Leaving S Liz thurs afternoon

boarded bus for Lib of Congress.

Everyone was merry enough,
at least Sheri, Ruth and myself were; McN appeared happy (?).
Tho McN often snippety tending toward nasty, occasionally caustic.
M & M taking great pleasure in kidding him.

McN ordered bks; young ladies on a lark; Strz wandering thru
lib happens on M & M looking thru old moviestars snapshot exhibit.
Shr fetched McN; circutously all proceed toward eating place
for a snack; conversation pleasant. Shr appears relaxt, and content.
McN on the edge of his seat. Ruth overly mordant toward McN;
they have known each other for a time.

McN persisting overly
in lecturing Shr (especially), and all of us at times.
pedantic doggerel ! warrants any amount of sarcasm.

Shortly
return to lib where all apply themselves assiduously
to E.P. material. (strz excepted, **MM** sleeps)

McN endeavoring
to educate Shr re art & E.P.. Intercepted every so often
by repartee between M & M, and whenever McN got up for a moment
M & M exclaimed their indignation at him for his way of going
about things'. Definitely elementary, McN, in his understanding
human nature, or especially the nature of woman. As if he were
still pubescent. Overbearing, irritatingly insists on making
a point, and will not stand being corrected even on quotations;
much less his use or perception of 'em. priggish.

["At ten on closing of library on our way out, McN,
while we awaited M & M, suddenly askt me when I wd leave town\nor at least his home. I told him I'd thought of leaving that night\neven, tho I thought I shd first consult M & M re their respective plans.\nAt which he lookt disturbed.", "On M & M issuing everyone agreed\nat Strz' suggestion to view a fountain a park block off\nthe Capitol. Meanwhile McN drawing Ruth aside, askt her when\nshe might see fit to leave Wash, and considerably startled her\nbecause she had been a good friend of his a long time, and on\nMcN's coming up to NYC she had been most hospitable to him\ndespite his often jealous impunity and gracelessness. Ruth\nhad planned with McN to visit D.C. sometime soon, and since\nthat week she had no work on her job, and was unaware that Shr\nmight possibly be staying at McN's. Ruth came down with me.\nTho McN askt us separately when we wd leave, I dont think\nhe wd have asked Ruth to do so, had she been alone. Nevertheless,\nMcN's query very much startle d Ruth, and tho I had been conscious\nof an antagonism from McN, no one --- neither Sheri, Ruth nor myself\nexpected to be asked to leave just then. We were all trying our\nhardest to be friendly with McN. And since early thurs morning\nSheri, Ruth and myself had been in close, and warm accord\ntoward each other. McN to some extent realized his damage,\nand showed concern. Ruth further upset. Strz urges all\ntoward beneficently calming promenade. As couples McN and Shr,\nStrz and Ruth saunter a good distance apart\ntoward aforesaid fountain. Ruth worried re McN's disposition,"]

and his intentions and/or effect on Shr's relative contentment.
Ruth and I deliberated as to what we ought best do,
because tho I urged our return, immediately if necessary, to NYC
Ruth wanted badly to get thru the Mellon, Freier, and Phillips Galleries
-- as McN knew and as she had formerly planned with him in New York.
No quick answer.

And soon we all got home; this eviction
threat of course hung over all our heads --- especially both M & M;
Strz relatively complacent. We all ate, by candle light.
And McN insisted on taking Shr out in car at that hour 12 P.M.
that she was exhausted, and had much to do the next day.
The partial pretention might have been in his haid, that Ruth and I
wanted to be alone, or at least Shr might thus have jokingly said,
but I was only good for sleep ( and McN knew it ).

Ruth remained up reading Personae til about four,
and then rested for an hour (?), half asleep; and Shr came in about five,
Ruth so reports, because Shr nestled close to her, and askt Ruth
to wake her early, as she still meant to keep her promise
to go look at some paintings with Ruth, and to get out to S Liz
on time. I woke up about seventhirty and found McN
uncomfortably propped up in a easy chair a few feet from the couch
I was in, though there were unused beds. As soon as I got up
he awoke, and he seemed for a 2nd more on edge than ever,
however cordial enough/ or pretentiously so (?)
bkfst; McN flitting in and out; conversation re Gk epigram,
of its brief value for desuetizing the language, and no longer of use
now since Lustra, doc wms, eec had done the job for US,

that dismisse it not altogether (strz thot)
insofar as each young writer must clean up his own diction,
and besides (strz said) there seems to be an element
in his epigrams close to his sentiment in hokku, and etc. forms.
Something at least to be searched out, previous to the altogether
latin transformation of 'epigram' into irony. complimentariness
bamingly diffusely exchanged; McN seemed well-being,
well wishing, and so on. About nine McN awoke Ruth,
very gently (Ruth tells) and offered to serve her bKFST in bed,
watching her closely all the while. Ruth thot of waking Shr,
as promised, but McN insisted Shr be let sleep
as they (McN & Shr) had got in late, "around four",
and "Shr might want to sleep til three or so that afternoon".
Ruth puzzled in the face of Shr's own request that she be awakened
early. Ruth remained in bed a while longer. McN woke
Ruth again at ten, and as soon as she got up, McN took her
into another room, and gently insisted she would have to leave D.C.
that day, that he was sorry she could no longer stay,
that it was not for lack of space she must leave,
but she had chanced on an awkward time, and she must leave D.C..
Ruth apologized for whatever inconvenience she might have caused,
she hoped she had not been too much in the way. McN insisted
it was not for lack of space she must leave, but for reasons
he would not give. McN suddenly began to get impatient
and tried to dismiss Ruth, and he told her to awake Shr.
When Ruth protested with McN's own reasons that Shr
and he had got in late, and perhaps Shr ought to sleep a while,

