NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN · CONN

2 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

Things have seemed somewhat topsy-turvy during the past few
days, and having endured a form of dysentery I at last phoned the doctor
about it today. He seemed to know all about it without my having to go
to the office, phoned the corner druggist to place a prescription (which
Mrs Dingle fetched for me) and put me on a liquid diet for the next two
days. I phoned Susan to warn her about dinner, and found she had already
thawed a small turkey which she can now enjoy in solitary dignity while
I lap my soup. Fortunately, because of the flu and cold shots I am not
really miserable. Just washed out. My having taken Prof. Cary (from Kyoto)
to a massive steak dinner last night at Mory's did not help me much. Nor
having before that been to a poetry reading by Kenneth Koch, and taking him
for a drink or two to show there had been no ill will in my not dining with
him. Susan believes this constant round of public appearances doesn't help
to build up my strength, but I know no very good way to dodge them at this
season. Oh yes, yesterday noon I had to go to a luncheon committee meeting
for the next-June alumni seminars. How much cheaper it would have been for
my noontime host and for me last night had I already been limited to liquids.

As a result I have missed writing to you, yesterday at least, and
perhaps before. But how lucky I have been with the card and four letters
from Ireland when I had expected none. I think Ireland must be anxious to
keep close contacts with its colonial possessions. I am sure, post-Kennedy,
they cannot regard the States otherwise. Your routine at Ballinomona brings
back my visits to the Trevelyans who led perhaps more arduous lives themselves,
but insisted on hours such as you kept, perhaps in order to keep the guests
away. One has to have adequate reading, and it was thoughtful of Petrie to
provide it. I am glad you had this sudden re-baptism into the Freudian stream,
both with Petrie and Lettice Cooper. (Cooper reminds me: did you ever find out
anything about schools for the local Cooper here?) Like yourself I am a little
curious as to just why this sudden need on Petrie's part. I think Oonnagh's
apparent settling in may have left her (Petrie) without enough to occupy herself.
It is hard for me to think of her as finding Ireland absolutely satisfying.
Perhaps even the schedule you describe is not completely her cup of tea.

Your two letters from the Sesame arrived today. Yes, do ask Michael
about Ankara. We want very much to do Ireland, but think particularly that
this may be the last chance to do Ankara and environs with the Gough's help.
So that even if March, say from the 16th on is not the very best weather, it
is the one time possible. Don't just say March to them without specifying which
end of it you mean.

The tape arrived from Marsden-Smedley; alas, sent airmail, and I had
said surface would be fine. I only sent airmail to speed its way to her. I
had thought perhaps I would hear from her also, but no letter has come so I
will acknowledge anyhow over the weekend. I do want to pass on to her all the
nice things that have been said to me about the evening.

I must rush off now to the International Student Center for a board
meeting, but first will taxi home to pick up Susan's car. I took mine

this morning to the garage to have it prepared for the winter.

4 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

This is really a note, just a report to let you know
that I exist and will write at some length tomorrow. I have had
an extra seminar period this afternoon, and must now rush out to
the garage to pick up my Oldsmobile which they have had for the
past three days. Alas, it will have been washed and polished. Now
it is pouring outside, and instead of elegance I shall appear be-
draggled. Then I take the car back to the parking lot by the office
and trudge through the rain to the reception given by the History of
Art Department. Then back to the office and pick up my things. Then
to the house and dress (in white tie and tails) for the Assembly tonight.
I should be starting earlier but Mrs Dingle will take me to the garage.
In the downpour I could not hope for a cab. However first she must
finish what seems to be a very long letter to her daughter.

I had an egg to eat this morning. Otherwise I have kept
on a liquid diet, and am sick of it though perhaps well because of
it. However, I can eat as of tonight and will no doubt be livlier
tomorrow.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

those to be caught up with. Of the 28th, 29th and the 1st. Actually I think I may have answered these anyhow. I often do, then take home for Susan to read, and afterwards forget whether I have commented or not. Many thanks in any event for Ines's name. I had forgotten about the Mme. And a very good idea about collecting *Swiss Family R* en masse. Yale, for example, has a fascinating similar collection with editions of *Robinson C*. Oh yes, while I think of it, I did send off a group of science fiction and espionage that you left for Susan to read and then be sent along. If some came that shouldn't have, you can always pass on to the English group. *Bryaa* if no other. I did like Marianne's letter. She has such great affection and loyalty. Susan does not have the Hugo Awards, but I shall keep an eye open. She has been reading like mad, and twice has taken a S-F to New York on the train only to find she has already read it. Yesterday the hairdresser gave her a mystery story laid on Nantucket, in which a leading role was played by a Mrs Winchester Bennett. Surely it can't be simply a coincidence. The author must have heard of Susan's mother. I think I wrote you that Mrs M-S had written. I am still sorry about her sending the tape back by airmail. I think I shall send her a cheque for $25.00 to cover all costs of this, and the effort to dub a tape. If she spent it, she can keep it; if the Society did, then it can go as a gift to their treasury.

The two yellowbacks came, and your clipping about aborigines and flower arrangements was a triumph! Susan was delighted and puts it away amongst her treasures. Who knows when she may work it into a book or a lecture. I was much interested in the article about Sir Ronney. I should think he would do better to stick with his Electricity Council. I suspect he may be in for a peerage one day. I hope so; he deserves it, certainly.

We have had wretched weather during the week, and only the fact that we needed rain has made thr einch and a half of it bearable. But it has been cold also, and we are very lucky indeed not to have had snow in huge drifts. If only we can get still more rain before the ground freezes, Susan will be happy.

Any news from Collins?

All love,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

8 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

Two days have gone by and I have not had a chance to write
you. Sunday I hardly expected to, for I had only a couple of hours at
the office in the morning, with things desperately needing to be done.
Monday however I had intended the last of the afternoon for you, only
to discover in the nick of time I was supposed to be at an English Dept
appointmentsment committee meeting from 4:30 on. This morning, again, I
had hoped to write, but there were interruptions. Tuesday afternoons I
have my seminar until 4, and immediately there was a meeting of English
Dept professors of all grades. Now, almost as I finish this paragraph
I must go to Jonathan Edwards College for a duty dinner with undergraduates.
A thing I do not relish. I shall come back to the office tonight however
so that no longer will go by. For tomorrow I am scheduled to go to New York
to go over the Visa details with Helen. She has been most patient.

Ah, what sadness! I had cabled Bertram Rota about the Bantamtyne
letters, and have now heard they were already sold by the time my cable arrived.
Last Saturday Gallup phoned me with a catalogue from Fletcher, in England,
with a whole series of long and interesting letters from Henty advertised.
Quite the best I have heard of: about titles for his books, visits as a
correspondent (I gathered) and the like. Eight letters altogether. I cabled
of course, but have no hope of getting those either. This is a real miss,
since it puts to shame all the letters I now have. I shall try to trace
down the new owners of the Henty if, as is certain, they do not come here.

Tomorrow also I will take in the B&F folio in the Charles II
binding. They have phoned from New York and asked for it.

Now I am back from the dinner, and will write at least a paragraph
or two before taking it to the postoffice. It is too late for anything to be
collected from the postbox. The dinner was interesting, though time-consuming.
But the undergraduate has certainly changed. One of the bous was just back from
two years in Saigon, where his father is with the State Department. He seemed
most knowledgeable. Another was also back from two years in India and Australia,
and a summer in Germany. His now-dead father had been a heavy British industrial-
ist. There seemed to be very few "sheltered" ones among the students. The face
of America is changing. At least the face of Yale is changing.

This afternoon yours of the 4th arrived. But of dear, I ought not
to thank you for the wonderful check now that a Spinkerie will come as my
late Christmas or New Yaer's present. I bow deeply in gratitude. But let it be
my birthday gift, for filled with lust and the power of the check I am going to
go back to Klejman's, see what prices they put on the objects in which I ex-
pressed interest, and if there is something just right I shall buy it.

I pity you with the cold. This morning it was 10°F when we got up,
and on Saturday night we had a snowstorm which is still with us on the ground.
How lucky I am to have already had my car winter-prepared, with even the snow

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

tires already on. Still, despite the snow and cold I know you must have
enjoyed Ethel's visit. Tell me a little more about what you learned from
her about Joan. And now the Goughs. I do hope they will say we can do the
Ankara visit at the end of March. I am so sorry about Archie Aldridge. I
can't quite help thinking that the remove to Switzerland was perhaps not the
best possible shift for them to make. I don't think you should try to go
over even if funds are running low. One can help, if indicated, but not by
emotional involvement. I doubt that this would help Archie's state of mind,
and I think one has to be slightly careful of Wendy after his death.

I half suspect eventually the Hotsons will want to spend most of their time in Maine. I wonder if he doesn't feel all right more than ever cut off from the Yale community. I also suspect that when he has finished with the Shakespeare portrait he will be at loose ends for projects. Alas, I have not seen a single review of his book in America. This would be disheartening to anyone.

Your letters of the 2nd and 3rd came yesterday. Also, today, there
arrived safely by registered mail the copy of Steffanson's memoirs. I was
surprised that it was registered, but pleased to have it. I am sorry about
Beney; do give him by greetings. Susan Hansen: yes, I have known about the
distance from town. She should be in a center and working, especially now
that the expected second child did not turn out as hoped for. I suspect Eric
is not the easiest man to live with. # That horrible set of Art cards! What
a plan! The idea is that you put a painting of a skater on the screen, and
go from that to Puritan restrictions on sport. But it is all cockeyed. I
fear I was brutal.

I too spend much time reading books and articles which I can thank for briefly
on Christmas cards. And going through the current magazines as they come in.
If sometime you should feel so inclined when ordering from Tubbridge Wells,
will you ask to have a copy of Francis King's *The Japanese Umbrella* sent along,
published by Longmans, he is the author of the Custom's House which you sent me
earlier and which I liked. The stories are laid in Kyoto.

Now I must take this to the postoffice and get home before I fall asleep
at the keyboard. I fear I snoozed a little at the very dull departmental meeting
at the end of the afternoon.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

10 Decenber 1964

Dearest Fido,

There is much to say about yesterday's trip to New York,
of course, but this morning's announcement of Edith's death has rather
knocked all that out of my mind. At least for the moment. I will try
to write otherwise later in the day.

She was a rare person, -- indeed really an Elizabeth or at
least Elizabethan. And she was an aristocrat not simply by birth but
by mind and talent. She could be wild, but always in an elevated way.
And she could be serious with an innately religious intensity which made
it somehow becoming that she should have turned to Catholicism. Though
of course she also needed the reliance on ritual (even if it sided her
with the Stuarts), and she needed the intimacy as well as high privilege
of a personal confessor.

She was a rare person too in the quality she showed of
loyalty and friendship. She could be as fiercely loyal as she could
be an enemy. She always had that unquestioning loyalty to you. Even
to the naming of the cottage. I suspect you understood her better than
anyone else could; and I feel sure that she knew you did. She seldom
imposed on you; you never imposed on her. You had much in common; you
understood each other for that very reason.

That she was a fine poet goes without saying. She had an
ear as delicate, as fine as De la Mare's. And when the right moments
came, as they increasingly came towards the end of her life and after
the war she had something important to say. After all we do not lose
her poetry by her death.

But you lose another one, and nothing will make it easy.
Not even my love.

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

10 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

My promised end-of-the-day letter is really just that. For I have been to the Fellows' dinner at Jonathan Edwards College and return to the office to write you before going home. Tomorrow is likely to be no better than today. I went out at 9:30 to do some errands, had appointments until noon, or rather 12:30, among the visitors being a young German teacher from the University of Freiburg who appeared unannounced with his wife and a letter of introduction. So I took them to lunch at the Graduates Club, and was hardly back before it was time to give the oral examination for the doctorate in American Studies. This went on until five. More people came then, and finally at six it was time to go to the dinner.

The morning paper was a bad one for me, with Edith's death announced in it. Also the death of professor Giddings at Brown, the eskimo authority who had promised to catalogue the collection for me. He had been struck in an automobile accident in November, it seems.

But a good thing to offset the bad, in part at least, was the news that we did after all get the group of Henty letters. I should not have been so pessimistic. When they arrive I can have copies made and sent to you for your files. Or would you like to have the originals? It may be just barely possible that the Ballantyne letters may also come this way, for Gallup who ordered them for me as a Christmas present has not heard (as I did) that he was not successful. However it doesn't matter so much. There is no choice between the two, and this gives the Henty Collection a great boost.

Your letter of the 7th came today, and was welcomed even though you said there was little news to comment on in it.

So, yesterday, or rather on Tuesday, did the copy of Steffanson. In a nicely registered package, so all was safe. I thank you. At the moment I am reading the not altogether satisfactory biography of Francis Steloff who had the Gotham Book Mart. Helen gave me the copy yesterday. I can buy for you, or you can wait until you come over. I know Miss Steloff and so have that special interest. But the book itself, written by another friend, W.G. Rogers, who knew Gertrude, only emphasizes how good Sylvia's memoirs were. (By the way, there was a large announcement by Princeton a few days ago of the acquisition of her library. Alas, I forgot to clip out to send to you. Or did I?)

The trip to New York was a pleasant thing prolonged one. I think I wrote you that they also wanted the King Charles II B&F folio for the show. So I took that down to Seven Gables Bookshop to deliver to the Club. Also had it re-evaluated by Papantonio. There is a little discrepancy in the description on the card I took down for it, and I am not altogether sure it was properly catalogued before. At any rate he rated it at $1500. Then I went to Harcourt's and had a quarter hour of general chat with Helen before getting down to the text.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

She agreed that we need not print the gloss of Avalon in the book itself
but that I could try to weave the material into the copy for the jacket.
I hope you approve of this. If not it will be very easy to have set into
the galleys, so nothing is lost. I had rather thought we felt the same on
this, but that Jovanović felt everything should be spelled out. Most of
the textual queries were regularizing capitalization of names and matters
of that sort. You will see the galleys and can change anything in which I
inadvertently overstepped. However there were perhaps a halfdezen queries
which seemed to me worth raising but on which the answer or solution should
come from you. I do not want to take the time tonight to send them to you,
but will tomorrow or Saturday. It was agreed to set the text as submitted,
and to make any of these changes (if made) in the galleys.

Helen, I thought, seemed well and in much better spirits than when
I saw her last. She is now busy getting ready for the arrival of Kurt's
daughter and husband who are to live at the Goethe House. They arrive on the
15th. I lunched with her and then went on to Klejman's to see what prices
they had put on the eskimo things I had looked at the last time in. They
had photographed the objects but had not finished marking them. So I wait
for them to come in the mail. All these errands took until a little after
four, so I had to wait for the five o'clock back to New Haven. Susan had
come down with me in the morning, to do a day of shopping. But wisely we
thought we might finish at different times, so we each had his own car.

Two parties tomorrow. The Christmas season has some drawbacks.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

13 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

There isn't much really to report, but I cannot deny
myself at least the pleasure of a letter to you after a day of
writing Christmas cards and perfunctory thank-you's for books and
pamphlets and monographs that I have not yet acknowledged. Yet the
appearance of my desk does prosper. Another day or two and I may be
able to celebrate a minor victory. My only weak spot is the Japanese,
but I am saving their letters until last, since they celebrate most
of all the New Year's season.

Last night our party for the two instructorial couples
seemed to go well, at least judging from the time they left: which was
midnight. As they went one of the men said to me solemnly that it was
the best evening they had ever spent with a "full professor." I felt
a little like a Martian.

Two, I hope new, stamps enclosed for Elsie. And, oh yes,
I think yesterday I forgot some warnings about parcels. Susan has sent
a pair of gloves to Ines, saying that she was pretty sure she remembered
Ines's hands. I am a little doubtful, but perhaps you could exchange if
wrong, and I can settle with you. Susan also sent off the Christmas
gift to you by air express, it being too large to go by mail. They measure
by circumference, and this was two inches too big. But I worry much
about complications, inconvenience, etc. It was to go via Geneva; can it
not be sent to you so that you can clear customs at Lausanne. Susan put
a nominal value on it, but it actually cost a good deal more (if you ever
want to collect insurance on it). To have sent it by sea freight would
have meant crating it, etc. I shall pray for safe conduct for it.

Now let me skip to another page and do the few queries that
were raised with Avalon.

I only hope these will not stir you up. They were really
very good about matters in general. You have won your victory.

I must hie now to another party. I skipped the one earlier
this afternoon at the Historic Society, and let Susan be hostess, along
with other members of the Board, without my presence.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

14 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

An immense mail this morning, but nothing better in it
than three from you, plus a surface small envelope of letters received
by you at the Sesame. There was also a postcard, sent surface, from
Hester Marsden-Smedley acknowledging receipt of the tape and saying
you had given her Helen. I was tossed about a bit by it, until I
read the dateline of 17 November. One can hardly call that speedy.
Your letters were a bit scattered. One of December 5th, another of
the 8th, and the third of the 10th.

I am so sorry about the snow and cold. It has been warmer
here during the past few days, hence heavy fog at the same time. I
congratulate you on getting your diaries out. It is never too early
for them. And your cheques also. One must be forehanded.

The visit from the Goughs must have been fun. They sound
like such an interesting couple. It is much better, I think, if they
can stick it, to look around for a post in the States as of the termina-
tion of their appointment at Ankara. Thus all seems normal, and they
are quite in order not to accept a further contract there. Susan will
be disappointed that you will not go to Turkey; as for myself, I rather
suspected that you would not want to go. We will of course have to discuss
the question, but I rather think that we would not want Ankara without
your being along. We will perhaps find some other place, and in any
event have your trip here to look forward to. When you commit yourself
to an April date I will try to arrange for a visit somewhere, perhaps to
Natchez if that would interest you. The high tourist season will be over,
but on the whole that is just as well. Far less crowded, and plenty to
do in the two or three days we could be there or elsewhere.

I am delighted your books have come from Grove. I was waiting
for this month's cheques to come back, and then was about to pounce on
them for not sending. My own additional copies, paid for at the same time,
have not come. It is infuriating. I once asked you to check your own titles
and see if there were any you needed to replenish, for gifts. Let me know.
And do you want me to send anything to the Royal Society of Literature.
Beowulf, for instance, which did not appear in England.

This afternoon we have the American Studies departmental party.
Yesterday we went to a largeish cocktail party and saw the American friend
of Mrs McP's nephew Clinto-Baddley. He was apparently here in October and
returns next spring. It is said to have money. And is also said to be one
of the finest cooks in England. They promise to introduce us when he is
next here.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

16 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

I sent off another little envelope of Christmas cheer to you this morning, but I am afraid that is the end of anything specifically focussed on the holiday season. Even my shopping locally is pretty well done with. I went out after lunch, bought a book each for my wife, the two grandchildren and Lizzie; a bottle of Japanese sake for Susan and also two packages of tea (since we were caught without anything but tea bags recently.) Actually I bought Susan so many oddments on our trip that she is glutted with objects and I am starved for ideas.

Your letters of the 11th and 13th were in this morning's mail. I am no less saddened by Edith's death, but it is at least a relief that she did not agnize at the end, and so no one need agonize with her. I think they are quite right about Osbert's not going, to the funeral. It could add nothing to his sense of grief, and only a display to the public. And quite right about your not going, and for the same reason. It was the way I felt about my mother's death and funeral.

I am sorry about Beney. His illness appears to be more serious than I had thought. I sent him greetings, but of course to the bank. I am sure the boy will carry on well. My only fear is if all direction should be transferred to Zurich, and the Montreux bank simply become a cashier's window.

I will try to have Mrs Dingle work on the *Swiss Family Robinsons*, or do it myself. There are only a few and I know exactly where they are as a result of the earlier search. I really can't imagine why there have been no reviews of Leslie's book, but I never hear it spoken of or referred to.

And you simply must not get involved too deeply with Wendy at this moment. It would overwhelm you, and you have been through more than enough. Two yellowbacks came, and I read last night. Most of the letters require no comment, but all interest me. Pokross seems rather to like having some action with the Sachs fund. I can't say I blame him. That is what the fund was for. # And I was delighted with the way Humphrey Wakefield described the bird like object found on the beach at Bryher. He has a nice balance. # Has Pat taken up with THE church? But perhaps it may just be what she needs. Only hard on Agnes who must confuse sex with masochism. # I note that Alan is doing *WnHenry I* and *Othello* for his A level. Do you want me to dig up any study guides (compendium of relevant data--not cramming books) for him? I should be glad to, as from you, if it would be of any help. Perhaps I could do the same for *The Knight's Tale*. Is the latter language or literature? #I was pleased to read that Marya's collected poems is to appear. A volume of collected poems is an absolute psychological "must" these days. Probably it always was. I only wish she weren't so "humble."

About the Easter holiday, Susan and I agree that it would be im-
possibly rought on the Goughs if they were to appear only on the 20th.
For we would already have been gone from here for three or four days, which
would be wasted for us; and they would have to breathe. No, and it really
doesn't matter. What we had thought was that you ought to go to Ankara while
they were still there, and that you would not go alone.

We might try Greece again so that Susan could see what she missed
because of her flu when we were there before. Or Israel. Or possibly Egypt.
Or do nothing. In any event you will be coming over I hope a few days
after April 5th so that we can make a trip somewhere. It would be fun if
you were here for my 85th birthday on April 13th.

I keep slogging at Christmas cards and my desk. Have sent 110 from
the office so far, and Susan is worried lest there not be enough left for
her garden club friends.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN · CONN

17 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

I am beginning to run downhill with the burden of Christmas cheer on my back. I plug away at Christmas cards -- business ones at the office, and personal ones at home -- and I try to be cheery. But, oh dear! My fingers are ready to drop off with fatigue. I did take some time off today however and dictated to Mrs Dingle, so between the two efforts my desk is taking on a look of miraculous cleanliness and order. If only I can hang on a little longer.

However there are some compensations. One of the things I have just read, in order to thank for, was Rose Odle's son's book on London. I liked it very much. The prose was informative, and the pictures selected and conjoined with wisdom and wit.

And I read another book on a French philosopher, and several offprints on learned subjects as remote as a 19th-century American Irish politician on the one hand and German-English romanticism on another.

I even had my hair cut. The Lord only knows it needed attention. Otherwise Ringo would have to look out.

Your letter of the 12th arrived this morning. The Christmas mails seem to be moving more slowly each way. I was annoyed that you had only just gotten my letter of the 5th. I was sorry about the London Times obituary of Edith. The ones here have been good, and even Time Magazine had one of marked respect even though playing up, as she herself did, her eccentrics. I think you must be right; the critics are left.

I did send a cheque for $25.00 to Hester for the paper and other expenses, but no mind: I am sure the treasury of the society will use it well. Have not had a chance to get up the list of Swiss Family Robinson, but will do so during the Christmas holidays.

Think of me as a sluggish, but one who inches across the calendar.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

19 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

We have the grandchildren from this morning at 8 until tomorrow noon, but I slipped back to the office for the morning. Yesterday was too frustrating, one of those days when people drop in to see you. Nothing gets done. But I have worked away at greeting cards-cum-answers-and-acknowledgements, and with a lucky afternoon tomorrow perhaps I can have finished all but the greetings to Japan. There I can count on New Year's being more appropriate than Christmas.

I had a nice card and note from Ada Gloss. Perhaps we really should try to visit her next spring during your stay here, and after we have taken the longer one. We could do it and back in a long day, as we did before. Your own letters of the 14th and 15th arrived yesterday--there was nothing today from you--and I was delighted to have them. Thanks as always. I am shocked by the slowness of my letters to you. The American postoffice must be collapsing.

The news from Dori about Joan is certainly not unexpected, and you have proved yourself a good professional and I have shown myself a fair amateur by agreeing that it would work out this way. But I think Erich was rather buffaloed by Dori and forced to do as she said. She always has been, of course, the stronger personality, almost a masculine one to balance his slight feminity. I only blame Erich in terms of Joan, for this is rough on her. Unless of course it is the kind of shock she needed to be on her own. I hope she can find the right consultant. Not I should think precisely Boss.

You are probably wise to give more to England this year. All is by no means well with the Pound, and the worse is that (after the splashy help to balance it) the situation will now seem worse. I am afraid that Labor has not brought confidence to anyone. They operate exactly on the most old-fashioned Shavian principles. That is the trouble, they are in-between and do not really stand for anything but chaos.

I was much moved by your letter to the *Times*. I feel sure they will print it, but I am glad you wrote it if only for my sake. The obituary was a curious one, the sort of detached critical article one might have written in a history of poetry or literature. But not appropriate for a person's death when the subjects life is so important as Edith's. I prefer knowing more about her life in an obituary of this sort. I do not go to the obituary column for a critique and tidbits about what she is said to habe done until it was whispered to her that it wasn't done. For God's sake!

I will write again tomorrow when I come back.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

19 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

I have been spending the day in a conglomerate attack on
my desk, combing the answering of mail and thanking for books and
pamphlets with the sending of Christmas cards. A very useful combination
indeed, I can assure you. But the limittless expanse of still undone
tasks fills me with despair. For once I had hoped to have all cards
out by Christmas. I doubt if that will be possible, especially because
new ones always come in which I am too tender-hearted to ignore.

I was not able to write yesterday, but there were no letters
from you yesterday or today, so that I judge the Goughs have occupied
your time, and the snows have occupied the roads. Meanwhile at any rate
a miscellaneous pile sits by my desk to be mentioned to you, and so I shall.
Though you will forgive the haphazard order.

First of all, the package from Spink arrived by airmail,
and I wag my tail furiously in appreciation and gratitude. I shall not
open it until Christmas, but the customs declaration calls it an eskimo
canoe. I know I shall like it immensely. But since this is indeed eskimo,
why do not I deposit your other check into your savings account?

As to the clippings, I enclose for your delectation the
listing of the Henty letters which I have just added to the collection.
Are they not a real treasure, even though latish? Shall I send you the
originals, or simply copies when they arrive? Perhaps xerox copies, so
that you can keep and relish. The editorial in tribute to Edith was in
the New York Times on the second morning after her death. I thought it
very well done. There was real honor paid her in the extent to which
her death was noticed. Even the New Haven Register carried her picture
at the top of the front page. # As for the third, this is merely to make
you smile (I hope), remembering our visit to the monastery and the talkative
advocate of silence. Something rather charms me about a group of monks
perfecting their craft "over the centuries", to emerge at last with Butter Nut
Munch, Fudge or Penuchi, and Caramels!

To step to another item for your attention, I can only describe
a fine and gay book on *Dance and Be Charming* which was sent to me apparently
because it uses Hilda's

Whirl up, sea--
Whirl your pointed pines

with an illustration of a girl, hair awry, feet off the floor and bent at knees
and hips, with palms extended upward as she leaps.

ge

"You're a nymph of the sea, stirring up the waters,
delightfully playing havoc with the waves. Give your
gestures a sparkling quickness, your steps, kicks,
leaps, and jumps a sprightly lightness.

Who is say that poetry does not have power?

2

Did I say that I had sent on to you two envelopes with s-f in them. One more goes on Monday, with a Ballard and Asimov in it. I think these are the last of the present assignment. I do not send for the holy days, leaving that to John Schaffner. These are only ones that were, I think, originally yours, and now can either be added to the collection or passed on.

I have given the manuscript of Harrison's introduction to The Lord of the Harvest to the Library, and you will have an acknowledgement in due course. Herman Liebert, the curator of Rare Books, tells me Yale already has 58 ms letters from Frederick Harrison and 43 letters to him. So your gift makes a fine addition to a group of friendly documents.

Did I write you that Hilda's *Bid Me to Live* in being translated into braille? I think this would please her.

By the end of the week, Gallup had still not heard that he had not gotten the Ballantyne letters, so the outside chance still remains. It would be wonderful if we really were the only people collecting this sort of material. It will be a crazy collection, but a good one.

I was phoned by Stonehill's bookshop, who were revaluing the books that have gone to the Grolier show in New York. He tells me I will be shocked at the increase in value. Certainly if my memory is correct for the Roaring Girl, and it does have the two blank leaves at the back, he is correct about my reactions. Badly evaluated at $75 before, the price would now be $1,850. If it lacks these two pages the value in any event is now $850. Not even Beney has done better than that!

I was much interested in what you said about the Umanak trip from Denmark to Greenland last summer. I should think it would be wonderful fun, and I hope you can do it. My own suggestion would be Hilda Quick, especially after reading her book. She could make something out of it. As for myself, I think it is indicated that I do not go until the restoration is completed or given up. I have written to ask what the status is. But if that were actually being carried out, then I'd like to linger in the area of Brattahlid, by taking motor boat up the smaller fjords to see the settlements there. Having had the bad scope I would like the more intimate detail. But for Hilda and yourself, you need the parallel to my second visit. I should not think this was quite Elsie's cup of tea. Ethel's perhaps. But Hilda best of all.

We have two more instructors and wives to dinner at the house tonight. Then, I think, we lay off until after Christmas.

All love as always,

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

21 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

I really think I shall collapse under Christmas! I daresay it is a joy to get rid of so many obligations by cards and letters in them. My desk does look scrawny and bare. But so do I. And the cards pour in from people I had forgotten or wished to, or hoped would not remember me though I did them. One today came from a man in the state of Washington thanking me for helping him with the exchange of rupees at the airport in India. (He had foolishly exchanged illegally, and had nothing but them. No, he had exchanged legally, but without proof. Anyhow since he had no money by which to pay the exits permit, and I had some allowance to spare I took it for him and paid it back in the waiting room. An old 'ale man, he proved to be, and a grey-haired colonel.) But of course there are many I do like getting, and then I sit down and send in return. One welcome one, to which I had already sent was from the Brigadier and Ethel. You will have gotten one I am sure. But what a splendidly un-Christmas illustration, of the attack on Mons 50 years ago. It would occur only to a Brigadier. And also today was a very lovely card, --exceptionally attractive really--one of the best we have had--from Elsie with a fine letter in it. Susan will be pleased when I take it home tonight. And one from Herfie. Ingholt sent a card saying "None of my works has given me more pleasure than 'Ghandaran Art in Pakistan.'" And went on to say how many photos of examples of the art were being sent him from around the world. Apparently one very fine small example is now for sale in New York.

Yes, the Christmas spirit is here. And how Americans are keeping up with it. The Brigadier would, I think, be pleased by the thought of the enclosed Christmas suggestion that was published in *House Beautiful*. If I had seen it in time I would have bought one for YOU.

This was a gala Monday morning, with three letters from you. One for the 16th, 17th and 18th. Your description of Georgia's phone call to you about Edith was very moving. You are really *their* friend. I mean all of them, and I don't mean because of anything except understanding. They stand alone, really. I almost wish you could pop down to Montegufoni to console Osbert. But I fear it was not be consoling for you. I am glad about the buriel service and the village churchyard. I should not have wanted her to be alone. I am not joking at all when I say that for once I wish one of the Elizabethan carved funery figures of the nobility outstretched could be hers. No one in our age deserved it more, and Osbert would not have wanted it. He was the great squire, which is a little different.

You have behaved beautifully with Joan, and just right. You simply could not have interfered before. Now you can help without any interference at all. As for Dori, I fear I don't have any great sympathy though I daresay I should have. For Heydt I do. He has sensibility and understanding. I remember always how he took Herfie to select a dress,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

much as two cronies might have paired. But with a dorty dori he could
not cope.

The Christmas notices in your letter of the 17th were quite
wonderful! But you have never found these before. They are pure gold!
My letter dated the 19th must have been sent on the 12th, and my eye
caught the wrong line on the calendar that hangs before my typewriter.
I am pleased that the Times printed your letter about Edith. It was, as
I told you, just right. I have not yet heard the estimates on the eskimo
pieces, but will not need to have my ears pulled to persuade me to
spend money for this sort of thing. They really are rare and become
rarer. As to the Elizabethans I now have a binder policy on for enough
extra to cover the matter until mid-February when the things come back
from New York and I can have everything gone over again. There is plenty
in the savings account from royalties, but I can equally well continue
to pay for it. The total amount for what went to New York was $37,175,
as against, say, 13,000 from before. Maggs guided wisely and you bought
wisely.

Congratulate M. Beney on his grandson.

I am overjoyed, as Susan will be, that the object arrived safely.
Tell me, for curiosity's sake, whether you had to pay duty on it. I gather
they did not question it, which was fine in terms of time saved and duty
saved. And I am glad too that my initial letter about Edith arrived. One
cannot duplicate such things, and it could so easily have gone astray in
the midst of the Christmas postal tornadoes.

The note on dogs in debate was splendid. You are having a good
hunting system! I would rather have you clip the Times than have George
clip his hedges. I had a card from him, but no letter. Poor man, I know
from his letters to you how hard it is for him to write, with his poor
eyes.

I don't think I wrote yesterday, we having had the two grandchildren
since Saturday morning and until Sunday noon, while the mother sang in a
recital in New York. Part of her self-therapy. The children were wonderfully
good and had a fine time. Saturday afternoon we went to the shore... no, I
told you all this yesterday. Forgive me.

Now I must begin to plan for Susan's birthday.

Oh yes, I was called today by Donald Gallup to say that Carl Van
Vechten was found dead in his bed this morning. This morning's mail also
brought a letter from Carl to Gallup, so it came swiftly and easily. I am
glad. I have not seen Van Vechten much except at an occasional New York
dinner, for some years. He was deaf and a little boring. But in his time
he has done much good, and was a man of varied talent, in fiction, the dance,
music and photography. This will be hard on Fania, who is not at all well.

Before Christmas? I very much doubt it.

Norman

22 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

I do hope you had at least a reasonably satisfying
Christmas. Saying that, ahead of time, makes me feel like a character
from one of your science-fantasies. But with mails as they are, I
should no doubt add that I hope you had a nice New Year's day too!

I have been still working at cards, though I feel like
the boy with his finger in the dyke: no matter how hard I push my
plug in, the waters burst around me. I am now quite beyond the 400
copies we had of Susan's Japanese arrangement (she made it in Japan)
and am sending out our usual five-cent variety. As a sample of today's
(including one from Norton, to whom I had not sent) was one from our
driver in India. he cannot write so he must have taken it to a scribe.

However I took time out to write the jacket material for
*Avalon*, a copy of which I enclose. As you will see in part, and know
by instinct in other parts, the flowers are all yours and Helen's
originally. My task was only to arrange them. Of course Helen may not
like the result at all, and what you see will be finer and more appropri-
ate. At any rate it is a little New Year's cake I baked all by myself,
and even if it isn't eatable it comes with love. Another copy goes
special delivery to Helen, to whom I promised it by Christmas.

Susan went to New York this morning for her hair, so I stayed
back on the excuse of reading a manuscript. Instead I wrapped her
presents, instead of waiting desperately for Christmas Eve when the
wrapping paper has been put away. I can only cover my gifts with paper,
not wrap them beautifully as Susan does.

Yours of the 19th arrived today, quite miraculously fast
considering the Christmas mails. This is very sad news about Beney. I
sent him a card at the bank, and hope they will forward it to him. One
can't really plan ahead, so complex are the alternatives if anything
happens to him.

Sylvia's letter was superb, respectfully blasphemous.

You will have to shut yourself up in an igloo with your cache
of books. Saillet has outdone himself. And the others sound interesting.
As to my little packages, these were simply returning a few you had left
with us for Susan to read and then send on for the collection or distribu-
tion. I am surprised that anything was new. I just send; it is more
practical than storing downstairs.

I don't think I told you the other day that I celebrated
and finished Mrs Duberly. What a remarkable story, and one with so many
implications that I am dizzy from the thought of them. I don't mean
implications of immorality, but of a fantastically non-Victorian mode.

No wonder the Queen merely nodded at her. But there is a long line
of British dames like this, and they are the ancestors of the Lady
Vyvyyans and the Mrs McPherson's. Without an Empire behind them, will
they continue?

A yellowback came in, and I read it with pleasure. But
that was two days ago and I remember nothing that needed comment. And
so now I shall return to a letter to India and another to Sweden, and
I hope, if there is time, another to the editor of Sara Teasdale's
letters who now knows that I read her manuscript. The publisher told
her without my knowing. This was rather mean, I think. But of course
complete honesty is such a very admirable thing!

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

23 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

Mrs Dingle has left for the holidays and will not be back until after New Year's. But before she went she finished the last of the letters I dictated today, and quite honestly I think there are absolutely none that remain to be done. Except of course for every letter to Japan. But I gave up on that and thought I would do a spurt of them after I came back from the Modern Language Association meeting on the 29th. I have to be careful not to let any one person hear from me before any other person does. So an avalanche will go over the Nippon landscape.

I am exhausted, but so many obligations have been at least nominally fulfilled that I face the new year somewhat easier. Last night Susan finished the last of the Christmas wrapping, and we put the table and paper away. I remember when, after the last package had been wrapped, late at night on Christmas Eve, she used to burst into tears from exhaustion. Having been brought up as a merchant's son, I could never be quite so moved by Christmas cheer as by Christmas profits. Something is always interfering. I remember once going to Christmas midnight mass in Vienna at the cathedral. I was moved by being a New England protestant in such strange surroundings for one of my breed. And then a loudspeaker ordered everyone to join in carols and sing loudly, because it was being broadcast in America by CBS.

There was no letter from you today, but perhaps tomorrow's mail will have something in it to cheer me properly. If not then, since there will be no Saturday mails this year--the government is freeing the postmen, and why not--I shall not have anything until the 29th when I come back. It will be like being on the east coast of Greenland so far as remoteness is concerned.

I had a nice card from Møgaard in Copenhagen, with a picture of Brattahlid on it. He says I will be hearing details about the restoration next month when the paper work is finished. But in any event I still think you would have more fun with Hilda Quick, cruising the coast, than being confined with me. I wait until it is finished.

If we were to go to Ireland in the spring, would you come too? Probably not for us, unless you agreed to be along.

This noon I had to take a young Indian visitor to lunch. At least he was no vegetarian. He ate a steak, while I nibbled at finnan haddie.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

26 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

I have two of the three papers for the New York meeting pre-
pared. Somehow I will manage to get through the third one also, but perhaps
I can work on it a little tomorrow in New York. It is now a quarter to three,
alas, and I must go home, change and pack and get to the station.

But I must at least say thank you for the very nice carved ivory
canoe you sent me from Spinks. It is most attractive and a wonderful addition
to the collection. Your writing was on the card, so I think you must have
seen it. I think originally there was probably an eskimo sitting in the midst
of the kayak (not canoe), and I have not seen one like this with the harpoons
and geer carved into the ivory itself.

Your cable came Christmas Eve as we were finishing decorating the
tree, and I thank you, we thank you and Elsie for the greetings. I hope it
was all right to include Ines in ours, without offending anyone. I tried to make
two groups to preserve status, you and Elsie, and then Ines. You must tutor me
in terms of the future.

Our Christmas Eve at Sue and Jim's went off very well indeed,
and Lizzie was there and on best behavior. We left about nine, to give the
others a chance to finish up. Christmas day the Addisses arrived about eleven,
Liz was already there, and we opened presents until I had to go to the country
to fetch the goose being cooked for our midday dinner. While I was gone, Mrs
Bennett and Susan's aunt arrived, and we all enjoyed ourselves until three when,
dinner being done, all dispersed. Susan and I were tired and napped in our chairs,
having eaten late in midday we had no supper, but I fetched the various Indians
at 8:15. We enjoyed their visit, but they didn't go until nearly midnight, so
Susan was tired today. I would have been had I had time. But I came down and
got at my talks.

I will try to drop a note from New York, but cannot promise to
before next Wednesday. I come up on Tuesday afternoon, early, for Susan's
60th birthday. I am giving her a dinner party at home, with a cook and two maids
in to do the work.

All love for the New Year.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

30 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

I came back yesterday afternoon from the convention absolutely fatigued. But I did come to the office to pick up any mail--there was far too much to touch except to pick out the ones from you--and then go on for a shave. For we had the dinner party for Susan's 60th birthday--it was the present she wanted in addition to a little ring I had bought her in India--at 7 pm. The guests left at midnight, I picked up and washed a few last glasses that the temporary servants had not done, and went to bed to be tired even this morning when we woke a little before 7 so that we could be ready for the man who comes for the rubbish. The dinner went off perfectly, the food was excellent, and Susan seemed delighted. So I was delighted too.

But I have been a little slow today in going through the mountains of accumulated mail since last Thursday, and have not accomplished much except for that. The letters waiting for me were of the 21st, 23rd, 25-26, and 26, plus three yellowbacks which I shall take home with me tonight. Today's mail had yours of the 24th in it, so I will have to wait until provided for.

There is so much to write about, but I shall cover it slowly during the next few class-free days. The only thing of the exact moment (so that I can file the letter) is a note from Helen about the jacket material I sent her (and you). "I will accept your version virtually unchanged only somewhat shortened to fit the space. As to Bryher's biographical note, I propose to lift it from THE COIN OF CARTHAGE, simply adding a different quote for variation, and mentioning THE COIN as her latest book." So there it is, and I shall be curious to know just what tucks she took to briefen it.

To your letters, beginning with the 21st. I am deeply troubled by your account of Lady Vyvyan's blindness. She will be brave of course, she is that kind of woman, but as you say what will she do without seeing her garden and striding down country lanes by herself. Is she the kind of person who could dictate to a machine? It would be worth giving her one if she could, for she does have a strong visual memory as she shows by her writing. Perhaps she could still do an occasional piece or even the book about the house. One would have to find out from Miss Quiller-Couch. Ethel could ferret.

I will try to dig up some things for Alan.

Yes, Osbert's letter is no doubt a little more detached because he dictated the letter. But I also suspect that in moments of crisis or anguish he is always the guardsman who knows that the right people, like yourself, will be able to read behind the uniformed words. And it may be too, that never having fully lived with anyone--by which I do not mean sex--he has not accustomed himself to spilling over. Somehow I can never really believe that David was ever much more than an upgraded male nurse, with whom one took intimacies and on whom one was dependent for other things than the heart. Sachie on the other hand is a man of greater warmth and greater need of it. I suspect that Edith really never knew how much Sachie adored her, would have (and did) at her feet. Towards Osbert

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

there must have been jealousy (why should simply being the older brother mean having the house and the title and the money and having established one's self as a writer in such a way that Sachie could only be junior). And then of course Osbert did toss Montegufoni to David, which was rather a snub. But towards an older sister who could not have advantages of this kind one could have a different relationship, almost with a mother, almost with a queen. Perhaps quite apart from the natural hope for some help from Edith in her will, what hurts also is the fact that Edith made a kind of rejection of Sachie by cutting off the man who would carry on the family, by not leaving the manuscripts to him as a literary guardian, and by not changing the will when she sold at Sotheby's even though it had been made years before.

At any rate one thing is certain, Sachie will not be angry at her for he loved her too much; while she was alive he could help; until Osbert dies he can only wait. Do not destroy his letter about Edith. A century from now it will be of infinite importance within the family saga. So you may want to keep it with you. But if you want to have it with the other papers, simply out it in a sealed envelope with the date of when it can be read. Or if you want me to read it first, I can lick the flap later.

To move on to the letter of the 23rd. It is hard to know what to say about the Greenland trip. This of course is a tour, and they must give you greater conveniences. The Disko was simply an old boat on a regular trip. This is about what a Caribbean trip for the same length of time would cost, and the Greenland trip carries only a few, must take food for the return trip too etc. No, I don't really think on absolute terms that the price if figured on robbery. I think the question is whether you and Hilda would like it. And if they go as far north as Cris, this would be a tremendous stroke of luck.

Pierre Beney sounds like a good man. I am so glad you could meet him. But I wish they could insist that a man of Beney pere's age and accomplishment could have better medical attention. I should think the family must be frightfully worried about the child in Africa. She is, I think, the one I met.

We can worry about the fee for reading Neil Little's book later. Like distinguished lawyers in this country, and tailors in the England of my university days, I only send out bills every few years.

I shall be eager to see the TLS, but because of the Christmas mail it will probably be delayed.

Yours of the 24th, I see did not include any of the answers to the queries I sent, but presume you will wait until after New Year's, quite sensibly. It will be interesting to see what happened to the Redoute volume. I have no idea at all, since if I remember correctly the book comes in large size as well as a later and more numerous first small size edition, and as you say this may or may not be a first. But it is certainly a very beautiful book and Susan delights in it.

On the 25th I gather that everything went as pleasantly for you as for us. I am so glad you liked the suitcase, and it seems only proper that you carry it and wear your atom bomb at the same moment. The chief advantage is that it is really light and will fit under an airplane seat so can be taken on board with one. The Dana edition I thought might interest you because of the illustrations and the study of what happened to the ms. I bought it last summer, I think, before publication. The others were trinkets, or in the case of paperbacks often just being returned.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

And I am delighted too that you liked the Henty letters. Somehow, from the catalogue, I had hoped there might be more. But he must always have written on this tiny note paper. As you say, they are far better than any others we have, and should provide some new leads. I glanced through the Greek book, turning the pages to see the attractive drawings. I was not sure how really informative it was. It sounded a little like a sportsman's book. Did the Christmas package with the two little Hawthorne pamphlets arrive? It may have gotten lost, though it was sent airmail. If you didn't get it, I can send replacements.

Elsie's bookcase must have been a triumph of ingenuity and design. Susan and I were delighted with the wit and attractiveness. And of course the utility. Thank her for her lovely Christmas greetings.

Did you send Beney h is gold coins, or do you save them for when he is well again? I doubt that Mons will come to you from the Brigadier, you had your gift. A number of cards came from connections: from him and Ethel, from Margery, and Hilda, and George and O.B.-cum-Max, from Herfie and from Heydt. We did not hear from the boys this year, but they must be too busy to think of anything but olive trees.

I will write more tomorrow. Now it is time to fly home.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

31 December 1964

Dearest Fido,

At least you will get my last letter of 1964, as you got the first one in it. We stay quietly at home tonight, and will presumably not stay up even to welcome the new year in. Perhaps it's better simply to be gracious as we let the old year slip away. Last New Year's Eve, Susan and I went to the festival at which fires were lighted for the coming year, and then climbed the hill to the shrine where the priests toiled at ringing the largest bell in Japan. 1964 was certainly mixed: the first few months filled with the greatest interest and relaxation, and then after our return the year brought more stress it seems to me than I can remember happening before. And for you a series of deaths and disasters to others that is also unprecedented. Still, there is Visa for Avalon. And for me there is your friendship and love. These make any year a good one.

So far today I have finished, at last, reading a dissertation on a journalist named Baker who also wrote sentimentally under the name of David Grayson. Baker wrote the official biography of Woodrow Wilson. The dissertation was well written, but not very lively or colorful. Still, it might as well go into the American Studies series; and I am glad to have it done. Three more mss of a similar nature, and that chore will be finished with.

