Authors: Richard Greene
I’ve had three aquavits & some beer, so you must forgive a muddled letter.
We have therefore to think a) whether we want to simplify enough to separate – except as friends who meet occasionally and b) whether it’s possible to simplify & not lose each other and c) of course whether we want to stay together because if we don’t there’s no point in worrying about a) & b).
I do want you to feel that this letter has nothing – or only a remote connexion – with one’s view through the window last night.
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It has far more connexion with Rome, Jamaica 195– whatever it was, & a division perhaps in my own mind that we would have talked about sooner or later.
Call it a neurosis if you like, but I have the desire to be of use to someone, & in the last nine months particularly I have felt of little use & possibly of real harm to you. You have no responsibility to me, & I have none to you – so that one needs to feel one is not being a clog & a bore & all the rest. The simple thing that we probably both desire is to need & to be needed. I’ve fought too hard to make you stay – which was purely selfish. You might have been happier now if you’d had your wish in Rome.
I don’t think you want or I want holidays at the Ritz, The Grand, luxury holidays here or there, but we began simply in Achill & now think in terms of Hong Kong or Tahiti. Soon we’ll have to think in terms of a rocket to the moon. You are so right to go walking in Ireland, or both of us to go walking in Switzerland. We don’t want luxury holidays – we want to simplify, but can we? You have against you family, social life, politics; I have against me social life & business. It’s easier for me to say, O hell, I’m going to go away & cut it all out than it is for you. Partly because I’ve already cut out, in 1948, most of the first difficulty – with Lucy in Canada & Francis nearly grown up, & my mother not having long to live, I can soon cut out the rest. But of course it’s not only a problem of elimination – in a way it’s the opposite, of being of use to someone other than oneself. You (mistakenly) probably consider yourself of no use to me – I’m not talking of sex which will be dead in a few years anyway for me: I (probably mistakenly) feel I am no use to you. We both (perhaps mistakenly too) may feel we can be of use to other people – a draw not only to pride but to any charity that one has left.
Anyway these are the problems – very muddled after three aquavit & another to come soon (it’s a new experience getting drunk in bed). Let’s think over them in quiet – you in Ireland & me on the Continent & say nothing until we are both back. Then we can ‘try’ to decide what to do.
Very much love
Graham
Writing for the
Sunday Times
, Greene named as one of the three books of the year for
1955
Vladimir Nabokov’s
Lolita
, and so brought down on himself the thunder of John Gordon (1890–1974), the editor-in-chief of the
Sunday Express
. Greene’s method of dealing with John Gordon was to set up a mock society in his honour, with himself as President and John Sutro as Chairman. This letter was drafted by Greene; John Sutro was to ‘pep it up’ and send it on
.
[8th May 1956]
Dear Mr. Gordon,
The President and Chairman of the John Gordon Society are delighted that you will consent to meet the members. They quite understand that you would prefer not to speak on ‘The Necessity of Censorship’, and are ready to accept your suggestion as the subject of the lecture of ‘Pornography.’ They regret however that it is not possible to make this occasion a debate as at the first general meeting of the Society it was decided to found a series of lectures under the title of The John Gordon Lectures for which this should be the first. However the Chairman has no doubt that Mr. Greene will be ready to speak in any discussion that follows. However it is unlikely that Mr. Greene would undertake to defend pornography, and the discussion would be more likely to proceed on the lines of what exactly pornography was, about which there is obviously some disagreement between you and the President.
You will understand that the John Gordon Society is a private Society and it is impossible to provide a list of members to someone who is not himself a member. Any of your friends are at liberty to apply for membership, the subscription is only 10/-a year, and their names will be submitted to the Committee at its next Meeting. We propose with your consent to invite members of the Press to attend the Lecture, and of course we would be delighted if you would bring with you one or two personal friends. As each member will be allowed to bring a guest, and space is limited we are afraid we cannot find space for more than two or three of your friends.
