No More Learning

25 SBhadgivenhismotherMorton'sIntheFootstepsoftheMaster(see10March1935, n. 10). Lynn Doyle (ne LeslieAlexander Montgomery, 1873-1961) was anIrish humorist known for his series of stories about the fictional NorthernIrish village ofBallygullion.
ALICE SAUERLAN D T HAMBURG
19/2/37 Freiberg
Geehrte Frau Sauerlandt
Griissen Sie bitte Ihre Familie u. seien Sie selbst desgleichen
begriisst.
Sam. Beckett
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Freiberg, Tyrnpanon der Goldenen pforte (Golden Portal); to Frau Sauerlandt, Hamburg, Loogestrasse 26; pm 19l-2-37J, Freiberg; Katarina Kautzky. Previous publication (facsimile): Quadflieg, Beckett was here, 14 2 .
19/2/37 Freiberg
Dear Mrs. Sauerlandt
Please greet your family and be greeted yourself, likewise.
Sam. Beckett
452
23 February 1937, Reavey
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
20/2/37 Bamberg
[no greeting]
Got your card just before I left Dresden yesterday. Spent a few hours in Freiberg in torrents, watery snow looking at this. The Bathsheba 3rd from left is lovely. 1 Arrived hear [for here] late last night. Going out now to have gawk - shall prob­ ably stay till Tuesday, then direct to Niirnberg or via Wiirzburg.
All well. Love
Sam
John Ev/ David/ Bathsheba/ Aaron2
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; "Freiberg I. S. Dom, Die goldene Pforte, 2. Viertel des 13. Jahrh. , Die Gestalten des rechten Gewandes, <darunter, Aaron, Ecclesia, David. >"; pm 20-2-37, Bamberg; to Thomas McGreevy, 49 Harrington Rd. , London SW 7, ENGLAND; TCD, MS 10402/118.
1 SB refers to the photographic image of "Die goldene Pforte" (the Golden Gate) of the Dom St. Marien, Freiberg, Saxony. The gate survives from the original Romanesque church, Die Llebfrauenkirche (The Church of our Beloved Lady), with sculptures that date from the 1230s. SB corrects the printed identification of the figures on the right of the portal (image on the card) from left to right: John the Evangelist, David, Bathsheba,Aaron. For several images of the door, and particularly of Bathsheba: Rainer Budde, Deutsche romanische Skulptur, 1050-1250 (Munich: HirmerVerlag, 1979) 112-113 and figs. 299 and 302.
2 SBcanceledprintedidentificationsofthesculpturesandwroteinhiscorrections.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/2/37 Hotel Drei Kronen Bamberg
453
23 February 1937, Reavey
Dear George
Your letter dated 17th reached me in Dresden the morning I
left. I suppose Murphy is now in the hands of Nott. I think there is another MS copy lying at home, that you could have had. Another is in Boston. And what � the position of Houghton Mifflin? Have you been in touch with them? Didn't Nott make it a condition that an American publisher should take sheets? Also it is possible that Dent's rejection may work on H. M. I understand the two firms are hand in gauntlet. You never men­ tion the American end. Please do in your next.
The kind lady in Boston is doing it all for love, so far as I
1
occurs to me she may expect a rake off from H. M. She calls
herself their "literary scout". But she would certainly waive
all her rights and expectations if to do so were to make things
any easier for me. Perhaps you would write to her. Mrs Mark
Howe, 136 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass. Her brother-in-law is
director or something in a big New York firm of publishers
whose name I forget. They turned down Murphy with the
classical obeisance et l'obligeance prophetique. She is perhaps
known to you in her maiden style of Mary Manning, author
of plays that have been performed at the Gate Theatre, Dublin.
I think she expects to have something on in London soon.
Pinker is her agent God help her. She ran for a time in Dublin
in connexion with the Gate a periodical called Motley. She is
writing a novel called Mount Venus. She is up to her eyes in the
family way. So now is the time if ever to prey on her feelings. I
should be happy to have you act for me in America as well as in
2
I should not agree to an option on my next two books without a
454
know. But no sooner do I see this sentence written than it
England. WithChatto&WindusIamboundinnowaywhatever. But
3
23 February 1937, Reavey
struggle. It is too general. Say on my next book of poems and prose work exceeding 60000 words.
