G. K. Chesterton:A Biography
Page 106
72 Bucks Free Press, 11 Feb. 1927.
73 Ward, GKC 463.
74 St Teresa’s Church, Beaconsfield, parish archives.
75 The following account is based on the circular letters Frances Chesterton dictated to Dorothy Collins, duplicates of which were sent to family and friends (BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 29–35), on the diary Dorothy Collins kept (BL Add. MS 4378C), and on the letters she sent to her mother, Edith Collins (photocopies, GKCL). The duplicates of the circular letters that survive are addressed in hand to ‘Nan’ (not to Blanche Blogg, as The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts. The G. K. Chesterton Papers (London: British Library, 2001), 154, wrongly asserts), who is clearly Nancy Mansfield, an ‘intimate friend’ who ‘lived very close’ to Top Meadow (Ward, RC 86) at West Buttlands, Woodside Road. On the first of these duplicates, of a letter dated 4 May 1927, Frances has written in hand: ‘This copy is for Beaconsfield. It will keep our friends au courant with what we are doin.’ (fo. 29). There is a handwritten note on one of the duplicates (fo. 34) asking ‘Nan’ to go to Top Meadow to look up an address in Frances’s address book, as well as handwritten notes on two other duplicates of circular letters (fos. 31, 33), which show that she had been asked to look after things at Top Meadow. The identification of ‘Nan’ with Nancy Mansfield is firmly established by a postcard dated 31 May 1927 and addressed to the latter at Top Meadow from Eric Gill (BL Add. MS 73195, fo. 93), asking her not to send back some engravings that Gill intended Chesterton to keep.
76 Giles Darvill, ‘With the Chestertons in Poland, 1927: Dorothy Collins’s Portfolio of the Visit’, CR 22/4 (Nov. 1996), 476.
77 A. 306.
78 Sullivan, 162.
79 ILN xxxiv. 334; repr. in GS 42–3. See also Sullivan, 162.
80 Adam Harasowski, News and Comments. CR 3/2 (Spring/Summer 1977), 301.
81 Sullivan, 162.
82 BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 29.
83 Ward, GKC 488–9.
84 A. 306.
85 According to Judith Lea, who became Dorothy Collins’s companion in later years, he had fallen in love with Dorothy and visited her several times in England up to the late 1950s. Darvill, ‘With the Chestertons in Poland, 1927’, 484.
86 A. 306.
87 Sullivan, 163.
88 Dorothy Collins’s notes for a BBC ‘Woman’s Hour’ talk, BL Add. MS 73477, fo. 60.
89 Jessica Conrad to Frances Chesterton, 26 Jan. 1933, BL Add. MS 73236, fos. 84–5.
90 Sullivan, 163; Dorothy Collins’s notes for talks, BL Add. MS 73477, fo. 89.
91 A. 307.
92 A. 307.
93 Clemens, 148–9.
94 RDQ 83, 117, 149, 216, 240–1, 248, 251.
95 See above, p. 28.
96 NJ 246.
97 Culture and the Coming Peril, 11, 17–18.
98 G.K.’s Weekly, 23 Mar. 1929.
99 Ward, GKC 470.
100 According to Maisie Ward (RC 161), the visit took place a year after the Chestertons’ silver wedding in 1926, i.e. 1927. Yet later she quotes a letter written by Chesterton the ‘third summer’ they visited Lyme Regis (p. 172), but postmarked 19 August 1930 (p. 174). But the first visit was definitely in 1927.See notes headed ‘G.K.C. or The Family Circle’ by Clare Nicholl, who says that her family met the Chestertons ‘for the first time in 1927 in Lyme Regis’ (BL Add. MS 73481A, fo. 152).
