The Luck of Friendship

by James Laughlin

  Bigelow is now a house-guest. He told me about the McDowell-Bowles affair and I must say I think David’s conduct has been unprofessional. Knowing as well as I do your enormous enthusiasm for Bowles, his novel and stories, I am totally unable to credit the suggestion that you have failed in any way to push Bowles’s book as well as you can without the high-pressure methods of the big commercial houses which you naturally don’t wish to emulate. As for Bowles, I suppose he gets a little panicky about money, and that, too, is understandable and will call for some patience on your part. Do you think I should write him, or is it better for me to stay out of it? I think what he needs is a little reassurance, perhaps most suitably coming from you.

  On a separate page, some “copy” for Mrs. Stone. Could I see the Lustig jacket-design when I get to New York? Awfully happy that he is doing it and you are publishing it!

  Ever,

  Tenn

  « • »

  McDowell-Bowles affair: See note to TW’s letter to JL, February 3, 1948.

  82. TLS—2

  4/5/50 [Key West]

  DEAR JAY:

  By a very dramatic coincidence I got letters from you and Bowles in precisely the same mail. I agree with you that the agent is probably the real villain in this sad mix-up. If I were Paul’s agent I would certainly never have permitted him (with my advice) to abandon the publisher who has launched him, even for a temporal advantage, however important that obviously is to a writer without independent means and a terrific lust for life and travel. Agents always consider it their duty to make the most strictly materialistic terms for a client. It’s their duty, because I think very often their motives are conscientious. They think that is what they are for, to convert talent into dollars. What they are blind to—and this sometimes makes them a real hazard to an artist—is the immense value of the personal relationships involved. Bowles and Cerf are a marriage surely contrived in the nether regions. Poor Paul will soon come to see this. It is my guess that it will take perhaps three years before Paul will have another book comparable to Sky and that in the meantime he will have fallen out with several commercial publishers besides Cerf. If I were you I would maintain an Olympian (or Alpine) calm about the whole thing. You published easily the most distinguished book of the year and perhaps of the last ten years
  [ . . . ]

  A couple of weeks ago a middle-aged man was clubbed to death by a sailor, and in reprisal for this terrible offense on the part of the civilian, the police are booking all the New Bohemians in town on vagrancy charges, fining them heavily and giving them twelve hours to get off the Keys. The overseas highway is jammed with convertibles North-bound. So far we have not been bothered, perhaps the advantage of having a grandfather with a round collar or a house on the outskirts of town. But we are planning to leave sooner than we had planned, probably about the fifteenth of this month—and sail the 20th for Europe after three or four glamorous weeks at the Sherry-Netherland (which Bigelow has booked us into).

  Ever,

  Tenn

  « • »

  83. ALS—2

  [1950] [New York]

  DEAR JAY—

  I am really enchanted by Lustig’s jacket design which Audrey just gave me. I don’t want a thing changed on it. I also like the title Cold Sun (without “a” or “the”) but how about Bird of Prey—which seems to fit even better? And it would go perfectly with the jacket design, also. The design is the best I have seen by Lustig and should greatly enhance the book.

  I forgot my typewriter, Frank is bringing it in the car—Grandfather and I came ahead by plane.

  New York is upsetting as ever, especially since I feel that a clash is imminent with Audrey. She wants to tell me exactly what to do with the new play in spite of my suspicion that she is not really interested in it. I want Irene to have it—she hates Irene—will call Carson now—Ever

  Tenn

  « • »

  84. TL—2

  May 5, 1950 [New York]

  DEAR TENN,

  I thought you might like to see a copy of this first release that went out about Mrs. Stone. I notice that it was picked up almost immediately by the Book Section of the New York Times daily. We will be getting out three or four more general publicity releases about the book before it comes out, so if you have any good ideas for story angles on it, be sure to let me know. Otherwise I will think up some myself, but you might have some angles which wouldn’t occur to me. Publicity, as you know, snaps at all kinds of flies. For example, you said, I think, that you were friends with Ingrid Bergman, and if somebody could take a snapshot of you and Ingrid sitting at a cafe table in Rome poring over the proofs of Mrs. Stone, that would be an absolute knock-out for advance publicity, since the story is about an American actress in Rome, even though it has nothing to do with Ingrid. I know that you have more important things to think about than nonsense of that kind, but possibly we could deputize Frank as a special kind of publicity man who could keep me posted of anything of this kind that came up.

