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.
Samuel Beckett
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.
2 SimonandSchusterhadshowninterestinSB'sworkin1935;see8September 1935 and 13 October 1935.
3 CharlesPrenticeunderwentsurgeryinaLondonclinicon19Juneandrecovered sufficiently to leave for his home in Greenock, Scotland, on 25 June (Ian Parsons to Richard Aldington, 17 June 1936, UoR MS 2444 letterbook 174/466;) Ian Parsons to Richard Aldington, 25 June 1936, UoR MS 2444 letterbook 175/56-57).
4 Neither SB's angry letter nor Reavey's angry response has been found. "Emmerder" (bore).
5 Dermodo·Brien,PresidentoftheRoyalHibernianAcademy.
British physician and artist Henry Tonks (1862-1937) taught drawing at the Slade School London from 1892 to 1930, and was an official War artist in World War I. SB compares him to Joseph Hone, both in demeanor and for his friendship with George Moore, whose biography Hone was then completing. Tonks was in Ireland on holiday, staying, at Hone's suggestion, in Co. Mayo, and visiting Dublin (see Hone, The Life ofHenry Tonks ! London: William Heinemann, 1939] 291, 303-305).
British artist Thomas Rowlandson (c. 1756-1827), best known for his drawings and cartoons. German-born British artist Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), who was associated with the Fitzroy Group and the Camden Town Group (1905-1913).
6 SB compares A View of Suffolk (NG! 191) by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) to the painting by Jan Both (c. 1618-1652) that was then in the National Gallery of Ireland, An Italian Landscape (NG! 179). At this time, the National Gallery of Ireland
347
sold during the past year, & 20 odd Prousts.
Mother is up & down, mainly the latter round about now,
Holyhead, for the weekend.
The next move is to get away. It is not going to be easy. I owe
27 June 1936, McGreevy
had two paintings called A Landscape (NG! 383 and NG! 740) attributed to British painter George Smith (c. 1714-1776), although now only NG! 383 retains that attribution; in the early 1980s, NG! 740 was attributed to Irish painter William Ashford (c. 1746-1824). SB compares Smith's painting to the style of landscapist Richard Wilson.
The Wedding ofPeleus & Thetis (NG! 814) was the title given to the painting of Nicolas Poussin up to "about 1960"' when the title was changed to Acis and Galatea (see also Thomas MacGreevy, Nicolas Poussin ! Dublin: The Dolmen Press, 1960] 14-16; Sylvain Laveissiere, Le Gassidsme franrais: Masterpieces of Seventeenth Century Painting, a loan exhibition from the Louvre and French regional museums at the National Gallery of Ireland, 30 April - 9June 1985, tr. Kim-Mai Mooney and Raymond Keaveney ! Dublin: The Gallery, 1985] 61).
In his study Nicolas Poussin, McGreevy discusses the "luminous blue" in this paint ing (14).
A Horse (NG! 828) by French painter Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) is described as a grey stallion (National Gallery ofIreland: Catalogue ofOil Pictures in the General Collection ! Dublin: The Stationery Office, 1932] 41); it is now referred to as "after Gericault. "
Acquisition of Gentileschi's David Slaying Goliath: 7 May 1936, n. 9.
7 MorrisSinclairwasgoingtoPariswithanintroductiontoIrish-bornsculptorJohn
Hughes (1865-1941), who had lived and worked abroad for many years.
8 The best-known piece by Irish sculptor Oliver Sheppard (1865-1941) was The Death ofCuchulain (c. 1911-1912), chosen as a memorial to the 1916 Rising, and placed in the General Post Office, Dublin. Irish painter James Sleator (1889-1950) was the model for the head.
9 GeoffreyThompson.
Harvard position in relation to Mary Manning Howe: 25 March 1936, n. 3, and 7 May 1936, n. 1.
10 Brian Coffey. Denis Devlin.
Lionel Fleming: 9 June 1936, n. 12. A mention ofSB's Echo's Bones occurs in the column signed by M. C. , "Transition, A Very Modem Magazine, The Artistic Left Wing"' (The Irish Times 25 July 1936: 7): "Incidentally, the present issue has a local interest. Mr. Samuel Beckett reproduces three poems from his latest book, 'Echo's Bones. ' They are 'difficult,' but not more so than the poems of many modem authors, and in no way to be compared with the extravagances of some of the other contributors. . .
