No More Learning

8 Oliver St. John Gogarty, who lost the libel suit brought against him by Harry Sinclair at which SB had testified for the plaintiff, "celebrated" at The Bailey, Dublin tavern and restaurant, then at 2-3 Duke Street.
The proposed sale ofGogarty's home on Ely Place: 6October 1937, n. 8.
Harry Sinclair had been awarded damages, which were as yet unpaid; as a conse­ quence, SB's fare to Dublin/Paris had not yet been reimbursed.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
8/3/38 Hotel Liberia
9 Rue de la Grande Chaumiere
Paris 6me
Dear George
Many thanks for card. And for 3 Murphys, in batches of
1 & 2. The appearance is very satisfactory and the effort to make
1
anIrishmanofmetouching. NomistakesintextthatIcansee. I should like Routledge to send copies to the following: Jack Yeats (whose address they have).
ArlandUssher, Esq. , Cappagh House, Cappagh, Co. Waterford,
Ireland.
609
8 March 1938, Reavey
Dr Geoffrey Thompson, 71 Harley Street, London W. 1.
Tom McGreevy.
Laz Aaronson Esq. , 26 Westboume Terrace Road, London W. 2.
Herr Axel Kaun, Greiffenberg, Uckermark, Germany.
2
He wants to postpone for 3 or 4 months. I have written saying that I can't guarantee being of the same mind then, or having
3
defended, the plea of blind drunkenness skilfully advanced and
4
anxious to translate Murphy into French. He is a close friend
of mine, an expert translator and I should be very glad
for him to do it. He has contacts and so have friends of his,
5
I haven't had a word to throw to a dog, let alone van Velde, so have seen little of him. I haven't done the foreword and wonder if I ever shall. The Sterns introduced me last night in the Flore to one Brian Howard, at his request. He wanted to pump me about modern German art apropos of a big retrospective planned for London in the summer (Read & Borenius). He was drunk and with Nancy Cunard, whose bottom she said was better and left eye black. She said that the fact ofher having been the first to publish
him and me should set up a bond between us. It did not. Stern has
6
Denis Devlin (whose address you have).
No doubt I shall be fool enough to think of others later.
I have accepted the Sade translation at 150 francs per 1000.
the time to spare. No contract therefore yet.
Prudent got off with 2 months, to my relief. He was ably
I represented as the aggressor.
Alfred Peron, 69 Rue de la Tombe-lssoire, Paris 14me, is
notably with the NRF & Denoel et Steele. Will you make overtures in the matter, or would you prefer us to do so? Perhaps it would be better to leave it till you are over. When is that?
a novel with Secker in the autumn.
610
8 March 1938, Reavey Physically I am quite well again. Yesterday I played 7 sets of
7
TLS; 1 leaf. 1 side; AH ink checkmark before the names of Yeats, Ussher. Thompson, and Kaun;TxU.
1 Reavey'scardtoSBhasnotbeenfound.
Murphy was published on 7 March 1938. SB wrote to McGreevy, 8 March 1938: "I got some advance copies of Murphy. All green white & yellow. In honour of Celia? They do their best, and not merely with the blurbs, to tum me into an Irishman" (TCD, MS 10402/158). The jacket copy noted: "The reader is carried along on the wave of an abundant creative imagination expressing itself in scene after scene of superlative comedy, ironic situations that only the Irish genius could conceive. "
2 FromSB'slistforpresentationcopies,markingsindicatethatcopiesweresentto Yeats, Ussher, Thompson, and Kaun. SB's presentation copy to "Laz and Dorothy" (Aaronson) is dated May 1938 (InU).
3 AtranslationofSade'sLes120JourneesdeSodomewaspublishedundertheimprint ofJack Kahane's son Maurice Girodias in 1954 (Marquis de Sade, The 120 Days ofSodom; or, The Romance ofthe Schoolfor Libertinage, tr. Pieralessandro Casavini [pseud. ofAustryn Wainhouse] [Paris: Olympia Press, 19541).
