LETTERS Years Came Away with Somewhat Different Impres- Sions of Max’S Feeling Towards His Contemporaries, Depending on His Mood at the Moment
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prepared many of Max’s meals, concocting deli- cacies to tempt his ailing appetite. Perhaps all visitors to the Villino in those last LETTERS years came away with somewhat different impres- sions of Max’s feeling towards his contemporaries, depending on his mood at the moment. To me, he was extremely critical of Henry James’ malicious attitude towards some of his friends, and surely Max and Virginia Woolf his caricature of James listening at the keyhole of a connubial bedroom can not be considered I WAS AMUSED to see in your December issue that mild; but he obviously admired James the writer. in an interview with Mr. Edmund Wilson, Max Nor was his animus against Shaw entirely un- Ekerbohm said that he “did not care for Virginia mitigated. He had great respect for Shaw’s fair- Woolf. He had a good word only for her criticism, ness, his kindness, and “the best brain in England.” and he did not seem enthusiastic about that.” In Though Max praised Sem as a master of cari- 1927 Max spontaneously wrote a letter to my wife cature, this regard was not mutual, for Sem cailed beginning thus: Max a commentator, not a caricaturist; his draw- “Dear Virginia Woolf-I can’t help this famili- ings were amusing, but not true caricature. The arity: I seem to know you so well, from The Bittersweet cartoons were done on commission Common Reader, a book which I have read twice, from Max’s old friend C. B. Cochrane, and Max and have often dipped into since, and rate above undoubtedly felt an obligation to please his subjects. any modern book of criticism (rating it thus quite He apologised to Miss Peggy Wood, the heroine, soberly, all unconfused b your habit of going out if she should dislike her representation, saying he of your way to be nice al out my essays!). .” did not draw pictures of pretty ladies. LEONARDWOOLP For some years I have been gathering material iUonts House, on Max Beerbohm and his wife, who had been an Rodmell, Sussex American actress, for a book to be called h4ux and America, and I trust these amendments may clarify some points in Mr. Wilson’s appreciative red- lection of Sir Max. KATHERINELYON MIX Wilson’s Beerbohm Baker University, ADMIRERSof Sir Max Beerbohm will have read Baldwin, Kansas with pleasure Mr. Edmund Wilson on his meetings with Sir Max at the Villino Chiaro in March, 1954. I too visited Sir Max later that spring and can Trotsky confirm much that Mr. Wilson has described- the frailty, the red-rimmed eyes, the impressive IT IS A long time since I have read so urgent and head (though the moustache was white, not blond), brilliantly expressed a political document as the unusual hands, the single glass of wine, the Alasdair MacIntyre’s review of the third volume of rationed cigarettes, the gay patchwork dressing Isaac Deutscher’s Life of Trotsky. In the review, gown made by his sister Dora, the Anglican nun, however, there is a single sentence to which 1 the murals (but Mr. Wilson should have men- would like to draw attention. Mr. MacIntyre says tioned Max’s favourite of the Duke, Zuleika and “socialism can be made only by the workers and Katie Batch), and the kind attentions of Miss not for them.” [ENcornumR, January.] Jungmann. Still, I should like to offer some com- Trotsky gave that impression but what he really ments. Mr. Wilson makes Miss Jungmann seem to believed was that socialism was made for the have been merely a former acquaintance, but she workers by the Leninist political party. Any inten- had been a friend of the Beerbohms for twenty- sive analysis of his work from 1917 will show that. five years, especially dear to Florence, who had Perhaps its most striking expression is in his History elicited her promise to come and care for Max of the Russian Revolution in the chapter called if he were alone. Like the Beerbohms, Miss “The Art of Insurrection,” where he summed up Jungmann was in England during the Second his unrivalled experience for the benefit of future World War, and they were often together. Max and generations. The climax of that book and of the Florence were delighted whenever Elisabeth came cha ter is the following found on page 168 of to see them and happ when she decided to become voLe111: an English citizen. Tl ey exchanged gifts at Christ- mas, and in her will, Florence remembered Elisa- To overthrow the old power is one thing; beth. After the war Miss Jungmann visited them in to take the power in one’s own hands is another. Rapallo. When Florence’s illness became serious, The