Lunedì mattina

Caro signor Wilson,

Sarei proprio contento di
rivederla, se ha un'ora libera per me. (E' vero che
torna in Italia?). Le ho telefonato parecchie vol-
te al Newyorker, ma Lei è inafferrabile. Le sono
arrivati poi quei libri italiani? (Avrei piacere
di darci uno sguardo).

Ha ancora voglia di leggere il Belli?

Mi scriva un rigo, o mi telefoni - se ha tempo,
e se Le fa piacere.

Molte buone cose

dal suo

I don't know exactly why I have written in
Italian. I was leafing through Stendhal's Journal,
and his homesickness for Milan must have infected
me. I finally got hold of H.B. Fuller's On the
Stairs (with much difficulty). Am reading it.

HA. 3-7865

Forest Hills, L.I., N.Y., May 6, 1946

98-39 65th Rd. - HA. 3-7865

Dear Edmund Wilson:

I have been at Yaddo for a while, trying to wind up my book. This is why the Montale and the Silone books have not yet been returned to Henderson Place. Next Thursday, (I mean this coming Thursday), I'll have to go uptown; and -if I won't have heard from you to the contrary- I'll drop in around 5:30, to leave the books with Miss Rosalynd, or with the maid.

It might amuse you to read the following passage from a letter I recently received from Mario Praz:

"A proposito di Edmund Wilson, voglio raccontarle un caso curioso. Fu qui a Roma, l'altr'anno, un giornalista americano in uniforme, di mezza eta, Wilson di nome, ch'io conobbi attraverso De Wald (lo storico dell'arte), che mi parlò di lui come di persona che aveva scritto un saggio interessantissimo su Conan Doyle. Quando il Wilson venne a trovarmi, gli domandai di che si trattava, e mi rispose ch'era una cosa da nulla, di poche pagine. Non mi disse d'altri suoi lavori, e quell'indicazione di romanzo giallo mi mise fuori strada. Parlammo di cose più o meno indifferenti; venne poco dopo un buffo poeta austriaco a farmi vedere alcuni versi licenziosi attribuiti a Peter Altenberg; poi uscimmo, feci vedere al Wilson due o tre chiese vicino a casa mia, ci salutammo e più non lo rividi. Ma lui rimase a Roma, e vide parecchie volte Leonor Fini; la quale, quando il Wilson era agli sgoccioli del suo soggiorno romano, mi disse che credeva fosse la stessa persona dell'autore di Axel's Castle. Lei è in grado di chiamarmi questo punto oscuro: il Wilson che ho conosciuto io è la stessa persona dell'autore di Axel's Castle? Wilson è un nome così comune che la mia non identificazione - favorita dalla falsa indicazione di De Wald - è, credo, perdonabile. Mi dispiace tuttavia, se le cose stanno così, che il Wilson debba aver riportato di me l'impressione di una persona così poco aggiornata da ignorare, (come non era vero), i suoi libri. E' una situazione jamesiana, quasi."

I have finally dug up from my pockets my notes about "Hecate County". Here is a list of doubts, most of them probably ill-founded:

- p. 252: "sine paedore ullo". My text of _De Civitate_ reads "_pudore_".

- p. 311: "ont rendu tant d'hommage". Wouldn't the plural, "hommages", be preferable?

- p. 314: "Il est arrivé par hasard un jour que ... devaient comparaitre". I'm not sure that the "consecutio temporum" you have adopted is acceptable.

Forest Hills, L.I., N.Y., Nov. 20, 1947

98-39 65th Rd. - Illinois 9-7865

Dear Wilson:

I have meant to write to you since I came back -
I have a few things to tell you about.

I. Thanks for the Newyorker note on my DANTE; (I am sure I owe it to your kindness).

2. I had a long talk in Rome with Giulio Einaudi, the Italian publisher. You may know of him. He is doing a first rate job, (as he did, valiantly enough, under Fascism), inspite of his occasional flirtations with Communist "culture". I spoke to him about your work. He didn't seem to know too much about it, but he was enthusiastic. After which, a few weeks ago, I got a letter from his chief literary adviser, Cesare Pavese. P. is a delicate writer and a keen critic. Italy owes to him a fine translation of MOBY DICK. His HUCKLEBERRY FINN is equally an excellent job. His information, as an "Americanist", is a little out of date, (the gap of the war years, to say nothing of the loopholes in the Facist decades), but his critical sense is firm not less than his flair and his resources as a translator. This is what he wrote to me about you, rather naively, (and in behalf, of course, of Einaudi):

"Io mi sento tutto eccitato al nome di Edmund Wilson, di cui leggo un gran bene ma non riesco a "pin down" un volume o un saggio. / By "pinning down" he means: I gather, "to get hold of". / Credo senz'altro che qualcuno di quei suoi studi, o To the Finland Station, o Axel's Castle o simili, sia fattibile. / By "fattibile", he means that Einaudi would publish it. / O un romanzo. Lei dovrebbe essere tanto buono da parlarne a Wilson, e indurlo a farci mandare qualcuno dei titoli, che lui stesso ritenga più italianizzabili. Lei stesso potrebbe tradurre il libro e curarlo."

