From the dim dribbles that come to me from London, I gather that the book is now under
consideration
by Dent, for whom it has been read by Richard Church, who at the point of one of Reavey's carp lunches repre sented himself as "greatly impressed"[.
Samuel Beckett
Es ist nattirlich auch moglich, <lass es sich bloss um eine zwar unverstandliche
409
31 December 1936, Albrecht
gutem Erfolg.
Berlin kommt mir etwas wie eine geschwatzige Sphinx var,
tenTagenvanO'ConnellBridgeinDublinanschauenkann. So lassen sich die Eindriicke nicht bestimmen, es sei denn, dass man ihnen das Wesentlichste abzieht. Ich verstehe z. B. schon sehr gut, wie leicht es ware, sich van Berlin begeistem zu lassen; und weiss doch schon vorher, mit welchem Befriedigungsgefiihl, als ob es sich um eine Flucht handelte, ich die Reise nach Dresden in ungefahr 14 Tagen antreten werde.
Nationalgalerie zu finden.
Die 22 Bucher, die Sie als Paket geschickt haben, sind noch
31 December 1936, Albrecht
Verspatung handelt. Dagegen ist das Buch von Keyserling richtig erhalten worden, wie alles, was ich als Briefpaket habe schicken
10
habe den Gri. inen Heinrich begonnen und werde aus verschie
den Grunden an Manzoni erinnert, eine Analogie, die sich ohne
Zweifel wtirde dokumentieren lassen. Die Geschichte des
Meretleins, die die mindeste Uebert6nung ins Lacherliche
11
Gri. issen Sie bitte von mir Ihre Familie, Herrn Saucke, den
Maler und seinen Freund, deren Namen ich nie richtig vernom
12
lassen.
lch Iese sehr wenig, vor allen Dingen keine Zeitung. lch
hatte ziehen miissen, habe ich erschiitternd gefunden.
men habe, und lassen Sie es Ihnen gut gehen. Mit besten Wiinschen fur das neue Jahr,
1hr
s/ Samuel Beckett
TIS: 1 leaf, 2 sides: BIF, UoR, MS 5037.
31/12/36
Dear Mr. Albrecht,
It has been lonely since I have been gone from Hamburg,
but in such a pleasant manner that it hasn't even occurred to me to look for any so-called connections. Of course, I frequently think about those in Hamburg who extended so much hospital ity to a foreigner and stranger. It is a different pleasure to be dealing solely with things, however a pleasure nevertheless, even if in the end a very dangerous one. Furthermore, it is also very much a question whether one should make every departure more and more difficult for oneself - with friendships that are
410
Berlin W. 50
c/o Kempt Budapesterstrasse 45
only just beginning to form - and especially that last departure,
1
Of the various excursions which I wanted to go on from
Braunschweig, I had to make do with those to Konigslutter,
Riddagshausen, Wolfenbilttel and Hildesheim. Hildesheim
remains Hildesheim. In the 8 or 9 very short, cold, damp, and
dreary hours which foul weather allowed me, I succeeded in
seeing perhaps a twentieth, if I don't flatter myself, of what I
3
serenity ofWolfenbilttel I could have done without reading the
first fragment in the August Library to bring Lessing to life for
me. There is in this small town that kind of French reserve
which I so often thought I sensed in Lessing himself. I have
never been able to understand how such a Cartesian mind
4
uncanny numbers. I am glad there are none round here.
In Hanover there was such a pervasive sense of cultural euphoria that one could detect it all the way to Cafe Kropcke. The authenticity of the skeleton of Leibniz buried in the Neustadten church had been confirmed through lengthy exami
nation of his right big toe. 5
The Braunschweig cathedral was closed because of renova
tions of the interior. We know what that means. During the lunch break I forced my way past the building site, which is covering up the entire southern side of the church, all the way to the entrance, only to run into an unforgiving policeman. The
411
when leaving the country altogether. In Germany there is already an abundance of what I will have to leave behind, yes, had to leave, without being able to get to know it. For example, Giorgione in Braunschweig, even though I visited him every day for a week. 2
31 December 1936, Albrecht
wantedtosee,thatisafiftiethofwhatthereistosee. Inthe
could so thoroughly misunderstand the mind of Descartes. Half-timbered houses and sandstone gables I have seen in
31 December 1936, Albrecht
main gable of the 'Gewandhaus' has disappeared likewise,
6
results. 7
Berlin appears to ·me a bit like a gossipy sphinx that has no
other riddle to offer than the insignificance of her own appear
ance. A male, yes a bearded Sphinx, like the one you can admire
in the Tell Halaf Museum. The lion owns Unter den Linden,
man owns the Museum Island, however the skies shape the
wings; the skies, whose death throes look rather more like
embraces, are almost as beautiful as those admittedly more
creeping ones that one can observe also from O'Connell
8
example, I do understand quite well how easy it would be to let yourself be taken with Berlin; and yet I already know, in advance, the feeling ofsatisfaction with which I will embark on the journey to Dresden in about a fortnight, as if it were a matter of escaping.
The upper level of the Kronprinzen Palais is 'closed today'.
A servant even dared to communicate to me his regrets about
that. There is however an excellent collection ofdrawings where
one may savour the poison peddlers in the most intimate
moment of their creativity. In addition, I experienced the very
pleasant surprise of finding 6 pictures by Liebermann in the
9
I assume that if they got lost, as seems to be the case here, there is probably nothing to be done about it since the parcel was not
412
behind the most beautiful scaffolding I have ever seen.
Of course, I wanted to visit Goslar, Halberstadt, and Quedlinburg but suddenly found myself so wanting in necessi ties - money, enthusiasm, and energy - that I was quite unable. In Braunschweig, I myself cut open my bad fingers with good
BridgeinDublinevenafterthedarkestdays. Thusimpressions defy definition unless one strips them of the essential. For
Nationalgalerie.
The 22 books which you sent in a parcel are not here yet.
31 December 1936, Albrecht
registered. It is of course also possible that it is only a matter of delay, however inexplicable. On the other hand, the book by Keyserling was received without difficulty as was everything I sent by letterpost. 10
I read very little, above all no newspapers. I have started Der
Grune Heinrich and for various reasons am reminded of Manzoni,
an analogy that undoubtedly could be documented. I found
myself deeply moved by the story of Meretlein, the slightest
over-doing of which would have inevitably rendered it
11
painter and his friend whose name I never properly heard, and
12
Yours,
s/ Samuel Beckett
1 ThehostofSB'spensioninHamburgwasKurtHoppe(b. 1891),whointroduced SB to many people in Hamburg, who in tum introduced him to others.
2 Giorgione'sSelf-portraitasDavidinBrunswick:see22December1936,n. 2.
3 SBwasinRiddagshausenon7December,wherehevisitedtheFrauenkapelle,and the Klosterkirche that was consecrated in 1278 and once belonged to a Cistercian monastery. He was in Hildesheim on 10 December 1936 (see Mark Nixon, "Chronik der Deutschlandreise Samuel Becketts 1936/37. " Der unbekannte Beckett: Samuel Becket und die deutsche Kultur, ed. Therese Fischer-Seidel and Marion Fries-Dieckmann [Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2005] 34-63).
K6nigslutter: see n. 7 below.
4 SB visited the August Bibliothek in Wolfenbiittel on 8 December 1936. The "Wolfenbiittel Fragments" were published by Lessing as Fragmente eines Ungenannten (1774-1777; Fragments of an Unnamed) from a manuscript by the German philoso· pher Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) entitled "Apology for the Rational Worshippers ofGod"; this essay challenged evidence for the Resurrection of Christ and thus provoked controversy (Nixon, "Chronik der Deutschlandreise Samuel Becketts 1936/37," 36).
Rene Descartes (1596-1650).
5 The Cafe I<r6pcke, although destroyed during World War II, was rebuilt at the same location, Georgstrasse 35 in Hanover; it is a central meeting point (Walter Asmus, 16 June 2005).
413
ridiculous.
Please, give my regards to your family, Herr Saucke, the
be well yourself.
With best wishes for the New Year,
31 December 1936, Albrecht
SB wrote "Zehl" which is not a German word, so we have presumed that he intended to write "Zehe" (toe). The authenticity ofLeibniz's remains was not at issue in 1936, having been confirmed in 1902 (Professor Dr. Herbert Breger, Leibniz-Archiv, 27 June 2005).
6 In Brunswick, the romanesque Cathedral of St. Blasius dates from the twelfth century. The Gewandhaus, the Cloth Merchants'Hall, from the Renaissance, is located in the Altstadtmarkt.
"Schupi" for "Schupo" (slang for policeman).
7 Goslar,Halberstadt, and Quedlinburg are all towns south ofWolfenbiittel; on the evening of 10 December, SB had considered stopping in Konigslutter the next morning andHalberstadt in the afternoon, but on 11 December he decided to go directly to Berlin by an afternoon train (BIF, UoR, GD 2/f. 53).
On the subject ofSB's infected finger and thumb, see Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 225.
