Item 124 - Letter from J. H. Whitfield to James Smith

1 single sheet

110 Banbury Road, Oxford.—Sends the text of his first two lectures. Has come to the view that Petrarch’s Latin works are his most important, and that he should prepare a short study of the subject. Is glad that Leavis is being helpful and hopes that Smith has been able to get some students from Wilson. Refers to his own tutorials. Thanks him for the confidential news of Bottrall. ‘I imagined that Goad was strongly entrenched in a policy of dolce far niente, but they did hope that Bottrall would push him out, instead of vice versa.’ His discovery of the Dürer has improved his position at the university. Agrees with the point about ‘opportunity’: ‘there was no enthusiasm in Italy to fight for Hitler, and the fear of the Brenner frontier and the Balkan drive may well send Italy into the Allied camp again’.