16
Geraldine
Cummins's novel Fires of Beltane was reviewed by Sean O'Faolain ("Fiction," Ireland To-Day 1.
Samuel Beckett
12.
A mention ofSB's Echo's Bones occurs in the column signed by M.
C.
, "Transition, A Very Modem Magazine, The Artistic Left Wing"' (The Irish Times 25 July 1936: 7): "Incidentally, the present issue has a local interest.
Mr.
Samuel Beckett reproduces three poems from his latest book, 'Echo's Bones.
' They are 'difficult,' but not more so than the poems of many modem authors, and in no way to be compared with the extravagances of some of the other contributors.
.
.
11 Geraldine Cummins's novel Fires of Beltane (1936) was reviewed by Doreen Wallace: "Ireland in Fiction: More Stories about 'The Troubles'" (Sunday Times 21 June 1936: 9). Her novel was also listed as a best-selling book in the 20 and 27 June 1936 column, "What Ireland is Reading" (The Irish Times: 7).
12 ChattoandWindussentastatementofaccountsdated1April1935to31March 1936 showing sales of thirty copies of Proust (twenty-eight in Britain, two as export) and two copies of More Pricks Than Kicks (InU, John Calder, Ltd. , Authors' Correspondence, Box 1/52).
13 ThethirdanniversaryofWilliamBeckett'sdeathwas26June. Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, Wales.
348
1. William Beckett, Samuel Beckett's father
2. Samuel Beckett's uncle Edward Price Roe with his mother Maria Jones Roe Beckett (known as May)
3. William Abraham Sinclair (known as Boss)
4. Frances Beckett Sinclair (known as Fanny, and as Cissie)
5. Ruth Margaret Sinclair (! mown as Peggy)
6. Morris Sinclair (known in the family as Sunny)
8. Alan and Belinda Atkinson Duncan, with Thomas McGreevy
7. Thomas McGreevy
9. GeoffreyThompson
10. Samuel Beckett
11. AbrahamJacobLeventhal (known as Con)
12. Percival Arland Ussher
13. Ethna Maccarthy by Sean O'Sullivan
14. Mary Manning Howe
15. Nuala Costello
16. Ilse Lynn Schneider
17. Geer and Lisl van Velde, Gwynedd Reavey, and, lower right, George Reavey
Not short stories this time, I am glad to say.
Will you let me have Chatto's decision as soon as conven
7July 1936, McGreevy
IAN PARSONS
CHATTO AND WINDUS, LONDON
June 29th 1936
6 Clare Street DUBLIN
Dear Parsons
Just a scribble to cover Ms. I am sending you by this post.
1
iently possible? I need not say how glad I would be to be pub
2
Very Sincerely Sam. Beckett
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; notations in AH; UoR. MS 2444 CW 59/9. 1 SubmissionofSB'snovelMurphy.
2 ChattoandWindushadpublishedProust(1931)andMorePricksThanKicks(1934). THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
July 7th 1936 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
DearTom
I need not tell you I was delighted with your letter. I was
afraid you would not like it much at all. I find the people all so
hateful myself, even Celia, that to have you find them lovable
lished again by you.
I hope you keep well.
surprises and delights me.
1
349
7 July 1936, McGreevy
The point you raise is one that I have given a good deal of
thought to. Very early on, when the mortuary and Round Pond
scenes were in my mind as the necessary end, I saw the difficulty
and danger of so much following Murphy's own "end". 2 There
seemed 2 ways out. One was to let the death have its head in a
frank climax and the rest be definitely epilogue (by some
such means as you suggest. I thought for example of putting the
game of chess there in a section by itself. ) And the other, which
I chose and tried to act on, was to keep the death subdued and go
on as coolly and finish as briefly as possible. I chose this because
it seemed to me to consist better with the treatment of Murphy
throughout, with the mixture of compassion, patience, mockery
and "tat twam asi" that I seemed to have directed on him through
out, with the sympathy going so far and no further (then losing
3
There seemed to me always the risk of taking him too seriously
and separating him too sharply from the others. As it is I do not
4
Thanks a thousand times for reading it and writing[. ] I value your opinion more than anybody's.
I had a curt acknowledgement of MS. from Parsons and so
5
patience) as in the short statement of his mind's fantasy of itself.
think the mistake (Aliosha mistake) has been altogether avoided. A rapturous recapitulation of his experience following its "end" would seem to me exactly the sort of promotion that I want to avoid; and an ironical one is I hope superfluous. I find the mistake in the mortuary scene, which I meant to make more rapid but which got out of hand in the dialogue. Perhaps it is saved from anticlimax by presence of M. all through. I felt myself he was liable to recur in his grotesque person until he was literally one with the dust. And if the reader feels something similar it is what I want. The last section is just the length and speed I hoped, but the actual end doesn't satisfy me very well.
farnothingfurther. Itwouldsavetroubleiftheytookiton,but
350
7July 1936, McGreevy
in many ways I would be glad if they did not. I sent my own copy
to Simon & Schuster. Charles, back in Greenock now and due in
London soon again, wrote very amiably about it, suggesting
6
about your not getting Harvard job. She knows nothing of Farmer
except that his application arrived before yours. She has a play
going on at St. Martins in September. 7 I meet [for met] Eileen
Hennessey Ganly last night with her bull and found her unpleas
ant. 8 I went out to Lachan (Glencree valley) to see Lilian Donaghy
who is living in a cottage Uoe Campbell's) with Charlie Gilmore,
brother of George. She has Donaghy's 2 sons there and a daughter
Frere Reeves if Chattos turned it down.
Mary Manning Mark de Wolfe Howe is here now and sad
by Gilmore. He is sehr simpatisch [for sympathisch], a gipsy, on the 9
dole. Lyle is in Merrion Avenue the last I heard, with one of
Leventhal's single beds. I was looking through his Into the Light,
full of good things in what he believes to be the Celtic-Aristocratic
Classical channel, and an absurd preface, with words like puissant
and affiliations with Higgins. 10 I was down at the mailboat last
Monday week meeting Frank returning from Anglesea and WB
stalked off with his bodyguard, Lennox, Dolly, Gogarty, Walter
Starkie, O'Connor, Hayes, Higgins, all twined together. I went last
Sunday to see Ruddy and met Hackett and his Danish wife, colour
of urine and a devout gardener. Her Hans Christian Andersen I
have not had the pleasure of, but understand she makes him
burst into sobs every third page. Ruddy's mother was a Dane -
Ru[d]mose - and Andersen read his fairy tales to her. Hackett was
dressed from head to foot in white twill and was amusing. He is
now at work on a historical novel about Anne Boleyn from the
11
Had a letter from Geoffrey at last. He seems worked to death
at the Maudsley and Bunty has chicken pox. He wonders at me,
12
Butler end. His Green Line [for Green Lion] was banned.
for having stayed here so long.