11 Geraldine Cummins's novel Fires of Beltane (1936) was reviewed by Doreen Wallace: "Ireland in Fiction: More Stories about 'The Troubles'" (Sunday Times 21 June 1936: 9). Her novel was also listed as a best-selling book in the 20 and 27 June 1936 column, "What Ireland is Reading" (The Irish Times: 7).
12 ChattoandWindussentastatementofaccountsdated1April1935to31March 1936 showing sales of thirty copies of Proust (twenty-eight in Britain, two as export) and two copies of More Pricks Than Kicks (InU, John Calder, Ltd. , Authors' Correspondence, Box 1/52).
13 ThethirdanniversaryofWilliamBeckett'sdeathwas26June. Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, Wales.
348
1. William Beckett, Samuel Beckett's father
2. Samuel Beckett's uncle Edward Price Roe with his mother Maria Jones Roe Beckett (known as May)
3. William Abraham Sinclair (known as Boss)
4. Frances Beckett Sinclair (known as Fanny, and as Cissie)
5. Ruth Margaret Sinclair (! mown as Peggy)
6. Morris Sinclair (known in the family as Sunny)
8. Alan and Belinda Atkinson Duncan, with Thomas McGreevy
7. Thomas McGreevy
9. GeoffreyThompson
10. Samuel Beckett
11. AbrahamJacobLeventhal (known as Con)
12. Percival Arland Ussher
13. Ethna Maccarthy by Sean O'Sullivan
14. Mary Manning Howe
15. Nuala Costello
16. Ilse Lynn Schneider
17. Geer and Lisl van Velde, Gwynedd Reavey, and, lower right, George Reavey
Not short stories this time, I am glad to say.
Will you let me have Chatto's decision as soon as conven
7July 1936, McGreevy
IAN PARSONS
CHATTO AND WINDUS, LONDON
June 29th 1936
6 Clare Street DUBLIN
Dear Parsons
Just a scribble to cover Ms. I am sending you by this post.
1
iently possible? I need not say how glad I would be to be pub
2
Very Sincerely Sam. Beckett
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; notations in AH; UoR. MS 2444 CW 59/9. 1 SubmissionofSB'snovelMurphy.
2 ChattoandWindushadpublishedProust(1931)andMorePricksThanKicks(1934). THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
July 7th 1936 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
DearTom
I need not tell you I was delighted with your letter. I was
afraid you would not like it much at all. I find the people all so
hateful myself, even Celia, that to have you find them lovable
lished again by you.
I hope you keep well.
surprises and delights me.
1
349
7 July 1936, McGreevy
The point you raise is one that I have given a good deal of
thought to. Very early on, when the mortuary and Round Pond
scenes were in my mind as the necessary end, I saw the difficulty
and danger of so much following Murphy's own "end". 2 There
seemed 2 ways out. One was to let the death have its head in a
frank climax and the rest be definitely epilogue (by some
such means as you suggest. I thought for example of putting the
game of chess there in a section by itself. ) And the other, which
I chose and tried to act on, was to keep the death subdued and go
on as coolly and finish as briefly as possible. I chose this because
it seemed to me to consist better with the treatment of Murphy
throughout, with the mixture of compassion, patience, mockery
and "tat twam asi" that I seemed to have directed on him through
out, with the sympathy going so far and no further (then losing
3
There seemed to me always the risk of taking him too seriously
and separating him too sharply from the others. As it is I do not
4
Thanks a thousand times for reading it and writing[. ] I value your opinion more than anybody's.
