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Selected Letters of Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, 1919¿1967

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Selected Letters of Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, 1919¿1967 THE PICKERING MASTERS SELECTED LETTERS OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON AND EDMUND BLUNDEN, 1919–1967 Contents of the Edition Volume 1 Letters 1919–1931 Volume 2 Letters 1932–1947 Volume 3 Letters 1951–1967 SELECTED LETTERS OF SIEGFRIED SASSOON AND EDMUND BLUNDEN, 1919–1967 Edited by Carol Z. Rothkopf Volume 3 1951–1967 First published 2012 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © Taylor & Francis 2012 © Editorial material Carol Z. Rothkopf 2012 Th e letters of Siegfried Sassoon, his poem ‘Blunden’s Beech’, as well as short extracts from of his other works are copyright © by Siegfried Sassoon and published by the kind permission of Th e Estate of George Sassoon. Th e letters of Edmund Blunden and extracts from some of his other works are copyright © and published by the kind permission of Th e Estate of Edmund Blunden. To the best of the Publisher’s knowledge every eff ort has been made to contact relevant copyright holders and to clear any relevant copyright issues. Any omissions that come to their attention will be remedied in future editions. All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the pub lishers. Notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks , and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. british library cataloguing in publication data Selected letters of Siegfried Sassoon and Edmund Blunden, 1919–1967. – (Th e Pickering masters) 1. Sassoon, Siegfried, 1886–1967 – Correspondence. 2. Blunden, Edmund, 1896–1974 – Correspondence. 3. Poets, English – 20th century – Correspond­ ence. I. Series II. Sassoon, Siegfried, 1886-1967. III. Blunden, Edmund, 1896–1974. IV. Rothkopf, Carol Zeman. 821.9’1208-dc23 ISBN-13: 978-1-84893-354-5 (set) Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited CONTENTS Letters 1951–1967 1 A Postscript from the Editor 317 Register of Letters 321 Index 327 1951 WALLIS1 TO BLUNDEN c/o Australia House, London 9 December 1951 Dear Mr Blunden, You will not have heard of me and that’s of no importance, but what is all- important is that you should relent and make some move towards sweeping away the misunderstanding between you and Siegfried Sassoon. Th e most eloquent plea I can make to this end is to remind you of your old friendship with him. If you had seen the anguished look on his face when I witlessly asked if you ever came to Heytesbury, you would have no doubts about how greatly he misses you. “One can’t aff ord to lose any friends – least of all Edmund” he said. Most likely it would be wise for me to leave this severely alone, but I never had any claims on wisdom, and having heard how this unfortunate aff air came about, it seems to me to be senseless for you both to persist in such a deprivation of friend­ ship. Possibly you believed that, on a former occasion, he had refused to come and see you, but did you know he was too ill to do so? Evidently he made some hurtful and tactless remarks about your being the victim of circumstances. He can be tact­ less, as I’m sure you know well enough, but he was bewildered by what seemed to be your censure of him without waiting to hear what he would have told you. He misses you grievously – which is my excuse for this audacity. If you can fi nd it in your heart to forget what has happened – and I’m plac­ ing my faith in your kindness and tolerance – let it seem to be a spontaneous gesture, and don’t mention my intervening in so high-handed a fashion. I’m not expecting you to reply to my supplication, but I’m hoping fervently you will write to Siegfried. Yours, Dorothy Wallis 1. Dorothy Wallis (b. 1920) came to England with her mother from Australia at the end of World War II and became a good friend of Sassoon and, subsequently, of the Blundens. Her letter is included because it shows her important role in reuniting the two men. Claire Blunden felt that Wallis’s goal was to fi nd a poet to be her life’s companion, and she had therefore paved her own way by fi rst sending cakes to a select few poets in Eng­ land to help them during the post-war austerity. See also Egremont, Sassoon, pp. 471–3. – 1 – 1952 Heytesbury House 3 February 1952 My dear Edmund, Owing to the providential work done by D.W. I am at last able to write to you. But I feel that you will not want any explanations of my behaviour; and it would only be an infl iction on you – and me – were I to ‘go over the ground’ of the past years. And I know that, if we were to meet in my library, all would be as it was, and the bad weather of my misunderstandings beyond the horizon. I can only ask you to believe that, since 1944 – and before that – I have been sorely tried, and oft times reduced to a desperation which was only mitigated by George, who has been my only bond with life and any future which remains for me. In the past year, however, I have had comparative peace, and have felt a sense of recovery. So I am not the drift ing and battered hulk which I was. Let us begin again, dear Edmund, forgive my cussedness, and remember how fl awless was the harmony of your friendship for more than twenty-fi ve years. Except for Glen and Geoffrey, all my old friends have vanished – and those two are so busy with their own concerns that I seldom see them. Otherwise I have been nowhere, except to visit George at Oundle1 once a term, since he went there in Sept. 1950. And my library activity has slowed down to a very sluggish current, not much stimulated by my being so out of fashion with the modernist minds, and defi nitely discouraged by the autocracy of Eliot under which we exist and are ignored. In conclusion of this dreariness, if you can contrive to get here for a day or two later on – when this house is less of a refrigerator – nothing would do me more good. I was sorry to hear from D.W. that you looked weary and over­ worked. What about a glass or two of that old port of mine – still extant, and seldom opened? Yours ever, SS 1. Public school in Northamptonshire. – 3 – 4 Selected Letters of Siegfr ied Sassoon and Edmund Blunden: Volume 3 Th e Times Literary Supplement 4 February 1952 My dear Siegfried, I saw as I came in a rather alarming pile of letters on my table; but my inward Groan ended when I found among them one from you. I am deeply delighted that Dorothy Wallis’s visit has led to this and thank both her and you for a very good Monday morning; and the photographs of you and George are part of this. (Th e Cocktail Party1 which Claire and I saw at Windsor was the oddest thing, it reminded me of all the obvious tricks of the playwright who might aim at success in theatres on piers; but the grand Psychiatrist in it was a simple transformation of Sherlock Holmes, and a Mystery Man such as my school fellows yearned to act. Th e audience all the same were all applause. I was fi nally extinguished when we were told that a young female character had been crucifi ed out East, not as Jesus was, which one might think suffi cient, but over an Ant Hill.) It is a shame if I can’t get you for my World Cricket XI (I expect they’ll want me to offi ciate), but I well understand, alas, that even you must yield to the argument of lumbago. Claire tells me that I am only an invalid in winter, or I might now fi nally keep off the field of play. Last year I managed two “Heytesbury” inningses, but was all the time annoyed at not being quite powerful enough to let loose. Although we have been, as you say, put aside by the literary autocracy, I gather from a lecturing visit just done that general readers do not altogether ignore us. But they go mostly to the free libraries and there the selection is made by the new school of librarians, who must be in the fashion; and anthologies also both help and hinder their discoveries. You see what you are in for when I am in your library again, but though I was voluble (polite word) when D. W. came here I can also listen! Or beat me with a cricket stump. Incidentally I shall ask for your memories of K. L. Hutchings once more. It is shocking that in Tonbridge his name generally meets blank faces. My father took many memories away when he died the other day.2 He had planned a day or two at Th e Mote3 with me. But he didn’t “expect much.” Now I shall look forward to coming to Heytesbury, just when it is conveni­ ent to you and when the days are longer.
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