Curtis was there,
organising
the
review of his new history book.
review of his new history book.
Samuel Beckett
1.
SB was trying to finish the manuscript of Murphy.
4 ReaveyrepublishedsomeofSB'sEluardtranslationsfromThisQuarter(see2May 1936, n. 2), and acknowledged their previous publication in his editorial foreword (Eluard, Thorns ofThunder, vii).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
Cooldrinagh Foxrock
Co. Dublin.
DearTom
I had a line from Mary Manning this morning in which she
says that she is writing to you and will speak to Howe pere. With a little management the job should come off. Would you object
1
7 May 1936, McGreevy
to asking Joyce for a chit? It appears they adore him at Harvard. Jack Yeats brought up the subject of the picture, & though I was too broke even to make an offer at the time, I since bor rowed £10 which he accepted as a first instalment, the remain ing £20 to follow God knows when, & have now got the picture. Mother & Frank can't resist it much after the Sligo watercolour.
333
7/5/36
7 May 1936, McGreevy
It is nice to have Morning on one's wall that is always morning, and a setting out without the coming home. 2
Transition have guaranteed payment for the poems & want
"6 pages" in addition. I put the old censorship article au jour &
sent it. The difficulty of my own book having been banned since
I wrote the article I got over by giving my registered number,
3
furniture at the Spring Show, in the Irish Times.
I read The Arnaranthers which he gave me & would like to
review it for the Dublin Mag. except that I don't like asking favours of Seumas. I agree it is a lovely book, its latebra all
5
sacrifice, but I declined. I have been & am very busy with
6
I had a long letter from Coffey some time ago, most of which
7
indeed have no inclination to leave the light & the sea for a city. We seem to have settled down at home to a kind of reciprocal gentleness & reserve that is the best we can do. [. . . ]
I was talking to a custodian in the Gallery, who said they
would all die for Furlong with the greatest of pleasure. His
diligence does not yet appear in the public rooms, but it appears
he has gone through the cellar with a fine comb, painted under
the roof somewhere, acquired a large Correggio (David &
Goliath), itches to rehang the Dutch rooms, & intends to remove
the Jordaens altogether. A new landscape by de Vries is up, very
9
with all becoming modesty.
All Forlorn is now giving his appreciation of indigenous
4
bright. L'Ile des Paradisiers.
Reavey asked me to translate another poem for his Eluard
Murphy,whichgetsnearitsfirstendatleastatlast. Itwillbe very short, thanks be to God.
I could not see, let alone read.
So far as I can see I shall be here till the autumn at least, &
8
correct & dull.
334
7 May 1936, McGreevy
The Academy opening seems to have been wonderful, with Higgins behind the scenes debating with someone before the microphone & Montgomery comparing the beautiful pictures there to the ugly ones he has to look at in Molesworth St. 10
I have seen absolutely no one for the past fortnight, unless Maurice Sinclair came out. He is laid out after Schol. but seems to
11
have done well.
A Paris gallery wrote to Harry Sinclair about the
painting of Salvado, enclosing photographs. Perhaps they would
like to present one to the Municipal. Sinclair says he has found a
12
ALS; 1 leaf. 4 sides; letterhead; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 9·5-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/94.
1 SB had written to Mary Manning Howe on behalf of McGreevy: "asking her to substitute you for me in her Harvard scheme & giving her your address. I know she will do all she can & that you will hear from her soon" (15 April [1936], TCD, MS 10402/ 94). Mary Manning's father-in-law, Mark Anthony DeWolfe Howe: see 25 March 1936, n. 3.
From 1933 to 1935 there were three senior honors theses on Joyce written by Harvard students. Among attributes of "The Harvard Man" was that he "knows his James Joyce" ("Genus Harvardiensis," Harvard Crimson 29 January 1930: 2).
2 SB refers to A Morning by Jack B. Yeats (Pyle 482; NGI 4628). On Yeats's Sligo watercolor Comer Boys: 5 May 1935, n. 4. The allusion to Thomas a Kempis: 10 March [1935], n. 3.
3 Forinformationaboutthepoemsandtransition'srequestforadditionalmaterial from SB: SB to Reavey, 6 May 1936, n. 1 and n. 3.
"Censorship in the Saorstat" was augmented with a paragraph about the "618 books and 11 periodicals" listed as banned by the Register "as on 30th September 1935"; SB closes the essay by writing: "My own registered number is 465, number four hundred and sixty-five, ifl may presume to say so. /We now feed our pigs on sugarbeet pulp. It is all the same to them" (Beckett, Disjecta, 87-88).
4 Sean O'Faolain wrote "Irish Modes in Furniture: Novel Development of Folk· Motif," The Irish Times 7 May 1936: 6.
5 SBdidaskSeumasO'SullivanifhecouldreviewYeats'snovelTheAmaranthersfor Dublin Magazine (see 13 May [19361).
Boucher, in the voice of one who hears a cuckoo on Xmas Eve. Love ever
Sam
L·ne des Paradisiers (The Isle of Birds of Paradise); reference not found.
335
7 May 1936, McGreevy
6 Eluard, Thoms ofThunder.
7 Brian Coffey's handwriting was unusually small. His letter toSB has not been found.
8 SB had mentioned the possibility of travel to Germany in early summer in his letter to McGreevy of 29 January 119361.
9 George Furlong had been Director of the National Gallery ofIreland since 1 October 1935.
SB refers to David Slaying Goliath (NG! 980) by Italian artist Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), not Antonio Allegri Correggio (c. 1494-1534), which had been pur chased for the National Gallery ofIreland in 1936. The paintings in the collection of the National Gallery ofIreland by Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) were St. Peter Finding the Tribute Money (NG! 38), The Church Triumphant (NG! 46), and The Supper at Emmaus (NG! 57). In 1934 the National Gallery of Ireland acquired Landscape with Figures (NG! 972) by Dutch painter Roelof Jansz de Vries (1631-1681).
10 The Royal Academy of Arts opened its 168th exhibition on 4 May 1936. James Montgomery, whose law offices were at 13South MolesworthStreet and whose office as Official Film Censor was at 34 South Molesworth Street, probably compared the pictures in the exhibition to those at the LeinsterStudio at 3South Molesworth
Street.
11 MorrisSinclairandtheScholarshipexamination:25March1936,n. 5.
12 Catalanpainter,ceramicist,andstained-glassartistJacintoSalvado(1892-1983) studied in Barcelona, Marseille, and Paris, and was active in Paris in the 1920s; a friend of Derain and Picasso, he was depicted by Picasso in Portrait of Jacinto Salvado as Harlequin (Basel Ktinstmuseum, G 1967. 9).
HarrySinclair: Friday lc. 18 to 25 July 1930]. n. 4. SB mentions the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (now the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane), perhaps remembering that McGreevy had arranged for Luri;:at to make such a gift.
