Nov. 24

Dear Bryher,

This is partly to thank you (very much) for your gift of my college tuition. I think that I will probably go to Columbia University here in New York. My first choice is Harvard, but admission there is so difficult that I may not be accepted. After Harvard I think Columbia is the most desirable college in that it has one of the best English departments in the country and has the cultural asset of its location in New York. If I go there I will live at the college itself, and not at home.

I am still uncertain of what I want to do after college. I think that at college I will major in either English or Psychology. Probably English, but I have been considering concentrating on studying psychology. I think it would be very interesting to work in that field - fortunately I don't have to decide definitely on that for another two years. At any rate I intend to study psychology, whether I concentrate on it or not.

As a start I recently read Freud's *An Introduction to Psychoanalysis*.

I will also study music and perhaps start to learn Italian.

As Mum may have told you, I will probably go several Arabic and European countries this summer (unless there's another war). This trip is organized by a teacher at Choate, my house-master this year, named Mr. Sa'adah.

The trip starts in Spain, and goes through Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, probably 2 or 3 other Arab countries, briefly Israel and Turkey, Greece, and finishes in Italy. The exact itinerary hasn't been planned yet, but that's the approximate route - mostly by air, and car. At Rome I will probably split off from the group and take a train, perhaps, up Italy. AND If I do this I can visit you in Kenwin. I'll write you when things are more definitely planned.

I'm at home now for a short Thanksgiving vacation. We now have a new puppy, half boxer and half retriever, who is trying to make a shambles of the house, and also terrorizes the cats.

So I hope to see you this summer - sooner if you visit here. Again thank you very much for your gift.

Dear Bryher,

This letter is first to thank you for your gift of my
college tuition next year. We all appreciate this very much.
I still won't know definitely for another two months which
college I will attend. Probably, as I wrote you before,
I will go to Columbia.

I think I will major in English for the 4 years of college,
and then, if I am seriously interested in psychology, I may concentrate
on that in graduate school. But I am still uncertain as to
what I will do after college.

How is Elsie? Please give her, if it is possible, all
my best wishes.

I will probably, as I wrote you, be able to come to Montreux
at the end of August. The Arabic trip ends in Rome around the
26th, though the precise date isn't set yet, and I will certainly
be able to take a train up to Switzerland. So I will see you then,
if you don't visit here before.

love,

descriptions. He's sort of like Steinbeck, but more modern.
What do you think of his books? I haven't been reading quite so
much science fiction, though I've read more of Ray Bradbury, who
I think is now my favorite science fiction author. Incidentally,
I saw the movie which has been made from *Fahrenheit 451*, and
unfortunately it can't compare with the book. It could have
been a really great film if the director had followed the spirit
of the book, but instead it was turned into a sort of farce which,
though quite entertaining by itself, is dissapointing if you have
read it.

I'm continuing taking pictures, and I'll show you some next
time you visit. Generally when I come home I take a lot of pictures
of the city, and when I go back to school I sort them out and enlarge
the best ones. That keeps me busy all the time.

I've very tentatively decided that I'd like to be either a
photographer or something to do with photography, or something to
do with books and publishing. However I'm not at all sure,
and in a couple of years I may want to do something completely
different. I'll have to wait and see.

Thanks again for your present, and I hope to see you when
you come in the spring. Give my love to Elsie.

love,

Dear Bryher,

Thank you very much for your birthday letter and present.
I have used most of the latter to increase my record collection,
which I add to whenever possible. In my opinion a collection of
music, or, of course, books, is infinitely more valuable than one
of something like stamps, which affords the feeling of possession
but little else. I'm afraid my stamp collection, which you asked
about, has been gathering dust over the last year or so. I'm not
going to sell it or anything, but I doubt if I will add anything
more to it.

I still spend a lot of time on photography, of course. I'm
now on my spring vacation from school, and one thing I intend to
do is take a great deal of pictures here in New York. Next time I
write you I'll send you several photographs of ~~nexxfami~~ Timothy
and Elizabeth, and of our new house. My plans for the summer are not
definite yet, but ~~xx~~ there is a possibility that I will go to Texas
as assistant to some people who are making a movie documentary of
the state.

