Item 47 - Letter from Robert Frost to R. C. Trevelyan

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Franconia, N[ew] H[ampshire], U.S.A. - Lascelles [Abercrombie] asked him to send his contribution for the "Annual [of New Poetry]" directly to Trevelyan, since he himself was 'swallowing up somewhere in a munition factory and there was to be no more him to send them to'. Knows this sounds heartless, but he must 'speak heartlessly to speak at all': if he gives in too much to his 'sympathies' he fears they will 'snap the tugs and break away from the load they are pulling', which would be worse than not pulling at all - the load being 'my country and the indifference of it'. Much has happened since the night he and Trevelyan 'saw the moving pictures' near the Vienna Café [in London], but he does not think he has seen moving pictures again, the nearest he has come an invitation 'to read a poem between prayers and a.... Life of Christ [Sidney Olcott's "From the Manger to the Cross"?]' while the audience were getting into their seats. Sends best wishes for 'the country half my own'. Adds postscript asking whether any arrangements have been made for publishing the "Annual" in the U.S., and whether he could tell his own publisher about it if not.