Ben Wyvis Hotel, Strathpeffer Spa. Dated 12 July 1915 - Describes their long holiday, in Cirencester, Edinburgh, Kenmore, and Strathpeffer; mentions that the Cambridge University Press has published a school edition of his wife's book 'La Maison aux Panonceaux'; mentions [James Hope] Moulton's loss [his wife Eliza's death] and Moulton's plan to spend a year with the Parsees in India; Macmillan is publishing a book by [Robert] Russell, ['The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India'] which will be valuable; wonders if he has seen [W. H. R.] Rivers' work 'The History of Melanesian Society' he has not read it yet; has improved his Hebrew on holiday.
Breadalbane Hotel, Kenmore, Perthshire. Dated 18 July 1915 - Discusses Lilly's idea of accepting the Archdeaconry [in Africa] Roscoe has been offered on a temporary basis in order that he could do some anthropological work; suggests he approach Macmillan if not them, then Hutchinson with his popular book; Moulton's loss was the death of his wife, but he knows no details; [Kate] Marseille, a German friend in Cambridge has also died, the Marseilles' son [Rudolph] has joined the English army in the war; is interested to hear that [W. H. R.] Rivers has returned from the New Hebrides; is glad to hear that Roscoe will be lecturing to missionary students at Cambridge, wishes there could be a permanent provision for such instruction.
10 King's Parade, Cambridge. Dated 30 Oct. 1915 - Has sent his 'Golden Bough' and 'Psyche's Task' to Kingsmead, accidentally sent the anthropological questions there as well; has [William] Ridgeway's book which apparently controverts some of his views, and has had a friendly letter from him; [W. H. R.] Rivers is expected in Cambridge in two weeks, perhaps he can come visit then.
Aldeburgh - Has been to Rome with his wife, went to the Mithraic Temple at San Clemente, had many talks with Father Delaney; writes of the state of religion: thinks the church is stagnating; thinks politicians should take a course in the study of anthropology, adding the study of heredity; thinks Dean Inge in his 'Outspoken Essays' understands the times, and admires his 'Idea of Progress'; Bury's book of the same name claims that 'the number of civilizations which have reached a given stage and gone under, is beyond compute'; agrees that Germany should pay for her 'brigandage' but thinks money should be advanced to pay the miners to dig the coal that France needs; Frazer writes of [Oliver] Lodge and [Arthur Conan] Doyle, and Clodd quotes Sir Bryan Donkin that he classes Doyle among the 'mentally defective'; he is publishing a book 'Magic in Names'; wonders if Frazer is going to supplement 'Folk-Lore in the Old Testament' as Frazer has said that it hung on the issue of a book by a French scholar on the early history of Christianity; asks if Frazer has examined the evidence advanced by Prof. Elliot Smith on the origin of Pre-Columbian civilization, backed by [W. H. R.] Rivers in [A. H.] Keane's Man Past and Present' and quotes [A.C.] Haddon; finds as he gets older the more he values an open mind; the servant problem not helped by the promising house maid who hid her pregnancy and gave birth in the middle of the night.
University of Cape Town. Dated 12 June 1922 - Thanks Frazer for his letter of congratulation and apologises for the delay in responding; is sending 'The Andaman Islanders'; is writing articles for journals rather than the large book on Australia he had hoped to publish; worries that [Wilhelm?] Bleek's daughter [Dorothea?] will not publish his work; have 12 students taking the first course in Social Anthropology; has plans for more students and an Anthropological Institute; the news of the death of Dr Rivers came as a shock.
