1946

Letters (Misc.s)

January 21st - to N.D. from A.V. Bowen - re. "Alone"

Febr. 8th - to N.D. " P. Calmann-Levy - re. french transl. of "South Wind"

March 6th - to N.D. " Eric (Police, Tanga, T.T.)

April 10th - to N.D. " G. Dilnot (Features Manager) re. "Almanac"

April 28th - to N.D. " Thos.Ollive Mabbott - re. "Experiments"

May 9th - to N.D. " James Wandrop - re. a visit with Reynolds Stone

May 16th - to N.D. " Clotilde Schweiger - re. "Looking Back"

May 22nd - to N.D. " Andre Belamore (Oran) re. french transl.

August 8th - to N.D. " Fr Albi (A. Rosenblal Ltd) Oxford - re. "South Wind"

August 29th - to N.D. " Eric (Police, Tanga T.T.)

Sept. 4th - to N.D. " Henry (55 Oakley St. SW 3)

Sept. 24th - to N.D. " Robin D. re. "An Almanac"

Sept. 25th - to N.D. " Gilbert H. Phelps - re. BBC series called "Living Writers"

Sept. 27th - to N.D. " Talamo Raffaele - re. a fountain-pen (present)

Decem. 4th &pto N.D. " Robert Partridge - re. "Late Harvest"

Decem. 5th - to N.D. " Hutchinson F.W.

Decem. 24th - to N.D. " Giuseppe Brindisi (greetings for Xmas)

that if they didn't they would get a cellblock letter. So in
it went — "as you feel so strongly about the matter."
Subsequently we became a little more friendly. . . .

I haven't much use for Charles Morgan, but the other day
he said "a mouthful." "If Drake was living in this age he
would be given a pension and denied a sailing permit."
Somewhat apropos, Flanagan, with vague - very vague - aspirations
towards a better world, was chiding me the other day for "not being
interested in what's right." Hence the following:

You are not troubled by lights or lungs, kidneys, liver or gout;
Your eyes are good, and your ears O.K., and Roger's not down and
So what are you on about? out;

The tall sunflower bows its head to the sunshine overhead.
"See how the breeze stirs the green leaves!" a chirping black-
Who wants to be dead? bird said.

"There's much grief in the world today," cry the prophets of woe.
"It's up to us all to get busy" - and so on and so-and-so.
But what the hell do they know?

Life and death are at odds, and nobody knows what's what;
Talk and desperate action boil in the melting-pot.
Aren't we a sorry lot?

Cheerful resignation is all I deduce therefrom.
I'm for the tall sunflower - and anything that may come
After the atom bomb!

Well! It's raining still, but I've just had a hot bath
and some coffee. So "what am I on about?" With, apparently,
no more in the brain that ink may character; let me end
by tiring you are more content now that you are once more among
the olives.

Olive trees
Orange groves
Wine
The sun

Chelsea pubs

Comparisons are indeed odious. I must get out there some time

The British Broadcasting Corporation

Head Office: Broadcasting House, London, W.1
Broadcasting House, 21-25 Whiteladies Road, Bristol 8
Telephone and Telegrams: Bristol 33052

Reference: 14072/GHP

25th September 1946

Dear Mr. Douglas,

I am organising a series for the new "Third Programme" of the BBC, called "Living Writers". I should very much like to include a talk on your work, and I am hoping that you will have no objection. Raymond Mortimer has agreed to undertake this talk, if you are agreeable.

I am enclosing a list of the other talks in this series. I thought you would be interested to see it.

Norman Douglas Esq.,
C/o Chatto & Windus,
40 William IV Street,
London W.C.2.

MP

Hotel de la Paix, Lausanne

April 31

Kenneth dear; thank you for letter and I hear from John
Schaffner that you made P ( so , him ) very happy by
writing. Cousin Hattie Howard( remember ? ) sent me a box of
12 Desert Blooms and I did not know WHAT to do about it ...
but found they got some engagement letters written for me; this
is the last of the bunch, not a crown of thorns but "the
desert shall blossom like the rose." And you and dear
Uncle Norman must be in our prickley ring-a-round - what
would like be without thorns ? I am beginning to hug mine
nearer and dearer as the years roll on ... they are the SPICE of
life. But of course, I don't tell our young people all that, have
been busy writing HER, writing HIM as he wrote they had a sort
of Romeo-Juliet complex - why ??? Unless P had told him what
beasts and monsters we were during the war ... but surely,
one knows in ones bones what it is all about and J.S.

