NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN · CONN

30 June 1964

Dearest Fido,

A day of wretched heat, in the mid 90's, and one
swelters. Fortunately it is usually breezy at the shore, so I
am confortable once I get there; and Susan has found the days
possible even for tennis. Meanwhile I work away still putting
the library Hawthorne workroom in order. Sometimes I think I
do this to procrastinate, but actually it is impossible to work
without knowing where things are and (indeed) after all this time
even knowing what things are. The new filing cabinet I bought is
a blessing, and I have ordered another for the library so that
everything can eventually be properly filed.

Your letters are of the 24th, 25th, and 26th have
arrived since I last wrote you day before yesterday. Doris's
 saga is extraordinary, and if it is so largely p.a. then I am
especially glad that you did not have to carry the burden too
long at St. Mary's. And if you do slip over in July, I really
don't see why you have to go down this time to see her.

As to Lizzie, I suppose we wait until she gets to the
point of wanting herself to give up drinking. There are signs of
this, although not much more than signs. She and I are at such
"outs" at the moment, because of the drinking, that I may serve to
goad her. But, as you know, the strain on all sides is very heavy,
and Susan is particularly feeling it. She goes alone tomorrow to
the analyst "to get things off her shoulders." I have offered to take
her away for a holiday, but she says no. And indeed at the shore she
has people to swim with and play tennis with, as I cannot, and this
is good. Also July is the month when her grandchildren are to be there.
My understanding is that we are giving up the group therapy meetings
as leading nowhere at least at this time. I hope so, indeed am pro-
foundly glad.

A visit with Philip might be very sensible indeed. It is
hard to guess what the economic situation will be; the market goes up
but of course the value of money keeps going down through inflation. I
find things rather horrifyingly expensive, and watch ends. But with
things like furnaces, one is thriftier to take care of them at once.
Matters of British policy re old dames and the like, I can't comment on.
But have never known you to make a mistaken decision in matters like this.
We have heard rumors in newspapers etc of the possibility of Russian
flooding of diamonds, especially if they give up DeBeers as their agent.
However, my understanding is that Russian diamonds are mostly industrial
and that they mine almost othing of jewel quality. You might check on
this, since there are widely different categories of diamonds within the
so-called "diamond world." Thus all hell could break loose in the industrial
field, and the jewel market not be much touched.

The Bruno venture sounds fine, but I suspect Elsie rather likes
being the householder in the family. I do think with a six-year pup that

there is much to be said for a separate house.
Many thanks for again telling me about the sequence of Developments.

All the best,
Alvin A. Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN, CONN

1 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

Yesterday afternoon the temperature reached 100° at

the Green, and today it must certainly be as high. In the spirit
of peace on earth I told Donna to leave at four. I should have
done so before, but had not come back to the office from the library.
So she went, and I have a little more time at the typewriter. Still,
the idea of leaving holds some temptation for me too, and I shall
only write this note to you and then find some means to salve my
conscience at the shore. Actually I am in the midst of a book on
Fields, of the publishers Ticknor & Fields who brought out Hawthorne.
It is crammed with detail and is invaluable on some of the contacts
Hawthorne had socially in England and the States. I had not connected
them with Fields' instigation. So you must not call me idle. An terms
of heat, I must say the library room was as bad as this office. So I
shall have slimmed down by nightfall.

Many thanks for your letter of the 27th which came in this
afternoon's post. This is splendid news about Catha. I could not be
more pleased, and give you a pat on the head for insisting. My father
always used to say that no bequest was as good as a skill to which one
could turn, inflations and revolutions not then mattering in the same
way. You've done this for her. It will give her confidence as well as
security. A pity R.A. could not have lived to know her success. #As
for Coigny what a pity she was not told about new hours. I suppose this
was partly because she was an outlander and therefore lucky to be kept
on (unquote), and partly because women are lucky to have employment and
actually enjoy working longer than men (unquote).

The wills problem is a real one, and you may be right in
thinking that Philip is a little out of it now. But better to wait until
fall when you know how much raspberry jam you and Elsie have to bequeath.
Elsie must be working like a fiend, in between excursions to the EXPO.

Abd poor Mrs M! If it is warm with you also, this will be
very hard on her. I believe more old people die in spring and summer
than any other time. If it is near the end better this way than pain;
but better swiftly than any other manner.

If only I were an inspiring conversationalist I should try
for that job as private tutor. If only that other American gentlemen
were in his 40's rather than 36, and knew something besides music to
write about, there might be a pairing off in letters. One can learn a
lot from them.

Susan has been frantic with her garden at the shore, for she
had a splendid bed of pinks in blossom--quite a showpiece really. Then
suddenly there were strewn petals as though a bride had passed. And

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

5 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

Am taking advantage of an office Sunday and the quiet
uninterruptions. Actually there was a little of this last Friday
which was given as a holiday to the staff, because the Fourth was
on a Saturday. I worked away at a vast accumulation of chores, but
did not write you because I had to be early at the Point (we went
to dinner at Guilford with Mrs Addiss, who was here for the holiday
with her son). And there was not much to write. Indeed there is
not much today if I do not recount blow by bown each task done so
far. Actually up until your letter I have done nothing but pay
bills and try to put financial matters in order. Lizzie is in
monetary hot water, having spent the majority of her allowance on
whiskey, and there was a swatch of them given to Susan by Lizzie's
psychiatrist last Wednesday when she saw him. Then there were,
fortunately, some checks in from my mother's estate, and these had
to be entered in my books (I have not forgotten Benay's kindness
in saying he might take as little as $50,000 to handle as a separate
account. I am not quite there yet, and under Lizzie's circumstances
have to keep something in reserve. But this is still my intention.)
There were two permissions fees to be deposited to Hilda's account,
which I took the bank (to get the dividend statement too) and she
now has 815.16 (tho I have not yet taken out for the Zindendorff
letter); and your total is 10,237.69. Since I had such heavy expenses
with Lizzie, and had a little overgiven under the circumstances for
deductible gifts (I followed the advice given by the accountant under
normal circumstances), I recieved a rebate from the government on what
I had paid in for taxes. I had not reckoned duppseparately what I paid
in taxes for your royalties (the biggest was the 5,000 check from Pantheon),
so I'll call the taxes and minor charges a forgotten item.)

Things have been so hectic and somewhat discombobulated in the
office this spring that I had forgotten to send Horace his promised JULY
1st check until today. But at least it is not too late after the usual
day. I was sent a copy of Marya's edition to a paper *Love's Cross Currents*
by Swimburne, and thought she did a first class job. Modestly and very
nicely written.

I enclose a review from yesterday's *Times* with a misprint which
sent me into laughter. But my instincts tell me it was originally a deliber-
ate mistake intended to make the proof reader laugh and be changed by him.
The double mistake is a little too good to be true. My brother in law,
editor of the *Hartford Courant* to whom I showed it, howled; but agreed that
its tone was a little planned.

A yellowback came on Friday, tho no letter. Kenneth really
does work at his drafts doesn't he. But you always spoke of how carefully
he used his mornings. They have put so much affection into Anticoli that
I should have thought they would be heartbroken to give it up. Also into
the Roman flat. But it sounds as though secretly they itched for new
challenges. And they will meet them, if found. # Sachie seems in control of

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

life. #And Marjorie Hicks too. # And especially Joan, who is Heydt's
miracle. How I wish we could persuade Lizzie some day to be willing to
go away. Or the doctors to let her go. She clings of course to her
mother, so she can swat her and me. # Many thanks for sending Hotson's
script. Somehow it seems much milder when read than when heard. And of
course this is because Leslie reached some heights of ham acting when he
gave it: roars and dramatic pauses and scorn. I had made a mistake, and
thought when he spoke of the club that he was taking about the Elizabethan
Club; and that the manager was not the new President Brewster but the
steward of the other. Anyhow I daresay both club and Club are in the
cultural bush league; but when he says "literally not a penny" given for
research on Shakespeare, he forgets the almost annual faculty fellowship
given to a younger member in the Elizabethan and Shakespearean field. But
they choose criticism rather than biographical research. In that sense,
Leslie and I are both old-fashioned in our interests. # Poor George does
seems desperately lonely. I must try to write him.

A nice letter from Grieder says they are sending the ties to me
as a gift under ten dollars. This is kind of them, and you. Thank you
for taking care of it for me. They seem more efficient than Swissair.

I think your letter of the 29th came on Friday, or perhaps on
Thursday after I had written you. It seems that Lizzie never had German
measles at all, according to the doctor who was horrified at her lying
to get out of coming to the shore for dinner--elaborated with accounts
of the doctor coming, steady improvement etc. Susan, as I told you, went
by herself, and unloaded. It has, as you knew, been a great strain on
her. I am the goat, I gather; at least the psychiatrist wished me to go
into sessions to restudy myself so I could help Lizzie. But I cannot take
time out to remake myself for her sake. Until she is willing to give up
drinking there is nothing to be done, and nothing can be done unless she
wants to get rid of it. Susan talks about committing her to the state
hospital, but she is not really sick enough to be put with the criminally
and otherwise insane. One hopes, or the psychiatrist does, that after one
or two more downs, she will want to give up. Susan said she had not been
drinking when she called on Liz about the bills (unpaid), and altho Lizzie
was furious was not drunk and said she was going that noon for a job inter-
view. Perhaps something may happen; one can't tell. Meanwhile I try to
become, as the French would say, disengaged. There are to be no more group
meetings, thank God.

I have gotten the two enclosed Co-op cards for the coming year. Sign
the uncased one and return to me some time, and keep the other for yourself.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

7 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

I work away at things, though nothing much seems to get accom-
plished. But today, Mrs Dingle being on a week's vacation, and I leaving
tomorrow for a few days, I have been at the office, paying more bills and
writing letters that really ought to be in the mail before I go. As always
at this time of the month, and especially in reference to the various doctors'
bills I realize how much I owe to your kindness. You can surely be sure
that I would have collapsed without your prop. Benay's check came yesterday,
and I am nicely over this present fence.

My own visit is first to New York for an afternoon meeting of
The Advertising Council, in whose conferences I have always been interested
as the sole academic planner. As you know, I accept no fee for this, which
is the only way I can feel free to criticise. They are planning a second
conference in Mexico, with a later possibility of one in India. I was also
to have seen Leon Edel about a conference at the Modern Language Association
next winter, but he is sensibly on Nantucket. But I go to the Pforzheimer
Library for the two Hawthorne letters, and see an exhibition of the photography
of Lotte Jacobi whom I helped get going in the 30's (she came from a famous
Berlin family of photographers). Then I take the plane to Washington for a
meeting the next morning with the Council on the International Exchange of
Persons, a visit I should have made soon after I returned. How long that will
take I don't know, but I hope that night or Friday to stop off in Baltimore to
look at last at their eskimo collection which I am told is very good. I will
try to drop you a note from along the way, but cannot promise.

Yesterday a nice note came from Horace, which I enclose, and in
the same mail was the copy of his Ovidian paperback from the publishers, with a
note saying it was their gift. I have not had much of a chance to read it, but
of course it will be fine. I'm not sure why Horace felt he had to go into so
much detail about the dedication; it is certainly an appropriate one, and I know
how fond Rosenthal is of Horace. And I am sure too that his review did help Horace.
Knowing that Marya was coming to New Haven today I called to ask if I could do
anything. But she was coming with a neighbor's car, so we decided to postpone
any visit until I could get to Palisades. Horace had been up a week ago to see
the doctor, but the man who operated on him has had another heart attack and he
saw only an assistant. I will have to check with Anderson at ayland to find
out someone in whom Anderson has confidence. Horace is Marya about Marya, who
becomes exhausted at noontime each day. He feels there is some other undiscoveered
ailment. I silently fear it is a return of her cancer but can say nothing. I
shall wait a few days and then call her surgeon on the phone. He knows me and
will perhaps speak clearly enough. I complimented Marya on the excellence of
her Swinburne introduction, and she agreed that she wrote a good prose style.
At least she volunteered that, and I agreed with her. As I do in fact.

I suspect Hilda would be pleased to know that *Bid Me to Live* is to be
recorded for the blind.

And I was pleased by today's mail to learn that at last the Hartford
bookseller of *The Tropic of Cancer* appears to be vindicated by the U.S. Supreme
Court decision based on the grounds on which we testified in its favor.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

Yesterday was a banner day with mail from you, because of non-delivery of the post over the holidays. Letters of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd were in the morning's mail. Coigny's niece sounds frightening, but should be good. My little helper could not be nicer as a person, or work harder. But she really is frightful as a typist. # Ticketing is I think the process of planning a person's route on trips where especially he has to change planes and even airlines. It is rather tricky, and immensely important. Customers get frightfully riled up at mistakes, and no wonder when so much depends on accuracy. I daresay in New York she gets to use all U.S. airline schedules. # I sympathize with your paint smells, especially since our furnace is now being dismantled and we are glad to be out of the house. They are neat, but even so.... And I am completely sure you are right about Prinzli; cats are sensitive to smells. So no wonder he went off to the Expo until the air was cleaner. Perhaps you should get him a season ticket. # You ask about what will be a good time to come over. Really any time, end of September or October would be fine, to suit your convenience. October is really the nicer month weatherwise. I hope we can make a little trip, perhaps Maine (not Hotsons) or upper Vermont, or flip to see Gretchen Baker (who has sent still another little batch of things of Hilda's), or Washington D.C. in addition to business. I should be much freer this year, with my only formally scheduled class on Tuesday afternoon. Anything else can be shifted. So come when you will; it will be fine with us. # Your 1 letter to Mr Edwards of the Times was excellent. You write a "good prose style."

And, of course, today also came yours of the 5th in quite remarkable speed, and I was happy to be the blessed recipient of your newly inaugerated ribbon. And I am sorry at Mrs McP's troubles, but glad she is lively enough to feel trouble and sadness. And think you are quite right about not bearing the Krausz, sad though her case is. And glad that *Scarlet Lancer* was fun.

All love as always,

Norman

11 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

A day of real slogging at my desk, and the pile of
outgoing envelopes is impressive. Alas, for many reasons, some
of them are bills paid. Still, my desk is increasingly uncluttered--
like my bank account. Three days managed to pile up a good bit.
I am glad there is no one here today; not another member of the
faculty has shown his face inside the graduate school. Even the
guard was impressed by my appearance.

I wrote you a note from Baltimore just before catching
the train. It was very hot in Maryland, and I hurst you will for-
give me for being spendthrift and taking the pullman to New Haven.
The car was air-conditioned, I could stretch out my legs, watch
the coastline as we passed (it is in parts a very pretty train ride)
and read. I managed more or less to finish a most extraordinary
BRitish memoir by a newsman named Michael Davidson. He now lives in
Italy, knew Douglas a little, and must be at least known to the boys.
I bought it because of his description of falling in love with Auden.
Davidson was born in 1897, and has a long description of boyhood,
schools etc all of which he hated. The book is called THE WORLD THE
FLESH AND MYSELF and whether printed in England or not I do not know.
It may well not have been because of fear of libel. He knew Cecil
Gray and talks about him, in fact must have known many people you knew.
Eventually became a newspaper man in the East, thoroughly disreputable,
perpetually describing his affairs with crocodiles, and altogether a
document about a certain attitude towards life which I found interesting
though not appealing. I will send you if you like, or hold for you to
sample when you come this side.

Among the letters was one from the woman who wanted access
to the Aarhington-Hilda correspondence. She is nice about my refusal, and
can't come this summer anyhow since her husband and she teach at Oberlin.
I have given her Kershaw's address, and he can cope as he thinks best. He
can be intermediary with Catha if this is indicated. And being in Paris,
he is of course highly available to her.

From Brimmell was a nice offer of six new firsts of Kingston
which I have told him to send. We had only one even by title. The Bryher
Collection in this field will eventually be the greatest. I have sworn it!

From Hansen's lady boss in the English Department at the University
of Aarhus comes a letter saying he has been appointed amanuensis in her department.
This she describes as permanent assistant professor, but this gives him tenure,
and as Ingholt said when I phoned him, "now he is 'in'".

I enclose a stamp or two (one old one) for Elsie is she has use
for them. Otherwise..... Your's of the 6th was in today's mail. What an
Expo girl you have become. People will mistake you for an exhibit. This
about Martin is too irritating. Why will people not believe that you yourself
know what you want done. And you know how I feel about money for drinks.

Did I ever tell you that I have not smoked now for three months! Elsie will be furious, I know. perhaps I will relapse when I am with her.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

12 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

I had rather a whacking day at the office yesterday, and almost staggered under the weight of the letters I took to the box to be posted. As a result I seem to be going at a somewhat slower pace today, but I hope to get a little more accomplished. Unless I go to see Horace during a weekday, this will be a period at the Library again.

In yesterday's letter I did not mention the two yellowbacks which arrived during my absence, but I have been reading them now with pleasure. Marianne seems to be in heaven -- understandably -- in making plans for her British trip. I am particularly glad she will be there for some time. Your Phyllis scheme, contrary to my doubts, appears to be a great success. I only hope Phyllis will not have too many conflicting engagements. Knowing Marianne was so keen on Morton Zabel I sent on to her the excellent obituary from the *Times*. Thank you for noticing it. #Yes, you were quite right in not subscribing to the pamphlet poets, though no doubt there will be a genius amongst them. # Agnes Latham's letter about her trip was a delight. I envy her, but hardly expect to get to Africa for a very long time from now. # Jean Starr's letter was pathetic, although her gloom is so deep it is hard not to discount a little. I had gathered something of this when she was pushing to get some things done by Yale on the basis that she was dying. # And George's letters are so sad now-- how I miss the gaity he once had. # Helen's letters are, I suppose because writing them fills a different need than when Kurt was alive, much livelier and more literary. "Brighter" i guess is the right word. She is much more the business woman. I enclose a clipping from this week's *Publisher's Weekly*, about her. #Sylva's letter was nice. Thank you for letting me read it. # I liked the Mennonite photo from the *Times*. # And Lady V's missive. #And to learn that the Jenkins' brother was now permanently off his sister's shoulders. You did get things going. # Pup's letter good as always. She takes pains when she writes you. #Melitta still remains a mystery, or at least why it takes so long to fix the house. But she is wise to have bought it, and the £7000 sounds cheap from New York levels.

Was impressed by Maggs' catalogue of Dictionaries and Grammars, an evidence of new energy on the part of the firm. Perhaps Elsie will be interested in the printed envelope with World's Fair stamp, different from those in green.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

14 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

Oh dear, I really have been unfair to Dr Turfboer in
giving you the impression he meant for me to have sessions with him.
Quite the contrary, he said he could not try to serve Lizzie and
also Susan and myself separately or together. It was after each of
us, Susan and I, had thrown up our hands in despair and confusion.
At any rate, Lizzie having two Sundays ago at the shore descended
on her mother with the dramatic single statement, "Mother, I am
through with you!", has put us in Coventry where we are having a
happy holiday. Actually if she tries to keep on a steady keel in
order to prove her independence, it will be only what we have wanted
for her. But I doubt very much that she knows what she meant by
the statement, except a cross-reflection of our mother's scolding
about the bills which she no doubt interpreted as "Daughter, I am
through with you!"

I did not write yesterday, being in the midst of the
first of the several articles I am supposed to do on Hawthorne,
and which have been shamefully delayed. But finding I work better
in Coventry I seem to be on the ball again, and tonight handed this
first one over to Mrs Dingle to type. But yours of the 8th, 9th
and 10th were in yesterdays mail, and of the 11th in today's. It
has rained several inches worth in the last few days; it is coolish
now but the sun is out and we may be able to sit on the porch for a
bit tonight when the Ingholts come to the shore for supper. I keep
thinking of you, of course, at the Expo in rain and shine. I am
glad the Scarletts have enjoyed themselves. Dean's boys will have a
whirl. I too had a letter today from George, much more cheerful than
recent ones to you, though no doubt he was on good behavior. But even
this letter was sad to read; there are shadows behind each line for
those who remember his past. The Galaxy and oddments were meant only
for a rainy day or gifts to wanderers. I am as far behind on books
as ever, but desperately still try to read those sent me during my
absence. I did read the Maraini, partly because of your recommendation.
It seems generally to be regarded as the best, not least so because he
writes well. The episode where he chopped off his finger and tossed
it to his Japanese guards was morbidly fascinating. Obviously he has a
good sense of the dramatic. This is nice about Edith and "Bryher House".
It sounds so much more elegant than Edith and the Bryher Patch. Harold
has always been a guardian in spirit to Gilbert's daughters, and I remember
he was a little upset that HILda had left nothing for the education of
their children. Fortunately if the children are clever there should be
scholarship money. The difficult thing is how to do for children who are
not able but would benefit. There is certainly no rule of thumb. I am
much interested in Islay's book on Hadrian. I hope I didn't overinfluence
him, but I was thinking of photographs when I said I saw no reason why

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN · CONN

he should not go on with his, even though some one else had published
on the subject. It might be good if Islay doesn't try to be too heavy
in his prose. He writes an excellent letter, and with that tone the
book would be delightful. I am not surprised that they are seeing
Coward again; he is a kind of hero to Kenneth, and fortunately he much
admires Kenneth's taste in apartments. I suspect he would like
Anticoli too. And Coward does know how to make good conversation.
Many thanks for your endlich lesson. When you teach me I say yes I
see. But would I really have seen; I certainly would have talked without
looking.

As to yours of the 11th, why not come early October and stay
on until after the election. How much open bitterness will be shown
between the parties I don't know; what will be interesting to sense
is the warfare within the Republican party. I do not believe (desper-
ately hope) that Goldwater will win many seats in Congress, but I think
many will be surprised at the total of his popular vote. Hidden resent-
ments will be manifest through the secret ballot. Nor will his votes all
come from the so-called conservatives. Votes will be made for him by Poles
and Italians and Irish who are frightened the Negroes will get their
jobs in factories. They will come from mothers who don't want their
children sent across town to school so the racial representation can be
balanced. The worst is that votes of this sort will be interpreted
outside the country as though the issue were foreign policy. One other
factor has emerged to my surprise, which is only to show my naivete.
This is the hatred of the east coast by westerners. Goldwater plays on
this by talking about the eastern bankers who conspire against the west.
The sister of an acquaintance who is herself a state senator (the sister
is married to a national Congressman from Oregon) (both are Republicans)
read a riot act to the sister in Branford the other night, before my
brother in law, the editor of the Hartford Courant. "Stop fooling yourself,"
she said. "We westerners from now on are running the republican party;
we have the money, and we have the votes, and we don't need you!" The
poor sister who sees herself voted out of office here if she runs on the
same ticket with Goldwater presumably collapsed. The election will be
interesting to watch, but I myself will vote for anyone who runs against
Goldwater. I am only sorry there is not a Prohibition Party to stand behind.

Still, if one is thinking of trips, November is a little late in
the usual fall season. So, I repeat, why not try both months.

Doris should keep moving. I suspect the nurse wants her to keep
quiet because it is easier that way. Still, the reasons for walking are
obvious.

I enclose a Masefield poem from yesterday's papers. I should give
anything to see all the square riggers together. But I feel sure Chester
Page will report.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

15 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

Have been spending the day at the Library on the Hawthorne articles. I finished one yesterday and am beginning another as of late this afternoon. Meanwhile I have been vetting three others for the same issue (by different authors but all on Hawthorne) including one on Hawthorne and Dickens for which I had to write a couple of interplated paragraphs since the Pakistani author seems to have vanished from Yale. I suspect he is spending a few weeks at Harvard so he can say he has studied there as well as here.

Tonight I shall probably watch the nomination of Goldwater on t.v., though why I should subject myself to such agonies I cannot guess.

The Ingholts came to dinner last night, and the weather miraculously cleared so we could sit on the porch for drinks before the meal. He seems as gay as a lamb because of his retirement. He was much interested in the Etruscan head from Spinks, says it is probably the head of a temple boy but he intends to do some research on it. It is, he says, definitely a male headdress and earrings. But nothing takes the smile from Hilda.

I think I told you that I had had the Greenlandic Bible properly catalogued by the man who has done the others for us. It is, he says, a fine copy of the second edition -- the first being rare since many or most of the edition were destroyed by fire. This is a very fine copy you got.

Yours of the 13th was in today's mail. I am so sorry for Mrs M. I hope I do not have to wait so long. No wonder after a bit you could not take it. So glad that Elsie and you had your meal out. It is a bit as with Susan, the simply not having had to prepare everything one eats. And it is nice for Inez too I suspect to be clear.

The O.B. new arrangement makes good sense. As you know, I admire the way he keeps at it. And I like his integrity in not cheapening himself. It is worth helping things to balance.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

17 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

How glad I am there is no mail strike in Switz

At that moment the phone rang. It was Western Union, and the voice said, "not very good news, I'm afraid." It was your cable, and the news was bad. Not so bad for Doris, I hadn't been wanting her to live with so little to live for, such distress and fear that even her spectacular courage -- and indeed it was extraordinary how she has been able to stand up to so much -- might not have held out much longer. But bad for you in every way except for your release from worry about it and from helplessness. But another one gone, and next to Hilda the closest. I feel as though if I were with you I could hold up a finger and say "this reason" and you would answer yes and know. And then another finger, and say "this reason too," and again you would know. I worry about your feeling of loneliness and wish we could run up a mountain together.

erland. I gather that everything is turned upside down in Great Britain. Airplane mail from the States dated July 8 was the last delivered. At any rate I hope there won't be any strike at your end until you can let me know how to answer the enclosed letter from Pantheon. Actually we had discussed paperbacks again when I went to see Schiffrin this spring, and had said it would (I thought) be all right if the two were put together. I had objected mostly in putting _October_ and _Roman Wall_ since I have seen the books grouped in English and Roman terms. The terms seem all right, and I must say this takes a little sting from the Peacock. But the final decision should be yours of course, and if you don't want paperback in this way then you have only to say so and I will call off. In any event, whatever your decision, I'm delighted that they wanted to start their series with you on the first list.

I was pleased at the sales of _Carthage_, and think it will continue to plug along. This is what is so good about your sales, and what pleases Pantheon: they keep on. For this reason I rather suspect it would be wiser to release the reprint of _October_ now rather than to keep in storage for two years. The important thing is to have your books available, and not lose any momentum. At least that would be the opinion here. Collins could advertise etc at the time of 1966 and call attention to it that way. But I speak of course only as I would see it if the problem were of this side. You and House will know better as from yours. But _October_ is one of the very best, and I hate to think of readers being deprived of the chance to buy it.

I'd fprgotten about sending the Carnegie report. It may have been the section on teaching languages I was thinking of. Or perhaps just the glimpse of what one of the bigger foundations did in the way of activity. Destroy, it was only for your curiosity. I will mark specifically anything I ever want returned.

Yours of the 14th (so postmarked, anyhow; otherwise not dated) was in the morning mail. I explained in my last letter my misrepresentation of what

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

the psychiatrist actually said. I'm sorry to have occasioned bad thoughts
about an incorrect image.

The Goldwater nomination although not unexpected was disheartening.
Actually there will be a great deal of shouting about American activities
abroad. Nothing will change, however. And as far as NATO is concerned,
apparently Goldwater is even more strongly for it than the Democrats.

I am now being fetched for luncheon.

The news of Doris saddens me deeply. Too much really.
Writing about at this time. Tomorrow we'll go upstate to a
wedding. Write to me Sunday. So glad you are not missing over here.

All and more than all love,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

20 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

Your letter of the 17th came this afternoon to tell a little
more about Doris. You are quite right, one could not have wanted to have
her stay with so little to reinforce her pleasure. Yet it doesn't take
away from the loss. I am only glad you did not try to go. Perhaps later
you can help. But Dean can cope if her hips hold out, and Ethel can be
wonderfully effective at such moment. I suppose there will be no effort
to find out exactly what happened; perhaps it is just as well. At any
rate I am all for cremation.