I had a curt acknowledgement of MS. from Parsons and so
5
patience) as in the short statement of his mind's fantasy of itself.
think the mistake (Aliosha mistake) has been altogether avoided. A rapturous recapitulation of his experience following its "end" would seem to me exactly the sort of promotion that I want to avoid; and an ironical one is I hope superfluous. I find the mistake in the mortuary scene, which I meant to make more rapid but which got out of hand in the dialogue. Perhaps it is saved from anticlimax by presence of M. all through. I felt myself he was liable to recur in his grotesque person until he was literally one with the dust. And if the reader feels something similar it is what I want. The last section is just the length and speed I hoped, but the actual end doesn't satisfy me very well.
farnothingfurther. Itwouldsavetroubleiftheytookiton,but
350
7July 1936, McGreevy
in many ways I would be glad if they did not. I sent my own copy
to Simon & Schuster. Charles, back in Greenock now and due in
London soon again, wrote very amiably about it, suggesting
6
about your not getting Harvard job. She knows nothing of Farmer
except that his application arrived before yours. She has a play
going on at St. Martins in September. 7 I meet [for met] Eileen
Hennessey Ganly last night with her bull and found her unpleas
ant. 8 I went out to Lachan (Glencree valley) to see Lilian Donaghy
who is living in a cottage Uoe Campbell's) with Charlie Gilmore,
brother of George. She has Donaghy's 2 sons there and a daughter
Frere Reeves if Chattos turned it down.
Mary Manning Mark de Wolfe Howe is here now and sad
by Gilmore. He is sehr simpatisch [for sympathisch], a gipsy, on the 9
dole. Lyle is in Merrion Avenue the last I heard, with one of
Leventhal's single beds. I was looking through his Into the Light,
full of good things in what he believes to be the Celtic-Aristocratic
Classical channel, and an absurd preface, with words like puissant
and affiliations with Higgins. 10 I was down at the mailboat last
Monday week meeting Frank returning from Anglesea and WB
stalked off with his bodyguard, Lennox, Dolly, Gogarty, Walter
Starkie, O'Connor, Hayes, Higgins, all twined together. I went last
Sunday to see Ruddy and met Hackett and his Danish wife, colour
of urine and a devout gardener. Her Hans Christian Andersen I
have not had the pleasure of, but understand she makes him
burst into sobs every third page. Ruddy's mother was a Dane -
Ru[d]mose - and Andersen read his fairy tales to her.
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.
2 SimonandSchusterhadshowninterestinSB'sworkin1935;see8September 1935 and 13 October 1935.
3 CharlesPrenticeunderwentsurgeryinaLondonclinicon19Juneandrecovered sufficiently to leave for his home in Greenock, Scotland, on 25 June (Ian Parsons to Richard Aldington, 17 June 1936, UoR MS 2444 letterbook 174/466;) Ian Parsons to Richard Aldington, 25 June 1936, UoR MS 2444 letterbook 175/56-57).
4 Neither SB's angry letter nor Reavey's angry response has been found. "Emmerder" (bore).
5 Dermodo·Brien,PresidentoftheRoyalHibernianAcademy.
British physician and artist Henry Tonks (1862-1937) taught drawing at the Slade School London from 1892 to 1930, and was an official War artist in World War I. SB compares him to Joseph Hone, both in demeanor and for his friendship with George Moore, whose biography Hone was then completing. Tonks was in Ireland on holiday, staying, at Hone's suggestion, in Co. Mayo, and visiting Dublin (see Hone, The Life ofHenry Tonks ! London: William Heinemann, 1939] 291, 303-305).
British artist Thomas Rowlandson (c. 1756-1827), best known for his drawings and cartoons. German-born British artist Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), who was associated with the Fitzroy Group and the Camden Town Group (1905-1913).
6 SB compares A View of Suffolk (NG! 191) by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) to the painting by Jan Both (c. 1618-1652) that was then in the National Gallery of Ireland, An Italian Landscape (NG! 179). At this time, the National Gallery of Ireland
347
sold during the past year, & 20 odd Prousts.
Mother is up & down, mainly the latter round about now,
Holyhead, for the weekend.
The next move is to get away. It is not going to be easy. I owe
27 June 1936, McGreevy
had two paintings called A Landscape (NG! 383 and NG! 740) attributed to British painter George Smith (c. 1714-1776), although now only NG! 383 retains that attribution; in the early 1980s, NG! 740 was attributed to Irish painter William Ashford (c. 1746-1824). SB compares Smith's painting to the style of landscapist Richard Wilson.
