"I am preparing material for a book, The Crucible, which involves the correspondence, arguments and debates between men like H.G. Wells, G.B. Shaw, G.K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc. Each of these exchanges is prefaced by a pen picture of the man involved. It opens with the famous Gladstone-Darwin-Huxley affray."

"I particularly wanted to include in the book some reference to your own work which clearly had a deep influence. Most of what I want I can, of course, get from your own books and other sources, but in keeping with the character of other chapters of my book I should like to add a pen picture of yourself. Can I, conceivably, get fifteen or thirty minutes with you some time to talk about all this?"