I do thank you for cabling. I shall write Ethel (Dean I
never met) but with the postal strike I might as well wait a few days.
I had not put Doris's death and your father's together. I will never
dare to keep a calendar of calamities.

Yours of the 16th was in the morning's mail. I was much amused
by your Swissair visit. I suspect they are really troubled by what must be
a mounting sum of complaints. But really there is nothing to do but put a
few espions into their ground staff in order to report. As to your new
watering arrangements for your kitchen garden, I say bravo with envy. With
droughts such as we have almost every summer, and especially with living
at the shore, our lawns and Susan's gardens in town are ruined. Some day
I shall put in a similar arrangement, and have wanted to do so for some time.
But this year will content myself with the new furnace, new blower, new drainage
system for the cellar. Complicated by the fact that the water pipes from the
street main into the house must be replaced we discover, they having rotted
out; and a new trench dug for the driveway lamp. And because of the digging
necessary for the latter two, the shrubbery in front of the house had to be
hacked out and now must be replaced.

I had a nice note from Marianne today thanking for the obituary of
Zabel. She thanks you also. Do tell Elsie not to write; the stamps are just
tossed in. How I envy you your wild strawberry ice. Also a very fine letter
from Heydt with much wisdom about Lizzie in it. Very sensible wisdom too, lest
you fear an edge on my noun. He says that Dori is now well recovered (I still
find it somewhat of a mystery) and is full of her dynamisme d'autrefois. "I am
so relieved and happy for her beyond words. She will begin to practise in the midd
of August. But after these years of great sorrow and anguish, I feel that I
must take a sabbatical year. You probably can guess that it is only America where
I want to spend it. I would like to prepare, after a rest, for the preliminary
medical examination, and then to work for a while in an institution. Dori, who
is in full healthy speed, will take care of 'our' patients, that is, the rest
of the ones I took from her and for her during her illness (die ich für sie
hütete), and those of mine who need continuing. I must seize the occasion now
when she is reopening her practise, because later she would not have the time, teft
to take them over. -- A friend of ours, Dr. Ludwig Lefebre, the one who translated

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN • CONN

the last book of Boss into English, and who lives as a psychotherapist) he is psychologist) in San Francisco, has invited me to stay with him (he has a house there overlooking the Bay)." Since he has given up his immigrant status, he of course relinquished the financial guarantee I had given him and asks if I can do it again. Of course I am happy to, but dread the immense number of documents necessary, with legal statements from Gardner about the value of the store and real estate, the banks here, Yale as my employer etc.

I think I did not specifically acknowledge yours of the 15th either, or congratulate you on being an 1814 'er. Think of how at future Expos all 1814'ers will march by in their district uniforms. What is your costume to be?

Don't worry about the funds for the Henty et al collection. I have always bought these out of my own funds, except of course for that most wonderful and most important series of Ballantyne manuscripts. If anything like that ever came up again I should probably have to turn to you.

The royalty statements, semi-annual ones, that is, came in today from Pantheon. For Gate 129 copies had been sold for the six months ending March 31. For Ruan, 282 copies sold, plus 65 special copies for export. 12 copies of Gandharan Art. Of Roman Wall 612 copies. Of Players Boy 118 copies. Of October 157 copies. Of Tribute to Freud 10 copies. Of Beowulf 228 copies. Actually I think this is splendid, and what a tribute it is that all are in print and each is selling more than ever before. I will deposit a check for 191.07 and another for 266.46 to your account. But the important thing is that altogether they earned 1,139.60 for the first six months. From this was taken the 873.14 which was still open as a debit for the reprinting of Player October and Roman Wall. Wo we are even, and I doubt that Dame Edith gets any more each season.

I was interested to see a statement that the New American Library's edition of Horace's new Ovid translations is making a first printing of "over 60,000."

Yesterday I spent in a sweltering heat at the office, working at my desk. And sent out the Margiad Evans material to Tho rpe, as per enclosed letter (Don't return letter as I made a copy extra for the files here. I sent as your present, since this seemed more natural than as from me. By which I mean less obligation on his part. But it is all paid for, so do not worry about it.

We took Mrs Bennet to the wedding on Saturday, a half hour above Litchfield through which we passed when you and I went to the Shaker village. Litchfield is a very lovely 18th and early 19th century town, great white homes and wide elm-lined streets. There were a number of her generation there and she had a whirl. It was pleasant enough for us, and we stopped in Litchfield for dinner afterwards.

I liked the account of the Rowse lecture, and like you wish Leslie would take on. I saw Thornton Wilder at the post office this morning. He was full of praise for Leslie's energy and daring and ability to write interestingly. He brought up the portrait of Shakespeare. "You can dream, can't you? he giggled. But he was enthusiastic about that too. Wilder hates stuffiness.

All love, Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

24 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

I am sorry not to have written you yesterday, especially
now during the British postal strike. It must be maddening, particularly
not to hear more about Doris. But, as I have said, I am infinitely
glad that you did not go over. You know how I feel about the meaningless
ness of mere funeral ceremonies.

I thought of Doris early this afternoon when I went to
Goodrich Street. The latest episode there is that in digging for the
other things mentioned before it was discovered that the fuel oil
tank, buried under the front lawn, had rotted. So huge holes there,
and to connect it with the house they had dug straight through a corner
section of Susan's daffodils from Doris. Bryher, I fear was among
them. Perhaps Ethel will export eventually, or are bulbs like these
carried by any other dealer. Presumably some one will buy Doris's
stock.

I had not written yesterday because I was trying to put
things together at the last minute to take this morning to New York where
I intended checking some Hawthorne material for the now-finished second
article for the Essex Quarterly. (They will be out in October.) I had also
to sign a lease for an apartment for an Indian professor arriving in mid-September, etc etc. We had guests for dinner, the dishwasher had broken down so
at midnight and after I was still doing dishes when great cries came from
next door, and since Sue and the children were there alone (we thought) we
rushed over fearing housebreakers. But it was all a frightful row between
her and her husband who admits having an affair with the wife of the man
who has done most to help him in architecture etc etc. No point in all
the details, and no point in mentioning it since one has no idea how it will
turn out, and one can't advise unless asked for advice. But Susan (my wife) was
unnerved, sees her own history repeated in terms of the two youngsters, could
not sleep, and I stayed home this morning to keep the grandchildren occupied.
What hell life suddenly becomes for everyone. I am not burdening you with
this, but write only in explanation of another recent worry -- the total
effect of which may be reflected in the tone of my letters. It will work
out one way or another, I feel sure.

A letter in from Heydt in answer to my reply. He sends statement
of what is necessary to satisfy the U.S.government: statement by Yale as to
my salary, statement from banks as to how much I have there, what property
I own, copy of my last income tax report, what real estate, how much I
contribute to others, etc etc. And all this to be given to Heydt to give
to the consular officials. I call this pretty cheeky. I might at least
satisfy someone here, be given an OK in duplicate without having to bare
myself quite so much fo Heydt. Not that he wants me to, you understand,
but that the government wishes it so. The last time I had my lawyer
instruct me, and didn't give income tax. I'll go to him again.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

Your three letters of the 20th and 21st(2) are here since I last wrote. Was most interested in learning that the Hotsons are pro-Goldwater. Actually I am putting together a few clippings to show how his appeal must be taken seriously, by which I mean in terms of potential political votes. Was shocked to know that my airmail letter took from the 14th to 20th to reach you.

As to your visit and elections, I think you will be much more interested in being here during October and campaigning than in the day of voting itself. Although of course if both are possible then so much the better for us. As for Elsie do as you think best. We should love to have her here with us, and you, for as long as you want her to be. And if you want she could go on the trip with you and Susan and myself. After Ireland anytime.

We did watch t.v. for the early part of the nominations at the Republican convention, but did not tune in for the acceptance speech.

Did not quite make out what Maggs had to say about the difference between the two sets of *Swiss Family*. Their letter to you must have been written in a hurry; it was not so lucid as usual.

Am not sure when Imgholt will actually get at the Etruscan head, for he is trying to finish articles. But I daresay he will eventually. Of the smile there can be no classification.

I was somehow a bit bowled over by your second letter of the 20th. I had not quite taken in the possibilities for the Maladère, even though you have explained them from time to time. I suppose the Niehans parking lot and underground to the plage makes logical sense, but is not bequem. The only satisfaction: there would not be room for many cars. You will have to have your own enclave. If Niehans won't sell I suppose they can expropriate or condemn the property can't they?

Boor Elsie and her wasps. There was one in the grandson's bed last Sunday night when the children and parents came for dinner, and the children slept chez nous for the early part of the evening.

I shall be in tomorrow and probably Sunday, so will write at least briefly. There are two accumulated yellowbacks.

This is the last of the hundred surplus envelopes from old Christmas cards. You have been patient while I have been thrifty. I cannot bear to throw away things like this unused, and they became part of the clutter of the attic.

N O R M A N

H O L M E S

P E A R S O N

2 3 1 H G S

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN • CONN

25 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

An odd day spent mostly in checking typescripts. I ought to do this nights at home, but by then I am usually so bleary that I do not trust myself. I first finished checking the text of *The Flowering of the Rod* and then went on to *Vale Ave*. I am not really sure how much the general public will understand or like the latter. It is really very private in the sense that Lord Dowding is not really understood unless one gives a long explanation in the preface. And this somehow seems a little unprivate. We might discuss the whole matter when you come over. However I do think the poem has tp go in the next book along with the other fuller and later poems. Or else it is left like a waif. Actually it is very characteristic of the way she uses older myths for her present personal truths, and if I do write a preface I could work the general idea in that way. I have been having the summer helper type out the texts for the proposed book. It is a good way to keep her busy, and one of the plans I had had for her. In the long run it will be much cheaper than turning it over to an outside professional typist, and by now she is doing a good job with the machine.

After that I have been checking the first 25 pages of my second Hawthorne article, on the various letters of protest by descendants of the Pynchon family objecting to Hawthorne's use of the ancestral name. Knowing how you have sweated to get the right and yet safe names for characters has helped me comment on these old ones to Hawthorne, and two of his to the family in his own defense. Mine is certainly not intellectual, but I hope it is readable.

Last night seemed to go all right. Young Susan had been over to talk to her mother, and I guess things will be worked out without a divorce. Perhaps it brought things to a head which had been simmering. I can't begin to know or pass judgment. Jim phoned and wanted to come to talk to us last night, but Susan sensibly said: give us a couple of nights rest first. We needed at least one, and went to bed at 10 p.m.

I have been thinking about the plaisance next to you, and wonder if even the parking lot would be too bad.,really. You can't see it, and if from the balcony one looked out over a park in the other direction it might be less private but more scenic. And certainly better than when you once feared a large apartment house across the road.

I was happy that you had your letter from Ethel at last. All in all it was a good way. I have written Ethel a note today. I never met Dean, or if so only once, so have not written her but asked Ethel to convey. I agree, you will not feel it for a while. It is only when one thinks, this is something for Doris, I must write Doris this, that the goneness comes. I feel that way about Hilda still, and I find it also

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

in reference to things that might have pleased my mother even if she
was unable really to understand them at the end.
I suspect cytosis.

I was glad you agreed to the paperback. I had it down on a
little note to remind you. But I am never quite sure when I sent things.
When I move back into my office again, I can reinstall my little piles
of things. They are comforting if disorderly.

Reading a yellowback that came in today, I was interested in a
letter from Rosemary. Did you ever send her the little netsuke from
Japan. Not that it's important, I simply wondered if she was amused.
# And do you need any more copies of the Amer an editions of your books.
Perhaps the British are now less expensive and more appropriately sensible
for British friends. I always do rather like the idea that they might
buy a copy to give away in turn. # Reading Doris's last letters has been
sad. But how full of life they remained. She was a real scrapper, even
with the Grim Reaper. # Thank you for returning the Hōtson clippings.
They should go in his dossier. I was amused by Mary's note about the
AP despatch. This was written at the suggestion of the Yale News Bureau.
Leslie's new book, according to Thornton Wilder, is the one on Shakespeare's
portrait. What odd little handmade cards Mary uses; I suppose they are
small enough to save epistolary time. I suspect they are made by the dear
little ones in her Sunday School group. She must be busy with the Maine
ones now. If we do go to Maine for your jaunt, I suggest we do not try
to work in your Sorrento visit this time. They are likely to be back anyhow,
and you can see them here. # Shall be interested to hear about Catha after
her visit to you. # Was interested in John's letter, but had missed *Many
Slippery Errors* as being a "literary event." But that only shows how
secluded and hemmited I have become. By chance I had not heard of the
others either. # Two very interesting notes from Miss Dudley. You will
have to go back with Ethel sometime and see the dig. Don't give up going
with Ethel. She will be good company, and so will Hilda Quick. Is a
daffodil trophy indicated in honor of Doris for the Scilly shows?

I shall be in the morning tomorrow morning (Sunday) but have someone
coming to the shore to see me about Mark 'wain House and 'arriet Beecher
Stowe House in Hartford. He is to pick up friends who have been on a fortnight
cruise with Susan's sister and Hartford brother-in-law. Foul weather and
no wind, only cold and rain. They could not get even to Martha's Vineyard.
I was reminded of one your ill-lucked trips on the Quest. This is the
trouble of owning a boat. You sit and dream for a year, and when the time
comes and you are in the boat you sit and are wet.

All love,

Yes, I think a visit to New Haven is indicated. For every reason,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON
231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN·CONN

26 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

Late on Sunday afternoon, but I have only just gotten in
today. I had planned to come this morning, as I wrote you. Instead Jim
wanted to come to talk. There was not much talking on either side, and
the whole affair was as emotionally exhausting as anything I have ever
experienced. I have no idea how things will work out in the end, but it
may be a patchwork. I can't advise them and wouldn't know what to advise
if I could. It's rather too bad in ways that one isn't in a good old-
fashioned European milieu without such a romantic tradition.

Then at lunch time a man came from Hartford to talk over the
Harriet Beecher Stowe House and the Mark Twain House. Interesting but not
very vital or essential at the moment.

Then luncheon dishes. I cannot tell you how much we miss the
dishwasher. I feel as though we were back in caveman times, and only wish
we ate off of leaves.

Did I tell you that Vebaek sent me a copy of the Narssaq article
from the London Illustrated News? Let me know if you haven't seen, and I
can remail this second one to you.

Now let me catch up on two earlier yellowbacks, although I suspect
nothing demands comment. George does miss having seen you, but what a long
pull it is to get out to him. # Urzidels seem well settled. I still have not
written him since my return. # I note your letter from Romaine Brook. I still
have had no word from this side. Would not dare interpret this one way or the
other. # Oh yes I have meant to ask you. In what book does Osbert talk about
Angkor Wat? Do you remember by chance? # I guess nothing else has not been
convered in earlier letters. Or it may simply be the heat.

Tomorrow I go in to New York to check some Hawthorne quotations at
the New York Public Library. So probably no letter until Tuesday afternoon,
unless I happen luckily to catch an earlier afternoon train back.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

27 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

It is five minutes before six and I have only stopped
in at the office to pick up any mail after my trip to New York.
It was brutally hot there, although in the New York Public Library
it was reasonably cool. Glad to see at the NYPL that they had
a 308 letter correspondence of Dorothy Richardson to Percy Beaumont.
I don't know who he is. I mentioned to Horace, saying some one
might go through it. But he was not interested, I gather, in this
any more than in the long Texas correspondence. He has not asked
to see any more of her letters or things at Yale. I suspect what
we will have is an "appreciation." Not quite what Rose hoped for,
but it may be a good introduction.

Also interested that they had bought Herring's copy of
*Kora* and *The Usual Star*. I think I will present them with *Nights*
so they can have the complete set of this period.

My own trip was profitable. I worked from the time the
train got in until I caught the 4:00 p.m., taking time out only
for lunch at Child's. Found several mistakes in my transcriptions
of texts I want to use in the second Hawthorne article. And most
importantly, I turned up another letter from Hawthorne's publisher
to him which will make me rewrite the conclusion I already had.
What a pity! I had such a nice one. Only it isn't quite true.

Yours of the 24th was waiting for me. Also the check
for $499.00 for books, for which of course my very great thanks.
So sorry that the heat gets Elsie. It brings out her sense of
power, a compensation, and her sense of being a gentlewoman. Oddly,
it is a European sense; the British and, I think, my mother's
type of New Englander would have taken rather the opposite point
of view, that of noblesse oblige.

Hope the post begins to flow through again.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

28 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

At least I posted off the package of Hawthorne articles
this afternoon to the Essex Quarterly. Tomorrow morning I can pick
up my library office and move on to the next chore: a brief biograph-
ical sketch of Sophia Hawthorne (N's wife). And tomorrow too, or at
least thereafter, I can be back in my own office. Not that I want to
work there, but it will be a blessing to be able to sit down for a half
hour to open my mail and sractch notes.

This has been a beastly day with the heat, well in the 90's
and the humidity equally high. Susan was in New York and presumably
suffered there.

Your letter os the 24th came today, and also the Peacock
Bohemtwelfth of October. I am a little unsure of the cover, but am glad
they describe it as a "brilliant and enduring book." It is just that.

I do approve of Dpr's wish for her remains, and if you
can take it then certainly you above all others should be there. This
I do like; lowering into the ground I do not.

I didn't know about the last folder of Hilda's letters.
Probably you thought best not to speak of it. I trust your judgment,
but do remember that fifty years from now one will need to know just
how sick she was. The book from R.A. must have been simply sheer
oversight. It was hard to spot everything.

There can't be any real question about Heydt's really
wanting to come to the States. Otherwise no point in the exams.
erhaps he wants to keep the door open; perhaps he wants to help
Dori save face.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

30 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

These last two days have been blisterers, although
heavy rains last night cleared away the humidity a little. I
have been hiding behind beads of sweat, but managed somehow to
finish reading the dissertation of a young Englishman who was
here last year. No reason why I should do so, except that I
seem to be the only literary historian in the American field.
The others are interested only in tossing symbols.

I think I shall send Mrs Dingle home tomorrow noon,
and my own little girl too. Then if I can have that afternoon
and Saturday and Sunday perhaps I can put some order into my
papers, move back to the other room, and find extra work for the
girl to do.

Alas, however, tonight the Trevelyan family arrive
by air from England to visit Mrs Bennet. The widow, Susan's
sister, her three sons and the 'fiancé' of one of them, an
unmarried daughter, and a daughter with husband and small child.
This is to be a joyous event for Mrs 'ennett, except that she
says she can't stand having so many. So everyone has to take
some and presumably feed as well as sleep them for the fortnight
or more they will be here. We are to have the twin boys (university
age) in the room off the garage. But since we will not be lively
company I suspect they will be off with younger American cousins.
I hope so.

I shall report on all this at length tomorrow, I hope.

Nothing has quite so touched me as the thought of the
Scillonians, and Dean and Ethel, watching the boat as it carried
Doris's body for cremation. It was like Ruan!

I will take your ashes back to St Mary's if you want.
Only I except you will be scattering me first.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

31 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

I gave holiday this afternoon both to Mrs Dingle and to Donna, and so have begun to make a dent into my pile of things -- the more easily because I had the office to myself. If I can work tomorrow and Sunday there should be real accomplishment. But what will come to upset things, I wonder? One feels something is sure to?

At any rate the Trevelyans did not descend last night. The plane was delayed by mechanical difficulties (BOAC, she being American is very loyally British) so that instead of coming by 5:30 yesterday, the time was to be either 9:30 of 11:30 this morning. I gathered that the family had to stay in the London airport overnight. The ones who were to meet them here stayed at the Idlewild Airport overnight anyhow.

I give you tidbits, or rather oddments, in this part of the letter, and tomorrow. It is my only way. I have been at last to the Co-op to ask Smith about the Dana Schmidt, *Journey Among Brave Men*. He had not read it, I looked at a copy and it seemed reasonably interesting so I sent on to you, charging your account.

A letter from P antheon today, from Miss Van Doren ("Please give my best greetings to Bryher when next you write her. I still remember with great pleasure a delightful meeting with her a few years back in New York." She writes: "Thank you for your letter of the 25th. I'm happy to know you and Bryher are in agreement with our plans. As a matter of fact, however, the plans have had to be changed a bit. After examining *Roman Wall* and *Gate to the Sea* together more carefully, our production people have told us that the two books simply do not go together well typographically in offset. So, while the texts themselves combine appropriately, we have decided against putting out an unsatisfactory looking volume. Instead we would prefer now to publish *Roman Wall* alone and save *Gate to the Sea* for later. The terms I outlined in my previous letter will remain the same for the one volume, and I assume this will be agreeable to you."

Without consulting you, I wrote her and agreed. I hope you approve, for we can always withdraw my approval. The point is that our original wish, or at least mine, was to have the books issued separately. Frankly I think it's better business; although if we can line these up perhaps some day we can box twins or triplets.

Now for the past letters, to run through again though I have commented on briefly as they arrived. Yours of the 28th came yesterday; there was none today. Elsie and Inez remind me of Gertrude's The Good Anna and the underservants. In *Three Lives* of course. You might read it again. (I sometimes think my favorite of all of them is "The Gentle Lena", it is so difficult to write about a negative character. I'm sure I didn't say how much I liked the Mallarme poem. I think someday I must have a little pamphlet of these occasional poems of late years published, privately. Say 10 or 15 copies

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN · CONN

1 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

Rather a tedious day at the office, and Yale is quite deserted by more sensible people who do not work on summer Saturdays. But I have managed to increase the dent on the pile of unanswered letters, and indeed made headway into dividing the accumulation of answered or received letters since March into a pile of (a) bills and receipts for income tax; (b) letters I prefer to file myself, and (c) Yale business letters which Mrs Dingle can now dispose of at her leisure. The office is hardly tidy as yet, but the junkpiles begin to diminish. And fortunately there is no one to interrupt me.

The Teevellys arrived last night at 5:30, but I was quite wrong. The trouble in London was with Pan Am, not BBC; and they had taken flight before it was discovered that one engine was out of kilter. They had to circle around until the necessary one-third of the fuel load was dumped. But Pan Am did not make them overnight at the airport; quite the contrary, and the twins (in their first year at the university) were delighted to be given rooms at the London Hilton, plus two and a half quid dinners apiece etc. We can't quite equal that at Johnson's Point, but since we shall have to feed them for 17 days, I'll take them to Mory's tonight (Susan also) since Mory's closes after today for a fortnight.

Poor Lizzie. Had a I written you when I expected to about her, a couple of days ago, I should have reported my phone conversation with her in which she happily reported a part time job, and that when she had paid bills for repairing her car we would get together to cut down her allowance. But she had also, I think rather unwisely, taken national exams to become a practical nurse. Thursday night she heard she had passed the final one, but was refused because of her psychiatric record. This knocked her for a loop, her psychiatrist is abroad, and she fortunately vented her unhappiness by phoning Susan to put the blame on her and me, and say that her other job depended on it (I can hardly believe that since it was doing office work for a veterinarian.) Fortuntale too she had first phoned her sister who quickly phoned Susan to warn her before Lizzie could call.

As for the Addisses, I don't know what will happen, except that young Susan blew her top and gave him hell, and this seems to help the situation as well as give her a sense of freedom. All I do know is that whatever decision is one they must make, together or singly. We can only stand behind whatever decision is in the end made, and not be responsible for edged quotation.

Thw eather has been dryer today, tho warm. So I have not suffered too much here. I bought a miraculously small and effective German electric desk fan, but cannot hitch it up in this room. I have

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

2 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

More today at my desk, with an occasional letter written and various scraps tossed into the wastebasket. Nothing is finished yet, but at least a beginning has been made. Unfortunately the weather has been hot and muggy, so it being Sudday I have stripped down a little beyond what convention allows. But no one is the wiser, and I have been more comfortable.

Last might we took the two boys to Mory's for a steak,
which they properly enjoyed. Later people joined at the Addisses for
singing, but since I don't sing I stayed at home and read the type-
scripts the girl has been making of Hilda's Notes on Pausanius etc. She
obviously once planned this as a book. It is interesting to read her
marginal comments on re-reading the Helen section many years later.
This all ties of course with Helen in Egypt. Early notes on the lon
are there too. She obviously had her favorites and stuck loyally to
them. I now have had most of the poems retyped for the proposed volume,
and have spent considerable time checking those. But I shall have to
make one final check with some things now at the Library: her revisions
of the war trilogy, for example.

I suspect there will be a number of things you will want to look over when you are here.

Things seem quiet on the various fronts,

N O R M A N

H O L M E S

P E A R S O N

2 3 1 H G S

Y A L E U N I V E R S I T Y

N E W H A V E N · C O N N

3 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

I seem to have floundered about a good bit today, with-
out accomplishing anything in a forward way. Still, I did do the
assignment sheet for the fall term of my graduate seminar, the list
of books required for the reserve book room, and the required texts
which the students must purchase. And three hours or more went into
going over page by page the dissertation a young Michael Allen has
written here this last year for the University of Belfast. I couldn't
really refuse, but hardly think it was required. A hunk of time was
wasted, alas, when I went dutifully to the doctor's -- some distance--
only to find my appointment was for tomorrow instead.

One pleasant episode was the receipt of a letter from the
Essex Quarterly saying they would print the article I sent them by
the Pakistani professor who has been here this year, and threw himself
about my neck like a rope of flowers. Only I felt burdened, not
decorated. Indians and Pakistani certainly keep one jumping for them,
and are hurt and angry when you can't work miracles. His dream was to
get an article published in the States, which would validate his visit
here. Alas, nobody published anything in Pakistan it seems, so one
sympathises with everything but the manners.

A letter in from Our Tom in answer to mine asking for a tribute
to Hodgson. He writes: I am afraid I cannot take advantage of this invita-
tion as I am thinking of making a collection of my own memoirs and remin-
iscences which would include a tribute to Hodgson, and I cannot therefore
write about him elsewhere. # I am delighted to hear that you have such
good news of Aurelia. If you are in touch with her I should be glad if you
could tell her that I am hoping to write about her husband in my memoirs,
and give her my affectionate regards." This really seems reasonable on
his part. I should be delighted to have him talk about Hodgson to this
wider circle. One thinks only of the help to R.H.

Yours of the 29th and 31st were in today's mail. I am delighted
Catha looks so well, and especially that she plans to take her one extra
year to finish up. You have always been wise about this from the start, and
she has been sensible to follow your advice. Am fascinated by the fate of
flamingoes. As to Brooks, I had (as I wrote you) spoken to him about this
before he left, and he agreed to do anything that was required. I don't think
he's a H.D. fan, but he does like her work, and he represents establishment
in criticism as well as being Cultural Attaché. I shall write and thank
him and see if there is anything I can send him. It would be great fun if
you could go. In your letter of the 29th you spoke of being anxious to get
back to your machine before writing about your interview with Heydt. Then of
course Catha was there to welcome you. But I shall be keen, when the time
comes, to hear. As to your query about pronunciation, I shall seek highest
authorities, since I have not studied this since my Oxford days.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

7 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

This afternoon (forgetting time differences) would have been the party for Mrs McPherson's 99th, and somehow I have been rather depressed by the thought. I see her so clearly before her window, and hear the sharpness of her comments -- and "you must take Bryher somewhere interesting, back to the arctic, somewhere!"

I am sorry not to have enclosed the draft of the birthday cable, having said I would.

