Excelsior Springs, Missouri.—Is sorry that Smith’s ‘old distress’ has returned, and criticises Father Reeves’s response. Has felt lethargic since returning to America, but Mac [McLuhan] is ‘even worse off’ and Corinne [McLuhan] has suffered a nervous collapse after a series of parties. Deplores the current patriotic mood in America and the attitude of the Church, as exemplified by Jim Farley and Father Coughlin. Is anxious for the arrival of his books. Would appreciate some guidance from Leavis about his career. Sends greetings to the Singletons, Father Gilbey, and the Leavises. Has received «Scrutiny» and is reading «Gil Blas». Dennis [Enright] is ‘going to Evesham to pick plums with students from Birmingham’ and Remi Preston is thinking of moving to Leamington. Asks how Godfrey [Lienhardt] and ‘the young man who was psychoanalyzed’ fared in their exams; Birch Moody did well, but Illingworth is in a panicky state. Looks forward to the publication of Smith’s book on Shakespeare. Will return to England when he can. ‘Christopher Dawson’s last piece in Scrutiny was really quite true, & Leavis’s constant talk about standards & intelligent living seems more important to me the more hopeless it becomes.’
66 Holly Walk, Leamington Spa.—Was prompted to write by hearing that Preston had sent Smith a copy of his ‘Four Quartets’ Rehearsed. Leavis says that Smith is ‘very fit’. Asks what his plans are. Enright himself has got married and is waiting to be released from conscripted labour. Nominally this ought to happen in July, but he doubts whether the National Service Office will release him so soon. Is hoping to get a minor post in a minor university. Commends Preston’s commentary. His own commentary on Goethe’s Faust has been rejected by fourteen publishers. Morley has had a daughter, to add to his two stepsons. Bewley ‘appears to have fallen among charlatans—the artistic set in New York’, though he seems happier of late. Wilfrid [Mellers]—who is, he thinks, now free of farm work, though still in the country—has a book on ‘Music & Society’ in the press. Morley recently became senior English master at Warwick. Enright and his friends often used to reflect on what they owe to Smith’s supervisions. Hopes to meet him soon and introduce him to his wife, who is teaching at various local schools.
Excelsior Springs, Missouri.—Refers to the interruption in their correspondence and explains why he has not written. Expresses his discontent with the Church, which he supposes is connected to his hatred of the war, and discusses his objection to his friend ‘Sergius’ [John] Farrelly’s decision to join the merchant marines in the hope of achieving a ‘personal catharsis’. Has just returned from Santa Fe, where he spent a year painting, while living in an adobe house in the orchard of the painter Olive Rush. Has had an exhibition, but will probably not paint much more, as his main object was to familiarise himself with the medium in order to become a better critic. Explains why he thinks that, with the possible exception of Eliot, the greatest artistic achievements today must be in painting rather than literature, contrasting Rouault with Mauriac and Picasso with Hemingway, and discusses his view of literature as ‘the most human of the arts’, with reference to Timon of Athens and Koestler’s Darkness at Noon. Reflects that this unplanned digression on literature was perhaps prompted by the memory of their conversations together, which nothing has replaced, except perhaps his friendship with Farrelly, whose qualities he reiterates. He himself will probably have to go into a conscientious objectors’ project soon, a prospect he does not look forward to. Dennis, who is no longer living with Wilfrid and Vera [Mellers], is engaged to a girl ‘with the incredible name of Daisy Chainy [sic]’. Gordon is in Egypt, Edward Morley and Remi Preston are teaching, and Birch Moody is in Africa. Urges him to write.
Excelsior Springs, Missouri.—Discusses D. H. Lawrence’s views on G. F. Watts and Cézanne. Has heard that Smith has renewed his subscription to 'Scrutiny', has lost weight, and is being sent funds to establish a library. Traversi has been chosen for a post in Madrid, which Bewley supposes is the one Smith was considering. Encourages him to write to Preston, who is in the early stages of consumption. Responds to his comments on Van Wyck Brooks and refers to Matthiessen’s 'American Renaissance'. Eliot’s latest poem, 'The Dry Salvages', is inferior to 'East Coker'. Is unsure what to read and finds his scholastic studies arid, but painting is helping to sustain him. The Catholic church in Cambridge has suffered bomb damage.
