Won't the Copulation
Intellectuelle
be functioning?
Samuel Beckett
Knopf, 1979] 203).
Marcus Garvey (ne Moziah, 1887-1940) founded this group as the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities League in 1914; Garvey was deported in November 1927 from the United States, and tried to carry on his mission from Jamaica (E. David Cronon, ed. , Marrns Garvey, Great Lives Observed [Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973] 17, 24).
15 SB had submitted "Dante and the Lobster" (later the opening story in More Pricks Than Kicks) to Edward William Titus• (1870-1952), an American publisher then living in Paris, and Editor of This Quarter. SB had submitted "Home Olga," an acrostic poem on James Joyce, to Stuart Gilbert, editor of Contempo (1931-1934). SB may have expected payment from Eugene Jolas for the publication of his story "Sedendo and Quiescendo. " Although SB may have given Jolas something further from the manuscript of Dream of Fair to Middling Women, transition did not publish anything more by SB until number 24 Uune 1936).
16 "Transatlantic"(Gallicismfor"deckchair"). ThenannyseeninSt. James'sPark, London, is compared to SB's nanny, Bibby. By "Circus Underground," SB refers to Piccadilly Circus station.
17 Charles Prentice wrote to SB: "I wish I could follow you for longer flights. " He admired "the beauty and terror of 'Spring Song', and the horror of 'There is a Happy Land'. " Prentice praised 'Alba 2' as "superb," but felt it was not "so important or significant as these two other poems. " Finally, he wrote with regret, "I don't see that Chatto's could do anything with the poems," although for him they meant "the beginning of a rare and strange experience. " Prentice apologized: "I am worried at being a disappointment to you again; I am very, very sorry" (27 July 1932, UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 140/274). "Spring Song" remains unpublished. "There was a Happy Land" is the first line, and probably the working title, of the poem published as "Sanies 2"; "Alba 2" is the early title of "Enueg 1" (Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 648, n. 80; John Pilling, 21 April 1995; see 7 August 1931, n. 1).
18 The 32nd birthday of Elizabeth, Duchess of York (nee Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, 1900-2002), consort of Prince Albert, Duke of York {1895-1952) was 4 August 1932; their daughter Princess Elizabeth (b. 1926, later Queen Elizabeth II) was then six years old. The Royal racing cutter Britannia concluded a week of racing at Cowes, The Royal London Yacht Club regatta, on Saturday 6 August 1932 (The Times 8 August 1932: 6).
Dino Grandi (1895-1988) was Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1929 to 1932 and Italy's Ambassador to England from 1932 to 1939; Grandi arrived in London on the
116
18 {August 1932}, McGreevy
evening of 3 August 1932 to present his credentials to the King (The Times 4 August 1932: 10; The Times 10 August 1932: 13).
The French franc was 89 to the pound on 4 August 1932 (The Times 5 August 1932: 16).
19 McGreevyhopedtointerestLennoxRobinson,producerattheAbbeyTheatre,in his translation ofAlexander Pushkin's "Boris Godunov" (Lennox Robinson, 11 September 1932; TCD, MS 8026).
McGreevy's "Talky" is not identified; SB mentions it again, as "talkie," in his letter to McGreevy, 30 August 1932 (TCD, MS 10402/30).
THOMA S McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
18th [August 1932)
4Ampton St [London) W. C. 1
Dear Tom
Glad to hear the book is on the move again, and hope to
1
undercurrent of communism is surprising. Or I suppose one
ought to be surprised. I think the only thing that would surprise
me about Ireland, or any other land, would be to have it estab
lished as a more unpleasant site wherein to serve one's life than
3
for my fare home. Write to Cooldrinagh. There is no use my
insisting further here. This month of creeping and crawling and
sollicitation has yielded nothing but glib Cockney regrets. The
book came back from the Hogarth Press, and the poems, with
merely the formal rejection slip. Nothing from L. W. He was out
of London as I told you when I brought it round. I have good
reason to believe that the MS never left London and that in all
probability he never saw it. But he must have got my letter. Or
4
117
have good news of it in your next. What you write about an
2
thiscoreofallfaex. Andtheheat. . . Iwrotehomethisevening
perhapsitishistumfortheasylum. Anyhowtantpiss. Ithen brought it to Grayson and Cape. It came back yesterday from Cape. Their reader's report "did not encourage them to make me
18 {August 1932}, McGreevy
an offer for publication rights". It would be interesting to see
some of these readers' reports. 5 So far no reply from Grayson.
I saw Rupert Grayson when I went round, the "author son of
Sir Henry". And a proper pudding he appeared. He assured me
at least that if they did not take the thing they would tell me the
6
see Derek Verschoyle, Literary Editor of Spectator, he was dis
guised as a student in T. C. D. while I was still functioning, and
7
had no books for review. But he received me very kindly and
gave me a cigarette. I went round yesterday to see Mr Ellis
Roberts, gaga in chief of New Statesman. He had no books for
review. He thought he might possibly be interested [in] a state
ment of [for on] Gide, covering all that artists's [sic] vicissitudes
from Andre Walter to Oedipe in the space of not more than 1800
8
reasonwhy. Thatwillmakepleasantreading. Iwentroundto
gavehimthethreelastpoems. Gotthembackthisevening. He
words, or one of similar length of [for on] the modernity ofVico.
I promised to do my best. But of course it can't be done. I don't believe I could put a dozen words together on any subject what soever. But Mr Roberts received me kindly too, and gave me a cup of tea. My Father very generously sent me a five pound note which I received last Saturday morning. I put it in my drawer, and went yesterday to get it. It was gone. And a temporary lodger was gone also. Whether he took it or whether Mrs Southon or the cretinous Heep it is impossible to know. Mr. S. produced a really superb condition of Cockney distress yesterday evening. Such a thing had never happened before, never in all these years, as the lodger who appears to have his being in the kitchen could testify. Mr S would rather have lost his lower testicle than have such a catastrophe occur. That finishes this villeggiatura. I think I may stay in bed till more comes from the "blue eyes of home". 9 I have not been to see Prentice. I will bring him back his
118
18 {August 1932), McGreevy
book to-morrow, and start clearing the scuppers. 10 T. & K. sent
me notices ofjobs in Cornwall, Devon, Derbyshire, here, Sussex,
and Basel: this last as English instructor in Berlitz School, 275
francs monthly, 40 hours per week! Still [sic], ifI were not so tired
and eviscerate at the moment, I would apply. Better Basel where
love is not than D. D. D. with sentimental salmagundis and other
11
on the mat.
[. . •] I really dread going back to Dublin and all that,
but there is nothing else for it at this stage. I was not serious
when I said about going into the office. There is no room for
another clerk in the office, and even ifthere were I simply could
12
home. If I could even mend a puncture.
The heat is frightful, culminating to-day in 92 in the shade.
I met Arty Hillis, you remember the big-hearted musical mor pion at the Ecole, and he lent me a quid and offered to put me up
13
TLS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; TCD, MS 10402/29. Dating: month and year added, possibly in AH, confirmed by description of the weather, and SB's move from London to Dublin (see SB to McGreevy, 30 August 1932, TCD, MS 10402/30); Prentice wrote to Richard Aldington, 5 September 1932, that SB had left for Ireland about ten days before (ICSo, Aldington 68/6/8).
