The Letters of Elizabeth Bowen 1934-1949
Roz Parr
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Table of Contents Rationale...... 3 I. Introduction...... 3 II. Elizabeth Bowen...... 4 III. Editing Theory...... 6 IV. Methodology...... 14 Bowen’s Letters...... 24 February 2nd, 1934 to Lady Cynthia Asquith...... 24 June 18th, 1942 to John Hayward...... 25 June 21st, 1943 to Jephson O’Conor ...... 27 May 24th, 1944 to Owen Rutter...... 30 March 19th, 1945 to C. Geoffrey Mortlock...... 31 March 23rd, 1945 to C. Geoffrey Mortlock...... 32 April 26th, 1945 to C. Geoffrey Mortlock...... 33 July 30th, 1945 to F.K. Hurst...... 34 March 1st, 1945 to Joan Penney...... 35 January 24th, 1946 to C. Gilardino...... 36 March 1st, 1946 to Frank Rouda...... 37 March 18th, 1946 to John Hayward...... 39 May 3rd, 1946 to Philip Henderson...... 40 May 14th, 1946 to Denys Kilham-Roberts ...... 41 July 1st, 1946 to Miss Beckett, Harper’s Bazaar...... 42 September 30th, 1946 to Denys Kilham-Roberts...... 45 October 4th, 1946 to Major Thompson...... 46 October 27th, 1946 to John Hayward...... 47 June 2nd, 1948 to Daniel George ...... 51 June 17th, 1948 to Denys Kilham-Roberts ...... 53 February 21st, 1949 to Ralph Cooke...... 54 April 30th, 1949 to Ralph Cooke ...... 55 June 15th, 1949 to Ralph Cooke...... 56 August 3rd, 1949 to Ralph Cooke ...... 57 Emendations……...... 58 Biographical Register...... 59 Notes...... 63 Maps of Bowen’s Correspondence Locations...... 74 Photograph Locations...... 77 Appendix A...... 79 Works Cited...... 80
2 Rationale
I. Introduction
Declan Kiberd describes the characters of Elizabeth Bowen as “ladies and gentlemen
[who] find themselves caught in a crisis of perpetual anticipation followed by inevitable disappointment, with all their days an expensive preparation for some splendid epiphany which never transpires” (377). I suppose, as a senior in college, I felt like one of Bowen’s characters. I was on the cusp of full adulthood, perpetually anticipating an anticlimactic graduation and entrance into the ‘real world.’ I was, and continue to be, amazed by Bowen’s hauntingly poignant prose in which she captures the tenuous nature of life so well.
Bowen’s work, and her life, has a sense of ambiguity, an inability to be categorized.
Bowen saw the binaries presented to her and effectively moved between them, occupying the gray space in the middle that eluded categorization. As an Anglo-Irish woman she shifted between the Irish and the English, maintaining one tradition while dismissing another. Her personal relationships were situated between the heterosexual and the homosexual. Her stories combine the realm of the living with the realm of the dead. She even lived during both World
Wars, making each one a reference point between which she created some of her most moving fiction. She shifts between the Gothic and the modern; connections have been made between
Bowen and Henry James, Bowen and Sheridan Le Fanu, Bowen and Oscar Wilde, Bowen and
Virginia Woolf.
Bowen transcends this sort of categorization. The only person against whom she can be compared is herself.
This edition of Bowen’s letters is meant to establish Elizabeth Bowen as a historic and literary figure by way of her own correspondence, allowing the reader to glean what he or she
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can from Bowen’s personal writings to learn more about this enigmatic literary figure.
II. Elizabeth Bowen
Elizabeth Bowen was born on June 7th, 1899 in Dublin, Ireland to Henry Charles Cole
Bowen and Florence Colley Bowen. Her parents were members of the Anglo-Irish gentry, and
Bowen spent much of her early childhood in Dublin and at her family’s home, Bowen’s Court, in
County Cork. Her Irish upbringing was cut short when her father became mentally ill in 1907. At the age of seven years old, Bowen left Ireland for England with her mother, and the pair eventually settled in Hythe. After a mere five years in Hythe, Bowen’s mother passed away, leaving Elizabeth to be raised by her aunts on the Kentish coast. These early tragedies haunt
Bowen’s fiction, particularly her ghost stories and orphaned children (Ellmann).
Bowen’s upbringing in both England and Ireland led to her fragmented sense of national identity. Declan Kiberd explains, “If the Anglo-Irish were a hyphenated people, forever English in Ireland, forever Irish in England, then [Bowen] knew that better than most. At school in
England, she played up her wild Irish side, yet she also tried to make herself more English than the English by her perfect decorum and style” (Kiberd 367). Bowen worked to float in between, haunting the space that separated the two nations and shifting from one to the other when it best suited her needs.
Bowen began writing short stories at 20. Her first collection, Encounters, was published in 1923. In that same year, she married Alan Cameron, Assistant Secretary for Education in
Northampton. It has been speculated that their marriage was never consummated due to
Cameron’s homosexuality and that Bowen engaged in a number of extramarital affairs with men and women, as well. Regardless, the couple remained married until Cameron’s death in 1952
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(Ellmann).
The couple moved to Oxford in 1925 when Cameron was appointed Secretary of
Education for the city of Oxford. While at Oxford, Bowen enjoyed tremendous social and professional success as her first novel The Hotel was published in 1927.
After a decade in Oxford, Bowen and Cameron moved to Regent’s Park, London in 1935.
This is the location from which Bowen wrote many of the letters contained in this edition. The couple remained in London until 1944 when neighboring buildings were bombed during World
War II. While at Regent’s Park, Bowen wrote some of her greatest short stores. In an effort to counteract the violence of the war taking place around her, Bowen also penned her family history, Bowen’s Court, during this time at Regent’s Park:
Yes, here is the picture of peace – in the house, in the country round. Like all
pictures, it does not quite correspond with any reality. Or, you may call the
country a magic mirror; reflecting something that could not really exist. This
illusion – peace at its most ecstatic – I hold to, to sustain me throughout war.
(Bowen’s Court 339-340)
Bowen was active in the British war effort, working as an air raid warden and volunteering for the British Ministry of Information. In her volunteer service, Bowen performed undercover work to gage Irish neutrality toward the war. She was staunchly against Irish isolationism and had to counterbalance “the rebel who smouldered within her” with “the lady of the manor, who presided like a goddess over a world of her own creation” (Kiberd 373). Her wartime experiences informed her collection of short stories titled “The Demon Lover” (1945) as well as her novel The Heat of the Day (1949).
After Cameron’s retirement in 1952, the couple moved to Bowen’s Court, which Bowen
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inherited in 1930 and was the first and only female heir. Months after the relocation to Ireland,
Cameron died. Alone and struggling to maintain Bowen’s Court, Bowen traveled to the United
States to lecture and write. By 1959, however, Bowen was forced to sell her family’s property, and the house was finally demolished in 1960.
Bowen spent the rest of her days in Hythe, writing her novel Eva Trout for which she won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1969 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 1970. In 1972 Bowen was diagnosed with lung cancer, which led to her death on February 22,
1973 (Ellmann).
III. Editing Theory
In the creation of this edition of the letters of Elizabeth Bowen I have followed two guiding principles, one from Jerome McGann and the other from G. Thomas Tanselle. As
Tanselle asserts, authorial intentionality is “central to the whole discussion” of editing because an author-centered approach enables an understanding of the intended meaning of an author’s work (“Historicism and Critical Editing” 22). McGann, on the other hand, values social editing which requires the editor consider the author in terms of socio-economic circumstances:
“Authoritative texts are arrived at by an exhaustive reconstruction not of an author and his intentions so much as of an author and his context of work” (84). Though the editorial theories of
McGann and Tanselle are aimed at two different reconstructions and seem to counteract each other, both theorists share a desire to be honest, historical editors. It is this shared desire that gives me the confidence to attempt to reconcile these two seemingly disparate theories to create an approach best suited for my edition. This edition avoids the tension between McGann and
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Tanselle’s approaches by applying each approach to different parts of the edition as each approach particularly suits the different parts of this edition.
John Bryant has also successfully conflated the theories of McGann and Tanselle, and I find it necessary to draw the distinctions between his conception of the fluid text and my approach to Bowen’s letters. In The Fluid Text, Bryant defines his titular theory as “any literary work that exists in more than one version. It is ‘fluid’ because the versions flow from one to another” (1). Bryant recognizes the multiplicity of texts by considering textual variants, the layers of editing that contribute to the final document. To do so, Bryant states that, “we need to inquire into the ways in which a fluid text is a confluence of public events and private intentions”
(18). This is where he begins to bridge the “chasm between Tanselle and McGann” by recognizing that their editing theories are not mutually exclusive. According to Bryant,
McGann’s social theory “redirects rather than rejects editorial processes” of which Tanselle is so fond (60). Tanselle, too, is open to McGann’s idea of social texts. As Bryant explains, Tanselle
“has argued that since a social text must be achieved through the workings of nonauthorial collaborators (who as individuals must have intentions), those social text intentions (so to speak) can only be ascertained through textual analysis and rendered through emendation” (60). I agree with Bryant’s bridging of this theoretical chasm, but my scholarly editing process departs from his in focus; Bryant is concerned with public documents and I am concerned with the private.
Bryant’s textual variants that comprise a fluid text hinge on the three types of readers.
