2
I have started again to look for a room and have combed most of the 14me _ There is hardly anything to be had.
I have started again to look for a room and have combed most of the 14me _ There is hardly anything to be had.
Samuel Beckett
to most people.
I am inclined personally to think that the turning away from the
local, not merely in his painting but in his writing (he has just
sent me The Charmed Life), even ifonly in intention, results not
so much from the break down ofthe local, ofthe local human
anyway, as from a very characteristic and very general psycho
logical mechanism, operative in young artists as a naivete (or an
instinct) and in old artists as a wisdom (or an instinct). 5 I am sure
I could illustrate this for you ifl had the culture. You will always,
as an historian, give more credit to circumstance than I, with my
less than suilline interest and belief in the fable convenue, ever
6
whether before the Union or after, or that it was ever capable of any thought or act other than the rudimentary thoughts and acts belted into it by the priests and by the demagogues in service of the priests, or that it will ever care, ifit ever knows, any more than the Bog of Allen will ever care or know, that there was once a
599
31 January 1938, McGreevy
shall be able to. However you say it yourself on p. 34.
One of the criticisms that I should like to make about the second halfand that I should think will certainly be made by the pros, is that for an essay of such brevity the political and social analyses are rather on the long side. I received almost the impres sion for example, as the essay proceeded, that your interest was passing from the man himselfto the forces that formed him - and not only him - and that you returned to him from them with something like reluctance. But perhaps that also is the fault ofmy mood and ofmy chronic inability to understand as member ofany proposition a phrase like "the Irish people", or to imagine that it ever gave a fart in its corduroys for any form of art whatsoever,
31 January 1938, McGreevy
7
of a criticism that allows as a sentient subject what I can only
think of as a nameless and hideous mass, whether in Ireland or
in Finland, but only to say that I, as a clot of prejudices, prefer
the first half of your work, with its real and radiant individuals,
8
Broussais this week for exam. & X Ray and no doubt more
ventouses. Dr Paul the French Spilsbury has benn (for been]
commanding me to his presence in the morning at 9. 15 and
I replying patiently and politely that my condition does not
9
me. There are all kinds of reasons que je me porte partie civile,
and all kinds for my not doing so. There appears to be a remote
possibility of my receiving compensation from the Ville de Paris,
but if it involves me with lawyers I should prefer to do without it.
The police still have my clothes. But whatever I do and however
it goes there are going to be plenty of unpleasantness[es] before
10
Molasses. I have accepted en principe. Broadcast first from Athlone[. ]11
Don't you think one of us ought to write to Laugier, since after all he has been kind, to say that you don't see your way to taking
12
I am writing[. ]13
God love thee, Tom, and don't be minding me. I can't think
of Ireland the way you do. Ever
s/ Sam
painterinIrelandcalledJackButlerYeats. Thisisnotacriticism
to the second, with our national scene. Et voila.
I am much better the last few days - less pain. I go back to
allowmetogetupbeforemidday. Soontheywillbearresting
it can be called an affaire classee.
Joyce's birthday spree next Wednesday at the Jolasses
the thing up? I shall do it with pleasure if you don't want to.
If you see Denis please thank him for his letter and tell him
600
31 January 1938, McGreevy
TIS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; TCD, MS 10402/155. Note: "Ascension," "La Mouche," and "Priere" are included withMS 10402/155 although it is doubtful that they were enclosed with that letter because the folds on the poems do not match those of the letter. However, the folds and the bum/water damage on left margin do match those onMS 10402/163.
1 McGreevyhadsenthismanuscriptonJackB. Yeatstotheartist,whorepliedon 6 January 1938: "Later on, if we get an offer, I would of course, automatically consult the Society of Authors" (TCD,MS 10831/151). Yeats wrote toMcGreevy on 26 January 1938 enclosing contractual terms suggested by the Society of Authors, and he encour agedMcGreevy to consider joining: "I would be lost myself without them. I ask them about all agreements, though I often accept terms a little less than they advise" (TCD,
MS 10831/154).
2 ThepaginationreferstothemanuscriptofMcGreevy'sessay:TCD,MS7991/2.
On the relationship between figures and landscape in Yeats's work:MacGreevy,Jack B. Yeats, 11-13.
3 SB suggests toMcGreevy that the Le Nain family of painters (Antoine Le Nain [c. 1600-1648], Louis Le Nain [c. 1600-1648], andMathieu Le Nain [c. 1607-1677]), Jean-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779), Jean-Fram;ois Millet (1814-1875), and Courbet might be seen as forerunners of Jack B. Yeats in their depictions of what
MacGreevy calls the "petit peuple" (ordinary people): MacGreevy, Jack B. Yeats, 9. To this series, SB suggests adding Henri Rousseau (also known as Le Douanier Rousseau, 1844-1910).
4 SB made observations on Watteau in two earlier letters toMcGreevy: [before 23 July 1937] and 14 August 1937; SB's own development of these ideas is further evident in his letter to Cissie Sinclair. 14 [August 1937], in which he uses the terms that he quotes here (see also n. 5 below, andMacGreevy,JackB. Yeats, 14-17).
