2118 Bancroft Place,
Washington,
October 23rd, 1942

Dear Hermann:

We are getting letters from strangers who had written us
about the sonnet now talking about the book. The local book-sellers
seem to be doing a pretty thriving business in selling it, so far as
we can see.

Thanks for sending the clippings. We shall send them back
soon. I've been so busy lately that I have not had time to read them all.
If I can get time soon I want to write the clipping bureau to clip some
for us too. The more one reads these clippings the more one
wonders what was biting that Kansas City Star man, and the only way I can
account for it was that somehow the book hit him- a second Bangs perhaps.

My thought was that in a second edition you might say,
in the introduction perhaps, something about the fact that all but
three poems were written before his seventeenth birthday. Another fact
that might be made more of, I think, is the fact that he wrote no poetry
in that period of unsettlement. You did speak of his saying that he had
lost the desire to create, and that the poetry in him was dying. He
attributed it to America, but I think that was only partly so. It was due
to the inner turmoil going on. When he got on top of that lower self
and found himself then he just naturally began to sing again.
It may be that you will be too busy to sign more books
but I'll at least tell you who they are in case you should be going to
Macmillans. David would like four copies to send to his friends. A

radio broadcaster who wrote for some information about John since he wanted
to use the sonnet over the radio, would like a copy. In my letter I told
him about the book and in a rash moment said that if he could not find it
I would send it to him. Macmillans could send him one of the additional
copies that I am ordering herewith and he can for and it to us when he is
through with it. If Macmillans has any rules about this they might let
him know. I think he simply wants a few facts.

2118 Bancroft Place,
Washington, D.C.,
March 1st, 1943.

Dear Hermann;

This lovely letter from John written to his god-mother, Mrs. Molony, when Bishop Molony was dying, I'm sure will interest you. If there is another edition it would be a good letter to quote from. Written when he was just seventeen, and before his going to America, it is significant in revealing the fact that he had faith at that time.

These new letters that we have asked for from England have not yet arrived. I'll (or rather we'll) send them on or copies at least when they come, if they do come.

You probably know that "Sunward" is now in its fourth printing. They have written me that they would like to include some more photographs in another printing. We have just sent to London, to a former nurse for the children, to look up that Polyphoto place and find where John had those pictures taken. They are all over England, but we are hoping to trace the right place from numbers on the back. The best thing would be to get ahold of the film as we could make better pictures from that.

Macmillans want us to consult you about the new photos to be added. Do you remember them well enough, or do you want us to send them on to you? To quote their exact words they say, or rather Miss Katherine King of the Editorial Department said: "We think it might be well, as you suggest, to add a few more photographs, and if you will, after consultation with Mr. Hagedorn, send the photographs on to us, we shall be glad to consider their inclusion. We shall also be glad to have any other poems which you and Mr. Hagedorn wish added, provided these may be inserted in the book without repaging." How could they get in that additional poem without repaging. Would it cause a very great commotion to add a few pages towards the end of the book? I do not understand the mechanics of this.

Could we get out a real second edition for the proposed English edition and then if Macmillans liked it they could make an American edition. I think that an Epilogue telling about the influence of High Flight would be of interest and would add to the book. The story of that great painting in England alone would, I am sure, prove of real interest. We only have a small photo of it as yet, but it has been reproduced in the London papers.

The Macmillan letter said further: "We are very much pleased with the success of the book, and have every expectation that it will continue."

As to the additional photos, what would you say about reproducing the picture of John with the lamb in his arms, when he was several months short of seventeen, to represent the poetic, idealistic John, the one taken at Avon for the uncertain, unhappy John, and the one taken at the same time as the frontispiece of the book to represent the fighter John? Or would you prefer to put in the picture of John taken with Faith at Rugby to represent the Rugby schoolboy? I'll have to look this last up to see if Faith's picture could be removed.

2118 Bancroft Place,
Washington, D. C.,

February 6, 1943.

Dear Hermann:

I knew the letters from the Lyon's family would
please you. Thank you for returning them.

A splendid review of "Sunward" has just come out
in the Churchman and I am sending it to you as you will
be interested in it. Could you please send back the
paper when you are through with it, as I want to keep
it?

Yesterday I got a letter from someone in Macmillan's,
which I have mislaid. It was probably from Mr. Putnam
and I shall answer it when I find it. He had heard
from you about some suggestions I had about a possibly
enlarged edition of the book. The letter said that
the book was doing well and was now in its third print-
ing. Later we found a newer print.

Joseph Auslander has now returned to Washington
and is simply delighted with "Sunward." He has been all
over the country in the interest of the Library of Con-
gress and tells me that he has had most favorable re-
actions to it everywhere.