8 The bearded sphinx in the Berlin TellHalaf Museum was known as "Erster Skorpionenvogelmann" (First Scorpion-bird-man) (Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, Tell Halaf. III, Die Bildwerke, 118-119; it was destroyed in 1943).
The broad avenue ofUnter denLinden stretches from the Brandenburg Gate at the Pariser Platz eastward to the Schlossbriicke on the River Spree. SB refers to an eques trian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I (the National Memorial to KaiserWilhelm I) that once dominated the square ofthe Stadtschloss oftheHohenzollern, the Schlossfreiheit, at the eastern end of Unter den Linden; a lion at each corner of the monument looks outward, including one with a gaze directed westward down Unter den Linden. Designed from 1892 to 1897 by Reinhold Begas (1831-1911) and GustafHalmhuber (1862-1936), the statue was dismantled afterWorldWar II by the East German govern ment. O'Connell Bridge spans theLiffey in Dublin.
The Museumsinsel, a man-made island, is the site of the Kaiser Friedrich and other museums: 22 December 1936, n. 4.
9 TheclosedsectionsoftheKronprinzenpalais:28November1937[for19361,n. 8. The drawings by the artists who had been attacked by the Nazis as "entartet" (degen erate) have not been identified.
The paintings by Liebermann in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum (now in the Nationalgalerie, Berlin) were Women Plucking Geese (A I 524), Shoemaker's Workshop (A I 644), Flax Barn in Laren [Holland] (A I 431), SelfPortrait with Sportscap at an Easel (A II 466), Portrait ofDr. Wilhelm Bode (A III 533), and Portrait ofOtto Braun (NGB 10/60; these were confiscated in 1937, shown in the "Entartete Kunst" exhibition in Munich in 1937, and reacquired by the Berlin Nationalgalerie in 1960).
10 SB had been asked by Arland Ussher to send him a copy of Reisetagebuch eines Philosophen (1919; The Travel Diary of a Philosopher) byHermann Graf von Keyserling (1880-1946); although Keyserling had been banned from speaking in public, SB was able to order a copy of this book, which he received in Berlin (Beckett,Alles kommt aufso viel an, 54, 56).
The list of books purchased inHamburg and sent to Dublin, as well as of those purchased inHamburg and forwarded to SB in Berlin, is given in the Whoroscope notebook (BIF, UoR, MS 3000/34 and 36; see Nixon, "'Scraps ofGerman,"' 278).
11 DergriineHeinrich(1908;GreenHenry)byGottfriedKeller(1819-1890). Thestoryof Meretlein (Part I. ch. 5) is that of a child punished and shunned to control her behavior, told largely from the viewpoint of the abuser; the child seems to die, but comes to life
414
31 December 1936, Albrecht
from her coffin, only to die again. SB compares Keller's book to the writing of Alessandro Manzoni, whose best-known work is I promessi sposi (1827; The Betrothed).
12 Herr Saucke was the bookdealer for whom Albrecht worked in Hamburg (see 7 November 1936, n. 1); on 29 November 1936, SB had met the painter ("child painter, name forgotten") and his friend, identified only as a painter doing posters for Hapag (Hamburg-Amerikanische-Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, a shipping firm based in Hamburg), and Albrecht's family, on 29 November 1936 (Beckett, Alles kommt auf so viel an, 54; Mark Nixon).
415
1937 8January 12January
By 18 January
22-23 January 24-25 January 25-26 January 26-28January 29January
4 February
16 February 18 February
19 February 20-23 February 24-25 February 26 February 3-4 March
5 March-2 April By 20 March
CHRONOLOGY 1937
SB attends production ofSchiller's Maria Stuart at Schauspielhaus in Berlin.
Visits Potsdam and Sanssouci. Attends production ofHebbel's Gyges und sein Ring in Berlin.
Learns that Richard Church, a reader for Dent, has written positively about Murphy to Reavey. Meets Axel Kaun and film comedianJosefEichheim.
Leaves Berlin. In Halle. In Erfurt.
In Naumburg.
In Leipzig.
In Dresden, Pension Hofer, until 18 February. Learns that Dent and Cobden-Sanderson have
both rejected Murphy. Visits Pillnitz.
Attends Fedor Stepun's lecture on Andrei Bely in Dresden.
In Freiberg; travels to Bamberg.
In Bamberg.
In Wu. rzburg; travels to Nuremberg.
In Nuremberg; travels to Regensburg.
In Regensburg; travels to Munich.
In Munich. From 6 March, at the Pension Romana.
Tells Reavey to reclaim Murphy from Houghton Mifflin.
417
Chronology 1937 31March
2April
By 12April 17April
By 26April 4May
By 14May
14-18 May
By 5June
By 15June
By 3July
4-6July 9 July
By 27July
29July 14August
25August
By 2 September
Meets Karl Valentin.
First airplane flight, fromMunich to London. Stays at 34 Gertrude Street.
Returns to Dublin.
VisitsJack Yeats. Beckett family dog, Wolf, destroyed.
SB working on play about SamuelJohnson. Learns from Reavey of another rejection of Murphy.
Death of Boss Sinclair. SB writes tribute for The Irish Times that is not published.
Jack Yeats, his wife, andJoe Hone have tea at Cooldrinagh. Harry Sinclair initiates libel action against Oliver St. John Gogarty; SB is a witness.
Whitsunday holiday with Frank Beckett to Cahir, Galtee Mountains and Knockmealdowns, Cashel, and Limerick.
Constable rejects Murphy. Lovat Dickson reading Murphy. On behalf of Rowohlt Verlag,Axel Kaun invites SB to select and to translate poems of
Joachim Ringelnatz.
SB gathers testimonials to apply for a position teaching Italian at the University of Cape Town. Frank Beckett is engaged to be married.
SB responds to Cunard's request for a contribu tion to Authors Take Sides on the Spanish Civil War.
VisitsArland Ussher's home, Cappagh.
Declines Ringelnatz commission; advances his views on "logoclasm" to Axel Kaun.
MaryManning Howe sends Murphy to Covici-Friede in New York.
SB applies to the University of Cape Town.
Sends poem "Whiting" (later entitled "Ooftish") to Cissie Sinclair and Thomas McGreevy.
Marriage of Frank andJean Beckett. Doubleday Doran rejects Murphy.
418
18 September 27-29 September
1 October 4 October
16/17 October 27 October 10November
22 November By 23 November
3 December 7-10 December
9 December 10 December 22 December
25 December 31 December
Chronology 1937 SB involved in an automobile accident.
In Waterford with Frank. Does not plan to return to Cooldrinagh after quarrel with his mother.
May Beckett leaves Cooldrinagh, giving SB time to prepare to leave for Paris.
SB appears before Shankill Court for dangerous driving. Dines with Francis Stuart.
Leaves Dublin for London and Paris. Writes from Chez Sarrazin, Paris.
Back in London, there awaiting word about when the Sinclair vs Gogarty libel action will begin in Dublin.
Jack B. Yeats recommends Murphy to Routledge. SB in Dublin for Sinclair libel action against
Gogarty (23-27 November).
In Paris at Hotel Liberia.
Works with Giorgio Joyce on galleys ofJoyce's Work in Progress.
Receives telegram announcing that Murphy has been accepted by Routledge.
Decides not to write essay on Joyce for homage issue of La Nouvelle Revue Fran�aise.
Encourages McGreevy to come to Paris; urges him to apply for a subvention to write articles about France for British publication.
Christmas with the Joyces.
New Year's Eve with Giorgio and Helen Joyce.
419
THOMAS M cGREEVY LONDON
9/1/37 [Berlin]
[no greeting]
Very glad to have yr. letter to-day, as I have been wanting to write
you & respire keeping putting it off. I leave for Dresden next week
& may pause in Leipzig on the way. I am very tired & often feel like
turning back, but back where? I saw Maria Stuart in the
1
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Adriaen Brouwer, Der Hirt am Wege; to Thomas McGreevy, 49 Harrington Rd. , London S. W. 7, ENGLAND; pm 9·1-37, Berlin; TCD, MS 10402/112.
1 MariaStuartbyFriedrichSchiller(1759-1805)wasperformedattheSchauspielhaus in Berlin on 8 January 1937, directed by Lothar Miithel (1896-1964). with Hermine Korner (c. 1882-1960) as Queen Elizabeth, Hilde Weissner (1909-1987) as Maria Stuart, Paul Hartmann (1889-1977) as Leicester, and Walter Franck (1896-1961) as Burleigh (Herbert A. Frenzel, "Umbesetzte 'Maria Stuart' im Staatlichen Schauspielhaus," Der Angri. ff[Berlin] 20 December 1936: 4).
2 "Dein" (your).
MARY MANNING HOWE BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
18/1/37 Berlin
Dear Mary
You are very good to me, you are, sending me embalmed
ananas. The format is striking, like the delights that can be
421
Schauspielhaus last night. Very creamy. T. Eliot is toilet spelt backwards. Writing.