101 Ward, RC 161–3.
102 Ward, RC 176, 195, 259–62.
103 Ward, RC 176–7.
104 Ward, RC 198, 201–2.
105 Ward, RC 186, 191, 198, 201–2, 204, 206–7.
106 Edmund Esdaile to Maisie Ward, 8 Aug. 1949, BL Add. MS 73481A, fo. 69.
107 Ward, RC 196–7.
108 Dorothy Collins’s notes for a BBC ‘Woman’s Hour’ talk, BL Add. MS 73477, fo. 66.
109 Ward, RC 198–9.
110 G. K. Chesterton to one of the Nicholl girls, n.d., BL Add. MS 73481A, fo. 162.
111 Observer, 10 Jan. 1926. See above, p. 192.
112 Frances Chesterton to John O’Connor, 28 Feb. [1932], BL Add. MS 73196, fo. 145.
113 Titterton, 182–3.
114 George Bernard Shaw to G. K. Chesterton, 20 Oct. 1927, BL Add. MS 73198, fo. 96, partly quoted in Barker, 276.
115 Titterton, 184.
116 Daily Telegraph, 29 Oct. 1927; Manchester Guardian, 29 Oct. 1927.
117 CS 539, 546–51, 554, 557, 560.
118 RLS 50–1.
119 RLS 97–8, 100–02, 117.
120 RLS 97–8, 100–2, 117.
121 RLS 88, 91–3.
122 RLS 64–6, 69, 71–2.
123 RLS 72, 74–6, 78, 81–2, 84, 135, 145.
124 RLS 79, 87–8, 140.
125 Conlon, i. 444–6.
126 VAL 528.
127 G. K. Chesterton to ‘Sir’, 24 Feb. 1928, BL Add. MS 73230, fos. 63–4. The same letter (not a photocopy) is in JJBL.
128 Ward, RC 211–12, 229.
129 Ward, RC 213–16, 218–20, 222; Titterton, 197, 199.
130 Sigrid Undset to G. K. Chesterton, 7 May 1928, BL Add. MS 73240, fo. 125.
131 Sigrid Undset to G. K. Chesterton, 25 Nov. 1931, BL Add. MS 73240, fo. 127.
132 Free Bucks Press, 29 July 1927; 13 July 1928.
133 St Teresa’s Church, Beaconsfield, parish archives.
134 Bucks Free Press, 6 July 1934.
135 GS 3, 20–2, 40, 132–4, 154, 204–5.
136 PL 17, 51–3, 63–4, 94–5, 97, 122–3, 128–9, 197, 240–1.
137 T. 152–3, 189–90.
138 T. 179–81, 184–9.
139 T. 191–2, 195, 240, 243, 258–9, 295–6.
140 Ward, GKC 430.
141 T. 278, 283–6.
142 T. 289–91, 299–300, 303.
1 Sullivan, 163.
2 RR 283–5.
3 Ward, GKC 489–91.
4 Ward, RC 251.
5 Dorothy Collins’s notes for talks, BL Add. MS 73477, fo. 135.
6 Sullivan, 163.
7 Dorothy Collins’s notes for talks, BL Add. MS 73477, fos. 99–100.
8 RR 404–7.
9 Sullivan, 163.
10 RR 451–3.
11 Ward, GKC 493.
12 Sullivan, 163–4.
13 MC 3.
14 MC 5–10, 65–7, 73–4, 197, 200–1.
15 MC 238–41.
16 MC 15, 17, 92, 150–2, 154–5.
17 MC 19–20, 23–6, 233–4.
18 MC 54, 79, 118, 157–8, 161, 192, 272.
19 MC 37–9, 45–9, 51.
20 Ward, GKC 466–7; Dale, 272.
21 Evelyn Waugh, The Life of Ronald Knox (London: Chapman & Hall, 1959), 189 n. 1.
22 Anthony Berkeley to Dorothy Collins, 1 May 1931, BL Add. MS 73481B, fo. 102. See also James Brabazon, Dorothy L. Sayers: The Life of a Courageous Woman (London: Victor Gollancz, 1981), 144; Barbara Reynolds, Dorothy L. Sayers: Her Life and Soul (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1993), 242.
23 Ward, GKC 468, wrongly attributes the introduction to Chesterton.
24 Ward, GKC 468.
25 Dorothy L. Sayers to G. K. Chesterton, 12 Jan. 1932, BL Add. MS 73481B, fo. 68.
26 A. 288–9.
27 A. 289–91.
28 See above, pp. 293–4.
29 Ward, GKC 472.
30 Ward, GKC 472–3, 475–6.
31 FFF 40, 47, 101, 124–5, 150.
32 UNDA, UPCO 1/80.
33 UNDA, UPCO 1/80.
34 UNDA, UPCO 1/80, 85.
35 Dorothy Collins, ‘notes for a talk to a womens meeting in Beaconsfield’ [sic], dated 1932. BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 47. Hereafter referred to as ‘American Notes’.
36 Ward, GKC 500.
37 UNDA, UPCO 1/80.
38 UNDA UPCO 1/80, 1/81.
39 UNDA, UPCO 1/80, 1/81.
40 UNDA, UPCO 1/81.
41 Sheila Mawhood, The Gem of the Diocese: St Augustine’s, High Wycombe (privately printed, n.d.), 42, 48.
42 Frances Chesterton to
John O’Connor, 5 Sept. [1930], BL Add. MS 73196, fo. 142.
43 Sullivan, 164.
44 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 20 Sept. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 37–8. The British Library Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts. The G. K. Chesterton Papers. Additional Manuscripts 73186–73484 (London: British Library, 2001), 154, incorrectly says that the letters written by Frances Chesterton on this visit to North America were addressed to her mother, Blanche Blogg. Some of the letters were addressed to her but others to ‘Dearest people’, for whom those addressed to Dearest Mater’ (Marie Louise Chesterton) were also intended.
