in America could do it, and I suppose no one ever will. I wish critics would go back to talking about this aspect of his work, and forget the quibble about form for a while. Form—hell! Why talk about the form of a novel, when all we've read was a third of it! That's the sort of reviewing we sniff at. Why pretend it's criticism!

I can't tell you how sorry I am not to be able to bring the anthology into the world with you. It's been simple swell working with you. No younger man like myself could ever have had as sympathetic or kindly a person to act as tutor and collaborator and friend. The progression is about right as it stands in its importance to me. Drop me a note occasionally if you have a moment while I am away, and remember always my gratitude and my friendship.

147 Cottage Street
New Haven, Connecticut.

Norman Holmes Pearson

Dear Bill:

I'm sorry not to have gotten this off to you sooner, but you can imagine how crammed full were my few days in New Haven. As it is, I leave Gardner tomorrow for Chicago with a portfolio of unanswered letters. However, they tell me now that they do not plan to operate until a week from now, so that will give me some leisure before the event, and both before and after I am planning to have a secretary in occasionally in order to keep somewhat up with my correspondence and business. So don't hesitate to call on me for whatever information I can give you.

You will remark from the copy of Miss Nicholson's letter to me that her terms for the contract differ from those which I submitted to Mr Lowry. Whether these present plans are given to us after their approval by him I don't know. I presume not.

My chief objection is to the fact that our royalties from the educational edition (which will be far and away the biggest seller) is to be reckoned against the net price. This makes our royalties very low. Although Miss Nicholson's increases come more rapidly than mine, I allowed them to recover their costs more quickly than she does; and, after 30,000 a chance for us really to profit. One ought to do some comparative figuring on this problem to see how it works out.

What I think we ought to do is to turn this over to whatever lawyer you usually consult in reference to your contracts, and get his advice. Perhaps he could confer with the Press in reference to their customary practices in regard to royalties. If you do not have such a lawyer, some of your friends will certainly know one who specializes in such matters. Don't go to an agency, which will demand a percentage. We can split the lawyer's fee. This is important, since the book may bring us in a little income over a period of years; and we both ought to be sure of what we are signing, and have the satisfaction of knowing that we were getting what is our rightful due. It means so much to both of us financially and in terms of the future. I'm sorry I have to put this on your shoulders, but it can't be helped. You might be sure to see that our six copies are of the trade edition. Whether we have one contract or two is a matter of indifference to me, unless the lawyer has a particular plea for one way or the other.

Sorry also that I couldn't get into town to see you before hitting Chicago. Too much to do, and too little energy. Saw in Publishers' Weekly the announcement of your winter's tour. It will keep you jumping around. Hope you can fill in one or two gaps en route.

All best to you,

Orthopedic Clinic
University of Chicago Clinics
Chicago, Illinois.

COPY

Norman Holmes Pearson

October 1, 1938

Mr. Norman Holmes Pearson
147 Cottage Street
New Haven, Connecticut.

Dear Mr. Pearson:

I put off making out a contract because we have
been trying to find some way that we can pay a royalty and still
make a slim penny on the book ourselves. Seriously, according to
our present figures, we shall not 'break event' until after the sale
of approximately 30,000 copies. As you know, the permission costs
were terrific,—the manufacturing costs in themselves are far from
inconsiderable.

Since Mr. Willert does not arrive until Monday,
I have put off making the final contract until then. The terms of
it will be as follows: A sliding scale of royalties will be paid to
the two editors (Benet and Pearson) to be divided between them:

10 per cent to 5,000 copies
12½ per cent to 20,000 copies
15 per cent to 30,000 copies
17½ per cent to 40,000 copies
20 per cent over 40,000 copies

On the trade edition the royalty will be paid on the list price; on the college edition on the wholesale price, (that is, the list price less 20½ per cent.) On all Book Club adoptions, etc., net receipts will be divided between the publishers and editors. On any copies sold for export the editors will receive one-half the royalty that would apply on books sold in this country.

