80 Washington Square East,
New York City.

April 14, 1925.

Miss Marianne Moore
14 St. Luke's Place
New York City.

Dear Miss Moore:

Thank you so much for letting me
see the copy of The Nation with the revelatory
review of your own work by the unfortunate Van Doren.
I return it to you herewith. But how too bad it is
that your "manners" should have compromised the other-
wise surely impeccable others "O!"

And I am glad to read your distinguished
non-recommendation of the counterplot. I also take
the liberty of returning to you at the same time
many things which I fear I have had by me longer than
was right.

"West" is amusing, I fear, in that fashion
not wholly different from Mr. Kreymborg's account of
you at the baseball game. Although Miss Bryher regards
you and me with so different eyes, yet I find she
paints us both with the same brush.

Among the papers in re Marianne Moore,
you will find the Williams essay, which is appearing,
in slightly modified form, in The Dial for May.

The clipping from The Nation I should
like back, unless you yourself want to keep it. Per-
haps you already have it?

Miss Gregory and Mr. Powys are again
with us, and both look unusually well. I fancy the
reassuring words of the physician have allowed them
to settle down more wholeheartedly into that health
which they already unknowingly possessed.

I just met Mr. Kreymborg on Sixth Avenue
and he told me that in quitting the party so early
we missed not only the plenitude of negro sodgers but
also the unusual dancing of the unusual Mr. Zorach.

Two of our arch critics, Mr. Seldes and

PRESERVATION PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

April 20, 1925.

Miss Marianne Moore,
14 St. Luke's Place,
New York.

Dear Miss Moore:

Thank you very much for the copy of "Charm" which I am glad to have upon my desk at The Dial. Everyone admires your distinguished portrait. I deplore Miss Minn Loy's inadequacy.

A copy of "Poetry" came to me at The Dial with "Charm." Perhaps I have not read it as thoroughly as a poetry journal deservest to be read. But even poems, although short, accumulate. I wonder what you wanted me to see in this copy and whether you want it back?

Do you think it essential Miss Gregory should be alone with us when we break the Schluemann bubble? Or would a dinner at The Dial at which her husband is present be inexcusable? I feel that his presence will not make the situation easier, but, because of his health, she dines with him every evening. Or perhaps you intend accompanying Miss Gregory alone?

Since you are coming to us next week and since this morning I was forced by judicial authority to divulge in open court the name of the new Acting Editor of The Dial, there is now no point in continued reticence.

Sincerely yours,

14 St. Luke's Place,
New York City,
May 15, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

I was most happy to receive your telegram
and to feel that the last word had been said with regard
to our recent agitation. I am in no doubt as to the
sincerity of saying in death what one would say in life,
though I feel more and more the necessity for a temperate
judgment, in life.

I am delighted that you should have
decided to use in the July Dial, Counsel to A Young Man.
It is hard on me who so much objects to disagreeing, to
say that I heartily disagree with Miss Gregory in her
preference for "current" over "cursive." To me, "current"
contains the flavor of contemporary, and "cursive" suggests
"running." Again, despite your prejudice against it,
I really admire "Their beauty shall not be your nightly
care" and do not like "They shall not lam" "Shall lamp you
coldly down a well-worn stair." No reader of The Dial,
I am sure, would recall in "lamp," the slang term meaning
to see, yet there is the connotation. The line would not
satisfy me even with a different verb. Also, in "In Which
the Fingers of the Wind are Made to Call," I should be sad
to exchange "honest" for "quiet."

Dr Watson suggested our using the Coppard
story and said I might write to Mr Coppard that we consent
to allow his indebtedness to us, of $37.50, to stand until
he should be able to cancel it by offering further work.
(Mr Coppard had written that he was not able to refund the
$37.50 and suggested that he divide with The Dial, whatever
sum The Criterion might pay him for The Field of Mustard;
or--that he offer The Dial further work.)

I have declined with a letter, the manuscript
which you sent me in care of Mr Burke.

Also, I have written to Mr Piccoli, to
Mr y Gasset, and to Dr Mann, speaking of our pleasure
in their former letters and asking for further comment
on painting, literature, or philosophy, and am writing
today to Maxim Gorki.

When Mr Colum and Joseph Campbell called at
The Dial one afternoon, I asked Mr Campbell if he
knew the origin of the phrase, "the creeping Saxon,"
and he said it is part of the following Irish triad:
"For valor, the Greek; for beauty and amorousness,
the Gael; for dullness, the creeping Saxon." Mr Cúom
said he thought this triad is in Ancient Irish Poetry
published by Dutton. I find that such a collection,
by Meyer, was once published by Dutton but is now out
of print.

I hope that you are finding time to write;
and also, much to amuse you.