  [ . . . ]

  We are scheduling a full page ad in the Summer announcement number of Publishers Weekly which hits the bookstores on May 27th. This announces books which are going to be published up through September, and it’s good for the stores to begin thinking about the book right away. We have also sent out a letter about it to all of them, requesting that they send in their orders for the special copies immediately. Then the salesmen will begin hitting them, with actual books to show, on their trips in July. So it’s important to get the proofs read in a hurry in order to have finished books for the salesmen to take with them on their trips. While in Washington and Princeton this past week, I called on several booksellers, and found that there is a great deal of enthusiasm about the novel. They are all eager to see it, and I believe that it will go very well.

  Let’s get together again before you go. I asked Carson if she would like to come up to the country and she said she would, but she isn’t just sure when it can be because of her trips to the hospital for this new treatment. When I hear something definite from her, I’ll give you a ring and see if you can work it in.

  See you soon,

  James Laughlin

  « • »

  85. TLS—1

  [mid-July 1950] [Rome]

  DEAR JAY:

  I am delighted with the appearance of the book [Roman Spring]. Reading over the text was not as bad an experienc
e as I had anticipated. I wish that I had taken more time over one or two passages, or had had a little more power, but all in all, I feel that Mrs. Stone comes through with a fairly vivid reality, and that is the main thing. Is there any indication of what the reviewers will do with it? I suppose there will be some violent squawks of “decadence,” “wet rot,” Etc., from people like Orville Prescott and the charge that I can only deal with neurotic women. If the book is properly publicized, I think it can over-ride this sort of criticism. I hope you will wait on laudatory notices, as Doubleday did with Windham’s novel, but advertise extensively in advance of the notices.

  I returned the colophon sheets several days ago, all signed by my own little hand.

  There has been an unprecedented heat-wave here: the hottest in one hundred years! To escape it, I am leaving Tuesday for Vienna and will stay there till Frank notifies me that Rome has cooled off a bit. Have felt quite stupefied, which is unfortunate since I have a lot of work to do. I have never finished a satisfactory draft of the new play [The Rose Tattoo] and am still making radical changes in it. I am hoping that I will have a resurgence of energy in Austria. It has been so long since I have traveled alone, without Frank, that I am rather alarmed at the prospect.

  I would love to have “Hard Candy” in the anthology, but would you please let Delmore Schwartz see it, too? Before I left New York he called to ask me if I had a new story and I mentioned that one. I had promised to bring it to him, at his house, but I hope you will explain to him that my last few weeks in the States were all but annihilating.—Here are two more poems. In a later letter I will suggest a selection of my verse to bring out in a new volume. I think it should certainly include a number of those in the Five Young American Poets—the best ones such as “Summer Belvedere” and “Angels of Fructification.” And the long poems that came out in ND annuals, especially the one called “Camino Real.” Incidentally, the play Ten Blocks on the Camino Real has been greatly revised since its publication by Barrett Clark and you might like to include it with the poems in a volume. It is the most experimental poetic play I have done, in its present form. I don’t know if Audrey has had it typed up to include all the changes.—Eyre de Lanux (inspiration for Mrs. Stone) is still around but her Paolo has married a young girl. She says they are unhappily married and she still sees him. She has not yet seen the novella. I don’t think she would recognize herself in it, but Paolo is fairly close.

  Ever,

  Tenn.

 

  « • »

  Orville Prescott: (1906–1996). For twenty-four years, he was the head book reviewer for the New York Times.

  I returned the colophon sheets: Five hundred specially bound copies of the first edition of The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone were signed by the author.

  Barrett Clark: Then editor of Dramatists Play Service, he published the “acting editions” of TW’s plays.

  86. TL—1

  October 15, 1950 [New York]

  DEAR JAY,

  I deeply appreciate the long account you have given me of your promotion plans for The Roman Spring. I know that this particular aspect of the publishing world is not what attracted you to it, any more than it is the aspect of writing that is attractive to me. I must admit, though, that I am deeply concerned about the distribution of this book, and its reception, because it comes at a point in my life when I have a need for some confirmation or reassurance about my work’s value. I certainly didn’t get any from the notices the book has received in New York. I was startled and hurt not only by the harsh opinions but much more by the apparent lack of interest, as if the book (and my work in general) did not seem even to merit a little attention. For instance, the fact that the Herald Tribune has ignored it completely, both in the daily and Sunday book-review sections, is the worst sort of slap in the face, not only to this one book, but also, I feel to all the work I have done to my whole—position is not the word I want to use! But you know what I mean. I feel that I have worked very hard and very seriously over a considerable period, that I have not done anything cheap or meretricious, that regardless of my known limitations as a writer, I have shown taste and courage and do have honesty: and, consequently, have a right to receive from journals that have literary criticism, such as The Herald Tribune, The New Yorker, Etc., the minimal courtesy of some space within two or three weeks of the publication date, a courtesy which I am sure they have extended time and again to writers who make far less effort than I to explore the world and experience of our time with some truth and significance. If other writers such as Edith Sitwell, Christopher Isherwood, Carson McCullers, and Rosamund Leh­mann have expressed an admiration for the book which I know must be sincere, surely there is something in it that merits a token of interest from the various book-page editors, even though the book may not at all accord with their personal tastes.