Great fun filling out Gulliver, although I was rather stuck by the alternatives for my occupation. I so wanted to put down Hausdienst, but unless you knew my office it would not register. I tried to strike a happy balance between being myself and being a Swiss-myself. Now I shall be suspended in nothingness until I hear my answer. Are visas to an expo avalon issued if one passes the test?

There were no new letters today from you in the post, and I suspect you have been busy with Mrs McPherson's death and Catha's departure. I am so glad she came and that you continue to like her. I hope sometime that she will feel she can turn to me in an emergency. In traditional manner, I fear I am not much good with my own stepchildren, but with the children of others es etwas besser geht.

I am really sorry Elsie cannot be persuaded that Ines is a human being, or rather that Italians are human beings. Do tell me what *her* report from Gulliver was. # I have been rethinking the Prokross affair, and feel reasonably certain that (a) we ought to go together, or (b) having been supplied by loan with what documents you still have, I go ahead as your delegate to ask what is up. But first I think the thing to do is to wait until we hear what he hears from Glover and Anna Freud. If they think you are possibly to step in, they will get hopping with the funds. At least then, something!

Have just been reading Frost's letters to Untermeyer, in which Frost came out rather better than I had previously thought of him. His letters after the suicide of his son, and after his wife's death are moving. Of death he says, this time it was Vachel Lindsay's, "It comes near me. *Memento* mori*, the church says. I do. I will now more and more anyway. To the young death is what it is to Poe, macabre. Someone in a poem he sent me lately calls it tender. It is subduing."

Frost rather ticks off Untermeyer about his treatment of Jean, and is always kind about her and even her poetry. I was glad to get an inkling at last as to why he did not contribute to Hodgson's 90th birthday. Or at least

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

one can suppose it to be a reason. Edward Thomas, he says, had never heard
of him until Hodgson passed him a typed copy of "The Death of the Hired Man".
Then he goes on to explain about his English years: "As a matter of fact, though
treated kindly in general, I was never really invited into any group over there.
I never went to a meeting of Ezra, the Aldingtons, and Flint. I never saw the
Aldingtons or Amy Lowell. I was no Imagist. I never met Eddie Marsh, who
presided over the Georgians, and never received his Nihil Obstat. The only
fast friend I won was Edward Thomas, and his melancholy was our cement. Hulme, Hodg-
on, Davies looked rather quizzically at the stray American intruder, not to say
pretender. I couldn't see that it gave Ralph Hodgson much pleasure to see me
when I called on him with Gordon Chalmers last year at his den in Ohio. But I
have learned the nice shade of tolerance with which artists live together. Well
well well enough of this." Still, .... when one is 90.

The letter was written in 1950.

My reading has rather fallen off during these last days. I have
spent more time checking the typescripts of Hilda's things the young lady
had made. When it comes time to do *Visa to Avalon* she will have gone on to
her hospital training, and I shall get the splendid typist who did Hansen's
dissertation. She is a true professional.

Chester Page I really envy for having seen the square-riggers. And he wrote about it extremely well.
I have written to him. All the best, Tom

8 July 1964

Dearest Fido,

No letter from you in today's mail either, and I only am sorry for all these extra duties because of Mrs McP's death. And not much for me to write about. The weather is overhanging; they say thunderstorms this morning, and I hope so. For a large clan picnic--broiled lobsters is planned for this evening--and rain would spoil it. We went out for dinner and bridge last night, which was a change for Susan. Otherwise life is about the same.

One yellowback came yesterday however, and another still unopened is in today's. I look at both now simply so they can be filed away tomorrow.

Dorothy Doolittle is, I suppose a devoted and therefore admirable widow, but it is not easy to share her spirit of grief because it is so excessively expressed. # Amy Butler did have a whirl at Lugano; I am glad she could go. # Sales for Carthage via Collins are good; the main thing is that it keeps selling, and one presumes will. I doubt that holding back the reissue of a book until October 14th would cause any press comment at all. # How well controlled Joan's letters are; I suspect she is well over the hump. It is a pity Heydt will go away, but she can perhaps take this now as against her stamina of even a couple of years back. What a splendid job he did for her! # I think I told you that O.B. had sent me Ambit, plus a good letter. I have already replied. # How the Dobson clan do take to the States. It always warms my heart and restores my confidence. #Ethel's comment on Dean's hips are a little worrying. Now that her mother has gone, and when things are settled down, shouldn't she be encouraged to get at the root of this. Surely there must be someone in England she can profitably consult. Or on the continent. Possibly, even with Prutting. One ought not to wait too long for this sort of care; the conditions worsens always. #I roared with laughter at Viola's description of her daughter's towelled-robe. You know Barbara; I think she must be turning into a character, absorbing her mother.

At this point an interval while I looked through the second, rather fattish, yellowback, with the first of the letters from England after the postal strike. For that reason an exceptionally interesting batch, plus of course my saddened interest in the notes about Doris. # What an experience your Ida Gandy had to fly over Stonehenge in 1912. And at 5 a.m. too! # The Lethbridge letter was an absolute marvel and I must take back for Susan to see. I like very much the possibility of getting the thoughts and sex of the maker of a 4000 year-old flint maker. And am fascinated by the man who had dreamed through to Hole House a generation ago. # Pup's letters are always superb. There are few to rival her pen for the truly domestic epistle. #The Family Welfare Association does seem to have good sense in the way they dole out, not insisting that it go for oatmeal only. Will you help them again? They obviously care about what they do. I am rather for them. # A very nice note indeed about Doris from Petrie. But few could know better than she does.

Actually I have, but he is on rounds and may not be back before I have to leave. I will let you know if he says the same thing to me. I certainly hope so. In any event the Gregories will be much relieved.

11 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

A rather dreary day, with much slogging along at re-reading Julian Hawthorne's life of his father but no real sense of accomplishment. One feels rather drugged and pointless. Your letters of the 8th and 9th wave come during the day, to my pleasure.

Am delighted that you called off Heydt. It really wouldn't have worked with the Schaffner visit, and Pup would not have relished so much talk about Hilda. Nor would you, under the circumstances. From what you say about the problem of guaranteed finances for Heydt, it rather looks as though I had better go ahead anyhow with the arrangements. Alas, as I disc vered yesterday, my own local lawyer is away for the rest of the month on holiday. I will have to find some new one to take care of this. I was only lazy, I fear; these extra days consumed by tasks like this and visits from passers-through gulp the time down. Even the evenings have been lost lately because of our visitors, and I fear I long for an evening with no one in the room besides Susan. Your visits are another kettle of fish entirely. For we have things to discuss or simply chat about. But with most of these current visitors one does nothing but toss words.

Your Clinton Baddeley must be visiting Beecher Hogan and his wife who live in Woodbridge. Hogan has the same relationship to the English Department that Leslie has, and his wife has enough to keep him going. A very nice, perhaps over-nice man in his mid-fifties who was never quite a writer, or perhaps quite a scholar. But the last is unfair, for the Clarendon Press published a book by him which listed all productions of Shakespeare in the 17th and 18th centuries. Or something of that order. He also has a fine collection of books by the author of *The Wizard of Oz*. Beecher's real love is the theatre, and he collects people connected with it. He will be away for the summer, but I usually see him from time to time, and should be able to get all dirt. In Fact you can meet Baddeley here if you want, when he comes. That he likes pantomimes is good enough as an introduction for me.

I should not be surprised if the Schaffner visit to Rome had been less than an overwhelming success especially at this particular moment. Both Kenneth and Islay are preoccupied with their research and manuscripts; the weather will be beastly, and if in Rome they will think only of work and getting to Anticoli. Their apartment is not quite designed as a children's playground. And as you know, John rubs them the wrong way.

A note from Horace today saying that Marya had spent an afternoon at the hospital here, being checked by her surgeon. "Dr Goldenberg phoned us the good news this morning: no return of cancer. Pain has been caused by after effects of radiation--this is all we have to worry about." He had just had the bill for the visit (he charged only five dollars), and he meant to call him.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

19 August 1964

(MariäHimmelfahrt)

Dearest Fido,

The day has worked out somewhat differently from what I had planned, for my original intention was to write you first and at length. But both office desks--the one I move to, and the one I quit--were so messed up that I decided to work on them first: filing infinite numbers of papers, and (chiefly) reading the proof from more of Hilda's things that the young girl has been copying. She types quite well but without any sense of absolute responsibility. Indeed I suspect she can't imagine what difference it makes, since her average for senior year of high school was 69. I haven't quite gotten through the last section of Hilda's notes on Euripides, Rausanius, and Greek Lyric Poets but shall be able to finish tomorrow. You may want to reread it again when you come over. She did most of it, as you remember, in California; and I believe Marianne and Amy both tried to place it afterwards. But with no luck. I have liked it very much, but suspect I may eventually have to make some special arrangement to get it available for those who work on her. A small edition, unpretentious, I think.

I was surprised last night to receive a printed card, like an invitation to tea or cocktails, which read:

MURIEL RUKEYSER IS RECOVERING
FROM A RECENT STROKE

But it was rather shocking, especially at her youthful age. She wrote underneath: "Coming along well now--speech last." I thought of Hilda of course. I must write Muriel and tell her about Gaylord.

Am sorry to have let two days go by without a letter. But Thursday night was complicated by having at the end of the afternoon (a) to wait until 5:15 for the man who came to fix my typewriter, (b) go then to the garage to pick up my car, which this time was ready, (c) go across town to pick up the laundry to take back to the shore, (d) come back to the office to pick up a former student and wife who were visiting here from New Orleans and wanted to dine with us. Susan had just finished with her two British nephews who left that afternoon, so we went to a restaurant instead. Yesterday was Mrs Dingle's last day, and things were much too confused. By "last day" I mean before her month's holiday. Actually it seems to be about ten days longer than a month, but I am all for people getting as much as they can. The coffee colored Donna leaves at the end of the month to go to her nursing school. I shall revel in solitary splendor.

I am not quite sure just which letters I have answered or even acknowledged, but I have two on the 10th, one on the 11th, and one on the 12th. There was nothing in this morning's mail.

As to Avalon, I hope to reread from beginning to end tonight and so will wait to write to you until tomorrow. But as I say, do not try to pad; it

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

is tight and good and moves swiftly.

I am glad the Schaffner visit went off well, and like you I think the rough edges are over. I doubt that you could ever be intimate with John, but with Pup perhaps. I am much interested that she wants to go to the London do. I suspect she rather likes being a "daughter." Somewhat in the Mary fashion. (Mary Pound de Rachewittz) At any rate it is a good sign, and I am happy that she is reconciled. Valentine really does act like a 13-year old with grownups. Well, perhaps not every child, but most. One is not really ready for other people's worlds, you must remember, at that age; and so one retreats comfortably into one's own where one pulls no gaffs, and no one can even unwittingly condescend. One is too old for hopskotch and not old enough for golf. It's an intermediate period, even sexually--far more so than 11 or 15. One just isn't anything at 13. It's rather interesting that he wants to be an architect, for as you say this is the fashionable and respectable and profitable art form of our time. Americans are tremendously conscious of architecture, especially in New York where new buildings are always going up and always being discussed, and even being judged and hung with medals. Yes, I think things will be easier with the Schaffners when you are next in New York, and I am happy at the thought. I should think really it might be very sensible to do something for Pup in the will; otherwise-- quite seriously--there might be real resentment at Elizabeth, and this could be catastrophic if she were not grown up enough to be independent. And after all there is quite a brood to divide among when it comes Pup's turn to divide.

I shall be really eager to see the axe head that Mans Volkart has given you. So we each have one from the neighboring water. And I have the adze as well, that was washed up on the lawn last winter.

Yes, by all means write Cleanth Brooks. Just "Cultural Attache, American Embassy. He knows all about you from Hoteons of course, as well as from me. But in this case I should think you might mention my name, since his choice was my suggestion and I had spoken about it to him before he left. A very nice person. I should think you might like to meet him when you are in London. He could come down the street to the Sesame from the Embassy. His wife is also there for the two-year stint.

I do nothing about keyboards or typewriters until you come. But do check with Coigny about one thing. After all, why couldn't you buy one with a German keyboard and then have me send you or you bring back with you the particular keys you want to change. They do this all the time. All I have to know is what the American keyboard is, or foreign model. And then-change-here order. One needn't have to buy a wholly British or wholly German keyboard and be stuck with it. Only certain keys are in question. Coigny will know because she has to face this all the time.

I am much interested in your news about Kenneth's purchase. Like yourself, I am not a great one for using capital--although we had to at one time for Lizzie, and one usually does in buying a house. But for Kenneth, with no family to pass money on to, except Islay of course, and I should think not much inclination towards making any special use of it after death, in forms of bequests, I suppose really there isn't any reason why he shouldn't. The truth

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN · CONN

is he needs something to play with and plan for. Both Anticoli and the Roman flat are already accomplished. He has his writing now, but perhaps he wonders for how long. I am not quite sure about Florence, for this will mean giving up a good deal of their gay life unless (as I am sure they will) they keep or get a small flat in Rome. I suppose Osbert is in the background by example of Montegufoni, but actually when I was there, Donald Downes kept talking about Lord H and Sir Dimplebottom and Timmy Q, all of whom had found monasteries, or caverns or palaces, especially the latter, and had transformed them. The boys were eager to be taken to see them, and I suspected then that at least Kenneth had a yen. Actually if he really buys it, then I expect he can come out of this episode (it won't be the last change of address) with a profit. What seemed so silly at Anticoli was to do all they did for the benefit of the landlord. (That's where my Puritanism comes in!) If you go to Italy you should reconnoitre the Florence palazzo. One ought to see it before restoration. My only hesitation comes in terms of Islay who will dreadfully miss his contacts, both for social and professional reasons. He is a Roman or at least an urban type. Kenneth likes to potter, and his needs are only for a desk and privacy. If Islay is away too much in Rome while Kenneth is still at the palace, or farm, or villa (one thinks of musical chairs), there would always be the danger of little flirtations or even affairs.

I am sorry about no luck for Ida Gandy and Collins.

And like the idea of the 10th for Doris. But I suppose farmers can't really be free.

What an extraordinary document about Lady Dowding. She must be as batty as the Air Commander himself. However, I am, I must confess, a little surprised that the zoo licenses for experimental work of any kind even when not with their animals. I once knew Solly Zuckerman (secretary of the Zoological Society) slightly before he was knighted, since he was a protege of my friend Professor John Fuilton who put me up for Magdalen. Zuckerman is a neurophysiologist, and of course they work much with monkeys and apes. I am for it, but myself would think better not to be confused with Durrells, and their type of interest.

Now I shall go back to the shore and pray to be left alone tonight so I can read Avalon again. What fun it will be. I really do admire it.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

18 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

Not time for more than a note, really, for I have an appointment
with the Dean of the Graduate School at 10 this morning, and afterwards am
going on to Palisades to see Horace and Marya. At long last. I shall be glad
to see them, although there is no real business to be done that I know of. I
phoned yesterday afternoon to make sure. Marya's first reaction was wouldn't
I take Horace somewhere in my car (and her also of course), but then she said
maybe that would take too much time and I was coming for a visit. Actually
my own reaction is similar, for I cannot really talk and drive. The last time
the drive was little more than an excuse to take Marya shopping. Still, I
do understand how important it is for them to get out of the trap.

I send clippings. One about Brooks from last Sunday's Times.
The other about Kenneth, which should make you smile a little. It was in this
morning's paper.

Susan re-read Avalon also, last night, and liked it as much as ever.
She feels as I do that the last chapter should not be touched, but that Owen's
can be and perhaps also the airport scenes which are not so inevitably right
(though the outline is excellent and indeed no one else would know or care because
they are good already) as to bar a change or two. Perhaps the tension lets up
a little here; I'm not sure just what the reason is.

Yours of the 14th in today. Many thanks for the information on
the Pokross situation. I will look at the papers when they arrive, and this
will also give a little more time to see if he has heard from Anna Freud or
Glover. It may be as you say that we should both go together in October, and
pay a call on the Richards at the same time.

Must close now, to read my papers about which I am to confer. This
is only about universities who want to send foreign students part-time here. Noth-
ing personal.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

19 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

It is morning and I should be academically at work. But during a ten-minute absence from the room, a Japanese professor appeared whom I had expected would arrive tomorrow, to say he would be back after lunch. I thought he was staying with us at the shore. Is he? Susan had asked Lizzie for dinner tonight. Will he come too? I will know when he appears. I think he must have forgotten that I asked him to call or write to tell me when to expect him. Actually he is only a friend of a Japanese student of mine whom we saw in Fukuoka. I helped this visitor to be admitted to the University of Michigan summer school, so this is visit of homage. I must admit there are other ways I should prefer to spend the time.

Anyhow I do want to report on my visit yesterday. I thought both Horace and Marya looked very well. Horace still uses his walker but manages it more easily.

(At this point a little touch of drama. Just before I began the letter I noticed a man in the outer office, walked into that room, asked him what he wanted, he pointed to the empty secretary's chair (where the girl is sitting in Mrs D's absence) and asked if she would be gone long, I said she had gone down the hall for coffee, he said he should have come earlier to get some too, he would wait, so I went back to begin the letter to you, and when Donna returned he had gone. I thought odd, (interruption again while I spoke with the campus police who came rapidly), explained what people could do when they walked into an office and saw something left around, even pocketbooks "like yours" in your handbag lying on the floor behind the desk, so she looked and her only bill ($5.00) had been taken. Luckily it wasn't more, and I have replaced it for her.)

He manages to go up the stairs now, and although he goes very slowly he does go. Marya is round-faced but not puffy, and seemed reed, I thought. Perhaps the fact that Joanna was there with her daughter, and doing all the house-work helped. I like Joanna and both she and Pat are very good to their parents. Joanna apparently works at the Baltimore Historical Society, but perhaps just in winter. The older boy will be going to college in the fall of 1965. The big plan now is for him to go to Trinity, Dublin, for classics. Pat is enchanted with Dublin; Horace and Marya would move there if he were better. "You can get wonderful 18th-century houses for very little. And there is the horse-show. When Patrick visited Castle Gregory, everyone spoke to him about relatives." Marya is just finishing a successor volume to her anthology, which seems to have gone well. Horace's various books are doing equally well, and his Longfellow anthology will be published shortly. He has written almost three chapters of the book on Dorothy Richardson and will not want to see the other half of the correspondences or papers at Yale. He is doing a little from the girlhood as background and "recreating" the historical and social milieu of the period, but doing this mostly as background for a fresh and original critique of Pilgrimage. He is worried because this is the first book he has ever done without a prior contract, but he looked long and hard at me (as did Marya) and I simply said the thing to do was write the book and then see what happened. There is no point in worrying about an

2

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

undefined object. Horace was very chipper and wanted to know what had happened to the recordings of his poems he had made for a Yale project (with which I had nothing to do), that maybe this was the time to bring it out, etc. So I think we can feel that the rose is increasingly revived.

His and Marya's chief excitement is that they have sold all their manuscripts (and books?) to Syracuse University. There is to be a room dedicated to them, they say, and feel that Syracuse was wonderfully nice. Alas, I made the mistake of not realising the sale had actually been consumated, and so asked what Syracuse had paid. The answer was $12,000 and since I thought this was an offer (Horace had faithfully promised over the phone etc much earlier that he would do nothing without consulting me) and so remarked that I didn't think it was enough. I don't. of course, but it was too bad I said so. They had asked Horace what he wanted, he said $10,000 and they said they could go two thousand higher. Technically Marya has given her things so that the gift allowance, they say, will wipe out the taxes on what has been sold. I must say it's hard to think that Horace's and Marya's papers are equivalent in value, but there are the many volumes naturally of Marya's journals. Marya said she hoped I wouldn't mind her having sent my letters to Syracuse; and I suppose yours are there too. Actually I'm rather sorry about this, quite apart from whether one might have chivvied a few thousand more out of Syracuse or Texas, or even Yale. Horace is still planning to write his memoirs and I should have thought might have found them conveniently available. He says Syracuse will microfilm any he wants to see, but will they? It cost me some $300 to have the things done for Horace from D.R.'s papers, even tho he now doesn't want all of them. But Horace feels that the bottom may drop out of the market, to use his phrase -- as though he had been working all his life to work towards a peak market for his papers. And what good will $12,000 do them. The interest on it is very little. I suppose they may take that return trip to Venice, and if they want to they might as well. Still,... My problem is always trying to run other people's lives for them.

It was a good visit, and they are looking forward to seeing you in October when you come over. They had not heard of Muriel Ruekeyser's stroke, and Marya's only comment was "she's always trying to imitate Horace." But on the whole, with a few exceptions, there was very little carping against others. The book of the National Institute was on display on a table, and on the whole things are going well with them. This is the easiest time to forgive one's enemies, nor is it necessary to invent them.

I have been enjoying Hilda's letters to you from Kusnacht. So far they are of course beautifully poised and grateful. She is writing about The Guest, and this interests me. The other letters in the yellowbacks were interesting also. I thought Ethel's letter to Petrie a fine one, about Doris. And Petrie knew just what to say and what it was not necessary to say. Miss Dudley is well in control of things, naturally, though somehow I don't think you missed much at NorNour this year. You may actually have had the good luck to have been in on it at just the right time. I spoke with atrick on the phone; he does seem to have enjoyed Dublin, and I think the Irish would like him. Horace tells me he is doing "brilliantly" at Knopf, and has found several fine Irish writers whom he wants Knopf to take. # Sachie's letter about Edith is sad, but not altogether surprising. I suppose she or George will be the next to go.

I wonder how long this Japanese professor is planning to stay?

Your letter of the 15 came today. So glad I could be of use to you, and I'm sure you will have a great time.

care of.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

19 August 1964 (2nd letter)

Dearest Fido,

Two letters from you (of the 15th and 16th) in this afternoon's post, and since I can't quite get down to work because of still waiting for the Japanese professor, perhaps I write now and skip tomorrow.

It is now about 2:30 and I am just back from taking three of Martinelli's paintings to be shipped to her for her show, and my little Japanese transistor (given me by a Jap several years ago) to have new batteries. As I came into the building, the guard showed me a page of pictures and asked me if I could identify any of them as my morning's visitor. I was a little vague, then he pointed to one. I saw it was the man this morning. (At that point --my letters seem to be hyphenated today) a campus policeman came in to question me further. I said I would be willing to confront the man. I wonder if they will bring him in.) Alas, if the identification is correct the one involved graduated from Yale College this June, and my description tallied with that of another given in another theft in one of the colleges this summer. It is hard to be certain; my mind was on my letter to you, and I paid no particular attention to the man when I saw him outside.

I will wait on the Heydt affair, then, until I hear further from you. But I may write and say I understand you have taken care of the matter, so as to put things straight with him. You understand, of course. I will do anything I can, but have no desire to do anything I needn't.

Your visit from the boys sounds rather like fun. Obviously Elsie likes being major domo, and perhaps she will have taken them to the Expo. Still, it is interesting for you to get their reactions. And to learn their language, a pattern and vocabulary which comes naturally only as immediate responses to fresh cues. So that library conversation doesn't always sufficiently or variously enough gives the cues.

I will not post, in case I am to see the suspect before I leave.

A nice letter from Ethel just came. An answer to mine about Doris.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

20 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

I did see the suspect yesterday afternoon, but things became otherwise so complicated that I could only seal the letter and send it along to you. The campus police brought him to me. He was obviously very nervous as who would not have been. From the shoulders up he was dead ringer for the young man I had seen in the office here. But alas for the identification I had to say at last that he wasn't the man I had seen. This one was fatter around the waste, noticeably so from drinking beer I should think. I poked him once there, jokingly, to see if being startled would change his voice. For it was the difference in voice which was the clincher, in this one's favor. The man I had seen had a slightly high-pitched, mannered perhaps even effeminate voice. This one had a southern accent. Later I discovered that this boy when picked up 15 minutes after I gave the description, as the campus police were walking along, had at that time worn what is known as a T-shirt and washed blue levis. This I knew my man had not worn, even though a little vague as to what he did. On the whole I thought the suspect behaved pretty well, and in courtesy I found it hard to equal his shake of my hand, with "It was nice to meet you, sir!"

The meeting took place just as the Japanese professor had arrived, so I had to send the professor off to the rare book library until I had finished. He had planned to go back to New York that night, but I took him around the campus, showed him our house in town, and then drove him to the shore for supper before returning him to the train. As you know, to take a man to one's house is a great gesture for the Japanese so I hope this was sufficient. I had thought he was to stay overnight, and was delighted to be given a present of late evening and today for other work.

Three yellowbacks came in, part of the accumulated flood once the British strike was over. Most of the letters of course were about Doris, and I thought how nice they were. Mrs Macpherson's letter to you warmed and saddened me both, as did the invitation to her fête. She was indeed devoted to you, and showed it at every possible moment. I am glad there is something for the nephew, as I am glad there is something for Ady and Sammy. # What a marvelous Russian astronaut stamp. It is rather like one of those Russian dolls of wood one had as a child in which was a hold nest of smaller pnes. The astronautess looking out of her helmet makes one feel that her mouth will open and out will be pearing a smaller edition of herself. # Most happy to beer about Hilda Quick's book, and hope it will sell a few during the last of the summer. Though probably its bigger sales will be to those who come for a bit longer out of season, as we did. The day trippers won't find as much

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

use for it. But the others ..., or so one hopes. # Dean's and Ethel's letters at the time of the death are fine, fine. # Glad Jocelyn has had his trip. Ireland seems to be catching on: Agnes and Pat, Patrick, and Jocelyn. Will his inherited income be enough? # How the Japanese would envy the Irish cows Agnes saw eating seaweed. And as a matter of fact if they were eating that fine variety which my mother used to use for puddings, even I would envy them. # You had not mentioned slay's commission for the obelisks book. It sounds interesting. I shall be curious to know what you think of the text for his other venture. I hope he relies chiefly on the photos of objects. As to the palazzo in Florence I had not realised that they had friends in nearby palazzi. I was wrong I think in underestimating Islay's enthusiasm. But I still wonder if he won't miss his contacts. In any event I am sure they will need to have a smallish flat in Rome. # Was much impressed by the immense logs that Leslie has been cutting in Maine. No wonder he keeps physically fit. I am glad Mary is taking things a bit easier with her Maine Sunday school dears. The art class should be fun for them. Sometimes I think it a pity, if only a library weren't necessary, that they can't truly be lord and lady of the manor at Sorrento. I'm serious in saying they'd do it traditionally and awfully well. # What a whirl Marianne will have with Phyllis. I only wish Phyllis could keep your kind of journal; the document would be priceless.

A gala day for me with three letters from you: one for the 17th and two as for Walter's Day. I shall put in the corrections tomorrow in the copy I have. Do you want me to list the one or two trivial verbal quibbles I raised to nod in your direction? Irobably better to wait until you come over. Meanwhile I very much hope your final chapters will come in time for Helen. I imagine they will. Or if you want to cable me, I can send you back by air.

Am much interested in your reactions to Dean's boys. I think being away at school does much for their self-reliance, and this Valentine has not yet had as an experience. As to foodstuffs, this comes a bit from home. I suspect Dean provides good heart sensibly appropriate farm meals, and during vacation times they eat this. A boy like Valentine gets taken out, allowed to share John's elaborate cooking etc. Justus for example likes experimenting even at six, though "Chicken is my favorite."

I am really astonished at the small sale of Leslie's book. But actually I don't think it was reviewed very much. I did not see anything in TLS if I remember correctly. I suspect people are tired fighting after Rouse, and Rouse probably did get it successfully ahead, even if the two books are not comparable from a scholarly point of view. When I say ahead, I mean of course from sales. The longer wait in the States may have dulled the Rousetabouts so that everyone can start scrapping with fresh energy.