Wollman can have whatever he wants. I take it he doesn't
4
I leave here to-morrow for Wiirzburg and expect to be in Munich about a week later. In Munich I shall stay at least a month. If you have not already written again to Dresden (in which case I shall not have the letter till the end of next week), or indeed whether you have or not, perhaps you would write Paste Restante, Munich, rather than wait till I can let you have a definite address.
I met a lot of Russians in Dresden, Obolenskys and Gersdorffs, very friendly, and heard an interesting lecture the evening before I leave [for left] by one Prof. Fedor Stepun on Belji. Why don't you translate the Silver Dove, or has it been done? 5
Ever
s/ Sam
It was kind of Miss Vernon to mention me to Laughton. Please
6
In Boston, Mary Manning Howe had contacted Houghton Mifflin as a possible American co-publisher, with Nott in London, of Murphy. SB repeats what Howe has told him about a joint venture between Dent and Houghton Mifflin, but no evidence has been found that they were formally associated.
2 Thebrother-in-lawofMaryManningHowewasQuincyHowe(1900-1977),then Chief Book Editor with New York publishers Simon and Schuster, who had turned down Murphy in October 1936 (see 9 October 1936, n. 11).
"Et l'obligeance prophetique" (and prophetic obligingness).
Mary Manning Howe had been Publicity Manager for the Gate Theatre, Dublin, and Editor of Motley, its magazine (March 1932 - May 1934). Her plays for the Gate Theatre in Dublin were Youth's the Season . . . ? (1931), Stonn over Wicklow (1933), and Happy Family
455
pay. I am glad you liked Cascando. There has been nothing since.
thank her. I am trying to think of something.
TLS with APS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; letterhead; TxU.
1 SBleftDresdenon19February.
23 February 1937, Reavey
(1934). Youth's the Season . . . ? opened in London on 5 October 1937 (see 7 July 1936, n. 7). James Pinker was her agent. Her novel Mount Venus was published in 1938 by Houghton Mifflin.
Reavey represented SB's work in the United States.
3 SB had published Proust and More Pricks Than Kicks with Chatto and Windus. The contract for More Pricks Than Kicks (then entitled Draff), signed on 3 October 1933 and acknowledged by Prentice on 4 October 1933, stipulated that Chatto and Windus be given the first option on SB's next prose work of 60,000 words. SB offered them the manuscript of Murphy, which they declined (UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 150/245).
4 Maurice Wollman (n. d. ), editor of Poems of Twenty Years: An Anthology, 1918-1938 (London: Macmillan and Co. , 1938) had asked Reavey to suggest younger writers whose poetry might be included in this collection. On 1 February 1937, Reavey suggested SB, Brian Coffey, Thomas McGreevy, and Denis Devlin; on 12 February Reavey sent Wollman a copy of Beckett's poem "Cascando" as well as Echo's Bones (TxU, Reavey). Wollman did not include any work by these poets in his anthology.
5 On18February,withIdaBienertandthevonGersdorffs,SBattendedalectureby Dr. Fedor Stepun (1884-1965), who had studied at the University of Heidelberg and taught at the Technische Hochschule Dresden. He spoke on the Russian writer Andrei Belji (or Belyii, now transliterated in English as Andrei or Andrey, Bely or Biely, ne Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev, 1880-1934). For SB's response to his lecture: BIF, UoR, GD 5/f. 9).
George Reavey did eventually translate Serebryany Golub (1909; The Silver Dove, 1974).
6 AutographP. S. ,underscoredbydoubleloopedline,similiartoaninfinitysign.
Reavey's fiancee Clodine Gwynedd Cade" (nee Vernon Jones, 1901-7) had told the American actor Charles Laughton about Beckett's interest in film and his idea of a film of Samuel Johnson starring Laughton (see 13 December 1936, n. 9). As SB reported to Mary Manning Howe: "Reavey wants me to write stories for Laughton, bursting with big programmes. Irish and decently indecent. On no account scenarios. He has his own scenarists. You ought to do something about this. I can't" (21 March 1937, TxU).