French painter Frani;:oisBoucher (1703-1770).
SEUMAS O'SULLIVAN DUBLIN
13/5/[1936]
[Dublin]
[no greeting]
Many thanks for book. It is good of you to let me do it. Fear I have no poems at the moment, but if anything turns
up between now & then I shall send it to you.
336
1
Next Sunday I am not free but perhaps that day week. Yours
SB
APCI; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Editor, DUBLIN MAGAZINE, 2 Crow Street, DUBLIN; pm 14-5-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 4630-49/1346. Dating and place: from pm and Beckett to McGreevy, 23 May 1936.
1 O'Sullivan sent SB a copy of The Amaranthers by Jack Yeats for review in Dublin Magazine (see 7 May 1936).
23 May {1936}, McGreevy
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
23/5 [1936]
Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom IwasverygladtohearfromJBYoftheproposedwork. He
showed me some photographs of his pictures. They do not lose so much as I expected, not even the later ones. I feel the book will give you little trouble & much pleasure_ And to have some thing specific in hand will make you feel better. Tell me more about it in your next letter.
Did I tell you I got the Amaranthers from S. ' OS. [for S. O'S. ] by return of post, with an exceedingly amiable note asking for poems & why I did not go & see them. He allows me only 500 words. How can one be anything but dense with so little space? 2
I have set Murphy on fire at last & 2000 words should polish it off. It is really a most unsavoury & not very honest work. I am not sure that Chatto's are so unlikely to take it. I shall send
copies to Charles & Parsons simultaneously. I would be glad to
1
be saved the trouble of hawking it round.
3
337
23 May {1936], McGreery
I met Bobby Childers, younger son of Erskine, married to Christabel, younger daughter of Mrs Manning, for the first time the other night. He looks after the Irish Press machinery. Talks in a high urgent English voice about[? volts, amts], & the political arena. Attends turf-cutting competitions & lives in Bushy Park Rd. next to Luce. 4 We shall never be in Delphi together.
No news at all from Geoffrey, & his brother Alan has had none for a long time. A friend called Stewart, who shared rooms with me for a time in Trinity, just home with wife from a Cisindian province, writes from Putney. Will he be seeing me at the Scholars' Dinner! Leventhal, a decade behind, or in front, is also looking forward to getting drunk gratis. I prefer to stay sober at my own expense. 5
I bathed twice at 40 Foot this week, in spite of the east wind.
The only other was a reverend Father McGrath, red all over with
ingrowing semen & exposure, whom I used to meet with father
in the Turkish Baths. The last time I saw him was nearly three
6
not say what is wrong. 7
I keep seeing the water & woods of Elsheimer & the round
backs of the sheep of Geertgen. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, published at £7. 17. 6, is going in Green's for £4. 17. 6. Ifl had the
8
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 23 May 1936, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/96.
1 McGreevyhadproposedtodoastudyofthepaintingofJackB. Yeats.
2 SB's review was published as "An Imaginative Work! " Dublin Magazine 11. 3 Uuly-September 1936) 80-81.
338
years ago, at our front door, calling to console.
Charles writes he is going to London to see doctors. He does
money I would buy it. Write soon
Love ever Sam
3 Charles Prentice, who had proved such a sympathetic reader ofBeckett's work, was no longer with Chatto and Windus (see 8September 1935, n. 4); Ian Parsons was in Prentice's position with the firm.
4 RobertAldenChilders(knownasBobby,1911-1996),whosewifewasChristabel Manning (1910-1988), the daughter ofSusan Manning (c. 1874-1960); Bobby was the son oflrish nationalist Robert Erskine Childers (known as Erskine, 1870-1922), and his older brother was Erskine Hamilton Childers (also known as Erskine, 1905-1974), President oflreland (1973-1974).
Bobby and Christabel Childers lived at 12 Bushy Park Road; they were immediate neighbors ofA. A. Luce, 13 Bushy Park Road, Rathgar. SB wrote" <voice> English voice. "
5 Geoffrey and his brother. Alan H. Thompson (1906-1974), were both friends of SB's from school days at Portora RoyalSchool in Enniskillen, and from Trinity College Dublin. Alan Thompson was appointed Assistant Physician and Pathologist to the
Richmond Hospital in 1932.
Gerald PakenhamStewart (1906-1998) shared rooms withSB at TCD in 1926 when
they were bothScholars ofthe House;Stewart became an Assistant Commissioner in the Indian CivilService, Assam. where he met and married his wife ElisabethScott (1912-1971). Putney is in southwest London.
Con Leventhal (TCD BA Mod. in French and German, 1920) was elected toSchol. in 1916.
6 The 40 Foot is the name given to the nude bathing place, at that time for men only, inSandycove, Co. Dublin; it was named for the 40th Regiment ofFoot.
It is not known to which Father McGrathSB refers. William Beckett died on 26 June 1933.
7 CharlesPrentice.
8 SB recalls paintings by Elsheimer and Geertgen in the National Gallery, London (see 20 February 1935, n. 6 and n. 7). Michael Bryan (1757-1821) prepared Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, 1816; it was revised and enlarged in five volumes by George C. Williamson (London: G. Bell, 1903-1905; 4th edn. , 1926-1934).
THOM AS M cGREEVY LONDON
9/6/36 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
It's a long time since I heard from you. I hope you had no
serious trouble with the bronchitis. Write very soon & tell me how you are.
339
9June 1936, McGreevy
9 June 1936, McGreevy
I have finished Murphy, meaning I have put down last words of first version. Now I have to go through it again. It reads something horrid. One should have a continuity-girl, like regisseurs. l
I wrote review ofAmaranthers for Seumas. Only 500 words.
2
got it.
I wrote a fierce stinger to Reavey last night. I was really
furious. He wrote saying my censorship article had arrived too
late for transition, & that mention was made of it in the first of
Mrs Jolas's letters that he sent me. He did no such thing. He
quoted an extract from her letter, in which there was no request
for a prose contribution but only for permission to use some
poems from Echo's Bones. He sent me her second letter, reiter
ating request for prose contribution, whereupon I sent the
4
There must be something the matter with Charles. 6 I have written two letters without reply. The last I heard from him he spoke of London & doctors.
I was at Seumas O'Sullivan's about 3 weeks ago. He men tioned he had heard from you, & that he would very much like to publish some of your criticism.
Curtis was there, organising the
review of his new history book. Bethel & Sophy were there, he
7
I was tired & it is bad. I compared him with Ariosto.