1 McGreevyhadresumedworkonhisnovel(CharlesPrenticetoRichardAldington, 1 July 1932, JCSo, Aldington 68/6/9; see also 20 December 1931, n. 7).
2 Anti. Communist articles appeared in the Dublin press at this time, for example: "To Check Communism," The Irish Times 16 August 1932: 7; "Mr. Cosgrove and
119
It will have to be private school or training college or else unhandy Andy in the garage and back garden at
not do the work.
free at Hampstead as from next Monday.
my while changing now. Ifthey don't reimburse me here I won't pay any more rent and I'll clear out as soon as I get my fare. Is there a chance ofmy seeing you soon in Dublin? I thought ofmaking a dash for Paris, but I am too unbelievably gutless to do anything and my Mother would throw a fit.
So. Write to Cooldrinagh. Love ever s/Sam
But it won't be worth
18 {August 1932}, McGreevy
'Communism,"' The Irish Press 5 August 1932: 1-2; and a report on the effect of Communist propaganda on theatre ("Before the Footlights," The Irish Times 11 August 1932: 4).
3 London was experiencing a heat wave, with a high of 90° on 18 August. "Faex" (Lat. , the dregs).
4 LeonardWoolfhadmadenocommentonDreamofFairtoMiddlingWomen,oron the poems, nor did he respond to SB's letter (for further information, see 4 August 1932, n. 10).
"Tant piss" (SB's adaptation of "tant pis" [too bad]).
5 The letter to SB from London publishing house Jonathan Cape has not been found, but a reader's report is in the Cape archives. On 13 August 1932, Edward Garnett (1868-1937) wrote of Dream of Fair to Middling Women: "I wouldn't touch this with a barge pole. Beckett probably is a clever fellow, but here he has elaborated a slavish, & rather incoherent imitation of Joyce, most eccentric in language & full of disgustingly affected passages - also indecent; this school is damned - & you wouldn't sell the book even on its title. Chatto was right to turn it down" (UoR, Cape; published in edited form in Michael Howard, Jonathan Cape, Publisher: Herbert Jonathan Cape, G. Wren Howard [London: Jonathan Cape, 1971] 137).
6 SirHenryGrayson,Bt. ,KBE(1865-1951),andhissonBrianGrayson(1900-1989) were Directors of Grayson and Grayson; another son, novelist Rupert Stanley Harrison Grayson (1897-1991), was Literary Advisor.
7 DerekHugoVerschoyle(1911-1973)wasLiteraryEditorofTheSpectatorfrom1932 to 1940; he matriculated at Trinity College Dublin in 1929, but did not take a degree. It is not known which poems SB submitted.
8 Richard Ellis Roberts (1879-1953) was Literary Editor of the New Statesman from 1930 to 1932; he continued as a regular contributor when he became Literary Editor of Time and Tide (1933 to 1934) and Life and Letters (November 1934 to 1935).
Andre-Paul-Guillaume Gide (1869-1951) wrote Les Cahiers d'. Andre Walter (1891; The Notebooks ofAndre Walter); among his later works was the prose playOedipe (1931; Oedipus).
Giambattista Vico.
9 Mrs. Southon was SB's landlady. The person to whom SB refers has not been identified, although "Heep" alludes to Uriah Heep in Dickens's David Copperfield (1849-1850). Mr. S. is Mr. Southon.
"Villeggiatura" (holiday).
For possible sources of the "blue eyes ofhome," see John Pilling, A Companion to "Dream ofFair to Middling Women" (Tallahassee, FL: Journal ofBeckett Studies Books, 2004) 78.
10 PrenticehadlentD. H. Lawrence'sApocalypsetoSB(15August1931,n. 5),butSB may be referring to another book.
11 TrumanandKnightley(see4August1932,n. 12). "D. D. D. "(DearDirtyDublin).
12 FrankBeckettworkedintheirfather'squantitysurveyingfirm,BeckettandMedcalf.
13 Arthur Henry Macnamara Hillis• (1905-1997), lawyer and international econo- mist, had been in SB's year at Trinity College Dublin. He may have visited SB at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.
"Morpion" (literally a crab louse, but here a mild form of student abuse).
120
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
13th [September 1932]
Cooldrinagh Foxrock, [Co. Dublin]
13 [September 1932}, McGreevy
My dear Tom
I will do all I can to raise the two quid when I go into town
this morning on my father's bicycle. I don't think Frank would refuse me. Anyhow I owe you about 25/-for transition, and I wish
I could have paid you before, but I have found no work here and
depend on my father for everything. There is a prospect of a few
grinds turning up at the end of the month. Ruddy has been very
1
No news from Grayson, and I hesitate to write them a stinger. But
now it is a good three weeks since they promised me their deci
2
Nothing seems to come off. I made a desperate effort to get
something started on Gide but failed again. 3 I began a poem
yesterday, the first since Home Olga, a blank unsighted kind of
thing, but looking at it it is clear that it can never tum out to be
more than mildly entertaining at the best. The old story - ardour
and fervour absent or faked so that what happens may be slick
4
time in the National Gallery, looking at the Poussin Entombment
and coming stealthily down the stairs into the charming toy
brightness of the German room to the Brueghels and the
Masters of Tired Eyes and Silver Windows. The young woman of
5
good recommending me and I wish there were no P. B. in Dream.
sion immediately. Rickword never acknowledged the poems.
enough verse but not a poem at all. I seem to spend a lot of
Rembrandtissplendid. Ihopewemaymeanderthroughsome time together. Cissie lucky woman has gone back to Germany with Deirdre leaving Sally here on the job. We managed a good
121
13 [September 1932}, McGreevy
afternoon together before she left, in the gallery and then the
6
Moira and then pubs.
I met R. N. D. Wilson last Sunday chez
Percy Ussher, and he was full of enthusiasm about your Eliot.
I thought there was not much to him and felt vaguely uneasy
with him. He read or declaimed acres of his verse, and to be sure
there were odds and ends of agreeablenesses here and there. He
has nice thick shining black hair and his little prose-poem dia
pason seems to be keyed toA. E. 's. A. E. & W. B. playa lot of croquet
together at Riversdale, Rathfarnham, and the former always wins
by a mile. I suppose James Starkey holds the stakes. Austin Clarke
7
seems to be the usual rubbish. 8 I set out on Saturday afternoon to see Jack Yeats, and then en route changed my mind and went for a ride along the coast instead. Pretending to like fresh air and salt water I got the old intercostal rheumatism back, this time on the left side. But it is going away and I am denied even the excitement of a little dry pleurisy in safe surroundings. For me also the alter native seems to be here or Paris, and not having heard anything from Titus, though there are a number of counts on which he might write, I have no idea how I stand with him.
Won't the Copulation Intellectuelle be functioning? 9 Anyhow be sure and let me know if you are passing thorugh [sic] and in the meantime alles gut and the quiet unfurling of your book that I know you want. 10
Love ever s/ Sam
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TCD, MS 10402/32. Dating: SB's meeting with Grayson is reported in his letter to McGreevy 18 IAugust 1932J; this meeting "a fortnight ago" is recounted in SB's letter to McGreevy of 13 September 1932J (TCD. MS 10842/31). The present letter indicates that it has been over three weeks since SB has seen Grayson about Dream of Fair to Middling Women, and SB's letter to McGreevy of8 October 1932 mentions that it has been "over 6 weeks. "
122
and Monk Gibbon seek on the bank a definition of obscenity. I wish I had seen "Things that are Caesar's"[. ] "Temporal Powers"
1 "Grinds"(colloq. ,tutoringjobs). SBhadrepresentedRudmose-BrownasthePolar Bear in Dream ofFair to Middling Women.