Then I went to the bank for enough money to take me over the weekend, and received the woman for whom I was ghost in writing the obituary tribute in the West Point magazine. She wanted to show me it in print. And brought, what was sweet of her, a luster jug she and her husband had bought in Chartres. She wondered if it would fit our decor; I told her that Susan would be delighted to have it for flowers, and that we always kept our vases tucked away until the moments when we used them.

Then I have written to Kenneth to relay the good luck sent me by the American Agricultural Attache at Athens, to whom I wrote about olive culture. The attache writes, "I have learned that Prof. Hudson Hartmann from the University of California at Davis is in Italy on a Fullbright Fellowship. Prof. Hartmann should be able to supply the information your friend desires since he is one of the few olive experts in the U.S." So I sent Islay the good professor's address in Pisa and suggested that they invite (for a fee) the professor to visit their palazzo and give them advice on the spot. I hope they will; otherwise they will waste time and energy and money on half information picked up laboriously here and there. But because they may plead poverty (it really shouldn't take much; probably Hartmann would be willing to come anyhow, and so could be given expenses and a gift of some object, just for the fun of seeing something at the beginning. If I thought they would accept money from me I should send them some so that his coming could be my birthday present. Well, anyhow, I do my best for you when you ask. Now I don't think I need inquire elsewhere, do you?

The morning's mail also brought your letter of the 28th. How delighted I am that you liked the Hounds. I had been a little afraid that it might be too

agree that she always ought to have someone to lean on. I read the letters at home, and showed Joan's to Susan who volunteered that she thought it was very fine. The boy's excitement about the palazzo is wonderful to share even at a distance. I am sure they will make a go of it, and I am equally confident they will have fun with it. I will see what I can do about Ouida's *Friendship* for Horace. Perhaps the Library has it here and I can lend it.

I do hope your new year will be a good one; it doesn't need much to make it a better.

horsey. But, as you say, it does help to know the hounds. So sorry about the deep snow chez toi, but at least it keeps you snugly at home. I must show you the little German heater (like the small fan I had in my office) that I gave to Susan for Christmas. It would be fine for your study.

I liked the Avalon cover too. It is rather gay, and does differentiate the appeal from what the others gave. Many thanks for the Van Vechten obit. I think I will pass it along for the Library collection of his papers. And I howled with glee at that final word in the will of Mr Truman. I must think up something sprightly for mine. Will Philip permit you to make it your last testament as well as will. I suppose that is what the testament stands for: the final chance to speak out.

But what we have liked most has been these Christmas greetings in the *Times* You have never sent them before, and I regard them as the epttome of independent sprightliness. I ponder each one as though it were a zen riddle. I must go over ours tonight or tomorrow and pick the few I want to save. Marianne's card distressed us both, not for lack of its affection--there was plenty of that--but because it seemed incoherent to an unusual degree. I wish she had not taken the energy. I was glad to read your own most recent letter from Horace since it gave me news of them. I had not written them until Christmas, which was perhaps the reason I had only a card with their signatures. But I sent them the usual January first cheque for $1,000 and a copy of the second Japanese book of essays, and wrote too. So I hope they will not be angry at me. The Hotsons did not send this year, and I have heard nothing of them since their return to mail. By chance their card was an early one, with a longish note on it, (I mean their card from us), so there was time enough. I am really sorry that Leslie and Mary wish to include me in the condemnation of Yale, for I have always tried to help them. My next job will be when his reappointment as Research Associate of the English Department (this gives him full faculty privileges in the university) comes up this winter. I fear there will be some who will oppose it, but I must try to swing it again. I did, as you know, get him made a Fellow of Berkeley College (not my own) some years ago, but he never went, feeling they didn't make enough of the fact that he was Fellow (at that time) of King's College, the associated college with Berkeley here. And they won't go to English Department teas or the like. But the association is important, since it saves him library fees, gives him a title and things of that sort. # A card from Muriel Rukeyser was distressing since it told of her return to the hospital for a couple of weeks after her third attack. She says her speak has now cleared up, but you can't have three attacks without a significance. # This moring's mail also brought a nice greeting from Rose Odle.

To begin on your own yellowbacks: these seem to have come through with unusual rapidity. I suspect they must have tossed in everything airmail. Poor D.R. to have had her purse snatched. Dori Heydt's letter was frightening. There is a kind of driving megalomania and hysteria behind it: the professional references to Waluga; the hatred of Eric; the continual deference to Boss, Boss, Boss, as though every decision was his. I think we were right in suspecting drugs somewhere in the background, and I should think she was in the midst of another potential crackup. Heydt must stay out of it. But I do see one difficulty for him even in the States, for isn't he a Bossboy himself? If so, then he will have lost that kind of line to Boss which professionalism demands. One needs to mention, "as Boss said to me a letter," to keep status. Dori will see he doesn't have that. I begin to understand why he is so obviously near to a breakdown and exhaustion. Joan's letter to you, on the other hand was a splendid triumph. For her it may be good that she is split a little from Eric, though I

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

1 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

You surely deserve (and get) my first letter of the
new year. I am at the office only briefly this afternoon, before
taking Mrs Bennett and Susan on the rounds of the open houses at
the clubs. Susan and I have not done this for years, but Mrs
Bennett sees old friends and cannot go without being taken in a
car. Then she dines with us at the Lawn Club, and afterwards Susan
and I go to the theatre, an evening postponed from a cancelled
performance on Wednesday night when the musical was supposed to
open. Last night we spent quietly at home, after going for cocktails
at a friend's, to see a friend of many years back. From 10-11 we
listened to the colored singer Lena Horne on t.v. (a program much
praised by the New York Times when it was first given, but otherwise
read, and being interested in that did not notice until it was
midnite for which we had not planned to wait.

I read oddments and finished magazines. In the January
1st *Time*, you should look at the full page devoted to James Mellaart
and his excavations out of Ankara. He has been getting so much pub-
licity that I suspect this has a little to do with the Gough's anxiety,
lest at the next appointment Mellaart get it. Michael is so careful
and scrupulous an excavator that he may wait overlong before releasing
the data. This is sound of course scientifically, but may not be so
career-wise. Anyhow take a look at the article.

Alas, somehow I have missed (or thrown away with noticing)
the TLS of the 17th with the article in it you wanted me to read. But
I will look at it in the library.

Then I finished reading *Last Exit to Brooklyn*. I must admit
there is a certain vigor to the writing, and (in the spirit you like but
not in the manner) does experiment. There is nothing new in the fashion
of his experiment, but he gives it a certain twist. He fits into the
modern pattern at every inch: a dash of Genet, a little Burroughs, the
sense of culture going to hell in an apocalyptic finale, etc. But I don't
like the book, because it depends so much on its effect in rendering by
the fact that it siezes on a dialect and on scenes which are vigorous and
picturesque in themselves. Thus he is not forced to really use his experi-
mentation, and I don't really think the characters he selects can be made
to stand for modern man and his situation. In other words what he really
is writing is an up-to-date local color story not much different from
*The King of the Harvest* except in its brutality. And even the brutality
is so repetitive as to become tiring. To repeat, I did not like it, but
I see a little more why Roysce Smith sent it to you. Thank you for send-
ing it back to me. I doubt that I shall ever read it again, but it will
be useful for reference perhaps.

Finally, this morning, I went over the hundreds of Christmas
cards--about 400 I should think--and picked out the few to file away,
plus another pile from students which I acknowledge orally, and a last
pile of those requiring notes in reply. Susan and I also tried to assemble
a case for a Japanese doll given me by the University of Fukuoka because
of my talk there last year, and just sent. But we gave up, and I will take
to the cabinet maker tomorrow.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

While I think of it, I have ordered from Pantheon, to be sent
directly to you but billed to me, the following copies of your books,
so that you will have four of each on hand. I should think no more,
lest you feel yourself a warehouse again as you were with Hilda's
things. 1 copy of October, 1 of Sands, 2 of Roman Wall, and 1 of Beowulf.
Did Ethel ever tell you that two copies of Hilda's poems supposed to be
sent to you at the Sesame, and then forwarded by your direction to her,
ever arrived?

In the TLS for the 24th was a review of O.B.'s *Zoo Keeps Who?*
which you will perhaps want to mention having seen when you write next.
And now to get back to the yellowbacks, which I am determined to finish
remarking on if indicated. I liked Clark's tribute to Edith, and that
in the Guardian was not too bad. Although in the latter I noticed that
same tendency to confuse an obituary with a critical judgment. To my
notion this is a philosophical error as well as a lapse of good taste.

I was pleased that Catha liked her trip to Spain. She seems to
be in good control of herself. At the Modern Language Association
convention I was sought out by Harry Moore (whom you will remember by
name). He told me that he was about to do a biography of Aldington
in collaboration with Alister Kershaw. He wanted my help of course.
My first question was what did Catha think of this. She was enthusiastic
about it, he said. He's very smart to bring Kershaw in on this, as a
flytrap. Moore said he didn't expect me to open up H.D.'s papers to
him, but he hoped I would answer questions etc, to keep him from going
wrong. If in fact he is, as this would suggest, the authorized biographer
I must be careful to keep in enough to be able to give cautionary advice
occasionally. But what is the situation really vis-a-vis Catha? It is
she I want to help if I give any help. Not any one else, not even Kershaw.
Then Moore had heard that I had Lawrence's painting of Dorothy Yorke and
could he have a copy to publish in a pictorial history of Lawrence's life.
I said that was up to Miss Yorke. But how they exploit Lawrence.¹

It surprised me to learn that Max Barsis had gone back to Vienna.
Or rather I should say I didn't know he had. So I will transfer him from
the American list to the European. Don't forget you were going to send me
a copy of the persons whom you expected Kenneth to look after, just in case
he had a stroke or was ill and for some good reason couldn't manage it
himself. # Piper's death was the only one that brought absolute relief with
it. But of course to say I was not close to him is an understatement. He
was Doris's dog and no one else's. # Your many letters about Edith were all
beautiful in their tributes to her and to your friendship for her. # Jocelyn
quite outdid himself in the length of his letter. As though he were beginning
to recover his energy again. I hope he will. # Chester Page's, on the
other hand, seemed somewhat subdued. I think he must have been disappointed
not to have seen you in New York. But he writes a good letter, and I rather
like him. # I was intrigued by Mary Hotson's card. Does she enclose it,
illegally, in an 11-cent airletter. Certainly she uses no more words than
a letter does, and saves 4 cents which is practical. I had never thought
of that.

And so now at the end of my page, let me smother you with greetings
and love for the new year.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

2 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

It is snowing hard outside, and I ought to be on my way
home--early as it still is -- less I slip and slide with the cars I
see from my office window. Living on the edge of a hill as we do is
a tricky business. I am not really happy when I look at my minimal
achievements for the day. I started late by taking some things to
the jewelers to be cleaned and glued. And then to the tailors to have
a rip mended and a coat button sewed on properly (it is more of a
task than replacing a button on a dress). And then to try to buy some
new year's cards to send to Japan, all copies of Susan's arrangement
being gone. But the store was not open, and so I must write longer
letters if indeed I am able at all to get to the office tomorrow.
At any rate I have written a number of letters to Japan, all important
ones. (But I shudder when I think of the graduate school papers not
done.)

The morning mail brought yours of the 29th, with Marianne's
in it -- so different from the manner of the postcard to me. This has
the kind of warm formality she is capable of. But how I should love to
read her contribution on "solid values in dress" for Women's Wear Daily,
the market journal for that line. I shall never forget the time we walked
together (Wallace Stevens, Marianne and I) from Stevens' 75th birthday
party, some thirty blocks down Fifth Avenue while Marianne exclaimed
about an absolute bargain she had finally found for ten dollars, a dress
satisfactory in style and in quality, and a kind of grail into which she
would fit. But I should not be inhibited in writing her. She does not
give people access to her letters; even Holly Stevens (WH's daughter)
could not see all of her father's to Marianne: just sections which Marianne
had painfully copied out. And though I grumble about Horace's muniments,
I do not of course know that there is free access to them at Syracuse.

I did have also in today's mail a letter from Horace thanking
for the Christmas things, interesting on the last essay on the Nazi-Soviet
Pact which he said Marya had liked, and mentioning my mention of Bill Benet
and saying he thought Bill more important than the Van Dorens or Sinclair
Lewis. I don't quite see how the latter could be true historically, but I
am glad to see Bill praised. I may send the letter along later, or hold
until you come.

Last night we saw a very stupid musical called King's Flush,
boring beyond belief except for the very stylish sets and costumes by Guy
Pene du Bois. But a young hero did have a magic mirror which was worked
rather liked radio telephone, since you could talk as well as see. How
I wish I had it now in answer to a letter long overdue from Grove Press
and Miss Schmidt. She said:

> I am sorry to have taken this long a time to answer your queries
> about the new manuscript of H.D.'s poems.

> The problem is not to look at the manuscript, which is undoubt-
> edly most worthy of publication! The problem is the possibility of

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

sales. Barney [Rosset] feels that another paperbound edition
is a futile project -- the sales are just too low to warrant
paperbound publication. He thinks that the only possibility is
a very nice hard bound edition, but he does not want us to finance
this ourselves, because the sales will still be quite low. If
you would like to help finance the book (on the same basis as you
did for the reprint of SELECTED POEMS) we could probably do the volume.
We will understand perfectly well, if you decide against this, and
prefer to show the manuscript to other publishers. If you decide
on the latter course, and still find that no other publisher you
are interested in approaching decides to do the book, then you can return
to us for the first alternative."

Of course the letter has just come in and one's thoughts are
not clear. You must tell me what you think. On the one hand, I suspect it is
very likely that the book I have in mind (and indeed anything of Hilda's or
even of poetry) is not likely to break even, quite apart from making a profit.
And of course I want to get into print a volume which reprints the war trilogy,
the owl sequence, Sagesse, etc. which must appear separately without appearing
first at the end of a Collected Poems. If the latter then no attention is paid
to them. Actually it will make rather a fat book, over 200 pages I think altogether.
But then with a few exceptions everything is available, at least in
libraries. The Collected Poems can wait a few years, and I'd prefer to get
this book out before I try more prose. There are advantages too in having one
publisher for all her poems, in terms of requests for permission to reprint,
especially when as from the war trilogy certain sections will be in both of
these new books, the Selected Poems and the Last Poems. There is a slight
value in having her poems put out even by such a shady publisher as that of
Last Exit to Brooklyn, which is the implication that she is interesting to the
younger people and not a memorial wreath put out by Macmillan.

Against this naturally is the idea of paying if one doesn't
have to. Of the lack of real enthusiasm on Rosset's part. Of his general
interest in quasi pornography as a meal ticket. Donald Hall is the poetry
editor for Harper's and likes H.D. at least moderately, (is the new poetry
editor I mean) and has asked me to send him anything if I have it to show.
Harper's is certainly a good name, and does not remainder. Denise Levertov
is the new poetry editor for W.W. Norton, and is of course personally a tremendous
admirer of Hilda and one might assume would be interested. Norton is a good
solid publisher with not much flare but keeps going. I know the head of it.

My only feeling is (and I hope you agree with this) that the
next book even if a little large ought to have all these poems in it which are
not available. I don't like to cut down to a sampling of them. But given that
opportunity, even perhaps with a little help which I shall be happy to make,
knowing that I can do nothing better for Hilda than to make her poems available,
I am tempted to try first Harper's and then Norton's and return to Grove only
if these others fail. There will be complications, but they could be met.

Maybe tomorrow I will feel differently, and in an case we must
decide as teamdogs, our goals being the same. So do say frankly what you would
prefer.

The guard just came to say that several inches of snow had
already fallen. It is five and I think I should wend homeward. All love of course.

2 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

A real disappointment today, since we had expected Helen
would spend the night with us between two days at the library working
on Kurt's papers. We originally planned to go out for dinner, this
being Susan's New York day, but the snow was some five inches and Susan
feared the trains would be late into New York and the going difficult
with taxis. She she went out this morning to buy dinner to cook herself,
and so missed my phone to her after Helen's phone to me from the Library
where she had just arrived. Just arrived, but shivering and shaking
and knowing she had the flu and had better hurry back to bed in town.
I can't say I blame her--it is no fun to be sick in some one else's
home. But we shall miss having her, and she fears this may mean she
will have to postpone her trip to Peru which she had planned to take
on the 12th. They are anxious to do his letters in Germany.

I guided the car up Goodrich Street before dinner with some
difficulty because of the snow, but the trip to the theatre was not bad.
All garages were filled, but I finally found a parking lot. The show,
Do I Hear a Waltz? was really a poor, a great disappointment since it
was composed by the Rodgers who did Oklahoma, The King and I, Carousel.
I will not bore you with the plot which dragged as they did it, or the
songs which dragged as they sung them, and neither of which I fear are
capable of repair.

Your letters of the 29th and 30th came today. I am really
happy that you saw the funeral. I think I told you that we watched the
telstar of the departure of the train from the station, which was live,
and then runs of the Westminster Hall, the procession, and the service in
St. Paul's. I could not wait for the procession to the Tower, nor the
barge. I was particularly sorry about the latter, which I suddenly realised
was purely Arthurian: Ruan, Avalon, the blessed isles. There is something
wonderfully, fittingly heroic about Sir Winston's himself having planned
the ceremony. And something equally fitting about his final words as
reported this morning, to Soames, "I am bored by it all." Am not quite
sure that I agree about the God Save the Queen, since this was a national
ceremony. She apparently gave orders that the tv cameras could not be
focussed on her to distract from him. And gave up her preoccupative of
arriving last.

Randolph C does have the reputation of being heavy on the drinks.
One wonders what he will do now that he doesn't have papa to support him.
Also Sarah who will miss the income even more, unless the drummer-artist
can support her. I was told this noon that Sir Winston always had to have
heavy advances at once on his books because of the heavy family demands. This
from a publisher.

During the ceremony I thought constantly of Lowndes, as you must
have. I find the threads now really make a tapestry.

Glad you still stick by the Natchez idea. I toy with whether

3 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

It kept on snowing most of the night, and by morning six inches covered the ground. But we slept later than usual and before we were up, the shovelers had come to clear our paths and sidewalks, and about ten o'clock the plow came for our driveway. It is the only way to solve the problem of snow: to have some one else automatically come. I am completely fatigued if I try it myself. Susan fed her birds, who were waiting eagerly in the trees. Later I took a photograph of the house in the snow. Now I am back for a while in the office. But, alas, the afternoon will be broken into by another Japanese visitor from Fukuoka. They beat a path here, and we must entertain him for dinner. He says he will be here for several days, but I will be in New York tomorrow afternoon, and Tuesday is my class day. There ought to be a law passed that no visitors are allowed to announce themselves as of Sunday. Except, now that I remember it, Sunday is not much different to a Japanese from any other day.

Mostly today I shall pick up my office to bring a little order on the surface. I have still hardly made a dint into the Japanese letters, though I type like mad.

To go a little further on the subject of our joint literary agency, let me go back to Romaine Brooks. I had not been stalling with her but waiting for the right moment. It came at the MLA when I could actually and so-to-speak casually ask a young editorial friend of mine at Viking, who did New World Writing as an editor at Lippincott if he would be interested in the memoir, which I described as very hard and different. Marshall Best was also at the party (given by Viking for Howard Mumford Jones) and he became interested in it too. This is a very long way indeed from saying they will take it, but it has always seemed to me to be the best way to introduce attention to a manuscript, with all the complications in this case of the unfinished ending, my curious non-relationship to the manuscript, etc. It will go to them early this week, when Mrs Dingle is back to pack it.

I did forget one further possibility for a new publisher for Hilda's book. Pat Gregory phoned me after our visit to his father to say that he would be interested in seeing it if we were going to quit Grove. In some ways it would be delightful to work with him. In other ways, it would, or might, make difficult holding fast if there was disagreement between Horace and myself on what should be included or left out. Horace would almost certainly be right, but I would *think* I was. So add this alternative to your consideration.

Oh yes, for your amusement-- you will recall the obituary for a colonel I ghost-wrote for his widow. At a New Year's party, I told an old dame of whom Mrs Wedermeyer had spoken that I had seen Mrs W, who had come to my office. "Why?" asked the old dame curiously. I hesitated. "To show me the obituary of her husband," I answered, saying nothing more."

did you think of it?" the old dame went on. "I hesitated again. "I thought it was very nice," I said with concealed modesty. "Yes, I suppose so-- especially when you think who wrote it." *wow* in rags.

Perhaps it is just as well that the old year has been rung out.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

4 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

The difficulty with universities in operation is that people come to one. You cannot imagine how satisfactory it was to be for so many days in a deserted village. Today has been a series of frustrations. I srated early to visit the Public Works Office of Hamden (located remotely) to protest the non collection of garbage (only bones, since we have a disposal) for the past six weeks, and hope to tickle them into action by saying the Christmas gift for the collector was buried half way down. (This is the principle of work as play!) But I had to wait a half hour before anyone came to work. Then to the bank to take some money from savings into the checking account. And then the office, almost not to find a parking spot because of the piles of snow. (Oh, yes, before breakfast I shoveled the walk from door to street which had been filled with snow by the wind.) No sooner was I ready to dictate than the Japanese professor from Fukuoka came to the office for me to arrange his three-day schedule here. This meant many phone calls and much scurrying. By the time this was finished it was almost time to go to lunch where a candidate for an intsructorship in English was being looked over. And back here to the office where a graduated graduate student was waiting to find out whether he should accept an assistant professorship at Hunter College in New York. Now I have almost an hour--my day's quota, obviously--in which to do something of my own before taking the train to New York in order to go to the party at the Gotham Book Mart celebrating the book on Frances Steloff. I don't want to do this, but she came across New York at the MLA to hear my dinner speach at the College English Association, and this is the big moment of her life. Susan will meet me at the Yale Club, having gone in this morning, go to the party, we will eat at the Club and take the 9:00p.m. back.

Your letters of the 30th and 31st were in this early afternoon mail. This is wonderful news about the Quest! I am delighted. It should be better perhaps than ever, because of the refitting. And you will not be torn by feeling you must stay close by for Doris's sake. Ethel deserves a victor's wreath. This will be much better under the circumstances than the Greenland trip, though I do hope that you will come out with me once Brattahlid is finished to see what they have done.

Am delighted you liked the Hawthorne bits. My interest all came out of an undergraduate paper I did, suggested by a chance remark in a lecture by the professor who said no one knew anything about Hawthorne at Bowdoing College where he went as a student. I worked it up for a prize essay, and I am glad to say no one has added much to what I found out then. Fortunately he was a good writer too, so I didn't have to put him aside for the sake of respectability. People have always interested me as people; that's one reason I liked to do things about him. This probably accounts for my finding it easy to become a counter-espionage person. It is only livelier scholarship.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

Thinking back on those days, I was reminded of their aftermath yesterday when I saw another item about Philby, which I enclose. Return some time when you stuff a yellowback.

Glad too you liked the jacket material for Avalon. I always am frightened to speak so authoratively about a book's intention. But it is equally hard for an author to do. Don't forget to tell Helen how pleased you were the jacket itself. She worked hard on it and was very proud of it.

So sorry about Islay's dog. I think he will be happier in olive groves where he can race without tumbling the flowers.

A note from the bank in Montreux this morning with its end of the year enclosure. Just in the nick of time, as one might say, but there were no wounds to heal, just a padding for the weeks ahead.

All love as always,

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

6 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

Not having written you yesterday--when a committee meeting immediately followed my afternoon seminar--and not having written you today either, I have come back to the office for at least a brief note to you which I can drive to the post office by the Green and save perhaps a day in reaching you.

Eliot's death cannot be said to have taken away a friend, though I knew him of course, but it most certainly is another broken link in the chain. Somehow I feel that with his death and Dame Edith's, following each other so closely, the two true poets laureate have died. There is Auden of course, but he seems to me somehow like the Duke of Windsor. I am much bemused by Eliot's desire to be buried in East Coker ("in the end is my beginning"). There is a little of the dramatic flair of a Sweeney Agonistes in this, but at least he did not choose Little Gidding and vie with Charles. Still, a kind of giant has fallen, and the demarcations of his age become clearer to troubled eyes.

Monday night as I think I told you we went to the party at the Gotham Book Mart for Frances Steloff, meeting Dondald Gallup at the Yale Club beforehand and going with him. I took the 4 o'clock down, getting at the Club at 5:45, and we took the 9 p.m. back. As a party it was pretty much like all publishers party, except that champagne was served instead of mixed drinks. There were, in fact, a good many people we knew, or I knew, so that I was glad enough to have gone. Bill Rogers, who wrote the book of course; Lauraenet, Bill's and Steve's elder sister; Loren McIver, the painter; Seymour Lawrence who had gone to Knopf way over Pat's head, from Houghton Mifflin, but who now tells me he left Knopf on November to start his own firm (this might put Pat back in the running, which would be fine); Hubert Creekmore, the Schaffner's office man and friend; Babette Deutsch, and a great many others. But especially Marianne who looked tired but game. We had a splendid talk with her, a good deal about you, some about Edith, and lots about her trip and Phyllis and England and her brother. Perhaps one should say she looked frail, but otherwise well.

How vogues go up and down in the rare book market. I took the duplicates of the Sitwell collection (except those which yale wanted) to a local dealer, only to find him completely uninterested. I will find a home for them somewhere but not try to sell them, I think.

Your letters have continued loyally to come. One of the 31st, another for the 2nd and then for the 3rd. Do, please, tell Ines how sorry I am to learn of the death of her father. No matter what the circumstances she must feel like a good Italian peasant that she should drop everything to be there, even if being there is to be in the way. Much better that she should wait until things have quieted down and she can make an adjustment to the new family situation. I hope she can go later.

I must get back to the house before it is too late. But despite a short letter, long love,

Norman

7 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

This has been a day somehow in which not very much got put
down on paper and tangibly accomplished. But I did spend a period of
several hours in going over details of the office with R.W.B.Lewis my
colleague, who has not been easy to get at during the Fall.

But I did at least finish and dissertation on Henry James
which had been submitted for the American Studies series, and a little
book which I could thereby acknowledge to the donor.

And of course, as usual, see several students by appointment.

Of today's mail incoming, there was nothing again from you.
But I deserve silence certainly after my several days of reticense while
in New York, and days missed here because of confusion. I did get one
letter which will interest you, from Indiana where I had written for
a Hawthorne letter and for information about a Henty catalogue I thought
had been published by Scribner's bookshop when the present head of the
rare book section of the Indiana University Library was there as head
of the shop. He wrote: "I am somewhat puzzled about your reference to
'the Henty catalogue I prepared at Scribner's.' I never did such a catalogue
that I can recall. However, we do have here at Indiana what is unquestion-
ably the finest Henty collection in existence. It is absolutely complete,
so far as I know, with all of the books in first editions, a great number of
them Henty's own copies. We also have long runs of all the magazines he
contributed to or edited, a very substantial collection of his original
newspaper articles as a war correspondent, etc. I could, if you think it
worthwhile, have a catalogue cards Xeroxing for you and sent on. I am
very interested in the news that the Grolier may put on a Henty show. It
would be an exciting and colorful display. Let me hear from you when you
have more details."

This is exciting to know that some of the newspaper articles
are in Indiana. I think I will have them copies and sent here. You can
see them when you come out, and will serve me as an invaluable guide in
checking our own group. It should not be too expensive, and will of course
obviate the necessity for having our copies catalogued when they tally
with Indiana's.

We go tonight to a harpsichord recital. I am always reminded
of the parties to which the Sitwell's had me invited.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

8 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

I seem to be unusually disoriented this week, and not quite to settle in after the happy days when there were no students in the hallway. I fool around, doing oddments of jobs but not progressing with papers. Now your galleys have arrived, and that will give me a chance to concentrate. I was sorry to cable, but I do need to know at this stage the answer to the particular queries I asked you in mid-December, just when your Christmas mail was at its height of composition.

Deposits made before the 10th of the month in a savings bank draw interest as from the 1st. So I hurried down to the banks this morning, took out my will which needs a minor codicil to it, and then deposited Beney's check and one from Goodnow Pearson. I also checked on the interest on your account for the last quarter, which came to 119.41, with a total of 12,631. I still have not taken out anything for last year's expenses or more importantly the income tax on the royalties deposited to it. But I wait for that until the government has settled the matter of just what last year's tax should be. It seems silly to make an accounting twice. I hope this is all right with you. Because of the indemnity from Random House for the mistake on the Ghandaran book and Hilda's, the income is larger than usual for the year. Hilda's account is much more modest: 9.01 for interest and 988.66 for the total. I still have to take out for income tax and the Zinzendorf letter, but thought it better to gain what interest I could until the end of the year.

The recital last night was very good, mostly Couperin and Rameau, but beautifully played on the harpsichord. I have known the artist, Ralph Kirkpatrick for many years, having heard him play a public concert here while he was still an undergraduate at Harvard. He is generally regarded now as the best.

Lunched this noon with a Crosby Lewis who was head of our German show after the breakthough. He was Perdita's boss there. He has now become a Canadian citizen and thrives on trade with China. Also with the Coomunist controlled middle-European countries. A good Canadian, even if not native-born. He has the instinct for money.

Tonight is the preliminary dinner for the judges of the Bolingen Award. Only three this year, and being the adviser for selecting them (in the absence of Cleanth Brooks) I cut the number down from 5. So with wives and guests the dinner at the Lawn Club with be 14, and they come to our house afterwards for the rest of the evening. It is exhausting but having the dinner tonight is one way of being sure they are in town for the meeting tomorrow. I have done the best I could for Horace, by seeing that a copy of his book is available for the judges, and chosing Ted Weiss who likes Horace and wrote a warm review of the book of collected poems. Beyond that I can't go. My suspicion is that it might well go to Robert Lowell, but there are several possibilities.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

I forgot to tell you that Wednesday afternoon at the International Student Center meeting I asked a friend of the Hotsons about them. Mrs Withington said they had been suffering from severe colds caught at Christmas time, and she had been so worried about them that she had called several times to check. She confirmed that they had stayed until late in Maine, and gotten back only just in time for Mary to regroup her Christmas children. Leslie is deeply emersed in his newest book. She says there was an enthusiastic review in *The Nation*, and she thinks another one, perhaps in the NY Times. If so, I missed it.

Your two letters of the 5th were in this morning's mail, after a brief break of a day or two without communication. I am so sorry that Ines' gloves did not appear in time for Christmas. They were mailed well in advance by air, and should have gotten there. # I think probably it is much better that you should not negotiate with Rosemary for the Greek House. This is really too complicated and involving. The trouble is, alas, that I understand the symbol all too well. It is like lying on a hospital bed after surgery, the ether still heavy in one's lungs, when one's throat is parched and the nurse says no liquids. I would dream, as a boy, of a month-long visit to a soda fountain. But when I was well again, I never wanted a soda at all. I fear that Rosemary, really in Greece, would not want her house either. But it is Greece(and the past) and a house of her own (in the present). Maybe when papa dies, the thing for her to do would be to build the kind of one-level modern home that could be all hers too.

Lady Ellerman apparently wants a flat of her own too, and the great thing must be that on the outside it looks like £25/-/- a month, but inside it is luxurious, like the inside of her heart. What bugs me, as they say, is the idea that "the wall is covered with Lady Ellerman's paintings." I see her lying on her chaise longue looking all day long at her own pictures, and thinking what a luxurious talent she really has, if only other people knew. It is like a woman lying all day long on her couch, naked, and looking at herself reflected in the mirrors which cover the ceiling and walls.

Your second letter says that mine of the 20th, 31st and 1st had come together. It is maddening, but with the Christmas rush over maybe life will be allowed to space itself. I liked your approach to Catha about Moore. I do not wish to knife him but only to guard myself and Hilda. As for the expression "horsey," I use it (don't the British too) to describe a kind of athletic appearance and physical angularity like that of women on the hunt, even when they stride into a ballroom instead of a paddock. # I had yesterday a card from Dori, but I think I will not acknowledge. I really don't have an interest in her, being well supplied otherwise with neurotics.

This afternoon Elsie's fine letter came. Do thank her, and give her our love. Also your letter of the 6th. I shall be restless until I hear that The Quest is partitioned. But I'm sure they can fix up something. Do remember that as we send s-f's, it is only as Susan happens to have read them and we send them to you for wedding.

I must go now and hear a lecture by Trevor-Roper. He is a ghost from the Ryder Street days, and Bletchley.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON
231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN·CONN

10 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

It has been snowing gently all day, but traffic seems to be able to move, and so I should have no difficulty in getting home tonight after a day in the office. Actually there was no difficulty in getting home at noon for lunch-- a wonderful thick pea soup that Susan had made from the remnants of a ham bone. She is excellent at cleaning the ice box, and wastes nothing.

I really can't report any excitement, except that of being able to file away some thirty or more letters or documents I have answered since morning. I ought, equally, to have checked cards for the Elizabethan Collection, or corrected graduate school papers, or read proof on your novel. Instead I have been clearing my desk of chores, in the hope that perhaps I can run to my room in the Library with the proof, so that students cannot get at me in person or by phone. But the letters I can only answer at my desk. My waste basket is full.

This is not a letter, it is simply

13 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

I did not write yesterday nor the day before, and now
having had people in to see me all morning, I must run to catch a train
for New York. So you must forgive my not sending more than the briefest
note, and that really simply to let you know that all is well though
harrassed. I do thank you very much for the corrections for the galley
sheets which arrived yesterday in miraculous time. I had indeed said
no hurry, and had been about to write Helen to ask what the schedule
was for Avalon, so as not to miss the sheets while we were on spring
holiday. Then, bang, the galleys were here. It is a short book of course,
and they are anxious to have it hand. Thanks to your corrections I can
send it back this weekend.

There is really not very much to say. Sunday I developed
a toothache, and went to the dentist Monday morning only to find he was
not back from Virginia. Fortunately the doctor to whom I also went for
my cold shot gave me a prescription for codeine which kept me going until
yesterday morning when the dentist began to treat my dying nerve. I must
go regularly for a few weeks, he says, and then we see what can be done.
It is maddening.

I have run countless errands, had countless people in to
see me in my office, made countless and fruitless calls to try to get
some one to teach the summer program in American Studies, and in all
ways maintained an equilibrium of frustration.

But at least I have no seminar for two weeks now, and hope
to get their papers corrected as well as generally caught up.

Will write properly tomorrow. Thank Ines for her nice letter.

14 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

A day of no significant advance, although I have spent it
mostly with your galley sheets. Fortunately I can always read Avalon
with renwed, even increased interest. Otherwise I might go slowly mad.

There were three letters in today's mail--they come in clumps --but I will save these for a longish free time. You will forgive me for devoting myself to the galleys, to the proofsheets for next year's class schedules, for making out my assignment sheet for next year, and for a long conference with the Director of Graduate Studies.

Yesterday's trip to New York was a full one. I took the
noon train down, had a sandwich on it, and went at 2 to see the invest-
ment counsellor who handles Susan's funds for her. I thought with the
little I have here it would be better to have my investments coordinated
with hers, lest there be too much of an overlap. Normally they will
take nothing less than 100,000 but they agreed to in this case because of
overlapping hers. Anyhow, if expenses decrease I may be able to save enough
to bring it up to that amount. This could only be a preliminary talk; now
I have to get oddments of data together.

After that I went to the Grolier Club to see the exhibition
of "Shakespeare's Rivals." There were certainly some mouth-watering
items on display, and a number of first quartos of B & F that were really
drool-making. But it gave me great pleasure to see the items marked with
your name, as for instance "Ex coll. Marchbank/Bryher." They had given the
provenance whenever possible.

That being done, I taxied to the Guggenheim to see the show of
Calder's sculpture and painting, which I liked chiefly for the work leading
up to the mobiles. I had not felt their history so fully before. He is
a little gimmicky, if one takes the view from the eye of the ages. But
inventive and frolicksome.

I then met Susan at the Yale Club and we went on to the vernissage
of a show of paintings and sculpture by George L.K.Morris, the brother of a
roommate of mine at ale, whom I had known for many years. He is hardly a
great artist, but he is a good one. And pretty-much self made, even though he
studied under Bracque. After Yale he said to himself, what shall I do (no
members of the Morris family ever dreaming of going into trade). And his
answer was, Be a painter.

We dined, or rather cocktailed and then he left so we dined at
the Yale Club, with Paul Blum my friend of war days and Japan. At the weekend
he goes to the hospital for an operation in which cancer is suspected, of the
osophagus. He has been spending his time in conference with the executor of
his estate. I think he welcomed the break. At least I broke in with that
intention.

And then home by the 8 o'clock train.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

16 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

Decry my silence but do not deny my devotion. A blizzard is brewing outside, which began before dawn, and they say there will be over six inches by evening. But I risk the office to write you, having been silent yesterday and having only mumbled during the week. It is 9º F outside, and the snow blows through my office window as I sit next to it at the typewriter.

But this cold is nothing to what I felt last night. Leaving at 10 minutes after six, to go to Mrs Bennett's for supper with Susan while she watched over her mother, I got my car out from the parking lot into the street, only to have it go dead on me. I went back to the office, risking the car in the street, to call Susan and say I would have to wait for the Automobile Association to come to fix me, and couldn't make dinner (tho I wd eat cold meat at home since the police were already warning of the snow to come and commanding cars to leave the streets). I called the AAA and waited in my car for 45 minutes in a 10°F temperature. I have never been so cold even in Chesterfield Inlet; I was shaking. Then I went back to the office to check up, found the repair car had gone to the wrong place, and so went back to wait again. Only 30 minutes this time, but when the Negro illiterate came he could only greet me with curses, deny my explanation that it was not only the battery at fault, try that, insist on pushing me, and then finally after this proved a failure, at my insistence he hoisted my car up and towed me to the garage. I had expected only to get the car off the street, since all garages are closed Saturdays, but there was a nice night man there (working overtime getting new cars ready for delivery) and he offered to see what he could do. He did. He worked on it until 9 p.m., when I went home for warmth and something to eat. Susan was already home from her mother and worried.

She was worried too about her mother whose temperature continues high, will eat nothing, and gives some symptoms of this being a recurrence of last year's trouble. She phoned the doctor this morning, begged him not to let her go to Florida this week, and told him what Mrs Bennett had not. One can only see.

And now I shall go home at luncheon, I think, and spend the rest of the day working there. But I miss having my papers to get at. Still, there is much that can be done there. Tomorrow after the men come to plow me out I may be able to get back.

I have finished the galleys of Avalon, checking them against the typescript as best I can--there are a few changes I told you of agreeing to in New York. Now Susan is reading it straight through, and so will I, just to be sure we catch spellings or typos. She found one last night I had missed. The sheets will go back to Helen Monday morning by special delivery. You were wonderful to send the changes so promptly. I am most grateful. I left p. 82 as you preferred it to be. Also p. 129, and p. 148. So I think there were no real upheavals. I enclose the center section from this week's Publishers Weekly with the insert from arcourt. I think they really do mean to push it. Interesting too to see how many Helen Wolff books there are.

2

There was no letter in today's mail, but yesterday one of the 13th. And a little pile, dating back to the 7th lie on my desk as though not yet fully answered.

You must luxuriate now you are allowed to use your new bookcase. It is your phantom ship with a rich cargo, I can see. The whaling book should go there to. I was pleased to see that the TLS spoke of it as a probable classic of its kind. I do have a copy of the Hutchison By Greeland's Closed Shores, but do not know whether or not the Library does. I will check. Or you can send to Hilda Quick who would, I should think, enjoy it. The Egide on the other hand, tho a late one, might properly join the rest of the collection unless you have immediate use for it. I should be delighted to have it,--that is, to add it. # It is most interesting about Ines and the visions of her father. Though not hard to understand, in its combination of guilt and desire to please and be accepted. It is much better for her to stop the tranquilisers, or she might become habituated to them. # Many thanks for the advice about the Hilda poems. I shall try elsewhere than Grove first. I should prefer it to. # The manuscript of Romaine's book has gone off to Viking. I haven't told her this, since I hate to have her hopes raised. I leave to you. # What a flap Melitta gets in. But really, she asks for it a bit when she fills the basement with such wares. I think too she finds it emotionally satisfying to have somewhat troubled or risky people under her advice and protection. She gets a sense of being needed as well as being important. # Let me know what you know about Mildred Brown. I could check later with Harold, if appropriate. Or find out otherwise. # I'm pleased to hear about Agnes' Ralegh. We need good books of that sort. # Will send a copy of the Selected Poems to Guin when my extra copies come. I am told they are being resent. And perhaps I have copies of some of the trilogy. No better place than in the family, and I have too many of a few books. # I have just made a separate aide memoire on that. # Poor Margaret Phillips. Naturally I have a special sympathy. You may recall that I thought the boy's letters but precocious, and overly religious for his years. There were symptoms even then, but of course one could do nothing. Too bad he could not have gone to Heydt. But California is not the place for him, I think. Don't worry, if he recovers and Cambridge won't take him back he might well fit in better at one of the red bricks. He may have been socially in over his head. Not that he wanted to be social, but that abhorring it he drew more into himself and God. # I was very pleased that Osbert had the kindness to step aside in favor of Francis. Here I think one could not designate the beneficiary, it would simply revert to the estate and pass on to nearest of kin who would be Sachie. Of course one does not really know about family trusts, and indeed Sachie may benefit far more because of Edith's removal. # There is not much one can do about Beney and the future at the moment, I feel, but I am certainly much easier in mind because you are there to keep an eye open for me. We can only wait and see what the pudding will be. # It is curious about your diaries. Mrs Dingle received hers only this past Thursday, the 14th. It is incredible to think they were posted in November. Still, they are no less delighted to have them I am sure. # Valentine's lower grades at first are not surprising to me, especially since I failed nearly everything when I entered Andover. The work is much stiffer, and there are more diversions and distractions, even though at boarding school there is less time openly free. But bored at home, I am sure, Valentine retired to the privacy of his room. Now he must be with others. # How splendid of Helen to send you the new coat. Now you must wear it and your atomic watch simultaneously. Certainly you must bring your watch to the States when you come in the spring. # The Masefield one is at his best. Really one can think of a number in these last years which are among his very best. Only one

3

needs to weed the garden. # I do not approve however of weeding out one's
bureau. I hope you rescued your bag from the scrap heap. # Yes, you are
quite right in helping Bruno with the house, and it is an excellent idea
of Beney to have Jacques handle the matter. It will give you a fine idea
of his qualities, one way or the other. I expect they will be on the plus
side.

Letters from elsewhere than Kenwin also pour on to my desk, and lie
there now. But most are of little interest to you, or anyone. I am only
pleased to have a letter from Swissair enclosing my new membership card. "We
are extremely proud to have earned your loyal patronage and look forward with
great pleasure to serving you for many years to come."

And one from Islay to say they had written Prof. Hartmann. Alas, as
you know, no one has taken S. Filippo. They are to make a trip to La Vagnola
with Donald. The lawyer's name is Indelicato, which sounds interesting. Islay
is in an absolute orgasm of pride vis-a-vis Noel. "I have to believe I am the
golden boy this year as apart from the 40 odd copies he ordered of my photos
of him, I also had his Christmas card, the programs for both High Spirits and
Hay Fever, and Rolff is in a screaming rage." Roloff is the rival photographer--
a Canadian with money --at whose snuggery we all met Coward first. At that time
Roloff was the player's boy.

We must begin to think a little about your spring visit. I take your
advice and am returning Susan to Greece for the college vacation. She was
actually, as you know, in bed all but a couple of afternoons of our stay there,
and this will give her a chance to see what she missed. She seems to be very
excited about it. But the details are at home, and more of this later. If you
go to England to use up your time, which ends on the 5th, why don't you keep
on from there. And come here. We also return on the 5th, but I wondered if you
wouldn't like to come up to New Haven, leave your things, and then get Prutting
out of the way the first week. Or of course you could go straight to the
Stanhope, and come up to see us on Thursday or Friday. Then we could celebrate
my birthday together on Tuesday, as class day, and then on Tuesday night or
Wednesday morning hop off to Natchez for the rest of the week. We will be just
a few days after the close of their garden tour season, which is just as well
because of the mobs. But the plantations will be at their height, and I can
arrange through the guide we once had to have all the benefits we need. I think
of Natchez only because of the extra time I have this year, and the favorable
season. Summer is too hot. An alternative would be Washington, and the Williamsburg
area which is another facet of the Eastern seaboard and the south. Accommodations
may be a little difficult so I ought to make reservations not too late, and
certainly not after you get here. Though we could do that too, probably. Will
you want to be in New York for the 21st, your publication day. Helen I know would
love to give you a small party, and of course if you really do want them to push
the book you must do your share too. Helen would be wonderfully pleased. Would
you like an autographing party at the Yale Co-op also? That is a part, too, of
being a pushed author. I leave this to you. But I expect you on the 5th anyway,
I should think.

The snowflakes are thickening. And I have to keep the window shade down
to keep them from covering my machine. I certainly shall not plan to spend the
afternoon downtown. I only pray that last night's experience is not repeated.

All love, as always, Norman

NORMAN

HOLMES

PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN · CONN

17 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

The blizzard never quite materialized as violently as we had been warned against, but it did snow some four inches of dry whiteness (fortunately not the foot or more we were promised), and the wind was strong, and temperature below 10 F. But this morning the sun shone, the men came to shovel at 5:30 a.m., and although I stayed home and read your *Avalon* half through for a last time, I was free to come down to the office this afternoon. I have really made quite a headway on letters, bills, and the like, and feel reasonably satisfied. I did stay home yesterday afternoon during the storm, and we did not budge even to go through the storm to a party for the incoming librarian of Yale. I'll meet him some day.

Mrs Bennett seemed better yesterday, fired her day nurse, and tried to fire her night nurse (except that Susan protested strongly enough to keep her). Even more importantly she began to eat a little, but I think because Susan went there in the morning and went over the menus with the cook, who had been feeding her cauliflower. Or, I should say, serving it, for Mrs Bennett ate nothing.

I enclose a last clipping about the hippo, whose tale interested me chiefly I think because a descendent of Emerson and of Longfellow had been involved.

I suspect I did not mention Melitta's letter about her Porto Ricans or whatever they were. perhaps I did speak of that but not of the fact that she is actually about to begin to practise again, has a secretary, and seems ready to set sail. This is good news indeed. And again basically your doing.

I trust you approve of Greece for the spring holiday. This is to make up for Susan's having had to be in bed during her first visit last February. We fly directly to Athens on the 17th or 18th and return on the 5th. It has to be a Monday or we lose benefits of the 21-day special which does not permit flights on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. There is no 21 day special any more on First Class, so we go tourist, leaving New York at 9:30 and arriving in Greece the next afternoon at 3:45 p.m. It saves so much we feel we cannot conscientiously go first. And we can rest afterwards. We have six days in Athens including Independence Day on the 25th, and if we can get a room with balcony at the Grand Bretagne it should be fun to watch the parades. We take a four day auto trip to Delphi and the usual, and a 3 1/2 day boat trip among the islands. The rest of the time and in between we are in Athens. Susan is really excited about seeing so much that is famous.