A nice card from Pap today, after their safe return.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

21 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

I shall be adding to this later in the day, and indeed there
may even be a letter from you to reply to. But I have begun the day by
putting in the corrections already here, and want to be sure in one or two
instances that I understood correctly. As always, I go along with each
of your suggestions. You never fail to tidy and to sharpen. Of Chap V,
p.5 line 22, you simply put down "expected," but this is the way it already
was. Did you wish to delete the preceding "had"? In Chapter III, p.11, line
10 you simply had "Robinson had never seen the Avalon currency", but did you
wish to omit the following "quoted in any financial paper"? I must say I
like it better with the omission; the whole is too particular for once (though
the name of the store elsewhere rather than just shopwindow is all the difference
between what a writer does and what a correspondent includes.)

Actually these were the only two, and I can put the mss away again
until further changes come. I suspect I still much prefer my suggestion of
The Movement or the Movement in place of even rebels. The Movement seems to
me both powerful in suggestion and sinisterly vague as to tenets. I myself,
I suspect, am afraid of Movements in general. But the decision is yours. By
the way, your own title for the book itself is absolutely on the nose. I am
not even considering alternatives, and won't waste my time if the publishers
do.

In leafing through these two chapters I find only no queries of
my own. In III, I did suggest the faint possibility of a new chapter division
on page 17, to even out the lengths throughout. But I really don't care one
way or another. On page 19, I wasn't quite sure whether the description of
"mercy flight" was quite right since Augier didn't know anything about why he
was coming, that is not that he would be carrying drugs to them or people back.
Probably some pilot could give us a technical word, like courier flight, or
simply special flight. I guess I thought he seems to unknowing for it to be
what I would think of as a mercy flight. Page 20, line 19 I had jotted in,
What time is the return flight?"

In V, I pencilled in a little question mark beside the opening
"They" as perhaps vague and therefore awkward as a transition. But you may
have wanted people to think it was the same people as in the previous paragraphs.
On p. 4, line 11, I had queried "admittance (despite his record too)" but I
have a hunch this is schoolmasterish.

Now considering what a stylistic spinster I have been in the past,
I don't think that's too bad for the sum total.

One reason for no early mail this morning, I am told, is that the
Post Office brought back to the Graduate School the two sacks they had taken
away from here yesterday. No wonder.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

I had an amusing report yesterday from a former graduate student of mine, Jane Grenthot, about the so-called American College of Switzerland just over your Kenwin head, at Leysin. Perhaps you know of it. She and a number of intelligent persons (she has her PhD) were inveigled into going (though she has been going abroad every summer for 20 years) as faculty. The ratio of faculty to students turned out to be one student for every five of the faculty, but it was an absolute sell. No books to work with not even as texts, on the whole the usual misplaced adolescents. Done only for profit. But at least the roads were kept open in winter because the Swiss have a military camp next door. They tried to get permission for these "college" students to use the University of Lausanne once a week, with no luck. The Swiss are willing to help preparatory school students but want no competition for their own universities. I'm afraid Yale would have given the same answer. She wanted to quit at mid-year out of boredom. The faculty finally ended up by giving classes for each other and letting the students listen in. She took calculus and Greek.

(end of the day). No letter from you, and nothing really to write about in terms of my own activity. For I have put things away, having moved back to my own office, checked the transcripts additionally made of Hilda's things. These are useful to have since I can mark up, handle as I wish, and not threaten the life of the originals. Some of the manuscript things are really too difficult, however, for her to do. Perhaps I will peg away at a few and get your help when you come over. This coming work week will be her last. Then she goes to nursing school. I stay a while at the Graduate School, for when the students begin to return then I shall slip away to the Library.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

22 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

Have spent the morning really accomplishing nothing except for reading Hilda's account of her later writings which she intended to be a book "H.D., by Delia Alton." I'm not sure whether you ever read it or not. Actually someday it must be published, but would not be very meaningful at the moment because it deals so much with Red Rose and White, The Sword and the many prose works from the 1930's and post-war which are still unpublished. If you haven't read it, you might like to glance at it when you come. My reading it now of course is to check the typescript my little helper has made. Anyhow that can now be put away again and my desk made a little clearer. But I wonder if I shall ever really get anything done.

This afternoon we drive for overnight to visit Susan's friend and husband, whose daughter's wedding we took Mrs 'ennett to a few weeks ago. They have a house in the country north of Litchfield. They have been anxious to have us go ever since their marriage (the daughter was a step-daughter of the man) about two years ago. I think it will be a good thing for Susan to have a little change, even if only for overnight. However Lizzie's stay at the shore went off well, and for the moment she is doing well. This is especially encouraging since her psychiatrist is still on Vacation.

With reference to Horace's sale of his papers, I meant to let you in on a secret along the same line, though do keep it quiet until it works out. Yale had always hoped to acquire Ezra's papers, and indeed they would be one of the treasure troves of the age--his contacts were so wide and so eloquent. A friend or two of Mary's had provided her with a salary as from Yale to catalogue the papers etc., and Yale had acquired otherwise the biggest collection of Pound's printed material. At any rate, The famous University of Texas has now offered $200,000 for the papers, a salary of 5 or $6,000 a year for five years to Mary to be curator, being there or not as she chooses; will establish a Pound Study Center and Cultural Activity Group; etc. Well, I don't see how Yale can match this in terms of money (the answer must be given by October 1st: and I don't see how they'd want to, in terms of setting up a Pound Study Center. This is OK for Texas (where the boys are John Birch-swingers), but hardly appropriate for a university like Yale. And quite frankly I don't think I'd personally want to devote my time to keeping Mary satisfied that we were doing enough for her, especially for Boris, for her children (Texas will be surprised at how large the clan is), and for Pound's memory. For she is not a professional curator, and so could keep busy only as activity's director. But any rate this will be a great coup for Texas. Yale will survive.

I enclose a couple of clippings that I thought might amuse you.

No letters from you today either. I hope all has been well. I'm not surprised at the break; you have been faithful under great difficulties of interruption.

All love, as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

24 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

Saturday, as I told you, we went to upper Connecticut for dinner and overnight at the home of Susan's cousin. Most of the way we travelled through fog, it rained off and on, and altho we did manage on Sunday to have our lunch out of doors, we really spent little time outside the threshold. The weather during August has been rather chilly, splendid for working in an office but a little disappointing to those who want tan and tennis. We came back in the late afternoon, so there was no chance for a letter to you yesterday.

This morning there were three in the post, or rather two of the 20th this morning and one for the 21st in the afternoon mail. I should judge, despite their hesitations, that Dean's boys were having, or will have had, a lovely time with you and one they will always remember. They are, after all, still pups with not very much experience away from home because of farm work during the school holidays. That chore they've done well; now perhaps when Dean has a bit more they can extend themselves a little. No one, except a genius, is likely to learn French without having to use it. I know; that is why I speak "like a Spanish cow." Whereas German flows a little better, because I used it as I was learning it. Having had it, Alan ought to be given the chance to use it.

When they see the Swiss farming they are naturally a little defensive. I myself always think a farmer ought to see a good deal of primitive farming, because seeing methods far less able than one's own, and then methods which indeed are abler, gives one the sense of not being in a rut. God never did ordain a circumspect method of farrowing, as some farmers think because their fathers did it this way.

As to the Expo I suspect Elsie is a better guide than your own more intellectual approach might be. After all there is a good deal in common between her and them from a social standpoint. But how maddening that you could only get partly satisfactory tickets for the Fête of Costumes. Now I should coveted seeing that, remembering the grand swish of wedding gowns when we went with Hilda to the mountain pilgrimage shrine outside of Zurich.

My hunch is that it was a very good thing indeed for Bryan to have done less than A on his biology. I daresay he does indeed have a talent for it, and just because of this took things a little easy. Most students do somewhere along the line, and far better now than when he is actually at his university. He will do very well, I am sure. It is a good thing Alan has his own interests, rather Shorter than Long I should think. One wonders just what he will want to do. Not schoolmastering, I hope, for that always seems so dreary in England even though you can register as a gentleman because of it. Perhaps civil service? I suspect there will be even more in that area in the future.

I shall be curious to hear news of Helen, and whether she took a copy off with her. I suspect that Anne L might not like it because of your attitude toward the Movement. And your women are not quite her women. She likes them:

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

25 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

I am absolutely fatigued, having spent the day in that most tiresome of all activities -- readinf galleys. This time of the article on Hawthorne and Dickens by the Pakistani professor, and of my own two articles for the October Hawthorne issue of the *Essex Quarterly*. My eye has painfully slipped from one side of the socket to another as I followed, or tried to follow, both the copy and the proof sheets. Tomorror I shall check the footnotes, which I didn't quite get to; and then read it, as I usually do quite for itself without pausing except for a jolt.

I was all the more pleased, therefore, this morning to have your letter of the 22, which came through in jig time. I am delighted that your visit with Helen went well, and I shall be curious to know what she thinks of the book. Obviously the New York office had not forwarded to her my letter about Avalon or she would have mentioned it to you. As for ticking her off, of course you must say what you feel. What is the point otherwise. I think she will be quite sincere in her response. Only I do warn you one thing both for Great Britain and the States: I am not sure that your public for Avalon will be quite identical with the usual audience for science fiction, for yours is, as you say, more of a history knowledge of the immediate future which depends on fantasy for its appropriate and very effective metaphor. Technically I think it would classified more as fantasy fiction (of the kind that C.S. Lewis would write, rather than pure science fiction. But you know all that. Perhaps just because yours is so very good of its kind, it won't hit the huge market that tucks a thriller away in its raincoat pocket. But sales I can never predict.

Your description of the visit to Mrs Lindberg was most interesting, and I am glad that you now find it easier to be with her. Before it used to be Charles L himself who put you most at ease, you would say, while she was different. But I have a hunch, for she is certainly an informed and able person as well as writer, that you might in time hit it off. Just keep off politics and the Movement.

I hope you get a chance to meet Coward. I think you might like him. And greet him for me if you do. I shall look for you sometime at the end of September, and you will of course come straight to us from the airport. I shall not try to meet you there, but at the Taft. The precise date doesn't count. I shall try for a Connecticut River ticket for the trip on the 3rd, hope you will be here for it, and find another user if you are not.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

26 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

I knock off from work for my end-of-the-day letter to you willingly, being rather bogged down halfway through the ms of a book of poems by a former graduate student of mine for which I thoughtlessly said I would do an introduction. They are not very good, but not very bad either. He is rather Poetry Society of America by type, the good old-fashioned rhymer. Alas, he has never made much of a success as a teacher, and so I agreed to pat his spirit on the back. I shall try again tomorrow. Otherwise I have finished and sent off the galleys to the Essex Quarterly, written a few letters of recommendation, and tried to keep from falling asleep. We had guests last night who stayed late. When I had finished the dishes and gotten to bed it was 1:30. This is not my proper schedule, when there are cows to be milked in the morning.

Yours of the 23rd and 24th came today. Splendid that you can come so soon, for the weather should still be good. I will see what I can do about the tickets tomorrow. Susan wouldn't dream of your not going, and looks forward to the three of us jaunting off somewhere to the hills, to Maine, or even to Charleston if you'd like. I like your feeling about writing to the unconscious heart of England. It seems to me that this is a central point to your always wonderful sympathy for little people. As to urban versus the country folk, I do think that the beatniks are not your cup of tea, but you are all right with the urbanites who are small-townish in their own squares. As for the book it seems to me that Helen's suggestion is an excellent one of referring to Jovanovitch. If only you have good luck with the rewriting perhaps he can have looked at it before you leave. Then you can discuss directly with him as to the future. If they want it for the spring list, and you are satisfied that they will handle it, push it that is for sales, there should be no trouble about time enough. As for myself, I don't have to defend Avalon. You know how excited I have been about it from the beginning. I just don't want you secretly to have your heart set on being a bestseller. I'd rather have you remain a good writer.

As you said, so Susan did that on the Scillies route -10 was a good temperature. And the book is after all science fantasy. I thought of it as flying higher across the distances to Avalon, Goose Bay being in my mind. I'd let it stand. -10 makes me shiver anyhow.

I can't judge about The Movement so far as the British reaction would be; here it would never be confused with the church or anything else. Anne L would call it the Wave; you might call it the Surge. But I hope your British friends won't feel that Movement is completely out. It does fit the bill nicely.

A nice letter from Marianne. I suspect that this trip will be a

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

29 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

There was no letter as such from you this morning, but

equally welcome were your corrections for Chapter VI. I have rather
started the day by inserting them, or in the case of your long rewrite
I have simply inserted the pages you sent. In that case I can only
aplogize for not having taken in before with enough emphasis the fact
that one minute past nine had been reached. I do however think this
extra emphasis you have given it is fine. All that you have changed is
fine, and especially like it when the limp words are squeezed out. My
only suspicion is that your rewriting is not inevitable when you say
"these Movement idiots or whatever they call themselves." Of course it
depends on how you hear it. and what rings Britishly true. What about
something like "these Movers or whatever these idiots call themselves."
I am thinking of Movers and Shakers, but maybe it sounds too much like
furniture vans.

I think when you have finished your revisions except for
the bits you plan to rewrite in England that I will have it retyped on
the chance that Jovanovitch can have finished reading it before you leave.
If he likes it at all--and I have a hunch he will very much--he'll have no
need of the ultimate perfection of every page. But I shall not do this if
you tell me to hold back.

There was a letter yesterday, I believe, but I did not have
time to write you. Sorry. It was Miss duTrieuillé's last day and I had to
see such things were in order. I was a little disappointed in what she
could do, but she was wonderfully pleasant and worked very hard indeed. All
of your last year's yellowbacks were filled (what I had expected Mrs Dingle
would do as part of her extra salary), and I have really been able to make a
dint into transcripts of Hilda's papers, so I can have something besides the
original to fool with. I shall show you. Actually this was about all she
did except to transcribe Susan's journal from our trip. But it was worth her
salary to get Hilda's papers in more workable shape. There is still much to
be done, but one marches. Then I finished rereading a volume of poems by
one Lloyd Frankenberg, a great friend of Cummings. It was in ms and he
wanted me to help him get a publisher or advise where to send it. It was a
semi impressionistic narration of his boyhood: pleasant when it looked at
things with a very small child's eyes in a head held askew; but so many other
stances and tones came in (he carried it through graduation from high school)
that in the end it was neither one thing nor another. Reluctantly I wrote
a discouraging letter.

from you, so run over them again now. Yes, anytime between the 30th and the

2

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

2nd would be fine. I have written for river tickets for the trip on the 3rd. I only hope you won't be too tired. # I repeat I was interested in Maria Wolff's appointment to Goethe House. She has always had a hard time of it, although presumably she may inherit a little money eventually from her mother. It was Maria who translated your works into German. I think you would like her. # I have not read or bought you Jovanovitch's volume, thinking Helen might give it to you. But let me know if you want it on hand before seeing him. People seem to agree his talents are immense and chiefly in textbooks. By the way when is Helen expected back in the States? # Skipping again back to your letter of the 24th, Susan of course expects you to come straight from Iddewild to the Hotel Taft where we pick you up. Your trick is simply to have your porter call the Connecticut Limousine Service and then get you on the next bus. They come to wherever you are to pick you up. If time you can phone us collect to say when you arrive. Otherwise I will try to guess when to be at the hotel.

((Usually when you come you bring a statement from Peney. Will you this time, or does he think better for you not to carry in England. I suppose actually no one would ever open it if sent through the mails to me. Especially since it is not a regular service.))

In retrospect the boys (Dean's) must have had a very good time of it, and I am glad you could see them in comparison with the Devison offspring. And I really completely agree with you, that if the boys have studied French at school they ought to be able to use it. # I am so sorry that my IBM for Expo puzzled them. I tried so hard to assert my natural Swiss self. But faced with a questionnaire I suspect most Swiss try to be liberal and internationally minded in the best established Swiss image for public consumption. # With Barbara Johnson and the car there are several problems. One is parking, for brother may use the only space. Another is cost of upkeep, insurance, etc which is very substantial unless one uses it a lot. A third is amount of traffic around where she lives. But the idea is a good one; I suggest waiting until you go to see her and Viola. # I hadn't really meant that the Gregories made a mistake by not selling to Yale, but really that I saw little advantage to their having sold at all. I suppose what Marya, and perhaps Horace too, really dreams of is getting abroad again: to Venice, or now to some 18th-century house in Dublin. Still, I think it makes one self-conscious to think that every scrap one receives or writes is impounded in some Syracuse. # Sorry about Baddeley's throwing a leg; but the Sandys was I think reprinted last year before I went to Japan. At any rate it has been sometime done, and by photooffset from the old plate. I will ask among the boys and find out just how you take a leg. Then finally yours of the 26th which arrived yesterday, and was mostly about the Devisons who sound very nice indeed. I have always liked all their letters. # And naturally I am upset too about the article in the London Times about Swiss residents. If you could all only take an oath that you ate porridge every morning, you would seem more loyal.

Of your enclosures it was splendid that you may be able to help Nellie with her book. I hope Helen will like it well enough to take it on. Did I write you that Hiram Hayden is going over from Athenaeum Press to Harcourt's to do books on the same terms as Helen, "Hiram Hayden Book," I must say this is a new venture. I'm not sure I altogether approve, but per-

3

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

haps it's a good idea. Only it somehow diverts attention from a centrally
organized and imagined list, in favor of a concept of department stores
where individual departments are leased and sometimes mutually competing.
I think it's a quite new venture, and I must say it keeps certain key
editors like Helen humping for contacts in a way they would otherwise
lose the excitement of. # Pup's account of the trip back sounded attractive.
She wrote me of having found some old O.S.S. London contacts on board. #
Marianne's letter was charming. I am sure she must be having a wonderful
time. It was really brilliant of you to suggest Phyllis.

Now as to a few letters in at this end. A letter from Hansen grows
says that he and his wife drove to see their recent child. "She eats and sleeps
well but remains dull. It seems like a good home for her." I suppose they
must keep going to see her, but .... The academic gown, hood and hat I am
giving him has just arrived, and I must write him today and send the package
off on Monday.

The Arnold Tope who is doing the book on Margiad Evans wrote
very briefly to say that as of 12 August my letter to him of 19 July had
at last reached him. "The surface parcel of xeroxes came five minutes before
I left London yesterday, and has remained unopened. This is only to
acknowledge their receipt and to express to Mrs Bryher and to you my warmest
gratitude for them." I think I told you that I sent the xerox prints as
from you, acting only as your friendly agent.

I enclose a copy of Andre Schiffrin's letter about Romaine Brooks'
letter, By chance yesterday a very nice letter came from her, about which
later. I am discouraged because I respect Andre's taste, but I can't agree
with him about the book. But then I didn't about his immediate reaction to
Kenneth's, or the English publishers to your own early mss. I must think
this over. I can't really believe the book would Helen's cup of tea, and
properly enough she chooses within the range of her own reflection. Having
offered it to Pantheon one is oddly trapped, for this cuts out Random House,
the Chilmark Press (which Random House distributes, and whose owner I know),
and even Knopf (and Patrick). By the way it was odd to hear Marya assert that
she had read and liked the ms of Kenneth's book, when in fact she never saw
it but had heard it described by Patrick who didn't like it. Horace says
that Patrick is doing "really brilliantly" with Knopf and lets his voice grow
hushed when he says it, but as Horace says Patrick is still very much a junior
editor, and they have taken in a new young man nearer the top.

It's very possible that an English house might like it, but I'd
like to try one or two other spots here first. I still think it's an extraordinary
book and see no reason at all why I have to sympathize with the authors of
books.

Romaine Brooks's letter from Florence (Fiesole) was charming. What
excellent manners she has when she needs them. She wishes I would come there
and bring you too. "I'm reading 'The Heart to Artemis' with intense interest."
I won't send the letter but saye for you to read when you come. Already I
am setting aside a little goodies jar.

4

A letter also from Sylvia Hay, the artist friend of Hodgson whom you met when we were last in London. "I was shot at a short time ago, by a boy with an air-gun in a flat opposite. I was drawing surrounded by electric light bulbs. The bullet made a hole in the window pane and missed my ear by an inch. --But the police weren't interested as I couldn't find the bullet. I was telling this story rather loudly at Port Meirion, when a strange man said 'Please excuse me, but the same thing has just happened to me!'" Fair Albion.

And now since I may not come to the office tomorrow (Sunday) since they are converting the electricity and so there will be neither lights nor power for the typewriter, I had better wish you a happy birthday and done my best to write this letter first in the day so that at least roughly on the 2nd we can hold hands and talk. You mean immensely to me; and even a small share of the love I send would smother you.

All love, and especially for the 2nd,

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

31 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

The day has not worked out quite as I expected, and now
I have just been phoned by a Hawthorne man to ask me what I am to speak
on at the Grolier Club early this winter. He comes in 10 minutes to
confer, so that he and I won't end up by giving the same talk. Still,
there is not much to report in these dog days. I did not come to the
office yesterday, since there was no electricity here--shifts being made
in the current. And we having had the two grandchildren for overnight,
I thought I could help by entertaining them while Susan made beds etc.
It was pleasant, and they were very good indeed. They sense of course
that the going is a little rough at their own home, and seem to count
on the stability elsewhere. They played on the beach in the afternoon,
and I slept a good deal after doing a few chores of my own around the
house.

One of the 27th and two of the 28th in the mail. With the
first corrections in VI, I entered to make sure the typist will get it
straight. Those for VII came this afternoon and I have been busy instead
checking more copy of the transcripts made by the little girl from Hilda's
things. The lost included some notes of Jelly fish and sex which you
can tell me about. Three poems from Corfu, which I am not quite sure
whether they have been published or not. And her Hesperia, the short
story. Students will begin to appear next week, so I want as much cleared
off my desk as possible. I am still hopelessly behind, but must ....

At that moment Mr Bruccoli did appear, and now that he has
left there is time only for me to pack in haste and drive to the shore
for dinner. But it was a useful meeting, since I settled on my talk for
October 20th. He told me it was Ladies' Night, so if you are still here
then perhaps you and Susan would like to go.

I can still wish you a happy birthday, and hope that by the time
this reaches you it will indeed have been one. With God sending you some
extra paragraphs for your revisions. I look forward to reading the beginning
of VII tonight. I shall just clip on, and perhaps wait until I have all of
the changes for VII before fooling with it.

All love as always, but especially for the 2nd.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

1 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

And now another day in which at 5, a member of the faculty
came in to talk to me about an instructor who has had a nervous breakdown.
(t thought of you when I found that the sessions weekly with the psychi-
atrist have been joint sessions with the instructor and his wife always
both together at them. I have my doubts, and expressed them.)

The second set of pages for VII came this morning, and I am
very pleased and happy about the way it now marches. This now really has
pace. I was a little fearful yesterday that you were going to skimp
Owen altogether, but am now pleased that you have not. I should hate
to miss his paragraph in IX. And Augier does now also have character.
I thought little about him before, but I see now what I miss and that
he was a dry spot where he should have had blood.

I jump% the gun a little, but what do you say about my
having only three copies made this time when I have it typed here: one
for you, one for Helen and Jovanovitch and one for myself. My hunch is
that you will still want to fool around a little with the text after
you have been in London, and so we will call this still a draft. But
if you think wiser I will have four copies (original plus three) so that
you can have one for Collins in the original state. We have been short
on occasion.

I won't try to answer the letters at the moment, but only
say how pleased I am that you like Anne L. I think you might well hit
it off, and I suspect she would give a good deal for some non-clinging
friendship. I imagine that she must fear hangers-on, and that you cer-
tainly won't be. As for the day in Darien, it can work either from here
or New York. Commuter trains all stop at Darien; one can catch one from
here, and she can meet you at the station, and put you on it again in the
evening. Or of course bring you here; she and her husband used to come,
I believe, frequently to the Yale Library. His papers anyhow are stored
in the Library basement, not available and still his property. I would
I like nothing better than to have her bring you to us at the house, but
I suspect she doesn't believe in love-me-love-my-dog.

I sent a cable out this afternoon, I think it went straight
in the end because I didn't use enough words for your birthday. I didn't,
somehow, feel I had to spin it out: all that I feel is tightly woven and
compact.

All love as always

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

2 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

This is the blessed day of the saints, or saint, as George
would so eloquently put it. I wish I could be there to blow out a brief
candle on a cake. I think next year either you must come to us for your
70th, or we to you. I think of Hilda and her 70th party, and Doris too
as birthdaying once with us. But you are still the virgin; we must change
that! At least, though not with you, I can write you, and start a little
earlier, knowing some one is to come in (I suspect to criticise me for
not devoting a fortnight to helping a former student to write the book
he can't seem to write, though I have noticed that my visitor--his close
friend--does not himself devote the time to the same cause.) I do not
want a birthday letter cut quite to the bone as the last several have
been.

I am not surprised that Chris has married his little eskimo
girl; and he will be, I think, happy. But happy only in Greenland, for
these igloovers never really adjust to Denmark. The Vebekes only barely,
and that is because she is so pretty and upperclass Greenlander. And he
of course has his own status. But even so, in civil service circles I
fancied a little condescension on the part of others. I am not too much
tempted by the idea of visiting him and her in Denmark, where we would
be two sets of codfish out of water, but what a lark it would be to see
them sometime in Greenland. On the other hand if in the fall when the
archaeologists return from Brattahlid with a report on the proposed resumption
of Erik's farm, then they may feel a conference is in order. In which case
we could see Chris and the Museum people too.

I think I told you yesterday that Chapter VII of Avalon is here
and that I liked it very much. This has the pace. I took it back with me
last night for Susan to read, and she was equally pleased with it. Today
I had a nice letter from Marjorie Hicks about other matters (I had not
mentioned your novel to her), and she wrote: "I love the Vale of Avalon: it
is not difficult even now, to picture the tidewater lapping the slopes of the
Tor and little men in little flat boats punting about between fragile houses
perched on stilts. I expect you have been there? I went to see a 13th-
century crucif--only 8 inches high--ivory on a bog wood cross--the most
exquisite thing. Meanwhile S.L. was amused by the sight of a large cow in
heavy milk, escaped from her herdsman and carerring through the streets of the
town which SUDDENLY emptied of human life!" She then adds "Come to Paradise
again soon." It was rather eery. I was ready to burn my papers and hustle
out.

I repeat too from yesterday, for the sake of emphasis, that I
think it would be worth seeing a little of Anne Lindberg.

I shall look forward to the parcel of Hilda's books you have
sent along, and the translations into French might be important for the
library if no one else. One needs such things there for comparative studies,
but of course it is too expensive for a library to buy them at the expense of
other books.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

The news about Edith, as with Osbert, becomes always a little
sadder. God deliver me, when the time comes, from all that. I keep
feeling death in the air. Towards whom is it headed? And the splattering
on others, for which there is no laundry!

Try to worry on with Ines and cajole her if you can to stick it out until she has her permis, or domicile rights. She is peasant enough to understand the importance of that, and accept life accordingly. I suspect Elsie does not really believe she would leave, but she might like factory life. There it is mechanical and there are other Italian girls to chatter with.

I am too tired to advise you about the economies of transatlantic travel. If it is not 'done', and that is the reason, this is sheer inverse snobbery, or fear of anything but conformity. Actually on Swissair that day there were more people 1st class than in economy. My own test is how I feel. If I am tired, then I think I deserve the luxury of room for my elbows; and save in other ways later -- for example, no caviar for breakfast for a week. I doubt very much that Philip actually flies economy to the States, although I am sure he would like one to think so. If you caught him out on the plane, see if he doesn't have a good excuse for making this an exception.