5 "Construit"(deliberatelyconstructed).
"Catena," a chain or connected series, is generally not capitalized. Although SB may be referring to Italian painter Vincenzo Catena (c. 1470-1531), the point of this reference is not clear.
OnMcGreevy's positioning of Yeats's work in the context oflrish political realities: MacGreevy,JackB. Yeats, 17-25. For his discussion of the later paintings that move away from the particular and reflect "the subjective tendency" of imagination: pp. 27-33,
particularly his analysis of California (Pyle 501, private collection) and In Memory of Boudcault and Bianconi (Pyle 498, NG! 4206).
No direct source has been found for SB's statement about Bergson, but in Creative Evolution Bergson adopts the analogy of a swimmer who "cling[s] to . . . solidity" when learning to "struggle against the fluidity" of water. "So of our thought, when it has decided to make the leap" (tr. ArthurMitchell [London:Macmillan, 1920] 203-204; L'Evolution creatrice [Paris: Felix Akan, 1907] 210-211).
Routledge had just published Jack B. Yeats's novel The Channed Life (1938).
6 "Fableconvenue"(receivedwisdom).
7 Inthepublishedbook,McGreevyissuesacaveatagainstgeneralization:"Itgoes without saying that all Irish people are not like that any more than all French people are like the figures in Watteau's pictures. " Yet in the section dealing with political
601
31 January 1938, McGreery
backgrounds he says, "When Jack Yeats was a small boy the mind of the Irish people was centred on politics . . . " (Jack B. Yeats, 16-17).
The Bog of Allen is a large peat bog, a wetland from which the River Boyne rises in Co. Kildare.
8 "Etvoila"(That'sit).
9 Dr. Charles Paul (1879-? ), a "medecin legiste" (forensic doctor), is compared to the British forensic medical expert Dr. Bernard Spilsbury (1877-1947).
10 "Quejemeportepartiecivile"(whyIshouldsue). "Affaireclassee"(closedcase).
11 SB did attend the birthday celebration which was staged in two parts: at the Joyces' flat, listening to a birthday broadcast from Radio Eireann, followed by a dinner party at Eugene andMaria Jolas's home. Constantine Curran presented a "Personal Sketch" ofJoyce as part of the radio broadcast (Joyce and Leon, TheJamesJoyce - Paul Leon Papers, 92); his daughter Elizabeth Curran attended the party in Paris with Beckett, as described in a letter she sent to her father on 3 February 1938 (C. P. Curran. JamesJoyce Remembered ! London: Oxford University Press, 1968J 90-91; see also Guggenheim, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict, 168). As SB wrote to McGreevy on 11 February 1938:
There were 15 at dinner, and Sullivan & Mrs Jolas bawled their heads off afterwards. Philippe Soupault turned up late in the evening. I was glad to see him again. He was asking for you. Nino Franch [for Frankl was also there. He may put me in touch with film people here, if by any chance I ever feel like being in touch with anything again. I felt none the worse for the evening. Joyce danced in the old style. (TCD,MS 10402/156)
SB refers to Irish tenor John Sullivan (ne John O'Sullivan, 1877-1955), whose musical career Joyce encouraged. The Italian-born film critic Nino Frank (1904-1988) had translated "Anna Livia Plurabelle" into Italian with Joyce.
12 HavingactedonMcGreevy'sbehalfwithLaugier,SBfeltobligedtothankLaugier for his trouble, especially ifMcGreevy should choose not to accept.
13 DenisDevlin.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
7/2/38 Hotel Liberia [Paris]
Dear George
Tom seemed nervous about Wynn's. But I can't change the
1
whole topography. So stet.
602
[c. 8 to 19 February 1938}, Reavey
Will you let me know exact date of pub. as soon as it is known.
Expect to be here for some time yet, with the occasional
2
TPCS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; AN AH, pend! , upper left margin "re Murphy"; T to George Reavey Esq, 7 Great Ormond Street, London W. C. 1; pm 7-2-38, Paris; TxU.
1 Wynn'sHotel,35-36LowerAbbeyStreet,Dublin(Beckett,Murphy,54-56). AsSB wrote to McGreevy on 11 February 1938: "I don't think there is anything to worry about in the Wynn['Js Hotel reference. But thank you for drawing my attention to it" (TCD, MS 10402/156).
Katzensprung to Broussais. Na ja. Love to Gwynedd.
Yours s/Sam
2 "Katzensprung"(literallycat'sspring);"Naja"(wellnow).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
[c. 8 to 19 February 1938)
DearG. Sorry.
Liberia [Paris)
It has occurred to me that 8/6 is far too dear for a book of
1
1 The price of Murphy had been set at 8/6; however, the price given on the pros pectus was 7/6.
603
only 75000 words. Would you not suggest 5/- to Ragg. Yrs
Sam
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; AN AH, pend! "re Murphy"; TxU.