4 AsSBwrotetoMcGreevyon8March1938:"ThePrudentaffaire[sic]cameonlast Monday. I was there with Alan. We did not press it, he was ably defended, I became the provocateur in the end, he was sentenced to 2 months imprisonment" (TCD, MS 10402/158). SB wrote to Arland Ussher on 27 March 1938: "The desperado got off with 2 months. Not bad for a 5! ! ! conviction. I am still without my clothes, taken away from me at the time as pieces de conviction & never produced. I have now to prove that they ever belonged to me. But mentally I am speechless" (TxU). "Pieces a conviction" (exhibits in evidence).
5 AlfredPeron,whohadworkedwithSBonthepreliminarytranslationofJoyce's "Anna Livia Plurabelle," encouraged SB to arrange a translation of Murphy; Peron had contacts with the Nouvelle Revue Fran�aise.
The Paris publishing finn Denoel et Steele was founded in 1930 by Bernard Steele (1902-1979) and Robert Denoel (1902-1945), but when Steele returned to the United States at the end of 1936, the firm became Les Editions Denoel.
6 SB had been asked to write a note for the catalogue of the Geer van Velde Exhibition at Guggenheim Jeune.
Anglo-Irish writer and translator James Andrew Stem (1904-1993) and his wife Tania Stem (nee Kurella, 1904-1995) collaborated on translations from the German; SB wrote to McGreevy on 8 March 1938, "I met them at Xmas with Aaronson, very nice. He is Irish and writes. Published I think by Secker" (TCD, MS 10402/158). James
611
tennis at Mirabeau without collapsing. Love to Gwynedd
Ever s/Sam
8 March 1938, Reavey
Stern's Something Wrong: A Collection of Twelve Stories was published by Secker and Warburg in 1938.
Brian Howard (1905-1958) was a member of the organizing committee, headed by Herbert Read, of the "Exhibition of Twentieth-Century German Art" held in July 1938 at the New Burlington Galleries, London. The exhibition drew on work in private collections so it would not compromise any artist still residing in Germany: [Herbert Read], Exhibition of Twentieth Century Gennan Art: July, 1938 (London: New Burlington Galleries, 1938) 5-7. The Finnish-born art historian and Editor of Burlington Magazine from 1940 to 1945 Tancred Borenius (1885-1948) was a patron of the exhibition.
Nancy Cunard had burned herself on a heater (SB to McGreevy, 11 February 1938, TCD, MS 10402/156). Cunard published Brian Howard's God Save the King (Paris: Hours Press, 1930).
7 TenniscouvertsMirabeau(coveredtenniscourts)werelocatedat1RueRemusat, Paris 16, near the Mirabeau metro station.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/3 [1938]
Liberia [Paris]
[no greeting]
Thanks for cuttings. It is gratifying to have my intention
1
revealed to me after all this time. still began with Cezanne.
Sam
Nothing new here. Painting
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Baldovinetti, "La Vierge et l'Enfant"; to George Reavey Esq, 7 Great Ormond Street, LONDON WCl; pm 23-3-38, Paris; TxU.
1 By this date the reviews of Murphy were: Anon. , "Murphy. By Samuel Beckett," Times Literary Supplement 12 March 1938: 172; Dilys Powell, "Flight from Reality," Sunday Times 13 March 1938: 8; Edwin Muir, "New Novels," The Listener 19. 479 (16 March 1938) 597; Dylan Thomas, "Recent Novels," The New English Weekly 12. 23 (17 March 1938) 454-455; and Frank Swinnerton, "People and Puppets," The Observer 20 March 1938: 6.
Dylan Thomas wrote of Murphy: "It is not rightly what it should be, that is what Mr. Beckett intended it to be: a story about the conflict between the inside and the
612
outsides of certain curious people. It fails in its purpose because the minds and the bodies of these characters are almost utterly without relations to each other" (454).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
3/4/38 Liberia [Paris]
Dear Tom
Thanks for your letter. No, the reviews did not surprise me.
