Decca, p.72
Decca, page 72
Fondest love … Decca
To Barbara Kahn
New Haven
January 28, 1976
Dearest Barb,
…Tuesday was me second class, none of the alternates showed up thank God (the 1st class was jammed with people waiting to see if some of those admitted didn’t show), and all the original 18 did…. Anyway they are smashing beyond all hopes. The crucial thing is, will they be Dears & choose interesting yet manageable subjects to investigate, as I keep begging, or will they put down grandiose things like Mental Health & get totally lost? But I think they are quickly getting the point. They come up here quite a lot to discuss these matters (by appointment—I said they could call any time, rather rash as they do, they do—yet I so long to get them quickly on some definite track) & I must say I find them v. good value. Some are a trifle mercurial & seem to have picked about 6 topics, which I should have thought quite impossible with all the rest they’ve got to do here, so I try to get them more pinned down. Here’s one idea that I thought awfully interesting: One boy (my tall, thin lad …) when he was in high school got a letter from an outfit called Who’s Who in High School, saying that he had been chosen as one of 4% of the nation’s high school graduates to be included in their volume, which he could have for $25, plus another $5 if he wanted his photo printed in the book. Have you ever heard of this racquet? Naturally tall/thin was terribly proud, would have plunged at once with his $25 had not his canny parents intervened. But visualize boy/girl in midwest, south, getting this letter; parents overjoyed, buy copies for all the folks, don’t you agree they might? Anyway, it sounded like a good thing to look into. Have you ever heard of it? …
Dink & James came for the night last Sat., oh what a super-treat for me. Actually it’s not a bad oy-hangout, as in the nick of time I discovered there’s a colour TV set right downstairs plus a games room with pinball machines & other pleasures such as ping pong & billiards…. One rather embarrassing thing happened: there was an old copy of Psychology Today lying around, & it had in it IQ tests that college undergraduates with an IQ of 100 or less had found difficult. I had tried them, but couldn’t work out most of them. James seemed to do them quite quickly. Then the Master (Master Davis) dropped round for a drink, & James unfortunately gave him the tests, which he failed miserably
Much love to all, Dec
To David Pryce-Jones
New Haven
February 26, 1976
Dear David,
Your manuscript70 arrived yesterday, needless to say I’ve been at it every possible minute. I found it incredibly upsetting, but then what else could it be? I mean stirring up, from my point of view. In fact to calm my nerves I made a list of a few things that might be inaccurate (although totally unimportant) which I attach….
It’s an extraordinary book, totally absorbing (well obviously it would be to me) and a tour de force of research the likes of which I’ve never seen. Simply amazing, all you found out, the people you saw—as you know, I didn’t know the half of it even for the years we were all together, let alone the German/Hungarian bits.
On to the substance. (I shan’t even try to comment on your view, which I think is all wrong, that Fascism/Communism were 2 sides of coin; that would take a year’s debate; I can only say that if you’d been around in those days you would never have made this equation.)71 But about Bobo’s actual character. You’ve got it terribly well up to a point. What you said when I telephoned to you in Wales abt. her making the Jews blub while she was measuring the flat for curtains72 —the total vileness of that side of her, which as your book shows became the dominant side—well there’s no forgiveness possible (nor would it have been sought by that feckless, unregenerate soul).
Bob’s view, which he said after reading quite a lot of yr. book but before my copy arrived here at Yale, was what I told you: “stupid, sadistic, physically ugly—sausage fingers—childish” etc. etc. Having now read it, I can see that all that is attested to by your various interlocutors. And quite rightly, I mean that’s all clear from all records, esp. fondness for darling Streicher,73 plus everything else you’ve discovered, plus my own recollections (which I never did put in Hons & Rebs as too revolting) of her gloating over a battered behind of elderly Jewess in Brown Book of Hitler Terror, oh dear well it’s all so awful, anyway you’ve found it all out so why go on.