McN abruptly replied that they had not got in late,
that any such idea was NONSENSE, that they had got in early,
and that Sheri ought to be up. This contradiction of
what he had previously said, and his gross insistence on
irked Ruth no end. He further ordered her not to talk
to Sheri at all, and to get Shr up as soon as possible
because he wished to talk with her. Ruth awoke Shr,
and McN took Shr out of the room, and Shr on returning told Ruth
that McN had said that they must not at all talk together.

" that bastard McN said we cant talk together ",

" why, that bastard " Ruth sez, " that's what he told me also "
( all accentuated in loud voices for whoever ear might be next their door)
and they went on voluminously to give each other their ideas of McN.

McN came back downstairs, where Strz was not in the least aware
of what had gone on upstairs, ( but reports the immediate above
as it was told him by Ruth). In the meanwhile, the McN maid
had arrived. Ruth came downstairs, and Strz embraced her.

McN nonplussed, and consequently irked; very kindly offered
to get Ruth breakfast, which favor she declined. Nevertheless,
McN acted pleasantly for that while, and Strz, not knowing
what had transpired upstairs, thought the world at peace.

Sheri cheerfully came down, and Strz and Shr embraced
(which I can assure you does not indicate a festering letch
on my part, but a genuine affection for Shr). McN more than ever
nonplussed as to what might be going on between myself and M & M.
But for your edification let me say that since the previous day
(thursday) when Shr inevitably accepted the fact
that Ruth and I were in love, we all three felt very close

to each other. Nor did any of us try to exclude McN
from our common closeness, but were as friendly with him
as he might let us be. Shr offhandedly, and humorously, waived McN,
though she let him get her breakfast. McN began to insist then
that we must get out of the house as soon as we could
because so many people in the house made it impossible for the maid.
I agreed with him, and tried my best to be conciliatory.

About this time Mrs. McN telephoned to "find out how things were",
and McN returned very excitedly, exclaiming we must all get out
of the house IMMEDIATELY, and that Ruth and I must leave
as soon as we could get out things together, and that Shr must soon,
in a day or so (?), leave his place also. Ruth asked
if that had been his Mother's request, and that she hoped
that none of us had done anything intentionally to upset Mrs. McN
because we had all found her very kind, and gracious.

McN said, it was Mrs, McN's request that we leave the house
(Ruth and I) that morning AT ONCE, and for a while refused
to give Mrs. McN's reason(s), but kept cuckingooing
" git it akross, eh pwoi bwasta, git the point across, e pwoi bwassta,
git it across, eh BWASTAY ". AS IF he had got anything across,
or ever wd !! After uselessly getting M & M excited,
opset until they had almost got panicky, an' I wuz gittin dam' angry,
McN conceded that Mrs. McN on being told by the maid that so many
people made it hard for her to work quickly, had told him
that we must all get out of the house in a hurry,
that's what he sez she said, that's what he said;
and he persisted that since we had all the previous morning (thurs)
promised him to get out of the house by nine, we ought to be

thoroughly ashamed for not having done so, ad etc.
Waal, McN flitting in and out of dinet and kitchen;
M & M by now very incensed at McN, no longer playing
with him; Shr alarmed, tho both M & M calmly trying
to consider how to plan the day, where to meet and what museum,
one
what dresses or thetbothermightdusethat they had with 'em,
and so on while Shr was still eating her breakfast
in her usual lackadaisical manner. McN apparently more
and more enraged until finally when Ruth told Shr
that before leaving she wd iron a dress Shr had let her use,
McN shouted that ' NO, Ruth wd do no such thing '
but had better git out of thar, out of the house,
as soon as she cd, and the quicker the better.

And tho McN showed concern as to where Ruth wd stay
if she remained in D.C. one or two days longer,
whateverth feeling of fellowship was quite gone.

Strz still hoping the smooth the situation over for Shr,
so at least she might have McN to rely on if she needed him,
endeavored to appease Ruth, who was justifiably angry,
and at the same time to be cordial toward McN, taking faith
in your few days old judgement that McN was one of the more
worthwhile young men to have come out to S Liz. I thought
he might be only temporarily rabbiate. EVERYONE in a hurry
to get out of the house, and Ruth and I did so quick enough.
McN insisted on driving us to nearest bus stop, but by now
Ruth wd be driven nowhere by McN, and wd not enter car,
and no ancient friendship for McN, nor for that matter
anything I cd say seemed to moverher until, when I finally

complied with her wish to bake the suitcases out of the car,
Shr, at the front door, called Ruth back and askt her for her sake
that just then she be not left alone with McN, Ruth agreed
and McN drove us away. McN snappily left us at bus stop,
a few minutes from his house, and Ruth and I went on into town,
and shortly enough to the Freier Gallery. We must have got there
around noon.