The “first reader” is “ the writer writing” (7). Bryant’s second reader is a collaborator who
“take[s] the writer’s work and provide[s] new perspectives by suggesting changes” (7). The third reader, then, is a “nonprofessional who edit[s] a writer’s work, suggest[s] changes, demand[s] revision, plead[s], coerce[s], and cajole[s]” (100). The fluid text takes all three types of reader
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into consideration, recognizing the value of each reader’s contribution and the effect each has on the text. Private documents, such as the letters featured in this edition, are typically the result of the first reader’s input only. Therefore, it is necessary to approach Bowen’s letters in a way that departs from Bryant’s fluid text. My attempt to bridge the chasm between McGann and Tanselle consists of applying each theory to separate parts of this edition. McGann’s emphasis on socio- historical context has directed the notes, back matter and presentation of the letters as artifacts, while the treatment of substantives and accidentals was guided by Tanselle’s approach to private documents.
Tanselle is best known for his attention to authorial intention and Greg’s “Rationale.” For this edition, however, his work on re-theorizing the division between historical and documentary editing that is most important. Tanselle wrote:
if one seriously wishes to understand a text, whatever it is, no aspect of it can be
slighted. There is no fundamental distinction, then, from a textual point of view,
between the materials edited by the historian and those edited by the literary
scholar. Letters, journals, published works, and manuscripts of unpublished works
fall into both fields; all of them are historical documents, and any of them can be
“literary.” (“The Editing of Historical Documents” 46)
Tanselle’s encouraging a combination of approaches, rather than a separation, has guided this edition in that it presents Elizabeth Bowen, novelist and short story writer, not only as a literary figure but as a historical one. I have attempted to situate Bowen both in terms of world history and in terms of the literary period in which she wrote to provide the reader with a comprehensive understanding of her place in time. To properly situate Bowen, I have provided detailed notes that include references to both the literary and historical aspects of Bowen and her
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contemporaries. For example, Bowen’s letter to F.K. Hurst dated July 30, 1945 includes a reference to Major Woodrow Wyatt. In the corresponding editorial note, I have provided information that explains Major Wyatt’s political and publishing roles. The note reads:
1. Major Woodrow Wyatt – Woodrow Wyatt (1918–1997) was a politician and journalist
who volunteered for the British army in 1940. After the war, he worked for New
Statesman and Nation for which he wrote several pieces supportive of left-wing
politics. Subsequently, he pursued an unsuccessful career in politics and then
went on to work for the Sunday Mirror and News of the World. He was a
supporter of Margaret Thatcher who knighted him in 1983 (Howard).
Other notes follow suit when appropriate.
In re-theorizing the relationship between literary texts and historical documents, Tanselle also reconsiders the nature of public and private writing. If the text was meant to be published for a large audience it is considered a public document. If the text was to be read only by the author or a correspondent it is safe to consider it private (“The Editing of Historical Documents” 47).
This edition is concerned with Elizabeth Bowen’s private documents, letters she wrote to a single correspondent. In following Tanselle’s editorial guidelines, I am hereafter concerned with his practices regarding private documents.
Tanselle considers private documents to be in their finished forms, “and the question of whether the writer ‘intended’ something else is irrelevant” (“The Editing of Historical
Documents” 47). A received letter was just as polished as the author needed it to be to effectively communicate with his or her recipient. It is for this reason that Tanselle discourages correction or modernization of private documents:
The scholarly editor who later wishes to make them [private documents] public is not in
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the same position as the writer or the writer’s contemporary publisher. Not only is it
impossible for him to know what the writer or his publisher would have done to them; but
if he presents them as anything more polished or finished than they were left by the
writer, he is falsifying their nature. (“The Editing of Historical Documents” 47)
Unlike an author’s contemporary publisher who works to ensure public documents meet the publication conventions, a scholarly editor is under no obligation to meet such criteria. On the contrary, a scholarly editor who does attempt to correct and modernize a text robs the document of its “tonal texture” and the “evidence which the document preserves relating the writer’s habits, temperament, and mood” (“The Editing of Historical Documents” 48). Therefore, I have presented Bowen’s letters exactly as they appeared on the original document, including all spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. This is in an attempt to allow the reader insight into Bowen’s habits, temperament, and mood as Tanselle so avidly encourages.
As I continue to rationalize my editorial decisions, I will refer to Tanselle’s approach and revisit the aforementioned topics more specifically. But, I do want to make a final mention of
Tanselle’s interpretation of the role of textual apparatus in a scholarly edition. He says,
“apparatus are crucial because they enable readers to take different approaches and make different judgments from the editors’” (“Historicism and Critical Editing” 41). The apparatus included in this edition are meant to situate Bowen as an historical player as well as a literary figure, but I recognize my choices are but some of many ways to interpret her life, works, and correspondence. My simple hope is that the apparatus provided encourage the reader to understand Elizabeth Bowen in a different, hopefully deeper, way.
In opposition to the author-centered approach of Tanselle, McGann instead situates the author within his or her social context:
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an author’s work possesses autonomy only when it remains an unheard melody.
As soon as it begins its passage into publication it undergoes a series of
interventions which some textual critics see as a process of contamination, but
which may equally well be seen as a process of training the poem for its
appearances in the world. (51)
For McGann, the moment a text is read by another it is affected and then becomes a social entity.
The only way in which an author’s work can remain wholly autonomous is if the document is read by no one but the author.
In addition to the social relationships that affect the reading of a text, the author’s social situation is also important to consider. As McGann states, “Authors lose their lives as they gain such critical identities, and their works suffer a similar fate by being divorced from the social relationships which gave them their lives (including their ‘textual’ lives) in the first place, and which sustain them through their future life in society” (81). This leads to a false sense of authorial intent, an intent McGann finds irrelevant once social relationships are considered: “We enter the world of textual versions where intentions are plainly shifting and changing under the pressure of various people and circumstances” (62). Rather than focusing on the author, as
Tanselle would encourage, McGann instead encourages “the dialectic between the historically located individual author and the historically developing institutions of literary production” as a driving factor for scholarly editorial practice (81). Understanding the author in terms of the relationships that surround the publication of a document is more important than considering the author as an autonomous figure because the author is not truly autonomous; he or she is affected by those around him or her as the author undergoes the writing and publication processes.
The social relationships that surround a public document are different from the
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relationships that surround a private document, and both are equally important to consider.
For example, an editor may change the author’s original text by altering the spelling, punctuation, or grammar in order to conform to existing conventions. In this way, the editor becomes a part of the society of the document in that he or she has directly affected the production of the text. For a private document the effect of society is not as obvious but is just as relevant. The author of a letter composes the correspondence with a recipient in mind, writing in a way that is best suited to the recipient. The affects the nature of the writer’s represented identity as he or she adjusts to his or her identity to best suit the correspondent. Therefore, this is not an autonomous exercise for the author but rather one that is guided by the recipient. Both public and private documents are also subject to a society that goes beyond interpersonal relationships and includes socioeconomic class, race, gender, literary era, and linguistic convention. In approaching Bowen’s letters, I found it prudent to focus on the affects of the latter two types of society outlined here as Bowen’s letters never went through the publication process.
Recognizing these social relationships challenges the notion of authority as it relates to a text. Authority is not completely the author’s nor does it rest entirely in the social relationships that surround him or her. Instead, “it resides in the actual structure of the agreements which these two cooperating authorities reach in specific cases” (54). It is for this reason that McGann asserts that the most authoritative texts are “arrived at by an exhaustive reconstruction not of an author and his intentions so much as of an author and his context of work” (84). This line of editorial reasoning has led me to provide textual notes and biographic register entries that assist the reader in situating Elizabeth Bowen both in historic and literary terms. In a letter to Jephson O’Connor dated June 21, 1943, Bowen mentions Bowen’s Court. I have provided the following editorial
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note to assist the reader in understanding the importance of the location in Bowen’s historical life as well as her literary career.
4. Bowen’s Court – Bowen’s Court is the name of the Bowen estate. The house was the
inspiration for Bowen’s family history of the same title in which she detailed the
ascendency of the property. Elizabeth came into control of Bowen’s Court in
1930 after the death of her father, becoming the first and only woman to inherit
the property. Bowen’s Court became too large a financial burden, and Bowen's
was forced to sell the estate after offering it to her nephew, Charles, who could
not take it on. It was demolished in 1960 (Glendinning). As Lassner states, Bowen
"loved the house for all it's turbulent history and trouble, but was never
sentimental about it" (17). She did, however, return to Ireland from Rome in
January of 1960 to say goodbye to the old house (Glendinning 203).
This note explains the importance of Bowen’s Court to Bowen’s literary work as well as to the history of the Bowen family, reconstructing Bowen’s context following McGann’s theory. By explaining Bowen’s role in the history of Bowen’s Court, the note situates her within the tradition of inheritance in Ireland and in the Bowen family. By relaying information regarding
Bowen’s love for the house as well as her use of the property as a setting for her novel, the note contextualizes Bowen in terms of her own personal and literary history. This combination achieves the McGannian effect of reconstructing Bowen within the context of her time.
An additional social relationship necessary to the understanding of a scholarly edition such as this is the recognition of the influence of the critical scholar. McGann recognizes the role of the scholarly editor: “any actual edition produced by a critical scholar will bear within itself yet other, and more particular, idiosyncrasies which are characteristic of the scholar who
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produced it, and the context in which he worked” (93). The most obvious idiosyncrasy of this edition is my unique approach to editing that combines aspects of both Tanselle and McGann’s theories.
