The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers: Volume Three, 1940-1962 9780804794770

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THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF ROBINSON JEFFERS with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers

THE COLLECTED LETTERS OF

Robinson Jeffers WITH SELECTED LETTERS OF

Una Jeffers VOLUME THREE,

1940–1962

Edited by James Karman

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Stanford, California

Stanford University Press Stanford, California by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.

©2015

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jeffers, Robinson, 1887-1962. The collected letters of Robinson Jeffers, with selected letters of Una Jeffers / edited by James Karman. p. cm. Includes index. Volune One: ISBN 978-0-8047-6251-9 (cloth : alk. paper) Volume Two: ISBN 978-0-8047-7703-2 (cloth : alk. paper) Volume Three: ISBN 978-0-8047-9467-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Jeffers, Robinson, 1887-1962--Correspondence. 2. Jeffers, Una, 1884-1950--Correspondence. 3. Poets, American--20th century--Correspondence. I. Karman, James. II. Jeffers, Una, 1884-1950. III. Title. PS3519.E27Z48 2009 811'.52--dc22 2009007528 Adapted from the design by Adrian Wilson for The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 12/15 Centaur MT

For Paula starry night

CONTENTS Illustrations  ix Preface  xiii Editorial Devices   xxiii Abbreviations  xxv

LETTERS 1940–1962  1 Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose   929 Appendix B: Additions and Corrections   953 Index   959

ILLUSTRATIONS 1

Robinson Jeffers; Tor House, 1940 (courtesy of Special Collections, California State University, Long Beach)   156

2

Una Jeffers; Tor House, ca. 1940; photograph by Horace D. Lyon (courtesy of Tor House Foundation)   157

3

Robinson with Noël Sullivan; lecture tour, 1941 (courtesy of Tor House Foundation)   158

4

Robinson and Una; Library of Congress, 1941 (courtesy of Tor House Foundation)   159

5

Gala and Salvador Dalí; Dalí party, Del Monte Hotel, 1941 (courtesy of Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)   160

6

Dalí party, Del Monte Hotel, 1941 (courtesy of Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)   160

7

Robinson and Una; Dalí party, Del Monte Hotel, 1941 (courtesy of Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)   161

8

Una and dog Winnie; Tor House, 1940; photograph by John Frederick Stanton (courtesy of Tor House Foundation)   162

9

Donnan and Garth Jeffers, Robinson, and Winnie; Tor House, 1941 (courtesy of Special Collections, California State University, Long Beach)   163

10

Garth; Monterey Presidio, 1942 (courtesy of Tor House Foundation)  163

ix

11

Holograph letter from Una to Bennett Cerf, June 30, 1942 (courtesy of Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley)   164

12

Robinson Jeffers; New York, 1941; photograph by Clara E. Sipprell (courtesy of Jeffers Literary Properties)   166

13

Sundown, the Pacific, Carmel Highlands, California, 1946; photograph by Ansel Adams (courtesy of Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust)   167

14

Candida and Judith Jeffers; Zanesville, Ohio, 1945 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)  462

15

Una; Tor House, ca. 1945 (courtesy of Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin)   462

16

Robinson Jeffers; Carmel, 1946; photograph by Sadie Adriani (courtesy of Special Collections, Occidental College Library)   463

17

Judith Anderson; Medea program cover; photograph by Alfredo Valente (courtesy of Tor House Foundation)   464

18

Judith Anderson as Medea, 1947 (courtesy of Tor House Foundation)  465

19

Una and Maeve Jeffers; Tor House, 1948 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)  466

20

Robinson and Hamilton Jeffers; Tor House, 1948 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)   466

21

Charlotte, Garth, and Maeve Jeffers with Donnan, Lee, and Lindsay Jeffers; Tor House, 1948 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)   467

22

Una, Lindsay, and Maeve; Tor House, 1948 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)  467

x

Illustrations

23

Tor House and Hawk Tower, 1948; photograph by Nat Farbman (courtesy of The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images)   468

24

Robinson Jeffers; Tor House, 1948; photograph by Nat Farbman (courtesy of The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images)   469

25

Robinson Jeffers; Hawk Tower, 1948; photograph by Nat Farbman (courtesy of The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images)   470

26

Una Jeffers; Hawk Tower, 1948; photograph by Nat Farbman (courtesy of The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images)   471

27

Jeffers family; Tor House, 1948; photograph by Nat Farbman (courtesy of The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images)   472

28

Robinson Jeffers; Tor House, 1948; photograph by Nat Farbman (courtesy of The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty Images)   473

29

Una and Robinson; Tor House, late 1940s (courtesy of Special Collections, California State University, Long Beach)   770

30

Point Sur, Storm, Monterey Coast, California, ca. 1950; photograph by Ansel Adams (courtesy of Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona; © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust)   771

31

Holograph letter from Robinson to Daisy Bartley and family, January 23, 1950 (courtesy of Special Collections, California State University, Long Beach)   772

32

Robinson Jeffers; Hawk Tower, 1950; photograph by Ira H. Latour (courtesy of Ira H. Latour)   774

33

Robinson Jeffers; Tor House, early 1950s (courtesy of Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin)   775

34

Diana, Charlotte, Garth, and Maeve Jeffers; Tor House, 1950 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)   776 Illustrations

xi

35

Una Jeffers (granddaughter); Tor House, 1954 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)  776

36

Robinson, Lee, Una, Donnan, and Lindsay Jeffers; Coolmain Castle, County Cork, Ireland, 1956 (courtesy of Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin)   777

37

Stuart, Lindsay, Maeve, Robinson (grandson), Diana, Morna, and Una Jeffers; Tor House, 1956 (courtesy of Maeve Jeffers)   777

38

Robinson and Lindsay; Hawk Tower, 1956; photograph by Leigh Wiener (courtesy of 7410, Inc., The Estate of Leigh Wiener)   778

39

Una and Robinson; Tor House, 1956; photograph by Leigh Wiener (courtesy of 7410, Inc., The Estate of Leigh Wiener)   779

40

Robinson Jeffers; Tor House, 1956; photograph by Leigh Wiener (Special Collections, Occidental College Library; courtesy of 7410, Inc., The Estate of Leigh Wiener)   780

41

Robinson Jeffers; Tor House, 1956; photograph by Leigh Wiener (courtesy of 7410, Inc., The Estate of Leigh Wiener)   781



xii

Illustrations

PREFACE Since Hardy, no such eagle sailed our skies. Richmond Lattimore This line comes from “Eagle Over the Coast,” a sonnet written in memory of Robinson Jeffers and published in a collection of poems titled The Stride of Time (1966). As the acclaimed translator of the epics of Homer, the dramatic verse of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and the lyrics of Sappho, Pindar, and other Greek poets, Lattimore could appreciate the singularity of Jeffers’ achievement. No other poet of his time, he believed, possessed Jeffers’ power, range, or vision. In comparing Jeffers to an eagle, Lattimore chose a fitting metaphor. Jeffers identified with eagles and hawks; raptors were totemic beings for him, and they figure prominently in such poems as “Hurt Hawks,” “The Beaks of Eagles,” “Fire on the Hills,” and “Shiva.” The life of an artist—his life as an artist, Jeffers understood—demanded, in a time of war and cultural upheaval, raptor-like ferocity. “The poet, who wishes not to play games with words,” Jeffers says in “Triad,” has a responsibility “to awake dangerous images /And call the hawks.” “Eagle and hawk with their great claws and hooked heads / Tear life to pieces,” he writes in a late untitled poem. In the same manner, he adds, “The poet cannot feed on this time of the world / Until he has torn it to pieces, and himself also.” In “The Day Is a Poem,” written on September 19, 1939, after hearing a radio broadcast of Adolf Hitler delivering a speech in Gdansk, Jeffers notes the correspondence between his art and real life. “Well: the day is a poem,” he concludes, “but too much / Like one of Jeffers’s, crusted with blood and barbaric omens, / Painful to excess, inhuman as a hawk’s cry.” Less than three weeks earlier, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded P ­ oland. England and France declared war on Germany September 3. The Soviet Union invaded Poland on September 17 and divided the country with Germany later in the month. By January 1940, as this volume of letters begins, tens of thousands

xiii

of people had already been killed in conflict, and World War II in Europe was underway. In Carmel, Robinson and Una were trying to live as normally as possible. The letters of this period (written primarily by Una) are filled with details of everyday life at Tor House. At the beginning of 1940, Garth is still working as a cowboy on the Bell Ranch in New Mexico; Donnan is living at Tor House, writing and studying drama. As the year progresses, old and new friends visit Carmel; Una’s mother dies; “Winnie,” a bulldog puppy, is adopted. Interlaced with these quotidian events, we find references to the larger world and all its trouble. A midnight radio broadcast brought news of Belgium’s fall to the Germans. “I wept & shook,” writes Una in a May 28 letter to Mabel Dodge Luhan; “one’s heart was squeezed in a vise.” At the end of 1940, Jeffers accepted an invitation to inaugurate a series of poetry readings titled “The Poet in a Democracy” at the Library of Congress in Washington, D. C. Addressing an overflow audience in February 1941, Jeffers expressed an opinion shared by millions of Americans: “If we feel ourselves forced to intervene in foreign conflicts, we must consult the interests of our own people first.” This was a wish, a statement of principle—Jeffers was not a pacifist; he believed in a nation’s right to defend itself—but not, he knew, a likely course of action. Furthermore, whatever American interests might be in the present moment, larger forces were already at work. Among the poems Jeffers read at the Library of Congress, along with “The Day Is a Poem,” were “Rearmament,” where he refers to an event in progress—“the dance of the / Dream-led masses down the dark mountain” toward death; “Night Without Sleep,” where he says, “the nations rearm and prepare to change; the age of tyrants returns; / The greatest civilization that has ever existed builds itself higher towers on breaking foundations”; and “The Bloody Sire,” where he ruefully observes that “Stark violence is still the sire of all the world’s values.” Jeffers’ sense of impending doom permeates Be Angry at the Sun, his fourteenth book of poems, published by Random House in October 1941. “All will be worse confounded soon,” he contends in “I Shall Laugh Purely”—and he was correct. Less than two months later, Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor and the United States was fully engaged in war.

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“Few minds now are quite sane,” Jeffers declares in “Nerves,” one of the poems in Be Angry at the Sun; “nearly every person / Seems to be listening for a crash, listening. . . .” Once the crash came, there was no relief; the outbreak of war produced waves of fear and anguish that lasted four more years. ­Donnan married during this time, moved to Ohio, and had two children; he was rejected for military service because of a heart murmur. Garth was drafted and placed in a combat Military Police unit, with assignments in both the Pacific and European theaters. Una was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a mastectomy. When she recovered, she worked tirelessly as a Red Cross volunteer at nearby Fort Ord. Jeffers wrote, but did not publish much. He also passed through a hidden emotional crisis. Early in the war, as a volunteer coast watcher trained to spot enemy planes and ships, Jeffers regularly stood guard during the night at a lookout station on Yankee Point in the Carmel Highlands. A close family friend, an actress who lived nearby, sometimes joined him. Jeffers fell in love with her, but he soon came to his senses and decisively ended the relationship. As World War II drew to a close, Jeffers was still regarded as one of ­America’s most important poets, despite several years of virtual silence. In October 1945, in honor of his life’s work, he was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the elite institution (limited to fifty individuals) within the already selective National Institute of Arts and Letters. The esteem of his contemporaries was well placed, for Jeffers had just finished writing his adaptation of Euripides’ Medea, a play commissioned by Judith Anderson that was destined to become a landmark of the modern stage. Medea was published by Random House in April 1946 and was produced on Broadway in October 1947. Directed by John Gielgud and starring Judith Anderson, Jeffers’ searing drama was an immediate success. “Here is a performance of such scope and forcefulness, of such boldness of imagination,” said one reviewer, “that it is not likely to be forgotten by anyone who witnesses it.” “I think there is only one excuse,” said another, “for the kind of loud, rearing, stamping homage Miss Anderson is receiving at her curtain calls at the National: art.” To be opposed to World War II before it began, as Jeffers was in Be Angry at the Sun, was understandable; many Americans felt the same way. To portray

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onstage “extreme violence born of extreme passion” after the war was over, as Jeffers did in Medea, was essential; Medea gave audiences an opportunity to experience genuine catharsis. But to express outrage over the war in the aftermath of victory—as Jeffers did in The Double Axe and Other Poems, published in July 1948—was incomprehensible to many readers. His friends at Random House were appalled by the book and denounced its contents in a prefatory “Publishers’ Note.” The note was also printed on the jacket, with a brief explanation: “As in all his poetry, the long narrative poem The Double Axe and the twenty-seven shorter verses seethe with violence and risk grave prophetic utterances. Robinson Jeffers sees a world bent on self-destruction and takes a stand for complete political isolationism. His publishers cannot subscribe to such a credo.” His publishers were right about Jeffers’ views concerning a world bent on self-destruction (although neither they nor many of his readers could fully understand the perils he foresaw), but they were wrong about his commitment to complete political isolationism. In The Double Axe and Other Poems, Jeffers addresses issues facing all humanity and he objects to war for every nation. “Look,” he says with bitterness in “Pearl Harbor,” “This dust blowing is only the British Empire; these torn leaves flying / Are only Europe; . . . the smoke is Tokyo. The child with the butchered throat / Was too young to be named.” The title poem of The Double Axe has two parts. In the first part, The Love and the Hate, Jeffers tells the gruesome story of a soldier, recently killed in battle, who rises from his grave in anger and returns home to California seeking vengeance against his mother (who is in the midst of an affair with a youth his own age) and his brutish, war-mongering father. The second part of The Double Axe, titled The Inhumanist, contains several stories, one of which concerns a young woman named Sea-gull who has an affair with a married man. When the wife of the man finds proof of her husband’s infidelity, she catches her rival and presides over a gang rape involving her two brothers and a ranch hand. One brother punches Sea-gull in the throat and strikes her with a whip. Enough, Jeffers exclaims through both poems. Stop, he implores—“I am sick and weary of the violences / That are done in the world.” The whole book is an indictment of senseless, timeless cruelty. The only way out—and

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here Jeffers reiterates the central message of his entire body of work—is to break the hold of human self-centeredness. The burden of The Double Axe, as he explains in a preface, “is to present a certain philosophical attitude, which might be called Inhumanism, a shifting of emphasis and signficance from man to not-man; the rejection of human solipsism and recognition of the transhuman magnificence.” By turning outward toward the natural world, Jeffers believed, we can better understand our place in the web of life that constitutes the universe, and thereby break the spell of craving, vanity, jealousy, power hunger, and other selfish passions. “It seems time,” Jeffers asserts, “that our race began to think as an adult does, rather than like an egocentric baby.” In June 1948, just before The Double Axe was published, Robinson and Una journeyed to the British Isles, where they planned to revisit many of their ­favorite places. Donnan, whose first marriage ended in divorce, looked after Tor House; he lived there with his new wife Lee and their son Lindsay. Garth, also recently married and eager to begin a career in forestry, had moved to Oregon with his wife Charlotte and their daughter Maeve. In July, while traveling in Ireland, ­Jeffers was stricken with an acute pulmonary infection and almost died. He and Una returned to Tor House in September, where he slowly regained his strength. Just as Una was finding a renewed sense of fulfillment as a grandmother, her health declined. The cancer she dealt with early in the decade reappeared and now was in her spine. There was no cure for Una’s condition. When she died September 1, 1950, Jeffers responded with stoic acceptance, but he never stopped mourning her loss. As he said decades before, quoting Wordsworth, and as Una’s letters in all three volumes of this edition demonstrate, “‘She gave me eyes,—she gave me ears’, and arranged my life.” In her absence, even his work as a poet was diminished, for Una was his first and most important reader. “Whom should I write for, dear, but for you?” Jeffers asks, addressing Una in a late unpublished poem. “Two years have passed, / The wound is bleeding-new and will never heal. / I used to write for you, and give you the poem / When it was written, and wait uneasily your verdict . . . but now, to whom?” Without Una’s letters, which were always rich in biographical detail, less is known about Jeffers between 1950 and 1962, the year he died; but he r­ emained