Sincerely yours,

Matilde Anne More

14 St. Luke's Place,

New York City,

June 13, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

Neither Mr Burke nor Miss Batteram came
in before I left at half past one. I am so sorry I
happened to be there, since if I had not, you would
have been saved telephone expense. I had gone to see
if I could find a proof that I had meant to bring home,
of Mr Bishop's review of Paul Rosenfeld--perhaps I
inadvertently gave it to you--and to look over the
mail, and to get the Chicago address of George Dillon,
whose poem and contributor's note I have just sent
you. His street number is 5140 (Kimbark Avenue) and
a cousin of mine lived for many years at 6455 Kimbark
Avenue. I have little doubt that the work in his name
is sent in good faith. Also, I called up The Hotel
Belleclaire and found that Miss Elise Jean Jerard lives
there and later telephoned her. Her story was brought
to The Dial by hand--by her mother and herself--and
this explains its coming in an envelope unaddressed.
Will you be so good as to send me that story, The Fall
of The House of Bicarbonate, to 14 St. Luke's Place
that I may return it? May I have also, Captain Moore's
contribution? I find that a good deal of his work
has come to The Dial and that Miss Gregory in a letter
to Miss Depollier, expresses a doubt of his sanity.
A facetious contribution was sent by Witter Bynner
with a note and signed in a hand which attracted my
attention. I returned it to Santa Fe about the second
of June saying, "We are sorry to return to you, the
ingeniously made verses which you have sent us."

I feel sure now, that the three poems sent were frauds,
particularly as his correspondence and mine have not
been added to the file of his correspondence, and are
not with the material on hand to be filed. However,
I so often make mistakes that I am not reporting this
as an accusation. I telephoned your message to Mr Burke
who was in the third floor; but at the risk of seeming
officious, I venture to say that Miss De Pollier
could reasonably accuse us of injustice if dismissed

on uncertain evidence.

In my concern about the manuscripts yesterday, I forgot
to say that just before you came into the office at one
oclock, Mr George Biddle, the painter, and his wife who
writes under the name of Jean Belo, came to see you to show
you some of Mrs Biddle's writing. I saw them in Mr Burke's
and my office and said that although you might be at The Dial
for a moment, it would not be possible for them to see you
as you were leaving town in an hour or two. I said that I
was receiving manuscript during your absence and at Mr Biddle's
request, read the poems and prose which Mrs Biddle had brought.
As ordinarily the work would have been returned with a card,
I declined it as inoffensively as I could. To read it at
once was an irregularity but I was glad to be rid of writing
a letter. Mr Biddle asked if he might write to you to ask
your permission to send you photographs of some drawings he
has just done which he says resemble the work of Adolf Dehn.
I gave him your address.

June 16, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

Any of the things I have given you which now appear to be without significance, I think I ought to return. A conspicuously meritless manuscript received today from Miss Ruth Krauss--Baltimore, Maryland--persuades me that there was no fraud in the sending of it or of the one somewhat like it which you have. I have removed with ink eradicator, the obliterated return address and find the envelope to be addressed Krauss with another initial. I so fear to burden you foolishly, that I am not sending you a package of eight featherbrained manuscripts sent without return address--the cover said to be mutilated--purporting to be translated from the German by Beatrice Marshall:

G. M. (George MacIntosh) by Gustav Meyrink

The Picnic by

Nine and Eleven by

Mysteriously Disappeared by

Tulips by

Myosa by Peter Altenberg

The Canary by Peter Altenberg

Let Dogs Delight

(lady Susana Krargreen?)

I enclose a copy of the preface to Let Dogs Delight.

By accident in looking through Tomorrow of August, 1924, published in Dublin, I find in it The Cock by Joseph Campbell; as well as the other poems of his which I declined.

How sorry I am to disturb you so habitually with the noisomely inconsequential.

Sincerely yours,

P. S.

Miss Hatch, that is to say, Mrs Shafer, returned to us today; and I had a letter from Dr Watson saying that he will be in the office in a day or two. He sent me, to do as I like about, a somewhat didactic article on music by Ruth Heyman--which I have declined.

Miss DePollier is very busy writing something as she somewhat archly confessed this morning. Indeed, as Mr Burke says, her frankness is reassuring.

14 St. Luke's Place,

New York City,

June 18, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

I received this morning, the following letter from
Miss De Pollier:

109 Bedford St
NYC

My dear Miss Moore,

It seems to me that the
misunderstandings are so serious that it is
necessary to give up my job immediately

When Miss De Pollier had returned from luncheon yesterday, as I was about to go home, I thanked her for counting the words in Miss Gregory's review of Van Wyck Brooks. I had said that I wished to take the review home to read again just for pleasure and commented upon Miss Gregory's metaphors and method. I said that I missed Miss Gregory exceedingly and that I was sure Miss De Pollier missed her yet more. At this, tears appeared in Miss De Pollier's eyes but she recovered herself and said that she thought Miss Gregory would like to know about things in the office. I said I had just written to her and had told her that we had accepted a story by Max Robin, that he had come in to see us, and so on.

I am continuing this on June 19th, having interrupted
myself last night for it was then very late, to
answer Miss Depollier's letter.

To go on with the conversation--

"I didn't tell her," I said, "that Miss Parker is not at
Edgartown; I said at the end of my letter, however, 'I shall leave it to
Miss De Pollier to tell you about Miss Parker; it's all very tragic.'"

"I told her," said Miss De Pollier, "that Miss Parker is
not at Edgartown but said Mr Thayer would probably write explaining about it."