The offer is attractive, isn't it? Do you have a contract with Mondadori? For HECATE COUNTY, or for your critical work as well? Is Mond doing anything about it? Would you consider Einaudi's offer? If you did, I believe that the best way to present Edmund Wilson to the Italian reader would be through a *Wilson anthology* of essays from different periods. You may, however, have a different opinion. Will you, please, let me

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have your reaction?

3. I should love to have a copy of your book about Europe. Your pieces in the Newyorker left me with a great appetite for more of it. I wouldn't know if Edgar Mowrer is right. I do know, however, that the chapter published in HORIZON had a few mistakes. I am very willing to proofread the book from an Italian's angle, and in view of its next edition. By way: what a fine essay à la Charles Lamb, (or even, why, not?, à la Charles Du Bos) could be written on the mistakes in Italian by good writers, from Shakespeare and Montaigne to Wilson; (a special chapter could be devoted to the misuse and/or mispellings of *signore*, *signor*, *signora*, *signiora* (sic); *síñora* (with a "tilde", half-Spanish and half-Italian, to address an Italian lady, in Beaumarchais' Barbier de Séville), etc.

4. Moravia's *La Romana* is worth reading in half (Part I). A couple of characters (the mother, for example) are very well drawn. You are right in accusing Italian fiction of being very slow. The rub is the age-old one: they "keep life at an arm's distance" (I am quoting, or misquoting you, à propos of Henry James). The result, for all of them, is a kind of suffocation, and "un art sur l'art". Ximé Silone's slowness, however, is probably of another nature - it has a "provincial" quality, half carelessness and half affectation. I saw a lot of Silone, and enjoyed the missus more than him, (did you meether?). He is very depressed, and is trying to disentangle himself from politics. He lives in a most Dannunzian villa, and is stupidly snubbed by the local literateurs. 1948, I believe, will be his critical year: he will have to become a new writer, reaching much beyond the exile's promise, or else he will fester as a "deputato al Parlamento" and a member of various committees for a World Federation. His predicament, however, is one more measure of Italy's "backward impasse". He remains a very decent fellow, who tried hard and seriously to "leave the family", (the magma of Italian life).

5. I leafed through *The Gallery* many months ago. I found the American characters convincing, but I was in doubt about the Italian ones, (but

Forest Hills, N.Y., Nov. 22, 1947

98-39 65th Rd

Dear Wilson:

here is a rejoinder to my letter, (as pedants used to say, "nulla dies sine linea"), in form of a postcard from Mario Praz. Decidedly, Italy is having her "stagione di Edmund Wilson"! A couple of footnotes to Praz' panegyric may be in order. Bompiani, to whom Praz has proposed to publish THE WOUND AND THE BOW, is the third big publisher in Italy, the other two (equally Wilsonophiles) being Einaudi and Mondadori. I don't quite understand what the last three lines of P.' card allude to. My guess is that he would like to include your Dickens essay in a future re-edition of an anthology of English and American critical essays he must have edited for Bompiani, or some other publisher, and that your essay would take the place of a Dickens essay by J.B. Priestley.

As to the New York Prize for Italian Literature, here is what it is. An Italian friend of mine, who lives in New York, is willing to give some money to help, every year or so, " a very good Italian writer ". He wants the prize to be ... transcontinental, the jury binational, and the whole thing non-commercial; (but I know that a publisher, or two, are already interested). He asked me whom I would suggest for the jury, (the idea being to get three or four Italians and as many Americans). I suggested, for Italy, Mario Praz, Ignazio Silone, Carlo Levi and Alberto Moravia. For America, I had only one name - yours. I hope you won't mind my proposal, and je vous saurais bien gré de vouloir accepter. Je n'ai point fait d'autres noms, soit parce que je voulais faire dépendre tout le reste de votre acceptation, soit parce qu'il m'a paru assez difficile de dénicher des critiques (ou écrivains) américains sérieux, qui aient aussi une connaissance effective de la langue italienne.