THOMAS M cGREEVY LON DON
4/3/37
[Regensburg]
[no greeting]
I wanted your help badly with this door, built by Irish (not Scottish) monks in 12th century. Does the name Rydan
456
4 March 1937, McGreevy
sayanythingtoyou? Hewasthearchitect. 1 Itisoneofthebig "problems". Perhaps it means: "Heaven & Earth shall pass away, but. . " From Keltic motif one should arrive at something, but I am not competent. 2 Wiirzburg began Irish also: Kilian, Kolonat [for Colman] & Totnan, all martyred. 3 Going on this afternoon to Munich, where perhaps there is a letter from you waiting.
Loves.
APCI; 1 leaf, 1 side; "Schottenportal, Regensburg"; to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 49
Harrington Road, London SW 7; pm 4-3-37, Regensburg; TCD, MS 10402/120.
1 The door is the north portal of St. Jakob Kirche (also known as the Schottenkirche); it was built by twelfth-century Irish monks who were replaced in 1577 by Scottish monks. The portal is "fitted into a showpiece wall covered with reliefs" (Uwe Geese, "Romanesque Sculpture," in Romanesque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, ed. Rolf Toman ! Cologne: Konemann, 1997] 316). Inside the north portal is a relief of Friar Rydan (c. twelfth century), who is depicted with door bolt and key. His role in the intricate design is unclear; he may have been architect, master of the portal, or one who trans­ mitted wisdom through the symbolic cycles depicted on the portal (Mona Stocker, Die Schottenkirche St. Jakob in Regensburg: Skulptur und stilistisches Umfeld, Regensburger Studien und Quellen zur Kulturgeschichte [Regensburg: Universitatsverlag Regensburg, 2001] 31, 54, 98, 106-107).
2 For a detailed study of the iconography of the portal of the Schottenkirche: Lore Conrad, Die romanische Schottenkirche in Regensburg und ihre Bildsymbo! sprache: Darstellung einer systematischen Deutung sakraler Kunst aus dem Europa des 12. Jahrhunderts, 5th edn. (Regensburg: Lore Conrad, 1987). The symbols depict conflict between good and evil, Christ and Antichrist, East and West; Celtic motifs adorn the pillars of the portal and are evoked in the animal allegories (Budde, Deutsche romanische Skulptur, 1050-1250, 52-54, figs. 83-85).
SB refers to Luke 21:33: "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. "
3 Kilian(c. 640-689),aBishopoflreland,wascommissionedin686byPopeConon to evangelize in Franconia (now Baden-Wurttemberg, Thuringia, and Bavaria in Germany). With the priest Colman (d. 689) and a deacon Totnan (d. 689), Kilian con­ verted Gosbert (n. d. ), the Duke of Wfuzburg. According to legend, Kilian's preaching convinced Gosbert that he had been wrong to marry his brother's widow, Geilana (n. d. ), provoking her to have Kilian and his cohorts killed ijohnJ. Delaney, Dictionary ofSaints, 2nd edn. [New York: Image-Doubleday, 2004] 358; the Martyrdom of St. Kilian and his Disciples is depicted by the Nuremberg Master IMainfrankisches Museum, Wurzburg: www. mainfraenkisches-museum. de]).
457
7 March 1937, McGreevy GEORGE REAVEY
LONDON
7/3/37 Pension Romana Akademiestrasse 7
Munchen
[no greeting]
I was hoping to find a letter from you Poste Restante. Here is my
address for 3 weeks or a month. I suggest you give the book to
1
APCS; 1 leaf. 1 side; '"Niirnberg, Selbstbildnis von Adam Kraft am Sakraments­ hauschen in der Lorenzkirche,'" [fiber/glue residue obscures description]; to George Reavey, 1 Parton Street, LONDON W. C. 1; pm 7-3-37, Munich; TxU.
