Item 9 - Letter from Alice Walker to R. B. McKerrow

2 single sheets

The White House, Tite Hill, Englefield Green.—Suggests meeting to discuss some small points. Once these are settled, far fewer questions are likely to arise. Would like to know more about the initial stages of his work on Shakespeare.

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Transcript

at The White House, Tite Hill,
Englefield Green. Surrey.
30 April 1936

Dear Dr. McKerrow,

Thank you for your letter. I am sorry I didn’t manage to answer it yesterday. I was out most of the day and the rest of the time was taken up by an accumulation of domestic chores & errands that had to be attended to. I think it would be a great saving of your time if I saw you one day next week. I hate to think of all the energy you have had to squander in writing short essays on the many (and often trivial) points I have raised. Any time on Monday, Thursday or Friday {1} would suit me—so will you say what day and time is best for you? A number of small points have cropped up since I sent the first pages of I Henry VI—mere trivialities, largely concerning arrangement etc., that would take long to settle if I saw you but would take a fair time to wrestle with by letter. When these are disposed of I don’t think there is ever likely to be such a running fire of questions as there has been and I should be able to get along with some confidence that I am doing the right thing. I will post tomorrow the rest of Act I in case any of my difficulties necessitate reference to books that arn’t at your office.

I have gone through the notes you sent yesterday in reply to my questions. Thank you for being so patient with me! I am afraid that I must have encroached on a great deal of your time, but I feel now that I should be able to get along for the most part under my own steam. A great many of the questions I have raised about Steevens and the Variorum are, I think, due to the fact that you had told me that you had begun by collating these editions and, later, decided to turn them out; hence, I think, I am perhaps unduly suspicious that references to them are survivals of earlier intentions that you arn’t going to follow out.

Thank you for your letter of this morning. I was going to ask you whether I might mark in pencil, on your MS., corrections I had made in the typescript as this will not only save me the bother of making a list of my alterations but will also save you the trouble of referring to an extra set of papers to see what I have done.
I intended you to keep the checked carbon copy you returned {2} (as well as the clean one) so that you would know what I had done, so I will send it back with the things tomorrow. I will also endeavour to answer any counter-queries in your replies to mine. A way of getting round one or two difficulties has occurred to me, so I’ll send my suggestions along in case they are any use.

One day (when you have the time!) I should very much like to know how you hacked your way through the Shakespearean jungle when you began. It must have seemed such an overwhelming tangle that I should be interested to know what the initial stages were. I hope you arn’t really depressed to find that Henry VI has got a little scratched as you dragged him through! I don’t see what process could have been adopted other than that of trial and error and, as the first play to emerge from the wood, it seems to me that it was inevitable that it would suffer some damage. I hope you feel that the collation notes have been worth the effort. In reading the Cambridge collation notes this last week I have been very much struck by the much greater range, economy and effectiveness of your method.

When you write don’t trouble to give me a choice of time or days. Unless anything unexpected crops up, I can call at your office whenever it is most convenient for you.

Yours sincerely,
Alice Walker.

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Typed, except the signature and a correction.

{1} 4, 7, or 8 May.

{2} The copy collation-notes denominated (b) in MCKW A4/7, comprising two sheets, namely pp. 1–2 of item 3(b) in MCKW A4/11.