1 Brick Court, Temple, London, E.C.4. Dated 29 November 1918 - Has spoken with [Arthur] Keith who has been in touch with the Royal Academy and their support of the proposed expedition [to Uganda]; a comiittee to administer the funds will be made up of [W. H. R.] Rivers, [A. C.] Haddon, Frazer, and a Government official; asks him to draw up an outline of the proposed expedition and make estimates about the costs. In a postscript he reminds him of Lilly's recommendation he obtain a phonograph and learn to use it by lessons from [William] Manning, who has been busy with munition work; Lilly suggests he must practise for a long time beforehand to get the best results; she says it is useless to get the loan of one from Haddon or [Charles S.] Myers, who 'for years cut her out of her legitimate profits by lending explorers cheap and unreliable German instruments'; the difference between those who trained to use it and those who did not is 'patent to any listener'.
1 Brick Court, Temple, London, E.C.4. Dated December 20th. 1918 - Has heard from [W. H. R.] Rivers about the Royal Society meeting, a committee has been formed [to oversee funds for the proposed expedition [to Uganda]; suggests he write the Secretary ([William] Hardy of Caius); his chapter on Jacob's marriage [in 'Folk-Lore in the Old Testament'] is the most important from the anthropological point of view.
Aldeburgh - Is surprised to hear he has never been to Brussels; comments on the political situation, thinks the League of Nations, like Socialism can only succeed when human nature alters; worries about unrest in the East after the defeat of Russia by Japan; saw [W. H. R.] Rivers while he was at [A. C.] Haddon's, and mentioned his championship of Elliot Smith's theory of diffusion; gets much attention from spiritualists sending brochures, etc., has agreed to review a 'huge and repellent book' of exudations of 'psychic matter'; wishes Frazer could have noticed his book ['Magic in a Name'] in the 'Observer'.
1 Brick Court, Temple, London. E.C.4. Dated 28 May 1920 - Suggests he stay among the Banyoro until his informants dry up as he 'may not tap such copious sources again'; reacts to wedding night customs and the temporary king; is attending Malinowski's lectures on the Trobriand Islanders, and asks if he has heard of a custom of giving produce to a wife's brothers; asks if he finds any stories on the origin of fire; will work next on a book on the fear of the dead; Lilly is better but they will go to Evian for a cure in July; mentions the honorary degree; saw [W. H. R.] Rivers, who found lecturing in the United States very tiring.
1 Brick Court, Temple, London. E.C.4. Dated 7th July 1920 - Lists who he saw in Cambridge at the honorary degree ceremony: Arthur Balfour, the Ridgeways, [William?] Cox, A. B. Cook, Henry Jackson, who is frail; has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society; Sir Peter Mackie has given £3500 in total to the expedition; will send a copy of an article on his work among the Bahima in 'Man'; comments on the customs of the Banyoro; is interested in measurement of all kinds; have seen much of Malinowski; Lilly is much better and editing an anthology of recent French poetry for Oxford University Press, and has a big scheme in mind for developing French in Britain.
1 Brick Court, Temple, London. E.C.4. Dated 3 September 1920 - Suggests he stop in Egypt to look at the monuments on the way home; Sir Peter Mackie received a Baronetcy, the Ridgeways were congratulatory on the honorary degree and Royal Society fellowship, but he has not heard from Haddon or Rivers; has met Colonels Shakespear and Gurdon, who did anthropology work in Assam; threat of a coal strike.
1 Brick Court, Temple, London. E.C.4. Dated 12th October 1930 [recte 1920] - Wonders if he has received all the Bunyoro material, as he does not have anything on war, religion, and relationships; is glad to hear the Governor will consider a Government Ethnologist, Driberg, whom he knows nothing about, mentions Malinowski, but he is going to the Canary Islands to write his book, [W. H. R.] Rivers has a high opinion of Malinowski, Frazer mentions N. W. Thomas out of work, but he does not rate his anthropology highly; the papers are interested in the expedition.