Dein2 Sam
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
knuckled out of the eyeballs. It followed me on from Hamburg, in a tempest of fiscal excitement. Thank you. Also for your long letter, with enclosed legs, one more beautiful than the other. Tetragono ai colpi di . . Do you happen to know does she bite? 1
I am not in love with George Reavey, but Stanley Knott [for Nott] is directly unpleasant.
From the dim dribbles that come to me from London, I gather that the book is now under consideration by Dent, for whom it has been read by Richard Church, who at the point of one of Reavey's carp lunches repre sented himself as "greatly impressed"[. ]2 Wax without the works.
Provoked by belated romantic German novels I find new
planes ofjustification for the bondage in the chair that were not
present to me at the time. Or rather for the figure of the bondage
in the chair. If I am not careful I shall become clear as to what I
3
or Dresden, if a large lump had not suddenly come between wind & water, where the soil was so fertile that any [for only) two endurable positions remained, both fully recumbent. So most of the past week, with unforgettable intervals of obliga tions discharged in sweat & torture, has been spent in bed, by one who I now begin gradually to realise was I. All I ask, all! , is that it may spare me for two more months, so that I can see Dresden & Munich & Frankfurt, because I don't think I shall be in Germany again. The sicker I am when I get home the better, it will postpone the playacting. I shall lock up my ischial hemi spheres for the surgeon's trowel like a bridegroom taking off his braces, I shall lie in a large bed all alone in slight pain receiving attention.
422
have written.
I would not be still here, but in Naumburg, Weimar, Leipzig
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
The creature in all the world most to be envied is Patricia Maguire ofChicago. She sleeps since 1931, her stupor lightens briefly at meal times, she is massaged daily, her fanmail is composed mostly ofproposals ofmarriage. 4
Not a word to anyone about me. All roads & boreens of communication lead to your mother, and from her to mine, who ifshe heard I had such a splendid brand new excres[c]ence would come flying with Parishes [for Parrish's] Food & antiphlogistine. 5
No, I have written nothing at all, and have no plans. Mother writes why don't I contribute to the papers, I write at least as well as the Irishman Diarist. Frank writes what about the Lafcadio Hernia I was so full ofbefore I left. Reavey applies for contributions ofwhat kind or form soever for the review he is starting in the Spring. I have nothing. 6
When the problem has quite vanished in the data, or better the trovata; when to have ever left one's village ceases to seem a folly; perhaps it is only then that the writing begins. 7 Ifl were less tired I should be in no hurry.
I saw Schiller's Mary_Stuart in the Schauspielhaus. It stays alive for 4 acts without betraying how it continues to do so. Then Werner Krauss in Hebbel's Gyges, which is such good poetry that it never comes alive at all. Krauss is a great actor, the best I have seen. I had only seen him in films before. The new Ufa & Tobis films are indescribably bad. But ifone with Krauss called Burg Theater comes to Boston, see it. 8 Though it would lose practically everything in synchronisation.
Shortly after I got to Germany I had a letter from Yodaiken saying he had prepared a place for me at the Court ofEisenstein in Moscow through his friend Malraux's brother who moves floats there or swings the suttle or God knows what. I did not answer. 9 Moscow is another journey.
423
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
I brushed a lot of people in Hamburg but have seen nobody
Iced beestings.
here, except a bookseller's improver and a film comedian. The Yeats joke is excellent. Publish it before he dies.
12
The Toller-Johns[t]on mixture sounds terrible.
10 11
Thomas Mann, after 3 years at the brink of complete pro-
scription, has had his citizenship taken away. Heinrich is down
13
write you again from Dresden, if I ever get there. Write to Foxrock yourself. You must have plenty of leisure now, or are you crocheting? 14
I know the smell you describe. The decay ingredient you omit, what you get in a cemetery. You like it because it is associated with your years ofinnocence. I dislike it for the same reason. It is part of the home poison. A swamp smell.
Love Sam
ALS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; env to Mrs Mark Howe. 136 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass. USA; pm 21·1·37, Berlin; TxU.
1 "Ananas"(pineapple). NeitherMaryManningHowe'sletternoritsenclosurehas been found.
SB quotes Dante's Paradiso XVII, line 24: "'tetragono ai colpi di ventura"' ("foursquare against the blows ofchance") (La Divina Commedia; The Divine Comedy, III, Paradiso, 243).
2 DiscoveringwhetherStanleyNottreallydidwanttopublishMurphywasproving so difficult that SB's misspelling ofthe name here is probably deliberate.
the drain long ago.
This is a miserable letter but I can't do any better. Shall
Richard Church, a reader for J. M. Dent and Sons, wrote to George Reavey on 12 January 1937:
1 have now read Samuel Beckett's novel and I think this man is a most remarkable and highly equipped writer. The humour, the sophistication, the sense ofstructure, and the queer originality make me agree with you that he is a man fully worth while fostering. I have been on the telephone with Harold Raymond ofChatto & Windus and said what I think about the book and also that I believe they are making a mistake ifthey let him go. Raymond has accordingly asked to see the manuscript again[. . . ] but he does not want Beckett to know this in case he has to come to the same con· clusion as the other directors and again disappoint the author.
424
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
For our part, we can only take on a limited amount of immediately unremunerative work I - . . J Otherwise I should not hesitate about urging my directors to accept Beckett's book. (TxU)
Harold Raymond to Church of8 January 1937: UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 178/689; Raymond to Reavey of19 January 1937: UoR, MS 2690.
3 SB was reading Hermann Hesse, Demian: die Geschichte einer Jugend (1919; Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth), and Walter Bauer, Die notwendige Reise (1932; The Necessary Journey). For SB's reflection on Murphy in the light of this reading: Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 230, and BIF, UoR, GD 4/f. 15.
4 PatriciaMaguire(1905-1937)hadbeenillwithasleepingsicknessforfiveyears and seven months when she died in Chicago on 28 September 1937 ("Patricia Maguire Dies in Hospital. " The New York Times 29 September 1937: 14).
5 "Boreens"(Ir. ,lanes).
Parrish's Chemical Food, an iron tonic invented by the Philadelphia pharmacist Edward Parrish (d. 1872).
6 •An Irishman's Diary" in The Irish Times was a daily column of anecdote and commentary on the leader page begun in 1927 by R. M. Smyllie, sometimes appearing under his pseudonym, "Nichevo"; in the early 1930s Smyllie wrote most of the columns, "with paragraphs from . . . freelance sources," and he continued to write it on Saturdays "even after he became editor" (Hugh Oram, 18 July 2005; Hugh Oram, The Newspaper Book: A History of Newspapers in Ireland, 1649-1983 ! Dublin: MO Books, 1983] 162-163).
SB's pun is based on the name of writer and teacher Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (also known as Koizumi Yakumo, 1850-1904) with its echo of the name of the character Wluiki Lafcadio in Gide's Les Caves du Vatican.
George Reavey's plans for a review did not materialize. 7 "Trovata"(serendipitousfind).
8 TheperformanceofMariaStuart:9January1937,n. 1.
Gyges und sein Ring (1856) by dramatist Friedrich Hebbel (1813-1863) was performed at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin on 12 and 13 January, with Werner Krauss (1884-1954) in the role ofCandaules, King ofLydia. Krauss had starred in The Cabinet ofDr. Caligari (1919), The Brothers Karamazov (1920), Danton (1921). Othello (1922), and Tartuffe (1926). Burg Theater (1936) with Krauss as Friedrich Mitterer. a once brilliant but now aging actor. was produced by Tobis-Europe films.
Although Ufa (Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft) was created in 1917 to promote German culture, its purpose subsequently changed; by 1933 Ufa was producing both entertainments and Nazi propaganda films (Anthony Slide, The International Film Industry ! New York: Greenwood, 1989] 357-358). The Tobis sound film production company was created in 1927, and by 1933, with Ufa, it dominated the German film industry.
9 The letter to SB from Leslie Daiken (ne Leslie Yodaiken, 1912-1964), Irish-born writer who was active in the British Film Society, has not been found. Knowing of SB's interest in studying with Eisenstein (see 2 March 1936), Daiken offered to contact the half-brother ofAndre Malraux, Roland Malraux (1912-1945),
425
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
who had known Eisenstein in the early 1930s when he had been working in Moscow for the Paris newspaper, Ce Soir.
The terms "float" and "suttle," relative to their use in the film industry of the 1930s, have not been defined.
10 Axel Kaun• (1912-1983) had just begun to work for Rowohlt-Verlag; SB was introduced to Kaun byGunter Albrecht, whom he had met in Hamburg. The film comedian Josef Eichheim (1888-1945) was also staying at the Pension Kempt with SB; the owner of the Pension, Willy Kempt (n. d. ), and SB went with Eichheim to see two films in which Eichheim had major roles: Der lachende Dtitte (1936; The Chuckling Third) and Der Jiiger von Fall (1936; The Hunter of Fall) (Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 232).