Maurice Sinclair failed Schol. by a few marks. First man out. 3 And about 5 times as intelligent as the best of them that
articlebyreturnofpost. Thenhesendsmeprospectusofthe Eluard poems. Thorns ofThunder! ! ! I object to my name appear ing near such an abomination. I object to Mr Read's bloody preface. I object to the suggestion conveyed by the blurb that I am performing at the new Burlington BAVE. I was not consulted on any of these matters. Blast his little Antrim Road Soul. 5
slugger than ever, she very nice. I went with Cissie.
340
9June 1936, McGreevy Susan Manning says that Mary says that her pa-in-law says
8
I have been bathing & am frightfully tired this evening. The
fellow I shared rooms with in College, & was in school with, &
who now runs some Garden of Oriss[a] in Assam for the I. C. S. ,
came out for lunch to-day, with his wife, cat-eyed, New Zealand &
9
While I was bathing a filthy little mongrel got into a profound coil with our old bitch, now in the height ofheat. I, & the act, were surrounded by a ring of guffawing boys, naked, urging me not to interfere, nor spoil sport, etc. I had to carry the two of them, without assistance, into the sea, & hold them under till the glans contracted. Then I had to bring her down to a dog abortionist on the upper Dargle Road, & pay 7/6 to have her washed out. 10 And still she may drop a litter ofmonsters. And she is ten, fat & decrepit.
Furlong has weeded out the Italian room & improved. The
Pordenone has been cleaned & brought down to a visible height &
is excellent, as I always suspected. The new Gentileschi (£ 600) is
awful. There is an excellent Guercino Joseph & Child that I had
11
street, & he said no copy of the Bones had reached them for
review. Though I gave Reavey the name of who to send it to.
I sent him a copy, but no review so far. Same man told me that
Hillis was married, had been for months. Now perhaps he can
12
"Difference between Eliot & Yeats; one says something beauti fully, the other nothing very beautifully. "13
341
thathehasnotheardfromyou. Didyounotwrite? Ihopeyou are not letting it slide.
d'accent. They all became horribly hearty. "I am not sure" he said, "but I think I am a pragmatist. "
not seen before.
I met a man from the LT. I knew, one day by chance in the
return my Princesse de Cleves.
Have you done anything at the Yeats book? [? Rute] Tierney:
9 June 1936, McGreevy
I owe Coffey a letter for months. Haven't the energy to go &
14
find out in the library what he wants to know.
15 16
Not a word from Geoffrey, for about 3 months.
Went down one day to Newcastle to see Boss Sinclair. Fear
there is no improvement. Hackett called on him.
Did you see a copy of "Ireland To-day", the latest rag.
O'Faolain & Co. Dentist John Dowling on JBY is exquisite. Says
17
ALS; 2 leaves, 4 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, LONDON S. W. 3. ; pm 10 June 1936, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/98.
1 "Regisseurs"(assistantstofilmortheatredirector).
2 In his review of The Amaranthers by Jack B. Yeats, SB writes: "The irony is Ariostesque [. . . ] The discontinuity is Ariostesque" ("An Imaginative Work! " 80).
3 Morris Sinclair was top of the list of those whose marks fell below the cut-off point in this competitive examination for Scholarship (Schol. ).
4 Although Reavey had communicated transition's interest in SB's poems, there is no evidence that Reavey had conveyed transition's initial request for a prose piece, specifically for a "paramyth" (see 6 May 1936, n. 1); SB responded immediately to the "reiterated" request by sending his piece on censorship.
5 TheprospectusforThornsofThunderhasnotbeenfound,butmayhaveincluded Herbert Read's preface to the book which was published in conjunction with the International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London (11 June - 4 July 1936). Read delivered a lecture, "Art and the Unconscious," on 19 June 1936 as part of the events of the exhibition; he also led a discussion organized by the Artists' International Association on 23 June 1936 (International Surrealist Bulletin 4 [September 1936[ 2, 7-13).
Paul Eluard gave a lecture on 24 June 1936, "La Poesie surrealiste," and on 26 June he read poems by himself and other French surrealists. The announcement for the latter indicated: "English versions by Samuel Beckett, Denis Devlin, David Gascoyne, George Reavey. " SB may have been expected to read his translations at this time, as Gateau writes of the "seance de lecture de poemes avec traduction immediate, dont certaines par le jeune Samuel Beckett" (a program of readings of poems with imme diate translation, some by the young Samuel Beckett) Gean-Charles Gateau, Paul Eluard, ou, le Frere voyant, 1895-1952 [Paris: Editions Robert Laffont, 1988] 235).
"Bave" (slobber).
George Reavey's office was in Red Lion Square, London WC 1; while he had grown up in Russia and in Western Europe, the Reavey family home in Belfast
342
his plumbing is execrable. Love ever
Sam
9June 1936, McGreevy
was "Stramore" in Chichester Park, off the Antrim Road, a middle-class professional and largely Protestant part of Belfast ("George Reavey - Preliminary Draft of Memoirs," 2, and SB to Reavey, 21 August [1936[, TxU). SB angrily associates the Antrim Road with smugness and self-interest.
6 CharlesPrentice. IanParsonswrotetoRichardAldington,2June1936:"Idined with Charles last week and he told me he was still far from cured of his Greek bug" (UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 174/282).
7 SeumasO'SullivanandEstellaSolomonslivedat"TheGrange,"inRathfamham, Co. Dublin.
Edmund Curtis, Professor of Modem Irish at the University of Dublin, published A History of Ireland (1936), which was reviewed by P. S. O'H. • Dublin Magazine 11. 3 Uuly-September 1936), 60-62.
Bethel Jacobs and his wife Sophy (or Sophie) were visiting Dublin from England. SB's aunt, Cissie Sinclair Beckett, was a close friend of Estella Solomons.
8 ApossiblepositionatHarvardthroughMaryManningHowe'sfamily:25March 1936, n. 3.
9 GeraldPakenhamStewart(see23May[1936},n. 5). SB'snotionof"someGarden ofOriss[a] in Assam" is groundless. according to Stewart (22 March 1993). "D'accent" (in her accent).
10 The one vet listed on Dargie Road, Bray, is Miss Hilda Bisset, MRCVS (Thom's Directory ofIrelandfor the year 1936, 1543).
11 GeorgeFurlong,DirectoroftheNationalGalleryoflreland. SBrefersto:ACount of Ferrara (NG! 88) by Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis Pordenone (c. 1483-1539); David Slaying Goliath by Gentileschi; and St. Joseph with the Christ Child (NG! 192) by Guercino (ne Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666).
12 SBreferstoLionelFleming(1904-1974)whowroteforTheIrishTimesfrom1935 through 1936 (see 27 June 1936). Fleming later worked for the BBC in London and abroad; when he returned to Dublin, he wrote on foreign affairs for The Irish Times. W. Alec Newman (1905-1972), then Asssistant Editor for The Irish Times, was "in charge of the book page" (Lionel Fleming, Head or Harp [London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1965[ 168). Newman later became Editor of the paper from 1954 to 1961. Both Fleming and Newman had been at Trinity College Dublin with SB.