Pardonnez-moi cette note bilingue. C'est que je suis assez fatigué, (j'ai écrit *en italien* toute la journée), et mon anglais s'en trouve un peu plus rouilleux, ou constipé, que d'habitude.

Cordialement à vous

Wellfleet, Mass.

November 26, 1947

Dear Milano:

Thanks for your letter. I am sending you a copy of my European book. I am sorry that my ambitious dedicatee turns out to have been written on blotting-paper. I'd be grateful if you'd let me know of any errors in Italian you notice.

About my books: Harcourt, unfortunately, had the right to dispose of the Finland Station and signed a contract with Boccioni of Milan. I have just signed a contract with Mondadori for Axel's Castle. Would Einandi be interested in Hegate County or this new book? I can't send them a copy of the former, as it is still suppressed, but it is published in English on the continent in Bonnier's Zephyr series, and they could undoubtedly get a copy in Rome. I'd be glad to have you translate something as he suggests, if you have time for that kind of work.

I didn't write the New Yorker note: it was done by Louise Bogan. No: I don't have the Henderson Place house any more. We are living up here all the year round, and only get to New York for short visits. I haven't read Bellow's new book but rather liked an earlier one of his.

I am terribly sorry to hear about your boy-
hope he & all right by this time.

Sincerely,

Forest Hills, LI; NY, Dec. 23, '47
98-39 65th Rd

Dear Edmund Wilson:

thank you, very warmly, for
for the
EUROPE WITHOUT BAEDEKER, and its inscription, so
appropriate and moving. Your book, or rather, its
various parts, have provoked in me so contrasting a
series of reactions - from sheer enthusiasm, through
thankful gratification, to violent doubts - that I
had planned to write to you a letter about it "lunga
come la camicia di Meo". But Christmas is ante por-
tas, and my place, these days, is ridden with chil-
dren so phonomaniacal that they make me logophobic.
Should you ever care for them, I'll keep my mental
notes for a future meeting. In the meanwhile, you'll
find enclosed a list of "mistakes" in the Italian of
your book.

Let me wish you a good 1948 -- a year, I am
afraid, not likely in the least to resemble its
fateful predecessor of exactly a century ago.

I have written to Praz, about THE WOUND and
Bompiani.

Tante cose affettuose

dal suo

Rego Park 74, N.Y., May 24, 1952

98-39 65th Road

Caro Edmondo,

moi aussi, j'ai tenté de t'avoir au bout du fil à
New York, j'ai laissé des messages à la bonne, mais rien n'est ar-
rivé. Et il ne me reste que de regretter hénaurmément (c'est l'or-
tographe flaubertien de l'adverbe) de ne t'avoir point revu avant
ta rentrée à Wellfleet.

Le "Committee" dont je t'ai parlé, et duquel Mario Praz est
membre, s'appelle "Commissione per gli Scambi Culturali" (ou bien
"Fulbright Committee for Italy", et elle dépend des "Cultural Offices"
de l'Ambassade des Etats-Unis à Rome, (Via Boncompagni 2). Mais je
ne comprends pas bien à quoi cela doit te servir... Est-ce que Praz
va venir ici bientôt? Quant à l'appellatif pour Praz dans ton arti-
cle, l'expression "Signor Praz" me paraît (malheureusement) la plus
viable en anglais. "Professor Praz" est aussi courant, n'est-ce-pas?
Mais j'ajoute tout de suite qu'un homme de lettre italien aime sur-
tout être nommé en pleine nudité de gloire, c'est-à-dire, tout court,
"Mario Praz". "Il Praz" a un petit air pédant, et il faut être aussi
dix-neuvième" que l'est "il Croce" pour s'en tenir a cela constam-
ment. Où est-ce que ton article sur *La Carne* va paraître? Cela m'in-
téresse vivement, et parce que cela vient de toi, et parce que je suis
sûr que tu rendras justice aux mérites indéniables de l'oeuvre au-
tant qu'à ses cubieuses lacunes. Praz est sourd aux valeurs socio-
politiques aussi bien qu'aux valeurs vraiment philosophiques. Mais
il me semble que la *partialité* même de son goût critique le mène à
des découvertes toujours documentées at souvent originelles.

