[Bennett Junior College, Millbrook, New York]
Letter 13
I did not write last week, as I had a short weekend, getting down to Surrey on Friday afternoon, and going up to town again on Monday. IMurder in the CathedralHoellering film;g1reconnoitre of Canterbury for;a4 had gone on Thursday toRead, Herberton Canterbury excursion;c6 Canterbury, withHoellering, George M.accompanies TSE on Canterbury recce;a7 George Hoellering and Herbert Read, and we spent the night there. TheJohnson, Hewlett, Dean of Canterburyconsulted over filming Murder;a2 purpose was, to discuss the film project with the Dean (that silly old Leninist)1 and a couple of archdeacons; and also to prospect about the cathedral and decide which parts and vistas of it were suitable for filming, avoiding those which are too obviously a few centuries too recent. This was accomplished, but a long journey (it always was) both ways: however, Hoellering arranged, and paid for, everything, and had documents to secure admission to the town. ThenBooks Across the Seareception for Beatrice Warde;a8 on Monday IWarde, Beatrice (née Becker)at reception in her honour;a4 had to preside at a meeting of ‘Books Across the Sea’ to welcome back from America its founder, Mrs. Beatrice Warde. Mrs. W. is certainly a Dynamic Personality, and her speech, though it had very little content, was filled with sincere feeling, and captivated the very mixed audience. The only difficulty was that in introducing her I forgot her name, so had to mention her only descriptively; however, I managed to recall it while she was speaking, and brought it in forcibly in thanking her afterwards. I suppose it was that the strain of trying to remember the neat compliments I had prepared, while chatting with a variety of people who greeted me, but whom I had forgotten, was too much for my feeble brain. ThereMarson, Una;a1 was also Miss Una Marson, the charming negro lady who broadcasts to the West Indies, who told me that a volume of her poems was to be published, and that she intended to ask me to write a preface.2 (I couldn’t say No straight out on the spot, because there were people listening). OnSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadvestry goings-on;a2 Wednesday I had to go to a vestry meeting of St. Stephen’s, and was of course, I regret to say, asked to be vicar’s warden again; wentSt. Stephen's Church, Gloucester Roadwartime Holy Week;b4 to the evening Tenebrae (Holy Week) service, and walked part of the way back to the flat to get myself some supper of a tin of sardines. I came down on Thursday afternoon, trains and buses crowded. TheChrist Church, Shamley Green;b3 local church has of course little in the way of special services before Easter; I went on Good Friday morning to find that there was a children’s service going on; so I only had the early communion on Sunday – the church very prettily decorated with daffodils, forsythia and primroses. The spring is now at its most beautiful.
Your letter of March 20 arrived to-day, and I was glad to have all the news it contained about your movements during the very brief Easter holiday (itAmericaits horrors;c2'Easter holidays' not including Easter;b5 always puzzles me that American college and school Easter holidays do not come at Easter – atHarvard University;b6 Harvard they even had lectures on Good Friday). It is a change, but I fear too short and too much moving about to be very restful. IMassinger, PhilipThe Duke of Milan;a1 cannotHale, Emilyas actor;v8as Lodovico Sforza;c9 quite envisage you as Lodovico Sforza.3 TheVassar Collegeproduces The Tempest;a8 TempestShakespeare, WilliamThe Tempest;c9 at Vassar sounds quite dreadful: they seem to have succumbed to the temptation to make too much of those features of dramatic performance which are of least value in education; and if the President and professors take leading parts, of what use is it to the girls! IFlanagan, Hallieand Vassar's Tempest;b2 rather thought that that was Mrs. Flanagan’s (is that her name) tendency when I went there. It is curious that in American colleges, which are so highly centralised administratively, each department is fighting for itself. I should not think the Tempest a good choice for a girls’ college anyway – only one female part. TheShakespeare, WilliamThe Winter's Tale;d4 Winter’sShakespeare, Williamlater as Hermione;a8 Tale would be better: I wish you could do that, and keep the role of Hermione for yourself.
IClayton, Margaretacknowledged;a3 did not mention that I had a touching note from Mrs. Clayton thanking me for mine, and saying that she did not know what her future plans would be.4 IBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara')son killed in action;a5 had no reply from Mrs. Brocklebank, but one does not expect replies. ShamleyMirrlees, Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ('Reay')homecoming animates Mappie;a6 is in a state of tension at present, as Mrs. M. is expecting her son back (she has not seen him since the beginning of the war, when he was a Major, and he is now a Major General) for a visit. I have never met him. I go to town for only two nights this week; and as Auntie Pye can’t come in the morning now, because of looking after her mother, and the Fabers will not be there, I shall have to get my own breakfast and make my own bed etc. But lots of men have to look after themselves now!