Brava for the beret maker! I know you have felt cribbed and confined.
Let her make you one in all the colors of the Umzug.

Susan was delighted, as was I, by your long description of the
festival of costumes. We are both green with jealousy, though your letter
mollifies it somewhat. And I am glad I was not there with a camera, for I
should have been too busy flicking the shutter to get the total effect. It
is a scene which will remain with you for a long time, a real birthday gift
from the heimat.

Your letter of the 31st was in this afternoon's mail, which is almost
unbelievably fast. I am sorry my letters to you arrive en masse. Spacing them
on this side doesn't seem to help at all. I sometimes wonder if they pick
them up from the box as scheduled. I am glad Helen has my letter, which she
will recognize as spontaneous. It may have suprised her (your manuscript,
I mean) but I think she will grow to like it immensely. I grant you it's
not her book for the desert island, but she's shrewd. And she will, or should,
like the change in pace.

The Movement: you do use it so sparingly that I'm sure ladies won't
drop to their knees when they read it. And, of course, there have been many
things known as the Movement, which is one good reason for its vagueness here.
But the best reason for using it sparingly is the fact that your book, and
Lilian and other characters, aren't so much against an institution as against
a spirit. I didn't like rebel, because we are all so darwinian by nature that
we instinctively feel it is good to be a rebel. You did, I did maybe do.
Except when the rebellion is against me.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

You ask about creative writing, and what it is. It is something
you learn how to do in a classroom. "Creative writing" is one of those
splendid educational terms used to dress up the writing of fiction and
poetry, as opposed to "composition." Composition is doing history papers
or writing a biography. Biography isn't creative writing because you are
not supposed to be creating anything when you write a biography. You have
to work hard getting the dope, but then anybody can write it up really;
that's why they don't grade on composition in history classes. Criticism
isn't creative writing either, although it's one of the very best kinds
of writing really that you can do, because if you criticise anything, that
means you must be very good yourself or you wouldn't be criticising what
someone else wrote. Really, in a way, -- I guess it must sound immodest--
well, there really are things about Faulkner's novels and Hemingway's too
that you wouldn't yourself have done had you been writing their stories but
fortunately there are other things you do approve of--symbols and things like
that-- and you would have done them if you hadn't been so busy writing
criticism. Creative writing isn't books about history or sociology or
travel, well because they're not creative really are they? Of course not.
Being creative when you write is talking about loneliness or tensions or
being a jew, or being a Jewish man who's sleeping with a negro man because
that's really creative and it's creative because it creates a good market
especially when it gets into paperback.
I hope that helps?

I have heard from the poet for whose book I wrote the foreword. He
liked it, I am glad to say. That wasn't "creative" either, though I did
have to create the foreword out of thin air.

Happy birthday again!

And all love,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

4 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

I rather fight against time. Kay Boyle is to come for
overnight at the shore on her way to New York, and I wait for her at
the office as she drives here from Boston. I shall be glad to see
her after more than a year -- she is always gay and pretty and informed--
but with a tribal Labor Day weekend emerging I could have used the extra
time tonight and her leaving late tomorrow morning (inevitably) will
cut off the time then. And today has been filled with a lady professor
from the South who was at graduate school with me, who came for an hour
and a half. And then a two hour luncheon with an Italian professor of
Law, from Bologna, who also came to pay respects.

But your two letters of the 2nd are here, and I cannot be-
lieve my good luck in the arrival of your two surface packages on the
very day. The atlas, of course, is to tucked away against.... The book
on whaling families I did not have time to read and pass on, but it did
seem a certain thing. I am so glad you think you will like it. Susan
will be pleased that you liked the wrappings. She takes extra pains
when they are for you, as she feels you get the vibrations.

I AM REALLY JEALOUS about your #1 atomic. Now all I shall
need to find you in a crowd is a radar or geiger counter or some form
of d-f-ing device. I don't really see how you can resist taking it with
you wherever you go, and always being ignorant of the time so you can
pull it out to consult. And what a glorious death, to be met with because
you own #1! Why fear robbery and assault when the raison d'être is so
regal. Yes, Bullova is an American firm --or at least sells prominently
here (it may be like Nestles and be Swiss financed and managed) -- but
the genesis and genius of the watch is Swiss. You would have been put at
the head of the festival procession, forced to march on foot and wearing
no clothing or costume at all except for the watch you carried. Knowing
that the fullest modesty would have been maintained since all eyes would
have been focussed solely on the timekeeper.

I was sure Jovanovich would send you a copy of the book, you
being one of his authors, and in all truth an author he likes. So am glad
I did not send to you. I suspect I shall wait to read it until it is re-
maindered. It's not really a book to fill a permanent place on my shelf.

Yes, the Sunday Times is quite different from the daily.
Wasn't the Sunday Times a part of your father's publishing investment at one
time? And I think in truth that Beney is right. Hundreds who do not like
the Movement in England will now search for numbered accounts in Avalon.

The interview with 'arianne is superb and quite catches her,
and she catches it (she has a flair for statements like that for the blouse).
I only wish it were longer and didn't quote quite so much, as though he didn't
otherwise have copy enough. Maybe he didn't. She is always wise is saving
something for the next time. But Mr Horder hit a nail's head when he compared
her position to Edith's. Each of the two has style, and each is a dowager queen.

I'm glad if you thought the little book of essays from Japan
made a good group. You knew them all from before of course, but the
version of the poetry essay is longer than the one you used in English.
The German version of it was the same.

Your plans for the date of arrival are fine. I have not yet
actually heard from the extra tickets for the river trip, but my brother-in-
law who said he would use strings knows how to pull them. If we have good
weather it should be fun.

I do perhaps have one other little excursion in the back of my
mind, and that is the possibility of taking a quick trip to the world's
fair. We haven't been, and I wonder if duty doesn't require that you report
to Elsie, Coigny and Beney on it in comparison with the much better Expo.
(About which: didn't you ever down-plunge with the bathosphere?)

Am delighted that all arrangements seem in order for Cornwall.
I know it was impossible for us to arrange as from the States for the trip
out of London. And of course September and early October are the nicest
(and certainly the surest) peridos of good weather.

Conduct yourself with decorum now that you are in your 70th-
year. I must persuade the municipality to present you with a footstool.

All love as always,

Norman

N O R M A N

H O L M E S

P E A R S O N

2 3 1 H G S

Y A L E U N I V E R S I T Y

N E W H A V E N · C O N N

8 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

A rather frustrating day, partly because being after Labor Day the graduate students begin to arrive but with no Mrs Dingle to take care of them. I suppose it is mostly my fault, for permitting a fait accompli, but I should have said No when she announced she was taking off this week too because her daughter and husband would be back. However, tomorrow I shall absent myself from the office and not answer the phone with a foolish "I don't know."

There has been much too long a wait. Saturday I did not get to the office until late, and on the holiday Sunday and Monday I simply didn't come in.

Friday night as I told you, Kay Boyle came to spend overnight on her way to New York. Alas, in Monday's New York Herald Tribune her picture was splashed over the page with a sad story: after leaving us Saturday morning she visited people en route and then went for dinner with her daughter, leaving her car in the street. In her suitcase were all three copies of the first 100 pages of her history of Germany on which she has been working for the past several years. And of course thieves broke into the car, took her shining white suitcase, so she now has neither ms nor clothes nor jewelry. Not very smart on her part, I must say, but I do feel dreadfully sorry. I carried the bag back into the car at Johnson's Point so I feel almost like an accomplice.

The weekend itself was quiet. I went back to the shore in mid-afternoon for a joint birthday party for all grandchildren. Justus was there, but not Bis sister who was at another birthday party (a real one). They all left for the Cape Cod afterwards. Sunday night was another family supper, with about 40 there: cocktails at our house and then supper itself at the Hoblitzelles next door. Fortunately the supper part was elsewhere, since we could excuse ourselves at midnight and go home. The guests stayed on much longer. But this is not really my cup of tea at the moment.

I am a little discouraged because I find I do not actually have the tickets for the Connecticut River trip. It never occurred to me that a month in advance wouldn't be enough time to allow, which was why I wrote you to be sure before buying. My brother-in-law promises to try to pull strings, but don't be too upset if we have to put it off until another year.

Two yellowbacks were in today's mail. Still mostly about Doris, and many not having heard about Mrs Macpherson except that she was to have her party. It's rather nice to think of Margery Hicks having her parties with Hilda's Venice and Padua photos. youy were very smart to think of passing them about in that way. # Rosemary writes entertainly of her new companion, I suspect she suspects the desire for a closer relationship. Some day I imagine this will happen, but it would have to be with precisely

2

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

Otherwise she would be trapped. # Michael Williams writes a nice letter. I don't quite see you his wedding, but his invitation was an entirely genuine one and a highest compliment. # Poor Jean Starr: she really is Job's daughter. I can only think she wills disaster, or runs to meet it. She is overwhelmed by bad luck. # Your advice to Kershaw about India was very sensible. Really, unless he gets a good setup he is completely trapped. He would, I judge, be going not as a civil servant with allowances but simply as an ill-paid teacher. # Great surprise. I think that the very palazzo Kenneth has bought is the one I told you about when Downes described it. Whigham is a great friend of Donalds, and the boys had never visited the spot he had just found and coverted. I hadn't realised their chance to buy it came as result of grief over treachery, and there was no reason for you to mention the owner's name. Best of all is Islay's obvious joy at it. I had suspected otherwise. # George's letter I thought rather more cheerful. And I think Addy's good luck with her legacy really does please him. I only hope he won't not spend his own in order to give her more. It is like his true generosity.

Many thanks for the additional Pokross items. I passed on the earlier documents to my accountant to check on whether or not he felt they were adequate in what they said. He felt they were entirely so, and remarked that he thought Mr Pokross's fee was a low one. I suspect now the best thing is for the two of to run up to Boston by train or otherwise and see him together. We might work in an evening visit to the Richards at the same time. If, of course, they are back.

Yours of the 3rd and 4th arrived today to my pleasure in an otherwise unpleased day. I am delighted that the whaling girls please you. I should think that Browning's Ring and the Book might well join her other things unless you think for some reason that Catha might like to have it back for her own library. # I am delighted that Marianne has sent you her Arctic Ox, as indeed she might--you being not a little responsible for her picking the ox as topic. Perhap you'd like to keep it at Kenwin for a bit, but eventually it should join the others which are here. # I think the friend of D.R. who sold the letters to the NYPL is the one of whose correspondence I told you. Sorry he did not offer to sell them to me to go with the rest of her papers. But sometimes it is not a bad thing to spread them around a little, as making more piles of honey to draw the bees. # So sorry about the local rows. They hardly make life easy. # I hasten to answer as for Susan but will change any mistakes tomorrow. Your Orkney topcoat is plenty good enough. No point at all in dragging the fur collar over. If very cold (which is unlikely) we can give you all sorts of Everests for underneath. One finds more and more that one needs less and less. I will reserve room at the Stanhope after speaking to Prutting's girl or writing her. I think we will not have much trouble.

I can imagine how busy you must now be.

9 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

The schools for children opened today, and as I drove through Short Beach on my way to town I saw a procession of mothers holding infants by the hand as they walked towards the classrooms. The children of course, especially the little girls, all in bright new dresses. Justus presumably went also, into the second grade. I could not quite gather, last Saturday, whether he went reluctantly or not. He likes school but a full day in which to play is also blissful.

My own day has been spent chiefly with the new curator of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford who came for consultation on general topics and especially to see what I thought of his prepared scenario of points to stress to visiting tourists. (In essence of course this becomes an abstract of the museum's philosophy.) I was rather rough on the scenario, which was both too long and too prim. Poor man, he wanted to crowd every scrap of information in. I told him people wouldn't listen. He was very good about it. He was here from eleven until four in the afternoon. However I am being paid a consultant's fee, if I wish to claim it, so it doesn't matter that the time was being used up.

Tomorrow I go to New York to pay my respects to the English Institute which you once saved. They have a week-long program, but I really can't spend that much time at learned talks. And, to be frank, I get a little bored.

I left your yesterday's two letters at the shore, since Susan wanted to write you. I believe I was correct when yesterday I guessed at her response. Only lightweight coats needed. I will of course supply you with one of three or four available portable typewriters. You can take one to New York with you when you go. No letter from you today. I am waiting to have the whole novel typed at the same time, when you have finished VIII and anything you want to do to IX.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

12 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

I have just cabled you about coat and shoes, at Kenwin, fearful

lest any letter at this moment arrive there after you have packed and gone.
I should hate to think of all that weight devoted to something of this sort;
and indeed I suspect that even if you should need heavier shoes it might
still be more practical to have a little cache of them at Goodrich Street
which could be waiting on this side rather than carried back and forth at
exorbitant pains.

There were five letters yesterday waiting me after my one day's
absence in New York, and another (that of the 9th) was in the morning's mail.
I simply could not get to a letter yesterday, chiefly because I was deep in
temporary empathy with the widow of an Army colonel, in whose name I was
ghost-writing her tribute to him and story of his life for the West Point
alumni magazine. She had tried, and I agreed (knowing the colonel slightly
when he was stationed at Yale) to put it into some sort of shape for her.
So I had two problems, to be her, and to know what West Pointers wanted to
know about their classmate after death. It was all a little corny, and if
I could have cross-dressed for the day it might have been easier to write
"'My Bill' (as he was to me)". I believe in literary and critical circles
such as those you inhabit, this is known as adopting a persona, or a mask.
But I did thank God for having known a few West Pointers at Oxford and during
the War, and fortunately I had some sample tributes of other colonels to
pattern after. But anyway, while I was being a Colonel's widow, I didn't
want to write you for fear that my tone would slip and startle you. This
morning I retyped the obituary tribute, and then handed it and my persona
back to the real widow when she came to collect.

Am I forgiven? A few more experiences of this sort and I will
be able to qualify for the run of the house at the Sesame.

I am most grateful for the various corrections to Avalon, and
will as you suggest wait until I hear from you in London to have the revisions
typed. I was delighted to have the report of the British Science Fiction.
Indeed I shall have a copy made and sent to the group here, which is far
more conservative. And I am delighted that the Whaling Journal went down so
well. Should I send to Stephen Lewis?

But, ah! -- better than Avalon is your connivance with Ines. And
how fortunate that I was not there. Had I been, you would have rushed off at
each five-minute interval to report. And that would have been bad Special
Operations ($.O., as they called it during the war.) I do congratulate you;
obviously drastic steps were required.

I weep to think of your invasion without the atom, but no doubt it
was wiser. Only what would Sesame not have said to have heard its t'ecking
and then be reassured that Goldwater had not allowed the local Cultural Attache

like that, and why shouldn't they be. And Pat certainly is extraordinary in his devotion to them, and sensitive in his responses. I guess what I really fear is that they will engulf him.

to use special weapons. Look around you in the dining room and see who you could annihilate.

How stupid about the statistic of the last birthday. But this is only to show how very little I care or think about the strictness of time. I find it means nothing.

I had not realised that Islay would be back to celebrate Noël, but am glad that he could be. And that he could get photos. At that other and first meeting Islay was furious with jealousy because a young Canadian friend and rival photographer (Rolo Benay) had been photographing Noël all afternoon. It helps one's status, and others ask because "he photographs -----, you know." Islay has this sort of status from photographing Graham Greene.

And as for me, I am jealous of your visit with Romaine, for I should dearly love to meet her sometime. And will. Outside of yourself and Hilda, she is the only one I'd really like to help. I don't quite know why. Perhaps just because I don't feel I have to sympathize with her, but only enjoy her talent.

If you haven't had a chance to look at Jovanovich before you arrive here, I will buy and charge to business expenses as tax deductible. It should be. I fear you'll really have to comment, say how nice and ask about the history of paperbacks. But get him on his favorite subjects about which he knows the most {textbook publishing; his own success (this sounds frightful, but as a self-made man he rightly views himself as a work of artifice); and Jugoslavia.

Naturally we will be obedient about no New York Expo. But for you to say that "Fairs are not my cup of tea!" My understanding is that the government of Lausanne is presenting you with a special medal struck off for those most loyal in attendance and enthusiasm. I had counted on your being able to go back and reassure Gulliver. Do, by the way, thank him for his interesting analysis, which I must study carefully.

Two yellow jackets arrived today. What in heaven's name is the subject and scope of Rosemary's son et lumière that it brings in King Charles and Abraham Lincoln? I am mystified and intrigued. # Catha seems to have recovered her spirits. I suspect it is a good idea for her, or anyone in her position, to get away from the Camargue occasionally. After all, while Richard was alive, Jacques was a primitive interlude, but the drama and theatre too. # Somehow I was a little surprised (though memory balances for me) that Miss Dudley didn't know Doris better. But Doris preferred digging bulbs to digging sherds. # Humphrey Wakefield's letter about Doris was a model of tact and grace; one feels why in the same spirit he can create porcelain out of clay. # Horace and Marya were rather vague about Rose's manuscript, and did not at all give me the impression that she had sent a revision to Pat. I suspect they were embarrassingly enthusiastic at first and over-committed themselves. I wish Marya and Horace too wouldn't always speak of how brilliantly Patrick had done at the universities. He certainly did well, and with style, but the brilliance was rather special. Maybe I'm too puritan; my fear is always that parents like this will expect too much, and the boy be troubled because he isn't really delivering on his parent's terms. Oh well, this is silly. Parents are always

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

13 September 1964

Deearest Fido,

I am only fleetingly back in the office, and that only to
pick up my desk so that it will seem orderly tomorrow morning when Mrs
Dingle returns at last from her summer holidays. So too will the majority
of the students, both undergraduate and graduate, and I shall be glad to have
some one besides myself to answer the phone and knocks at the door. And
questions too.

Just to conclude the letters from the two yellowbacks, I
was pleased that Melitta a step further towards her refurnished house. It
should be most splendid when completed. The fact that she is now attending
conferences brings her a little nearer towards resuming her own practise.
I hope she will. She was never lazy, and needs outlets for her energy. Per-
haps she should follow the practise of Harriet Beecher Stowe's clergyman
father, in the 19th century, who shoveled sand from one pile to another
in his cellar for exercise. # Leslie's letter was pleasant. When you
said Collins had only sold 327 copies of his book, you must not have seen
the half-printed 5 that followed. 3275 is not so bad, tho of course not
at all touching what Rouse must have sold, being on the scene first. #
The book sales which delight me most however is of Hilda's book, and Mumford's
taking 500 instanter is a good warranty of your soundness in making the
publication possible. I rather think it will have a long sale; I certainly
hope so. And what fun in thinking of her dirtying the covers of your presenta-
tion copy in order to save duty.

I think I wrote you that yesterday we took the two grandchildren
and their mother to see the musical *Oklahoma*, the children's first theatre. It
was in the round and extra lively for that reason, since the chorus dashed on
and off the stage and up and down the aisles. Justus sat entranced, but occa-
sionally when I thought him engrossed in the spectacle he would turn and ask
me if they were really churning butter on the stage, or how the overhead and
completely visible stagelights worked. The matinee unfortunately was at 5,
so it was 8 before we left, and Susan and I could have dinner. After dinner
we went to a professor's house for a party to which we could not go at dinner
because of the theatre. Something told us we should go even so, and luckily
it turned out to be a wedding anniversary with only a few guests among whom we
were to have been.

This morning we came in town and cleared up the house for the
cleaners to come in this week, and brought a few orchid plants which Susan
did not want to leave longer out of doors. Then this afternoon I came in to
bring crib, playpen, radio, and bed linen for the Indian student we visited
in Delhi who is to come to American Studies for three years as assistant pro-
fessor. More correctly, has come.

Hope all is as always at the Sesame. Remember me to George and
such others as you see.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

14 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

I suspect I had better send you this in Ethel's care, since it is the only chance for a sufficient interval of time. Yours of the 10th (Hilda's and Doris's birthday) came this morning, and by now you will be en route to Zurich en route to London en route to Cornwall. I shall be waiting for such corrections as you can get done in England; fortunately the manuscript is not so long but that you could even do some tidying here before I have it typed. And still be able to get it to Jovanovitch in time to discuss with him. Yesterday afternoon I inserted the latest batch of corrections, and liked the new VIII very much. You have it speeded up. I won't try to go over with you my solutions to the two you left up to me. And was glad that my minor suggestions did not seem outrageous.

It has turned very hot with you, you say; here it suddenly turned very cold, and people rushed to woolens. The temp was 47° this morning at the radio station. A few degrees higher by us, but last night we lighted a fire in the fireplace for the first time this year.

Hope you will have decided to travel 1st, as Beney somewhat urges. Why not celebrate by having the extra weight. Incidentally, although I have not told her, when I wrote Rose Odle this afternoon I saw again that she asked to be let know when a friend of mine came to the States from England. She has some firebellows she wants to give the Gregories. I should think she could ship them, but 0 suppose not. She wants my friend to carry them. If you feel you can, let her know.

After lunch this noon I went with Gallup and a Colonel Gimbel to see the inside of the Brewster mansion, that Tudor castle on which one looks down from East Rock, and the wall of which one sees near us. It is New Haven's last touch of the grand manner. But Mrs Brewster died last winter while we were away, the Rolls has presumably been sold, and now all the furnishings are to be auctioned later in the week, and the house torn down and the grounds turned into a park. Susan knew the house well having been there many times as a girl; I had never been inside before. You know what sort of place it was, -- rather, I should think, like Audley. Beautiful things of their kind, but their kind not one that appeals much more. The furniture too impossibly carved to fit in any room decor, and too large not to hit present-day ceilings. I kept my purse tightly closed, and will not go to bid on anything. Still, I rather think it too bad that now there will be nothing behind walls except people playing on dried grass.

Give my love to Ethel and Kenneth.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

15 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

Nothing, really, has happened this morning or today to
justify a letter. It has in fact been rather a dull day, except for my
pleasure in sitting back and watching the stream of graduate students
flow into Professor Lewis's office since he this year is doing the
graduate school directorship. I am occasionally interrupted, and feel
that I should be available. So I have kept on correcting the typed copy
of Susan's Japan diary which the little girl did (so inadequately) this
summer. I had tried to get at this during summer evenings, but I was
tired from the office. I never got more than a page or two accomplished.
These are the last of my chores of this sort, except for the countless
letters to the East that I ought to write in belated thanks.

Your letter of the 12th arrived this afternoon, and I think
of you as no doubt already sitting in the lounge at the Sesame drinking
whiskeys and soda with your old dames. Or perhaps, and more likely,
unpacking and trying to make up your schedule. Leave an punce of energy
for us!

Bern Day sounded like fun, and theirs are the uniforms I always
think of in reference to Switzerland. Really what a lot of history you
have been absorbing during the Expo. Perhaps one of Elsie's difficulties
is being exposed too much to the past, and therefore being exhausted by
its weight.

I know of nothing to compare to the energy of really old British
dames, unless possibly it is very old Danish ones. You write of Louis Latham
in Alaska. I would never be surprised to find an Englishwoman on the Cape of
Destiny.

I told you there was nothing to write. And now I must go to an
English Departmental meeting.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

17 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

I did not write yesterday --or did I?-- and today there

is time for little more than a note. The students come in the office,
and so do the faculty. There is less free time than I had hoped for.
Last evening we had Professor Cary and his wife and four children for
a steak cook-out at the shore --you will remember sending letters to
me in his care at Kyoto. Alas, Susan had a flower show to judge so
I went home in mid-afternoon--started the fire, put out the furniture,
buttered the rolls etc. We were lucky; the weather turned warm and the
sky was fair, so we had both light and warmth enough to stay out for
long enough to eat.

No letters from you of course, for several days, so there
is nothing to comment on from them.

This afternoon, after lunch with Robt Penn Warren, I go to
New York for a party in honor of Conrad Aiken's 75th birthday. The actual
birthday was on August 5th, but I daresay his publishers felt everyone
would be out of town then. I go as a gesture; he has always been kind to
me, and I like him. And I even admire his writing, without liking it very
much.

A telephone call came yesterday afternoon from Heydt who had
just arrived in New York. He offered to come up for a visit, but I suggested
we meet at 4 this afternoon at the Yale Club in NY, since I was going to be
in town anyhow. I shall take an earlier train in order to see him. I thought
he sounded somewhat subdued, though it may simply have been fatigued. He is
in New York for only a few days and then goes to San Francisco after all. I
can report more after I have seen him.

Kenneth's book came out on Monday, and was listed in the daily
NY Times, which usually means that Prescott will not review it. Tuesday's
daily Times had a big add, saying also that when he was married to the famous
historical novelist Bryher he worked on Close Up etc. Last Sunday's Times
had a rather unfavorable review. The Tribune of Sunday had nothing. But since
reviews and adds don't seem to change the sales very much (according to many
publishers and bookstoor dealers) I don't worry about Rome doing well. It
won't smash, but I think word-of-mouth recommendation will put it across.

Will report tomorrow on this afternoon's expedition. My best to
Ethel and Kenneth.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

18 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

I can't say that yesterday proved a disaster but it certainly proved to be frustrating and annoying. As I wrote you, I had made a luncheon engagement here with Robert Penn Warren, before knowing that Heydt was to be in New York. So I rushed from lunch to catch the 2 o'clock train to New York, which was due to arrive at 3:30 giving me plenty of time to walk across the street from Grand Central to the Yale Club where I had asked him to meet me at 4. But just outside of New York the train simply stopped for over half an hour so that it was after 4 before I walked up the ramp. A good talk with Heydt, and then to Aiken's party a little before 6. About 7:30 I was asked by Ruth Stephan to have dinner with her and two guests (she edited the *Tiger's Eye*, writes poetry of a sort, and rather better novels of Queen Christina etc., and is the daughter of Walgren Drugs where I remember you liked to eat.) Foolishly I agreed, went with them to a Japanese Restaurant, the meal was so slowly served that I not only missed the 9 o'clock train to New Haven but reached the station two minutes after the 10 o'clock left with not another until the midnite train which takes two hours to New Haven. I called Susan and told her not to wait up, and then hung around not remembering until a quarter to midnite that the parking lot in New Haven where I left the car, closed at one. My car was locked with the key inside the filling station. I tried to phone to tell them to unlock my car; for 15 minutes the operator tried them only to find the line busy with some social chat. She agreed that it was an emergency and tried to ring New Haven emergency to break in. Emergency did not answer in seven minutes (this was going on simulatenously), so at 3 minutes before midnite I had to run. Sure enough the car was locked here, and there was nothing for me to do but take a taxi to Goodrich Street and lie out on a mattress until 7 this morning when I could call for a taxi to take me to the filling station. Susan was leaving early for New York but I drove back to the shore anyhow, for a shave and to make myself breakfast. Then I went to the Goodrich Street house again to wait the delivery of the kidney table in the room we sit in, and after an hour or so the man called to say he wouldn't deliver it until Monday.

Forgive me a certain dullness, under the circumstances.

Heydt did seem tired, and said he was irritable under the stress. But understands himself and his situation well. I said I was for San Francisco at least for a while, especially because his friend has plenty of room for him and a room even for him to unpack his books in and use for a study. Heydt may be a little frightened of drifting back into a group there, but I'm not sure. He says at any rate that it would be impossible for Dori as well as himself if he were to be anywhere in Switzerland, or Germany, or the continent. That it will take three years or so to see how it works out before they come to any decision. My hunch is that they will separate but not divorce. Unless for some reason she later herself wants a divorce. His own interests are not likely to make him feel he needs one. He put the whole thing of her physical condition and miraculous recovery; was a little startled when I brought up the

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

psychiatric aspects. We went into no details, but he agreed that this was
a paramount consideration. I think he feels sure he is making a big break
and is rather frightened by it. And one sympathises.