Caledonian Station Hotel, Princess Street, Edinburgh. Dated 21 November 1924 - First page only, breaks off mid-sentence. Asks for news, as it has been a long time; sends a notice of a research studentship at Trinity; his presence would help the Cambridge Anthropological School which is not flourishing, asks if he knows [L. C. G.] Clarke, the Curator of the Anthropological Museum; asks his opinion of [W. H. R.] Rivers' posthumous works; are settled in Cambridge, has a room at Trinity for his library, and sleep at the Blue Boar Hotel in Trinity Street; is giving the Gifford lectures on the Worship of Nature in Edinburgh, so far the only novelty was a suggestion that the Biblical story of the Fall of Man is of negro origin.
Strafford House, Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Dated 31/12/16 - Thanks him for the ['Ancient Stories of the Great Flood'] and admires it, is glad he expresses his opinion on causes of similarities, thinks [W.H.R.] Rivers was too rigid in explaining them; hopes the 'Pan German Plot' [translated by Lilly Frazer] has been a success.
Inisfail, Hills Road, Cambridge - Thanks him for 'The Golden Bough'; [William] Ridgeway is publishing his first volume next term and will start a crusade to collect money for anthropology for Cambridge; von Hügel is troubled by cataracts; Miss M. Owen is sending a collection of aboriginal beadwork; there were rumors that objects had been stolen from his collections but they were unfounded; [W. H. R.] Rivers is in Egypt.
Vinchelez, Chase Court Gardens, Enfield, Middlesex. Dated August 28th 1911 - Forwards abstracts of three papers to be discussed at the discussion of totemism at the Portsmouth meeting of Section H of the British Association, as per Dr [W. H. R.?] Rivers's instructions: 'An Interpretation of Totemism' by A. A. Goldenweizer, 'On the Relations between Totemic Clans and Secret Societies' by Hutton Webster, 'Totemism as a Cultural Entity' by F. Graebner.
Trinity College, Cambridge. Dated 12 May 1907 - Thanks him for his statement on the use of the anthropological questions; regards his testimony of their usefulness 'by far the most valuable and weighty that I have ever received'; is annoyed at [W. H. R.] Rivers for quoting Roscoe as holding the opposite opinion; thanks him for [Thomas Athol?] Joyce's letter; Roscoe was lucky to have met W. E. Roth; arranges a time for a walk.
Trinity College, Cambridge. Dated 3 July 1907 - Returns the proof of the article on the Bahima and discusses it briefly, including one section in which he consulted [W. H. R.] Rivers; arranges a time for a walk.
Trinity College, Cambridge. Dated 19 July 1907 - Wrote to Liverpool telling them the conditions on which he would accept an offer; is working on his article for the Tylor volume, and wishes he has more time for Bible study and agrees that much light may be thrown on the history of the Hebrews by comparative study of institutions; has many proofs to attend to; apologises for being irritable over the winter due to work; thanks him for the library catalogues; his wife [Lilly] exhibited the phonograph in London to the Japanese Minister of Education.
St John's College, Cambridge - Thanks him for reading his proof [for 'Totemism in Polynesia and Melanesia'?]; sends some lists of kinship terms from Fiji and the Eastern Solomons; Samoa is an interesting place to study kinship systems. Accompanied by a numbered list of names for relatives in the language of people from Tikopia, Tonga, Ysabel in the Solomon Islands, and the Nandrau people of Viti Levu.
St John's - Regrets he does not have [A.] Baessler's book, 'Neue Südsee-Bilder' with Wilhelm Joest's notes [about totemism in the Santa Cruz Islands].
St Thomas' Hosp. - Apologises for not referencing Frazer's 'Totemism and Exogamy' in his book ['Kinship and Social Organisation'?] and offers to write to 'Man' correcting the error.
Vinchelez, Chase Court Gardens, Enfield, Middlesex - Forwards printed abstracts of three papers to be discussed at the discussion of totemism at the Portsmouth meeting of Section H of the British Association, as per Dr [W. H. R.?] Rivers's instructions: 'An Interpretation of Totemism' by A. A. Goldenweizer, 'On the Relations between Totemic Clans and Secret Societies' by Hutton Webster, 'Totemism as a Cultural Entity' by F. Graebner.