Sheri came, alone, to the Freier around three,
by previous agreement with Ruth, staying a few minutes only,
and reported that McN had thoroughly repented chasing us
Ruth and myself out of the house, and had begged Shr to ask us
back. So Shr said. We embraced Shr goodbye, and got her on cab
to speed her on her way to S Liz. Shr appeared happy, and thought
herself able to manage McN. I was really overjoyed to see that thru
all the morning's silliness Shr had kept calm. Ruth and I
continued for a while at the Freier, until it closed I guess,
and then contacted some friends with whom to stay that night.
Saturday morning we called Shr at McN's around 10 a.m.,
and she still seemed well, and enjoying whimsying McN's whims.
Ruth and I got back to the Freier, and later to the Mellon.
In between I managed to see Horton, and secure 20 Bentons'.
That evening, Saturday evening, Ruth and I left Washington
by Greyhound.

July 23rd/54

Last Friday, Ruth and I helped Stuart Harwood lug two of his teakwood sculptures from Bklyn, across the Mhhtn brdg, up thru the Bowery to his recently acquired West 10th St. studio. Harwood came to town from California about two months ago, and through his resourcefulness and enterprise, has managed to get well on through half a life size sculpture, begun another, and he has another two pieces of teak which he's started hacking at. When he hit town he had only the clothes on his back. He started from San Francisco, XXXX his truck loaded with his best past work, but breaking down midway through the desert, managed to repair the truck well enough to turn back, and left it and his sculptures with friends. With twenty dollars in his pocket he thumbed to New York in little over a week.

Of a Sunday, after walking at random around the city for 24 hrs, he chanced on the bkshop, and talked with Strz (alone then in the shop) for several hours thru the early evening. He went on about his sculptures; and remarked about his experiences with the Caroline Islands' natives while in the Pacific with the Seabees, of their respect for masterly use of tools, and that on admiring his sculptures, they gave him a hut in their village, fed him, and kept him supplied with logs. Of his purpose in coming to NYC, even though he realized it would be harder to make a go of it here, he felt there was nothing really doing on the West Coast, and that New York still was, after all, the center or largest market where he could get his work most looked at, for which he feels ready, and Strz from the starts he's seen, thinks justifiably so.

Because of some qualms about the prohibitive cost of
having his stuff shipped East, and his eagerness to start work,
he determined to establish himself, & once he did, do a new
series of woods. Harwood left after a few hours, and reappeared
the Tuesday following, while Strz was midway thru the Gk class,
after which I invited him to a party at some Arabs' house
about whom I believe Kasper has gone into some detail.
Fortunately, Lekakis showed up, whom I rather wished Harwood
to meet, and in spite of the coolness of the meeting touched off
by Lek's " oh yes, I see -- you're a sculptor. How nice. " they
warmed up to each other in the course of a few hours, and
the third of us walked an odd hundred blocks from the Arabs'
domicile to the Village, or rather Lek stopped off at 29th St.,
and Harwood and I went on to my place in the Village. In the
course of our trek from uptown, being considerably encouraged
by Lek's favorable reaction to Harwood, and finding out that Har-
wood was still walking the streets, I offered him my floor
to sleep on.

He is blunt, and straightforward, for the most part,
and you may have heard from my good friends some of the more
drab details of his means of survival while he was still 'floating'.
In the course of a week we wangled him a free studio, he got him-
self an all-night job at a Bickford's restaurant near his place,
and by probing into the foundations of some old houses along
the Bklyn waterfront, (which had been torn down, he secured
himself four pieces of teak, all just big enough for lifesize
sculptures.)

He has described his method of working to me, different enough from the usual making of marks on the wood's surface, or the imposition of blocky forms on it. He first performs 'surgery' on his trunk, cutting out and thru all ( or most) the trunk's flaws --- whatever may be rotten, blemishes, & cracks -- developing then the wood's idiosyncracies so he can feel out what the wood's inhering 'order' is, he lets the wood itself define its own forms, & finally, relates the order he has discovered to a human order, specifically, the female body. He works his way all around the log, & opens it up thru and then from the center so that he gets a group or khoros of female shapes. He contends that splintery shapes are most natural to wood because wood is splintery. Certainly the one sculpture which Harwood says is half done is very beautiful even now. There is a great deal of movement in it; the figures are slender and lissom. I shall get him to send you some photographs of his work as soon as he can get some taken.

What occurred this last week under the imposition of a catalyst may mark out the flaws of certain resident elements composing the local effort. As for coherence, considering all in all, there lacks whatsoever zest for communication, or conversation much above the attempt to impress, or facetious intrigue. And to resuscitate Pablos' metaphor, several captains on one ship run afoul of each other.

Nevertheless, if any errands can still be run, despite 169 Bleecker, to sustain the visual arts, I shall attend to them gladly.

Ruth sends you her love. She is working hard at drawing.