But she looks forward equally to our trip with you either to Natchez or Williamsburg. I really think Natchez would be unusually interesting to you, and we can get there in a day via New Orleans. We can always do Williamsburg in any season and Washington in any day. If you OK I will write the guide we once had and arrange for rooms. Susan agrees if you agree that it might be a good idea to get Prutting out of the way first. e can always cancel Natchez at the last minute if necessary or appropriate. All love, Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

Chapter 11

Well, as you see, I did wait, and the afternoon mail brought me a
second letter from you -- that of the 14th. So I was pleased to call
this a lucky day. I finished the proofs of Avalon and took them to
the postoffice to be sent first class and special delivery, since
they must go back to the printer on the 22nd. At the window I saw
the flash of new commemoratives, and thinking of Elsie I bought the
giddy display on the envelope. I hope she will accept them with my
compliments.

As to the Henty material, yes better to wait until I get the cards
from Indiana, and perhaps until you see them after April 5th. We
are indeed going to have a lot to do, but I also enjoy the idea of
getting away to Natchez. It is our one chance. By waiting, I mean
having Maishman dig away for what we can direct her straight to.
Also, possibly we could simply have the Indiana items xeroxed, and
work with collecting what they don't have.

Yes, you cannot be in the position of sponsoring Martin for a hotel
job in Switzerland. And it would not be good for him for he must
work along professional channels. They will respect him more, and
now that you have given him the chance he must learn to find his own
level.

Why not get PierreHENey to come to you with the static clock. Or it
will really be static. It is too heavy for you to carry to the bank,
and too complicated for bank time. What would the clerks think in
seeing you come in for your weekly horological tutoring.

I am much much relieved about George. Odd, but I was thinking about him
only this morning when I looked out at the snow and thought of him shivering
by the fireside in the dark. Once in, the doctors can watch him until the
first crocus comes. I think there will not be too many seasons left for
him.

'slay's Christmas card and note arrived today also, sent the week before
Christmas. But surface mail is simply impossible. I send nothing but heavy
goods that way now in winter. In summer, with more sailings, the story is
different.

The Pantheon Spring list is in, and I see that the paper *Roman Wall* is
scheduled for February. How many do you want?

And we ought perhaps to work on the complimentary list for Avalon. Is there
news from Collins as to their reactions to it? Send me the list, and I'll
add what should be added to it if anything has escaped you. This is the
line we have followed before. It is easier for Harcourt than having two
lines of communication. And for billing.

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

20 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

Dinnertime closed in on me last night before I could write you. The afternoon committee meeting of professors lingered too long. They certainly love to talk. Still it was useful. They were nominating candidates for the special fellowship awards given in the graduate school, and discussing (in terms of past experience by those who had served on the board awarding the fellowships) what the crietria were, how awards were made, what the criteria were, and who strategically should be presented in court regalia. All this was interesting to listen to, and at moments I wondered if I ought to tell them that I was on the awards committee this year. But I kept silent, and since the list had been announced--at least I think it was--I felt no guilt and much profit.

Last night we went to the Lawn Club for dinner and then to a concert by the Boston Symphony, with a substitute director, however, since Leinsdorf had gone off to the Inaugural. I thought it a rather tedious program, but by the choices not the direction.

I have had a letter from Viking saying they had received Romaine's manuscript. I shall keep my fingers crossed. I expect nothing, as children would say for good luck. As to *Roman Wall*, I enclose the announcement by Pantheon. I wonder if in the end I shall be proved right or wrong in having held out for a separate edition rather than a double volume. Somehow my instincts tell me that each separately has more status; somehow my trading sense tells me that whoever really buys will buy one as quickly as two, except in drugstores. And I'm not sure that your wares are really for the bargain counter.

I see by the TLS of the 14th that Cleanth Brooks is really putting on a show at the Embassy. Advertising will strike some as callow, but I am all for it. Only I think they will have droves crowding the doors. The front page article on *Women in Arms* was remark ably learned, and quite right I think in insisting that few have seriously taken the woman's point of view or given a proper credit or analysis. She, for I am sure the author is a woman, is amusingly right too about pronography, and she agrees with what I have several times said, that in pornography its is men's vanity which lusts rather than his loins, and he enjoys the fantasy of thinking what immense satisfaction he gives the women lucky enough to be serviced by him. I suppose in a way that Mary McCarthy's *The Group* was a milestone of a dreary sort by really dealing with women from a woman's point of view. But there is so much acid in the pen that the surface of the novel is pockmarked.

You asked about the Nenty show at the Grolier Club. What I really suggested was what I thought would be a colorful show on the whole genre of juvenile histories. That is, Henty plus Ballantyne, plus Fenn, plus Staples.

Henty is so much collected and is so well known that a show based only on
him might better be staged with the superb Indiana collection alone. But
what fun it would be to see the mad display of the morceaux choisis from
the many collections. And what interesting lectures could be given at
the vernissage and the second (for men only) meeting of the Club. Though
don't think that I mean the nature of the second talk would be for men only.
If there ever should be such a show I think you'd have to pop over for it.

Not much to add, really, although I shall not post the letter
until later in case a letter comes from you in the noon or afternoon post.
I have Hiram Hayden coming at 2:30 (he is going from Athenaeum to Harcourt
with the same arrangement as Helen: 'a Hiram Hayden Book'). Amd at 4 I must
go to a nominating committee meeting for the International Student Center.
I thought I was out of that, but it has fallen on sluggish days, and I
dare not absent myself. Then tonight we go to the theatre. I think I
shall be glad to go to Greece, even if you won't come with us.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

28 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

Ypur letter of the 18th arrived yesterday afternoon, which was speedily enough for anyone. But I am glad you sent a copy of the changes directly to Helen, since my galleys had already been returned to her, as I wrote you. She had written me that the date for returning to the printer was tomorrow, but she may hold back from that if she thinks more will be forthcoming in the way of alterations. Of course I shall have to leave all decisions in Helen's hands, not having my galleys to check again. But I think her judgment will be good.

I was much interested in Philips' comments about the British situation, and even though he may be out of power so to speak I suspect he will accurately reflect a certain segment of reaction. I should think Wilson in temperament was not very much like Lloyd George nor bore the same relationship to the unions. But I heartily agree that the Conservatives have no real leader. The parallel to the plight of the Republican Party here is obvious. One knew they were in for a troublesome time when they squabbled so meaninglessly about the last P.M. Or perhaps one should say meaningfully, since the squabble did have significance as to the lack of a real leader.

Good for Philip in getting Osbert to give over to Francis. I am not sure, but think that here one can only renounce an inheritance without specifying to whom one is renouncing it a

I thought you might be interested in the enclosed from Miss Glitkin. I had not heard anything specific from Rose, although I can well believe the G.G.

We went last night to the Shubert to see the opening night of a play called The Diamond Orchid. It was elaborately based on the career of Evita Peron, although how accurately I cannot say. However the leading lady had a most demanding role, is a comparative newcomer (Jennifer West) and played it to the hilt. The settings were attractive, and the costumes superb. We came home feeling we had spent many worse evenings at the theatre.

I sometimes feel I shall do well to stumble through the week. There are too many graduate seminar papers still uncorrected.

All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

23 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

We seem to be certain of one thing. That is, that each weekend we will have a heavy snowfall. Today has been no exception, and this time they say at least ten inches. Judging from what has happened so far, I think they may be right. I had to come down this morning for a 9 o'clock meeting of the computer conference: talks on the use of computers in archaeology and art history, in music and in architecture. Then to the dentist for another treatment of my dying nerve. And from there to the Divinity School for a luncheon committee meeting of the nominating committee for International Student Center. Some errands afterwards, trudging through the snow, to the Co-op and now I suspect I ought not to wait too long before trying to get my car safely into the garage. The radion says it will not quit before tomorrow, but when it stops I count on the men to shovel me out as usual.

I have been working again at my desk, which as usual is messy. A card to Warner Moore, Marianne's brother, who wrote me from the hospital to say he had had "a blood clot in urinary line," which "hit me a stunning blow.... Fortunately the clot was very expertly removed." Marianne of course will be upset, but he does seem to be better and spoke of coming up in the spring to revisit Yale. I have just had a letter from Indiana saying the Henty cards were en route, and sending the bill. This will be a bonanza for us. I can go on from there to see about the newspaper clippings, when I know how many there actually are.

I don't think I told you that I had a long long letter from the Brigadier, full of military reminiscences and sending love to Susan and self from Ethel and self.

I was sorry not to write yesterday, but the morning was spent giving oral examinations for the doctorate in English, and then at the computer conference. Your letter of the 19th came in the morning, and that of the 20th I found at 10:30 last night when the first day of the conference was finished. I shall send off the second sheet of corrections to Helen by special delivery in the hope that the galleys were not actually returned to the printers on the 22nd as scheduled. I tried to phone her today but there was no answer. The friend operated on for cancer in New York is said by his sister to be doing much better. Now the wife of the youngish chairman of English and a good friend of mine has just had her right breast removed for a tumor. Yes, I wish the Hotsons would get flu shots, for as you say the illnesses are annual. But then I could never get them to cut the hay or plant to clover despite Mary's overwhelming allergy. The general impression now is that there are more Elizabethan items to be picked up on this side than in England, but good things are expensive. I doubt one should consider buying unless perhaps B&F. But I do not think the prices will drop, not for really good things. They never have. And the competition by collectors and now libraries is immense. # I was of course much interested in Kershaw's letter. At about the same time I have had one from Moore, who I think realises I do not trust him or approve. I will not send, but put in the great folder I now have, marked "BRYHER--APRIL."

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

For of purpose you must come, as planned. In the first place, this
gives a good excuse for not having Sir Gavin too long about your neck.
You can use the excuse of the publication for being on this side--business
matters, etc., even though you are not in New York at the time of publication.
You can also say, what is true, that you have promised your American friends
to go with them to Natchez, and could not really disappoint them now, having
as it were pledged and they made arrangements already. Indeed the trip would
be impossible in the summer, and this is the one year when I have nothing in
the week of a classroom nature after Tuesdays. So we plan for you to arrive
on the 5th, to give you the maximum use of your present British allowance.

Oh yes, I see that a copy of the second set of corrections did go directly
toelen so I will not send to her mine. Perhaps if too late for the galleys
a few may be worked into the page proof.

I look outside and shiver. The snow continues to tumble down through
the gray light.

All love, as always —

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

24 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

Well, I made it safely home last night at six--climbing the
Goodrich Street hill in low gear and making a lucky swoop to plow through
the piles of snow blocking the entrance to the driveway. But I could not
have put it off much longer, for at least 8 inches fell and in front of the
garage this morning were drifts of three feet where the wind had tossed
it. So I was safely snowed in this morning, and took things to the attic
and the cellar, finished a number of papers I had taken home to read, in
addition to some of the morning papers, and this afternoon was shoveled
out so that I could come to the office. I certainly needed to, and I have
scribbled notes to Miss Glikin and others in order to be ready for work
on the Summer Program tomorrow morning, I now having gotten my faculty
signed up. Alas, Professor Kaji comes from Japan in the late morning to
spend over night with us and leave (but when?) on Tuesday. He is the
Director of the American Studies Foundation of Japan, and has other friends
on the faculty here. But they are inermuda or California, where wise men
go during the examination period between terms.

I have made up a little package to go to you tomorrow. An old
pamphlet on Natchez, which gives an idea of what we can see out of season
(not during the tourist time itself), and our old guide will arrange for
us. Plus a Vogt that Susan thought you might like. Plus a *Galaxy* and some
newspaper oddments, none of which are to be returned.

Did I tell you that I am told that Henry Miller in his book on
what books have meant to him, says that Henty is his greatest influence and
devotes several paragraphs, or pages, to him. In all seriousness, too, so
that you and Miller have been to school together.

And did I ask you what you thought about letting Weiss have Hilda's
story to publish. Or whether you would be interested in having me see if yours
would suit (it may be too long)? You have been so busy lately in answering your
English mail that I quite understand why there isn't time for replying to queries.

Mrs Bennett is much better now, and should be able to go to Florida
next Wednesday. Susan will go down for a visit early in February, or was to have.
Mrs B is coming to dinner tonight if I can fetch her through the snow, and the
dates will probably be settled then. When I look at the snow and sleet outside,
I almost w sh I were able to go myself.

All love,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

25 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

Today has been rather rushed by the arrival of Professor Kaji,
though now (at 4:00 p.m.) he is out with a younger member of the faculty
and will be back in 20 minutes for me to take him home where we are giving a
cocktail party for at 5. Then the evening, and then tomorrow morning too, one
supposes. Meanwhile my desk is again a scandal thanks to the arrivals in this
morning's mail.

But there are exceptions. First the group of xeroxing Henty cards
from Indiana, and I can hardly wait to look through them. I will keep them
here for your arrival. Then two letters from you, which make any day a good one.
They are of the 21st and 22nd. Alas, I am intensely disappointed by the letter
from Collins. Your instincts were as usual, better than mine. The letter frightens
me, not because of you--who will not be touched by it--, but because of those
who might be in such a position as to be pressured into this kind of typing and
conformity. What it means to them that they do not understand you as a writer (an
artist) but simply prefer to think of what you produce as a product. One feels
like a naughty child being scolded by one's elders. However, life does not end
with this note, for I remember that they never have been willing to take Beowulf.
You write what is best for you to write, and at this moment it is best for you
not to write another and perhaps patterned historical. After all you are not a
patty-cake baker's-man Duggan, "bake me a novel as fast as you can!!" However I
also suspect that underneath it all is your non-British quality of self criticism.
By this I mean the American characteristic of criticising America at the same time
that it is loved, or in another way of putting it: to criticise because one loves
it. Avalon is criticism, and they may think it will be regarded as anti-Labour.
Well, to hell with them. Wait until after the American publication and we can see
what is best to do then. I spoke with Helen on the phone this morning and she agrees
with me to wait and see. It is too late to do otherwise under any circumstances,
and you already have a pattern of British publication following after American. This
is rather chic, so why discard it. Helen said the galleys had gone back to the
printers before your corrections arrived, but she will try to work into the page
proof when possible.

Despite the snow storm, Mrs Bennett came for dinner last night. She is
much better and has normal temperature again. But she is far weaker in every way.
Susan is worried and so am I. But it is better that she go to Florida and be happy
there, than to mope inside in a partment here.

As to your visit, come before we arrive on the 5th (if you want) and get
your New York chores out of the way. And stay as long as possible. We are counting
on the trip to Natchez or elsewhere (as you prefer), so we will all be unresolved
musical chords if we don't go off. Easter will not complicate anything on this side,
unless it does you. Only we probably wouldn't want to take the trip over that week
because of the extra traffic.

I must close and dash. All love,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

26 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

Well, I have bade goodbye to Professor Kaji, although he
tells me he will see me again in Washington next week when I have to
go down for a two-day session with the Council for the International
Exchange of Persons. Then I went to the dentist for another treatment.
After that to lunch. Now a quick note to you, and then to the bank
where I have overdrawn (they say) (I have money in a savings account
to cover it), and then to Hartford for a meeting at the Mark Twain
Memorial.

Yours of the 22nd and 23rd came, and I answer only briefly.
Really to let you know that I live on. The Ivan Morris *World of the
Shining Prince* is the one Horace and Marya gave me when you and I were
there. It is very good, but, I agree, quite your cup of tea.

As to Collins, it is better to see what happens to the
Avalon here in any case before reapproaching Collins or any other
house. I think more and more that in addition to their preference
for a rut, the British reserve against the typical American habit
of self-criticism works against this. In this way you have become a
little Americanized. Collins perhaps fears that the book will be
regarded as a criticism of Labor. And if so Labor might not like
Collins. The Bible is safer to deal with.

I really don't know what to say about the trip's (either
ours to Greece and then to Natchez) or yours to the States. Naturally
you must do as it seems best to you. *Only/Spring* is the only time to
see Natchez at its best, not the Fall. We have seen it in the Fall, and
it is drab. Susan too would enjoy seeing its gardens in bloom. This
year is the best time for me to get off for a longer trip like this in
term time, for I have an unusually light schedule. Who knows what my
schedule may be like in the Fall. We had planned on Natchez or something
like this ever since last Fall when you were here. If it is put, or
seems to be put, on the basis of Susan or I not wanting to go off again,
when we have in fact long planned to, then we can only feel guilty in
going to Greece, and indeed would not have taken a spring vacation if we
thought it were to be in the way of your second American exploration. Why
not simply take a 21-day excursion fare at any time you want, from Switzerland,
or transit through England, with excursion from UK and round trip
between Switzerland and England. Come as early as you like, do what you
want to in New York, if you want to go the first weekend to Natchez with us,
we will go on the Wednesday of the 7th. Or the Wednesday of the 14th, with
you in New Haven for my birthday and the trip a little celebration. Only
do come. I hope you will. We felt badly about your not wanting to go to
the Middle East with us, anywhere. Not to make this trip would be *e.g.*

disheartening and give me a colossal sense of inadequacy.

All love, as always

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

27 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

I have treated you so shabbily these last few days, that
despite my desk I must sit (at that point came two telephone calls)
down and write you more decently.

At least I can run back through the various recent letters
which I have only answered hurriedly because of visitors. (Today I have
only two from out of town: one for lunch and another at 4 o'clock who
will be satisfied with a drink). i.e. the 21st, two for the 22nd, and
the 23rd. There may be another in the afternoon's mail, though none
this morning. Also two yellowbacks, but I will leave those for the week-
end. I have read and there is nothing of prime importance to comment
on.

Now since the 21st, starts out with Greece let me speak of
that once again. Susan said again only last night what fun it would
be to see Natchez in the proper season when the gardens were out. She
has already declined an invitation to judge the central Connecticut
Flower Show (her only invitation this year) because we would be going
to Natchez with you some time in April at your convenience. Had we
thought that the trip to Greece would interfere with our long-planned
expedition with you, we simply would not have gone there. Not to go
now to Natchez would give a real feeling of guilt and take the bloom
off of Greece. We would not have waited to come home on the 5th--
but knowing nevertheless that we would be going off more or less imme-
diately again--if it had not been for the cheap excursion round trip
tourist ticket we can get to Greece. This cheaper ticket does not permit
one to travel on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. So simply to have come back
and miss three extra days, especially when the first 3-day cruise of the
season among the Isles begins on Thursday, seemed unnecessary. And you
hadd said your final day for England would be April 5th. Nevertheless,
do come as originally planned, and spare us from feeling guilty. And
if the only way to come is by the more comfortable regular fare and first
class, remember what Beney tells you and you quote with approval to me.

Mrs Bennet goes off to Florida tonight. She did look frail
on Sunday night, but there had been a storm and her dinner with us was
her first night out of her apartment. At any event it is better for her
to be where she can sit in the sun. Susan will go down on the 9th and
stay until the 18th. She likes flipping about.

I have probably already commented enough on the Collins attitude. I repeat (a) the rut: they, and most publishers, would not respect the need of an artist; (b) the dislike of anything that seems critical of England and might appear to be written against the Labor government. Fine. Your biographer will have a juicy chapter to hand down to historians. In the end the British will admire you more for writing what you feel you want and need to write, than they possibly could if you wrote only what a publisher thought you could sell. Keep to your original plans. If you

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN · CONN

go back to historical novels (and no doubt some day you will) then it
will be because the instinct reasserts itself. Collins can hardly
claim you were discovered or "made" by them; so why worry about the
whip. Actually if Avalon were to be reviewed simply as an anti-Labor,
pro-Macmillan tract, this might be more disturbing to you. We'll at
least see what happens on this side. If it seems wise to change, I
don't think Helen will try to thwart. After all, an artist has a
privilege to steer one's own art.

I am much interested by the deBeer saga. I suspect you are
right about Mme and her art, and she is probably a little lonely with
him. You are one of the few women perhaps for whom he has respect,
and thus permits her to associate with you. What one might possibly
fear most is Mme in her widowhood.

I suspect the sales of Ruan have gone up, as readers have
liked your other books and sought out more by you. Now that your
name is on suggested reading lists, the sales are mounting. Alas,
no one here would have known of Rossler's long article. Roman
Wall will probably always be the most popular, even though I remember
that Helen was a little frightened of the crocodile.

The Boyd book on Hamilton as spy sounds interesting. I will
ask Roysce to have it sent to you. Boyd is a first-rate historian.

I leave the suggested list for Avalon to go over this weekend.
Well, why not now. I doubt Gretchen Baker and Harold. Aurelia, yes.
Krude, yes--if only yo see the reaction. I would say yes to the English
group, if only to sense their reaction (between lines of appreciative
enthusiasm and praise). Durrell, yes. I think he would get it. I leave
to you about Neil Little, but I shouldn't think it necessary. His memoir
has come. Susan began it, but found it dull and has abandoned it--unusual
for her. She says he really doesn't give. I suspect it is written for
Victorian grandchildren, but will get to it soon. As to England it would,
as I say, be interesting to try for the reaction.

I am sorry no news about the Quest.

The drive to Hartford yesterday afternoon was uneventful. It was
waining on the return, with a slight sleet. But except for the reflected
glare of headlights on the wet roads and wet windshield, there was nothing
disturbing. Susan had a nice dinner of liver ready when I got back about
7:30, and I went to bed early.

All love, as always,

30 January 1965

Dearest Fido,

I have said nothing about Churchill's death to you. What is there to say. In comparison with him, all other leaders of our time seem trivial!

I stayed home until later this morning in order to see the funeral by telstar, my first experience with it. Actually the only live telsaar I saw at the 8:30 a.m. thansmission was the train having the door shut and then pulling away to carry him to Blenheim. But following that they showed by telstar too scenes from the mourning at Westminster Hall, the funeral procession and then the services at St Paul's. T.V. quite justified itself for the shots were finely made, and one was given a seat among the angels from which to watch far more than one could have seen from the floor. Still, deeply engraved in my memory was the only time I actually saw Sir Winston. That was in St. Paul's too, at the memorial service for Franklin D. Roosevelt. Fortunately I had an aisle seat, so that as the dignitaries marched out they were at my elbow. Churchill was weeping. The Queen Mother, I remember, perhaps thought she knew me and bowed slightly in recognition. At Roosevelt's service too there was the sound of trumpets from the inner dome, and I liked it better then when I could not see the trumpet than today when his shadow was clear. I rather like the way Churchill had planned it all out so carefully himself, despite the fact that his was the first civilian funeral of this pomp. But I think he knew he was THE man, and the knowledge let him enjoy life as well as benefit it.

I hope the reception in Switzerland was good.

Now I have been working at accumulated trash on my desk, though the students' papers are still unread. Yesterday, at least I finished the review of Larkin's poems for the Kenyon Review; and did pretty nearly the last of the current letters of recommendation. Only two more to go now, I think. But there will be another mail tomorrow.

In going over your suggested list for Avalon, I have checked with the list for Carthage today, to find the following facts. As for the English lôst, you now omit Jocelyn, the Aldridges (who will be hurt if they hear from Marjorie), Mrs Devison, Miss Dudley, Norah Dobson, Ronnie Edwards, Philip, Miss Hulbert, the Lancasters, Masefield, Rose Odle, Mrs Nichols, George Plank (better send, some one can read to him), Mrs C. Phillips, Mae Page, Lotte, Osbert, John Todd. You have added Wakefields, Lettice Co per, Ida Wandy, Nelly Kirkham, I.S. Scott.

Let me know any names from this list you want to add. These were as sent from the States.

On the American list you nowmit Mrs Alt, Dr Heymann, Ingholts, Mrs Newman, Dr Racker, and Heydt.

Tell me if you want Neil Little. And the Goughs. And Margaret Pratt.

I spent a span of the morning tidying up the Henty situation. I bought five indifferent Henty's to get earlier dates or new titles, but only one was an English 1st: *The Dragon and the Raven* (1886) The xerox cards from Indiana have arrived,

2

and are being cut up by the bursary boy so they can be filed actually as cards. Among them I saw nothing to indicate what newspaper contributions they actually had, and so have written in paying for what was sent to ask also to have all newspaper despatches faxed and sent me. I will sooner or later, and why not now so they can be here when you arrive. I have another idea too, and that is to get someone from the library to over what we actually have of Henty against these Indiana cards (which are better than the bibliography) and check when we have, and do proper cards for the rest, and let me sell or give away when I have mistakenly duplicated. None of your old books of course would I get rid of. Just at the moment it is important to know where we really do stand. I'd like it if this could be done before you come.

Christmas cards from England continue to arrive. They must almost deliberately have been held up, I think. It is most odd. One from Silvia Hay, another from DeNagy. However it is almost as bad from Switzerland. Dr Sarasin's card also just arrived, mailed the 16th of December. I think I told you one from Miss Dudley had also just arrived.

Yesterday's mail brought an unexpected little book of poems (I have not read yet), by a Robin Blaser, *The Moth Poem*, dedicated to Hilda. The letter from the publisher said, "Since this book is dedicated to H.D. and since it makes direct use of her way, the author requested that a gift copy be sent to you." I will thank of course and perhaps order a copy for Pup. Would you like one, or will seeing it here suffice?

Another yellowback has been added, so three have not been commented on. Let me run through them quickly, having read them as they arrived. # Am interested in Pat's printing press. It might be great fun, though I hope not at the expense of his work with Knopf. Yet perhaps finally something like this, or a university press, may be the answer. I hope you notice the splendid article on Horace in this week's *Time*. I am told by the Yale publicity office that the Bollingen has never been better noticed. I hope this will help Horace's books sell. It may make placing the D.R. easier. # Forgive me, I forget who Ernest Modern is. #Wakefield's phono sounds most sensible. I like him. # The Aldriches are really in a difficult spot aren't they. Don't get involved or you will have to take over, emotionally as well as financially. But under the circumstances I think I should send Avalon. I forget, did you want Ninon as always before? # Was surprised that Lady V managed so well with her letter. She has great fortitude. # Viola's handwriting much better than before, and the tone was better spirited. # Many thanks for the many clippings. # Jean Starr's book will be out in a few weeks. I will buy here. Poor child, even when she gets over hives she develops bad eyes, etc. # How nice of Herfie to mention my card. # Susan and I were delighted with tiddlywinkese. # George's letters are so frail, like himself.

Volume Two of the Harold Owen memoir came. Many thanks. I am eager to get to it, after my dissertations have been finished. Yours of the 25th, 26th, 27th arrived. The last two yesterday, the other the day before. None today. Poor Elsie, to suffer from a holiday by food poisoning. No, I don't object to the word 'sick', knowing how it is used. Though I may have pointed out that when used alone to convey nausea (except in 'sick to one's stomach') no American reacts in the same way an Englishman does. Our sick means your ill. Just a question of custom, not correctness. Am much pleased that Maggs got the Ouida. I had promised Horace to lend it from here if you couldn't get it, but I know he wants it for his library. And he is

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

slow on returning things. Glad you liked the article on women in the TLS. It seemed to me to be out of the ordinary. # Yes, one might very well include the Ainsworth. You did buy a good group, especially of the three-volume ones. You write of having bought an almost complete collection of him--we have 8 titles here. Shouldn't there be many more? Usually they turned them out. When I write Brimmell next I will tell him to keep his eyes open.

It has turned cold again, so one can march without rubbers. The temp is about 10º F, and the cold is now crusted. Birds come to Susan's feeders as though to the hand of St Francis. So do squirrels and rabbitts, who gobble and gobble. This morning Susan shot one of the rabbits, but I doubt that will help. The scarlet cardinal bird chases the chicadees away, but he looks magnificent against the snow.

Now back to my desk, but today (unlike yesterday) you will have had a letter. There was great excitement in the office two afternoons ago when the English Department secretary came in to tell Mrs Dingle she was feeling faint. Then she proved it by keeling over on the floor, striking her head, finally being violent sick (British) over the floor, and being carried away to the health office by the campus police. Mrs Dingle was a bit shaken. The janitors did a fine swabbing job and the cold brisk air through the open windows helped.

All love as always,

I have had Royce Smith send the Boyd & to you.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN • CONN

1 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

If I were all powerful I think I should abolish offices, and put everyone like myself into a remote cell. All day there has been a succession of telephone calls, not just from New Haven but from New York and elsewhere, all seeking something. All day there have been knocks on the door, also of seekers. One was an Oxonian here as a graduate Claire Fellow (his second year) who is tossing it all up at midyear to go back to Mississippi to help Negros to register as voters. I don't know, I think I would have finished my degree.

If I were all powerful, too, I should abolish snow. For it has begun again at the end of the afternoon and driving home will be nasty and driving to the theatre after dinner will be still nastier.

There were two letters from you today: yours of the 28th and the 29th. Alas, not being William Blake you could not get much profit from the visit of the sweep, except for the cleaned chimney. I think of you shivering. I must provide some of these wonderful Braun electric fans like what I gave Susan. It does seem to work miraculously. And I hope in the end you did manage to see the funeral on t.v. I was much impressed by the skill and good taste of the BBC. An unforgettable sight was the close up of the coffin as it was brought to the altar and placed on the carriage there. The strain on the faces of the soldiers as they shifted the enormously heavy coffin was memorable.

Thank you so much for sending the clipping about Edith. Your tribute is a little masterpiece.

I am delighted that all is in order about your visit. We will expect you then on the 9th or 10th as seems to fit Prutting and yourself. This will please Perdita that you go to New York first (shall I book for you at the Stanhope?), and we can go off to Natchez on the 14th (since I have a seminar on the 13th) returning the following Monday. Would you like to stop for a few hours or overnight in New Orleans, since our only way to fly to Natchez is by way of New Orleans.

I wonder if by chance I forgot to write airmail on the large envelope. I know I put an immense number of stamps on, but the post office force are beasts, and if you do not say AIR MAIL then it goes by worms.

Will do what I can for Catha's books. Certainly I should be able to dig up some of the missing ones.

A statement has come from Harcourt summarizing their royalty payments last year: 2,673.76. Random House was for 2,534.05. So you are nearly self-supporting. Seriously, I think your father would be pleased, and your mother amazed. I think I forgot to say that I deposited the Pantheon checks last Friday. Your savings account total is now 13,952.15.

I must out and slog my way to the car. At least tonight I can park my

car in the theatre garage and have only the alleyway to negotiate.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

7 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

Back from Washington, and as you can imagine, my desk is full and my briefcase (which I returned with) is crammed with papers accumulated there. But I write to you first. On Thursday I had saved the last half hour for you, in the morning, had put a paper in the machine (this piece of paper) when suddenly and cheerily (no, that's unfair--she was frenzied but cheerful) Mrs Dingle called out, "Do you know you've missed your train?" I had thought to take one at 11 a.m. and read dissertations en route. I had my ticket and my chair seat (1st, so I could work), but I can at least get a rebate on the ticket eventually. And thanks to the Connecticut Airport limousine, I could take the bus to La Guardia and the shuttle to Washington. Which I did, arriving about 4, phoned my old wartime chief whom I had not seen in seven or eight years, and he came at 5:30 to my room for a drink. Then at 7 to dinner with some members of the committee to which I was consultant, and all day Friday and Friday night and Saturday until 2:30 p.m. So there was no letter at all to you, not even a postcard of the Washington monument, and all I accomplished was to buy the stamps on this envelope for the letter I never wrote from there either. I came back by shuttle and bus, leaving the Washington airport at 3, and arriving home about 6:30. Here the snow was still high; in Washington as I left it was 630, and the air smelled as though the hyacinths were in blossom.

Your letters of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd, were on my desk waiting for me. There may be some which arrived yesterday and are still in the mail room. But the guard hasn't come on duty yet. I will wait until I have gotten him to open the room. But I must write you first, since after lunch I must take Susan to the shore for summer things (she flies to Florida tomorrow to visit her mother) and there are some 80 applications from the Graduate School to be read.

(At that moment I found the guard had come on duty, went down, paid hands on lots of mail but not another from you. Still, three makes this a holiday anyhow, and gives me hope to celebrate on Monday too.)

Now to go to yours. I do think mail from this end is slower than from yours, and I lay now to the American post. It has always been notoriously inefficient and underpaid (which may have something to do with the matter.) I am rejoiced to know you are getting in order for volume 2 of the memoirs. # The Miller book, of which you asked, is *Books in My Life*, but since there is only a para or two I will have here for you when you come. We can discuss the paragraphs for you to tuck away. I think I told you I had ordered (I hope successfully) the newspaper despatches, from Indiana. # The story I had thought of for Weiss was "This August Day," but on the other hand they think that a single issue ought not to contain one from both Hilda and yourself. I suppose I might try to place your story again, commercially. Or do you want to wait anyhow and take a look at it. You might spit and polish it while here. #I get Susan off tomorrow morning and then will write about Natchez. Sorry you will not be here so that I can lock you in your kennel in the day, and then come

2

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

home to scratch your ears each night.

I have a wonderful plan to make Collins and the British like
Avalon.

(They dived, the clouds parted for an instant and Robinson
sawnfar below them, as they came in for a perfect landing,
gorse bushes, the valley full of cherry trees, a stretch of
white sand, and there like a temple of welcome stood the
Kremlin.)

Shall I change.

Marianne's letter is indeed sad, for the sap is beginning to run
thin. Mrs Macpherson, say, never really lost her vigor. But one can do
nothing about restoring vitality, and only hope she will not be too sad.
#Pokross is the kind of man whom we could call up from New Haven and make
an appointment with almost at any time. It is most important that you
should have your one or two talks with Annie R first, and have your plans
made and your data firmed. The Boston hotel we can decide on as the circum-
stances warrant. If you are dining with the Richards some night, the
Cambridge Arms (just at the edge of the Yard) is probably preferable. If
one thinks of the Boston Museum etc., then probably the old Copley Museum
is as good as any. Perhaps I can go up with you.

My complete agreements go with the Collins matter. What bothers
me is their now frank bowing to commercialism. In the long run one isn't
even successfully commercial that way. Successful publishers buck tides,
establish new channels.

By all means get Beney to see some consulting doctor before he
has a local operation. Loyal as he is, he may think this treasonable unless
he can see to do it to please you. I actually wish he could get to Prutting
in the States, but he would lose caste at the bank if he did. I hope he
does well with your portfolio, and as well as always with my own. Presumably
you will bring the papers when you come. I have just found the letter from
the investment counsellors in New York. I save to show you. Long-winded,
and they do not want to touch my stock except for one I ordered them to get
rid of. I personally would get rid of another, but we can see what happens.
Otherwise they say I have invested too well. Lucky I don't have much to
play with independently, or I should waste even more time on that.

Alas, alas, alas, I shudder when I think of what is to be done here.
It may be as well that neither you nor Susan are here. I will spend my nights
at the office hoping to catch up.

A card from Kenneth proudly giving his new address.

My five little eskimaux objects arrived while I was in Washington, and I unpacked last night. To my pleasure. I hope you will approve when you come. I lunched with Ingholt today, and he showed me a photograph of the Gandharan piece I told you about. Actually it seems to be still in Europe, likely to be bought by a big Swiss collector, and he thinks the price in the neighborhood of $10,000. But I must say it is amazingly complete and interesting.

8 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

I stayed at home this morning and worked until I could take Susan to the Hotel Taft for an 11 o'clock bus. I had hoped to put in a long evening as well as day at the office, but in mid-afternoon went for my cold shot and also took the typhoid booster. I feel the effects of it a little now, at 10 p.m., as well as the effects of having gone through some 95 dossiers of applicants for admission to the graduate school next year. Instead of a long letter then, I think I shall hurry home by way of the postoffice, to mail this letter to you, and get as long a sleep as I can before an 8:30 appointment tomorrow morning.

Your three letters dated the 5th (in writing you spoke of
only two actually on that date) were in this morning's mail when I
came late, and sustained me as always. See how you feel about the Jean
Starr memoir. If you think it would help to have around when you do
part III, better hang on to it. I can take from the library or read
here. # The hippo did get out to Texas. I think I may have a clipping
tucked away. What I liked most was the idea of the Emerson and Longfellow
descendants collaborating. # DeGaulle has helped France of course, but
by now most of what he says is pique. Perhaps if we let him plan his own
funeral he would end it all. # Will cope with the Avalon lists when my
papers are corrected. They too still haunt me!

My only bright reading over the Sunday was the account of
Charley's Aunt, which has now passed into public domain. There was an
interview with the son of the author. "Six generations of British royalty
have seen it and enjoyed it," he said, "except Edward VII who got the idea
that the aunt was a parody of his mother, Queen Victoria." The son must
have meant Edward VI.

Much correspondence today of interest to you. Firstly came another
series of Henty cards having to do with the clippings and manuscripts. Among
the latter are many scrapbooks by some one who did research for a biography
of the old man: wills, letters to various members of the family etc. Much
of what we have (you have), but much that will be new. I am splashing, and
having everything xeroxed if they are willing. Despatches and notebooks and
Henty letters and the like. Then it will be where you can sit and study it
on your visit. It is like sunken treasure from the Aegean. Expensive, but
as Beney says we grow older and must conserve time.

Also got a list of B & F oddments from the dealer in New York. I
enclose for you to direct me what to do. I will need the letter back again.
Nothing startling, but you had once said you wanted all editions of B&F
so that one could study the transformation of the texts and the history of
their life in the theatre. I do as you say. The prices do not seem to me
to be bad.

There was also a letter quoting mss letters of Fenn. But I leave
that for another day when I can have studied it.

9 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

No letter from you today, but not much to write about
anyhow, this being my seminar day and also a morning of many eras and
on top of watering the greenhouse. Once in the office, I was visited
by one of our English graduate students. Tense-faced he had to see
me alone to tell me his whilom girl friend in England had just been
put into a psychiatric hospital after being cast off by him. She
had visited him here in New Haven for a month during the Christmas
holidays, only to be met on her arrival with his statement that he
had a new girl on this side. He had told me of this, and how badly
she had behaved on hearing it. I'm afraid I wasn't very sympathetic
then, and not particularly so now. It's all very well for the men
involved in situations like this, but rough on the girls. Anyhow,
I have arranged for him to see a psychiatrist tomorrow, which seems
the best solution. I'm reasonably sure I could say the same things,
but it's much better for me not to get so intimately involved with
a student's emotional history.

I enclose the letter from Kyrle Fletcher about the Fenn
letters, which I suspect ought to be added to the collectio just
to round out a little the holdings for Henty and Ballantyne. I
have written no where the letters seemed purely trivial, and will
order the others if you think best. I will pay naturally, but would
like your judgment as the supreme court for such decisions.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

10 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

This being a water-the-orchids morning it began busily. I
also put out the seed for the birds, especially the scarlet cardinals
whom Susan adores. Sometimes I have to be a little careful not to water
the birds and scatter seed for the orchids, but since it was raining a
kind of sleet the seeds were watered anyhow. The rubbish man came before
I left, or could leave, so did the garbage man, so did a man to collect
some furniture to be repaired, and so did Mrs Heyda. And then I had to
go to the postoffice to collect a package they would not leave behind
yesterday because there was no one at home.

At lunch I had three young instructors at my throat for
decisions I had made. "We cannot emphasize enough...."they said. My
only reply was, "You're doing pretty well, anyhow!"

And then from two o'clock until 4:30 at a meeting of the
graduate school committee which awards the special fellowships. My first
year of serving on it. Actually it was rather fun, and my recommendations
made beforehand seemed to accord with those of the others.

I even managed to get a few papers corrected, but how I did I
can't imagine. Helen phoned today to say she was coming up tomorrow and
could I lunch with her. Alas, I can't. She goes back that evening. And
although the trip to Chile has been postponed she is going shortly. Says
they are trying to get as many of your corrections as possible into the
page proof of *Avalon*. Apparently I am not to see this set, but don't suppose
it matters.

(at that point of the letter, I was surprised into devoting the
last hour and a half of the day to a preliminary sorting of next year's candi-
dates for admission. So it is now after dinner, and I shall have to drive this
to the post office having missed the collection by the door).

Interesting that your walls should be cracking. Thirty years is
said to be the expectancy of a house before one has to begin to touch up here
and there, with plaster, paint and the rest. We did last summer, as you know,
with the new heating system and sump pumps in the cellar. We will have to do
some interior painting this summer,

Some day I will find you a complete Restif. Like yourself I found
him most interesting as a realist. I could never understand him as a pornographer,
one way or the other. He neither stirs one nor tries to.

Yours of the 6th and 8th were in this afternoon's mail. No, I never
did get the Francis King book, but it doesn't really matter. Just curiosity. If
it were available from a library I would be content to borrow it. Yes, do praise
Jean Starr to the heavens. It will please her, and then she can ask you if she
may quote from your letter.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

11 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

No letter from you in today's mail, but all I trust goes well. After lunch I went to the library and had ten minutes or so with Helen, who was busily at work on Kurt's letter. She did have a flu that night, with a temperature of 103°, so it was just as well she could be in her own bed. She goes to Chile and will be back the 4th or 5th of March. She reported they had managed to get all your corrections into the page proof, and they are now well ahead of schedule. There should be copies in early March. Jovanovich has announced that the advertising appropriation is to be doubled. But from what I don't know: from what he spent on *Carthage* or what he originally proposed for *Avalon*. My Publishers Weekly arrived today, so I saw the advance notice which I thought very good. Helen said she had sent to you. Very interesting that they see this as so directly a commentary on England. This may have something to do with Collins real feelings, even though they say, I gather, that they feel the English aren't like what you describe them to be. But you have an uncanny knack for describing them as exactly what they are in life. It doesn't even take my six years in England to know that. So perhaps this is an omen that you should go on with just the sort of characters you have done in Avalon. Anyhow I know of no one else in England who writes about little people as you can.

Lunch was with rather an interesting but certainly off-beat character named Stan Brackhage, who is an avant garde movie maker here for several days to show his films. He came to me as from Robert Duncan and says all he is and all he hopes to be stems out of the Hilda of Tribute to Freud, the Pound piece, and Helen. Hilda, I think, would glow to be a leader of this younger age group. He speaks with awe. I take on stature by transferal of her power. He was much excited when I told him of Hilda's connection with the films. If possible, the young man will elevate her now to auxilary sainthood, like my student-bishop.

Today's is Justus' seventh birthday. I spoke with him on the phone this morning before school, to congratulate him, and he seemed a little awed by so mementous a day and so venerable an age. Tomorrow night I take him alone to Mory's. He has always liked this -- just men.

Tonight I go out to dinner with R.W.B.Lewis, and then we work on applications. Alas, last night when I went home from the office I sat down for a moment, fell immediately asleep and didn't wake until one-thirty. But so it goes: I was trying to finish the manuscript of the history of Plymouth Colony.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

12 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

Very foggy outside, and except for the fact that I am engaged to take Justus to Mory's tonight I should not otherwise want to be driving in it. And the fog is very wet at the same time. You see, I start with the weather because there really isn't much else to write about. I spent last evening with the R.W.B.Lewis's, and, alas, it took until midnight to finish the selection of graduate students for next year. I had my half hour drive back to Goodrich Street, and six-thirty this morning came rather too soon. So, also alas, has the end of the afternoon for I have spent since lunch time at an afternoon meeting of the American Studies Executive Committee. Useful but exhausting.

My desk is an absolute shamble, and tomorrow I must begin by putting things into little piles. But how many little piles will I have time to make, for I am to be visited by the young novelist who was once my student and whose letter about becoming a novelist (through his Jewishness) I showed you. I must finish his book tonight, perhaps after dinner with Justus and then (if there is time) the Bakhage of the experimental films expects me to to visit at least the tag end of a showing.

The copy of the paperback Roman Wall came, and I will airmail you one tomorrow if I can get to the postoffice before it closes at noon. I think it very handsome. Helen said, why of course we have always wanted to do in paper. But only by marrying two novels, I said. I think she may try to persuade Harcourt to include one in the new paperback series they are to start for class books. The thing is to get started, and others will follow.

No letters from you today either, so I have for a little stack of them tomorrow. rovoding of course that all is well with you, as I hope it is.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

13 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

Today brought your letters of the 9th and 10th, so the drought was broken. I fear yours will have continued longer since my Washington trip was so prolonged. I was much interested in what you said about the difference between tv and the film. (Pre-recorded tv and the film are of course the same). What counts in live tv on occasions like this, is I think not only the psychological sense of immediacy, but the very little details which a film editor takes out: the forefinger scratching the nose, the look of strain on the part of the guards as they shifted the casket on to the support before the altar. Things of that sort. The film editor can only say to himself sixty seconds make a minute, sixty minutes make an hour.

I liked your story about Ines. But of course it is not just the Italian schools which are responsible, but the Italian church. Like the Spanish church it thrives on ignorance. I am serious in this. One does not divert attention from Rome and le Saint Pere, lest one divert faith too. Don't tell me that Italian priests are not good tacticians! They have managed to control the world's biggest industry for as many centuries as Christ has been incorporated.

By all means Elsie should go with Kuoni. Pretend she would be making a dry run for you. Now that you have actually turned dirt and carried filled baskets at Nor Nour, I think much better that you take Miss Dudley out by yourself. Then she can keep you in touch rather than order muscles. Sachie's letter was most interesting, and Edith in Heaven most effective. Repairable or not, desirable or not, I rejoice that Montegufoni will go to Sachie. I like the way he writes about and thinks about Francis. And thank you for the privilege of letting me read it. It will be safely tucked.

Last night I took Justus to Mory's, and unless I am mistaken he had a splendid time. He made a bee-line for the table we sat at a year ago, was given an extended tour of the kitchen, ate oddles of oyster crackers with his coca cola (while I had a martini), then a fruit cup, then a big dish of lima beans (favorites of his) a plateful of french friend potatoes, a half a broiled chicken, and then four dishes of orange sherbert. This morning I went to the gymnasium to see the session to teach little boys to swim. There must have been over fifty naked little crocodiles kicking their way across the pool. Justus was there, so he must have survived the night. This evening I take his sister to the Lawn Club.

I also managed to go to the first hour of the avant garde movie by the Stan Brakhage who has such a thing about Hilda. The entire movie, I believe, runs for over five hours and is in five sections. It began at 8:30, so the hour was enough for my schedule tho I should have been curious to see it all had I been physically strong enough. I must say it was an extraordinary use of the camera, sometimes black and white, sometimes color,

2 3 1 H G S

sometimes pure design, sometimes representational. And all run very fast
and with blurred images. This was perhaps just as well since we were told
in a little speach beforehand (I ought to explain that the first half had been
shown Friday night) that the film was about a man going up a mountain to
pick a flower and passing through the seasons of the year and the states
of mind and religious consciousness. All this up a very mazy alley, I must
say, except that one hardly need be told that the hour I saw had to do
with mastabatory fantasies in relationship to dream fantasy myths of sex
and birth. I am glad I have been trained by Henry Miller and exits to
places like Brooklyn, for some of the shots were frank to say the least.
Only I must say at once that they were never pornographic and amazingly
effective. He is a real artist. Hilda would have been fascinated, once
her eyes stopped popping.