Mother's brother from Notts
351
7 July 1936, McGreevy
(big game, angling[,] Wimbledon, arthritis, tobacco plantations,
Mombassa [for Mombasa] and no money) arrives with his second
wife (styles offurniture and the historical sense) in a fortnight's
time, to stay a fortnight, and until that is over I can't get away,
13
Leander), only the Jason-Medea trilogy, of which third part at
least is magnificent. 14 Do you know Barry's portrait of
Dr Johnson or where it is? Looked at in reproduction beside
the various Reynoldses it is very impressive, the mad terrified
15
I am very glad Fires of Beltane seems to go well. I saw it
favourably reviewed by O[']Faolain I think in that new rag
16
alertly bereaved, which is not meant to be an unkind description of a behaviour she cannot help. She read Esther Waters with
17
Reavey has not send [sic] me my copy ofthe Eluard. I presume he
avails himself of the words that passed to enjoy an extra free
copy. I am glad you liked my translations. I have not seen them
for years. Does the one you mention begin "She is standing on
19
20
even ifI had the money.
I am reading Grillparzer, but not the best of him (Hero &
face that I feel was the truth a very little below the adipose.
Ireland Today.
Frank doesn't seem in very good form and Mother remains
loathing.
I wrote to Brian, with none ofthe information he wanted.
18
my lids"? I have not even got copies ofthem.
I saw a cautious review by Denis ofO'Connor's poems, in I.
Today, accomplished & noncommittal. for a long time.
Himself! have not seen
God love thee, write again very soon and all my thanks for writing what is so nice to read, pace Mr Church, to hell with
21
sf Sam 352
Mr Church.
Yours ever
7July 1936, McGreevy
TIS; 2 leaves, 3 sides;Aenvto Thomas McGreevyEsq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 7-7-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/100. Previous publication: the paragraph that begins "The point you raise [. . . ]" is published in Bair, Samuel Beckett, 228-229, and Beckett, Disjecta, 102 (however, both give the date as 17 July 1936).
1 McGreevy's letter responding to the manuscript of Murphy has not been found. Celia is the heroine of Murphy.
2 After Murphy's death, the scene in the mortuary (Murphy, 254-276) is followed by a scene at the Round Pond (Murphy, 276-282) (see 8 September 1935 and 22 September 1935).
3 Murphy'schessgamewithMr. Endonispartofchapter11(Murphy,240-248).
"Tat twam asi" (Sanskrit, that thou art) is a phrase drawn from the Chandogya Upanishad (c. 600 BC) and taken up by Arthur Schopenhauer in the essay "Character"; Schopenhauer differentiates between two ways of "regarding the world": the first understands all others with indifference as "not ourselves," and the second, which he calls the "Tat-twam-asi - this-is-thyself principle," understands ali others as "identical with ourselves" (On Human Nature: Essays (partly Posthumous) in Ethics and Politics, selected and tr. by Thomas Bailey Saunders ! London: George Allen and Unwin, 1897; rpt 1926195).
SB refers to chapter 6 of Murphy in which "Murphy's mind pictured itself as a large hollow sphere" (107-113).
4 SBreferstoAlyoshainDostoevsky'sTheBrothersKaramazov.
5 Murphy was acknowledged by Ian Parsons, Chatto and Windus, on 1 July 1936
(UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 175/114).
6 SimonandSchuster,NewYorkpublishers.
Charles Prentice's letter to SB has not been found. However, on 8January 1937, Harold Raymond wrote toEnglish poet and critic Richard Thomas Church (1893-1972):
As I thought, Samuel Beckett's novel was very carefully read both by Ian Parsons and by my old partner, Charles Prentice, both of whom had always been especially interested in his work. They both felt full of respect for this novel but came to the conclusion that because of Beckett's frequent abstruse allusions and his generally somewhat recondite manner of writing, we might not fare any better with it than we did with his short stories. (UoR. MS 2444 CW letterbook 178/689)
Alexander Stuart Frere-Reeves (known to some as Frere, 1892-1984) was with the London publisher William Heinemann from 1923 to 1961, serving as its Chairman from 1945 to 1961.
7 MaryManningdeWolfeHoweandthepositionatHarvard:see25March1936, n. 3. Albert John Farmer (1894-1976) of the University of Bordeaux taught at Harvard during the first half of the academic year 1936-1937 on a French exchange program; from 1945 to 1964 he was Professor ofEnglish at the Sorbonne, University of Paris (Patrice Donoghue, Harvard University Archives, 7 November 1991).
Mary Manning did not have a play produced at the St. Martin's Theatre in London in the 1936-1937 season. However, her play Youth's the Season . . . ? opened in London at the Westminster Theatre on 5 October 1937 as part of the Longford Players Irish Season.
353
7 July 1936, McGreevy
8 WilliamandEileenHennesseyGanly.
9 Lilian Donaghy (also Lilyan, nee Roberts. n. d. ) had been married to Irish poet, John Lyle Donaghy. She and Charlie Gilmore (1905-1987). who, like his brother George Gilmore (1898-1985), was an Irish Nationalist, lived in Lachan, in the Glencree Valley near Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow; their cottage belonged to Irish poet and scholar, Joseph Campbell (1879-1944).
"Sehr sympathisch" (very nice).
10 JohnLyleDonaghywasstayinginDublinwithA. J. Leventhal,whoseaddressat this time is not known. SB writes Merrion Avenue, but there was none in Dublin (only Merrion Lane, Place, Square, Road, Row, and Street, and, near Blackrock, Mt. Merrion Avenue).
Donaghy discusses the "poetic tradition in Ireland" in his preface to Into the Light, saying that poets who had studied the classics created an Irish poetry that had affinities with Latin and Greek poetry: "By pure scholarship, the Irish tradition became essentially Gaelic classical" and "characteristically aristocratic" [i-ii]. Donaghy concludes:
F. R. Higgins is the most important of these poets who have in mind, once more, Irish poetry, integrally classical and aristocratic; national because they are national; imaginative, achieving the universal through the particular; individual, concrete, humanly rich, learned in craft and proudly licensed, strict, puissant. My own work is also in this tradition. ([iii])
11 Both Frank Beckett and W. B. Yeats returned to Ireland on the Hibernia. Associates from the Abbey Theatre who greeted Yeats on arrival were Lennox and Dolly Robinson, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Walter Starkie, Frank O'Connor, Dr. Richard Hayes (1882-1958), F. R. Higgins, and Ernest Blythe (1889-1975) ("Mr. W. B. Yeats at Home Again: Welcomed at Dun Laoghaire," The Irish Times 30 June 1936: 9; this article identifies Dr. Richard Hayes as Liam Hayes).
On 4July SB met Francis Hackett and his wife Signe Toksvig (1891-1983) at the home of Rudmose-Brown. Toksvig, who wrote The Life of Hans Christian Andersen (1934), had edited his Fairy Tales and Stories (1928). Toksvig's garden at Killadreenan House is often a subject in Signe Toksvig's Irish Diaries 1926-1937, ed. Lis Pihl (1994).
Hackett wrote historical fiction, Henry the Eighth (1928) and Francis the First (1934); he began his novel on Anne Boleyn (1507-1536) from the perspective of one of her cousins, James Butler, later 9th Earl of Ormond (c. 1496-1546), whom Anne had declined to marry (see Queen Anne Boleyn, a novel [New York: Doubleday Doran, 1939! 44-45, 478, 485). Hackett's novel The Green Lion (1936) considers the last campaign of Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) to regain popular support after he was deposed by his party over issues of adultery and divorce.
12 GeoffreyThompson'swife,Ursula(knownasBunty),hadcontractedchickenpox.
13 MayBeckett'sbrother,EdwardRoe,marriedhissecondwife,FlorenceBentley (n. d. ), in 1917. Having lived in the British protectorate Nyasaland (from independence in 1964 known as Malawi) in East Africa, Roe would have been familiar with the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa, Kenya.