The Wedding ofPeleus & Thetis (NG! 814) was the title given to the painting of Nicolas Poussin up to "about 1960"' when the title was changed to Acis and Galatea (see also Thomas MacGreevy, Nicolas Poussin ! Dublin: The Dolmen Press, 1960] 14-16; Sylvain Laveissiere, Le Gassidsme franrais: Masterpieces of Seventeenth Century Painting, a loan exhibition from the Louvre and French regional museums at the National Gallery of Ireland, 30 April - 9June 1985, tr. Kim-Mai Mooney and Raymond Keaveney ! Dublin: The Gallery, 1985] 61).
In his study Nicolas Poussin, McGreevy discusses the "luminous blue" in this paint ing (14).
A Horse (NG! 828) by French painter Jean-Louis-Andre-Theodore Gericault (1791-1824) is described as a grey stallion (National Gallery ofIreland: Catalogue ofOil Pictures in the General Collection ! Dublin: The Stationery Office, 1932] 41); it is now referred to as "after Gericault. "
Acquisition of Gentileschi's David Slaying Goliath: 7 May 1936, n. 9.
7 MorrisSinclairwasgoingtoPariswithanintroductiontoIrish-bornsculptorJohn
Hughes (1865-1941), who had lived and worked abroad for many years.
8 The best-known piece by Irish sculptor Oliver Sheppard (1865-1941) was The Death ofCuchulain (c. 1911-1912), chosen as a memorial to the 1916 Rising, and placed in the General Post Office, Dublin. Irish painter James Sleator (1889-1950) was the model for the head.
9 GeoffreyThompson.
Harvard position in relation to Mary Manning Howe: 25 March 1936, n. 3, and 7 May 1936, n. 1.
10 Brian Coffey. Denis Devlin.
Lionel Fleming: 9 June 1936, n. 12. A mention ofSB's Echo's Bones occurs in the column signed by M. C. , "Transition, A Very Modem Magazine, The Artistic Left Wing"' (The Irish Times 25 July 1936: 7): "Incidentally, the present issue has a local interest. Mr. Samuel Beckett reproduces three poems from his latest book, 'Echo's Bones. ' They are 'difficult,' but not more so than the poems of many modem authors, and in no way to be compared with the extravagances of some of the other contributors. . .
11 Geraldine Cummins's novel Fires of Beltane (1936) was reviewed by Doreen Wallace: "Ireland in Fiction: More Stories about 'The Troubles'" (Sunday Times 21 June 1936: 9). Her novel was also listed as a best-selling book in the 20 and 27 June 1936 column, "What Ireland is Reading" (The Irish Times: 7).
12 ChattoandWindussentastatementofaccountsdated1April1935to31March 1936 showing sales of thirty copies of Proust (twenty-eight in Britain, two as export) and two copies of More Pricks Than Kicks (InU, John Calder, Ltd. , Authors' Correspondence, Box 1/52).
13 ThethirdanniversaryofWilliamBeckett'sdeathwas26June. Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, Wales.
348
1. William Beckett, Samuel Beckett's father
2. Samuel Beckett's uncle Edward Price Roe with his mother Maria Jones Roe Beckett (known as May)
3. William Abraham Sinclair (known as Boss)
4. Frances Beckett Sinclair (known as Fanny, and as Cissie)
5. Ruth Margaret Sinclair (! mown as Peggy)
6. Morris Sinclair (known in the family as Sunny)
8. Alan and Belinda Atkinson Duncan, with Thomas McGreevy
7. Thomas McGreevy
9. GeoffreyThompson
10. Samuel Beckett
11. AbrahamJacobLeventhal (known as Con)
12. Percival Arland Ussher
13. Ethna Maccarthy by Sean O'Sullivan
14. Mary Manning Howe
15. Nuala Costello
16. Ilse Lynn Schneider
17. Geer and Lisl van Velde, Gwynedd Reavey, and, lower right, George Reavey
Not short stories this time, I am glad to say.