They were all excited to know about Borderline, and her connection
with *Close Up*. *Close Up* is a kind of bible too you know. I have forgotten
for the moment whether she had many film reviews in it. They are eager to
reprint. I doubt it would harm anything, if they did. Their fidelity to her
and their awe is significant to her revival.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

14 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

Susan called from Florida this morning, and said the temperature never got lower than 70° F even at night. Here it is in the 20's, the sky is stormy, and the weatherman says from 2 to 5 inches of snow tonight and early tomorrow morning. I shall take home enough work to keep me busy even if snowed in for a while. Then I must go pretty directly to the bank and brokers to pay for the first batch of stock. Actually since they decided to keep to my judgments on what I already had, and there was very little cash to spend, the amount involved was only about 30,000. There is another 10,000 to invest as they see fit, but like Beney they keep a little in cash. Usually they handle nothing lower than 100,000, but with Susan's which they already handle the total is sufficient.

I took the 5 year old Susan to the Lawn Club last night. In competition with her brother she had been very anxious to go with me alone ("I want to go first!") but when we actually went to the car, she asked "Where is grandma?" But she had a good time, and kept up a conversation explaining that girls don't do this and that, and had frog's legs which were a delightful novelty and provided a basis for more conversation. I knew she would be all dressed up for dinner, so I washed my face and hands too.

This morning was greenhouse morning, the day when every-day, every-other-day, twice-a-week, once-a-week all come together in reunion. And I did some bacon to go with my egg, and so had a little feast in honor of St Valentine. But the rest of the day has been slodging at graduate school papers which go all too slowly.

After dinner last night, I read some book catalogues and journals. I had not realised that Rosemanry Sutcliff had done a Bodley Head monograph on Rudyard Kipling. And a book which I shall not buy but like the idea of, as advertised in today's Herald Tribune book section, is something called *The Tea Venture* by one J.M.Scott. It is the history of the world in terms of the effects of the discovery of tea by the Chinese in 2737 B.C. as it has led to "hostilities between nations, the opium trade--and a world that was never the same again." I think this is rather fun, and one could have a game by choosing some similar discovery and then thinking of the world in terms of it. But then, I suppose thousands of business men do the same, or don't we all?

Valentine blessings on you, and all love.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

15 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

There was little left of this morning after a series of business ventures in the town. First I went to the travel agency to make out a check for the Greek holiday (and find out more about Natchez), and then to the broker's to make out another check to pay for the stock, and then to the savings bank to withdraw enough money to pay for the first and second checks I had just drawn, and then to deposit the check from the savings bank to my account at the Union and New Haven Bank where my checking account is. And, of yes, because it is mid-February, I borrowed the amount I withdrrew until March 1st, rather than lose the interest, and this saved me 120.00. I am exhausted even to recollect it all.

And I was a little tired too from going to a supper party last
night after the christening of Professor Lewis's daughter. A small but
very interesting group: a painter named Motherwell and his wife (also a
painter), Ralph Ellison and his wife, the Robert Penn Warrens (she is Elinore
Clark who writes on oysters and Rome), etc. I came home at ten o'clock,
but was tired beforehand.

Today I have been back at work on student papers, have stayed
down for supper and it is nine now so I shall drive home by way of the
post office to mail this to you, and hurry to draw the drapes.

Yours of the 11th and 12th were in the afternoon mail, for which
my thanks. You are very wise indeed to take care of the terrace and the
cracks. One never knows how these will develop into complete nuisances or
even dangers. As to plastic covers for bags, I suspect the Americans are
more like the British and do not use them. You may get a scratch or two on
yours, but it will last out enough years. And much harder to open up in a
cabin without the cover I should think. But I wouldn't take it and toss into
luggage bin. It is supposed to fit under the seat. I have one like it, only
cloth.

I may be able to borrow the actual Henty biographer's notebooks
of clippings etc from Indiana, for you to see when over. This would be for a
very nice Fido, as you are.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

16 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

These after-dinner letters are getting to be a habit. But I do hope they arrive more swiftly because I drive to the postoffice by the Green to mail them. And I wish too that any of mine might reach your hands so speedily as the average of yours reach mine. Yours of the 13th, for example, was in this afternoon's mail. But my Valentine took an entire week to reach you.

Coigny must live in a constant tension of ambi-British, claiming all bulldog privileges, and perhaps blaming her a little for not being to the kennel born. As for the Swiss wins-a-vis the Italian laborers, I gather the same situation exists in Munich, where need brings them in, and fear sends them away again, or would if it could.

I'm glad you like the idea of filling out the Fenn collection by the letters. Like yourself, I am no real Fenn-cier, but because of his relationship to 'enty he has an extra interest. If you find the letter send it along; if not I will have to wait until the yellowback arrives and hope he (name and address not recorded) has not sold them meanwhile. Foolishly (it is not your fault) I would not know what to order since there is definitely no point in taking all. You are kind and generous as always to send the check, but since I don't know how much they will be I return it to you for destruction. Although there isn't any reason in the world why you can't pay British bills in pounds, I actually have paid myself for all additions to the collection except the major one of the Ballantyne manuscripts where I paid only for that first one I gave to you. Still, more acutely, you yourself have paid for all since it comes out of the Churchill money. You have a good many burdens still, and may be in for a few more if Archie worsens. And you have the expensive Quest coming up as well as the repairs at Kenwin.

I think I forgot to write you yesterday of a surprise when R.W.B. Lewis sent me a graduate student female, in his seminar, who is the great-niece of some one named Catherine Wallace (I think) who with her sister was a great friend of Hilda's in Philadelphia. They lived next door or somewhere near. The old dame, now in her 80's, is evidently rabid on conservative Presybterreanism, and it would be hard to think of our Hilda being sympathetic to the letters I was shown in which the great-niece was urged to return to the bosom of an avenging God. The old dame also knew Ezra whom she loathes. "I knew he was bad," she wrote in the letter I saw, "when he let me see him smoking a cigarette. And he said to me, 'Catherine get yourself a college education from your parents even if you have to use tears!'" The cigarette episode seems deliberately vicious in the worst sense of corruption. But I rather like the suggestion about using tears. Nevertheless I doubt that Great Aunt Catherine will commission a canto. I offered to go down to talk to her about Hilda, whom she adores, if she is willing to. It might fill in a gap. Or you could come with me, if you promise not to bring out your cigars.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

17 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

Two letters in from you today, one in the morning and the other this afternoon. So I am enriched. And honored by the first letter on the new ribbon. And a little puzzled that the Swiss would actually eject foreigners who lived there as Schalk does. Your hunch about the Bau Industrie backing the protest in his case may be sound. Somehow I think the Swiss are getting at this in the wrong way. But of course you as "assimiliert" will understand better. The two letters were of the 14th and 15th

Your plans for traveling sound sufficiently complicated to be interesting. Is it settled now that the Quest has a curtain in the cabin? You had not heard when you spoke of it last. Anyhow I think you must see the Helston festival. This could become excellent fodder. I had not known about the Princeton booklet on Sylvia. I will see sometime.

Was grateful of course for the two letters about books and mss. I will cope certainly over the weekend. As to the books I think what I may do is to have all sent up and then compare them. But will not sell anything from here without our consulting about it when you come. No harm in having duplicates. We can do the same about Edith's folio's. In any event they will not go down in value. If they arrive before you come I can have them evaluated and described so we know what they actually are. The letters I can proceed with.

I have, I think, the answer to the reason why sales of *Ruan* have gone up. As I told you libraries are responding to the whole *Lot*, and many are on reading lists of one kind and another. *The Library Journal*, a bible for librarians, gave it a fine review I never saw until I read a quotation from it, which ended "Highly recommended." And they are right of course.

Poor Donald Gallup. Last Friday noon he was lunching at the Faculty Club with an emeritus professor. Suddenly the man began to choke, then stiffened and died. Last night at the symphony concert (I had given away my tickets) he was sitting next to an older woman who fainted dead away, and then revived at last only to be sick (your language) in the midst of the music.

All love, anyway

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

19 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

I get along slowly, but of so slowly with my papers.
There are far too many interruptions, but with the weekend (after
Alumni Day tomorrow) I should make a little further progress.
Pray for me, even retrospectively. I shall send up a sevenfold
amen when the last one is done.

Last evening I went to Fellows Dinner at Jonathan
Edwards College, then went home and worked on a couple of papers,
and met Susan at the Taft at a quarter to ten. She seemed glad
to be home, but unfortunately had hurt her back a few days before.
So this morning she was miserable and could hardly move. She will
not be able to go to the International House tonight when I show
slides of the Mississippi River. But she is hardly in need of
education on that. I must go home in a few minutes and pick out
the pictures I want to show.

No letters from you for a couple of days now. At this
moment Mrs Dingle came in with the afternoon mail and a letter from
you. However a yellowback came yesterday to relieve the sense of
your absence. Mostly filled with my letters, but an interesting
sad one from george. I rather hope it won't linger on for too many
years. He is weary of life, I think. And a most intriguing one from
Agnes quoting from her sister in the states. "A rather awful thing
happened to me," she said when I was sitting by myself in Madison
Square Gardens." And it turned out to be a caterpillar. It is an odd story,
for it is difficult to sit alone in Madison Square Garden, which is the
huge hippodrome in New York where all the prize-fights, horse-shows,
Barnam and Bailey's Circus, and the like are put on.

Your letter was of the 17th. What a man Brian P'ringle is,
with his valentines! You found a real treasure of a man. I'm glad
you liked Jean's book, because that may mean others will too. I am
in no hurry to read, so better you bring over or send over so as to
ask her for an autograph. She would be flattered to ask.

Today is cold here, but yesterday was like April. Poor
child, why do they inflict cold on you?

20 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

I am midway in a long student paper, but if I do not break off to write you now, I will have missed the last afternoon pickup at the postbox outside my office. It is earlier on Saturdays. Your letter of the 16th was in the morning mail, I think out of order but none the less welcome. I shiver with you not simply in spirit, for the temperature has not gone above 15°F today, and there is a sharp wind with it. Poor Elsie to have her nerve killed. I sympathize. No, you certainly must sit beside her in a damp sand pit. Better to freeze dry, and you can do that at Kenwin. Jean's book sounds as though I must read it, but her one hope was to be open. She would, as you say, have benefitted from analysis. It would have been the one way to save her. But she would have been terrified of her analysts as she was of Louis, and clung to him at the same time. Her difficulty, I suspect, was being in over her depth among the literary crowd. Your letter to her was excellent. So was Marianne's to you. WHO

Who would have thought that an illustrated lecture by me to the International Student Center on the Mississippi River, last night, would have ended up during the question period into a long discussion of the Swiss attitude towards Italian immigrant labor. But so it did, with a little group of five Swiss graduate students first a little truculent because I had mentioned the subject, and then respectful because (thanks to you) I knew a little about it. Later, as we were leaving, I sensed that the men felt, indeed they said they felt ashamed at what Switzerland had done, embarrassed that their country had become like other countries.

Susan did not go, her back still bothering her a good deal. She seemed a little better this morning however, and I hope will be all right by tomorrow.

I must rush this off.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

21 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

Sorry indeed to have rushed off the scrappy missive to you yesterday. But just as I settled in, Professor Lewis came and wanted to go over figures for next year's grant. As he was leaving there was just time to try for the final collection, so I hastoly finished and then sealed it. Probably it never went until this morning, and now again I face the earlier final Sunday collection. My desk is oncreasingly a mess, and I still have my papers to correct, thoggh I did some yesterday after a monring-long meeting for the formal establishment of a graduate school alumni association. My chief effect on that had been in the preliminary meetings where I persuaded the university to classify as alumni those foreigners who had been here for a yerm or longer without being officially candidates for a degree. In a world sense this seems to me important.

The Swiss involvement was not so spectacular or argumentative as I may have made it sound. But it was odd to find one's battling that ground. Thanks to your intellōgence reports I could put up a good battle and we all ended as friends.

This noon we were involved in a family conference of the elder members of the Bennett clan about the desire of one of the younger ones to buy land cutting off rights of way. My answer was for the sisters to do what they wanted to do for their own lifetime, and let the descendants squabble about other solutions after death. When one said she would have to put the matter up to her four children for their opinion, I asked why? Why let them squabble, or decide something when one would follow one's own opinion anyhow. I am rather tired of always deferring to younger generations. Let them do the deferring, for a change.

I have just sent off a letter ordering six copies of the paper Wall to go to Ethel, or you in her care; and another six to Kenwin, and a third six to me. So let me know if they never arrive. I realised only this week when the Wallace néece came and I wanted to give her a copy of Hilda's poems, that the ones ordered for me in November, and paid for at that time, had still not arrived here. I fear that Grove is not very businesslike except for Exit to Brooklyn.

Two parcels of children's books came in from Brimmell. Ballantyne's *Mister Fox* (a real juvenile); Robt Leighton, *Capt Nat's Treasure*, which I can't quite imagine why I bought; F.S. Brereton, *The Dragon of Pekin*: a Story of the Boxer Revolution, which is more in order; Noah Brooks, *The Boy Emigrants*: a Tale of the American Plains and California Gold Mines; which is naturally just down my ally; Herbert Strang, *KOBO*, A Story of the Russo-Japanese War; and Hood's Comic Annuals 1874-1883, which has some Fenn and others included. So we march even if not spectacularly. The *Mister Fox* however is a rare item.

I will rush this into the mail box and then sit down to order the Fletcher letters, and the books of B & F from New York. I think I forgot to say one day during the week that Stonehill's came and took away to suiteases of books to be re-valued. So that is beginning.

All love as always,

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

22 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

23 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

I got no farther than the first date and salutation yesterday. And so the paper has waited for me until the end of today Yesterday's mail had brought yours of the 18th and its cold. It is cold here too. Last night when I walked through the wind after dinner I was sure than even Greenland was warmer than here. I had been at an interesting dinner for Senator Hugh Scott, from Pennsylvania and for Senator Kuchel from California (the Republican Senate whip). They were here in an attempt to bring back interest in the Republican party after the Goldwater debacle, both being strongly anti-Goldwater and leaders of the moderate-liberal wing. They had a forum with the students of Jonathan Edwards after dinner, and answered off the record questions from the students. I was much impressed by the skill of the legislators, as speakers and as politicians. I saw Senator Scott for a bit before dinner at a cocktail party, but we rather shut others out, alas, by talking about Chinese pottery, which he collects avidly. He seems to be knowledgeable there too.

I am sorry to learn that George really thinks of leaving the nursing home tho not surprised he is restless. But I suspect that they will hold him back on one pretext or another. I am sure Lady Wiggin wants him to stay until the weather is better. She grows restless in winter at her weekly drives to take him shopping and do his errands. Poor George.

You were naughty to return the check, and to send the larger one. But I will not fight any longer. I will not withdraw from Vietnam, but will from this contest.

Today's mail brought your two of the 19th and that of the 20th, a real bonanza which led warmth to the chill and brought light to the darkness I gathered about me as I taught my seminar. I was delighted to see the Club Prive, since I get so many similar notices here from this side. But they are much rougher here, and do not give you that wonderful feeling of being able to sit up to eat with the grownups, or put differently of continuing to read books by flashlight after bedtime, under the sheet. I shall now have to address your envelopes as Bryher, M[embre] C[lub] P[rive]. Quelle honeur! from what you say I suspect the Beney young wife may find Switzerland as difficult as the jungle. But having put up with the latter she is probably better equipped to cope with the former. (Don't you dare tell Elsie this!)

Your Swiss visit sounded fun as it turned to Scilly. Still no word from Viking about Romaine's book.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

25 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

I did not write yesterday, for which I apologize. But the day became too confused with appointments. However as of this morning I finished the last of the graduate school papers and feel freed. Rejoice with me!

A note or two in passing, so that I can throw the scraps away, reminding me. Jean Starr's memoirs appear as though they would receive friendly treatment. At least such was last Sunday's review in the New Haven Register, and, mirabile dictu, in this week's *Time Magazine*. One senses the tone: not praise but the desire to please her after a rough life. Or so I take it. The reviews may or may not sell books, they will at least please her. I suppose you noticed in the TLS for Feb 18th in the Sotheby advertisement, that Osbert is following Edith's example and beginning to sell off things. Though this was presumably arranged before the show-down with David and may have been affected by that situation. You probably saw the Lear drawings at Renishaw. Two yellowbacks came in yesterday with letters as of December 10th and the two from Sachie and Georgia in them. They have certainly been a long time coming. Much more recent yellowbacks have arrived earlier. I can comment on more later, but I do thank you for letting me see the Sitwell letters. Georgia seems to have flipped a bit, and I am dizzied by the Christmas trees in the cemetary. But we can talk about all that later.

Today's mail brought two from you, for the 22nd and 23rd. Do thank Elsie for the really splendid clipping and for thinking of me. I am delighted! and grateful! Glad you like the paper Wall. A letter from Schiffrin today (we really must try to meet him this trip) says he hopes this will set the example for others. Actually I tried to prod Helen again. "But my dear Norman, you know we always wanted to do a paperback for" Bryher!""But only as a two-in-one!""Oh."

I envy you and my mouth waters for the Lugano marrons.

This is incredible about the recent owners of villas. I can see how one might put in restrictions against future acquisitions of property, but not retroactively against those who have bought in good faith. You will be all right, and presumably Lindberghs, Cowards, and Chaplins. And Joan too of course, but not necessarily if she goes to England and then tries to return.

Good luck with the Ralegh mss. I suspect they do help some one in Agnes' position, which is not necessarily the same as saying that they ought to be counted in anything like parity with her intelligence and learning, of which she is richly endowed.

A funeral this early afternoon, of the father of Eugene O'Neill, Jr.'s second wife (I was best man at that wedding, but not at the third). The daughter was there, so my presence was recorded.

We were supposed to have five inches of snow overnight, but fortunately it turned only into a prolonged downpour. I am a little damp, but this is better than being stuck in a drift.

Be sure to thank Elsie. All love as always,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

26 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

A very dull day, really. And no letter from you to brighten it, although a third stuffed yellowback appeared, probably as from before Christmas. I will take it home with me tonight. Susan by the way says that your last batch of agony clippings reached a peak. She has become a great connoisseur, thanks to your eagle eye.

The yellowback will be fun after we have been to a cocktail party and then somewhere to dinner (some restaurant, I mean) for Susan's night out. Jim Addiss will have finished his apprenticeship this summer, and is looking for a new place to work this fall. He hasn't lost his job, just wants a chance for more design. So tomorrow they are in New York and we have the grandchildren for overnight. I hope there will be no imitations of Elizabeth Bryher, as described by Pup. But I must say the child has an creative imagination. I was much interested in Philip's letter, explaining how your name was included among those in attendance at the services for Edith. What a splendid gentle-man-in-wait-ing he would make, a most distinguished equerry. # Also much interested in Clinton-Baddeley's letter. I think the dame he met who said she had met you was the one you promised to send information about British girls' schools to, when you met her on the Connecticut River trip. # Alas, for George, how really miserable he is. But I am at least relieved that he stays at the home. I trust the doctor to keep him there until the worst of the winter is over. # Lilian Kenshole I had missed, and her letter is precious. Out of those like her, out of her, comes the dream of Avalon. You provide the passport. # A nice letter from Bryan even if a little erratically spelled. I should think a year in the States at some school here might be indicated after Reading. But sometimes this only makes enemies for one at home. (Homeland, I mean.) # Poor Rover. It must be agony to pick up all the planting they did for so many years. But now I think he finds it easier to pretend that the move has been forced on him. Maybe not. Once he, he will be challenged and stimulated by Cretona.

You must applaud me for going last night to the 1107th meeting of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. Harald Ingholt is president, I am a vice-president; he is leaving next week for Denmark, and I am supposed to conduct a meeting after our return from Greece. It will be the Thursday after. You must come up if the subject seems interesting. Last night it was on "Hereditary Infections and Symbioses." The man was learned but I dozed. Perhaps you should not applaud at all, but apologize. But he showed slides, the room was dark, and I hope I didn't snore.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

27 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

This being our day to take the children (grand) who will be deposited a little after one o'clock, I cannot save my letter until the end of the day. I have balanced my checkbook (so to speak), deposited the monthly money for Lizzie and for Susan's household expenses, and then done a letter to the Oxford Press with a blurb for a new book on Brooklyn Bridge, for which they sent me the galleys. That done and put into a special postbox, since the galleys had to be returned, I picked up the morning mail to find your letter of the 24th. Poor Elsie, you have been milling about in the house, and the snow never helps. She may be glad of the holiday while you're away -- if only she'd leave for a change. The new Tisdale sounds fun, but as we realized it was the documentation by Mrs Duberley that made the book about her so effective. Still, this other is a story that ought to be told.

We didn't linger very long at the cocktail party, but did see some friends who invited us to their home for supper and bridge. Susan had been in New York all day so we had planned to eat out anyhow. After the bridge I read your later yellowback. I judge now that the lot were not really sent in December, but about mid-January, so they have only taken six weeks to arrive. But others have come sooner. These must have lain in a mail bog. The letters were worth waiting for. How could they bury Edith in the wrong grave! And how dreadful for Sachie. As a Puritan I can't help smiling to think it comforts Sachie that Edith was given absolution two years ago on another occasion, and so was good (like a smallpox vaccination) for a reasonable period afterwards. I really wonder if, without Georgia, he too might go over? Probably not. But his devotion to Edith's memory is wonderful. # Lethbridge gets more and more technical in his magic. I am intrigued but confused. Obviously I would make only a very second-rate wizard. # I liked Aurelia's letter; you have heard more in detail than I. I suspect she is considered a little too old-fashioned to be used in teaching, but I feel very sure at the same time that she would be awfully good at it. # A nice note to you from Horace. # Jocelyn's letter was also nicely frank, and amusing with his music hall jokes at the end. Burlesque, really. Will this be enough for him to get along on, or if there is a little less than desirable will it stimulate him into writing again. If it did, that would be a fine thing for him in many other ways than even the money. # As I wrote you, I'm glad you upped Herring a bit. It only balances, everything having been upped around him and at his daily expense. # You and Lady de Beer are having a romance, I can see. At least she is having a romance with you. But do be careful, if anything happened to Sir Gavin she'd wear you out. #I can't help wishing you could get to Copenhagen even if only for a weekend to see the Frederiksens. I'm delighted that they seem to like their Greenlander daught-in-law. # The copies of Hilda's *Selected Poems* have finally come, first class special delivery, from Grove after my

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

weekend nudging. I will send a copy today to Guin, as you asked, and
as from you. I had thought to send others, but I think better to start
slowly, and if they respond acceptably I can ship another or two down.
# Patrick's letter was interesting. I wonder how his private press is
going. We will hear when we pay a visit to Horace. When I was there--
that is, when you were there, we spoke of his going for a checkup to Gaylord.
If he does I suppose we should pay for it. I will have to arrange.
Shall I? It might give Marya and Pat a bit of a rest also. # Helen had
not mentioned Christian's possible marriage. I was much interested. I
suspect it would comfort Helen if he did, and if she were to have her
own grandchildren instead of simply Kurt's. # I whisper to you that I've
never really liked the cursivety face that Dean chose for her new
typewriter, though possibly the effect is more personal. Actually,
because it imitates handwriting but is overregular the result seems all
the more artificial. And as Dean says, the regular kind was overpoweringly
personal in reference to her mother's machine. Anyhow, that being so
I entirely approve of her having given Doris's away. # What a nice
letter from lady V. If only the world could be made up of people with
her courage and stamina.

Now I must return to some business correspondence, and if
possible do an article long overdue on the ale American Studies Program.
And I must save my strength for the invasion of grandchildren.

All love, as always

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

28 February 1965

Dearest Fido,

I have had the afternoon at the office, the children having been picked up by their mother at lunch time. They had a good time; so did we in having them. Susan had bought her granddaughter two new doll's dresses to fit ones given to be played with at Goodrich Street. This delighted. So did a box of extra equipment for the construction set I gave Justus last summer to stay at our house. This time there was a batteryed electric motor which he manipulated far more adequately than I could. The children were quite content to sit and play creatively with their own things, and we dutifully admired the results from time to time. Yesterday afternoon we took them to a swimming match, since Justus goes to the gym each saturday morning for swimming lessons. He liked them, Susan was not especially interested, but he grew tired of the monotony after an hour and we left as I had expected to. Susan and I were interested in watching the Yale freshman Schollander swim. You may have read about him; he won four gold medals in last fall's Olympics. The freshman team (he is not far enough along in his classes to be on the varsity, also has another Olympian, and the varisty team has five.

And what have I done at the office? Written a general letter of recommendation for a graduate school student (a playwright) who wants a job as teacher; done a dittograph for a German post-doctoral students doing his Habilitations-whatever it is; whose first 40 pages in German I had just finished going over; sent the book to Guin Hapskind; read and written to thank for a series of articles on the computer sent by a friend more interested in them than I am; ordered two little books for myself from Rota, in London; written a former student in Montana thanking him for an article on a country theatre in Montana; written another former student in London who wanted a job as London correspondent for the Hartford Courant, edited by Foote (Susan's brother-in-law); sent a check for mutual stock for the granddaughter whose birthday comes on the 8th (I always give each $100, and the interest gets added to the principal); written to thank for and decline an invitation to go to the opening of the baseball season in Rochester, N.Y.; written the U.S. Information Officer in Freiburg, Germany, to say how sorry I was not to have been able to get a Fellowship for a 75-year old German mediaeval economic historian (!); filed away my week's accumulation of mail; since I find it takes less time to do it than to feel Mrs Dingle's repraoches (actually she has been very good lately). And so it goes. Now I shall get back to reading an assistant professor's ms of a literary history.

I hope it is a useful life I lead.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

2 March 1965

Dearest Fido,

Everything is for the very moment in a chaos, I being just
out of my seminar and Mrs Dingle off to a funeral. The telephone rings,
there are knocks at the door, and I feel as though I were already at my
own funeral. I did not write yesterday because in the early afternoon
Robert Graves arrived for a 4:30 lecture. He wanted to go to the house
for a rest, which we did and he did, and after the lecture we had a small
dinner party for him before putting him on the 9:00 train back to New
York. I will report in more detail later.

Now I have Wednesday and part of Thursday before Mrs Takano,
a professor from Tokyo, arrives for overnight from Radcliffe where she
is spending the year. Sometimes I think we have become a tourist objective
like the Washington monument. Her visit will take most of Friday also, and
I shall be farther in the hole than ever.

Your letters of the 26th, 27th, and 28th have arrived in various
posts today, though not in that order. And have been gratefully if hastily
read. I shall reply to them properly in due time. Now I have to fly, after
only the hastiest of greetings.

But I must tell you one little tempter for your visit here.
Indiana wrote me and said that since there was so much in the notebooks kept
by the intended biographer of Henty, it would be too expensive to have everything
xeroxed. And there would be much that was too obvious. So they would send the
notebooks on for me to choose from for xeroxing. When I wrote and asked if I
could keep it long enough for you to go over when you came, the Librarian, a
friend of mine, said I could keep it as long as needed. So this is a great
break, I think, and you will have to be prepared to settle down to hard work.
He also reports that the Victorian Newsletter, to which I subscribe, has in the
current number, not yet reached here, an article on Henty's novels of India.
He tells me also that almost all of the later editions of Henty were published first
in America. "The American Hentys published by Scribner's were issued in the early
fall and the Blackie's were usually issued in December to catch the Christmas
trade." We begin to learn.

3 March 1965

Dearest Fido,

Life is really maddening. Just as I was about to
sit down to write you an hour ago, the phone rang from the Library.
Gallup is in New York, and an actor anxious

Life is really maddening. Just as I had begun writing
the paragraph above, Professor Lewis came in to talk about the
National Book Award meeting tomorrow to sanctify the best novel of
1964, and now it is six o'clock.

I really can't begin a letter now. But I can at least
send all apologies and all love.

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

4 March 1965

Dearest Fido,

Well, no more explanations. I'll simply get at it, the first thing this morning: not even 8:30 yet at the office. At 10, I must be at the doctor's for my annual physical examination, and at 1 o'clock a lady Professor Takano, from Tsuda College in Tokyo arrives "just for a visit." And stays until tomorrow afternoon, spending the night with us. Am delighted to have us, but as the time draws near for Greece and so much remains undone, I have a real problem.

Let me make various reports, so that I can put away things accumulated to comment on. First, many thanks for the Asimov *Hugo Winners* which Susan was particularly delighted to see when I took it back last night. Secondly, the Fenn letters have arrived. They are short but difficult to read. I think now unless something really important comes up for Fenn we can say we have our "examples" of his hand. Anything of Henty might be a different matter. I will put aside for your inspection when you come this side. # Yesterday morning I spent an hour and a half at Stonehill's, the bookseller (you went there once or twice with me and we bought some of the gems from them) who is doing the revaluation. I took with me the books that had been exhibited at the Grolier for him to add to the others, and then checked the B & F's sent up on approval from New York. In the end everything divided evenly. I am returning ten and keeping ten. Fortunately the money wasn't equally balanced. What I returned came to $1,005.00 worth, and what I retained was $467.50. Actually the ones retained included only two of importance (or expense), that is a copy of the first issue and another of the second issue of the second edition of THE WOMAN HATER. We had no early edition at all. The rest are much later editions of various texts valuable only for filling in what might eventually be a complete run of texts for the century following the first edition. I am turning in no copies of those you bought. I did say to young Barry, of Stonehill's, to keep his eyes open for late editions of the quartos when he is bookscouting in England next month. One prefers to buy from Maggs, but these are all inexpensive (if found) and not worth Maggs time to scout. It is hopeless to expect to find true first editions. #By the way I was much amused to see a little exhibition in the Library on dictionaries, and at the very first case they had shown a facsimile of one of the pages of your 15th century ms of a teacher's Latin-English vocabulary. I asked if they wouldn't prefer to exhibit the original, and they were of course delighted. I took to Stonehill to be reappraised first, and he promises to deliver to the "reference Librarian for the show. You paid £85/-/- He offered $1750.00 cash, and I think will value it at about $2500. Which indicates a reasonably profitable buy on your part. Even a capitalist couldn't ask for more! Actually, the value isn't the point of course. What really matters is the fact of its extraordinary human interest, as I've discovered from showing it. Sentimentally it is the most appealing piece in the entire collection.

The statement for Hilda's royalties has come in from Grove Press.

28 May 1967

Dearest Fido,

Another Sunday morning at the office, but I expect I shall not
try to keep coming once I give up my posts, and a few more letters of recommenda-
tion have been written, a few papers filed. Now I settle in for a moment or
two with you before I go home to wait for a telephone call from the bus station
to say that two Japanese professors have arrived from Boston. I rather wish
they might have been explicit as to the time of the arrival; they were to have
stayed at the house; instead, at their desire, I shall put them up at an inn.
We take them out to dinner tonight; we have them plus two other Japanese in for
dinner tomorrow. Meanwhile Susan has gone for the day to the shore to plant
her garden beds.

Let me jump about a bit, as I pick up deposits I shored against
letters to you. The music miniatures in the catalogue from Maggs showed some
signs of life, but do not interest me personally and, I suspect, do not you
either. Still, some life evidenced.

I had half wondered if Perdita and John would not be at the D.R.
party, but I think Horace does not particularly know them. Pup will be busy
anyhow just now with her moving. I still think it a fine idea, probably even
a necessary soldion, but am glad I myself don't have to move just now.

Two yellowbacks arrived last week but I did not get to them imme-
diately. Was interested to see that Barbara Jordan has joined the letter-writers-
to the papers. Hers was intense but syntactically went sometimes on the rocks.
# I had not known of Pat's article on Michaux in L'Herne. Did you see a copy,
or if not would you like me to see if the library subscribes and have it xeroxed?
Very simple to do. # I do hope Jean Starr actually gets to the Alpssand her high
colonic irrigation. The change of scene and language would do her good; and she
must be very fluent indeed in German. If she does go I hope you can manage to
see her. # The letter from Collins explains (I think) the matter of the diary he
spoke of. He seems to have structured his notes on Hilda in the form of a diary.
That is, the only diary is his invented diary for the sake of his book. It is
rather risky as a professional device, and a way of avoiding problems of transition.
But it can be effective and heighten intensity. # Your poor Margeret seems to be
in a difficult stage of her analysis, and very much in the dumps about herself
and her work and her world. It is difficult to be enthusiastic about the world
of Vietnam, the Middle-East and Africa, and I fear I am rather shutting it all
out and trying to get on with my own affairs. Hardly commendable as an attitude,
but I tire of vacuous arguments in the press and vacuous demonstrations. # What
an odd juxtaposition Melitta's letter about Belinda's situation makes with B's
step-mother's account. Actually I hope B doesn't try to slip out from Melitta.
Melitta will give her endless care, which would be in a different sense that she
has ever received it even from Heidt. # Mervyn will be even harder hit now that
classics generally drops out. He will, I think, live more in the memory world
of Summerfields. But, alas, even the boys he takes to Greece will in time grow
up into men with their own concerns. # A nice letter from Consie, and from Vernon
Watkins.

Do you recall the young man who stopped his car and hailed me in the

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

road outside Leslie's Maine house. He had been a Pundit, is the Choate chaplain, and a bush pilot in Labrador. He has just been made assistant to the superintendent of the International Grenfell Association, will live near Boston but spend his time now to his heart's content flying from parish to parish in the north.

Books continue to come in. One is a paperback of a hardbound first printed in 1961: *The Herring Gull's World: a Study of the Social Behavior of Birds*. Do you think Hilda the Quick would like me to send her a copy?

How Hilda would have been interested in a forthcoming study of the Moravian settlements in Herrnhut and Bethlehem in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Columbia is publishing it in June. I think I shall order, simply to get myself up on that interest of hers. Now you see I'll really at last be able to get at her papers and see them properly used.

This morning I finished Horace's book. It was actually 110 pages. He does quote brilliantly, handles the life in the book without forgetting it is the Pilgrimage which gives her her value. And I thought his section on Alan Odle was splendid, just as I imagine he must have been. The epilogue on the place of Pilgrimage in the history of the novel is sound enough but falls a little into the schoolteacher manner. His father once told me Horace always gathered the small children around his wheelchair and taught them. He never forgot the gesture. The book itself will really do D.R.'s reputation good, and lead people to her. This is a necessary prelude for a Glicken book which assumes there is an interested audience for details.

Last night after the cocktail party we had John Pope and his wife to supper and bridge. He reports that the first volume of his Aelfric is out in England, but this does not have the gloss. What do you think? Isn't this a little special. I myself find Aelfric dull, though I recognize his importance because of the extent of the attributions.

All love,

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN-CONN

29 May 1967

Dearest Fido,

Another mail bonanza. Four letters today: two for the 25th, then the 26th and 27th. The latter was amazingly fast. Sometimes I think you use a date one day later than you actually write, just to make the Swiss system seem even better than it is. On the other hand I must say your letters cannot be held up on this side, so why is it mine take so much longer to reach you?

I couldn't be more pleased than by your liking Horace's book. And I'm glad you've read it twice, for only by reading the actual quotations can you see how beautifully they were fitted into the fabric. Publisher's Weekly, the guide book for booksellers has just said, "Gregory's selected excerpts from 'Pilgrimage' are tantalizing." Which should lead readers of his book to hers, a thing which we hoped for. I wrote Horace yesterday after writing you to say how delighted I was with what he had done, and mentioned as particularly well done the description of Alan Odle and the marriage. Of course I never knew him, but I know those like him, and if he wasn't like Horace's portrait he will be from now on. I'm glad the book reached you so quickly, and that you cabled. Your praise will mean more to Horace than anyone's could.

Last night we took the two Japanese professors to the Captain's Table, in Guilford, by the little harbor. We had broiled lobsters, which Japanese always adore. But, oh the bill! This morning I took them to the Beinecke Library to work on O'Neill manuscripts, then to luncheon at Mory's with a fellow Japanese professor already here, who in turn took them to New London this afternoon to see O'Neill's home. Tonight we have them for dinner at the house. There are moments when ......

You will have had your Zurich jaunt by the time you read this, and I hope it was fun and that Joan and the Scarletts were respectively in good form. But what a pity if you have had to come back with only one night's lodging at the Glock. # Much interested that Schnack has reappeared. Some one was asking me about her only a few days ago. I can't think why. "As to the Tiger, this is really going too far if she gets herself locked up in the Niehans' cellar. I am seriously worried that they may think she is bugged with a little wireless transmitter, then sent to work her way into the Niehans home, by being there broadcasting to you and Elsie all of the Niehans plans for their own garden, as well as the trade secrets for planting glands. I am sure Tigerli would dearly love such a diabolical plan, and having practised the possibility was on the point of proposing it to Elsie. But I must solemnly advise against it. Better to have the Tiger stay at home afternoons and do her memoirs.

Kenneth's letter was certainly nice, and obviously he is much looking forward to your visit. And one knows how easy it is to become sombre about one's self, so I do not blame him. But I hope you will be able to persuade him to begin moving about, and especially to encourage Islay to encourage him. Do by all means plan to stop for a day or two in Firenze. I need full reports both on Romaine and Osbert. And on Florence too. But don't try to

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

write when you will be seeing so much and having to talk so much. I will be
content with a rainy day's message from Kenwin afterwards.

As for the Charles Norman to whom Hilda wrote, she never met him at all. But he was doing a biography (hardly an outstanding one) of Pound, and wrote her occasionally asking for information. Usually she forwarded them to me to answer for her. I suppose mine are there too, but I didn't ask to see them.

Your Madame Nicole tale is a horror. Perhaps the Swiss are right in
holding back this sort of news until everything has been legally sorted. But
I do agree about forbidding rifles. Except that people who want them usually
somehow manage to get them. Especially if the desire is to kill. Countries
are that way too.

Going on to your letter of the 26th, I shall ask the Co-op to send
copies of Horace's book as directed. It doesn't actually appear until the
9th, and because of an error may be a little delayed. Would you like to
keep an extra copy on hand at Kenwin, and was Kenneth at all involved with
her as of Switzerland, or Herring? He might be pleased. One rather hopes
of course that it will eventually be published in England.

Glad you are willing to contribute to the Ramuz number of *Adam*. You
will become known as a regular contributor. Any issue on Hilda is good, but
I somehow have the feeling that it will take more time before the English
really catch up with her. The memorial service was not encouraging from a
critical point of view. And most who knew her are now off the scene. You
and I would end up by writing the whole issue. Better to let the Americans
begin the vogue and the English pick it up later, as they did for Williams
and Stevens and the like. The price for the complete run sounds awfully
high, especially since in all likelihood they will be reprinting it by xerox
in the little mag series. I see by the way that Kraus actually advertises the
complete reprint of L & L to the bitter end, so Herring's diffidence was either
overcome or ignored.

Am much upset by your news of Catha. Not that she wants to sell the
letters; they are after all hers, and no one has a better right to do what she
wants to with them. My only plan was to get as much as she could. And if she
needs the funds so badly then more than ever she should sell to the highest
bidder. But something is going on that she isn't telling, at least to you though
she may be to her analyst. Somewhere someone is putting pressure on her, and I
can't really believe it is her "husband." Do you think it has anything to do
with the woman you didn't like? Somehow this doesn't sound like Kershaw. You
do help her with living expenses and analysis, and she has managed to manage
up to now. I wonder what would happen if you were to write and ask her what the
real difficulty is. Just getting it out on paper might be therapeutic. By
difficulty I should imply financial difficulties and their *reasons*, without
scolding of course. Otherwise I feel a real crackup with absolutely no one to
step in and help her. Poor child.

You don't like Chichester; I haven't followed him long enough to know
him as you do. But I did rather admire him when at Plymouth the press asked

him if in the midst of the dangers of the Horn he had prayed. He thought a
moment, obviously knowing the answer that would be liked. "No," he answered,
and to hell with it.

Smetlana I somehow don't like. It is too much like the Prodigal
Daughter with all the right answers to the press. God, liberty, my husband,
the two dear children I have given up for democracy and a million dollars.

We had the B & F which Stonehill offered.

The Quayle is too complicated to go into today, since it already
is after six. But as to my lung, or the tippy-top posterior of it, you must
not think I am dying or anything like that. I suppose I grimly set out to
tell you so that I tell myself that I am lucky to have discovered it this
early but that I cannot disguise it. As a result of getting out, as you say,
and standing up occasionally from the desk, I shall live to be a nonogeneraan,
and tell the younger generation that the only reason Bryher died at 90 was
because of her life of dissipation. Seriously, I did want to tell you the
truth as they told me. In no sense is it high drama.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

30 May 1967

Dearest Fido,

Memorial Day, and hence no mails. The secretaries get the day off but the students keep on taking examinations as usual. Susan went to the shore to finish her planting. I spent the morning reading a "comedy" written by two undergraduates, and have seldom read anything so remarkably unfunny. One of the authors is a Pundit; I am glad he didn't come often to meetings. The authors have no sense of dialogue or setting, logic or dramatics. But who knows, this may be only the very bud of their genius and we will live to see another B & F. That took the morning.

The two Japanese professors took part of the afternoon, but fortunately I could take them to the bus at three. Last night we had them and a Japanese couple from New York to dinner. All have been enjoyable but time-consuming.

This afternoon I have been going over Lizzie's accounts. She never seems to have enough, wants more, but when she adds up her budgets comes out with less than she now gets.

Tonight I shall read a manuscript of a biography which has been rejected by the Yale Press. By a former student who took his doctorate with us. I must have read it to soften the blow. This is another of these "last" tasks.

About the manuscripts that Quayle has. My honest fear -- how shall I phrase it --is that you consider this as a comforter to me. I had not meant to make such a situation. It is a puzzlement. Quayle is asking what seems to me to be a high price, £4,500/-/-. No one of the full-length already published manuscripts is of the calibre of the ones we already have. I even suspect these are ones which Brimmell may originally have rejected, though I don't know this. The notebooks are interesting, so are the unfinished and unpublished manuscripts. Altogether they may a sizeable quantity. I say a high price because I doubt they will ever get much higher in value, but in the book field a thing is worth what you can get for it. And I daresay that Texas or the University of California at Los Angeles perhaps even Indiana, would pay Quayle's price simply to raise the status of what they have. Yet of course what I first said is still true; to add these to what is already here would make this corner of the Henty frame unequalled in manuscript material. I still have quite a way to go in the way of books, and Quayle will probably want a good deal for his set when he eventually sells it.

I may do a little exploring, see whether he would consider selling a part, whether he would take money over a period of time. But first I must finish reading the biography. Am in to the second chapter now, and of course am fascinated with it. By which I mean by the facts. It is a little gray, but if he read all of Ballantine it is a wonder Quayle can write a non Victorian sentence.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

31 May 1967

Dearest Fido,

A double joy this morning. Both your letter of the 28th and the handwritten one of the 29th from Zurich arrived in the first mail. I was sorry about the Glock, having firmly believed that in the end you would have been nicely tucked away for Monday night as well. Why is Zurich so full at this time of the year?

I hope Joan was pleased with her nest-egg. Maitre Coigny thought it a good idea, I remember, when I discussed the matter with him. It does give one a feeling of stability. You spoke of having had a nice dinner but did not mention her reaction.

Hadn't meant you to give up your yacht cruise (no trip to the wilds--that would have been Greenland!), except that you reported Coigny not to approve because of the risk of your falling overboard at the cocktail hour, and thus confusing the Union Bank of Switzerland. No, no, if you insist do try for the wild trip you beatniks like. I am only surprised that you want a wild trip.

It will be interesting to see how Kenneth is. He may not be well, probably is not, but I only hope his lack of strength will not sap his strength further. By which I mean that the best cure for tiring is often exercise not resting. Whatever it may be, isn't it indicated that you should urge them to go to Prutting in the Fall? Over, that is, by boat, and let Prutting do a real overhaul. Kenneth respects him, both do, and the advice would be better than what they get in Rome. I hope this isn't just my patriotism. But how glad I am that you will be able to see both Romaine and Osbert.

My letter at that moment was interrupted by a telephone call (6:20 p.m.) by one of the assistant professors objecting to the grading system in the undergraduate honors program as practised by the present head of the honors program, and could three meet with me to discuss the matter presumably so as to force the head to change the marks. I said I would meet with them and him and the other man who graded the exams, but I would not be the translator of complaints between the two factions. I think the head has been harder than I would esoft-heartedly be, but having named him head for the year it seems to me I have to back him up. If he wants to change, fine; if he doesn't, then it goes as he says. Otherwise how can one feel any sort of loyalty towards one's boss?

But the day has been pretty much this way throughout--an end-of-the-year syndrome. And I'm afraid it has rather knocked the edge off of this letter. So I bide you farewell, will drive by the post office to deposit it, and go home to welcome an Australian professor and his wife to dinner, who couldn't come before 7:30. How glad I shall be to have finished with it all. My resilience begins to slacken.

All love, reverences,

1 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

The tempest has been in the teapot most of the day. By which I
refer to the telephone call which interrupted last night's letter to you. I
was, apparently, saved a 10 p.m. call to repeat what was said before; others
were calling others at midnight (the moment when our guests finally left,
so I would not have been wakened). All over three boys who were not getting
Honors but were thought by one faction to deserve them. Well, in one way
and another, by patient ears and a soft voice, I managed to calm things down.
The boys will not get honors, but why should they if the committee I appointed
decided they didn't deserve them. How glad I shall be not to use my energy
that way.

I had a phone call from Horace, really to check up on whether I
would continue to pay for a new nurse between the time Miss Hulbert sails
fpr home in mid-June and Hlly 3rd when he enters the Rusk Hospital in New
York for a month's therapy. I said I would continue, though fortunately
Medicare will settle am1 his hospital bills and nursing will be included.
I asked what Marya would do, and they didn't seem to have planned that. If
only, he said, she could go to a New York hotel and write during the month.
But I really can't swing that too, so I simply said that naturally I was
sending him the twice-a-year one thousand dollars on July 1st and perhaps
that could help. I thought he sounded a little subdued at least in voice.
But he was pleased with your letter and happy that you liked the book.

Presumably the European papers carried the announcement of Pabst's
death in Vienna on the 29th. He was 82. I clipped the obituary and will send
if you like or think the boys would like it.

