The Life of Graham Greene (1904-1939)
Page 95
23 Undated letter but probably immediately after his return from his unsuccessful interview with Asiatic Petroleum, 21 May 1925.
24 A later letter to Vivien gives more details of this event and does suggest that it might have inspired Greene to propose: ‘I’d just got into my digs. I was feeling miserable because I hadn’t said anything, which I’d wanted to say (to you) and was beginning to scrawl a note to you (it was a Thursday night) begging you to let me see you next day … I was just writing this, when I heard Macleod tapping (he has a tap of his own) on the outer door … He was in a perfectly ghastly condition … he was patchy in colour and in a dinner jacket he looked ludicrous and yet one couldn’t laugh because his state of mind was too evidently genuine. He’d been to a theatre with someone of whom he was very fond and was miserable because he’d simply funked saying anything he’d wanted to say. He felt sure, almost, that she was fond of him, and had been waiting, and was now probably furious with him. I tried to laugh him out of his mood, by offering him a revolver to shoot himself, but he looked so fearfully inclined to accept the offer that I hastily shut it away again, & gave him whisky. Then came my advice. He mentioned he’d left proofs of some long poem of his for her to look at, so I commanded him to rush round to her digs now, say that he’d found a note from Monkhouse [Monkhouse had become editor of Oxford Outlook in succession to Greene] saying he must have them back first thing in the morning, and could he take them away now. I pointed out that she’d probably see through it, and that he could leave the rest to the inspiration of the moment. So off he went, and I sat down and finished the note to you, saying I must see you once more, before I went home. And then as I finished came a tap on the door again, and Macleod beaming gratitude and happiness. It’s a dead secret. You are the only person who knows.’
25 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 8 June 1925.
26 Ibid., 6 June 1925.
27 Ibid., 8 June 1925.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., 25 June 1925.
30 Ibid., 26 June 1925.
31 Ibid.
32 Interview with Claud Cockburn, 18 June 1977.
14 The World Well Lost
1 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 29 June 1925.
2 Ibid.
3 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 108.
4 Reference from his Balliol tutor Kenneth Bell, 18 January 1926.
5 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 13 July 1925.
6 Ibid., 22 July 1925.
7 Ibid., 17 July 1925.
8 Ibid., 11.30 a.m., 26 July 1925.
9 Ibid., 26 July 1925.
10 Ibid., 24 July 1925.
11 Ibid., 27 July 1925.
12 Ibid., 30 July 1925.
13 Ibid.
14 This was printed later in the Weekly Westminster Gazette, 24 October 1925.
15 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 6 August 1925.
16 ‘Ford Madox Ford’, Collected Essays, Penguin edition, 1970, p. 127.
17 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 7 August 1925.
18 Ibid., 9 August 1925.
19 Ibid.
20 This letter also dated 9 August 1925: the second letter he wrote to Vivien that day.
21 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 11 August 1925.
22 Ibid., 10 August 1925.
23 Greene’s name did not appear on the title page of the first edition, only that of Dorothy Craigie, the illustrator. His name has appeared in all subsequent editions.
24 Shuttleworth and Raven interview with Graham Greene, The Paris Review, No. 3., Autumn 1953, pp. 24–41.
25 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 16 August 1925.
26 Ibid.
15 Late Summer at Ambervale
1 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 17 August 1925, Monday, 2 p.m.
2 Letter to author, 12 August 1980.
3 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 112.
4 Ibid., pp. 111–14.
5 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 20 August 1925.
6 Letter to his mother, 15 May 1925.
7 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 20 August 1925.
8 Ibid., 25 August 1925.
9 Ibid., 12 September 1925.
10 A Sort of Life, p. 114.
11 Ibid., p. 113.
12 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 31 August 1925.
13 Ibid., 12 September 1925.
14 Ibid., 11 September 1925.
15 Ibid., 10 September 1925.
16 In Search of a Career
1 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 30 September 1925.
2 Letter from Vivien Greene to author.
3 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 22 October 1925.