bourgeoisie may win the power in a revolu- Max wired Miss Jungmann, who came at once, tion not because it is revolutionary, but because arriving two hours too late to see Florence alive. it is bourgeois. It has in its possession property, As for Miss Jungmann’s running the Vilino with education, the press, a network of strategic posi- only one servant, Florence did that in later years tions, a hierarchy of institutions. Quite otherwise with the devoted Pina, her maid since before the with the proletariat. Deprived in the nature of war. Florence herself was an excellent cook and things of all social advantages, an insurrectionarv 92 PRODUCED 2003 BY UNZ.ORG ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED Letters 93 proletariat can count only on its numbers, its of me and, with my wife and two small children, solidarity, its cadres, its official staff. I am shortly expected to start a new career (I am a little too old) or stop work altogether (1 am rather That was Trotsky’s view of the socialist revolu- too young). Mr. MacInnes may fondly imagine I tion, and it is utterly false, unhistorical, and with- mean by this that there will be a wholesale banish- out sense. The proletariat that he there shows to be ing of the sun-helmeted imperialists and a stepping the basis of his thought does not exist anywhere. It into their highly-polished mosquito boots of the has got education. It has got a press, a network of down-trodden subject peoples, at last claiming their strategic positions, and a hierarchy of institutions. birthright. It is a whimsical picture and one often What it has not got it can easily possess itself of. painted in cadmium yellow and cardinal red at Even in the insurrections that take place in the anti-colonialist meetings of those who know the most politically backward countries the insurrec- colonies through any medium barring firsthand tionaries teday know enough to head, usually first personal experience. Strangely, the picture is in- thing, for the radio station. There is not a prole- accurate. The down-trodden peoples are not yet tariat in the world which is as Trotsky seemed to ready to take over our functions and responsibilities. believe “in the nature of things” deprived of “all” Not only this, but the elected Government know social advantages. As a matter not only of theory they are not and are asking, nay, urging, us to con- but of empirical fact, the reverse was the case in tinue to occupy our own shoes. Trotsky’s day and more than ever to-day. It was But doubtless I am biased, and the fact of the the consciousness that nowhere there existed what matter is that the elected Government are still could be called a Leninist party which drove him suffering from the numbing effect of the years of in his last years to the reversals of policies and con- colonial subjugation which the people have endured. ceptions which he had spent his life in advocating. The subtle persuasion exercised by the imperialists C. L. R. JAMES who wish to retain their lucrative jobs and the London overweening sense of power which they so enjoy is still too strong for them. Let us then, by all means, chuck the rest of our MacInnes Empire dependencies into the rag bag alon with the and Congo; let us snuff out, like Tinkerbefil, our fairy WRITINGas a dode, I feel quite safe from retaliation Queen, cock a snook at the silly old Rule of Law, in saying that, having staggered over the (I publish all our secrets, banish public school boys generously allow) printing errors and irritating from the Foreign Office, and stop pretending that ellipses of Mr. Colin MacInnes’ article [ENCOUNTER, we ought to try and curb the sexual immorality uf November], I am left with the inescapable belief our children. Let us do what anyone tells us to do, that he must be joking. No thinking man in this however crazy, and let us ignore the stuffy people day and age could seriously be both quite so dive who would rather we were not crazy. Let us do all and so irresponsible. these things and let us also, for God’s sake, leave I am (dare I say it?) a Colonial Administrator- Mr. MacInnes to clear up the mess. a member of an extinct species, a fossil interred in R. T. ADDIS the “now long gone” empire. I actually work in a Bathwst, Gambia British Colony in West Africa which-despite its emission from Mr. MacInnes’ list-is an area from which our withdrawal is still incomplete. I am one of those wicked colonial practitioners who, through Evtushenko & Enzensberger torture, violence and the suppression of democratic will, are, by immutable law, tending to endanger THECRY of protest by H. M. Emensberger [EN- the social life and Corrupt the power of Britain.