Your letter of the 30th came this afternoon, so I really lost nothing
in the flow because of your trip to Zurich. I am still sorry you couldn't have
the extra night at the Glock but am sure Elsie was much relieved to have you
back to watch out for her. I can well imagine that Joan's translation jobs must
be unevenly distributed. Her social life must be hard to plan in consequence.
I hadn't realised that the roads into Florence were still in such bad condition.
One would have thought the main highways would long since have been repaired.
Unless Islay prefers backways always.

I still have 200 ms pages to go on the 600 page biography of Charles
Nagel, a one time Secretary of Commerce under President Taft. It was rejected
by the Yale Press and written by a former student. I must be able to explain
why. I can give one answer now, but won't to him: the book like the man is
awfully dull.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

3 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

No letter to you yesterday, since I seized the opportunity to slip away from the office on a weekday in order to have a weekend day freer for myself. We went to Andover to see what they called their exhibition of "Alumni Treasures." It was an interesting show, but did seem like an incredible expenditure of time and money to put up for only three weeks. Even the catalogue will not be ready until next weekend for graduation, but then the show closes a week after that. However my worries are not Amdover's finances or use of time, and it was rather fun to see the fifteen items we had been asked for. Most of them were very well shown--the Romance of the Rose ms was opened at the ornate frontispiece rather than the more characterful smaller drawings within the text--they changed that for me--and the Gaudier bronze deer the Pounds gave was put too high for one to see what it was--the design was to be looked down at-- they promised to shift that. The porcelain looked rather more elegant than at home. The two Hittite-Babylonian figures were proud indeed. But nicest of all was to see the marble matron Roman tomb figure from the kitchen proudly having a pedestal all its own at the entrance to the main gallery. Having bought her for some twenty dollars over 25 years ago, and put her in the kitchen, I have gotten to think of her a kitchen thing. Ingholt used to murmur that she really wasn't bad at all; the Andover director was much taken by her. So there she was, like Ines invited to the Queen's garden party. There will be no living with her when she comes back to Goodrich Street. I can just imagine what she will exclaim when irked at her work!

We lunched with Dudley Fitts and his wife at noon; they were about to go off to Smith College for the graduation of their daughter. He has only one more year before forced to retire from teaching, rather dreads the loss of income and especially the boredom though he hopes to write a lot. His spirits are excellent, though he moves only with difficulty and must plunck himself down into any chair, his legs being pretty useless. What a rum lot we all become.

We were back at the house by seven for supper, both of us furious to find the cleaner had left clothes hanging on the kitchen door, we remembering how the house was broken into when a similar signal was left. Fortunately I was late enough to escape the reporter from *Time* who had wanted me to set a fixed time when I would return from Andover so he could interview me on Yale. I said, no fixings.

Today's task have been the usual cleanups, the most preposterous being the request by two assistant professors from Wisconsin that I choose 200 different letters by Hawthorne, of between 750-2000 words, distributed over the years, and individualized, etc etc, have these xeroxing and sent to them so they could write a book on Hawthorne's changes in style. I modestly replied that for a selection so important to their book I did not dare take the responsibility. But if they wished to come and choose for themselves I would be glad to admit them. Modesty, fprsooth--laziness on my part!

My better nature overcame me, and thinking over the problem of Horace's hospitalization period as I drove yesterday, and knowing that indeed Marya did need and deserve a rest from the house, and that she would not feel she could afford it

even if in truth she might, and that who knows when she would get away again if
ever, and that since I would not be going to Copenhagen and could use some of that
money in no better way than to help her, I have written Horace saying that if Marya
would go to a New York hotel and felt she could do this with $500.00 I would give
her that as a tribute to her art so she could write her own things when away. I
know from her, from Horace, and from catriona that she feels (and it is true) that
Horace demands so much time and watching that she cannot do anything except the
hack of anthologies. I seem to be woefully inconsistent these days, but it is
partly because I am so rushed that I cannot think things through in terms of all
their implications. I fear I was only thinking of myself when I didn't rise to
the fly when Horace phoned.

There was no letter from you today, but yours of the 31st was waiting
for me this morning as from yesterday. I am much worried about Elsie's pains in
her head. But I tend to be impatient when people will not consult a doctor. What
if it does turn out mostly to be nothing. When it is a little something as with
the emphesema than one is grateful to have caught it early, when one can take care
of it. What a steady stream of guests you have been having. The season seems to
pour with them as with the rain.

I mentioned the Pabst death on Thursday. I wonder if his impact will be
documented. A pity you didn't have the time to spend longer over him in the first
volume. Perhaps one day you will want to revise that section of it you wrote
fear Hilda's death. Then eventually with a new edition one could enlarge. On your
original terms.

I trust the Italian reise will not prove too exhausting. Somehow I still
think Islay might have managed to fetch you, at least in Rome. As for Elsie, I rather
think the thing to do is to wrap her up in a box and ship her by special handling.
Have never really read Chateaubriand on America, but know that much of what he wrote
actually came from the Bartrams. There was rather a noise about this in his own
time, but his work was influential all the same.

Am about halfway through Quayle, and of course find the data fascinating.
It is rather fun to think that you and I were at Fort ary, near Winnepeg, where he
was first stationed in Canada. I found by the way the Letter on page 57 extraordinary.
It is the only instance I know of where the Bourgeoisie is praised. And extraordinary
in quite another way is his relationship to his sister-in-law. I am all in favor of
a man having two wives, but it is seldom a woman can keep two husbands happy when they
are brothers. Quayle has rather absorbed the Victorian style but has done a good deal
of research. Obviously there are a good many more papers than he is offering at the
moment. Odd that cruelty to animals should worry Quayle so much more than cruelty
towards other men. But there seems always to have been a strongish streak of anti-
cruelty to animals in England. It is the only country where I know several women who
will not permit any fur on their clothing or as coats. I have, as you know, read very
few of Ballantyne's books; but from the descriptions of their moralizing I can see
why you drank Henty more pleasureably.

the New York lawyers actually at least seem to be doing something. Today
I had a letter from them saying that in processing Horace's data they came across a
double payment by me to the nursing home where he went. The Nursing Home agreed
and so I was sent a check for $235.74. So that will be half of the gift to Marya.

4 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

Sunday morning, and having written a longish letter of
explanation of why the manuscript biography of Charles Nagel, by a
former student, was turned down by the Yale Press -- a courtesy to
the young man, since rejections are crushing enough without a con-
soling stroke, which was why I read the 511 pages myself; and a
letter to Connecticut College saying that a former graduate student
we had dropped would be fine to teach a course on Pushkin; and a
note to Kay Boyle to say that I very much liked the chapter of her
memoir which she showed me--and I did like it --; and paid a couple
of first-of-the-month bills which came in; I shall now pleasure
myself by writing you, even though it can be little more than a
finishing of yesterday's. Not having done any more meanwhile than
put on the screen door to the kitchen so fresh air without flies
can cool the room for Susan.

Two batches of dusty diamonds came from Brimmell, but
I may have told you of them already. All very fine in condition. A
firstenty BY PIKE AND DYKE which we did not have except in a later
edition (yours) and the American first; two Stables, one FOR ENGLAND
HOME AND BEAUTY, which is quite a title; Fenn's DASH FROM DIAMOND CITY;
Hayens' AN EMPEROR'S DOOM, OR THE PATRIOTS OF MEXICO (1898), about
whom I know nothing, but added to several that came with the mail
bags from Maggs; a Brereton; and for some reason that escaped me since
we already have a first and earlier edition, Ballantyne's THE RED ERIC.
Maybe it is the first with new illustrations.

Then, in going over back notes I had found nothing about
THE GEATS OF BEOWULF which I had ordered at Christmas time for you from
the University of Wisconsin Press. So I wrote to inquire, and discovered
that in their terms "we have encountered several problems in preparing
the Leake title for publication. It is now expected to be published about
September 15th." They promise to send then. It will be late birthday/
I wonder what the complications were? Perhaps the heirs of the author
of Beowulf refused to give permission to quote.

Many thanks for the copy of The Poetry Review which arrived.
Always interesting and helps me to keep in touch, at least with names.
A yellowback arrived Thursday; I read Friday night after Andoer but there
was not time to comment yesterday. Horace had said he had received none
of the English clippings, but I see Rose has sent them to him. So I will
not, as I promised him, try to get xerox copies made for him. # O.B. seems
discouraged and no wonder; he simply does not fit into the new conservatism
that Eric White and his group so liberally follow. My own opinion is that
the Arts Council is hopeless, so far as creative thinking is concerned. #
Poor Phyliss, I am sorry she has no dog to tramp about with. A dog with
tranquilizers hardly seems worth it. I should prefer one that gets up
from the floor, shakes himself, looks at you and then at the door and then

at you again, as though to say, "Come on, let's be off!" The two grand-
children are to have their own dog in a week or ten days when school is
finished. A springer like the one we had when the two girls were young.
This is a present from Lizzie to them, though I am secretly paying for
4/5ths. But the children are not to know; they think everything comes
from grandparents.

I shall stay home after lunch and do a few things around the
house. later in the afternoon we drive to Hartford for the 35th wedding
anniversary of the Footes. Yesterday was 90°F; today is likely to be the
same. I sit shirtless at my desk. Hope you manage a tour of duty on the
roof.

5 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

I sit up with a start, to realise that a letter to you at
Kenwin really will not reach you before you and Elsie start off for Cetona.
So I greet you on your arrival there, and if Kenneth has one half of you
let me share the other.

Actually I think I need some consolation. I have seldom been
so depressed as I was by this morning's radio announcement of the fighting
in the Mid-East. I suppose it was inevitable, but that is no alleviation.
And how will it all end, or how will we end? I haven't really wanted to be
anything but an ostrich to the world for the past year or so. We wouldn't
fight, you and I, over the sides we take, but what has there been to say.
I am not anti- the American effort in Vietnam but it seems to me that no one
is quite sure what we are doing. Vietnam has something to do with the Mid-
East; so has the anti-Vietnam attitude something to do with it. Russia's
quarrel with China has something to do with backing up Nasser, to prove
they're no pro-American. The East is a mess, Africa is a mess, the mid-East
is a mess.

Feeling thus, and having a cheerful letter from Brimmell offering
a few more dusty diamonds I was like a woman who cheers herself up by buying
a new hat. I ordered all but the two we already had. One if a book by Fenn
with a pop-up monkey in it; it pops up when you open the book. Then a Ballantyne
THE BIG OTTER, which sounds really good; another enn juvenile, which I get only
for completeness; two Mayne Reids, and a Kingston book called AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES.
Not a long list but with some elusive titles. Still, once the letter was written
I felt depressed again.

We drove to Hartford with the Hoblitzelles for the Foote's 35th
anniversary, Susan had bought a coral necklace for her sister in New York, that
being the appropriate symbol. I wonder why? A nice afternoon, and we ate at
a restaurant on the way back so that Susan had no dinner to prepare.

Though today was gloomy enough in terms of the world, it was a good
day for me with you. Five letters came: that of the 1st, two of the 2nd and two
of the 3rd. I think you may have established something of satisfaction with
your Hope and Kate. Interesting how these novelists pair up, this couple and
the South African pair. I agree that scholarship can be great fun to listen
to, but one does want a little frivolous fiction mixed in with one's footnotes.
Actually it sounds like a very good pair indeed with just the right interests
to share. Glad you have gone off with the feeling that Coigny has things in
shape over the long pull. My hunch is that you were very lucky indeed to have
had the Maitre at just the right time. I sometimes wonder if Beney didn't become
just a little nervous. I ought to have had. Odd, but I suppose not altogether
surprising that you couldn't get anyone to drive you down. Perhaps you'll have to
take over Romaine's nice Gino. Do give him my greetings if you see her. Do not
know really when the Danish expo opens, and rather oddly have heard no response
to my announcement of not going. Immodest of me, I suppose, but I rather expected
a note saying how sorry they were. But they are probably busy putting it up. #
Good of Hope to inscribe your copy of her Golden Warrior. I never read it, but

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

all say it is good. # What a bore about not knowing trains from Milan on. That is my great advantage here of having my travel agency do all internal and foreign travel booking. I cannot afford the time to cope with timetables and compare possibilities. Anyhow the railways and airlines pay them, not I. # I shall try to think about Ireland in a week or two, after I finish my last two lectures of the season and know what my free time will be this fall. I have one lecture, one meeting in New York, one in Washington, and one N.E. conference to account for.

I should think the Goughs might very well be worried about her Jewish sister. It might become very sticky, and since married to an Israeli diplomat it might be infra dig to evacuate.

If Kenneth can do the plane so much the better for Prutting. But do urge them to go. And do give them both my love.

But not all, for there is you—

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

6 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

No letter from you today, though after such a harvest as yesterday provided I can hardly feel cheated. The day has been a hot one, in the eighties, and even my air conditioner doesn't seem to have been of much help. What will it have been like for you at the palazzo. I shall think of you and Elsie huddling in one of the grottos for coolth.

I began the day by taking Susan and her car to the garage so that the spring overhaul could be given. Then she took my car and now I must taxi to the garage and recover it at the end of the day. When I can get my own to be tuned up is another matter, but it will have to be some time next week.

I have filled the middle of the day with reading another of the
endless dissertation chapters on the 19th-century lady novelist. And by the
usual number of letters. And with appointments as various foreign students
come in to give their farewells.

Looking ahead for books, as advertised in *Publishers Weekly*, I
see a promised edition of Tolkien poems sung in the novels and now set to
music. Seven of them. "Toklien has embellished the pages with Elvish script
and has provided a glossary of the Elvish terms used in the songs." Shall
I order three copies for you so that at Kenwin you and Elsie, and perhaps
Ines or a guest, can sing trios at eventide, standing on the gallery over-
looking the lake?

Another intriguing announcement: :Norman Mailer's new book, 'Why Are We in Vietnam?' is fiction and, despite the title, its basic focus is on an Alaskan bear-hunting expedition. Putnam describes the novel as 'unrelenting in its powerful crucifixion of that which represents the most explosive element in America today--Texas and the Texans.' Well, I'm a little confused.

But you might like the book about the Duke of Windsor, if the
illustrations are all as revealing as this one apparently is.

I forgot last night to mention Horace's letter. He was obviously
very much pleased by your cable and letter. As to Alan Odle, I should have
thought it was his personality and the fact that he could be mothered that
appealed to D.R., not his being a great artist. That would have provided a
conflict; she was the great artist and felt it. As to his being a gay pornog-
rapher, I should rather doubt it from what I saw of his work in illustrations.
Erotic, rather, in the way of Beardsley and the others. But I am sure that
the late Victorians and Edwardians never confused eroticism with pornography.
They knew both.

I finished the *allantyne biography* last night, and must admit
I was fascinated from beginning to end. It's rather fun, I think, that we have
the inscribed copies he gave Teenie, his brother's wife with whom he lived.
They are inscribed to Christina from her brother, and someone has carefully
inked in "in-law". They obviously sold those and kept the ones to his wife;
but as a member of "My Secret Life Club" I think I prefer having Teenie's.

All best, Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

7 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

The war has come but I hope you did not cancel your trip to the Boys. Last night, somewhat by chance, we watched a telecast of the Security Council meeting of the U.N. It was one of those moments when one is glad indeed to have a set at hand. There was real tension, especially after the fiery address by the delegate from Syria with his accusations against the British and Americans for active participation in the air attacks. My friend Arthur Goldberg simply got mad, but of course he is in a difficult position as a Jew, something about which the Syrian delegate was hardly subtle. But the British delegate was wonderfully bland with that upper-class suavity that cuts like Toledo steel. He reminded the Syrian delegate who had said that British planes had arrived at Israel airports to fight, and that others had attacked from a British aircraft carrier, that Britain only had two of the latter, that these were in harbor a thousand miles off, and that planes cannot take off from a non-moving vessel. On it went, but I must say that I was much relieved when the Russian delegate simply said that his country was behind the resolution for a cease-fire on present grounds. Cairo has refused, but without Russian support I do not see how they can persevere. Even Jordan does not seem strongly behind him. I can only hope it means the end of Nasser. All this really means is that I do not feel so desperately discouraged as I was two days ago.

Yours of the 4th and 5th came today. Sorry to hear about Bruno's paralysis. It is worrying to think it may be something contagious. # I thought I could put my hand on the Pabst obituary but will send along tomorrow. The Times said he spent the war in Mexico, not the States.

Nice that the boys have been so looking forward to your visit.

This has been a stupid letter, but then this has been a stupid day, with too many visitors and too little accomplished. Now I have to go to a cocktail party, and tonight after dinner we have our nextdoor neighbors in at long last. But I ought to be beginning next week's lecture.

My love to the boys and to Elsie, my greetings to Dr Sutherland if you write in his guest book, and the core of it all to yourself.

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

9 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

I did not write yesterday. I had meant to wait until after I
had had my conference with the doctors at the hospital, so I could tell you
the result. My appointment was at 2:30; I actually saw the doctors at 5:10.
Luckily I had brought a book. I was not back at the office until after six,
so there was nothing to do but pick up my briefcase and hie home. And as
it turned out there was not really very much to report to you, though I had
both the orthopedist and neuro-surgeon assembled together. The whole thing
now seems to abstract into a problem of posture, as ill posture squeezes
nerves and muscles and lungs. But there is not much one can do about this,
except to keep from getting worse, and the cardio-pulmonary report did not
indicate any rapid spreading of the emphesema. So they recommend not working
so hard, walking more, taking exercises to stand straighter (I have still to
see a doctor about this, who is working on computers and spines --I am to be fed
to the computor now, like another dog, and it is feared the computor will blow
to bits as I corve in.) Maybe crutches to ex exercise on, maybe a slight lift on
my left heel? All these will be decided by the highest tribunals.

Having spent most of the day at end-of-the-year meetings of one sort
or another, I must go now for cocktails and dinner with the First Secretary
and the Second Secretary of the Japanese Embassy in Washington, and the Consul
and Acting Chief of Japanese Information Center in New York City. Japan at
least pays for the bill. I am not sure why I am asked, but I gather they want
to pick up ideas of American attitudes towards Southeast Asia.

How up and down the Israeli-Arab war is. I think now that Israel will
insist on the Sinai peninsula to safeguard both waterways, and will want all of
Jerusalem, I rather think they deserve them. One only hopes that the humiliation
will mean the end of Nasser, though it is hard to think whom the Arabs could
substitute for him as hero. But to have waged a holy war for so few and such
ignominious days!

Your letters of the 5th and 7th came today. There were none yesterday.
I think I shall insist that you take me once to the Glion hotel. It sounds just
my speed, and you and Elsie can come with Tigerli to bring me biscuits once a
month. In between crackers I shall rock. Elsie's new cupboard, however, might be
enough to tempt me to Kenwin again. It sounds like a dream. But what a pity to
have things one cannot enjoy. I think I myself would risk even an ines nick,
chiefly because I myself would be sure to nick it myself first. But I do under-
stand the importance of any cease-fire.

Yes, by all means the Chester Page should have his night at Kenwin.
Even I will not be jealous, or not too much so. Though Tigerli may think his
weight seems as comfortable as her own and take him bird-hunting in the garden.
Or even into Niehans' cellar.

Margery did seem to enjoy her new cups. I must be careful not to get
into mine with the Japanese tonight.

10 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

A pleasant quiet hot day at the office. Oddments all day, but a satisfaction to get them done with. Bit by bit the chores get done, though there are still the two talks for this coming Friday which are unprepared and I dread. But as always I prefer to get other things done first and then hot myself up more or less exclusively with those tasks in mind. Graduation comes Monday, and a number of final reports remain to be done.

Last night's dinner was interesting but I can't imagine what the Japanese diplomats learned from it. As usual one makes solemn preambles and then continues however the drinks flow. They flowed rather wide and deep, and it was lucky that the embassy chauffeur was there to drive them back to town. I left at eleven, but how long it went on I don't know. They were, I must say, interesting on China, where they say martial law has been universally declared. Of course there was much talk of war everywhere, and suddenly the First Secretary in the best Japanese form wrote a haiku in Japanese, which he then interpreted for me. I rather remember that it was addressed to me, though I am not sure why or in what connection. His translation was

Warriors do
many forms
assume
With fibre
supreme
always.

Maybe it was because I wasn't smoking.

Susan is off today to help out a garden club show suddenly lacking an entry in the invitation class. She worked on it while I dined. I haven't seen it but suppose I will tonight.

A letter has come from Max Barsis thanking for the copy of **Artemis** I sent him. He says he is putting it away for summer reading in the Dolomites and at Venice where he will be until Fall. He did not go to Switzerland at all, which is why you did not hear from him. Instead he went to Merano.

A letter also from Horace. "Thank you so much for the help you speak of to tide us over a much needed holiday for Marya--we'll talk of it when we meet. She needs a vacation from housework as I need Rusk to put me on my feet. During the day--except for the fact I can't walk--I fare pretty well. I blackout about 8:30 p.m. but perk up again after going to bed. I dearly hope the Rusk scheme works." Alas, I'm not overoptimistic, but if any help can come from it Horace will grab it. And deserves it.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

11 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

I suppose it is really checken-hearted of me, but I do not
dare send this to the palazzo after all of your warnings about Italian
mails. But I do hope at least some of my letters to you there will have
arrived during your visit, and the boys will forward whatever came too
late. I'm sorry however that the Pabst obit did not turn up in time for
me to send you for them also to see. This has been a day of odds and
ends and it did turn up amongst the things to be filed.

I still face the two talks for Friday, but on the whole my
desk looks remarkably clean, and I shall not impress anyone who stops in
tomorrow at graduation by seeming to be in the full fury. Appearances
are deceptive, but my desk top (not counting what is inside) would please
even tidy Elsie.

The weather has been above 90°F today, and I have been here
shirtless. If God had more properly endowed me I should like nothing better
than to be a nudist. Indeed of course I was brought up in the days when
sunbaths were medicinal rather than cosmetic, and I was tanned to the final
square inch when the summers were ended.

I forgot to say that when our new nextdoor neighbors came the
other night I satisfied any neighbor's curiosity by giving them a tour of
the house. In the study she was looking at the books (I think she is a
librarian, or was), and when she saw *Artemis* exclaimed with joy and asked
if I had read it. I said I had. She explained what an exciting book it
was, and that she and her daughters had read many other books by the same
writer. So I daresay when you come, we must ask you to stand in the window
so they can say they have seen you.

Four issues of *Adam* arrived, for which my thanks. I must say
they are never uninteresting, and at moments (especially their special issues) re-
mind me of L&L. Rerring at his best had more flare, but this man does get
around and obviously has the respect of very good writers. I see that he
publishes a volume of select essays by Natalie Barney (should we get?), and I
wonder if we didn't miss a trick by not getting him to publish Romaine's book.
He might well have done so. But as things are, it may be better to let the
matter lie. You will have seen Romaine and know the answer.

In going over Publishers' Weekly I find a few things announced
of possible interest, and include the clipping of the Elvish script, which seems
somewhat overcute to me. But I notice that in September there will be a new
translation of Colette's THE PURE AND THE IMPURE. You read her in French of
course, but the point might be the new introduction, "long" by Janet Flanner.
Please advise. Or you can see for yourself when you come over. Mine only to
keep you informed.

Then two s.f. which you may or may not have, but will be coming soon
in paperback. Leinster's MINERS IN THE SKY, and Heinlein STRANGERS IN A STRANGE
LAND. The latter is an oldster I know, but you may just have missed it, and PW
calls is "a very, very good science-fantasy."

My chief morning task was to write to Quayle. I daresay it is far
from the last word critically, and it does have these little whimsies about
finding it worse to be cruel to a mouse than to a man. But he did do an immense
amount of virgin's spade work, and given us something better than either the
Henty or the Kingston we have. Of course for me it had a particular fascination
as the voids became filled with data of one sort or another. I don't think I'd
like Ballantyne all that much, at least not in his god-fearing, god-serving
presbytereanism, but he certainly was a phenomenon. I was fascinated by the
fact that he painted oils and water colors professionally. Some day I must
run one down, if only they are small enough. I found it fascinating too to
think of him in Montreux. And I found equally fascinating the way in which
he insisted on dping what he wrote about. In this sense he was precisely like
Zola who went down mines and ran trains when they were relevant to his natural-
ism. Ballantyne and Zola sound oddly coupled, but they are.

About the manuscripts I will write tomorrow.

All love,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

12 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

They are graduated, and the masters and the doctors depart. There is a good deal of cleaning up still to be done, and the two talks to be given on Friday remain to be prepared. But the burden seems a little less all the same. It was frightfully hot, and I nearly wasilted away in the long procession that winds from one end of the campus down through the city Green and back on to the Old Campus again. But I was seated with the 200 mightiest on the platform under an awning and this part of it was not so bad. It was rather an impressive ceremony, and a number of the honorary degrees were very good ones (like that to Lorenz and a Chinese lady physicist), one was amusing (to Duke Ellington -- very much in the manner of the Queen's list for jockeys and the Beatles), one or two highly practical (like those to Paul Mellon and to Altschul), and one in the family so to speak (to Barbara Tuchman, the historian who happens to be a good friend to the President.) I rather liked the Ellington one, since I arranged for his first tour outside New York when I had him play at the Gardner High School senior dance. Everyone was wild about him, and the town hall rocked; everyone that is, except the principal of the high school who hadn't been told who was playing. He wouldn't have known even if I had told him.

After the ceremonies on the main campus I traipsed across to the Graduate School to sit more or less in the sun this time and watched the doctorates receive their degrees. Or, more grammatically, watched those who received their doctorates. By this time the ceremony seemed interminable, and indeed everything was too spun out. Still, we are done with it.

Your letters of the 7th and 9th arrived today. I fear one or two from the last of last week will not reach you in time and need forwarding to Switzerland by the boys. Somehow I had gathered you were planning to stay longer at the palazzo and leave towards the end of this week for Florence. Now I realise you will have gone down for only four days. But I know you will have felt the visit worthwhile, and the boys certainly will have been grateful to you for going. This is most intriguing about the faith healer (or hex) who forewarned Kenneth about his heart. But what do you think the great crisis can be? Not the heart, I gather, unless in terms of amour. Or did he seem to be closer to the Church. Or does one say The church. Do tell me every scrap of what both boys said, it has been so long since either of us has seen either of them. And will you have seen any of Islay's photographs? The flowers about La Vagnola sound marvelous. Elsie must have been in her special heaven, and I hope took her own centuries of snapshots. We will be eager to see them.

And how rough on Kenneth to have been "had" by his former lawyer. I had gathered that the Pollack was hoped to finance the trip around the world, and am sorry it had to be used this way. Did Islay seem at all interested in changing to Coigny. At first I thought he was; then he sounded less concerned.

Your trip down was most adventuresome; I hope the trip back was at least tranquil. And thank you so much for the set of Pro Patria. They will be set aside with great care.

I said in yesterday's letter I would write about the Quayle manuscripts. I really wanted to read the biography first. They are a mixed lot, not equalling in showpiece manner the ones we already have. But they are certainly interesting and important, and in some ways more useable even than those already in the collection. By which I mean that conceivably one could study the discarded chapters, or false beginnings and get a sense of how his mind worked when he was composing. Anyhow, I have written him asking a number of questions about whether payments could be booken up over a time schedule, asking about the disposition of his books, and asking also how much was still left in the daughter's possession. All th is will kill time, and I hope will not seem unbecoming on my part since it was he who originally suggested how fine it would be if the two collections could eventually be amalgamated. So think nothing more about Quayle until I have heard and gossipeddbackkand forth for a while. This is my chance to learn as much as possible about the general situation.

You spoke of Tigerli and the squirrel placidly looking at each other in the garden. Obviously they were setting an example to the Israelis and the Arabs.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

13 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

It hasn't rained today but has grown colder as the hours go on, and certainly if it were graduation day the mothers, and grandmothers and fathers would have shivered rather than sweated the festivities out. I began by going to the first of the lecture series on World War II revisited, of which I am to give the last, alas for the public and me. (At least I did begin reading for it; somehow I must manage it.) This was on Pearl Harbor and what the revisionist historians have said about it and the various idealogical stereotypes it evoked. The speaker really did very well indeed, spoke without reading the lecture and had it properly outlined, a virtue mine never do have.

The chief interruption was with a boy who had been given a diploma without actually fulfilling the requirements in a literal sense. One of undergraduate instructors had somewhat falsified the report, and was now leaving without having seen the promised essay. So off I took, gave the instructor a mild scolding (more than mild) but promised to shield him, got the advisor of the essay lined up and then summonsed the boy, who was still miraculously in town. So I guess all will be smoothed over in the end, all delivered as obligated too late, and the instructor is off for his holiday in Maine.

Not much happened to enliven the calendar otherwise. There was no letter from you. I went to the garage and fetched my car after its spring overhaul. They had not touched up the nicked spots as promised, so I made them do that while I wait. The steering rod needs more doing, as asked for, but I will have to take it back later for that. And so I hope the Oldsmobile will be neat and tidy and ready for you when you come in the Fall.

The seven-volume B & F arrived from New York as well as the two quartos. Also a B & F Capricious Lady, which I had had put in a four-dollar buckram binding. This is an adaptation by one D. Cooke, in 1783. Merely for the continuity. But the collection must be worthy of you.

I think often of you as having been with Romaine and Osbert. And long for detailed and relaxed news of the boys. Somehow I can't help but feel sorry for Kenneth having slay's mother there. Perhaps it makes for a change, but it must be inhibiting to him to have a mother-in-law around always. Somehow I had thought she was to stick at the nursing home.

All love,
Norman

14 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

I slipped out at four and went to the alumni lecture on
Eisenstein. Two curiosities: one to hear the man who for the first time
is giving an undergraduate course on the film (in the History of Art
Department), and since this man is such a friend of Jay Leyda I thought
it just might be possible he would show the film of Eisenstein clips
which I gave the money to the Museum of Modern Art to finance and then
to Leyda to have a copy to lecture in Europe on. I was wrong in the
latter guess, but enjoyed the lecture. Leyda by the way is settled in
East Germany at the film institute there.

I began the day by going to the lecture on the effects of
World War II on economics. The material was interesting to me, but I'm
afraid the audience found the delivery pretty dull. Still economists
are supposed to be music hall stars: that should be left to lecturers
on literature. If only I could have the talent for a music hall.

The rest of the day I have wishy-washed away; I shall have
to come back to the office tonight and begin actually to put the Friday
morning lecture together. The Friday evening one I will do after the
morning's one has been given.

Your letter of the 10th came this noon, and I was of course
delighted. I am wonderfully pleased, and envious, that you could have
seen Islay's photographs. They must be superb. And I am glad that his
mother is so miraculously better. Does this mean she will more or less
move in permanently. Perhaps she could become chatelaine? I had not
realised that the palazzo was so near Florence that one could make daily
trips. But certainly it was wiser for you to see Osbert by yourself.
Kenneth it would only disturb, and Elsie would have been unhappy to have
been left to see the Montegafoni gardens.

This is just a note. I must put in a formal appearance at
the President's house where he is giving a tea for those attending the
seminars. I shall put my nametag on my lapel and be counted in. Susan
cannot go since she is recovering an exhibit from a flower show. She
only shows by invitation these days, and then not always when asked.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN • CONN.

17 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

It is hard for me to believe it, but all my lectures for the year are over. I feel more or less "over" myself, but that hardly matters. I did not write yesterday, and I may not have written on Thursday being so overwhelmed by the preparation of the talk to the Alumni Seminars on "The War and the Writer" as the final lecture in the series on World War II. Revisited I spent a good deal of time in demonstrating that World Wars I & II were really the same war, and that this war still continued much as the Hundred Years War did. And used as a final example Joseph Heller's statement that when he wanted to write about what happened to him when he quit the faculty of Penn State rather than sign the loyalty oath he wanted a metaphor for it, and found it in World War II. No fighting against dictatorships any more or against the slaughter of the Jews, but the war as a reflection of a condition of living today. Not very profound certainly, but I must say I was embarrassed by the length of the applause at the end. They simply wouldn't stop, and I was caught in the snare of the microphone hung around my neck. But someone stepped out from the wings and undid it so I could leave the platform, and stop the noise.

That out of the way I had appointments for the rest of the morning and early afternoon, and then had to prepare a tribute to William Rose Benet for the 60th reunion of the Class of L907 Sheffield Scientific School of which he was an uncharacteristic member. They were all engineers, mining men, and the like, with their wives: at my table one man was blind, another deaf, the third deaf. Their wives though were alert and chipper. I had my own class reunion at the same time as their dinner, but I quit my own to dine with them, was preceded by a banjo group and then gave as good a tribute as I could. I was pleased when an obvious elderly clown who had been rather boring earlier at the table in his efforts to liven things up, came out to the door as I left, said he'd known Bill, that Bill was an oddball, that he (the clown) didn't go much for poetry and that sort of thing, but that he wanted me to know he thought it was a beautiful tribute and made him understand Bill for the first time. If any of the others felt the same way, I'm glad.

I hurried back to my own dinner in time to hear the last of the after-dinner talks. We have the Stephen Morrises staying with us over the class reunion weekend (he was one of my roommates, at least so-called), and I took him out for the sports day in Branford, at the Pine Orchard Club, left him to play tennis, came back to New Haven for an hour at the office so I could at least write you briefly after my silence.

There was no mail from you yesterday, but three today (12th, 13th, 14th). What a hectic trip you have had, sad in some senses but satisfying in many more. I am glad Osbert was better. I am even gladder that you went to see him. I will not try to comment on them now but wait until tomorrow after the guests have gone. Now I must drive back to the Club in Branford for lunch.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

18 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

This is merely a note, a contact. There turned out to be little
of the day left. I went back of course yesterday to the Country Club for a
pleasant afternoon in the sun at the edge of a swimming pool. One talked
with people one remembered slightly, the barriers of undergraduate days such
as they were seemed to have disappeared between everyone, but when all is said
and done life was not spectacularly enriched by any of the events of the reunion.
Perhaps it is enough simply to have been diverted. People were relaxed, it
is true; as some one said, classmates had either made good or not made good,
and had accepted their situations.

Morris and I took our wives to the festivaties in the evening,
which consisted chiefly of sitting pleasantly in the courtyard of one of the
colleges and talking and drinking (lightly). Then dinner in a rather hot
hall. Then back the courtyard until most of the class went marching off
behind Scottish bagpipers, and the Morrises and we went home.

They left in late morning, just as Weaver came to return the
painting by William Carlos Williams he had had photographed for his book.
He seems a fire of energy--one envies him--and I suspect he has dug up so
much that the now knows more about Williams than anyone else. I daresay
he now knws more than he needs or wants to know. But he has his job at
Exeter, is getting ready a book on Black Mountain College, and will no doubt
make a good thing of it all on his return. He leaves on Wednesday.

The morning being nearly gone I helped Susan move things in the
hot attic, and then finished a long task of de-framing photographs so the
photographs themselves would store more easily. This is part of the general
cleaning up after the various deaths and acquisitions. Photographs in frames
one doesn't want simply double the things one does want. But the photos one
can always accomodate. I shall give the frames to the Salvation Army to sell.

Then this afternoon I drove to the shore with Susan and deposited
a carload of orchids, and some pictures for the house. Lizzie was having a
huge, I mean huge, tennis party, and we could barely approach the house. I can
only say I am glad we had not moved down yet. Tonight I must move the big boxes
upstairs from the cellar and start packing books while Susan does silver. She
wants to be moved by the end of the week, and now that official college functions
are finished with there is no reason why we shouldn't. I have my New Jersey trip
tomorrow and Tuesday, so she can proceed without distraction.

19 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

It began raining lightly last night and continues today, and
will (they say) tomorrow. I began the day by going to the bank and borrowing
a little money to meet the check I gave the government to pay the current
installment of the income tax. I often do this, paying interest only up to
the end of the quarter from the time I borrowed it (5.50 for 3,000 which has
meanwhile been earning more than that for the quarter it has been deposited.)
Then back to the office after a quick trip to the barber.

This afternoon I start out for the Bell Laboratories conference
on "Communications Technology in Society". It begins this evening at dinner
and runs through tomorrow. 40 people invited and their expenses paid. I'm
not sure why I was asked, except that the public relations officer of the
Bell telephone Laboratories used to work for Yale. I thought it might be
a good way to get out of town for a couple of days after Commencement. It
might be interesting; I don't know.

One good by-product in any event will be the chance to stop in
at Horace's and have an hour's visit with him and Marya. I will discuss the
matter of her co-terminal vacation while he is in the hospital. She won't
take one if I don't pay for it-- it's not a matter of logic but mood--will
worry and fret which will worry and fret Horace; and if she doesn't have one
off now she may never again be able to. And she does deserve a chance to
get away from the house. She grumbles, but she has been completely loyal
to him and subordinated her own writing to his.

Your letters of the 14th and 16th were in this morning's mail.
The earlier ones had come with shorter accounts of your Florentine visits.
I am much relieved that Osbert is so comparatively well, though from older
standards he must be very frail indeed. His gratitude for your coming is,
I am sure, greater than you will recognize. I hope you manage something like
this with him and Romaine also, whenever you visit the boys. But I do believe,
what you thought of Osbert's companion. As for Romaine I was especially pleased
to have news of her and a description of her house in Fiesole. Yes, she was
dressed pretty much the same way when we saw her in Nice, except for the pants.
It is a little the Rosa Bonheur strain in lady artists; the American Harriet
Hosmer who sculpted in Rome when Hawthorne was there wore masculine garb and
was rather masculine. There was a good deal of active pairing then, and an
established tradition for Romaine to follow in her blows for freedom. As to
the abstract-disclosures, most art critics would call her drawings simplified
fantasies (as indeed they are since they came out of her dreams, so she said).
Any artist thinks in forms, which is the basis of composition. That is why
drawings seem more abstract than oils, no matter of what date.

I do wish Kenneth would consider coming to the States in the fall;
I think both Prutting and the change of scene would be good for him. And it may
well be that 'slay tends him too carefully; there is nothing so devastating as
solicitude. And I am not altogether sure that I quite approve of the mother-in-
law's presence, not because of her but her invalidism. It must make La Vaggola
seem a little like a nursing home. Beautiful though it must be.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

It seems comfortable to have you writing from Kenwin again. I
trust that the Tiger gave both you and Elsie a warm welcome; Ines I am sure
must have.

I probably didn't quite take in all aspects of Adam when you
first suggested it (or him). And I certainly had not realised they had
published 'atalie's book. If Flanner did a long article on Colette you
certainly don't need the new translation for its sake. I will see what I
can do about the two s-f paperbacks when they are published.

Don't "approve" of your verse? Not at all. Or did my unk
make me type "Voice"first. Not at all, your verse is a reflection of
your voice; and your prose is (as everyone says) a subsequently the finest
poetry. Once I quiet down I shall surprise you one Christmas or birthday
with a little volume of your plundered poems. So I especially thank you
for letting me have my book (in this poem) first. I was deeply moved by
it, sensing the flow of your feeling back through the verse, back behind
that to the dolphin, and behind the dolphin to Hilda, your Hilda and our
Hilda.

21 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

Back too late last night to write you. I was not through at the
conference until 4:15 and then had to be driven to the hotel to pick up my
car. The hotel had mislaid my keys so that it was five before I could leave,--
just the peak of the endhof the week traffic and it took me one hour of the
dreariest driving before I could even reach the Garden State Parkway to take
me north to the Tappansee Bridge across the Hudson. I had not realised
Morristown was so far inland and had planned to be home for a seven o'clock
dinner. Instead I phoned from the first roadhouse on the Connecticut Turnpike
and warned Susan to sit down. So did I to a horrible hamburger. Once home
I sat for a moment and then began packing the Elizabethans into cases to be
taken to the bank this morning for storage during the summer. I finished this
morning.

Horace phoned to tell me his latest plans for Marya. And they
seem sensible enough. He had, as I told you, dreamed (so he said) of her having
a full pension week at Stanhope, followed by two weeks at Atlantic City. Then
he spoke of a cruise, when I began to press them both into some kind of definite
planning Horace's hospitalization being only a fortnight away. Marya said she
must have someone plan for her, Horace wouldn't and Pat kept saying he would but
never got to it. Or maybe I suggested a week cruise; I can't remember, since
she wanted to rest and be by herself in the stateroom and not to have to go out
for meals. She wants to write, the child's book on the lives of the poets. I
did leave like a scolding uncle saying they must plan, and saying that I would
go to a travel agency here to find at least what would be available. When Horace
phoned, they themselves had been to the travel agency in the village--a much more
sensible procedure. She or he had suggested a three week cruise to Majorca, and
I gathered the Gregories had decided to pay whatever was necessary above the
additional $500.00 I offered Marya. It would please me if they did it this way,
for it would get me off the hook of conscience by which they and I would squirm
because the stateroom wasn't on A Deck, etc. And at least all expenses would be
taken care of en lump, and she need take only some for drinks, candy, postcards
and souvenirs.

Actually they both looked very well physically. But one senses how
confined life is. Horace, the nurse having gone, sits at the dining room table
and reads. Marya was upstairs, perhaps resting. I knocked but no one answered
or perhaps heard me. So finally I walked in. Horace is to go to a neuro-surgeon
for a three-day checkup, and if the surgeon recommends him he can then go to the
Rusk Clinic. "If" means if the doctor thinks there can be benefit. "I must, I
must be able to walk again," Horace said. Marya was good; she patted his arm and
said, "You will." Nor did she complain about her own lot, only that she hoped to
be able to write when Horace was hospitalized. "Then I can get another contract!"
The nice young nurse leaves this Thursday to join her parents. The papa is becoming
chaplain of Iona. I have agreed to pay the cost of an intervening nurse, or helper.
But this is only from 8 to 11 in the morning, and a highschool boy to put him to
bed at night. Horace has 175 pages of his memoirs done and has reached the University
of Wisconsin where he is doing a tribute to William Ellery Leonard. At the hospital
he is not to be allowed to work. Somehow everything is connected with group therapy,
a reason which kept Horace from going there before Gaylord. "It won't be fun,"
he said, and repeated, "but I must walk." If willpower can do it, Horace will fly.
Somehow I am not very optimistic.

2
NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON
231 HGS
YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN·CONN

Your two letters of the 18th came in today's mail, there was nothing
in yesterday's. Actually I think the second letter should have been dated on the
19th from the way it was cast. I wait until a further report before sending over
a copy of Left Hand, Right Hand from here. I have at least two sets of the mrmoirs,
more if you count both the British and American editions. The only books of
Hilda's I have given to Yale have been presentation copies to her. I don't think
LH, RH was. But I may be wrong. The rest of her library is in the other office.
Storing it presents a problem when I leave these three rooms, but I need to finish
my various reports before I try to cope. I am taking the two rooms in the tower,
for reasons of adjacency and economy, not really wanting to face finding parking
when I come in for committee meetings and the like. I shall also use my room in
the Library more, and move some of my filing cabinets there. I can store some
books and dead files in a locked room in the cellar. Not ideal but probably practical
in the long run. And the two rooms I am to have will let me eventually put a
part-time secretary in one of them.

What a good idea to let Elsie see her play, and give Hans the chance
also. I gather that he liked the Escale; he ought to.

I know how you feel about Hilda's verse and life. Fortunately there
should be some corner where she will not be forgotten, I having given her books to
the B.M., to libraries in Japan and in India as well as on the Continent. Which
is better than being in vault with no one to open it. But what a mess the world
is in; perhaps it will seem less mangling when I am less tired.

Susan wants to go to the shore by the weekend. Fortunately it has
been cold again and so rainy that no one could enjoy herself in an unheated house.
I cannot move to my new rooms until the beginning of August. Tho I shall make little
gestures of resettlement before that.

Much pleased to see how happy Silvia Dobson remains in California. Once
we have visited Gretchen Baker we must plan someday to take a quick run out to her.
As for your visit to the States, come when you can. We have counted on your being
in Ireland for at least a few days of our hoped-for October holiday. Silvia mistook
the photographer of the wave for Islay. It was not his photo. But Hilda loved it.

The new Lethbridge sounds like fun. I have just received the Moravian
book, and it looks very interesting indeed. Why not bring or let me bring Hilda's
Italian grammar. Charles Morgan has always been rather a mystery to me. I have
never really read him nor does he seem to attract me. Perhaps he seemed too Christian,
I don't know.

I have had the report to my letter from Quayle and enclose a photocopy
of his reply (do not return). I do not quite know how to proceed as from this
point. I fear that at this moment because of the allowances to the two girls,
the support of Horace (his check and Marya's are also due as of July 1st, without
anything back as yet from the lawyers) I can't manage the initial £2,500. I do
think if you wanted to do this part of it, I could swing the latter two payments.
I did not mention you as a part of the negotiation for obvious reasons, but if you
don't care about this (I feared the legend might hoist the pricetag) one could
simply have Coutts pay him a check as we did with Brimmell before, without saying
whose account it had been drawn for. For the later two payments, I could pay dollars
into your account and you pay pouns as now in order to get them out. In a way it
would be pleasant for the Ballantyne mss to remain in Scotland, and I should not

feel aggrieved simply to say no and let them go to Edinburg, home to Scotland one might say. But if you am to one could simply say the first payment would come after July 1st, or August 1st, or as indicated. I shall not reply to him at all until I have heard from you.

All love,

22 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

Your letter of the 20th arrived this morning; alas that you
should have waited for mail I couldn't write. Now however with both school
and speaches ended I should manage better. Excpt that I will not try to
write on Sunday while I am at the shore. At least I hope not to have to
come in to the office.

The weather really hasn't cleared, but Susan was resolved never-
theless to move to the shore today. And has. I must go there by way of
Goodrich Street and pack my toilet goods and take a pair of shoes along with
me. I'll do most of the moving on Sunday, I should think.

I am so sorry you haven't found Osbert's Volume One, but will
not send a duplicate from here until you give the word. I will check tonight
on my way to the shore and see if by any chance the original is here.

Poor Tiger. I really believe she is too fat ever to catch a
bird, though I daresay she sins in her mind daily.

As to the world one can only live as if oil can continue to come.
Indeed I am told the threatened Arab blackmail didn't really work as they had
expected. So keep on at Kenwin as long as you can, and when you can't then
come to us. Fortunately with Fides you will be able to operate at a distance
better than with Deney.

My own view of the Russian attitude towards the Arabs is that the
Russians were perfectly content to see the Arabs defeated and crippled, for
now they will be as completely in the Russian hands as Hungary or Poland or
any other part of the Russian Empire. With the Arabs really prostrate and
penniless, Nasser will have to be subservient if he wishes to exist politically
or even to exist. Russians will now take over the training of the troops,
with no nonsense about it. But the Soviet prefers to get their victories
this way rather than by war, and it will take some time for them to achieve
another peaceful conquest. Meanwhile you can keep on writing.