No[t] even those of Messrs. Muir & Thomas. Church was friendly in John O'Londons, as I understand so was Kate O'Brien in the
1
that Routledge are satisfied with sales. Nothing from Ireland so
far that I know of. Brian had a long article to appear in this
month's Ireland To-Day, but the paper expired just in time. My
2
give you a copy and hope you got it. I have sent no copies out
from here, life is laborious enough without making parcels of
books & bringing them to the P. O. And you know how pleased
I shall be to write in the book when we meet. Jack Yeats wrote
3
Zurich. He was very poorly with an eye & then some kind of intestinal flu. 4 [•••]
A French translation by Peron of my Alba appeared in
5
with him every Tuesday & play tennis afterwards. I hope to
arrange for him to translate Murphy. He is anxious to do so.
I sent a copy to Raymond Queneau, who has just been appointed
reader to Gallimard & whom I met in the Volontes galere. But
6
3 April 1938, McGreevy
lastSpectatorbutone,whichIhavenotseen. Reaveytellsme
Bookman experience over again. By the way I told Reavey to
very nicely about it, so did Aaronson & Geoffrey.
I have seen very little of the Joyces since they returned from
Soutes. Notoneofhisbestefforts. Heisingoodform&Ilunch
Denoel & Steele or the Mercure are more likely.
613
3 April 1938, McGreevy
I was at the Flore last night to arrange with Alan to go out &
see his mother who is installed now in some home outside the
Porte d'Orleans. Laugier came in with his woman, but we did not
7
I have the feeling that any poems there may happen to be in the future will be in French.
A note from Pelorson this morning, commanding me to his
presence next Saturday afternoon for a reading of Caligula (his
play). I have seen nothing of them at all lately, I suppose because
I am so little interested in the turn his writing has taken. I think
I told you about my having been so indiscrete [sic] as to say to
Marcelle at the Joyce birthday party, when she invited my opin­
ion, that the review might with more justice be called Nolontes.
AlsoJolas, Henry Miller, Guegen [for Gueguen], & Cie. , all ofthem
9
eve of her departure for south of France, to see the exiled Douglas. I also saw Howard again for a moment, very convulsed & aloof. 10
Had a lovely afternoon yesterday in the Louvre, just strol­
ling around without working. The topography is all changed, for
the worse I think, though I suppose it is only provisional. For ex.
to get from the Salle des 7 Metres to the Grande Galerie one
has to make a long detour through the French rooms. Half the
Grande Galerie is closed. I had forgotten the little Fabritius. A very
slapdash attribution. More like a Flinck. The Baldovinetti (? ) &
Verocchio [for Verrocchio] Virgins & Childs were lovely & the
Mantegnas all of a sudden extraordinarily disappointing, except
11
money on her little house at Greystones harbour, turning down
614
disturb one another.
I wrote a short poem in French but otherwise nothing.
8
leading lights, are not enticing.
I had a few minutes with Nancy Cunard the other evening, the
the Sebastian.
News from home good. Mother still very busy spending
3 April 1938, McGreevy offers for Cooldrinagh, and obviously very lonely. Jean appa­
rently incredibly enormous 2 months before her time, & Frank
12
Exhibition, & expect to stay with Geoffrey. They may be here for
13
Do you remember the Courbet self-portrait? Airily dis­ missed in my little book as a pleasant imitation of Titian's Homme au gant! 14
Write soon. God's blessing. Sam
ALS: 2 leaves, 5 sides: letterhead: LA ROTONDE EN MONTPARNASSE, 105 BD DU MONTPARNASSE, PARIS; TCD, MS 10402/159-
1 Dylan Thomas's review was critical of Murphy, but Edwin Muir commented positively on SB's wit, and concluded, "there are very amusing episodes . . . and if this book does not completely bore or exasperate the reader, it will probably give him more than ordinary amusement" (Muir, "New Novels," 597). Richard Church called Murphy "a riot of highbrow fun," and Kate O'Brien (1897-1974) wrote, "Rarely, indeed, have I been so entertained by a book. so tempted to superlatives and perhaps hyper­ boles ofpraise. It truly is magnificent and a treasure . . . For the right readers it is a book in a hundred thousand" (Richard Church, "Samuel Beckett gives us 'a riot of highbrow fun. ""John O'London's Weekly 39. 990 (1 April 1938) 23; Kate O'Brien, "Fiction," The Spectator 25 March 1938: 546).