14 Austrian writer Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872) wrote Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (1831; The Waves of the Sea and of Love, also translated as Hero and Leander) and Das Goldene Vliess (1821; The Golden Fleece). a dramatic trilogy of the Jason-Medea story. the third part of which was Medea.
354
15 Theunfinishedsketchinoilsofaportrait. Dr. SamuelJohnson(NPG1185). wasmade by James Bany {1741-1806) for The Distribution of Premiums. a mural in the series "The Progress of Human Culture·· (The Royal Society of Arts. London). Joshua Reynolds {1723-1792) painted several portraits ofJohnson: National Portrait Gallery (1597); Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent (258); Tate Britain (887); Harvard University (HNASO).
16 Geraldine Cummins's novel Fires of Beltane was reviewed by Sean O'Faolain ("Fiction," Ireland To-Day 1. 2 Uuly 1936] 70-72).
17 GeorgeMoore,EstherWaters(1894).
18 BrianCoffey(see9June1936,n. 14).
19 Eluard,ThornsofThunder. Withregardtothewordsthatpassed:9June1936,20 June 1936, and 27 June 1936; for SB's translations see 2 May 1936, n. 2. "She is standing on my lids" is the first line ofSB's translation ofEluard's "L'Amoureuse" (Thorns ofThunder, 1).
20 FrankO'Connor'scollectionofpoemsThreeOldBrothers(1936)wasreviewedby Denis Devlin. "Another Irish Poet. "" Ireland To-Day 1. 2 Uuly 1936) 77-79.
21 SB may be referring to Henry Church. a patron of McGreevy's, who had not cared for SB's More Pricks Than Kicks, which he had read on McGreevy's advice; Church had commented, "when a friend recommends a friend, je me mefie. 1 mean we are always inclined to magnify a friend's talent, to bask in the sun ofhis genius; that we are all apt to practice nepotism" (Henry Church to Thomas McGreevy, 16 December 1935, TCD, MS 8119/19). "Je me mefie" (I am on my guard).
[c. mid-July 1936], O'Sullivan
SEUMAS o'sULLIVAN DUBLIN
[c. mid-July 1936]
Two Poems by Samuel Beckett1 1.
why were you not simply what I despaired for an occasion ofwordshed2
is it better to abort than be barren
The hours after you are gone are so leaden they will always start dragging too soon
the grapples clawing blindly the bed ofwant
[Dublin]
355
[c. mid-July 1936}, O'Sullivan
bringing up the bones the old loves
sockets once filled with eyes like yours
all always better too soon than never 3
the black want splashing their faces
saying again nine days never floated the loved nor nine months
nor nine lives
2.
saying again
if you do not teach me I shall not learn saying again there is a last
even of last times
last times of begging
last times of loving
of knowing not knowing pretending
a last even of last times of saying
if you do not love me I shall not be loved if I do not love you I shall not love
the churn of old words in the heart again love love love thud of the old plunger pestling the unalterable
whey of words
terrified again of not loving
of loving and not you
of being unloved and not by you
of knowing not knowing pretending pretending
I and all the others that will love you if they love you4
[OS]
356
TMS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; initialed by Seumas O'Sullivan and on each page <Sam. Beckett>; TCD, MS 4630-49/3333. Dating: mid-July 1936; a copy of poems was sent to McGreevy [15 July 1936[; SB writes in his letter to McGreevy, 17 July [1936[: "Forgive the poems J. . . J I send [sic[ poems to Seumas O'S. "
1 The Trinity College Dublin catalogue for the Seumas O'Sullivan collection indicates the heading for this MS to be: "2 poems, 'title added by S. O'Sullivan; printed as one poem Cascando. "' The manuscript was published as one poem under the title "Cascando" in Dublin Magazine, 11. 4 (October-December 1936) 3-4.
2 InthepoemaspublishedinDublinMagazine,thesefirsttwolinesareomitted.
3 InthepoemaspublishedinDublinMagazine,thislinewasprintedas"allalwaysis
it better too soon than never. · It is unknown if SB made this change.
4 SBwrotetoMcGreevyon26July1936thathehadaddedanotherlinetotheendof this poem: "Unless they love you. " This line appears in the poem as published in Dublin Magazine, in a separate section, numbered 3:
3.
unless they love you.
IAN PARSONS
CHATTO AND WINDUS, LONDON
17/7/36 6 Clare Street Dublin
My dear Parsons
Thank you for your letter, also MS. Believe me, I understand
your position very well. 1 Yours very sincerely
Sam. Beckett
ALS: 1 leaf, 1 side; UoR, MS 2444 CW 59/9.
1 IanParsonswrotetoSBon15July1936:
Dear Beckett,
We have read "Murphy" with very great pleasure and I wish I could
write and say that we felt able to publish it. But truth to tell the novel racket has reached such a pass today that a book, such as yours, which makes real demands on the reader's intelligence and general knowledge has less chance than ever of gaining a hearing, and I'm afraid we've reluctantly had to decide that times aren't good enough generally to allow us to take it on despite the state of the market.
357
17July 1936, Parsons
17 July 1936, Parsons
I hope I need not say how extremely sorry I am to have to give you this decision. We should so very much have liked to have another work ofyours on our list. But you will. I'm sure, understand our position and I hope not think too hardly ofus. And no doubt you'll be able to find another publisher who thinks as highly of "Murphy" as we do, but who takes a less gloomy view ofthe outlook for books ofthis kind. At any rate I sincerely hope so.
With kindest regards, and renewed regrets, Yours sincerely.
! Ian Parsons!
P. S. I am posting the MS. back to you under separate registered cover.
(UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 175/318)
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
17/7 [1936]
Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Forgive the poems.
Just heard from Parsons. Honeyed regrets. So am sending M.
to Frere-Reeves to-day. No news at all from Simon & Schuster, not even acknowledgement ofreceipt. 2
Ran into Devlin one evening in town. Noticed no change. He has I think a bad poem in Dublin Mag. My own review ofJBY seems dishonest & surfait. However it pleased him & that is all that matters. 3
Brian Coffey has just rung up. I shall be very glad to see him again -4
The new acquisitions in the Gallery, on view on screen in the
mortuary department, 2 Bazzani & a Jan Lys, are really appalling.
Not quite so bad perhaps as the Gentileschi, but sublime waste of
money. 5 As though it were not precisely an excess of that dreary
third rate that spoils the Gallery & swamps the Treasures. The
Perugino has gone to London to be cleaned (the big one). It was
6
1
overcleanedlongagoIthought. ThelasttimeIwasthereIcouldn't
358
17July {1936}, McGreevy
rest before anything. It was fuller than I ever saw it, Americans mostly, & a sprinkling of the surprised without coats or umbrellas.
I send [for sent] the poems to Seumas O'S. 7
I was at Yeats's Saturday. He had just finished a new picture,
a man sitting reading in a fuchsia hedge, with storm clearing
over sea. Lovely passages but unsatisfactory I found generally.
Something almost like artificial excitement. How is the book
8
9
ALS; 1 leaf. 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq. 15 Cheyne Gardens, London SW 3; pm 17-7-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/102. Dating: from pm.