L'article sur toi que je te joins, (pour le cas que tu ne l'aies
encore vu), est malheureusement de tout autre aloi. Il s'agit d'un es-
sai quelconque d'un homme assez mal informé et dépourvu de perspi-
cuité. Mais tu es sans doute aussi habitué que moi à cette "comedy

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of errors", __tremut__ à laquelle les "échanges critiques internationaux"
se sont désormais réduits. Il faut une immense patience, et pas mal
d'ironie, pour ne pas éclater, à tout moment, en protestations vivaces.

Moi, je m'en vais en Europe pour l'été. J'ai travaillé à corri-
ger le erreurs de fait d'une version américaine d'un roman italien
de Cesare Pavese, (qui s'appelle _La luna e i falò_, et qui me paraît
chastement singulier), et je vais, peut-être, le munir d'une briève
préface - c'est Farrar qui le publie. Et comme ça, je paie mon pas-
sage. Je passeraix un peu plus que deux moi en France et en Italie;
je pars le onze juin.

Si tu en as le temps et l'envie, écris-moi un mot, fais-moi signe,
avant mon départ. Il est tellement rare de pouvoir converser, (même
par épître), que je me fais un plaisir d'espérer de te lire.

Mes amitiés à ta femme, et un bon salut nostalgique à ta
glorieuse petite.

LA MIA STORIA

Con l'acqua che C. Agrippa fece arrivare a Roma nel 19 a. C. per alimentare le sue terme, i Papi Nicolò V e Sisto IV pensarono di fare delle fontane, dopo aver ripristinato l'acquedotto che era rimasto inattivo per otto secoli. Fu così che io nacqui.

La mia vasca è stata costruita nel 1453 su progetto di L. B. Alberti e la fontana, restaurata da Urbano VIII, fu terminata per ordine di Clemente XII nel 1762 da Nicola Salvì utilizzando un progetto del Bernini. Al centro della facciata del Palazzo Poli che mi sovrasta è stato ricavato un arco trionfale romano a 3 nicchie e in quella centrale si stacca una colossale statua dell'Oceano su un cocchio a forma di conchiglia tirato da due cavalli marini. Una leggenda dice che se il forestiero getta una moneta nella mia vasca, ritornerà a Roma.

Roma 4I8, June 28th 1962

Via di Sant'Erasmo I2

Dear Edmund:

You must have received - or soon will - a letter from Dr. Donato Barbone, one of the dignitaries of Casa Laterza, giving you all the information you may possibly need. The gist of which, as I had guessed for you in New York, is that Laterza's only relations with Government authorities during the Fascist period were in the way of persecutions suffered.

Your friend Edith Oliver hasn't appeared at all, so far. Did you give her my new telephone number (77.59.76)? which is unlisted (it is the one I gave you in New York).

I have paid due and happy homage to PATRIOTIC GORE in one of my latest articles in L'ESPRESSO.

Rome is hot and resounding with literary scandals, -- boringly unimaginative, purtroppo...

I smiled for hours reading your *autointervista* in the Newyorker. Have publicized it gaily for weeks, under a Goldonian title of my own: IL MISANTROPO FIDUCIOSO, (but I know *que tu vas t'inscrire en faux* against it.

Let me hear about Miss Oliver and yourself. Am sending this to your Talcottville address, having lost your Cambridge address.

Forest Hills, N.Y., Dec. 30, 1951
93-39 65th Road

Dear Edmund Wilson:

Non so perchè, quando scrivo a Lei, ho un momento d'incertezza sulla lingua da scegliere: l'inglese sarebbe una scelta, a tallogica; il francese mi pare naturale; ma l'italiano, (da quando Lei scrisse quei versi di Leopardi su una copia di Europe Without Baedeker), è la lingua in cui mi piacerebbe di più che fra noi si discorresse.

Cela sera, (je le vois d'ici), une de ces lettres multilingues et hérissées de solécismes, come celles - si licet parva ... - que le père Marx échangeait avec son mécène bien subordonné.

Bovrei cominciare dalle scuse - per il mio lungo e vergognoso silenzio. Je ne peux pas Vous dire à quel point Votre lettre de l'été dernier m'a fait du bien. It. came at the right time. Je passais par une saison des plus mornes et découragées, et vos lignes si amicales m'ont aidé à franchir un des caps périodiques du désespoir. I wanted to do more than answering right away - I wanted to come and see you. pouvant Cela n'a pas, finalement, été possible; au point que, nonnà, j'accepterai tout. Je viendrerais vous voir, j'ai même négligé de vous dire, tout simplement, merci.

Je le fais ici, avec un délai bien coupable, mais avec une gratitude qui n'est point affaiblie.