2 By 31 March 1938, regular sales of Murphy accounted for 240 copies (UoR, Routledge).
No reviews had appeared in Ireland. Brian Coffey's review ofMurphy, dated "Paris. March, 1938," was written for Ireland To-Day, which discontinued publication with the March 1938 issue (3. 3) (DeU, Coffey, AMS ofreview; TxU, Coffey, TMS ofreview). SB is reminded ofhis essay "Censorship in the Saorstat" that was commissioned by The Bookman but not published because the journal ceased publication in December 1934 (see 8 September 1934, n. 9).
3 ThelettersfromJackYeats,LazAaronson,andGeoffreyThompsontoSBhavenot been found.
615
as usual up to his eyes in work.
I shall probably be in London early in May for the van Velde
a week-end before then.
of a room here, and am very very tired of hotel life and the lack of my books, and know I shall never do any work until I find a place of my own.
So far I have found nothing in the way
3 April 1938, McGreevy
4 TheJoycesleftParisforSwitzerlandon6Februaryandplannedtobegoneabout three weeks, according to SB's letter to McGreevy of 11 February 1938 (TCD, MS 10402/ 156); Joyce returned to Paris early in March 1938 (Norburn, A James Joyce Chronology, 181). Joyce wrote to Carola Giedion-Welcker from Paris on 28 March 1938 that he had been unwell since his return Uoyce, Letters ofJames Joyce, III, 418). AsJoyce wrote to HelenJoyce, SB had dinner with them on 6 April at the Gormans' (419).
5 SamuelBeckett,"Alba,"tr. A. R. Peron,Soutes9(1938)41.
6 French writer and editor Raymond Queneau (1903-1976) was co-founder of Volontes (December 1937-1939) with Georges Pelorson, EugeneJolas, Pierre Gueguen (1889-1965), Henry Miller, Frederic Joliot-Curie (ne Jean-Frederic Joliot, 1900-1958), and Camille Schuwer (1888-1981); SB calls them the "galere" (crew) (for further information on the group: Vincent Giroud, "Transition to Vichy: The Case of Georges Pelorson," Modernism/Modernity 7. 2 [2000] 221-248).
The French publishing house Mercure de France was founded in 1894.
7 Alan Duncan's mother was Ellen Duncan (nee Douglas, known as Ellie, c. 1850-1939), a founder of the United Arts Club in Dublin, and first Curator of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin.
SB may have seen Henri Laugier with his companion Marie Cuttoli (1879-1973). who, with Laugier, built an important collection of contemporary art (see Collection Marie Cuttoli - Henri Laugier, Paris [Basel: Galerie Beyeler, 19701).
8 Thispoemmayhavebeenoneofthetwelvepublishedas"Poemes38-39,"Les Temps Modernes, 288-293.
9 Pelorson'splayCaligula,basedonthelifeofGaiusCaesarAugustusGermanicus (AD 12-41), Emperor of Rome from AD 37 to 41, was partially published in three issues ofVolontes: "Caligula - Prologue," Volontes 1 Uanuary 1938) 18-27; "Caligula - Acte III," Volontes 3 (March 1938) 41-59; "Caligula - Acte IV," Volontes 8 (August 1938) 30-35.
According to EugeneJolas's notes for an autobiography, "Pelorson was writing plays with a fascist tendency then and he would invite his friends to listen to his reading of them" (CtY, Eugene and MariaJolas Papers, GEN MS 108/Boxes 5-12 [Drafts of Man from Babel]; not included inJolas, Manfrom Babel).