2 SB wrote on Saturday [3 September 1932] to McGreevy: "I saw the Brothers G. a fortnight ago now in London and they promised me a speedy decision. I don't know whether to think the delay good or bad. " In the same letter, SB said of the poems: "I don't expect them to be taken on by Wishart, but I wish I had sent them earlier and that I had seen Rickword in London. It was Grayson put me on to them" (TCD, MS 10402/31).
London publisher Ernest Edward Wishart (1902-1987). In 1932, the English poet and critic Edgell Rickword (1898-1982) worked occasionally for Wishart, and had not yet joined the firm full-time: he had just translated Marcel Coulon, Poet under Saturn: The Tragedy ofVerlaine (1932).
3 In February 1932, SB had proposed a monograph on Gide to Charles Prentice; Prentice responded: "Your idea of a short study of Gide is a most attractive one, but we don't see how we could be of any use to you about it just now," suggesting that SB write "the essay as a long article to appear in two or more parts" (8 February 1932, UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 136/513). SB pursued the matter with Ellis Roberts at the New Statesman (SB to McGreevy, 18 [August 1932], n. 8). SB wrote to McGreevy: "I'm afraid to start anything on Gide, though I have all the notes & quotations I want without opening a text": he added: "How would 'paralysed in ubiquity' do for Gide? " (SB to McGreevy, Saturday [3 September 1932], TCD, MS 10402/31).
4 SBwrotetoMcGreevy:"Typingoutthepoemsyetagainandfiddlingaboutwith them I felt more than ever that all the early ones - al! the Caravan ones - were fake and that nothing could be done with them and that it was only a partir de Whoroscope that they began to be worth anything. I know you are good enough to disagree with me, but I felt it more & more" (Saturday [3 September 1932], TCD, MS 10402/31). "A partir de Whoroscope" (from Whoroscope on). "Home Olga" was written for Joyce and submitted to Stuart Gilbert, Editor of Contempo. The new poem is a draft of "Serena l" (Beckett, Echo's Bones [15-271).
5 For SB, The Entombment (NG! 214) by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was "extraordi nary. I never saw such blue & purple, such lyrical colour" (Saturday [3 September 1932], TCD, MS 10402/31). In the German room were A Peasant Wedding (NGI 911) by Pieter Brueghel the younger (c. 1564 - c. 1638), and Christ in the House ofMartha and Mary (NGI 513) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) with Jan Brueghel (1568-1625). SB also mentions Portrait ofan Old Lady (NG! 903) by the early Flemish painter known as the Master of the Tired Eyes (fl. c. 1540) and A Portrait of a Young Lady (NG! 808) by Harmensz Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). The painter of Scenes from the Life of St. Augustine (NG! 823) is identified in the 1945 catalogue of the National Gallery oflreland as the Master of the Silver Windows (c. 1550); later catalogues identify him as the Master of St. Augustine (c. 1500) (Thomas MacGreevy, Pictures in the Irish National Gallery [London: B. T. Batsford, 1945] 11-12; James White, ed. , National Gallery ofIreland: Catalogue ofthe Paintings [Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, 1971] 197; National Gallery of Ireland: Illustrated Summary Catalogue ofPaintings, intro. Homan Potterton [Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1981] 107).
6 CissieSinclairreturnedtoKasselwithheryoungestdaughterDeirdre;herdaugh ter Sally remained in Dublin. The Moira Hotel and Restaurant, 15 Trinity Street, Dublin.
123
13 {September 1932}, McGreevy
13 {September 1932}, McGreevy
7 The first collection of Northern Irish poet R. N. D. Wilson (ne Robert Noble Denison Wilson 1899-1953) was The Holy Wells of Oms and other Poems (1927); John Hewitt's obituary describes Wilson as a "small dark man with something of the appearance of a little bird full chested with its song" (Dublin Magazine 28. 2 ! April-June 1952] 54-55). SB compares Wilson's poetry to that of AE. SB met Wilson at the Dublin home of Percival Arland Ussher' (known as Percy to mid-1937, then as Arland, 1899-1980), Irish writer and philosopher.
The home of William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), "Riversdale," Willbrook, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, had a croquet lawn where Yeats played with enthusiasm that AE, among other regular guests, "rearranged their visiting hours to avoid a game" (Ann Saddlemyer, Becoming George: The Life of Mrs. W. B. Yeats [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002] 453-454). SB also refers to poets Austin Clarke and William Monk Gibbon (1896-1987).
8 Things That are Caesar's by Irish playwright Paul Vincent Carroll (1900-1968) opened on 15 August and won the Abbey Theatre Prize in 1932. Temporal Powers by Teresa Deevy (1894-1963) opened at the Abbey Theatre on 12 September; Joseph Holloway said that none of the characters "became real on the stage" (Holloway,
JosephHolloway'sIrishTheatre,II:1932-1937,ed. HoganandON' eill,216).
9 InMay1932SBhadundertakenthetranslationofArthurRimbaud's"LeBateau ivre" ("The Drunken Boat") for Edward Titus; SB had received payment, but no word of publication (for further background see Samuel Beckett, Drunken Boat, ed. James Knowlson and Felix Leakey [Reading: Whiteknights Press, 1976] 7-10).
More recently, SB had translated poems and essays for the surrealist number of This Quarter 5. 1 ! September 19321), guest-edited by Andre Breton (1896-1966) (for a list of SB's translations:Raymond Federrnan and John Fletcher, Samuel Beckett: His Works and His Critics, An Essay in Bibliography ! Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1970] 92-93).
SB had also submitted his story "Dante and the Lobster" to Titus. 10 "Allesgut"(allthebest).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
8/10/32 Cooldrinagh Foxrock
Co Dublin
DearReavey
Thank you for your letter. I'll excavate for a poem for
you one of these dies diarrhoeae. I suppose it's the usual case of honour and glory. So much piss. I have an idea I enshrined
124
Primrose Hill and Crystal Palace seen thence, as though I were
Marcel Schwob peering through incipient cataract at a red moutier,
in a long sad one that does me great credit. Tres emouvant. There
1
into Dublin stutter.
The novel doesn't go. Shatton & Windup thought it was
wonderful but they couldn't they simply could not. The Hogarth
Private Lunatic Asylum rejected it the way Punch would. Cape
was ecoeure in pipe & cardigan and his Aberdeen terrier agreed
with him. Grayson has lost it or cleaned himself with it. Kick his
3
stranger's bike.
Beautiful greetings to Bronowski when and if and tell him
I had a simply wonderful time in Ampton St till a coinmate poor
fellow whose need was quicker than mine happened to come
across a five pun note tossing and turning in my Milner valise
4
5
1 "Diesdiarrhoeae"(literally,daysofdiarrhea,echoingtheDiesIraeoftherequiem Mass).
SB refers to his poem "Serena l" in which he mentions London's Primrose Hill (London NW, north ofRegent"s Park Zoo) and the Crystal Palace (built for The Great Exhibition of 1851, and in 1854 moved to Sydenharn Hill in London SW).