The other terms of the contract are all the usual
ones—six copies of the book gratis to each editor, the editors assume
the author's corrections over ten per cent of the total cost of composition,
etc. I am right, am I not, in assuming that the royalties are to be
divided equally between you and Mr. Benet? Also, do you want separate
contracts or a joint one?

I hope things are working out for you and you have
amassed a good long reading list with which to entertain yourself while
you are in Chicago. Mr. Lowry will not be in New York until Friday, but
Mr. Willert will be here next week. If you come down for any reason at
all, be sure to drop in at the Press or at least call up.

Norman Holmes Pearson

November 25, 1938

William Rose Benét, Esq.
Saturday Review of Literature
25 West Forty-fifth Street
New York City, New York

Dear Bill:

I return to you the letter from Miss Nicholson, of which I have taken
the liberty of having made a copy. I consider it a very snotty
epistle and do not understand it in the least. I have no conception
of what they could have meant when they say that they advised me that
they could have no responsibility in matters of copyright material. I
am writing Miss Nicholson in regard to this matter immediately this
afternoon, and I shall let you know what I hear from her at the ear-
liest possible moment.

I am tickled to death that the article "Return From Spain" is actually
by your son. It means you've got a boy who knows how to write, and
for heaven's sake, see that he gets it all down on paper quickly. The
news of the boycott of your speech in Albany annoyed me enormously.
Sooner or later we'll all be turning into Ku Kluxers if The Church
continues in its present trend.

I listened last Sunday evening to a speech by Father Coughlin over the
radio, and have never heard such a diatribe of subversive anti-Semitism.
It was all done in such a diabolical way that the guards for himself
were always up, even though the view was open to the public.

I am sorry as the devil that Mark Van Doren isn't able to review the
ANTHOLOGY for the REVIEW. Do you suppose there's a chance that Uncle
Henry might do it for us? Or, if Odell Shepard is as enthusiastic
about the book 'as Lowry claims he is, he might be a good one to get to
recommend it; with all his work on Alcott he is riding pretty high at
the moment in popular estimation. I can think of a number of good
critics, but I think that by and large what we want is someone with a
name. I am a little scared of what Howard Mumford Jones might do to
it, in view of the fact that it doesn't present any very extended pic-
ture of what is known as the social history of the United States; and
anyway, I imagine he will be reviewing it for the Boston TRANSCRIPT.

I was ready to sing "Hallelujah" yesterday when I left the hospital
for the first time for a few hours and had Thanksgiving dinner at the
aunt of a friend. The first breath of fresh air as I was taken in
the wheel chair out to the taxicab gave me more of a kick than any
triple whisky and soda I have ever had in my life! To that good,
clean, clear, what-should-be, October air! I was very proud of myself
because I sidled in and out of the taxi like an old hand, and if I was
not precisely graceful at the dinner, at least I tried to be nonchalant.

Norman Holmes Pearson

W. R. Benét

-2-

11-25-38

Everything has been going so beautifully that I am told that next week I may be permitted to have an even lighter cast, and who knows what will happen after that! I am still not quite sure when I shall leave Chicago, and it is barely possible, though not very likely, that I may stay through Christmas.

I had heard of your visit to the Gregories otherwise, and was delighted that you had dropped in to see them. I hope you can do it again; Marya, in particular, needs to have a lot of company in order to take her mind off herself. Your description of Horace with his head cocked to one side delighted me; have you ever noticed the heavy veins in his forehead make him look like a leprachaun?

will

Up.

Norman

NHP.L0

University of Chicago Clinics
Billings Hospital, Room 0-302
950 East 59th Street
Chicago, Illinois

Norman Holmes Pearson

8 February 1941

Dear Bill:

You're an elusive devil, and certainly are out of bed
and your flat earlier these days than you were when we were work-
ing on the anthology. Or ----- ? In any case congratulations!
I've tried on the last three times I've been in town to get hold
of you; and before the last but one, I called up each morning for
several days before. I'd wanted you to have lunch or cocktails or
whatyoucould with my fiancee, just so you could see how definitely
I am one of God's elect. This state of husband-to-be and father-to-
be(I'm getting two daughters of seven and ten, at the same time)
rather overwhelms me. All I could think of as a description of my
own state of mind, was yours about Elinor at a moment of satisfaction,
looking like a kitten with her tongue in a bowl of heavy cream. At
any rate, here I am: a young man in a full house, listening to the
rain.