4 Ibid., 31 August 1925.
5 Ibid., 24 September 1925.
6 Ibid., 12 October 1925.
7 Ibid., 21 October 1925.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., 22 October 1925.
10 Ibid., 10 November 1925.
11 Ibid., 24 September 1925.
12 Ibid., 8 October 1925.
13 Ibid., 15 October 1925.
14 Ibid., 7 October 1925.
15 Ibid., 12 October 1925.
16 Ibid., 21 October 1925.
17 Ibid., 28 October 1925.
17 Sub-editing in Nottingham
1 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 3 November 1925.
2 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 116.
3 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 20 January 1926.
4 A Sort of Life, p. 115.
5 A Gun for Sale, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 40. The ‘smell of bad fish’ is taken out of the Heinemann and Bodley Head collected edition of the novel.
6 Journey Without Maps, Penguin edition, 1978, p. 101.
7 A Gun for Sale, p. 122.
8 Ibid., p. 131.
9 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 3 November 1925.
10 A Sort of Life, p. 117.
11 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 19 November 1925.
12 Interview with V. S. Pritchett, The Times, July 1978, p. 29.
13 A Gun for Sale, pp. 72–3.
14 A Sort of Life, p. 124.
15 Brighton Rock, Penguin edition, 1975, p. 207.
16 A Gun for Sale, pp. 92–3.
17 Brighton Rock, p. 56.
18 Ibid., p. 208.
19 Interview with V. S. Pritchett, The Times, July 1978, p. 29.
20 Ways of Escape, Penguin edition, 1981, p. 57.
21 Brighton Rock, p. 209.
22 It’s a Battlefield, Penguin edition, 1981, p. 98–9.
23 Brighton Rock, p. 211.
24 A Sort of Life, p. 117.
25 Quoted in A Sort of Life, p. 124.
26 Brighton Rock, p. 212.
27 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 14 January 1926.
28 Ibid., 24 January 1926.
29 Ibid., 15 January 1926.
30 Ibid., 18 November 1925.
31 Ibid., 4 November 1925.
32 Ibid., 24 February 1926.
33 Ibid., 12 February 1926.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid., 23 November 1925.
36 Ibid., 18 January 1926.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Ibid.
40 ‘Turton had been doing law & had just dropped it for journalism, and though he had intros to every editor in London he had had even less success than I. So he was going off to Hungary for a year, in order to come back and apply as a Hungarian specialist. Hearing from Gorham I had reached a dead end, he suggested that I should go too.’ (Letter to Vivien, 18 January 1926.)
41 Ibid., 27January 1926.
42 Ibid., 9 February 1926.
43 Ibid., 10 February 1926.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid., 11 February 1926.
46 Ibid., 17 February 1926.
47 Ibid., 21 November 1925.
48 Cecil Roberts, The Bright Twenties, Hodder and Stoughton, 1970, pp. 257–8.
49 Ibid.
50 Letter to Charles G
reene, 28 February 1925.
51 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 21 November 1925.
52 Ibid., 21 October 1925.
53 Ibid., 23 November 1925.
54 A Sort of Life, p. 117.
18 Thomas the Doubter
1 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 121. In a letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 1 March 1926, he writes, ‘I haven’t taken any other names yet … I think Sebastian is a good idea.’
2 Ibid., p. 118.
3 TS p. 189. The typescript is housed in the University Library of Boston College, Boston.
4 The Lawless Roads, Heinemann uniform edition, 1955, p. 5.
5 A Sort of Life, p. 118.
6 Letter, 2 November 1925.
7 Second letter of 2 November 1925.
8 A Sort of Life, p. 118.
9 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 8 November 1925.
10 Ibid., 13 November 1925.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid., 14 November 1925.
13 Ibid., 16 November 1925.
14 A Sort of Life, p. 119.
15 Ibid., pp. 118–19.
16 Journey Without Maps, Penguin edition, 1978, p. 101.
17 A Sort of Life, p. 119.
18 Ibid.
19 Ibid., p. 120.
20 Undated letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, probably written during the first week of December 1925.