20 February 1938, Reavey
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
20/2/38 Liberia [Paris]
Dear George
N. C. 's address is c/o Lloyds, 43 Bd. des Capucines, Paris. Glad to hear Geer is shoved off till May. Haven't seen much
of him lately. They want me to go with them to Holland in April. Ne demande pas mieux but shn't have the price. How did you like the Kandinsky? 2
I shall want 6 copies of M. , miserable wretch that I am, in addition to the free ones. Also send me a copy of Ford's poems.
3
1
And tell me what cheque I am to send you for lot.
I wish very much you were here to advise me about a trans lation (of Sade[']s 120 Days for Jack Kahane). I should like very much to do it, & the terms are moderately satisfactory, but don't know what effect it wd. have on my lit. situation in England or how it might prejudice future publications of my own there. The surface is of an unheard of obscenity & not 1 in 100 will find literature in the pornography, or beneath the pornography, let alone one of the capital works of the 18th century, which it is for me. I don't mind the obloquy, on the contrary it will get more ofme into a certain room. But I don't want to be spiked as a writer, I mean as a publicist in the airiest sense. Of course as an Obelisk book, no attempt would be made to circulate it in England or USA, no official attempt, though I understand Kent ordered 8 copies of Harris's Life & Loves. And I wouldn't do it without putting my name to it. He wants a decision immedi ately. If I thought you were to be here next week I would hold
604
him off till I had talked it over with you. But I suppose there is
no chance of that. Anyhow it can't be a rational decision, the
consequences are unforeseeable, though it strikes me you would
see a lot that I don't. 150,000 words at 150 francs per 1000 is
better than a poem by AE, but doesn't really enter as an element
4
"Excusez-moi, Monsieur. " I said "Je vous en prie, Monsieur. "
5
2 TheexhibitionofGeervanVelde'sworkatGuggenheimJeunewastobeheldin May; the Kandinsky Exhibition had opened on 18 February: 5 January 1938, n. 4.
"Ne demande pas mieux" (Couldn't ask for anything nicer).
3 SB ordered personal copies ofMurphy and the poems ofAmerican writer Charles Henri Ford (1913-2002), The Garden ofDisorder and Other Poems (London: Europa Press. 1938).
4 SBwrotetoMcGreevyon11February1938:"IsaiditwasunlikelybutthatIwould go & talk it over. I went & said I was interested en principe at 150 francs per 1000. 1. . . ) Though I am interested in Sade & have been for a long time, and want the money badly, I would really rather not" (TCD, MS 10402/156).
Following his brief partnership (1930-1931) with French publisher of fine editions Henry Babou (n. d. ), British journalist Jack Kahane (1887-1939) founded Obelisk Press in Paris in 1931 and published many books refused by other publishers who feared censorship. Among these were The Young and Evil (1933) by American writers Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler (1904-1974); My Life and Loves (1933) by Irish-American writer Frank Harris (ne James Thomas Harris, 1856-1931); Tropic of Cancer (1934), Aller retour New York (1935), Black Spring (1936), Max and the White Phagocytes (1938), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) by American writer Henry Miller (1891-1980); House of Incest (1936) and Winter ofArtifice (1939) by French writer Ana1s Nin (nee Angela Ana1s Nin y Culmell, 1903-1977); and The Black Book (1938) by English writer Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990). To "finance the serious books," he also published works of pornography Uohn de St Jorre, Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press and Its Writers ! New York: Random House, 1994] 12).
Marquis de Sade, Les 120 Journees de Sodome, ou l'ecole du libertinage (Tue 120 Days of Sodom; or, the Romance of the School for Libertinage) (written in 1785, published 1904, ed.
605
I had my first sneeze yesterday, i. e. I am cured.
6
20 February 1938, Reavey
into the problem.
I saw the Sieur Prudent in the Bordel de Justice. He said
Love to Gwynedd. Ora pro me. s/ Sam
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
1 NancyCunard'saddress.
20 February 1938, Reavey
Eugene Diihren [Paris: Club des bibliophiles, 1904]); it appeared in a three-volume critical edition edited by Maurice Heine (Paris: Stendhal et Compagnie, aux depens des bibliophiles souscripteurs, 1931-1935). There was no English translation at this time.
Although Obelisk Press did not officially circulate its books abroad, it did sell to individuals; Kent has not been identified.
SB compares the offer of payment per word to that which he imagines could be commanded by Irish poet AE.
5 SB attended the preliminary hearing of his assailant, Robert-Jules Prudent, on 14 February 1938, as he wrote to McGreevy on 11 February 1938: "Next Monday I have to wait on the juge d'instruction & I suppose be confronted with Prudent. Perhaps I may persuade them to give me back my clothes" (TCD, MS 10402/156). "Juge d'instruction" (examining magistrate).
"Sieur Prudent" (the Prudent gentleman); "Borde! " (literally, brothel) for Palais de Justice. "Excusez-moi, Monsieur" (I'm sorry); "Je vous en prie, Monsieur" (Not at all).
6 "Oraprome"(prayforme). THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
21/2/38 Liberia [Paris]
dear Tom
Manythanksforyour2letters. 1 Forgivemydelayinreplying. I like when you write about pictures as much as I do when
you talk about them and I envy you a concern with them that has no intermissions. I haven't been to the Louvre since I came to
Paris! Nor sacrificed going to anything else. It is the kind of life that filled Dr Johnson with horror. Nothing but the days passing over. It suits me all right.
