[To Await Arrival, Stamford House, Chipping Campden]
Having the evening to myself, and having as you see a new ribbon IGalitzi, Dr Christine;c1 had thought after writing to you to clear off an old debt so I might be able to say before you returned that I had written at last to Miss Galitzi. But I shall have to spend the rest of my evening otherwise. HaveSorel, Cécile;a1 youreading (TSE's)Madame Sorel's memoirs;d9 ever heard of Cécile Sorel, otherwise known according to her leading role as ‘Celimène’?1 You probably know more about her than I do, but I know she is the eternal leading lady of the Comedie Française. <aged 62.> Anyway she has written her memoirs, and I have read them tonight. A French literary agency offered them to us. WeLombard, Liliane;a1 sent a Paris agent of ours to look at them, and now they have been brought to London by a Madame Liliane Lombard, whom I interviewed this afternoon. Madame Lombard says she owns them, having bought them from Madame Sorel; but meanwhile the French Agency has warned us against Madame Lombard, saying that although she has bought the memoirs she hasn’t paid for them, and that we are to keep her in suspense until the 15th April, for some reason. All I can tell of Madame Lombard is that she has a somewhat Ottoline face, is apparently under 50, and has very good scent, Guerlain or Chanel I should say. I thought she had the manner of a person who was wondering whether we had heard anything against her or not. So now I am sitting down to read as much of the memoirs of Celimène as I can in the time. Apparently Sorel knew everybody, and whenever she didn’t remember whether she had been the mistress of a celebrity or not she gives herself the benefit of the doubt, so to speak. But I doubt whether her memoirs will seem very important in England: I made Madame Lombard’s face fall by explaining that The Memoirs of Mistinguett would be worth much more in this country.2 Such are the thrills of a publisher’s life.
Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4EH returns from France;d3 must get a new hat when you come.
ItHale, Emilyreturns from France;e8 is exciting to think that you are now somewhere in the Bay of Biscay, perhaps very uncomfortable; and that you will be in England on Monday – and for goodness’ sake be prepared for winter again, and remember about airing your clothes before the gasfire, I don’t want you down with pneumonia immediately – and that I shall see you on to-day week. Exciting but incredible. I look forward to your new costumes but don’t wear one unless the weather is suitable. I shall write again on Monday evening to bid you Welcome. It is lovely to [be] writing to an address so near at hand as Gloucestershire.
[on the back of the envelope]
Donald is much better, & is coming home tomorrow.
1.CécileSorel, Cécile Sorel, born Céline Émile Seurre (1873–1966), French comic actor with the Comédie-Française, 1901–33; celebrated for her performance as Célimène in Molière’s The Misanthrope. See Cécile Sorel: An Autobiography, trans. Philip John Stead (1953).
2.Mistinguett, born Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois (1875–1956), vastly popular and well-paid actor and singer. Companion of the elegant actor and singer Maurice Chevalier (1888–1972).
1.DrGalitzi, Dr Christine Christine Galitzi (b. 1899), Assistant Professor of French and Sociology, Scripps College. Born in Greece and educated in Romania, and at the Sorbonne and Columbia University, New York, she was author of Romanians in the USA: A Study of Assimilation among the Romanians in the USA (New York, 1968), as well as authoritative articles in the journal Sociologie româneascu. In 1938–9 she was to be secretary of the committee for the 14th International Congress of Sociology due to be held in Bucharest. Her husband (date of marriage unknown) was to be a Romanian military officer named Constantin Bratescu (1892–1971).
1.CécileSorel, Cécile Sorel, born Céline Émile Seurre (1873–1966), French comic actor with the Comédie-Française, 1901–33; celebrated for her performance as Célimène in Molière’s The Misanthrope. See Cécile Sorel: An Autobiography, trans. Philip John Stead (1953).