SB had written to McGreevy on 11 February 1938: "I told Marcelle Pelorson bluntly at theJoyce party that I found Georges' editorials negative & far too angry & that a better title for the review, to judge by its appearances to date, would be Nolontes" (TCD, MS 10402/156). "Volontes" (acts of will), a noun ultimately derived from the Latin verb "velle" (to want); SB invents an antonym similarly derived from the Latin verb "nolle" (not to want): "Nolontes. "
"Cie. " (Co. ).
10 Nancy Cunard left to see Norman Douglas, who had been an expatriate in Florence for many years, but who left Italy hurriedly inJune 1937 on account of legal difficulties that were unresolved untilJanuary 1938, whereupon he decided he would remain in France (see Mark Holloway, Norman Douglas: A Biography [London: Secker and Warburg. 1976] 430-438).
Brian Howard.
11 TheLouvre'sSalledes7Metres,offtheStaircaseDarn,normallywouldhaveled directly into the Grande Galerie de Peinture; however, the adjacent portion of the
616
22 Avril {1938}, Reavey
Grande Galerie was closed, leaving access through the French rooms (at that time the Salle Daru, the Salle Denon, and the Salle des Etats, or possibly even a further detour through the Salle Moilien and the small galleries facing the Cour Lefuel).
It is not known to which painting by Carel Fabritius SB refers. Head ofan Elderly Man (Louvre, R. F.
3834) is a relatively small portrait (24 x 20. 7 cm); it was acquired by the Louvre in 1934 and is attributed to Carel Fabritius, but this attribution is considered doubtful by Christopher Brown (Carel Fabritius: Complete Edition with a Catalogue Raisonne [Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1981] 129). The Louvre did not own a painting by Carel's brother Barent Fabritius (1624-1673) at this time. Dutch painter Govaert Flinck (1615-1660).
The image of Vir. gin and Child (Louvre, R. F. 1112) by Florentine painter Alesso Baldovinetti (c. 1425-1499) was on the card SB had sent to George Reavey on 23 March 1938.
Florentine sculptor and painter Andrea de! Verrocchio (Andrea di Michele di Francesco Cioni, 1435 - c. 1488) was a pupil of Baldovinetti, whose workshop also included Leonardo da Vinci, Lorenzo di Credi (c. 1456-1536), Perugino, and Domenico Ghirlandaio. There are few paintings ascribed to Verrocchio and none in the Louvre; however, the association of his workshop may have been mentioned in the many depictions of "Virgin and Child" by da Vinci and his other pupils; Ghirlandaio's Vir. gin and Child (Louvre, R. F. 1266) is described by the Louvre as influenced by Verrocchio.
Andrea Mantegna's St. Sebastian (Louvre, R. F. 1766).
12 GreystonesisonthecoastinCo. Wicklow. FrankandJeanBeckettwereexpect­
ing their first child.
13 The Geer van Velde Exhibition at Guggenheim Jeune: 5 January 1938, n. 4. Geoffrey and Ursula Thompson.
14 Theself-portraitbyGustaveCourbettowhichSBrefersisManwiththeLeatherBelt (Louvre R. F. 339, now in the Musee d'Orsay); Titian's Portrait ofa Man is also known as Man with the Glove (Louvre, inv. 757).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
22 Avril (1938]
6 Rue des Favorites (Paris] 15me
Dear George
Thanks for letter & article, which I liked very much indeed,
though I find him less quietist than you suggest. However it is a
good line for the public. The Fabritius street-comer by the way in
the National is very Japanese.
1
617
22 Avril {1938}, Reavey
I hope some American mug takes Murphy soon. I want money very badly at the moment. 2 Keep the 50 fr till we meet.
I have been camping in the new place for the past week & am slowly getting installed. I like it. It is bright & there is a staircase to stagger up at night. I hope next time you come you will stay with me. 3
I had a letter from Peggy very worried about the triage of
pictures & anxious for the "Picassos" to be excluded as far as
possible. I replied telling her not to worry, that Geer's most
Picasso was about as Picasso as Dawson's ex-surrealist's arse.