1 StanleyNott was the only publisher who had accepted Murphy, but on the con­ dition of an American co-publisher being found.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
7/3/37 Pension Romana Akademiestrasse 7
Munchen
Dear Tom
It was a great pleasure to find your letter waiting for me in
Munich. I arrived here last Friday evening from Regensburg & rushed straight to the P. O. , just in time to collect a large bundle ofletters. Yesterday I found this place, which is no worse than
458
the one & only Yess [sic] and have done with it. Yours ever
Sam
7 March 1937, McGreevy
another. My horizon is blotted out by the Counsel Academy, overpoweringly "lapidaire" as Thomas would say, with Castor & Pollux very black and Minerva against the sky looking like a quantity surveyer [for surveyor] taking a level. 1
The impression so far, to me wandering blindly among the monuments of its classicism, is not very agreeable. The evening I arrived was lovely, almost a summer warmth, with the blue trams and a thrush singing in Maximiliansplatz and the sense of relief at having reached a resting point again. But now it is snowing again. The lsar is a poor kind of a piddle after the lyrical Main in Wiirzburg & the heroic Danube in Regensburg, taking the Regen without a ripple, and the reinforced concrete of Museum Island doesn't help it. 2 How does one scuttle an island?
I remember the Bassano in Hampton Court very well. In the second or third room, isn't it? The wild tormented colour. Weren't the season allegories mostly by the son Francesco? There is a good Good Samaritan by Jacopo in Berlin and 5 or 6 in Dresden, skied & dirty, looking like not very good early El Grecos. 3
I haven't been to the Alte Pinakothek yet. I meant to go to-day, because of the nothing to pay & in spite of the mob, but discovered as I was setting out very late in the morning that it closes on Sunday at 1. A mark a time is a bit thick. Only 1O pf. for the Kaiser Friedrich and 20 pf. for the Zwinger.
The Tiepolo frescos in the Wiirzburger Residenz were won­ derful, crown to the spacelessness set up by Neumann, or better a firmament. Otherwise Wiirzburg is Riemenschneider, whom one likes or doesn't.
There are good things, a lovely Adam & Eve from the first period, but from 1510 on he seems to crumple up in the immature voulu Renaissance irresolutions plus spurious
459
7 March 1937, McGreevy
severity that one finds then again in Ni. imberg in such painful
4
mean the Pleydenwurff-Wohlgemut [for Wolgemut]-Di. irer and the Stoss-Kraft-Vischer turnover from say 20 years before the
5
complacent jealous zealous artisan. What remains after the
technique is the vision ofthe sturdy burgher full ofthe sense
ofhis worth and the mysteries ofhis trade & the sweat ofhis
brow & a determination to stand up to all princes & potencies
sacred & profane. It is Hans Sachsism. Not only Meistersinger,
but Meistermaler & Meisterbildhauer & Meistererzgiesser.
6
in the Lorenzkirche is a frightful machine, more gothic than
the gothic, a miracle oflaborious statics, a skyscrapery in dingy
limestone with the pinnacle bent to follow the curve of the
vaulting, showing that he could have gone on had not space
forbidden. And the famous Vischer Sebaldus Altar in the
Sebalduskirche is just a good black solid heavy job of work
with no labour spared & no expense. 7 It was a democracy
without historical context, over excited & over irritable. They
drove out the Jews in 1499 and kept them out for 3 and a half
8
barrow. Stoss is the best ofthem, but seems to have been very
much influenced by Riemenschneider & to have gone the
way ofRiemenschneider. In his last period crucifixes that are
big & bare because bigness & bareness are the thing. Some
9
abundance. Andheisalwayssentimental.
The great Ni. imberg period is for me now a conspiracy. I
century end to 20 years after. It is all so terribly guildy and
Stairpainting & draperies. The famous Kraft Ciborium Altar
centuries. And the catastrophe of 1517 was right into their
ofhis earlier house Madonnas are lovely. The Di. irer room in the Germanisches Museum is a scandal. They have so little by him that any old rag dirty enough to have possibly come from his workshop is made to serve. The only unquestionable
460
7 March 1937, McGreevy
Diirer in the whole of Niirnberg is the small portrait of Wohlgemut. 10
And now it is the industrial centre of Bavaria and with Munich & Berlin the third centre of Nazidiffusion and the seat
11
period novels, did you know? And enjoys I think £500 a year. Has Flaherty finished with his elephantboy? 12
I had a letter from Brian who mentioned he had heard from you. He remains very mysteriously under some wooden sword of Damocles, says he told his father he was dead & so on. 13 How fortunate to have a father to say that one is dead to.