Ces derniers mois, je vous l'ai dit, ont été assez durs. Mais, comme il arrive parfois quand on est touché en profondeur, j'ai beaucoup écrit, et, si j'ose dire, sérieusement. I have written (in Italiana a long novella, ou roman bref, on x certain sides of New York life. It's quite unorthodox, I think, and I'm afraid that, if and when it will come out, (I am revising it now), it may prove "a dio spiadente ed ai nemici sui".

I've been teaching, of course, de guerre lasse, but I had luck, lately with my reading in the evening. Do you know Walter Kauffman's *Nietzsche?*

C'est un livre européen only up to a point; je veux dire que l'auteur, (un x assez jeune savant, parait-il), aurait été incapable de penser et de

2-

de juger comme il fait, s'il n'avait pas absorbé une expérience culturelle qui est bien américaine; et le résultat est frappant. Niet-zsche, ce baromètre énigmatique, ce pauvre souffre-douleur, en sort tel o finalement clair, et bien plus fraternel et proche de nous que (re)ref勒e nous ne l'avions jamais soupçonné. Et ceci, je suppose, parce que Kauff-<u>a appris</u> man (en Amérique, sans doute) à voir avant d'interpréter, et à ne jamais -arre- se lasser de son respect, pervicace pour les faits et les documents.

I have also read the latest Camus - _L'Homme révolté_. Que de talent mal employé! De toutes ces élucubrations sur la condition humaine, et -la sur l'apocalypse présente et sur la nature des tirannies qui nous bête-obsèdent, (même quand il s'agit de réflections probes at passionnées), j'анai, franchement, plus que marre. Je, <u>je</u> crois fermement que, si nous aefavoulons nous tirer de l'impasse, il vaudra mieux oublier pour le moment betroules les "méditations sublimes" (les inépuisables "tentations métaphysique"), et nous borner à la considération, ou à la représentation, de<u>u</u> quelque chose de limité et de concret. Cela nous guéirait, peut-être, de notre fofoménoimodérée de l'abstrait, en nous rendant un sens des proportions, des rapports réels et de l'épaisseur de la vie concrète et quotidienne.

Spero che questa chiacchierata non L'abbia annoiato troppo. Il emmo, s'agit, de ma part, d'un pis-aller. Quanto preferirei discorrere con Lei -è quid persona! Forse, proprio oggi che io Le scrivo a Wellfleet, Lei è ma-grof a garita New York, e se sapessi, dove trovarla, potrei conversare di per-<u>al</u> tinsona con Lei.

Mior scriva, se ha tempo e voglia. E intanto, gradisco i miei auguri. "Ius hou amichevoli per il 1952, per Lei e per tutti i suoi."

molte buone cose

dal suo grande

dal suo grande

Paolo Milano

Queens College

FLUSHING, N. Y.

Rego Park 74, N. Y., il 27 aprile '53

Caro Edmondo,

questo è un biglietto di scuse.

Avevo pronto un esemplare di _The Moon and the Bonfires_, con tanto di dedica, di penna dell'u-
mile sottoscritto, ma l' "Ufficio Pubblicità"
di Farrar, Straus, Young, y Alvarez y Gonza-
lez, (vero miracolo di efficienza!), ti ha spedito
invece una copia ordinaria per recensione.

Faccio ammenda onorevole e solenne della svista
non mia, e conto che gli Dèi, (e precisamente Pal-
lade Athena, a cui si bruciano quotidiani incen-
si nel famoso "Temple du Service de Presse"), mi
concedano presto un'occasione di espiare.

Come va la salute? Con Darina parliamo spes-
so, e affettuosamente, di Vossignoria.

Ricordami ai tuoi, o meglio alle tue.

E molte buone cose a te

Queens College

FLUSHING 67. N. Y.

Paolo Milano
98-39 65th Rd
Rego Park 74, N. Y.

Edmund Wilson
C-o Turner
Mansgrove
Princeton, N. J.

Queens College

FLUSHING, N. Y.

May 16, 1953

Caro Edmondo,

Together with many, I am
simply and greatly grateful to you for
your Holmes-Lasky piece. Splendid. Wilson
at his very best -- e non è poco!

I've heard a few say: "We _need_ Wilson".
I have said it myself. And what I meant is
this: Wilson is _the_ man who, if he wants to,
can tell us _what_ exactly is happening to
this country.

Molte cose affettuose a te
e ai tuoi da

Did you get the Chiaromonte booklet of essays,
entitled "Il tempo della malafede"? If you
haven't, I'll send it to you, for it _is_ worth
the while.