If indeed SB sent Reavey a letter with the name of the person to whom a review copy should be sent, this letter has not been found; The Irish Times was not among those newspapers to which Reavey initially sent review copies of Echo's Bones (TxU, George Reavey, Europa Press).
Arthur Hillis married Lillian Mary Francis (1907-1990) in 1936; from 1942 to 1951 she was a Programme Assistant and later Assistant in the Spanish Section, South European Service of the BBC.
La Princesse de Geves (1678; The Princess of Geves) by Mme de La Fayette (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette, 1634-1693).
13 MichaelTierney(1894-1975),ProfessorofGreekfrom1932to1947atUniversity College Dublin, and its President from 1947 to 1964. It is not known whether Tierney said or wrote this.
14 BrianCoffey'sresearchrequestisnotknown.
343
9 June 1936, McGreevy
15 GeoffreyThompson.
16 BossSinclair'streatmentfortuberculosis:see22September1935,n. 12.
Francis Hackett (1883-1962), Irish-born American author and journalist.
17 Ireland To-day Uune 1936 - March 1938) was edited by Frank O'Connor (pseud. of Michael O'Donovan, 1909-1966); contributors included Sean O'Faolain. The review of the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition said of Jack B. Yeats: "Now we demand ofa painter, or ofa plumber, that when he begins a work he should have some idea ofwhat the result will be. JackYeats' method does not allow ofthis" Uohn Dowling, "Art: The Academy," Ireland To-Day 1. 1 Uune 1936] 61); Dowling was a dentist.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
20June 36 [Dublin] George Reavey1 ELEMENT COMBUSTIBLE REVOLTANT2
The verb is S'EMMERDER3
lu et approuve s/ Man Ray4
et Comment! sf Jocelyn Herbert5 Pardit [for Pardi]6
Humphrey Jennings7
TPC with ANS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; T address, to George Reavey Esq. , 30 Red Lion Square, London W. C. 1; pm 20-6-36, Dun Laoghaire; TxU. Dating: from pm. Place: from pm. All names are signatures in black ink except as otherwise indicated.
1 SBhadsentanunsignedtypedcardtoReaveytocorrecthisspelling(theshaded portions ofthe card above). Reavey, as well as other members ofa group, gathered at one ofthe events related to the 1936 Surrealist Exhibition in London, then added their comments and signatures.
2 "ELEMENT COMBUSTIBLE REVOLTANT" (Revolting combustible element), written in black ink around the postmark.
3 "S'EMMERDER"(getbored). SBtypedthisontheoriginalcardtocorrectanerror in Reavey's letter to him (not found) that responded to SB's "stinger" of9 June 1936 (see also SB to McGreevy, 27 June 1936).
344
27June 1936, McGreevy
4 "Luetapprouve"(readandapproved),writteninblueink. ManRay(neEmmanuel Radnitzky, 1890-1976), American painter, photographer, film-maker, and graphic artist; Ray was a participant in the Surrealist Exhibition.
5 "Etcomment"(andhow). JocelynHerbert(1917-2003),atthistimeastudentat the London Studio Theatre.
6 "Pardi"(ofcourse),inanotherhand.
7 British documentary film-maker, poet, and painter Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950) was an organizer of the Surrealist Exhibition; he signed his name across the bottom of the card.
THOMAS M cGREEVY LONDON
27/6/36 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Murphy is finished & I shall send off three copies on
1
Monday_ One to you, one to Parsons & one to Charles.
I could
do more work on it but do not intend to. All the more grievous
losses have been cut. It has been hard work the past month & I
am very tired, of it & words generally. I don't want you to
bother with it. Just throw your eye over & let me have it back.
Write in say a fortnight. I want to send a copy to Simon [&]
2
appendicitis. He seemed to get well in record time & went back to Greenock last Friday. 3
Reavey wrote angrily in reply to my angry letter. He is (1) A liar (2) A Clumsy Sophist (3) An illiterate. He spells emmerder en
4
with Tonks. Said O'Brien, pointing to a plane oflight: "That's a
345
Schuster.
I suppose you know about Charles being operated on for
merder. Another abscess burst, & none too soon.
Last time atJBY's, fortnight ago, Dermod O'Brien was there
27 June 1936, McGreevy
lovely waterfall". Yeats had the answer pat: "If waterfalls looked
like nothing but waterfalls & planes oflight like nothing but
planes oflight - , etc. " Tonks was beautiful, decrepit & pleasant,
very willowy & Honeish, full ofGeorge Moore, Rowlandson &
5
ingly good Suffolk landscape by Gainsborough, rather Booth [for Both] in quality, & the tree formula less prominent. Also a pleasant Wilsonish landscape by a contemporary Smith, ofwhom I knew nothing. The usual exertion before Poussin[']s Peleus & Thetis. Ran into Yeats, who explained the Poussin blue, & won dered what colour Gericault's horse had once been. He was very James Joyceish before the appalling new Gentileschi: "First nude I ever saw with dirt in his toenails. "6
Young Sinclair is off to Paris on Monday, with return ticket, £8 & an address in the Place de la Bastille (100 fr. per month! ) &
7
for the first time one day at Howth. He said Sleator was his
model for the G. P. O. Cuchulain, & that he fainted with his
8
& am in very much better health than a year ago. No news at all from Geoffrey. Mary nee Manning arrives here from Boston to-morrow. Did you have any reply from Harvard? 9
I find it impossible to correspond with Coffey. Have seen nothing at all of Devlin. Fleming of the Irish Times, when he asked for Echo's Bones, said: "A good review or none. " That was 3 weeks ago. No review has appeared. 10
I see by to-day['s] Irish Times that "Dublin is reading" Fires
ofBeltane according to one bookseller. I saw a dull review in last
11
Sickert.
I was in the Gallery the following Monday & found a surpris
introductiontoHughessculptor. ImetShephard[forSheppard]
head so sunken.
I have been bathing at 40 Foot every day, sometimes twice,
Sunday Times. Hope it sells well.
346
27June 1936, McGreevy
Had a statement of accounts from Chattos. 2 More Pricks
12
31"Ci anniversary. The Roes were always very strong on anniver saries. See little of Frank. He has gone to Treard[d]ur Bay, near
13
£36. And now that the book is finished I shall be very surprised if Chattos do not turn it down.
Love Sam
ALS; 2 leaves. 3 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq. 15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London S W 3; pm 27-6-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/99.
1 SBsentMurphytoIanParsons,EditorofChattoandWindus,on29June1936(UoR, MS 2444 CW 59/9). Charles Prentice had retired from Chatto and Windus, and SB would have sent it to him personally.