1 SBhadsentthetwopoems,latermadeoneas"Cascando,"toMcGreevyon15July 1936 (TCD MS 10402/101).
2 SBreferstoIanParsons'sletterof15July1936rejectingMurphy. ItwasCharles Prentice's suggestion to try Frere-Reeves, ifChatto and Windus refused Murphy (see 7 July 1936). Beckett sent Murphy to Simon and Schuster before 7 July 1936 (see 27 June and 7 July 1936).
3 DenisDevlin'spoem"TheInvestitureofD'Artagnan"appearedinDublinMagazine 11. 3 Uuly-September 1936) 4.
going. He told me you were getting on with it.
Maurice Sinclair got back from Paris yesterday. I think he
saw Joyce but I was only talking to him for a second.
My copy of the Eluard came, duly signed by author & all available translators. He does come through after a fashion, the frailty & nervousness. But no attempt seems to have been made to translate the pauses. Like Beethoven played strictly to time. 10
God love thee. Write soon EVER
Sam
SB's review ofJack B. Yeats's novel The Amaranthers: "An Imaginative Work! " 80-81.
SB refers disparagingly to his own review in an Anglicism, as if"surfait" (overrated) meant "overdone. "
4 BrianCoffeywasinDublinonsummerholidays.
5 In1936,theNationalGalleryoflrelandpurchasedOurLordMeetsHisMother(NGI 982) and The Descent from the Cross (NGI 983) by Giuseppe Bazzani (1690-1769) and The Vision of St. Jerome (NGI 981) by Johann Liss (also Lys. c. 1595-1631). Gentileschi, David and Goliath: see 7 May 1936, n. 9.
6 Perugino'sPieta(NGI942)hadbeenpurchasedfortheNationalGalleryin1931(see 20 December 1931, n. 5). Sebastian Ysepp (n. d. ), Restorer to the Kiinsthistorische
359
17 July {1936}, McGreevy
Museum in Vienna, submitted his evaluation on 6 June 1936; it indicated that the Perugino had been "spoiled through early restoration - particularly through unnecessary overpainting, darkened retouching, cracks in the paint and dangerous blisters" (NG! Archives). The painting was sent to Vienna for reconditioning, via London for X-ray photo, in July 1936 (Homan Potterton, "Introduction," National Gallery ofIreland: lllustrated Summary Catalogue ofPaintings xxxv-xxxvi; the 23 June 1936 Agenda for the Board of Governors and Guardians meeting on 1 July 1936 [NG! Archives]).
7 SeeSBtoSeumasO'Sullivan,[mid-July1936].
8 JackB. Yeats,InTirnanOg(Gaelic,TheLandoftheYoung)(privatecollection,Pyle 491), pictures a young man reading beneath a hedge (Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne ofthe Oil Paintings, I, 446; Ill, 209).
McGreevy had begun work on the essay published (under MacGreevy) asJack B. Yeats: An Appredation and an Interpretation (Dublin: Victor Waddington Publications, 1945).
9 Morris Sinclair's meeting with Joyce: 26 July [1936] and n. 9.
10 Eluard's poems in Thoms of Thunder were translated by SB, Denis Devlin, David
Gascoyne,Eugene Jolas, Man Ray, George Reavey, and Ruthven Todd. It is not known who had signedSB's copy.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
July 26th [1936]
Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Many thanks for your letter & remarks on the poems. I think
you are probably right about the opening. I was afraid you would find the second halfsloppy & am relieved that you did not. I have added a line to the end: "Unless they love you. " 1
Had a note from Frere acknowledging MS. He was good enough to remember our brief meeting Place du Pantheon, & to regret we had not met in London. They won't touch it. What disquiets me is absence of news from Simon and Schuster. Not even an acknowledgement of MS though they have had plenty of time to do so. 2
About meeting Dolly & Lennox, I feel it would probably go quite well with her, but not at all with him -3
360
Frank left yesterday for a motoring holiday in Northern
Ireland, & will be away 10 days. He is 34 to-day. Mother is the
picture of misery, one of her periodical attacks. I brought her
last Tuesday to a donkey show at Goffs Stables, & found Jack
4
Was in the Gallery yesterday. Another new work, vaguely
Austrian primitive, a panel painted both sides, on one Veronica's
Sudarium, on the other the 12 in a strange scene. 5 The magnificent
glass case in which it is exposed in centre of floor of Brouwer's
room, cost £50. Good old Furlong. He hopes to take all the Dutch
pictures down to the print room, & extend the Italians into the
6
7
refuge, or perhaps seeks clarity for himself, in Thomist terms
that I do not follow. Perhaps the problem is common, the prob
lems, but stated so differently that no headway is possible. He
8
say they can do nothing more to help him. He is perhaps better
than when he went in 14 months ago. He returns to his family
next Tuesday week. Sonny saw Joyce for about 5 minutes only.
He was very pris & rather cold from what I can make out. His face
lit up at your name, but not at mine. What can only have been
9
bewildered & resentful.
Am reading Guarini's Pastor Fido again. Lancret to Tasso's
Watteau except that the technique is magnificent. Then I hope
Yeatsthere,makingsketchesforapicture. Motherhadnotmet him before. She remarked how sad & ill he looked.
26 July {1936}, McGreevy
Dutchrooms,insinglelinehanging. YesterdayIwaslookingat the drawings & found an Elsheimer, to my joy. And a Mantegna
sketch for the Triumph of Caesar.
The walk with Brian was ambling and incoherent. He takes
talked attractively of Spinoza.
Boss Sinclair is being turned out of Newcastle, where they
Leon arrived while Sonny was there.
Had a sad friendly note from Hester_Io I can imagine her
to settle down to Faust.
II
361
26 July {1936}, McGreevy
Newman has been very plausible on the symphonic ballet.
Is he a bad logician on purpose, because he knows how much
more persuasive sophistry is? And how appallingly English the
sense of humour. Surely a Wagnerite must admire Choreartium
for all the wrong reasons. And to extend a protest against sym
phony for balletic purposes to a protest against lyric for Lieder
12
may get a kind word at last. I got my copy & wince at my trans
lations. I extended the little finger ofreconciliation to G. R. & had
it cordially wrung. Transition has appeared with 3 Bones, but no
13
from hospital psychiatry to psychoanalysis. Ursula has been considerably ill but is well again now. 14
I can't get away till September at earliest, as Mother's brother & his wife are coming in the middle of August to stay
15
Charles is in London again & expects to have to stay there for about two months for post-operative treatment. He still has
16
Schone Grtisse to Hester17
362
purposes surely is nonsense.
Leventhal is reviewing Thorns of Thunder for Seumas, so I
payment.
The news of Geoffrey is good, & he hopes soon to escape
a fortnight.
I hope I am not too old to take it up seriously, nor too stupid about machines to qualify as a commercial pilot. I do not feel like spending the rest of my life writing books that no one will read. It is not as though I wanted to write them.
I think the next little bit of excitement is flying.
some bug in his gut.
God love thee & write very soon
Ever Sam
26 July {1936}, McGreevy
ALS; 2 leaves, 4 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London SW 3; pm 26-7-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/103.
1 Theopeninglines,"whywereyounotsimplywhatIdespairedfor/anoccasion ofwordshed" were omitted when published as "Cascando," in Dublin Magazine, 3-4, but restored in subsequent publications. For the added line: [c. mid-July 1936], n. 4.
