PEARN, POLLINGER & HIGHAM, Ltd.

Telephone: TEMPLE BAR 8631 5

Telegrams: HIPOL, LESQUARE, LONDON.

Cables: HIPOL, LONDON.

Authors' Agents.

39-40, BEDFORD STREET, STRAND,
LONDON, W.C.2.

DIRECTORS:

David Higham,
Laurence Pollinger,
Nancy R. Pearn.

14th November, 1950.

Miss W. Bryher,
Villa Kenwin,
Burier la Tour,
Vaud, Switzerland.

Dear Miss Bryher,

We have now had an opportunity
of considering your two novels,
BEOWULF and THE FOURTEENTH OF OCTOBER,
but I am afraid we do not believe
that under present conditions we
should be able to make satisfactory
arrangements for their publication.
We are especially sorry about this
in view of Dr. Edith Sitwell's
recommendation.

We have no alternative, there-
fore, but to return both manuscripts
to Miss Winsor of 49 Lowndes Square,
S.W.1., as you have previously
suggested.

Although every reasonable care is taken of MS. while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for any loss or damage thereto.

IMS/MO.

25 January 1956

Dear Kurt:

Thank you for ordering a ticket for me for the National Book Awards meeting on February 7th. I had meant to ask you to do so, but as always you are forewarned.

Bryher's OK's on the suggested corrections for BEOWULF came back from her a few days, but I have been delayed in altering the manuscript. I think it is all right now so far as punctuation and clarity is concerned. You will see that I have included a dedication, and also suggested material for the jacket. Perhaps Helen will want that held until her return. Call to her attention the question of whether we should refer to the precise year it appeared in France; remember that we mentioned BEOWULF on the back inner flap of the jacket for OCTOBER.

Bryher seems to feel the title ought to be changed. She writes: "We lost a lot of readers in France with the title Beowulf. Petrie screens to me that I should not use it. (She only just scraped through her Anglo Saxon at Oxford.) I do think myself it is not a good title when most people do not know who Beowulf was. I would very much urge changing the title. The Warming Pan sounds ordinary, would The Bulldog do, no, suggests Churchill too much, but really I do not think Beowulf is a good title for the general public."

Actually I don't agree with her; it's a striking title; her public is not likely to be the "general public"; and for those who have forgotten their freshman survey courses in English, "From Beowulf to Hardy," I have glossed the name in my jacket matter. But what do you think? We'll settle the matter between New York and New Haven.

Collins are asking if they should do SANDS next, "they do not care for it." The alternative would be BEOWULF; shall I tell them to go ahead with SANDS. I don't see why not; they'll howl at the ending, but as you know, Bryher will *never* change that!

No word from Ingholt. Am delighted that the Gandharan prints have turned out so well.

4 August 1956

My dear Miss West:

Remembering our conversation about
Bryher, at the Yale Library a few months ago, I have
asked Pantheon Books to send you a copy of her new
novel *Beowulf*.

I hope you will like it. Bryher
does have a remarkable ear for dialogue, and I think
it will be good for her reputation to show what she
can do for a contemporary scene as well as for the
moods of the past. Because the publishers had said
they wished they could have a statement, by some one
who would have known, on the validity of her descript-
ions of London in the war, I did ask you whether you
might be willing to do this for them. But on this
score you ought to feel absolutely free. Whether
Collins will eventually publish it in England, I don't
know; Bryher says they "hate" it. And it is true, I
think, that the British as a whole do not much care
for anything which borders on even polite naturalism
nor for novels that deal with the middle and lower
classes. Perhaps there is a reason for this; and it
may have something to do (though not all) for the ne-
glect of Dorothy Richardson. In any event I have not
told Bryher that I was sending you a copy, so that need
not enter into your consideration. What I really want
is simply for you to see the book.

Everyone still remarks on our privi-
lege in your being here. I only wish that you were to
be enough in the States to have a pied-a-terre in New
Haven.

Sincerely yours,