She informs me further that she is using my note after all. And
4
vemissage is all I can say for certain. There is a possibility of my getting a free ride par les airs. 5
Must I see Routledge & Co? With nothing in my hand? 6
I wrote another French poem. Will the ELB publish Poems in French & English? 7
Love to you both Sam
ALS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; letterhead: LA ROYALE, 25, RUE ROYALE; TxU.
1 SBreferstoGeorgeReavey'sintroductionfortheGeervanVeldeExhibitionatthe Guggenheim Jeune ("Geer van Velde," London Bulletin 2 [May 1938] 16). Reavey writes: "In the case of Geer van Velde, the motive of desire is already dead because life has been lived unsparingly. In its place there is a timeless nostalgia, a sort of disembodied all-pervading harmony more akin to Chinese than to western European philosophy. "
SB refers to Carel Fabritius's painting A View ofDelft with Musical Instrument Seller's Stall in the National Gallery, London (NGL 3714).
2 ReaveywassendingMurphytoAmericanpublishers.
3 SBwritesfromhisnewapartment,6RuedesFavorites,Paris15. Itwasonthetop
floor and had inside stairs to a sleeping loft (see Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 265-266). 4 PeggyGuggenheimwantedtoexcludethosepaintingsbyGeervanVeldethatshe
felt were derived from Picasso's style; this may have prompted the final lines of SB's
618
my name. Tant pis pour tout le monde.
I am not sure when I shall arrive in London. In time for the
22 Avril {1938}, McGreevy
note introducing Geer van Velde's work: "Believes painting should mind its own business, i. e. colour. I. e. no more say Picasso than Fabritius. Vermeer. Or inversely" ("Geer van Velde," London Bulletin 2 ! May 1938] 15; rpt. Beckett, Disjecta, 117). SB's note on Geer van Velde is signed. "Tant pis pour tout le monde" (Too bad for everyone). The catalogue for the van Velde Exhibition appeared in the May issue of London Bulletin, which published the catalogues of three adjacent galleries on Cork Street (the London, the Major, and Guggenheim Jeune) ("Art: Popular Front," Cavalcade [21 May 1938] n. p. ).
Peter Norman Dawson (1902-1960), English surrealist painter, graphic artist and ceramicist. a member of the "London Group," and at this time Deputy Principal of the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, London; his work was included in the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture exhibition at Guggenheim Jeune, 21 June to2 July 1938.
5 The "vemissage" (private view) of theGeer van VeldeExhibition was held on 5 May 1938.
"Par Jes airs" (borne through the airs). On 28 April 1938, SB wrote to Reavey: "As there is no news of the flying-machine it is hard for me to say definitely when I arrive. But unless I am offered a free seat for Wednesday the 4! ! ! I shall be in London evening of Tuesday 3! ! ! " (TxU). And to McGreevy, 1 May 1938: "Will you reserve me a room at49 [HarringtonRoad] for Tuesday evening, if there is one to spare. I expect to arrive London about 6 p. m via Dieppe-Newhaven" (TCD, MS 10402/165).
6 RoutledgewasthepublisherofMurphy. T. M. Ragg,havingdealtexclusivelywith Reavey, had not met SB.
7 The French poem just written by SB has not been identified, but it is one of those published in the group "Poemes 38-39," Les Temps Modernes 288-293. Reavey's agency in London was theEuropean Literary Bureau; itsEuropa Press had published SB's first collection of poems, Echo's Bones and Other Precipitates. SB may be asking if
Reavey, now that he is based in London, would publish work that was in both French andEnglish.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
22 Avril [1938]
6 Rue des Favorites Paris 15me
Dear Tom
Herewith my new address. I have been camping there for
the past week. People have been good with presents to get me started, but it is a terribly expensive business. I like the place, it
619
22 Avril {1938}, McGreevy
is bright & comfortable, & I like the quarter, well away from the
1
I have been living very quietly, seeing the Joyces a little, &
Brian a little, and one or two French people, & that is all. A
couple of poems in French in the last fortnight are the extent
of my work since coming to Paris. Peron's Soutes is publishing
2
I shall be in London for the van Velde exhibition, staying probably with Geoffrey. I would prefer to be independent at Harrington Road, but I am lamentably broke. 4 I don't expect I shall be able to afford more than a few days, which means I suppose my being rude to people I have no wish to be rude to.