4 ReaveyrepublishedsomeofSB'sEluardtranslationsfromThisQuarter(see2May 1936, n. 2), and acknowledged their previous publication in his editorial foreword (Eluard, Thorns ofThunder, vii).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
Cooldrinagh Foxrock
Co. Dublin.
DearTom
I had a line from Mary Manning this morning in which she
says that she is writing to you and will speak to Howe pere. With a little management the job should come off. Would you object
1
7 May 1936, McGreevy
to asking Joyce for a chit? It appears they adore him at Harvard. Jack Yeats brought up the subject of the picture, & though I was too broke even to make an offer at the time, I since bor rowed £10 which he accepted as a first instalment, the remain ing £20 to follow God knows when, & have now got the picture. Mother & Frank can't resist it much after the Sligo watercolour.
333
7/5/36
7 May 1936, McGreevy
It is nice to have Morning on one's wall that is always morning, and a setting out without the coming home. 2
Transition have guaranteed payment for the poems & want
"6 pages" in addition. I put the old censorship article au jour &
sent it. The difficulty of my own book having been banned since
I wrote the article I got over by giving my registered number,
3
furniture at the Spring Show, in the Irish Times.
I read The Arnaranthers which he gave me & would like to
review it for the Dublin Mag. except that I don't like asking favours of Seumas. I agree it is a lovely book, its latebra all
5
sacrifice, but I declined. I have been & am very busy with
6
I had a long letter from Coffey some time ago, most of which
7
indeed have no inclination to leave the light & the sea for a city. We seem to have settled down at home to a kind of reciprocal gentleness & reserve that is the best we can do. [. . . ]
I was talking to a custodian in the Gallery, who said they
would all die for Furlong with the greatest of pleasure. His
diligence does not yet appear in the public rooms, but it appears
he has gone through the cellar with a fine comb, painted under
the roof somewhere, acquired a large Correggio (David &
Goliath), itches to rehang the Dutch rooms, & intends to remove
the Jordaens altogether. A new landscape by de Vries is up, very
9
with all becoming modesty.
All Forlorn is now giving his appreciation of indigenous
4
bright. L'Ile des Paradisiers.
Reavey asked me to translate another poem for his Eluard
Murphy,whichgetsnearitsfirstendatleastatlast. Itwillbe very short, thanks be to God.
I could not see, let alone read.
So far as I can see I shall be here till the autumn at least, &
8
correct & dull.
334
7 May 1936, McGreevy
The Academy opening seems to have been wonderful, with Higgins behind the scenes debating with someone before the microphone & Montgomery comparing the beautiful pictures there to the ugly ones he has to look at in Molesworth St. 10
I have seen absolutely no one for the past fortnight, unless Maurice Sinclair came out. He is laid out after Schol. but seems to
11
have done well.
A Paris gallery wrote to Harry Sinclair about the
painting of Salvado, enclosing photographs. Perhaps they would
like to present one to the Municipal. Sinclair says he has found a
12
ALS; 1 leaf. 4 sides; letterhead; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 9·5-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/94.
1 SB had written to Mary Manning Howe on behalf of McGreevy: "asking her to substitute you for me in her Harvard scheme & giving her your address. I know she will do all she can & that you will hear from her soon" (15 April [1936], TCD, MS 10402/ 94). Mary Manning's father-in-law, Mark Anthony DeWolfe Howe: see 25 March 1936, n. 3.
From 1933 to 1935 there were three senior honors theses on Joyce written by Harvard students. Among attributes of "The Harvard Man" was that he "knows his James Joyce" ("Genus Harvardiensis," Harvard Crimson 29 January 1930: 2).
2 SB refers to A Morning by Jack B. Yeats (Pyle 482; NGI 4628). On Yeats's Sligo watercolor Comer Boys: 5 May 1935, n. 4. The allusion to Thomas a Kempis: 10 March [1935], n. 3.
3 Forinformationaboutthepoemsandtransition'srequestforadditionalmaterial from SB: SB to Reavey, 6 May 1936, n. 1 and n. 3.
"Censorship in the Saorstat" was augmented with a paragraph about the "618 books and 11 periodicals" listed as banned by the Register "as on 30th September 1935"; SB closes the essay by writing: "My own registered number is 465, number four hundred and sixty-five, ifl may presume to say so. /We now feed our pigs on sugarbeet pulp. It is all the same to them" (Beckett, Disjecta, 87-88).
4 Sean O'Faolain wrote "Irish Modes in Furniture: Novel Development of Folk· Motif," The Irish Times 7 May 1936: 6.
5 SBdidaskSeumasO'SullivanifhecouldreviewYeats'snovelTheAmaranthersfor Dublin Magazine (see 13 May [19361).
Boucher, in the voice of one who hears a cuckoo on Xmas Eve. Love ever
Sam
L·ne des Paradisiers (The Isle of Birds of Paradise); reference not found.
335
7 May 1936, McGreevy
6 Eluard, Thoms ofThunder.
7 Brian Coffey's handwriting was unusually small. His letter toSB has not been found.
8 SB had mentioned the possibility of travel to Germany in early summer in his letter to McGreevy of 29 January 119361.
9 George Furlong had been Director of the National Gallery ofIreland since 1 October 1935.
SB refers to David Slaying Goliath (NG! 980) by Italian artist Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639), not Antonio Allegri Correggio (c. 1494-1534), which had been pur chased for the National Gallery ofIreland in 1936. The paintings in the collection of the National Gallery ofIreland by Flemish artist Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678) were St. Peter Finding the Tribute Money (NG! 38), The Church Triumphant (NG! 46), and The Supper at Emmaus (NG! 57). In 1934 the National Gallery of Ireland acquired Landscape with Figures (NG! 972) by Dutch painter Roelof Jansz de Vries (1631-1681).
10 The Royal Academy of Arts opened its 168th exhibition on 4 May 1936. James Montgomery, whose law offices were at 13South MolesworthStreet and whose office as Official Film Censor was at 34 South Molesworth Street, probably compared the pictures in the exhibition to those at the LeinsterStudio at 3South Molesworth
Street.
11 MorrisSinclairandtheScholarshipexamination:25March1936,n. 5.
12 Catalanpainter,ceramicist,andstained-glassartistJacintoSalvado(1892-1983) studied in Barcelona, Marseille, and Paris, and was active in Paris in the 1920s; a friend of Derain and Picasso, he was depicted by Picasso in Portrait of Jacinto Salvado as Harlequin (Basel Ktinstmuseum, G 1967. 9).
HarrySinclair: Friday lc. 18 to 25 July 1930]. n. 4. SB mentions the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art (now the Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane), perhaps remembering that McGreevy had arranged for Luri;:at to make such a gift.
French painter Frani;:oisBoucher (1703-1770).