We're being married on the 21st, very quietly, and our only
wedding trip will be to the Yale Library to see a colossal exhibition
of Gertrude Stein's manuscripts and books which I shall have been put-
ting up all that week. We wanted something scenic, and this seemed
better than Niagra at such a time of year. And on the whole, fully as
exciting as a roller-coaster ride. But how about bringing a warm glow
into the house by coming up to see us one of these days--for overnight
or not, as you will. Susan is very keen to meet you. Naturally I've
told her a devil of a lot about you, how good you were to me, and, altho
it may not be always obvious, how really grateful I am to you.

I've decided to stay on at Yale next year, in the English
department. They've given me a pretty decent schedule: one course of
Freshman work--a sort of types of literature arrangement; then, a dis-
cussion group in problems of poetry, which ought to be a hell of a lot
of fun; and advisory work to senior honor students in English. It ought
not to be too dull.

When I was in town on Wednesday, I stopped in at the Oxford
Press, and they seemed more or less pleased at the way the anthology is
going. They've sold about six thousand copies now, which isn't terrific-
cally hot, but is getting warmer. Maybe some day we'll get a fresh
royalty check from it. I enclose a pretty little folder, which looks much
more impressive than I fear it actually is.

BENÉT and PEARSON

The *Oxford Anthology of American Literature*

CURRENT ADOPTIONS

Volume I (to Walt Whitman), $2.50; Volume II, $3.00. Complete in one volume, $4.50.

Smith — Goucher — Yale — University of California at Los Angeles — Temple — New York University — Columbia — Trinity College — University of Wyoming — College of the Pacific — Indiana University — Manhattan College — William and Mary — University of Mississippi — University of Idaho — Heidelberg College — Whitman College — San Jose State College — University of Rochester — California Institute of Technology — Middlebury College — Georgetown University — Sweet Briar — Southwestern — Mills College — Western Reserve University — Chapman College — Whitworth College — Transylvania College — Our Lady of the Lake — Wells College — Lenoir Rhyne College — Pasadena College — College of Wooster — Agnes Scott College — Montana State University — Bradley Polytechnic Institute — Southern Methodist — Hamline University — University of South Carolina — Wilson College — Olivet College — Colby College — Millikin University — University of Vermont — Brooklyn College — Bluffton College — St. Anselms College — University of Newark — Arkansas Polytechnic — Loyola (Chicago) — University of Montana — Simmons College — University of Connecticut — Texas Christian — Bowdoin — State Teachers Colleges at Indiana (Pennsylvania) — Montclair (New Jersey) — Denton (Texas) — North Adams (Massachusetts) — Minot (North Dakota), and many others.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

114 Fifth Avenue, New York

work at Yale, and perhaps get out a little checklist of what she wrote and when. There's always a slightly addition to dignity resulting from such a checklist — though the Lord only knows why! — and if it will help to call attention to her (even though too late), and perhaps help to get the fragments of her last poem printed it would be a good thing. What do you think? Your essay on her in the *Saturday Review* was first-rate; and I liked that last sonnet of hers very much indeed.

Bryer writes occasionally from England that she and Hilda are well, although I judge suffering a little from claustrophobia on the tight little isle. She's very sensible about it all however, and very much on the side of England against Hitler. What one is fighting against overshadows completely for the moment, it seems to me, any suspicion that all may not be perfect with what one is fighting for.