Would you perhaps let us have suggestions for the date and time of the Meeting? We would prefer an evening after-dinner Meeting and it is impossible for the officers of the Society to be all present before July.
Yours sincerely,
[John Sutro]
Gordon comes across in all this as a booby, the harrumphing advocate of censorship, but he was in fact one of the grand characters of British journalism. As a junior reporter, he took carrier pigeons to football games to ensure that the results were reported quickly to his office. From
1928
to 1952, he was the editor of the
Sunday Express
, where he introduced the first crossword puzzles and features on ‘What the Stars Foretell’ in a modern British newspaper. He and his astrologer had been prosecuted as rogues, vagabonds and fortune tellers, but escaped conviction when it was shown that their situation was not quite covered by the Vagrancy Act (ODNB). He certainly had enough of a sense of humour to play along with Greene and Sutro
.
Michael Meyer
(1921
–2000) was one of Graham’s closest friends. A prolific author, he is best known as the translator and biographer of Ibsen and Strindberg. Graham looms large in his
Not Prince Hamlet: Literary and Theatrical Memoirs (1989).
C.6 Albany, | London W. 1. | 3rd August 1956
My dear Michael,
So many thanks for your subscription to The John Gordon Society. You missed a very amusing and turbulent meeting last week. As a result of John Gordon’s invitation to violence in his columns we had the Horseshoe packed to overflowing with people standing all down the stairs and only about a quarter of those present in the hall were members of the Society and their guests. However John Gordon had miscalculated and found that his public were against
him. If it hadn’t been for Randolph Churchill overdoing his attacks on Gordon all the sympathy would have been against Gordon. Anyway it was all great fun and didn’t in fact reach the point of razor blades or fists.
I am surprised to hear that you are still a grass widower!
Affectionately,
Graham
C.6 Albany, | London, W.
1
[Aug? 1956?]
Dear John,
What on earth makes you think that I’d do anything free for the United Nations when I refuse 100,000 dollars to do one of my own much worthier stories!
63
I am replying to Adlai Stevenson’s phony cable: ‘Regret unable help as I consider United Nations combined with American materialism chief threat to world peace.’
Love to you both,
Graham
Who is Lillian?
64
What are you up to now?
From 1955, Graham was engaged in a serious relationship with the Swedish actress Anita Björk (b
.1923),
whose husband the novelist and poet Stig Dagerman
(1923
–1954) had been thought the great hope of Swedish literature before his suicide in 1954
.
C.6 Albany, | London, W.1. [early December 1956]
Dear dear Catherine,
I’ve just got your note about Jamaica – one of the dearest you’ve ever written to me, and now I’ve got to write to you. I’ve been postponing too long, hoping that things would somehow settle. I love you so much & no one has ever been or can ever be what you’ve been to me. Nine years are more packed with memory than the rest of life.
This is what has happened. Last November on the way to Poland I fell a little in love with a girl (of 33) & she with me. She was the widow of a young author I admired very much who committed suicide. I didn’t mean to or want to – I certainly wasn’t looking for it. Then she came to London for 24 hours – nothing had happened in Stockholm except the agreement that nothing should happen, but we slept together once in London & I agreed to see her after Christmas. That’s why I went to Stockholm – I hoped to work it out of my system & I thought I had, but I suppose then the gossip started, the result of her belonging to the theatre in her own country. I think all would have been all right, but the same day in September or whenever it was that you told me Harry didn’t want you to go to Paris as we’d planned, she rang up, she’d got a holiday & wanted to be with me. So I went to Portugal instead of Paris.
Darling, don’t think I didn’t want to go to Jamaica – I did & for as long as possible & my meanness on the last night was because it was over.
[…]
Greene-Park Ranch | Christmas Day [1956?]