I said, "I know how changed it must seem to you,
Miss De Pollier, here in the office, without Miss Gregory. I was anxious
to be here, myself, because I thought I should have the pleasure of
working with her and in addition to missing her, you haven't Miss Parker's
companionship--temporarily at least."

2

"Well," she said, "When she is better, I don't think things could ever be the same. It's affected Miss Parker's friendship with Miss Gregory and with you and even with me. I didn't like things Miss Parker did when she was here but because there was some constraint between us, I didn't say anything till the last day, when I said I thought she ought to try to control herself. I wish we had spoken to her before; I think we could have prevented what has happened. Did you think she seemed different when she was here, she seemed different from the way she seemed when you first knew her?"

I said, "I realized that she was depressed when she said she hoped I hadn't given Mr Thayer the impression that she was afraid she might lose her job."

Miss De Pollier said, "I suppose you think shw was discharged. She wasn't, but even if she gets better, she couldn't go back.I'ts all so strange. I can't tell you about it."

I said, "I prefer that you shouldn't, Miss De Pollier. It couldn't affect matters if you were to; I am not even on the periphery of the situation and anything I might know could neither help nor hinder; but I have felt your loneliness; I know you have not been happy."

She said: "It has seemed quite different this week; last week I was very unhappy; I was on the point of resigning; there was such a strange atmosphere. They went through my waste-basket for one thing. Mr Thayer called me into his office and explained to me that he had changed his will; I understood about that, but I don't know what to make of everybody's attitude to me; I don't know what Mr Thayer thinks I've done. I've worked very hard to get back papers of his. I didn't get them all, but I got all I could. I've been to Mrs Parker several times; it's a long way and I haven't been very well but I did my best. What do think I should do? Do you think I should resign?"

I said, "No, Miss De Pollier, I do not. I don't wonder, however, that the atmosphere has seemed 'strange' to you. The fact that Miss Parker has made a great deal of difficulty for Mr Thayer and the rest of us, has also been hard on you, for by the nature of the case, you are associated in our minds with Miss Parker."

Miss De Pollier frowned concentratedly and said: "I don't understand. I don't know what you mean."

I said, "Miss De Pollier, we have not been in your confidence. Miss Parker has sent some things to me which she ought not to have sent--and also, I have recognized some of your work."

She said, "You think that I have sent manuscripts to you? I haven't, but I used to send things to The Century Company when I was there. Would there be any harm in that--if they were serious? I should think it would make it easier for you; it wouldn't hamper you in saying what you thought. It wouldn't be any reflection on your judgment editorially and wouldn't I stand a better chance of getting them accepted?"

3

"If I knew the work was yours," I said, "I should take infinite pains to help you with it, as I could not if it were the work of a stranger. If it were disqualified in my judgment by certain defects, and I knew it was yours, I should be glad to work over it with you. If it were the work of a stranger, I should have to publish or reject it without modification or discussion."

At this point, Miss De Pollier, who had seemed forlorn and dreary all through the conversation, broke down and really wept.

I said, "There is no reason why you should be unhappy. I was stern in what I said to you last week when you copied for me, something I had asked you not to copy, and it was hard on you to be asked to rewrite you book review so many times; it seemed, I know, impossible for me to be pleased."

"Oh," she said, "I didn't think anything of that."

I said, "I must go, Miss De Pollier, I see my brother is waiting for me. You will find, I think, that things will go very well. I've been happy here, and I want you to be."

Miss De Pollier had seemed to me truthful and frank, except with respect to Miss Parker's contributions. Accordingly I wrote to you that night as I did; that was the evening of the 17th.

She must have left soon after I did for Mr Burke said she was not in the office when he came in. In the next morning's mail--the mail of the 18th-- I received the letter which I have quoted to you, which I answered last night-- June 18th--as follows:

14 St Luke's Place,
New York City,
June 18, 1925.

Dear Miss De Pollier:

Nothing could exceed my surprise when I received your letter this morning and I felt sure that when Mr Burke came, he would tell me of some sudden catastrophe which had occurred; your office, when I went to the door, gave the impression of having been temporarily left. Before I went to luncheon, you had asked me frankly if I thought you ought to resign and I had replied very truthfully, 'No.' I hope that in deciding for us both, you are guided by knowledge more final than any of which I am in possession. In reviewing our brief but rather sad conversation, I thought of other things which I should like to say to you with regard to your writing and my interest is in no way withdrawn.

Sincerely yours,

Miss De Pollier has had no key to the front door since the lock was changed-- another fact which contributed, I suppose, to her unhappiness. Miss Sharp of the business office, had asked if she might be considered for a position in our office in case there should be a change. I had told her there would be no change. However, when I received Miss De Pollier's letter and Mr Burke said he would try to get Miss Edith Wittenberg, I proposed Miss Sharp. He was

4

doubtful of her acuteness and I daresay, realized in her, a lack of presence,
but he feels with me that we have had a super amount of initiative and we
both find Miss Sharp exceedingly able and agreeable. Mrs Eveline says she
is an expert stenographer, and is in sympathy with our robbing the business
office. For a week, Miss Sharp will be away, since all her arrangements,
her reservations and so forth, were made, but until she returns, we can
as Mr Burke says, "keep swimming." Dr Watson suggested $35, salary.
Mrs Eveline is making it thirty with the prospect of increase, her present
salary being twenty-five.