An amusing letter also from Jack Yeats, wanting to know the players' advice to Hamlet and very pleased with the Duchess
14
of art writing a thesis on the influence of 19th century Munich
painting on the American primitives! I felt this to be an under­
taking about as fruitful as say a study of the influence of Plato on
15
no. I really forget who was the last to scent the rejection slip. No
16
bolt back. It is the same thing over & over again & I do no work.
Stuttgart & Frankfurt remain after I am finished here, but unless
the mood, which has been developing for weeks, changes, I shall
give up the idea, move into digs here at half the price & save up
for the price ofan aeroplane to London, ifl can find some not too
particular travel agency to take Registermarks for the whole
17
461
ofJewbaiting Streicher & his rag.
I think I was at school with Mr Davidson. He writes facetious
ofMalfi at the Gate.
I met yesterday at breakfast a pleasant Californian student
Mrs Neighbour.
I was hoping to find a word fromReavey in the P. O. here, but
doubt there have been several more since.
I am very tired travelling and often feeling like making a
journey, and not merely to the frontier, as is the law.
7 March 1937, McGreevy
I have a couple of introductions to notabilities here and
18
mous. Doors open in May. She wants me to give one May Sarton
shall utter them I suppose in due course.
Mary Manning writes from Boston that her belly is enor­
an introduction to you. I don't know the lady, but apparently
shall be obliged to. She is American, belle a peindre, intelligente
a gemir, has published a slim volume & said adieu to all her
amies. She will be inJeake's house, Rye, Kent in April & May and
19
ary for Houghton Mifflin, with your Eliot & Aldington and the suggestion that you do a third essay of the same length on Yeats
(W. B. )? She would be flattered & I should say the chances of
there [for their] being taken on are at least even. Something of
the same kind was in the wind for me, i. e. a Gide & a Celine
or Malraux to eke out the Proust, when they turned down the
latter as too short to be worth separate publication. I really think
you should try this & wonder how it did not occur to me long
20
ALS; 2 leaves, 6 sides; letterhead <HOTEL LEINFELDER MONCHEN>; TCD, MS 10402/121.
1 SB arrived in Munich on evening of 4 March. The Pension Romana faced the Akademie der Bildenden Kiinste Miinchen, Akademiestrasse 2, which SB calls the Counsel Academy. "Lapidaire" (lapidary) refers to the cut stone frieze that runs around the front fa�ade and at the roofline of the center section of the building.
Jean Thomas.
Sculptures of Castor and Pollux flank the stairs at the center entrance of the Akademie. The huge statue of Minerva crowns the top of the building over this entrance; Minerva holds a rod (for images, see Winfried Nerdinger, Gotifried von Neureuther, Architekt der Neorenaissance in Bayern, 1811-1887 [Munich: K. M. Lipp, 1978] 118, 126-127; Dr Birgit Jooss, Archiv und Sammlungen, Akademie der Bildenden Kiinste Miinchen, 22 March 2006).
462
invites me! I tink I prefer Mrs Frost.
Why don't you try Mary Manning, who acts as intermedi­
ago. Her address: Mrs Mark Howe, 136 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass.
Love ever. Write soon Sam
2 ManyofMunich'spublicbuildingsweredesignedbyLeovonKlenze(1784-1864), court architect to the Kings of Bavaria, Maximilian I (1756-1825) and Ludwig I (1786-1868).
The Isar River, which flows through Munich and joins the Danube downstream from Regensburg, is too shallow for navigation over most of its length; at Regensburg the Regen River flows into the Danube. The Deutsches Museum is on an island in the lsar between the Ludwigsbriicke and the Corneliusbriicke, called the Museumsinsel (Museum Island).
3 In Hampton Court there are many paintings by Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510-1592), and several that are indicated in SB's notebook on Dutch painting (BIF, UoR, MS 5001/ 37); the specific painting to which SB refers is uncertain. The paintings of the "season series" belong to the period of collaboration (1575-1577) between Jacopo Bassano and his son, Francesco Bassano (1549-1592), but they are generally attributed to Francesco.