Leventhal was over at Easter, also Aaronson, also Harry Johnson(. . . ] It is a great relief to be out of hotel, & in light & air
(7! ! ! floor, lift day & night).
Frank was ill but is all right again. 5 Mother melancholy. Write soon
Love ever Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 3 sides; letterhead: LA ROYALE, 25, RUE ROYALE, Paris; TCD, MS 10402/160. Dating: from address.
1 6RuedesFavorites,neartheVaugirardmetrostationandoffRuedeVaugirard. 2 BrianCoffey.
None of SB's poems in French was published in either Soutes or Volontes.
3 GeorgesPelorsonandhiswifeMarcelle. Caligula:3April1938,n. 9.
4 Originally, SB had planned to stay with Geoffrey and Ursula Thompson in London, but by 28 April he wrote to Reavey that he would probably stay at Harrington Road where McGreevy had a room (TxU).
620
stage artists. I hope you will very soon come & stay with me.
one,&perhapsVolontestheother. IwasroundatthePelorsons['] one afternoon to hear Georges read his play Caligula - 4 acts & a prologue. 3 Very accomplished & very dull. He feels my lack of interest in his present work & we meet very seldom.
[. . . ]
12 May 1938, Ussher
5 Harry Johnson may refer to Henry John Johnson (n. d. ) who was an External Auditor at Trinity College Dublin from 1931, and received an MA jure officii in 1940 from TCD; Johnson was Head Cashier of the Bank of Ireland Qohn Luce, 31 August 1993, 12November 1993).
Frank Beckett.
ARLAND USSHER
12/5/38 6 Rue des Favorites
Paris 15me
Dear Arland
Thanks for letter and MS, which I liked. The image of the
long drop and the garters was the best I have seen for a long
time, much better than Herriot's "obsolete vitamins ofromanti­
cism". I gave them to my agent, without any great hope ofhis
being able to place them, though the metaphysico-political is
1
for the opening of my Dutch-Paris friend Geer van Velde his exhibition ofhand-paintings. 2 At the opening was the Koenigs, who said that her best energies in Berlin at one period were expended on deciphering my postcards to you. 3 The same eve­ ning at the Cafe Royal I ran into Morrison, green-foaming at the commissures after dinner ofthe TCD association. I saw him the next day at lunch in De Hems oyster paradise, fresh from a successful collaboration in the sterilisation of the wife of a colleague. He quoted the opening of a work on which he is engaged, a version ofthe Pentateuch in heroic couplets free in every sense rather anti-semitic in tone. This no doubt for the delectation of Aaronson and Voigt, who were present. Uncertain what sandwich to eat with his brandy, and being asked by the waitress did he not care for salmon, he said: "No, nor Gluckstein
621
exactly his line.
I have just returned from a week in London, where I went
12 May 1938, Ussher
either. " He attributed the word Erse to Chaucer and declared
that it was in this language that Moses received the decalogue,
from those parts of Jehovah that alone were visible, i. e. the
4
Scottishnovelist,leftearly. SodidI. Voigtremained,todrink and enlargen his experience. I thought he was a pleasant man,
and the more so a night or two later when he was good enough
to incorporate one of my humble and stammering ideas in a
wireless address. He quoted the opening of the Midnight Court
6
Reddin, English lawyer and English-Israelite backer. Cissie and
family expect to arrive in London in about a week. They met
Fleck in Cape Town where apparently he is having some
7
mentioned as the rising Provost. He hopes to place an article by
me on the divine marquise [for divin marquis] in Hermathena of
all places, where by the way Miss Maccarthy has suddenly begun
8
them. Why not send him others? I can arrange of course with
9
ipsis silemus) and French anacreontics. 10 Ew. Wohlgeb.
ergebenster Diener11 sf Sam
TIS; 1 leaf, 1 side; pencil signature; TxU.