11 MaryManningHowe'sjokeaboutW. B. Yeatsisnotknown.
12 The Blind Goddess, a play byGerman expressionist Ernst Toller (1893-1939), was freely adapted by Denis Johnston as Blind Man's Bluff; it opened on 26 December 1936 at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. The reviewer in The Irish Times noted: "Only a very little of the original remains; little more than the theme, something of the plot, and a little of the dialogue" ("Blind Man's Bluff," 28 December 1936: 8).
13 ThomasMann(1875-1955)emigratedtoSwitzerlandin1933,andtotheUnited States in 1938; his brother Heinrich Mann emigrated to France in 1933 and to the United States in 1940. Thomas Mann, his wife, and his children, were stripped of their German citizenship on 3 December 1936 (" 93 Germans Deprived of Nationality: Thomas Mann and His Family Penalized," The Times 4 December 1936: 15; for further details: Nigel Hamilton, The Brothers Mann: The Lives of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1871-1950 and 1875-1955 ! London: Secker and Warburg, 1978] 263-269).
14 "WritetoFoxrockyourself,"i. e. toMayBeckett. Mary Manning Howe was pregnant.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
18/1/37 Berlin W. 50 beiKempt
Budapesterstrasse 45
Dear Tom
Sorry to hear the reproduction arrived in such bad order.
The hunched pose troubled me too the first time I saw, but
1
soon it begins to belong with the face.
426
I talked to the elderly
Jewish art-historian whose acquaintance I made in Hamburg,
who schwarms madly for Schmidt-Rottluff, she was here for
Xmas, about the picture. She poohpoohed & much preferred
the Giorgione here, "an early lyrical work - but then it was an
essentially lyrical talent. " If she went in for spit[t]oons in her
Hamburg home, they would be designed by Schmidt
Rottluff. The metaphysical alone can claim her interest, and
2
in Brunswick is the Rembrandt family-picture. Signorelli is
2nd class - beside Piero della Francesca. To talk of a tragic in
Brouwer is to talk nonsense, he was a talented Taugenichts &
no more. 3 We disagreed with each other all evening, in a room
with Heckels, Kirchners, wretched Kolbes and frail faces traced
by Rottluff on pebbles polished by the sea, her voice crack
ling as a whole group of German voices crackles, raining
4
all here. Nolde, Rottluff, Heckel, etc. , de la part de Frau
Sauerlandt, widow of the late director of the Museum in
Hamburg, who wrote a poor book on Nolde and called it Art
of the past 30 Years, to whom Fry dedicated his Art Now, mais
5
putupons in their fastnesses, and I can't say yessir and nosir
any more. So I have lived all the time alone, except for the
acquaintance in the last few days of a young bookseller's
improver who has just been taken on by the publisher
Ruhwoldt [for Rowohlt), who does Hackett, Fleming, Wolfle)
and Romains. Fleming is here with a large propaganda aero
plane at his disposal, & Wolfle] comes to Berlin as others to
6
18January 1937, McGreevy
the metaphysical is always soulful. All she cares for
down curses on the govemment. I could have visited them
je n'en ai rien fait. They are all great proud angry poor
Sometimes in the evening I go out and drink beer with my host and a film comdedian [for comedian] at the height of his popularity. Strangers pause at
427
the peace of the countryside.
18 January 1937, McGreevy
our table and say to him, where have we seen your face, which
7
to leave Berlin for Dresden last Wednesday but a lump came
between wind & water. They often come there and go away
soon with a little discharge, but this one got bigger and bigger
till only two endurable positions remained, both fully recum
bent. But I had appointments with the bookseller, on the eve of
his departure for the Riesengebirge, and then finally day before
yesterday, when the thing was at its worst, with the bookseller
8
pleases him & Kempt also.
The last week has been the worst for a long time. I meant
from Hamburg, on his way through to join the other.
He was
to have left here at 8, but missed the train by half a minute, so
I had him from 4 in the afternoon till after midnight. May it be
a long time before I have another 12 such hours. [. . . ] I am very
tired and only want to go home and lie down, but I feel I shan't
be in Germany again after this trip. Travelling as I do, with
the living wage of charity corning through regular every
month, and the aversion to human beings hardening with
every outing, I shall never learn what to do with my tither of
life. But not a word, all roads of comminucation [for communi
cation], the boreens also, lead to Mrs. Susan Manning, and from
9
I am glad you liked Cascando, the last echo of feeling. 10
The Pergamum altar is impressive barock, not at all
II
predella to the London Madonna, and a separate picture of a
woman lying in receiving visitors. I2 Wonderful Signorellis espe
cially the big Pan as God of Nature and Master of Music, with
13
her to mother.
beautiful.
The Kaiser Friedrich is terrific. An exquisite Masaccio
a shepherd very like the El Greco son of Laocoon in London. The two del Sartos are the best I have seen, one a portrait of the
428
del Fede. 14 Practically a repetition of the Savoldo Magdalene in London, the same lovely pearl-yellow cloak and hastening
15
A Butinone Pieta that bears out the
18January 1937, McGreevy
Roomfuls of Botticellis and Bellinis, including a wonderful Pieta given to
16
figure, only called here Venetian Woman.
oldJacopo, very Paduan.
little picture in London, Turas, Crivellis, Vivarinis, Ercole de'
Robertis, rather unassuming Mantegnas and a prodigious
17
Carpaccio Entombment.
The usual acres of Titain [for Titian]
at his best, ifyou like that kind ofthing, I haven't been able to
look at him for very long this trip. The Rembrandts and Halses
18
6 or 7 Brouwers in the dark comer that is always reserved
for him, with the first landscapes that have seemed to me to
belong to his spirit. The famous Moon Landscape, that belonged
to Rubens, is of course denied me, having been sent to Paris
19
The two Vermeers and
must be the best outside Holland, ifyou like that kind ofthing.
Very good Terborchs, including a surprising loose bright free courtyard
20
for the Rembrandt & Contemporaries exhibition.
scene, say the Terborch Kupplerin.
De Hooch looking very trivial & Ma[e]s beside them. And
Elsheimers, "pictures" and miniatures and a lovely drawing on
loan from the Louvre, water, night, wood, glades, moon and a
21
tiny fire being kindled on the shore.
Of the 2 Velasquez the
Musicians do not matter very much, and the Countess Olivares
doesn't seem to belong to him at all. It was formerly given to del
22
Mazo, and doesn't seem good enough for del Mazo.
collection is amazing, a roomful of Van Eyck, 3 Flemalle, 3 Hugo van der Goes, 6 van der Weyden, a lovely GeertgenJohn Baptist sitting very gloomy in a landscape. They are all there, except Campin, unless Flemalle is Campin, or Roger v. d. W. 23 There is a Provost adoration that you would like, & Marmion, Foucquet & Daret. The Mabuses are sublime, there is one big bevelled penis,
429
The Flemish
18 January 1937, McGreevy
I forget whether Adam's or Neptune's, like the lady in Tambur laine naked in a net ofgold, soigne like a glass or curl oflemon
rind by Kalf or Heda. 24 The Brueghel (for Bruegel] Proverbs are worthy to be sent to Sir Robert Tate, with key. What happy hours he would spend. But a gallery is not the names in its catalogue and perhaps it would have been better simply to say that I shall leave Berlin clearer in my impatience with the immensely com petent bullies and browbeaters and highwaymen and naggers, the Rembrandts & Halses and Titians and Rubenses, the Tarquins ofart. 25 Or is it a pettiness to move away from the art that takes me by the scruff ofthe neck?
Talking about the Tarquins, I was at a Beethoven concert of
the Berlin Symphonic under Eugen Jochum, Leonore, a late
middle piano concerto and the Pastoral. Jochum is the kind of
conductor that one feels must have begun on a bus or a tram.
Furtwangler has spent the whole season in retirement. The horn
passage in the Leonore was as I have always imagined and never
heard it, innaccessibly [sic] distant, sylvan and autumn dusk,
and also as I have never heard it the chum passage for strings,
love's epilepsy. The concerto was pretty and tiresome, rather
like the Fliihlings violin sonata, played by the soloist with a
perspiring stiff-wristed powerlessness that was terrible. And
the Pastorale more irrefragably than ever an insult to the ear
26
and what he calls the "skating, skiing and skiting" and left after a few days. He saw Alan & Belinda in Paris on the way back, Alan
27
and understanding.
I had a long letter from Frank. He couldn't stand Mtirren
as usual halftight which seems to be the best he can do. soon as he got home he went to bed with flu and is only just up again. He went straight through London, otherwise would have looked you up.
430
As
I am glad you are more easy in Harrington Road. I did not feel Black Cottage or whatever it was called was the place for you. Are you still on the Heinemann translation? Or have you been able to take up the Yeats again? 28 I had a very nice letter from him for Xmas, with a gay sad pen & crayon drawing of the west from O'Connell Bridge and fantasies about skating on the rollers of the brain. Charles wrote from Greenock just setting out for Florence. 29
I also find it difficult to keep up with Murphy. From time to
time I get nebulosities from Reavey. The book seems to be now
under consideration by Dent for whom it was read by Richard
Church who at the point of one of Reavey's lunches declared
himself "greatly impressed" . .
