Item 116 - Letter from J. H. Whitfield to James Smith

110 Banbury Road, Oxford.—Is concerned that the cheque [for Smith’s work on the Hypnerotomachia] may have been inadequate. Discusses some points of vocabulary. Is glad Smith has found a house in Cambridge. Must work hard at his lectures on religious poetry in order to be able to go to Italy at the end of the week. Does not expect that any of his work [on the Hypnerotomachia] will be printed except perhaps an essay on the vocabulary; OUP have refused and the initial response from Methuens was not encouraging. Is sickened by the international situation; his real motive for suggesting the Daily Worker and Reynold’s [see 1/112] was that he hoped that Smith might be able to use his pen ‘in the interests of truth’. ‘I find the dishonesty of the Times appalling.’