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productive, and his life as a grandfather was full. The last book of original poems he saw published, Hungerfield and Other Poems, was released in January 1954. Random House reprinted The Loving Shepherdess in a deluxe, limited edition in 1956. One more book of original verse, The Beginning and the End and Other Poems, was published posthumously in 1963. Throughout this period, Jeffers’ international fame steadily grew. New translations of his work appeared in several languages—in German by Eva Hesse, Italian by Mary de Rachewiltz (Ezra Pound’s daughter), and Czech by Kamil Bednárˇ —and his plays were frequently performed. New York productions of The Tower Beyond Tragedy in 1950 and The Cretan Woman in 1954 were followed by additional performances of both plays abroad. It was Medea, though, that garnered the most attention. Soon after the original production on Broadway closed (after 214 performances, more than any other classical drama in American history, before or since), Judith ­Anderson took the play on a national tour. At the same time—and throughout the 1950s—other actresses stepped into the lead role on stages in Scotland, E ­ ngland, Denmark, Italy, Germany, South Africa, Israel, and other countries. Marguerite Jamois starred in a French version of Medea in 1952, and Hanna Rovina, Israel’s leading actress, impressed Paris audiences with her 1957 performance in Hebrew. Great artists outside the theater also sought ways to make Medea their own. Blanche Thebom, a star of the Metropolitan Opera, commissioned Ernst Krenek to compose a vocal work for her based on Jeffers’ play. She premiered the piece in Philadelphia with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1953 and later sang it in New York, Zurich, Athens, as well as other cities. According to Oxford University’s Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama, Swedish dancer and choreographer Birgit Cullberg used Jeffers’ version of Euripides’ drama as the libretto for her Medea, a ballet performed in Sweden in 1950 and 1953, and in New York by the New York City Ballet in 1958. For most people, however, Judith Anderson was Medea. She could be heard on a recording made by Decca Records; seen on stages in cities across the United States, Australia, and Europe; and watched on television. In October 1959, ­Anderson opened the first season of Play of the Week, a syndicated television series, with a production of Medea. The play was filmed live and then broadcast on six

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consecutive nights, concluding with a Sunday matinee. An estimated audience of 2,300,000 viewers saw the program. Despite this attention, or possibly because of it, some critics denounced ­Jeffers. Kenneth Rexroth attacked him in an essay published in the August 10, 1957 issue of the Saturday Review of Literature, straining to find words harsh enough to express his contempt for Jeffers’ verse. Jeffers was not bothered by negative criticism. “I have suffered the same kind of thing more than once before,” he writes of Rexroth in a letter, “and remain mosquito-proof.” Nor was Jeffers excited by praise. “I have no sympathy with the notion that the world owes a duty to poetry, or any other art,” he observes in a 1948 essay (“Poetry, ­Góngorism, and a Thousand Years”). “It is a beautiful work of nature, like an eagle or a high sunrise. You owe it no duty. If you like it, listen to it; if not, let it alone.” Jeffers died quietly at home January 20, 1962. In “Eagle Over the Coast,” Richmond Lattimore addresses Jeffers and says “you rise, rise / to steep and air, . . . drop the world, and marry / space.” One is reminded of Jeffers’ description of the eagle’s passing in Cawdor. When the great bird dies, its spirit leaves its body and spirals upward toward ultimate transcendence and union. After seeing for one last time the totality of life on earth, and experiencing with compassion the ubiquity of suffering, and affirming the never-ending beauty of the universe, the eagle rushes toward oblivion: The great unreal talons took peace for prey Exultantly, their death beyond death; stooped upward, and struck Peace like a white fawn in a dell of fire.

 In the last years of his life, Jeffers found the task of letter writing more difficult than ever before. Without Una to prompt and help him, he sometimes asked a friend or another family member to type his letters. In these instances, minor typographical errors are silently corrected. Note also that many letters written by Jeffers in the 1950s exist only as unsigned drafts—with strike­throughs, repeated words and sentences, and minimal punctuation.

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Two appendixes are included in this volume. “Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose” contains texts of essays written by Jeffers, and mentioned in letters, between 1940 and 1962. “Appendix B: Additions and Corrections” contains letters that came to light after the first two volumes of the Collected Letters were published, along with a corrigenda. An introductory essay titled “The Life and Work of Robinson Jeffers,” a “Methodology” section, and a “Guide to Collections” can be found in Volume One. The first volume of the Collected Letters was published in 2009. Since then, a number of significant studies of Jeffers have appeared. Readers seeking a thorough and erudite discussion of the religious, philosophical, literary, and scientific traditions that inform Jeffers’ verse should consult Robinson Jeffers and the American Sublime by Robert Zaller (Stanford University Press, 2012). In I­ nventing the Language to Tell It: Robinson Jeffers and the Biology of Consciousness (Fordham University Press, 2013), George Hart examines connections between Jeffers’ insights concerning consciousness and recent discoveries in neuroscience. The Wild That Attracts Us: New Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers, edited by ShaunAnne Tangney (University of New Mexico Press, 2015), brings together recent work by ten prominent Jeffers scholars. This edition could not have been completed without the support of everyone mentioned in the “Acknowledgments” section of Volume One. I sincerely thank them once again. I also wish to thank the archivists and manuscript librarians who contributed to the project after Volume One was published: ­Dennis Copeland, Jonni Craven, Maria Elia, Kristie French, Sue Hodson, Crystal Miles, Linda Briscoe Myers, Claudia Rice, Emily Roehl, Susan Snyder, Alan Stacy, Richard Watson, and Ashlee Wright. In addition, I am grateful to the following individuals who offered assistance and encouragement in ­medias res: Peter Bennett, Barbara Briggs-Anderson, Michael Broomfield, Barbara Cullinane, Patrick Cullinane, Craig Curtis, Gere diZerega, Laura diZerega, Janet Gardiner, Ugo Gervasoni, Manda Short Heron, Steven Herrmann, Vince Huth, Sheila Kiernan, Candy ­Jeffers Lovegrove, Alice Mahoney, Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Lisa Dale Norton, Alison Rukeyser, William Rukeyser, Kevin Starr, Richard Tevis, Anna Vilén, Devik Wiener, Cynthia Criley Williams, and Honey Williams.

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The editorial and production staff of Stanford University Press has shifted in the past few years, as key figures retired and new members joined the team. Nevertheless, with the publication of each volume, the same high standards were maintained, thanks to the professionalism and person-to-person kindness of everyone at Stanford, including Eric Brandt, Rob Ehle, Jennifer Gordon, David Jackson, Bruce Lundquist, Patricia Myers, Norris Pope, Emily Smith, Friederike Sophie Sundaram, and Kate Wahl. The ongoing support of the ­Jeffers family, the members, docents, and trustees of the Tor House Foundation, and the international community of scholars that comprise the Robinson Jeffers Association has been indispensable. Above all, I am indebted to Paula Karman, my wife and research/editorial assistant. Working side by side with her on this project has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Together, everyone involved has made it possible for Robinson and Una to tell their own story. The Collected Letters is, in essence, an autobiography, composed jointly over decades without forethought or design. Brought together in this edition, Robinson’s and Una’s letters fit like tiles in a vast mosaic. The portrait thus created—of an extraordinary couple living on the edge of the continent at a turning point in history—is set against a backdrop formed by Tor House, the Carmel coast, and the ancient, shimmering sea.

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EDITORIAL DEVICES abc italic

single underline

abc

small capitals

double underline

ABC

roman capitals

TRIPLE UNDERLINE

ABC

italic capitals

QUADRUPLE UNDERLINE

ABC

italic capitals bold FIVE OR MORE UNDERLINES

abc

bold

words emphasized but not underlined

abc strikethrough deleted words or letters ~abc~ curved line

~words indicated by ditto marks~

{abc}

{words inserted above, below, or

curved brackets

beside the line} [abc]

square brackets

[material provided by editor]

^abc^

carets

^words written upside down^



angle brackets

used to enclose at bottom of page

♦

diamond

page break

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ABBREVIATIONS AL Autograph Letter ALC Autograph Letter Copy ALD Autograph Letter Draft ALDS Autograph Letter Draft Signed ALF Autograph Letter Fragment ALFS Autograph Letter Fragment Signed ALS Autograph Letter Signed ALSF Autograph Letter Signed Facsimile AN Autograph Note ANS Autograph Note Signed AP Autograph Postcard APP Autograph Picture Postcard APPS Autograph Picture Postcard Signed APS Autograph Postcard Signed ATlg Autograph Telegram DL Dictated Letter PD Published Document PL Published Letter PQ Published Questionnaire TL Typed Letter TLC Typed Letter Copy TLD Typed Letter Draft Tlg Telegram TlgD Telegram Draft TLS Typed Letter Signed TLT Typed Letter Transcript

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UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California January 3 1940. Darling Clapps— The adorable gloves! And all the lovely Christmas things you did for us! Donnan looks very handsome in his tie & h’d’k combination—& by great good luck, Edith Greenan gave him a big scarf of precisely the same color— though of different design. He will tell you about his pleasure himself. We had no idea that Garth would be home —he’d kept it as a surprise & walked in Christmas eve on the stroke of midnight—just when my spirits were a bit low. Donnan hadn’t gotten home & we’d {R & I} been at Noëls— came home to an empty house. Various people began to stroll in & I was just reading a letter from D. aloud & read the words “If I dont get home I think there will be something happen to make up for it”—I said “nothing in the world ♦ would make up for it except to have Garth.” As I said that, a tap on front door & there he was! Connie Bell & Galt Bell were here & they told Noël they had never seen anything as dramatic, —because I did let go!—& it was the sort of dramatic coincidence which Hardy for instance uses constantly & Robin always thinks doesn’t happen! but it does to me all the time! Donnan did arrive next day—having been in another strange adventure. —he is in & out of them all the time —I’ll tell all about him another time. He is all right, & its heaven to have them here. Garth is in magnificent shape this time. He took three weeks off as the work is slack enough to permit it in mid-winter. He stopped in Los Angeles & bought us all presents. You should see Robin {in} the frontiersman pants. I wonder whether you have noticed the change in tone of the Living Age?1 It satisfies me better now that it sees more eye-to-eye with me! ♦ Robin is noble enough to enjoy its politics whether or not he agrees! We went to the usual Christmas day dinner & dance at the Tevises & New Years Day dinner at Noëls but not to Noëls New Years Eve as we usually do, as the boys had a dancing party engagement (—which kept them out until 6 am.) I was glad not to be at Hollow Hills, New Years Eve—it was just a year ago that we were so gay & happy there with Mario2 dancing & he was

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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particularly charming & showing us Argentinian dances—he was much in my mind this year. Lots of people in town. Ella Young & the O’Sheas for dinner lunch. Ella in tremendous form with extraordinary tales of psychic things & perdictions & two long tales about Maud Gonne’s3 Ka 4 & a Mrs Smith of Dublin’s Ka. Extraordinary tales as Ella was mixed up with both of them {(both Kas)}. Roland Young was here again yesterday. He is a regular dear. —I had ♦ a {Christmas} wire from Mabel—from New York. I dont know much about her. My trip to the séance {in S. F. we two alone} with Emily5 happened a fortnight ago. I shall write a letter to Blanche soon & describe it in some detail—{& ask her to give you.} Really very strange—inexplicable proceedings. Apparently my presence was very congenial because the results were very pronounced! We were tapped & shaken—& my hand was squeezed by a {warm} human-feeling one as soon as we got settled in our chairs— even before the medium went into a trance My father, Robin’s father, Maeve, various relations, an Indian, a Lady Jessamine {& Sally Flavin}—et al came to me, {and talked very sensibly for the most part,} & all of Emily’s regular communicants came. 1¾ hrs. I wish one of you would experience this & say what your conclusions are. I havent any— We are having rain these last days—most welcome—we’ve had a drought (“what heavenly weather,” have said thoughtless ones). Wind & waves & tossing sea birds out our windows. When I went in the {sea} today the rain beat on my face—feels wonderful. All my love Una. Did you like the Unicorn cards Noël had made for me?6 Please give to Blanche when you’ve read.7 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Living Age, also called Littell’s Living Age, was an American magazine that featured reprints of articles from an assortment of American and British periodicals. It was founded by Eliakim Littell (1797–1870) in 1844 and remained in print until 1941. The change in editorial perspective that Una alludes to occurred in 1938 when Joseph Hilton Smyth (1901–1972), a pulp fiction

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

writer, purchased the magazine. He also bought the North American Review, founded the Foreign Observer, and made significant investments in Current History and the Saturday Review of Literature. In 1942, federal authorities discovered that Smyth’s activities were funded by the Japanese government for the purpose of propaganda. He and two associates were sentenced to seven years in prison for failing to register as foreign agents. Smyth, sometimes writing as Joseph Hilton, later published I, Mobster (1951), Angels in the Gutter (1955), Cry Baby Killer (1958), and other books. 2. Mario Ramirez died March 19, 1939. 3. Maud Gonne, also Maud Gonne MacBride (1866–1953), was an Irish revolutionary, feminist, and actress closely associated with W. B. Yeats. She published an autobiography, A Servant of the Queen: Reminiscences, in 1938. 4. In ancient Egypt, the Ka was believed to be the life force of an individual—the spiritual double, or shadow, that lives on after bodily death. 5. Emilie Coote. 6. Written vertically in left margin, first page. 7. Written at top of first page.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. Jan 4. 1940 Dearest Melba: O I did intend to write you days & days ago about your book—1 Your poems show your quick & sensitive reaction to life & to beauty—and an ironic twist now & again that I like. The Quercus Press did a really beautiful job on it. Weren’t you all proud of it? I dont see any possibility of our being able to get down to Palm Springs. Garth surprised us by coming home for Christmas (walked in on stroke of midnight Christmas Eve) He stays until the latter part of next week. Certainly there isnt any chance for a lengthy stay, much as I’d like it. It will be fine to see you here later—well, & maybe April will be cool this year. {Dont try to keep any place open for us, too uncertain.} —I had a Christmas card from the Mrs. Carter in San Mateo2 I told you of—did you ever interview her? If you ever want to, I will give you a note to her. She is cagey—rather eccentric but used to be keen—& comical too! & is really ♦ the only person who saw Robin & me together many times during the last