Mayer-Andre-Marcel Schwob (1867-1905), French medievalist, critic, short-story writer, and translator. In his journal, Premieres Esquisses, Schwob writes: "Je connais deux especes de gens; des hornrnes-rnicroscopes et des hornrnes[-]telescopes" (I know two types of people: microscope-men and telescope-men); according to Schwob,
125
8 October 1932, Reavey
isalsoadrill'sarseandDanielDefoe. Theycoexistveryamiably. All Uebersetzungen gratefully received & done in the eye
2
balls off, they are all over 66 Curzon St, W. 1.
I'll be here till I die, creeping along genteel roads on a
and - what do you think - took it unto himself. Ergo . . .
Things to see: Desmond Savage Hazlitt Lamb Wodehouse
Milton Makepeace Maccarthy and the sparrows at the Spaniards. Salut
s/ Sam Beckett
TIS; 1 leaf; 1 side; TxU.
8 October 1932, Reavey
microscope men could drown in a glass of water, telescope men find outlines in every thing (Pierre Champion, Marcel Schwab et son temps ! Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1927] 26-27). Schwob's story "L'Etoile de bois" describes a village in minute detail, including a mon astery seen in a vision of rosy mist: "un moutier, semblable a une brume vermeille ebarbee, 011 Saint-Georges, arme de sang, plongeait sa lance dans la gueule d'un dragon de gres rouge" (a monastery, like a neatly trimmed rosy mist where St. George, armed with blood, was plunging his lance into the mouth of a red sandstone dragon) (Cosmopolis 8 [22 October 1897] 104; rpt. L'Etoile de bois ! Paris: Editions du Boucher, 2003] 13).
"Serena l" ends with "peering," a close-up image of a housefly on a window.
"Tres emouvant" (very moving). The poem mentions "the burning b. t. m. of George the drill" (a West African species of baboon) as well as British novelist and essayist Daniel Defoe (ne Foe, 1660-1731). "B. t. m. " (children's language, bottom).
2 "Uebersetzungen" (translations).
3 ChattoandWindus,theHogarthPress,JonathanCape,andGraysonandGrayson had turned down or failed to respond to SB's Dream ofFair to Middling Women. Jonathan Cape was "ecoeure" (disgusted). Rupert Grayson had not yet replied.
The London weekly satirical magazine Punch was published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002.
4 Bronowski had suggested that SB stay with Mrs. Southon in Ampton Street. A manufacturer of safes by the name of Milner has been identified, but not of valises or briefcases.
"Pun" (Ir. colloq. , pound).
5 ReaveyhadbegunhisBureauLitteraireEuropeeninParisandwasdevelopingan office in London for his several publishing ventures (18 April 1986: notes of Emile Delavenay). Delavenay (1905-2000) was French Lecteur from the Ecole Normale Superieure at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge {1927-1929) where he met Reavey who was then a student. When Reavey went to France, Delavenay introduced Reavey to Thomas McGreevy (Emile Delavenay, Temoignage: d'un village savoyard au village mondial {1905-1991/ [La Calade: Diffusion EDISUD, 1992] 117). In his draft memoirs, Reavey says, however, that he met McGreevy through Alan Duncan (TxU).
SB facetiously gives to Desmond Maccarthy the names of English writers: Richard Savage (1697-1743), William Hazlitt (1778-1830), Charles Lamb (1775-1834), P. G. Wodehouse (ne Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, 1881-1973), John Milton (1608-1674), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863).
The Spaniards Inn on Hampstead Heath was built in 1585 as a residence for the Spanish Ambassador; it was opened as an inn in the middle of the eighteenth century by two Spanish brothers and later became well known as a pub. Nearby streets are named for it.
6 "Salut" (greetings).
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
8/10/32 Cooldrinagh Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
126
8 October 1932, McGreevy
Dear Tom
Forgive me for not answering the first of your last two
letters. I did write, but it turned out such a jeremiad that
I refrained from posting it. Don't for God's sake bother your
head about the 2 quid. Frank is not in that hurry. Wait for a
flusher time. I got a few grinds and am doing a few at the moment
and will get paid one ofthese fine days, early next week probably,
and can let you have then what I owe you, which is about one
quid ten as well as I remember. It is rotten to hear things are so
difficult and that the book has slowed down again. I don't think
you would have stuck the Irish Press very long, but it would have
1
Frank had to go down to Galway on a job and he very dec ently stood me the trip with him and so I saw Galway at last. A grand little magic grey town full of sensitive stone and bridges and water. We went on to Mallaranny and spent a day walking on Achill right out over the Atlantic. We came back all along L. Mask and right through the mountainous Joyce's country and between L. s [sic] Mask and Corrib. Everywhere we went Croagh Patrick was standing up over everything, with an Arrarat [for Ararat] cloud always somewhere near the chapel on the summit. Altogether it was an unforgettable trip and much too short, through bog and mountain scenery that was somehow far more innocent and easy and obvious than the stealthy secret variety we have here. I would like to go back to Galway and spend a little time there. There was some damn retreat on the Saturday morning we were there so we couldn't get into the Dominican and Franciscan churches where there are supposed to be some remarkable mosaics. But we saw
127
beensomethingtobegoingonwith. Dublinstagnatesasusual. I occasionally go in on the bike for the ride and the wayside pubs, but seldom, and on the surface at least she seems unmoved by all the goingson.
8 October 1932, McGreevy
St Nicholas's which is charming and where they say Cristoforo C.
2
Yes, I had that letter from Reavey. He also condescended to
mention that he had heard "rumours" of my novel when speaking
to publishers and that he would have some translations for me in
3
I tell you Gilbert acknowledged Home Olga at last with assurance of
its inclusion among the suceculeries of Contempo? Hope ev[e]ry
4
[ . . . ] Cissie has gone back to her Mann, bringing the big Ibach with her. It had all that salt air for nothing. They have found a new flat now, with twice the sun and half the rent. She says there is a chaise longue there for me. But I don't know what that means. Peggy read the transition sublimen and said for God's sake to spell pfennig with two enns next time! I had a letter from Nancy from Lot, on her way back to Paris, wanting to get
in touch. Perhaps she has some work. Titus's quick little blurb in
7
had a dish of mass before committing his indiscretion.
thenearfutureiflwaswiseenoughtokeepintouchwithhim. Did
onemaybepleased. AndthatTituswroteaboutDanteandtheL. which he says pleased him and which he proposes to run in his next number? 5 Nothing at all from Grayson. It is now well over 6 weeks since he viva voce assured me a speedy decision. I wrote him a polite note a fortnight and more ago which he did not acknowl edge. So by this same post he is getting a stinger and may the devil look after his own and take the hindmost and in fact do all the parlour tricks that may be necessary. I have an idea he may try and do the dirty. He has no background and I have nothing to show that he has any of my property. Titus enquired after the book and suggested my sending it to him. Better that than gar nix. But I'd rather send him the poems. Rickword never acknowledged them. 6 To hell with them all. Titus has benn [sic] a monument of courtesy compared with the most of them.
his preface to his surrealiste number might get me some clients.
128
8 October 1932, McGreevy
This obstinate sobriety in all modes here is beginning to hurt seriously, but I haven't the guts to make a dash for it again out into the cold cold world. You must manage at least one evening in Dublin if you are going through. I want very much to see you and talk over the prospects in Paris.
[. . . ]
I'm enclosing the only bit of writing that has happened to
me since Paris and that does me no particular credit as far as
I can judge.