In regard to your request for books for your local
Boy Scout Library, I will look around. The trouble is
that our boys' books are mostly in China and England,
as war conditions have not made it possible to transport
our goods in any large measure.

Thank you for your clipping from Gotham Life in
regard to "Sunward." It is an interesting addition to
our clippings.

Affectionately yours,

THE REVEREND JOHN G. MAGEE

Minister to Episcopal Students

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

OFFICE: DWIGHT HALL

TELEPHONE 7-3131 EXT. 414

Dear Hermann:

Faith is just recently returned from England. She arrived in New York on the 31st, and is driving up to her home in New York. I will visit her on my break at Greensboro (Col. Hugh Bayley).

I am looking forward to seeing you next week.

I am sorry to see you not here. I have attended many conferences of College Boards in 10 years, and I have never been able to get a busy time without being a freshman. Had you been on

2118 Bancroft Place,
Washington, D. C.,
March 15, 1943.

Dear Hermann:

I am enclosing a copy of a letter which I have just dic-
tated to Miss King of the Editorial Department of Macmillans.

Our copy of the epilogue was lost last summer by Christo-
pher, I think, when he took it to show some of his friends.
We liked it very much, and I sincerely hope that Macmillans will
add it to the book. In case they do, don't you think that you
might add on to it this story of Nevinson's painting?

In January we received a letter from a woman in Illinois
who had been very fearful about her son who is an aerial ob-
server in the U. S. Army Air Force. A radio commentator sent
her a copy of "High Flight" and she wrote to tell us that since
receiving it her fears had utterly gone. She wrote a little
poem about the gift from her boy of silver wings and sent it
back to the radio commentator, who gave it over the radio.
Several days ago, a young woman here in Washington heard a
minister read it over the radio and, after she had attained a
copy of it, was moved to write this little poem:

"Now having 'slipped the surly bonds of earth'
And sunward flown on silvered angel wings,
May the blessed Muse who gave your poem birth
Escort you where celestial choir sings.
Guiding you triumphant through pearly portals
Victorious in more than earthly fray,
For you have left to battle-wearied mortals
A priceless legacy of how to pray."

I have not heard yet from Eric Reynolds or Hugh Lyon,
but if I get anything interesting will hand it on to you imme-
diately.

Miss Kathryn King,
Editorial Department,
The Macmillan Company,
60 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N. Y.

Dear Miss King:

This is the first time I have been able to write since hearing from
Mr. Hagedorn about the matters brought up in your letter of February
24th. He feels it would be good to put in some more photographs, and I
am enclosing several pictures that he suggested. One is of John with a
lamb in his arms, taken at Wortehoe during the Easter vacation of 1939
(several months before his 17th birthday) by his friend Geoffrey Sergeant,
and mentioned on page 29 of the book. As this was the period in which
he was writing much of his poetry, notably his prize poem at Rugby, my
suggestion for a title underneath the picture is "The Poet, Age 16" or
something like that. He was one of two months of his seventeenth birthday.

There is one change to be made on page 89. Mr. Hagedorn had written
Mr. Putnam about this, but the matter was overlooked. It was really in-
correct that he freed himself of Suzanne that last evening, because she
went along with us to church after dinner. She was very much hurt by
the sentence at the end of the second paragraph on that page as follows:
"He freed himself early from the young lady." Would you please have that
sentence removed?

The amazing story of the influence of John's sonnet "High Flight" continues, and hardly a day goes by that we do not get a letter about it. Recently letters have been coming from Australia and New Zealand, as well as from different parts of this country. It has been used particularly to comfort those who have lost sons in the Air Force, and every once in a while someone is inspired to dedicate a poem to John, after reading his sonnet. The most interesting thing of all, however, is that it has inspired what seems to be the great painting of the war in England. The Artist, Nevinson, who is one of the foremost landscape painters of England, was a flier in the last war. During the last two years his physician feared for his eyesight and urged him not to use his eyes. When he read "High Flight" in the papers, however, he simply had to paint this picture which he, himself, considers his greatest painting. It is a picture of high up above the clouds and is entitled "Battlefields of Britain" and underneath, in quotations, giving the line from the sonnet "where never lark, nor ever eagle flew - Pilot Officer John Magee." This painting was given the place of honor in the Central Hall of the Royal Academy in London last year, and is now the property of the British Nation and hangs in the Air Ministry in London.

Mr. Hagedorn wrote an epilogue for "Sunward I've Climbed" which tells something of the story of the influence of the poem. Don't you think