45 Sullivan, 164.
46 Frances Chesterton to ‘Dearest People’, 24 Sept. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fos.38–43
47 The following account of this second lecture tour of North America is based not only on the letters of Frances Chesterton to her mother-in-law and family (BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 36–68) and on the letters of Dorothy Collins to her mother (BL Add. MS 73471), but also on Dorothy Collins’s ‘American Notes’, some typed notes headed Trip to Canada & America. 1930’ and covering the period from 19 Sept. to 6 Nov. 1930 (BL Add. MS 43748 C, fos. 12–15), another set of typed notes headed simply 1930’ and covering the period from 28 Sept. 1930 to 17 April 1931 (BL Add. MS 43748C, fos. 20–2), a typed itinerary (BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 44–5), a handwritten list of dates and places (BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 18), and a handwritten diary for 1831 (BL Add. MS 73478B).
48 AG 181–2.
49 BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 44–5.
50 These newspaper cuttings (BL Add. MS 73403) were arranged more or less chronologically but never mounted in an album like the cuttings on the previous visit.
51 Frances Chesterton to Dearest people’, 30 Sept. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 46.
52 Frances Chesterton to undisclosed recipient, n.d., BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 60 (where it has been misplaced, as it clearly relates to this first visit and not to the later Christmas visit).
53 UNDA, UPCO 1/81.
54 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 7.
55 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 9.
56 Ward, RC 211.
57 Ward, GKC 500–1.
58 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 6 Oct. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 47.
59 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 6 Oct. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 47.
60 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 11.
61 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 6 Oct. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 47–8.
62 ‘American Notes’, BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 48.
63 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 6 Oct. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 47–8.
64 South Bend 1930 City Directory.
65 Ward, RC 252.
66 ‘American Notes’, BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 49.
67 Ward, RC 252–3.
68 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, n.d., BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 18.
69 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 7 Nov. 1930, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 44.
70 Ward, RC 252–3.
71 Dorothy Collins’s notes for talks, BL Add. MS 73477, fo. 170.
72 Ward, RC 252–4.
73 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 23 Oct. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 49.
74 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 7 Nov. 1930, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 45.
75 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 18 Oct. 1930, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 28.
76 Clemens, 71.
77 Ward, GKC 178.
78 New World, 17 Oct. 1930.
79 BL Add. MS 74303, fo. 19.
80 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 24.
81 G. K. Chesterton to Clare Nichol, 28 Oct. 1930, BL Add. MS 73481A, fos. 159–60. Since Chesterton’s letters are never dated (unless a copy was made or they were dictated to a secretary who would type in the date) and since he was no longer in Chicago on 28 Oct., presumably Clare Nichol dated the letter by the postmark when she typed out this copy that she gave to Maisie Ward, in which she omitted to capitalize green pasture’, an omission I have silently corrected.
82 Clemens, 99; Ward, GKC 493–6.
83 Dorothy Collins’s notes for talks, BL Add. MS 73477, fo. 93.
84 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 28.
85 Clemens, 105–6.
86 Richard Baker, John R. Connolly, and Ronald Zudeck, ‘Notes on Chesterton’s Notre Dame Lectures on Victorian Literature’, CR 3/2 (Spring–Summer 1977), 168–9, 72.
87 Ward, RC 253.
88 Ward, RC 254.
89 ‘American Notes’, BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 49.
90 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 17 Nov. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 50–1; ‘American Notes’, BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 47.
91 ‘American Notes’, BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 47.
92 UNDA, UPCO 1/81.
93 BL Add. MS 73403, fos. 34–5.
94 Ward, RC 242.
95 Ward, RC 242, 244–5.
96 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 52–3.
97 UNDA, UPCO 1/83.
98 Ffinch, 324.
99 See p. 440.
100 Clemens, 89–90.
101 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 57.
102 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 69.
103 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 15 Dec. 1930, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 80.
104 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 71.
105 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 19 Dec. 1930, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 86.
106 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 54.
107 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 57.
108 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 80.
109 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 11, 19 Dec. 1930, BL Add. MS 73471, fos. 74, 85, 87.
110 Dorothy Collins’s notes for a BBC Woman’s Hour’ talk, BL Add. MS 73477, fo. 66.
111 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 28 Dec. 1930, BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 56–9.
112 ‘American Notes’, BL Add. MS 73478C, fo. 50.
113 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 12 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 99.
114 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 14 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73456, fos. 63–4.
115 A. 300–1; Sullivan, 165.
116 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 85.
117 Clemens, 67.
118 A. 301.
119 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 24 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS73471, fo. 106.
120 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 24 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 106.
121 BL Add. MS 73403, fo. 87.
122 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 25 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 109.
123 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 28 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 110.
124 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 29 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 112.
125 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 30 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fos. 113, 115.
126 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 31 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 116.
127 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 8 Feb. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 120.
128 UNDA, UPCO 1/82.
129 Frances Chesterton to Marie Louise Chesterton, 12 Feb. 1931, BL Add. MS 73456, fo. 66.
130 C. A. Chesterton to G. K. Chesterton, 25 Jan. 1931, BL Add. MS 73193, fo. 62.
131 ‘American Notes’, BL Add. MS 73478 C, fo. 52.
132 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 20 Feb. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 140.
133 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 27 Feb. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 143.
134 Dorothy Collins to Edith Collins, 19 Mar. 1931, BL Add. MS 73471, fo. 158.