Marcus Garvey (ne Moziah, 1887-1940) founded this group as the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities League in 1914; Garvey was deported in November 1927 from the United States, and tried to carry on his mission from Jamaica (E. David Cronon, ed. , Marrns Garvey, Great Lives Observed [Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973] 17, 24).
15 SB had submitted "Dante and the Lobster" (later the opening story in More Pricks Than Kicks) to Edward William Titus• (1870-1952), an American publisher then living in Paris, and Editor of This Quarter. SB had submitted "Home Olga," an acrostic poem on James Joyce, to Stuart Gilbert, editor of Contempo (1931-1934). SB may have expected payment from Eugene Jolas for the publication of his story "Sedendo and Quiescendo. " Although SB may have given Jolas something further from the manuscript of Dream of Fair to Middling Women, transition did not publish anything more by SB until number 24 Uune 1936).
16 "Transatlantic"(Gallicismfor"deckchair"). ThenannyseeninSt. James'sPark, London, is compared to SB's nanny, Bibby. By "Circus Underground," SB refers to Piccadilly Circus station.
17 Charles Prentice wrote to SB: "I wish I could follow you for longer flights. " He admired "the beauty and terror of 'Spring Song', and the horror of 'There is a Happy Land'. " Prentice praised 'Alba 2' as "superb," but felt it was not "so important or significant as these two other poems. " Finally, he wrote with regret, "I don't see that Chatto's could do anything with the poems," although for him they meant "the beginning of a rare and strange experience. " Prentice apologized: "I am worried at being a disappointment to you again; I am very, very sorry" (27 July 1932, UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 140/274). "Spring Song" remains unpublished. "There was a Happy Land" is the first line, and probably the working title, of the poem published as "Sanies 2"; "Alba 2" is the early title of "Enueg 1" (Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 648, n. 80; John Pilling, 21 April 1995; see 7 August 1931, n. 1).
18 The 32nd birthday of Elizabeth, Duchess of York (nee Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, 1900-2002), consort of Prince Albert, Duke of York {1895-1952) was 4 August 1932; their daughter Princess Elizabeth (b. 1926, later Queen Elizabeth II) was then six years old. The Royal racing cutter Britannia concluded a week of racing at Cowes, The Royal London Yacht Club regatta, on Saturday 6 August 1932 (The Times 8 August 1932: 6).
Dino Grandi (1895-1988) was Italy's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1929 to 1932 and Italy's Ambassador to England from 1932 to 1939; Grandi arrived in London on the
116
18 {August 1932}, McGreevy
evening of 3 August 1932 to present his credentials to the King (The Times 4 August 1932: 10; The Times 10 August 1932: 13).
The French franc was 89 to the pound on 4 August 1932 (The Times 5 August 1932: 16).
19 McGreevyhopedtointerestLennoxRobinson,producerattheAbbeyTheatre,in his translation ofAlexander Pushkin's "Boris Godunov" (Lennox Robinson, 11 September 1932; TCD, MS 8026).
McGreevy's "Talky" is not identified; SB mentions it again, as "talkie," in his letter to McGreevy, 30 August 1932 (TCD, MS 10402/30).
THOMA S McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
18th [August 1932)
4Ampton St [London) W. C. 1
Dear Tom
Glad to hear the book is on the move again, and hope to
1
undercurrent of communism is surprising. Or I suppose one
ought to be surprised. I think the only thing that would surprise
me about Ireland, or any other land, would be to have it estab
lished as a more unpleasant site wherein to serve one's life than
3
for my fare home. Write to Cooldrinagh. There is no use my
insisting further here. This month of creeping and crawling and
sollicitation has yielded nothing but glib Cockney regrets. The
book came back from the Hogarth Press, and the poems, with
merely the formal rejection slip. Nothing from L. W. He was out
of London as I told you when I brought it round. I have good
reason to believe that the MS never left London and that in all
probability he never saw it. But he must have got my letter. Or
4
117
have good news of it in your next. What you write about an
2
thiscoreofallfaex. Andtheheat. . . Iwrotehomethisevening
perhapsitishistumfortheasylum. Anyhowtantpiss. Ithen brought it to Grayson and Cape. It came back yesterday from Cape. Their reader's report "did not encourage them to make me
18 {August 1932}, McGreevy
an offer for publication rights". It would be interesting to see
some of these readers' reports. 5 So far no reply from Grayson.
I saw Rupert Grayson when I went round, the "author son of
Sir Henry". And a proper pudding he appeared. He assured me
at least that if they did not take the thing they would tell me the
6
see Derek Verschoyle, Literary Editor of Spectator, he was dis
guised as a student in T. C. D. while I was still functioning, and
7
had no books for review. But he received me very kindly and
gave me a cigarette. I went round yesterday to see Mr Ellis
Roberts, gaga in chief of New Statesman. He had no books for
review. He thought he might possibly be interested [in] a state
ment of [for on] Gide, covering all that artists's [sic] vicissitudes
from Andre Walter to Oedipe in the space of not more than 1800
8
reasonwhy. Thatwillmakepleasantreading. Iwentroundto
gavehimthethreelastpoems. Gotthembackthisevening. He
words, or one of similar length of [for on] the modernity ofVico.
I promised to do my best. But of course it can't be done. I don't believe I could put a dozen words together on any subject what soever. But Mr Roberts received me kindly too, and gave me a cup of tea. My Father very generously sent me a five pound note which I received last Saturday morning. I put it in my drawer, and went yesterday to get it. It was gone. And a temporary lodger was gone also. Whether he took it or whether Mrs Southon or the cretinous Heep it is impossible to know. Mr. S. produced a really superb condition of Cockney distress yesterday evening. Such a thing had never happened before, never in all these years, as the lodger who appears to have his being in the kitchen could testify. Mr S would rather have lost his lower testicle than have such a catastrophe occur. That finishes this villeggiatura. I think I may stay in bed till more comes from the "blue eyes of home". 9 I have not been to see Prentice. I will bring him back his
118
18 {August 1932), McGreevy
book to-morrow, and start clearing the scuppers. 10 T. & K. sent
me notices ofjobs in Cornwall, Devon, Derbyshire, here, Sussex,
and Basel: this last as English instructor in Berlitz School, 275
francs monthly, 40 hours per week! Still [sic], ifI were not so tired
and eviscerate at the moment, I would apply. Better Basel where
love is not than D. D. D. with sentimental salmagundis and other
11
on the mat.
[. . •] I really dread going back to Dublin and all that,
but there is nothing else for it at this stage. I was not serious
when I said about going into the office. There is no room for
another clerk in the office, and even ifthere were I simply could
12
home. If I could even mend a puncture.
The heat is frightful, culminating to-day in 92 in the shade.
I met Arty Hillis, you remember the big-hearted musical mor pion at the Ecole, and he lent me a quid and offered to put me up
13
TLS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; TCD, MS 10402/29. Dating: month and year added, possibly in AH, confirmed by description of the weather, and SB's move from London to Dublin (see SB to McGreevy, 30 August 1932, TCD, MS 10402/30); Prentice wrote to Richard Aldington, 5 September 1932, that SB had left for Ireland about ten days before (ICSo, Aldington 68/6/8).
1 McGreevyhadresumedworkonhisnovel(CharlesPrenticetoRichardAldington, 1 July 1932, JCSo, Aldington 68/6/9; see also 20 December 1931, n. 7).