Fletcher has taken a new life on himself, and Charlie May appears to be a wonderful wife for him. They are spending the summer in Arkansas, and have started building a home for themselves there. I doubt if he'll be content to spend all of his time there, but I think it will be good for him to have the appearance of roots. I was quite pleased with his last book, particularly the lyrics. The poem on his grandfather's watch, for example, was one of his best. Of quite a different calibre from the terrible poem on his wedding ring, that he wanted us to use in the anthology. And he had a good lyric on mowing, if I remember correctly, in the New Republic this past winter. I suspect that's his forte rather than narrative verse, where he gets pretty loosely Whitman-esque. He needs to swing it more, perhaps, although he ought to swing in figures too.

Dudley Fitts is leaving these parts to teach at Andover, and life will seem very desolate without him. But he has a swell job there, without any of the scullery jobs that Choate foistered on him to use up his time. I hope now that he'll find time to write again. He has a true Yeatsian wit, — pretty rare nowadays, which ought not to be wasted.

But all this is chitchat which would be much better fitted to an afternoon and evening on our lawn at the shore. I've told Susan of you in such high terms of esteem and affection, that it's simply up to me to prove myself not a liar by displaying the evidence. Can't you come up to New Haven for overnight with us, or if you can spare only a day bring Marjorie Flack along with you. Everyone says she's swell. I'm sorry we've only one bedroom, but we're too broke to add on another wing just now.

Except for a week in July and a week in August, we expect to be here all summer. Our summer house is in Branford, which is just twenty minutes beyond New Haven, and we'll be there with open arms to greet you singly or doubly. If you come up by train, I can meet you at the station and run you out in a jiffy. And it will be as though I'd seen you yesterday, although as far as regret at not seeing you goes it seems like too-long-ago a yesterday.

Johnson's Point
Branford, Connecticut.

December 11, 1947.

Mr. Norman Holmes Pearson,
233 Hall of Graduate Studies,
Yale University,
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Norman:

I have written a little piece about the
Yale Lit for the Phoenix Nest and sent it up with
instructions to get it in as soon as possible, but
I don't know how soon that will be. It was no trouble,
and I was glad to do it. Privately, I must say that
I don't like their new format, but I haven't said so
in public. Perhaps I am just an old fogy and think
that the old Lit size and cover ought to go on forever.
Certainly their magazine is more immediately readable.
I think you're awfully good to be helping them out in
such a practical manner. I wish them well and, of
course, being in Sheff I was never eligible for the
Board, or even to contribute. However, I have an
honorary Chi Delta Theta charm which they very kindly
gave me at one time.

It was mighty fine to see you the other day
and I have got together some things of Steve's which
you might want. Just tell me in advance when you're
coming in. I spoke to my sister and also to Mr. Dela-
field and told the latter to write you. He is the guy
who has been doing a check list of Steve's works. My
sister thinks she may be able to turn up something, and
I am sure Rosemary will be glad to help about the exhi-
bition.

With best wishes as always,

agm
Enc.
Copy of Phoenix Nest
piece on Yale Lit

Pigeon Cove,
Cape Ann, Mass.,
October 23, 1948.

Mr. Norman Holmes Pearson,
School of Graduate Studies,
Yale University,
New Haven, Conn.

Dear Norman:

On Monday Marjorie and I will be packing up for a return to New York and expect to be there by the 1st of November. I am glad to hear the good news about the Oxford Anthology, and I will certainly keep you in mind for future reviewing.

I'll write you from New York as to a time when we can get together over the things I would like Yale to keep for me. It is very good of you to offer to come into New York with your new station wagon to move the things back to New Haven. I will have to go over my collection of stuff carefully after I get back.

Marjorie and I both send best wishes to you and yours.

agm

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

233 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN · CONN

July 6, 1949

Mr. William Rose Benet
Pigeon Cove
Cape Ann, Massachusetts

Dear Bill:

I have been hoping that I would be able to get up to Salem either in June or July, but it looks now as though I should have to put off the visit until the middle of August, after a brief visit to Switzerland which I must make at the last of this month. I shall certainly be up, however, before you get back to town and am delighted at the thought that you have found new material to add to the collection at the Library.