I do not find the Johnson grandchild a sufficient compensation
for the woes of the world.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

23 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

Torrential downpours during the night and this morning, and
having forgotten my rubbers at the house I had to drive by there to fetch
them on the way to the office. In mid-morning a young Japanese English
teacher from Kyoto came for the day--and until 4 when I took him to the
train the day was sacrificed to him. One would think the stream of tourists
would never cease, but three more Japanese come at the beginning of the week
for several days.

When I was at the house I checked on the Sitwells. Osbert's
presentation inscribed copy of Left Hand, Right Hand is here; so is the
similarly inscribed copy to you of The Scarlet Tree. I suspect you must
have shipped them over some time in the past for safety's sake. Would you
like them back?

Your letter of the 21st came this morning, and your "terribly
wet and cold" strikes a bell, though now it is frightfully muggy. Just as
well you put off Philip; I think he likes to wear girls like posies in his
lapel. But why should one stop and admire each one? Private lives should
be kept private. And one is certainly not in league against Vera.

I've checked, thinking I had Weaver's Cornish address. But I
have only one for Cambridge. You could write him c/o of Phyllis, I should
think.

What an absolute gem of a letter from Mary Renault. I had no
idea at all that she was such a professional nurse herself. And what a
training for a novelist, for nurses have seen and experienced almost everything.
The new Golding I have not read.

Drove for dinner to the shore last night, Susan having already
moved. We went next door where Lizzie is already settled until August 1st.
The Addisses were there with the new liver colored springer Lizzie gave to the
two children. He is a nicely bred and affectionate and obedient puppy. His
kennel name is Ascot Nemesis (why?), but little Susan heard the first name as
Oscar so Oscar he is. Actually I believe all dogs from this kennel must have
an A for the first name and a N for the second. The children alas go off tomorrow
to their father for a month. Justus firmly said two weeks was enough.

Must go by the house again and fill a basket with suits and shoes
to take to the shore. Moving is rather endless, unfortunately.

24 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

A poking day, at this and at that. Quite a bit accomplished amongst the tasks to be done in this last week of the month, but alas too much still remains. I began by going to the cookers and then to the opttrician to order some tinted glasses so I could read in the sun. Then for gasoline, and for the rest a hot seat at the office. But actually I do keep tidying up; eventually it will be done.

No letter from you but that is customary on a Saturday. I have written mostly formal letters, in addition to straightening out my small expense account and the records of this year's and next year's foreign students. Next year I believe t here are to be 17 of them, a handful for the new director.

A letter from Vincent Quinn who had written the first of the new batch of books on Hilda. It is being held up and the series, of which his is to #127 has just announced 112, so I daresay it will be some time yet,

I apologize for only today going back in your letters and ordering copies of Horace's D.R. for Pup, Dorthy Richards, Silvia and I did send to Aurelia. I ordered an expensive book on modern Italian architecture (by which I mean 18th and 19th century) which was written by a recently dead friend. It is supposed to be excellent and the only thing of its kind. I order it, that is, to be sent with my compliments to the Boys.

I see by the latest Library Gazette that Yale has bought a copy of the 1620 first quarto *Phylaster*. I'm sorry it couldn't have been offered us, though it is certainly in good hands. This is one of only seven known copies.

Our friend Mildred Brown sent me a copy of this year's booklet on the Friendship Sloop Races. They are rather fun, and it is by all means kind of her. Today's chief letter was from Marya who now dreams of a cruise on the S.S. Constitution, from July 7th to 27th. It comes to several hundred dollars more than the 500 I offered, but she says if it is too much she will take it out of her savings. But I think it is the answer, and she does deserve a reward, and she will have a small cabin to herself here she can write poems (she says), and have her meals taken care of. It is the last chance she will have. So I grit my teeth and will go Monday morning to the bank and take it out of my own savings account. We are now drawing to a close on the help anyhow, and this will please Horace as much as herself. The cruise stops in briefly at Portugal, Gibraltar, Majorca, Sardinia, Naples and Southern Italy, Rome, Italian and French Rivieras. She will go cabin class. Don't scold me for waving a rather grubby wand.

25 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

Exhausted by a Sunday spent at the office reading a manuscript of a history of the careers of Phi Beta Kappa members from Yale (I was not one, but this is a chore because of my membership on the Yale Historical Series Committee) I was about to go home (I have been here from 10 a.m. and it is now 5:30) without writing you. But just as I began to pack up God sent down a thunderstorm and deluge. I am coatless and dare not go out until the rain lessens. So you get an odd billet doux.

I have read nine chapters plus an Introduction and an explanation of method. It is the work of a retired member of the Yale staff, a labor of love (I should never have guessed that he was Phi Beta Kappa), and goes on and on. But it is the climax of his life, and I suppose with a re-write man and a scholar to check the facts, and a statistician to check the tables, a small edition might be made of it. Only I hope it needn't be in the series.

The only thing I gleaned of interest to you was the description of Dr Arthur Sutherland who dwells in the next marble hall to the Boys. He is described as chief of the neuro-psychiatric serve at Memorial Center for Cancer, in NYC; and Professor of Clinical Medicine at Cornell Medical School (a very important position), and head of psychiatric research at Sloan-Kettering Institute, in New York. Perhaps he has retired from all these, but you can have something to discuss when you are with him.

Do you wish me to send you the new biography of Burton, by Fawn Brodie? It is well reviewed, but I am not sure that either of us need to know more than we do. The last biography of him I bought was dreadful.

I shall get the Dwight Einsehower newest and sent to the Brigadier. People say it is better than his memoirs.

I rather like the story the New York Times tells of when Alfred Barr, Jr., their retiring curator, approached Gertrude Stein on the subject of leaving her collection to the Museum of Modern Art. "er reply was that she was not interested since "You can be a museum or you can be modern but you can't be both."

Robert Graves was rather pleasant on Masefield in the recent TLS. One would not have thought of putting the two together, but Masefield had been kind to him obviously. Presumably Graves wouldn't mind the Laureateship himself.

"A'lady" is selling the ms of a Ballantyne novel, the one on the Lightship, at Sotheby's in early July. Perhaps it is the daughter. I wonder what it will fetch.

I shall have to chance it, but will run under the wand of sending you my love,

Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

26 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

I seem to end my days in a bedraggled state. But at least
this morning I managed to finish the history of Yale Phi Beta Kappa
and pass it on to the next man, confer with Gallup at lunch, and go
over the papers of all visiting Fellows from abroad next year (17)
and see that their titles were in order, and then write a letter to
each of them announcing my successors.

Then, finally, just now, I wrote to the travel agency
enclosing my check for Marya's cruise, and wrote also to Marya to
say that this was a tribute to her genius. I'm so glad you agree
that a cruise is the answer. I am sure of it. So is Horace who
phoned this morning to say they would pay it all out of their
savings if I couldn't. Well it's odd how a patron can paint him-
self in a corner. As for Marya I suspect they are both luckier than
they are willing to admit. At least than she is. I enclose her
letter and a description of the cruise. Return sometime. If any-
thing should ever happen to Horace what would you think of mating
Marya and Jean Starr. They have a good deal in common.

How unreal Mollie Dobson's letter seems in contrast
to Marya's. It is hard to believe that people still exist who are
happy. The Dobsons should be sent everywhere to restore peace and
good will. They would go all the way to meet anyone.

Your letters of the 21st and 23rd came this morning, and of the
24th this afternoon. To make the day as splendid inside as it actually
was without. I am so sorry about Elizabeth. I suspect she tries for her
individuality by not playing the game by the normal rules. I only wonder
where they can find the right sort of school.

I am sure Osbert not only misses people but needs them--not
every moment, but sometimes. I am like that; so are you. # I still have a
date or two to settle before I can finalize Ireland. But I bought another
guide book to it today. Italy I suspect may be ought of the question
unless we skip London (and dusty diamonds) or Kenwin (and Coigny). # I wonder
what they did get for valentine this summer. I hope something. A pity he
can't work when he wants to. And needs to. # Sorry about bees coming in when
you type. When do you think you will dare try your new typewriter? # I must
try to re-read Osbert's autobiography next winter. There is so much I hope,
at last, to be able to do.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

27 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

What a divil of a day! After a series of errands I arrived at the office a little before 10. At 10:45 three Japanese professors arrived on a heralded four-day visit to discuss American Studies at Yale. One rather admires them. With limited English they have driven from Los Angeles up through the Northwest and then east. They were supposed to have arrived yesterday but their car broke down in Providence. They fall in my lap, without anyone else still here to catch them when I bounce. I answered questions patiently until noon, then took them to lunch and afterwards for a tour of the campus and city until 3:30 when I was due at the office to await the signal to go to the house and receive back the art objects that had been in Andover. It is now 5:15 and not even the promised telephone call has occurred. The truck had to go by way of Providence and then Guilford, with three or more stops in New Haven. And I am supposed to take a guest to the shore at 6 -- a Japanese professor who has been here all year but whom we have not yet entertained. He goes next week. It was arranged yesterday with the gallery that if he did not arrive before 5 he would telephone from wherever he is. The museum knew the house in town was closed.

So geht es.

No letter from you today, but two bundles of books came from Brimmell to remind me of you. Ballantyne's THE BIG OTTER 91887); Fen and others, THE SEASIDE STORY BOOK (c.1890); and a wonderful Fenn, WILD ANIMAL STORIES (which is a stand-up picture book); Kingston's AUSTRALIAN ADVENTURES (1885); and Mayne Reid's THE DEATH SHOT (1874) and THE BANDOLERO (1866). It gets harder to add diamonds, and these are not too finely cut but they add to the diadem. The most expensive was the stand-up juvenile.

I misinformed you in yesterday's letter. Mrs Sherman tells me my new number is 2731 HGS _not_ 2371 as I wrote you. But it doesn't matter. It will be put in the same box as 231 anyhow.

I have decided one way to get at least a little shelf space for books will be to give away a good many of my carefully hoarded magazine files. To the library, so they will be available to me if needed. That is, long runs of POETRY, of the Partisan review, of the Hudson Review, the Evergreen Review; the Quarterly Review. I will keep the highly professional ones I consult more frequently. Probably it will be a good thing for me to have to take stock, even though Death's breath is not hot on the back of my neck.

Two yellowbacks arrived yesterday which I read with pleasure last night. What a nice letter from Chris's father. He is genuinely grateful, and attractively worried. I do hope you and Elsie will manage to see them when you go to Copenhagen. # And what euqally genuine fun the Brigadier has with his new cars. I don't blame him, even though a new car doesn't have quite the

NORMAN

HOLMES

PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN • CONN

same magic totem for me as for him. They are his equivalents of Philip's
girl friends. I must say the Brigadier got a remarkably good price for
his trade-in; I hope Philip manages as well. # Interested in Margery's
letter about Judith Masefield, had never heard anyone referred to before
as a "scatty" lass. # I can imagine how Urzidel must have felt about the
Israeli-Arab encounter, and no doubt still does. I only hope the Israeli
hold their ground. I think they will, though obviously they took more
than they wanted in order to be able to give up some and still have a
better situation than before. # I was interested in Hope Muntz's letter.
You now have all the best historical novelists at the end of your lead
lines. Muntz, Sutcliffe and Renault. What a fine dog team you four make.
#Alan's letter seemed much subdued. Understandably and correctly. He is
beginning to define himself, which is difficult enough for any of us. # Had
never noticed in the Ash's letters before how she uses "as" for "have" and
"has." In speak of course, but not in writing. # Your Baddely writes nice
letters. I am glad his is developing into a real correspondence with you.
# Elizabeth Collins's canal trip sounds like great fun. When I was a student
in England I always wanted to take a trip like this, and have belonged to
the N.Y. State Canal Society for a number of years with a trip in mind. But
my time-table has never allowed. One wonderful one was scheduled when Susan
had her broken hip, and I rather yearned for a week's holiday from nursing.
But she did not want to be left. # I hope Pat's trip has gone well. He
writes a nice, rather young old-man's letter not unlike the manner of his
papa. One feels the literary quality dominant. # Wish the literary Schnack
would translate one of your books for a Swiss publisher, but I guess they don't
exist. # Mrs Pratt writes so lively a letter it is hard to think of her as an
older person. # And many thanks for the, I agree, remarkably stupid Brigid
Brophy on Moby-Dick etc. She simply repeats the cliches. One could take the
adverse comments better if they showed originality or independence of thought.
#And one was glad for the chance to observe how wide the net of the Arts
Council is spread. Now if Eric were the White whale I should join Ahab.

All love,

Norman

takes much better pictures, but is rather apt not to carry through on a project. It's not just being tied down by Kenneth, for Kenneth carries through. By which I mean Islay could do a book on the corners of Rome, or really could have carried out his Hadrian plan despite the fact some one else did a bit of it. Now however I must say I don't see how he could, what with mama and Kenneth. Unless he was to do a book just on the Palazzo, which might be fun.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

28 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

I waited for a phone call from the truck last night until almost a quarter to seven. Only silence, so having the Japanese guest who had been waiting since six I phoned a spot where other objects were to be left, found he had not yet gone there, asked them to get him to drop my things off, and went home with the guest. Later, I was phoned he did. The things for another friend, however, he took on to New York. But now I shall have to go to the country to pick up my stuff. Anyhow, the Japanese professor had a good time and we had planned a cold supper anyhow.

Today, except for an unexpected trip to Goodrich Street to take a curator who wanted to see The General Gold Sellek Silliman Highboy (he was heartbroken because it wasn't a Trumbull heirloom), I have poked away at my typewriter and chores. Gradually things do seem to get done, and after the end of the week I shall have only my annual report and the American Studies Newsletter to write.

Two letters came today, for which my thanks. Of the 25th and 26th, in the same mail. I'm glad you approve of the cruise for Marya. I only hope she'll permit herself to enjoy it. # I will hold Quayle off a little. I don't think he actually expects dollars or cares, since all his quotations to me have been in £s. I would simply say I was arranging to have him paid. Perhaps it is better to stick to the three payments, in order to put off the question of his selling the other material. Anyhow I await your instructions. # It was a nice note from the Muntz, but I am so glad you explained the Edith. I should otherwise have thought only of our Dame. By the way I see that the Salter book is being advertised. Have you seen it and should I order? It must be in print since there were blurbs quoted. # Of course bring Elsie. If she really wishes to see the Expo she will have to go on a tour in order to get accommodations there. We would be delighted to see her and have her in New Haven again, and I am sure Pup would also. She might also take in Washington, for the galleries and the like. But she will not easily be separated from you, I fear. I will buy the Brodie Burton, glance through and send on to you. I too am curious. Don't forget, you made a fan of me also.

A rather garbled letter in from Collins today. He now seems to mean not publication (luckily) but that people might be allowed to see the ms as in the archives in 20 rather than 25 years. He has jottings now, which accounts for the journal he described. Now wants to send off a copy to me. Perhaps it is just as well, and I can have xeroxed for you, or hold until you come over. He fears you may not (more accurately, "I do not know if she will") "agree with my version of Hilda." I was trying simply to get him to try to give his version straight.

I see that Islay's Roman rival, Roloff Beny is to have a new volume, *Japan in Color* out in September. He has already one on Greece, Egypt, and Roman Africa. And was commissioned by the Canadians to do one for their national anniversary. I met him with the Boys and Noel Coward with whom Beny was being cuddly. Beny I believe is a Canadian with a good deal of money, but takes his photography seriously and has drive to compensate for skill. At his best Islay

for overnight while she is en route to visit the widow of Cummings. Knight whom I used to know was a We-
who wrote novels and made money out of Lassie Come Home.

29 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

From ten on until after twelve I gave an audience to the three
Japanese professors, as answered questions about why Plimoth Plantation
was not spelled with a "y", what the connection was between the Vietnamese
War and racial difficulties in the South, who the best writers were,
and what did I think of Erskine Caldwell. Their English made me blink
until I could decide what the questions actually were. But in the end
they seemed pleased and took off to New York in their Japanese car which
desperately needed fixing. Trouble with the oil.

In the afternoon the first hour went to a man named Doyle from
New Zealand, a poet here for a year on a Visiting Fellowship. It was a little
too warm to talk easily about New Zealand poetry.

You speak of Israel. She has no intention I think of giving up
very much. Nor, really, does she, did she, expect any other country to help
her beyond the arms they had given in the past. She too wants to begin no
world-wide war. So she took more than she needed or wanted (Jerusalem is
a symbol she wanted perhaps; I am not sure of the actual Sinai Peninsula)
in order to give some up and retain better boundaries than she had before.
Bundamentally the Arabs are helpless except for the threats of shutting
off oil. Western Europe and the States, however, love dollars and the
wells that bring them. What a world it is. Now the Russians want to estab-
lish trade with South America and are angry at Castro for disturbing the
apple cart.

Halfway thru that paragraph I was interrupted, so forgive the
incohenrence. There was a sudden meeting on the Phi Beta Kappa manuscript,
which we voted to turn down for the series. I really could see no alter-
native, alas. Alas, too, it kept me from driving out to the country to pick
up the objets d'art back from Andover. I shall have to do that the first
thing tomorrow morning.

Your two letter of the 27th were in the midday mail. I shall see
that Sylva is sent a copy of Horace's book. She wasn't on the earlier list,
or at least I think not. I shall check. The Burton I shall simply buy. One
can toss if no good. I am not sure what new is to be said. He was a very
formidable man on any type of frontier. # The stamp I thank for, and combine
with another to bring this letter and my love to you. # I must say I sympathize
entirely with Marie Anne,; no reason for anyone to become a Bo-Peep. #As
for Quayle you are more than kind. I will write him a note over the weekend
simply to say one is trying to work out some arrangement and please to bide
time. # The Salter anecdote about you which you quoted sounds most unlikely.
You have wit but of a different type. This is as polished as finger nails.
# I forgot to say that young Susan got her divorce on Tuesday I believe. Or
so Lizzie says who went to testify. I daresay we will get the details this
weekend. Needless to say I am delighted.

Mus now run back to the shore since we have the widow of Erik Knight

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

30 June 1967

Dearest Fido,

This is my last letter as Chairman for I relinquish the post
presumably at midnight. Will you continue to care for me once I am reduced
in rank? That is what troubles my sleep!

It rained most of the night and drizzled all day, insufferably
muggy as a consequence. I have dripped in my office and especially at the
house where I went after lunch to meet the truck from the library. A few
shelves have been freed though not quite so many as I had hoped They filled
six library boxes with the magazines. Sometimes I wonder what I have saved
them all for. This of course does not include Close Up or L & L. Though
I may well decide to give a set of each to the Library simply to save me
the problem of making my own set available.

Mrs Sherman has gone with her husband to New Hampshire today so
I gave her half of her usual Christmas check as a summer send-off, since she
will not be my own secretary when she comes back to work on Wednesday. One
or two large jobs remain to be done, the Newsletter and my annual report.
Otherwise we are in better shape than usual. I am now just back at my desk
after fetching the car and lugging down to it four boxfuls of dusty diamonds.

Your letter of the 28th came. What a nuisance to have them cut
down on the post. This will really be a blow to us both. But here I seldom
get a letter delivered to me from you on a Saturday anyhow. # You speak of
the books and you did give me a statement now in the bank covering the
Elizabethans and, I thought, the others too. But perhaps not. I will check
when I go to the bank to see what it covers. It was an informal letter, saying
yes of course you had long since etc. #With the Salter book why not leave it
at Kenwin where, some year when I am there, I can read it. I should do no more,
whereas it just might be that Sachie or someone made reference to it and you
needed it for checking. In full, the story about you and the party sounds a
little over-polished, though it may be as Edith told it to the Salter. At
the parties of Edith's I went to, little, medium and big, no one ever read
poetry; and I seldom remember anyone being treated as guest of honor. In
that respect Edith was wisely democratic. # I have the same facade you do.
Or do I? We must check when you are next over.

I went back to the carbon of my letter to Roysce Smith order
Horace's book. Sywva was not on the list so I wrote him today to have one
sent to her. I am sure she will like it.

Last night's guest stayed up until one a.m., past bedtime by
far. Tonight we have to go to Lizzie's for dinner, always a bit of a strain
for me. But it will have been done.

All love

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

1 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

It is now nearly five in the afternoon but I have reserved my first letter as whilom chairman, whilom director of graduate studies to you. Not simply my first letter as whilom to you but my first to anyone. The morning went chiefly at the house. I had gone first to Woodbridge to pick up the five packets of art objects loaned to Andover, and then took them to the house with four boxes of books I had packed at the office a day or two ago and put in the car last night. Being at the house I began to pick up from yesterday's visit with the library truck, and somehow (a little as I had expected) found three more boxes worth of magazines which belonged with the others and which I packed. I moved a few books around, and begin the realise that a reshuffling is long since overdue. I found things I had mislaid and forgotten, or in truth could hardly say I knew or ever did know I have.

Once back at the office I picked up a stepladder in the hall, and climbing to the top in my sneakered feet I took down the collection of Burton which I think should now go back to Goodrich Street rather than take space on my office shelves of books I shall consult more.

After lunch I went to the Co-op where Roysce Smith was in a chatty mood. He tried to help me find the new Burton biography but anything they had bought had apparently been sold. So he went to his office where he had an advance sample copy which he said he hadn't planned to keep in any event, and gave it to me to give to you with his compliments. So I shall look at it over the weekend and post on to you. I bought one or two books for the grandchildren, and then came back to the office to read still another chapter of the dissertation I am supervising and then, now, will finish a book on Emily Dickinson so that I can thank Sister Bernetta who gave it to me before she left for Brunnenburg and the Pounds. It is well done, but what a blow to find the story lectured me by my undergraduate teacher untrue, though I am sure he got it from the best sources. Williams used to picture the White Nun of Amherst, as he called her (hot little thing who she was as she burned), being carried to her grave by Amherst students who had never seen her. The truth I like rather more. At her own request her coffin was carried by the men who worked on the place, the hired men we should have called them, who carried the coffin out the kitchen door and through the barn to the hearse. What brilliance she could get sometimes in her prose. "The lawn is full of south and the odors tangle, and I hear today for the first the river in the tree." Marianne never quite achieves that sparkle in her letters, but I think she must have been much affected in manner by Emily Dickinson's stance.

Yesterday and this morning were cold and wet. Poor Susan sighs for tennis and warmth. I hope the long weekend will be fair. I shall, perhaps, not come in tomorrow, and thus cannot write, preferring the machine I am used to. Monday Mrs Sherman will be off, and Tuesday is the 4th. Some day you must come across in time to shoot off a cracker with us. No letter from you today, but that is because of Saturday.

All love from your freeman,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

2 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

It being cloudy and chill and damp on this second day of
what most had looked forward to as a long weekend from Friday night through
Tuesday, I decided to come back into town this morning and work on books
at Goodrich Street. I must plan an immense amount of rearranging if I
am to keep the Dusty Diamonds there; it is like rearranging jams in a
kitchen closet, putting one jar first here and then there. And I can only
work a couple of hours without getting tired. And only a few minutes
without getting dirty.

Last night we simply ate, then walked to the mailbox for what
Susan had not collected that day, then read and so the day was ended.

There is not much in the papers except the resuming of firing
between Egypt and Israel. I simply do not believe that Israel began again,
but will believe anything about the Egyptians who live in a world of fantasy.
Israel is quite right in insisting on a local conference, for the one important thing for them is to be recognized. One almost wishes the Israel would
win so completely as to set up puppet governments which would recognize a
fact of life. Anyhow, the Arabs do have behind them that great champion of
national rights and previous borders-- Russia.

I forgot to tell you yesterday that when Donald Gallup had a
film made at Rogers' request for his book on benefactresses, he had two
extra prints made for me on the photo Carl Van Vechten took of you in the
early 30's. It is really a very good one, and I am glad to have it for the
archives.

Not much of a letter, but at least something for you to open.
Anyhow I like my surrogate for a talk in your library or office.

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 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

I can see a small spot of blue sky, the first since Saturday or Friday. Last night it rained over an inch; during Sunday it stopped the drizzle only long enough for the young children to follow their spider webs to a prize in the woods at the un-birthday party. It held off long enough for them to eat ice cream and cake. An unbirthday party is one for all of the grandchildren (except Susan's who were with their father), and was instituted because a few had summer birthdays with all cousins invited and a harvest of gifts in consequence. Now each child gets one.

Yesterday morning I worked at the house in the humidity, dripping so that in the end I stripped down, feeling not so much like Adam as like a naked God trying to bring some order but really still working in chaos. I am moving all gudie books from the upstairs hall to two cases in the cellar, and making room for books from the study to go up. I want, if I can to have the Henty's, Ballantynes, Fenns, and Kingstons in the Study, a treasury of dusty diamonds. Well, anyway for a year. They will be colorful, but furniture (I suppose) just as much as four feet of red books are, when ordered for the color scheme.

Young Susan spent the night with us and will be there again tonight. She was very pleased because she has been given a government fellowship that will pay her tuition next year plus $250.00 a month. This is a real boon both to her and to me. I shall keep up her allowance and let her build a little reserve against an emergency, but will not have to pay the $1,800 or more for her tuition. Since I will be getting only half pay next year when I am leave, this is a real help. She had the little Oscar along, a very agreeable and friendly little puppy, most anxious to please.

I phoned the Gregories this morning. Horace was off by ambulance this afternoon to the New York University Hospital for his examination to see if he can be recommended to the Rusk Clinic. The ambulance belongs to the county of Palisades and is free to all residents. Marya's voice seemed much fresher and more natural than for a long time. She seems to be very keen about the trip and I think there is no doubt but that it's a good thing. I paid the travel company directly so there could be no slipup thru delays on her part.

Three letters from you today, two for the 29th and one on the 30th. No, you are not to share the expenses of Marya's trip, except of course for the far more than sharing by making it possible in the first place for me to help her. (Indeed when I see the needs of the two girls and the Gregories I wonder what any of us would have done without you.) It's just possible that Marya actually might write at least some drafts of poems in her cabin. I couldn't, I know, but she has all the excitement of being alone for the first time in years. Alone, that is, without being lonely and without having housework to do. # I began last night to read the Burton which Roysce Smith gave you -- not very gallant of me to nibble first -- and I must say this is head and shoulders above anything I've read about him recently. She does seem to have made an effort to do research. It suddenly dawns on me why she has written the book.

She wrote on the Mormons and obviously crossed Burton's tracks that way. # What an incredible story about the photographer and the war graves. It could have been American! # And Ines. I am worried about this because some day I think she actually will go. One difficulty I think is that she really is lonely, and neither you nor Elsie in the best of patterns could do anything about this. Her not knowing about the Italian center is an example. She needs people of her own age group to chatter to, as she would do had she stayed in her village. Or indeed as she could do if she worked in a factory. I don't mean that she wants the factory but that her blood drives her towards others. Without having the solace of reading, she must always be alone. And this she fears. I think a psychiatrist would agree with me. # I must say I think it took an act of wizardry to drive you to the new typewriter. I was sorry to have been driven to such deviltry. But as Lethbridge and I both know one rises to the occasion, even when one has to rise on or with a wand. How clear and clean your letters are with the new machine. Your fears of not being able to cope were fortunately groundless. You should see the difference from my aesthetic distance. I should almost have thought it better not to invest the 40 shillings on the old 'un; and in any event a little dust never hurt a machine. I only cover when I am to be out of town for a spell. (that is, wizardry.) # Odd about finalise; the objection of course is to the habit of making verbs out of nouns. Which is said to be very American, but is actually a standard English practise. But Americans do have a habit of coining words to fit new needs. At the Bell Laboratories I found them using the verb "to miniaturize" in reference to making smaller and smaller transistors. I was given one about half the size of the head of a pin.

Do be careful at the station. I was highly aware of your warnings when I got on and off the day I Lausanne. # Glad Fides could help Joan with her account. I was delighted this morning to receive a check from W; and so could sit down and pay some bills. I shall have to watch it a little this winter because of the half pay, but was resolved to take my leave willy nilly. If I need to I can take from their cash reserve if and as the sale of the land at the shore goes thru.

You asked about the Reading. For once my files held up. On April
14 at 4:45 p.m. IN AID OF THE FRENCH IN GREAT BRITAIN FUND

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

5 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

I did not write yesterday. It was a beautiful day; the
two Susans played tennis in the morning, and I worked about the house
getting things ready for a family picnic, or picnic of families, as the
various sisters gathered on our lawn, bringing their own food and sharing
several grills. It was very pleasant and the puppy was in a special
heaven, racing to and fro and being admired and petted (but not fed).
I spent the afternoon reading the rest of the Burton, and liked it very
much indeed. The first modern biography to make an effort to dig into
the various records and collections of his remaining mss and correspondence.
Best of all she redefined those with whom he associated, and like most
women handled his sexual peccadillos with more easy frankness than men
can. I suspect that most women of intelligence regard men as necessary
but silly at times, and that in his sexual pride man is usually silliest.
It is not a perfect book but very much your worth reading. It will go
off today or tomorrow.

Surprisingly no letters from you in either of the first two
mails today, but perhaps one comes later. But let me finish the account of
the Reading. Aeolian Hall, Wed. 14 April, at 4.45. In Aid of the French in
Great Britain Fund. Patron: General de Gaulle. Chairman: the Marchioness
of Crew. Poet's Reading

Program
"God Save the King"
Address by the Chairman, D.L.Murray

The Poet Laureate, John Masefield, O.M.
A tribute to the late Laurence Binyon

The Poets will read Selections from their own works in the following order:--

Edmund Blunden
Gordon Bottomley
H.D.
T.S.Eliot
Wilfrid Gibson
John Masefield

Interval-of ten minutes

Walter De La Mare
V. Sackville-West
Edith Sitwell
Osbert Sitwell
W.J.Turner
Arthur Waley
Dorothy Wellesley (Lady Gerald Wellesley)

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

The furniture and decorations for the stage kindly lent by Messrs. H. Blairman
& Sons Ltd, Mallet & Son (Antiques Ltd.), and the Vigo Art Galleries. The
lectern lent by Messrs Maggs.

It really was a gathering. Each generation has the same backward
look, but I can't help remarking the obvious: that it would be impossible to
present so distinguished a group today. It was, in a strange sense, as though
the War came to give them an Indian Summer of vitality.

What fun it would have been to see it. I arrived in London a day
or two after; and I always remember phoning Hilda (though I was sick with the
flu) to say I was there, and her excited cry into the instrument-- "Have you
heard about the READING'" to greet me. In my daze I thought that Reading
had been destroyed like Coventry, made appropriate verbal gestures of sympathy,
but gradually came to understand what she was talking about since she kept
right on anyhow. This was, I think, the high spot of her life and it always
excited her to remember it. I daresay the other poets felt the same way.
There was a group of poets, and one belonged. There was the queen, and one
curtsied because one was respectable enough to be presented. I don't think
that there were Dames then, but this moment took the place. The public has
forgotten the Reading, but it was a significant moment in British literary
history, a moment when a poet was himself and contributed as such.

I shall be eager to read your account of it. Do you include
Dorothy Wellesley?

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

5 July (2nd letter)

Dearest Fido,

I find this change of life very distressing. I don't seem really to be able to settle down even to correspondence, and the Lord knows I have more than enough of that still to do. I kept wondering this morning why Mrs Sherman didn't make my coffee, or wanted to step into her office to give instructions, only to check myself with the realisation that she must do Professor Ahlstrom's work first. And he began energetically by a full morning's dictation.

But the noon's and early afternoon's delivery brought three letters from you, of the 1st, the 2nd, and the 3rd; and so at least I do not have to drive myself to answer them, especially since it will a little make up for no letter yesterday, or future Sundays when I am less likely to come in from the shore to the office.

As I think I wrote in correcting, my new address correctly will be 2731 Hall of Graduate Studies, and if you want to add the postal zone number it is, for Yale, 06520. That is:

New Haven
Conn. 06520
U.S.America.

Tell Elsie that in fact there is almost no watchworks now being made in America, all being done in Switzerland and shipped here; but what they do need in the States are Swiss watchmen who will come to the States to repair the watches that are sent from Switzerland. I think the Expo trip sounds magnificent and best of all if she should go out and return while you are Queen of the castle and stay behind with Ines. I think she would like the Expo very much indeed, and just possibly you might be able to arrange so that she could swing back with a day in New Haven and a day on Long Island and a day in New York.

I am so pleased that Marie Anne liked the new machine, especially because Susan said to tell you how much easier it is to read good firm letters from it rather than from your old retainer. Why can't I, some time when I am coming more or less directly to Switzerland bring her one as I did for you. It would be a simple matter indeed. And I was glad you discovered you did have an automatic ribbon reverse.

**Trawl** sounds interesting even tho no pioneer. One difficulty for a book like this is that nothing is really secret any more so one couldn't have the sense of bravado freedom the author of **My Secret Life** must have felt simply in putting it down on paper and then seeing it down on paper, all six copies. Burton, it appears, was a friend of the author.

Am not quite sure what specific restrictions are made for visits in the divorce. They are with the father now, and were to have gone for a month, but the two young ones find two weeks almost too long. I think these

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

situations will work themselves out. One difficulty is that the mother really seems to enjoy the freedom their absence gives. Not meanly I mean, but just not to have to focus one way always.

Sorry you noticed the Tibet book. This was to have been, will be, one of your birthday presents. Probably incredibly dull, but the first history of Tibet ever to have been written by a Tibetan. And gone over, so Needham says, by our protege himself.

You did see Jere Knight when you and Hilda and I were in the grammar school.

Denmark? Far better for Elsie to go and you to come.

Plymouth, with the i(?) Just the old spelling, as when my first American ancestor in the 1630's himself spelled the family name Pierson, Pearson, Peirson.

I hadn't realised that Chester was travelling with a friend. But couldn't you give them both my room? It has a French double bed in it, and perhaps the other boy is slender.

A nice letter from Islay, though I always shudder a little to full grown men who call their mothers Mummy. Or Mum, too, for that matter.

I don't blame Petrie in the slightest. It must be hell on the neighborhood to have La Kennedy there. Especially since they all stay not with a friend but in a leased house. She says she seeks privacy? Nonsense!

A good letter from Pup, and I am glad to have address and telephone number. And from Catha who did, as you say, seem incredibly better.

After writing you so wisely about making verbs out of nouns I came across an example this morning, in a petition for a national fellowship by a professor of English for whom I was asked to write a letter of recommedation. It is what makes one shudder until, perhaps eventually, one gets used to it. Now it is a horror. "Films or kinescopes cannot displace reading; but they can 'relevantize' it by incorporating it into the modern mode." I should strip him of his pips.

I enclose a copy of a letter from Rose in this morning's mail. You must know about it already, and I am not quite sure I have absorbed the whole story. But as to the letters what would you think if I suggested that it was appropriate for her to give them to you and they could stay quietly with your papers. Or of course she could give them to me and they could stay with mine. I do thank you for persuading her to save them. The Glikin will do a good sturdy job of research. Letters like this will come in usefully later, along with much that presumably might be uncovered in other archives. As with the book on Burton. If she gave them to you, they would be saved and she would be relieved of a burden on her conscience. For then she will not have withheld them from anyone.

6 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

How can I express my thanks and my excitement at this sunburst of dusty diamonds! I feel guilty and grateful. And there can be no doubt but that this gives a new dimension to the collection, not simply of Ballantyne but to the genre. It will not simply be in your honor but yours as the present claimant to the throne. What an incredible distance we have gone since you first led me by the nose to Henty, and those British mailsacks came brimful from Maggs. You are like Circe and have turned me into a pig bound in full leather. But what fun it is to wallow with you. The hairs of my moustache stand straight out in excitement. Isn't that what Housman said hairs should do in moments of ecstasy?

The Fourth began for me as a combination of Independence Day and my Father's birthday. Now it will be Ballantyne's Day as well.

No, or yes, I do begin to agree with you about the Danish trip. And whatever the great exhibition must be there seems to be little publicity about Brattahlid. I think they rather want to make it seem to have happened in the normal course of Danish foresight.

What fun it must have been to pick cherries. We have had none native so far, nor raspberries either. I crave especially the latter, my favorite fruit.

This has been rather a dreary day while I have tried to go over and make corrective suggestions for a long list of books on aspects of America that the cultural stations abroad want to put in for the nationals of the countries where they are. All this just after the government has disbanded the best of such collections, like the ones at London and Paris. The choices are so bad as given me: poetry seemed to focus on Edgar Lee Masters. No Hilda, no Cummings, no Stevens, not even Eliot and Pound. Painfully I go over the list for James Babb the emeritus librarian of Yale who was head of the committee for the library of the White House. He and an economic historian and a straight historian (no humanist at all) were to make the choices. I do my best but of course my suggestions will be ignored. Still, one does the best one can.

NORMAN

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

7 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

This is rushed and, alas, you will not have another from
me until Monday. I go back to the shore for lunch and then we set out
for Lenox, Massachusetts, to visit Stephanus Morris and his wife. (You
visited their house with me when we went to the Shakers.) This is the
season for the Tanglewood Festival of the Boston Symphony, and we will
hear Mozart tonight and again tomorrow, coming back in the early after-
noon of Sunday. It will be a little holiday, and it is just as well
not to be able to work on Sunday. But away from a typewriter I am
helpless.

The morning has been spent desperately trying to patch up
the list of books for Babb. The selection really was wretched, and when
I saw Morgan, the Colonial Historian, this morning he said the history
elections were so bad he simply sent them back with a couple of footnotes.
But I feel sorry for Babb and so do the best I can.

We had guests for dinner last night, who stayed rather late,
the weather being tolerable though coolish so we sat out on the porch
after dinner. Then there were the dishes to do, so it was late before
retiring.

I am still unbelieving about the Ballantynes. It is a little
staggering to think our collection will be so pre-eminent in this category.
Now if we can only build up the collection of printed works into a suitable
accompaniment! That will take patience and luck. But I repeat that I cannot
say how wonderful it is, properly relevantizing my thanks.

Have just had a telephone call from the lawyer in New York to
say that the first payment in return on Horace's bills has come in to them.
From the Teacher's something or other. Winnick said more was likely to
come from Blue Cross etc. They are still pursuing those. This check was
for $10,000. Althogether by now I must have spent close to $25,000 -- which
will suggest why I have sometimes been considerably strapped. It's hard to
say eactly how much, I may exaggerate, but it was over $18,000 when I turned
it over to the lawyers last September. I may have been a little mean, but I
suggested to Winnick that he send the check to me so that I can take it to
Horace and have him make it over to me. Otherwise it might get mislaid, or
misunderstood.

Yesterday's mail brought a nice letter from Marya, which I
enclose. Yellowback it eventually.

All love, and thanks

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

10 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

I did write you from Lenox, and posted it in New Haven this morning so as to make another post than this one will. But it was little more than a note; you must forgive me. The drive back was heavy with traffic and the weather was humid. But an hour at the shore and it began to be cool again. We had some tinned fish chowder and relaxed.

Today I began by concentrating on the library list which I finished only to find the meeting had been postponed. But my share is done as well as I can manage. Then I read another chapter of the ms of the dissertation on Elizabeth Stoddard, and the morning was gone. After lunch I finished checking all last year's graduate student grade sheets, the officially filed ones being askew. The official lists can now be corrected. That was accomplished. Then I went through two filing cabinets with Mrs Sherman and put things in their right order which had somehow been misfiled or misunderstood, and persuaded her to throw away bills of six or seven years ago in order to make room. So that too was done, and so is the day.

But best of all were five letters from you. The 5th, 6th, 7th(2), and the 8th: an absolute harvest. The drama of Elsie's holiday kept me spellbound, as I pondered the relevant stature of seeing a Canadian or an elephant. We should so much like to have had her come to see us in New Haven, but I honestly doubt that she will want to go anywhere without you. That is part of the status symbol too. Actually the matter of rooms at the Expo may be a serious problem, and they say it is crowded though first class. or perhaps because it is first class.

Crowds are always a problem, as you and Coigny have discovered at Zurcher's. But how I should relish a Zurcherkuchen there with you both. You must raise your crumbs as a toast.

How sad about the American beatnik. I daresay I would have wanted to cuddle one if he teared. (I am giving you practise the verbing of nouns.)

I am glad Hope springs to your breast. I suspect that nice as her American girl is, Miss Muntz really is lonely for someone a little less scholarly and a little more British. In short she is lonely. Marianne on the other hand is hardly lonely; she is always being photographed now, her head akimbo, hatted and happy. She must tire but I doubt she has ever been so completely happy. And she deserves every bit of it.

I wrote about the Ballantyne ms, which I suspect may be offered by the daughter or at least some kin. In the catalogue itself it is described as being offered by a gentlewoman. No doubt the appearance of the book has something to do with the timing. Gallup will be at the sale to observe and report, and is to have seen Antony Rota and instructed him to go up to $500 in case there should be no interest. Otherwise we have enough mss for the moment and must be thrifty until Quayle comes up with his next lot. But I agree, young Maggs should have alerted either you or me, having all of the facts at his finger tips. He somehow doesn't realise that little sales lay the

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN, CONN.

ground for possible bigger ones. It is so completely stupid from a business
point of view.

So glad you are planning to keep op with the new typewriter. I doubt
you can realise how much neater an appearance your letters make with the new
typeface. As a matter of practicality I should not try to use up the new
ribbon on the old machine, but save it until there is a crisis. Otherwise
you will have the crisis and no fresh ribbon to fall back on. You remind me
of Emerson's aunt who thought it such a pity not to use her shroud that she
wore it always when she rode horseback, as a cloak. But then she always had
to have a fresh shroud on hand in case of an emergency; so she saved little.

I am sorry to have the news of the new admissions to the ground floor
privileges of the Sesame. No longer will there be a point to saying one must
not "cross one's bridge players until one comes to them." They will be there
at the entrance. It is really too bad and I am afraid begins to spell the
end. Perhaps they will have a members tea room on the upper floor. Or at
least permit one to have a pot of one's own.

I suspect you ordered your book on the climate only because of the
climate. I sympathize and stick inside my room close to the air conditioner.
You are ahead of me on the Boroff translation for it has not yet been put on
sale here. You were a favored. So glad the report of the Reading reached you.
I shall be eager to have your report on it. But dare one tell about Dorothy
Wellesley berating the Scottish washerwoman (Her Majesty)?

Marya's letter was an interesting parallel to the one I sent you.
I am sure it was the best thing in the world for her to have the cruise, and I
hope she is enjoying it. She may writhe at some aspects, but the whole will
please her. Or should I had my letter from the lawyers enclosing Horace's
check. It was from the teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and "is the
maximum benefit payable under their coverage. The lawyer, however, goes on to
say, "in addition we are still pursuing recovery from Blue Cross and Blue Shield,
as well as Medicare." -- To return to Marya's letter to you, I wish they didn't
somewhat overstate Patrick's prestige as a young editor. My impression is that
he is respected as such, liked very much as a person, but regarded as not likely
to pull out any plums. Nevertheless it is wonderful that they can really be
proud of him, as they should, and grateful to him as I hope they are.

Kenneth's letter seemed much more like his old self. I think your
visit was good for him, as was the doctor's favorable report. I only hope he
will push himself a little beyond the point of first exhaustion, so that in-
creasingly he can add to his strength. Capri, however, would have been madness.
It will be good for him too when Mummy vamooses.

I always keep my eye open for oddities among books, and rather like
a new and serious one: *Quipus and Witches' Knots: the Role of the Knot in
Primitive and Ancient Cultures*. What fun! If Lethbridge were better I should
have a copy sent him. Or do you think he'd like it anyway. The author is
a professor emeritus of English, who did a standard book on sailors' knots.
Or would you like you for birthday?

11 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

I leave in a few minutes for Hartford, West Hartford rather, for
a meeting of the program committee of the Mark Twain Memorial. Stupidly I said
I would be on the committee and altho I shall not go to later meetings I felt
obligated to attend the first one. The meeting is a two. A luncheon precedes
it at one but I said I could not make it. I will eat a hotdog en route, preferr-
ing that to a plate of jellied salad balanced on my knee, with the rest of the
girls.

There is nothing to report since I wrote last night, and of course
no new letter from you. Another scholar came this morning and I installed him
in my Hawthorne room at the library. I shall have to push them to one side
when I finally can begin work.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

12 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

No letter from you today either, or at least not before late

morning when I must set out for New London and a meeting to settle on the
New England American Studies Association meeting for the Fall. I am still
president of it, not having held any meeting at all last year because of my
rush; and am, as a result, full of guilt. The meeting's date is a chief reason
for not having settled finally on the dates of the trip to Ireland, for I
cannot slip out a second time from the duties of office.

Last night I went over the various folders of back records, tried
to put some order into them, drew up an agenda for today's meetings, typed these
all out this morning with copies for each of the four to be present, and now
am ready to take to the road again.

At least the sun begins to appear; yesterday was miserable drizzle
all day, and both days and nights have been intolerably humid.

The gesture of going to Hartford yesterday was rather futile. They
had announced the meeting for two, following the lunch. When I arrived promptly
at two, having had a hot dog at a Howard Johnson's (I was right: the lunch was
a jellied salad!) they had already held most of the meeting and were about to
sit down to eat. There seemed to be little order or decision in what had taken
place or continued to. But a gesture is a gesture is a gesture, and I have
gestured.

There being an hour left at the end of the afternoon I stopped at
the house and shifted a few more boxloads of books. The Sitwells are now safely
rehouses, behind glass to protect them; the Burtons are back from the office to
Goodrich Street, and I am gradually shifting most of my poetry down here so as
for once to have it together. Not yours or Hilda's of course, nor Horace's.
None of the collections as it were. But odd volumes, which have had authors
straddling the shelves from HGS to Goodrich Street. But I become increasingly
confused as to what I will do with all of them.

Now I must be off or I shall be late.

All love,

13 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

This is becoming an impossible life. I stay on, but
everyone else leaves for holidays. As a result I have to drop my
planned existence and concentrate on clearing up matters that have
to do with them instead of clearing up my own path. Still, I dare-
say it doesn't matter so long as I walk. Actually a good deal of
today, in addition to receiving a string of visitors, has been
dictating a string of letters before Mrs Sherman leaves tomorrow
evening on the first part of her summer vacation.

Three letters in from you but no time to answer, only
time to enjoy them. I could not rob myself of the latter. But I
can pass on one quail song to you, for in a note heard today he
writes: "A quick line to let you know that, on Mr Frerer's instruct-
ions, I have consigned the mss to you in the U.S.A. They are packed
in a stout wooden box, covered in brown paper, and, by the time this
letter reaches your hands, this should be lying at New Haven airport
ready for you to collect." I have heard nothing from the customs,
but daresay I will.

I poke the earth up in gratitude with my paw, and woof.
Who would have believed such dusty diamonds could be obtained. I'm
glad you took my down into the mines with you.