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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tumultuous year before I left Teddie. She was a much older woman than I but extremely clever at games. {She lived next door to me on Flower St} We used to swim 3 times a week at Bimini,— she & I & often Robin joined us. We {(she & I)} played golf at San Gabriel a lot. I had a bitter New Years card {card} from Alberts—first intimation I’ve had that he is alive, even, in a long time. Did you receive one? Noël had those Christmas cards made for me, weren’t they darling! Leslie Roos gave me a mate to the English pottery one in my dining table of last year & Lee Tevis found two silver ashtrays—swith unicorn heads—so I was lucky. Did you know that Edith Greenan’s book was chosen one of the fifty best in U. S. for 1939—best gotten-up—a feather in Ritchies cap!3 Robin does not remember Janet Nevens.4 (you wrote Nivens) is that right? Robin says he remembers his mother had friends close by—Ethelbert Nevin, composer. is that the family? So glad to get the pictures of little horse. Had you ever any more information about it? I had an extraordinary experience lately—went to a private séance in S. F. Love & good wishes to you & Frank Devotedly Una ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Melba Berry Bennett, Often I Wonder (San Mateo, Calif.: Quercus Press, 1939). 2. Nettie May Carter and her husband Norman moved from Los Angeles to San Mateo around 1920. 3. Ward Ritchie’s publication of Edith Greenan’s Of Una Jeffers was named one of “The Fifty Books of the Year” by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, a professional trade association headquartered in New York. Over six hundred books were considered for the award, which was based on “artistic and technical excellence, suitability to purpose, and the designer’s success in solving the problems imposed by editorial content and conditions of production” (New York Times, February 6, 1940, p. 18). The fifty winners were displayed in special exhibitions held simultaneously in New York, Minneapolis, and San Francisco. 4. Probably Jane D. Nevin (1882–1971) who lived at 28 Thorn Street in Sewickley, next door to the 44 Thorn Street property that once belonged to Jeffers’ parents. Jane Nevin was a daughter of Hughes O. Nevin and Ada (Fleming) Nevin and a niece of composer Ethelbert Nevin.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California January 4. 19340 Dearest Blanche: The sandalwood perfume is delightful—I am enjoying it so much for I have not had any for some time and even Langston began to inquire why I’d given up my favorite scent. Garth came home & surprised us & he & Robin have been busily occupied with the Surgery book. He & Donnan mean to write you themselves. You are very kind & thoughtful to your Tor House family. Many thanks to our Blanchie In Maud’s letter, which I asked her to give you, I said I would write you of two things not gone into with her. First Donnan’s latest adventure. At the end of the school year {semester} he disappeared & sent us a note that he intended to get a job for awhile & see whether he could support himself, said he would let us know as soon as he got a job, that he hoped later to have a career as hitherto planned but felt it time to earn a little for himself. You can imagine our anxiety. ♦ Well on Christmas eve we rec’d a wire {from Reno} saying “who says a system won’t work? Am eight centuries ahead Popping home for Christmas.— —” We looked for him all next day. —I forgot to say that Robin & he have always had great arguments about the possibility of winning at roulette with a system. Donnan had one! Robin began to warn me that he probably would lose his eight centuries before he got away from Reno & he did! He won until he had $915.00 {(he intended to stop at a thousand)} then his system broke down. So we got another wire: “Perhaps he was right. Am returning baconless.”— He & another Berkeley lad had gone to Reno because they heard that there were lots of jobs to be had there but they didn’t find any & finally Donnan began to play with above results. However he landed a job to begin early in Feb. at $8.00 a day if we’ll consent. —Being a croupier!!!! Now we don’t know what to do about. It might be valuable for him to be on his own—but in ♦ such a situation. Can’t think what to do about it. I cant go into much detail about the séance now but certainly there were extra-physical manifestations that were queer & cause speculation. My father talked like himself—even said when I asked him if I hadn’t fine boys—“Yes

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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they are but they’ll bear watching—Ill keep an eye on them!” My father was accurately described, & many queer things— I wrote the whole thing out in detail & will show it to you sometime. Several little things were said by different ones which dealt with rather unimportant things long ago in my life & certainly unknown to the medium, & if my mind were being read there would have had to be much much digging & pushing about of material to pry out things half-forgotten & unimportant. Noël had finally decided not to go as being completely contrary to the rules of his church but was much thrilled with my ♦ experience. We saw lights instantly we went into the séance room—tiny lights & then balls of light {twice} as big as an orange, moving about, some of the large ones striated with colors. Apparently I have some sort of energy or what-not, very favorable to these manifestations. Did I tell you we talked several hours with Toscanini?1 He & his wife2 stopped to lunch with two Italian girls who have rented Charlotte Kellogg’s house & he wished to meet Robin. He is most charming & sympathetic, spoke English very clearly though with a very foreign accent, —but perhaps you know him. His wife knows very little English but looks plump & pleasant. We shall miss Jean K. I think she is the finest young woman I know. Did you know Edith Greenan’s book was chosen one of the 50 best in U. S. for 1939, best gotten-up that is, —type etc. I had Christmas greetings from John & Claire but failed to notice whether it was mailed from Maine or New York. Do you ever see Esther B. Garth has to start back to New Mex. Jan 10. Oh dear! Write sometimes—I love you dearly {Love to Russell too} Devotedly Una 3 Please give to Maud ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957), cellist and celebrated conductor who achieved international fame for his work with La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and other major companies. 2. Carla (de Martini) Toscanini (1877–1951). 3. Written in top right corner, first page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel February 1. 1940 Darling Maud: What a beautiful, beautiful unicorn from you today—one I had never seen before. This month has been rich in unicorns—the lovely Hugo design for crystal1 {from you}, a still unpublished poem by Ella Young about a unicorn, quite enchanting & elusive, & two references (one a poem) in Llewelyn Powys’ last book “Love and Death, an imaginary Autobiography.”2 Last night I dreamed about my unicorn ring. I thought Garth & Donnan & I, —they still little boys—were travelling across the continent on a Canadian Pacific train. We discovered that my bag had been rifled, our tickets & money stolen, then I said “and oh, my rings!—my precious unicorn ring & the old three-pearled ring Belle-Mère always had worn & gave me.” And Donnan said “Well, the pearl ring is gone, but there your unicorn one is on your finger—you couldnt lose it.” Then your lovely photograph came before I was up. ♦ Garth writes of bitter freezing & even sub-zero weather in New Mexico. Donnan is home, gaining weight, busy & happy. Dont know yet what steps he will take toward his hoped-for career but he is usefully employed at the moment playing {rehearsing} Marellus {Titinius} in Julius Caesar.3 (Noël is J. C.) Donnan is surprising everyone—he makes a striking bits out of a small part{s}. Herbert Heron is a good Brutus although he is at present reading his lines with more poetryical {fervor} than action, but he is—or has been a professional & will do well at the performance. He once did a quite remarkable Hamlet in the Forest Theatre. Heron goes on here year after year, —even decade after decade— eloquent in Shakespeare with reading groups once a week. We three went to S. F. as Noël’s guests day before yesterday to see Maurice Evans4 in Hamlet. He was superb! ♦ The timbre of his voice is very beautiful & his enunciation a delight. He has played three weeks in S. F. to sold-out houses. Its an uncut version & lasted four hours. I am not enthusiastic about going to Shakespeare plays. I prefer to read them & to skip lots of long harangues— This production was so fine in every

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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particular that the four hours seemed like half the time. This uncut Hamlet allows for a more robust creature than we are accustomed to, more variety in his melancholy & irresolution, {& a little humor—} Maud, I am not, I fear, quite convinced by Beaverbrook5 He is less than consistent when he quotes some senators (& not top-flight ones either) as saying we should forget the debts, (so B. says we were rather pledged to do so) & then he calmly repudiates Baldwin’s6 negotiations over here as going beyond his powers, & also Lord Balfour’s7 statement because Balfour was getting old. Then his feeling that the Allies were fighting our war! & were {just} ♦ attending to our job until we got there. I do not think we ought to fight over there, then or now, as a nation. Individuals who feel strongly, yes, although I’d hate to let Donnan enlist as he wants to. And everyone sums it up differently. Noël, for instance, in ambulance & intelligence service in the last war feels this way: he says the Allies would have been whipped if we hadn’t entered last time & that we had no business to interfere, but—having changed the outcome last time it is our duty to go in this time. Now I think thats involved reasoning. Tonight is Langston’s birthday & we are going to dinner. Just heard we must each write a poem for him & read it. I cant write poetry or even verse so Robin just did mine for me. It is so comical & true to my feeling I will copy it for you! You remember Langston Hughes is a communist & yet dear to my heart. Also, he has made some ♦ excellent translations of the Spanish Loyalist Lorca’s poems, —the best of which Langston entitled “Green as I would have you green.”8 So this title: “Red as I wouldn’t have you red.”   Una to Langston. “Red is a lovely color Most pleasing to the eyes, But politically obnoxious To me & Martin Dies.9 Browder10 is red like a boil, Stalin like red fire glows, But I am white like a lily And Langston red like a rose. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Therefore as flower to flower, In spite of prejudices I give him my affection And birthday kisses.”11 I am filled with bitter envy toward you hearing the exquisite chamber music Sundays at the Frick & can’t you feel the excitement I would have trembled with {that would have shaken me} if I’d heard the Irish one?— Pagan & Christian Art I do know a little about that. Dearest love to you two. Devotedly Una. Would that I had time to revise my letters! My haste betrays me into such awkwardness.12 Please give {this letter} to Blanche, & I will try to write her tomorrow—& tell her what “Sally” said at the séance. You will see her letter—13 Not going to Reno—we cant endure it, but I am not absolutely sure in my heart whether the experience wouldn’t have been in some respects beneficial14 ALS. Yale. 5 pages. 1. Probably Jean Hugo’s unicorn and centaur design for an etched crystal urn commissioned by Steuben Glass. Along with twenty-six other pieces by different artists, the urn was featured in an exhibition that opened at the Steuben Gallery in New York in January 1940. Hugo (1894–1984), the great-grandson of Victor Hugo, was a French artist who worked in a variety of media. 2. Llewelyn Powys, Love and Death: An Imaginary Autobiography (London: John Lane, 1939). 3. A Carmel Players production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, directed by Chick Mc­ Carthy, was scheduled for three performances (February 16–18) at the Sunset School auditorium. Una wrote a brief article about the play; see “Some Notes on Julius Caesar in Rehearsal,” Carmel Pine Cone (February 9, 1940): 3. Chick McCarthy, an important figure in Carmel theater since 1937, was arrested in June 1940 on four morals charges involving boys under age fourteen. He pleaded guilty in September and was sentenced to one year to life in prison. 4. Maurice Evans (1901–1989), one of the leading Shakespearean actors of his generation, was born in England. He became an American citizen in 1941. In addition to his awardwinning work on the stage, Evans had roles in a number of Hollywood films and television

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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programs. In the 1960s, television audiences knew him as the warlock father of Samantha Stephens (played by Elizabeth Montgomery) in Bewitched. 5. William Maxwell “Max” Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964), was a Canadian British business tycoon, newspaper publisher, government official, and author. Una’s reference is to a long letter from Beaverbrook to the editor of the New York Times titled “Lord Beaverbrook Discusses the British War Debt” and subtitled “Publisher Maintains His Countrymen Had Ample Grounds for Believing the United States Would Not Demand Repayment of Sums Advanced.” See the January 7, 1940 issue, pages E8–9. 6. Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley (1867–1947), a British statesman, served three times as the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Baldwin traveled to the United States in January 1923 in order to discuss Britain’s war debt with government officials. 7. Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (1848–1930), a member of Parliament from 1874 to 1922, held a number of important posts in Britain, including prime minister (1902– 1905), secretary of state for foreign affairs (1916–1919), and lord president of the Council (1925–1929). 8. Hughes began translating Federico García Lorca’s poems when Hughes was in Spain during the civil war. “Green as I would have you green” is the opening line of “The Ballad of the Sleepwalker,” first published by Hughes in Lorca’s “Gypsy Ballads,” Beloit Poetry Journal 2 (Fall 1951): 10–12. 9. Martin Dies, Jr. (1900–1972) was a Texas politician and member of the United States House of Representatives. From 1938 to 1944, he chaired the House Un-­American Activities Committee. The Dies Committee, as it was also called, sought to investigate and expose threats to the United States posed by Communists, political radicals, foreign sympathizers, and other subversive individuals and groups. 10. Earl Browder (1891–1973), a radical activist with ties to the Soviet Union, led the Communist Party in the United States from 1932 to 1945. 11. A typed draft of this poem, slightly different in a few places and bearing Jeffers’ handwritten corrections, is located in the archives of the Tor House Foundation. In the first line of the draft, Jeffers crosses out “lovely” and writes “gallant.” In the sixth line, he changes “Stalin like red fire glows” to “Stalin like a red devil glows.” 12. Written vertically in right margin, fifth page. A line connects this statement to “I would have trembled with” in Una’s final paragraph. 13. Written in top right corner, first page. 14. Written vertically in left margin, second page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Albert Bender Tor House. Carmel Feb 1. 1940 Dearest Albert: Yes, Robin will send you the foreword,1 he says, “in a few days.” . . . I think you must not look for it before a week’s time. He has it practically finished but wishes to revise & so on. I hoped to see you Tues. morn but could not make it. We went up to Hamlet. Superb wasn’t it? We arrived in S. F. just in time to dine & get to early theatre {Mon.}. Then Tues morn. Donnan & I arose early & got to Warfield at opening of the doors 9.15 for Gone with the Wind.2 That amazing affair went on from 10. to 2:00. Dont be put off it by all the tiresome ballyhoo—its an experience. I would not have missed. {We had to rush home after that for rehearsal of “Julius Caesar.” Donnan is in it.} More soon I am in great haste Much love from Una. ALS. Mills. 1 page. 1. Jeffers contributed a foreword and Frieda Lawrence contributed a prefatory note to Fire and Other Poems by D. H. Lawrence, a limited-edition book printed in San Francisco by the Grabhorn Press for the Book Club of California (1940). For Jeffers’ text, see Appendix A: 1. 2. Gone With the Wind, a classic American film based on the novel by Margaret Mitchell, premiered in Atlanta, Georgia on December 15, 1939 and opened nationwide January 17, 1940. Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, and Olivia de Havilland were featured in starring roles. Barbara O’Neil, a former resident of Carmel, played Ellen O’Hara (Scarlett O’Hara’s mother). O’Neil was the daughter of David and Barbara O’Neil and the granddaughter of Carmelites George and Carrie Blackman. See Collected Letters 1: 596, note 5.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett [February 7, 1940] Need not return this.1 He will probably send you word when he feels well enough to see you— perhaps you’d better not say I told you of his presence until he gives a sign.2

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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We may perhaps dash down after awhile—I can’t say for certain. I hope if we do we can get Hamilton to fly down— Donnan is in a Julius Caesar production here—modernized version—in rehearsal. Love— Una. ♦ 3 Did I call to your attention poem by R. J “Prescription of Painful Ends” in Virginia Quarterly Review,4 Charlottesville, Virginia 75¢ I find here in my desk a letter from J. G. Moore written in Sept. after he called on us here in Carmel.5 I told you of it. At that time we told him what a skunk we thought he was to write that Aperitif article. —(Robin would not shake hands with him when he tried to when he came in)— Then Robin denied in toto in plain words what Mrs. Swift had said & Moore said he was sorry. —I saved athis letter to show you his mention of you But for heaven’s sake don’t bother to write to him & start him up again even if he is lying about you. I hope he just stays quiet—he seems to have infinite time for letter writing. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. A January 22, 1940 letter (ALS HRC Texas) from Alexander Robinson, a Sewickley relative of Jeffers, thanking Una for sending him a copy of Of Una Jeffers. See Una’s April 12, 1941 letter to Melba Bennett for information about him. 2. Having recently suffered a heart attack, Alex planned to spend several months recovering in Palm Springs. He told Una that he would contact Melba when he felt up to it; he also expressed a wish to see the Jeffers family in Palm Springs during his stay. 3. This side of the sheet is dated “Feb 7.” 4. Robinson Jeffers, “Prescription of Painful Ends,” Virginia Quarterly Review 16 (Winter 1940): 45–46. 5. A page of a typed letter (with handwritten additions and corrections) from John G. Moore to Una is enclosed; it contains the following paragraph. Sometime when I can see you in person, I should like to let you read some letters I have from Melba Bennett, describing her visit to Jeffers during the time she was writing her “Jeffers & The Sea”. It was from THOSE letters that I got a corroboration of my original belief in Leonore Montgomery’s story, as being “true”. In other words, Melba described her visit to Jeffers to Leonore, but didn’t say that Jeffers had denied the claim of Leonore’s. She said he just didn’t

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

want to say anything about it. However, when I got back from Carmel, I went to see Leonore, and looked at her eyes, and saw that, compared to your eyes, they are hardly blue. So, the little scrap of mss poem she has referring to “Helen’s blue eyes” could have hardly been written to her, unless at that time Jeffers couldn’t tell the distinction between blue, and greenish-brown eyes. But she does have the Frat. pin engraved “R. Jeffers” and had pictures, she says but gave to Melba.