Henry has sent down the first of his letters, so that the total picture is rapidly taking shape. We had a nice show of Steve's things at the time of what would have been his 30th reunion. I concentrated the display chiefly on his boyhood years and his period at Yale. Tink said it was "gay," and "it would not have been right for Steve unless it was gay." That was enough compliment for me.

Hilda was delighted with your help for the jacket, and asked me to thank you for it. "If only I could write the letters that I want to." "I am so charmed with Benet." Again, "I had an impulse to write him. Will you thank him if you see him--and reaffirm that that was him, I am sure they called him Willie or even William, and it was Miss Jennie this time, the first year, just a few hours in the morning in the Parochial School. Now don't let him spoil the saga or the legend --it all happened."

My best to Marjorie and yourself.

As always,

Pigeon Cove,
Cape Ann, Mass.

July 29, 1949.

Dear Norman:

If this reaches you before
you go to Switzerland, I thought you'd
like to see this extraordinary letter,
together with the poems. I spare you
the biographical sketch, which I am
returning to the writer. Of course
there is nothing we can do about the
gentleman, but I have written him po-
litely, and enclose a copy of my let-
ter. The poems are really incredible.

As ever,

agm (Signed in Mr. Benet's absence)

Encs.:

Ltr 7/14/49
fm Howard T. Mitchell,
P. O. Box 75,
Kenwood, Calif.,
w/5 encs.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

25 August 1949

Dear Bill:

I enclose my letter to our admirer, for no better reason than that the last para seems to me to be, par excellence, an example of schmalz at its worst. But I think it may please him.

I do want to thank you for having Miss Bacon do the review of Hilda's book for the Review. It will warm her heart as nothing else could do, and should help the book immensely. On the whole it has had a pretty good press, and what pleases me most has at least been noticed—as the last book, or in fact the trilogy as a whole, was not. I am just back from a fortnight in Switzerland and Florence, where I saw Hilda at Lugano. I have never seen her better; and again and again she asked me to thank you for your comment on the jacket. It was generous and kind, as you always are.

How long will you be at Pigeon Cove. I am for the moment tied down, because my younger step-daughter celebrated her final examinations at a local school by flunking four out of five exams. Therefore I am acting as chauffeur each morning to take her from the shore to tutors so that she can take her make-ups in the fall. It would be easier for me if I didn't run up until after the 15th of Sept., but I will if you're returning earlier.

All best to you and Marjorie, as always.

C
O
P
Y

For Mr. William Rose Benet

August 23, 1949

Mr. Howard T. Mitchell
Post Office Box 75
Valley of the Moon
Kenwood, California

Dear Mr. Mitchell;

Mr. Benet has forwarded on to me your letter
to the two of us as well as the copies of your poems. I
need not say how delighted I have been to read both.
Your praise of the *Anthology* ten years after its publica-
tion gives me a renewed sense of the gratification which
I felt when Mr. Benet and I were trying to bring together
a collection which might please just such persons as your-
self.

You spoke in your letter of the satisfaction
which it would have given you had you known the age of
the author at the date of composition of the individual
selections. This, actually, you can find out in every
case where the date of composition is known. At the bot-
tom of each selection, especially the poems, there are
two dates. The one on the left indicates the year of
composition, and that on the right shows the year in which
it was first published. If you will subtract the date of
birth from the left-hand figure, you will know the author's
age.

Your poems have a real emotional content, and
they come from the heart as well as from the pen. To be
able to articulate one's feelings is not given to everyone,
and the composition of the poems must have given you great
pleasure as well as satisfaction. You may be the "Old
Philosopher" but you have a young heart!

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

11 November, 1949

Mr. William Rose Benét
130 West 12 Street
New York City

Dear Bill:

It is shocking to think that I have not
written before this to thank you and Marjorie for
your wonderful hospitality to me at Pigeon Cove.
Even without your magnificent additions to Yale's
resources I would have had enough in the pleasure
of seeing you both to have caused me for many
years to remember this introduction to Cape Ann.