21 Ibid., 7 December 1925.
22 Ibid., 13 December 1925.
23 Ibid., 24 December 1925.
24 Ibid., 21 November 1925.
25 Ibid., 13 January 1926.
26 Ibid., 27 February 1926.
27 Ibid., 23 February 1926.
28 A Sort of Life, p. 121.
29 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 27 February 1926.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 Journey Without Maps, pp. 101–2.
33 A Sort of Life, p. 122.
34 Ibid., p. 121.
35 The Potting Shed, Act II, Scene 1, Penguin, 1971, p.46.
36 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 1 March 1926, from 141 Albert Palace Mansions, Battersea Park, S.W.11.
19 Between the Tides
1 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 8 November 1925.
2 Letter to his mother, 29 January 1926.
3 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 7 January 1926.
4 Ibid., 9 January 1926.
5 Ibid., 10 January 1926.
6 Ibid., 11 February 1926.
7 Ibid., 5 November 1925.
8 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 91.
9 And other quotations, even when expressed in gaiety as in the passage below, do show his continuing attachment to children’s books – Baroness Orczy? Alexandre Dumas? Stanley Weyman?
‘Do you call your love a small thing, foolish one? I should like to call you out to fight with rapiers at dawn in a forest glade, with no witnesses. And I should run you through the heart, & flee to Dover, with horses waiting at every inn.’ (30 September 1925.)
10 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 12 October 1925.
11 Ibid., 29 December 1925.
12 Ibid., 11 November 1925.
13 Ibid., 26 October 1925.
14 Ibid., 18 January 1926.
15 Ibid., 11 December 1925.
16 Ibid., 5 November 1925.
17 Ibid., 22 February 1926.
18 Ibid., 24 February 1926.
19 Ibid., 9 February 1926.
20 Ibid., 14 November 1925.
21 Ibid., 2 February 1926.
22 Ibid., 27 February 1926. ‘After all you are helping the lame soul to walk … It’s you who are the guardian.’
23 Ibid., 11 November 1925.
24 Ibid., 7 December 1925.
25 Ibid., 21 August 1925.
26 Ibid., 23 January 1926.
27 Ibid., 12 October 1925.
28 Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4.
29 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 17 November 1925.
30 Ibid., 18 August 1925.
31 Interview with Michael Meyer, February 1977.
32 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 12 February 1926.
20 The Times
1 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 1 March 1926.
2 Ibid., 10 March 1926.
3 Ibid., 8 February 1927.
4 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 125.
5 Letter to Charles Greene, 28 February 1926.
6 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 24 June 1926.
7 Ibid., 2 March 1926.
8 Ibid., 3 March 1926.
9 Letter from the Appointments Manager, 9 March 1926.
10 Letter to his mother, 9 March 1929.
11 Letter, 4 May 1926.
12 A Sort of Life, typescript p. 200.
13 Letter, 8 March 1926.
14 Letter, 10 March 1926.
15 Ibid.
16 Letter, 9 March 1926.
17 Letter, 24 June 1926.
18 ‘The News in English’, Strand Magazine, June 1940.
19 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 124.
20 Letter, 11 March 1926.
21 Letter, 10 March 1926.
22 Undated March 1926 letter.
23 Letter, 11 March 1926.
24 A Sort of Life, p. 125.
25 Ibid., p. 131.
26 Douglas Woodruff, ‘Times Remembered’, The Times, 2 May 1977.
27 Letter from Leslie Smith, 23 February 1977.
28 Letter from G. L. Pearson, 11 February 1977.
29 Ibid.
30 A Sort of Life, p. 130.
31 Obituary, Times House Journal, June 1951.
32 Letter from Leslie Smith, 23 February 1977.
33 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 14 April 1926.
