I would like to put a few stitches into the Banner, but it seems you have to go to Haworth to do this. But who designed it? I must go to the AGM to find out these things – I thought last year the finance committee was getting rather high-handed and there was a distinctly hostile element in the hall.
I avoided reviewing Fiona (McCarthy’s) biography, as in spite of the glorious illustrations there were some things I wasn’t sure about. And Ray (Watkinson), struggling with his review for the Journal, isn’t sure either, I think. To me it’s a bit of a tragedy that he won’t ever finish his own Morris book now.
I would have liked to go to the WM Birthday, but it was Mothers’ Day, and various preparations had been made here, and I suppose anyway you would have been in N.Z. Besides, Ursula once pointed out to me that the Birthdays are the dullest WM occasions of all. I haven’t seen her, either, for such a long time. But I’m determined to get a bit better by the centenary –
love and best wishes
Penelope
27a Bishop’s Road
Highgate, N6
28 December [1999]
Dear Alyson,
Thankyou very much for your letter and your very kind words about The Knox Brothers. I wanted to write that book, although there was a great shortage of documentation, because after all the time was coming – and indeed it has almost come – when nobody alive would remember my uncles, and I felt they were worth remembering. (Evelyn Waugh worked hard on his life of Uncle Ronnie, but never got any real idea of what the family were like) – The trouble was, of course, that there was so much to be said about the history of the Church of England, which was once of intense interest to so many, and now isn’t. – And so, certainly, it’s out of print, although it’s due to be reprinted by a small U.S. firm called Counterpoint, which, it appears, is run by an eccentric millionaire who doesn’t mind if nobody buys it. Surely there can’t be many millionaires like that, even in Boston. – But I consider myself very lucky to have a reader like you who understands my attempt to give the atmosphere of those long-ago times, – the zeitgeist, as you say – which I have to admit I do just remember myself.
Your story about your father and the scholar who treated him as a son is truly heart-warming, there’s no other word for it, it’s strange to think that he must have been at Corpus just when that same Evelyn Waugh was at Hertford declaring that the noblest thing Oxford had to teach was how to get drunk without a hangover the next morning! – I never knew you had a younger brother, though. You must look forward to seeing him when you go back to New Zealand. – I’m the only one of my family left now (although there are plenty of cousins).
best wishes for the New Year and love from
Penelope –
Dorothy Coles*
76 Clifton Hill, NW8
1 December [1987]
Dear Dorothy – Just a note, which I’m sure you’ll excuse – to say that although I think the Morris poetry readings are a good idea and much more than that, (Morris’s poetry ought to be read and heard as much as possible) I don’t think that I personally ought to try and make a selection or suggest a subject until the late spring or early summer of 1988, as the new grandchild, the novel (about which Collins are getting very pressing) and a possible move (which will mean painting, wall-papering and getting a bed, mattress and cooker) are all weighing me down at the moment. I’ve done 20,000 words of the novel, but have to manage 60,000, and I suppose they have to make some sort of sense. – Also, I ought to say that I’m not at all an expert on the Earthly Paradise – it’s the lyrics, from first to last, that I love, so I mustn’t have ambitions beyond my station –
best wishes
Penelope
27 Bishop’s Rd,
Highgate
5 June [1992]
Dear Dorothy,
Thankyou for your letter about the poetry reading. To put last things first, do you think it would be all right if I brought some sandwiches for lunchtime, if I don’t leave any crumbs.
Secondly, I should prefer anything I say to be inserted into the readings, rather than the readings being inserted into the talk.
Thirdly, I take your point about ending with a longer dramatised poem, but could I suggest something rather different. Above all, I don’t want to finish with Sir Peter Harpdon’s End. It is bad, like all Victorian versions of blank verse tragedy, and you get lines like ‘Moreover take this bag of franks/for your expenses’ – and there’s the perpetual danger you get with Morris (remember Georgie Burne-Jones had to stab herself with pins!) that it may be more fun for those who are reading than for those who are listening.
What I’ve noted down is – not too much narrative verse, as there’ll be such a lot in the afternoon, I imagine.
Don’t attempt a chronological order – that is, don’t start with The Willow and the Red Cliff or Blanche.
1: I should like to begin with The God of the Poor, even though it appeared in 1868, and in my experience, such as it is, it would be best if everyone who has a copy reads a verse in turn, which will wake them up. Only this once, I wouldn’t let them do it again. Perhaps we should have The Haystack in here, and Winter Weather. I should then like to go on to the lyrics, which in my opinion are far the most important part of WM’s poetry. If I could keep them I would cheerfully sweep all the sagas and Earthly Paradises under the carpet.
2: Wearily, Drearily
Summer Dawn
Christ Keep the Hollow Land
I know a little garden close
3: I wouldn’t have thought a lot of biographical refs, was wanted, but as you get on to 1870, it can’t be avoided altogether, and wasn’t even by Mackail, so I’d like to end with this group
(Earthly Paradise)
Of Heaven and Hell
June
September
November
Prologue to Grettir the Strong
My main idea is not to wear people out in the morning by making them listen to anything very long. Much better, I’d say, to have the lyrics read over twice, so that they really hear them.
