The Life of Graham Greene (1939-1955)
Page 67
28 Frere asked the printer to set up specimen pages which he then sent to Greene. Greene was not easily satisfied, and Frere had to write to reassure him that his wishes would be carried out: ‘Here are some more specimen pages, one of them set in Mon 45–11 point solid, as you requested.’
29 Letter to Louise Callender, October 1946.
30 Letter to Heinemann, 11 October 1946.
31 Interview with John and Gillian Sutro, 1976.
32 Ibid.
33 New Statesman, 9 September 1944.
34 Interview with Desmond Pakenham, 11 June 1977.
35 Interview with Mario Soldati, 18 May 1977.
36 Interview with Walter Allen, 1977.
37 Ibid.
38 Interview with Graham Greene, 25 April 1981.
39 Michael Meyer, Not Prince Hamlet: Literary and Theatrical Memoirs, Secker & Warburg, 1989, p. 124.
16 The Heart of the Matter
1 Interview with Malcolm and Kitty Muggeridge, June 1977.
2 Interview with the Reverend Vincent Turner, July 1991.
3 Interview with Lady Melchett, 15 August 1991.
4 The End of the Affair, Heinemann, 1951, p. 178.
5 Interview with Belinda Straight, 26 July 1992.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid. On another occasion, Bonte was sitting in the bath and reciting poetry when a black hand emerged through the open window. Bonte screamed and ran downstairs without any clothes on to where her parents were having a dinner party. Bonte cried out about the black hand and everybody rushed upstairs. Bobs, who had climbed up on the roof and stuck her blackened hand in the window, was caught out as she was trying to get the black off her hand.
9 Ibid.
10 Catherine did not believe in her own intelligence, and in part needed mentors to educate her. She learned a great deal about paintings from Sir John Rothenstein, then director of the Tate Gallery. Her brother, David Crompton, said that she had to be told what was good art before she could appreciate it and that it was Henry Moore, the sculptor, who taught Catherine how to see through her own eyes.
When she met Greene, she embarked on a course of reading which he encouraged. He recommended Deaths and Departures by Dylan Thomas, and novels by E. M. Forster, Henry James, Trollope, Mauriac, and Scott Fitzgerald. Greene’s reading list in non-fiction included The Journal of Alice James, The Craft of Fiction by Percy Lubbock and the biography of Wordsworth by Herbert Read.
11 Interview with Belinda Straight, 26 July 1992.
12 Interview with Bonte Durán, 25 May 1992.
13 Interview with Belinda Straight, 26 July 1992.
14 Ibid.
15 Interview with Bonte Durán, 25 May 1992.
16 Ibid.
17 Ibid.
18 Letter from Catherine Walston to Belinda Straight, 31 January 1969.
19 Interview with Lady Melchett, 15 August 1991.
20 Ibid.
21 Interview with Lady Walston, 13 June 1992.
22 Telephone interview with William Walston, 14 June 1994.
23 Interview with Lady Walston, 13 June 1992.
24 Letter from Catherine Walston to Belinda Straight, 31 January 1969.
25 Interview with Vivien Greene, 26 July 1979.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid., 23 June 1977.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 Interview with Sir Hugh Greene, 19 May 1981.