Dearest Mumma,
There’s so much to tell you that it must wait till I come back. Lucy, [illeg.] in blue jeans, met my train & drove me to the ranch. It’s a most lovely spot – hills & valley & the Rockies at the end of
the vista. If it wasn’t for the snow one could walk for hours up hill & down dale without leaving the ranch. No other house in view anywhere. Lucy has turned a little cabin only 23 feet long into a charming bedroom & sitting room, with very nice furniture gathered piece by piece in Calgary, good pictures, a big bookcase made by herself with moveable shelves – very civilized & sophisticated, but the coyotes howl outside & the horses press against the walls at night for warmth – ‘I’ll huff & I’ll puff & I’ll blow your house down.’
The weather two days after I arrived turned lovely. 38° & sun & the snow vanishing. We drove 13 miles to Midnight Mass yesterday & tonight drive an hour & a half for Christmas dinner with her friends the Jennings’s.
Lucy seems very well & blissfully happy. Adores her new horse Silence.
65
I like the partners, Geoff & Pearl,
66
a nice simple couple very fond of each other. It’s a strange feeling looking round at the country, hill & valley & stream, & knowing that Lucy is the owner. It makes one feel there’s some point in writing books after all.
[…]
Caroline Bourget notes: ‘In the letter Graham writes with poetic licence. The horses were in the barn or corral at night. Coyotes did come down and howl in Winter. The Ranch was in a lovely setting with an historic spring where Indians camped in the past. Now, I’m afraid houses have been built all round and there is a paved road through instead of a gravel track.’
67
IF YOU CAN’T READ THIS RETURN TO Mrs YOUNG FOR TYPED COPY!
C.6 Albany, | London, W.1. | Aug. 7 [1957]
Dear Evelyn,
I only got back on the night of the 5th from Martinique (a strange island populated by French royalists) & found
Pinfold
. Yesterday I read it – with enormous pleasure & some horror. It’s a wonderful book – I’m not sure that I don’t like it the best of all you have written.
68
I am off to Russia with my son on the 14th – a last holiday before he’s called up. Assuming that I don’t stay on as Burgess’s new assistant & advisor on Westminster diplomatic activity,
69
do let’s see each other.
Affectionately,
Graham.
Greene-Park Ranch, | Box 123 Cochrane | Alberta. |
December 18 [1957]
Dearest Gillian,
How very sweet of you to write such a long letter. I’m feeling a bit better now – more than a fortnight practically without drink probably helps. I’ve done 21,000 words – but the quality isn’t as good as the quantity. I couldn’t write your sort of book in that time. Don’t be scared about my meeting with Laffont. It’s off until the spring!
You may be right about Catherine, but I have a feeling that as she’s a far better Catholic than I am – a remarkable one really – providence has had a hand in the game & released her for a rather better sort of life than she could lead with me. So to give up Anita now would not only be a bit painful perhaps on both sides, but wouldn’t help. What you say about Stockholm is true – but it would be worse to take her away from her own place & force her to give up the theatre – even though she may think she wants to. One doesn’t want to start a relationship by imposing a sacrifice in the way of career & friends. I’m much more a free agent, & can work anywhere, & find reasons for mobility.
I’d love to have a dinner with Evelyn. I’m devoted to him & long to see the ear trumpet.
70
As I’ve had only one card & one telegram from Stockholm (she’s back on a film) I don’t know whether our date for December 31 still stands. If it does I’ll be home on the 5th or 6th – otherwise earlier.
Lots of love to you both.
Graham
In the late 1950 s and early 60 s, Herbert conducted a very odd feud with Hugh. Repeatedly, Herbert complained about programming decisions Hugh had made as director of news and current affairs at the BBC, embarrassing him in front of the Director General, Sir Ian Jacob, who was grooming him as his successor
.
10th February 1958
Dear Herbert,
I have just heard from Hugh that you are continuing to send these long absurd telegrams to the B. B. C., now directed towards the Director General. If any further telegrams of this kind are sent I shall assume that you no longer are in financial need of my allowance and will stop it forthwith, nor can you expect any presents financial or otherwise. You are making yourself a nuisance and holding yourself up to public ridicule. Can I have your assurance that this will stop otherwise I shall take the measures I mention.