The Aiken party was rather like all parties of that sort. And I
find rather the same group at all of them. Patrick was there with Marya,
who looked well and talked about Horace and his needing a physical checkup.
Probably it would be a good idea; perhaps I can discuss it with him when
you and I drive there. Aiken simply does not change; he is plump and pink
and bustling. Mary, his wife, is nice; she is a painter. His daughter
Jean (I think) was here for the occasion. She is British, married to some
one in BBC who did something with Graves, and she herself writes childrens
books and detective stories. Rather mousy and likeable. Padraic Colum
lives off of parties of this sort, aswidower. Mrs Van Wyck Brooks is
re-emerging as a widow, and seems rather to like being herself, with a sweet
memory to wave at one. John Hall Wheelock was there with his wife, as a
member of the old guard (he is now 83), and a bearded little man, Edwin
Dickinson, a painter, who is also gray and tousled and alert, and who I
enjoy seeing, and who keeps the old guard young. And so it goes. Or did
go until I shivered in the cold dawn at home.

There were three letters from you today, after a break in the daily
delivery. Yours of the 13 from Kenwin, of the 14th from the Glockenhof,
and the 15th from the Sesame. What a horrible bore with all your vacination
troubles. But at least you weren't threatened with being hauled off in the
pest wagon as I was at Teheran. Don't worry about the Grieder tie. I am
well stocked, and you yourself are always the best gift.

I have a welcoming gift for you which I bought today. A copy of the
new Saul Bellow which will be waiting for you by your bed.

All love as always. I write again tomorrow, perhaps to Sesame. I am
frightened about the country deliveries in England. You should have had
letters waiting for you at the Sesame, and even there was nothing.
Britain will be as bad as the States in matters of mail.

Norton

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

19 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

I do not quite dare risk this or later letters to Tregoning.
Can you imagine: a surface letter from London mailed on August 28th just
arrived this morning here. Fortunately it was a bill, so I was able to
keep control of my money just that much longer.

This is a dreary day, cold and grey, but without the rain
we so desperately need. I still haven't heard about the tickets for the
river trip on the 3rd, and am fearful because of the silence that we will
be unlucky. Unlucky that is, unless there is this kind of weather, in
which case we will be glad enough to be warm. As a kind of insurance I
have bought tickets for the football game on the same afternoon. If we
go boating there will be some grateful foreign student who will like to
go.

Tomorrow's Sunday *Tribune* book section arrived today with a
brief, toward the back, and really brutal review of Kenneth's book *The
Met*. I think there must be some sort of jealousy of him and it, as though other
hardworking writers thought of him as less than professional and therefore
undeserving of the blurbs and the advertising. I do not clip and send; you
can read when you come here. I rather hope Kenneth does not see it at all.

I wonder what the American Embassy will say about your smallpox
examination. Or rather have already said. Susan cannot understand why yours
is not still good as being within the 3-year limit. At any rate I agree
with you about Swissair: if they are going to mention it to you at all, then
they should do so with ample time to do something about it after the notice.
I had no idea about the size of Kenneth's palazzo. I think you must get an
early view of it in order to make later comparisons. I suspect he rather
likes the Montegufone aspect of it, and was there ever a Scot who didn't
hanker to be laird of a manor? He will carry it off, and it will be decade
before he's bored with it. Well, seven years anyhow.

Glad both that you're helping Bruno, and that he looks for the
right place. So often an urban investment of this sort is ruined just
because sufficient care wasn't in fact observed.

I work away at oddments, my first class not coming until Tuesday.
Last night I finished a checking of Susan's journal on the trip, except for
the spelling of place names on which I am usually shaky. But it will be in
sufficient order for you to read if you want to. Will try to keep you
supplied with reading. The Tribune for tomorrow is madly enthusiastic for
the new Bellows. Apparently it is made up chiefly of imaginary letters,
never quite my cup of form for fiction. But we shall see. I am eager to
know your reaction. Hope you manage to get your London errands done. We
are already eager to welcome you.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

20 September 1964

Daerest Fido,

Today we have finished moving back from the shore, with double trips in and out to fetch things for winter storage. Susan must go back and actually put the summer house to bed on Wednesday, but most of the things have been done. I am bent double from lifting and hauling. So I come to the office at the very end of the afternoon, and will have to take this note to the post office since the last pickups at the mailboxes, for Sunday, have already been made.

The details of moving are hardly worth recounting, but there are two things that are. One is the fact that my brother-in-law has managed to get an extra ticket for the Connecticut River trip on the 3rd, so that is set. I will give the football tickets to some worthy student, and buy some more for the following week. Two tickets I get automatically, so it is all in a good cause even if we decide to do something else that weekend also.

The second is the curious fact that I know what hour you will arrive and what your flight number is, but do not yet know the date. I have gone back over your letters and checked the fact that you have several times reported that you were trying for tickets over on either the 29th or 30th. Presumably you have a reservation for one of these two, but if you have time do let me know which one. It doesn't matter at all so far as previous engagements on our part are concerned. It is only that we want to be sure that pot of welcoming tea is brewing ahead of time. As I told you, phone Yale if you have time (reversing the charge) (New Haven 787-3131, extension 2572) so that I will know what bus to meet at the Taft. Otherwise, and there may not be time enough to phone, I'll use my judgement and guess. And you can call from the Taft Hotel after your arrival.

A pleasant postcard came yesterday from the boys, signed by them and by Coward, obviously after their visit to you. They seemed to be in great form. Hardly a safe place for me, but I am sure a very witty one. They are all excellent conversationalists. I must wait and go with you to visit them at the palazzo.

Every one here is upset about the outcome of the yacht races at Newport, with the States having taken the first three, each by a mile or more lead at the end. The British boat seems not so well designed, and, alas, poorly sailed. It must be beautiful to watch all the same.

The election arouses much less interest here than I should have thought. Having been without t.v. at the shore we have listened to nothing. But when you come we will search out an appearance or two of each of the rivals. My own feeling is that Goldwater loses ground after the first wave of conservative elation. But that may simply be wishful thinking. The news from Southeast Asia and elsewhere really crowds the election off the pages. At least the front pages. For the same reason we do not hear much about the British General Election, and I count on you to bring me up to date.

Give greetings, affection and love as indicated, retaining a controlling interest for yourself as chairman of the board. All love, Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN, CONN

21 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

Having written you last evening about the date of your arrival, I was delighted that your letter of the 19th did tell me the exact day as well as the corrected time. I only hope this letter -- how slow mine to you have been in delivery -- reaches you in time to spare your expense of a cable. Though one was hardly necessary at all.

Actually there were three letters today, of the 16th, the 17th and the 19th, though they did not arrive in that order. London sounds hectic. I think I must have been lucky to have seen it when I was younger and had more energy. But it still sounds dreadfully congested and inconvenient. I am still sorry about the smallpox inoculation, and see that Switzerland now has the regulation we have in the States. Here one has to do the same and have the sheet signed by the city health officer, *unless* the doctor happens to have a special license, as ours luckily does. In any event, far better to get it out of the way than suffer my indignities at Teheran.

I have written Prutting already about appointments, and will be sure that yours is set for as early as possible. I am suggesting your first week after arrival (say the 5th or 6th) just in case something might turn up for which he wanted longer. I certainly don't want to have another inoculation situation.

We shall look for you then late in the afternoon of the 30th. It doesn't matter when you arrive and we will have some dinner that can be arranged. Or go out, as may suit Susan's plans best.

Last night, being a little exhausted, I took a half-hour off to see (at long last) the Beetles on t.v. I must say it was an extraordinary spectacle, but what interested me most was the faces of the audience, mostly young girls of say 13 who were dressed in what looked like variations of school uniforms for a parochial school. The Beetles sing acceptably, but I can only believe that their success is due largely to their haircuts which put them in a kind of middle realm of sex. I think the emotional crushes of the 13-year-old audience is for an older and rakish female. Still there is something startling about hearing Ringo drumming away like mad as the other trio sing

> She was just seventeen;
> Welll, you know what I mean....

And I wonder if I do know what they mean.

Then I listened to a scene from O'Neill's *Marco Millions* played by my friend Hal Holbrook who made his name as Mark Twain. I must say it really is a dull play!

Hope your last days are not too hectic.

All I love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

22 September 1964

Dearest Fido,

I had already written Prutting for your appointment, asking for it to be at the beginning of the week of the 5th, in order to allow as much leeway as possible in case he wanted to pro-long any series of shots. This morning I had the letter back setting the time as 11:a.m. on October 5th; and having your letter by then, I phoned and shifted it earlier to 9:a.m. This was perfectly agreeable to them, and I agree: no point in hanging around and wasting time. You are allowed to eat as usual that morning.

I have thereupon called the Stanhope and reserved a room for you on the night of the 4th to run through Thursday the 8th, on the supposition that you would come up to us on the late afternoon of Friday the 9th. But of course the exact date of terminating this first visit can be decided after you have seen Prutting. I only wanted things to be in as much order as possible. I try to do as ordered.

Today I had my first course meeting: the graduate seminar. Alas, far too big for me to hope for much discussion from the students later on. 18 taking it for credit; 7 auditing it without credit. Still, it is a nice international group: Jugoslavian, Danish, Dutch, Italian, French, Japanese, German, and British, beside the usual Americans.

Two extremely interesting yellowbacks came in yesterday, which I read last night with interest. But not time to discuss them now, and they can wait until tomorrow.

Hope all has gone well. All love as always,

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

27 August 1964

Dearest Fido,

I feel a little better today. At least I read through Blackstock's

manuscript book of poems twice (it is about 90 pages long, so that was not
bad), and then wrote, retouched, typed up in a fair copy, and sent out to the
publishing house in Chicago my brief foreword (about 350 words only). I feared
keeping it overnight lest I be tempted to start again. The book should be out
during your visit, but I doubt that I will have the courage to let you see the
foreword.

So I celebrate a little at the end of the day by transferring your
corrections to the typescript of Avalon. Of course there is no valid reason why
the typist herself can't do it. But obviously, too, I am curious to see what
you are doing and have done, and your changes are always a fine lesson in what
Americans academically call "creative writing." You see I take your correspondence
course. Actually it is fun; don't worry.

As to your comments on my comments: no reason to cut III in half; we stet. # I
did change Augier's comment, as suggested. # I did not insert return to qualify
the flight. After all your feelings are surer than mine.

In V, I did like your revision of the opening
and so changed. # Despite my query, I did not include despite. I changed both
Movements, and still rather like the sound of it, not being in clerical circles
like your own milieu. # The Round Point, I leave to you. To an American of course
it sounds fine because nothing at all is connoted.

Chapter VI has been duly entered and the changes welcomed and even
applauded. That's a nice paragraph you've written for page 2! As for my own copy,
I had no suggestions at all. So VI can go to bed.

Since one is doing it, I'll run thru the few others I had. But I do stress
that they were only immediate reactions, not thoughtful objections. I will not
whimper because they strike no sympathetic chord in your creative fingers.

In IV, p. 2, beginning of last para, I somehow preferred reading "The
youth hesitated, he had the inevitable badge on his sweater." I think I found
it more sinister to keep the Movement in the air; the more members were uniformed,
the farther advanced the danger had become, and so being overt danger is less
terrifying than felt danger. Even green coats aren't necessarily a uniform.

p.14. "Bert stopped at a footpath that Robinson hadn't noticed."
You see how cautious I am!

In Chap. VII. Dislikking opening "its", I suppose I felt it might be
stronger if you began simply with "Owen's entry seemed..." I suppose one could
follow long day with "It was legitimate but all the same .... It was a minute or
two." But this is a question of feeling. I just had to wait too long for "entry"
to know what was legitimate.

p.2, line 12. What about deleting "The explanation was

simple." ?

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

p.3, line 1. What about deleting "Pilot, sir," and just beginning with "I don't drink." In the sense that loss of pilots do actually drink when they don't expect to pilot (Geoffrey DeHaviland used to drink even when he did expect to. We used to drink with him at the Comet, in St Albans. He was the ex-husband of our driver. Or that he actually wasn't any longer a pilot. Or just that "I don't drink" sounds firmer.

p.6, line 15. I don't understand what one oh fifteen means. #1015?

p.9, line 12. Shouldn't Evans be Owan's?

Chapter IX. p.6, line 15. if one yells wouldn't one omit "quite" and say simply "it will go smoothly once we land." Or maybe it would just be more soothing without the qualifier.

AND THAT'S ALL.

Your two letters of the 25th arrived this afternoon, for which my thanks. It was a good sized mail, but not all of it so happy. For with it was a letter from Pantheon rejecting Romaine Brook's ms, and saying they saw no likelihood of success in peddling it in the States. Maybe an English publisher. This is the old dodger game. I will discuss tomorrow.

Also a letter rejecting a book of poems I became sentimentally involved in, without wanting to. This will require conferences in New York which is what I don't want.

But one from heydт saying he was all fixed and not to worry about papers from me. I am really grateful to you. I suppose it was silly of me, but I don't like stripping quite so naked before him, even though it wasn't at all his fault. I simply think the U.S. government is idiotic. Let me prove here that I am capable of supporting him, and then send an official statement to the local consul abroad. But I remember Hilda's regaining her citizenship. What a chore that was, and all to satisfy the ego of that absurd vice consul in Zurich.

Tomorrow I have another volume of poetry to read, one simply sent to me by Lloyd Frankenberger. Actually I read it before and didn't like it. I ought to have answered then. Now I must reread it so that I will seem to be familiar with what I am writing of.

Anyhow I did get the foreword off today.

24 October 1964

Dearest Fido,

We do miss you, and it was sad to bid farewell at
the Taft. But we look forward to Ankara, and to your visit here
in the Spring. Life has been hectic since you left, more so than
I thought it would, and will continue to be for at least the first
half of next week. Yesterday was crammed with appointments with
students, and time devoted to giving oral examinations for the
doctorate in English. Now, in a quarter hour I must leave to drive
to Amherst for an all-day (including evening dinner and a speach)
meeting of the New England American Studies Association. I had
planned a long letter to you this morning, but have spent all my
time so far in trying to arrange for the visit on Monday and Tuesday
of Professor Hattori, from Fukuoka, and of a Derek Walcott, a Negro
poet from Jamaica who is also suddenly appearing and has been thrust
on me by the State Department.

Actually I never finished that paragraph because of
more phone calls to me about the poet. And now the people are here
whom I am to drive to Amherst. So I shall wait, have to wait, until
tomorrow.

Susan is much better, and I think the cough medicine
helps. I enclose a letter from Petrie which came after you left.
A letter has come from the hotel in Charleston, saying that I did
actually pay for your bill as well as ours. So it was cheap, after
all. I shall deposit the sixty dollars to your account at the Coop.

25 October 1964

Dearest Fido,

I am now doubly sorry. First not to have written you yesterday at greater length. And secondly that having to pick up and leave in haste I quite forgot to post your letter at all. So it did not get out until early this afternoon. But at least I have a few moments now before I have to leave again, but this time only to go home, change and return for the History Department's tea. Our attendance there is only in the line of diplomatic duty.

The drive to Amherst yesterday was pleasant, with the vestiges of fall foliage still to be seen. I had three young instructors with me, and this kept me from falling asleep on my way back, although I must admit I dozed a little during the meeting itself. My only regret in going was in being asked if I would again be vice-president next year. Not having done anything this year in the office, I agreed. And then found that the year after I will be president, and arrange the meeting.

As I wrote you yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised at my letter from the Fort Sumter Hotel. "We are happy to inform you," it read, "that the bill paid by you covered both yours and Mrs. Bryher's rooms, and there are no further charges to be made." I really did think the bill was too reasonable to be believed. I should have trusted my judgment.

A pity that just after you left, the statement of royalties came in from Harcourt's. Of *Carthage* (for the 6 months ending June 30th, 98 copies were sold domestically and 66 for export. Of *Artemis*, 20 copies of regular sales, and 2 copies for export. The total royalties were $50.33. Then for the first time that I can remember there were statements for the royalties from Collins. I had asked for these over and again from Helen both at Pantheon and more recently, but she always vaguely said they were included. Anyhow I hope we are now on a better track, and I will try to see what happens as for Collins through Pantheon. *Carthage* had sold 7,520 copies at Collins, of which the total royalties to this side were $2,209.60, with your share as $1,473.07. Of *Artemis* 2,060 copies had been sold, and your share of the royalties was $188.40. The total check for deposit in the savings account is $1,711.80. Soon you will be able to live handsomely.

That last yellowback from England which came just as you left, had in it a few of my letters to Doris (including the one telling her to cash the check for the Lawrence letters) but especially a few from Marianne to Doris. Actually these are probably all there were, but what fine ones. Marianne was genuinely fond of Doris, and it shines through what she wrote. Obviously the main bond between them was you yourself, but the friendship grew on its own at last. I was delighted to have them.

Susan slept well again last night, and it may be that she has her cold in control. I certainly hope so for her sake. She has been faithfully taking her cough syrup, which helps.

I do hope your trip over was not too dull nor too nervy. And

All love as always,

that Kenwin will strike a happy medium too.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

28 October 1964

Dearest Fido,

Your letter of the 24th arrived yesterday to relink the
chain, and it was good to be in contact again even after so short an
interval. There was none today, but at least I know you arrived safely
and that no great crises had arisen.

Except of course the burden of the 52 letters which I
can only wish might have been distributed one for each week of the year.
If you answer each as faithfully and well as you wrote to Mr Byington
about Mary Butts, then it will be nearly a year before you finish them.
Oddly, a letter from Wesson Bull in the same mail told of a visit to
him at Newport by Mr Byington, and asked for my cooperation. I did
think your letter was excellent, by the way.

One staggered through yesterday, though I must say that
when the symphony had finished and we had waved goodbye to the two
Japanese as they set off to walk to the Taft, I felt a certain sense
of relief. But they were gay and grateful, and I was glad to have been
able to return a little of the hospitality of the Japanese for us last
year. What made today less relief than I had thought was the fact that
Mrs Dingle has collapsed and will not be in for the rest of the week.
The English Department secretary is sick too, and the only helper there
is a Swiss girl from Basel, who has been six weeks in the country and
speaks only fair English. She arrived at the office Monday, but the
English Dept secretary did not. So when the English Dept secretary
phoned this morning to ask Mrs Dingle to arrange for the English Department
luncheon tomorrow, the task obviously fell on my shoulders. At any rate
I have been speaking to the new secretary in erman which makes her feel
a little easier. This afternoon I was the guest speaker at a city planning ser
seminar. So I am not allowed to fall into a rut.

We too look back on your visit as though it were especially
red-lettered for us, and all of the things you enjoyed were our enjoyment
too. Charleston was fun. We will find another corner for your spring
visit. The newest issue of the National Geographic has an article on the
Newfoundland Vikings ruins. If you do not see at your end I shall save.
I shall save anyhow.

On my way back from the seminar, I went to the Co-op and deposited
the sixty dollars (intended for the non-existent bill for your room in
Chapelston) to your credit at the Co-op book counter. I enclose the receipt.
I do not remember exactly the original figure for the balance I gave you.
It was, I think, about $22.00, plus the 50 you deposited by cheque, and now
the addition of the 60 will give you your balance.

Do not work too hard on your letters.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

29 October 1964

Dearest Fido,

Rather a quiet day, and surprisingly few students came to the office to interrupt my solitude. But a few appointments cut up both morning and afternoon, and from mid-afternoon on I was visited by my friend Paul Blum who was so kind to us in Tokyo. For the moment at least he has transferred his domicile to the States. Though now they have made foreign residence easier for naturalized citizens, I think he will eventually re-establish his residence in Japan. Meanwhile during the day I have been trying to finish a book on Frost, a biography with useful notes on the origins of poems, though otherwise not notable.

Last night we dined with a young man and his wife, he works for American Studies and teaches the 20th century American literature course to undergraduates, and with Mark Van Doren and his wife. I found him charming more so than I had realized before except by reputation. But we had gay talk of MacLeish, Hilda (you may remember that he gave her citation and praise when she won the medal at the American Academy), and Marianne, Fletcher and others, there being a long string of common friends. Bill Benet too, and Robert Frost and even Louis Untermeyer whom Van Doren did not like. And oh yes Hodgson, for Van Doren was one of those who wrote letters for Hodgson's 90th.

I enclose a new little postal tidbit for Elsie, the first I have seen. Goddard is, I think, connected with missils and rockets. But what a Russian atmosphere the stamp seems to have.

Two letters came this morning. Yours of tje 26th and the 27th, or rather the second came this afternoon. I am pleased that you observed the ritual and saw the dying moments of the Expo. And so you have survived that, and I hope Elsie was properly impressed by the loyalty to Switzerland which kept you from the Fair in New York. The note about Avalon is fine under the circumstance, and I shall think about it a bit. Somehow I still prefer having this sort of thing on the jacket, but we will no doubt by overruled by Johnovitch. Your afternoon letter was a faithful report, and I take it all was well. I am observant of the date for the Poetry Reading, and only wish I could hear you speak.

By the way, am I correct that Hilda was Horse before she became
Kat?

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN · CONN

31 October 1964

Dearest Fido,

39 Goodrich Street is getting to be almost like Kenwin.
Last night we had Paul Blum for dinner and the evening, with my already
having spent Thursday afternoon with him (and he comes in ten minutes
to be shown the campus). At lunchtime arrives Susan's cousin with her
husband for the weekend (we see the Dartmouth football game this after
noon.

He is here now. Your letter of the 28th came yesterday
(none this morning), and I congratulate you on your answer to Pokross.
You have developed the touch of a fine executive. You should show
it to Beney. He would appoint you his successor.

I do have a copy of Owen's *Journey from Obscurity*. Whether
you sent me yours or ordered me one, I don't know, but I admired it
immensely. I leave to you whether to hold and let me read when I am
next in Kenwin, but I think the set belongs with your British autobiographies
of growing.

Must stop and do my duties.

2 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

Mrs Dingle was in this morning, but tired easily and went home this afternoon. So although I was able to get in a few interviews with students, and type a few letters and dictate some others I was not quite so free an agent as I might have hoped to be. But at least I made my first visit to the doctor's for my flu and common cold shots (the beginnings of them anyhow) and then went to the bank to deposit your check and one to Hilda's account. And then took what documents I could dig up to the accountant to arm him for his second visit to the income tax people who have questioned my last year's deductions. This was all rather topsy-turvyish to sustained effort, but was at least done. The total for your account at the moment is 12,512.44; and I can only compliment you on your thrift.

Your letter of the 29th arrived this aftnoon. This is very discouraging news indeed about Beney, and one wonders if the Swiss are not cutting their own throat by this over centralization. Surely there must be many others in situations like your own, and in each case it is the personality of a man like Beney which counts most. But organizations have a way of coming egocentrically to feel themselves superior in their capacity as an institution. Obviously behind all this is the parallel anxiety of the bank to have you shift over control to them.

Curious about the Roysce Smith gift, because I had just been reading an account of it and realized it was in the category of what has become so popular: the descriptions of homosexuality which are felt to be carried on simply because of the topic. I could not, for the life of me, remember where I had seen the book itself. Now I know. Just say you found that the subject matter wasn't enough to make it striking as a piece of fiction. Send it back to me, if you want to, and I'll put it on the shelf. Or toss it out, as you prefer. I don't quite see it for Coigny. Probably I shall have to read it, if it is talked about.

I had a letter today from Hilda Quick, saying she was sending the bird book and expressing thanks to you again for making it possible. And one from Cleanth Brooks asking for suggestions for the festival for Hilda. I shall write him tomorrow or Wednesday, I hope.

And now I must fly for a meeting to do with the International House. I am less active but cannot withdraw completely lest it seem to imply renunciation. But I am too pressed with other matters to give myself very largely to it. I have in the past; one can't go on forever.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

4 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I came in this morning to the office firmly with the intention of writing you first, having for so many days recently either not written you or sent only the curtest communique. But the morning has turned out like all other mornings these past two weeks, and I have done nothing but answer the telephone, make appointments, run errands, and otherwise performed rather badly the duties that Mrs Dingle would presumably have carried out with despatch. But she, alas, has continued to be ill with her virus. She came in Monday morning but by noon felt too exhausted to continue and so went home. Yesterday morning she called by phone to say the doctor had advised at least two days more abed. As with Susan's cold, these attacks seem hard to shake, and I think she may have tired herself by divine services Sunday morning, then an afternoon in bed to rest so she could attend a curch recital by a visiting choir that evening. However the evening "was such a wonderful time!" and marked the gift of a new organ as well, and one should not miss historic occasions.

Susan and I sat by the t.v. for a good part of last evening and watched the returns. A new system was worked out which doubled the speed of totaling (informally), and so by eleven when we went to bed, the results were mostly clear. And fortunately overwhelming. For some obscure reason, Goldwater had not made an concession even this morning, and I find this more interesting than the results. Connecticut voted Democratic for every Washington post; and indeed Johnson carried every New England state. You should feel a certain relevance to our v'sit to Charleston by the fact that Goldwater's only five states (Arizona was still in doubt when I left this mornong) were all Southern 9his victory based on racial issues) and among them was South Carolina. I shall save up my northern newspapers telling about the election and send them to the Negros in the shacks in Edisto to keep them warm.

It will be interesting, and perhaps Goldwater's post-election comment will clarify, to see what the Republicans now plan to do. In some ways they are not as badly off as they have been sometimes in the past; but the question will be whether Goldwater insists on retaining his nominal control of the party. I noticed that despite Eisenhower's blocking of other candidates and promise to speak for Goldwater, a convenient bout of flu kept him, so the doctors said, from stumping on the four occasions he had agreed to. But I never heard of a flu that kept a man from issuing statements. I can only assume Ike's fingers were as hoarse as his voice. I mentioned to Susan last night that Dirksen had not stumped as he promised do. Susan laughed. "He had a bad case of flu. Didn't you see it in the papers?" So he will not have much more than lip service from the pros. But he does have the money behind him. At least he will not be in the senate.

I listened several times to Goldwater (not being as you know an overwhelming Johnson fan, but not against him either--I did vote for him) and the difficulty was that he offered no positive program at all. Those who vote

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

for me will be the ones who believe in the Constitution. But this means
nothing in terms of what he would do. Those who vote for me will be the
ones who are against war. But then in the same breath he is angry because
we do not march into China. And so it goes. Or so it went.

I am really so far behind that I wonder when I shall get caught up.
But.... the copy of Marianne's book of poems has come, for which my great
thanks. And a group or two of yellowbacks from England, sent of course
while you were still there. (The mails are sometimes slow.) And then the
two-volume *Swiss Family Robinson* plus the odd volume from another set, all
here safely and perhaps should be catalogued as the others have been. Shall
I have this done, or simply put in cards I do myself for the catalogue
file and use the evaluation from the bill when you send it?

During my interval of few letters (or should I more positively call
it the period of my acting secretaryship of the department?) I did check for
the Grolier Club their want list for the exhibition in December of Shakespeare's
Rivals. We had 17 titles in first editions, but oddly only three or four
actual first editions of Beaumont or Fletcher. The collection is strong in
later but contemporary editions of their plays but not the 1st. Still, 17
was a good number and there are a few not listed which I suggested to them.
In one of the yellowbacks was the letter from Maggs about the copy offered
you. But you did yourself an injustice even when happy in the increase of
value. The increase was actually from £3/10/ to £45/. All of which makes me
wonder whether I ought not to have the books revalued for the sake of increasing
the insurance to a presently realistic level. This would not be an extra cost
to you, for I have always paid for the insurance myself. There would be a fee
for the revaluation, but that could come the same way. One never expects to
have the books damaged by fire or stolen, but still.... And it would be interesting,
one has to admit, to know whether there was an overall increase.