I am given the confidence to combine these seemingly incongruent theories because both scholars are dedicated to producing editions that are historically accurate and maintain a fidelity to the original documents as well as the authors who wrote them. I find it prudent to draw from both theories to create an edition of Bowen’s letters that at once situates her within her historical context as well as considers her as a writer as Tanselle notes in “Historicism and Critical
Editing,” “one is clearly taking a restricted view if one is not open to the values of both approaches” (22). Open to the values of each approach, I have followed Tanselle’s guidelines regarding the editing of private documents as described above. The notes, back matter and presentation of the letters as artifacts are in line with McGann’s editing theory.
IV. Methodology
Because I was unable to access Bowen’s letters in their original, physical form, I used
725 × 943 resolution scanned color facsimiles of the letters as my source texts. There are many limitations, or as Tanselle calls them “dangers,” to using scans rather than the original documents
(“The Editing of Historical Documents” 52). Scans inhibit the editor’s ability to fully understand the document as artifact as a scan represents a three-dimensional artifact in the limited two- dimensional presentation on a computer screen. As Tanselle explains of photographs:
There can be no substitutes for the originals, of course, because every physical
detail of the original documents is potentially relevant for interpreting the texts
they contain. Those details that cannot be reproduced (such as the paper and ink,
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or, for transcriptions from handwriting, the characteristics of the hand) must, in a
scholarly editing, at least be described; and the places where a photographic
reproduction is misleading (as when ink shows through from the other side of the
original leaf) must be annotated. (“Varieties of Scholarly Editing” 18)
Though Tanselle was explicitly referring to photographed representations of primary documents,
I believe that his concerns still hold true in regards to scans. I recognize these limitations and have done my best to represent these possibly problematic scanned representations as best as possible within the restrictions of this edition.
I have chosen to create an edition of typed transcriptions rather than use the facsimiles directly because Bowen’s handwriting is, at times, illegible; the typed transcriptions are more readable than the original letters, and the format is the key to my edition. I have recreated the letters as typographical facsimiles and created a carefully delineated set of symbols to indicate details such as cancellations and page breaks as listed later in this introduction. No silent emendations of intention have been made in order to represent the letters as McGannian artifact; any correction to the text is indicated by a corresponding symbol or note. I have also included line numbers along the left side of Bowen’s text. These are for the purpose of locating specific emendations and should not be considered part of Bowen’s original text.
In an effort to achieve a typographical facsimile of Bowen’s letters, typed characters and handwritten characters are noted by different typefaces. Words typed on a typewriter appear on the page in American Typewriter typeface. Handwritten words are italicized Times New
Roman. Bowen’s letter written on February 2, 1934 was completely handwritten and will appear as follows:
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Dear Lady Cynthia Thank you for your letter of Jan 29th. I shall be most delighted to send you a story for the book – I only hope it (my story) will really be funny!
In contrast, Bowen’s letter dated June 18th, 1942 was typed and appears as follows:
Dear John, I feel miserable at not having answered your letter, or rather, by now, letters.
Any handwriting that appears on a letter that is not Bowen’s handwriting is in italicized, bold
Times New Roman as follows from a letter dated May 24th, 1944 on which notes on the bottom of the page were written by the recipient’s secretary:
Returned toyou. She might one day produce something, but, if so, let’s say ‘no agents’! C.
In keeping with Tanselle’s assertion that the editor of private documents should maintain the idiosyncrasies of the writer, I have faithfully copied Bowen’s mistakes and therefore preserved the Bowenian texture of the letters. To maintain this texture, I have chosen to recreate any errors Bowen made in her writing. No amendments to accidentals were made. Errors, best defined for the purposes of this edition as any of Bowen’s reoccurring mistakes, include misspellings or grammatical faults. In keeping these mistakes, the reader is given the opportunity to understand Bowen as a writer without any editorial intrusion as regards correcting perceived errors. Bowen’s corrections to her own text are noted in this edition using a series of symbols.
Bowen’s insertions are categorized as those that were inserted using a handwritten insertion mark (most typically a sort of caret symbol) and those that were inserted without any insertion mark. Those insertions that were added to the text by a handwritten insertion mark are delineated
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by a set of surrounding subscripted carets: ^ inserted word [^]. Those insertions that were added without a handwritten insertion mark are surrounded by a set of subscripted carets surrounded by brackets: [^] inserted word [^]. In both cases, the first bracket appearance indicates where the insertion begins and the second indicates where the insertion ends. Her letter dated June 18th,
1942 includes both kinds of insertions and appears in the facsimile as follows:
Bowen inserted the handwritten word “feeling” and the closing single quotation mark using a hand-drawn insertion marks. The insertion of the opening single quotation mark was done without a hand-drawn insertion mark. These insertions are symbolized as follows.
same ^feeling[^] since [^]‘ [^] war started ^’ [^] about
Similarly, I have included any cancelations Bowen made in correcting her own text.
Cancelations are indicated by a strike-through in the middle of the word or words. A single strike-through followed by Bowen’s corrected text signifies a character or word that was typed over the mistake. Any typed-over cancelation also includes a corresponding emendation note found in the back of this edition. Two typed-over cancelations from the letter dated June 18th,
1942 are shown below along with their symbolic representations.
(in the practicl practical senne sense)
The corresponding emendation for this set of cancelations appears as follows:
practicl practical] a typed over l
senne sense] s typed over n
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Bowen also canceled words and phrases by striking multiple lines through her errors. These cancelations are signified by two strike-throughs followed by her correction as it follows in the source-text. Such a cancelation appears in her letter from June 21st, 1943.
subject and ^of[^] that
The order of the letters and the naming conventions are directed by McGann’s theory of social editing, which prioritizes history in terms of social relationships. For this reason I have situated these letters chronologically, beginning with the earliest letter and ending with the latest.
I have also titled the letters using their dates of creation in order to eliminate confusion regarding the nature of the letters and to keep the historical chronology at the forefront. On some of
Bowen’s letters, she wrote the month and day but not the year in the dateline. To clarify for the reader and assist in the titling process, I have added the year in those instances. My addition to the dateline will always appear in brackets to indicate to the reader that Bowen herself did not originally include this information. This is the case in her letter dated February 2, 1934 as shown below in facsimile and in transcription.
Feb 2nd [1934]
Dear Lady Cynthia
In a combination of McGann’s and Tanselle’s theories, I find it necessary to note Bowen’s relationship to her recipients. This achieves two ends. First, it situates Bowen historically in the
McGannian sense by explaining the social relationships that surrounded Bowen’s writing of
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these letters. Second, it affects Tanselle’s intentionality in that Bowen will have written each letter differently depending on the intended recipient. For example, her letters to friend John
Hayward take on a much more casual, friendly style than those addressed to C. Geoffrey
Mortlock, an employee of her publisher’s office. Therefore, a biographical registry is provided at the end of this edition that details the relationships between Bowen and each letter recipient.
Other editorial notes follow McGann’s social editing theory and work to situate Bowen socially. Allusions to events, people, places and Bowen’s other writings are explained in the notes. These notes are found in the back matter of this edition organized chronologically by letter title. Any person, place, or event without a corresponding note was unidentifiable and therefore excluded from the back matter. Information within the letter that has a corresponding note is marked by a number in the text of the letter. To distinguish these numbers from the text of the letters themselves, the reader should look for superscript, Times New Roman numerals (1) as follows from lines 13 and 14 of Bowen’s letter dated March 19th, 1945.
articles, each of 1000 words, on Rosamond Lehmann1 and Mary Webb2 respectively; these articles to be
The number 1 following “Rosamond Lehmann” and the number 2 following “Mary Webb” indicate corresponding notes to be found in the notes section of the edition.
Aspects of the letters’ appearance are also influenced by McGann’s editorial practices.
To understand Bowen contextually, each letter includes the letterhead on which she wrote. The letterheads indicate Bowen’s geographic location at the time of her correspondence and when coupled with the date of creation allow the reader to trace Bowen’s travels. There are three letterhead variations that situate Bowen geographically at the time of her writing. They are:
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If one of these letterhead versions does not appear at the beginning of a transcribed letter, the reader is to understand that Bowen did not use letterhead for that particular correspondence.
These letterhead images are also intended to give the reader an indication of the physical appearance of the letters. In keeping with D.F. McKenzie’s assertion that “features of a printed book that are often regarded as nontextual cannot in fact be separated from the words and punctuation in considering the author’s textual intentions,” I have included the letterheads
(Historicism and Critical Editing, 14). In the cases in which envelopes were also preserved, I have included facsimiles of each envelope as well as transcriptions of the text on the document including addresses and postal text. Bowen’s letter dated June 21st, 1943 included its envelope.
Elizabeth Bowen 2 Clarence Terrace Regent’s Park London N.W.1
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Inclusions of images of envelopes serve similar purposes to including letterhead; both trace
Bowen geographically while the envelopes also give the reader another insight into Bowen’s idiosyncrasies as a writer of letters.
In the layout of the letters, McGann’s social editing also guided my fidelity to line and word spacing. Each letter is laid out to mimic the format of the source-text, which in this edition includes keeping the spaces faithful to the original. Spacing is an important part of understanding
Bowen historically because it indicates the influence of the typewriter. I have also copied
Bowen’s line endings directly, which is a function of page and font size. Below is a facsimile of her letter dated January 24th, 1946. Alongside the facsimile is my transcription to illustrate spacing fidelity.
24th Jan., 1946.
C. Gilardino, Esq., Accountant, The Society of Authors, 84, Drayton Gardens, S.W.10
Dear Sir,
Thank you for your letter of January 22nd. I am sorry that when sending the bankers order for my subscription to the Society of Authors1 I forgot to mention that my professional name is Elizabeth Bowen. I was elected a member ofthe Society in the course[^]|[^]of last summer.