2 Anti. Communist articles appeared in the Dublin press at this time, for example: "To Check Communism," The Irish Times 16 August 1932: 7; "Mr. Cosgrove and
119
It will have to be private school or training college or else unhandy Andy in the garage and back garden at
not do the work.
free at Hampstead as from next Monday.
my while changing now. Ifthey don't reimburse me here I won't pay any more rent and I'll clear out as soon as I get my fare. Is there a chance ofmy seeing you soon in Dublin? I thought ofmaking a dash for Paris, but I am too unbelievably gutless to do anything and my Mother would throw a fit.
So. Write to Cooldrinagh. Love ever s/Sam
But it won't be worth
18 {August 1932}, McGreevy
'Communism,"' The Irish Press 5 August 1932: 1-2; and a report on the effect of Communist propaganda on theatre ("Before the Footlights," The Irish Times 11 August 1932: 4).
3 London was experiencing a heat wave, with a high of 90° on 18 August. "Faex" (Lat. , the dregs).
4 LeonardWoolfhadmadenocommentonDreamofFairtoMiddlingWomen,oron the poems, nor did he respond to SB's letter (for further information, see 4 August 1932, n. 10).
"Tant piss" (SB's adaptation of "tant pis" [too bad]).
5 The letter to SB from London publishing house Jonathan Cape has not been found, but a reader's report is in the Cape archives. On 13 August 1932, Edward Garnett (1868-1937) wrote of Dream of Fair to Middling Women: "I wouldn't touch this with a barge pole. Beckett probably is a clever fellow, but here he has elaborated a slavish, & rather incoherent imitation of Joyce, most eccentric in language & full of disgustingly affected passages - also indecent; this school is damned - & you wouldn't sell the book even on its title. Chatto was right to turn it down" (UoR, Cape; published in edited form in Michael Howard, Jonathan Cape, Publisher: Herbert Jonathan Cape, G. Wren Howard [London: Jonathan Cape, 1971] 137).
6 SirHenryGrayson,Bt. ,KBE(1865-1951),andhissonBrianGrayson(1900-1989) were Directors of Grayson and Grayson; another son, novelist Rupert Stanley Harrison Grayson (1897-1991), was Literary Advisor.
7 DerekHugoVerschoyle(1911-1973)wasLiteraryEditorofTheSpectatorfrom1932 to 1940; he matriculated at Trinity College Dublin in 1929, but did not take a degree. It is not known which poems SB submitted.
8 Richard Ellis Roberts (1879-1953) was Literary Editor of the New Statesman from 1930 to 1932; he continued as a regular contributor when he became Literary Editor of Time and Tide (1933 to 1934) and Life and Letters (November 1934 to 1935).
Andre-Paul-Guillaume Gide (1869-1951) wrote Les Cahiers d'. Andre Walter (1891; The Notebooks ofAndre Walter); among his later works was the prose playOedipe (1931; Oedipus).
Giambattista Vico.
9 Mrs. Southon was SB's landlady. The person to whom SB refers has not been identified, although "Heep" alludes to Uriah Heep in Dickens's David Copperfield (1849-1850). Mr. S. is Mr. Southon.
"Villeggiatura" (holiday).
For possible sources of the "blue eyes ofhome," see John Pilling, A Companion to "Dream ofFair to Middling Women" (Tallahassee, FL: Journal ofBeckett Studies Books, 2004) 78.
10 PrenticehadlentD. H. Lawrence'sApocalypsetoSB(15August1931,n. 5),butSB may be referring to another book.
11 TrumanandKnightley(see4August1932,n. 12). "D. D. D. "(DearDirtyDublin).
12 FrankBeckettworkedintheirfather'squantitysurveyingfirm,BeckettandMedcalf.
13 Arthur Henry Macnamara Hillis• (1905-1997), lawyer and international econo- mist, had been in SB's year at Trinity College Dublin. He may have visited SB at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris.
"Morpion" (literally a crab louse, but here a mild form of student abuse).
120
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
13th [September 1932]
Cooldrinagh Foxrock, [Co. Dublin]
13 [September 1932}, McGreevy
My dear Tom
I will do all I can to raise the two quid when I go into town
this morning on my father's bicycle. I don't think Frank would refuse me. Anyhow I owe you about 25/-for transition, and I wish
I could have paid you before, but I have found no work here and
depend on my father for everything. There is a prospect of a few
grinds turning up at the end of the month. Ruddy has been very
1
No news from Grayson, and I hesitate to write them a stinger. But
now it is a good three weeks since they promised me their deci
2
Nothing seems to come off. I made a desperate effort to get
something started on Gide but failed again. 3 I began a poem
yesterday, the first since Home Olga, a blank unsighted kind of
thing, but looking at it it is clear that it can never tum out to be
more than mildly entertaining at the best. The old story - ardour
and fervour absent or faked so that what happens may be slick
4
time in the National Gallery, looking at the Poussin Entombment
and coming stealthily down the stairs into the charming toy
brightness of the German room to the Brueghels and the
Masters of Tired Eyes and Silver Windows. The young woman of
5
good recommending me and I wish there were no P. B. in Dream.
sion immediately. Rickword never acknowledged the poems.
enough verse but not a poem at all. I seem to spend a lot of
Rembrandtissplendid. Ihopewemaymeanderthroughsome time together. Cissie lucky woman has gone back to Germany with Deirdre leaving Sally here on the job. We managed a good
121
13 [September 1932}, McGreevy
afternoon together before she left, in the gallery and then the
6
Moira and then pubs.
I met R. N. D. Wilson last Sunday chez
Percy Ussher, and he was full of enthusiasm about your Eliot.
I thought there was not much to him and felt vaguely uneasy
with him. He read or declaimed acres of his verse, and to be sure
there were odds and ends of agreeablenesses here and there. He
has nice thick shining black hair and his little prose-poem dia
pason seems to be keyed toA. E. 's. A. E. & W. B. playa lot of croquet
together at Riversdale, Rathfarnham, and the former always wins
by a mile. I suppose James Starkey holds the stakes. Austin Clarke
7
seems to be the usual rubbish. 8 I set out on Saturday afternoon to see Jack Yeats, and then en route changed my mind and went for a ride along the coast instead. Pretending to like fresh air and salt water I got the old intercostal rheumatism back, this time on the left side. But it is going away and I am denied even the excitement of a little dry pleurisy in safe surroundings. For me also the alter native seems to be here or Paris, and not having heard anything from Titus, though there are a number of counts on which he might write, I have no idea how I stand with him.
Won't the Copulation Intellectuelle be functioning? 9 Anyhow be sure and let me know if you are passing thorugh [sic] and in the meantime alles gut and the quiet unfurling of your book that I know you want. 10
Love ever s/ Sam
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TCD, MS 10402/32. Dating: SB's meeting with Grayson is reported in his letter to McGreevy 18 IAugust 1932J; this meeting "a fortnight ago" is recounted in SB's letter to McGreevy of 13 September 1932J (TCD. MS 10842/31). The present letter indicates that it has been over three weeks since SB has seen Grayson about Dream of Fair to Middling Women, and SB's letter to McGreevy of8 October 1932 mentions that it has been "over 6 weeks. "
122
and Monk Gibbon seek on the bank a definition of obscenity. I wish I had seen "Things that are Caesar's"[. ] "Temporal Powers"
1 "Grinds"(colloq. ,tutoringjobs). SBhadrepresentedRudmose-BrownasthePolar Bear in Dream ofFair to Middling Women.
