Item 61 - Letter from E. M. Forster to Elizabeth Trevelyan

3 sheets

W[est] H[ackhurst]. - Bessie ‘cannot imagine how consoling’ her letter was, ‘nor Bob how well placed his flounce. The whole thing was done without my knowledge [the adaptation and broadcast of his story The Eternal Moment], and the first news he had of it was ‘the ghastly sketch in the Radio Times’. As she may imagine, ‘rows are in progress’: with his publishers, who gave permission without consulting him, as they are bound to do by the terms of the contract; and with the producer [Howard Rose] ‘for his discourtesy in ignoring me, and for supposing that an author doesn’t know anything [crossed through] can’t help over his own book’.

The contrast between ‘this insensitive hack’ and Leonard Cottrell, producer of The Celestial Omnibus, is ‘extraordinary’; Cottrell consulted him throughout, and invited him to Manchester for the rehearsal. Will let her see the letters if she likes. Is ‘taking it all to the Society of Authors’, and then will ‘ask for an interview with someone in the B.B.C., as this sort of thing must be stopped’. Notes that they acted legally [in obtaining permission from his publishers].

Looks forward to visiting soon. The cold has been ‘terrible’, and they are ‘still not feeling the better for it’. Chi’en was ‘nice’, but Forster criticises his English: ‘I once ventured to Chi’en that his lectures were becoming difficult to follow. He beamed and continues to deteriorate. Something is wrong with the Chinese after all, I fancy’. Went to Cambridge last week ‘to speak to Indians’; did not see Bertie [Bertrand Russell], but his lectures ‘continue a huge success, and the other dons are most critical: - jealousy partly, partly the uneasy knowledge that he upholds humanism in a community which has betrayed it’. His mother sends her love.