31 Interview with Vivien Greene, 26 July 1979.
32 Ibid., 15 August 1977.
33 Letter to Catherine Walston, probably June 1947.
34 Letter from Vivien Greene to author, 15 January 1982.
35 Interview with Vivien Greene, 26 July 1979.
36 Interview with Graham Greene, 25 April 1981.
37 Undated letter to his mother.
38 The Heart of the Matter, Penguin edition, 1983, p. 138.
39 Letter to Catherine Walston, 30 September 1947.
40 Ibid.
41 The Heart of the Matter, p. 76.
42 Letter from Vivien Greene to Catherine Walston, 21 December 1946.
43 Letter to Catherine Walston, 26 December 1946.
44 Undated letter to his mother.
45 Undated letter from Vivien Greene to Catherine Walston.
46 Ibid.
47 Letter from Vivien Greene to Catherine Walston, 14 February 1947.
48 Interview with Vivien Greene, 23 June 1977.
49 The Heart of the Matter, p. 32.
50 Undated letter from Vivien Greene to Catherine Walston.
51 A Quick Look Behind, Sylvester & Orphanos, 1983, p. 23.
52 Letter to Catherine Walston, 6 May 1947.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Ibid.
57 An undated note on blue paper written in pencil.
58 Letter to Catherine Walston, 17 May 1947.
59 Ibid., 27 June 1947.
60 Ibid.
61 Undated letter to Catherine Walston, probably October 1947.
62 The Heart of the Matter, p. 235.
63 Interview with Vivien Greene, 26 July 1979.
64 The Heart of the Matter, pp. 25–6.
65 Ibid., p. 16.
66 Ibid., p. 56.
67 Ibid., p. 57.
68 Ibid., p. 58.
69 Ibid.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid., pp. 58–60.
72 Ibid., p. 25.
73 Ibid., p. 77.
74 Letter to Catherine Walston, 27 August 1947.
75 Ibid., 25 August 1947.
76 Ibid., undated, probably 2 September 1947.
17 The Third Man and Other Friends
1 Letter to Catherine Walston, 11 June 1947.
2 Ibid., 2 August 1947.
3 See The Life of Graham Greene, Vol. One, p. 590.
4 Nicholas Wapshott, The Man Between, Chatto & Windus, 1990, p. 195.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid., pp. 195–6.
8 Ibid., p. 196.
9 The Pleasure Dome: The Collected Film Criticism, 1935–40, ed. John Russell Taylor, Oxford University Press, 1980, p. 265.
10 Wapshott, The Man Between, p. 196.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 On 2 August 1947 Greene notes ‘I am working and working at The Basement Room …’ and only on 2 September could he announce: ‘I’ve nearly finished the first work with Carol Reed (they begin shooting on September 13).’ Letters to Catherine Walston, 2 August 1947 and 2 September 1947.
14 New York Post, quoted in Wapshott, The Man Between, p. 204.
15 Ways of Escape, Penguin edition, 1987, p. 96.
16 Ibid.
17 Interview with Graham Greene, 11 August 1977.
18 Letter to Catherine Walston, 30 September 1947.
19 Ibid., 12 February 1948.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid.
23 The Third Man, Penguin edition, 1971, p. 13.
24 Ibid., p. 14.
25 Letter to Catherine Walston, 12 February 1948.
26 The Third Man, p. 20.
27 Letter to Catherine Walston, 17 February 1948.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., 18 February 1948.
30 Ibid.
31 Letter to the News Chronicle, 27 February 1948.
32 Ways of Escape, p. 105.
33 Marie-Françoise Allain, The Other Man: Conversations with Graham Greene, Bodley Head, 1983, p. 150.
34 Interview with John Cairncross, 14 May 1977.
35 He also used as his work table a better-made desk of solid chestnut under a window on the ground floor.
36 An Impossible Woman: The Memories of Dottoressa Moor of Capri, ed. and with epilogue by Graham Greene, Viking, 1976, pp. 193–4.
37 Ian Greenlees, Norman Douglas, British Council, 1957, p. 28.
38 Interview with Graham Greene, 25 April 1981.
39 Interview with Mario Soldati, 18 May
1977.
40 Ibid.
41 Letter to Catherine Walston, 1 April 1948.
42 Ways of Escape, p. 98.
43 Letter to Catherine Walston from Hotel Astoria, 21 June 1948.
44 The Third Man, p. 14.
45 Interview with Elizabeth Montagu, 10 April 1991.
46 The Third Man, p. 113.
47 Ibid., pp. 113–14.
48 Ibid.
49 Ways of Escape, p. 99.
50 Interview with Elizabeth Montagu, 10 April 1991.
51 The Third Man, Penguin edition, 1971, pp. 80–1.
52 Letter to Catherine Walston, 26 June 1948.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid., 21 June 1948.
55 Barbara Learning, Orson Welles, A Biography, Penguin, 1986, p. 444.
56 Interview with Elizabeth Montagu, 10 April 1991.
57 Undated letter to Catherine Walston.
58 Ibid., 4 August 1948.
59 Letter to Catherine Walston, 4 August 1948.
60 Ibid.
61 Ibid., 5 August 1948.
62 Postcard to Harry Walston, 9 August 1948.
63 Letter to Catherine Walston, 14 August 1948.
64 Ways of Escape, p. 52.
65 Ibid., pp. 52–3.
66 Ibid., p. 51.
67 The Third Man, Lorrimer, 1968, p. 114, n. 78. Script from the 1949 film by Graham Greene and Carol Reed.
68 Letter to Catherine Walston, August 1948.
69 Letter to his mother, 1 November 1948.
70 Malcolm Muggeridge, Like It Was: A Selection from the Diaries of Malcolm Muggeridge, ed. John Bright-Holmes, Collins, 1981, p. 297. Entry for 13 September 1948.