409
31 December 1936, Albrecht
gutem Erfolg.
Berlin kommt mir etwas wie eine geschwatzige Sphinx var,
tenTagenvanO'ConnellBridgeinDublinanschauenkann. So lassen sich die Eindriicke nicht bestimmen, es sei denn, dass man ihnen das Wesentlichste abzieht. Ich verstehe z. B. schon sehr gut, wie leicht es ware, sich van Berlin begeistem zu lassen; und weiss doch schon vorher, mit welchem Befriedigungsgefiihl, als ob es sich um eine Flucht handelte, ich die Reise nach Dresden in ungefahr 14 Tagen antreten werde.
Nationalgalerie zu finden.
Die 22 Bucher, die Sie als Paket geschickt haben, sind noch
31 December 1936, Albrecht
Verspatung handelt. Dagegen ist das Buch von Keyserling richtig erhalten worden, wie alles, was ich als Briefpaket habe schicken
10
habe den Gri. inen Heinrich begonnen und werde aus verschie
den Grunden an Manzoni erinnert, eine Analogie, die sich ohne
Zweifel wtirde dokumentieren lassen. Die Geschichte des
Meretleins, die die mindeste Uebert6nung ins Lacherliche
11
Gri. issen Sie bitte von mir Ihre Familie, Herrn Saucke, den
Maler und seinen Freund, deren Namen ich nie richtig vernom
12
lassen.
lch Iese sehr wenig, vor allen Dingen keine Zeitung. lch
hatte ziehen miissen, habe ich erschiitternd gefunden.
men habe, und lassen Sie es Ihnen gut gehen. Mit besten Wiinschen fur das neue Jahr,
1hr
s/ Samuel Beckett
TIS: 1 leaf, 2 sides: BIF, UoR, MS 5037.
31/12/36
Dear Mr. Albrecht,
It has been lonely since I have been gone from Hamburg,
but in such a pleasant manner that it hasn't even occurred to me to look for any so-called connections. Of course, I frequently think about those in Hamburg who extended so much hospital ity to a foreigner and stranger. It is a different pleasure to be dealing solely with things, however a pleasure nevertheless, even if in the end a very dangerous one. Furthermore, it is also very much a question whether one should make every departure more and more difficult for oneself - with friendships that are
410
Berlin W. 50
c/o Kempt Budapesterstrasse 45
only just beginning to form - and especially that last departure,
1
Of the various excursions which I wanted to go on from
Braunschweig, I had to make do with those to Konigslutter,
Riddagshausen, Wolfenbilttel and Hildesheim. Hildesheim
remains Hildesheim. In the 8 or 9 very short, cold, damp, and
dreary hours which foul weather allowed me, I succeeded in
seeing perhaps a twentieth, if I don't flatter myself, of what I
3
serenity ofWolfenbilttel I could have done without reading the
first fragment in the August Library to bring Lessing to life for
me. There is in this small town that kind of French reserve
which I so often thought I sensed in Lessing himself. I have
never been able to understand how such a Cartesian mind
4
uncanny numbers. I am glad there are none round here.
In Hanover there was such a pervasive sense of cultural euphoria that one could detect it all the way to Cafe Kropcke. The authenticity of the skeleton of Leibniz buried in the Neustadten church had been confirmed through lengthy exami
nation of his right big toe. 5
The Braunschweig cathedral was closed because of renova
tions of the interior. We know what that means. During the lunch break I forced my way past the building site, which is covering up the entire southern side of the church, all the way to the entrance, only to run into an unforgiving policeman. The
411
when leaving the country altogether. In Germany there is already an abundance of what I will have to leave behind, yes, had to leave, without being able to get to know it. For example, Giorgione in Braunschweig, even though I visited him every day for a week. 2
31 December 1936, Albrecht
wantedtosee,thatisafiftiethofwhatthereistosee. Inthe
could so thoroughly misunderstand the mind of Descartes. Half-timbered houses and sandstone gables I have seen in
31 December 1936, Albrecht
main gable of the 'Gewandhaus' has disappeared likewise,
6
results. 7
Berlin appears to ·me a bit like a gossipy sphinx that has no
other riddle to offer than the insignificance of her own appear
ance. A male, yes a bearded Sphinx, like the one you can admire
in the Tell Halaf Museum. The lion owns Unter den Linden,
man owns the Museum Island, however the skies shape the
wings; the skies, whose death throes look rather more like
embraces, are almost as beautiful as those admittedly more
creeping ones that one can observe also from O'Connell
8
example, I do understand quite well how easy it would be to let yourself be taken with Berlin; and yet I already know, in advance, the feeling ofsatisfaction with which I will embark on the journey to Dresden in about a fortnight, as if it were a matter of escaping.
The upper level of the Kronprinzen Palais is 'closed today'.
A servant even dared to communicate to me his regrets about
that. There is however an excellent collection ofdrawings where
one may savour the poison peddlers in the most intimate
moment of their creativity. In addition, I experienced the very
pleasant surprise of finding 6 pictures by Liebermann in the
9
I assume that if they got lost, as seems to be the case here, there is probably nothing to be done about it since the parcel was not
412
behind the most beautiful scaffolding I have ever seen.
Of course, I wanted to visit Goslar, Halberstadt, and Quedlinburg but suddenly found myself so wanting in necessi ties - money, enthusiasm, and energy - that I was quite unable. In Braunschweig, I myself cut open my bad fingers with good
BridgeinDublinevenafterthedarkestdays. Thusimpressions defy definition unless one strips them of the essential. For
Nationalgalerie.
The 22 books which you sent in a parcel are not here yet.
31 December 1936, Albrecht
registered. It is of course also possible that it is only a matter of delay, however inexplicable. On the other hand, the book by Keyserling was received without difficulty as was everything I sent by letterpost. 10
I read very little, above all no newspapers. I have started Der
Grune Heinrich and for various reasons am reminded of Manzoni,
an analogy that undoubtedly could be documented. I found
myself deeply moved by the story of Meretlein, the slightest
over-doing of which would have inevitably rendered it
11
painter and his friend whose name I never properly heard, and
12
Yours,
s/ Samuel Beckett
1 ThehostofSB'spensioninHamburgwasKurtHoppe(b. 1891),whointroduced SB to many people in Hamburg, who in tum introduced him to others.
2 Giorgione'sSelf-portraitasDavidinBrunswick:see22December1936,n. 2.
3 SBwasinRiddagshausenon7December,wherehevisitedtheFrauenkapelle,and the Klosterkirche that was consecrated in 1278 and once belonged to a Cistercian monastery. He was in Hildesheim on 10 December 1936 (see Mark Nixon, "Chronik der Deutschlandreise Samuel Becketts 1936/37. " Der unbekannte Beckett: Samuel Becket und die deutsche Kultur, ed. Therese Fischer-Seidel and Marion Fries-Dieckmann [Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2005] 34-63).
K6nigslutter: see n. 7 below.
4 SB visited the August Bibliothek in Wolfenbiittel on 8 December 1936. The "Wolfenbiittel Fragments" were published by Lessing as Fragmente eines Ungenannten (1774-1777; Fragments of an Unnamed) from a manuscript by the German philoso· pher Hermann Samuel Reimarus (1694-1768) entitled "Apology for the Rational Worshippers ofGod"; this essay challenged evidence for the Resurrection of Christ and thus provoked controversy (Nixon, "Chronik der Deutschlandreise Samuel Becketts 1936/37," 36).
Rene Descartes (1596-1650).
5 The Cafe I<r6pcke, although destroyed during World War II, was rebuilt at the same location, Georgstrasse 35 in Hanover; it is a central meeting point (Walter Asmus, 16 June 2005).
413
ridiculous.
Please, give my regards to your family, Herr Saucke, the
be well yourself.
With best wishes for the New Year,
31 December 1936, Albrecht
SB wrote "Zehl" which is not a German word, so we have presumed that he intended to write "Zehe" (toe). The authenticity ofLeibniz's remains was not at issue in 1936, having been confirmed in 1902 (Professor Dr. Herbert Breger, Leibniz-Archiv, 27 June 2005).
6 In Brunswick, the romanesque Cathedral of St. Blasius dates from the twelfth century. The Gewandhaus, the Cloth Merchants'Hall, from the Renaissance, is located in the Altstadtmarkt.
"Schupi" for "Schupo" (slang for policeman).
7 Goslar,Halberstadt, and Quedlinburg are all towns south ofWolfenbiittel; on the evening of 10 December, SB had considered stopping in Konigslutter the next morning andHalberstadt in the afternoon, but on 11 December he decided to go directly to Berlin by an afternoon train (BIF, UoR, GD 2/f. 53).
On the subject ofSB's infected finger and thumb, see Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 225.
8 The bearded sphinx in the Berlin TellHalaf Museum was known as "Erster Skorpionenvogelmann" (First Scorpion-bird-man) (Max Freiherr von Oppenheim, Tell Halaf. III, Die Bildwerke, 118-119; it was destroyed in 1943).