I turned around on getting back to New
Haven and spent the week end with my parents in
Gardner, where as you know their golden wedding
anniversary was a very special event. However
I found time to get to Westminster, where I had
some boxes of their crackers sent to you in New
York. I have no idea that you and Marjorie can
ever eat enough chowder or cheese to consume all
of them, but if the prospect of storing four
seems too great to you, why not give one to Mr.
Cady and another to your superb Florence.

I am tucking away your suggestion of
James Whaler for the consideration of the Founda-
tion next year when we are again in funds. Thank
you a thousand times for bringing his name to my
attention. We cannot possibly do any good unless
we can count on just such help as yours.

I shall hope to be seeing you in town
soon, but meanwhile let me send you my thanks
and my affection.

PEARSON LETTERS

147

[? December 1937.]¹

...and so it is Christmas² again. Christmas spirit?³ The dull click of the typewriter⁴ is not much like the beat of horses' hoofs before a sleigh; the white sheats [sic] of printer's copy are no banks of snow; the red scrawls of the correcting pencil, no holly berries of Christmas cheer!⁵ Christmas cheer? Of course! ... MERRY CHRISTMAS!⁶

Yours cheerfully,

NORMAN HOLMES PEARSON.

¹Only the last sheet of this letter remains. A penciled note, in an unidentified hand, states that it was a general letter sent by N.H.P. to his friends as a greeting —a custom he had not followed for some years. The date has been determined by an analysis of the signatory ink (cf. Appendix 37); by the limiting factor of certain maladjustments in the alignment of his typewriter, which we know by an unpaid bill in the Remington Rand Collection were repaired early in January 1938; and by the fact that N.H.P. says in his journals for December 1937 that such a letter was sent out. The original typescript is in the possession of an anonymous collector, incidentally the owner of the largest group of published and unpublished Pearsoniana.

²"Christmas, sb. [Late OE. *Christes maesse*, the mass of Christ.] 1. The festival of the nativity of Christ, kept on the 25th of December; Christmas-time. 2. *dial. and nursery lang.* Holly, etc., used for decorations at Christmas 1825. Also *attrib.*" *The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary* (Oxford, 1933), I, 309. The editor wishes to express his thanks to the Oxford University Press for their kindness in permitting him to quote from their interesting publication. N.H.P. evidently employed the word in its first meaning; though some confusion may arise from his subsequent use of "holly."

³Is this meant cynically? N.H.P. had wearied of his task of preparing an anthology of American literature; but was still heartened by the hope that it might be well received and effect some good. He had not at this time, of course, learned the result.

⁴N.H.P. used a silent typewriter during this period. Otherwise he would have described it as a "sharp click."

⁵It is interesting to note several literary flourishes in these lines. A study of the copy for the anthology reveals that comparatively few sheets were white; most were yellow, cream, brown, or whatever was inexpensive and available. And N.H.P. generally made his corrections, in accordance with custom, not in pencil but in ink.

⁶I am indebted to my colleague, Prof. S. Potter, for calling my attention to a similar phrase of Hawthorne's, on whom N.H.P. had been working extensively. Cf. "at some *merry Christmas* table" (the italics are the editor's) from Hawthorne's "The Christmas Banquet," *The Complete Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne* (Boston, 1883), II, 328. The parallel is striking!

[1949 Dec? ]

Norman Holmes Pearson

Dear Bill:

This is not really a letter, and will answer your last in the
freshet of leisure which after-Christmas gives. Just now I am still re-
covering from the farewell to students. The Christmas poem was very
moving, very fine, and beautifully conceived. I can't thank you enough for
letting me share in it.

The combined effort with Auden is almost ready for the printers,
and I shall breathe a sigh of relief when it is done, and hope to be able to
come into town then. Quite literally I haven't been there since the first
of October. I might as well live in Alaska. But even from so great a dis-
tance as New Haven I do send both you and Marjorie my love. And a merry
Christmas!