I am enclosing Miss Gregory's letter, it is so entertaining.

As you see, I am without stationery.

Edgertown, Mass.

June 18, 1925.

Miss Marianne Moore,
14 St. Luke's Place,
New York City.

Dear Miss Moore:

I enclose theabel cim son poems. I agree with you
in regard to them.

I also enclose the pictures and verse purporting to
be by Katherine Annand.

How irritating about Campbell.

The preface to "Let Dogs Delight" is reassuring as
seeming to show that my remark to you in the presence of Miss
DeFolliier has reached Bloomingdale. To make doubly sure I men-
tioned the matter again to Miss DeFolliier before leaving New
York. But I am indeed sorry that you should have been put to so
much trouble to be "the noisomely inconsequential". Of course
you are right not to send me the "eight featherbrained menu-
scripts".

I also enclose the manuscript purporting to come from
Miss Ruth Krauss. I continue to believe it to be the work of
Eleanor Parker, unless indeed we would attribute to Miss DeFolliier
the enviable motherhood.

I do not return the other manuscripts at present,
because I do believe that most, if not all, of them emanate from
Parker-DeFolliier, and feel it a part of prudence to keep on hand
so many documents relating to this unpleasant situation as possible,
anyhow until the present tension subsides. The Parker family per-
sist in believing Miss Parker to be only very slightly upset ac-
viously. I do not feel that the authors of these manuscripts will
suffer at our holding them for a few weeks. In the past we have
often held manuscripts for some time because of the absence of
Mr. Watson from New York. Of course such action is always deplorable,
and if you desire me to send all these manuscripts back I shall do
so by return mail. But it is almost impossible for me to choose
between their madncsses.

PRESERVATION, PHOTOCOPY: ORIGINAL MATERIAL RESTRICTED

Edgerton, Massachusetts,

June 17, 1925.

Miss Arielle Moore,
14 St. Luke's Place, New York.

My dear Miss Moore!

No you did not give me Mr Bishop's review of Paul Rosenfeld, at least I can't find it. The Dillon poem appears to me authentic. But I feel I should warn you that I know Miss Parker submitted one poem to The Dial which was made up of good lines called from good poems and rearranged madly by herself. Or at least a rearrangement might more easily befog us than something wholly from Miss Parker's mind. I enclose the Dillon poem and letter.

The fact that Miss Alise Jean Jerard exists and telephoned does not seem to me to substantiate her good faith. I myself recognized the voice of one of Miss Parker's friends speaking to me over the telephone with an assumed name and representing himself as a foreign artist desiring an interview. I am convinced that Miss Parker and Miss Defolliar have mastered all their friends to sign the letters they send these friends and to mail these letters with the manuscripts to The Dial. After all, this is precisely what I ask my electrician Frank Scheuermann to do. I believe this is the method followed by Miss Parker and Miss Defolliar.

## -2- Miss Moore

Do you anyhow want me to send back The Fall of the
House of Bicarbonate? Of course I shall do so if you deem it
best. Captain Moore's contribution may also be the work of Miss
Larker or Miss Defollier, Miss Defollier having thought of Captain
Moore as a good stalking horse because of his previous relation-
ship to the Dial.

I do not think that we need consider the possibility
of doing Miss Defollier the injustice of dismissing her on un-
certain evidence. Surely we are at liberty to dismiss someone
whom we know not to be in sympathy with us whether or not that
person has done anything definitely dishonest, and Miss Defollier's
extreme hostility to me was only too evident during my short
stay in New York, but I have written Mr Burke more at length
about the possibilities as regards that office of Editorial Assis-
tant.

In general I should rather artists did not submit
me their work here or indeed write me about it. Their work, if
it is good, will keep until the autumn. But Mr Biddle's possession
of my address is no injury.

may I ask you to be so kind as to avoid - as far as
possible - bringing any letters from me to the Dial where they may
be seen by another person? I fear their being left on a desk or in
a jacket pocket while you are out of the room. I am sorry to have
such fears, but can not help it.

14 St Luke's Place,
New York City,
June 22, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

"What flames alone anneal" seems to me perfect. If I may venture a suggestion with regard to a thing which seems so nearly perfect as The Poet Takes Leave, I feel a difficulty in the rhythm of the line "There is that in him which shall nowise mix or blend." The last time or two in reading it, I have felt that an isamb rather than a trochee should introduce this line; and if one were used, then the succeeding accents in the line would be affected. I realize that you probably intended this departure from uniformity, but since the line has drawn attention to itself each time I have read it, I venture to tell you so.

It is good of you to suggest my reviewing Southern Baroque Art. I was anxious to review it at the time I read it, but were I to confess the engrossing continuity of my attention to detail the past two months, I should be in danger of being condemned by you as a poor executive or an inveterate novice. Miss Gregory once spoke to me of Mr McBride's wishing to review the book so we are asking him to do it.

I enclose a letter from Abraham Fink.
"Baba" asked us over the telephone today, for the-
return of his manuscript, A Love Song. Mr Burke,
relying on my behalf, said that we could not give
him a decision for two or three days. Raymond
Kresensky--Monango, North Dakota-- has sent us
contributions somewhat systematically I find. However,
do with the manuscripts which you have, as you see fit.