2 SB had sent Murphy to A. S. Frere-Reeves on 17 July 1936. Simon and Schuster: 7 July 1936, n. 6.
3 DollyandLennoxRobinson.
4 FrankBeckett.
Gaffs Stables, dealing in bloodstock sales, celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 1936.
11 Geraldine Cummins's novel Fires of Beltane (1936) was reviewed by Doreen Wallace: "Ireland in Fiction: More Stories about 'The Troubles'" (Sunday Times 21 June 1936: 9). Her novel was also listed as a best-selling book in the 20 and 27 June 1936 column, "What Ireland is Reading" (The Irish Times: 7).
12 ChattoandWindussentastatementofaccountsdated1April1935to31March 1936 showing sales of thirty copies of Proust (twenty-eight in Britain, two as export) and two copies of More Pricks Than Kicks (InU, John Calder, Ltd. , Authors' Correspondence, Box 1/52).
13 ThethirdanniversaryofWilliamBeckett'sdeathwas26June. Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, Wales.
348
1. William Beckett, Samuel Beckett's father
2. Samuel Beckett's uncle Edward Price Roe with his mother Maria Jones Roe Beckett (known as May)
3. William Abraham Sinclair (known as Boss)
4. Frances Beckett Sinclair (known as Fanny, and as Cissie)
5. Ruth Margaret Sinclair (! mown as Peggy)
6. Morris Sinclair (known in the family as Sunny)
8. Alan and Belinda Atkinson Duncan, with Thomas McGreevy
7. Thomas McGreevy
9. GeoffreyThompson
10. Samuel Beckett
11. AbrahamJacobLeventhal (known as Con)
12. Percival Arland Ussher
13. Ethna Maccarthy by Sean O'Sullivan
14. Mary Manning Howe
15. Nuala Costello
16. Ilse Lynn Schneider
17. Geer and Lisl van Velde, Gwynedd Reavey, and, lower right, George Reavey
Not short stories this time, I am glad to say.
Will you let me have Chatto's decision as soon as conven
7July 1936, McGreevy
IAN PARSONS
CHATTO AND WINDUS, LONDON
June 29th 1936
6 Clare Street DUBLIN
Dear Parsons
Just a scribble to cover Ms. I am sending you by this post.
1
iently possible? I need not say how glad I would be to be pub
2
Very Sincerely Sam. Beckett
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; notations in AH; UoR. MS 2444 CW 59/9. 1 SubmissionofSB'snovelMurphy.
2 ChattoandWindushadpublishedProust(1931)andMorePricksThanKicks(1934). THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
July 7th 1936 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
DearTom
I need not tell you I was delighted with your letter. I was
afraid you would not like it much at all. I find the people all so
hateful myself, even Celia, that to have you find them lovable
lished again by you.
I hope you keep well.
surprises and delights me.
1
349
7 July 1936, McGreevy
The point you raise is one that I have given a good deal of
thought to. Very early on, when the mortuary and Round Pond
scenes were in my mind as the necessary end, I saw the difficulty
and danger of so much following Murphy's own "end". 2 There
seemed 2 ways out. One was to let the death have its head in a
frank climax and the rest be definitely epilogue (by some
such means as you suggest. I thought for example of putting the
game of chess there in a section by itself. ) And the other, which
I chose and tried to act on, was to keep the death subdued and go
on as coolly and finish as briefly as possible. I chose this because
it seemed to me to consist better with the treatment of Murphy
throughout, with the mixture of compassion, patience, mockery
and "tat twam asi" that I seemed to have directed on him through
out, with the sympathy going so far and no further (then losing
3
There seemed to me always the risk of taking him too seriously
and separating him too sharply from the others. As it is I do not
4
Thanks a thousand times for reading it and writing[. ] I value your opinion more than anybody's.
I had a curt acknowledgement of MS. from Parsons and so
5
patience) as in the short statement of his mind's fantasy of itself.
think the mistake (Aliosha mistake) has been altogether avoided. A rapturous recapitulation of his experience following its "end" would seem to me exactly the sort of promotion that I want to avoid; and an ironical one is I hope superfluous. I find the mistake in the mortuary scene, which I meant to make more rapid but which got out of hand in the dialogue. Perhaps it is saved from anticlimax by presence of M. all through. I felt myself he was liable to recur in his grotesque person until he was literally one with the dust. And if the reader feels something similar it is what I want. The last section is just the length and speed I hoped, but the actual end doesn't satisfy me very well.
farnothingfurther. Itwouldsavetroubleiftheytookiton,but
350
7July 1936, McGreevy
in many ways I would be glad if they did not. I sent my own copy
to Simon & Schuster. Charles, back in Greenock now and due in
London soon again, wrote very amiably about it, suggesting
6
about your not getting Harvard job. She knows nothing of Farmer
except that his application arrived before yours. She has a play
going on at St. Martins in September. 7 I meet [for met] Eileen
Hennessey Ganly last night with her bull and found her unpleas
ant. 8 I went out to Lachan (Glencree valley) to see Lilian Donaghy
who is living in a cottage Uoe Campbell's) with Charlie Gilmore,
brother of George. She has Donaghy's 2 sons there and a daughter
Frere Reeves if Chattos turned it down.
Mary Manning Mark de Wolfe Howe is here now and sad
by Gilmore. He is sehr simpatisch [for sympathisch], a gipsy, on the 9
dole. Lyle is in Merrion Avenue the last I heard, with one of
Leventhal's single beds. I was looking through his Into the Light,
full of good things in what he believes to be the Celtic-Aristocratic
Classical channel, and an absurd preface, with words like puissant
and affiliations with Higgins. 10 I was down at the mailboat last
Monday week meeting Frank returning from Anglesea and WB
stalked off with his bodyguard, Lennox, Dolly, Gogarty, Walter
Starkie, O'Connor, Hayes, Higgins, all twined together. I went last
Sunday to see Ruddy and met Hackett and his Danish wife, colour
of urine and a devout gardener. Her Hans Christian Andersen I
have not had the pleasure of, but understand she makes him
burst into sobs every third page. Ruddy's mother was a Dane -
Ru[d]mose - and Andersen read his fairy tales to her. Hackett was
dressed from head to foot in white twill and was amusing. He is
now at work on a historical novel about Anne Boleyn from the
11
Had a letter from Geoffrey at last. He seems worked to death
at the Maudsley and Bunty has chicken pox. He wonders at me,
12
Butler end. His Green Line [for Green Lion] was banned.
for having stayed here so long.
Mother's brother from Notts
351
7 July 1936, McGreevy
(big game, angling[,] Wimbledon, arthritis, tobacco plantations,
Mombassa [for Mombasa] and no money) arrives with his second
wife (styles offurniture and the historical sense) in a fortnight's
time, to stay a fortnight, and until that is over I can't get away,
13
Leander), only the Jason-Medea trilogy, of which third part at
least is magnificent. 14 Do you know Barry's portrait of
Dr Johnson or where it is? Looked at in reproduction beside
the various Reynoldses it is very impressive, the mad terrified
15
I am very glad Fires of Beltane seems to go well. I saw it
favourably reviewed by O[']Faolain I think in that new rag
16
alertly bereaved, which is not meant to be an unkind description of a behaviour she cannot help. She read Esther Waters with
17
Reavey has not send [sic] me my copy ofthe Eluard. I presume he
avails himself of the words that passed to enjoy an extra free
copy. I am glad you liked my translations. I have not seen them
for years. Does the one you mention begin "She is standing on
19
20
even ifI had the money.
