BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [17 JAN. 1919]
BRACERS 19414. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<Garsington>
Friday mg.1^, 2^, 3

My Beloved

I am sorry you hare having such a dreadfully bad time. I suppose it is a natural result of the operation.4 Rest as much as you can, Dearest. I am sure C.A.5 has really profited enormously by his holiday. At the moment, worries may pull him down, but that won’t last, and they won’t pull him down as much as if he had not had a holiday. As for me, I am a totally new man, full of vigour and happiness. I hope Allen will be relieved by my offering to join him almost at once.6 When you are better, could you get the two book-cases, with the books that are now in them, moved from the Studio7 to Allen’s?8 I have writtena to Swinnerton9 about it. Don’t bother if it would be a worry to you, but I don’t know how to do it from here. The green vase10 might be retrieved at the same time, and your small cups, and the lady11 from Heal’s.12 But all those I could attend to myself.

I had a letter from Mrs Eliot13 saying she disliked fading intimacies, and proposed to break off all friendship with me. I replied expressing surprise but acquiescence. Eliot’s father14 is dead.

Sassoon15 is much in earnest over Labour politics; he loved Snowden.16 I like him, but not enormously. He begged for a photograph of me. Have you got one you don’t want?

Dearest Love, I wish I could be with you and stroke your head and try to be as kind as you were when I had a headache — I hate to think of you in pain. Goodbye my Darling. All my tenderest love is with you.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200404.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 34 Russell Chambers | Bury Street | LONDON W.C. 1. Pmk. GARSINGTON | 16 JA | 19 | OXFORD

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote “17 Jan 1919” on the envelope.

• 4

  result of the operation The abortion which Colette had on 15 December 1918.

• 5

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 6

  my offering to join him almost at once Allen had rented a flat in Battersea and needed a flat-mate to pay the rent. The man who had agreed to share with him backed out at the last minute.  Colette had suggested that BR have his books moved there and shoulder half the rent which she would pay (BRACERS 113162).

• 7

  the Studio The name given to the place that BR and Colette had rented on the ground floor at 5 Fitzroy Street, Soho. For information on it, see BRACERS 19247, n.4.

• 8

  Allen’s His newly rented flat in Battersea.

• 9

  Swinnerton Frank Swinnerton (1884–1982), a writer who had rented the Studio beginning 2 December 1918. BR’s last day there had been 27 November.

• 10

  green vase the same vase that he had with him in Brixton Prison in 1918. The vase was in Colette’s possession on 5 November 1961 when she wrote that the vase was now filled with scarlet autumn berries (BRACERS 98462). BR had been back in Brixton Prison in September 1961 because of his civil disobedience campaign against nuclear weapons.

• 11

  the lady Presumably an ornament purchased at Heal’s Department Store.

• 12

  Heal’s A department store featuring quality design in Tottenham Court Road, London.

• 13

  Mrs Eliot Vivienne Eliot (1888–1947), the wife of poet T.S. Eliot. For information on her, see BRACERS 19062, n.5.

• 14

  Eliot’s father Henry Ware Eliot (1843–1919), a successful American businessman.

• 15

  Sassoon Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967), poet. In 1919 he became the literary editor of the socialist Daily Herald. For more information on him, see BRACERS 19182, n.12.

• 16

  Snowden Philip Snowden (1864–1937), Labour politician and social activist, created Viscount Snowden in 1931.

Textual Notes

• a

  have written above deleted am writing