Yours truly, Elizabeth D.C. Cameron ( Elizabeth Bowen)
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Another function of page size and Bowen’s writing habits that is mimicked in this edition is the page breaks. To indicate a change in page, a black line will be placed in between two lines of text; the line above indicating the end of the previous page and the line below indicating the beginning of the next page. An from Bowen’s letter dated March 1st, 1946 addressed to Frank
Rouda follows.
At the same time, I detest (I think, probably, rightly what could be called a “poetic” prose style.
As to the sentence you quote – “The imperson- ation had (as Portia noticed) had fury behind it” – yes, I think that was shock-tactics.
If Bowen’s letter is more than a page and the new page includes letterhead at the top, that letterhead is reproduced in my transcription.
In this edition, some of the letters featured were transcribed from carbon copies rather than from letters received by their intended recipients. For full disclosure, the reader should be aware that the letters as typed on the carbon copy may have been edited before being sent, and thus these letters may not encompass the entirety of Bowen’s message. If a letter was transcribed from a carbon copy, it does not include a signature field at the end. Those that were signed in the scans I received were letters that were sent, and therefore may be considered complete in their messages. Any carbon copies are indicated in the header, the conventions of which are explicated below.
The header of each letter includes the following information: the recipient, the date of correspondence, letter format and archival information. The letter format is indicated by one of the following three acronyms:
TLC: typed letter copy, indicates a carbon because it has not been signed
TLCS: typed letter copy signed
22
ALS: autographed letter signed, indicates a handwritten letter
An example of the header format follows using Bowen’s letter written on June 18th, 1942 to John
Hayward.
John Hayward.
June 18, 1942
TLCS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
The back matter of this edition has been arranged in order of its importance to contextualizing Bowen’s letters. The list of emendations appears first in order for the reader to come to understand Bowen’s writing idiosyncrasies fully. Then, the biographical registry is provided, listing each recipient in alphabetical order by the recipient’s last name. The notes are elucidated next, providing necessary historical context for understanding the circumstances in which Bowen was writing. Following the notes, a section devoted to maps is provided for the reader. The maps are divided into two parts. The first details the addresses as found on her letterhead to give the reader a sense of Bowen’s mobility. The second corresponds directly with her letter to Miss Beckett dated July 1, 1946 in which Bowen provides a suggested list of locations for photographs. Both maps are in line with McGann’s social editing and provide the reader with geographical context when reading Bowen’s letters. Finally, the works cited for the entirety of this edition is provided.
23 Bowen’s Letters
Lady Cynthia Asquith February 2nd, 1934 ALS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
Feb 2nd [1934]
Dear Lady Cynthia Thank you for your letter of Jan 29th. I shall be most delighted to send you a story for the book – I only hope it (my story) will really be funny! I think I had better send 10 you this to choose from, if you nd will not mind the letter if reading them both, some time between now and Easter. I may, if you do not mind, send the stories through Messers Curtis Brown.1 It makes no difference to me, of course, but I have an understanding that I let them deal with all my work and take their small commission, so
20 would you mind eventually, if you do help the story, sending the changes to them. I am sure the book will be a tremendous success; I shall look forward to its appearances. Yours sincerely Elizabeth Bowen (Mrs A.C. Cameron)
24 John Hayward th June 18 , 1942 TLCS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
June 18th [1942]
Dear John, I feel miserable at not having answered your letter, or rather, by now, letters. It was lovely to hear from you, see your handwriting and read what you say. I have just the
same ^feeling[^] since [^]‘[^]war started^’ [^] about inability to write to anybody I valued and normally often saw. My reflex to your first letter was (in the practicl practical senne sense) to look for a manuscript – almost 10 all of mine had been sent away to the country and locked up
there, and alsor ^r[^]ecently I have taken to typing ( though never above the standard you see here) which destroys, I suppose, the value and interest of M.S.S. 1 from the sale point of view. I did, though, almost at once find the handwritten M.S. of a Jane Austen essay2 I once did. I took it downstairs to send off to you, was interupted, lost it among Alan’s3 papers in his study and have not so far seen it again. The consequent feeling of idiocy has inhibited me and kept me, from day to day, from writing, as I always thought the thing would turn up.
20 - Is it, by the way, too late now? – I ^If[^]I can’t ^t[^]race the Jane Austen ( and really there’s not a poltergiest poltergeist in this house) I have to hand, I think, the M.S. of a story I wrote for Horizon shortly after that paper began: it’s called A Love
4 Story, and some people liked it. This M.S., I fear, is type- written, but so badly that it has curiosity value, and so much corrected that it amounts to hand-writing. Would it do if I still can’t find the other? Let me know on a P.C. Let me know something else too. On Monday next, 22nd, I 30 am to be in Cambridge, for the first time I don’t know how long, seeing a lawyer in ST Michael’s Court, Trinity St., 5 about
some family business that’[^]s[^] got ^to[^] be wound up. Could I possibly
25
come to tea with you afterwards? I should so love to. If this would be possible, I’d come on to you after my interview with
the lawyer, which is a 3 p.m. – I suppose I8 [^]’ [^]d be with you about 4. I know it’s not likely you’ll be free at such short notice. But if you possibly can manage this, do let it be possible. If so, how would I get to Merton Hall6 from Trinity St.? 40 I hardly know Cambridge at all. Love from Elizabeth
26 Norreys Jephson O’Conor st June 21 , 1943 TLCS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
21st June 1943.
Dear Mr. Jephson O’Conor,
Thank you very much for your charming letter, dated May 4th, which only reached me two days ago. I was 10 interested by all you tell me of your personal recollections of County Cork, and of Mallow1 in particular. I hope I may see one day your own volume of verse on the subject and ^of[^] that neighbourhood ‘Beside the Black Water’.2 Yes, I am afraid, there have been many, and on the whole, sad changes since you were last at Mallow. I often wonder what will become of 20 the Castle now. Desmond Jephson’s3 death was not only a great sadness to his personal friends ( among whom my husband and myself were happy to count ourselves) but a genuine to [^]loss[^] [^]to[^] the neighbourhood. He took his responsibilities very seriously, as well as being a lively and pleasant addition to local society. We always
30 looked forward to his settling down at the Castle permanently, and in good time bringing home a wife. Several other old friends have died or moved away also. For my own part, I hope to be able to keep 4 Bowen’s Court going [^];[^]though that of course becomes very difficult in these years. 40 It is most kind of you to ask me to come and see you when I am next in Amerika Ameri[^]c[^]a and I feel sure that I shall be delighted to take you at your word. It will be so nice when one is able to make happy plans of this kind again. Meanwhile all good wishes and thank you again for saying that you
27
enjoyed my book. Yours sincerely Elizabeth Bowen
28
Address: N. Jephson O’Conor, Esq., 2357 Lambert Drive, PASADENA, California, U.S.A.
Postmark: London W.1. 6 15 PM 21 JNE 1943
Postage 1: POSTAGE REVENUE đD
Postage 2: POSTAGE REVENUE 2D
Elizabeth Bowen 2 Clarence Terrace Regent’s Park London N.W.1
29 Owen Rutter th May 24 , 1944 TLCS Harry Ransom Humanities Center Bowen Box 10, folder 4
24th May, 1944.
Owen Rutter, Esq., The Golden Cockerel Press, Rolls Passage London, E.C.4.
10 Dear Mr. Rutter,
I do hope you will forgive me having left your letter unanswered so long: I have been working very hard at a novel and my correspondence has fallen very far behind! As you may have guessed, if I had had any at all immediate or positive answer to give to your kind suggestion that I should renew my association with THE GOLDEN COCKEREL,1 you would have heard from me sooner. Alas, as things stand, I have not any work (i.e. a long 20 short story) of the kind you suggest, either complete or in hand. I feel that I must not make any promises or look far ahead until my novel is done, which cannot be before the end of this year. If I should then find that I have an idea for a story, may I write and let you know? I imagine that you mean something of about 10,000 words?
Yours sincerely, Elizabeth Bowen 30
The ‘Short Novel’ or ‘Long-Short Story’ – 20,000 to 30,000 – Returned toyou. She might
is better for us. one day produce something,
10,000 is the magazine length but, if so, let’s say ‘no agents’!
& the public can buy half a dozen C. of these for 2/6 & needn’t come to us for one at 1of6. It courts comparison /C.
30 C. Geoffrey Mortlock th March 19 , 1945 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
19th March, 1945.
C. Geoffrey Mortlock, Esq., Overseas Press Dept., The British Council, 3, Hanover Street, W.1.
10 Dear Mr. Mortlock,
Thank you for your letter of March 16th, in which you suggest that I should write two articles, each of 1000 words, on Rosamond Lehmann1 and Mary Webb2 respectively; these articles to be sent to France. I should like to write on Rosamond Lehmann, but I am afraid I must say “No” to Mary Webb as I have not read any of her books. If you would prefer both articles to be by the same person, I expect 20 we had better call this off. Perhaps you would let me know?
Yours sincerely,
31 C. Geoffrey Mortlock rd March 23 , 1945 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
23rd March, 1945.
Geoffrey Mortlock, Esq., The British Council, 3, HanoverStreet, W.1.
Dear Mr. Mortlock, 10 Thank you for your letter of March 20th. I forgot to ask you by what date you will want my article on Rosamond Lehmann. Will April 30th be early enough?
Yours sincerely,
32 C. Geoffrey Mortlock th April 26 , 1945 TLCS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
26th April, 1945.
Geoffrey Mortlock, Esq., The British Council, Overseas Press Department W.1.
10 Dear Mr. Mortlock,
I send herewith my article on Rosamond Lehmann and hope it will be more or less what you want.