71 Letter to Catherine Walston, 22 August 1948.
72 Interview with Graham Greene, 25 April 1981.
73 Letter to Catherine Walston, 23 August 1948.
18 Love as a Fever
1 Letter to Catherine Walston, 29 June 1947.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid., 18 August 1947.
4 T. S. Eliot, Selected Essays, Harcourt Brace, 1950, p. 380.
5 Marie-Françoise Allain, The Other Man: Conversations with Graham Greene, Bodley Head, 1983, p. 158.
6 Letter to Catherine Walston, 22 August 1947.
7 Interview with Lady Melchett, 15 August 1991.
8 Interview with David Crompton, 26 May 1992.
9 The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Michael Davie, Penguin, 1979, p. 701.
10 Letter to Nancy Mitford, 4 October 1948, The Letters of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Mark Amory, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980, pp. 283–4.
11 Interview with Lady Melchett, 15 August 1991.
12 Waugh, Diaries, p. 707.
13 The End of the Affair, Heinemann, 1951, p. 116.
14 Interview with Lady Melchett, 15 August 1991.
15 The End of the Affair, p. 54.
16 Interview with Lady Melchett, 15 August 1991.
17 The End of the Affair, p. 55.
18 Ibid., p. 56.
19 Ibid., p. 54.
20 Letter to Catherine Walston, 6 May 1947.
21 Letter to Catherine Walston, 16 May 1947.
22 Postcard to Catherine Walston, 18 May 1947.
23 The End of the Affair, pp. 31–2.
24 Letter from Yvonne Cloetta to author, 23 May 1994.
25 Letter to Catherine Walston, 16 May 1947.
26 Ibid., 17 May 1947.
27 Ibid., 4 June 1947.
28 Ibid., 11 June 1947. An unusual ending to his letter but for the fact that his previous letter to Catherine spoke of her being right when she had warned him against taking morphia: ‘It’s going to be bloody curing myself – I hope I can do it in a week like you can.’ (Undated letter, probably 4 June 1947.)
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid., 27 June 1947.
31 Letter to Catherine Walston, 29 June 1947.
32 Ibid., 6 July 1947.
33 Ibid.
34 Ibid., 2 August 1947.
35 The End of the Affair, p. 60
36 Letter to Catherine Walston, 2 August 1947.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid., undated but written close to 5 August 1947.
39 Postcard to Catherine Walston, 4 August 1947.
40 Letter to Catherine Walston, 21 August 1947.
41 Ibid. Greene did one theatre review of Noël Coward’s ‘Point Verlaine’, on 13 September, and a book review on Robert Liddell’s Treatise on the Novel before the year ended.