NORMAN

HOLMES

PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN • CONN

14 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

I should, I suppose, begin this letter in French with a salute to de Gaulle. But I celebrate, anyhow, in a sense, by beginning to write you in mid-afternoon rather than at the end of it. Mrs Sherman has too much dictation from my successor for me to use her; I spent a good part of the morning tossing away papers from the files, and that job is done at least in the dimensions planned thus far, and although I shall retire to Goodrich Street shortly to shift more books, I am freed for you.

Your letter of the 12th came today and raised the question I have been hesitant in asking you. That is, when you plan to come to the States. I am still not absolutely certain about the dates for Ireland, needing now to know the date of the Fall meeting of the Smithsonian Council. But it would look as though we would be away from here say from the 5th to the 26th or however the 21-day ticket best fitted. I of course had counted on your being in Ireland to explore a corner or two of it with us, and if we were to go to Italy (which would mean skipping Switzerland until Spring) it would be heavenly and a change in your visiting plans to have you with us when we visited the boys overnight. Not more than two nights at the most. Actually there is no reason you should not come to the States whenever you want to, since this year I have no beginning of a school year to accomodate myself to. If you want to spend a few days with Pup and the puplette, I rather fancy that things will become busier with her after Labor Day (Sept 4th), since she will be getting the children ready for returning to school. Labor Day weekend itself may also be a little too crowded with visitors for you to see the most of them, though it would not make very much difference to us at the Branford Shore. I would say the two dates that ought to be planned for are (a) the period you visit the Schaffners, and (b) the period in which you and I visit your friend in Halifax. I thought we could fly to Halifax, I could rent a car there for three or four days and we could explore Nova Scotia and that area in between visits. I think we should save the Nantucket visit for some time out of season. I will need to get reservations in Halifax. Better let me do that rather than ask our Gretchen. Remember this is all Loyalist country, and they might give me a bad room. I do through my travel agency. I gather Susan will stay here, and we can Gretchenize to our hearts' content.

To go on with this latest letter, I am chagrined at the loose roller. I must have jarred it in bringing it to you. Thank Nicholas for fixing it. #I know exactly what you mean about Elsie's flurry in preparation for Maitre Coigny's visit. I should think that only two professions could vie for the place of highest esteem in the Swiss consciousness: a clergyman and a lawyer-banker. I hyphenate the latter since Elsie's view of men who are "purely" bankers may have been recently jaundiced.

To go farther back. The 5th I think I spoke of, though I have not yet heard what Elsie finally decided about her ausflug. My own hunch is that she in the end will return to Mammary Hall. The 6th also was reported on. No word as yet about what the Ballantyne ms fetched at Sotheby's. Obviously I did not get it at a bargain, or Gallup would have cabled me. The 7th: the Burton has been some days on its way. I think you will like the new information about

2

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

his associates. She really dug up new material there. I wish I could see the Brigadier's new car; he must be as proud of it as Philip is of a new girl friend, both car and girl being bright and shiny with a high polish and new paint job.
# The U.N. keeps passing resolutions suggesting that the Israeli return to the old status quo so that the Russians can re-arm and the Arabs begin again. Some ballgame! I am glad the Israeli are hard of hearing. # I read again, sadly, about the "bridge members". This really will mean an open Sesame. # Glad that *Les Petroleuses* read well. Of the 8th: Like yourself I am still surprised that Maggs did not mention the Ballantyne, even to under the circumstances we hardly needed it. But then, neither did Rota. The last Maggs catalogue had little we didn't already have, although there was an earlier *Fairie Queene* he might have called to your attention. Interesting to compare prices: Maggs usually higher than the valuations given by Seven Gables (in one case his £750 as against Papantonio's $750) but occasionally lower. A tricky business. #I think I never completely answered your query about a complete set of ADAM. It is always a good thing to have, and I imagine complete runs are rather hard to come by. It is hardly essential, but buying a set would be the nicest way of helping out the owner. That is, by giving him the feeling that he earned the money rather than the feeling that a new way was opened. Of the 10th: Yes, Pierson is still common as a surname in England, Pearson less so but used. All of these come, as my family originally did, from the Lincolnshire old Norse parts where the --son was common in the Scandinavian way. Pier is of course simply Peter, as in Piers Plowman (Peter the Plowman; like John the Smith). So I am no different from Norman Peterson. #Ah, I am glad to look back, having almost forgotten Rose Odle's request. But these have been hectic weeks. I shall be lucky to finish my report. # You speak of wishing you might have put a "reserve price" on the Ballantyne ms. I think you must have had Doris in mind when she used to do such a thing in putting an item on sale. It means, when you own an item being put on sale, that you are willing to bid it in yourself (reserve the sale to yourself) unless it fetches below this figure. Then you pay the auction house their percentage of the reserve bid so they can be guaranteed a minimum fee for conducting the sale. What you would have done in this case was to put in a bid with a ceiling.

Of the 111th: I was interested in your account of Schachk's visit. Hilda knew her through me, and I got to know her thru (I think) the professor of English at Basle. She had longish correspondences with me about whatever it was she was translating--Sarah Orne Jewett, Faulkner chiefly, but a number of others. She visited at Yale once or twice when en route to her Canadian child. Became interested in Hilda and used to say she wanted to translate the poems but could find no publisher, is now rather past her physical prime I should gather. I hardly hear from her any more, but we really have nothing much to say to one another. # As to Romaine, I will see what I can find out. At 94 one is fearful not much can be done, but her 94 is of course remarkable indeed. She can well afford whatever the trip would cost. You can tell her I inquire.

An immense number of odds to go thru to tell you about, but I shall write again tomorrow. I finished the Dahlberg Letters and my confidence in his integrity was a little shaken. It is remarkable to see correspondences side by side in which he butters a man to his face and runs a knife up his back when he writes about him to others. And such a colossal ego really needs genius to sanctify it. One sympathizes with the man who wrote him, "Dahlberg, try not to be so unlucky."

The dishwasher at the shore finally gave up, and Susan became tearful when each washing covered the wooden floor of the kitchen with water. So a new one has been installed and, I am glad and grateful to say, paid for.

All love, Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

15 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

You have so many who address you as "dearest Fido" that I
am often tempted to protest and say, "But she's *my* Fido, "and address
you as My Fido in letters. But that would be possessive. One can do it
in French but not I imagine in English. Anyhow, dearest Fido or my Fido
I have been working like a dog too all day at my desk, the day being
rainy again so that even if there were no work to do I should not be
tempted out of doors. Does one ever get correspondence out of the way?
I mean you and I who are centers of whole networks of letter-writing.
I do hope, a little, that when my administrative correspondence drops,
and if I can get a part-time secretary who can take dictation on some
personal but not private matters (as yours once did) that I can manage
a little better. Anyhow the pile of answered mail stands high on my desk.
I am grateful for that even when avoiding the pile that still must be
written.

A chiefly important letter was to Quayle, for the first time
since the marriage of manuscripts was consummated. I of course had not
warned him of Philip's approach but he didn't seem to mind in the least.
I returned the letter from the Scottish National Museum, with the suggest-
ion that it might be worth considering whether the purely family Ballantyne
papers might not be allowed to go to Scotland. One still wonders if they
will raise a howl about this, in which case Quayle may be in trouble for
not having cleared a sale of mss about £50/-/-. But that should be his
worry. Anyhow we wait and see. The books will be the next objective but I
think he will want to hang on until his bibliography is out and defended
if necessary. I also wrote Philip whose letter came in almost the same post
as the Quail's, saying what he had done and enclosing a xerox copy of your
letter to him.

I also wrote to the stepson, an English professor at Haverford,
of John Cournos in answer to his willingness to let me see Cournos' annotated
copy of *Bid Me To Live*, saurrolous as he showed it to me in his last days.
I want to copy the notes so I can have answers to them against anyone later
who uses it. The stepson says he also has three letters from Hilda to John,
written 1916,1917,1918 "all rather wild and signed Hildushka." Most of her
letters to him, of which I have copies, were sold years ago to Harvard.

Your statement from the Co-op says you have a credit for $75.26,
which should be enough to carry you for some time.

A letter from Melitta says she is sending surface "a book of poems
by a young American living in Germany." It hasn't arrived of course, but was
I thought very nice of her. She obviously wants to resume contacts.

My visit to Connecticut College about the Fall meeting of the New
England American Studies Association went well, and the time was set for Nov.
11th. Since, as I recall, I have a speaking engagement on the 3rd of November
this will set a fèminal date for our trip. Now I have to find out when the
Smithsonian Council meeting comes, whether at the beginning or the end of October.

2

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

I managed too to see the exhibition of paintings and sculpture in the
collection of Sue Hilles, the wife of a colleague. A rather frightened
person with an inferiority complex, she eventually inherited an indeter-
minate but impressive amount of money and proceeded through art and
philanthropy to find herself. Find herself? Perhaps better climb up
on a pedestal where everyone must see her. But she is generous too,
and rewards those who put her on committees and make her a trustee.
And she is now well known, has an honorary degree and will have more,
a nd has given an art gallery to one, and a library to another, and
(sometimes I suspect) a headache to her friends.

I went also, since it was in the same building to an exhibition
of things related to Eugene O'Neill, since he was brought up in New London.
It brought back a great many memories -- of him but especially of my friend
his son, whose picture taken with his father was shown in a number of
examples. So was the old Coast Guard station at Provincetown which was given
to young Gene and to have been shared with me, except that it slid off
the dunes into the sea. There were a number of manuscripts shown, including
a series of poems written to a local girl whom O'Neill once sparked. He
was not meant to be Keats, if this bit written in 1915 is an example:

Just me n!you
Just you n'me,
Till life wake to
Eternity

Three yellowbacks have made their way since I last spoke of them.
I have fallen far behind in filing them, the boy proving absolutely no good.
I shall make it a special project, but don't stop sending them. How can I
be your *Cavalier* Servante in ignorance. Besides, by now they are my friends
too, even when they don't suspect it. # I must say any gold medal for being
adjusted should go to Lotte Reiniger. I admire her honestly. # Marya's letters
have indeed been tired. She won't quite permit herself to relax even off the
steppes, but one can't blame her. It's only that sometimes one's ears want
other than gloom. I wonder how her cruise is going. I do hope she has sun
and calm seas. # Joan continues to me amaze me, for I can never forget when
she was with us in Copenhagen, and would hardly eat without my coaxing. # Rosemary
sounded understandably discouraged, and her little whale hardly grinned at the
end. But how incredible that a line should have double booked a cabin. I
suspect they did this when the full fare to Australia came thru, but not to have
notified her!! And in this case especially. I could weep for her. # Kenneth's
letters become a little gayer, and the report must have bucked him out. I did
send along the book but haven't had time yet to write to say I did. The new
Isherwood volume hasn't at least so far appealed to me. The bite of the old
Berlin tales has given way to an older man's romantic tales of love. That they
are about homosexuals doesn't add any depth; in fact the spate of homosexual
novels has resulted in the a cornyness of sentiment that wouldn't be tolerated
in a heterosexual situation. # A very nice letter indeed from your Isobel
Hutchison. Oughtn't you, or rather wouldn't it be fun if you were to run up
to Scotland (fly I mean) and have tea with her? You could fly back the same
night and play bridge at the Sesame. You had a little cache from her. # Miss
Irwin in Capetown I would not suggest flying to. But I hope all goes well
there. # O.B. has sent me an announcement of his new show. I have owed him a
letter for too long. But I think he and Max understand. # Did you like Marie
Borroff's translation, and do you have all the suggested reading she lists at

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

16 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

One day is not very different from another: it rains and I work. Actually now, near the end of the Sunday afternoon, it seems to have stopped for the first time in four days. And one can, almost, see a patch of blue in the sky. Poor Susan is discouraged because she can neither play tennis, sit on the beach, or even weed the garden bed. I feel worse for the many who have only the week or fortnight in the year, pay for the shore and get nothing. As for me, the rain salves my conscience. For it would be healthful for me to be out in the sun if there were sun; as it is I can work quietly.

Work this morning meant lifting books and shifting them, some upstairs, some from upstairs into the basement, some from the first floor to the basement. At this stage I am not sure of my rationale, knowing only that somehow I have to make room. But I have kept your and Hilda's and my books together still in the study. A menage à trois I suppose, but a pleasant one for me to contemplate and have close at hand. Actually it is a very good thing to have to go over the books. Some had gotten out of place; others simply shoved in without rhyme or reason. And I shall try to put all my poetry books together for once, except when there are substantial collections of the works of anyone, as with Hilda or Horace or Marya.

I enclose a letter from Patrick which had been forwarded to the shore when I got home last night. I must phone him at the office tomorrow morning to get a report on Horace. Perhaps I can manage to get down to see him.

I went through the third yellowback last night, after we returned from an evening with the Footes--much talk about the Negro riots in Hartford and in Newark. "It is editorial writer for a Hartford newspaper. His son was there, who is with Bobby Kennedy in New York. Much heated argument between them as to whether something could or could not be done. The boy thinking nothing, the difficulty being too deep-rooted. But it is an appalling mess, for sure. #0.B.'s holiday sounds fun, but I detect a somewhat sober note. # I liked Mary Gough's quotation from the Israeli: "We can win a war without help, but we cannot possibly win a peace without help." # Miss Maishman's trip to Jugoslavia sounded fun too, I should like one day to see it. But there are so many other things that must be done first. # Barbara Jordan's nature letter was most interesting; I didn't think she had such control in her writing. She would make a good columnist. # Catha sounds tranquilized, but her analysis must really be sinking in to upset her so. You were wise to help her get help.

Now I run back to Goodrich Street for another hour of bookshifting.
I can work only so long without becoming tired.

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

17 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

One of yesterday's achievements, in which I took great pride, was packaging something for you, some xerox prints of my revised article on American Literature I did for the Encyclopedia and which is to be issued as a revised edition of my earlier book in Japan, the Brigadier's book, and some books for Texas, putting them nicely into the car to be posted on my way to work this morning. Once I started to roll I put on the radio, heard about the railroad strike, and that the postoffices would take only first-class mail. So I resolved to send yours by air -- sheer folly and waste--but otherwise it would not arrive before you had set on your raft to drift across the Atlantic to us. The package to Japan had to go airmail anyhow, and that to the Brigadier going less than 150 miles in this country (what is covered by mail trucks) they risked taking it much to my relief. The Texas bundles stay in the back of my car. What folly for us the rail strike is, and one fears it may close down the NYNH & Hartford permanently. Commuters in every big city are in a fix. Poor Susan will have to cancel her hairdressing appointment unless the strike is settled. But I daresay it will; I do have a sneaking sympathy with the strikers on the one basis that Congress has put off and put off doing anything at all for the last six months. They have to be shaken into action.

But your mails will go through and come through. Only newspapers, magazines, and other than first class mail will be halted. And of course all shipment by rail of goods.

We had young Susan and the children for dinner. They played parchesis with only a minimum of tears at losing. It is hard to learn how to lose; some never do. I am luckier since I seldom win. But important at any rate for the two young ones to practise sportsmanship. They were affectionately glad to be back. I had asked Justus what he had done on the Fourth with his Father. "Nothing!" he said scornfully," only Boston to look at architecture. That's his specialty. No fireworks, no fun, no nothing." I remember that Jim had him last winter in New York for Justus's birthday, and took him around all day while Jim did Jim's errands. "Not a single thing I wanted to do," was Justus's comment. At least there is consistency.

So far this morning have answered a letter from a Miss Joan Murray Simpson of London who had taken part in the Poetry Society reading in Hilda's honor; she wanted to use part V from Flowering in an anthology. And an airmail letter from Anthony Rota about the ballantyne sale. "Don Gallup kindly passed on your bid for the Ballantyne manuscript at Sotheby's yesterday. Your figure of $500.00 was well in line with past prices for this author and would probably have been sufficient had it not been for the intervention of the House of El Dieff. Feldman was very active at the sale and, as you probably know, once he gets started he is a hard man to stop. In the event, the lot was knocked down to him at £300. I think it is fairly certain that it will shortly end up in the collection at Austin [University of Texas, where Edith's things are, and Osbert's.]

Actually it didn't fetch as much as I thought it might, and Quayle's given evaluations are considerably above this. One got no individual bargains with the Quail; what counted was the en masse. I am not at all disappointed in

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

losing out on *The Lighthouse*. In bidding I simply wanted to show Rota that
my interest (ours) was genuine. ... At this stage I went down for the
noon mail, and found yours of the 13th in addition to those of the 13th which
were in the morning's mail. Also one from 'allup telling me about the Sotheby
sale. Apparently the Feldman bought everything, with Texas money.

Now as to the Page-boy, one simply does not -- at least my age group
and class does not -- bring along a guest unnanounced. If one is in a family
way (in his sense of a bedmate(I was right about that) one writes and says,
I find now that I will be travelling with a consort, or friend, and so it is
perhaps better for us to stay in the village of Montreux where surely I can
find some peasant or consul to put us up and if I might bring him with me
when I call, since he is such an admirer of your work, it would be wonderful
for both of us. Whereupon the hostess if so inclined replies, why of course
we have plenty of room and I couldn't think of you sleeping elsewhere and
we have a cosy double bed where you will be snug and can get warm and in the
morning since you both will be tired I know, Ines can bring you breakfast in
bed and you can pour for each other. OR, you write: how nice it will be to
see youand I shall be pleased to meet your consort and can't you stay for
dinner as well as tea? I think that Chester is a little naive or inexperienced
socially, and certainly ought not to be angry or affronted as he seems to be.
It is the letter of a very spoiled child. Even Philip does not ask his mistress
to be bedded down with him by you.

Was much amused by Philip's letter and his Christian-name excahnge with
the quail. The quail obviously is lonely and wants to belong, for he asked me
if he might not tutoyer me, and you will recall that he was frightfully put out
by mynot going to stay overnight with his wife and himself when I was last
in Great Britain. I dutifully signed myself Norman in writing to his Eric, but
have no intention of nesting.

A letter from Marianne in the noon mail (I have reached that point now,
even the afternoon mail in which there was nothing at all, thanks to the strike).
I do not mean Marianne, I mean Marya, and was confused because she says she sees
on the first-class list the name Miss Marianne Moore. Marya was to land the next
day at Portugal. She spoke of Horace's having to have an operation, so I have
just phoned Mat who says the idea was given up. Horace is still at the hospital
waiting for a free bed at the Rusk therapy center; they give him a little therapy
where he is. Neither Horace nor Pat had had a letter from Marya so I felt proud.
Will send it tomorrow after Susan has seen. She seemed to be enjoying herself.

Glad you had your visit from Maitre C. How fantastic to think of
the British legal and business people being dirty and unkempt. Oddly I was talking
at lunch three or four days ago with one of the 'ale treasurers and a professor,
the treasurer saying that Wall Street and investment people in general were saying
the spirit had gone out of their British opposite numbers, who simply didn't care
or have drive any more.

One has to admit that Mary Hotson takes things in her stride, and I can
imagine her singing Christmas carols as they wheeled her in to the anaesthetist.
You remember how when she broke her hip she and Leslie sang carols and madrigals
on the floor while they waited for the doctor?

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

I know how Rose must feel about the Glikkin. She comes from a species
of woodpeckers, but they so often in the end do get the worms. But the pecking
unnerves one.

I think you must have revelled in your freedom, and how nice to have
Ann Marie for dinner and especially for a Sunday Escale. I think of you always
as having Escaleted.

Actually it would be far easier for you to go direct from Idlewild to
the Schafnners than to try to go out from New York to them, or from here. I
mean easier for them and easier for you. It would cut hours off their time.
Indeed were you to go from here to them I should suggest your taking the
limousine from the Hotel Taft to Idlewild (at any selected station) where they
could pick you up). Coming here you could have them take you to anyhq at
Idlewild (Kennedy), where you simply phone the Connecticut Limousines Company
and they transport you to the Taft. On my one or two returns from meetings on
Long Island I use the limousines that way, being taken to Kennedy or met there.

The discovered wreck at Porthellick is really exciting. This is the
sort of discovery I adore, but it disgorges history fresh and complete.

Enough for the moment. I must hie to the Library. We have the two
grandchildren for overnight while the mother goes on a spree.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

17 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

The railroad strike was over this morning and trains rolled to New York as usual. So Susan will roll with one tomorrow and be able to curl her hair after all. As I thought, the Congress was forced into action, though I can hardly find my heart on the side of the strikers.

The children were very good last night. We played parchesi after dinner and fortunately Justus won. But equately fortunately made no great achievement out of his victory. Indeed I did refrain once or twice from pushing one of his men out. They slept well and I took them back on my way to work this morning, taking Justus on first to have his haircut. I think he will feel much coller now without his mane. But the day has been pvercast and chilly again, so God seems to be consistent.

Your letter of the 15th came in the morning mail, otherwise very slight. You are of course a hero with Tigerli. I fear you didn't actually purr her to sleep, and the choking is a revenge both on Elsie and yourself. Alas, I fear I never was a cat lover. Dogs are another thing! The little Oscar is a wriggling bundle of happiness with life.

Marie Anne's tutorials are doing as much as Elsie to make a good Swissburger of you, and I should imagine that Marie Anne takes you one step further up the intricate Swiss middle-class.

I am glad Petrie feels it best to get car and driver. It is really the only way. And would be fun if she could come a bit with us at one stage. But you will come for all, will you not?

I enclose Marya's letter. I spoke to Horace on the phone after writing you. He is impatient at having to wait for a bed at the Rusk, but they are giving him a little therapy at the hospital where he is, and I consoled him by reminding him of the fact that he was making it possible for Marya to have a holiday. Neither he nor Pat had heard from her, which surprised me a little. But perhaps deliveries are slow in the city. And as she forgot her address book her letters to both Pat and Horace might have been sent to Palisades where Pat was to go once a week to pick up the post. He says Pat is now consulted on all executive matters at Knopf and received a substantial increase in salary. If true this is splendid.

I may have to make my office move next week, and bring the dusty diamonds back to Goodrich Street this week. So I must hurry with my annual report. I keep putting it off, perhaps by a reluctance to give over completely. I shall have a new office but no desk. At least at first I fear.

19 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

No letter from you this morning, but since there was one
matter I forgot to discuss perhaps I had better start the day with it,
lest I forgot. This is the question of giving a car to Valentine. It
might indeed be a very nice thing to do, but I would suggest your not
mentioning it to Valentine before it was entirely cleared with his
parents. I believe one has to be 18 to have a license, and some parents
prefer that their children not have a car until they are at least in
college. Too dangerous for one thing, too expensive for another. If
he kept the car in New York the cost would be fabulous -- for storage
as well as insurance --; he could naturally not have it at school, so
it would be useful only for the occasional weekend in the country
unless he were to spend a summer holiday on Long Island, a thing I gather
Val would prefer not to do. I'm not saying these are cogent arguments,
but simply that they so involve his parents that all should be cleared
with them. I remember once when Lizzie's father offered to give her a
horse. We had to say no for good reasons, but the burden was all on us.

A group of three checks for the semi-annual royalty report
came in today's mail from Random House.

| Description | Amount |
| :--- | :--- |
| 233 copies sold of the paperback _Roman Wall_. | $34.08 |
| 156 copies of _Gate_ | 68.25 |
| 428 _Ruan_ | 175.33 |
| 301 _Beowulf_ | 392.91 |
| 325 _October_ | 363.19 |
| unspecified sale in English edition | 78.16 |
| 29 _Gandharan_ | 191.94 |
| 121 _Players Boy_ | 141.36 |
| 794 _Roman Wall_ (hard cover) | 1014.20 |

total royalties $2,454.42

Not bad at all for six months, especially since it does not include
the Harcourt sales. But how interesting it is that hardcover, more expensive
edition of _Roman Wall_ so much outsells the paperback. Yet I see the paperback
displayed in the Co-op.

A notice from the Eastern Airlines that the quail eggs have been
delivered to U.S.Customs in New Haven. I must go to the N.H. airport and pay
their bill to get the rebaI I need for customs. I will probably try to get
that out of the way after lunch.I may have to move the dusty diamonds back
to Goodrich Street this week, and next week must make the move to the Library
and the new room in HGS. Mail goes to the same little room downstairs in HGS;
I will keep the same mailbox anywau, so address doesn't really matter except
as you come to visit me.

20 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

Your two letters of the 16th and 17th were in yesterday afternoon's mail, but having written you in the morning -- as I am today--it seemed better in the few hours remaining to finish up the last chapter of the ms of the dissertation. Which I did and delivered back before going home.

I think of you always as of the 16th, and what it must have been like then and always afterwards, even though you let me share a corner of yourself and her during the years after the war. Some things come by chance, but you sought Hilda out as though led by fate.

The day on the lake to see Hilda for Ines was sheer genius! I scratch you under your ears in commendation. If she can somehow come to feel less like a prisoner -- not that anyone imprisons her but herself-- I think the Elsie relationship may in fact be a little eased. Even nuns play croquet, and Italian peasant women was clothes and chat. But Ines has only you once a week, and Tigerli to chase.

I am delighted to hear that Devison did well. I blush to say that I did not tell you that I finally had a letter from him some 10 days ago, in which he gave a list of dusty dimaonds he had tracked down in Cambridge and wondered if I lacked any of them. I haven't had time to reply as yet. # It was interesting to compare the letter from Marya to you with that she sent me, and I sent to you. Susan thinks she is lonely, my feeling was that she was enjoying herself. She does have the disadvantage of being an intellectual, although my own conversations with her are usually conducted on what I would call a non-intellectual level. My difficulty is that I cannot qualify as an intellectual, and therefore can usually find a considerable number of people who are interesting for the lives they lead and what they think and have done. And I find it rather fun at times to be among people who have never heard of poetry or criticism or me. # About Mervyn: is it Woodhall he is giving up or his two houses in Hastings? I could not be quite sure what you meant by "his" house. But if and Norah have found a smaller place than Woodhall which they like, they are wise to take it when they can. I should imagine his houses in Hastings were good investments, unless the rate are too high. # I gather that Jean Starr is unhappy at her sanitarium, but you plunged into it all in media res a few letters back, so I could not tell. Alas, it does not surprise me. Poor girl. She is one protegee of yours I leave to you. I cannot cope.

The Lethbridge Step in the Dark came in from Gulden in the mid-morning mail. My thanks. It looks like great fun. His books always are. It must be great really to be a wizard.

Yesterday's chief event was going to the airport to pay the bill there (clearance charges really), and then to the Customs to claim the quail eggs. There was no trouble with them; mss are not dutiable I gather; the official was the same one who sees the antiquities through; he saw the mss were of historical novels, and wanted to know who knew about pirates along the Connecticut shore,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

I forgot to take the inventory back with me to the shore at night and so
could not check, but will do so tonight before acknowledging them to him.
They really are of interest; Ballantyne revised his mss as he went along,
and although he was no Keats or Wordsworth, the revisions give an idea of
how his mind worked. And just might help to show what sort of moral or
historical image he wanted to project. The unpublished journal of the walking
tour to Edinburgh from London will interest you. He has crossed out long
passages, as for example on the pedestrian's peculiar reward of coming to
like mutton chops with potatoes. You will have to do a good deal of inter-
preting of nuances of mutton chops to me. In _The PrairieChief_, he revises
in this way:

> One of the peculiarities of Whitening was that he did
> as mere slaves or    creatures.
> not treat women ♀ inferior ♀

But best of all the goodies were those in an envelope inscribed "Bits and Pieces". They were just that.

One is headed

BE EARNEST

Title for a book. (To counteract the flippancy of men.) Cite
Red Indian Councils House of Commons.

Another:

HOW THINGS ARE MADE

Series of papers--describing manufacturers of all sorts of things--
especially queer out-of-the-way things.

Begin--

One morning I said to myself how are -------- made. I have a
habit of saying things to myself. & finding myself unable to reply, sometimes go
out to inquire, &c.

I especially liked:

Beginning of a story
(any story!)

It was night [from which it goes on for a page]

There are themes ⚫ for lectures and sermons. There are outlines for books to be
written:

Mem:

Child's book

Cap I. Tom Trueheart & his Dog

II Kitty Kindface and her pet

III Barrington Bravelad &

IV Peter Pushwell &

V Frank Funnydog &

and it goes on with chapters to Fairy Faithful, George Badboy, and Fred Falsefellow.
"N.B. " Ballantyne writes, "Each will tell his own story." But we don't even know
what young Bravelad had, nor Pushwell, nor Funnyday; and perhaps Faithful, and Badboy
and Falsefellow had nothing at all.

We will love 85 be collaborators - All love, Common

the are transcribed byCYRANO
and - Nig by cyrano.

NORMAN

HOLMES

PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN·CONN

21 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

Perdita is out, so I shall have to call again after lunch to discuss her preferences for your visit. I have spoken with Dr Prutting on the phone (he sends you greetings) and he will be in the office daily after Labor Day and so can see you at any time. Indeed he says he plans to spend a good deal of August in his office and I gathered would be willing to arrange to see you then if you should want to come over on about the 20th and avoid the Labor Day early September return traffic from Europe. He is arranging a symposium for October and is working on that, his reason he says for coming in.

I asked him about Romaine. He says there are a good many medications for keeping blood pressure down on elderly cases, although he believes in keeping it a little high since they need some elevations in pressure to function properly. It is usual to treat such cases as Romaine's by non-operative means, especially if there is only a small break in the vein (with no detachment involved), absorption being the usual result except for massive breaking of the vein. This is a slow process of course. This is about all he could do, or I could find out locally, on the basis of the very slight medical history she has given you. Perhaps she can give more, and in any event Dr Prutting has it on your card to discuss the matter in August or September whenever you appear in his presence. In view of the slowness of recovery and the age of the patient, I should wonder if she could be happy here for the number of months involved. But it would be easy to make arrangements for her either in New Haven, New York, or Washington, as she might prefer.

We can discuss your Irish visit with us when you are here. You really did promise this one, you know. The length of our stay isn't really dependent on the 21-day ticket so much as the interval between conflicting commitments. If we were to go on to the Boys with you, it would be mid-October anyhow.

I loved your description of the Jehovah's witness and the Greek boy. But your pronunciation spellings mix up your grammar. You write, "Sects are dangerous," but surely you mean "Sex is dangerous." I wonder if the boy ever wishes to free himself, whether he will use a python? Your clipping was a triumph. But what a cad the man was to put a python in bed between them, no doubt boastfully thinking that in the dark she would think it was part of him. And what fraud would must have seemed to her when daylight came! I wouldn't do this either to a girl friend or boy friend.

Be sure to keep pythons away from Chester and his friend; I wouldn't recommend evehea garter snake. Why not hire the car to take them for a drive into the hills on their full day with you? I mean this seriously, and I think they might enjoy it as much as I always do.

Alas, I really am sorry for Jean Starr; and had hoped that this time she might find what she wants and probably needs. But it is true, the Kusnachts of the world have gone, and it would have been difficult to look out for Hilda in these years.

You had not told me about Rosemary's caravan, but I should think it a very good idea indeed. And you might tell her, if she wishes to be smart,

to manage to visit a historical spot or two on each trip, so that as a historical
novelist she can charge up the trip and the car too as a business expense. This
might make a substantial difference.

I haven't the slightest doubt but that chemicals in the water affect
the scalp and hence the hair that grows from the scalp. I believe this often
happens to people who swim a good deal in chemically treated indoor pools.

I perhaps didn't report that your two of the 8th were in yesterday
afternoon's mail, and of the 19th came this morning. I am glad Chester is after
all to be with you, but both Susan and I thought his letter was that of a spoiled
only child. The worst is that he probably doesn't know how gauche he was. Oh
well, why should we be silly. He's a nice person and devoted to you. That's
enough. They'll be interesting to watch.

At that stage I had to go to lunch, and then to the house to wait
for the movers to deliver the dusty diamonds to the house. They had packed them
yesterday, but took so long in doing so that there was no time left for transpor-
tation. In the usual fashion I waited at the house for almost an hour before
they arrived. They backed in thr truck and took the 35 packing cases full in,
some to the cellar and some to the first-floor study. I had them take an easy
chair to my new office plus a case of books, and then stayed on and unpacked the
Hentys and some of the Fenns. So now your books look across at your Henty. I
call it cozy.

I phoned, twice today, Pup but she was out both times. NOW I have after
that full stop called her again; fortunately she was in. She does very much hope
you can get over as of the 25th or so, the earlier the better as she says, because
they will have to spend a week in New York after Labor Day getting new blue suits
for the boys and clean shirts to take back to school. I spoke of your going
directly to her and she thought that would be splendid. I must say that if you're
thinking about crowded planes, you'll almost have to go about the 25th if you're
to get on at all. As of the 5th, 6th etc every college boy and girl in Europe will
be hurrying back to school in the States. You can start off your tests with Prutting
or be ready to plunge in just after Labor Day. You will naturally birthday with us;
we can picnic in the wilds.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

22 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

This has been a day solemnly spent at the office, writing
letters instead of the final report I must have finished by tomorrow
night. Or at least should. I obviously want to make it final. But
so much of yesterday and the day before went to shifting the 35 cases
of dusty dimaonds to Goodrich Street, that I haven't been able to con-
centrate as I should. And the movers tell me they plan to begin the
other moving tomorrow, so I have tidied up a bit for that. Actually
I took some of the empty cases which had held Henty and brought them
down for a separation of some things between my library room and the
two in the Graduate School tower. I am putting the filing cabinets
for you and Hilda in the Library, especially since I can work there
with things spread out. And I warn you; you will have to work too
for nothing has been filed since your last visit. I tried to get a
bursary student at work, but it was hopeless. He just dilly-dallied.

My chief letters so far were to Rose, at last, and to Quayle,
and to Kay Boyle who wanted some of McAlmon's poems from the 30's. I
could only list them and ask which she wanted. But she could have found
all this in Knoll's bibliographical checklist. I suggested to Rose that
she give the letters to you, as the best bet, or that she could if she
wanted give them directly to me. In this case I suggested not just yet
to Yale under restrictions, for they would be catalogued that way and
she would be besieged by requests for exceptions to the rule.

I have just phoned Horace, so as to make a report to you.
His room has been transferred, so it took a bit longer to get through.
He was restless because the new nurses didn't know what to do for him,
but pleased with the progress he is making in his physical therapy. He
has morning and afternoon sessions, is on the tilt table for balance and
is given what he calls violent exercises for arms and legs. My own hunch
is that he is better off in the hospital than with therapy-cum-psychiatry
at the Rusk. He was full of books he had been reading. Had not yet heard
from Marya, and I suggested that she might have sent to Palisades since she
had forgotten her address book. Patrick he thought went out last night and
evidently brought in, would have brought in, though Horace hadn't seen Pat today.
You and I must have been privileged.

Thursday night we went to some avant garde puppets (really actors
acting like puppets), one fine one derived from Noh, and others lively anti-
war expositions. Better anyhow, by far, than Viet Rock. Last night we had
a Valerian Lada-Mocarski and his wife for dinner. He is a retired broker
from New York; she does bookbinding of an elegant sort. He is the old Russian
type who used to send his dress shirts from ar saw to London for washing.
Tonight we go to a dinner for the jurors picking the best design for the
National Football Hall of Fame. My bust is not likely to be included.

NORMAN

HOLMES

PEARSON

231 HGS

YALE UNIVERSITY

NEW HAVEN·CONN

24 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

I did not write yesterday. I came in to the office but

worked from beginning to end on my annual report. (The double space
above is my affidavit.) I still have the first half to do; the
latter part, with statistics and data of one sort or another I did
manage to finish. I might have been able to go on with it this
morning, but when I arrived at 8:30 the movers were already here.
A half a dozen college boys have been busy all morning, and the
middle book cases in my own office have already been transferred.
But hardly a hole made so far; although by the end of the day, or

at that point I was interrupted by the patrol who, this
time, wanted to take something to the Library. So off I went and packed some
cases there for them to bring back. All the Martinelli material which
now goes into storage in the basement of HGS. The day has been like
the game of musical chairs. But it is a little sad, nevertheless, to
see my room in the midst of a strip tease. Shelf after shelf of books
disappear. There are great expanses of bare wall, a little blotched with
fading. Tomorrow morning they will move even my typewriter and table.
These will go to the Library for I expect to spend most of my time there.

Saturday night we went to the dinner party for the judges of
the new designs for the National Football Hall of Fame. The host was the
new dead of the architecture school, who has taken a rather ratty little
house, pulled out the insides, and made an unliveable showpiece from it.
By which I mean it is great fun to see and be in, but impossible for any-
one except a dedicated bachelor. An excellent dinner in the garden, and
a good talk, so we were glad we went. The winning design was chosen
yesterday, but so far there has been no announcement.

Your letters, apparently like mine, come in batches. There was
nothing in the first morning mail. At noon there were four: of the 20th,
21st(2) and 22nd. I am so sorry I did not wire you about Pup's idea of
dates. I made special effort to contact her and to write at once, so as
not to lose the weekend. Still, I am glad you went. A good plan to have
the discussion, and a good thing to get away for a bit. I think you need
to slip your leash occasionally, and wish you would invent more reasons
for going to Zurich. These excursions are safety valves, like Susan's
visits to New York.

I am glad you Niccholased to Bex. I hadn't realised he'd done
another book on Hannibal. Or is it a revised edition. It would be fun, if
you permitted, to visit there some time. I could take the baths while you
took the Beers.

It might, as you say, be well to clear up the copyright matter
for Close Up. Philip I imagine could take care of it for you. I do not
dare venture an opinion, because the magazine was British. Or perhaps

2

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

authors could. Since you are a member and one of their functions is to
render legal service and aid.

The Rota clipping was most interesting. I'm not sure I quite
know who Garvin is, and wonder if this is the great batch of archives
Rota sold when I saw him in Texas. He trades a good deal for them, so
is hardly an impartial commentator. Still, he is right; the British
have made no effort to keep these things even as gifts, and it is better
for the Americans to have done it than no one at all. Who would have
lifted a pen for D.R. in England?

Glad that Elsie is finally in Fides. I wish Islay would. Ruegg,
I think takes a personal interest without making it a purely personal
transaction. The Maitre is wise to go slowly with the USB, especially
with these tax difficulties which Beney got you into. Is there are
news through Marie Anne of the Beneyson?

The affair of the Gate was maddening. No wonder Tigleri ran
away, with Elsie's orderly world in such chaos! I hope you tell Tigerli's
analyst about this duality in her: dislike of conformity under normal
repressive circumstances, but retreat in fright once the norms are
threatened by others than herself.

Somehow the name Arundel del Ray sounds familiar, as though I
must have seen it once on a page. Once seen it could never be forgotten.
Hilda would have been in love with him forthwith.

These were good words about Alan from his tutor. He may really
have been properly jogged. I hope so.

If Elsie should Istambul, why doesn't she take a cruise on the
Black Sea. This must really be superb, and such a good time of the year
in which to do it. This would be better I think than the long drive with
the Goughs on their way back to England. Tiring with the pup.

Do not weep about missing transfer of Dusty Diamonds. At best
they can only be got on the shelves, with no particular order. We can then
alphabetize.

Many thanks for the stamps. They will be properly treasured.
Ingholt has just sent a copy of the latest Blackwell's catalogue, in which
Islay's and his Ghandaran book is advertised at £14/14/-. Just about twice
what it was before if ordered from the publisher. I shall send on to Schiffrin.
But he has tried hard, as both Kurt and Helen did, to get some English
house to take the sheets, or even some sheets. 'Tis a mad world, my masters.

I look up from my typewriter and the bare walls press in on me.

I feel like a crushed bug. I am ready for the hole made by Elsie Yalos

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

25 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

It is now 3:30 p.m. and at the rate the movers are going, I shall be lucky to finish even the briefest of letters before they seize this typewriter, table, and chair for the library. It is as I said, all very sad. But perhaps shake me down sufficiently so that I can begin a new life. I still have my report for the Yale president to be written, but I am convinced now that I haven't wanted to write it until I was out of the office. However there is an immense amount of shaking down to be done, and rearrangements, and filing. I dare say you will hurry away at the earliest possible date after your arrival, lest slave labor entrap you. When a slave like myself is liberated, his first action is to enslave others. So beware.

I read busily last the reports of former chairman and then at least some of my own. It is interesting how consistent the complaints have been, against the same shortcomings and handicaps for the whole twenty years. My final report of four years ago was almost identical with what I should write today, since the administration has faced up to none of the issues. I shall include a copy of it. A change in the order of my life will be hard to become adjusted to, but I haven't the energy to battle any longer on those particular issues. And I want to be free, to get Hawthorne out of the way, Hilda's affairs in shape. Perhaps to do a little writing of my own. I am almost old enough for my memoirs.

Once they have finished I'll make my tours of inspection, and then go to the house and dustify some more diamonds. I simply can't face going to either of the two new offices; one will be a mess, the other will have no desk.

Tonight we take Lizzie and an older woman friend of hers to Mory's for dinner; they have wanted to go for a long time, but the place has been closed earlier in July. Last night I simply read, and the humidity was oppressive. A little after 2 a.m. Susan woke and got up. "The air is funny," she said, "the sea is making noises and there is no wind." She looked and could discover no reason. She went back to bed and after a half hour got up again. But a half hour after that we had the most tremendous tropical storm, with high winds and a cascade of rain. I was much impressed, in retrospect, by her weather nose; though at the time I thought she really had only heard a woodchuck.

Your letter of the 23rd was in the noon mail. You too had had a storm, so we have shared again. Oh Bryher, how could you do such a thing as read French when everyone knows that respectable people read only German. I am a little shocked at you, I must say. And you bring an air of disrepute upon Kenwin. And I think it must be the French side of you that makes you take an occasional taxi when a self-respecting German-Swiss would never think of it. The two shillings put away at compound interest would, in fifty

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

years double. Not, mind you, that having four shanties instead of two would change things any. But you would have more, which is the important thing. "She has four shanties," people would whisper respectfully when you passed by on foot.

If Elsie does do Greece instead of the veldt or Turk ey, she really must by all means take a four or five day cruise of the islands. It is remarkably cheap and, as you know, gloriously rewarding. And don't let her stay at the Hilton in Athens. The Grande Bretagne or several hotels around Constitution Square are much more fun. From them one can walk anywhere, anytime. And if the Bretagne is a little more expensive, impress on Elsie what she can save in carfare or taxifare to the Acropolis. She must be sure to see the museum on the Acropolis (closed when you and I were last there), and the Schlemann gold at the National Museum (also closed on our visit). If she goes I will try to give her a list of decent restaurants to eat at. Each with character, and not lined with the gold of the bilked.

I am much pleased that you begin to put something aside for Martin's education. He might very well turn out to be one of the clever Swiss. In any event he ought to have the chance to find out! You are wonderful in letting people have that chance.

As I told you before don't worry about the printed addresses. I will still get my mail downstairs, and the number means nothing. Not like New York where if you are one digit off the letter is sent back as addressee unknown. Alas, after twenty years they do know me.

And so do you!
all love,

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

26 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

This is my first letter from my new room in the Library,
but it will be nothing more than the beginning of one (at least from
there), since the day is drawing to an end and I am about to be presented
to an Englishman and his wife who want to

.... Well he did come, what he wanted was to know about the
Jonathan Edwards edition and manuscripts, and so after giving him a reason-
able summary of the Edwardsian climate I had to go to the Graduate School
to fetch a Schafer who is at work on several of the volumes. That concluded
I walked a half mile to pick up my car which had been washed, stopped at my
old office to find who had phoned me during the day (I have no phone), and
then stopped back at the library room so that you could at least have an
envelope in the mail.

I did, at noon, yours of the 24th from Zurich, a little
swifter because you were near an airport. So sorry to hear about the
illness of Mme Escale. I was sorry, though in a different way, that you
had not seen the film of Marat-Sade. It was highly praised by the good
critics on this side. I did not find its toughness very tough, but was
much interested by it. I had not heard that Weiss had taken out his party
card. This may be part of the Vietnam syndrome. I suppose another part
is deGaule. But what a howl went up from the non-Quebec Canadians when,
being in Canada as the country's guest by their invitation for the Expo
he urged the French speaking part to separate and free themselves. The
man is preposterous.

After leaving the laundry with Heidi I went to Goodrich
Street and at least emptied the boxes of Diamonds I had marked for the
study. They are sadly out of alphabetical order, but perhaps you can help
me with that when you are over. I can bring some up from the downstairs
boxes to fill in a few holes; then I must worry how to shelve in the base-
ment. I took Susan and Lizzie and the latter's friend to see the HGS suite
before dinner at Mory's. It is reasonably neat, though hardly furnished so
far. But the shelves are double stacked with books, hardly a desirable
situation for a scholar. The first duty in my Library room was to unpack
some of the boxes and get things on the shelves here. This I have done,
and by the time you arrive this room at least should be reasonably present-
able. But it will take years for the new offices to fit me.

All love, newly mounted

been Job's daughter even when dressed like Polyhymnia.

You ask about hotels in Istanbul. We stayed at the Hilton, it
being so much easier to use the conveniences of a big hotel which can get tickets
for anything or arrange for one to go anywhere, and understand English when
you have a stomach ache or a bad cold (as Susan did). Our old hotel (yours
and mine) is too out of the way for a tourist like Elsie. I went inside,
they are re-doing it, the food or drink was not bad, but neither you nor I
would want it now. One must, as always taxi from the Istanbul Hilton, but
one has to wherever one goes. They arrange good bus and private car trips.
We much enjoyed our flight to Istanbul and Ephesus, one day altogether away
from Istanbul. As I forgot the name of the hotel we could not get into, where
all British stay or stayed. That too seems nice and would be the alternative.
But I vote for the Hilton.

As for the Grande Bretagne, I do like that better than anything
else; though the Georges VI next door is liked by many, and indeed any of the
nearby CIT hotels are more convenient than the Hilton. One can walk out
from the G_B or Constitution Square hotels to all the shops and most of the
theatres, and to the Acropolis as far as that is concerned. From the Hilton
nothing. But the Hilton's Greek restaurant is good and Elsie might well have
coffee on the roof. When all is settled that she actually is to go, I will
draw up a list of restaurants for her to sample. She must be brave and
get out. Warn her that one normally eats at ten, later if one is stylish,
and at nine if one shares the dining room with the children and nannies. One
simply plans the day differently, and does after-dinner reading before dinner.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

29 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

This has really been a relaxing day. Getting that annual
report to the president done is better than a blue sky. I have spent
my hours rearranging things on the shelves, going through endless keys
until I could unlock all seven filing cabinets in 511 (my library room),
running back over all of the historical documents I used for my report
and selecting the ones I wanted photocopied (I feel like a spy extracting
papers from the embassy safe), and putting all of the rest into neat piles
to be returned to my old office tomorrow. Mrs Sherman will be back and
can begin typing the report which is due Tuesday.