(At that I had to leave off and now it is nearer the end of the day.)
I am now just back from luncheon with the head of Urban Planning, in thanks for
my taking over the seminar last week. But the conversation was broken into
and then taken over by the lonely man at the next table who is a visiting
historian from the University of Kanasas. So again, possibly I had a share in doing
good, but was rather distracted from my

(now it is 5:45 which is an indication of how the day has gone. And at
this point the ribbon on my own machine has broken, which is another indication
of frustration.) I only want to continue in terms of the third of your letters
which came today (none yesterday or the day before), which enclosed the first
page of your biographical account of Hilda. Also in today's mail came a letter
from Hesterd with the proposed program enclosed. It was with this and the letters
to *Books* and her that I had really intended to spend the day, alas. Just perhaps
I can tomorrow. In any event what she describes yours as is "Tribute (also some
biographical details) by Bryher. Yours is very good but what I think bogs you down
a little, if what you say is true, is that you are not really paying the tribute,
you are instead writing a biography. I'm not sure they want to hear this in such
detail, but I may be wrong. If you say (just perhaps) that when you met her it
was to meet a voice that broke through the barriers of contemporary poetry you
would give both her value and her meaning to you. ere she was, a young woman
from Philadelphia who had... etc., yet in the English scene she could mean so and

so. It was your good fortune to know her over the years. To be with her in Greece which played so important a role, etc., and in Egypt which she was later to use so meaningfully in Helen, etc. There was the long period of after the war when she worked more quietly, bringing out this and that etc, but working towards the developed skills which when the second war came gave voice to her final and still-completely-unrecognized not completely understood period, but which ultimately may be thought to be her greatest. This was the war trilogy, the Guest. And the Helen poems. As you look back on her she was a person of rare etc.

This is what I think they want to hear from you, because you are the only person who could say it with complete familiarity. Leave the biographical details to being simply "some". And leave the critical evaluations to others. I really do think that taking on the formalities of such detail and influences might prove too much for the occasion. What you want to give, for about five minutes, is the impress of a great poet on you as an artist, and of a wonderful person whom it was your privilege to have as a friend.

I must dash.

All love,
Norman

5 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

Mrs Dingle is happily back this morning, and so the telephone can ring without my having to answer it. As luck would have it, it has hardly rung yet. There is an immense amount of unfinished business to do, but first I want to write and clear up a little of the backlog with you. Last night Susan and I went to the theatre to see the opening night of a new play, *Poor Richard*, by Jean Kerr. She is a highly successful playwright and certainly knows how to write bright lines. The first two acts were amusing: the third, and serious one, simply fell to pieces. One wouldn't mind that, but it fell to pieces so slowly!

As to your yesterday's letters: I was perhaps too hurried in writing about your tribute to Hilda, but it did strike me somehow that you had taken the assignment too much like a term paper at Queenswood. Quite rightly you realized that they wouldn't know what Moravians were, but as a result you make it seem like an elementary school room lecture. What they want, however, is a tribute from you as a distinguished writer to Hilda as another distinguished writer, with the biographical jottings scattered here and there so that in the end they will have some idea. But not a biography, not a critical analysis or a study of sources. No one could do the true tribute so well as yourself, and this need not be a purely personal one --only as from one artist to another.

This is of course re yours of the 2nd. I should think that Catha might like back the copy of *The Ring and the Book* she and R.A. gave Hilda. The alternative would be to give it to Pup. There is no point of it for the library here, since they have several. I am keen on BRowning but don't collect him, and have several copies of his poems. On the Arctic books, I leave it to you. Certainly don't send the one you will possibly re-read; if the others are not with the group here, perhaps they might come over. I don't really care so long as they are where you want them to be.

To go back to yours of the 1st. I am sorry about the delay in the letters. Now, if Mrs Dingle keeps well, the post should come more regularly. I will write Romaine Brooks and say you sent along the letter, and we see from there where we go. As to your reading of *Helen*, I am delighted that you have read it at last. It does indeed contain some of her best poetry.

For the 31st, sorry about Rita's elbow. On the whole she has been lucky in her travels, not to have ruptured spleens, or cracked her skull, and the like. I should have mentioned the difficulty with Union Bank but, ah, that was in your letter of the 29th. And I ought to have hung my head in shame when you pull out the long list of true Freudians, practising on this side. One thing is clear: there is opportunity to use the Sachs funds in precisely the way you intended. The Annie Reich steering will be the best start. Indeed I sometimes think that the best plan might well be to expend the total capital while you are alive to see where it goes. One cannot count too much on the wisdom of posterity, and I would hate to see it lie idle again.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

Actually I think I did write about the Bank and Beney. I guess one can only wait and see. My hunch is they will not move very radically until Beney's retirement. But to do so then will ultimately be hard on his son.

I myself have only two extra copies of Hilda's selected poems left, and one of these I want to send to Marsden-Smedley and the other to Brooks. But I will see if the Co-op carries it in stock, and if not then I will have rove send airmail to you. I shall need some more copies for myself. When you were here I meant to ask you if you wanted me to send you any copies of your own books for stock. Better let me order sent to you, since it complicates the accounts less.

Now I shall get to Brooks and Marsden-Smedley. I will send you copies. Perhaps there will be time later today for another letter, if one comes in from you. They seem rather to bunch these days: nothing for a day or two, and then several together. This afternoon I have a faculty meeting, and then we must entertain for dinner the American Fulbright officer from Seoul, who was our host when we were in Korea last year at this time.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

6 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I don't quite dare send a letter as of this late date to Kenwin, judging from your "usually four days", and it will have been written rather too soon after my yesterday's letter to have anything much to say. But it has taken me so long to get off the letters about the Hildafest, that I am anxious to clear my desk of the papers and so send you your copies of what I wrote to Hester M-S and to Cleanth Brooks. I have sent Brooks a copy of Selected Poems and of the first two volumes of the trilogy, not having quite enough of the third volume to lay my hands easily on it. And to Mrs M-S went a copy of Selected Poems, to provide texts for the readers. I only wish she had written earlier (I never did get any letter before this of last week) so that I might have sent the tape over by Perdita.

I feel a little groovy today, having entertained the USIS official from South Korea at dinner last night. Or Susan did for dinner, and I for before and after dinner --having no dinner myself. Alas, Lizzie seemed to have an upset, called her psychiatrist to say she was not going to take pills, and he called me (she having hung up on him) for me to go unless I wanted the police to. I had to be let in by the janitor, Lizzie was furious but unpilled and fortunately also unbottled, and when I left an hour later I had been so filled with woe and accusations that I had no room left for food, the other two having finished. Still, it is a step forward that she did not try anything and that she restrained from drink. Vituperation fades. My lack of sleep will take a little longer.

But I have a two hour graduate school faculty meeting this afternoon, and no doubt will sleep there. I am supposed to take Prof. Jenny Huie, a Burmese lady who teaches American literature at United University of Hong Kong to lunch today. But she seems to be late, which permits this letter to you.

All love as always. I enclose a horrendous tidbit for Elsie's collection.

Norman

8 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I am, you must admit, doing well on my house-cleaning, for not only have I spent the day in answering letters --24 so far-- but even in finishing up the airmail paper left by you, I have been making strides. There are, I think, only three more sheets left; then my piles of paper will be orderly.

I was a little startled I must admit to pick up this Sunday's *New Haven Register* and discover that Roysce Smith had used our luncheon for his weekly column. Usually one asks permission for reporting what is said, but the result is innocuous enough and no harm done. There is something wonderfully official about your annual visit to American Studies.

All sorts of oddities have been turning up in the debris of my desk, and one of the oddest seems to be the offprint of an article on "Goiter in Gandhara: a Representation in a Second to Third Century AD Frieze." The frieze is one of Islay's photographs from the book, used with my permission, and when I have showed it to Ingholt, probably Islay should have it for his muniment room. (Certainly all palazzi have muniment rooms!) Shall I send it to you first, to send on to him?

I sent a xerox of the clipping you sent me about Science Fiction to the head of the S-F magazine, but he had been in England this past summer and had reverently clipped it for himself. But it demonstrates the keenness of your eye.

And I meant to ask you to ask Elsie if indeed the 1964 grape crop was the crop of the century for wine. She has the right sources, I know. This may have been felt in Switzerland as well as in Bordeaux.

Now that you both are at the Sesame, and I presume wandering madly, do you go as a Mod or as a Rocker? And which is Labor? I suppose I ought not to be surprised that they rush in nationalization and such steps while they can count on the slim majority. I shall be much interested in what you pick up. I have just had a nice letter from the Brigadier, saying he is confident the Conservatives will get back in soon. I am not quite so optimistic.

As I wrote you, I do not have extra copies of Selected Poems, and am afraid that the Co-op is out of them too. They will not keep them in stock. I suppose because the sale is too slow. But I have written Miss Schmidt at Grove, asking for two to be sent airmail to you at the Sesame, and ten copies by surface to Kenwin. I am ordering more for myself here. I spread them around the world when foreign visitors come. But I sent one copy to Mrs Marsden-Smedley, for whoever reads, and also one to Cleanth Brooks for him to keep on hand and use for reference. I hope you do see him. You will like him.

2

I have also sent a copy of *Artemis* to the old dame mother of
Mrs Wilson who entertained us in Charleston, and a copy of *Gate* to
her. Also a *Gate* to Mrs Young. I have extra copies of this which I boug
when Collins remaindered.

Many thanks for your itinerary, and I hope the visit to Petrie
comes off. The Brigadier's letter said that Ethel was planning to
go back to Switzerland with you (or might) but I presume that has by
now been ironed out.

Alas, I have not really had a chance to slip the corrections
into my copy of the typescript of Avalon. I said to Susan when
I read "Let me talk you down..." she means "take you down" of course.
I was properly put in my place. For Susan used to fly with her first
husband in the seaplane her grandfather gave him. I believe the
husband piloted well, at least for those days.

Yesterday was a kind of nightmare in which too much happened,
not to frighten one but simply to exhaust. At 9:15 I reported at
a meeting held in the office of the Dean of the Graduate School
for which a half dozen prominent alumni had assembled at four or
five of the graduate faculty. It was to form a Graduate School
Alumni Association, of which I found myself an incorporator. However
through great tactical wisdom the actual committee formed to establish
the organization excluded by rule all members of the faculty. So at
least for that small favor I am thankful, O Lord. Nevertheless the
meeting went on, including lunch until 2:30, and at 3 (after a moment
at my desk) I reported at the Music School for the commemoration of
the 13 years at Yale of Paul Hindemith and the organization of
a memorial collection of his works and manuscripts. There were
speeches, and I fear I dozed. But then there was a concert and I was
fortunately awake, for it was very pleasant. I went back to the office,
had an hour in which to pay bills and begin to clear my desk. And then
at 5:30 went to a reception (part of the same Hindemith affair, followed
by a dinner, and then an evening concert of music by him, at which we
sat with Donald Gallup and Thornton Wilder's sister. There were more
festivities today, and young Susan (who was once his pupil and sang
under him as well) took part in the mass he wrote as his last compo-
sition. But both Susan and I passed today's part over. I had known
Hindemith not intimately but reasonably well, since we were fellows
of Jonathan Edwards College together in the days when everyone went
every week, the table was small, and we had conversation that was
often memorable.

And now it is six, and I must go home where the Addisses
and two other children besides their own are coming for dinner. I
have three full length books and 10 articles to read before tomorrow
when an ad hoc committee on promotions in English meets.

Love to Elsie and to Pup, and I need not say how
wholly to you.

Lorann

9 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I enclose a letter and its enclosures from Heydt, and trust
you forgive me for taking it out of its original envelope (sent airmail
to you in my care) in order to cut down the weight of what goes now to you.
I had this morning also, a letter from him in much the same tone. Obviously
he is now going through a period of depression, and it is important for him
to be in California with his friend. New York would not, I think, have worked
so well. At least not for the moment.

I send the clipping about science-fiction films and Bradbury simply
because it may amuse you and because there may be a moment or two at the Sesame
when there are no letters to be typed. Destroy of course, and with it the
account of the Spanish manuscripts at Yale. It is all rather a do, I gather,
because the eight at Yale are not very important and come to only about $4,500
in value, whereas those bought by the British Museum come to the hundred thousands.
I am curious as to whether anything is appearing in the London papers about the
manuscripts in the B.M. Maggs may be interested in the clippings, if you want
to pass them on. But I do not mean to make you my ambassador during your stay.

Gallup called this afternoon to say he had heard from New York that
Eliot had had a stroke. It had come thru various sources including Marianne, so
the chances are good. And, of yes, our Tom's sister-in-law in Cambridge, Mass.,
so it must be true.

And how have I spent the day? Reading innumerable articles on prosody
and on style in language and on a number of other subjects suitable to scholarship
as practised by two younger men whose appointment to tenure is coming up. But more
than that I read a book by one of them on *Wordsworth and Schelling*, another on
Blake's poems, and a third on *The Untuning of the Sky* (a study of references to music
in renaissance poetry). So I have been faithful to my duties, even tho I nodded
occasionally in the process.

I shall go to bed early tonight, and be happy to nod properly then.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

11 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

This being a holiday of sorts (half observed, half ignored)
in commemoration of the Armistice to World War I, there was no mail.
But it being a day of recovery from an incredibly busy yesterday, I had
had no chance to read your letter of the 8th which came in the afternoon
mail, and so read it only this morning when I came in at eleven after
having put Richard Murphy the young Irish poet on the train for Washington.
He arrived yesterday afternoon while I was in my graduate seminar, and no
sooner had I left the classroom than I became his host. I introduced him
at his reading (he read, incidentally, very well indeed) and then Susan
and I took him and Wallace Stevens' daughter (whochad wanted to meet him
and so also spent the night with us) to the Lawn Club for dinner and then
back to the house where about a dozen people came to meet him and have
drinks and stayed until one. It was two before I had washed the glasses
and got to bed. So this morning I was groggy not from drink but from
lack of sleep. I have dawdled the day, and feel better now. I shall
have to, for tonight we go to an evening of Indonesiaidancing in some
gala display which requires black tie.

Murphy had spent his time in New York staying with Patrick,
who had visited him in Ireland, as Pat told us when we were at Palisades.
I spoke of Claire MacAlester whose book of poems Pat had designed and
Knopf published, and of whom Horace and Marya think so highly. (I don't
care as much for her poetry, and find her personally flighty and demanding
on the two occasions I've seen her and the several letters and telephone
calls I've naswered. At any rate Pat had arranged the proper poetry reading
at the YMHA (which is like being presented at Court), it was advsertised
and Knopf was delighted. Then Claire phoned collect from Dublin to say she
didn't have the money for the plane ticket (the reading being only a few
days off), and so Pat had to put up half of the cost (to save his face) and
the YMHA (to save theirs.) I presume she is enjoying New York now. Pat didn't
have the courage, understandably, to go to Knopf for more money after that
de luxe edition of her poems.

Murphy had been at Magdalen, is a great sailor and lets his boats
with crew on charter off the west coast of Island, and seems to have no side.
I daresay Carew knows the family, for his father was Governor General of the
Bahamas (after Windsor) etc. I should think no money, however.

What a fine wind-up on your tribute to Hilda! I was a little
fearsome on seeing the first page, but suddenly on 2 and 3 you relaxed and
wrote warmly and freely. I am delighted, and congratulate you again. And
now, of course, among the other things to be done you must put your memoir
of Hilda. It will be important for her memory; indeed, not to have one from
you will seem both a deprivation and odd.

I give you the latest bulletin on the battle of manuscripts. The
big question now is, on this side, what will happen about the more important
ones at the B.M. My hunch is that they feel if they can get these from Yale,

it will make a precedent for the B.M.

More tomorrow.

All love, Norma

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

12 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

A quiet day and I hope I can get something accomplished. One accomplishment of a sort is to have sent off some representative pictures from our Charleston trip, which Susan and I thought you might like to have as an advance Christmas card, so that you could show it (or more properly them) if the inclination moved you to prove you had been south. All of them are from this last trip, except for a couple to show what Middleton Gardens are like when the azaleas are in blossom.

Last night we went dutifully the Indonesian Program in the President's Room, which was suitably heavy with incense for the dances and the music. It was all very special, the woman who danced was a princess from Surakarta, who is married to a graduate school of law; the male dancer was a second cousin of hers; and the music was recorded by a third graduate student who was the first to be allowed to do so, and the recital was the first given outside of the Kraton of the Susuhunan of Surakata (which seems to be the palace or a palace). The dances were lovely, and not altogether unfamiliar to us, and the sound of the gamelan reminded us of Cambodia. As patrons we were seated directly behind the President of Yale and the Ambassador, so could see beautifully.

One of the things I did accomplish yesterday was to have the new tape made of Hilda's reading from Helen which I am airmailing to Mardsen-Smedley today. It must go first class and will cost a fortune. But I hope it can add a little life, or rather a little extra life and interest to the program. I do my best.

A letter from Harcourt's says that Helen and Jovanovich are anxious to have the book on their spring list, and that you had agreed to this. I hadn't realised it was settled, but see no reason for not doing it if you want it then. I had not been sure about whether the Fall was to be eliminated from consideration.

As I told you, I liked the final result of the tribute to Hilda. I had only been afraid that you might get too involved with background like that of the Moravians, which is important but not so much so to the kind of program being presented.

A letter today from Judith Schmidt from Grove said that two copies of Hilda's poems were being sent to you airmail at the Sesame. As I told you, I sent to M-S and to Cleanth Brooks. She said also that ten copies were sent to you by surface to Kenwin. Pay no attention to any invoice which may have been included: I have already paid cash for both lots. And for some extra ones I ordered for myself to give away. So I can now send directly as you may wish.

Yesterday being a postal holiday, there were two letters from you in today's mail: one of the 7th and the other of the 9th. You must have been frightfully busy. Your visit with Kenneth and Islay sounded interesting. I can quite understand why leaving two places one has so much made his own must upset Kenneth.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

But the palazzo will seen be equally his. Why not go down with Elsie at Christmas, and have fun with a last glimpse of Rome and Anticoli, and then at least a quick sleigh ride through the snow to the palazzo? I am sorry Elsie didn't see Collins. Collins would have appreciated it.

Sorry to knock off at this point, but I must put in the post, taking the other package over at the same time. And then begin to work on next year's departmental budget.

Elsie and Pup.

All love, and greetings to

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

13 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I have been spending the day beginning on the University budget for next year, and going out to order Christmas cards. Both tasks seem a little ahead of time, though in fact they are not. At any rate the pursuit of crads braves me to put this year's U.S.A. Christmas stamps on this letter, a book of all four of them for Elsie. Personally I think they are hideous. I have no idea how the States developed their strange power to create horrors for the post.

Your letter of the 10th arrived yesterday after I had written you, and your note from Zurich on the 11th came this noon. I am, as you can imagine, delighted that Islay liked Avalon. I suspect he is a good judge of this sort of thing. And quite startled that Maggs should have sent me the concluding volume to a set for which you have the first two. A pity also, because I have already sent the books to the man who catalogues them, and he will have worked in vain on the oddment. Shall I send vol III to you? ---- The paintings Kenneth really always bought for investment. I don't think he particularly cares for them, or at least with the passion he saves for marble and etruscan figures. ----As I told you, having not been so keen on the tone of your first page on Hilda, I was completely won over by what followed. ----The Harcourt type of questionnaire seems to be standard practise. But I am against them, since the publicity people feel it does the work for them. ----Your Swissair experience was annoying. Why must they make their offices so inefficient, when once airbound they are so good.

The letters were not all my good fortune today, for the Grieder envelope arrived with my Christmas tie, for which my deepest bows and thanks. I shall not wait to wear it. It goes too well with my black suit.

On the whole things have moved quietly. I have had royalty statements from Grove on Hilda's books from January 1st to June 30th. 236 copies of the *Selected Poems* were sold domestically, and 10 foreign sales. I had a check for $35.99. One copy of *Helen in Egypt* was sold, for which I received .18. *Bid Me to Live is out of print* in the hard bound edition, and no sales were made. Of the paperback *Bid* (the sheets were bound in soft back rather than hard), none were sold but 146 were returned from the bookstores. So 21.36 was deducted from the earnings. Oh, I'm sorry: one copy of the paperback *Helen* was sold, no copies were sold of the hard cover edition. Alas, this isn't very good. And since I kept the *Selected Poems* in print by paying for the fourth printing, I am a little worried about whether *Helen* will really want to do the last poems. But of course I will not admit this to them. All of the efforts to keep her name before the public are important. That is one reason I am so grateful to you for making such an effort to go to the London commemoration.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

15 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

Oh yesterday was a sad one! Yale was beaten 35-14 by Princeton, and not even the fine fall weather could quite dimn the sadness of the second half, after it had begun with the game tied at 14-14. Neither team had been defeated, and the Ivy championship was stake. Still, what a superb team Princeton has. I wish you could have seen them play for the sake of display. But I am glad you saw Yale when she won, all the same.

I have been working steadily at my office all day, except for a period of taking leaves out of the gutters at Goodrich Street. Gutters to the house roof, of course. I tottered precariously on the ladder. Later Susan went to the shore, put away the last of the summer's laundry now finished by Mrs Heyda, and put her garden beds to sleep for the winter. At the office I wrote a four-page single-spaced report on the restoration of the Harriet Beecher Stowe House in Hartford, for which I am a consultant. And then wrote a two-page letter sadly to a former student who has written a long long play about himself and how people did not measure up to his expectations of them and how in committing suicide because he had divorced his wife and left his children, and his mistress wouldn't marry him when he pretended he didn't have any money, and his friends didn't understand his true value, he was (to repeat, in committing suicide) a tragic figure who had made a wonderful gift of his life in remaining true to his sense of values. I think everything about this is autobiographical except for the suicide. Mostly it is prose, but I can't resist quoting one beginning of a verse speach near the end of the play:

> And this, then, I now know
> That tonight I must go
> To lover, family, children, wife,
> I can give no more except my life.
> For one who was born and taught to give
> Without this birthright cannot live.

You can see, since I like him, and he admires and counts on me, why I found the letter difficult to write.

I didn't mention a yellowback which came on Friday, but which I did not read until yesterday. They were all good letters, rejoicing on your return to the proper hemisphere. I was amused in seeing the bill for the Swiss Family Robinson, from Maggs, that it cost more to have the books catalogued than it did to buy them. But don't worry I always pay for the cataloguing myself. # You are kind to take the blame for Neil's book, since I see in his letter that it was I who "said to me 'Why don't you write your autobiography?'" But he is right in knowing that I pick up the phrase from you. I will be glad to read it if he and you want me to, but I don't hold out much hope after my bad luck so far with Romaine's. Better send him to an agent in Britain. That makes most sense, I think. As for Margery Hicks, I can see you're in for it. She has her heart set on your financing the publication as you did for Hilda Quick. But of course she doesn't

see the difference between a solid book on birds, and a joggle-ended book on
one's self. Still, there can be no harm in it, and I would suggest getting
someone to doctor up a final paragraph or two. # Lethbridge is always interesting
and bewitched. He moves in a strange half-world. # So does Sachie, alas, and the
Sitwells would fly apart at the family seems if it were not for him. I wonder
if they understand this. I suspect they do. # George's letter was fine. I
think the Gibbs church he speaks of is the one I sent you a copy of, taken from
he side with you and Susan dimly in it. As I recall you have your head bowed
in prayer.

I can hardly dare hope this will reach you before the 20th, but I
shall be thinking of you all then. I hope London is not proving too tiring.
Susan joins me in love to Perdita, to Elsie, and to yourself naturally and of
course.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

17 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I wonder? Will this, with luck, reach you on the day of the
Commemoration? I rather hope so, for it will bring blessings and thanks
to you for going over and giving it, as Perdita's presences also especially
does, the sense of a tribute's being received and accepted by the family.
I had yesterday a very kind letter from Mrs M-S, asking also for permission
to quote unspecifics from my letter to her, or (instead) a fresh tribute.
But there is no time for that, and I am hardly a Pope to give blessings.
It is enough to be an altar boy emeritus, and give suggestions as to how
the mass can be celebrated.

A letter came too from Cleanth Brooks, who was just off to Italy
and will (I hope) be safely back by the 20th.

And yesterday's mail (Monday's) brought three letters from you:
of the 12th, 13th, and 14th, so that I felt well settled with you in London.
Especially interesting that Hester has some Moravians coming. So by no means
cut out your early part. In speaking to them you can remind that Hilda was
baptized in their church, and that her services at the grave were the Moravian
ones. I will see what I can discover about olive growing, but this is not
really a local problem in New Haven. I should think if the boys intend to
pursue olives as Doris did daffodils, that on their next trip they should
go to the West Coast where they may have such trees (do they water them with
martinis?). Or perhaps Islay and Kenneth too could take a night school adult
education course. But seriously, I will find out what I can. The U.S.
Department of Agriculture may be able to help me. They have pamphlets on
everything.

For some reason I had missed the review of Hilda Quick's book in
the TLS. The issue must have been overlooked by me, for when I went to the
Library this morning to see their copy I saw I had missed the interesting
article on the back page about cradle books at the BM. I was impressed. This
is a splendid boost, and written in just the right perceptiveness of her qualities
as well as just the right respect for her abilities. But oh dear, now Marjorie
will be disappointed if hers isn't reviewed in TLS.

Yes, you did send me *Absolute Beginners* and I was much impressed by
it. But I thought terms had changed since then.

I must prepare my seminar, and then set off for New York late this
afternoon for the second lecture on the Hawthorne exhibition. Fortunately not
by me, but I must pay my respects.

All love, suitably distributed.

Preliminary draft for the H.D. Commemoration on Friday, 13th November, 1964 at Headquarters of Poetry Society, 21 Earl's Court Square, S.W.5. at 6.45 p.m.

(NB. This is the scheduled time but we never begin until about 7 p.m.)

**Chair.** H.M.S. (unless somebody more suitable materialises which is quite likely).

## Programme.

Chairman's short introduction.

Tribute (also some biographical details) by Bryher ?

Reading of 3 or 4 poems with possibly a few introductory words to each.

Tribute by Cleanth Brooks. He suggests that this should take the form of showing what H.D. meant to all her contemporary poets and to those who are writing now. He feels very strongly about this and says he would only take 5 - 8 minutes but believes that in her Imag poetry she had a greater influence than anybody of her time before or since.

Reading of some more poems, particularly from the Imag period.

Tribute by Eric White and possibly others, read or in person (see note below).

Reading of more poems.

Chairman sums up briefly.

The whole should take not more than 1¼ hours but some poems will be ready in case more are asked for which often happens.

The reader or readers will be chosen by Joan Murray-Simpson, probably from among the excellent Gold Medallists or other readers belonging to or known to the Poetry Society. We did think of having an American reader but Cleanth Brooks is against this though if one suddenly materialises we might use her. It is possible that a tribute may come from T.S.Eliot and Dame Edith Sitwell. Mr. Brooks wonders whether we should write to Ezra Pound as they knew each other so well in the very early days.

## Important.

What do you think about asking Ezra Pound. It was Mr. Brook's suggestion and much of the follies of war years are now forgotten and he stood out among the poets of his era but I would very much like your view over this and will not write until I hear.

I have written to Norman Pearson whom I know will send a tribute. in words or by telegram. Do please suggest anybody else who comes to your mind.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

5 November 1964

Dear Mrs Marsden-Smedley,

Your letter of the 27th has just arrived -- the
mails seem slower lately, even by air -- and I had not had your earlier
letter about the commemorative evening for H.D. I had heard of it, of
course, for Bryher was with us for three weeks in October. She is, as we
all are, deeply pleased at this tribute to a poet who was certainly one
of the finest of our century. I only wish I might be there on November
20; alas, the classroom confines me.