( age 36 to her 31) seems keen on his Literary Agency, has
the same German (of the '48 exodus ) plus old New England
background that she has , granular - Daniel Webster Daniels,
could we ask anything better ? Well, if they are getting
married, let them get married, I mean, he writes that they
want to make ME happy with some beautiful grandchildren! Really,
I am rather touched and to be addressed as belle-mere to be!
I know, I know ... yes, yes ... but let us, I pray, be
respectable in our old age. I won't write details of the
Maine marriage at "Little Ponds", the house of Mrs. Pulsifer; he
was protégé of hers while he was at Bowdoin college, all
just exactly right and father endomology, tree and forest sort
of gvt. consultant

with laboratories near New Haven. Not one of us could have filled in the picture ... I suppose I will dash over in the fall; it seems understood that they have their quiet June wedding and two weeks at "Little Ponds"... I was in a dither about rushing over, being a property at the wedding, in dove-grey. Well- thank you for Venice suggestion; just now, I will stay put for a bit, having been moved into the new wing here, almost an apartment, with huge bath and shower; they are building another top, I gather and I was under the roof. Anyhow, I pick over old MSS, my LOVELY books that are too old-fashioned or not yet in the "movement" to come ... but I read and re-read (my own) and wonder what your last is like? No, Norman Pearson, all keen on MSS, has made no further move, but I am going to do charades to myself, from now on, with Nuy. publishers etc., the ones I shall prob. meet, if I go- when I go, I must say. I shall prob. go on a BOAT. And let me know well in time (if only you would come along) what I can do for you over there. Cold here - Fido is in London but due back. I love all descriptions of your garden- and do please give Uncle N. my very best love, I felt the "family" should officially hear from belle-mère-to-be ... bless you, thank you for all you did and are.

Empress Cactus

205.3
"Desert Blooms"
Trade Mark
WHITE & WYCKOFF
Holyoke, U. S. A.

GENERAL AMERICAN TRANSPORTATION CORPORATION

135 SOUTH LA SALLE STREET
CHICAGO 90, ILLINOIS

December 10, 1946

My dear Dad:

I am seriously considering the question of indulging
in a mild bit of publishing myself in partnership
with Joe Faulkner of the Main Street Book Store here
in Chicago, whom you met in London.

Joe was then in the American Army. He has a very
sound and flourishing small business and he did ex-
press an interest in the publication of "An Almanac."
So I am going to find out if his interest is still
in effect.

Should this be the case, your representatives, The
Society of Authors would devise a contract between
you for the first part and me as the agent for the
second part.

What I would like to know from you is whether such
a plan would be agreeable to you. If so, perhaps
you would drop a line to Mr. Kilham Roberts of The
Society and let him know what you think should be
your percentage so that a draft contract could be
prepared.

Hope all goes well with you and hoping to hear
from you soon.

Norman Douglas, Esq.
7 Unghia Marina
Isola Capri Italy

Telephone: Kensington 6371.

11

Victoria & Albert Museum, S.W.7

Dear Mr. Douglas: My friend Reynolds Stone has written to you with a proposal which we formulated during a week-end substantially devoted to the reading and discussion of your works. We felt we should like to do ourselves the honour of calling on you; and today I hear from him that you are generously disposed to receive us. I expect Stone will come up to spend a night with me next week, and he has left the choice to me. Wd. Thursday or Friday (16 or 17 May) be suitable days, and. wd. 5 p.m. be a convenient time? I should be much obliged if you would let me know: thereafter I wd. inform Stone.

I cannot flatter myself with the belief that you remember me; but I have lively recollections of yr. presence at a birthday celebration at the Kings, some years ago; and of a subsequent encounter at Emberson's bar (while I was liaising up against a night's fire watching) when you used me with greater civility than my condition deserved.