1.Hewlett Johnson, the ‘Red Dean’.
2.UnaMarson, Una Marson (1905–65), Jamaican poet, playwright, journalist, broadcaster, political activist; the first black programme-maker at the BBC. From 1941 she worked for the BBC Empire Service on the programme Calling the West Indies, which she presented from 1942, and Caribbean Voices – saluted by Kamau Brathwaite as ‘the single most important literary catalyst for Caribbean creative writing in English’ – which ran until 1958. From 1942, at the invitation of George Orwell, she contributed to the programme Voice, with TSE, Empson, Tambimuttu and others. Her poetry includes Tropic Reveries (1930), Heights and Depths (1931), Towards the Stars: Poems (1945). See Delia Jarrett-Macauley, The Life of Una Marson, 1905–65 (Manchester, 1998); Selected Poems (Caribbean Modern Classics, 2011).
3.In The Duke of Milan, by Philip Massinger (first performed 1621; published 1623).
4.Letter not found.
2.CharlotteBrocklebank, Charlotte Carissima ('Cara') Carissima (‘Cara’) Brocklebank (1885–1948), only surviving daughter of Gen. Sir Bindon and Lady Blood, married in 1910 Lt.-Col. Richard Hugh Royds Brocklebank, DSO (1881–1965). They lived at 18 Hyde Park Square, London W.2, and at Alveston House, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire: see Biographical Register.
12.JosephClayton, Joseph ('Joe') ClaytonClayton, Margaret, FRHistS (1867–1943). Clayton was a journalist, author and historian; editor of The New Age, 1906–7; Catholic convert. Resident in later years in Chipping Campden, where he and his wife Margaret became friendly with the Perkinses.
5.The directorFlanagan, Hallie Hallie Flanagan (1890–1969), a Professor at Vassar College, was planning to produce Sweeney Agonistes at the Experimental Theater that she had founded at Vassar.
3.GeorgeHoellering, George M. M. Hoellering (1898–1980), Austrian-born filmmaker and cinema manager: see Biographical Register.
11.HewlettJohnson, Hewlett, Dean of Canterbury Johnson (1874–1966), Anglican priest – known as the ‘Red Dean’ on account of his enduring and controversial support of the Soviet Union – Dean of Canterbury, 1931–63.
2.UnaMarson, Una Marson (1905–65), Jamaican poet, playwright, journalist, broadcaster, political activist; the first black programme-maker at the BBC. From 1941 she worked for the BBC Empire Service on the programme Calling the West Indies, which she presented from 1942, and Caribbean Voices – saluted by Kamau Brathwaite as ‘the single most important literary catalyst for Caribbean creative writing in English’ – which ran until 1958. From 1942, at the invitation of George Orwell, she contributed to the programme Voice, with TSE, Empson, Tambimuttu and others. Her poetry includes Tropic Reveries (1930), Heights and Depths (1931), Towards the Stars: Poems (1945). See Delia Jarrett-Macauley, The Life of Una Marson, 1905–65 (Manchester, 1998); Selected Poems (Caribbean Modern Classics, 2011).
1.MajMirrlees, Maj.-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ('Reay').-Gen. William Henry Buchanan ‘Reay’ Mirrlees, DSO, CB, MC (1892–1964), served in the Royal Artillery. He was the only son of William Julius and Emily Lina Mirrlees, brother of Hope Mirrlees.
3.Herbert ReadRead, Herbert (1893–1968), English poet and literary critic: see Biographical Register.
BeatriceWarde, Beatrice (née Becker) Warde, née Becker (1900–69), influential American scholar of typography; author; proponent of clarity in graphic design; publicity manager for the Monotype Corporation and editor of The Monotype Recorder and the Monotype Newsletter; associate of Eric Gill. Her works include an acclaimed essay on typography, ‘The Crystal Goblet’, which started out as a speech to the British Typographers’ Guild and has been widely reprinted. Founder and Vice-President of the cultural movement ‘Books Across the Sea’, which worked to secure a regular interchange of books between the USA and the UK during the wartime ban on the import and export of non-essential goods. TSE was presently to become chair of the formal organisation, which by 1944 had swopped up to 4,000 volumes between the two countries. See Warde, ‘Books Across the Sea: Ambassadors of good will’, The Times, 2 Jan. 1942, 5.