Item 18 - Letter from Alice Walker to R. B. McKerrow

3 single sheets

The White House, Tite Hill, Englefield Green.—His replies have answered her questions. Will return 1 Henry VI, Act II, tomorrow, and is ready for 2 Henry VI. Will formally acknowledge his letter about Lodge, and is hopeful that the Publications Committee will give her what she wants.

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Transcript

at The White House, Tite Hill,
Englefield Green.
17 May 1936.

Dear Dr. McKerrow,

Thank you very much for your letter of yesterday (the one about the spelling collations). I think your decision to relegate things like your present ‘antique’ collation note to the general notes is, from every point of view, sound. I feel sure that it is not only more logical but also more economical than the present arrangement. I don’t think there is anything I can say of it except Hallelujah!

I must apologise for not having acknowledged the packet of papers on I Henry VI Act II which reached me on Friday morning {1}. I was going away for the day immediately after breakfast and didn’t get back until it was too late to get a letter to you before the week-end. I have now gone through your replies and feel a great deal clearer about the points I raised, particularly in the matter of stage names and stage directions. Now that I see my queries again, I can’t think why I was so idiotic as to raise some of the very niggling problems I did, but in future I shall certainly interpret your intentions more wisely for your patient explanation of the difficulties you had to circumvent. It must have been very irritating to have to wrestle so fiercely with problems raised not by the text but by its editors. No wonder you are showing such masterly restraint in this field where editorial fancy has roamed so freely! As I can’t return your papers by registered post today, I may drop them at your office tomorrow if I am in town; if not, I will post them tomorrow (perhaps with Act V). I hope I shall be able to spare you the shock of seeing yet another colour scheme of sealing wax & string, though I was relieved to know that your taste was less sober than I thought! I hope you are not seriously thinking that all this mental wrestling is wearing me down. I don’t feel in the least depressed, except at the thought that I may be depressing you by my ceaseless demands for explanation of difficulties. I hope you are not thinking that I have an incorrigibly destructive mind & am more of a hindrance than a help. I have rather made a point of raising all the objections I can at the beginning as I have found so often that if you wait and ultimately find you have to say what has been in your mind all along, it seems inconsiderate not to have spoken before. Consequently I have been very niggling and provocative!

I can face II Henry VI whenever you care to send it and I sincerely hope I shan’t need so much guidance in the future. (I am confident I shan’t.) I shall be going on to Oxford next week end or just after. If there is anything you wish to see me about before I go north, will you let me know? I don’t suppose I shall be in town again for some time after I leave here.

I ought also to be acknowledging your letter about Lodge. It certainly clears up the situation and I hope it will be possible to wheedle the Publications Committee into giving me what I want. I will write a formal acknowledgement to your office in a day or two. I shan’t manage to get it written today as I am just going out to tea & the post from here goes early.

Yours sincerely,
Alice Walker.

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{1} 15th.