Queens College

FLUSHING 67, N. Y.

Paolo Milano

98-39 65th Road

Rego Park 74, New York

Edmund Wilson

Wellfleet, Mass.

Queens College

FLUSHING, N. Y.

Yaddo, Tuesday the 7th

Dear Edmund:

your fine invitation has been re-
ceived this morning, with Italo-American enthu-
siasm. It has already unleashed a variety of
exciting daydreams about my possible pilgrima-
ge to NomADElphia (Talcottville), in the chariot
and under the wings of the Benevolent Master.

But I can't say yes right away. I've writ-
ten to New York, where I am expected next Wed-
nesday, to disarrange things, if it can be done.
And I will sound off Elizabeth Ames - or the Tea-
chers Retirement Fund, if a short stay in a
downtown Saratoga hôtel, among jockeys and belles,
should prove unavoidable. I will know in a few
days if the thing is feasible, and I'll let you
know immediately.

In the meanwhile, gratias reddo. Pax clericis
bonae voluntatis ac famiſliis eorum.

Paulus e Mediolano, clericus vagans
de wilsoniano beatifico or-
dine.

Paolo Milano
Yaddo
Saratoga Springs, N. Y.

Edmund Wilson
Wellfleet, Mass.

Rego Park 74, N. Y., July 29, 1953

98-39 65th Road

Caro Edmondo,

Il faut penser: sans quoi l'homme devient,
Malgré son âme, un franc cheval de somme.

Il faut aimer: c'est ce qui nous soutient,
Car sans aimer il est triste d'être homme.

Il faut avoir un ami qu'en tout temps,
Pour son bonheur on écoute, on consulte,
Qui sache rendre à notre âme en tumulte
Les maux moins vifs et les plaisirs plus grands.

Il faut le soir un souper délectable,
Où l'on soit libre, où l'on puisse en repos
Goûter gaîment les bons mets, les bons mots,
Et sans être ivre il faut sortir de table.

Il faut la nuit dire tout ce qu'on sent
Au tendre objet que notre coeur adore;
Se réveiller pour en redire autant,
Se rendormir pour y songer encore.

Vous conviendrez qu'en allant de ce ton
On jouirait d'une très douce vie;
Au long des jours passés avec Wilson

J'eus un avant-goût de ce rare paradis.*

* Sauf, hélas!, (la perfection n'étant pas de ce bas monde), les douceurs conseillées dans la quatrième strophe.

OVER!

Dear Edmund:

the poem you have read, entitled "Les Il Faut",
is the combined effort of Monsieur de Voltaire, who drafted it
in 1734, of le Citoyen Diderot, who revised it in 1759 with a
soft hand, and of Paolo il Mediocre, who added a few commas to
it in 1953.

You should know, by now, de quelle façon, and how tho-
roughly, I enjoyed Talcottville. Since the Wilsonian Order com-
prises Enlighteners as well as Medievalists, you will be not
surprised by the enclosed epistle of Sister Babette to Brother
Paulus. Please, return it to me, some time, so that I may place
it in the Vault Archives of the Order.

Don't fail to give Helen Aruspex my warmest "bon sou-
venir" and thanks. Remember me to your wife.

Yours in Belli & Swift,

Edmund Wilson
RFD Boonville
Talcottville, New York

Queens College

FLUSHING, N. Y.

May 29

Caro Edmondo,

I'm having a hectic few days, for next Thursday I'll be leaving for Europe, and I'll be *civis romanus* until September. But newt week is going to be splendid. I'll be lounging on the *Flandre*, reading *Cyprian's Prayer*, which I don't know, and *This Room, etc.*, which I began last night with delight.

Thanks for the fine volume. But why is it priced $ 6.50 ? Does John Farrar want to discourage undergraduates and Junior executives from buying your plays? It is true that they will read them and love them any way. The "anthumous" Wilson revival is on.

I haven't time to tell you how much I enjoyed, and learned from, your Genesis piece. In the last weeks, I couldn't find a party, in which it was *not* discussed.

My summer address is: Via di Santo Erasmo I2 - Roma 4I7. - Si le coeur t'en dit, à Wellfleet ou à Bonville, fais-moi signe: même deux lignes me feront plaisir.

Saluti a tutti e buona estate

dal tuo fedele

PS. I read *The Hedgehog* and *the Fox*. The idea that you once mentioned, however vaguely, my name in connection with Isaiah Berlin's made my ego smile.

Edmund Wilson

Wellfleet, Massachusetts