Bob is well, arrives here tomorrow, loves his probation job at Coventry, but May finds it all less lovely, as do I, for they will probably have to give up their London home, and they had got it so nice.
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LETTERS BETWEEN FORSTER AND ISHERWOOD
I am well enough—get a little tired and am at the moment at a loose end. My visit to Paul and the Frenchs at Florence was grand. In fact it has tinged me with grandeur.
Well I will write again and hope by then that you may have written again to me.
Give much love to Bill Caskey when you see him.
Oh and had forgot—Jans [?] had better write direct to Ben over setting the verses. I am afraid he is unlikely to say Yes and may be was used to say No. He gets so many suggestions like that and he is at present hard at work over his opera with William.25 He’s awful at writing.
Much much love dearest Christopher,
Morgan
* * *
King’s Coll. Camb.
Oct. 15[,] 1952
Dear Christopher Isherwood,
As agreed, I write a formal letter to confirm my gift to you of one of the typescript copies of Maurice.
It is your property, and I assign you the right to arrange for its publication in the U.S.A. after my death. You have the right to sign the necessary contracts and to receive all royalties and other payments.
By the terms of my will, all my MSS and literary rights become the property of my executor, Professor W. J. H. Sprott, or of the executor acting in his place. Professor Sprott has, however, written you a letter which you will receive at the same time as this one, and you will see from it that he fully approves of the arrangement between you and myself, and formally under-takes to respect it.
He does however make two stipulations. (i) If the book is not published in the States within three years after my death, all U.S. publication rights must revert to him. (ii) You must not publish or attempt to sell the books in Great Britain: if you did this my executors would be entitled to take action against you.
I have had a talk with Mr Monroe Wheeler. If for any reason you do not wish to publish, he is willing to act in your place. In that case all U.S. rights would pass to him, and he would be entitled to sign contracts and to receive royalties, etc.
Yours very sincerely,
EM Forster (signed)
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* * *
King’s College, Cambridge
Oct. 15[,] 1952
Dearest Christopher,
Thank you for your sweet, also salt, letter.26 All goes well. I have seen Monroe and have today posted a [copy of] Maurice to him, together with formal letters for you from me and from Jack Sprott, who is my ex[ecut]or, and entirely approves our goings on. You should now have a convincing enough array for a potential publisher. I know that you won’t like receiving any money from sales and will refuse to use it, but it is simplest that the owner of the MS and rights should receive; otherwise such complications.
What I would like is for the money to be kept in America for people from here who want to visit America, and can’t. Bob specially in my mind.
Alternately, to help any one who is in trouble. Would you mind receiving it now?
I’ve asked Monroe if he would see to the thing if you couldn’t. He said he would. If neither of you acts, I would be grateful if Glenway [Wescott]
would take over, but have put Monroe’s name in the formal letter, since we had talked about it. Bob, May and I dined with him Sunday. She is at last more equable.
The salt overleaf is of course Bill Caskey, or part of him. Give all of him my love. Yes—what a figure.
I must pronounce on Hemlock and After another time. More important, Walter Baxter’s new novel has much progressed—it sounds completely different from its predecessor and I am longing to read it.27 We meet or correspond regularly. He has just read Maurice and is terribly upset by its sadness, but was drinking all the time he read. I hope to see him this week again. I hate him being sad. I shall read the “new” chapter to him and see how he feels then.
Bob has been fine over it. “Do you want it published?”—“Yes.”—“Then I’ll see it is.” He stays happy about his future. I don’t think of it. It is bound to be unpleasant for me. Coventry is an impossible place to be idle in, or to reach. I wish I could think of some other work for myself. I have enjoyed doing “Letters from Dewes State Senior,” and miss it.—Can you think of a first name for it, a selling name?28
Much love & thanks and I will soon write again,
Morgan
* * *
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LETTERS BETWEEN FORSTER AND ISHERWOOD
[return address of air letter: King’s College, Cambridge]
Nov.25[,]1952
Dearest Christopher,
I have just been rereading old letters of yours, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg[—]all over the place, always inviting me to go and I never went, always generous, praising and helping me, always believing in what Maurice tried to do. Dear Christopher oh you have been a good friend.
I am more glad than ever that the typescript is with you and that Jack Sprott has behaved so well.
I see Walter Baxter once a week as a rule. I go to tea with him, no one else ever comes in, although he has masses of friends, and either he talks or I talk.
Bob spends his short weekend with me, his long weekends with May. I spend Christmas with them. I don’t want a birthday or any more birthdays yet awhile.
I don’t know about 1953. 1952 has been odd—that wonderful visit to Florence which I haven’t yet grasped, and then a good deal of worry and sorrow. I cannot sum 1952 up.
If Bill has arrived, give him my love again please.
In one of your earlier American letters you say that the two people I should like were Pete and Swami. I never met Swami. You were right about Pete.29
I expect I have told you all the above already. But tonight I feel able to put it differently.
Love dear Christopher.
Love,
Morgan
* * *
July 7 [1953]
400 South Saltair Avenue
Los Angeles 49. California
Dearest Morgan,
The immediate reason for this—after how many months?—is that Swami Prabhavananda is on his way to England, and I do so hope you two will meet. So does he, and I have told him to go to Cambridge, which he will gladly do. He will only be in the country for a few days, however, around the 20th of this month. So could you send a postcard to the Countess of Sandwich (The Cottage, Hinchingbrooke, Huntingdon) with pal-zeik-03 4/14/08 2:57 PM Page 155
THE POSTWAR YEARS
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whom he is staying, saying which day would suit you? Of course, if you are in London, Swami could meet you there.30
The Countess of Sandwich is, improbably enough, an Englishwoman named Amiya Corbin who used to be one of the leading members of Swami’s congregation and household, and whom George Sandwich met while in California recently. She is, in her own forthright way, a character worthy of the amazing George. Do you know him? You probably do.
Here I sit and will not stir until that fiendish novel is done. Two complete drafts finished already, but much still to do. I think everybody will hate it. It certainly isn’t what they expect—if there is still anyone who expects anything of me. Am otherwise well and happy.
I long for your new book.
Bill Caskey has left the sea and is making bead collars for fashionable ladies with an intensity which borders on sadism. He makes them, and they are damn well going to wear them—or else. He’s like those woman-haters who design fantastic hats which only the richest can afford. In the last phase, the hats are made of iron, with in-pointing spikes.
I hope you enjoyed the caves?