So what was lovable about her? That was what I meant to write to you about, yet now I’ve got to that point I can’t think quite what to say. I see that M. Ormsby-Gore74 is v. cold to her in yr. book, yet all I remember of them is that they were utter bosom friends, adored each other, shrieked without stop-ping—but about what? And why did I adore her, which I really did—Bob says oh you probably had a romantic view of her, but that’s not quite right either. There is a dimension, or facet, of her character missing in your book; but what is it, exactly? Trying, trying to think back. Well she was so ‘uge & obdgegjoin-able, such a joke, after Wigs on the Green partly a Nancy-created joke—and she (Bobo) saw the joke of herself. I see you quote a few people as saying she was “amusing” yet they don’t give examples, perhaps because her sui generis form of amusingness is really untranscribable. I can’t think of any examples, either. Rudi Simolin75 comes closest, of all the people you quote, to showing that side of her. Note also Betjeman:76 UV77 was funny, she had a lot of humor which doesn’t come out in the accounts of her.” There; if you can make any sense at all of this ramble, please add it to where you quoted me. (Not the part abt. Brown Book of H. Terror, please.)
Another thing you might do (since I have such trouble sorting all this out in my own mind) is to quote from Hons & Rebs … (“I pondered over the unsolv-able riddle” etc), because that is where I really did try to come to grips with my own feelings for Boud. I think this would help a lot, esp. as you’ve quoted me about how sullen & rude she was in Sweden. At least from my viewpoint, it would give a far more rounded picture of how I saw her. In fact I really urge you to do this, if it is still possible in the context of printing deadlines etc….
I’m v. glad you stuck it to Sir O. Mosley about that cable (“power of Jewish corruption”), ditto to Skidelsky78 whose book struck me as a total puff-piece for Sir O. Nancy used to call Mosley “the quiet European” which I thought pretty funny.
Your point that it was now or never to do this book (people dying off) was certainly borne out. I do think you’ve done a marvellous job. And THANKS for leaving me out of acknowledgments—as it is, I expect Debo will be on nonspeakers for the next forseeable bit of time, although my part in it turned out to be v. minimal. (Needless to say, no dedication, please!)…
Much love to all, Decca
To Maya Angelou
Oakland
September 16, 1976
Dear Miss Absolutely Amazing Thing,
Here goes with a comment or two abt. your really smashing book.79 I should start by saying I think it’s the best you’ve done yet—although this may displease you, because you’ll be thinking well what about the other ones? (Reminds me of a Philip Toynbee story about a young writer he knew whose first novel was reviewed in the Times as “one of the best first novels I have read in more than a decade.” The writer was thrilled until he started examining that sentence, then exclaimed furiously “ONE of the best? More than a DECADE?”)
The actual writing, use of language, is terrific; I presume that the intense discipline of poetry, where the precise choice of each word, the cadence of each line, is so important has stood you in good stead. There are some superb passages all through the book—I meant to mark them, but there were too many. Shall do so on a re-reading. (One wee criticism on this score, & the only one: “a party she planned to host.” I happen to dislike this usage, straight out of P.R.)
Of the themes that run through, the ones I found totally fascinating from the pt. of view of yr. treatment of them were 1) the formation of black/white friendships, 2) the whole Guy80 bit.
The first is of special interest to me as I see it all from the other side of the fence, so to speak, & it evokes so vividly my terror of inadvertently putting a foot wrong (and stepping on black toes) in the early CRC days. Had it not been for the guidance—and often FURIOUS CRITICISM—of Hursel, Buddy, Matt C.81 et al, I should never have been able to steer myself through those dangerous shoals….
The Guy bits are lovely & will also have a universal fascination for all us rotten mummies who because of our drive to do something neglected our wretched (but beloved) brats.
What else. I could write a book about your book because I found it so intensely moving, spirited throughout, survival sense that I find so attractive. …
The other thing is, it happened to arrive on my birthday. For some unknown reason, turning 59 was rather beastly. I mean, as you know I don’t a bit mind getting old & ugly, as it is the fate of all humans (except a few like Kay Boyle, but then they work like mad at being old & beautiful, which I have neither the time nor inclination to do). The usual traumatic birthdays—30 and 40—had no effect on me. Perhaps it was the advent of Dink & Oys; James born 9 years ago, seems like yesterday, ditto Dink born 35 years ago—anyway, the musty & disagreeable wings of the Angel of Death seemed to be fluttering about in the kitchen.