St. Keyne's, Cambridge. Dated 1, 14 April 1913 - In the first letter he says he will see [W. H. R.] Rivers about raising funds [for a proposed expedition]; is happy to hear about the new book, and will speak to Waller about the University Press publishing his other book on African tribes. In the second letter he reports on having seen [Alfred] Waller and tells Roscoe to send the MS and makes other suggestions about supporting documentation.
Brick Court, Middle Temple, London E.C. Dated 11th February 1915 - Addresses the issue between Hartland and [John] Roscoe as 'one of degree than of principle' concerning whether to accept 'savage tradition'; has finished the index of GB, and is working on 'The Belief in Immortality' vol. II, and a volume on Folklore in the Old Testament; his wife has written 'La Maison aux Pananceux'; notes Cambridge is doing well, with [A. B.] Cook's 'Zeus' and [W. H. R.] Rivers' two big vols. on Melanesian society.
St. Keyne's, Cambridge. Dated 30 Sept. 1913 [and] St. Keyne, Grange Road, Cambridge. Dated 8 October, 1913 - Two letters concerning a propoal to speak to [James] Bryce, whose connection to Andrew Carnegie and the Carnegie Institute might result in funding [for a proposed expedition]. In the first letter he proposes to write Bryce; apologises that they cannot accept their invitation for the summer; reports that Lilly has just published another French book for children and is writing another for the Cambridge University Press, while he is working on volume VII of G.B. In the second letter, he has spoken to [W. H. R.] Rivers about the idea of approaching Bryce; Rivers is hopeful that an anthropological branch of the Carnegie Institution will be founded soon, but warns there are those who want to cultivate American archaeology instead.
Six letters concerning Frazer's part in further negotiations relating to the funding of Roscoe's work in Central Africa. The letters date from 30 April to 22 May, 1914, and are written from the Albemarle Club and Batt's Hotel in London where he obtained advice from [Arthur] Shipley, and from the Midland Hotel in Manchester on the 8th and 13th May when his brother [Samuel] died; and at the end of May a short holiday at the Grand Hotel in Llandudno. In the letters of 30 April (Items 66 and 67, misnumbered: 67 is written in the morning and 66 in the evening) Frazer mentions seeing Shipley and hopes to get an interview with Reid [Herbert Read], the Under Secretary for the Colonies, and suggests proposing an appointment of eighteen months with a year in Africa and six months working up the report, and mentions this was Lilly's idea; he also forwards a letter [not transcribed] from [W. H. R.] Rivers, who writes discouragingly about a fellowship at St. John's. In the letter of 1 May, he encloses a draft of the letter to Harcourt and suggests he get it signed by [A. C.] Haddon, [William] Ridgeway and Rivers, and reports that he spoke to Ray Lankester and Sir Henry Miers, who are interested. The letter of 8th May reports the serious illness of his brother, and the letter of 13th May thanks him for his sympathy, and continues to discuss the letter to [Lewis] Harcourt; and the letter of 22nd May encloses an answer to the letter [not transcribed], which he describes as 'satisfactory'.
80 Chesterton Road - Encloses notes on the Bituma or mounds, entitled 'The Uganda Custom of Balongo and Nakimu'; ['The Sacrificial places of the kings of Uganda' is also present]; will write the Katikiro again, and returns his copy of [W. H. R.?] Rivers' book.
Accompanied by the envelope with a note in Frazer's hand, 'Mr Roscoe's notes on reincarnation &c.'
1 Brick Court, Middle Temple, E.C. Dated 8th October, 1914 - Is delighted with [C. G.] Seligmann's idea of using the Research Fund to send him to Uganda, and promises to do what he can to support it; when [W. H. R.] Rivers and [A. C.] Haddon return they will also be helpful; suggests he estimate the total cost and be liberal about it.