2 SB wrote on Saturday [3 September 1932] to McGreevy: "I saw the Brothers G. a fortnight ago now in London and they promised me a speedy decision. I don't know whether to think the delay good or bad. " In the same letter, SB said of the poems: "I don't expect them to be taken on by Wishart, but I wish I had sent them earlier and that I had seen Rickword in London. It was Grayson put me on to them" (TCD, MS 10402/31).
London publisher Ernest Edward Wishart (1902-1987). In 1932, the English poet and critic Edgell Rickword (1898-1982) worked occasionally for Wishart, and had not yet joined the firm full-time: he had just translated Marcel Coulon, Poet under Saturn: The Tragedy ofVerlaine (1932).
3 In February 1932, SB had proposed a monograph on Gide to Charles Prentice; Prentice responded: "Your idea of a short study of Gide is a most attractive one, but we don't see how we could be of any use to you about it just now," suggesting that SB write "the essay as a long article to appear in two or more parts" (8 February 1932, UoR, MS 2444 CW letterbook 136/513). SB pursued the matter with Ellis Roberts at the New Statesman (SB to McGreevy, 18 [August 1932], n. 8). SB wrote to McGreevy: "I'm afraid to start anything on Gide, though I have all the notes & quotations I want without opening a text": he added: "How would 'paralysed in ubiquity' do for Gide? " (SB to McGreevy, Saturday [3 September 1932], TCD, MS 10402/31).
4 SBwrotetoMcGreevy:"Typingoutthepoemsyetagainandfiddlingaboutwith them I felt more than ever that all the early ones - al! the Caravan ones - were fake and that nothing could be done with them and that it was only a partir de Whoroscope that they began to be worth anything. I know you are good enough to disagree with me, but I felt it more & more" (Saturday [3 September 1932], TCD, MS 10402/31). "A partir de Whoroscope" (from Whoroscope on). "Home Olga" was written for Joyce and submitted to Stuart Gilbert, Editor of Contempo. The new poem is a draft of "Serena l" (Beckett, Echo's Bones [15-271).
5 For SB, The Entombment (NG! 214) by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) was "extraordi nary. I never saw such blue & purple, such lyrical colour" (Saturday [3 September 1932], TCD, MS 10402/31). In the German room were A Peasant Wedding (NGI 911) by Pieter Brueghel the younger (c. 1564 - c. 1638), and Christ in the House ofMartha and Mary (NGI 513) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) with Jan Brueghel (1568-1625). SB also mentions Portrait ofan Old Lady (NG! 903) by the early Flemish painter known as the Master of the Tired Eyes (fl. c. 1540) and A Portrait of a Young Lady (NG! 808) by Harmensz Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669). The painter of Scenes from the Life of St. Augustine (NG! 823) is identified in the 1945 catalogue of the National Gallery oflreland as the Master of the Silver Windows (c. 1550); later catalogues identify him as the Master of St. Augustine (c. 1500) (Thomas MacGreevy, Pictures in the Irish National Gallery [London: B. T. Batsford, 1945] 11-12; James White, ed. , National Gallery ofIreland: Catalogue ofthe Paintings [Dublin: National Gallery of Ireland, 1971] 197; National Gallery of Ireland: Illustrated Summary Catalogue ofPaintings, intro. Homan Potterton [Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1981] 107).
6 CissieSinclairreturnedtoKasselwithheryoungestdaughterDeirdre;herdaugh ter Sally remained in Dublin. The Moira Hotel and Restaurant, 15 Trinity Street, Dublin.
123
13 {September 1932}, McGreevy
13 {September 1932}, McGreevy
7 The first collection of Northern Irish poet R. N. D. Wilson (ne Robert Noble Denison Wilson 1899-1953) was The Holy Wells of Oms and other Poems (1927); John Hewitt's obituary describes Wilson as a "small dark man with something of the appearance of a little bird full chested with its song" (Dublin Magazine 28. 2 ! April-June 1952] 54-55). SB compares Wilson's poetry to that of AE. SB met Wilson at the Dublin home of Percival Arland Ussher' (known as Percy to mid-1937, then as Arland, 1899-1980), Irish writer and philosopher.
The home of William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), "Riversdale," Willbrook, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin, had a croquet lawn where Yeats played with enthusiasm that AE, among other regular guests, "rearranged their visiting hours to avoid a game" (Ann Saddlemyer, Becoming George: The Life of Mrs. W. B. Yeats [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002] 453-454). SB also refers to poets Austin Clarke and William Monk Gibbon (1896-1987).
8 Things That are Caesar's by Irish playwright Paul Vincent Carroll (1900-1968) opened on 15 August and won the Abbey Theatre Prize in 1932. Temporal Powers by Teresa Deevy (1894-1963) opened at the Abbey Theatre on 12 September; Joseph Holloway said that none of the characters "became real on the stage" (Holloway,
JosephHolloway'sIrishTheatre,II:1932-1937,ed. HoganandON' eill,216).
9 InMay1932SBhadundertakenthetranslationofArthurRimbaud's"LeBateau ivre" ("The Drunken Boat") for Edward Titus; SB had received payment, but no word of publication (for further background see Samuel Beckett, Drunken Boat, ed. James Knowlson and Felix Leakey [Reading: Whiteknights Press, 1976] 7-10).
More recently, SB had translated poems and essays for the surrealist number of This Quarter 5. 1 ! September 19321), guest-edited by Andre Breton (1896-1966) (for a list of SB's translations:Raymond Federrnan and John Fletcher, Samuel Beckett: His Works and His Critics, An Essay in Bibliography ! Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press, 1970] 92-93).
SB had also submitted his story "Dante and the Lobster" to Titus. 10 "Allesgut"(allthebest).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
8/10/32 Cooldrinagh Foxrock
Co Dublin
DearReavey
Thank you for your letter. I'll excavate for a poem for
you one of these dies diarrhoeae. I suppose it's the usual case of honour and glory. So much piss. I have an idea I enshrined
124
Primrose Hill and Crystal Palace seen thence, as though I were
Marcel Schwob peering through incipient cataract at a red moutier,
in a long sad one that does me great credit. Tres emouvant. There
1
into Dublin stutter.
The novel doesn't go. Shatton & Windup thought it was
wonderful but they couldn't they simply could not. The Hogarth
Private Lunatic Asylum rejected it the way Punch would. Cape
was ecoeure in pipe & cardigan and his Aberdeen terrier agreed
with him. Grayson has lost it or cleaned himself with it. Kick his
3
stranger's bike.
Beautiful greetings to Bronowski when and if and tell him
I had a simply wonderful time in Ampton St till a coinmate poor
fellow whose need was quicker than mine happened to come
across a five pun note tossing and turning in my Milner valise
4
5
1 "Diesdiarrhoeae"(literally,daysofdiarrhea,echoingtheDiesIraeoftherequiem Mass).
SB refers to his poem "Serena l" in which he mentions London's Primrose Hill (London NW, north ofRegent"s Park Zoo) and the Crystal Palace (built for The Great Exhibition of 1851, and in 1854 moved to Sydenharn Hill in London SW).