SEUMAS O'SULLIVAN DUBLIN
13/5/[1936]
[Dublin]
[no greeting]
Many thanks for book. It is good of you to let me do it. Fear I have no poems at the moment, but if anything turns
up between now & then I shall send it to you.
336
1
Next Sunday I am not free but perhaps that day week. Yours
SB
APCI; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Editor, DUBLIN MAGAZINE, 2 Crow Street, DUBLIN; pm 14-5-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 4630-49/1346. Dating and place: from pm and Beckett to McGreevy, 23 May 1936.
1 O'Sullivan sent SB a copy of The Amaranthers by Jack Yeats for review in Dublin Magazine (see 7 May 1936).
23 May {1936}, McGreevy
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
23/5 [1936]
Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom IwasverygladtohearfromJBYoftheproposedwork. He
showed me some photographs of his pictures. They do not lose so much as I expected, not even the later ones. I feel the book will give you little trouble & much pleasure_ And to have some thing specific in hand will make you feel better. Tell me more about it in your next letter.
Did I tell you I got the Amaranthers from S. ' OS. [for S. O'S. ] by return of post, with an exceedingly amiable note asking for poems & why I did not go & see them. He allows me only 500 words. How can one be anything but dense with so little space? 2
I have set Murphy on fire at last & 2000 words should polish it off. It is really a most unsavoury & not very honest work. I am not sure that Chatto's are so unlikely to take it. I shall send
copies to Charles & Parsons simultaneously. I would be glad to
1
be saved the trouble of hawking it round.
3
337
23 May {1936], McGreery
I met Bobby Childers, younger son of Erskine, married to Christabel, younger daughter of Mrs Manning, for the first time the other night. He looks after the Irish Press machinery. Talks in a high urgent English voice about[? volts, amts], & the political arena. Attends turf-cutting competitions & lives in Bushy Park Rd. next to Luce. 4 We shall never be in Delphi together.
No news at all from Geoffrey, & his brother Alan has had none for a long time. A friend called Stewart, who shared rooms with me for a time in Trinity, just home with wife from a Cisindian province, writes from Putney. Will he be seeing me at the Scholars' Dinner! Leventhal, a decade behind, or in front, is also looking forward to getting drunk gratis. I prefer to stay sober at my own expense. 5
I bathed twice at 40 Foot this week, in spite of the east wind.
The only other was a reverend Father McGrath, red all over with
ingrowing semen & exposure, whom I used to meet with father
in the Turkish Baths. The last time I saw him was nearly three
6
not say what is wrong. 7
I keep seeing the water & woods of Elsheimer & the round
backs of the sheep of Geertgen. Bryan's Dictionary of Painters, published at £7. 17. 6, is going in Green's for £4. 17. 6. Ifl had the
8
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 23 May 1936, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/96.
1 McGreevyhadproposedtodoastudyofthepaintingofJackB. Yeats.
2 SB's review was published as "An Imaginative Work! " Dublin Magazine 11. 3 Uuly-September 1936) 80-81.
338
years ago, at our front door, calling to console.
Charles writes he is going to London to see doctors. He does
money I would buy it. Write soon
Love ever Sam
3 Charles Prentice, who had proved such a sympathetic reader ofBeckett's work, was no longer with Chatto and Windus (see 8September 1935, n. 4); Ian Parsons was in Prentice's position with the firm.
4 RobertAldenChilders(knownasBobby,1911-1996),whosewifewasChristabel Manning (1910-1988), the daughter ofSusan Manning (c. 1874-1960); Bobby was the son oflrish nationalist Robert Erskine Childers (known as Erskine, 1870-1922), and his older brother was Erskine Hamilton Childers (also known as Erskine, 1905-1974), President oflreland (1973-1974).
Bobby and Christabel Childers lived at 12 Bushy Park Road; they were immediate neighbors ofA. A. Luce, 13 Bushy Park Road, Rathgar. SB wrote" <voice> English voice. "
5 Geoffrey and his brother. Alan H. Thompson (1906-1974), were both friends of SB's from school days at Portora RoyalSchool in Enniskillen, and from Trinity College Dublin. Alan Thompson was appointed Assistant Physician and Pathologist to the
Richmond Hospital in 1932.
Gerald PakenhamStewart (1906-1998) shared rooms withSB at TCD in 1926 when
they were bothScholars ofthe House;Stewart became an Assistant Commissioner in the Indian CivilService, Assam. where he met and married his wife ElisabethScott (1912-1971). Putney is in southwest London.
Con Leventhal (TCD BA Mod. in French and German, 1920) was elected toSchol. in 1916.
6 The 40 Foot is the name given to the nude bathing place, at that time for men only, inSandycove, Co. Dublin; it was named for the 40th Regiment ofFoot.
It is not known to which Father McGrathSB refers. William Beckett died on 26 June 1933.
7 CharlesPrentice.
8 SB recalls paintings by Elsheimer and Geertgen in the National Gallery, London (see 20 February 1935, n. 6 and n. 7). Michael Bryan (1757-1821) prepared Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, 1816; it was revised and enlarged in five volumes by George C. Williamson (London: G. Bell, 1903-1905; 4th edn. , 1926-1934).
THOM AS M cGREEVY LONDON
9/6/36 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
It's a long time since I heard from you. I hope you had no
serious trouble with the bronchitis. Write very soon & tell me how you are.
339
9June 1936, McGreevy
9 June 1936, McGreevy
I have finished Murphy, meaning I have put down last words of first version. Now I have to go through it again. It reads something horrid. One should have a continuity-girl, like regisseurs. l
I wrote review ofAmaranthers for Seumas. Only 500 words.
2
got it.
I wrote a fierce stinger to Reavey last night. I was really
furious. He wrote saying my censorship article had arrived too
late for transition, & that mention was made of it in the first of
Mrs Jolas's letters that he sent me. He did no such thing. He
quoted an extract from her letter, in which there was no request
for a prose contribution but only for permission to use some
poems from Echo's Bones. He sent me her second letter, reiter
ating request for prose contribution, whereupon I sent the
4
There must be something the matter with Charles. 6 I have written two letters without reply. The last I heard from him he spoke of London & doctors.
I was at Seumas O'Sullivan's about 3 weeks ago. He men tioned he had heard from you, & that he would very much like to publish some of your criticism.
Curtis was there, organising the
review of his new history book. Bethel & Sophy were there, he
7
I was tired & it is bad. I compared him with Ariosto.
Maurice Sinclair failed Schol. by a few marks. First man out. 3 And about 5 times as intelligent as the best of them that
articlebyreturnofpost. Thenhesendsmeprospectusofthe Eluard poems. Thorns ofThunder! ! ! I object to my name appear ing near such an abomination. I object to Mr Read's bloody preface. I object to the suggestion conveyed by the blurb that I am performing at the new Burlington BAVE. I was not consulted on any of these matters. Blast his little Antrim Road Soul. 5
slugger than ever, she very nice. I went with Cissie.