42 Ibid., 22 August 1947.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid., 24 August 1947.
45 Ibid.
46 Ibid.
47 Interview with Vivien Greene, 23 June 1977.
48 Ibid., 15 August 1977.
49 A Burnt-Out Case, Penguin edition, 1977, p. 15.
50 Letter to Catherine Walston, 2 September 1947.
51 Ibid., 5 September 1947.
52 Ibid.
53 Ibid., 15 September 1947.
54 Interview with Vivien Greene, 10 August 1983.
55 The End of the Affair, pp. 62–3.
56 Ibid., p. 61.
57 Ibid., p. 53.
58 Ibid., p. 108.
59 Ibid.
60 Letter to Catherine Walston, 2 September 1947.
61 The Heart of the Matter, Penguin edition, 1983, p. 81.
62 Letter to Catherine Walston, 2 September 1947.
63 Ibid., 5 September 1947.
64 The End of the Affair, p. 61.
65 Letter to Catherine Walston, 28 September 1947.
66 The End of the Affair, pp. 31–2.
67 Letter to Catherine Walston, 12 September 1947.
68 Interview with Vivien Greene, 26 July 1977.
69 Oxford Mail, 28 April 1945.
70 Letter to Catherine Walston, 29 June 1947.
71 Interview with Vivien Greene, 15 August 1977.
72 Ibid.
73 Letter to Vivien Greene, 12 December 1947.
74 The Heart of the Matter, pp. 220–1.
75 Interview with Vivien Greene, 26 July 1977.
19 Private Wars
1 Interview with Vivien Greene, 26 July 1977.
2 The Quiet American, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 88.
3 Letter from Marion Greene to Vivien Greene, 7 January 1948.
4 Ibid., 29 June 1948.
5 Letter from Marion Greene to Vivien Greene, 7 January 1948.
6 The Diaries of Evelyn Waugh, ed. Michael Davie, Penguin, 1979, p. 694.
7 Saturday Review of Literature, 10 July 1948.
8 Letter to Vivien Greene, 9 April 1943.
9 The Potting Shed, Penguin edition, 1971, p. 84.
10 Letter to Vivien Greene, 24 April 1945.
11 Letter to Catherine Walston, 13 April 1950.
12 The Potting Shed, p. 88.
13 The End of the Affair, Heinemann, 1951, p. 61.
14 Letter to Catherine Walston, 6 January 1951.
15 The End of the Affair, p. 107.
16 The Heart of the Matter, Penguin edition, 1983, p. 159.
17 Ibid., p. 160.
18 Ibid., p. 161.
19 Ibid., p. 178.
20 The Ministry of Fear, Penguin edition, 1978, p. 218.
21 The Heart of the Matter, p. 51.
22 Ibid., p. 179.
23 Ibid., p. 191.
24 Charles Pierre Péguy (1873–1914), French publisher, poet and Catholic.
25 Undated letter from Father Martindale to Vivien Greene, 1948.
26 Undated letter from Father Martindale to Vivien Greene.
27 Letter from Vivien Greene, 31 July 1948.
28 Ibid.
29 Letter to Vivien Greene, 12 August 1948.
30 Ibid., 3 June 1948.
31 Ibid.
32 Ibid.
33 Letter from Vivien Greene to Mr Bishchoff, 27 September 1948.
34 Letter to Catherine Walston, 27 January 1948.
35 The Power and the Glory, Penguin edition, 1983, p. 131.
36 The End of the Affair, p. 117.
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37 Letter to Vivien Greene, 1948.
38 Letter to Catherine Walston, 29 April 1948.
39 Ibid., 11 May 1948.
40 Ibid.
41 Ibid.
42 Ibid., 19 May 1948.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid., 7 June 1948.
45 Ibid., 26 June 1948.
46 Ibid.
20 A Vulgar Success
1 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 18 January 1926.
2 John Donne, ‘The Will’.
3 Edward Sackville-West, ‘The Problem of Despair’, New Statesman and Nation, 19 June 1948, p. 108.
4 Letter to Catherine Walston, 7 June 1948.
5 Tablet, 5 June 1948.
6 Catholic Herald, 6 August 1948.
7 Tablet, 10 July 1948.
8 Universe, 3 September 1948.
9 Ibid., 16 July 1948.
10 Letter to New Statesman and Nation, 26 June 1948.
11 Universe, 18 June 1948.
12 Ibid., 25 June 1948.
13 Ibid., 16 July 1948.
14 New Yorker, 17 July 1948.
15 Undated letter to Evelyn Waugh, probably June 1948.
16 The Heart of the Matter, Penguin edition, 1983, p. 125.
17 Ibid., p. 125.
18 Ibid., p. 220. Greene uses the same bargaining prayer again and again in his work. In The Potting Shed (1957), Father Callifer recalls the loss of his faith despite the miraculous recovery of his nephew James (who in childhood tried to hang himself).
Father Callifer recalls holding James on his knees, praying, and experiencing a terrible pain as if he were the one being strangled: ‘I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t speak … then your breath came back and it was just as though I had died instead.’ (The Potting Shed, Penguin edition, 1971, pp. 73–4)
Finally James persuades his uncle to recall exactly his prayer: ‘I suppose I offered something in return. Something I valued … I said, “Let him live, God. I love him. Let him live. I will give you anything if you will let him live.” But what had I got to give him? I was a poor man. I said, “Take away what I love most. Take … take …”’ (p. 75)
Callifer cannot remember his exact words and it is James, hearing the words upon coming back to life after attempting suicide who remembers for him: ‘Take away my faith, but let him live?’ (p. 75)
However, perhaps it is most crucial in The End of the Affair. Sarah recounts in her diary discovering her lover, Bendrix, in the ruins of a bombed house: ‘I didn’t see Maurice at first, and then I saw his arm coming out from under the door. I touched his hand: I could have sworn it was a dead hand … wouldn’t I have recognised life if there was any of it left in touching his hand?’ So Sarah prays: ‘I’m a bitch and a fake and I hate myself … Make me believe. I shut my eyes tight, and I pressed my nails into the palms of my hands until I could feel nothing but the pain, and I said, I will believe. Let him be alive, and I will believe … Let him have his happiness … But that wasn’t enough. It doesn’t hurt to believe. So I said, I love him and I’ll do anything if you’ll make him alive. I said very slowly, I’ll give him up for ever, only let him be alive with a chance, and … I said, People can love without seeing each other, can’t they, they love You all their lives without seeing You, and then he came in at the door, and he was alive, and I thought now the agony of being without him starts, and I wish he was safely back dead again under the door.’ (Heinemann edition, 1951, pp. 112–13.)