I am sorry that I was not able to send it before April 30th as you said that you would have liked, but I have had an exceptional rush of work this month.
20 Yours sincerely,
33 F.K. Hurst th July 30 , 1945 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
30th July, 1945.
Miss F.K. Hurst, The British Council, Export Dept., Saint Mary Hall, Oriel Street, OXFORD.
10 Dear Madam,
Major Woodrow Wyatt1 tells me that the British Council2 have asked whether a French North African Review (‘Renaissances’) may reprint my story Songs My FatherSang Me3 (which origin- ally appeared in “New Story”) at the fee of two guineas. I shall be glad to give my consent to this. 20 Yours truly,
34 Joan Penney st March 1 , 1945 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
2, Clarence Terrace, Regent’s Park N.W.1. 1st March, 1945.
Mrs. Joan Penney. Overseas Press Department, The British Council, 3, Hanover Street, 10 W.1.
Dear Mrs. Penney,
Thank you very much for your letter of Feb. 25th. I should have loved to write the article on Virginia Woolf1 – and I do so agree that the human, laughing, life-enjoying side of her, which her friends knew and loved so much, 20 needs to be put before people.
But alas, I have already lost three weeks work through illness, and I can’t really hope to be back to work, properly, for another ten days. By that time, I shall have a terrible amount to catch up with: also, I am trying to finish my novel against time. As I would hate to do the Virginia Woolf article hastily and inadequately, I am afraid I must say no. What would you think 30 of William Plomer,2 a great friends of hers, or Rosamond of John Lehmann3?
With many regrets,
Yours sincerely,
35 C. Gilardino January 24th, 1946 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
24th Jan., 1946.
C. Gilardino, Esq., Accountant, The Society of Authors, 84, Drayton Gardens, S.W.10
10 Dear Sir,
Thank you for your letter of January 22nd. I am sorry that when sending the bankers order for my subscription to the Society of Authors1 I forgot to mention that my professional name is Elizabeth Bowen. I was elected a member of 20 the Society in the course[^]|[^]of last summer.
Yours truly, Elizabeth D.C. Cameron ( Elizabeth Bowen)
36 Frank Rouda st March 1 , 1946 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
2, Clarence Terrace, Regent’s Park, N.W.1. 1st March, 1946. Frank Rouda, Esq., 946 John Jay Hall, Columbia University New York City.
10 Dear Mr. Rouda,
You must forgive my not having replied before to your letter of February 2nd – I have been ill for the last three weeks, and got nothing done.
I am honoured by your letter interested by your questions – certainly, they are not impert- inent! 20 You question as to my style startled me – is it a defense mechanism? Do you know, I don’t know myself. Possibly. I think the theory that it is is well worth discussing. I know that I sift through everything that I write in search of what might seem to me to be weaknesses. I suppose that (unconscious- ly) my ideal in style is that of chain-armour – supple, but knit up of steel links.
30 I write for sound, rather than for the eye; after saying the setnences aloud, under my breath, as one might test out a line of poetry. Stress and rhythm seem to me as important in prose as in poetry - at any rate, for my purposes they are as important. At the same time, I detest (I think, probably, rightly what could be called a “poetic” prose style.
As to the sentence you quote – “The imperson- 40 ation had (as Portia noticed) had fury behind it”1 – yes, I think that was shock-tactics. A jarring sentence, outrageous, to match Eddie’s2 jarring, outrageous mood.
I like to control style enough to sometimes put all its beauty-potentiality into screeching, hideous reverse.
37
The House in Paris3 seems to stand outside my 50 other books. To me it is more like a book by someone else. In ways it has the sort of fascin- ation for me that a book by somebody else might have. Nobody seems to be neutral about this book – some like it much more than the others; others (like you) like it much less. I thought of it when I was last in New York – in the late autumn of 1933. Perhaps it gained some quality from the effect on me of the over-stimulus of a (to me) new city. 60 No, St. Quentin4 is not modelled on T.S. Eliot.5 He has a composite origin – two other friends of mine who are writers and critics. As you will understand, I would rather not give their names.
Two things that might help you. Alfred Knopf6 are to publish, some time this spring, a collection of short stories of mine called “Ivy Gripped the Steps”.7 For this I have written, as Mrs. Knopf’s8 70 request, a preface – which might interest you. If you let Knopf know that you are in touch with me, they might let you have an advance copy of the book. Address any letter to Mrs. BlancheKnopf, who is a personal friend of mine.
-2-
Orion, a miscellany published in England by 80 Messers. Nicholson & Watson, December 1945, contains “Notes on Writing a Novel” which I wrote. It is Vol. II of Orion, edited by Rosamond Lehmann & Cecil Day Lewis.9 I imagine it must be obtainable in New York, or might by in your University or in a public library. If you can’t get it, and do want to see the “Notes”, let me know and I will send you a type-script.
With all good wishes, 90 Yours sincerely,
38 John Hayward th March 18 , 1946 TLCS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
2, Clarence Terrace, Regent’s Park, N.W.1. 18th March, 1946.
My dear John,
I hope I may gather from your change 10 of address card that you are actually back in London? This is very good news. I don’t suppose you are on the telephone yet, but if you will send me a postcard, I would love to come and see you about 5 o’clock any day of the week beginning Monday 25th.
If you are not really there by then, let me know.
20 Yours ever, with love Elizabeth
All my notepaper has come to an end.
39 Philip Henderson rd May 3 , 1946 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
2, Clarence Terrace, Regent’s Park N.W.1. 3rd May, 1946.
Philip Henderson, Esq., Literary Editor, “British Book News”, 3, Hanover Street, 10 W.1.
Dear Mr. Henderson,
Thank you for your letter of April 25th. I am afraid I simply must not accept your suggestion that I should do the short article on Jane Austen for British Book 20 News. I am working all out this summer hoping to finish a novel, and I could not, or ought not, to make time for the necess- ary research. I am ^an[^] enthusiastic Jane Austen reader but do not know enough about her to supply the article that you need.
I so much enjoyed meeting you the other day.
30 Yours sincerely,
40 Denys Kilham Roberts th May 14 , 1946 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
May 14th 1946
Dear Mr Kilham Roberts Cecil Day Lewis asked me to send this, my contribution to Orion to you. I have already said to him, and must 10 say again to you, that I am so sorry it is behind time. Yours sincerely Elizabeth Bowen
41 Miss Beckett, Harper’s Bazaar st July 1 , 1946 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
1st July, 1946.
Miss Beckett, Harper’s Bazaar, 46, Grosvenor Gardens, S.W.1.
10 Dear Miss Beckett,
Enclosed is the list of suggested places for the photographs: I have, as you said, given in brackets the names of the short stories or novels to which the different houses or scenes relate.
20 I so much enjoyed our conversation the other evening.
Yours sincerely,
HOUSES AND PLACES.
FOLKESTONE (Kent) 30 1. Ivycovered house, side on to the “Pleasure Garden Theatre” Folkestone. The road in which the house stands is named, I think, “Trinity Avenue”: It runs from the Leas to the theatre, and the house in question is the last one at the theatre end. The ivy was still there this time last year, but may, of course, have been stripped off since. The house inspired the story “IVY GRIPPED THE STEPS” which appeared in my last Collection of short stories “THE DEMON LOVER”. 1 2. The Leas themselves and a fantastic building known, I think, as “The Leas” (or “Pavilion”). The entrance to it is on the Leas 40 themselves, but it is built down the front of the cliff. This is the scençe of an episode in “THE DEATH OF THE HEART.” 2
42
Any other photogenic pieces of Folkestone between the Leas and the central station. These appear in the same short story and also, fleetingly, in others.
HYTHE (Kent). 1. The sea front. A curve of bay which can be photographed from either direction. The alternation of high terraces of early Victiorian lodginghouses with low, ultra modern bungalows, I rather 50 like. One of these between (though I cannot specify which) is the origin of “Wai-kiki” 3 in the middle section of “THE DEATH OF THE HEART”.
-2- N.B. In “THE DEATH OF THE HEART” Hythe is called “Seal on Sea” and Folkstone “Southstone”. 2. In Hythe canal and up-hill scenes. Also shot west across the marsh in the evening. The path along the canal is the scene 60 of a conversation in “THE HOUSE IN PARIS” (in this novel Hythe is called “Hythe”). The reach of the canal I had particularly in mind is the one just west of the main road bridge where the Dimchur road leaves Hythe. Really, any Hythe scene that apppeals to the imagination, would do.
GOOD-SIZED EDWARDIAN VILLA. Spreading and gimcrack with rather vulgarly rosy garden. These are to be found all over the plcce, and I should like the 70 photographer to find one that appealed to him. Such a villa is the scene of my short story “THE CAT JUMPS”,4 which appeared in a Collection, published by Gollancz,5 of that same name.
LONDON.
43
This house, 2, Clarence Terrace, is the Quqyne’s house in “THE DEATH OFT HE HEART”, though its interior detail and (I hope!) inside atmosphere were invented for the novel. Also the lake and islands at this side of the park. I find that both the architecture and the park landscape round 80 here are at their must sugge tive in the half light of the evening.
-3-
IRELAND. Bowen’s Court, County Cork. This was the house in “THE LAST SEPTEMBER”; 6 and also I have written a book about the house itself. Any shots of it must be left to the photo- grapher’s inspiration. Also there are river vales, woods, small towns and other scenes round. I could give further suggestio 90 in Ireland.
PARIS. This would probably be out of the question. “THE HOUSE IN PARIS” in the novel of that name does not actually exist, but is an abstract of several in the small quiet streets running up-hill from the Seine to the Boulevard Montparnasse.