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

233 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN·CONN

25 April 1950

Dear Bill:

This is a fan letter. I do want to say how much I liked your poem "Sovreignty" in last Sunday's *Times*. Its diction is admirable, its feeling honest and integral and controlled. It is one of your recent best, and, I think, will finds its way into many selections from your poetry and modern poetry. If I had any suggestion for a possible emendation by you before it comes in book, it would be that you make the the last line straight identification rather than a simile. To wit: "Freedom is the sun." I like the compactness, the certitude, and even the rhythm of the clipped line. Incidentally, isn't it about time that you had a new book of selections from your poems. Not an omnibus; that is a post-mortem. Anyhow if you do, and I can help with the selections, let me know.

I haven't had any luck so far with 'eremy Ingall's fine book of poems, but haven't given up hope yet. "evertheless the publishing of poetry seems to have hit the doldrums. What do you know about this new firm, Twayne, which seems to publish nothing but poetry. G iardi is mixed up in it, I gather, and I might try them.

The winter has been hell, insofar as work is concerned, and I have literally not been in town since Christmas, all my time having gone into final copy for the anthology I have been doing with Auden, and later in reading the galleys. They are now done, but I shall have to work with page proofs shortly. Again, since all my courses have been new this year I have had to scratch hard to keep ahead. The Hawthorne letters have hardly been touched during the winter, but I shall be at them again soon. The summer will certainly bring me to Salem for some work, and I'll hope to see you then.

My affectionate greetings to Marjorie and yourself.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

13 May 1950

Dear Marjorie:

I tried to write you immediately on hearing of
Bill's death, and wanted to speak to you at the services --
but I could not; I should have been gauche, could not have
expressed what I wanted to say any more, really, than I can
now. And I could get only a little of all this into a tribute
which the Yale News asked me to write, and which I enclose.
Somehow the fact that quite unsolicitedly they wanted one
would, I think, have touched Bill. It did me, as a token of
how wide a circle he had perhaps even when no suspected by
him.

Bill meant very much indeed to me, from the moment
when we first somewhat accidentally came to gether in doing the
anthology. He has always been there ever since, dependable,
generous and wise. How much I shall miss him I hardly realize,
though the sense of loss was immediate and only increases. His
death, and that of John Fletcher coming so soon after, have had
a cumulative effect of shock as I realize how lucky I have been
in my friends.

I hope I needn't say how grateful I should be for
the chance to help in any way, whether in terms of his manuscripts
or otherwise. I shall be in New Haven all summer, though I plan
to get to Salem for a few days to work on Hawthorne, and wherever
I am you have only to call.

Susan joins me in deepest affection for you and in
our warmest sympathy.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

24 May 1950

Dear Marjorie:

Horace called me on Sunday to ask when I could come to New York to talk with the two of you about Bill's things. I had hoped almost immediately to be able to set a day for this, but the piling up of end-of-the-year tasks has only confused matters. This is examination week, and in addition to those I have the ghastly pile of some hundred and fifty term papers to correct before the grades can be given. It looks now as though I should have to call you up on Monday to set the date absolutely, but this can pretty certainly be Wednesday or Thursday of next week if that is convenient for you. The time of day does not matter so much, and if fact I could if it were better for you come in for the evening taking a late train home. You know I want to be of every possible help, and I know you are anxious to have as much in shape as possible. In terms of Marblehead, I can drive up there whenever it is convenient for you.

Horace spoke of the death mask, and the Library would be honored to have it as part of Bill's collection. If you like I can bring it back with me by hand, as the safest way for its conveyance. As to Elinor's case of books, I know Bill did want the volumes kept together, and so they should be. I have talked to the Library officials about that, and it could come here if that is the way Bill's will read. (I gather that he did leave his papers to Yale, as planned.) There is only one question here, and that is the problem of the bookcase itself. It is difficult from the point of view of space to make room for this sort of an object, which is really more sentimentally valuable than of value to future scholars. The books can be put alongside each other on a shelf and kept carefully, the original order on the shelf (if that is important) being noted. Why can't we give the case to one of Rosemary's girls as a souvenir of Elinor, unless you want to keep it yourself. As to the papers we can talk about that when we are together. Dudley Fitts has already offered his collection of Bill's drawings to go with the rest of the things at Yale. They will make a delightful addition for exhibitions etc.

