Pièce 8 - Letter from Marius Bewley to James Smith

2 single sheets

[St Paul Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota.]—Has come, at short notice, to study at the St Paul Seminary. The first week was miserable, but he has been persuaded to stay. The rector [Lawrence O. Wolf] has been sympathetic, while the archbishop [John Gregory Murray], who has plans for him to teach English at St Thomas College, intends to send him back to Cambridge to take a doctor’s degree when he finishes at St Paul’s and has arranged for him to read English alongside his other studies. Has found some of the other seminarians agreeable, or at least pleasant. Describes with approval the grounds and the chapel, but deplores the prevailing crudeness among the seminarians. Is glad to be isolated from news of the war. Is fairly certain he will remain where he is for five years and that his studies will prepare him for an important function, though he wants to preserve the possibility of literary studies. Acknowledges that without Smith’s support he would probably have lost his vocation, and asks him to inform Leavis of his present step. His books have only recently arrived. Gordon [Cox] has sent him accounts of ‘marches and drilling and meeting with the son of the Bishop of Birmingham [William P. W. Barnes]’. Asks to be remembered to various Cambridge Catholics.