44 Denys Kilham Roberts th September 30 , 1946 TLC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
30th Sept., 1946.
D. Kilham Roberts Esq., Secretary General, Incorporated Society of Authors, 84, Drayton Gardens, London, S.W. 10. 10
Dear Mr Kilham Roberts,
Please forgive my not having replied before to your letter of Sept. 5th[^].|[^] I have been in Paris doing some work in connection with the Peace Conference, 1 and have fallen very much behind with my correspondence. 20 I am much honoured by the request of the members of the Society’s Committee of Management2 that I should eecome become a member of the Society’s Council; please tell the Committee that I shall be glad to do so.
I expect to be at this address up to the end of October but hope that 30 I may be in London during the middle months of the Winter.
Yours sincerely, Elizabeth Bowen
45 Major Thompson th October 4 , 1946 TLCS Harry Ransom Humanities Center Bowen Box 10, folder 4
4th October, 1946 .
Dear Major Thompson,
Your letter of September 13th has been forwarded to me here, by my husband, who says he has apologised 10 for my absence.
I hope to be back in London early in November and to attend a meeting of the Book Committee, if one is to be held any time during the second half of that month or later on.
Yours sincerely, 20
Major Thompson, Control Office of Germany & Austria. Norfolk House, Room 4, St Jame’s Square, London, S.W.1.
46 John Hayward th October 27 , 1946 ALC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
October 27th 1946
My dear John Here, at last, is the preface to Uncle Silas. 1 I am exceedingly sorry not to have sent it before – please, also, make my apologies to 10 the Cressel Press. What happened at was that I went back to Paris, to the Peace Conference, for
the greater part of September. You will see that this Preface discusses Uncle 20 Silas only, on its own merits only. I mean, it is not an essay either in Le Fanu2 or on the general aesthetics of horror-writing. But actually the Preface I have written is my idea of a Preface (though the idea I expect might be better carried out.) 30
2.
I hope it is, also your’s? Another point: I have no books of reference with me here. I shall 40 have even, on my return to London, to supply the actual publication date (year) of U.S. I
47
should propose, also, with your + the publisher’s approval, to add a short informative paragraph
50 - to stand by itself, at the front of the last page of my Preface, in smaller print. This would contain a 10-line or so outline biography of Le Fanu, and also the publications names and publication-dates of his principal works. I 60 did not want to encumber the Preface with “information” – which the
reader, none the less, ought to have. I shall be returning 70 to Clarence Terrace at the end of this week (Nov. 2nd.) Will you get in touch with me there when you have|read the Preface? Another thing, I have not got the address of the
80 Cressel Press here, so I have to post the copy of U.S., which they wanted as soon as possible, to you. Perhaps, recognize recognising the Irish stamp, you
48
could just re-address to + send it on to them? Yours affectionately 90 Elizabeth
49
Address: John Hayward Esq 19 Carlyle Mansions Cheyne Walk 100 S. W. 3 .
Postmark: Postmark 2: London NW1. TAKE NO CHANCES 7 PM KEEP DEATH 28 JLY OFF THE ROAD 1946
B
110 Postage: Postage Revenue 2 1d/2
50 Daniel George nd June 2 , 1948 TLCS Harry Ransom Humanities Center Bowen Box 10, folder 4
2nd June, 1948.
Dear Daniel George,
The Heat of the Day1 M.S. goes back to Cape’s today – William Plomer brought it me, as I hope he explained, on the eve of my going off for nine days to Paris, so I could 10 not get down to it till a day or two ago.
I have been through, very carefully, your and William’s incorporated suggestions and queries as to points. May I say that I’m exceedingly grateful for the close attention and thought you’ve both given the M.S. – and, I don’t think it need be said that I’m deeply glad you should both think well of the novel.
I have now (I think) as you’ll see, corrected all 20 omissions, repeated words, etc., noted by you and William. Also, worked on two or three phrases, chiefly in the dial- ogue, which, as you rightly point out, are obscure or mis- leading.
What I am, in the main, sticking to my guns about are various word orders which you query. I cannot, myself, bear fanciful arrangementsof words in sentences. But, in this novel, many sentences in which the order is queer are deliberate, because the sentences won’t (as I see it) carry 30 the exact meaning, or – still more important – make the exact psychological impact that I desire in any other way. E.g., “This tarnished open air theatre in which no plays had been acted for some time…”2 You suggest “in which for some time no plays had been acted…” But I want the psychological stress to fall on “time”, not on “acted”; so therefore I like to give “time” the more sounding posit- ion of the two… The same applies to “Nothing more now than suffering the music he sat on tensly…”3 If I reversed this to, “He sat on tensely, nothing more now than 40 suffering the music”, something I wish from the effect (impact) of the sentence would be lost. I’ve taken these examples from Chapter I, but there are[^]|[^]other examples all the way through.
-2-
In other contexts, too, I’d rather keep the jars, “jingles” and awkwardnesses – e.g. “seemed unseemly”, “felt to falter”. They do to my mind express something. 50 In some cases I want the rhythm to jerk or jar – to an extent,
51
even, which may displease the read er.
I hate “poetic” prose; but it seems to me that in passages where prose has to do the work of poetry – do more, in fact, than words can achieve through reason – a certain poetic licence may be taken with prose. It’s dangerous, I admit, and should only be done with infinite deliberation and at one’s own risk.
10 So, all these things I’m sticking to, I’m sticking to very much at my own risk! If I’m either jumped on or ridiculed by the critics because of them, I shall remember (as you and William will be too nice to remind me) that I was warned!
Again, very many thanks. I hope we’ll be meeting soon.
Yours sincerely, 20 Elizabeth Bowen
52 Denys Kilham Roberts th June 17 , 1948 ALC Huntington Bowen HM 48313
17.6.48
Dear Mr Kilham Roberts Will you please both accept personally and convey to my fellow 10 members of the Council of the Society of Authors my thanks for the telegram I received. I wish I could say how much it pleased me. I feel above all honoured, and happy, in the friendliness of my fellow writers; and I
20
feel that this recognition belongs to all of us. Yours very sincerely Elizabeth Bowen
53 Ralph Cooke st February 21 , 1949 TLCS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
21st February, 1949.
Ralph Cooke, Esq., The Society of Authors, 34, Drayton Gardens, S.W.10.
10
Dear Mr. Cooke,
Thank you for your letter of February 18th. Yes, I should like to write an article for The Author: 1 comparison between English and American writing would be interesting – though the idea, inevitably, makes me wonder how much about either I do know!
20 I should be glad to borrow copies of Partisan Review, which I will take care of return.
I note that the article should be from 1500 to 200 words, that the fee would be ten guineas, that you would like to have the article by May 1st.
Yours sincerely, Elizabeth Bowen
54 Ralph Cooke th April 30 , 1949 ALS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
30.4.49.
Dear Mr Cooke, I send here with my article, “English and American Writing”, for The Author A difficult subject - I hope this is what you want. I will post back the copies 10 of Partisan1 you kindly lent me under seperate cover Yours sincerely Elizabeth Bowen Ralph Cooke, Esq The Society of Authors 84 Drayton Gardens London, S.W.10.
55 Ralph Cooke th June 15 , 1949 ALS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
June 15th 1949
Ralph Cooke Esq 84 Drayton Gardens, S.W.10.
Dear Mr Cooke, In reply to your letter of June 10 10 th, I’m sorry I can’t give you a more satisfactory reply report on any dealings with any of the literary digests. First, because all my business is handled by my agents Curtis Brown, and second, because I am here and all my papers are in a file in the house in London. I can’t say accurately how much any digest paid me for any use of my work. Fees, I know, are 20 small. I have never, as far as I know, been shown a proof. Any work of mine of which a digest wanted to make use has never been, to me, of the first value – had it been, I should have bothered more. My impression, in the
main, has been that the cutting was not badly done. 30 Earlier on, before I put Curtis Brown’s on the watcd watch, I certainly had one or two experiences of piracy! and I understand that as to this the reputation of l several of the digests is bad. Digests in general, seem to me a dreary and superfluous growth; and of the people who habitually buy and read them one can form no idea. The 40 Author Society of Authors’ survey should be very useful: I am exceedingly sorry to be unable to give more practical help, and I shall be interested to know the findings. Yours sincerely Elizabeth Bowen
56 Ralph Cooke rd August 3 , 1949 TLCS Huntington Bowen HM 48313
3rd August, 1949.
Dear Mr. Cooke,
I am glad the Society of Authors’ investigation into the Digests is going well. I wish I were in a 10 position to contribute more facts; but, as I think I said in an earlier letter, (a) my dealings with any of the Digests have been slight, and (b) any such dealings have gone through my agents, Messers. Curtis Brown.
It is my general impression that the majority of the Digests do not pay as high fees as they probably should, and that Digests are not well seen by the better literary agents. The agents themselves, of course, would be in the ideal position to report; but I suppose 20 that it might not be etiquette for them to do so.
Yours sincerely, Elizabeth Bowen
Ralph Cooke, Esq., Assistant Secretary (Editorial), 30 The Society of Authors, 84, Drayton Gardens, S.W.10.