The Good Samaritan by Jacopo Bassano in Berlin (listed in the 1930 catalogue as 314) was destroyed in 1945 (Staatliche Museen Berlin, I, Die Gemiildegalerie, Die Italienischen Meister 16. bis 18. Jahrhundert [Berlin: Paul Cassirer Verlag, 1930] 9; Beverly Louise Brown and Paola Marini, Jacopo Bassano, c. 1510-1592 [Fort Worth, TX: Kimbell Art Museum, 1993] 104). The paintings by Jacopo Bassano in the collection in Dresden are: Samson Fighting with the Philistines (254A), The Israelites Journeying through the Wilderness (253), Young Tobias Returning Home (254), Moses and the Israelites at the Rock from which Water Rowed (256), and The Conversion ofSaul (258) (K. Woermann, Catalogue ofthe Pictures in the Royal Gallery at Dresden, 44).
4 ThefrescosontheceilingandwallsoftheKaisersaaloftheWiirzburgerResidenz by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770) were designed by the architect of the Residenz, Balthasar Neumann (1687-1753). On the ceiling was Apollo Conducting Beatrice of Burgundy to the "Genius" of the German Nation, and on the walls were the Investiture of Bishop Harold and Wedding of Frederick Barbarossa and Beatrice of Burgundy. In addition to altarpieces for the Residenz chapel, Tiepolo painted the fresco on the stairwell of the Residenz, which SB called the "liquidation of architectural limits" (BIF, UoR, GD 5/f. 29). It depicts Prince-Bishop Karl Philipp von Greiffenclau-Vollraths (1690-1754, Prince-Bishop from 1749 to 1754) borne by Fame through the skies; at the lower edges of the fresco are depictions of the four continents; the turning of the stairs draws the eye toward the Kaisersaal which depicts Europe: the crown and firmament suggested by SB.
The late-Gothic German sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider (c. 1460-1531) was commissioned by the town council of Wiirzburg to create the stone figures of Adam and Eve for the Marienkapelle where they were installed in 1492; they were removed in 1894 to the Mainfranken Museum in Wiirzburg. but since the 1970s have been re-installed in the Marienkapelle (www. groveart. com).
"Voulu" (insistently deliberate).
5 Those painters and sculptors active during what SB names the "great Niirnberg period" were: Hans Pleydenwurff (c. 1420-1472); Michael Wolgemut (1434-1519), who took over Pleydenwurffs studio, and to whom Albrecht Diirer (1471-1528) was apprenticed from 1486 to 1489; and wood carver Veit Stoss (c. 1445-1533) and his workshop, stone mason Adam Kraft, and brassfounder and sculptor Peter Vischer.
463
7 March 1937, McGreery
7 March 1937, McGreevy
6 HansSachs(1494-1576)wasamastercobbler,authorofmoralfablesandcontrib­ utor of over 6,000 works to the art of the Meistergesang (Mastersong, song form of the Guilds). He is depicted as the central figure in Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger van Niirnberg.
"Meistersinger" (Master singer, or lyrical poet, one who invented new subjects and new forms), "Meistermaler" (Master painter), Meisterbildhauer (Master sculptor), "Meistererzgiesser" (Master metal caster).
7 Adam Kraft's Sakramentshiiuschen in the Lorenzkirche in Nuremberg is a recep­ tacle for the Host, rather than an altar, in the form of a 65-foot limestone spire that turns slightly at its peak, at its base are bronze figures of Kraft and his assistants with their aprons and tools.
Peter Vischer's Sebaldus Altar in the Sebalduskirche is an eight-ton shrine in cast bronze (1507-1519). Enclosing the silver shrine ofSt. Sebaldus, it is supported by snails and dolphins, and incorporates many statuettes.
8 JewishpersecutionhadalonghistoryinNuremberg:theBlackDeathmassacres (1249), the Rindfleisch persecutions (1298), and the expulsion ofJews in 1499 (Geoffrey Wigoder, ed. , The New Standard Jewish Enclyclopedia, 7th edn. ! New York: Facts on File, 1992] 716-717).
9 SBreferstoMartinLuther(1483-1546),whoin1517nailedhisthesestothedoor of the castle church in Wittenberg: for SB, his reforms shut off the possibility of a Renaissance in German art (BIF, UoR, GD 5/f. 48, 28 February 1937).