340
9June 1936, McGreevy Susan Manning says that Mary says that her pa-in-law says
8
I have been bathing & am frightfully tired this evening. The
fellow I shared rooms with in College, & was in school with, &
who now runs some Garden of Oriss[a] in Assam for the I. C. S. ,
came out for lunch to-day, with his wife, cat-eyed, New Zealand &
9
While I was bathing a filthy little mongrel got into a profound coil with our old bitch, now in the height ofheat. I, & the act, were surrounded by a ring of guffawing boys, naked, urging me not to interfere, nor spoil sport, etc. I had to carry the two of them, without assistance, into the sea, & hold them under till the glans contracted. Then I had to bring her down to a dog abortionist on the upper Dargle Road, & pay 7/6 to have her washed out. 10 And still she may drop a litter ofmonsters. And she is ten, fat & decrepit.
Furlong has weeded out the Italian room & improved. The
Pordenone has been cleaned & brought down to a visible height &
is excellent, as I always suspected. The new Gentileschi (£ 600) is
awful. There is an excellent Guercino Joseph & Child that I had
11
street, & he said no copy of the Bones had reached them for
review. Though I gave Reavey the name of who to send it to.
I sent him a copy, but no review so far. Same man told me that
Hillis was married, had been for months. Now perhaps he can
12
"Difference between Eliot & Yeats; one says something beauti fully, the other nothing very beautifully. "13
341
thathehasnotheardfromyou. Didyounotwrite? Ihopeyou are not letting it slide.
d'accent. They all became horribly hearty. "I am not sure" he said, "but I think I am a pragmatist. "
not seen before.
I met a man from the LT. I knew, one day by chance in the
return my Princesse de Cleves.
Have you done anything at the Yeats book? [? Rute] Tierney:
9 June 1936, McGreevy
I owe Coffey a letter for months. Haven't the energy to go &
14
find out in the library what he wants to know.
15 16
Not a word from Geoffrey, for about 3 months.
Went down one day to Newcastle to see Boss Sinclair. Fear
there is no improvement. Hackett called on him.
Did you see a copy of "Ireland To-day", the latest rag.
O'Faolain & Co. Dentist John Dowling on JBY is exquisite. Says
17
ALS; 2 leaves, 4 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, LONDON S. W. 3. ; pm 10 June 1936, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/98.
1 "Regisseurs"(assistantstofilmortheatredirector).
2 In his review of The Amaranthers by Jack B. Yeats, SB writes: "The irony is Ariostesque [. . . ] The discontinuity is Ariostesque" ("An Imaginative Work! " 80).
3 Morris Sinclair was top of the list of those whose marks fell below the cut-off point in this competitive examination for Scholarship (Schol. ).
4 Although Reavey had communicated transition's interest in SB's poems, there is no evidence that Reavey had conveyed transition's initial request for a prose piece, specifically for a "paramyth" (see 6 May 1936, n. 1); SB responded immediately to the "reiterated" request by sending his piece on censorship.
5 TheprospectusforThornsofThunderhasnotbeenfound,butmayhaveincluded Herbert Read's preface to the book which was published in conjunction with the International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries, London (11 June - 4 July 1936). Read delivered a lecture, "Art and the Unconscious," on 19 June 1936 as part of the events of the exhibition; he also led a discussion organized by the Artists' International Association on 23 June 1936 (International Surrealist Bulletin 4 [September 1936[ 2, 7-13).
Paul Eluard gave a lecture on 24 June 1936, "La Poesie surrealiste," and on 26 June he read poems by himself and other French surrealists. The announcement for the latter indicated: "English versions by Samuel Beckett, Denis Devlin, David Gascoyne, George Reavey. " SB may have been expected to read his translations at this time, as Gateau writes of the "seance de lecture de poemes avec traduction immediate, dont certaines par le jeune Samuel Beckett" (a program of readings of poems with imme diate translation, some by the young Samuel Beckett) Gean-Charles Gateau, Paul Eluard, ou, le Frere voyant, 1895-1952 [Paris: Editions Robert Laffont, 1988] 235).
"Bave" (slobber).
George Reavey's office was in Red Lion Square, London WC 1; while he had grown up in Russia and in Western Europe, the Reavey family home in Belfast
342
his plumbing is execrable. Love ever
Sam
9June 1936, McGreevy
was "Stramore" in Chichester Park, off the Antrim Road, a middle-class professional and largely Protestant part of Belfast ("George Reavey - Preliminary Draft of Memoirs," 2, and SB to Reavey, 21 August [1936[, TxU). SB angrily associates the Antrim Road with smugness and self-interest.
6 CharlesPrentice. IanParsonswrotetoRichardAldington,2June1936:"Idined with Charles last week and he told me he was still far from cured of his Greek bug" (UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 174/282).
7 SeumasO'SullivanandEstellaSolomonslivedat"TheGrange,"inRathfamham, Co. Dublin.
Edmund Curtis, Professor of Modem Irish at the University of Dublin, published A History of Ireland (1936), which was reviewed by P. S. O'H. • Dublin Magazine 11. 3 Uuly-September 1936), 60-62.
Bethel Jacobs and his wife Sophy (or Sophie) were visiting Dublin from England. SB's aunt, Cissie Sinclair Beckett, was a close friend of Estella Solomons.
8 ApossiblepositionatHarvardthroughMaryManningHowe'sfamily:25March 1936, n. 3.
9 GeraldPakenhamStewart(see23May[1936},n. 5). SB'snotionof"someGarden ofOriss[a] in Assam" is groundless. according to Stewart (22 March 1993). "D'accent" (in her accent).
10 The one vet listed on Dargie Road, Bray, is Miss Hilda Bisset, MRCVS (Thom's Directory ofIrelandfor the year 1936, 1543).
11 GeorgeFurlong,DirectoroftheNationalGalleryoflreland. SBrefersto:ACount of Ferrara (NG! 88) by Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis Pordenone (c. 1483-1539); David Slaying Goliath by Gentileschi; and St. Joseph with the Christ Child (NG! 192) by Guercino (ne Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, 1591-1666).
12 SBreferstoLionelFleming(1904-1974)whowroteforTheIrishTimesfrom1935 through 1936 (see 27 June 1936). Fleming later worked for the BBC in London and abroad; when he returned to Dublin, he wrote on foreign affairs for The Irish Times. W. Alec Newman (1905-1972), then Asssistant Editor for The Irish Times, was "in charge of the book page" (Lionel Fleming, Head or Harp [London: Barrie and Rockliff, 1965[ 168). Newman later became Editor of the paper from 1954 to 1961. Both Fleming and Newman had been at Trinity College Dublin with SB.
