Complete Works of Isaac Rosenberg

by Isaac Rosenberg

  87 Dempsey St

  Stepney E

  MY DEAR MARSH

  Forgive my weak and selfish letter. I should not have disturbed you at all but one gets so bewildered in this terrible struggle. Thank you for showing my things to Abercrombie and thinking of that now. He has not written yet. I can come if you like Tuesday or any day. I will come Tue if you do not write.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  June 4th, 1915

  87 Dempsey Street

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  Here are some poems I’ve had printed. I am selling them at half a crown a book. I am also enclosing a sketch for a play, which may interest you; but I want this back as I have no spare copies.

  Hope you enjoyed your holiday. We just missed being blown to pieces by a bomb the other night, a factory near by was burnt to pieces and some people killed.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  June 8th, 1915

  87 Dempsey Street

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  Thank you for your P.O. I am sending you another copy and one to Mr Clutton Brock as you asked me. I am very glad you have taken the trouble to read my things and have found something you like in them — most people find them difficult and wont be bothered to read into them. What people call technique is a very real thing, it corresponds to construction and command of form in painting. Rossetti was a supreme master of it in poetry and had no command of form whatever in painting. My technique in poetry is very clumsy I know.

  I wonder whether Mr Clutton Brock could get me some Art writing to do for any journals he is connected with. I shall mention it in writing to him.

  I am thinking of enlisting if they will have me, though it is against all my principles of justice — though I would be doing the most criminal thing a man can do — I am so sure my mother would not stand the shock that I don’t know what to do.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  July 1915

  87 Dempsey Street

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  I heard from Mr Clutton Brock and he says he likes my things. If I have the letter I will send it to you. He writes he is overworked but was kind enough to go through them (I should think with care) and mentions those he likes most. I do not know whether you are still away, but when you are in town and you care to see my pictures you can let me know.

  Gertler has a remarkable painting at N.E. which puts him easily next to John amongst our painters. John has a very fine head of B. Shaw, vivid and alive and serious. Gertler’s appears clever beside the high seriousness of his.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  July 1915

  87 Dempsey Street

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  Do you mind sending the enclosed to Mr Clutton Brock. I did not answer his letter as I mislaid it and your card has made me think of it. I believe they are getting up a show of Gaudier’s work — at least they are talking of it but nothing is settled as far as I know. I do not know his work but I met him once. He gave one a good impression. It is awful bad luck.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  September 1915

  87 Dempsey Street

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  I sent you two drawings I hope you will like, though I had meant to do a composition but have not been able to in my present state of mind. I have decided not to think of painting — at least until I have achieved some kind of (no matter how small) independence, by doing what is called an honest trade — I am going to learn something and in a few months I may start earning a little. Painting was once an honest trade, now the painter is either a gentleman, or must subsist on patronage — anyway I won’t let painting interfere with my peace of mind. If later on I haven’t forgotten it I may yet do something. Forgive this private cry but even the enormity of what is going on all through Europe always seems less to an individual than his own struggle.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  October 1915

  87 Dempsey Street

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  In my last letter I wrote you I was learning ‘an honest trade’. I don’t know whether I told you what it was but what I meant was that I was learning to do work that I would not be put to all sorts of shifts and diplomatics to dispose of. It is very mechanical work though my skill in drawing is of great use in it. It is process work — preparing blocks for the press — but it is very unhealthy having to be bending over strong acids all day — and though my chest is weak I shall have to forget all that. But I have yet to learn it and when I have learnt it it may take some time before I find work. I am attending an evening school where this work is taught and it may take some months to learn as the hours at the school are so few. I also have to pay this evening school, it is not very much but it is more than I can afford. You have shown that you are interested in me so I thought you would not mind lending me the 10 shillings to pay as it is so very little and I could so easily return it as soon as I get work. I hope you will not think this impudence, but all my friends seem to have disappeared. I hope very soon and by this means that I shall need none.

  I am sending some small poems I have managed to write in my awful state of mind, or rather as a relief from it.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  October 1915

  87 Dempsey St

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  Thank you for the cheque which is as much to me now as all the money in America would be to the Allies. When I am settled I hope you will allow me to return it either in drawings or money. I expect to know enough for my purpose in 2 months, and I will let you know how I get on. As to what you say about my being luckier than other victims I can only say that one’s individual situation is more real and important to oneself than the devastation of fates and empires especially when they do not vitally affect oneself. I can only give my personal and if you like selfish point of view that I, feeling myself in the prime and vigour of my powers (whatever they may be) have no more free will than a tree; seeing with helpless clear eyes the utter destruction of the railways and avenues of approaches to outer communication cut off. Being by the nature of my upbringing, all my energies having been directed to one channel of activity, crippled from other activities and made helpless even to live. It is true I have not been killed or crippled, been a loser in the stocks, or had to forswear my fatherland, but I have not quite gone free and have a right to say something.