Susan and I stopped in Sunday on Henry and Lady, and as you can imagine we spoke mostly of Bill and all he meant. He meant a very great deal and I shall always be grateful for his friendship and tutelage.

COPY

130 West 12th Street,
New York 11, N.Y.

June 11, 1950.

Dear Norman:

I thought you would like to have this copy of
Glenway Wescott's letter for your own file and satisfac-
tion. I'm sending the original to Jim, to put in the
obituary file I showed you in the Goldsmith display folder.
We are trying to make this as complete a file as possible,
and I feel this letter belongs in it. I have also put
copies of the death mask in it, as well as all of the
pictures taken of Bill that day. I have told Jim that
you will eventually want this folder of clippings for
Yale. It is the most complete and the best of the two
I own now.

Anne Mulcahy, Bill's secretary at The Saturday
Review, has been helping me assemble more material. We
are putting Bill's unfinished play, some of it in manuscript
with drawings, in a steel box, which I will give you in the
fall. And we have found other material in Bill's own steel
files labeled "Yale."

You are a great comfort to me, dear Norman, and
I do hope you will be able to come in August to help me
with the material at the Pigeon Cove house. I am leaving
for Salt Lake City June 16, but if there is anything you
need information on, Miss Mulcahy will be glad to help you.

Mr. Norman Holmes Pearson,
Hall of Graduate Studies,
Yale University,
New Haven, Conn.

COPY

June 13, 1950.

Dear Norman:

We are packing some of the scrapbooks and material we found, which I spoke to you about yesterday, but since then I have talked with Ivan von Auw, and I am leaving the unfinished play and other poems in manuscript and corrected typewritten sheets at Harold Ober's office. Since you have no easy facilities for making photostats or type-written copies, I will have this done in the fall from this material. Ivan von Auw also thought Alfred might find a clearer copy of working manuscript to use in making a facsimile for the Collected Poems. Mrs. Nelson is helping me pack the other material this afternoon, and will send it to you within a few days.

Ridgely Torrence will be honored to give his own material, as well as Bill's, to Yale, but I think it would be nice if you wrote him a letter saying that you would be honored to have it. I have given him the little plaque of Robinson which you saw, as it would mean so much to him, but he said he would give it to Yale when you wanted it.

I think Ridgely's material will be very valuable, because from long acquaintance with Bill, Elinor Wylie, and Robinson, I feel he has more real information over a period of years than anyone else. His address is 59 Morton Street, New York.

With love,

Marjorie

May 16th, 1951.

Dear Norman:

These notebooks and papers are particularly precious to me, — and will you take care of them for me?

Under separate cover I have another set of working drafts of a poem — the one I spoke to you about as a possible gift to the Albany Academy. I would, however, like to talk to you about this, first. I don't want to give these particular manuscripts *outright*, for a while yet. I feel I should consult Jim before doing so. But if the Yale Library would like to have *one* example of the working drafts at this time, I would be happy to give the drafts of FOREBEARS (which I consider most complete of Bill's work in manuscript) along with the material to be given this fall.

Of course I realize that all Elinor Wylie material should be given — including WRB's scrap books and his letters to E.W. — along with the folders of material for Mr. Gallop when he makes his appraisal in the fall. I doubt if the Library will care to keep all the newspaper war clippings, but I do think these should be gone over carefully, for I came across a first draft of a poem among them. One never knows what might turn up! And if they are to be discarded, I think some notation should be made that Bill had so carefully clipped and saved them.

One more thing!' — Miss Geffen, of the Institute of Arts & Letters, has requested that any letters referring to the Institute be sent her for preservation in their Library.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 25th!

Gratefully, and with love —