Is it all right for me to send this script to Lustig so that he can get started on some designs to show you? I’ll caution him against showing the script to anyone, and to get it right back to me as soon as he has read it.
Knowing how you like to change things in rehearsal it’s probably best to hold up on the composition for a while. If there is to be a month’s run in Chicago that should give us time to get a playing script and then get the book out for the opening here.
[ . . . ]
Is Paul [Bowles] going to come back to do the music?
Well, the thing packs a wallop, and you must not have misgivings about it. It is a work for the stage and must be judged on that basis. If you were telling the same story in a novel you would have done all sorts of things differently, having more freedom of time and place to work with. The great thing is that Serafina’s passion comes through as believable human glory and suffering. The stuff is there. Now it’s up to director and actors to project it.
Let’s get together soon again, when you have the chance.
Best to Frank,
[James Laughlin]
« • »
Is Paul [ . . . ] the music?: While Paul Bowles did compose music for The Glass Menagerie (1945) as well as incidental music for A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Summer and Smoke (1948), he remained in Tangier at this time and did not provide music for The Rose Tattoo.
89. TLS—1
November 7, 1950 [New York]
DEAR JAY:
Many, many thanks for your letter about the play [The Rose Tattoo]. Please do send your copy of it to Lustig. If he comes up quickly enough with a striking design I feel sure that Cheryl would be delighted to use it for playbills, advertisements, Etc. The values of the play being less literary than usual, I feel that it will be more impressive on the stage than it is in manuscript, at least, I hope so. The director, Danny Mann, is no fool, in fact he is a real New York intellectual but has humor and vitality to compensate for that defect. He says that “mood” is “doom” spelt backwards which probably means that I shall have to put up a fight for the plastic-poetic elements in the production. We shall see. If casting is completed by November 15th I can take a couple of weeks in Key West to train for the contest. The girl, Maureen Stapleton, is a God-send and the rest of the cast is being slowly and very carefully put together.
I am sorry you were mistaken about the novel [The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone] moving up to ninth place on the best-seller list. In fact it moved quite strongly in the other direction. I doubt that there is any hope of resuscitating sales by further advertising. Do you think so? Perhaps it would be better to contribute the sum I was planning for the “Ad” to the Authors League to be given to the Patchens. I have gotten another letter from Miriam saying that their situation has deteriorated still further. The letter is quite touching and while I have never liked Patchen’s work very much I am sure that he deserves aid and perhaps I can make a tax-deductible contribution to them through the League. Would you check on that with Louise M. Sillcox? If she approves, I can make out a check on my book royalties, ear-marked for Patchen.
I am enclosing a short-story by Oliver Evans which I think has a great deal of charm. He wanted you to see it for possible inclusion in the annual.
Will call you this week, if I don’t hear from you, about the contribution to League. Audrey can also advise you about it.
Ever,
Tenn
« • »
Cheryl: Cheryl Crawford (1902–1986), American stage director and producer and cofounder of the Group Theatre, produced the premieres of The Rose Tattoo and Sweet Bird of Youth.
Danny Mann: Daniel Mann (1912–1991), American stage, film, and television director, directed the Broadway premiere of The Rose Tattoo.
Maureen Stapleton: (1925–2006). The lead female roles in The Rose Tattoo and Orpheus Descending are Italian characters written for Italian actress Anna Magnani, but Magnani never felt her English was strong enough for a stage performance and it turned out that Maureen Stapleton, an American actress of Irish descent, originated both roles. She was also a longtime friend of TW’s.
the Patchens: Kenneth Patchen (1911–1972), American poet and novelist, and his wife Miriam Patchen (1914–2000) were facing financial difficulties due to Kenneth’s ill health, so JL wrote to various writers asking them to chip into a fund for the Patchens. Kenneth was one of the early ND authors (first published in 1939) and, by the time of JL’s death in 1997, ND had published sixteen of his titles. In addition he and Miriam had worked as the “office staff” of ND and lived in a cottage belonging to JL’s aunt Leila when the fledgling firm was run from Norfolk, Connecticut.
Louise M. Sillcox: Executive secretary for the Authors League and Dramatists Guild. TW was in touch with her about establishing authors’ grants for writers in need.
90. TLS—1
Dec. 2, 1950 [Chicago]
DEAR JAY:
I have just mailed my final revisions of the play and am now commencing the vacant interval between big pieces of work when I don’t know what to do with myself except drink more than I should and run around too much at night.
The state of the world makes every other state seem very temporary. I was happy over the Compass notice which you sent me. Wish it could have been quoted somewhere. Did you use the Isherwood quote? I’ve been looking for it in the Sunday sections but it hasn’t appeared in them.
