[No surviving envelope]
Letter 19.
I was very glad to get your letter of May 28, but rather discomfited to learn the effect of the B.A.S. flashlight upon you. However, it reached you, which is the main thing: so I have now got out the Swedish portrait to send, and wonder what you will think of that! At least, it does not look tired: but you must allow for the fact that flashlight is apt to make people look deathly white – the Swedish one was taken in sunlight on the balcony of the Grand Hotel. Itravels, trips and plansTSE's abortive 1944 North Africa mission;f3;a5 wonder whether I shall be going to Africa in the autumn: atSecond World WarOperation Overlord;e4 the moment military events are so absorbing that one lives, not from week to week, but from day to day, and almost from news-announcement to news-announcement.1 Rumours, after a long interval during which no one pretended to know anything, or to have seen anybody who knew anything, are beginning to circulate again: but, though they are entirely optimistic (and partly for that reason) I refrain from circulating any. TheBehrens, Margaret Elizabeth (née Davidson)makes vatic pronouncements on Operation Overlord;b6 Field-Marshal (Margaret Behrens) was convinced that the invasion would not begin until after the middle of this month: noShamley Wood, Surreyits melodramas;b2 one could understand her reasons, which had something to do with the fact that her brother’s motor car (though her brother has nothing whatever to do with military matters) was being repaired. She is now having a holiday in Devon: andShamley Wood, Surreydramatis personae;a4 Hetty the Ace of Parlourmaids, having broken down from overwork and the minor ailments of age, such as corns, isClark, Freda Massingberd;a1 to-day being escorted down there by Freda Leith-Hay-Clark-Massingberd-Campbell.2 ThedogsPekingese;c5belonging to Mrs Behrens;a2 Field Marshal’s pekinese is to be pushed into a train window at Woking, by Mrs. Knight. Hetty’s absence may be the cause of my breakfast egg being hardboiled, and the toast like ply-wood: her sister Sally Huckle is supposed to be coming, as locum tenens, from Newport Pagnell, but seems to have got lost on the way. The staff has however been increased by a person known as Gossage’s Mary’s Triplet, an Irish hunchback who toils in the kitchen, and by Gossage’s Mary’s Triplet’s No. 2 sister, whoMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff)takes in hopeless cases;e1 is not here to work, but because Mrs. M. in her kindness insisted on making room for her when she found that she couldn’t find any lodgings because she had a small baby. AtJackson, F. Ernest;a1 present there is also an artist, Mr. Jackson A.R.A.,3 who is doing a drawing of Mrs. M., so you can imagine the excitement in the household, what with Mrs. Randall coming to do everybody’s hair for the occasion.
I have toyed with the idea of trying to find somewhere in Scotland to lodge for a fortnight at some time during the summer: but I shrink at the moment from long journeys; and otherwise there seems no where particular to go and no particular reason for going there. ITandys, the;b9Tandy, Alison
IHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9The Merchant of Venice;a9 expect you are indeed tired after The Merchant of Venice, and I am thankful that you are nearly on the point of leaving Millbrook. I should like to encourage the notion of Manan, as well as Bleak House, because I think that there is no substitute for sea breezes; and at Grand Manan you are well and truly out of everybody’s way. But, if you can solve the housing problem, I think you can relax better this summer for knowing the place and the people of your autumn job, and not, I believe, dreading it.
ThankMcPherrin, Jeanette;f4 you for sending me Jeanie’s letter, which gave me vast pleasure, and which I do want to keep.4 I don’t understand the language of Christian Science, but I understand and appreciate what she says about you, and a glimpse of how you appear in the mind of a person like Jean is very welcome. And I am sure it is all true! IFlagg, Nancy;a1 imagine that Nancy Flagg5 can find out all she wants, for writing about, of B.A.S. at the New York Centre; butBonner, Barbara;a1 if she writes to me (or is she coming to see me?) IStreet, Alicia;a5 shall certainly get together with Mrs. Alicia Street, Miss Barbara Bonner,6 Miss Peggy Lang, andWarde, Beatrice (née Becker);a6 Mrs. Beatrice Warde and see what we can give her for a ‘write-up’. WhatVirgil Society, TheTSE's Presidental Address for;a3 amWhat is a Classic?;a1 IVirgilbut has nothing to say about;a2 to say about Virgil? I don’t know.
1.The Allied invasion of Normandy had begun on D-Day, 6 June 1944.
2.FredaClark, Freda Massingberd Massingberd Clark (b. 1876).
3.F. ErnestJackson, F. Ernest Jackson (1872–1945), artist and teacher of art. Principal of the Byam Shaw School, he taught also at the Royal Academy Schools.
4.Not found.
5.NancyFlagg, Nancy Flagg (1922–80), who graduated in 1942 from Smith College (where she became known to EH), was a magazine writer and editor; she was writing at this time for Vogue.
6.BarbaraBonner, Barbara Bonner: Hon. Secretary of ‘Books Across the Sea’.
4.MargaretBehrens, Margaret Elizabeth (née Davidson) Elizabeth Behrens, née Davidson (1885–1968), author of novels including In Masquerade (1930); Puck in Petticoats (1931); Miss Mackay (1932); Half a Loaf (1933).
5.NancyFlagg, Nancy Flagg (1922–80), who graduated in 1942 from Smith College (where she became known to EH), was a magazine writer and editor; she was writing at this time for Vogue.
3.F. ErnestJackson, F. Ernest Jackson (1872–1945), artist and teacher of art. Principal of the Byam Shaw School, he taught also at the Royal Academy Schools.
2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.
3.HopeMirrlees, Emily Lina ('Mappie', née Moncrieff) Mirrlees’s mother was Emily Lina Mirrlees, née Moncrieff (1862–1948) – known as ‘Mappie’ or ‘Mappy’ – 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.