I really feel some confidence now in getting the filing cabinets
into some sort of proper shape, and really knowing what they contain. For
people do not interrupt me. The files of letters to you can eventually into
some decent order, and I am reminded that one task you have promised to do
while on this side is to go through Edith's letters to you and choose which
ones you want them to have to choose from in their turn.

A note on the Library 511 door told that my brother and his
daughter did come after all but at a quarter to six, and I had left for the
shore. They were sorry and I am sorry, but I couldn't have waited longer
because of the guests for dinner. As it was I drove through an absolute
cloudburst so heavy that it was almost impossible to see, and the water
was thrown up like blankets by the cars ahead.

I enclose a clipping from last night's paper to go with your
friend and his python. It doesn't say how heavy the animal trainer was
but I imagine that Stanislaus and he will make a good pair. It seems a
pity that the lion was both lame and belonged to the government of Poland.
The latter especially intrigues me.

Collins has sent me his script, or rather the first half of it.
There were several interesting points in it, but I get a little confused at
the chronology. He is not, he says, sending it to you, because I have promised
to. It seems more sensible now to hold it here until you arrive. There is
also a four page letter from Rose, more about the letters to her. She is now
having four copies made, one for you, one for me, one for her family etc. But
not for the Glikin against whom she enveighed. I suspect she is beginning to
feel her age, and why shouldn't she. So do I.

A note from Andre Schiffrin says he will certainly write Blackwell's.

You may remember that I was on an accreditation team for the University of Fairfield, and on it was a youngish professor of anthropology from a local college here in New Haven. I was fascinated to read on Thursday that his wife had gone to a summer class given by him, entered with a rifle and shot him with 20-30 pellets in his thigh. Perhaps she thought he wasn't a good lecturer. Or do you think he had a python?

I must make my getaway before they lock the building for the day.

homesick. It must be a fantastic change. A most interesting letter from Rose came in the yellowback. I
shall be curious to see her letters from Amabel. And I realise that she at heart still yearns for that
immense life of D.R. which I almost doubt could be written by anyone.

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

31 July 1967

Dearest Fido,

I did not come in to town yesterday. It was the first Sunday
in many months not spent at the office. Instead, once the weather cleared
a little--it had rained and was foggy in early morning--I began to weed the
grass, to make the lawn more presentable during your visit; and especially
to saw away dead branches from the trees, from the top of a stepladder,
and rip bullbriars and grapevinces for the trees they were choking. The
improvement should be noticeable if the size of the piles was any indication.
The piles were left for the caretaker to handle this morning.

This morning when I woke my thoughts were on other things. My
left eye felt odd, as though some sawdust had been deposited when I tried
being lumberman. But once I went to the American Studies office I phoned
my oculist who kindly squeezed me in between appointments and said I had
a be-germed gland in the eye. Inside I gather, and he ungently drew some
pus from it, instructed me to put hot compacts on my eye four times a day
(compresses I believe was the word he used) followed my some eye drops. I
am to see him Thursday again.

Susan thought you might enjoy the enclosed clipping.

Oddly, I had made a note to ask you to bring over the W. statement
when you came, but it was in this morning's mail, registered and innocently
stamped with only a eetrun street address on the back. They have been doing
a little shifting in order to play for a capital increase. I should like to
see it turn over the million mark. It is nearly there now. It actually
remained pretty static during the Beney years.

Your undated letter of the 7th arrived this morning, written just
after packing Elsie off to Zurich. I hope she managed about Istanbul. You
say you hope Dr Blum is not shocked by her going to Marat-Sade; I should doubt
it. What a pity you cannot see Annie Reich, but I can well believe it would be
almost impossible. I shall be anxious to know when the date of your arrival
is settled. Let me know too how long you want to stay at Pup's. They probably
will insist on over the weekend so that John can have a day with you too. Also
let me know whether you want an early date with Prutting so as to get the tests
out of the way. Jean Starr you can see, if you want to, in New York. Odd
that Chester P. should use "quite" for Venice. I agree, and "quite", like
"rather" have always been distatesful to me. I want to say, "make up your
mind, won't you?" They are weasel words. I had forgotten about your 21st
October date in London. All the more important I should think that you come
to Ireland. I should hate to miss you altogether, although of course we
will have just finished a visit.

I begin to settle in, although this morning was knocked about a
bit by my eye. I still need to get the extra bookshelves installed. And have
mislaid my appointments book, which is disasterous. But it must be somewhere.

Hilda's Italian grammar arrived this morning, for which my thanks.
Also a yellowback which I have read with great interest. Now at last I under-
stand that Whangarei is not Whangaroa, but young Williams still seems a good deal

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

1 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

My first letter of the month goes to you, indeed the second of anything. For my chief accomplishment was to deliver by hand my annual report to Woodbridge Hall. It was due by today, and my sense of shame was great to think it waited until the last minute. But a phone call when I was by chance at my old office startled me by questions thr answers to which would help another to write his report. My own kept straggling as I found, on proofreading, one plave where I had said what I didn't mean and on two others gave the past year when I meant the forthcoming. No one of course will read it anyhow. unless you want to when you are on this side.

As for my eye, I have been more or less faithfully using compresses and drops -- Susan drops the drops better than I myself can-- and I guess the infection is passing away; at any rate it is not so sharp as it was. I daresay I shall survive.

Two letters came from you today, a windfall. I was much interested in John Maggs' spurt of energy. Perhaps things go on that we don't realise. As for his catalogue I pounced on the two items thinking, ah! this will teach him. I suppose it might have. For he did not know that we got the Webster by exchange from Bapantonio, and we had the B & F by purchase from Maggs. # I liked both Islay and Kenneth's letters. What an extravaganza the Chalet Suisse must be now. And how expensive, but I believe they used to call these Follies. The Dusty Diamonds must, I think be ours (yours and mine). Rover may snarl a little about going to New York but I think his nose begins to quiver for a scent of Prutting. Islay's episode with UBS was astonishing. It might be worth relaying to Maitre Coigny.

I will not try to interfere with your plans for dates with Pup. We want you whenever and for as long as you can come. The only thing is that when I know what your dates are for Long island and New York I can begin to make arrangements for going to Grtechen Baker. In terms of our visit across, what with your going to London and wanting to have a little time to poke about in Ireland, including Dublin, I suspect we will end up by just doing Ireland and then roking across to London probably for a few days while you are there so we can have a Sesame tea together, and then home without rushing to Italy or the Suisse and crowding the boys or you.

Glad Elsie's plans continue to March. A group might be rather fun. One can grumble but as at Mammon there are usually two or three one likes. And Elsie is not a lone wolf by any means.

DeGaulle's cabinet I see backs up his emphasized desire to weaken the U.K. by splitting off Quebec from the rest of Canada. That would give France more power by proxy than she has had, and thus would permit a weakened England not to threaten as strengthened France. I really don't think he's batty, but only that, realising he hasn't much longer to go anyhow he's cross-dressing as Joan of Arc for the final scene.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

2 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

Yesterday there were your letter of the 29th plus an undated one; this afternoon yours of the 30th arrived, so I shall date the blank as the 28th. I was of course delighted that you liked the Burton; it had seemed to me one of those rare books written by someone who had done her research. # Chris's pupilak seems interesting; they do make modern ones of course, but there is a gaity of fancy that I like. I think the carvers have fun, and so of course will you. # Interested to hear that all seems well with Jacques B. I gather that Islay does not intend to change to Fides for counsel, but perhaps they will if they actually arrive for their September visit. # Wendy I know of, of course. I simply meant that the drive back from Istanbul would be a long one, and a hot one, for Elsie to take. # I was much interested in the chart for Canada, and will pass the account on to the Curator of Maps at the library. # Complete agreement between us on the use of red ribbons. They continue to make them, I gather, only for clerks who need to indicate deficit figures. I bought the extra wide carriage for yours, and the red was therefore ribboned. I should have gotten you others.

Much diddling on this side too as to copyright affairs and protection, but all to put us a little closer to the British in terms of your fifty years after death for everything rather than 28 years plus a 28 year renewal from the date of first publication. # Bryan's attitude towards books would be echoed by many agriculturalists on this side also. Some people simply don't read for pleasure, and it would hardly be his business as it is for you and me. Given free time Bryan would go off shooting. Given bad weather he would clean his guns.

How curious that Jean Starr did not like the Kronenhalle. Perhaps they did not serve her recipe for milk toast, but the restaurant is universally regarded as one of the best in Europe. I assure you that I shall not save money by eating elsewhere. I think that Job's daughter prefers more elegance; she is a Plantaganetsky in that respect.

I did not mention or thank you for the fine group of clippings of reviews of Miss Salter's life. If these are proper indications it must have come off fairly well. As a book, I mean, not as a true portrait.

Some publicity has been given to the nearby marriage of Lord Harewood and his protegee. In New Camaan which you may remember passing thru by train on the way to New York. The New Haven Register said:

> Justice of the Peace Allen Saaf was uncertain how to address Lord Harewood.

> "By all means, call me George," Harewood said."

The New York Times did not mention that democratic bit by the 17th in line, but it perhaps explains the Times's concluding sentence:

> "The bride and the groom were very friendly," Mr Saaf said. "I thought they would be so stuffy."

Noy very much accomplished this morning, although after leaving the wash with Mrs Heida I stopped by the cabinet maker to discuss his doing a corner chair for me to use at the desk in my new office. I happened to use an old one at Lenox and decided it would make sense to experiment with in a modern form. I am return next week for a prolonged discussion.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

3 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

I spent a good part of the afternoon waiting in my other office for the telephone man to come. He, naturally enough, didn't know where to put down the two units there which are to correspond with the one in my library laboratory. Finally he came; meanwhile I read your letters of the 31st and 1st which came together at noon.

Late yesterday I was called on by a professor from Dartmouth who wants to use the Hawthorne letters. I certainly must get them into print if ever I want any peace. But Jim Cox is a nice person, a good deal younger, I have known him from before, and we are taking him out to dinner tonight. He goes on Saturday south, but by then I may have settled down.

Of course I was disappointed to think you might have missed Marat Sade. My letter saying so was written after yours which said proudly that you and Joan were not going to see it, that it was more than you could take, and that a rough crowd went to the theater where it was showing. Scarcely had my letter gone off than your next one arrived saying proudly that you had changed your mind and gone. I'm glad you did.

De Gaulle? It seems quite clear now that he was never "carried away" by the reception he received but that he had planned to work it up precisely as he had carried it out.

The bad lunch at the Escale? I am horrified. Alas, a kitchen can run down so quickly, and then the customers run out.

A very good idea indeed to put the tiny library with C on it in your particular collection. You can make it stand for Childhood; Hilda would have thought it meant they were for Chevalier.

A yellowback came, filled mostly with my own returns. But unusually interesting ones from OB about his trip, Catha about the cousin you so generously helped and who did so well, Mervyn with the purchase of the new house (they still have three years as is), and Rosemary's ecstatic letter about her trailer.

I have begun reading about Ireland so as to have some better idea of what we should do. I think perhaps now 10-12 days in Ireland and the rest in London, which should overlap enough for a cup of tea and a watercress sandwich together.

Yesterday was in ideal day, but the climate reverts to its truly perverted nature, and today it has been raining. Poor Susan gets no tennis, and the grandchildren can hardly play out of doors. It affects me less, though I stupidly took no raincoat with me today and trudged thru drizzle to lunch at Mory's. Now it has stopped, fortunately, as I start back to the shore.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

4 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

Again it has been raining buckets, such a deluge that when I spoke on the phone with Susan this afternoon, to celebrate the installation at last of my office phone, she said the cess pools could hardly take off the accumulated water in the courtyard of the shore house. Each morning after I have prayed for your soul I ask for good weather during your visit.

The phone is an achievement. My number is an outside one, so I don't have to go through the university switchboard when I call New York, and can charge to myself instead of to Goodrich Street when it is a personal toll call. My inside-Yale phone will not have an extension at the library, so I will be safe from meddlers when I am at work. But the outside line rings both at 2731 and my laboratory so I can be wherever is indicated, or not be, and still answer the phone.

Yours of the 2nd arrived in the early afternoon mail. I really wait again until late to write in order to reply to the most recent communication in any day. Poor Elsie and her Tiger girl friend; sometimes I wonder if she doesn't wish Tigerli belonged to Rumania and could go home for visits.

I should love sometime to see the independence bonfires. I always remember those for midsummer in Norway just after the Liberation. Do the Swiss visit from bonfire to bonfire as the Scandinavians do?

The page boys are now with you. Please ask the Tiger to write me her candid report. But I daresay it will be rather fun. If Chester is as pleasantly plump as you describe him to be, I suspect too much sightseeing in the heat makes him "glow" (to use a Victorianism). This particular trip may be far more businesslike in its demands, as compared to voyages with the sailors. But once he is home again, he will begin to think about the next trip. I know, because I do.

I thought the enclosed might interest Elsie and yourself. How wonderfull it is to think that the 23rd draws near.

5 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

I thought today would be one of great achievement but altho
I have labored in the vineyard there have not been many grapes picked.
I admit however to having spent a considerable number of minutes in
checking W accounts so that I could understand a little better what was
being done. I could only applaud the results, and they took seriously
the objectives I outlined in my last visit. That having been done I
wrote Maitre Coigny I hope a little more intelligently, although I made
no effort at specific applause.

Almost all the time since then has been spent in writing
Marya and calming her fears by sending the midyear check. I had waited
until I heard from her, to be sure she was back. Horace is now in the
Rusk Therapy Center, and she seems to feel that he feels he is making
progress. Then I had heard from the New York lawyer saying that it was
now clear I must first pay Horace's surgeon before I could try to collect
(they had asked me not to do so, hoping the surgeon could be paid directly
by Medicare. So I sent him the $1,520 (fortunately the other insurance
return makes it possible to do this without pain or at least trauma) and
asked for the receipted bills in proper division as to before Medicare and
after Medicare. Then I had to search records for the lawyer only to find,
as I thought, that I had sent him the nurses' bills he wanted. And went
over the refusal of Medicare to pay for Horace's therapy, and the two
payments out of several they have actually made. On Monday I can have some
xerox copies made and the letters can go off.

I did a few other letters and first of the month bills, and
had hoped to write Rose and Collins. But I just can't face it. So I shall
go to Goodrich Street where I have not been for some days and try to make
the books a little more presentable against your arrival. I shall be anxious
to know your American plans for Long Island and New York so I can begin
arranging for the rest of your stay.

The morning was wretched again, but now in late afternoon there is
a suspicion of gray-blue in the sky. Perhaps tomorrow will be better. I shall
stay at the shore and weed. No mail of any kind today. How are the mighty
fallen!

My telephone has been выключado, and I have had my
first call from outside: "Hello, is this Neil?" Wrong number.
It is not listed, but if you want to call in daytime it is
203 (area code) 865-6534

A private line, having reaching to do with the York switchboard.
Our Branford number for Susan and evenings is

203 - 488-0237
You might just down against the 23rd et sub.

All love,
Norman

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

7 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

Well, I suppose it was a lucky thing, but it sho' did discombobulate the end of my afternoon. I had solemnly taken down the time of the reappointment with the podiatrist for 4 p.m. on the 8th, so at twenty minutes before 4 today I phoned to confirm, still not having found my engagement book. "You appointment is at 4 today," I was stearnly told. So out to the edge of town I swiftly sped, and arrived there in time to be serviced. But that has left nothing at this end, especially because afterwards I went a little farther out to Automobile Association to pick up material on halifax. Alas, I got there only at 5, just as the doors were being locked.

Yours of the 4th (two that is) came in the afternoon's mail
rather surprisingly since I had had nothing on aturday. Naturally I
shall be eager to hear of your love-in with Chester et Cie. I suspect
it will have been fun. And how sorry I am about Elsie's virus. It is
a bad time of the year, and the heat and the mug (surely mugginess must
be caused by a mug!) do get one down. And a little cross too if she
actually believes you ordered you to slave at the garden beds. Hardly.
But it is hard for her and will be also for Marie Anne's sister-in-law.
This was both mysterious and fortunate. # Dean and Tom and Ireland. I
have always thought it made sense, and I rather doubt that Bryan will
want to take over the farm. He will be a good two hands above that
after his school.

Ireland for us? Finally in desperation I phoned the Smith-
sonian this morning to find out when the October meeting was scheduled.
I had asked to be told as soon as possible because of Petrie and Eire.
The assistant in charge was on holiday until the end of the month, but
an assistant checked and found the meeting was set for the 23rd. I am
a little annoyed not to have been told, since now I can't go anyhow to
Washington. I shall confer with Susan and a calendar and then with the
travel people. I suspect it will be Ireland for a fortnight and then
England perhaps for a week with the hope of seeing you on the early stages
of the homage to Petrie. This will not push you at Kenwin as it otherwise
would, especially since you won't come to Ireland if we are there. It
would have been such fun but I understand how crowded for time you are,
and you will just have gotten back from the States.

I am pleased that Merwyn wants the bookcases; he will honor
them and fill them. I believe his move is to take place in two years
when his present leave is up.

Your letters came too late for me to call Pup. She is avail-
able only very early in the morning before beachtime and apparently occasion-
ally at noon when she comes home for lunch. The two smallest do seem to take
time. I will phone her tomorrow and then Prutting and the Stanhope.
Must dash now for the shore since it is after six.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

8 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

Early in the morning and there was nothing in the mail
from you, but having spent thus far on phone calls to Pup and then
Prutting and then the Stanhope, I might as well report. I thought too
that you might like to tuck this simpler schedule in your wallet or
lady's chamber, without thinking it necessary for your files here. I
am taking a carbon this time, so that I will know what I actually
said.

23 August: arrive 4 p.m. at Kennedy where Schaffners will meet you.
Expected time in customs one-half hour.

28 August: depart for New York City, with Mr John Schaffner as courier. Arrive at your convenience at Hotel Stanhope where room is reserved for you as of that night. Conveniently located across from the famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. Has good restaurant, baths are well spoken of.

29 August, 10 a.m. Appointment with Dr Prutting who will begin his famous series of tests. He is said to have thought up a number of new experiments for the 1967-68 season.

1 September, 3 p.m. Depart via NY, NH, & Hartford Railroad, from the Grand Central Station, for New Haven, Connecticut, arriving at 4:30 p.m. A small reception will be held at the station, followed by a brief interview by the Press. After photographs, the party will proceed by automobile to a secluded villa for a weekend of rest.

5 September. In New York City for result of tests of previous week. Time of appointment to be arranged at earlier period of treatment and testing. Also any re-servations at Hotel Stanhope, depending on Prutting's counsel.

7 or 8 September. Depart by air for Halifax Nova Scotia. Final plans for this can be made post prutting. Our office will contact Mrs Baker to find out her plans.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

9 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

Your letters of the 5th and 6th arrived yesterday noon after I had written you. Yours of the 3rd was in this noon's mail. It was excitingly official to have one of the newly addressed envelopes. But you must satisfy my Puritan thrift by using up the old ones first. I shall be using this paper for months at least, since I was forced to order it in large quantities and of every kind.

The hail storm at Cetona must have been devastating. The loss will be both real and psychological, both playing their roles. For if even a little profit came from the olives the palazzo could be considered an investment rather than a place setting. "We grow olives." And they have really put thought into it. I grieve for the gaawed greens.

The Collins reminiscences are put away as against your arrival. As to the Pound book of poems, this is a typescript of the Pound manuscript called "Hilda's Book" that was offered us many years ago for $500.00 by a man who wanted the money to buy a printing press to publish experimental books in London. It was a collection of Pound's early poems which he printed in handwriting as a birthday present for Hilda. She had given it away to her American girlfriend who was killed in an airraid. It then seemed too expensive even though Pound's earliest and the connection with Hilda (she rather wanted it back but didn't want to come out and say so directly). Rita put down a small binder but we let it go and Harvard bought the original. Somehow the Texas catalogue got all balled up and misrepresented the description on the typescript copy itself. For I saw it when I was in Texas. I wrote to correct them. They did not mention the correction in replying.

Joan will, I am sure, have no trouble that Fides cannot straighten out. But the numbered and Vaduz accounts seem a little more parlous in Swiss eyes all the time. And if Switzerland goes into the Common Market I understand they will be ruled out.

I am delighted the paige boys were pleasant. I suspect they must have been exhausted and grateful indeed for the rest. Chester is lucky to have a manager along: I daresay he is the practical one of the couple, with Chester chiefly responsible for music, poetry, teacups.

You will have had my letter about schedules and the like. I hope it is satisfactory. I really don't think you could have managed to get all in had you waited until after Labor Day. Especially since you will want some quiet time in Kenwin before going to London. Perdita says she is taking her vac in October and you may want to have her visit you before you Queenwood. Or of course she could come to you again after she has seen the Boys. Either way you will have little chance to breathe. Helen may want to come, and you will have your usual parade of vistors. Quite seriously it does seem to make sense this time for us to see you only in London if you have time during the period our stay overlaps.

I had intended phoning Pup about taking you from the airport directly to their new house, rather than to New York. She may of course very much want an evening with you to herself by going to New York, but it does seem doubling one's path unnecessarily. But I spent time taking the laundry to Heidi to be washed, and then going to the cabinet maker's to make plans for

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

231 HGS

a new desk chair I am having made. One in which I can sit more comfortably. A variation of a corner chair so that I can sit a little as on a saddle. It might be worth the effort.

No do not bother with any gifts for us. You are your own gift.
How could we have better.

My eye I am glad to say is completely healed, and the doctor said
there would be no scar. Apparently occasionally there is.

And no riot took place, though one of the race affairs in North
Hartford was triggered by leaders from New Haven. Well, not a riot exactly.
Just two bombs that exploded and set off a $200,000 fire.

I hope all is calm whilst you are with me.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

10 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

Your letter of the 6th was in the morning post. And I write
now so as to send this out by noon. I have just talked with Perdita on
the phone, and she says John will be there at Kennedy to take you directly
to Southampton. She will if she can arrange baby sitters. The misunder-
standing or confusion is really my fault I fear. She says the house is
three hours from Kennedy. I had thought an hour at most. However, and
all the same, one still is nearer their new house than when in New York
and the trip in town and the overnight unpacking will be saved. I reported
your otherwise schedule to her, so she knows about your departure on Monday
for the Stanhope.

Again a bad day, and last night it rained. But not, fortunately,
until after we had returned from the Country Squire where we went with the
Hoblizelles for dinner. At the shop where I bought the ébrooch for you to
give Rosemary, I found an unusual pair of earrings which she might think
were fun. You can take them as your gift to her.

Things have quieted down a bit race-riot-wise, and one hopes
that New Haven will be spared. So far as New York is concerned you cer-
tainly need not be scared. New Haven is rather a model city and one hopes
that is appreciated.

Such praise for Sachie's poetry probably has a double edge. To
please him and make amends, but also to cut Edith down. Osbert's prose is
such that one has never associated him with poetry. I like
Sachie's things, delicate and he writes with a fine ear, but never quite
strong enough for my liking.

Trust your meeting with Coigny went well. They do take care I
feel sure.

the Beinecke while the family irons out the share of the spoils to go to each. Actually the dispute is between Omar and Mary, Omar legally being the son and Mary not legally the daughter. Why not send all my love twice in the same way! All love, Romaine!

10 August 1967 (#2)

Dearest Fido,

Working away at my desk I have come to two yellowbacks, one today's and the other from day before yesterday. I shall not post this until my next but want to do whatever minor commenting seems appropriate before I put the yellowbacks in the pile of those whose innards are to be stuffed into the filing cabinets.

I ought especially to thank you for the clippings about the Garvin papers. These are what Rota sold when he was in Austin. One knows how the British scholars must feel, but why do they wait around until after the chestnuts have been taken by others. They have hands too. And actually they have dollars. The truth is, as you know, that the B.M. really is not much interested in modern mss, nor is the Bodlean or the others. I think it just possible that the new redbricks may be. But of course the U.S. government encourages this by making more generous laws for tax allowances because of gifts. This is deliberate on the part of the Americans.

Have not heard from you yet as to what Alan is doing, though I gather it takes longer for the exam marks to come in, and he is meanwhile on holiday.

A nice letter from Horace. I suppose Osbert may have been interiorly frail as a butterfly, but I am glad for the memoirs. Sorry that Horace got the impression that you and I had given the cruise to Marya together; this was certainly no time to involve you. But in a real sense of course the whole thing was made possible by your generosity to me. The main thing is that she got it.

I was pleased by an earlier letter from Islay to learn that a December trip to New York by the boys was a possibility. Islay obviously was sadly disappointed by not having his trip. It was a cruel blow to him.

I wonder if Judith Masefield _will_ ever let a ship model go. What a treasure it would be. But I suspect she quite correctly thinks it better not to do anything for the moment. People tend to act too quickly after a death.

I am reminded by Romaine's letter to remind you to speak to Prutting about her eye. I wrote you what he told me over the phone, and suppose you sent this along to Romaine. He expects you to raise the question and made a note on his pad in your dossier. You may want to get a fresh report, as much in detail as possible, from Romaine before you come over.

Jean Starr's letter was not quite so bad as you had led me to believe. I suspect one trouble was that not as much was made over her as she had expected. You know how to the person involved the entrance of a poet who speaks German is expected to prostrate the audience. She forgets how many patients at the clinic do speak German as a second language, and how many people write poetry. And how actually usual her personal ailments are. A Black Forest Spa might have been more fun for her. Though table manners are sometimes deplorable there too.

I was, as you were, much interested in the clipping about Martita's fire. I thought she and the good Captain had long since parted. But I gather not, since he was on hand "late last night."

Most grateful for the Salue Ezra Pound, My thanks. I will pass it on to Gallup for the Pound collection. His manuscripts are still in the basement of

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

11 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

Now don't blame me! I didn't design these infernal American
stamps. I only consider myself under the strictest moral obligation to
keep you and Elsie and the Brigadier (through you) supplied with the latest
philatelic fantasies.

A letter from you as of the 7th (misdated the 8th) came in the
late afternoon mail after I had written you and was on my way home. This
noon one of the 9th (marked second letter) arrived. I presume there are filters
which will trickle in over the weekend. But how dreadful that mine should
take five days or longer. Fortunately, for whatever reason, yours to me
come rapidly. So why not have your American letters sent to my care at HGS,
and I will see that you get at least in New York at the Stanhope.

I am glad I am not meeting you at the airport, for if you alight
tired and grumpy you might knife me with I.A.Richards' blade. I shall be
frightened even when we wrap it for despatch.

Much interested that I had anticipated your request for the
telephone numbers, even though your explanation preceded the arrival of the
request. We may have to go to Lizzie's for dinner on the 23rd, so why don't
you give a breakfast call the next morning, or wait until after nine and
try the office phone. The latter might be fun. # I had not known of Elsie's
disappointment about her trip until your note said that hope was springing up
again. October would be a remarkably pleasant month both for Turkey and Greece;
and, as you say, would give you a chance to do Ireland after the reunion. I
think you are right, people are still a little uneasy about the Egyptian cries
for revenge. How they expect to do better, or whether they actually believe
that the Israeli have been siting still while the Egyptians rearm is a mystery.
I don't actually believe that Russia wants a war there at the moment. Russia
doesn't want a stronger but a weaker Arab Republic, so weak that it can be
adopted.

I like sausissonner. We will.

No the Gregory bills must remain complicated in order to meet the
particular needs of particular companies. I fear it is all hopelessly complex
and will be glad when things are finally in order. But I fear also that it
will never end until both Horace and Marya's last chapters

Have been doing correspondence preliminary to your visit. The
confirmation came from the Stanhope for your visit, but they had it down as
into Thursday while I had said on the phone over Thursday because you would
need to be in town on Friday. So I have written again correcting the mistake.
Just as well to have these things ironed out in advance.

Also wrote Pokross asking for a report on the Fund and if by chance he
was to be in Boston after Labor Day. I thought we just might spend a night in Boston
or lunch with him and fly to Halifax from there.

Now will you look in your little address book and give me Gretchen Baker's

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

most recent address. I have not filed for so long that I would have to search
endlessly to find a letter from her. I will write her to inquire whether or
not she is to be there, and can put it simply that there might be a chance.
This keeps her hopes from rising too high at the thought of seeing you, and
lets there be an exchange if necessary. Nothing can be definitive until we
are signalled free by Prutting. But after Labor Day we should not have trouble
with reservations etc.

One glance bac in this letter. The point of the most recent diffi-
cultät of the bills is that up to 1 July 1966 only the insurance company could pay.
After July 1, Medicare was effective. So there must be separate bills before
the end of June and after the first of July.

A rare group of clippings from you. I had seen nothing of the Curragh
voyage of St. Brandan. I'm sure that Voyage to the West lies behind it. I must
get you a leather boat for your birthday.

Much interested in the bookkeeping of <u>Look</u>. I bought the Manchester
but never read it. I wonder how many actually did. For Stalin's daughter's memoirs
I shall depend on the daily N.Y. Times.

The letter from Dr Griffiths of Brasenose was pure science fiction. I
did enjoy that, especially the irony that his recommendation got a permit for his
student. God spare me from the social state; I am getting too old for its bind.
Seconds and thirds in the schools? Well, the Times (London) used to put one's
rating in one's obituary. At least they have given that up unless one won a first.

I beg to meet Miranda Marrow. Please.

And what a joyous revelation about the Victoria. You remember how the
"dear old Queen" became the "queer old Dean." Now we know that we had a "queer old
Queen." But what exquisite lust she had to do it with a nightingale!

Really, first the gamekeeper and now a nurse. I may turn out to be on
the censor's side after all.

Braemar
LODGE
*ON LAKE ELLENWOOD*
YARMOUTH COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA

12 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

I told you even the days of your visit seemed incomplete, since I had no letter to write you about my happiness in our being together. It was fun visiting Nova Scotia, as it has for so many others spots from the north of Hudson Bay to Istambul. Anyhow since I didn't write you from Deerfield, this paper will be an affidavit of our having been there. It was sad to put you on the train this morning, but good that we will meet again. Let me know when you set your date. I discover that yesterday I had made an appointment with a man from Austria for Tuesday afternoon. But perhaps I can shift it or come down for lunch on Wednesday instead. We will see.

Most of the day I have spent on my desk. But also putting Geniuses in order and sending it off to the New York lawyer with whom I spoke over the phone. I sent it special delivery with the pages indicated which are at stake. We will get at it, and we should have some sort of opinion before you leave. I do my best.

I was much amazed to have a long distance phone call from New York: a London Sunday Times reporter sent over here to dig up whatever they could about Kim Philby for what is hoped to be a four issue feature. We must alert someone in England to watch for copies, though this man promise to send me a set. Why I am not sure, for I double-talked as best I could. They had heard of me, of course, from Graham Greene's article for the Sunday Times several years ago. I said I had been in contact with him at the beginning, but that since he has gone, in our very small operation I had

Our Slogan—The Best in Rest and Recreation

2

naturally lost contact with him as his dealings were with men under me; and indeed I had never known him intimately and therefore had not tried to see him when he was in the British Embassy in Washington. No, I did not know if (as rumored) Philby had finally been at the very top, since I had left the service at the end of the war and had no contact with it afterwards. I was very jolly and affirmed what marvelous security the British had so that naturally although I had worked with them and the other allied services I never knew much of what went on. Did he run the agents? I shouldn't think so because at an HQ one really only read reports and analyzed them. Did I have suspicions? Heavens no, why should I, for he was supposed to be a good agent (if indeed he was one) and therefore I would only have known if he was incompetent. You will naturally not be quoted. Thank you, I hope not.

But what a bolt out of the past. And not really Proustian for I had no chance to turn my memories over in my hand.

A girl brought in half of her dissertation to read; a man phoned and asked if I would do a once-over on his book on arctic exploration, the mail continues. I shall not have to worry about how to fill my time.

Nor, I suspect, will you.

13 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

It was good to hear your voice just now on the phone, and especially good to have your letter as from both New Haven and New York. I needn't say, because I hope you know, how much your visits mean to us and to me. I only wish they could be oftener.

After leaving the laundry I stopped by the cabinet maker to see how my ordered desk chair was coming along. It hadn't even begun to be begun, which was a disappointment. But the painting of rooms at the house was nearly finished when I stopped there to leave off the Ballantyne manuscripts now that you have seen them. Part of the morning was spent on the telephone with Buffalo New York, at the bequest of a nephew who was disturbed by what he had read of Leslie Fiedler's situation. Fiedler's house was raided and his son and friends found smoking marijuana. Fielder was arrested as the owner of a house which harbored this, though the trial has not yet come up. But for unknown reasons the insurance companies have cancelled the insurances on his house and so he may lose his mortgage. This is certainly harassment of the first order, and grossly unfair anyhow even if he should be found guilty. (He did not smoke it himself. My nephew who works for Bobbie Kennedy thinks he can help; I don't know whether this can be or not, but I am to be phoned tomorrow from Buffalo to be brought up to date by the Dean.

After lunch I went and had my first pricks from the doctor for flu and common cold, as against Ireland, checked my vaccinations which were in order, and was told that I must have phlebitis of the right leg, below the knee. The

see. But I must draw in my horns a bit and save up for what is sure to be another catastrophic emergency for them. A letter from the Quayle too. But I save all these to show you when you come. I must give you some incentive to come to me.

Sandhurst knew the campaigns by heart. # I shouted cheers to learn that Miss Dudley had shown HRM and the Prince around Nor Nour. How marvelous it would be if she could get a substantial grant for excavating. # Thank you for letting me see Chester's letters. I think Kenwin will seem rosier and rosier to him as it becomes more of a myth. Like Europe itself. And indeed a Chester, like a Max Barsis, would live happily in Vienna one assumes, but he would have to find his little circle and whether he is quite gay enough to fit in to the usual groups I don't know. By gay, I mean witty and entertaining so that he can sing for his stridel. I am truly sorry to hear about the robbery, but am not quite sure where he lives. Your Stanhope area is safe I am sure.

The 23rd? October of course. How otherwise would I be coming back just after Queenwood, unless you have misled me and it is on the 21st of September that you are a schoolgirl again. As soon as I have heard from Petrie I make my plans for Ireland at beginning of October, for a fortnight, then direct to London without trying to do Kenwin in such a rush and on the eve of Elsie's departure. And especially if you were to be free for a minute when one of your dames was not there, it would be fun to see you in London. We can speak of all this when you are here. The weather will begin to be a bit on the chilly side when you are here in September, and especially in Halifax. I can arrange to get the portable typewriter to you at the Stanhope, and wonder at your trying to bring the Hermes with you. But as you like, and in any event why tote it to New Haven since yours is already waiting for your arrival. I have one for you also in my office if you want to work away while in town. Clothes much the same as you always wear, with something nice. You may want something that will stand the sand of a beach while with Perdita. I envy you having been able to sunbathe really sans clothing. I would be a nudist if I could, and feel freer so. It is because for so many years I was brought up to sun within a tentwall for the sake of my hip.

Good for you, to have made Elsie pay for Nicholas to take her to the christening. I remember your pointing out where the village is, and that Elsie was on her way there after Geneva on the occasion (the first one) when we were bounced off Swissair.

The Hildabook was brought to the dealer by Frances Gregg's adopted son, or actual son I forget which. He had it after the bombing which took her life. He was the one who sold it.

Probably just as well to wait for the Rota job for atha. I can speak to him when in London, or of course can write earlier if you prefer. I leave up to you. The whole affair is so oddly got at.

My passport pictures came today so I can now proceed to get a new passport, my old one having expired for the second time. The pictures are actually not too bad. I should put one in a two-inch locket for your birthday. (I forgot to say, perhaps better not to bring your mini-skirts this time; it may be too cold.)

A pleasant letter from Kenneth thanking for the book on Italian architecture. And a long one from Marya, about various persons and leading up to the question of whether she should send the bill for the NYU hospital to my New York lawyers, to me, or what? I wrote that Horace had told me when he went in that Dr Shedlovsky, his friend at Rockefeller Institute, had arranged all with Medicare. So she should ask Horace and Shedlovsky. But I know that with Dr Gara, the surgeon, it ended that I had to pay first and then try to collect from Medicare. I suppose this is the case again. But I have just paid the $1500 to Gara, $000 to Horace and given Marya her 900 cruise. And this year am getting half salary. We shall

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

15 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

I have just finished an interview with a former student who brought his nephew with him to discuss with me whether or not the nephew should continue with his rabbinical training or go into publishing. I tugged at my forelock and thought. Publishing might or might not be possible, though two years of preparation for a rabbi's role might serve better for other excisions than those of commas. But it did seem to me that if he were disturbed about being a rabbi he had already made up his mind about that career; all he needed to do was to say so out loud.

Earlier this morning I stopped in at the passport office and painfully made out the lengthy sheets necessary for a new passport, mine having run out (after renewal) at the beginning of July. I gave the man two shiny new passport pictures, (about which I wrote yesterday) and he said these have to be made within six months. I said six days. He looked, and said you haven't changed much in five years. I could only reply that the pictures at least looked the same.

Two visiting professors in from Tennessee, so I had to break one luncheon engagement for them, but taken the broken one and his wife and children this afternoon to the shore as a farewell gesture before they go back to Australia. Fortunately they can't stay for supper, as planned for a cookout. Unfortunately I asked if young Susan and the children would like to be taken out, for what I thought would be a hamburger or hotdog. Older Susan called to say yes they would, but preferred lobster. It was lucky I stopped at the bank.

I had stopped because now another bank has agreed to sell what is left of the land across the road. Only they have upped the price 1/3 over the original estimate and my offer. I have halved the difference, but suppose I will have to go up to the top if necessary. I had stopped at my bank primarily to discuss the matter with one of the officers there.

A letter from Dr Gara (there was none with his receipted bill) says that Marya tells him "Mr. Gregory will probably be discharged from Rusk Center in a few weeks, and I hope to be able to obtain a more frequent physio-therapy program for him at home on his return." Since Medicare turned this down, I shall have to write Gara and ask if there isn't some way this can be authorized. I hope you will be able to call on Horace once or twice whilst in New York, and perhaps see Marya. This saves us an otherwise psychologically necessary full day visit to her alone.

I had not realised that Melitta was sending me the manuscript of a volume of poetry. I guess I am supposed to find a publisher for it.

I'll risk one more letter, but no data of importance in it. Blessings for your flight.

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

16 August 1967

Dearest Fido,

It may be folly to risk this one to you at Kenwin, but better
handled there I thought than to chance Zurich. The next ones will be waiting
for you en masse at Perdita's, or arrive a day after you get to that haven.
As I told you, I shall have to go to Lizzie's for dinner on the night you
arrive (the 23rd) so better to call at Branford at breakfast time or after
nine at my office.

I should have sent this off this morning, but there had been
no letter from you, so I waited first for the 10:30 post, then the 12:30
post, and finally with success in the 2:30. All this in case there should be
some last minute plea.

There was none, though if you chance to see the right sort
of watch in the Zurich free zone, why not buy it for your wrist even if you
already have your Bulova with you. What a nuisance to have thought you had
ypur numbers in order, and then end up this way. So I shall think of you
with two watches and your typewriter in rucksack. Only, as I also said,
keep it in New York to save toting on the journey here.

A nice letter from Sachie with yours of the 13th. He seems
a little revived with his new poems at hand. It would be fun if you had
more time than you will this October visit, to run down to Weston Hall with
you to have tea. I should love to see him again.

I have the confirmation again from the Stanhope so that your
Thursday night is in order. I am sure you could have managed it anyway, but
it is simpler to be on the dafe side.

A letter from Wisconsin says they are scheduling the H.D. number
of Wisconsin Studies in Contemporary Literature for winter or spring 1969. The
editor has three acceptances, from Joseph Riddell who wrote recently on Stevens
(I reviewed the book for the N.Y. Times), Norman Holland who wants to write on
Tribute to Freud, and a Bernard Engle of whose identity I am not sure. He wants
me to do something. We shall see. But I am glad to see this further step in
her reputation more or less assured. Let's not say reputation, only a step in
furthering interest in her among the younger generation.

Am after so many motnhs about 2/3 through Silva Dobson's ms.
Interesting but curious. I shall write you a lengthier report on it after I
have finished. It's not really a novel, but it does have a lot to say.

Happy voyage!

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

17 August 1967

My Fido,

Here you are as you read, and here you will be as I write. I do very much hope you got the rucksack thru customs, suffered the bawling brats aboard the lugger without too much distress, didn't suffer from too many rapidly consecutive meals, and found everyone well and happy chez the Pup.

I seem to have begun the day rather unsystematically in terms of what ought to get off in the mail, though it makes somewhat more sense in terms of what ought to get off my desk. So I have written a few notes, to Dr Gara, to the man who is putting out the H.D. issue of his magazine, and now have the contents of a yellowback which arrived yesterday. Since I can file it in the file to be filed, once I have made my comments, I shall do so instanter. Especially since there seems to be a lull in the music of the carillon which plays outside my tower room. I was never a man for carillon, though I like hearing changes rung occasionally, so God is punishing me by putting me so I can hear the apparent practise sessions which have been going on for an hour. You will hear it all when I put you to work.

I had suddenly come across a little release on the Association's recovery, or prospective recovery, in a paper on this side and put it aside to question you. So I was especially pleased to read the two clippings you sent about it. They were well written. What fun it would be to poke in the kelp with them. My blood always runs a little faster when I think of the recoveries there may still be. It is a form of exploration we have hardly begun.

I was slightly puzzled by Jean Starr's letter, which seemed somewhat more reconciled than the first, with perhaps just a hint that she might eventually become an early settler of the new setip for next year. I suspect she felt an immediate loneliness, that curious disappointment one has on arrival when not addressed in hushed admiration, and a discovery that her high German was different from their low Swiss. Who knows: "I go summers to Switzerland, of course," may still become a byword with her. # Your Goulden & Curry man continues to take good care of you. It is worth much to have someone of this sort. # One quite understands how impossible those narrow curved lanes of Cornwall must be when the trippers arrive. Kenneth has just written to me to thank for the Eisenhower and for the cigarettes you brought him at the last reunion, and spoke of how imprisoned he felt. I had not known about Ethel's and Joan's trip to Ireland and am much troubled that we should be following so closely on their heels. This is awful for poor Petrie. I wish I had known, and then could have clipped in and out of Ireland quietly without bothering her at all. # And what a pity you cannot have Hilda Quick stay with you and Elsie at Kenwin. # I was of course much pleased at Tom Devison's record at Cambridge for his first year. This is something for him and his parents to be proud of, and for you to feel gratified by as appreciation for your help and a tribute to your good judgment in helping him. # Now I must break off and try to put my thoughts together about the Dobson manuscript.

(2)

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

(2 p.m.) Your letter--this of the 15th, but I think you misdated this rather than your previous day's as you had thought, one day being rather too swift for passage -- was as usual in the noon mail, for which my thanks. One does rather miss your Sunday letters even if posted later, but I have been skipping taking communion with you for several recent Sundays so it is only fair. I only hope the beans were all eaten, Elsie's berries in a jam, and Ines safely off to her Florentine brother before you flew the coop. #Philip's grand stairway must, like the boys', be impressive. I hope you will get to Cannes perhaps in November with Elsie. You really must: Philip, Catha, and Romaine. You too of course have your grand stairwell, and were you doing the house today would presumably have murals winding upwards, from the hell of Elsie's and Ines's kitchen level onward to the heaven gods abode in your library, then to the soft cloud kingdom of the bedrooms, and finally to the s.f. nakedness of the roof where one faces the elements with the skin of one's flanks. This latter is, as you suggest, more Scandinavian.

I had missed Romilly's death. But in summer I only pick up the Times in Short Beach on my way to town, glance at it briefly before getting out of the car at the parking lot, and then again at the Point when I return at night. There is no period of sober concentration on the world.

As usual I liked the clippings from the (London) Times, though again as usual you have rather come to shock me by your disclosures of British private life. Even, I noticed, the Times itself has come to be explanatory and self-defensive, heading up the Personal columns

PERSONAL

"Hatred stirreth up strife; but love covereth all sins."

But are they covered just because of sex? For example the first notice you sent told of the Old Felicians' Cocktail Party, which said "Each person may bring one male guest." I suppose an Old Felician would be frightened that a woman or girl would be shocked at the goings-on. But couldn't it simply be understood that only Old Boys and Young Boys were to come. Absent me from Felicians awhile.

The dedication at Papplewick seemed much more straightforward in inviting only Old Boys to swim in the new pool.

That Fire-eaters and Sword-swallowers were only wanted if they had experience with ecclesiastics seemed far too élitest for a democratic world. Still, I suppose they had in mind, "Suffer little choir boys to come unto me."

What a naughty world you live in!

NORMAN
HOLMES
PEARSON

18 August 1967

My Fido,

Most of the day went into writing Silva Dobson. Not every well, I
fear but I enclose the carbon for your perusal. It is a difficult book
to talk about, full of good sense but perhaps too much so for its likely
success. I did find especially interesting the point of view towards Russia,
the feeling that only the Russian administration is bad and that the people
must be good. "Tell people in the West about our liberal elements," one of
the Russian characters pleads. So does the author. And of England itself:
"We may be going down as a Great Power, but we're going up as a united people.
Everyone has the chance to get on now. I can qualify as a secretary with the
best of them," says the daughter of a dame in the slums. Up she does go,
leaving her Mum behind her while she lives with the uppercrust couple who
took her in during the blitz.

"Who's been feeding you golden stories?"

"No one, but I think the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R will
have to cooperate, and I want to be there when they do. The
world's not so vast as it used to be."

The book is really nicely written, even though I did whisper an objection to the realism. I meant this as unlikely to have been said by the 12-year old little girl at the end :

"If we can have faith we can move mountains," said Lynette. "If you and I really had enough, this steep hill would flatten out before us. God might roll down a crimson carpet, turn our bikes into golden chariots, raise a triumphant arch of lilies and roses."

Your letter of the 16th came at noon. Many thanks for Mrs Baker's
address. I will write tonight before I leave. I remember how the Richards had
you bring a watch once before. Or I did. I forget which, except getting it
packaged at this end and shipped off. A knife will be a simple matter so long
as you don't draw it on the customs officer. Dr Prutting's office called today
to check on your appointment with him. I think he hopes to take the last few
days of the week off before Labor Day, but once he has tapped you and drained
away the polluted Swiss lake water I think he will want you to re-irrigate
yourself until the 5th. After that I hope we can take off to the North.

Donald Gallup was back today from his six weeks in Europe on the
revision of the Eliot bibliography. Mrs TSE is busy at work on an edition of
his letters; Mrs Pound and Mary are feuding still about the papers; it rained
every day in Paris and partly when he was in the Alps. It is just as well I
simply stay here.