I am reading old Ezra Pound’s letters, a very tragic cycle from the trumpet notes before the first world war to the querulous incoherencies at the end, trying to find just where the failure of adjustment crept in, if it is not simply the natural declension of time. He was rather hard on “Bill” Williams, huh? I have never been able to get excited over Williams’s work although I see its humanity and simplicity. Why did he go to Random House?—Saturday Review has sent me Bowles’s stories to review which is the toughest reviewing job I’ve ever undertaken, as I can’t help feeling that the best of the stories, except for “Distant Episode,” should have been published privately—the sado-masochistic elements!—and there are least five more stories than should have been printed. But the good stories are marvelous.
Ever,
10.
« • »
old Ezra Pound’s letters: The Letters of Ezra Pound, 1907–1941 (ed. D. D. Paige) was originally published in 1950 by Harcourt, Brace. It was reissued in paper as Selected Letters, 1907–1941 by ND in 1971.
Bill Williams: In 1950, William Carlos Williams (1883–1963), whom JL considered (along with Ezra Pound) the bedrock of the New Directions list, wrote to JL that he was taking all of his prose works to Random House under David McDowell who had recently left ND for the larger publisher. Although both WCW and Paul Bowles had some reason for dissatisfaction with JL’s at times cavalier management style, Laughlin had sincerely tried to respond to their criticisms. What JL did not know at the time was that the ambitious McDowell had criticized ND’s sales management to both authors and had told Bennett Cerf at Random House, before he was hired, that he could bring a few ND authors with him. (See also note to TW’s letter to JL of 3/11/45.)
Bowles stories to review: “The Human Psyche—Alone,” TW’s review of Paul Bowles, The Delicate Prey and Other Stories, was first published in the Saturday Review of Literature, December 23, 1950.
91. TL—4
January 15, 1951 [New York]
DEAR TENNESSEE,
I hope that things are going well out there, and that you are now satisfied about the ending [of The Rose Tattoo] and the new character playing the priest.
I had a very pleasant session with Audrey the other night, and I think we have the front matter worked out exactly the way you and she want it.
Enclosed is a proof of the flaps for the jacket. Will you kindly approve this, adding anything you care to, and rush it back to me by airmail? Please be sure to get it off a few hours after you receive it, so that we can get the jackets ready for the salesmen on their trips. I enclo
se a stamped return envelope so that you can pop it right back.
Now I would like to give you a report on the session last evening with the three little Italian princesses over the Italian speeches in the play. It was most successful. They got very interested, liked the play, and really worked their little heads off getting everything grammatical and correct. They are most anxious to meet you, and sometime when you get back, we must all try to get together. Meanwhile, I am going to make arrangements for them all to see the show, because they worked so hard on it.
As I had anticipated, there were a great many wrong spellings. There were also one or two places where the grammar was a bit off. However, it is now fixed just the way it should be for simple Italian or Sicilian peasants. [ . . . ]
With best wishes and many thanks,
James Laughlin
« • »
92. Telegram—1
[January 16, 1951] Western Union
NEW ENDING GOES IN TODAY. PAUL SENDING FINAL GALLEYS IN NEXT TWO DAYS. BUSINESS EXCELLENT.
TENNESSEE
« • »
Paul: TW’s friend Paul Bigelow worked for him doing secretarial work during the rehearsal period and out-of-town tryouts for The Rose Tattoo. (See also note to letter of 1/25/46.)
93. TL—2
February 23, 1951 [Norfolk]
DEAR TENNESSEE,
I hope that you and Frank are having a good time down there. The weather around here has been pretty miserable. I am getting off for some skiing at Alta next week, and will probably be away for about a month. But everything is organized here to do a good job on the new book. You can write me at Alta Lodge, Sandy, Utah, if anything comes up.
I have figured out your book earnings for the past year, and they seem pretty good. I am enclosing carbons of all the reports and the summary, the originals of which have gone to Audrey, and also a copy of my letter to her, which explains certain details.
[ . . . ]
The last time I was up at your apartment, you asked me about what you ought to do with your investments. Your government bond holdings are, of course, perfectly safe, but there is this factor to be considered, what with the continued inflation, the dollar is falling in purchasing power, and bonds do not appreciate comparatively the way good common stocks do.
Right now is no time to buy common stock, as the market is now at new peaks, but I think you ought seriously to consider putting part of your portfolio into “blue chip” common stocks at some time in the future when there is a substantial break in the market.
[ . . . ]
Everyone I have seen around town is talking about The Rose Tattoo, and 90% of it is extremely favorable. I should think you ought to have a very good and long run with that.
Best wishes to you both,
James Laughlin
« • »
you asked me [ . . . ] investments: On his tax returns, JL listed his occupation as “investor.”
94. TLS—1
4/1/51 [Key West]
DEAR JAY:
Although I came here, ostensibly, for a rest I have been busier than usual working my way into another play. The initial stages are always the most strenuous, perhaps even worse than the final. I have been very nervous. Hypertensive. Bigelow took me to a fashionable doctor in New York who gave me some pills that are supposed to make my face flush and my ears buzz as they open the capillaries—distend the blood vessels, Etc. I took just one and felt far more hypertensive than usual so have put them on the shelf. I drink too much. About eight drinks a day at carefully spaced intervals. I am trying to work down to six. Perhaps I ought to stop working. But then I would explode from sheer ennui.
