P. O. Box 84
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

March 5, 1927.

My dear Miss Gregory:-

It was a pleasure to hear from you again, and I am
sure Scofield was pleased to have the letter from you which I
handed him the other day.

I do not remember if I have written to you since
Scofield and his mother returned to America late in November,
but I do recall definitely asking some one to write to you for
me at the time our trials were most tempestuous. Scofield
seemed so well when he arrived that Mr. MacVeagh, and I think
possibly others who had been aware of his illness, after lunch-
ing with him found him so entirely himself that they assumed
he had entirely recovered, - probably doubting to themselves if
he had really been quite as ill as reported. After about a week
this period of rationalism yielded to the noise and smell of
New York and he became seriously ill again, refusing absolutely
to take any food or drink whatever. During this time it became
necessary to take him from New York to Worcester, and here, after
two weeks of hunger strike he was taken to Memorial Hospital, -
at the point of death from starvation, and forcible feeding,
through the nose, was resorted to to save his life. The first
feeding had to be administered against his violent objections,
but after that, while still refusing to eat or drink, he has not
objected in any way to the nasal feeding which has been his only
way of taking nourishment for nearly three months. He is still

#2 Miss Gregory

3/5-1927.

at the hospital, and has gained much there in physical strength
and nervous quiet and is apparently rational except for
the food complex. He is in bed nearly all the time, never leaves
his small room and sees no one except his doctor, his nurses, and
two or three times his mother or me for a few minutes. He neither
reads nor wishes to be read to, writes a very little and asks for
nothing whatever. This seems a forlorn condition but our doctor
explains that he is still recovering from the very serious strain
his whole body and mind were subjected to prior to his entering the
hospital. Meantime we are gaining all the advice we can as to the
best course for us to take in regard to further treatment (Dr. Watson
has been most helpful to us here) and as soon as it seems practical
we hope to begin on a more definite treatment for his illness than
has as yet been undertaken. We begin to learn that science still
knows vastly little about this kind of disorder, and our case seems
to be about as complicated and difficult as it can be, but we hope
for the best and look not for a speedy but for a finally complete
recovery.

I do not know, but I believe an occasional short note
from you to Scofield will please him. You know the conditions and
will be guided accordingly, understanding that no mail goes to
him directly, and that we feel justified in withholding everything
from him that we feel may be in any way disturbing.

I enjoyed your essay in the March Dial.

HERMANN P. RICCIUS
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS

October 11, 1944.

Dear Miss Gregory:-

It is very pleasant to hear from you after these several
years and to know that you have not been bombed out of Chydyok. I
have wondered from time to time whether or not that might have happened
to you and whether you might have returned to America for the duration.

Scofield's condition remains practically unchanged. He
spent an uneventful summer at Edgartown and left last week for Florida
where he will probably remain until spring. Physically he is in good
shape but the mental cloud continues and his life is one of pretty
complete apathy, roused only by his attendant for a swim or a sail
in his little knock-about and for the simple things that keep life
going. He shrinks from seeing people, - or perhaps it would be more
accurate to say that he shrinks from being seen by people, for it is
my opinion that he rather enjoys the actual sight of people, even of
those he has known, so long as he can feel himself in some way separated
or protected from them. Last summer, as a sort of trial balloon, I
sent him two books which I knew would have interested him in normal
times, - Santayana's delightful autobiography and Eliot's beautiful
"Quartet". Apparently books at present are not entertaining to him.

I think if you write (and he does not read his letters
himself) it will be well to direct the envelope in care of Mr. Walter
A. Edwards, 15 Westminster Street, Providence, R.I. It will then be
forwarded to XXX Scofield, and gives him some assurance that his

actual whereabouts are unknown to his old friends but that they can
get word to him in this way. This keeps his "hideaway" a secret.

Yes, all Scofield's letters and all other papers, including
the complete Dial files and have been carefully gathered and placed in
storage. They have not been sorted or examined in any way, and will
not be during his illness, but they will be carefully preserved, and
whenever additional things turn up, as they do from time to time, they
are added to the collection.

I am interested to know of your present writing. What a
fund of experiences you have to work with!

It is always a pleasure to hear from Scofield's old friends,
and I wish (as you realize) that I could send you more encouraging
news of his condition. Perhaps someday I can do so! I do not give
up hope.