2
I have started again to look for a room and have combed most of the 14me _ There is hardly anything to be had. A few studios at prices I can't afford, one lovely one looking on to the Pare Montsouris, 12000 francs! , and worth every centime of it. There is a new house in the Rue [de l']Amiral Mouchez with
606
21 February 1938, McGreevy
rooms with hot & cold & heating for 2000. A low locality but nevertheless. I shall look at a room there next Tuesday and ifit is at all possible shall move to there provisionally. And even ifit is not I shall leave the Liberia, because it is too dear & there is no light. I saw a hotel room at the corner of Boulevard Auguste Blanqui & Rue de la Glaciere, high up on the angle, with 2 windows, full of light, 440 including service. Whereas at the Liberia I have just got a bill for the last month, 785 fr including breakfast. They have been very decent, but I simply can't afford such prices. 3
I saw Jack Kahane this morning. He agreed to the following
conditions: 1. That I should write the preface. 2. That I should
be paid 150 fr per 1000 words irrespective ofstate of£. 3. That
I should receive halfon signing ofcontrac[t) & halfon delivery of
MS. 4. That there should be no time limit. I then said I would give
him a definite answer this day week. He intends to publish in
3 vols. (not simultaneously) ofapprox. 50,000 words each. I should
be paid per vol. I should get my translator's copy (1500 fr) & 6 free
copies oftranslation (3 vols. at 150 francs each). I have read lg &
3! :Q vols. ofFrench edition. The obscenity ofsurface is indescrib
able. Nothing could be less pornographical. It fills me with a kind
of metaphysical ecstasy. The composition is extraordinary, as
rigorous as Dante's. If the dispassionate statement of 600 "pas
sions" is Puritan and a complete absence of satire juvenalesque,
4
607
then it is, as you say, puritanical & juvenalesque. You would loathe it whether or no. I don't know if I shall do it. I think probably I shall. It would be in a limited ed. of 1000 copies. No attempt wd. be made to distribute in England or USA. But of course it would be known that I was the translator. I would not do it without signing my name to it. I know all about the obloquy. What I don't know about is the practical effect on my own future
21 February 1938, McGreevy
freedom ofliterary action in England & USA. Would the fact ofmy being known as the translator, & the very literal translation, of "the most utter filth" tend to spike me as a writer myself? Could I be banned & muzzled retrospectively? The preface is important, because it enables me to make my attitude clear. Alan Belinda & Nick are all against my doing it. Brian simply says he would not himself undertake it. It appears a lot of people are after the job, including Peggy Guggenheim's ex-husband Lawrence [for Laurence] Vail. 5
I wish I had been in London for the Kandinsky. How did you like it? 6
I go back to Broussais on Thursday and hope that may be the last time. I was confronted with Prudent in the Palais de Justice this day week & we exchanged amiabilities. The trial should come on now soon, when I shall have the pleasure ofrecovering my sorely missed clothes, and perhaps even receive a franc damages. 7 Talking ofwhich I hear Gogarty gave an oyster party in the Bail[e]y to celebrate my premature demise, and has sold his premises in Ely Place to the Royal Hibernian Academy, which means that Harry will perhaps get some money after all, & I my return fare from Paris. 8
Love ever Sam
ALS; 2 leaves, 3 sides; on letterhead: LA COUPOLE, 102 BD DU MONTPARNASSE; TCD, MS 10402/157.
1 McGreevy'sletterstoSBhavenotbeenfound.
2 SamuelJohnsonlistedashisfirstpurpose"Toavoididleness"(EasterEve1761); SB cites from Johnson's Miscellanies Prayers and Meditations, Easter Day 7 April 1765): "I know not how the days pass over me" Uohnson, Diaries, Prayers, and Annals, 92; BIF. UoR, MS 2461/1. f. lR).
3 SB had been staying at the Hotel Liberia since the end of November 1937. He looked for a room in the 14th arrondissement.
608
8 March 1938, Reavey
According to the Cost-of-living / Consumer Prices Index in 1938, France had the highest increase in costs since 1929 (115 as compared to 99 in Ireland) (B. R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics: Europe 1750-1988, 3rd edn. [New York: Stockton Press, 1992] 848.
4 SB refers to the three-volume edition of Sade's Les 120 Joumees de Sodome by Maurice Heine (see 20 February 1938, n. 4).
Juvenal (ne Decimus Junius Juvenalis c. 55-140), whose satires attacked the vices of Rome.
5 AlanandBelindaDuncan,NickBalachef,BrianCoffey.
French-born writer and artist Laurence Vail (1891-1968) was married to Peggy Guggenheim from 1922 to 1929.
6 TheKandinskyExhibitionatGuggenheimJeune:5January1938,n. 4.
7 The H6pital Broussais, where SB had been taken following the stabbing and to which he returned for check-ups. SB's exchanges with Prudent: 20 February 1938, n. 5.