I am reading Grillparzer, but not the best of him (Hero &
face that I feel was the truth a very little below the adipose.
Ireland Today.
Frank doesn't seem in very good form and Mother remains
loathing.
I wrote to Brian, with none ofthe information he wanted.
18
my lids"? I have not even got copies ofthem.
I saw a cautious review by Denis ofO'Connor's poems, in I.
Today, accomplished & noncommittal. for a long time.
Himself! have not seen
God love thee, write again very soon and all my thanks for writing what is so nice to read, pace Mr Church, to hell with
21
sf Sam 352
Mr Church.
Yours ever
7July 1936, McGreevy
TIS; 2 leaves, 3 sides;Aenvto Thomas McGreevyEsq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 7-7-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/100. Previous publication: the paragraph that begins "The point you raise [. . . ]" is published in Bair, Samuel Beckett, 228-229, and Beckett, Disjecta, 102 (however, both give the date as 17 July 1936).
1 McGreevy's letter responding to the manuscript of Murphy has not been found. Celia is the heroine of Murphy.
2 After Murphy's death, the scene in the mortuary (Murphy, 254-276) is followed by a scene at the Round Pond (Murphy, 276-282) (see 8 September 1935 and 22 September 1935).
3 Murphy'schessgamewithMr. Endonispartofchapter11(Murphy,240-248).
"Tat twam asi" (Sanskrit, that thou art) is a phrase drawn from the Chandogya Upanishad (c. 600 BC) and taken up by Arthur Schopenhauer in the essay "Character"; Schopenhauer differentiates between two ways of "regarding the world": the first understands all others with indifference as "not ourselves," and the second, which he calls the "Tat-twam-asi - this-is-thyself principle," understands ali others as "identical with ourselves" (On Human Nature: Essays (partly Posthumous) in Ethics and Politics, selected and tr. by Thomas Bailey Saunders ! London: George Allen and Unwin, 1897; rpt 1926195).
SB refers to chapter 6 of Murphy in which "Murphy's mind pictured itself as a large hollow sphere" (107-113).
4 SBreferstoAlyoshainDostoevsky'sTheBrothersKaramazov.
5 Murphy was acknowledged by Ian Parsons, Chatto and Windus, on 1 July 1936
(UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 175/114).
6 SimonandSchuster,NewYorkpublishers.
Charles Prentice's letter to SB has not been found. However, on 8January 1937, Harold Raymond wrote toEnglish poet and critic Richard Thomas Church (1893-1972):
As I thought, Samuel Beckett's novel was very carefully read both by Ian Parsons and by my old partner, Charles Prentice, both of whom had always been especially interested in his work. They both felt full of respect for this novel but came to the conclusion that because of Beckett's frequent abstruse allusions and his generally somewhat recondite manner of writing, we might not fare any better with it than we did with his short stories. (UoR. MS 2444 CW letterbook 178/689)
Alexander Stuart Frere-Reeves (known to some as Frere, 1892-1984) was with the London publisher William Heinemann from 1923 to 1961, serving as its Chairman from 1945 to 1961.
7 MaryManningdeWolfeHoweandthepositionatHarvard:see25March1936, n. 3. Albert John Farmer (1894-1976) of the University of Bordeaux taught at Harvard during the first half of the academic year 1936-1937 on a French exchange program; from 1945 to 1964 he was Professor ofEnglish at the Sorbonne, University of Paris (Patrice Donoghue, Harvard University Archives, 7 November 1991).
Mary Manning did not have a play produced at the St. Martin's Theatre in London in the 1936-1937 season. However, her play Youth's the Season . . . ? opened in London at the Westminster Theatre on 5 October 1937 as part of the Longford Players Irish Season.
353
7 July 1936, McGreevy
8 WilliamandEileenHennesseyGanly.
9 Lilian Donaghy (also Lilyan, nee Roberts. n. d. ) had been married to Irish poet, John Lyle Donaghy. She and Charlie Gilmore (1905-1987). who, like his brother George Gilmore (1898-1985), was an Irish Nationalist, lived in Lachan, in the Glencree Valley near Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow; their cottage belonged to Irish poet and scholar, Joseph Campbell (1879-1944).
"Sehr sympathisch" (very nice).
10 JohnLyleDonaghywasstayinginDublinwithA. J. Leventhal,whoseaddressat this time is not known. SB writes Merrion Avenue, but there was none in Dublin (only Merrion Lane, Place, Square, Road, Row, and Street, and, near Blackrock, Mt. Merrion Avenue).
Donaghy discusses the "poetic tradition in Ireland" in his preface to Into the Light, saying that poets who had studied the classics created an Irish poetry that had affinities with Latin and Greek poetry: "By pure scholarship, the Irish tradition became essentially Gaelic classical" and "characteristically aristocratic" [i-ii]. Donaghy concludes:
F. R. Higgins is the most important of these poets who have in mind, once more, Irish poetry, integrally classical and aristocratic; national because they are national; imaginative, achieving the universal through the particular; individual, concrete, humanly rich, learned in craft and proudly licensed, strict, puissant. My own work is also in this tradition. ([iii])
11 Both Frank Beckett and W. B. Yeats returned to Ireland on the Hibernia. Associates from the Abbey Theatre who greeted Yeats on arrival were Lennox and Dolly Robinson, Oliver St. John Gogarty, Walter Starkie, Frank O'Connor, Dr. Richard Hayes (1882-1958), F. R. Higgins, and Ernest Blythe (1889-1975) ("Mr. W. B. Yeats at Home Again: Welcomed at Dun Laoghaire," The Irish Times 30 June 1936: 9; this article identifies Dr. Richard Hayes as Liam Hayes).
On 4July SB met Francis Hackett and his wife Signe Toksvig (1891-1983) at the home of Rudmose-Brown. Toksvig, who wrote The Life of Hans Christian Andersen (1934), had edited his Fairy Tales and Stories (1928). Toksvig's garden at Killadreenan House is often a subject in Signe Toksvig's Irish Diaries 1926-1937, ed. Lis Pihl (1994).
Hackett wrote historical fiction, Henry the Eighth (1928) and Francis the First (1934); he began his novel on Anne Boleyn (1507-1536) from the perspective of one of her cousins, James Butler, later 9th Earl of Ormond (c. 1496-1546), whom Anne had declined to marry (see Queen Anne Boleyn, a novel [New York: Doubleday Doran, 1939! 44-45, 478, 485). Hackett's novel The Green Lion (1936) considers the last campaign of Irish Nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891) to regain popular support after he was deposed by his party over issues of adultery and divorce.
12 GeoffreyThompson'swife,Ursula(knownasBunty),hadcontractedchickenpox.
13 MayBeckett'sbrother,EdwardRoe,marriedhissecondwife,FlorenceBentley (n. d. ), in 1917. Having lived in the British protectorate Nyasaland (from independence in 1964 known as Malawi) in East Africa, Roe would have been familiar with the Indian Ocean city of Mombasa, Kenya.
14 Austrian writer Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872) wrote Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen (1831; The Waves of the Sea and of Love, also translated as Hero and Leander) and Das Goldene Vliess (1821; The Golden Fleece). a dramatic trilogy of the Jason-Medea story. the third part of which was Medea.