Edgartown, Massachusetts,

June 23, 1925.

Miss Marianne Moore,
15 St. Luke's Place,
New York City.

My dear Miss Moore!

I suggest this letter should not be entered in the Dial files.

I enclose Miss Gregory's letter which it was kind of you to let me see. I also have received a short letter from her, also charming. You see Miss Gregory, like myself, picks out for you that Baroque plum. Are you biting?

Thank you for your very careful account of your interview with Miss DeFollier. At first reading it appears most disarming. But memory of a long interview I had with Miss DeFollier in Edgartown, and memory of the deceits and insolences in which Miss DeFollier was expressed to me in New York, makes me wonder if she had not decided to leave, and to leave abruptly without consideration for you, before she obtained this interview with you, and whether she did not obtain this interview merely with the hope of eliciting from your sympathy some bit of information as to her own standing with us before she left. But of course it is impossible to be certain. Anyhow let us give thanks that she is gone.

I much doubt whether Miss Sharp is up to that job. I fear that by her employment your work and the work of Mr Burke may be increased. I have taken the liberty of writing Mr. Burke about the matter, too. Could not you and he talk it over with reference to my letter to him? Thirty dollars salary seems quite sufficient for Miss Sharp. Miss Minná, a young woman also of not remarkable attainments, who, some years ago, held that position drew only thirty dollars. But I should rather pay forty dollars to a competent person such as I know Miss McMillan to be and such as I hope Miss Halquist may be, than thirty dollars to one who is only well-meaning. Not that we do not need well-meaningness, also.

How gallant your "swimming" metaphor in this season in New York!

June 24, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

You are still "dogged by imperfection" and Mr Burke
and I are much crestfallen.

Mr Burke showed me today the changes made in your
Chevaux de Bois. I prefer "fastuously" to "valoroushy" and "bound"
to "warped."; and again apologize for a tenacious adhering to the
"original" form of the lines, "We jig and brawl--"I know that I
questioned the felicitousness of using "gaff" in two senses but like the lines
as they first stood We jig and brawl, so leg and thew

Will stand the gaff and see us through.

I also like

Lacking a Leg, we take up Wit,
Or Virtue, as next best to it.

And I prefer Chevaux de Bois to Wooden Horses. Mr Burke was concerned about these
Your Counsel to a Young Man is surely very handsome on the printed page.

It is most good of you to take so much thought for our
necessities with regard to the editorial assistant, but we are not
thoughtless of our own advantage in wishing to keep Miss Sharp. I was
not prepossessed by Miss Halquist's letter; indeed, it prejudiced me
against her. I answered it, of course, and filed it. I am much impressed
by Mrs Eveline's management--her preferring to economize for The Dial
and do general work at present, rather than employ someone in Miss Sharp's
place; also, by her generosity, and Miss Hatch's and Miss Yohalem's in
giving us assistance.

Miss De Pollier and I both I think, are rather discreet
in the matter of not filing personal letters at The Dial. I had a
fulsome personal reply this morning to Miss DePollier, from a would-be
contributor--to an editorial reply of hers which she had asked
permission to make, (expressing fervent gratitude to her for her
interpretation of "the editorial mandates.") She came to The Dial
Friday afternoon, Mrs Eveline says; refusing to take payment for a full
week's work. She had received my letter and "thought it was very
hypocritical of Miss Moore" to express surprise at her resignation. Her
pride has been much wounded and I think, with you, that her leaving
was premeditated, for our conversation was highly conciliatory; unless
her pride could brook no slightest questioning of faultlessness.
By all means keep the dubious manuscripts. I agree with you that the
service of many persons may have been enlisted in despatching them.

Changes but modestly deferred to me in the matter
of writing about them.

We are now announcing instead of the Faure and the
Schnitzler, Thomas Craven and Max Robin.

As Mr Craven was intimating to me this morning, that
Mr Rosenfeld might militate against him, Mr Rosenfeld was
announced and upon coming upstairs, selfconsciously took
refuge in the further room.

In addition to economy,
Mrs Eveline's reason for not replacing Miss Sharp at once,
is that it would give a false impression to a newcomer,
to introduce her to the business-office- work of the business
office when the work is light.

Edgertown, Mass.,

June 25, 1925.

Miss Marianne Moore,
152 West 13th Street,
New York City.

My dear Miss Moore:

Thank you for your help with the poems. I trust you will pardon me for having Chevaux de Bois set up with the title Horses of Wood, and with that couplet in its new form, and with the last words of the following couplet also in a new form. No doubt it shall in the end agree with you on all these points, but I should like to see the poem set up in the new way to make my judgement surer.

I do hope your confidence in Miss Sharp will prove well placed. There is surely need for every economy we can practice, and I also am favorably impressed by Mrs Eveline's desiring to economize.

I do hope the people down stairs did not allow themselves to be drawn into conversation with Miss DeFolliier. I feel sure she is trying to get some member of The Dial staff to say something to which she can legitimately take exception.

