Item 52 - Letter from F. R. Leavis to James Smith

Downing College, Cambridge.—Apologises for keeping his essay for so long without writing. It arrived as he was preparing for the Tripos. He did read the essay through and re-read the play (which made him ‘ashamed for Shakespeare’), but then ‘the avalanche of the Tripos descended’ and he had to mark a large quantity of papers and other work. ‘I got through on sun & the port King, the Fellows’ Butler, finds me.’ His view, and that of Q[ueenie, his wife], is that Shakespeare’s play ‘can’t be treated as decent & responsible & serious’, and so does not deserve the detailed treatment Smith gives it. Kingsford of the CUP is looking for a set of Scrutiny to reproduce, and Leavis has suggested he buy Smith’s.