354
15 Theunfinishedsketchinoilsofaportrait. Dr. SamuelJohnson(NPG1185). wasmade by James Bany {1741-1806) for The Distribution of Premiums. a mural in the series "The Progress of Human Culture·· (The Royal Society of Arts. London). Joshua Reynolds {1723-1792) painted several portraits ofJohnson: National Portrait Gallery (1597); Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent (258); Tate Britain (887); Harvard University (HNASO).
16 Geraldine Cummins's novel Fires of Beltane was reviewed by Sean O'Faolain ("Fiction," Ireland To-Day 1. 2 Uuly 1936] 70-72).
17 GeorgeMoore,EstherWaters(1894).
18 BrianCoffey(see9June1936,n. 14).
19 Eluard,ThornsofThunder. Withregardtothewordsthatpassed:9June1936,20 June 1936, and 27 June 1936; for SB's translations see 2 May 1936, n. 2. "She is standing on my lids" is the first line ofSB's translation ofEluard's "L'Amoureuse" (Thorns ofThunder, 1).
20 FrankO'Connor'scollectionofpoemsThreeOldBrothers(1936)wasreviewedby Denis Devlin. "Another Irish Poet. "" Ireland To-Day 1. 2 Uuly 1936) 77-79.
21 SB may be referring to Henry Church. a patron of McGreevy's, who had not cared for SB's More Pricks Than Kicks, which he had read on McGreevy's advice; Church had commented, "when a friend recommends a friend, je me mefie. 1 mean we are always inclined to magnify a friend's talent, to bask in the sun ofhis genius; that we are all apt to practice nepotism" (Henry Church to Thomas McGreevy, 16 December 1935, TCD, MS 8119/19). "Je me mefie" (I am on my guard).
[c. mid-July 1936], O'Sullivan
SEUMAS o'sULLIVAN DUBLIN
[c. mid-July 1936]
Two Poems by Samuel Beckett1 1.
why were you not simply what I despaired for an occasion ofwordshed2
is it better to abort than be barren
The hours after you are gone are so leaden they will always start dragging too soon
the grapples clawing blindly the bed ofwant
[Dublin]
355
[c. mid-July 1936}, O'Sullivan
bringing up the bones the old loves
sockets once filled with eyes like yours
all always better too soon than never 3
the black want splashing their faces
saying again nine days never floated the loved nor nine months
nor nine lives
2.
saying again
if you do not teach me I shall not learn saying again there is a last
even of last times
last times of begging
last times of loving
of knowing not knowing pretending
a last even of last times of saying
if you do not love me I shall not be loved if I do not love you I shall not love
the churn of old words in the heart again love love love thud of the old plunger pestling the unalterable
whey of words
terrified again of not loving
of loving and not you
of being unloved and not by you
of knowing not knowing pretending pretending
I and all the others that will love you if they love you4
[OS]
356
TMS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; initialed by Seumas O'Sullivan and on each page <Sam. Beckett>; TCD, MS 4630-49/3333. Dating: mid-July 1936; a copy of poems was sent to McGreevy [15 July 1936[; SB writes in his letter to McGreevy, 17 July [1936[: "Forgive the poems J. . . J I send [sic[ poems to Seumas O'S. "
1 The Trinity College Dublin catalogue for the Seumas O'Sullivan collection indicates the heading for this MS to be: "2 poems, 'title added by S. O'Sullivan; printed as one poem Cascando. "' The manuscript was published as one poem under the title "Cascando" in Dublin Magazine, 11. 4 (October-December 1936) 3-4.
2 InthepoemaspublishedinDublinMagazine,thesefirsttwolinesareomitted.
3 InthepoemaspublishedinDublinMagazine,thislinewasprintedas"allalwaysis
it better too soon than never. · It is unknown if SB made this change.
4 SBwrotetoMcGreevyon26July1936thathehadaddedanotherlinetotheendof this poem: "Unless they love you. " This line appears in the poem as published in Dublin Magazine, in a separate section, numbered 3:
3.
unless they love you.
IAN PARSONS
CHATTO AND WINDUS, LONDON
17/7/36 6 Clare Street Dublin
My dear Parsons
Thank you for your letter, also MS. Believe me, I understand
your position very well. 1 Yours very sincerely
Sam. Beckett
ALS: 1 leaf, 1 side; UoR, MS 2444 CW 59/9.
1 IanParsonswrotetoSBon15July1936:
Dear Beckett,
We have read "Murphy" with very great pleasure and I wish I could
write and say that we felt able to publish it. But truth to tell the novel racket has reached such a pass today that a book, such as yours, which makes real demands on the reader's intelligence and general knowledge has less chance than ever of gaining a hearing, and I'm afraid we've reluctantly had to decide that times aren't good enough generally to allow us to take it on despite the state of the market.
357
17July 1936, Parsons
17 July 1936, Parsons
I hope I need not say how extremely sorry I am to have to give you this decision. We should so very much have liked to have another work ofyours on our list. But you will. I'm sure, understand our position and I hope not think too hardly ofus. And no doubt you'll be able to find another publisher who thinks as highly of "Murphy" as we do, but who takes a less gloomy view ofthe outlook for books ofthis kind. At any rate I sincerely hope so.
With kindest regards, and renewed regrets, Yours sincerely.
! Ian Parsons!
P. S. I am posting the MS. back to you under separate registered cover.
(UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 175/318)
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
17/7 [1936]
Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Forgive the poems.
Just heard from Parsons. Honeyed regrets. So am sending M.
to Frere-Reeves to-day. No news at all from Simon & Schuster, not even acknowledgement ofreceipt. 2
Ran into Devlin one evening in town. Noticed no change. He has I think a bad poem in Dublin Mag. My own review ofJBY seems dishonest & surfait. However it pleased him & that is all that matters. 3
Brian Coffey has just rung up. I shall be very glad to see him again -4
The new acquisitions in the Gallery, on view on screen in the
mortuary department, 2 Bazzani & a Jan Lys, are really appalling.
Not quite so bad perhaps as the Gentileschi, but sublime waste of
money. 5 As though it were not precisely an excess of that dreary
third rate that spoils the Gallery & swamps the Treasures. The
Perugino has gone to London to be cleaned (the big one). It was
6
1
overcleanedlongagoIthought. ThelasttimeIwasthereIcouldn't
358
17July {1936}, McGreevy
rest before anything. It was fuller than I ever saw it, Americans mostly, & a sprinkling of the surprised without coats or umbrellas.
I send [for sent] the poems to Seumas O'S. 7
I was at Yeats's Saturday. He had just finished a new picture,
a man sitting reading in a fuchsia hedge, with storm clearing
over sea. Lovely passages but unsatisfactory I found generally.
Something almost like artificial excitement. How is the book
8
9
ALS; 1 leaf. 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq. 15 Cheyne Gardens, London SW 3; pm 17-7-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/102. Dating: from pm.
1 SBhadsentthetwopoems,latermadeoneas"Cascando,"toMcGreevyon15July 1936 (TCD MS 10402/101).
2 SBreferstoIanParsons'sletterof15July1936rejectingMurphy. ItwasCharles Prentice's suggestion to try Frere-Reeves, ifChatto and Windus refused Murphy (see 7 July 1936). Beckett sent Murphy to Simon and Schuster before 7 July 1936 (see 27 June and 7 July 1936).