57
Emendations
February 2nd, 1934 ln. 9 nd ] double handwritten cross-out
June 18th, 1942 ln. 8 practicl practical] a typed over l ln. 8 senne sense] s typed over n
June 21st, 1943 ln. 13 and] handwritten double cross-out ln. 23 to] handwritten double cross-out ln. 41 Amerika Ameri[^]c[^]a] handwritten c over typed k
September 30th, 1946 ln. 23 eecome become] b typed over first e
October 27th, 1946 ln. 57 publications] handwritten triple cross-out ln. 85 recognize ] handwritten double cross-out
June 15 th, 1949 ln. 11 reply] handwritten quadruple cross-out ln. 31 watcd] handwritten double cross-out ln. 40 Author] handwritten double cross-out
58
Biographical Register The dates listed to the right of each recipient name correspond with the letters in which each recipient is mentioned.
Lady Cynthia Asquith (1887-1960) February 2nd, 1934
Lady Cynthia Asquith was an English writer during the two World Wars. Her wartime diaries detail her aristocratic experiences while her husband was away at the front as well as her problems with her son John, who, it would be later determined, had autism. From 1918 to 1937
Asquith worked as a secretary for playwright J.M. Barrie. During her time with Barrie, Asquith began writing a series of anthologies, producing ten titles between 1923 and 1929. After the death of her husband in 1947, she moved to London, invested money in the publishing company of J.M. Barrie’s nephew, James Barrie, and began to pen her memoirs. Lady Cynthia Asquith’s works include The Spring House (1936), One Sparkling Wave (1943), Haply I May Remember
(1950), Portrait of Barrie (1954), and Married to Tolstoy (1961) (MacKenzie).
Miss Beckett July 1st, 1946
Miss Beckett was an employee for Harper’s Bazaar, a monthly magazine featuring fashion, beauty and popular culture. Elizabeth Bowen wrote short stories for the magazine including “So Much Depends” (1951), “ The Easter Egg Party” (1941) and “The Needlecase”
(1934) (Cope).
st th th rd Ralph Cooke February 21 , 1949 April 30 , 1949 June 15 , 1949 August 3 , 1949
Ralph Cooke was an employee of the Society of Authors, a group founded to protect their rights of authors and further their interests (societyofauthors.org).
59
Daniel George June 2nd, 1948
Daniel George worked for Cape Publishing and corresponded with Bowen regarding her novel The Heat of the Day. He wrote four pages of extensive notes about Bowen’s narrative style, criticizing what he termed “snags in the crystal stream” (Glendinning 153). He found her style too colloquial, noting “that unless the reader is lucky enough to coincide with her in placing a stress on the key word of a sentence, he may be baffled completely” (Glendinning 153). Bowen was sensitive to George’s criticism but chose to alter only some of her text based on his comments. Regardless of the issues he took with The Heat of the Day, George wrote of Bowen,
“She succeeds time and again in expressing what has hitherto been inexpressible” (Glendinning
153).
C. Gilardino January 24th, 1946
C. Gilardino was an accountant for the Society of Authors, a group founded to protect their rights of authors and further their interests (societyofauthors.org).
th th th John Hayward (1905-1965) June 18 , 1942 March 18 , 1946 October 27 , 1946
John Hayward was an editor, critic and friend to Bowen as well as her husband, Alan
Cameron (Glendinning 106). Hayward suffered from muscular dystrophy, which confined him to a wheelchair for the majority of his life. Hayward published the Complete Poetry and Selected
Prose of John Donne in 1929, as well as several other anthologies of English verse, and was an avid book collector. He lived with T.S. Eliot from 1946 until 1957 during which Hayward collected and catalogued Eliot’s manuscripts as well as criticized his poetry. Hayward is explicitly thanked in Eliot’s preface to Four Quartets for his “improvements of phrase and
60
construction” (Kojecký). Hayward visited Bowen’s Court several times and corresponded frequently with Bowen (Glendinning).
Philip Henderson May 3rd, 1946
Philip Henderson was an employee for British Book News, a book trade magazine published from 1940-1993 that featured reviews, profiles and industry news (Squires).
F.K. Hurst July 30th, 1945
F.K. Hurst was an employee for the non-profit British Council, an organization dedicated to building cultural and educational relationships between the United Kingdom and other countries for which Bowen did several lectures (britishcouncil.org).
Denys Kilham Roberts ( -1976) May 14th, 1946 September 30th, 1946 June 17th, 1948
Originally a copyright lawyer, Denys Kilham Roberts became the assistant to the General
Secretary for the Society of Authors and then the General Secretary in 1930, a position he held for thirty-six years. He also edited over twenty-five literary collections. With the Society of
Authors, Roberts oversaw publication of its journal, The Author, for which Bowen wrote (The
University of Iowa Libraries).
C. Geoffrey Mortlock March 19th, 1945 March 23rd, 1945 April 26th, 1945
C. Geoffrey Mortlock was an employee for the non-profit British Council.
Norreys Jephson O'Conor (1885-1958) June 21st, 1943
61
Norreys Jephson O’Conor was an American poet and author who taught at Harvard
University. He was particularly interested in Anglo-Irish writing and did research in the field, corresponding with Bowen as a result. His collection of poetry “Beside the Black Water” is about his experience in Ireland (“Norreys Jephson O’Conor”).
Joan Penney March 1st, 1943
Joan Penney was an employee for the British Council.
Frank Rouda March 1st, 1946
Frank Rouda was a graduate student at Columbia University interested in Bowen’s writing style. He corresponded with Bowen as a part of his graduate studies (Inventory of the
Elizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen Papers, 1934-1946).
Owen Rutter May 24th, 1944
Owen Rutter was a partner in the Golden Cockerel Press from 1933-1944 with which
Bowen worked. Previously, he was a Major in the 7th Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment and wrote several books based on his wartime experiences. During World War II Rutter worked for the Ministry of Information writing booklets about the British war effort (Chambers).
Major E.P. Thompson (1924–1993) October 4th, 1946
Major Thompson was a writer, historian and political activist. He is best known for his book The Making of the English Working Class (1963) (Rule).
62
Notes
February 2nd, 1934
1. Messers Curtis Brown - Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency of London worked with
Bowen on publishing several of her works including “The Parrot” and “Making
Arrangements”. Spencer Curtis Brown was her first agent with the agency (Glendinning
51).
June 18th, 1942
1. M.S.S. – acronym for “manuscripts”
2. Jane Austen essay – Bowen published an essay titled “Jane Austen: Artist on Ivory” for The
Saturday Review of Literature on August 15, 1936. In it, Bowen discusses the
“Englishness” of Austen’s writing and the role Austen played in shaping the English novel
(“Jane Austen: Artist On Ivory”). Austen was an inspiration in Bowen's writing (Lassner
141).
3. Alan’s – Alan Cameron was Bowen’s husband and Assistant Secretary for Education. The
couple was married from 1923 to 1952, the year of Alan’s death (Lassner 12, 23). He
acted as accountant for Bowen's Court and assumed a managerial role in Bowen's literary
career during the 1950s (Glendinning 172).
63
4. A Love Story – “A Love Story” was written in 1939 and published 1941. It was the first of
Bowen’s stories to be situated during World War II but also draws from her experience
during World War I (Gildersleeve 92).
5. ST Michael’s Court, Trinity St., – St. Michael’s Court is adjacent to St. Michael’s Church
located at Gonville & Caius College, which is part of the University of Cambridge. It is
located on Trinity Street in Cambridge (University of Cambridge). See Appendix A.
6. Merton Hall – Merton Hall was used as graduate school accommodations for students at the
University of Cambridge and is part of St. John’s College (University of Cambridge).
June 21st, 1943.
1. Mallow – Mallow is a town located in County Cork, Ireland (Google Maps). See Appendix A.
2. ‘Beside the Black Water’ – Bowen is referring to Norreys Jephson O’Conor’s poem and poetry
collection, both titled “Beside the Black Water,” published in 1915, which is about the
River Blackwater that runs through Mallow from east to west (Google Maps). See
Appendix A.
3. Desmond Jephson – Desmond Jephson ( -1938) was the son of famed English explorer
Arthur Mounteney Jephson (Driver). Desmond was killed in London in 1938, and a
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stained glass window was erected in St. James Protestant Church in Mallow, County
Cork in his honor ("Mallow Places to Visit”).
4. Bowen’s Court – Bowen’s Court is the name of the Bowen estate. The house was the
inspiration for Bowen’s family history of the same title in which she detailed the
ascendency of the property. Elizabeth came into control of Bowen’s Court in 1930 after
the death of her father, becoming the first and only woman to inherit the property.
Bowen’s Court became too large a financial burden, and Bowen's was forced to sell the
estate after offering it to her nephew, Charles, who could not take it on. It was
demolished in 1960 (Glendinning). As Lassner states, Bowen "loved the house for all it's
turbulent history and trouble, but was never sentimental about it" (17). She did, however,
return to Ireland from Rome in January of 1960 to say goodbye to the old house
(Glendinning 203).
May 24th, 1944
1. THE GOLDEN COCKEREL – In 1932, the Golden Cockerel Press commissioned a
collaborative story to be written by nine separate writers, including Bowen, based on the
paper-game “Consequences” (Glendinning 119).
65
March 19th, 1945
1. Rosamond Lehmann – Lehmann (1901-1990) was a British novelist, contemporary and friend
of Bowen (Hastings). Her works include Dusty Answer (1927) and The Weather in the
Streets (1936) (Glendinning 113). The two writers are often compared for both “showed
women coming of age win anxieties that engulfed their sense of a sexual and intellectual
self” (Lassner 156).
2. Mary Webb – Mary Webb (1881- 1927) wrote poems, short stories, and novels including The
Spring of Joy, The Golden Arrow and Precious Bane (marywebb.org).