The broad avenue ofUnter denLinden stretches from the Brandenburg Gate at the Pariser Platz eastward to the Schlossbriicke on the River Spree. SB refers to an eques trian statue of Kaiser Wilhelm I (the National Memorial to KaiserWilhelm I) that once dominated the square ofthe Stadtschloss oftheHohenzollern, the Schlossfreiheit, at the eastern end of Unter den Linden; a lion at each corner of the monument looks outward, including one with a gaze directed westward down Unter den Linden. Designed from 1892 to 1897 by Reinhold Begas (1831-1911) and GustafHalmhuber (1862-1936), the statue was dismantled afterWorldWar II by the East German govern ment. O'Connell Bridge spans theLiffey in Dublin.
The Museumsinsel, a man-made island, is the site of the Kaiser Friedrich and other museums: 22 December 1936, n. 4.
9 TheclosedsectionsoftheKronprinzenpalais:28November1937[for19361,n. 8. The drawings by the artists who had been attacked by the Nazis as "entartet" (degen erate) have not been identified.
The paintings by Liebermann in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum (now in the Nationalgalerie, Berlin) were Women Plucking Geese (A I 524), Shoemaker's Workshop (A I 644), Flax Barn in Laren [Holland] (A I 431), SelfPortrait with Sportscap at an Easel (A II 466), Portrait ofDr. Wilhelm Bode (A III 533), and Portrait ofOtto Braun (NGB 10/60; these were confiscated in 1937, shown in the "Entartete Kunst" exhibition in Munich in 1937, and reacquired by the Berlin Nationalgalerie in 1960).
10 SB had been asked by Arland Ussher to send him a copy of Reisetagebuch eines Philosophen (1919; The Travel Diary of a Philosopher) byHermann Graf von Keyserling (1880-1946); although Keyserling had been banned from speaking in public, SB was able to order a copy of this book, which he received in Berlin (Beckett,Alles kommt aufso viel an, 54, 56).
The list of books purchased inHamburg and sent to Dublin, as well as of those purchased inHamburg and forwarded to SB in Berlin, is given in the Whoroscope notebook (BIF, UoR, MS 3000/34 and 36; see Nixon, "'Scraps ofGerman,"' 278).
11 DergriineHeinrich(1908;GreenHenry)byGottfriedKeller(1819-1890). Thestoryof Meretlein (Part I. ch. 5) is that of a child punished and shunned to control her behavior, told largely from the viewpoint of the abuser; the child seems to die, but comes to life
414
31 December 1936, Albrecht
from her coffin, only to die again. SB compares Keller's book to the writing of Alessandro Manzoni, whose best-known work is I promessi sposi (1827; The Betrothed).
12 Herr Saucke was the bookdealer for whom Albrecht worked in Hamburg (see 7 November 1936, n. 1); on 29 November 1936, SB had met the painter ("child painter, name forgotten") and his friend, identified only as a painter doing posters for Hapag (Hamburg-Amerikanische-Packetfahrt-Actien-Gesellschaft, a shipping firm based in Hamburg), and Albrecht's family, on 29 November 1936 (Beckett, Alles kommt auf so viel an, 54; Mark Nixon).
415
1937 8January 12January
By 18 January
22-23 January 24-25 January 25-26 January 26-28January 29January
4 February
16 February 18 February
19 February 20-23 February 24-25 February 26 February 3-4 March
5 March-2 April By 20 March
CHRONOLOGY 1937
SB attends production ofSchiller's Maria Stuart at Schauspielhaus in Berlin.
Visits Potsdam and Sanssouci. Attends production ofHebbel's Gyges und sein Ring in Berlin.
Learns that Richard Church, a reader for Dent, has written positively about Murphy to Reavey. Meets Axel Kaun and film comedianJosefEichheim.
Leaves Berlin. In Halle. In Erfurt.
In Naumburg.
In Leipzig.
In Dresden, Pension Hofer, until 18 February. Learns that Dent and Cobden-Sanderson have
both rejected Murphy. Visits Pillnitz.
Attends Fedor Stepun's lecture on Andrei Bely in Dresden.
In Freiberg; travels to Bamberg.
In Bamberg.
In Wu. rzburg; travels to Nuremberg.
In Nuremberg; travels to Regensburg.
In Regensburg; travels to Munich.
In Munich. From 6 March, at the Pension Romana.
Tells Reavey to reclaim Murphy from Houghton Mifflin.
417
Chronology 1937 31March
2April
By 12April 17April
By 26April 4May
By 14May
14-18 May
By 5June
By 15June
By 3July
4-6July 9 July
By 27July
29July 14August
25August
By 2 September
Meets Karl Valentin.
First airplane flight, fromMunich to London. Stays at 34 Gertrude Street.
Returns to Dublin.
VisitsJack Yeats. Beckett family dog, Wolf, destroyed.
SB working on play about SamuelJohnson. Learns from Reavey of another rejection of Murphy.
Death of Boss Sinclair. SB writes tribute for The Irish Times that is not published.
Jack Yeats, his wife, andJoe Hone have tea at Cooldrinagh. Harry Sinclair initiates libel action against Oliver St. John Gogarty; SB is a witness.
Whitsunday holiday with Frank Beckett to Cahir, Galtee Mountains and Knockmealdowns, Cashel, and Limerick.
Constable rejects Murphy. Lovat Dickson reading Murphy. On behalf of Rowohlt Verlag,Axel Kaun invites SB to select and to translate poems of
Joachim Ringelnatz.
SB gathers testimonials to apply for a position teaching Italian at the University of Cape Town. Frank Beckett is engaged to be married.
SB responds to Cunard's request for a contribu tion to Authors Take Sides on the Spanish Civil War.
VisitsArland Ussher's home, Cappagh.
Declines Ringelnatz commission; advances his views on "logoclasm" to Axel Kaun.
MaryManning Howe sends Murphy to Covici-Friede in New York.
SB applies to the University of Cape Town.
Sends poem "Whiting" (later entitled "Ooftish") to Cissie Sinclair and Thomas McGreevy.
Marriage of Frank andJean Beckett. Doubleday Doran rejects Murphy.
418
18 September 27-29 September
1 October 4 October
16/17 October 27 October 10November
22 November By 23 November
3 December 7-10 December
9 December 10 December 22 December
25 December 31 December
Chronology 1937 SB involved in an automobile accident.
In Waterford with Frank. Does not plan to return to Cooldrinagh after quarrel with his mother.
May Beckett leaves Cooldrinagh, giving SB time to prepare to leave for Paris.
SB appears before Shankill Court for dangerous driving. Dines with Francis Stuart.
Leaves Dublin for London and Paris. Writes from Chez Sarrazin, Paris.
Back in London, there awaiting word about when the Sinclair vs Gogarty libel action will begin in Dublin.
Jack B. Yeats recommends Murphy to Routledge. SB in Dublin for Sinclair libel action against
Gogarty (23-27 November).
In Paris at Hotel Liberia.
Works with Giorgio Joyce on galleys ofJoyce's Work in Progress.
Receives telegram announcing that Murphy has been accepted by Routledge.
Decides not to write essay on Joyce for homage issue of La Nouvelle Revue Fran�aise.
Encourages McGreevy to come to Paris; urges him to apply for a subvention to write articles about France for British publication.
Christmas with the Joyces.
New Year's Eve with Giorgio and Helen Joyce.
419
THOMAS M cGREEVY LONDON
9/1/37 [Berlin]
[no greeting]
Very glad to have yr. letter to-day, as I have been wanting to write
you & respire keeping putting it off. I leave for Dresden next week
& may pause in Leipzig on the way. I am very tired & often feel like
turning back, but back where? I saw Maria Stuart in the
1
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Adriaen Brouwer, Der Hirt am Wege; to Thomas McGreevy, 49 Harrington Rd. , London S. W. 7, ENGLAND; pm 9·1-37, Berlin; TCD, MS 10402/112.
1 MariaStuartbyFriedrichSchiller(1759-1805)wasperformedattheSchauspielhaus in Berlin on 8 January 1937, directed by Lothar Miithel (1896-1964). with Hermine Korner (c. 1882-1960) as Queen Elizabeth, Hilde Weissner (1909-1987) as Maria Stuart, Paul Hartmann (1889-1977) as Leicester, and Walter Franck (1896-1961) as Burleigh (Herbert A. Frenzel, "Umbesetzte 'Maria Stuart' im Staatlichen Schauspielhaus," Der Angri. ff[Berlin] 20 December 1936: 4).
2 "Dein" (your).
MARY MANNING HOWE BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
18/1/37 Berlin
Dear Mary
You are very good to me, you are, sending me embalmed
ananas. The format is striking, like the delights that can be
421
Schauspielhaus last night. Very creamy. T. Eliot is toilet spelt backwards. Writing.