It is possible that Miss DeFolliier's decision to leave did actually follow your conversation. For upon that day a letter was forwarded to me from The Dial, a letter which had been opened and read there. It is presumable that Miss DeFolliier had read and forwarded this letter. It was of an obscene and threatening nature, and of a piece with the other activities which have now been going on against me every since I first left New York. It is possible that the reading of this letter by Miss DeFolliier showed her how her comparatively innocent deceits in regard to Miss Parker's manuscripts might be misinterpreted, and led her to decide upon retirement from office in The Dial as the part of prudence. This would also explain her odd reference to "black-mail" in her letter to me. But anyhow I do consider Miss DeFolliier a person who might make much trouble for us if we cannot avoid saying anything much to her, and avoid her knowing more than she already does about these tangled affairs.

I doubt whether it is a case of her pride having "been much wounded". Her open hostility to myself preceded my return to New York and any action by you or me which might have hurt her pride. This open hostility to me which became evident at Edgارتown can be explained by things I can myself think of only most inadequately.

-2- Miss Moore

I apologize for having brought you, if unwittingly, into
all these vapours.

I enclose a corrected copy of the editorial notes of which
I believe you saw a copy in April. I do not recall whether you
retained your copy. If so I suggest you now destroy it. Of
course these notes are merely meant as suggestions, and you will
in all cases follow your own discretion as to how the editorial
business had best be directed. Anyhow I thought notes might be
a not useless reminder. The Editorial Secretary and Business
manager already have copies of what in these notes concerns them.

Sincerely,

I am afraid the last sentence in my letter to Miss Defollier
is more hypocritical than anything you yourself said to her.
But by analogy to what is called a "white lie" if myself deem
this a "white hypocrisy".

26-957538

14 St. Luke's Place,

New York City,

June 27, 1925

Dear Mr Thayer:

I am returning to you, Miss De Pollier's letter and
the copy of your answer to her. I shall by all means, send first
to you, anything which I may need to write to her. It is distressing
to know of your being ill. I fear this upheaval is doing you a
great deal of harm.

I am really stunned by the shock of finding Miss DePollier
to be malign. I was surprised and disappointed at her coming to
The Dial at a time when I would not be there. In my solicitude for
her health and for her peace of mind, I was so anxious to see her that
I had almost thought of going to see her. I shall now, of course,
avoid if possible seeing her or writing to her. What you suspected
is obviously the fact. In the first place, the treacherousness of
asking an apology as the result of anything which has been said or
even done: The untruth of her quotation--"No, Miss DePollier, we
do not know you," seemed to me wholly gratuitous until I recall my
saying to her, "Miss DePollier, we have not been in your confidence."
But in addition to her falsifying me, her imperviousness to my
evidently solicitous concern about her health, her lowness, her
separation from Miss Parker, and my willingness to help her with her
writing, does take my breath away. Should the waste-basket be
mentioned, I shall say what I wish I had said when the subject was
first mentioned--that the searching was impersonal, done at my
request with reference to doubtful manuscripts. Mrs Eveline's saying
that Miss DePollier felt that I was hypocritical and that we owed
her an apology, aroused in me my first real doubt of her good faith;
so, lest I should be misjudging her and lest I should sow doubt in
your mind besides, I sent her note of resignation and several of her
signatures to Mr Lucas, the graphologist. You will perhaps remember
that the most overwhelming testimony to her character and abilities
had been given me to read by Miss Parker? I saying at that time to
Miss Parker and to Miss De Pollier, "I am in awe of you both."
I also submitted to Mr Lucas, a little note and a post-card I had
received from Miss Parker a day or two before she after she went
to Edgartown; and for the first time, asked for an analysis with
regard to my own faults. Nothing interesting with regard to me was
revealed, but what I enclose is surely alarming in Miss De Pollier's
case--and affecting, in respect to Miss Parker. We have had a
complete cessation of manuscripts from lands of Cimmerian darkness,
although reminded of them by Baba's wild, persistent effort to get
back his work. I shall presently return with a card, his and the
other doubtful things which you have returned to me. As for strain
upon me, do not be concerned. It were puerile in the midst of battle,
to lament one's wounds. I had written so much when Miss DePollier
called. Fortunately I was not fully dressed and my mother, having

explained that I had not been well, put away all documents and portions
of writing before Miss DePollier was ushered in. I made her welcome
and said that I had expected her to come to see me at The Dial until
Mrs Eveline had told me that she felt that I was hypocritical in my
surprise at her resigning and that she thought an apology was due her.
I asked if she had felt that an apology was due her and if so, from
whom and for what? She said from Mr Thayer because of his searching
her scrapbasket. I said: "Miss DePollier, Mr Thayer didn't even know
of your waste-basket's being searched; I asked to have it searched that
I might recover envelopes which had brought doubtful manuscripts. If
there is anything to apologize for in having done that, I apologize
heartily; I remember your speaking of your waste-basket's having been
searched and my not replying and feeling that it had been a disrespectful
act but without significance. It wasn't that was it, for which you
felt that an apology was owing you?" "Yes," she said, "it was; I
thought it had to do with Mr Thayer. I thought he thought that I
might have destroyed some of his papers or was keeping some of them
back." She said, "And in our conversation, you said, 'we don't know
you' and said you thought I was going to lose my be asked to give up
my job." I of course, reiterated what I had said and she reiterated
that the above is what I had said. I then said, "Miss DePollier,
I couldn't have said I thought you were going to be asked to give up
your job; I never use the word 'job'. What I did say was, 'The atmosphere
has been strange; I am not surprised that you should have thought of
leaving'. Then you asked, 'Do you think I should resign' and I said,
'No, Miss DePollier, I do not.'" She said, "Well--there has been a
misunderstanding; I see that you were thinking of one thing and I was
thinking of another."