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.
I am inclined personally to think that the turning away from the
local, not merely in his painting but in his writing (he has just
sent me The Charmed Life), even ifonly in intention, results not
so much from the break down ofthe local, ofthe local human
anyway, as from a very characteristic and very general psycho
logical mechanism, operative in young artists as a naivete (or an
instinct) and in old artists as a wisdom (or an instinct). 5 I am sure
I could illustrate this for you ifl had the culture. You will always,
as an historian, give more credit to circumstance than I, with my
less than suilline interest and belief in the fable convenue, ever
6
whether before the Union or after, or that it was ever capable of any thought or act other than the rudimentary thoughts and acts belted into it by the priests and by the demagogues in service of the priests, or that it will ever care, ifit ever knows, any more than the Bog of Allen will ever care or know, that there was once a
599
31 January 1938, McGreevy
shall be able to. However you say it yourself on p. 34.
One of the criticisms that I should like to make about the second halfand that I should think will certainly be made by the pros, is that for an essay of such brevity the political and social analyses are rather on the long side. I received almost the impres sion for example, as the essay proceeded, that your interest was passing from the man himselfto the forces that formed him - and not only him - and that you returned to him from them with something like reluctance. But perhaps that also is the fault ofmy mood and ofmy chronic inability to understand as member ofany proposition a phrase like "the Irish people", or to imagine that it ever gave a fart in its corduroys for any form of art whatsoever,
31 January 1938, McGreevy
7
of a criticism that allows as a sentient subject what I can only
think of as a nameless and hideous mass, whether in Ireland or
in Finland, but only to say that I, as a clot of prejudices, prefer
the first half of your work, with its real and radiant individuals,
8
Broussais this week for exam. & X Ray and no doubt more
ventouses. Dr Paul the French Spilsbury has benn (for been]
commanding me to his presence in the morning at 9. 15 and
I replying patiently and politely that my condition does not
9
me. There are all kinds of reasons que je me porte partie civile,
and all kinds for my not doing so. There appears to be a remote
possibility of my receiving compensation from the Ville de Paris,
but if it involves me with lawyers I should prefer to do without it.
The police still have my clothes. But whatever I do and however
it goes there are going to be plenty of unpleasantness[es] before
10
Molasses. I have accepted en principe. Broadcast first from Athlone[. ]11
Don't you think one of us ought to write to Laugier, since after all he has been kind, to say that you don't see your way to taking
12
I am writing[. ]13
God love thee, Tom, and don't be minding me. I can't think
of Ireland the way you do. Ever
s/ Sam
painterinIrelandcalledJackButlerYeats. Thisisnotacriticism
to the second, with our national scene. Et voila.
I am much better the last few days - less pain. I go back to
allowmetogetupbeforemidday. Soontheywillbearresting
it can be called an affaire classee.
Joyce's birthday spree next Wednesday at the Jolasses
the thing up? I shall do it with pleasure if you don't want to.
If you see Denis please thank him for his letter and tell him
600
31 January 1938, McGreevy
TIS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; TCD, MS 10402/155. Note: "Ascension," "La Mouche," and "Priere" are included withMS 10402/155 although it is doubtful that they were enclosed with that letter because the folds on the poems do not match those of the letter. However, the folds and the bum/water damage on left margin do match those onMS 10402/163.
1 McGreevyhadsenthismanuscriptonJackB. Yeatstotheartist,whorepliedon 6 January 1938: "Later on, if we get an offer, I would of course, automatically consult the Society of Authors" (TCD,MS 10831/151). Yeats wrote toMcGreevy on 26 January 1938 enclosing contractual terms suggested by the Society of Authors, and he encour agedMcGreevy to consider joining: "I would be lost myself without them. I ask them about all agreements, though I often accept terms a little less than they advise" (TCD,
MS 10831/154).
2 ThepaginationreferstothemanuscriptofMcGreevy'sessay:TCD,MS7991/2.
On the relationship between figures and landscape in Yeats's work:MacGreevy,Jack B. Yeats, 11-13.
3 SB suggests toMcGreevy that the Le Nain family of painters (Antoine Le Nain [c. 1600-1648], Louis Le Nain [c. 1600-1648], andMathieu Le Nain [c. 1607-1677]), Jean-Simeon Chardin (1699-1779), Jean-Fram;ois Millet (1814-1875), and Courbet might be seen as forerunners of Jack B. Yeats in their depictions of what
MacGreevy calls the "petit peuple" (ordinary people): MacGreevy, Jack B. Yeats, 9. To this series, SB suggests adding Henri Rousseau (also known as Le Douanier Rousseau, 1844-1910).
4 SB made observations on Watteau in two earlier letters toMcGreevy: [before 23 July 1937] and 14 August 1937; SB's own development of these ideas is further evident in his letter to Cissie Sinclair. 14 [August 1937], in which he uses the terms that he quotes here (see also n. 5 below, andMacGreevy,JackB. Yeats, 14-17).
5 "Construit"(deliberatelyconstructed).