34 Ibid., 10 March 1926.
35 Ibid., 11 April 1926.
36 Ibid., 13 April 1926.
37 Ibid., 9 April 1926.
38 Ibid., 16 March 1926.
39 Ibid., 5 April 1926.
40 Ibid., 15 March 1926.
41 Ibid., 12 May 1926.
42 Ibid., 17 May 1926.
43 Ibid., 10 July 1926.
44 Ibid.
45 Ibid., 1 April 1926.
46 Ibid., 10 July 1926.
47 Ibid., 6 April 1926.
48 Ibid., 10 April 1926.
49 Ibid., 25 May 1926.
50 Ibid., 26 July 1926.
51 Ibid., 12 August 1926.
52 Ibid., 21 March 1926.
53 Ibid., 23 March 1926.
21 The General Strike
1 John Paton, Left Turn, Secker & Warburg, 1936, p. 254.
2 Arnold Bennett, Journals, 1921–1926, Cassell, 1933, entry of 5 May 1926.
3 Sir Philip Gibbs, Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, 5 May 1926.
4 G. D. H. Cole and Raymond Postgate, The Common People, 1746–1938, Hutchinson, 1946, p. 567.
5 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 127.
6 Ibid.
7 Letters, 4 May 1926.
8 Christopher Farman, The General Strike, May 1926, Hart-Davis, 1974, p. 200.
9 Strike Nights in Printing House Square, privately printed, 1932, p. 16.
10 Letter, 5 May 1926.
11 Letter, 6 May 1926.
12 A Sort of Life, pp. 126–127.
13 Interview with Colonel Maude, January 1977.
14 Strike Nights in Printing House Square, p. 15.
15 Farman, op. cit., p. 179.
16 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, June 1926.
17 Ibid., 6 May 1926.
18 A Sort of Life, p. 127.
19 Ibid.
20 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 11 May 1926.
21 Ibid.
22 Ibid., 5 July 1926.
23 Undated letter from London.
24 Letter, 16 July 1926.
22 ‘The beastly Episode’
1 Interview with Walter Allen, 1976.
2 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 5 July 1926.
3 Ibid., 15 Feb
ruary 1926.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid., 29 December 1925.
7 Ibid., 5 July 1926.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., 11 December 1926.
10 Ibid., 12 April 1926.
11 Ibid., 11 December 1925.
12 ‘George Darley’, Collected Essays, Penguin edition, 1970, p. 224.
13 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 25 December 1926.
14 Ibid., 9 December 1925.
15 Ibid., 16 December 1925.
16 Ibid., 21 December 1925.
17 Ibid., 16 March 1926.
18 Ibid., 23 February 1926.
19 Ibid., 3 March 1926.
20 Ibid., 8 November 1925.
21 Ibid., 8 July 1926.
22 Ibid., 26 February 1926.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid., 16 March 1926.
25 Ibid., 18 March 1926.
26 Ibid., 19 April 1926.
27 Ibid., 31 March 1926.
28 Ibid., 22 April 1926.
29 Ibid., 23 March 1926.
30 Ibid., 29 March 1926.
31 Ibid., 21 April 1926.
32 Ibid., 22 April 1926.
33 Ibid., 20 April 1926.
34 Ibid., 24 January 1926.
35 Ibid., 19 May 1926.
36 Letter to his mother, 30 March 1926.
37 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 22 April 1926.
38 Ibid., 29 April 1926.
39 Ibid., 28 June 1926 from the Embankment at 3 p.m.
40 Ibid., 27 May 1926.
41 Ibid., 31 May 1926.
42 Ibid., 2 June 1926.
43 Ibid., 5 July 1926.
44 Letter to his mother, 4 June 1926.
45 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 131.
46 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 15 July 1926. Later it transpired that he did not send it first to Heinemann.
47 TS., Boston College, Boston.
48 Ways of Escape, Penguin edition, 1981, p. 13.
49 A Sort of Life, p. 132.
50 Letter to his mother, 21 April 1927.
51 A Sort of Life, p. 133.
52 Letter to Vivien, 29 September 1926.
23 In Hospital and Suspected Epilepsy
1 A Sort of Life, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 133.
2 Ibid., p. 134.
3 A Gun for Sale, Penguin edition, 1974, p. 28.
4 Letter to his mother, 30 September 1926.
5 Letter to Vivien Dayrell-Browning, 2 October 1926.
6 Ibid., 5 October 1926.
7 Ibid., 7 October 1926.
8 Ibid., 3 October 1926.