In leaving, she said a good deal about having been sorry that she
had misconstrued my words and that she would write to you, and to
Miss Gregory to whom she had also conveyed a mistaken report of the
reason for her resignation. She said she was sorry also, that she had
been under a misapprehension when talking to Mr John Powys and when she
had telephoned to Mr MacVeagh to ask assistance in securing justice.
I wish you could have overheard everything for she was here so long
that it would be impossible to repeat all that was said; but my mother
and I both felt a distinct victory. My brother came to luncheon
long before Miss DePollier left and when he offered to take her
wherever she wished to go, she said she was going to a place nearby
to get luncheon and would then go to Brooklyn. My mother said that
as we hadn't even begun to get luncheon, we couldn't ask her to remain
but wanted her at least to have a glass of milk and some fruit. She
very pleasantly accepted, I having the same, after which Warner took
her to Bedford Street.

Alfred Knopf has given us another copy of Southern Baroque Art,
sending it for us, to Mr McBride. I was loath to relinquish it, but
even although Mr Burke has done everything that it would be possible
for him to do. I have really not had any free time. I have so far, done
my real letter-writing at home--and a few brief reviews that I couldn't

Eogartown, Massachusetts,

June 29, 1945.

Dear Miss Moore:

I enclose another letter from Miss Defolliier which I hold to be a notable triumph for yourself. Would you mind letting me have it back? Believe me, I am most grateful to you for your most magnanimous and adroit management of one not likely to be mersedged.

I am so glad to note from the contents page of the August issue that I am to have the pleasure of reading your criticism of N. D.

Since it is important for me and my lawyers to have all the documents in the case, if only to discover whence they come, I take the liberty of asking you to mention to Miss Sharp (who presumably opens the editorial mail) to forward to me any letters of any way improper nature which may come in addressed to the Editor. Of course such letters as are marked personal I presume she forwards to me without opening. But of course she cannot forward all the mail addressed to the Editor or I should be swamped. I write this because of the bare possibility that to save my feelings some letter important to our case should be suppressed.

I am so sorry to trouble you with these matters!

Sincerely,

I. Miss Defolliier writes how sorry she is to have had to give up her "interesting" work. Of course even should Miss Sharp give out, you understand how impossible it would be for me to have her again in the offices. Impossible for you, too, I fancy.

Enclosure: Letter

14 St. Luke's Place,
New York City,
June 29, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

Mr Burke and I are much fortified by the
word from you which we found awaiting us at The Dial
this morning. I deeply appreciate the comprehensiveness
and explicitness of the editorial notes. When Miss Gregory
spoke to me of the "managing" editor's not receiving
specific remuneration for work contributed to The Dial,
I had not thought of this rule's applying to the
assistant editor also. It would not, I am sure, apply
to Mr Burke?

Help is a very large word for you to use
in speaking of any suggestions I have made with respect
to your poems. I think it most wise of you to have
the work set up that you may judge of the result with
absolute certainty.

I am indignant that an affronting
letter should have been opened at The Dial and forwarded
to you without so much as a word to Mr Burke respecting
our receiving it. A communication of the same kind, in
the form of fiction came today. I am not convinced that
its coming is not a mere accidental misfortune but I
shall be vigilant. It was a relief to me today, to
hear from Miss Hatch that Miss DePollier has undertaken
new work. Miss DePollier had telephoned to Miss Hatch
to know if a package (of shoes) which she was expecting,
had yet come. Miss Hatch said no but that she would
telephone when it did come; Miss DePollier said she
would not be at home to receive the message as she was
"starting a new job." Mrs Eveline ways that Miss DePollier
had always been so aloof from those downstairs that on
the occasion of her return to the office, there was
almost no conversation.

I had unexpectedly this morning, a few
words with Mr MacVeagh and he said he will be glad to
examine any poem we are accepting. What is your advice
with regard to accepting the enclosed poem by
Mr J. C. Powys sent by Mr Llewelyn Powys in the enclosed
letter? I think it could be accepted. May I ask, also,

if we have a stated arrangement with Roger Fry, as we
have with Bertrand Russell, to accept published
articles at half the price of new work? Dr Watson
and Mr Burke have the feeling that we have. Because
he thinks they have no doubt already been read,
Dr Watson is scarcely in favor of accepting the
enclosed articles by Roger Fry, interesting though
they are. I myself, should have said yes. Joseph
Auslander has let me have again, Elegy, which I had
liked and was under the impression Dr Watson did not
like. When I showed it to him today, he said, "Let's
take it." However, before accepting it, we should
like your approval. George Dillon's poem about
"fish" that you suggested my getting back, I enclose.
I am sorry to put strain upon you when you are anxious
and not well besides.