In response to the comment concerning the fraternity pin, Una adds two notes vertically in the left and top margins of Moore’s letter: “Robin says its quite possible she has it. He hasnt any memory of who was wearing it last. U. J.” and “I have 2 of his myself, but if she has it I wonder she ventures to acknowledge she didnt return it! But heavens let her be quiet too!”

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California February 8. 1940 Darling Blanche: You asked in your last letter about Sally Flavins voice at the séance. I will answer that first of all as I may be interrupted any moment & have to cut short my letter. I will copy from the notes I made immediately after the experience. I do not know Martin’s feeling about all this. You must use your own judgement about letting him see it. I haven’t any explanation about any of it. I told you before, I think, that my own Father & Dr. Jeffers & various other people came to me. All talked sensibly & clearly. I cant say that the voices were theirs—but my Father used, apparently, turns of speech like his own. To copy now,— “People had stopped demanding to talk to me & were talking to Emily or just talking when the room was filled with sobs & wild weeping, & murmurs of ‘Sally’ for each voice named itself. Emily said ‘Oh Sally dear ♦ dont cry like that—you said you wouldn’t anymore’. Sally said ‘Its because Una is here—it all comes back to me. I want to talk to her. I am better now. It was dreadful when I knew people thought I’d killed myself—even Martin did at first. It all happened so quickly I scarcely know how.’ & so on—words I dont remember but no more crying, but many questions about young Martin & Sean1.” Have you been to any of Mabel’s evenings? She asked me if you’d like to go but I havent answered her letter yet. I envy you your chance for the Sunday LETTERS 1940– 1962

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afternoon things at the Frick. We are busy and happy here & the weather is a superb mingling of wild storms of wind & rain & pounding seas—followed by intense sunshine like today the air is keen & invigorating. Donnan is busy ♦ rehearsing two parts in Julius Caesar modernized version. Noël is Caesar, Heron is Brutus— Donnan’s parts are short but each has a chance for real dramatic fervor (—Marullus & Tibonius) & he is doing well. I think in Maud’s letter I spoke of our going to Hamlet {in S. F} Maurice Evan’s uncut version & liking it so much. The same time D. & I went to Gone with the Wind, & dont let all the tiresome ballyhoo about it, put you off. It was a thrilling thing—if you were brought up on tales of the Civil War as I was. I cut my teeth on the Battle of Gettsburg. —& then of course I went through—didnt you—a season of romantic excitement about the charming ease of the old South., & {the horrors of} the Reconstruction— It is most interesting Ledebur was here with the Willie Tevis’ at our house last Sunday, —just flown up from a party at Palm Springs. His fiancée had gone back east, Beatrice Street.2 They had been living together in a room over Curtis’ Candy Store3 ♦ apparently very much in love (I hear, I didnt see her) & only waiting for his divorce from Iris Tree, to marry.4 Garth, before he went back, sat 5 days (for pay!) for his portrait at the Art Institute. His was good (—that is, one of the ten done, was, —by an artist named Graham5) & the one {Graham did} of Donnan who sat the next week was a knock-out! Everyone is raving about it. He looks the embodiment of the Whig aristocracy of the XVIII Cent. vide Lord David Cecils “Young Lord Melbourne”.6 It has the most brilliantly written reconstruction of that period I ever read! Langston leaves within a few days.7 We are going to a farewell dinner for him on Sat. eve. at Noëls. He has finished his book.8 I begin to long for Ireland again—I fear it will be a long time before its quiet there. Even if the rest of Europe forgot its wars the IRA9 would be seething. I intended to send you Robins gratitude for the amusing flashlight & the private horde of tobacco when I spoke of all the rest! We love you dearly!— Una.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Martin and Sally Flavin’s sons Martin Flavin, Jr. (1920–2003) and Sean Flavin (1924–2015). Martin graduated from Harvard University and went on to obtain an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Columbia University. For most of his career, he was a research scientist at the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Sean Flavin served as a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy during World War II and the Korean War. He graduated from Harvard Law School and opened a law practice in Monterey, California. 2. Beatrice Whitney Straight (1914–2001), a member of the socially prominent Whitney family of New York, was an actress, producer, and teacher. Her distinguished career on stage, screen, and television included a Tony Award (1953) for her performance in Arthur Miller’s Crucible and an Academy Award (1977) for her portrayal of a scorned wife in Network. 3. The Curtis Candy Store was located in the center of Carmel—on Ocean Avenue between Dolores and Lincoln Streets. 4. The relationship between Friedrich Ledebur and Beatrice Straight did not last. Ledebur and Iris Tree stayed married until 1955. Following their divorce, Ledebur married Countess Alice Hoyos (1918–2007). 5. Ellwood Graham (1911–2007), a painter and muralist, lived in Pebble Beach. He and his wife Barbara Stevenson (1911–2006), an artist who later changed her name to Judith Deim, were close friends of John Steinbeck. Graham’s paintings of Garth and Donnan remain with their respective families. 6. Lord David Cecil, Young Lord Melbourne: And the Story of His Marriage with Caroline Lamb (New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1939). 7. Hughes had been living at Hollow Hills Farm as a guest of Noël Sullivan for the past six months. 8. Langston Hughes, The Big Sea: An Autobiography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940). 9. Irish Republican Army.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California February 20. 1940 Dear Bennett: You’ve a grand book in “Decade”— Who is this Stephen Longstreet?1 He can write!—there isnt a dull line in the book—every person in it is distinct & clear in his own life as well as {visibly} entangled with all the others. And the old one2—what a man—its tonic to be with him—life swirls

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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with energy around him. Thanks for a chance to know him. You’ve heard me protest enough about neurots & lost generation & faded wilting pansies— yes, and Communist disease-carriers. Here’s a character I enjoy. These martyrs above mentioned are so boring after a time, & oh how many books they’ve contrived to write. How are you & when are you coming to Tor House? We’ll find something nice to do—we are as fond of you as ever. Mabel seems to feel she has given New York a thrill?3 Love from Una. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. Stephen Longstreet, Decade: 1929–1939 (New York: Random House, 1940)—a novel about a prosperous family that loses its fortune in the Great Depression. Longstreet (1907– 2002), born Chauncey Weiner and known also as Henri Wiener (or Weiner), was an artist and writer. He authored or edited over a hundred books on a wide variety of subjects; he also wrote film and television screenplays such as The Jolson Story (1946), Stallion Road (1947), and The Helen Morgan Story (1952). 2. “The Old One” in Longstreet’s novel is John Christian Rowlandson, the indomitable patriarch of the ill-fated Rowlandson family. 3. In a letter to Una dated February 27, 1940 (TCC Columbia), Cerf responds to this comment. “Mabel Dodge Luhan’s new series of salons has certainly packed them in,” he says. “It seems to me, however, that most of the people who come are curiosity seekers and really don’t give a darn what the subject of discussion happens to be. Joe Zilch could get a crowd in New York too if he offered free drinks and a visiting fireman like Thornton Wilder or Dr. Brill! Quite in confidence, my opinion of the whole performance is that it is extremely undignified and, from a literary point of view, absolutely worthless.”

UJ to Zena Holman [February 1940] Tor House. Carmel Sunday. Dear Mrs. Holman: Here is your collection all autographed! I enclose two little items—if I gave you these before, please mail them back. They are a little thing about Sterling & a copy of “Stars” (first published in The Bookman mag.) the first 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

thing Ward Ritchie did on his first press. I had several of each of these & you may keep them if you haven’t them already. I can’t remember whether you possess “The Selected Poetry” of R J pub. last year. Its a noble book really & you need the preface, —he so seldom speaks or writes of his work. Also have you the Modern Library {no. 118} edition of “Roan Stallion.” pub. at 95¢. It also has a few pages of preface by R. J. & contains at the end of vol. the poems first pub. with “Apology for Bad Dreams” About the several books {that we spoke of before} you hope to add to your collection I wrote to a bookshop in S. F. & in L. A. {for advice} & will, after they reply, quote their suggested prices.1 Cordially Una Jeffers ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. In a previous letter to Zena Holman (ALS Tor House), not included in this edition, Una mentions three books—Tamar and Other Poems (1924), Poems (1928), and Descent to the Dead (1931). According to Jake Zeitlin, who responded to a February 22, 1940 query from Una concerning their current value (ALS Tor House), the books were selling for $40, $20, and $7.50, respectively.

UJ to Hazel Pinkham Tor House. Carmel February 22. 1940 Dearest Hazel: Your Edith1 looked very charming when she came to call during the holidays, —charming & happy. I suppose she told you how Garth came in just after midnight Christmas Eve & surprised us. O I was a happy woman! Donnan is home & thats a great blessing to us although as soon as he sees what he wants to do, we must let him go. It was a bitter bitter blow not to go to London. He has just acted two small parts in Julius Caesar production here, but {in} each part he had one good speech, and was extremely dramatic & vivid. You’d be interested in two extraordinary portraits I have of the boys. Garth was paid by the Art Institute (a band of artists who hire models together) to pose for five days in cowboy outfit {(black sombrero,

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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red checked flannel shirt etc)}. One man, Elwood ♦ Graham did a stunning one of Garth, smashing bold colors put on in great gobs of paint with a palette knife. —Next week they did one of Donnan & the same man did an amazing one—ofvery very suavely & formally painted. Its like a figure out of XVIII Cent. England. He has a high henna colored—no, redder than that—muffler, & a hdk. in pocket to match, that Maud Clapp bought him in England {& background of same color, shadowed}. He has an aloof air, three quarters face. Graham was offerred $300.00 for this portrait by someone after Ellen O’S & Edith Greenan had bought it for me—someone who didnt know Donnan, even. I had said I could buy one but not both & my two friends were darling enough to make up the other. Speaking of XVIII cent have you read “The Young Lord Melbourne” by Lord Daid Cecil —one of the finest pieces of prose I’ve read in a long time—the early part an amazing reconstruction of the Whig aristocracy of that period. ♦ Also just read Llewelyn Powys “Love & Death, an Imaginary Biography” (but true mostly) finished just before he died, & essays by his wife, Alyse Gregory “Wheels on Gravel”2 the last as cool & philosophic & disciplined as the former was wanton & sensuous &, in spots, beautiful. Surprising pair. {Two books just sent me from England.} I have lots of letters from England, Ireland & Scotland. All rather grim. We hear from Bess O’Sullivan who has closed her big house in Holland Park & gone down to stay in Oxfordshire with her daughter Biddy in that old farmhouse we rented for three months in 1929. It was 12 miles from Oxford by a village called Watlington. It is made very vivid for us by her descriptions of their shifts to make out. One was to get down an old dog cart (in the loft in our day) They painted it daffodil & the wheels apple green & they found green cushions for it in an automobile wrecking dump near High Wycombe. All this ♦ to eke out petrol. They were driving one of Biddy’s saddle horses in it. They had some evacuees in residence too! Viscount Esher, Brett’s brother3 lives next to them in Watlington Manor! he has 36 planted on him & 9 caretakers! Making conversation with his sister the Ranee of Sarawak, I spoke of his horde & she said “Jolly good for him. I haven’t heard from the fellow for twenty years.” These English.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Percy writes from their little country house in Wiltshire. {goes up to London two days a week.} He says his theatrical agency is knocked into a cocked hat. You know he was making heaps of money when we were there. But his wife4 has plenty anyway. She is in Manchester most of the time on a job he didnt specify. I thought perhaps some gov’t job that might make his letter censored if mentioned. She was managing drama broadcast for BBC {in London} when we were there. Hazel give {Roy} my thanks, & congratulations on the lovely Emperor grapes. I hope his ranches are doing well despite Grapes of Wrath.5 Lots of love & write again. Devotedly Una. Would you send this letter & snaps to Kitty Wells Smith. I have so little time to write & yet out of touch. Went to S. F. as Noëls guest to Maurice Evan’s uncut Hamlet. Loved it & thrilled to GWTW too, but I had cut my teeth on Papa’s Civil War.6 Went to a private séance in S. F (just an Irish baronet’s wife & I.) Most amazing experience I ever had but it would take a whole letter to describe.7 Did you know Edith G’s of Una J. was chosen by Book Guild of N. Y. as one of 50 best books of year that is its make-up8 ALS. Occidental. 4 pages. 1. Edith (Pinkham) Wygant (1910–1984). 2. Alyse Gregory (1884–1967), an American suffragist and writer, was the managing editor of the Dial when she met and married Llewelyn Powys in 1924. She moved to England with her husband in 1925. In addition to Wheels on Gravel (London: John Lane, 1938), Gregory was the author of She Shall Have Music (1926), Hester Craddock (1931), and The Day Is Gone (1948). 3. Oliver Sylvain Baliol Brett (1881–1963) succeeded to the title of 3rd Viscount Esher in January 1930. Lord Esher was a trustee of the London Museum, an ardent protector of ­England’s cultural legacy, and the author of A Defence of Liberty (1920) and Wellington (1928), among other books. 4. Barbara Burnham Peacock. 5. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was published in 1939. The Pulitzer Prize–­winning novel tells the story of the Joad family, who leave the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma for what they hope will be a new life in California. Troubles along the way, however, and challenges when

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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they arrive frustrate their plans. The novel’s harsh depiction of California’s agricultural business, particularly in regard to the treatment of migrant laborers, angered members of the Associated Farmers of California—especially those in the San Joaquin Valley, the main setting for Steinbeck’s novel and the location of Hazel and Roy’s farm property. The book was banned in Kern County, where a copy was also publicly burned. 6. Added in top right corner, page 1. 7. Written vertically in left margin, page 1. 8. Written vertically in left margin, page 3.