Dein2 Sam
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
knuckled out of the eyeballs. It followed me on from Hamburg, in a tempest of fiscal excitement. Thank you. Also for your long letter, with enclosed legs, one more beautiful than the other. Tetragono ai colpi di . . Do you happen to know does she bite? 1
I am not in love with George Reavey, but Stanley Knott [for Nott] is directly unpleasant.
From the dim dribbles that come to me from London, I gather that the book is now under consideration by Dent, for whom it has been read by Richard Church, who at the point of one of Reavey's carp lunches repre sented himself as "greatly impressed"[. ]2 Wax without the works.
Provoked by belated romantic German novels I find new
planes ofjustification for the bondage in the chair that were not
present to me at the time. Or rather for the figure of the bondage
in the chair. If I am not careful I shall become clear as to what I
3
or Dresden, if a large lump had not suddenly come between wind & water, where the soil was so fertile that any [for only) two endurable positions remained, both fully recumbent. So most of the past week, with unforgettable intervals of obliga tions discharged in sweat & torture, has been spent in bed, by one who I now begin gradually to realise was I. All I ask, all! , is that it may spare me for two more months, so that I can see Dresden & Munich & Frankfurt, because I don't think I shall be in Germany again. The sicker I am when I get home the better, it will postpone the playacting. I shall lock up my ischial hemi spheres for the surgeon's trowel like a bridegroom taking off his braces, I shall lie in a large bed all alone in slight pain receiving attention.
422
have written.
I would not be still here, but in Naumburg, Weimar, Leipzig
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
The creature in all the world most to be envied is Patricia Maguire ofChicago. She sleeps since 1931, her stupor lightens briefly at meal times, she is massaged daily, her fanmail is composed mostly ofproposals ofmarriage. 4
Not a word to anyone about me. All roads & boreens of communication lead to your mother, and from her to mine, who ifshe heard I had such a splendid brand new excres[c]ence would come flying with Parishes [for Parrish's] Food & antiphlogistine. 5
No, I have written nothing at all, and have no plans. Mother writes why don't I contribute to the papers, I write at least as well as the Irishman Diarist. Frank writes what about the Lafcadio Hernia I was so full ofbefore I left. Reavey applies for contributions ofwhat kind or form soever for the review he is starting in the Spring. I have nothing. 6
When the problem has quite vanished in the data, or better the trovata; when to have ever left one's village ceases to seem a folly; perhaps it is only then that the writing begins. 7 Ifl were less tired I should be in no hurry.
I saw Schiller's Mary_Stuart in the Schauspielhaus. It stays alive for 4 acts without betraying how it continues to do so. Then Werner Krauss in Hebbel's Gyges, which is such good poetry that it never comes alive at all. Krauss is a great actor, the best I have seen. I had only seen him in films before. The new Ufa & Tobis films are indescribably bad. But ifone with Krauss called Burg Theater comes to Boston, see it. 8 Though it would lose practically everything in synchronisation.
Shortly after I got to Germany I had a letter from Yodaiken saying he had prepared a place for me at the Court ofEisenstein in Moscow through his friend Malraux's brother who moves floats there or swings the suttle or God knows what. I did not answer. 9 Moscow is another journey.
423
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
I brushed a lot of people in Hamburg but have seen nobody
Iced beestings.
here, except a bookseller's improver and a film comedian. The Yeats joke is excellent. Publish it before he dies.
12
The Toller-Johns[t]on mixture sounds terrible.
10 11
Thomas Mann, after 3 years at the brink of complete pro-
scription, has had his citizenship taken away. Heinrich is down
13
write you again from Dresden, if I ever get there. Write to Foxrock yourself. You must have plenty of leisure now, or are you crocheting? 14
I know the smell you describe. The decay ingredient you omit, what you get in a cemetery. You like it because it is associated with your years ofinnocence. I dislike it for the same reason. It is part of the home poison. A swamp smell.
Love Sam
ALS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; env to Mrs Mark Howe. 136 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass. USA; pm 21·1·37, Berlin; TxU.
1 "Ananas"(pineapple). NeitherMaryManningHowe'sletternoritsenclosurehas been found.
SB quotes Dante's Paradiso XVII, line 24: "'tetragono ai colpi di ventura"' ("foursquare against the blows ofchance") (La Divina Commedia; The Divine Comedy, III, Paradiso, 243).
2 DiscoveringwhetherStanleyNottreallydidwanttopublishMurphywasproving so difficult that SB's misspelling ofthe name here is probably deliberate.
the drain long ago.
This is a miserable letter but I can't do any better. Shall
Richard Church, a reader for J. M. Dent and Sons, wrote to George Reavey on 12 January 1937:
1 have now read Samuel Beckett's novel and I think this man is a most remarkable and highly equipped writer. The humour, the sophistication, the sense ofstructure, and the queer originality make me agree with you that he is a man fully worth while fostering. I have been on the telephone with Harold Raymond ofChatto & Windus and said what I think about the book and also that I believe they are making a mistake ifthey let him go. Raymond has accordingly asked to see the manuscript again[. . . ] but he does not want Beckett to know this in case he has to come to the same con· clusion as the other directors and again disappoint the author.
424
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
For our part, we can only take on a limited amount of immediately unremunerative work I - . . J Otherwise I should not hesitate about urging my directors to accept Beckett's book. (TxU)
Harold Raymond to Church of8 January 1937: UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 178/689; Raymond to Reavey of19 January 1937: UoR, MS 2690.
3 SB was reading Hermann Hesse, Demian: die Geschichte einer Jugend (1919; Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth), and Walter Bauer, Die notwendige Reise (1932; The Necessary Journey). For SB's reflection on Murphy in the light of this reading: Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 230, and BIF, UoR, GD 4/f. 15.
4 PatriciaMaguire(1905-1937)hadbeenillwithasleepingsicknessforfiveyears and seven months when she died in Chicago on 28 September 1937 ("Patricia Maguire Dies in Hospital. " The New York Times 29 September 1937: 14).
5 "Boreens"(Ir. ,lanes).
Parrish's Chemical Food, an iron tonic invented by the Philadelphia pharmacist Edward Parrish (d. 1872).
6 •An Irishman's Diary" in The Irish Times was a daily column of anecdote and commentary on the leader page begun in 1927 by R. M. Smyllie, sometimes appearing under his pseudonym, "Nichevo"; in the early 1930s Smyllie wrote most of the columns, "with paragraphs from . . . freelance sources," and he continued to write it on Saturdays "even after he became editor" (Hugh Oram, 18 July 2005; Hugh Oram, The Newspaper Book: A History of Newspapers in Ireland, 1649-1983 ! Dublin: MO Books, 1983] 162-163).
SB's pun is based on the name of writer and teacher Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (also known as Koizumi Yakumo, 1850-1904) with its echo of the name of the character Wluiki Lafcadio in Gide's Les Caves du Vatican.
George Reavey's plans for a review did not materialize. 7 "Trovata"(serendipitousfind).
8 TheperformanceofMariaStuart:9January1937,n. 1.
Gyges und sein Ring (1856) by dramatist Friedrich Hebbel (1813-1863) was performed at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin on 12 and 13 January, with Werner Krauss (1884-1954) in the role ofCandaules, King ofLydia. Krauss had starred in The Cabinet ofDr. Caligari (1919), The Brothers Karamazov (1920), Danton (1921). Othello (1922), and Tartuffe (1926). Burg Theater (1936) with Krauss as Friedrich Mitterer. a once brilliant but now aging actor. was produced by Tobis-Europe films.
Although Ufa (Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft) was created in 1917 to promote German culture, its purpose subsequently changed; by 1933 Ufa was producing both entertainments and Nazi propaganda films (Anthony Slide, The International Film Industry ! New York: Greenwood, 1989] 357-358). The Tobis sound film production company was created in 1927, and by 1933, with Ufa, it dominated the German film industry.
9 The letter to SB from Leslie Daiken (ne Leslie Yodaiken, 1912-1964), Irish-born writer who was active in the British Film Society, has not been found. Knowing of SB's interest in studying with Eisenstein (see 2 March 1936), Daiken offered to contact the half-brother ofAndre Malraux, Roland Malraux (1912-1945),
425
18 January 1937, Manning Howe
who had known Eisenstein in the early 1930s when he had been working in Moscow for the Paris newspaper, Ce Soir.
The terms "float" and "suttle," relative to their use in the film industry of the 1930s, have not been defined.
10 Axel Kaun• (1912-1983) had just begun to work for Rowohlt-Verlag; SB was introduced to Kaun byGunter Albrecht, whom he had met in Hamburg. The film comedian Josef Eichheim (1888-1945) was also staying at the Pension Kempt with SB; the owner of the Pension, Willy Kempt (n. d. ), and SB went with Eichheim to see two films in which Eichheim had major roles: Der lachende Dtitte (1936; The Chuckling Third) and Der Jiiger von Fall (1936; The Hunter of Fall) (Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 232).