Now you very likely won’t agree with any of this, but perh: you’ll let me know? Someone is hammering at the door – I’m afraid it’s some books for review, which in a way I don’t want at all, but it’s such a temptation to say you’ll do them, and then there’s no time for anything else –
love, Penelope
27 Bishop’s Rd,
Highgate
8 September [1992]
Dear Dorothy,
Thankyou so much for the programme for Oct 17th. As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather say something at the beginning, and, if wanted, at the end, rather than keep intervening between the readers.
I could do the first line of the Odyssey! but mustn’t offer to read more than that as it’s so long since I learned Greek and I should get muddled with the quantities and should imagine Mackail* being very severe, as indeed he is on Morris’s translation. Beowulf I could do, although my own copy has disappeared, I fear. No-one has the slightest idea how it was pronounced, though they pretend they do, so it’s everyone for themselves.
I’ll go to the BL as soon as I can (rather a lot of pressure at the moment) and look out the Ordène de Chevalerie and send you a passage – though they’ve now taken to saying they can’t issue some titles, because of the move – it’s enough to drive anyone to despair. We still have 5 weeks, haven’t we?
New grandson Alfie, short for Alfred, what a name! is now a month old and a wonderful peaceable baby,
love – Penelope
[card]
23 September [1992]
Just one more word about W. Morris and his poetry – Ray writes to say that surely Deus est Deus Pauperum is too long to read at one go, and of course he is quite right, and I suggest the last 17 verses (The western sky was red as blood onwards) would be quite enough – it only needs a word or 2 of introduction, ‘the story so far’ – love P
27 Bishop’s Rd.
Highgate
18 October [1992]
Dear Dorothy,
Just to congratulate you on the Poetry Day yesterday – real interest, and real lovers of poetry, and some of the audience knowing such a lot about WM’s poetry – and it was so nice (although in a sense it had nothing to do with it) to watch interested people outside looking up at the house,* and gradually approaching the sacred door to the basement steps. I thought the lunch went very well, and it was a happy thought of Lionel’s to bring all that fruit, which gave a lavish I-am-the-ancient-Apple-Queen effect.
I just got home for the treasure-hunt at Thomas’s party, as I’d promised, but was very sorry not to stay for the last part. I realise now I did not do the excerpts from Beowulf right. – I had thought you wanted just a few lines of the original, to give an idea of what it was like, but really I think you wanted a long extract, with WM’s version after it – I’m so sorry, I should have thought more clearly.
Everyone looked so well, including of course yourself. Perhaps we’ll be like Ursula and Ralph in the Well at the World’s End and stay just as strong after four generations have passed –
love
Penelope
27 Bishop’s Rd.
Highgate
5 November [1992]
Dear Dorothy,
Thankyou so much for your letter – I must say once again that Poetry Day was a great success, and as Ray wrote to me ‘Dorothy was justified by her children’! I’m so glad the Beowulf went well – a man’s voice is much better, in fact now I come to think of it, essential for Anglo/S poetry. Professor Tolkien, who taught it to me centuries ago, also insisted on the ‘Hwaet!’* although really of course we’ve got no idea how anyone pronounced anything in those days.
Thankyou for your deeply interesting, in fact absolutely fascinating, account of the Eurydice. Of course, you are right, I think you must be, although I never thought of it before, (although I’m a great GM Hopkins reader and have quoted the line from The Loss of the Eurydice ‘And you were a liar, you blue March day’ to myself often on those lovely days when some dreadful thing or dreadful loss happens and seems even worse because of the blue sky). Charlotte Mew was still going for holidays to the I. of Wight when the frigate went down, and couldn’t have failed to hear about it. She was odd about her I of Wight family, being partly fond of them and partly I think, with the ‘ladylike’ side of her, being rather ashamed of them.
It’s most interesting that one of your ancestors was one of the crew, and you tell the story so well – it’s so terrible that she went down with all hands, and all her lights showing – coastguards always say that ‘she was carrying too much canvas’ or making too much speed especially if there are Navy personnel on board, they can’t help it, but I still think it’s a mystery. I haven’t got the Collected Letters, (I wish I had) so I don’t know what WM said** – however I shall get them one of these days.
Family well, and Baby Alfie wreathed in smiles at the sight of anything resembling another human being –
Little does he know!
love
Penelope
J. L. Carr*
27a Bishop’s Road, N6
10 January 1990
Dear Jim, Thankyou so much for sending William Cowper – but Jim, where are the morals? The Dog and the Waterlily (No Fable) has lost 2 verses and the Retired Cat has lost ‘Beware of too sublime a sense’ &c – to lose one moral might be a question of space, but to lose two ‘looks like carelessness’, or I suppose it might be that you don’t like morals. Anyway, I love Cowper dearly and the book is beautiful like all your books.
Very glad you’re going on with Harpole & Foxberrow, Publishers, and best New Year wishes –
Penelope
I do like the Latin Toll for the Brave upside down – just to show –
27a Bishop’s Road, N6
18 December [c.1992]
Dear Jim,
Thankyou so much for the Reeve’s Tale.