July 30th, 1945
1. Major Woodrow Wyatt – Woodrow Wyatt (1918–1997) was a politician and journalist who
volunteered for the British army in 1940. After the war, he worked for New Statesman
and Nation for which he wrote several pieces supportive of left-wing politics.
Subsequently, he pursued an unsuccessful career in politics and then went on to work for
the Sunday Mirror and News of the World. He was a supporter of Margaret Thatcher who
knighted him in 1983 (Howard).
2. British Council – The British Council was established in 1934 and was chartered by King
George IV in 1940. Its goal is to build cultural and educational relationships between the
United Kingdom and other countries (britishcouncil.org). As a result, Bowen went on
several lecture tours for the Council beginning in 1948 (Glendinning 173).
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3. Songs My FatherSang Me – “Songs My Father Sang Me” is a short story that is part of
Bowen’s collection The Demon Lover. The story focuses on a woman’s recollections of
her childhood, including the desertion of her father and its affects on her adult life
(Corcoran 155).
March 1st, 1945
1. Virginia Woolf – Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) was a literary influence of Bowen's whom she
respected greatly, and the two met in 1938; "the two became friends, but not intimate
friends" (Glendinning 99). Bowen and Woolf visited each other several times, the last
being Bowen's trip to Woolf's home in February, 1941, weeks before Woolf's suicide.
Bowen disliked "the tragic, martyred image" cultivated after Woolf's death and wrote to
Woolf's biographer, William Plomer, “only you seem to bring back Virginia's laughter - I
get so bored and irked by this tragic fiction that has been manufactured about her since
1941” (Glendinning 101).
2. William Plomer – William Plomer (1903–1973) wrote Virginia Woolf’s biography At Home,
which Bowen enjoyed. He and Bowen exchanged letters after Woolf's death, having met
only once at tea with Woolf (Glendinning 101-102).
3. John Lehmann – John Lehmann (1907–1987) was a writer and publisher, a friend of Bowen's
and the brother of Rosamond Lehmann. In 1931 he began work at the Hogarth Press,
which published his first volume of poems, A Garden Revisited (1931). In 1935 he
67
began the magazine New Writing, later named Penguin New Writing, which was “a
documentary record of war by the men fighting it” (Hughes). Lehmann left the Hogarth
Press in 1946 and began his own firm John Lehmann Ltd. Lehmann often traveled to
America as a visiting professor and engaged in literary journalism, specifically studying
Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf and Rupert Brooke (Hughes). He penned an
autobiography titled The Ample Proposition in which he detailed his visit to Bowen's
home in 1953. Of Bowen he wrote he was “captivated again by the quality she displays
more abundantly than anyone else I know, of making one feel completely at ease”
(Glendinning 187).
January 24th, 1946
1. Society of Authors – The Society of Authors was founded in 1884 to protect the rights of
authors. Its members have included Shaw, Galsworthy, Hardy, Wells, Barrie, Masefield
and Forster, as well as contemporary authors as it is still in existence (“Society of
Authors”).
March 1st, 1946
1. “The impersonation had (as Portia noticed) had fury behind it” – A line from Bowen's novel
The Death of the Heart published in 1938 (Coulson 9).
2. Eddie’s – Eddie is Portia’s love interest in Bowen’s novel The Death of the Heart.
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3. The House in Paris – The House in Paris is Bowen's fourth novel, published in 1935, and
follows nine-year-old Leopold and his mother, Karen (Lassner 73, Coulson 379). The
novel explores notions of motherhood as experienced by mother and child.
4. St. Quentin – A character from Bowen's novel The Death of the Heart, St. Quentin is a writer
and friend of Anna, the novel's protagonist.
5. T.S. Eliot – Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 –1965) was a celebrated poet, critic, publisher and
friend of Bowen’s. Eliot wrote such poems as “The Wasteland,” “The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock” and the suit of poems titled Four Quartets. Eliot also wrote several
dramas including The Cocktail Party and The Elder Statesman. In 1922 he began editing
the literary journal The Criterion. In 1948 Eliot received the Order of Merit and the
Nobel Prize for literature (Bush). Elizabeth Bowen visited Eliot’s home several times,
prompting her to write, “he is so very funny and charming and domestic and nice to be
with, besides being so great. I love knowing him" (Glendinning 80).
6. Alfred Knopf – Alfred Knopf (1892–1984) was an American publisher who first published
Bowen's To the North in 1932. Subsequently, Knopf's firm remained her American
publisher for the rest of her life (Glendinning 80). The two had a strong friendship and
corresponded frequently.
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7. “Ivy Gripped the Steps” – The short story was featured in Bowen's collection The Demon
Lover. It follows a soldier as he revisits a house he frequented as a boy.
8. Mrs. Knopf’s – Blanche Knopf (1894 – 1966) was the wife of publisher Alfred Knopf and
often assisted in the publishing of Bowen's works. She was a supportive friend and
wanted to nominate Bowen for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1963 (Glendinning 213).
9. Cecil Day Lewis – Cecil Day Lewis (1904–1972) was an Irish poet and novelist. In 1941, he
became an editor at the Ministry of Information's publications division and then became
an editor for publishers Chatto and Windus from 1946 until his death. In the 1940s, he
engaged in an affair with Rosamond Lehmann. He became a professor of poetry at
Oxford beginning in 1951 after having successfully translated Virgil's Aeneid. As an
editor for Orion, he and Bowen corresponded about the pieces she wrote for the
miscellany (Day-Lewis).
July 1st, 1946
1. “THE DEMON LOVER” – The Demon Lover is collection of Bowen's short stories published
in 1945 that features tales that have an “element of time breaking down” as Bowen
grappled with World War II (Glendinning 149, 143). The collection includes “The Happy
Autumn Fields,” “In the Square,” “Green Holly” and “The Demon Lover” among other
short stories.
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2. “THE DEATH OF THE HEART” – Bowen's sixth novel, The Death of the Heart is
“considered by many to be her crowning achievement,” is her most popular novel and
was a Book Society Choice (Lassner 97, 21). The novel follows adult Anna Quayne and
her sixteen-year-old ward, Portia, both of whom are dealing with change and
maneuvering through motherhood and daughterhood (Lassner, Coulson).
3. “Wai-kiki” – Waikiki is a neighborhood in Honolulu, Hawaii (Google Maps).
4. “THE CAT JUMPS” – A collection of Bowen's short stories that had, as Bowen wrote to
Gollancz, an “escape from life” theme (Glendinning 93). The collection included “Maria”
and “The Little Girl's Room” among other stories.
5. Collection, published by Gollancz – Bowen is referring to The Cat Jumps, published by
Victor Gollancz.
6. “THE LAST SEPTEMBER” – The Last September was Bowen's second novel, published in
1929 (Coulson 378). The story is set during the Irish Troubles of 1920 at an Anglo-Irish
estate that resembles Bowen's Court; “The subject of the novel is the twilight of Anglo-
Ireland and the fate of those younger people born to inherit the myth of the ancestral
home” (Lassner 26).
71
September 30th, 1946
1. Peace Conference – The Paris Peace Conference was held from July 29th – October 15th, 1946.
The conference was a result of the end of World War II as the victorious Allied powers
negotiated treaties with the Axis powers (“Paris Peace Conference”).
2. Society’s Committee of management – Bowen is referring to the Management Committee of
the Society of Author’s responsible for running the society (“Society of Authors”).
October 27th, 1946
1. Uncle Silas – Uncle Silas is a novel written by Sheridan Le Fanu for which Bowen wrote an
introduction to the 1946 reprint (Glendinning 32).
2. Le Fanu – Sheridan Le Fanu is the author of Uncle Silas.
June 2nd, 1948
1. The Heat of the Day – Published in 1949, Bowen wrote the first five chapters of the novel The
Heat of the Day in 1944, stopping to write a collection of short stories titled The Demon
Lover (Coulson 378, Lassner 120). Set during World War II, the novel focuses on
betrayal, both in the personal and political spheres, as illustrated by the characters Stella
Rodney, the spy Robert Kelway, and the counterspy, Harrison. The Heat of the Day sold
more copies than any of Bowen's other works (Lassner 120).
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2. “This tarnished open air theatre in which no plays had been acted for some time…” – A line
from Heat of the Day.
3. “Nothing more now than suffering the music he sat on tensly” – A line from Heat of the Day.
February 21st, 1949
1. The Author – The Author is the Society of Authors’ quarterly journal.
April 30th, 1949
1. “Partisan” –Partisan Review was an American literary quarterly (Glendinning 171).
73
Maps of Bowen’s Correspondence Locations
N
Maps created by Google Earth. 74
Kildorrery, County Cork, Ireland
52.2461° N, 8.4269° W
Google Maps
Map and photo of Bowen’s Court
National Inventory of Architectural Heritage
75
Regent’s Park, London, England
51.5322° N, 0.1567° W
Map circa 1945
Oxford, England
51.7519° N, 1.2578° W
Map circa 1945
Maps created by Google Earth. 76
Photograph Locations Bowen’s Correspondence with Miss Bennett
Folkestone, Kent England
51.0810° N, 1.1660° E
Map circa 1945
Hythe, Hampshire, England
50.8691° N, 1.3988° W
Map circa 1945
77 Maps from Google Earth
London, England
51.5072° N, 0.1275° W
Map circa 1940
Paris, France
48.8567° N, 2.3508° E
Map circa 1940
78 Maps from Google Earth
Notes – Appendix A
St. Michael’s Court 51.1219° N, 0.0710° E (Left map circa 1945)
Mallow, River County Cork, Blackwater, Ireland Mallow, 52.1310°N, County Cork, 8.6415° W Ireland
Maps from Google Earth
79
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