UJ to Theodore Lilienthal Tor House. Carmel Sunday Feb 25. 1940 Dear Ted: Thanks for prompt reply. About those letters. Friede extracted them wrongfully from the business files of Boni Liveright & sold them (as he sold the Roan Stallion mss. he begged of Robin {R gave it to him}—the ms to Jock Whitney).1 Donald Klopfer either bought them in the open market—or else he perhaps got an option on them until he could write us what to do—did we want to buy them up & we said “Heavens no, couldn’t afford to.” So then I dont know what happened to them until you got them. I suppose there wont be another single collection in the world of 25 R. J. letters for its many many years ago he stopped writing letters. He says there can’t be possibly anything shameful in them, though they might be dull. I didn’t quite understand your letter— what did you want me to do about it, if anything? Grand rain here today. We had intended going down the coast with Tevises all day but {in}stead remain cozily at home. There will be a riot of wild flowers for you in May. Affectionately Una. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: February 25, 1940. 1. For previous references to these documents, see Collected Letters 2: 519, 536, and 792.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Zena Holman Tor House. Carmel February 29. 1940 My dear Mrs. Holman: Such a beautiful lot of surprises, your lovely gifts—& all of them most congenial to our taste—Honey—(the essence of poetry & flowers), sweet butter & wee eggs & daffodils & Della Robia dish! and yellow a lucky happy color for us. Our living room is all amber & faded tawny colors, & some flowers won’t do (pink or lavender for instance). Yellows & bronze are best of all. (Sometimes our friend Noël Sullivan brings us some things from his farm, eggs, goat’s milk, fresh butter— I think to give away fresh butter the last word in generosity). We knew before how rare a treat bantam eggs are. We have now four cunning little old roosters we call our little old men—they are the last {remnants} of a flock our boys started sixteen years ago. Some of them have been great pets & knew all kinds of tricks! Its several years now there’ve been no eggs! I enclose a poem R. J. wrote some months ago when our darling bull dog Haig died. His photograph is in “Of Una Jeffers”. ♦ 1 I wrote some information on the next sheet about the Paris Edition of “A. B. D” & kept it separate from the rest, thinking if you should ever write to C. K. you might enclose it to explain that I suggested the idea to you. Yes of course keep the “Stars” I am very busy for the next fortnight. After that I wish you would come to tea one day. Write & propose yourself. A nuisance to friends, we have no phone. ♦ Here is a lead about the Paris edition of “Apology for Bad Dreams”.2 I don’t know whether it will be of any value but it might. You probably know Charlotte Kellogg? (—Mrs. Vernon Kellogg who has a house in the Highlands). She stays there less and less, & more & more in Washington, D. C. Now she is in N. Y., vice chairman of Polish Relief Fund. Her health is rather frail & she does the work of a dozen able-bodied women. We gave her a copy of above years ago. It occurs to me that with her rapid movements to & fro, special editions & items may seem like a burden—so she

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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might part with her copy & use the money for some pet project, especially if you call to her attention that the poems are in the back of the Modern Library edition of Roan Stallion a very portable little vol. —& also say we have no objection to her parting with it. I can think of no other copies {that might be acquired.} one we gave to a friend far away from here just now, & I think one to Bender in which case it would be in the big collection of Jeffersiana he is forming at Occidental College. And I kept one copy. Her address is 2305 Bancroft Place Washington, D. C. Cordially Una Jeffers. ALS. Tor House. 3 pages. 1. This and the following two paragraphs were written as postscripts on the reverse of page 1. 2. Robinson Jeffers, Apology for Bad Dreams (Paris: Harry Ward Ritchie, 1930).

UJ to Theodore Lilienthal Tor House. Carmel March 9. 1940 Dear Ted: I hadn’t heard of your great luck in getting one of the Kelmscott presses.1 Fran & her friend2 must be giddy with delight. We think your idea for a little booklet of R. J. poems for the first printing on that press a grand idea. I hope you can get Bennett's consent. It is the sort of item to give very fine publicity {to R. J.} I believe. Let us know what luck you have with Bennett. It couldn’t possibly harm Random House. When you are here some time I must read you some pages from my diary about our visit to Kelmscott Manor near Lechlade & our inspection of Morris’ things there—mss. & everything. His daughter May Morris was living there. Thanks for your prompt note to Blythe.3 Faithfully, Una Jeffers

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. The widow of a printer in New York sold Lilienthal her late husband’s Albion hand press, once used by William Morris at the Kelmscott Press in England. See Ward Ritchie, Theodore Lilienthal, Robinson Jeffers and the Quercus Press (Los Angeles: Occidental College, 1974): 5. 2. Edith Van Antwerp. See UJ to Theodore Lilienthal, December 20, 1940. See also Collected Letters 2: 823, note 3. 3. Samuel G. Blythe (1868–1947), a retired journalist who lived in Pebble Beach, was a friend of U. S. presidents and an influential columnist for the New York World, the Saturday ­Evening Post, and other journals. In 1939 and 1940, Blythe supervised the Golden Gate International Exposition pageants, “Cavalcade of the Golden West” and “America, Cavalcade of a Nation.” Donnan hoped to participate, so Una asked Lilienthal to write a letter of recommendation.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California March 27. 1940 Darling Clapps: My days are full—it seems a real self-indulgence to sit down to chat with you! Donnan is home as you know & that makes much coming & going. Young things—& acting affairs very rampant. I sent Blanche a clipping (about a play he is rehearsing now)—which says something nice about his part in Julius Caesar. He really seems to have talent & in any case is developing very fast in many ways. Well, I went to the Tre Ore 12–3 Good Friday.1 I think I told you they were to perform for the third successive year here the old ritual of taking the corpus down from the cross. This is done in so few places that scarcely any {even} of my Catholic friends have ever seen it. Have you? I was very curious about the method they would use—how to do it reverently & with dignity. When you are here I will show you. It is managed most skillfully with the long narrow winding ♦ {sheet} either end of which is drawn up between the back of the outstretched arms & the cross & over the arms of the cross. When the arms (which are jointed at the body) are let down the cloth is tightened about the chest & takes the weight. The cloth as it hung there in its first position hung {fell} in such austere folds. The whole

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ceremony against the dim background with all the holy figures covered with their purple palls, dim candlelight, portentous music & so on was extremely impressive. —But between ourselves, some of the Catholic manoeuvres are pretty hard for me to takewatch. Mabel writes that she & Frank Waters2 had a wonderful trip home through the south & Taos is most refreshing after the barbarisms of New York. I believe she feels that her salons were most exciting & helpful especially for the young, for she discarded ultimately “the antiquities.” The Barkans have been in Carmel for a week—Phoebe ♦ gave me the clipping about young Porter.3 Apparently the match leaves much to be desired. —Thinking of Mabel’s trip, did you ever go down through the Carolinas & see the great plantations & gardens? I have always longed to do that— A few months ago there was an article somewhere —“Life” maybe, with many photographs of the oleanders, magnolias, jasmine & moss-hung cypress gardens there with their dim haunted lakes & little waterways. There is a movement afoot here to restore San Juan Bautista4 to its original state. —You know the place? over San Juan grade 17 miles beyond Salinas. It is comparatively unspoiled still. A tiny affair {in early SpanishCalifornian} on the order of Williamsburg restoration. The San Juan mission is very good & a lot of old houses untouched. We have been taking many long walks & pilgrimages lately. Already the wild flowers fill the cañons. I brought ♦ home several sprays of {false} Solomon’s Seal—lovely to look at & such fragrance! They perfumed the house for a week. We keep in mind several lovely trips to share with you. Lately we have been going on lots of pic-nics with the Tevises &, curiously enough, they know little of the back country. They have an enormous liking for these pilgrimages. Lloyd, as you may remember, is an expert on mushrooms & has a book on the subject in preparation. He makes me decidedly nervous. We pick just bushels of every sort of mushroom & he cooks them marvellously after a casual glance at them. The other day Robin found a horribly poisonous-looking one—an unusual shape & color—& Lloyd said he’d never seen one like it but thought it was such & such & edible. He’d know by tasting.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

If it was {the} edible kind it would be peppery so he ate a big hunk.— It was peppery & he lives! Robin is working away contentedly. He has promised Cerf a book for fall.5 I doubt whether it will be quite {ready} for its a fatal brake when he promises—but I dont care {how slow} so long as he is writing uninterruptedly. All my love Una. ALS. Yale. 4 pages. Postmark: March 27, 1940. 1. Tre Ore (Italian for “Three Hours”) refers to the time Jesus hung on the cross. The Tre Ore service on Good Friday customarily features homilies on Jesus’ seven last words, along with hymns, prayers, and silent meditation. It may also include devotions related to the fourteen Stations of the Cross, the next to the last of which is the Deposition. Una attended the service at the Carmel Mission. 2. Frank Waters (1902–1995), a novelist and writer who lived in Taos, was the author of Fever Pitch (1930), The Man Who Killed the Deer (1942), Book of the Hopi (1963), and numerous other books. 3. Robert B. Porter (1918–1961), son of Bruce and Peggy Porter, married high school classmate Paula Rossi (1917–1995) March 20, 1940. Porter graduated with honors from the University of California, Berkeley later in the year. 4. La Misión de San Juan Bautista Precursor de Jesucristo was founded in 1797 by Fray Fermín Lasuén (1736–1803), Junípero Serra’s (1713–1784) successor as presidente of the California missions. 5. More than a year passed before Jeffers’ next book, Be Angry at the Sun and Other Poems, was ready for submission to Random House.

RJ to Margaret Stookey Tor House, Carmel, California. March 29, 1940. Dear Mrs. Stookey: I was deeply grieved by the news in your letter, but thank you for letting me know.1 Dr. Stookey was the best friend I ever had, except perhaps Byron; and in all my years in school and college he was the only teacher who ever influenced me or awoke my mind. I remember with joy his lectures and his LETTERS 1940– 1962

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conversation, and those golden days at your house on the shore. It was long ago, but it does not seem so. These things seem to remain present; and I know that you too have not lost him, though he is gone. We saw Byron in New York in ’37, and Adèle2 was here for a few moments a year or two ago. I hope very much that you will travel this way sometime, and look in here. It is a happy sort of place. Our twin boys, who were not even dreamed of when I last saw you, are now 23 years old. One of them is with us just now, though leaving soon. He is almost too beautiful to be good, and thinks of becoming an actor. His brother (who graduated in anthropology) is learning ranch-management the hard way, on a huge cattle-ranch in New Mexico. He was a heavy-weight wrestler while at Berkeley; about my height but twice as big and three times as strong; I wish he could have wrestled with Lyman and Byron on the sands at Hermosa. Affectionately, Jeff. ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: March 30, 1940. 1. Dr. Lyman Stookey, Margaret’s husband, suffered a heart attack and died February 13, 1940. 2. Adele (Stookey) Jones (1884–1950), Lyman and Byron’s sister, was the wife of Alanson Halden Jones, M.D. (1882–1933), a 1908 graduate of the University of Southern California School of Medicine. The couple married in January 1911. In 1910, when Jeffers lived in the Stookey family home on Shatto Street in Los Angeles, Adele also resided there.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California April 3. 1940 Dear Bennett: Robin says sorry he cannot promise the book for fall publication. He expects it to be done by August 1, but summer (even here) slows him up & so it might be later. I am disappointed but he says it is longer than his last two & better. He seems full of confidence about it & writes away like mad every morning with just an occasional hiatus. I am so happy to see him absorbed that I can’t scold him for his slowness.1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

No particular news here. Donnan has been in several plays & is improving all the time. Garth is still in New Mexico on the Bell Ranch. Robin & I are going to Noëls tonight for dinner—a N. Y. publisher is to be there—did he say Balsh or Balsch?2 warned me he published “Me”3 which I disliked, so I must be quiet. I hope to see you out here this summer. Love from Tor House Una ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. In a letter to Una dated March 29, 1937 (TCC Columbia), Cerf says “We are beginning to organize our Fall list and I would like to know, just as soon as possible, whether or not there is to be a new book of poetry by Robin on it. Won’t you drop me a line by return mail?” 2. Earle Balch (1893–1977), editor, publisher, and foreign service officer. After his own publishing firm—Minton, Balch & Company—merged with G. P. Putnam’s Sons in 1930, Balch assumed a leadership position at Putnam’s. He served as executive vice president of the firm from 1932 to 1947 and as consulting editor from 1947 to 1962. From 1952 to 1955, Balch was the chief cultural affairs officer at the United States Embassy in Iran. He also held diplomatic posts in the Netherlands and Turkey. 3. Brenda Ueland, Me (New York: Putnam’s Sons, 1939). Ueland (1891–1985), a journalist and author who lived and worked in Greenwich Village for a number of years, eventually returned to her hometown of Minneapolis and wrote for the Minneapolis Times and other publications.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House Carmel. California April 22. 1940 Dearest Clapps: We are going down to Los Angeles day after tomorrow for Robin’s initiation into ΦΒΚ, (he goes glumly), at Univ. of So. Calif.1 I had a letter from Blanche—didnt stay at San Antonio, Tex hot & humid—hastened to Mex. I send you today a 25th anniversary no. of Pine Cone.2 May amuse you. I mentioned you two in my article. Probably you won’t remember a thing

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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about that fire but Robin says it he does—just as I said!3 Do you mind giving the paper to Jean Kellogg if she hasnt {does} not get the paper. Where is the photograph we were to have of Timmie by Hagemeyer?4 Has Timmie seen “The Man Coming Toward You,” by Oscar Williams?5 Poems. Rather unusual. Did you ever know Miss Ruth Huntington,6 lived near us here. She drowned herself the other morning at ♦ daybreak in our cove— I had to help to identify her as she was just found when I went down to swim. She had a rope around her neck, too. Pretty grisly. She was a big strong capable woman who always seemed to have her life so well organized. She was the first person to build out here after we came. Have you noticed our new postage stamps with a group from Primavera on them?7 Most amazing! Are you darlings coming west this year? Ever so much love in a great hurry. Una. ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. In the spring of 1939, when the University of Southern California presented Jeffers with an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree, he was also given an honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa. The initiation ceremony for the latter award did not take place until April 25, 1940. For a text of the speech Jeffers delivered at the banquet, see “Thoughts Contingent to a Poem,” Collected Poetry 4: 396–398. 2. The April 19, 1940 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone, described in a banner headline as the “25th Anniversary Number—Looking Backward with the Old Timers—and Also Forward,” features reminiscences by early residents of Carmel and articles about the village’s history. 3. Una Jeffers, “How Carmel Won Hearts of the Jeffers Family,” Carmel Pine Cone (April 19, 1940): 9. In this essay, which contains valuable information about Robinson and Una’s early years in Carmel, Una mentions a fire that erupted in a nearby canyon at a time when Timmie and Maud were visiting. 4. Johan Hagemeyer took more than fifty photographs of Clapp in June 1939. They are presently located in the Johan Hagemeyer Photograph Collection at the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. An inventory of the photographs, with a list of images available for viewing, can be accessed via the Internet at the Online Archive of California. 5. Oscar Williams, The Man Coming Toward You: A Book of Poems (New York: Oxford University Press, 1940). 6. Ruth Huntington (1873–1940), a graduate of Smith College, was a teacher who lived in

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Hawaii and Puerto Rico before moving to Carmel in 1922, where she was involved with the Red Cross, Girl Scouts, and women’s clubs. Her home, which she helped build, was located southeast of Tor House, at Inspiration Avenue and Stewart Way. A newspaper account states that Huntington’s body “was found floating in the surf directly below poet Robinson Jeffers’ home on Carmel Point.” The rope around her neck, officials theorized, had been used either in a failed attempt to hang herself or to secure a weight that would hold her underwater when she jumped into the sea. 7. On April 14, 1940, the U. S. Postal Service issued a special three-cent stamp to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Pan-American Union. “A Hemisphere of Good Neighbors / North, Central and South America” is inscribed on the purple stamp beneath a reproduction of the Three Graces from Botticelli’s Primavera.