  Forgive all this bluster but — salts for constipation — moral of course.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  1915 October

  87 Dempsey Street

  Stepney E

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  I shall send you a drawing either this week or next for your cheque, which I hope you will like — I should like to write much more but I don’t feel I can now. I will try and write a letter when I send the drawing.

  I have changed my mind again about joining the army. I feel about it that more men means more war, — besides the immorality of joining with no patriotic convictions.

  Thank you very much for your cheque.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  October 1915

  Priv. I. Rosenberg

  Bat. Bantam, Regt. 12th Suffolk,

  New Depot, Bury St. Edmunds

  DEAR MR SCHIFF,

  I could not get the work I thought I might so I have joined this Bantam Battalion (as I was too short for any other) which seems to be the most rascally affair in the world. I have to eat out of a basin together with some horribly smelling scavenger who spits and sneezes into it etc. It is most revolting, at least up to now — I don’t mind the hard sleeping the stiff marches etc but this is unbearable. Beside
s my being a Jew makes it bad amongst these wretches. I am looking forward to having a bad time altogether. I am sending some old things to the New English and if they get in you may see them there. I may be stationed here some time or be drafted off somewhere else; if you write I will be glad to hear.

  Yours sincerely

  I. ROSENBERG

  October 1915

  12th Suffolks

  Bantam Bat.

  New Offices Recruiting Depot

  Bury St Edmunds

  DEAR MARSH

  I have just joined the Bantams and am down here amongst a horrible rabble — Falstaff’s scarecrows were nothing to these. Three out of every 4 have been scavengers , the fourth is a ticket of leave. But that is nothing — though while I’m waiting for my kit I’m roughing it a bit having come down without even a towel. I dry my self with my pocket handkerchief. I don’t know whether I will be shifted as soon as I get my rigout — I thought you might like to hear this. I meant to send you some poems I wrote which are better than my usual things but I have left them at home where I am rather afraid to go for a while — I left without saying anything. Abercrombie did not write to me, I hope it is not because he disliked my things. If that is not the reason I should like to send him my new things. Can you tell me anything of Gertler.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  October 1915

  22648

  C Company, 12th Suffolk Bantams

  Bury St Edmunds

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  You are very good to send me that note. Money is very handy and we get too little of it here. Half of what I get goes to my mother. When I spoke to you of leave I don’t think I mentioned that I did not tell my mother I had joined and disappeared without saying anything. It nearly killed my mother I heard , and ever since she has been very anxious to see me. I send you here a photo which I think is pretty alive.

  What you say about your nephews I dare say is just, but I have been used to this sort of thing and know the kind of people I am with well. I should have been told to soften my boots and I would not have had this damned bother. I now find everybody softens their boots first and anybody would be crippled by wearing them as I have done. I shall let you know when I am in London.

  Yours sincerely

  ISAAC ROSENBERG

  November 1915

  Military Hospital

  Depot, 12th Suffolk Bantams

  Bury St Edmunds

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  Don’t be frightened at the heading. In running before the colonel I slipped on some mud and gravel and cut my both hands rather badly. But I shall be right enough in a few days. I shall find out the name of the Colonel before I send this letter. Of course if some kind of sense of difference could be established between myself and the others, not that my sensitiveness should not be played upon but only that unnecessary trouble shouldn’t be started. I don’t object to severe duties or menial and filthy work as it hardens one. As I won’t get paid till I am in kharki which business takes some time it seems (I’ve been here over a week and have had to do all the duties of new recruits in my civies and have come quite unprepared expecting to get them the day I joined) naturally your present is very handy. It will do for some shaves and suppers etc. I hope to be well and get the kharki in a few days. I don’t know yet whether I am staying here or will be sent down to Aldershot. I will write more when I know. I wanted to join the RAMC as the idea of killing upsets me a bit, but I was too small. The only regiment my build allowed was the Bantams.