You are kind to ask for any suggestions I might
have, and letting me share in this way even though remotely and inadequately.
I am sure the readers of her poems will have choices of their own (as all
readers of poetry should have). Let me simply suggest a few that I like
and feel are representative of her work as a whole. It is important that
the range of her work be represented, and that she not be tied to a definition
of imagist poetry. Of the Imagist poems, I should think Oread and Heat
make sharp examples. Few modern writers have written better songs, if
we can use the term, than: Nevr More Will The Wind, and From Citron-Bower.
A fine and characteristic early poem is Adonis. Then of a later type,
I like very much The Moon in Your Hands, Sigil, Fire Flood & Olive Tree.
And what better epitaph has any poet written for herself (Yeats perhaps
did) than her own Epitaph, a part of which is on her tombstone in Bethlehem
Pennsylvania, and all of which I read at her grave during the last services.
But I should be personally sorry if at her commemorative exercises someone
did not read from her war trilogy (The Walls Do Not Fall, Tribute to the
Angels, and The Flowering of the Rod). The trilogy is one of the finest
war poems of WW II; and she is with Eliot in the Four Quartets, Pound in
the Pisan Cantos, and Dame Edith in poems like "Still Falls the Rain," and
example of the creation for the first time in English of civilian war poetry.
There are selections in the Selected Poems I am sending separately, but I
might suggest "An Incident here and there..."(p.71) which gives the consequences
of the raids so unforgettable; "there is a spell for instance (p.73); "In me(the
worm) clearly..."(76), and "O heart, small urn...(p.81). And I think the sequence
in the selection from The Flowering of the Rod, of the flight of geese, is
a splendid one. Do try to persuade them that H.D. was a poet and not simply an
Imagist.

In case you want something which the English public does not know
from her later poetry, let me quote two other fragments of her poetry which were
read at her grave. The first was also used on the announcement of her death
(in the continental fashion):

and the apparent veil),
Helen -- come home.

It occurs to me that if in relation to her poetry you might like
a substitution for one of your periods of reading selected poems, there are
two possibilities which might be a novelty. The BBC must have a tape of
their production of her translation of the *Ion*, since I am still occasionally
paid royalties for its broadcasts in Great Britain and throughout the
Commonwealth. As you know, her translation has often been praised above
Murray's. A scene or two from it might be listened to with pleasure.

Or another possibility would be for you to play at least excerpts
from a tape recording which H.D. made for me from *Helen in Egypt* before it
was published. (it was this book, as you may know, which arrived only a
day or two before her 75th birthday, and was more or less with her at her
death shortly afterwards.) The recording has never been published, and I
should have to ask for the tape back. But it is beautifully read by her
(she had real dramatics powers) and between the selected passages she has
the prose bridges which were later incorporated into the text of the book.
They make a kind of contrapuntal effect. That is, first she gives the
story; then she makes a sort of poetic meditation upon it. If you do wish
this, so that many could for the first time since the wartime Reading
before the Queen hear Hilda's own beautiful voice, then I think you had
better cable me collect at Yale, so that I can have a copy of the tape
made. I could then airmail the tape to you.

Your final question was, I think, in relationship to the use of
her copyrighted material. There will be no problem in this respect. As owner
of the copyright to H.D.'s poem, and as her literary executor, I am

happy to grant to the Poetry Society permission to use any material
by her for the commemorative evening. And as her friend, I am grateful
for the honor the Society does her.

With all best wishes for the success of the meeting,

Sincerely,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

6 November 1964

Dear Cleanth,

Forgive me for not having answered immediately your letter about the H.D. commemorative meeting. And forgive me too for never having written you about names which might be useful as contacts in London. For both of course I am sorry, although at the same time I am confident that your goldfishbowl life has already far too many contacts. What you might appreciate more is an address to which you could slip away for a moment of peace.

Still, as you know, I am deeply grateful to you for agreeing to speak at The Poetry Society's meeting. Having had a letter from Mrs Marsden-Smedley a couple of days after yours, I wrote her last night at length and enclose a copy for your edification. I think it answers a good many of her questions. Separately, since you may not have such a thing quickly at hand, I am airmailing you a copy of H.D.'s *Selected Poems* and the first two volumes of her war-trilogy. In arranging the poems in *Selected Poems*, indeed in choosing them, I was trying to get away from the usual identification of her work simply with imagism. This was an achievement but only a phase of it. Imagism was a kind of exercise which one practised and then turned away from or incorporated into a longer and thematic poetry. Her quality of eye was indeed splendid as she transformed what she saw into the magic of words. But what I think was even more remarkable was the quality of her ear. In this respect she is almost faultless for those who hear poetry as well study. And it is this controlled freedom of line, continually developed and perhaps reaching its highest development in her poems of the last decade that is really responsible for her revived prestige. For younger poets like Denise Levertov and Robert Duncan she is a kind of goddess, and through them and what they say, this generation and their younger followers are discovering and being influenced by her. This is for the same reason that they read parts of the *Cantos* and are especially interested in the later lines of William Carlos Williams. It is of course a kind of rebellion against the formalism of poets like Richard Wilbur and the modern neo-Augustans. For this younger group too--and I am talking about influences--there is an appeal to the kind of half-Freddian half-Jungian association of symbols on the basis of a freedom of association. This is again a sort of rebellion against the metaphysical tightness of the formalists. At any rate, H.D.'s influence has been felt in two directions and at two times. She is a poet not much written about critically, as you know, but she is a poet who is known by almost everyone. And when she was given the Gold Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the first woman to win it, I think the award really surprised no one.

Denise Levertov has by the way written poems to her, and in Robert Duncan's latest book (just about to be published by Harper's) there are two longish groups of poems written to her and about her. He is the writer of a book about her which is really about herself (as a

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

book by a poet about a poet usually is and probably should be). I enclose
a little tribute by Marianne Moore (who was a classmate of hers at Bryn
Mawr, and whose first book H.D. was responsible for getting published),
and a note by Horace Gregory.

We get along departmentwise, tho Louis Martz is a little
taken down by resuming responsibilities as chairman he thought he had
relinquished. But he is excellent, as one knows he would be. We are
lucky. Ted I am told improves, and Sue Hilles asked me yesterday
why I hadn't been to call. Not going because his situation used to
be otherwise, I shall go now.

Bryher will be staying after the 10th at the Sesame Club on
Grosenor Street, just down the road from your eagle. Perdita Schaffner,
H.D.'s daughter, arrives on the 13th. I know Bryher would like seeing you
and Tinkum if you had a free moment. You can exchange news of Leslie
and Mary.

Susan joins in affectionate greetings to Tinkum and yourself.
And please to remember me to David Bruce when you see him next.

Sincerely,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

19 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I shall risk this to Sesame, but send the next one to
you in care of Petrie. And to get it out as soon as possible (there
not having been a yesterday's letter) I do it in the morning when
I should be at the budget, or preparing for an afternoon's oral
examination for the doctorate. (Fortunately I'm giving it--not taking
it.)

I hoped yesterday to write you from the Stanhope, to
give you a whiff of nostalgia. I had intended staying at the Yale
Club but there was no room for me, and the Stanhope luckily could
take me in. A very nice room in back, at no more than the Yale
Club charges for much less attractive accommodations. I went down after
my seminar, as before, had an elaborate dinner as a guest at Delmonico's
along with other dignitaries of the Grolier, and then went on for the
talk that night. On how to edit a Hawthorne text--useful if you are
going to edit a text, not so useful if you are not. The next morning
Leon Edel came at 9 for two hours to make plans for the conference
he and I are co-chairing at the Modern Language Association. I have
always liked him, and I find he is an enthusiast and collector of Hilda's
prose, because of its links with the stream of conscienciousness movement.
He likes Palympsest especially. I think I may give him copies of the
private three, since he will probably write on the movement eventually.
Afterwards I went to Carlebach's to pick up a ring I had left their for
appraisal (his widow intends to try to keep it going), and then on the
Klejman to look at his accumulation of eskimo carvings. He has some
fascinating new things since I went there last almost two years ago:
good carvings of figures, and the first Siberian carvings I have seen.
But Mr K was out of town and his wife did not know the prices. I may
perhaps go back, and see whether anything is within range. There were
goodies all over, and I wonder if much that used to go to Spinks isn't
being drained off towards this side. He had some splendid pieces of
stone from Khajuraho which I lusted for, and two absolutely superb large
Khmer statues from Angkor Wat which the Metropolitan is dickering over.
They are real masterpieces. Then I went back to the Grolier and checked
transcriptions of three letters I had seen only photostats of before. I
picked up a missing comma or two, which the photostat had blurred.

I took yours of the 15th with me to read on the train, and
your letter of the 16th came this morning. You keep frighteningly on the
go, but I am happy you could have seen George. I had a note and catalogue
from O.B.'s Max, which was pleasant to get. And Hilda's bird book was in
the post this morning. Very attractive at first glance. The drawings add
immensely. Many thanks for the report on Oleson's book. I think we can
skip. What a bore with your typewriter. Can't Agnes have it fixed while
you are out. I'm sure something can be done. If not I bring you another
on my next trip to England, and simply leave it. You can't be thwarted in
this way. Letters from Helen, with the question of the German microfilms
still unsettled. I think she is deeply upset about the matter, but alas
beyond a certain point I can do nothing. I am whimpering a bit about

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

20 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

It is raining, or rather drizzling but even so little is welcome, the drought being so severe. About a half inch has fallen, but we are over a foot behind in rainfall, and Susan prays each night for moisture to come before the ground freezes.

Fortunately I wrote you yesterday morning, for the afternoon left little time free. From 4-6 came the doctoral oral examination (I am glad to say the candidate passed), then was the annual dinner of Jonathan Edwards College, and I left this in time to go to the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences to hear (of all things) a long lecture on an Edward Forbes, an English oceanographer of the mid-19th century. But I did not go for that but really to please Inghold the president, and because being myself a vice-president I thought I ought to make my first appearance at a meeting in two years. My absences are not wilfull, but only because there seems to be some inevitable conflict.

Now I am about to go out to the house with the curator of the Grolier Club, to go over some of the Elizabethan books for the show there in December. He is at the Taft and I have made him walk over through the rain. With me I shall take the *Swiss F. Rob.* volumes, and thought you might be interested in Leon Nemoy's comment when he was cataloguing them. He says of the pencilled notation (perhaps by Maggs): "So far as I can find out, the pencilled notation on the title-page ("ca. 1830") seems to be mistaken. The Bibliothèque Nationale catalogue has not yet reached the letter W, but under Gerard it lists the 1842 edition, and refers for later editions to Wyss. Lorenz's periodic list of French imprints lists an 1845 edition. The translator seems to have been a little known figure and is not listed in the usual French biographical lexicons. I would suppose that this is a post 1842 impression issued at a lower price." I simply thought you might be interested. This makes the volume no less interesting, though perhaps a little less valuable. And is one reason why I like having the books catalogued.

"About to" turned into "am going", and now I have gone and returned and it is afternoon. He was much impressed with the collection, and has gone off with long notes on what might fit into the general scheme.

One worries of course about the tape and its safe arrival in time for the commemoration. I can only pray it has.

A letter from Islay asks about advice on growing olives. I shall do what I can, but it rather seems as though I shall have to take an introductory course first. I have the impression they raise olives in California but am not sure. At any rate I am sure eventually I can run it down. Apparently they expect eventually to have the harvests pay for

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

the upkeep of the park and gardens, "so the matter of increasing our yields is obviously important." I only hope not too important, for it would be risky calculating if a balanced budget depended on the two boys as agriculturists. Somehow landscape gardening is different. However, I am still confident all will work out. They are skilled in landing on their feet.

A letter came also from John Schaffner, asking if Susan and I could lunch with Pup and himself, and Valentine and other boys who would be returning to New York for Thanksgiving weekend. My own hunch is that Valentine, like most boys, would prefer to leg it for town rather than sit around while adults talked to themselves. But it would certainly be a wonderful chance to hear about the trip from Perdita. And as John writes of Valentine, "I think he should have the privilege of getting to know his godfather better." A long time has passed since the christening, but I can remind the ceremony and the reception afterwards as though edged on crystal.

I envy you your visit to Ireland and the chance to see the
carews. Do give them my and Susan's greetings, and keep your eyes
sharp for all possible impressions to write me about.

All love as always,

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

21 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

All day I have been nagged at by figures, as I tried to make out my next-to-the-last step in preparing the budget. The last step coming on Monday when I go to the Provost to try to get approval for the extra dollars that appear for next year according to my reckoning. I usually forget something of vital importance. This year I hope I won't.

I cheated however a bit, by bring the small transistor
radio down to the office in my briefcase. I tuned in just as the
last quarter of the Harvard 'ale football game had twelve minutes
left. Yale was ahead 14-12. I proved a jinx. Almost immediately
Harvard scored another touchdown, and won the game 18-14. Alas,
at the beginning of the season, and when you were here, most of us
thought Yale would be champion. Now they are the lowest in the Big Three.

I wonder of course about yesterday's commemoration, whether
the tape arrived safely, and if it turned out as well as it should have
done. I only wish I might have been there.

Now after we entertain tonight two couples from the teaching
staff of American Studies, the first of a long series of such gestures,
I shall have to wake up tomorrow in time for a morning visit from Mrs
Van Wyck Brooks who wants to see me about a memorial library for her
husband, in Bridgewater, the little town where they lived. I believe she
has given his library to it. But what she wants of me, except for money
I can't guess. Then after lunch I must drive to Andover Massachusetts to
talk at 6:45 to some 80 prospective freshmen at Yale next year. The one who
should have done so, was suddenly called abroad. I shall try to drive back
after the talk, and will be tired when I get here. But I don't want to
spend the night there and get on the road at dawn. I can never work afterwards,
when I do so.

I forgot to say that Grove Press says that 5,000 copies a week are
selling of *Last Exit to Brooklyn*, and is the firm's fastest selling book. So
Roysce Smith at least kept you in touch. I picked up a copy at the Co-op to
glance through as I stood at the counter. It is interesting to see the fake
experimentalism in the writing: a watered-down version of Henry Miller and
Burroughs. I probably should read it, but would not defend it in the courts.

Sorry to write such a stupid letter. If only I were in Ireland
I should flourish.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

22 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

Mrs Brooks having come to the house and left, I have stopped in at the office to put my wits together about whatever I can say tonight at Andover. But this gives me a chance to risk one final letter to you in Ireland, and it hardly matters whether it reaches you in time or needs forwarding to Switzerland by Petrie. Do give her and her husband our greetings of course. We still look forward to our Irish visit.

Alas, I couldn't be too encouraging to Van Wyck Brooks' widow as she outlined plans of the village of Bridgewater (pop.1,000) to build a wing to the local library which would contain a replica of his study and space enough for small community gatherings, plus perhaps converting their large house into another sort of memorial for other meetings (in the attic). All of this money is to come from gifts, or from that fairy-godmother of all dreaming: a foundation. In this case the wing was to be a pilot project for small cultural centers throughout America; altho as Mrs Brooks said herself, the parents never go to the free lectures they already have, and only children take out books. As for the attic, I told her she had better see a fire-marshall, for I know from Hartford and the student center how strict they can be against a public trapped at the top. She had thought of people contributing to buy collections of all the minor people Van Wyck wrote about (the major ones being too expensive), but she agreed that no one would go to BRidgewater to use them, and the farmers are unlikely to be interested in Isadora Duncan. Actually I wasn't unkind, and I think she appreciated hearing some of the problems that must realistically faced.

The dinner party last night seemed to go off well, and the two members of the staff (who had never met each other before) and their wives hit it pleasantly. At any rate they did not leave until midnight, and there were the dishes still to be done by us.

Will you, sometime when you write send me Inez's last name, so that we can mail her a Christmas present. Or is it better sent as though to you? I must confess what your Christmas present is, since we need your counsel on it. Susan bought you at Mark Cross's the little suitcase which slips under a plane seat and is, she says, light as a feather. And has had it marked with a B, so there can be backing away from it. Can we send this to you as a Christmas gift without your having to pay duty on it? Or would it be better for me to take it as my own when we meet in Istanbul where it can be transferred? If it can be shipped it, and the Swiss won't squeel, then of course you can have it to use beforehand, when you go to Rome to see the boys, or to Israel with Elsie, or back to London for the pantomimes.

And now to plan my talk----. I will send the next letter in care of Sesame.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

23 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

Your letters of the 19th and 20th arrived this morning, and when a third was in the afternoon's mail I opened it with excitement to know if the proper tape-player had been found in the United Kingdom. But the letter was that of the 18th, so I am still in ignorance of whether a solution was found. It is almost incredible that not even at the American Embassy could be found a machine that would play at the normal American speed. And since at least many German models can, like phonographs, be adjusted to whatever speed is necessary, I am equally surprised that the British models don't have to accomodate tapes shipped from parts of the continent where the 15rpm is the rule. Anyhow, the solution may have been found after all, and in any event I am sure the commemoration was a great success.

I feel a little exhausted today after my 300 mile drive yesterday afternoon, and at night after the talk. But I had a chance to visit with Dudley Fitts before the meeting, the talk itself was apparently successful, and I could start back by eight o'clock. I stopped to eat and shift my bones, at a Howard Johnson Restaurant, and reached home at 11:15. This morning I have worked at my desk, after lunch saw the head of the Wesleyan Press for an hour (he had come to ask suggestions for new members of their poetry board, and I hope you will approve that even before he came I had told him over the phone that I could not go back on.) Now I am waiting to see the Provost about next year's budget, and I fortunately can wait in my office since he is already 3/4 of an hour late. This means, perhaps fortunately, that I will not have to go to the poetry reading by Anthony Hecht at 4:30 (it now being 4:15), but I shall have to go on to dinner with Hecht (whom I do not know) afterwards.

I am astonished about any reluctance towards Avalon on the part of Collins, and can only imagine that you must be right in feeling some connexion with their dislike of Beowulf. Yes, they want the same thing over and over. But you have written a beautiful and a different book, and if they don't want it perhaps we can find someone who does. I think, however, in the end they will take it. Don't be typed!

Your comments after seeing Ronnie Edwards are most enlightening. I was much interested in your visits with the Sitwells, and you certainly managed to see a covey of them. I am sorry about Persia, but perhaps we can do Turkey, or if not there then Israel. I have written the Agricultural Experiment Station here to ask if they can direct me to someone on the west coast who will know about olive culture. And now that you say this is something which has been introduced into Greece by the Americans, I can no doubt find out by writing the Embassy in Athens. I wait first however to learn what I hear, if anything, from the Experiment Station. Since Islay writes that they are counting on the income from the olives to pay for the upkeep of the park etc., and need to increase the returns in order to do that, I must try to help in any way I can. # I will inquire about the

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

gynaecologist in Boston. I am sure that someone at the Yale Medical School will know. My pursuit of knowledge will take me into all corners of the university. I have also been written to about the missionary collections at the Yale Divinity School, so that I can inquire as to whether or not Japanese material is included.

I should be able to get off another note tomorrow and
still reach you in London. But this will at least welcome you back
to the Seaweb from Petrie's.

If you write from London, don't forget to tell me if
Horse is correct for Hilda.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

25 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I take the chance of one more letter to the Sesame before
you leave, and my next (probably not until Friday) will go to Kenwin.
We had a nice luncheon at the Lawn Club with Perdita and John, Valentine
and one of his friends from Choate (a young Ceylonese whose father is in
the UN.N.) whom they were taking back to New York. Both Pup and John
seemed well, and Perdita was most explicit in her gratitude for the trip
and her pleasure in it. Perhaps, feeling a little securer, for one reason
or another, she wants and likes to renew contacts with her London friends.
And, interestingly enough, she now seems to find strength in her relation-
ship to Hilda, and a very real satisfaction and pleasure in being with
you. Most of your details of the commemoration of Hilda she repeated in
her own account, and although I did not learn much new from what you had
written it was fine to hear it all viva voce.

Valentine was quite talkative for him, and although quiet
and a little prim in his speach he was nevertheless poised and even
outgoing in his manner. He never clammed up when asked a question, and
even seemed to like being asked them. He spoke of his enjoyment in his
visit at Kenwin and the good time he had had with Elsie on their excur-
sions. The Ceylonese boy had been at the same school in New York and so
qualified as an old friend.

I was most grateful for your account of the evening, sensing
somehow that it was not easy for you either to attend or to write about.
I understand: too much was involved, too much must have come back agoniz-
ingly. Yet how grateful I am that you went, and that Perdita went too.
Hester must have done a splendid job, and Perdita confirmed how well the
meeting had been organized. This morning's mail brought a letter from
Erik White with his little memorial address enclosed. Would you like me
to send you a copy? I shall have one made for Perdita, who asked for it.

It was distressing to hear the news about Bayliss. I remember
him well, and his particular contributions. I hope he will either recover
or not have to linger.

Yes, I am not surprised that Maggs has little in the B&F line.
Copies can sometimes be obtained but usually only in the Picasso price range.
Marryat has always been a favorite of collectors. Perdita reports well of
the new Angus Wilson which she read on the plane. As for Sylva, I am sure
she would like to come back and I hope some day that she will. But second
crops of roses do not always carry the same bloom to the blossoms; I only
hope she will not be disappointed. She is, I think too, rather tied down
by being back with mama after her holiday. The English mamas!

All love as always

27 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

I slog away, --my how I slog! But with a post-Thanksgiving holiday at Yale, and not even Mrs Dingle in to share the office--I really begin to make headway again at my desk. I celebrated properly yesterday and did not come to the office at all. This is a kind of record. Instead, Susan and I cleaned the backhall closet, at the head of the stairway to your kennel, and I burned bales of dried flower arrangement material which Susan sensibly decided was now a fire hazard as well as unuseable. There were even wedding presents from her first marriage which we are denoting to the church rummage sale when it next comes, and things we have collected which can go, and light bulbs that fit no sockets. It is a joy to have all that space to fill up again with similar things.

At noon we went to the Lawn Club, with Mrs Bennett and Mrs Wright, following the pattern of the Thanksgiving dinner you and I had there when Susan was in France. Not to eat at home seemed at first to Susan to be treasonable, but in the end not to have had to cook was heavenly, and it was at least relaxing to go home for a nap instead of having to wash dishes.

Your letter of the 22nd was in this morning's mail, but of course there was no mail yesterday and it no doubt would have arrived then. I shall wait patiently from now on until you are back at Kenwin and can read this. I did send two letters I think in care of Petrie, but she will forward them so that you see them eventually. I am glad that Melitta actually appears happier, but as I told you I think her letters indicate a good deal of release from tension. The slowness of refitting her house is, I feel sure, patterned to her needs. # You were of course absolutely right to join The Poetry Society. It was fine of Hester to hold the meeting. I shall write to thank her, but feel I should wait until after her almost certain letter to me. Otherwise I would seem already to have known all about it.

I had a nice letter from Mrs Wilson (Susan's distant cousin) in Charleston to whom and to her mother I sent Artemis and ate. She was already well into Artemis and enjoying it. The old dame, her mother, will as well. I sent ate also to Mrs Young, who had asked me for something of yours. Don't forget to check on your supply of the various books at Kenwin, so that I can order for you. Better for me to order, and I can keep the accounts straight.

One of my Thanksgiving day delights was to read The Lord of the Harvest, so that I could properly understand the point of the preface which you bought as manuscript from Dean. Not at all strangely, I liked the novel. It was unpretentious but with little flashes of realism that were unexpected. And it was rather nice to read about how risque it is when a man puts his arm around a girl's waist (one can't be too careful), instead of a scene in Last Exit to Brooklyn at which the book opened when I picked it up curiously at the Co-op. Oddly enough, the latter seemed flat and uninteresting in comparison to the former. Which is only to say how much better the imagination does when stimulated rather than taught to spell.

I feel a kind of exhilaration in putting this sheet into the
typewriter for it is really the last of your farewell bounty. But I am
always grateful for such gifts, and yesterday in cleaning the back
garret I found a dozen only slightly soiled envelopes which I shall
use in paying bills. Susan thought they could be tossed away; I think
they will (under the circumstances) be welcomed by the recipients.

Some day you must meet Wesley Needham who is mentioned in the
account of the new Tibetan acquisitions at Yale. I like the fact that
he has made himself into an expert in this way, without ever having
been able to go either to Tibet or to India. But the Lamas come to
him, and Yale must now, with these additions, have the beginnings of
a truly important collection. I gave Needham a copy of the Gandharan
book for which he is still grateful, his spare pennies being few.

I am impressed by the fact that at Sotheby's one bids for art
only in raises of a thousand pounds, as Mr Wilson explained. I somehow
feel very small indeed, for I should have gasped in lifting the bid
by a hundred. Much better for me to stick to eskimo art.

I shall be eager to hear about Ireland, and your return. And
to know what M. beney thinks about the British financial situation.
As for Africa, I can only say that stormings of American consulates
or not, Russian protests or not, I applaud the rescue of nationals
in a siege like this. I think I am returning to the philosophy of
empires.

All love, as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

29 November 1964

Dearest Fido,

If only this long weekend had one day more! But being through Thursday until Monday morning, any longer would have been a week instead of a weekend. Still it has been a special kind of bliss to have the office to myself (not quite, for even this afternoon a visiting Japanese girl and a visiting Korean came to the office to pay respects). What have I done? Answered innumerable letters, so that I think all but one of the absolute necessaries have been accomplished. Gone over innumerable papers to jot down my opinions on them. Written an unfavorable review of a rather silly series of art cards which are supposed to deal with the History of American Sport and are published by the Wemyss Foundation of Wilmington, Delaware, of which I am "supposed" to be an adviser. Finished reading a medium sized book on Eugene O'Neill, in manuscript, for the Wesleyan Press. I voted against it. Read some 500 pages of letters from one-and-all to Sara Teasdale, a book on which a friend-by-correspondence has been working for years. I enjoyed it, liking people and how they work, and I found especially interesting the kind of middle-world in which lady poets of that period existed (all filled with overtones of this and that). But, alas, who would buy it, and if one didn't know Miss Teasdale at least by reputation (as few younger than myself today do) I fear it wouldn't mean much. So, reluctantly, I told the Shoe String Press, for whom I read it, no. Then I read the galley proofs of an edition of the poems of Frederick Tuckerman, for the Oxford University Press, and wrote them a little blurb on it for the jacket (I presume). And now today I have read 150 pages of a manuscript of a book on Gertrude Stein which was sent me by the University of Pennsylvania Press. I have only 75 more pages to go and should be able to finish it tonight after we return from a card party given by the Dean of Yale College (so we cannot well not go.) Last night we had two couples from the American Studies staff for dinner: the author of the Fenollosa book, and the Indian couple whom Susan and I saw when we were in Delhi. He is now back here teaching for three years. Your letter of the 24th came, I think, yesterday, which was not bad from Ireland. And I liked your description of the countryside, which is of course just that dimmed gray and green which I sometimes associate with England itself. And always with watercolor. One forgets that these are realistic, not simply romanticised. I am in no hurry for the tape, but am pleased if a group is interested in hearing it. It was probably just as well that it could not be played, for the program was long enough as it was, and as Pup says to have heard just a voice would have been unbearably ghostly and frightening. I should think most things work for the best in the long run. At least it is nice to think so.

You must be relieved to be back at Kenwin again, with a regular routine and I hope not too many letters to be answered. Or too much to think about for Christmas. Don't forget, we are already beautifully taken care of.

All love as always,