BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, 9 SEPT. 1919
BRACERS 19554. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<West Lulworth>
<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
9.9.19

My Darling Love

Two letters from you to answer, yesterday afternoon and this morning. I am sorry I didn’t keep your story3 — my American4 interrupted me before I had had time to read it more than twice, and I thought you would be wanting it back. I think it very good, but I have a suspicion that it is too short, and that you have not done quite enough to create the atmosphere for the reader who knows nothing of your characters beforehand. However, I may be wrong. In the detail I found nothing to criticize — I agree with you in thinking the end admirable.

My Cherub, I am so glad about Helen5 — it is lovely. Now I am longing to know about Young Heaven.6 I do believe whole-heartedly in your power of acting, particularly great tragic parts. I long for you to have scope, more than I can say. You told me nothing further about Eve.7 Did she behave decently after that row?

The weather here is so divine, I ache for you my Darling — Moonlight nights make me feel your absence — The sea is a sheet of silver under the moon — and in the morning the dew glistens and there is enchantment everywhere — but without you it leaves me hungry — my soul cries out for you.

Your long letter8 written Sunday was a joy. Yes, I have read Browne’s Lit. Hist. of Persia,9 I loved it — do bring it, as I have forgotten it, and I didn’t read it all, as I borrowed it and had to return it. I am sorry you are so poor — if Jourdain pays me10 £120, which he owes and I am dunning him for, I shall be well off and able to help. — Now I must get to work. O Darling I do hope you will be able to come here — it will be divine. I do love you and love you, my dear one — the thought of you lives in a sacred place in my heart, and gives joy and strength to all the deep things of the world — Goodbye my Heart’s Comrade.11

B

• 1

  [document] Document 200541.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C.1. Pmk: WEST LULWORTH | 9 SP | 19

• 3

  your story Not identified.

• 4

  my American Frederick Fiske Warren (1862–1938) was a wealthy American businessman and philanthropist. BR turns this visit into a humorous anecdote in his Autobiography, Vol. 2, pp. 97–8. BR first met Fiske Warren’s wife, Gretchen (1868–1961) — “rich, beautiful and intellectual”, when he was living at Bagley Wood and Mrs. Warren was at Oxford. BR later stayed at her country home in Massachusetts in1914 but until this occasion had never met her husband.

• 5

  Helen She was praised for her acting in this role in The Trojan Women at Oxford.

• 6

  Young Heaven A play by her husband Miles Malleson.

• 7

  Eve Evelyn Walsh Hall did not have a role in Young Heaven although she had been in The Trojan Women. For information on her, see BRACERS 19394, n.8.

• 8

  long letter Not extant.

• 9

  Browne’s Lit. Hist. of Persia Edward G. Browne, A Literary History of Persia (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1908). BR knew the author, both during WWI and after WWII.

• 10

  if Jourdain pays me P.E. B. Jourdain (1879–1919), mathematician and logician. Jourdain was the English editor of an American firm, Open Court Publishing Co. Open Court had published both The Philosophy of Bergson (1912; B&R A12) and Our Knowledge of the External World (1914; B&R A11). Jourdain died less than a month after this letter was written, on 1 October 1919. Open Court owed BR for publishing “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism” in The Monist, 1918–19 (17 in Papers 8). BR was finally paid in December 1919.

• 11

  Heart’s Comrade For information on the use of term, see BRACERS 19145, n.12.