"Catena," a chain or connected series, is generally not capitalized. Although SB may be referring to Italian painter Vincenzo Catena (c. 1470-1531), the point of this reference is not clear.
OnMcGreevy's positioning of Yeats's work in the context oflrish political realities: MacGreevy,JackB. Yeats, 17-25. For his discussion of the later paintings that move away from the particular and reflect "the subjective tendency" of imagination: pp. 27-33,
particularly his analysis of California (Pyle 501, private collection) and In Memory of Boudcault and Bianconi (Pyle 498, NG! 4206).
No direct source has been found for SB's statement about Bergson, but in Creative Evolution Bergson adopts the analogy of a swimmer who "cling[s] to . . . solidity" when learning to "struggle against the fluidity" of water. "So of our thought, when it has decided to make the leap" (tr. ArthurMitchell [London:Macmillan, 1920] 203-204; L'Evolution creatrice [Paris: Felix Akan, 1907] 210-211).
Routledge had just published Jack B. Yeats's novel The Channed Life (1938).
6 "Fableconvenue"(receivedwisdom).
7 Inthepublishedbook,McGreevyissuesacaveatagainstgeneralization:"Itgoes without saying that all Irish people are not like that any more than all French people are like the figures in Watteau's pictures. " Yet in the section dealing with political
601
31 January 1938, McGreery
backgrounds he says, "When Jack Yeats was a small boy the mind of the Irish people was centred on politics . . . " (Jack B. Yeats, 16-17).
The Bog of Allen is a large peat bog, a wetland from which the River Boyne rises in Co. Kildare.
8 "Etvoila"(That'sit).
9 Dr. Charles Paul (1879-? ), a "medecin legiste" (forensic doctor), is compared to the British forensic medical expert Dr. Bernard Spilsbury (1877-1947).
10 "Quejemeportepartiecivile"(whyIshouldsue). "Affaireclassee"(closedcase).
11 SB did attend the birthday celebration which was staged in two parts: at the Joyces' flat, listening to a birthday broadcast from Radio Eireann, followed by a dinner party at Eugene andMaria Jolas's home. Constantine Curran presented a "Personal Sketch" ofJoyce as part of the radio broadcast (Joyce and Leon, TheJamesJoyce - Paul Leon Papers, 92); his daughter Elizabeth Curran attended the party in Paris with Beckett, as described in a letter she sent to her father on 3 February 1938 (C. P. Curran. JamesJoyce Remembered ! London: Oxford University Press, 1968J 90-91; see also Guggenheim, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict, 168). As SB wrote to McGreevy on 11 February 1938:
There were 15 at dinner, and Sullivan & Mrs Jolas bawled their heads off afterwards. Philippe Soupault turned up late in the evening. I was glad to see him again. He was asking for you. Nino Franch [for Frankl was also there. He may put me in touch with film people here, if by any chance I ever feel like being in touch with anything again. I felt none the worse for the evening. Joyce danced in the old style. (TCD,MS 10402/156)
SB refers to Irish tenor John Sullivan (ne John O'Sullivan, 1877-1955), whose musical career Joyce encouraged. The Italian-born film critic Nino Frank (1904-1988) had translated "Anna Livia Plurabelle" into Italian with Joyce.
12 HavingactedonMcGreevy'sbehalfwithLaugier,SBfeltobligedtothankLaugier for his trouble, especially ifMcGreevy should choose not to accept.
13 DenisDevlin.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
7/2/38 Hotel Liberia [Paris]
Dear George
Tom seemed nervous about Wynn's. But I can't change the
1
whole topography. So stet.
602
[c. 8 to 19 February 1938}, Reavey
Will you let me know exact date of pub. as soon as it is known.
Expect to be here for some time yet, with the occasional
2
TPCS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; AN AH, pend! , upper left margin "re Murphy"; T to George Reavey Esq, 7 Great Ormond Street, London W. C. 1; pm 7-2-38, Paris; TxU.
1 Wynn'sHotel,35-36LowerAbbeyStreet,Dublin(Beckett,Murphy,54-56). AsSB wrote to McGreevy on 11 February 1938: "I don't think there is anything to worry about in the Wynn['Js Hotel reference. But thank you for drawing my attention to it" (TCD, MS 10402/156).
Katzensprung to Broussais. Na ja. Love to Gwynedd.
Yours s/Sam
2 "Katzensprung"(literallycat'sspring);"Naja"(wellnow).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
[c. 8 to 19 February 1938)
DearG. Sorry.
Liberia [Paris)
It has occurred to me that 8/6 is far too dear for a book of
1
1 The price of Murphy had been set at 8/6; however, the price given on the pros pectus was 7/6.
603
only 75000 words. Would you not suggest 5/- to Ragg. Yrs
Sam
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; AN AH, pend! "re Murphy"; TxU.
20 February 1938, Reavey
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
20/2/38 Liberia [Paris]
Dear George
N. C. 's address is c/o Lloyds, 43 Bd. des Capucines, Paris. Glad to hear Geer is shoved off till May. Haven't seen much
of him lately. They want me to go with them to Holland in April. Ne demande pas mieux but shn't have the price. How did you like the Kandinsky? 2
I shall want 6 copies of M. , miserable wretch that I am, in addition to the free ones. Also send me a copy of Ford's poems.