[St Paul Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota.]—Responds to Smith’s comments on D. H. Lawrence. Has heard from Wilfrid, Dennis, Morley, and Preston about the latest number of 'Scrutiny', which seems to be characterised by bickering. Preston wishes Smith were at Cambridge ‘to keep Leavis’s – and "Scrutiny"’s – aberrations under control’. Leavis’s undergraduates, including [Eric] Baker and [Godfrey] Lienhardt, are turning away from him. The cause seems to be Leavis’s sudden turn against Eliot, whose critical writing he declared, during an address by Willey to the Doughty Society, to be ‘largely specious’. Traversi is back from Italy and Harding’s prestige is growing. Queenie is much better, but Leavis is depressed by the change at Cambridge caused by the call-up of the nineteen-year-olds. Dennis, who has almost given up English in favour of gardening, says that Stephen Spender is now ‘our top poet’ and that ‘no one loves Auden anymore’, while everyone is disclaiming their communism and Churchill is popular with nearly every plane of opinion. Reflects on his reading of Jonson, Plautus, and Terence. Is becoming reconciled to the seminary. Compares favourably the readings appointed for Holy Saturday with modernist poems.
[St Paul Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota.]—Has learnt that Smith was given a civic reception on his arrival in Venezuela. Birch [Moody] has been transferred to Africa, Wilfrid and Dennis have become firefighters, and Illingworth is training as a mental nurse for soldiers. Remi Preston reviewed 'The Pool of Vishnu' [by L. H. Myers] unfavourably in the 'Dublin Review'. Wilfrid is happy about his marriage and is thinking of buying a pony and trap to transport fertiliser to his farm near the Malvern Hills. Harding is to publish an answer to Bewley’s note on Coleridge. Three of Queenie’s relatives have died [in an air-raid]. Daniel Rowe is a physical training teacher in the army. Dennis is ‘cultivating (perhaps even romantically) the acquaintance of a young Irish painter named Maureen’. Wilfrid’s new protegé is a sculptor named Walter Ritchie, a former student of Eric Gill who is going to prison shortly for conscientious objection. Leavis and Eliot have been reconciled after the former’s defence of 'East Coker' in the 'Times Literary Supplement'. The foundations of his spirituality have been shaken rather than built up at the seminary, but he cannot conceive any alternative except the horror of being ‘turned out’ in America again. Is eager to hear of any possibility of ‘anything in the East’. Is having the 'Catholic Worker' sent to Smith, though his interest in it has declined. Finds it difficult to speak to the other seminarians, except Henri Dulac, who is exceptionally intelligent. Is encouraged by recalling how he survived a previous emotional crisis at Cambridge and by the positive change in Illingworth’s fortunes.
Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath.—Is touched by Smith’s frankness and by his sufferings. Suggests he would be strengthened by a visit to Downside. Dom Christopher Butler has been elected abbot. Hopes that Smith will put a paper together on Chaucer for the Literary Society. Is attracted by C. S. Lewis’s popular theology, but mistrusts him when he goes outside natural theology. Many of the writers he used to reject as worthless when he was a ‘rigid Leavisian’ he has since found helpful. Discusses the appeal of remarks by Lewis on The Merchant of Venice. Is disgusted by the ‘Eliot review’ [a review of Preston’s 'Four Quartets’ Rehearsed] in Scrutiny. Thanks him for his comments on the offprints. Sheed and Ward have agreed to publish an anthology of recusant prose, if he produces one. Asks for advice on the scheme of the book. Is sorry to hear that Parker is ill. Has not yet read Parker’s book. Thanks him for offering to call on Birrell.
Downside Abbey, Stratton-on-the-Fosse, near Bath.—Expresses sympathy at the way he has been treated. Is glad he is in touch with Father Bonnar. Invites him to visit when he is free from examining. Defends aspects of [C. S.] Lewis’s Hamlet paper. Dom Sebastian [Moore?], who is reviewing Preston’s book [on the Four Quartets] for the [Downside] Review, remains convinced of Eliot’s greatness and would like to discuss him with Smith. Hay, he finds, is an amateur historian, ‘but generally considered sound by responsible Catholics’. Recommends, for the other side of the secular priests’ case, Leo Hicks’ review of Hughes’s book in The Month. Cannot find the ‘Persons-Raleigh’ reference, but can ask Hicks if it is urgent.