  Yours sincerely

  I ROSENBERG

  Priv. I. Rosenberg

  November 1915

  12th Suffolk Bantams

  Military Hospital, Depot,

  Bury St Edmunds

  Tuesday night

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  I am still in the hospital and expect to be for at least two days more, so though I have your present for which many thanks, I am unable to make any use of it, but it won’t be long before I will be unable to make any more use of it, as it will be used. Just now I don’t quite know where I can keep books. I have with me Donne’s poems and Brown’s ‘Religion De Medici’ and must carry both in my pocket. I have drawn some of the chaps in the hospital and I can see heaps of subject matter all over. If you could send any small books or news that might interest me I think I could find a place for them. A small box of watercolours would be handy. I cannot get one in this town. I can only get Sundays off so have no chance of finding out as the evenings are pitch black and no shops are visible. Cigarettes or any small eatable luxuries also help to make things pleasanter. Any sketches I may do I will send though I don’t think I’ll be in the frame of mind for doing decent work for some time. The only thing (and it is very serious to me) that troubles me is my mother is so upset about me. It was this thought that stopped me from joining long ago.

  I hope you are happy with your work. Any kind of work if one can only be doing something is what one wants now. I feel very grateful at your appreciation of my position, it keeps the clockwork going. To me this is not a result but one motion of the intricate series of activities that all combine to make a result. One might succumb, be destroyed — but one might also (and the chances are even greater for it) be renewed, made larger, healthier. It is not very easy for me to write here as you can imagine and you must not expect any proper continuity or even coherence. But I thought you might like to hear how I am placed exactly and write as I can. If I could get a very small watercolour box with a decent sketch block, pencil, paper about 12x10, I might do something Sundays. The landscape is quite good. Hospital incidents are good but I may not be here more than two days. If you could send anything at once I’d get it here. They’d give it me if I had left. With cigarettes I could make myself more liked, and eatables I’d like myself. Cakes chocolates etc. I hope you don’t mind this but though they would do this for me at home I don’t like my mother to feel I haven’t everything I want.

  Yours sincerely

  I ROSENBERG

  November 1915

  12th Suffolk Bantams

  Military Hospital Depot,

  Bury St Edmunds

  DEAR MR SCHIFF

  Many thanks for the paints and sketch book which I received yesterday and are just the things I wanted. I sketched an invalid in the blue uniform but I must give it to him — I got a deal of pleasure in painting after so long a rest. I expect I’ll be out of the hospital Tuesday, my hands seem to be so slow to heal. We are pretty near starved in this damned hospital and there is no one to complain to. There are no books to read and one must not stir from the room. I’m impatient to get out. This militarism is terrorism to be sure. Again many thanks for the paints.

  Yours sincerely

  I ROSENBERG

  December 1, 1915

  12th Suffolk Bantams

  Military Hospital

  Depot

  Bury St Edmunds

  Sat night

  MY DEAR MARSH

  I have only just got your letter. They kept it back or it got mislaid — anyway it only reached me today. First not to alarm you by this heading I must tell you that while running before the colonel I started rather excitedly and tripped myself coming down pretty heavily in the wet grit and am in the hospital with both my hands cut. I’ve been here since last Sat and expect to be out by about the beginning of the week. It is a nondescript kind of life in the hospital and I’m very anxious to get out and be doing some rough kind of work. Mr. Schiff, sent me some watercolours and I amuse myself with drawing the other invalids. Of course I must give them what I do but I can see heaps of material for pictures here. The landscape too seems decent though I haven’t seen anything but the Barracks as this accident happened pretty near at the start.

  I hope you were not annoyed at that fib of mine but I never dreamt they would trouble to find out at home. I have managed to persuade my mother that I am for home service only, though of course I have signed on for general service. I left without sayi
ng anything because I was afraid it would kill my mother or I would be too weak and not go. She seems to have got over it though and as soon as I can get leave I’ll see her and I hope it will be well. It is very hard to write here so you must not expect interesting letters though there is always behind or through my object some pressing sense of foreign matter, immediate and not personal which hinders and disjoints what would otherwise have coherence and perhaps weight. I have left all my poems including a short drama with a friend and I will write to him for them when I shall send them either direct to Abercrombie or to you first. I believe in myself more as a poet than a painter. I think I get more depth into my writing. I have only taken Donne with me and don’t feel for poetry much in this wretched place. There is not a book or paper here, we are not allowed to stir from the gate, have little to eat, and are not allowed to buy any if we have money — and are utterly wretched (I mean the hospital). If you could send me some novel or chocolates, you would make me very happy. I think I will be here (in the hospital) till Tuesday night as it is Sunday tomorrow, and if the doctor says Monday I can leave the hospital, it means Tuesday night. You will get this Mon and I will have a whole day left me to eat a box of choloates in; it is only a short winters day.