If indeed SB sent Reavey a letter with the name of the person to whom a review copy should be sent, this letter has not been found; The Irish Times was not among those newspapers to which Reavey initially sent review copies of Echo's Bones (TxU, George Reavey, Europa Press).
Arthur Hillis married Lillian Mary Francis (1907-1990) in 1936; from 1942 to 1951 she was a Programme Assistant and later Assistant in the Spanish Section, South European Service of the BBC.
La Princesse de Geves (1678; The Princess of Geves) by Mme de La Fayette (Marie-Madeleine Pioche de La Vergne, Comtesse de La Fayette, 1634-1693).
13 MichaelTierney(1894-1975),ProfessorofGreekfrom1932to1947atUniversity College Dublin, and its President from 1947 to 1964. It is not known whether Tierney said or wrote this.
14 BrianCoffey'sresearchrequestisnotknown.
343
9 June 1936, McGreevy
15 GeoffreyThompson.
16 BossSinclair'streatmentfortuberculosis:see22September1935,n. 12.
Francis Hackett (1883-1962), Irish-born American author and journalist.
17 Ireland To-day Uune 1936 - March 1938) was edited by Frank O'Connor (pseud. of Michael O'Donovan, 1909-1966); contributors included Sean O'Faolain. The review of the Royal Hibernian Academy exhibition said of Jack B. Yeats: "Now we demand ofa painter, or ofa plumber, that when he begins a work he should have some idea ofwhat the result will be. JackYeats' method does not allow ofthis" Uohn Dowling, "Art: The Academy," Ireland To-Day 1. 1 Uune 1936] 61); Dowling was a dentist.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
20June 36 [Dublin] George Reavey1 ELEMENT COMBUSTIBLE REVOLTANT2
The verb is S'EMMERDER3
lu et approuve s/ Man Ray4
et Comment! sf Jocelyn Herbert5 Pardit [for Pardi]6
Humphrey Jennings7
TPC with ANS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; T address, to George Reavey Esq. , 30 Red Lion Square, London W. C. 1; pm 20-6-36, Dun Laoghaire; TxU. Dating: from pm. Place: from pm. All names are signatures in black ink except as otherwise indicated.
1 SBhadsentanunsignedtypedcardtoReaveytocorrecthisspelling(theshaded portions ofthe card above). Reavey, as well as other members ofa group, gathered at one ofthe events related to the 1936 Surrealist Exhibition in London, then added their comments and signatures.
2 "ELEMENT COMBUSTIBLE REVOLTANT" (Revolting combustible element), written in black ink around the postmark.
3 "S'EMMERDER"(getbored). SBtypedthisontheoriginalcardtocorrectanerror in Reavey's letter to him (not found) that responded to SB's "stinger" of9 June 1936 (see also SB to McGreevy, 27 June 1936).
344
27June 1936, McGreevy
4 "Luetapprouve"(readandapproved),writteninblueink. ManRay(neEmmanuel Radnitzky, 1890-1976), American painter, photographer, film-maker, and graphic artist; Ray was a participant in the Surrealist Exhibition.
5 "Etcomment"(andhow). JocelynHerbert(1917-2003),atthistimeastudentat the London Studio Theatre.
6 "Pardi"(ofcourse),inanotherhand.
7 British documentary film-maker, poet, and painter Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950) was an organizer of the Surrealist Exhibition; he signed his name across the bottom of the card.
THOMAS M cGREEVY LONDON
27/6/36 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Murphy is finished & I shall send off three copies on
1
Monday_ One to you, one to Parsons & one to Charles.
I could
do more work on it but do not intend to. All the more grievous
losses have been cut. It has been hard work the past month & I
am very tired, of it & words generally. I don't want you to
bother with it. Just throw your eye over & let me have it back.
Write in say a fortnight. I want to send a copy to Simon [&]
2
appendicitis. He seemed to get well in record time & went back to Greenock last Friday. 3
Reavey wrote angrily in reply to my angry letter. He is (1) A liar (2) A Clumsy Sophist (3) An illiterate. He spells emmerder en
4
with Tonks. Said O'Brien, pointing to a plane oflight: "That's a
345
Schuster.
I suppose you know about Charles being operated on for
merder. Another abscess burst, & none too soon.
Last time atJBY's, fortnight ago, Dermod O'Brien was there
27 June 1936, McGreevy
lovely waterfall". Yeats had the answer pat: "If waterfalls looked
like nothing but waterfalls & planes oflight like nothing but
planes oflight - , etc. " Tonks was beautiful, decrepit & pleasant,
very willowy & Honeish, full ofGeorge Moore, Rowlandson &
5
ingly good Suffolk landscape by Gainsborough, rather Booth [for Both] in quality, & the tree formula less prominent. Also a pleasant Wilsonish landscape by a contemporary Smith, ofwhom I knew nothing. The usual exertion before Poussin[']s Peleus & Thetis. Ran into Yeats, who explained the Poussin blue, & won dered what colour Gericault's horse had once been. He was very James Joyceish before the appalling new Gentileschi: "First nude I ever saw with dirt in his toenails. "6
Young Sinclair is off to Paris on Monday, with return ticket, £8 & an address in the Place de la Bastille (100 fr. per month! ) &
7
for the first time one day at Howth. He said Sleator was his
model for the G. P. O. Cuchulain, & that he fainted with his
8
& am in very much better health than a year ago. No news at all from Geoffrey. Mary nee Manning arrives here from Boston to-morrow. Did you have any reply from Harvard? 9
I find it impossible to correspond with Coffey. Have seen nothing at all of Devlin. Fleming of the Irish Times, when he asked for Echo's Bones, said: "A good review or none. " That was 3 weeks ago. No review has appeared. 10
I see by to-day['s] Irish Times that "Dublin is reading" Fires
ofBeltane according to one bookseller. I saw a dull review in last
11
Sickert.
I was in the Gallery the following Monday & found a surpris
introductiontoHughessculptor. ImetShephard[forSheppard]
head so sunken.
I have been bathing at 40 Foot every day, sometimes twice,
Sunday Times. Hope it sells well.
346
27June 1936, McGreevy
Had a statement of accounts from Chattos. 2 More Pricks
12
31"Ci anniversary. The Roes were always very strong on anniver saries. See little of Frank. He has gone to Treard[d]ur Bay, near
13
£36. And now that the book is finished I shall be very surprised if Chattos do not turn it down.
Love Sam
ALS; 2 leaves. 3 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq. 15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London S W 3; pm 27-6-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/99.
1 SBsentMurphytoIanParsons,EditorofChattoandWindus,on29June1936(UoR, MS 2444 CW 59/9). Charles Prentice had retired from Chatto and Windus, and SB would have sent it to him personally.