I don't know by what figure of speech the last
part of your letter to Miss DePollier would be called,
but the unliteralness of it was not lost upon me.

I do hope you are recovering.

P. S. The identity of George Dillon has been
conclusively established.

July 1, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

I return Miss DePollier's letter which
you were so good as to let me see. It is indeed
pacific and I was glad to feel during our conversation
on Saturday that even although we know Miss DePollier
to be capable of interfering in your affairs--possibly
she has not interfered. My mother felt during our
conversation, that she was embarrassingly hopeful of
being reinstated; so much so that she quoted to
Miss DePollier my having proposed seeking her out to
find the cause of her resignation and possibly set it
aside, and having been deterred, realizing that it is
not within my province to make suggestions with regard
to resignations or appointments. Miss DePollier's
presence at The Dial was from the first, wearing upon
me--I may admit now, painfully wearing--but for the
general good, I determined not to recognize the fact and
at the last for her sake as well, for I did not myself
feel that she was criminally involved. But you need
not warn me against petitioning for her return. Not
that I do not realize the prudence of suggesting that-
your suggestion; for Mr Burke has, only the slightest
insight into the enormity of this situation and I respect
his innocence. He may be without intuition, but in
any case, he has not had the "contact" with Miss DePollier
that I have had and is not in possession of the
damaging knowledge which we possess and which must
surely be held in darkest confidence.

I have asked Miss Sharp to forward
whatever of a personal nature may be received.

Do not impose upon me any "Elsie"
DePollier euphemisms with regard to H. D. To quote
our mentor when she retracted the word "hypocritical",
you "know very well" that the writing of that review

14 St. Luke's Place,
New York City,
July 3, 1925.

Dear Mr Thayer:

The integrity of Abraham Lincoln
whose protection you invoke, is not greater
I feel sure, than that of Mr Lucas. In looking at
handwriting, I can guess at only the most conspicuous
indications of character, but his signature shows
plainly--almost to a fault--explicit, disinterested
frankness. As to that overwhelming testimony to
Miss DePollier's character and ability, no
recollection remains with me, of a letter-head. I do
know that the name of the person described was not
on the sheet. Miss Parker said, with-holding the
report on your hand writing. "Here are two others
you might like to see"; then afterward told me whose
specimens they were.

Miss DePollier said in our conversation
on Saturday that when she had asked Mr MacVeagh--over
the telephone--to assist her in securing an apology
from (I think she said me), he had said that he had
nothing to do with the department upstairs and asked,
"Why don't you go to Miss Moore?". I said, "May I
ask too, Miss DePollier, why you didn't come to me?"
She said, "Because I thought you were in sympathy
with Mr Thayer." I said, "I am, Miss DePollier.
Everybody is, I think--Mr Burke, Mrs Eveline, and
everyone in the business office. Mrs Eveline said
that when Mr Thayer was here she"just hated to see
him so worried." She said, "I meant in the other
sense."

My illness was an attack of indigestion
that began the day of my interview with Miss DePollier
left and I was slow recovering.

No other unwelcome manuscripts have
come, and unless the enclosed appear suspicious to you,
might as well I think, be returned at once.

-2- Miss Moore

The poem by "Mr J. C. Rowys" seems to me less remarkable, but not without a Rowys quality all its own. To follow your own judgement - and perhaps that of Dr Watson also - in regard to it.

The poem by Joseph Auslander is the best of his poems that I have seen. Did you see the terrible ones apropos the late Miss Amy Howell in the New Republic? I do think we should certainly accept this Auslander poem and should be pleased also if you could include me as assisting in your acceptance of it.

I enclose Lewelyn Rowys's very nice letter.

I also enclose the two articles by Roger Fry together with his letter and the photograph. I disagree with Dr Watson most profoundly. I have not myself even heard of either of these articles. And I imagine there are very few Dial readers who read more English periodicals than do I. Both of these things seem to me exactly what The Dial needs. I should be most unhappy if you did not succeed in persuading Dr Watson to allow us to accept them. Of course the photograph of the Apstein "affair" is not ideal. Though I fancy the second-rateness is even more obvious in this photograph than it would be in one which showed the object itself on a larger scale. In accepting (if we can accept) Mr Fry's articles you might ask him whether he has sent another photograph and if so to cable you one word "sent", giving him of course our cable address, "Dialpubco, New York". If after a reasonable time you have not received such a cable, perhaps you could ask Mr Burke to have a plate made after this photograph. If on the other hand a better photograph is coming, the plate should be made after the better photograph. So I suggest not running the Apstein article in the September number, but trying to get it in the October number. Of course if you have room for the other Fry essay in the September number, well and good. But that does not seem essential. I presume Roger Fry has been told about our rates. But it is possible he has not. I usually mention our reason for paying one cent the word, when we do pay one sent the word, even though it is, likely that the recipient of my letter may have been informed upon this point previously.

The rule as regards specific remuneration for work contributed to The Dial applies only to such members of The Dial staff as have their names printed in The Dial as officers of The Dial. Thus Mr Burke and also Allen would receive the usual Dial rates for any contributions. I am sorry this was not made clear in the editorial notes.