Although they were contemporaries and he painted and gilded the figures in Riemenschneider's altar for the church at Miinnerstadt (1503-1504), Veit Stoss is not thought to have been directly influenced by Riemenschneider, even though both artists incorporated the natural textures of wood and stone into their work. Within the large Stoss collection ofthe Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg there are several of Stoss's earlier and smaller Madonnas; an example from 1520 is "Hausmadonna" (PLO 217) (G. illrich Grossmann und die Sammlungsleiter, eds. , Germanisches Natianalmuseum: Fiihrer durch die Sammlungen [Nuremberg: Verlag des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 2001] 74). SB greatly admired Stoss's crucifix for the church of the Heiliggeist-Spital (Hospital of the Holy Spirit), c. 1501-1510; now in the Gennanisches Nationalmuseum (Pl. 0. 62) (BIF, UoR GD 5/f57; Rainer Kahsnitz, ed. , Veit Stoss in Niirnberg: Werke des Meister. ; und seiner Schule in Niirnbergund Umgebung [Munich: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 1983] 122-127).
10 The1937catalogueoftheGermanischesNationalmuseumindicatesthatDiirer's Portrait ofMichael Wolgemut (1516, GN 885) and HerculesBattling the StymphaleanBirds (1500, GN 166) are initialed and dated; it claims that his unsigned Portrait of Emperor Kaiser Maximilian I (1518, GN 169) is authentic. Other unsigned works attributed to Diirer are: The Lamentation ofChrist (GN 165), Portrait ofEmperor Charlemagne in Coronation Robes (GN 167), Portrait of Emperor Sigismund in Coronation Robes (GN 168) (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Die Gemiilde des 13. bis 16. Jahrhunderts, I, ed. Eberhard Lutze and Eberhard Wiegand [Leipzig: K. F. Koehlers Antiquarium, 1937) 50-54).
11 From 1919, Julius Streicher (1885-1946) was active in anti-Semitic political groups. He founded the virulently anti-Semitic journal Der Sturmer which was pub­ lished from 1923 to 1945. From 1925, he was Gauleiter of the Franconia region, which included Nuremberg. As a member of the Reichstag, he advocated the boycott of the Jews and helped prepare the Nuremberg Laws (1935). He was executed after condem­ nation at the International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg.
464
12 James Norris Goddard Davidson (1908-1998) was educated at Portora Royal School and the University of Cambridge; he became a leader in Irish documentary film-making, wrote two novels, Galore Park (1934) and The Soft Impeachment (1936), and after the War became a producer with Radio Eireann.
Davidson assisted American film-maker Robert Flaherty in the making of Man ofAran (see 10 May 1934, n. 3); Elephant Boy (1937) was an adaptation of "Toomai of the Elephants" by Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). Shot on location in India, the film required script changes which in turn required prolonged refilming in London studios.
13 BrianCoffey'sfather,DenisCoffey.
14 HamletgivesadvicetothePlayersinHamlet,III. ii. 1-14,16-36,38-45.
The Duchess of Malfi (c. 1614) by John Webster (c. 1580-1634) played at the Gate Theatre from 9 to 20 February 1937, directed by Peter Powell (1908-1985) ("This Week in Dublin," The Irish Times 8 February 1937: 5).
15 TheresearchofCalifornianRobertNeuhaus(1909-1995)forhis1938Ph. D. at the University of Marburg concerned American artists Frank Duveneck (ne Francis Decker, 1848-1919), William Merritt Chase (1849-1916), and Joseph Frank Currier (1843-1909), who were part of the Leiblkreis (Leib! circle) in Germany, artists influ­ enced by Wilhelm Leib! and Hans von Marees (1837-1887); Neuhaus published his study as Bildnismalerei des Leibl-Kreises: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Technik der Malerei der zweiten Hii! fte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Marburg: Verlag des Kunstgeschichtlichen Seminars, 1953); see also Robert Neuhaus, Unsuspected Genius: The Art and Life of Frank Duveneck (San Francisco: Bedford, 1987) 7-27, 35-59.