3 DenisDevlin'spoem"TheInvestitureofD'Artagnan"appearedinDublinMagazine 11. 3 Uuly-September 1936) 4.
going. He told me you were getting on with it.
Maurice Sinclair got back from Paris yesterday. I think he
saw Joyce but I was only talking to him for a second.
My copy of the Eluard came, duly signed by author & all available translators. He does come through after a fashion, the frailty & nervousness. But no attempt seems to have been made to translate the pauses. Like Beethoven played strictly to time. 10
God love thee. Write soon EVER
Sam
SB's review ofJack B. Yeats's novel The Amaranthers: "An Imaginative Work! " 80-81.
SB refers disparagingly to his own review in an Anglicism, as if"surfait" (overrated) meant "overdone. "
4 BrianCoffeywasinDublinonsummerholidays.
5 In1936,theNationalGalleryoflrelandpurchasedOurLordMeetsHisMother(NGI 982) and The Descent from the Cross (NGI 983) by Giuseppe Bazzani (1690-1769) and The Vision of St. Jerome (NGI 981) by Johann Liss (also Lys. c. 1595-1631). Gentileschi, David and Goliath: see 7 May 1936, n. 9.
6 Perugino'sPieta(NGI942)hadbeenpurchasedfortheNationalGalleryin1931(see 20 December 1931, n. 5). Sebastian Ysepp (n. d. ), Restorer to the Kiinsthistorische
359
17 July {1936}, McGreevy
Museum in Vienna, submitted his evaluation on 6 June 1936; it indicated that the Perugino had been "spoiled through early restoration - particularly through unnecessary overpainting, darkened retouching, cracks in the paint and dangerous blisters" (NG! Archives). The painting was sent to Vienna for reconditioning, via London for X-ray photo, in July 1936 (Homan Potterton, "Introduction," National Gallery ofIreland: lllustrated Summary Catalogue ofPaintings xxxv-xxxvi; the 23 June 1936 Agenda for the Board of Governors and Guardians meeting on 1 July 1936 [NG! Archives]).
7 SeeSBtoSeumasO'Sullivan,[mid-July1936].
8 JackB. Yeats,InTirnanOg(Gaelic,TheLandoftheYoung)(privatecollection,Pyle 491), pictures a young man reading beneath a hedge (Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne ofthe Oil Paintings, I, 446; Ill, 209).
McGreevy had begun work on the essay published (under MacGreevy) asJack B. Yeats: An Appredation and an Interpretation (Dublin: Victor Waddington Publications, 1945).
9 Morris Sinclair's meeting with Joyce: 26 July [1936] and n. 9.
10 Eluard's poems in Thoms of Thunder were translated by SB, Denis Devlin, David
Gascoyne,Eugene Jolas, Man Ray, George Reavey, and Ruthven Todd. It is not known who had signedSB's copy.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
July 26th [1936]
Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Many thanks for your letter & remarks on the poems. I think
you are probably right about the opening. I was afraid you would find the second halfsloppy & am relieved that you did not. I have added a line to the end: "Unless they love you. " 1
Had a note from Frere acknowledging MS. He was good enough to remember our brief meeting Place du Pantheon, & to regret we had not met in London. They won't touch it. What disquiets me is absence of news from Simon and Schuster. Not even an acknowledgement of MS though they have had plenty of time to do so. 2
About meeting Dolly & Lennox, I feel it would probably go quite well with her, but not at all with him -3
360
Frank left yesterday for a motoring holiday in Northern
Ireland, & will be away 10 days. He is 34 to-day. Mother is the
picture of misery, one of her periodical attacks. I brought her
last Tuesday to a donkey show at Goffs Stables, & found Jack
4
Was in the Gallery yesterday. Another new work, vaguely
Austrian primitive, a panel painted both sides, on one Veronica's
Sudarium, on the other the 12 in a strange scene. 5 The magnificent
glass case in which it is exposed in centre of floor of Brouwer's
room, cost £50. Good old Furlong. He hopes to take all the Dutch
pictures down to the print room, & extend the Italians into the
6
7
refuge, or perhaps seeks clarity for himself, in Thomist terms
that I do not follow. Perhaps the problem is common, the prob
lems, but stated so differently that no headway is possible. He
8
say they can do nothing more to help him. He is perhaps better
than when he went in 14 months ago. He returns to his family
next Tuesday week. Sonny saw Joyce for about 5 minutes only.
He was very pris & rather cold from what I can make out. His face
lit up at your name, but not at mine. What can only have been
9
bewildered & resentful.
Am reading Guarini's Pastor Fido again. Lancret to Tasso's
Watteau except that the technique is magnificent. Then I hope
Yeatsthere,makingsketchesforapicture. Motherhadnotmet him before. She remarked how sad & ill he looked.
26 July {1936}, McGreevy
Dutchrooms,insinglelinehanging. YesterdayIwaslookingat the drawings & found an Elsheimer, to my joy. And a Mantegna
sketch for the Triumph of Caesar.
The walk with Brian was ambling and incoherent. He takes
talked attractively of Spinoza.
Boss Sinclair is being turned out of Newcastle, where they
Leon arrived while Sonny was there.
Had a sad friendly note from Hester_Io I can imagine her
to settle down to Faust.
II
361
26 July {1936}, McGreevy
Newman has been very plausible on the symphonic ballet.
Is he a bad logician on purpose, because he knows how much
more persuasive sophistry is? And how appallingly English the
sense of humour. Surely a Wagnerite must admire Choreartium
for all the wrong reasons. And to extend a protest against sym
phony for balletic purposes to a protest against lyric for Lieder
12
may get a kind word at last. I got my copy & wince at my trans
lations. I extended the little finger ofreconciliation to G. R. & had
it cordially wrung. Transition has appeared with 3 Bones, but no
13
from hospital psychiatry to psychoanalysis. Ursula has been considerably ill but is well again now. 14
I can't get away till September at earliest, as Mother's brother & his wife are coming in the middle of August to stay
15
Charles is in London again & expects to have to stay there for about two months for post-operative treatment. He still has
16
Schone Grtisse to Hester17
362
purposes surely is nonsense.
Leventhal is reviewing Thorns of Thunder for Seumas, so I
payment.
The news of Geoffrey is good, & he hopes soon to escape
a fortnight.
I hope I am not too old to take it up seriously, nor too stupid about machines to qualify as a commercial pilot. I do not feel like spending the rest of my life writing books that no one will read. It is not as though I wanted to write them.
I think the next little bit of excitement is flying.
some bug in his gut.
God love thee & write very soon
Ever Sam
26 July {1936}, McGreevy
ALS; 2 leaves, 4 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London SW 3; pm 26-7-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/103.
1 Theopeninglines,"whywereyounotsimplywhatIdespairedfor/anoccasion ofwordshed" were omitted when published as "Cascando," in Dublin Magazine, 3-4, but restored in subsequent publications. For the added line: [c. mid-July 1936], n. 4.
2 SB had sent Murphy to A. S. Frere-Reeves on 17 July 1936. Simon and Schuster: 7 July 1936, n. 6.
3 DollyandLennoxRobinson.
4 FrankBeckett.
Gaffs Stables, dealing in bloodstock sales, celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 1936.