9 May, 1946

56 E.87; NYC-28

April 28, 1946

Dear Mr. Douglas,

Kay Boyle, whom I happened to meet here recently, told me she did not think what we Americans call a "fan note" would annoy you, and therefore + make bold to address you.

For many years the study of Poe has been both my hobby and part of my professional interest. Since my youth I have been preparing notes for a really complete edition of Poe's works -- with a real commentary. Its main need now is a publisher willing to go ahead -- several sections of the work could not be started, although much remains to be done on the Marginalia, and some other texts.

Well, this has led me to read a great deal about Poe; and among them your little essay in *Experiments*. I've read a great many absurd things about Poe and a great many good things -- but I think so far as getting the thing straight about Poe's prose tales, you essy is the best thing, anyway the best thing by any contemporary author.

I've always had a vague idea that if the edition did materialise, three introductions -- namely to the criticisms, the tales, and the poems, would be desirable (aside from the purely factual and historical introductions, most of which of course would be my job.)

I have done one thing about this -- I persuaded Prof. Staintsbury (whom I knew) to write the introduction for the criticisms, and have it here.

You have always been in my mind as the man to do the TALES.

If the idea appeals to you, please drop me a line. There would be two methods -- one simply to get permission to reprint the old essay. The second, of course, would be for you to rework it -- say in from six to 10 pages of typescript. Of course the latter method would be preferable although I see no reason you should change your general views.

There would be no limitations on what you might say except two-- if by any chance you have come to dislike Poe altogether, I should expect and understand a declination --- and I do NOT want much emphasis on the AMERICAN differences of Poe. (Of course he wrote in American, and the poems at times sound wrong in "Southern English" -- but I have two general ideas about Poe, that he really had a passion for technical propriety which rules out explanations that involve the notion he was a careless writer; and that he should be regarded as an English author in the same sense as Burns, Wm. Dunbar, or Tom Moore.

September 24, 1946

My dear Dad:

It looked for a while as though there might be quite
a tangle over AN ALMANAC. However, I have written
to, and heard from, the Society of Authors who sug-
gest most graciously and intelligently that they
work on a split commission basis with Mr. Harold
Ober of New York in representing you for all your
works in this country.

If Mr. Ober sees his way to go along with this
arrangement it would be the best thing possible.
I feel it would be excellent from all points of
view.

The Society of Authors seems to be under the im-
pression that I am cognizant of the position which
has resulted in your placing the management of your
literary affairs in their hands. Of course, this
is not the case but it seems to be a very fine idea
and arrangement.

Any day now I suppose you will be going back to
Florence even if you can't take possession of your
flat as yet, because there will be things to do
doubtless in connection with your eventual disposi-
tion of it. I do so hope you will find the right
kind of property that you want on Capri.

I am looking forward to hearing from you and hope
that this working out of AN ALMANAC business meets
with your approval.

Please take care of yourself.

Your affectionate son,

Norman Douglas, Esq.
c/o British Consul General
Naples, Italy

September 24, 1946

Mr. Harold Ober
40 East 49th Street
New York, New York

Dear Mr. Ober:

Some few weeks back I had a letter from my Father
in which he said he had placed his literary affairs
in the hands of the Society of Authors, London.

As he had previously asked me to see what I could
do about AN ALMANAC, which resulted in my sending
the manuscript to you, it looked as though a tick-
lish situation might arise. So I promptly wrote
the Society of Authors, explaining what had hap-
pened and they most courteously wrote me back--
a copy of the letter is attached herewith.

Mr. Kilham Roberts suggests that it might be a
good thing for you to act as the Society's repre-
sentative in the United States in behalf of any
of my Father's books. To me, of course, this
sounds an admirable arrangement and one that I
feel sure my Father would endorse in that it would
mean active representation for him in this country.

I am sending my Father a copy of this letter so
that he will see how matters are progressing and,
for your information, his address is:

With best wishes.

RD:th
Enos.

cc: Norman Douglas, Esq.