So when yr. book came in the post, it was the most tremendous lift, & recoloured the whole day, because I sat straight down to read it, & there was a lovely breath of life.…
Idea: How about one day, when/if both of us has the time, expanding a trifle via a conversation between the two of us about the black/white friendship thing? We could talk it out, or exchange letters about it (possibly the best way, as I hate those tape-recorded things), and eventually work it up into an article, or book, or something. I think it might be rather a good thing, as I know that for my part there’s masses of those nuances… that I never put into mine. E.g., your book page 104, “There was a saying … what ails you?”;82 So interesting to me, because in the 50’s… stalwart Marge, working her head off in all the defense activities for Blacks, was brought up on charges by a Black worker in CRC for looking sloppy on the picket line, & for never having her hair properly done. She was disgracing the picket line etc. There is a subtle & interesting point here. I mean, Marge never would, never could, be well-dressed or well turned out, it isn’t her style. Yet one did see the point of the black comrade who felt demeaned by said sloppiness of Marge. Some of these sensitive & complicated points, developed via the 2 sides of fence, might be of interest?
Sorry to be so long-winded, I just wanted to say how much I adore yr. book,
Fondest love, Dec
To Pamela Jackson
New York
October 4, 1976
Woman:
I was absolutely enraged by your foul letter, implying that I’ve stolen one of Debo’s scrapbooks & given P-J photos from one of Muv’s scrapbooks. As you well know, Muv left all hers to Jonathan Guinness so why don’t you get after him. I have practically no photos of Bobo, & have given none to P-J. There are, obviously, huge amounts to be had in newspaper offices & I suppose that is how he got them.
Once & for all, the sequence of the P-J book:
1) As I told Debo at the time, I advised him not to go ahead without access to Bobo’s papers, left to J. Guinness by Muv.
2) He went & saw Diana, who apparently whetted his appetite & told him all sorts of things that I for one didn’t know about Bobo.
3) Ditto his interview with Nancy published a few years ago in D. Telegraph.
4) Seeing he was determined to proceed, & had in fact gone to Germany to see various decaying old Nazis such as Putzi Hanfstengel83 or however he spells his hideous name, I thought best to put P-J in touch with people who could give a more sympathetic view of Boud than he would otherwise get from her—so to speak—public life: Rud, Timmo, Clementine etc.
5) You say he’d never have gone ahead if I hadn’t helped; totally untrue. Mine was v. minimal, as you’ll see if you ever read the book. I knew naught about the St. Margarets Bushey Herts84 part, naught about the German part. In fact I never saw Boud again after early 1937. My thoughts about that strange character were set down in Hons & Rebs, which you probably haven’t read; anyway, I asked P-J to quote what I’d said & he did. He would have done the same for all of you.
6) Am sending a carbon of this to Debo, with assurances that I did not pinch her scrapbook.
Decca
To Sonia Orwell
New York
October 14, 1976
Dear Sonia,
I was pleased to hear from you—Bob read your letter out, as I am in NY doing the final-final sprucing of my book (which, amazingly, is finished; I never believed it would be, after all these years)….
Well, the P-J book flap.85 Oh. By now you’ll have seen the piece in Sunday Times, & 2 stories in Ev. Standard, & will prob. have talked to David who can fill you in on the sisterly efforts to suppress the book. The Mosleys are leading this, we suppose because things in the book will undercut Sir O’s attempts to rehabilitate himself via his own autobiog.86 Skidelsky’s more or less official, or authorized, biog in which Sir O. never really was all that anti-semitic etc.
As for the family side, I got a letter from Woman virtually accusing me of stealing one of Debo’s scrapbooks from her drawing-room & giving the photos to David. This put me in a blind rage so I wrote an absolutely livid letter, with a carbon copy to Debo; I fear it’s curtains with me & the sisters.