622
hinder. And so on. A Mr Brown, I think Hilton Brown, a
5
in what was good enough for me.
I also ran into Harry Sinclair, complete with Norman
success.
Con was in Paris at Easter, as was Aaronson. He is being
to translate from Stefan Georg[e].
I spoke to Voigt of your essays and he became anxious to see
Reavey to pass on to him those he has.
I read nothing and write nothing, unless it is Kant (de nobis
1 ArlandUssher had sent SB the manuscript ofhis essay "The Age ofShadows" which addressed the transition from the eighteenth century to the twentieth:
In the eighteenth century the static world ofantiquity had broken thread after thread that suspended it from the arch ofheaven, until it hung by a single gossamer; now the last thread has snapped . . . Then came a first collision, the Great War; and since then we have become a little still, a little frightened. Yet most are drunken with the intoxication ofspeed, though a few are trying to attach the careering world to some subjective absolute of the Beautiful or the Useful (which is like hoping to break one's fall by pulling at one's own garters). (ArlandUssher. "Three Essays," Nineteenth Century and After 124. 742 [December 1938] 736-737)
SB comparesUssher's images to those ofFrench politician and writer Edouard Herriot (1872-1957), who studied at the Ecole Normale Superieure. The source ofthe phrase "obsolete vitamins ofromanticism" is not known. SB gaveUssher's essays to George Reavey.
2 Geer van Velde's exhibition at Guggenheim Jeune; it is not known what SB intends by "hand-paintings. "
3 Mrs. Koenig,whoknewUssherinBerlin,hasnotbeenidentified.
4 EdwardMorrison(1897-1968),aphysiciantrainedatTrinityCollegeDublinand practicing at this time in London; his anti-Semitic attitude is evident in a letter to Ussher written on 7 January 1939 (TCD, MS 9037/2597), decryingUssher's intention to
house Jewish refugees in Ireland.
De Hems Pub, 11 Macclesfield Street, Soho, London, called attention to its specialty
with oyster shells on its walls.
Morrison's authorship ofa version ofthe Pentateuch is SB's invention.
Lazarus Aaronson, who was Jewish.
Frederick Augustus Voigt (1892-1957), Editor of Nineteenth Century and After
from 1936 to 1946 and a regular commentator on the BBC. Voigt's anti-Nazi stance was articulated in his book Unto Caesar: On Political Tendencies in Modem Europe (1938).
The London catering firm ofJ. Lyons and Co. was begun by the Salmon and Gluckstein families (Isador Gluckstein, 1851-1920; Montague Gluckstein, 1854-1922; Barney Salmon, 1829-1897; Alfred Salmon, 1868-1928); they collaborated with Joseph Lyons (1847-1917) whose name was adopted for the company.
"Erse" (the Irish language) is linked by Morrison to the spelling of"arse" used by Geoffrey Chaucer.
5 Scottish novelist Charles Hilton Brown (1890-1961), whose short stories were frequently broadcast by the BBC.
6 FrederickVoigt'sWorldAffairstalkontheBBCon9May1938,"TheRomeTalks. " was the first that followed SB's meeting with him on 5 May. It is not known what he may have incorporated in it from SB's conversation, and there is no quotation ofthe comic poem in Gaelic by Brian Merriman (c. 1745-1805). Voight must have declaimed the opening ofThe Midnight Court (Cuirt an Mheadhon Oidhche, 1780) that evening, for it was not part ofhis radio talk.
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12 May 1938, Ussher
12 May 1938, Ussher
7 Gerard Norman Reddin (1896-1942), a lawyer and playwright, active with the Irish Theatre in Dublin and a founding Director of the Gate Theatre .
Cissie Sinclair and her two youngest daughters were returning from South Africa via London to Dublin. German artist Otto Julius Carl Fleck (1902-1960) studied at the Kassel Academy under Ewald Dulberg and knew the Sinclairs when they lived in Kassel; he later worked as an art restorer with several major collections in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and had an exhibition of his work in 1938 in Johannesburg.