Mayer-Andre-Marcel Schwob (1867-1905), French medievalist, critic, short-story writer, and translator. In his journal, Premieres Esquisses, Schwob writes: "Je connais deux especes de gens; des hornrnes-rnicroscopes et des hornrnes[-]telescopes" (I know two types of people: microscope-men and telescope-men); according to Schwob,
125
8 October 1932, Reavey
isalsoadrill'sarseandDanielDefoe. Theycoexistveryamiably. All Uebersetzungen gratefully received & done in the eye
2
balls off, they are all over 66 Curzon St, W. 1.
I'll be here till I die, creeping along genteel roads on a
and - what do you think - took it unto himself. Ergo . . .
Things to see: Desmond Savage Hazlitt Lamb Wodehouse
Milton Makepeace Maccarthy and the sparrows at the Spaniards. Salut
s/ Sam Beckett
TIS; 1 leaf; 1 side; TxU.
8 October 1932, Reavey
microscope men could drown in a glass of water, telescope men find outlines in every thing (Pierre Champion, Marcel Schwab et son temps ! Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1927] 26-27). Schwob's story "L'Etoile de bois" describes a village in minute detail, including a mon astery seen in a vision of rosy mist: "un moutier, semblable a une brume vermeille ebarbee, 011 Saint-Georges, arme de sang, plongeait sa lance dans la gueule d'un dragon de gres rouge" (a monastery, like a neatly trimmed rosy mist where St. George, armed with blood, was plunging his lance into the mouth of a red sandstone dragon) (Cosmopolis 8 [22 October 1897] 104; rpt. L'Etoile de bois ! Paris: Editions du Boucher, 2003] 13).
"Serena l" ends with "peering," a close-up image of a housefly on a window.
"Tres emouvant" (very moving). The poem mentions "the burning b. t. m. of George the drill" (a West African species of baboon) as well as British novelist and essayist Daniel Defoe (ne Foe, 1660-1731). "B. t. m. " (children's language, bottom).
2 "Uebersetzungen" (translations).
3 ChattoandWindus,theHogarthPress,JonathanCape,andGraysonandGrayson had turned down or failed to respond to SB's Dream ofFair to Middling Women. Jonathan Cape was "ecoeure" (disgusted). Rupert Grayson had not yet replied.
The London weekly satirical magazine Punch was published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002.
4 Bronowski had suggested that SB stay with Mrs. Southon in Ampton Street. A manufacturer of safes by the name of Milner has been identified, but not of valises or briefcases.
"Pun" (Ir. colloq. , pound).
5 ReaveyhadbegunhisBureauLitteraireEuropeeninParisandwasdevelopingan office in London for his several publishing ventures (18 April 1986: notes of Emile Delavenay). Delavenay (1905-2000) was French Lecteur from the Ecole Normale Superieure at Gonville and Caius College Cambridge {1927-1929) where he met Reavey who was then a student. When Reavey went to France, Delavenay introduced Reavey to Thomas McGreevy (Emile Delavenay, Temoignage: d'un village savoyard au village mondial {1905-1991/ [La Calade: Diffusion EDISUD, 1992] 117). In his draft memoirs, Reavey says, however, that he met McGreevy through Alan Duncan (TxU).
SB facetiously gives to Desmond Maccarthy the names of English writers: Richard Savage (1697-1743), William Hazlitt (1778-1830), Charles Lamb (1775-1834), P. G. Wodehouse (ne Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, 1881-1973), John Milton (1608-1674), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863).
The Spaniards Inn on Hampstead Heath was built in 1585 as a residence for the Spanish Ambassador; it was opened as an inn in the middle of the eighteenth century by two Spanish brothers and later became well known as a pub. Nearby streets are named for it.
6 "Salut" (greetings).
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
8/10/32 Cooldrinagh Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
126
8 October 1932, McGreevy
Dear Tom
Forgive me for not answering the first of your last two
letters. I did write, but it turned out such a jeremiad that
I refrained from posting it. Don't for God's sake bother your
head about the 2 quid. Frank is not in that hurry. Wait for a
flusher time. I got a few grinds and am doing a few at the moment
and will get paid one ofthese fine days, early next week probably,
and can let you have then what I owe you, which is about one
quid ten as well as I remember. It is rotten to hear things are so
difficult and that the book has slowed down again. I don't think
you would have stuck the Irish Press very long, but it would have
1
Frank had to go down to Galway on a job and he very dec ently stood me the trip with him and so I saw Galway at last. A grand little magic grey town full of sensitive stone and bridges and water. We went on to Mallaranny and spent a day walking on Achill right out over the Atlantic. We came back all along L. Mask and right through the mountainous Joyce's country and between L. s [sic] Mask and Corrib. Everywhere we went Croagh Patrick was standing up over everything, with an Arrarat [for Ararat] cloud always somewhere near the chapel on the summit. Altogether it was an unforgettable trip and much too short, through bog and mountain scenery that was somehow far more innocent and easy and obvious than the stealthy secret variety we have here. I would like to go back to Galway and spend a little time there. There was some damn retreat on the Saturday morning we were there so we couldn't get into the Dominican and Franciscan churches where there are supposed to be some remarkable mosaics. But we saw
127
beensomethingtobegoingonwith. Dublinstagnatesasusual. I occasionally go in on the bike for the ride and the wayside pubs, but seldom, and on the surface at least she seems unmoved by all the goingson.
8 October 1932, McGreevy
St Nicholas's which is charming and where they say Cristoforo C.
2
Yes, I had that letter from Reavey. He also condescended to
mention that he had heard "rumours" of my novel when speaking
to publishers and that he would have some translations for me in
3
I tell you Gilbert acknowledged Home Olga at last with assurance of
its inclusion among the suceculeries of Contempo? Hope ev[e]ry
4
[ . . . ] Cissie has gone back to her Mann, bringing the big Ibach with her. It had all that salt air for nothing. They have found a new flat now, with twice the sun and half the rent. She says there is a chaise longue there for me. But I don't know what that means. Peggy read the transition sublimen and said for God's sake to spell pfennig with two enns next time! I had a letter from Nancy from Lot, on her way back to Paris, wanting to get
in touch. Perhaps she has some work. Titus's quick little blurb in
7
had a dish of mass before committing his indiscretion.
thenearfutureiflwaswiseenoughtokeepintouchwithhim. Did
onemaybepleased. AndthatTituswroteaboutDanteandtheL. which he says pleased him and which he proposes to run in his next number? 5 Nothing at all from Grayson. It is now well over 6 weeks since he viva voce assured me a speedy decision. I wrote him a polite note a fortnight and more ago which he did not acknowl edge. So by this same post he is getting a stinger and may the devil look after his own and take the hindmost and in fact do all the parlour tricks that may be necessary. I have an idea he may try and do the dirty. He has no background and I have nothing to show that he has any of my property. Titus enquired after the book and suggested my sending it to him. Better that than gar nix. But I'd rather send him the poems. Rickword never acknowledged them. 6 To hell with them all. Titus has benn [sic] a monument of courtesy compared with the most of them.
his preface to his surrealiste number might get me some clients.
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8 October 1932, McGreevy
This obstinate sobriety in all modes here is beginning to hurt seriously, but I haven't the guts to make a dash for it again out into the cold cold world. You must manage at least one evening in Dublin if you are going through. I want very much to see you and talk over the prospects in Paris.
[. . . ]
I'm enclosing the only bit of writing that has happened to
me since Paris and that does me no particular credit as far as
I can judge.