Ld. Weidenfeld87 is in NY, & I had a long chat with him. David will know all the details (Andrew Devonshire’s surprisingly conciliatory role etc) so will skip that. The main pt is that W. wants me to review it for the Eve. Standard. My first inclination was non, non, non; but thinking it over, I just might do it. Diana’s done a scorcher for Books & Bookmen, & I think I’d want to see hers first. I had been thinking of writing my own letter to the papers blasting the efforts to suppress; possibly I should do this in a review? What do you think? …
[I]f I review it, I think I’ll concentrate more on my own (minimal) role in it, & on the dismal business of the sisters getting a powerful crowd to try & stop it.
Now, here’s the thing: don’t tell anyone but I think I’ll be coming to London in December for a short spell. Do you remember how Michael Barnes of BBC was keen to do a 60-min programme about my life in Calif? Maybe I never told you, as a) it seemed a slightly embarrassing idea—60 mins on one’s poor old life. But now it seems to be firmed up, & the plan is that I should come to England for bits of filming with P. Toynbee (if he agrees), Claud Cockburn and the ilk, people from one’s dim past; then Michael & crew come to Calif to do bits on ex-convicts, morticians, students at San Jose etc. The Deb. Rogers folks wrote to say it’s all set, so perhaps it is. I don’t care either way, should be just as pleased if it falls through because this seems an awful time to come to England with all the fuss about the Unity book….
Decca
To the Duchess of Devonshire
Oakland
October 26, 1976
Hen:
I don’t know where we stand, having no word from you since I sent you a carbon copy of my letter to Woman. I was in a blind rage when I wrote it, & I bet you’d have been, too, had you been the target of those snidely-phrased accusations. Here’s exactly what she said, copied from her letter:
“Some of the photographs were in Muv’s album so I suppose you gave them to him. You could have asked us first if we wished them to be published. The album full of newspaper cuttings & photographs that Debo always had in her drawing room is missing & can’t be found anywhere. Did you borrow it perhaps, as I believe you are writing your own life. If so we would all like to have it back.”
All incredibly infuriating & I can’t help thinking you and/or Diana may have put her up to it….
I shan’t say any more about my part in it as I’ve said it all a thousand times before. I do think that the sisterly efforts to suppress it (led by Sir O. Mosley, as I gather from the newspapers) were most ill-advised, a rotten thing to do & from your point of view disastrous as it gave the book enormous pre-publication publicity.
I’m mainly terrifically sad to think that perhaps this all means it’s curtains for us, that we shan’t be seeing each other any more or writing. If so, that’s absolutely up to you, I mean if you don’t answer this obviously I shan’t have another try. So as this is prob. my last letter, it may be rather long (sorry Hen, I know how you loathe reading long things but here goes).
There were obviously deep things to be said, dating from more or less childhood, that I was really unaware of until 1974,3 7 years after the event, when you said that my running-away without telling was the worst thing in your life. I was v. astounded, and I honestly think you’ve revised all that, somehow, inyr. mind; as I remember us in those days, we weren’t all that adoring. That is, we weren’t interested in the same things and I was probably v. jealous of you for being so much prettier; it was far more Boud & me, strangely enough. Then you also admitted (in 1974, when we went over all this) that if I had told about running you’d have told Muv & Farve, so do admit my instinct not to tell was right.
That whole year in England (1974) was a bit strained, as far as you & I were concerned. I suppose the P-J book was already a cloud, no bigger than a man’s hand. But also, I noted that you excluded me completely from anything to do with H. Acton’s book.88 I asked you if you’d like to have any letters from Nancy to me, & you said no you’d got tons of letters, mine were not wanted. Then H. Acton asked if he could quote from Hons & Rebs & I said of course, & he did, extensively, but only to contradict everything I’d said. You & Woman were closeted with him about the book, but not me.
I admit that at that point a certain stubbornness set in; I mean, why should you be the final arbiter of everything about the family? It was a bit maddening, so when you issued the Directive to the cousins etc. not to talk to P-J I did not feel bound by this, on the contrary. In fact, they were the only ones who brought out a bit of the true Boud we know.