UJ to Frederic I. Carpenter April 23. 1940 Tor House. Carmel. California. Dear Mr. Carpenter: Yes, the two former copies of your article1 arrived & I hoped Robin would get to the point of answering your note. He enjoys writing you— that is if he can ever be said to really enjoy letter-writing. I am glad to have the extra copy & intend to give it today to Rudolph Gilbert who is to call upon us this afternoon. Perhaps you know his book (pub. in 1936) “Shine, Perishing Republic: Robinson Jeffers & the Tragic Sense in Modern Poetry.” —We have never met him although he has been through Carmel. We, too, have {have} heard from several sources that your article aroused discussion & interest in R. J.’s poetry. Thank you very much. There has been so much confusion about him. We are going to Los Angeles tomorrow. The Univ. of So. California chapter of ΦΒΚ is conferring an honorary membership on R. J. I don’t think he cares as much as I do for this recognition. Very sincerely Una Jeffers. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Frederic I. Carpenter, “The Values of Robinson Jeffers,” American Literature 11 (January 1940): 353–366.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Rudolph Gilbert Tor House. Carmel. California April 29. 1940 Dear Rudolph Gilbert: I am glad you & Mr. Swazy liked us and your visit here,1 and I am not surprised, really, for our hearts went out to you so warmly that it would be queer & wrong if you hadn’t felt we made a very congenial party. We hoped we would get a glimpse of you on the way down the San Simeon Highway but we started very late, almost noon, so you probably were well ahead. The {ΦΒΚ} initiation & dinner were interesting but exhausting as things like that are. Robin got through the reading of his paper very well—he loathes public appearances. His reading took seven minutes—not long. It was an expansion of the prose notes that precede his “At the Birth of an Age.” It will be published shortly in “The Personalist,” the quarterly of the Univ. of So. Calif. Philosophy Dep’t. At the initiation there was a man named Benj. Miller who is inon the {Faculty of the} Theology Dep’t of Pomona College. He has written ♦ numerous papers on Robin. I think he was doing his M. A. thesis at Harvard or Yale on R. J. when we first began to hear from him. Then he came west again & graduated at a Theology school, then went to the faculty at Pomona. I hope I did not do wrong to tell him to ask you if he could call upon you if he goes through Santa Barbara. He has read your book & I believe disagrees with you in some particular I dont know what. He is young—(well you {under} 30, I imagine), & hasn’t much charm but he has a mind of singularly metaphysical cast which with his power for hard work may carry him far. The {Irish} novelist is Margaret Barrington; her book is “Turn ever Northward.”2 She has caught the feeling of the glens of Antrim & Donegal. The phrase at the end of a chapter in her book which caught my attention was “our ship is set, love, for a full due,” —reminiscent of the writing on the tomb, “Your ship, love is morred {(sic!)} head & starn {(sic)} for a full diew” (diew is a variant of due). The poet is Ocar Williams; his book “The Man coming Toward You”. I am not certain yet how good I think it is but it is arresting. ♦

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I do recommend to your attention, though, “New Poems” and “Said before Sunset” by Frederick Mortimer Clapp. Robin, too, regards these poems with utmost admiration. It has seemed to us for a long time that this man has the finest mind we know. Both pub. by Harpers. In the later book is a poem to R. J.3 You remember Clapp is head of Fine Arts at Pittsburgh U. & organizing director of Frick Collection. —Oh, see “Who’s Who”— We liked your article so much in the Pine Cone4 & don’t give a thought to misprints. We always expect them in our local papers. The lovely camellia has put forth a new blossom already. With friendliest thoughts from us both. Una Jeffers. I had a charming letter from your friend Mr. S—. I like the cards! ALS. HRC Texas. 3 pages. 1. Gilbert and his friend Robert Swasey (see Una’s May 19, 1940 letter to Swasey) visited Robinson and Una on Tuesday, April 23, 1940. 2. Margaret Barrington (1896–1982), a writer and critic born in Donegal, was married to novelist Liam O’Flaherty from 1926 to 1932. Her books include Turn Ever Northward (1939), Portrait of an Irish Lady (1949), and David’s Daughter, Tamar (1982). 3. “Figures in a Coast Range Dance of Death: For R. J.” (p. 54). 4. Rudolph Gilbert, “Robinson Jeffers’ Huge Background,” Carmel Pine Cone (April 12, 1940): 5. In this essay, Gilbert recounts an October 1939 visit to Tor House—when, after a cross-country journey, he walked up to the door at twilight but left before knocking. He also defends Jeffers against critics who do not fully understand or appreciate him: “Whoever among us feels this particular human agony which holds the soul and body together, nature and life, hate and love, birth and death—is in harmony with Greek tragedy, with Jeffers’ poetry and with the very essence of life.”

UJ to Lenore Franklin Tor House. Carmel April 29. 1940 Dear Lenore:1 You write a charming note and yes, we shall be glad to see you & your sister2 at Tor House when you get down to Carmel in May.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I think I know how you feel about coming to Tor House for I have certain literary enthusiasms which have ridden me hard. When I looked from the top of Wm Butler Yeats’ tower at Ballylee out over the Galway landscape which I already knew so well ♦ from long reading of his poems, I thought my heart would burst—and there have been others that shook me fiercely. Yes, I do hope to hear you have untangled that stra{n}ge case of S. P. & W. and their stranger business. We have just returned from a dash to Los Angeles & back (where R. J. was given an honorary ΦΒΚ {at U. S. C.}) via San Simeon: the road is always wonderful Cordially yours Una Jeffers ALS. Stanford. 2 pages. Postmark: April 29, 1940. 1. Lenore Franklin (1921–1986), later Lenore (Franklin) Thorp Arneson, graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in English in 1943. She lived in San Francisco, where she worked as a stockbroker with Davis Skaggs Investment Management. 2. Beatrice Franklin (1924–1999), later Beatrice (Franklin) Stejer.

UJ to Robert Swasey Tor House Carmel May 19. 1940 Dear Mr. Swasy—1 Thank you for sending the snapshots. I am very glad to have them. How exciting your house above Altadena. I used to go out there very often & thought it very beautiful. I had a friend who lived next to a long avenue avenue of deodars. Magnificent trees. I hope we may go to see you there one day. Long ago Robin & Ispent much time tramping in those mountains behind Altadena. We have been with a friend, Willie ♦ Tevis, up to his great ranch near Pt. Reyes in Marin Co. It is an extraordinary place, wild hilly country stretching from forests of laurel & oak to bare high cliffs above the sea. We rode a lot over the hills. The strange thing about it—there are six small grey-

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

black lakes hidden away in folds of the hills—they look like Irish lakes with rushes & sedges around them. Very desolate. It was hard to believe we were in California. Good luck to you & your house. Cordially Una Jeffers. ALS. Bowdoin. 2 pages. 1. Horatio Robert Swasey (1885–1955), a social welfare worker and writer, attended Harvard University with the class of 1909. His books include Kendall’s Sister (1922), The Life and Works of Charles Dickens (1924), and Maple Drive: A Story Under Fayal (1931). On July 18, 1955, at age seventy, Swasey stopped at a mortuary in Pasadena and told officials that he believed his life was near its end. He selected music, named a minister, and made other arrangements for his own funeral. He died twelve hours later of natural causes.

UJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan Tor House. Carmel. California May 28. 1940. Dearest Mabel: I fear we cannot come to Taos in August although I would love to. The reason is we expect to have to go east in the autumn & can’t afford time or money to go {so far} twice, I am afraid. That is disappointing for us. I would put off the decision for a little if it were fair to you, but if you are to have such a full house all summer you will need to plan far ahead. I ought to hear any time now about the date of our trip east. It is just possible that we need not go until winter—in which case—but no use to speculate for I can’t tell yet. Robin is working away like mad on a poem1 {& I, too, am writing.} (but has had to give over the last few days the war news has been so disturbing. Every one {of our friends} here has a close kinsman in the danger zone & some of my dearest friends & associations in the world are threatened.) Last night after we had gone to bed around midnight Premier Reynaud’s2 speech began to come over the radio—the static was terrible, —it alone was frightening—we could make out only an occasional word

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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“le roi, —malheur”, & a last unquenchable “victoire” very moving then ♦ the “Marseillaise”—tremendous, —soul-tearing! We couldn’t imagine what was happening, —reckoning it was about 7 in the morning in Paris. When the {music} was playing Robin said “its like the Titanic going down with3 the band playing ‘Nearer my God to thee’.” It was & I wept & shook. Then while we were still wondering, John Gunther {from N. Y. C.} as commentator began to speak in the wildest most excited voice, he began to comment on the premier’s speech—he was as perplexed as we were what it meant, then suddenly he said—“a bulletin—the King of Belgium has surrendered.” One’s heart was squeezed in a vise. —Well, how can anyone again make up drama? We are drenched with it. I wonder whether you—but I guess you are not—as involved with England as I am. I feel more at home there than anywhere I know. I love it—& how mad I’ve been at it so long, too. —Mad as one is with one’s own household. How I have loathed & decried their “lost generation” literature & the namby-pamby Oxonians with their “we won’t fight” & “the old men made the last war”—fools & dolts & weak kneed aesthetes & filthy pinks. Now they must take it, & oh but I am sorry. Do you remember all, all the ♦ literature was defeatist. Men & women alike—, look at Graves & Sassoon & the women Vera Brittain4 et al all defeatists. Have you thought how their most important {young} poet acted in the last war? Rupert Brook—unhesitating to die at Gallipoli & let a bit of England enrich that soil. Now their most important—vociferous poet, Communist Auden escapes to America to lecture & begin to take out citizenship papers. No wonder they are in a fix. Discipline & the resolve to defend your own with your fist is the answer to cowardly indulgence. No I wont use the word cowardly. I will say bloodless indolence. Oh dear I begin to sound wild. well I am wild. A f Two friends of Mary Oliver’s are here & I see a good deal of them. Both charming. Came to visit Noël & took a house. One a painter Woodruff 5— the other George Sebastian6 who owns that great estate in Tunisia, Africa near Hamamet, the great Moorish house one always sees when a perfect house is pictured in architectural magazines. {Perhaps} {Mary O. wrote you from his place}7 ♦ “Cavalcade.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Did you see the Matthias in Mexico? They are there. The Clapps arrive here shortly for a holiday. I rather dread to see her. She’s all English & must be in a state. She had charge of a hospital in Flanders last war & he was in English Aero Squadron. Sidney Fish cracked his sacrum. Horse reared & fell back on him. We have been with Willie Tevis to a {his} great ranch in Northern Calif. Never spent such a wild day. When we got to the place five horses were led out of the stables rearing kicking & backing & with English saddles on them. Lee Tevis is a grand rider but absolutely refused to get on the horse assigned her. I looked at them & thought any of these limbs of Satan can throw me—the saddles were about the size of postage stamps—so I just got lifted on to mine & clung like a leech. We went up & down mts. The horses sat down on their bottoms & slid down. —Well it was wild, but we stuck in spite of awful leaps, too, over streams when the horses all refused & were made to jump which is unpleasant. I hear you are not [illegible] How come? ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Probably Mara. 2. Paul Reynaud (1878–1966) was the prime minister of France when King Leopold III surrendered Belgium to Germany on May 28, 1940. Two weeks later, despite Germany’s occupation of France, Reynaud resigned his position rather than sign an armistice treaty. 3. An arrow here points to “Marseillaise” above. 4. Vera Mary Brittain (1893–1970), a British writer, feminist, and pacifist, was the author of a number of books, including Testament of Youth (1933), England’s Hour (1941), and The Women at Oxford (1959). Brittain’s commitment to pacifism resulted from her experiences as a nurse during World War I when she cared for wounded soldiers, and from the loss of her beloved brother, her fiancé, and two close friends, all of whom were killed in battle. In 1925 Brittain married George Catlin (1896–1979), a university professor, but she continued to use her maiden name. 5. John Richard “Dickie” Porter Woodruff (1894–1959), an artist born in Iowa, worked for Vogue magazine in New York and Paris. Woodruff painted a large portrait of Noël Sullivan that Noël gave to Robinson and Una; it remains in the collection at Tor House. 6. Charles George Sebastian (1896–1974) was a Paris-based Romanian aristocrat and international society figure. In 1927 he began construction of Dar Sebastian, a landmark villa in Hammamet on the coast of Tunisia. Over the following decades, he entertained a variety of

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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notable guests there, such as Paul Klee, Coco Chanel, André Gide, Wallis Simpson, Winston Churchill, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Dar Sebastian was purchased by the state of Tunisia in 1962 and converted for use as the Centre Culturel International de Hammamet. Sebastian was married for seven years to American heiress Flora (Stifel) Witmer (1877–1938), who later became Flora Dunstan, but his lifelong companion was Dickie Woodruff. 7. The second sheet of this letter is cut off at the bottom, so about 2 inches of material on pages 3 and 4 are missing. Page 3 ends abruptly after “place,” page 4 ends after “How come?” In both instances, the tops of illegible words from severed sentences are visible.

RJ to Carmel Cymbal Tor House, May 28 [1940] Editor the Carmel Cymbal Dear W. K. B.:2 Your story and editorial about the protests to the sewering of Carmel Point seem to me to present a false picture.3 I am sure this is not intentional, and I hope you will give me space to answer it. In the first place, neither Van Riper nor ourselves started any petition. Petitions were brought to us and we signed them; and I wrote a letter of protest solely on behalf of my wife and myself. The majority of the protestants own from one to four lots each.4 Second: you take the trouble to speak of our $5000 house on $100,000 worth of land.5 I think you over-rate both values; but in any case I am very sorry that the land value has increased so ridiculously since we bought the place. There are plenty of building-lots around Carmel and we do not feel that we are doing the public an injury, but perhaps even a slight service, by keeping a little field where wild flowers can grow—in memory of what Carmel was like when we came here. And, at your own reckoning, why should a $5000 house on $100,000 worth of land be asked to pay for a sewer that it does not need—twenty times as much as a $50,000 house on $5000 worth of land? One more question; but I can answer this one. Why does our little house have neither electric light nor gas nor telephone? For exactly the same reasons that lead us to oppose the sewer project: because we don’t need them 1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

and can’t afford them. (To date the Utilities Companies have never billed us for other people’s installations.) So you see it is not exactly a class-struggle out here on the Point.6 Sincerely, —Robinson Jeffers PL. Cymbal. 1. This letter to the editor was published on the front page of the May 31, 1940 issue of the Carmel Cymbal. 2. Willard K. Bassett. 3. In April 1940 the Sanitary Board of Carmel approved a plan to install sewer lines on Scenic Road and Carmel Point, with funding provided by property assessments and by the Work Projects Administration. The May 24 issue of the Carmel Cymbal carried a story about opposition to the project titled “Point Sewer Project May Be Dropped” and an editorial titled “He Who Hath on the Point Being Unfair to Him Who Hath Not,” both of which appeared on the front page. Sewer assessment issues had preoccupied Carmel residents for several weeks, as proponents and opponents of various measures publicly expressed their concerns. 4. “Owners of Large Property Who Would Pay Heaviest Assessments” says the sub-headline of the story, “Circulate Petitions Against It.” Leaders of the protest, the article states, “are Mr. and Mrs. Robinson Jeffers and Charles K. Van Riper, the former, owners of 36 lots, each to be assessed $46 for the project, and the latter, 46 lots.” The article adds that fifty property owners on Carmel Point attended a May 20 meeting of the Sanitary Board and expressed their disapproval of the project. 5. “Another side of the thing,” Bassett says in his editorial, “is a side that the big property owner with one loose house in the midst of his acreage doesn’t see or want to see. He doesn’t see that no matter what you get in this world you have to pay for it, and one of the most delightful things you get, and should have to pay for, is the privacy and handsome aloofness of your home in the midst of acreage.” Two of the most important persons battling the sewer project, he adds, “are Charlie Van Riper and Robinson Jeffers. Both of these persons, or personages, choose to live in a spaciousness that guards their doors from the madding crowds. Jeffers, for instance, has a $5,000 home, say, set in the middle of a $100,000 piece of property.” 6. Beneath Jeffers’ letter, Bassett printed his reply, addressing Jeffers directly: I wholeheartedly sympathize with you in the situation you find yourself in. When you bought that land and built Tor House you were virtually all by yourself out there on The Point. You had acquired a home where you wanted it and you expected, or you hoped, that your surroundings of unoccupied, uncontaminated land would remain so for many years. That you guessed wrong and that your hopes have been shattered is very much too bad. Personally I am sorry that you could not have maintained the isolation you desired and which, as a great

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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contributor to the finer things of life, you so certainly deserved. But today you must deal, not with hopes and theories, but with conditions, and your tower has been assailed. Land that you wanted only for its emptiness of everything but grass and trees and flowers has now acquired the questionable virtue of gold in the real estate marts. You bought a hillside of wildflowers and you are compelled now to see it in its new and ugly reality of potential building lots. You bought grass and shrubs and trees and by a distasteful alchemy they have become hideous dollars and cents. And now the abhorrent voice of real estate values says to you: “Either take the price we have built up for you on your 36 lots or pay the price, lot for lot, that holding them requires.” It is a deplorable situation but a cul de sac for you.