3
1
And tell me what cheque I am to send you for lot.
I wish very much you were here to advise me about a trans lation (of Sade[']s 120 Days for Jack Kahane). I should like very much to do it, & the terms are moderately satisfactory, but don't know what effect it wd. have on my lit. situation in England or how it might prejudice future publications of my own there. The surface is of an unheard of obscenity & not 1 in 100 will find literature in the pornography, or beneath the pornography, let alone one of the capital works of the 18th century, which it is for me. I don't mind the obloquy, on the contrary it will get more ofme into a certain room. But I don't want to be spiked as a writer, I mean as a publicist in the airiest sense. Of course as an Obelisk book, no attempt would be made to circulate it in England or USA, no official attempt, though I understand Kent ordered 8 copies of Harris's Life & Loves. And I wouldn't do it without putting my name to it. He wants a decision immedi ately. If I thought you were to be here next week I would hold
604
him off till I had talked it over with you. But I suppose there is
no chance of that. Anyhow it can't be a rational decision, the
consequences are unforeseeable, though it strikes me you would
see a lot that I don't. 150,000 words at 150 francs per 1000 is
better than a poem by AE, but doesn't really enter as an element
4
"Excusez-moi, Monsieur. " I said "Je vous en prie, Monsieur. "
5
2 TheexhibitionofGeervanVelde'sworkatGuggenheimJeunewastobeheldin May; the Kandinsky Exhibition had opened on 18 February: 5 January 1938, n. 4.
"Ne demande pas mieux" (Couldn't ask for anything nicer).
3 SB ordered personal copies ofMurphy and the poems ofAmerican writer Charles Henri Ford (1913-2002), The Garden ofDisorder and Other Poems (London: Europa Press. 1938).
4 SBwrotetoMcGreevyon11February1938:"IsaiditwasunlikelybutthatIwould go & talk it over. I went & said I was interested en principe at 150 francs per 1000. 1. . . ) Though I am interested in Sade & have been for a long time, and want the money badly, I would really rather not" (TCD, MS 10402/156).
Following his brief partnership (1930-1931) with French publisher of fine editions Henry Babou (n. d. ), British journalist Jack Kahane (1887-1939) founded Obelisk Press in Paris in 1931 and published many books refused by other publishers who feared censorship. Among these were The Young and Evil (1933) by American writers Charles Henri Ford and Parker Tyler (1904-1974); My Life and Loves (1933) by Irish-American writer Frank Harris (ne James Thomas Harris, 1856-1931); Tropic of Cancer (1934), Aller retour New York (1935), Black Spring (1936), Max and the White Phagocytes (1938), and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) by American writer Henry Miller (1891-1980); House of Incest (1936) and Winter ofArtifice (1939) by French writer Ana1s Nin (nee Angela Ana1s Nin y Culmell, 1903-1977); and The Black Book (1938) by English writer Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990). To "finance the serious books," he also published works of pornography Uohn de St Jorre, Venus Bound: The Erotic Voyage of the Olympia Press and Its Writers ! New York: Random House, 1994] 12).
Marquis de Sade, Les 120 Journees de Sodome, ou l'ecole du libertinage (Tue 120 Days of Sodom; or, the Romance of the School for Libertinage) (written in 1785, published 1904, ed.
605
I had my first sneeze yesterday, i. e. I am cured.
6
20 February 1938, Reavey
into the problem.
I saw the Sieur Prudent in the Bordel de Justice. He said
Love to Gwynedd. Ora pro me. s/ Sam
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
1 NancyCunard'saddress.
20 February 1938, Reavey
Eugene Diihren [Paris: Club des bibliophiles, 1904]); it appeared in a three-volume critical edition edited by Maurice Heine (Paris: Stendhal et Compagnie, aux depens des bibliophiles souscripteurs, 1931-1935). There was no English translation at this time.
Although Obelisk Press did not officially circulate its books abroad, it did sell to individuals; Kent has not been identified.
SB compares the offer of payment per word to that which he imagines could be commanded by Irish poet AE.
5 SB attended the preliminary hearing of his assailant, Robert-Jules Prudent, on 14 February 1938, as he wrote to McGreevy on 11 February 1938: "Next Monday I have to wait on the juge d'instruction & I suppose be confronted with Prudent. Perhaps I may persuade them to give me back my clothes" (TCD, MS 10402/156). "Juge d'instruction" (examining magistrate).
"Sieur Prudent" (the Prudent gentleman); "Borde! " (literally, brothel) for Palais de Justice. "Excusez-moi, Monsieur" (I'm sorry); "Je vous en prie, Monsieur" (Not at all).
6 "Oraprome"(prayforme). THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
21/2/38 Liberia [Paris]
dear Tom
Manythanksforyour2letters. 1 Forgivemydelayinreplying. I like when you write about pictures as much as I do when
you talk about them and I envy you a concern with them that has no intermissions. I haven't been to the Louvre since I came to
Paris! Nor sacrificed going to anything else. It is the kind of life that filled Dr Johnson with horror. Nothing but the days passing over. It suits me all right.