For English this term I read *Beowulf*, *Canterbury Tales*, and
*Paradise Lost*, which I liked the best of the three.

One book I've read which I think you would like, if you haven't
already read it, is *White Lotus*, by John Hersey. The setting is
what it might have been like if in the 1930's if China had conquered
the United States 20 or so years earlier. It deals with the plight
of white slaves in China, before and after emancipation, and is
about the best book I have read that shows what it is like to

312 East 53rd. St.

New York 22

NOv. 29

Dear Bryher,

Thank you for that money you gave me, most of which I used
to buy an accessory for my camera. I'm sorry I didn't see you
when you were here last month.

Mum has probably told you of the burglary here yesterday.
The robbers don't strike me as being very intelligent. For instance
they took Nicholas' guitar, which must have been very awkward to
carry, but left my camera, which was worth more than twice as much
and would have been far easier. I guess that was a good thing.
Also, they went to the trouble of prying open a little toy sort of
safe I had in my room, and which contained about ten cents in pennies.

That's about all I can say that Mum won't tell you anyway. I was
out of school these past several days for Thanksgiving, but I'm going back
this afternoon. I hope I'll see you next time you come here, whenever
that is.

love,

March 29

Dear Bryher,

I'm writing partly to thank you, perhaps a little belatedly,
for your birthday present to me. I wanted to tell you what I did
with it, and I didn't spend it until a week ago. Originally I
was going to put it in the bank, but instead I used it to help
buy a new Polaroid camera. I had had one before, but it did not
really offer enough features, and was not very good. So last week
I traded it in for a new one, which is better made and much more
suitable than the other.

At the moment I'm in Florida, and † will be until next Saturday.
The weather here is beautiful, or was - right now it is raining for the
first time since I got here. However I hear in New York it is in
the thirtys, and sometime last week there was a blizzard up North.
How is it in Switzerland?

Nothing of mine was taken in the second burglary of our house.
You've probably heard about the recent burglary of Daddy's office.
This seems to be all done by one group of people, as there have
recently been other robberies in the vicinity.

This place abounds with birds. Mr. Kingwood, a teacher from
St. Bernard's who is staying here with us, spends most of his time
in the Bird Sanctuary watching them, and I have taken a lot of
telephoto pictures of them. Timothy is extremely tanned, though
Elizabeth, who takes a while to get used to the sun, is a bit burned.

Nicholas, of course, spends all his time playing Rolling Stones records.

I'm sending a slide I took with my regular camera of the sunset, and two black and white Polaroid pictures, one of our house, and the other of Elizabeth and Timmy. I'm afraid that I don't have color two Polaroid pictures I can send. These, by the way were taken with my new Xx Polaroid camera.

Thank you again for your present, and give my love to Elsie,

love,

Valentine

March 19

Dear Bryher,

Many thanks - belated, I'm afraid - both for
the birthday present, which I used to buy some
records and the complete works of Baudelaire in
the Pleiade edition, and, of course, for the other,
comprising my college tuition.

I am preparing myself for the journey, to-
morrow morning, to Easthampton, where I am staying
during all of next week, which is a vacation. The
last time I was there was for Timothy's birthday,
which was an extremely noisy occasion, as he was
given another drum (he had four already), and had
invited as his party a minuscule friend who giggled
and shrieked incessantly, and who was, moreover,
singularly lugubrious, having seen, apparently,
every horror movie in existence, from "Caligari"
to the present - his name was David Styx, appropri-
ately, though I am not certain of the spelling.

For my birthday, a week earlier, exactly, I
received all of the Arabian Nights, in seventeen
volumes. I don't know when I'll get around to
reading them. The set seems to be a restrike of
the first edition; it was published by the Burton
Society, and is labelled as the "Aden edition" -
I wonder if you have heard of that - but isn't
dated. It looks quite ancient, though the pages
of all but the first two volumes are uncut. I had
found it in a second-hand book shop in Southampton.

At the moment there is neither heat nor hot
water in my apartment - this happens every month
or so, inexplicably - and I have been occupying
myself with boiling gallons of water over my stove,
which does work, after a fashion, in order to wash
my accumulation of dishes.

I gather that you are coming to New York
next month - I hope to see you then.