As sewer assessments were being debated, another issue surfaced. A story on the front page of the June 7, 1940 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone describes the consternation of several Carmel Point residents (no names given) over the proposed widening of Scenic Road around the Point. Plans for the WPA project included an expanded roadway, retaining walls, and parking places.

UJ to Carmel Cymbal [July 5, 1940] Editor, The Cymbal: After two years our shore is again badly contaminated with gobs of oil varying in size from minute drops to big pools. It’s not very jolly to need a rub-down with cleaning fluid every time one comes up from the sea, but worse will follow. Presently we shall have the distressing spectacle of dozens of sea birds, their wings befouled with oil, fated to starve along the sands, or caught in the waves and broken against the rocks. I believe there is a penalty provided for coastwise ships that dump oil into the ocean. I hope this protest comes to the attention of someone with authority to act in the matter. Very sincerely, Una Jeffers1 PL. Cymbal. 1. Una’s letter, headlined “Una Jeffers Protests Oil Dumped By Ships Reaching Our Shores,” was published in the July 5, 1940 issue of the Carmel Cymbal, page 8. The same letter, with a few minor differences in wording, appeared as “Mrs. Robinson Jeffers Writes on Oil Pollution” in the July 5, 1940 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone, page 7.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Jean Kellogg Tor House. Carmel. California July 25, 1940 Dearest Jean: You do write delightful letters. There is always something refreshing & vivid or beautiful in them. I loved the picture of the fireflies & their reflection in the stream. One of the loveliest things we saw when we drove across the continent was a swarm of them flitting through a tall field of grain in Ohio. I am sorry you missed the Bach Festival. It has grown into an affair to be proud of. The evening when Madam Ehlers1 played the harpsichord in the music of the contemporaries of Bach was one of pure delight. It is in little pieces by Couperin, Scarlatti etc that I enjoy the harpsichord most. Every program was uplifting. And now the Shakespeare Festival! But at rehearsal the other day no one knew his lines very well & every thing was in great confusion so I can’t hazard a guess. —MacBeth (my favorite), and Twelfth Night. Yesterday I met Mr. and Mrs. Blumenthal2 at Noël’s. Do ♦ you know them? He is president of the Metropolitan—an old man. She is stunning to look at, & 30 yrs. his junior. They live in a famous Gothic house in N. Y. C. We talked a great deal about The Cloisters3 which seems to be a great pet of his. I had a letter a few days ago from Michael Myerberg. He is Stokowsky’s manager & just about to go to So. America with him & the Youth Orchestra.4 He says that everyone is astounded at the talent they’ve uncovered—talent, even genius! D Have you been reading about it all? Donnan is working {8} hours a day at the Drama School of the Golden Bough, & enjoying it— Teddie Kuster has some fine teachers—diction, make up, body control & so on.5 Robin works away busily on a long thing.6 Our place is very beautiful. Wave after wave of color as the wild flowers take their turns. Just now the lovely wild buckwheat, with patches of grindelia. Before that the wildest riot

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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of golden yarrow & various paintbrushes. Oh I love it. Our thoughts are all of England these days but what can one say? We love you both! Una. Yes Dr. Wind7 came & we enjoyed him.8 We were in S. F. with Blanche & Noël & others & were on Top of the Mark9 for cocktails at midnight—incredible beauty of the bridges & bay & Treasure Island.10 See also in The Personalist “The Lantern of Diogenes”.11 ALS. Yale S. 2 pages. 1. Alice (Pauly) Ehlers (1887–1981), an Austrian musician who became an American citizen in 1943, studied harpsichord with Wanda Landowska at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik before embarking upon an international concert career. From 1942 to 1962 she taught at the University of Southern California. Her long association with Albert Schweitzer is documented in Albert Schweitzer and Alice Ehlers: A Friendship in Letters (1991). 2. George Blumenthal (1858–1941) and Mary Ann (Payne) Clews Blumenthal (1889–1973). Mr. Blumenthal was a financier, art collector, and philanthropist who served as president of New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital from 1910 to 1938 and president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1934 to 1941. The couple’s opulent mansion was located at 50 East 70th Street at Park Avenue. After George died, Mary Ann married Gen. Ralph Robertson and then Baron Carl von Wrangell-Rokassowsky. All of her husbands predeceased her. 3. The Cloisters, a museum of medieval art located in Fort Tryon Park at the northern tip of Manhattan, was endowed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. (1874–1960). Portions of five medieval abbeys from France were used to construct the museum, which opened in May 1938 as a branch of the Metropolitan Museum. 4. Hoping to create a permanent educational and artistic institution for musicians aged sixteen to twenty-five, Stokowski formed the All-American Youth Orchestra in 1940. A tour of Central and South America in the summer of 1940 was followed by a tour of North America in 1941. When the United States entered World War II, the project ceased. 5. Teddie’s Golden Bough Summer School of the Theater opened July 1. Faculty included Talbot Pearson and Marion Hill, who were among Teddie’s colleagues at Max Reinhardt’s Workshop in Los Angeles; Dr. Kurt Baer, head of the Theater Department at Occidental College; and Ruth Austin, a dancer who lived in Carmel. The school provided intensive instruction in acting, stagecraft, and theater history. 6. Mara.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

7. Possibly Dr. Edgar Wind (1900–1971), a German historian of art and deputy director of the Warburg Institute in London. From 1940 to 1942, Wind lectured in the United States as an affiliate of the Pierpont Morgan Library and New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts. He later taught art history at the University of Chicago, Smith College, and the University of Oxford. Wind was the author of Bellini’s Feast of the Gods (1948), Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance (1958), Art and Anarchy (1963), and other books. W. H. Auden dedicated his poem “The Truest Poetry Is the Most Feigning” to him. 8. Added in top right corner, first page. 9. The Top of the Mark cocktail lounge on the nineteenth floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel was a new and popular attraction in San Francisco; it opened in May 1939. 10. Added vertically in left margin, first page. 11. Added vertically in left margin, second page. “The Lantern of Diogenes” was the title of editor Ralph Tyler Flewelling’s column in the Personalist. In the July 1940 issue of the journal, Flewelling comments on tragedy, Jeffers’ tragic vision, and At the Birth of an Age. The same issue contains an essay by Jeffers about At the Birth of an Age titled “Thoughts Incidental to a Poem,” originally written for his Phi Beta Kappa induction ceremony at the University of Southern California. See Personalist 21 (July 1940): 228–230 and 239–242. The first version of “Thoughts Incidental to a Poem,” titled “Thoughts Contingent to a Poem,” is included in Collected Poetry 4: 396–398. The two texts are substantially the same in content, but are markedly different in several places in wording and organization.

UJ to Noël Sullivan [July 29, 1940] 1 “The love that follows us sometime is our trouble, 2 Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you 3 How you shall bid God ’ild us for your pains, 4 And thank us for your trouble.”1 (Robin agrees with me about lines 1 and 2. The us & we = royal me & I. Love and courtiers who follow the king are a bother but he is nevertheless grateful for the trouble since it is caused by love for him.) R. says that ’ild is for shield. The king teaches his honored hostess by his own example (lines 1 & 2) that she should thank him for causing her trouble (pains) since his presence, as guest, is inspired by his love for this household. Her care for him gives her right to ask God to protect the tking. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Lines like the above—& Shakespeare has many—make me feel very melancholy. Love U. J. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: July 29, 1940. 1. These lines are spoken by Duncan, King of Scotland, to Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act 1, scene 6, lines 11–14. The history of Shakespeare scholarship reveals an ongoing debate about the exact wording and the resultant meaning of this passage, with discussion centered on whether, as indicated by different editions of the text, Duncan says “God yield us,” “God ’ield us,” or “God ’ild us.”

RJ and UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House, Carmel, California. August, 1940. Dear Bennett Cerf: You are right, “The Oxbow Incident”1 is certainly firstrate narrative, hard, clear and rapid, and set against great landscapes. Every person in the story is alive and individual. There is no distortion, artistic or otherwise. The author cuts pretty deep in the last chapter, but his hand never slips.2 Best wishes. Robinson Jeffers. Dear Bennett— I will answer your letter soon—I hope to give you definite information about the poem. Robins date to talk at Columbia Univ. is Nov 11 Love from Una ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark (1909–1971) was published by Random House October 7, 1940. A critically acclaimed film version of the novel, starring Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews, was released in May 1943. Additional books by Clark include The City of Trembling Leaves (1945), The Track of the Cat (1949), and The Watchful Gods and Other Stories (1950). For information about Jeffers’ influence on Clark, see Clark’s M.A. thesis, “A Study in Robinson Jeffers” (University of Vermont, 1934); The Ox-Bow Man: A Biography of Walter Van Til-

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

burg Clark by Jackson J. Benson (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2004): 19–42; and “Walter Van Tilburg Clark’s ‘Strange Hunting,’” by Terry Beers, Jeffers Studies 3, no. 4 (Fall 1999): 24–29. 2. In a letter to Robinson dated August 20, 1940 (TLC Columbia), Cerf says, “I was deeply pleased with your fine comment on The Ox-Bow Incident, and hope that I have your permission to include it among letters that we mean to reprint in some of our advertising for the book.”

UJ to Rudolph Gilbert Tor House. Carmel August 5. 1940 Dear Gilbert: I said to Robin today “Are you a mystic?”1 He hedged and I gathered that he felt a certain—shall I say embarassment—he didn’t call it that—but said—“That is as uncomfortable to answer as if you said ‘Are you a poet’? I would feel very queer to make the bald answer, ‘I am a poet’.” So I told him never mind {mind} about answering. However I told him you might like to write an essay on the subject, & he liked the idea & felt that whatever you wrote was certain to be intelligent & sensitive. You didnt ask what I thought, but I’ll tell you anyway I think there is a distinctly mystical & transcendental strain in him. and I believe, in a way, this quality influences him somewhat in the long-range impersonal views he holds about world affairs. (and this militates against momentary popularity since he cannot easily shout ♦ agreement & enthusiasm for isms.) I hope to see you again & hope to call on Swasey in his new house. You spoke of Yeats. I dont know whether you are particularly interested in him— He’s my subject, but I recently read the best article I have ever seen on th his mystical ideas. It was published perhaps two years ago in The Virginia Quarterly {Review}, (sometime before Yeats’ death) by Sean O’Faolain, the Irish novelist & entitled “AE & W. B.”2 a distinctly interesting & sane appraisal of the differences in the mysticism of these two men. Yours faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. In a letter to Una dated August 1, 1940 (ALS Hardy), Gilbert asks if Jeffers considers himself a mystic. “I know there is so much nonsense connected with mysticism,” he explains, “but I mean by mysticism an organic life-process, something which the whole self does, not something as to which ones intellect holds only opinions. The true mystic’s aims are transcendental and spiritual as well as active and perhaps practical. Especially in poets one feels this close connection between their states of heightened awareness of life, of being and also in their rhythmic and exalted language— Do you not agree with me.” 2. “Æ and W. B.” by Seán O’Faoláin, Virginia Quarterly Review 15 (Winter 1939): 41–57.

UJ to Rudolph Blaettler Tor House. Carmel. California August 5, 1940 Dear Mr. Blaettler:1 Since I write all the letters from our house, I ought long ago to have thanked you for the article by Stanley Casson.2 Robinson Jeffers agrees with you that the article is very congenial to his own thought. He notes that in his poems “Subjected Earth” (the lines about “ridgeways” etc), “Summer Holiday”, “Sardine-Fishing” (“We have made the machines, and geared them into interdependence,” and in other of his poems anticipated different passages in this article. Thanking you for your interest Very Sincerely Una Jeffers ALS. Larson. 1 page. 1. Rudolph Dante Blaettler (1904–1980) was a Bay Area real estate broker and office building manager who assembled a major collection of books, manuscripts, and ephemera by or about George Sterling. 2. While looking through old issues of the Atlantic Monthly, Blaettler tells Jeffers in a letter dated July 3, 1940 (TCC Larson), he came across an essay about the breakdown of civilization that he thought Jeffers might want to read, perhaps “as a suggestion for a poem.” He identifies the essay as “Current Urban Civilization in the Light of Future Archaeology,” but no such title ever appeared in the Atlantic. Since Una refers to the author as Stanley Casson, Blaettler probably sent Jeffers a copy of Casson’s “Challenge to Complacency: What Future Archaeologists Will Think of Us,” Atlantic Monthly (July 1935): 69–78.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Grace Beittel Tor House. Carmel. California August 5, 1940 Dear Miss Beittel:1 2 My husband wishes me to say in answer to your letter of June 28, that he had little or no companionship with other children & spent much time in day-dream. He doesn’t remember imaginary companions (meaning playmates) He was usually alone against the imaginary world, astonishing a curious or hostile people by his exploits—a flying man or an animalcompanioned man like Kipling’s Mowgli.3 After fourteen or so he found satisfactory companions of his own age, only to day-dream occasionally after that when circumstances isolated him for a time. At what age creative work begun? He says he began to feel poetry strongly & write bad verses at fourteen.4 Very sincerely, Una Jeffers ALS. Mears. 1 page. 1. Grace Rettew Beittel (1920–2013) was an honor student at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, with a major in psychology and minors in sociology and English. After graduating in 1941, Beittel obtained an executive position as an accountant for Strawbridge & Clothier department stores in Philadelphia. Her first husband, Vernon Barrickman, died a year after their marriage; she later married Robert Cornforth, Sr. 2. For her senior thesis, “Imaginary Companions in Childhood: Their Relation to Creative Ability in Adult Life,” Beittel contacted over ninety artists and intellectuals. In a letter to Jeffers dated June 28, 1940 (TLS HRC Texas), she asks, “Did you have an imaginary companion(s) when you were a child? At approximately what age? Did you have real child companions? At approximately what age did you begin creative work?” 3. Mowgli, a boy lost in the jungle when he was a baby, is found and cared for by wolves and other animals. His adventures as a feral child are recounted in The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book published by Rudyard Kipling in 1894 and 1895. 4. Jeffers’ own handwritten response to Beittel, which Una used to compose her letter, is held in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. Jeffers’ draft contains several strikethroughs, including one in the last line: “At what age begin ‘creative’ work? Began to feel poetry strongly and write bad verses at fifteen fourteen.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California August 145. 1940 Darling Timmie & Maud: Your friend Mr. Griggs1 did not make a sound—much to our regret for we hoped to meet him. Today is the 21st anniversary of our moving into Tor House. Perhaps I told you before that Robin has promised to read {& discuss} some of his poems at Columbia Univ. Nov 11. —but now the main purpose for doing it is gone & I hate to face it. —It was really so we could afford to go East & see my mother again. —and Mamma died a few days ago.2 She was well over 85 & had never been really ill in her life & I somehow thought she would live on & on. But a sudden heart attack was the end.3 It is a bitter loss although I saw her so seldom. She was a bulwark of strength & so sturdy & merry—our house always rocked with laughter. ♦ Garth is on his way home from New Mexico. It is nine months since we saw him. We think, although he hasn’t definitely said so, that he is through with the ranch. We hope so. It would be nicer to have him working at something that exercised his head as well as his muscles. Maybe, of course, he will be conscripted soon. You asked what I thought of conscription. I think it is necessary. We see Blanche often—but not often enough. Its a bother to get out to the Highlands—& when they dash in to the village they often fear its the wrong hour to come to Tor House. She is as darling as ever! Sara & Erskine Wood are here. part of the time at Noëls, part at Peter Pan. I read & talked about a play of Yeats to a group of friends at Blanche’s “Ranch” the other day. It was “The Words on the Window Pane”4—a curious little studio play of a séance into which the spirit of Jonathan Swift intrudes & Vanessa’s 5 too. We all, (Noël, Blanche, Emily & I went to a séance together in San Francisco lately) ♦ It was very interesting (& inexplicable) though not as good as the private one—(just Emily & meI) I have been reading a big book on the subject by Father Thurston6 who is the best {Catholic} authority on the subject. He states his thesis before he starts. (1) That there is certainly an