A few years before I stopped teaching – I don’t know if it was the same with you – the London Board took the daring step of setting it (and the Miller’s tale) for A level, which they’d never done before, and it was amazing how easily the class got through it. Now they’ve decided Chaucer is too difficult for everyone, even at university, but you’ve evidently felt that it isn’t, although you’ve encouraged them with an amazing selection of decorations wh: I enjoyed very much – the only thing is, I’d have expected JLC on the back of the van, but you can’t make room for everything.
I also liked D. Bancroft’s piece, but I think it’s very broad-minded of him to call it ‘a gracious house’. I think Lycett Green might have spoken to him more than once in nine months.
I enclose another little book about Cambridge,* shrunk down by the publisher for some publicity scheme or other,
with best Christmas wishes –
Penelope
27a Bishop’s Road, N6
23 December 1993
Dear Jim –
You will forgive this paper, as everything except tangerines seems to have run out at the moment. Thankyou for Mark Amory’s letter. He is nice, but I don’t think many or any of us can have got such a letter even from the nicest literary editor. You can tell that he really means it – that is what I like about it. And he’s a hard worker himself, and had a difficult job, I think, editing the Evelyn Waugh letters.
Only I didn’t realise that you were ill. They didn’t tell me so when I went to Kettering to talk to the Wheelchair Association, but that was in October. I do wish you weren’t, Jim.
I’m so glad you were converted by the Burne-Jones west windows in Brum Cathedral, they were put in while my grandfather was (suffragan) Bishop, but he had no aesthetic sense whatever (although he was a wonderful organiser and Feeder of Sheep) and, I think, scarcely noticed them. I’m told they have had to put wire over them, which is a great pity.
Maura and David (once of Lumb Bank) have at last had a baby, after many trials and tribulations – a daughter, Imelda.
I still have my ‘little books’. And now I see someone has republished Jane Austen’s History of England, apparently believing that no-one else has done so.
I’m getting too old to write novels. But I wish I could say, as you can, that you’ve written everything just as you wanted to and it’s all come out absolutely right.
love and best wishes for everything –
Penelope
Sybille Bedford*
27a Bishop’s Road
Highgate
21 September [1989]
Dear Sybille,
Please may I be one of the many 100s to congratulate you** – I wasn’t at all surprised, but I did feel very pleased –
best wishes
Penelope (Fitzgerald)
27a Bishop’s Road
Highgate
14 July [1996]
Dear Sybille – Thankyou so much for writing to me about the Heywood Hill Prize.† It was fairy gold, really – I didn’t know the award existed, and in fact I think it didn’t until last year, but that perhaps made it all the better. And thankyou too for your kind word about The Blue Flower. –
with best wishes –
Penelope
Julian Barnes*
27 Bishop’s Road
Highgate
23 March 1993
Dear Julian Barnes,
Please don’t think I’ve forgotten that you once (politely and kindly) turned down the idea of lecturing at the Highgate Institution, because you said that, apart from anything else, you didn’t like giving lectures. However, we still hope you might come to give a reading and say something about your books – would that be possible, do you think? The Highgate shop would send along copies, and we shall have the roof mended by 18 January 94, which is the date I’m hoping might possibly suit you – I won’t apologise for its being so far ahead – as I’m sure you’re only too used to it –
Yours sincerely
Penelope Fitzgerald
27 Bishop’s Road
Highgate
8 April 1993
Dear Julian Barnes,
Thankyou very much for your kind letter. I admit I’m the one, or one of the ones, that writes novels, which is one of the reasons why I particularly hoped you might come and talk to us, but so of course do all the Highgate dwellers.
Would it be all right if I put you down entirely provisionally for 18 Jan 1994 (I agree it’s difficult to imagine that we will ever get there) and write to you again nearer the time, and if it doesn’t suit then, it will be my fault and no-one else’s –
Yours sincerely
Penelope Fitzgerald
27 Bishop’s Road
Highgate
5 January [1994]
Dear Julian Barnes,
I couldn’t get you on the telephone, but I do hope that you will be coming to read whatever you prefer to us at the Highgate Institution on the 18th. I know that you couldn’t commit yourself, and also that you might possibly be in the Argentine, but we’re allowing ourselves to look forward to it just the same. with best wishes – Penelope Fitzgerald
27 Bishop’s Road
Highgate
3 April [1994]
Thankyou so much for Letters from London and indeed for remembering how much I wanted to read your Lloyds piece. – I admired it very much indeed, not only for the information and explanation but for the exactly right tone you’ve managed to get, or perhaps I should call it a never quite unsympathetic point of balance, something classic anyway –
best wishes Penelope
27 Bishop’s Road
Highgate
26 September 1999
Certainly I was am and always shall be an admirer of Brian Moore, The Answer from Limbo and Judith Hearne perhaps still the best, after all these years. Would love to come if my back doesn’t hurt too much though I do note that seating is limited.
So I Have Thought of You Page 49