Will you let me have Chatto's decision as soon as conven
7July 1936, McGreevy
IAN PARSONS
CHATTO AND WINDUS, LONDON
June 29th 1936
6 Clare Street DUBLIN
Dear Parsons
Just a scribble to cover Ms. I am sending you by this post.
1
iently possible? I need not say how glad I would be to be pub
2
Very Sincerely Sam. Beckett
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; notations in AH; UoR. MS 2444 CW 59/9. 1 SubmissionofSB'snovelMurphy.
2 ChattoandWindushadpublishedProust(1931)andMorePricksThanKicks(1934). THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
July 7th 1936 Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
DearTom
I need not tell you I was delighted with your letter. I was
afraid you would not like it much at all. I find the people all so
hateful myself, even Celia, that to have you find them lovable
lished again by you.
I hope you keep well.
surprises and delights me.
1
349
7 July 1936, McGreevy
The point you raise is one that I have given a good deal of
thought to. Very early on, when the mortuary and Round Pond
scenes were in my mind as the necessary end, I saw the difficulty
and danger of so much following Murphy's own "end". 2 There
seemed 2 ways out. One was to let the death have its head in a
frank climax and the rest be definitely epilogue (by some
such means as you suggest. I thought for example of putting the
game of chess there in a section by itself. ) And the other, which
I chose and tried to act on, was to keep the death subdued and go
on as coolly and finish as briefly as possible. I chose this because
it seemed to me to consist better with the treatment of Murphy
throughout, with the mixture of compassion, patience, mockery
and "tat twam asi" that I seemed to have directed on him through
out, with the sympathy going so far and no further (then losing
3
There seemed to me always the risk of taking him too seriously
and separating him too sharply from the others. As it is I do not
4
Thanks a thousand times for reading it and writing[. ] I value your opinion more than anybody's.
I had a curt acknowledgement of MS. from Parsons and so
5
patience) as in the short statement of his mind's fantasy of itself.
think the mistake (Aliosha mistake) has been altogether avoided. A rapturous recapitulation of his experience following its "end" would seem to me exactly the sort of promotion that I want to avoid; and an ironical one is I hope superfluous. I find the mistake in the mortuary scene, which I meant to make more rapid but which got out of hand in the dialogue. Perhaps it is saved from anticlimax by presence of M. all through. I felt myself he was liable to recur in his grotesque person until he was literally one with the dust. And if the reader feels something similar it is what I want. The last section is just the length and speed I hoped, but the actual end doesn't satisfy me very well.
farnothingfurther. Itwouldsavetroubleiftheytookiton,but
350
7July 1936, McGreevy
in many ways I would be glad if they did not. I sent my own copy
to Simon & Schuster. Charles, back in Greenock now and due in
London soon again, wrote very amiably about it, suggesting
6
about your not getting Harvard job. She knows nothing of Farmer
except that his application arrived before yours. She has a play
going on at St. Martins in September. 7 I meet [for met] Eileen
Hennessey Ganly last night with her bull and found her unpleas
ant. 8 I went out to Lachan (Glencree valley) to see Lilian Donaghy
who is living in a cottage Uoe Campbell's) with Charlie Gilmore,
brother of George. She has Donaghy's 2 sons there and a daughter
Frere Reeves if Chattos turned it down.
Mary Manning Mark de Wolfe Howe is here now and sad
by Gilmore. He is sehr simpatisch [for sympathisch], a gipsy, on the 9
dole. Lyle is in Merrion Avenue the last I heard, with one of
Leventhal's single beds. I was looking through his Into the Light,
full of good things in what he believes to be the Celtic-Aristocratic
Classical channel, and an absurd preface, with words like puissant
and affiliations with Higgins. 10 I was down at the mailboat last
Monday week meeting Frank returning from Anglesea and WB
stalked off with his bodyguard, Lennox, Dolly, Gogarty, Walter
Starkie, O'Connor, Hayes, Higgins, all twined together. I went last
Sunday to see Ruddy and met Hackett and his Danish wife, colour
of urine and a devout gardener. Her Hans Christian Andersen I
have not had the pleasure of, but understand she makes him
burst into sobs every third page. Ruddy's mother was a Dane -
Ru[d]mose - and Andersen read his fairy tales to her.