11 MaryManningHowe'sjokeaboutW. B. Yeatsisnotknown.
12 The Blind Goddess, a play byGerman expressionist Ernst Toller (1893-1939), was freely adapted by Denis Johnston as Blind Man's Bluff; it opened on 26 December 1936 at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin. The reviewer in The Irish Times noted: "Only a very little of the original remains; little more than the theme, something of the plot, and a little of the dialogue" ("Blind Man's Bluff," 28 December 1936: 8).
13 ThomasMann(1875-1955)emigratedtoSwitzerlandin1933,andtotheUnited States in 1938; his brother Heinrich Mann emigrated to France in 1933 and to the United States in 1940. Thomas Mann, his wife, and his children, were stripped of their German citizenship on 3 December 1936 (" 93 Germans Deprived of Nationality: Thomas Mann and His Family Penalized," The Times 4 December 1936: 15; for further details: Nigel Hamilton, The Brothers Mann: The Lives of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1871-1950 and 1875-1955 ! London: Secker and Warburg, 1978] 263-269).
14 "WritetoFoxrockyourself,"i. e. toMayBeckett. Mary Manning Howe was pregnant.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
18/1/37 Berlin W. 50 beiKempt
Budapesterstrasse 45
Dear Tom
Sorry to hear the reproduction arrived in such bad order.
The hunched pose troubled me too the first time I saw, but
1
soon it begins to belong with the face.
426
I talked to the elderly
Jewish art-historian whose acquaintance I made in Hamburg,
who schwarms madly for Schmidt-Rottluff, she was here for
Xmas, about the picture. She poohpoohed & much preferred
the Giorgione here, "an early lyrical work - but then it was an
essentially lyrical talent. " If she went in for spit[t]oons in her
Hamburg home, they would be designed by Schmidt
Rottluff. The metaphysical alone can claim her interest, and
2
in Brunswick is the Rembrandt family-picture. Signorelli is
2nd class - beside Piero della Francesca. To talk of a tragic in
Brouwer is to talk nonsense, he was a talented Taugenichts &
no more. 3 We disagreed with each other all evening, in a room
with Heckels, Kirchners, wretched Kolbes and frail faces traced
by Rottluff on pebbles polished by the sea, her voice crack
ling as a whole group of German voices crackles, raining
4
all here. Nolde, Rottluff, Heckel, etc. , de la part de Frau
Sauerlandt, widow of the late director of the Museum in
Hamburg, who wrote a poor book on Nolde and called it Art
of the past 30 Years, to whom Fry dedicated his Art Now, mais
5
putupons in their fastnesses, and I can't say yessir and nosir
any more. So I have lived all the time alone, except for the
acquaintance in the last few days of a young bookseller's
improver who has just been taken on by the publisher
Ruhwoldt [for Rowohlt), who does Hackett, Fleming, Wolfle)
and Romains. Fleming is here with a large propaganda aero
plane at his disposal, & Wolfle] comes to Berlin as others to
6
18January 1937, McGreevy
the metaphysical is always soulful. All she cares for
down curses on the govemment. I could have visited them
je n'en ai rien fait. They are all great proud angry poor
Sometimes in the evening I go out and drink beer with my host and a film comdedian [for comedian] at the height of his popularity. Strangers pause at
427
the peace of the countryside.
18 January 1937, McGreevy
our table and say to him, where have we seen your face, which
7
to leave Berlin for Dresden last Wednesday but a lump came
between wind & water. They often come there and go away
soon with a little discharge, but this one got bigger and bigger
till only two endurable positions remained, both fully recum
bent. But I had appointments with the bookseller, on the eve of
his departure for the Riesengebirge, and then finally day before
yesterday, when the thing was at its worst, with the bookseller
8
pleases him & Kempt also.
The last week has been the worst for a long time. I meant
from Hamburg, on his way through to join the other.
He was
to have left here at 8, but missed the train by half a minute, so
I had him from 4 in the afternoon till after midnight. May it be
a long time before I have another 12 such hours. [. . . ] I am very
tired and only want to go home and lie down, but I feel I shan't
be in Germany again after this trip. Travelling as I do, with
the living wage of charity corning through regular every
month, and the aversion to human beings hardening with
every outing, I shall never learn what to do with my tither of
life. But not a word, all roads of comminucation [for communi
cation], the boreens also, lead to Mrs. Susan Manning, and from
9
I am glad you liked Cascando, the last echo of feeling. 10
The Pergamum altar is impressive barock, not at all
II
predella to the London Madonna, and a separate picture of a
woman lying in receiving visitors. I2 Wonderful Signorellis espe
cially the big Pan as God of Nature and Master of Music, with
13
her to mother.
beautiful.
The Kaiser Friedrich is terrific. An exquisite Masaccio
a shepherd very like the El Greco son of Laocoon in London. The two del Sartos are the best I have seen, one a portrait of the
428
del Fede. 14 Practically a repetition of the Savoldo Magdalene in London, the same lovely pearl-yellow cloak and hastening
15
A Butinone Pieta that bears out the
18January 1937, McGreevy
Roomfuls of Botticellis and Bellinis, including a wonderful Pieta given to
16
figure, only called here Venetian Woman.
oldJacopo, very Paduan.
little picture in London, Turas, Crivellis, Vivarinis, Ercole de'
Robertis, rather unassuming Mantegnas and a prodigious
17
Carpaccio Entombment.
The usual acres of Titain [for Titian]
at his best, ifyou like that kind ofthing, I haven't been able to
look at him for very long this trip. The Rembrandts and Halses
18
6 or 7 Brouwers in the dark comer that is always reserved
for him, with the first landscapes that have seemed to me to
belong to his spirit. The famous Moon Landscape, that belonged
to Rubens, is of course denied me, having been sent to Paris
19
The two Vermeers and
must be the best outside Holland, ifyou like that kind ofthing.
Very good Terborchs, including a surprising loose bright free courtyard
20
for the Rembrandt & Contemporaries exhibition.
scene, say the Terborch Kupplerin.
De Hooch looking very trivial & Ma[e]s beside them. And
Elsheimers, "pictures" and miniatures and a lovely drawing on
loan from the Louvre, water, night, wood, glades, moon and a
21
tiny fire being kindled on the shore.
Of the 2 Velasquez the
Musicians do not matter very much, and the Countess Olivares
doesn't seem to belong to him at all. It was formerly given to del
22
Mazo, and doesn't seem good enough for del Mazo.
collection is amazing, a roomful of Van Eyck, 3 Flemalle, 3 Hugo van der Goes, 6 van der Weyden, a lovely GeertgenJohn Baptist sitting very gloomy in a landscape. They are all there, except Campin, unless Flemalle is Campin, or Roger v. d. W. 23 There is a Provost adoration that you would like, & Marmion, Foucquet & Daret. The Mabuses are sublime, there is one big bevelled penis,
429
The Flemish
18 January 1937, McGreevy
I forget whether Adam's or Neptune's, like the lady in Tambur laine naked in a net ofgold, soigne like a glass or curl oflemon
rind by Kalf or Heda. 24 The Brueghel (for Bruegel] Proverbs are worthy to be sent to Sir Robert Tate, with key. What happy hours he would spend. But a gallery is not the names in its catalogue and perhaps it would have been better simply to say that I shall leave Berlin clearer in my impatience with the immensely com petent bullies and browbeaters and highwaymen and naggers, the Rembrandts & Halses and Titians and Rubenses, the Tarquins ofart. 25 Or is it a pettiness to move away from the art that takes me by the scruff ofthe neck?
Talking about the Tarquins, I was at a Beethoven concert of
the Berlin Symphonic under Eugen Jochum, Leonore, a late
middle piano concerto and the Pastoral. Jochum is the kind of
conductor that one feels must have begun on a bus or a tram.
Furtwangler has spent the whole season in retirement. The horn
passage in the Leonore was as I have always imagined and never
heard it, innaccessibly [sic] distant, sylvan and autumn dusk,
and also as I have never heard it the chum passage for strings,
love's epilepsy. The concerto was pretty and tiresome, rather
like the Fliihlings violin sonata, played by the soloist with a
perspiring stiff-wristed powerlessness that was terrible. And
the Pastorale more irrefragably than ever an insult to the ear
26
and what he calls the "skating, skiing and skiting" and left after a few days. He saw Alan & Belinda in Paris on the way back, Alan
27
and understanding.
I had a long letter from Frank. He couldn't stand Mtirren
as usual halftight which seems to be the best he can do. soon as he got home he went to bed with flu and is only just up again. He went straight through London, otherwise would have looked you up.
430
As
I am glad you are more easy in Harrington Road. I did not feel Black Cottage or whatever it was called was the place for you. Are you still on the Heinemann translation? Or have you been able to take up the Yeats again? 28 I had a very nice letter from him for Xmas, with a gay sad pen & crayon drawing of the west from O'Connell Bridge and fantasies about skating on the rollers of the brain. Charles wrote from Greenock just setting out for Florence. 29
I also find it difficult to keep up with Murphy. From time to
time I get nebulosities from Reavey. The book seems to be now
under consideration by Dent for whom it was read by Richard
Church who at the point of one of Reavey's lunches declared
himself "greatly impressed" . .