I hate to make any derogatory remarks about the Cummington boy’s design. Strictly entre nous, it does look a bit like pigeon en casserole. But I sense that he feels very strongly about designing something for the book and it might be mean of us to frustrate him. The typography and paper are so beautiful. I do wish that Lustig was doing the front cover, however. I am charmed with the rose cover of the book of Tattoo. The only other person I know who likes it is Donald Windham, but I like it very much indeed. I also love the ad, copy of which you sent me.
Thank you so much for the very detailed financial statements and I was agreeably surprised by the amount of funds. I hope sometime later in the Spring, when my own economic picture acquires more clarity, to make a new contribution to the Authors League fund, earmarked for Oliver Evans. He is having an operation for his deafness and I would like to be able to help him with it. I may draw on my account with you for this purpose, perhaps about $1500. He is in a desperate mental or nervous state, a great deal of which, I think, may be attributable to his affliction. Took eight sleeping pills one evening, fell down on the street and broke two ribs! Only quarts of black coffee saved him. On my birthday, while I was in New York, I took him to see Romeo and Juliet and when Miss De Havilland was delivering a soliloquy on the apron of the stage, Oliver, in the fourth row, suddenly cried out “Nothing can kill the beauty of the lines!” and tore out of the theatre. Later that night he called up an old lady who had formerly befriended him, a dowager who is the ranking member of the Cabot clan, and told her she was “just an old bitch and not even her heirs could stand her!” I think he deserves an endowment for life! Even if this intransigent behavior persists.
Frank, Grandfather, and I are still in Key West. Until the end of April. We sail the middle of May for Europe, again.
Ever,
Tenn.
Love to Gertrude.
« • »
Miss De Havilland: (1916–). Olivia de Havilland is a British-American film actress.
Gertrude: See note to TW’s letter to JL of January 25, 1946.
95. TLS—5
April 20, 1951 [Alta]
DEAR TENNESSEE,
Many thanks for your letter of April 1st which has just reached me out in Alta. But I am extremely sorry to hear that you have not been feeling up to scratch. I wish I could offer some kind of advice on what you should do, but I am afraid that medical matters are all a mystery to me. At the risk of being thought a crank, however, I wonder whether you have ever tried anything along the line of osteopathy or massage. Maybe something of that kind might loosen you up a little bit and help that tense feeling. One way or another, I hope you find some way to lick it, as it must be terribly upsetting and aggravating.
That is good news that you are working on another play, though, as you know, I would probably rather see you writing poetry. I always enjoy the plays—they are wonderful—but I still feel that essentially you are a poet, and that in the end you will do your greatest work in that field. Before you go off to Europe again, won’t you look through your things and get together as many poems for me as you can, because I would really like to bring out a book of verse next fall. I keep feeling that you must have a lot of them hidden away that I haven’t seen yet.
[ . . . ]
I’m glad that you like the jacket for The Rose Tattoo. I do too, very much. I think it is extremely subtle and one of Lustig’s best. However, it doesn’t surprise me that other people don’t like it. The real innovators are always ahead of the public taste.
I am glad that you agree with me that the phoenix which the boy up in Massachusetts drew is not suitable, and I have written to them that we definitely don’t want to use it [for I Rise in Flame]. This book is going to have a kind of simple magnificence from the elegant typography, and I think it would definitely be a mistake to smear it up with something so fancy.
That is bad news about Oliver Evans. Do you think it would cheer him up any if I wrote to him and asked him for a group of poems for the next number of the annual? Let me know his address, and I will try it if you think it would help. Your idea of giving him a grant in aid also sounds like a very good one. Let me know what you want to do about this, and I will send the money to Audrey to give to the Authors League. I never knew Oliver very well, but always liked him very much.
[ . . . ]
Thinking about this question of helping authors who need help, and it becomes more difficult for the serious type of poet and writer every day, I want to make a suggestion to you which I hope you will ponder carefully. It is based on the possibility of exploiting the rather fabulous sums which can be earned from these 25¢ reprints.
I know that you don’t think much of those reprints, and neither do I. They are pretty unattractive as bookmaking, and not very appetizing, but it is a fact that they sell enormously and pay big royalties. At various times in the past year or so each one of the big four in this field has approached me about the possibility of making a contract for 25¢ reprints of your books, both Mrs. Stone and the plays. I have always turned them down, telling them that you were not keen on this type of publication, but they keep coming back with ever larger offers and guarantees, and now the sum is so large that I think we ought to give the matter further consideration.
What I have in mind is this: that we should make a deal with the one who would offer the most, and then use the proceeds to help authors who need help. Young fellows in the situation of [Oliver] Evans or even Donnie Windham, whose books will not sell well enough to make their living expenses. I have not talked to Mr. Colton about the matter, but I could do so, and I am pretty sure that this thing could be set up in such a way that it would be tax deductible.
The Luck of Friendship Page 18