2
I have started again to look for a room and have combed most of the 14me _ There is hardly anything to be had. A few studios at prices I can't afford, one lovely one looking on to the Pare Montsouris, 12000 francs! , and worth every centime of it. There is a new house in the Rue [de l']Amiral Mouchez with
606
21 February 1938, McGreevy
rooms with hot & cold & heating for 2000. A low locality but nevertheless. I shall look at a room there next Tuesday and ifit is at all possible shall move to there provisionally. And even ifit is not I shall leave the Liberia, because it is too dear & there is no light. I saw a hotel room at the corner of Boulevard Auguste Blanqui & Rue de la Glaciere, high up on the angle, with 2 windows, full of light, 440 including service. Whereas at the Liberia I have just got a bill for the last month, 785 fr including breakfast. They have been very decent, but I simply can't afford such prices. 3
I saw Jack Kahane this morning. He agreed to the following
conditions: 1. That I should write the preface. 2. That I should
be paid 150 fr per 1000 words irrespective ofstate of£. 3. That
I should receive halfon signing ofcontrac[t) & halfon delivery of
MS. 4. That there should be no time limit. I then said I would give
him a definite answer this day week. He intends to publish in
3 vols. (not simultaneously) ofapprox. 50,000 words each. I should
be paid per vol. I should get my translator's copy (1500 fr) & 6 free
copies oftranslation (3 vols. at 150 francs each). I have read lg &
3! :Q vols. ofFrench edition. The obscenity ofsurface is indescrib
able. Nothing could be less pornographical. It fills me with a kind
of metaphysical ecstasy. The composition is extraordinary, as
rigorous as Dante's. If the dispassionate statement of 600 "pas
sions" is Puritan and a complete absence of satire juvenalesque,
4
607
then it is, as you say, puritanical & juvenalesque. You would loathe it whether or no. I don't know if I shall do it. I think probably I shall. It would be in a limited ed. of 1000 copies. No attempt wd. be made to distribute in England or USA. But of course it would be known that I was the translator. I would not do it without signing my name to it. I know all about the obloquy. What I don't know about is the practical effect on my own future
21 February 1938, McGreevy
freedom ofliterary action in England & USA. Would the fact ofmy being known as the translator, & the very literal translation, of "the most utter filth" tend to spike me as a writer myself? Could I be banned & muzzled retrospectively? The preface is important, because it enables me to make my attitude clear. Alan Belinda & Nick are all against my doing it. Brian simply says he would not himself undertake it. It appears a lot of people are after the job, including Peggy Guggenheim's ex-husband Lawrence [for Laurence] Vail. 5
I wish I had been in London for the Kandinsky. How did you like it? 6
I go back to Broussais on Thursday and hope that may be the last time. I was confronted with Prudent in the Palais de Justice this day week & we exchanged amiabilities. The trial should come on now soon, when I shall have the pleasure ofrecovering my sorely missed clothes, and perhaps even receive a franc damages. 7 Talking ofwhich I hear Gogarty gave an oyster party in the Bail[e]y to celebrate my premature demise, and has sold his premises in Ely Place to the Royal Hibernian Academy, which means that Harry will perhaps get some money after all, & I my return fare from Paris. 8
Love ever Sam
ALS; 2 leaves, 3 sides; on letterhead: LA COUPOLE, 102 BD DU MONTPARNASSE; TCD, MS 10402/157.
1 McGreevy'sletterstoSBhavenotbeenfound.
2 SamuelJohnsonlistedashisfirstpurpose"Toavoididleness"(EasterEve1761); SB cites from Johnson's Miscellanies Prayers and Meditations, Easter Day 7 April 1765): "I know not how the days pass over me" Uohnson, Diaries, Prayers, and Annals, 92; BIF. UoR, MS 2461/1. f. lR).
3 SB had been staying at the Hotel Liberia since the end of November 1937. He looked for a room in the 14th arrondissement.
608
8 March 1938, Reavey
According to the Cost-of-living / Consumer Prices Index in 1938, France had the highest increase in costs since 1929 (115 as compared to 99 in Ireland) (B. R. Mitchell, International Historical Statistics: Europe 1750-1988, 3rd edn. [New York: Stockton Press, 1992] 848.
4 SB refers to the three-volume edition of Sade's Les 120 Joumees de Sodome by Maurice Heine (see 20 February 1938, n. 4).
Juvenal (ne Decimus Junius Juvenalis c. 55-140), whose satires attacked the vices of Rome.
5 AlanandBelindaDuncan,NickBalachef,BrianCoffey.
French-born writer and artist Laurence Vail (1891-1968) was married to Peggy Guggenheim from 1922 to 1929.
6 TheKandinskyExhibitionatGuggenheimJeune:5January1938,n. 4.
7 The H6pital Broussais, where SB had been taken following the stabbing and to which he returned for check-ups. SB's exchanges with Prudent: 20 February 1938, n. 5.
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.