Mrs. Neighbour was the housekeeper of Hester Dowden (Bentley, Far Horizon: A Biography ofHester Dowden, 44).
16 The effort to publish Murphy: 20 March 1937 to Reavey and 25 March 1937 to McGreevy.
17 Foreign currency controls were enforced to keep German money in the country, so that only travel to the border could be purchased with German marks.
18 Heinz Porep had given SB introductions to Karl Kluth and Dr. Richard Zarnitz (n. d. ) (BIF, UoR, GD 4/f. 23-25).
19 Belgian-born American poet and novelist May Sarton (1912-1995) had been offered the use ofJeake's House on Mermaid Street in Rye, Sussex, by American writer Conrad Aiken (1889-1973); Sarton enlisted two friends to "share the house and the expenses" and took pleasure in inviting "friends to stay on weekends" (May Sarton, A World ofLight: Portraits and Celebrations [New York: W. W. Norton, 1976] 194). Sarton's first volume of poetry was Encounter in April (1937).
"Belle a peindre" (lovely enough to deserve a painting); "intelligente a gemir" (painfully intelligent); "adieu to all her amies" (good-bye to all her women friends).
SB had lived in London at 34 Gertrude Street, in the house of Mrs. Frost.
20 Mary Manning Howe was a reader for Houghton Mifflin and had acted as an intermediary on behalf of SB's Murphy. SB refers to McGreevy's two studies, Thomas Stearns Eliot and Richard Aldington: An Englishman, published by Chatto and Windus. Although SB had proposed to write a study of Gide in 1932, there is no documentation
465
7 March 1937, McGreevy
7 March 1937, McGreevy
ofa proposal, either by Houghton Mifflin to SB or by SB to Houghton Mifflin regarding
publication of SB's Proust or studies by SB of Gide, Celine, or Malraux. THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
20/3/37 Pension Romana Akademiestr. 7
[Munich]
[no greeting]
I am hoping to hear from you soon, that you are all right again.
This is perhaps not the best of the 3 Poussins here but it is very
good. The best for me is the Bacchus & Midas, with superb
1
APCI;1leaf,1side;"ApolloundDaphne,"NicolasPoussin(1594-1665),AltePinakothek; to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 49 Harrington Road, London S. W. 7, England; pm 20-3-37, Munich; TCD, MS 10402/122.
1 SB refers to the image on the postcard, Apollo and Daphne by Nicolas Poussin (2334) in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. SB compares Poussin's Bacchus and Midas (528) to Giorgione's Venus in Dresden. The third painting by Poussin in the collection is The Lamentation over dead Christ (625).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
20/3/37 Pension Romana Akademiestr. 7
Also alas not to be had as postcard. Expect to be here another fortnight.
female nude very like the Venus in Dresden. Love.
S.
466
Miinchen
Dear George
Many thanks for your letter.
By all means take the MS from Houghton Mifflin. You have a
free hand to do what you like with the book in England and
1
book yourself. I am afraid you would lose money.
Yes, as I think I mentioned before, the book, before it went to Houghton Mifflin, was turned down by some gorgeous New York publishers with a Jewish name that I can't remember and
have no note of with me. 3
I stay here for a fortnight more & then I think return
straight to London. I am tired cangiando loco and shall abandon
4
ALS; 1 leaf. 1 side; letterhead <HOTEL LEINFELDER. MUNCHEN>; TxU.
1 HoughtonMifflinhadaskedforcutsinMurphy. TheideaoffindinganAmerican publisher to share costs with Nott in England had been languishing. as SB wrote to Mary Manning Howe: "'The latest is that Houghton Mifflin. stimulated by a cable from Reavey quoting Nott's price for sheets, regret now to be unable, which has Jet Nott out also" (21 March 1937, TxU).
SB had already suggested that Mary Manning Howe's representation of the novel in the United States was undertaken as a friend, not as an agent: 23 February 1937.
2 SBreceivedReavey'sJetterinMunichon20March. ItreportedthatMurphyhad been given to Boris Wood in London, but if that failed Reavey would consider financ­ ing the book himself. Reavey's Jetter has not been found, but it is quoted by SB in his diary (BIF, UoR, GD 6/f. 25).