  (FIRST PARAGRAPH OF A LETTER TO JAMES LAUGHLIN)

  Tennessee Williams

  « • »

  Edith Sitwell: (1887–1964), English poet and the most famous of the three Sitwell siblings.

  Rosamund Lehmann: (1901–1990), British novelist.

  FIRST PARAGRAPH: This is a partial draft letter. There is no evidence that it was ever sent.

  87. TL—2

  November 3, 1950 [New York]

  DEAR TENNESSEE,

  These first sample pages have come through from the boys up in Cummington who are doing your little Lawrence play [I Rise in Flame, Cried the Phoenix] on the hand press, and I would be grateful if you would look them over and see if you like the general style they have worked out. Everything, as you know, is being done by hand, and they will print on dampened paper.

  I like the spacious size of the book, don’t you? And I think that is a very lovely type.

  As the plan now shapes up, they will print 300 copies, and in addition, they will print 10 very special copies on extra superb paper, probably with hand coloring, and an extra special binding.

  On the basis of their advance estimates, the books will cost us about $7 each to make, so that it will be necessary to sell them for $15, since we have to give the stores their usual discount. However, I am convinced that we will find a ready market for them at that price. Naturally we will want you to sign them, and they will be numbered.

  I think the boys up there are going to give us a really magnificent book, which will be a collector’s treasure, and a real work of art. Please shoot the proofs back to me at the office, and telephone me your comments. I probably will be up in the country on Monday, but I ought to be down by Tuesday or Wednesday.

  I feel very excited about this book. As you know, I am nuts on hand printing, and it is very rare nowadays when I get the opportunity to do something like this, working with people who have the real old fashioned standards of craftsmanship.

  As ever,

  James Laughlin

  « • »

  88. TL—2

  November 3 [1950] [New York]

  DEAR TENN—

  I have finished reading the play [The Rose Tattoo] now and am very impressed with it in certain ways. It packs a real wallop and I think it will be very strong on the stage. It strikes me as being written with the requirements of the stage constantly in mind. The character development and the narrative are telescoped and condensed in deference to the needs of the stage in a way that you would not do it if you were writing a novel about the same theme.

  Yet the remarkable thing is that the characters are so alive that I can accept them and believe in them as real and credible people even though they move like veritable express trains through events more dramatic than those in plain and ordinary lives. They are souped up, so to speak, in their pace of living, and yet they are still real and alive. It is quite a triumph of stage writing technique, I think.

  There are fewer of those beautiful poetic lines in this work. You probably know that. You probably intended it. More is done with motion and less with revery. The wonderful
dreaming quality of Menagerie is not here. But there is no reason that it should be. A creative artist need not repeat himself. You are breaking here into new ground. Serafina takes a bad beating but she ends up on the rise. Her problem is solved for her—in a very unique way, to be sure.

  This work must be judged in the proper historical perspective. This is in the romantic, not the classical tradition. This grows out of the Elizabethan plays of violence and comes up through the tradition of the Romantic movement where passion rules and not reason. The elements here are movement, bright color and symbolism—the dummies are excellent, and so are the tattoos themselves. The goat and the witch are all in place here.

  It is my own inner feeling that your work is going ultimately to develop along another line—do you remember The Purification?—but that is not to say that you have not turned out a powerful piece in this vein, and one with which you can be very well pleased. It would be my guess that this might be even more popular than Streetcar. Much, of course, will depend on the acting and the direction. The girl who plays Serafina has got to have terrific fires in her. This is a big part for a big actress, or rather, one who has bigness in her waiting for such a part to bring it out.

  About the Italian lines. This is effectively used, I think. Nothing is said in Italian so complicated that its meaning will not come through, aided by the attendant action, and it will give a lot of atmosphere. With a few exceptions, I think the phrases are right and idiomatic. I’d be glad to consult with Frank about these things, except that I imagine you will have a much more reliable source of advice in some of the Italian actors you will have in the cast. I suggest that you let them say what comes natural to them in the situations. Then you will get the authentic intonation. Once they get it stabilized I’ll be glad to sit in on a rehearsal and take down how it is and see about getting it spelled right for the book version. The spelling as it is now strikes me as being pretty wild. But this may be Sicilian spelling. The Italian I know is mostly Tuscan. But I do know that Venetian spells quite differently and the same may be true of Sicilian. In any case once the text is established I can locate a literate Sicilian down in the village and check the spelling with him.