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

inexplicable residuum after disallowing all cheating & fancy, & he has been investigating for 60 yrs. & more. (2) The whole business is forbidden to the ordinary layman as being disruptive & leading to nervousness etc (3) That never has any news of value come that way. Did you ever meet a Dr. Wertham psychiatrist?7 Bellvue consultant etc. He has been here and was extremely interesting telling of case histories.8 He also gave us a ms. to read, about Matricide. There seems to {have} been very little written on the subject. Intensely interesting. After analyzing a lot of cases he goes on to conclusions of his own & an analysis of Hamlet & Orestes.9 ♦ Donnan has been working 8 or 9 hours a {day for 5} week{s} at Teddie’s Dramatic School. Tonight he is to have a good part in “June-Mad”.10 (Next day / He was excellent in his part.) Dearest love from Una in a hurry ALS. Yale. 4 pages. Postmark: August 16, 1940. 1. Probably Maitland Fuller Griggs (1872–1943), a New York attorney, business executive, and trustee of the Frick Collection and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Griggs was an art connoisseur and collector who donated a number of Early Renaissance masterpieces to the Metropolitan Museum, the Yale University Art Gallery, and other institutions. 2. Una’s mother, Isabelle Call, died at home July 27, 1940. 3. Isabelle had experienced fatigue and shortness of breath for over a year, but she did not seek medical attention. A precipitous decline in her health, diagnosed as congestive heart failure, began a week and a half before she died. 4. W. B. Yeats, The Words Upon the Window Pane: A Play in One Act (Dublin: Cuala Press, 1934). The play was first performed in 1930. 5. Esther Vanhomrigh (ca. 1690–1723), Vanessa in Jonathan Swift’s poem Cadenus and Vanessa, was Swift’s long-term but ultimately rejected lover. 6. Herbert Thurston, S. J. (1856–1939) was a British liturgical scholar, historian, investigator of spiritualist phenomena, and author of hundreds of articles for the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, and other publications. Among his books are The Church and Spiritualism (1933) and Beauraing and Other Apparitions (1934). 7. Fredric Wertham (1895–1981), a psychiatrist and author, was born in Munich. He became an American citizen in 1927, five years after joining the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic at Johns Hopkins Hospital. While maintaining a private practice, Wertham served variously as

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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chief resident psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins, senior psychiatrist at Bellevue, and director of psychiatric services at Queens General. His many publications include The World Within: Fiction Illuminating Neuroses of Our Time (1947), The Show of Violence (1948), Seduction of the Innocent (1953), and A Sign for Cain: An Exploration of Human Violence (1966). One of Wertham’s primary concerns was the destructive effects of popular media. He believed the human psyche was harmed by graphic depictions of violence and horror in comic books, films, and television programs. 8. A note in the August 16, 1940 issue of the Carmel Cymbal mentions Wertham’s involvement in the case of Robert Irwin, a sculptor in his late twenties who murdered Veronica Gedeon (an artist’s model), her mother, and a male boarder in the Gedeons’ New York City home. The sensational crime, which received nationwide attention, took place in the early hours of March 28, 1937. A few years after his conviction, Irwin was transferred from Sing Sing Prison to a hospital for the criminally insane. 9. The manuscript Wertham shared with Robinson and Una was most likely a draft of Dark Legend: A Study in Murder (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1941) or a draft of “The Matricidal Impulse: Critique of Freud’s Interpretation of Hamlet,” Journal of Criminal Psychopathology 2 (1941): 455–464. Dark Legend tells the story of a youth named Gino who killed his mother as she slept by stabbing her more than thirty times with a bread knife. The murder was justified, Gino contended, because his mother had dishonored the memory of his dead father by pursuing relationships with other men. In his analysis of the matricide, Wertham uses the stories of Hamlet and Orestes to examine archetypal patterns of behavior. He also turns to Jeffers for insight, with a quotation from The Tower Beyond Tragedy on page 243 and a reference to Such Counsels You Gave to Me on page 252. 10. June Mad: A Comedy of Youth (1939) by Florence Ryerson and Colin Clements was performed August 15–17 at the Carmel Playhouse.

UJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Tor House. Carmel. Sept. 6. 1940 Dear Larry: You must have had a lovely holiday & how nice to end up via Taos. It is magnificent country there—although not quite the country of my heart. It has a lofty but hollow tone, impersonal & empty {for me}. Although I like it much better than Robin does. I had to write, I fear, unsympathetically to the young man who has been making the dramatic arrangement of “Loving Shepherdess.” I had to tell

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

him that Robin wouldn’t want to talk about it, & certainly wouldn’t lend any help or critical comment. —I remember all too well how he acted about {The}Tower beyond Tragedy production at Berkeley & the one {time} last year when it was all but put on by the Guild. Judith Anderson had the part of Clytemnestra learned but couldn’t get any satisfactory talk with R. J. about several little points of interpretation—I had to be as good a go-be{tween} ♦ as I could. Perhaps I told you R. is to give an hour’s talk {on} & reading of his poetry at Columbia Univ. N. Y. C. Nov 11. I persuaded him to do it so that we might well afford to go east to see my mother in Mich. —and now my mother has gone. She died in late July. Over 85. &She had never really been ill in her life, & I hadn’t a thought of her dying. Now the trip to N. Y. with all the reluctance I’ve got to overcome in R. J. seems a great chore. I am so sorry that I cannot accept for R. J. the {review} copy of “The Ghost.”1 He hates to write reviews, even when he admires a book very much & with the above job on hand in N. Y. & the long poem2 he is working on, its impossible to promise anything. I’m sorry. I agree with you that it has greatness in it! We are seeing often now an interesting Englishman Ellis Roberts,3 former literary ed. of “The New Statesman.” Cordially— Una J. Garth coming home from the Bell Ranch, Tucumcari N. M. was in Taos when you were in San Cristobal4 ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Alfred Young Fisher, The Ghost in the Underblows (Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie Press, 1940). 2. Mara. 3. Richard Ellis Roberts (1879–1953), a British author, editor, and critic, wrote for or edited a number of journals, including the Guardian, the New Statesman, Time and Tide, Church Times, and Life and Letters. Among his many books are A Roman Pilgrimage (1911), Henrik Ibsen (1912), Life as Material (1928), and George Moore (1933). Roberts also selected the texts for two works by composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), The Company of Heaven (1937) and The World of the Spirit (1938). 4. Added in top right corner, first page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Zena Holman [October 7, 1940] Mrs. Zena Holman Thank you so much for the Illustrated London News. Perhaps you noticed R J's mention of {the} Portland Vase in his poem “Hellentistics.” (in Such Counsels you . . .”) We possess one of the several copies made by Josiah Wedgewood in 1788; it was by the aid of one of these copies that the original was put together again.1 Yes, there was a very special ed. of Roan S.— of only 12 copies. They gave us 4 of these. I kept one & gave 3 away. One of these I have tried hard to trace (in vain). It was the one we gave Geo. Sterling. Only 1 copy ever came up for sale as far as we know, sold by a book seller in N. Y. C (Ruder) It brought $150.00. Yrs. U. J. APS. Tor House. Postmark: October 7, 1940. 1. The Portland Vase, so called because of its association with the Duchess of Portland (who purchased it in 1784) and her family, is a cameo-glass vessel believed to have been created in Rome around 5–25 ce. In 1790, after four years of trial and error, Josiah Wedgwood produced about fifty copies of the vase in jasparware. The results were so popular he continued to manufacture copies thereafter. When the original was shattered at the British Museum in 1845 by an inebriated visitor, restorers had Wedgwood’s model to guide them in their reassembly of the pieces. The Jeffers copy (not one of Wedgwood’s first edition) came to the family in 1877 as a gift to William Hamilton Jeffers from his congregation at the Euclid Avenue Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, Ohio. In “Hellenistics” Jeffers says, “I look at the Greek-derived design that nourished my infancy—this Wedgwood copy of the Portland vase: / Someone had given it to my father—my eyes at five years old used to devour it by the hour” (Collected Poetry 2: 526–528).

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California. October 18. 1940. Blanche darling: A hurried note to tell you that neither of us will be in N. Y. C. next month. We rec’d a note from Dr. Potter1 yesterday saying that his notices

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

for Nov. were about to go to print & asking whether Robin would like to postpone his talk a little (to come now if he couldn’t) because N. Y. C. is now so war-jittery he thinks it the worst possible time for poetry & he wants Robin to enjoy the thing. He says his groups seem to care only {or mostly} for current events at this time. I got the idea that he thought R. might be heckled by the audience—his political views & lack of faith in ideologies being so infuriating. (The last phrase is mine own.) Robin was only too delighted to get out of it, although he had ♦ prepared his discussion & reading. He had also promised to give one at the Univ. of Utah! (Somehow they’d heard he was on his way.) As my letter told you the other day I was feeling very uncertain about coming. The expense seemed wicked for a few days, since Mamma isn’t there. Do you mind sending this around {today} to darling Maud & Timmie. When we do come they will be there too! I cannot write any more today as I have several engagements—Noël, Ben Lehman, Sister Madeleva2 & Sister — have just left. Very lovely creatures— Sister M is a poetess—& an instructor in Eng. in St Marys—Indiana. Our 17 yr. old strain (at Tor House) of bantams was just about to die out, being reduced to one ancient rooster. We bought him a fat little ♦ wife {at Pt. Lobos} & today at the doorstep here she is with eleven babies, each the size of a thimble. The old man stands under a bush looking melancholy, & surprised. I dont think he ever saw a baby chick before & certainly never wanted any of his own. Ever so much love from your devoted Una (for Russell, too.) You might telephone or write Dr. Russell Potter, Univ. Extension, Institute of Arts & Sciences at Columbia Univ. —& ask what date R. J. is to talk on Poetry & read—you can seem not to know of Nov. 11 or its postponement. He may be surprised to hear that all of N. Y. C. isn’t collapsing of fright but still remember there’s poetry. Hollywood is jittery but I dont think any other part of California. They’ve long ago tired of thinking Japan was {about to invade.}

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. Russell Potter (1897–1970), a professor of English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill from 1926 to 1930, directed the Institute of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University from 1930 to 1958. The institute supported public education in literature, art, and music through a diverse program of lectures, readings, and recitals. 2. Sister Mary Madeleva, born Mary Evaline Wolff (1887–1964), entered the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in 1908. Academic pursuits thereafter included an M.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1918 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley (where Benjamin Lehman was her mentor and dissertation adviser) in 1925. In 1934 Sister Madeleva was named president of St. Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana—a position she held until her retirement in 1961. During her tenure, St. Mary’s was transformed from a small school into a major institution for Catholic women. In concert with her work as an educator, Sister Madeleva was also a widely published poet and scholar. Her books include Chaucer’s Nuns, and Other Essays (1925), A Question of Lovers (1935), and My First Seventy Years (1959).

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California November 4. 1940 Darling Blanche: I think no one ever had such a satisfactory friend as I have found you since the very first moment of our meeting! The letter you wrote me when I told you I might not go to N. Y. with Robin, answered every spoken & unspoken wish—& worry of mine. And you would have managed everything perfectly. Bless you, dearest. If we do come later as Dr. Potter suggests I will tell you instantly—but thats months away. Things have been very busy here.1 Garth & Donnan’s number place their being called in the distance Garth no. 5780. Donnan 6704.2 Garth awaits answer to his application for Mexican ♦ border patrol work. Donnan is about to do some dramatic skits around a half-dozen places for women’s clubs etc. —Sebastian has taken a house for Woodruff in Hollywood. They are moving today. He himself goes to Washington on business. His Roumanian money is partly frozen, & his {allowed} stay in U. S. A is up. He must arrange. Garth has “given notice” that he will quit when he gets them moved, although George has invited him to go to Wash.3 Garth says he must do something 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

harder & more outdoors. He is right but this has in some ways been a very amusing two months. He has met dozens of interesting people. Langston left yesterday for Hollywood to investigate some proposal. He may stay there for months. ♦ Ever since Haig died Noël has reiterated again & again his wish to get me another bulldog. I even went to S. F. twice to see puppies but couldn’t quite take them. Now a marvel of a puppy is proposed & we are going to S. F. Wed. to see it. I have begun to dream about them {(bulldogs)} often & feel that I must have one about again. If I take this one I have decided to name him Winston Churchill & call him fondly as the English do theirs “Winnie.” Wouldn’t a fierce bulldog galumping toward me when I call that out, be funny!4 Thank you very much for information about Fortuny dresses. I shall send my dress soon.5 I am looking forward to Timmie & Maud. I had a package of unicorns (photographs) from them & letters. The war has been a great strain on Timmie I can tell. ♦ I shall tell you about them when they arrive. Tell Russell that in 1936 a handsome old canon was dug up in an estate in Pebble Beach, near a spring. Only this month it has been identified by a military expert as a Moorish lantaka date 1600—present value as specimen $500.00 No clue as to how it got there. Spaniards used some in the Philippines 100 yrs. ago.— I must dash—on the way to Noëls to lunch. I shall write again soon. Did I tell you our bantams got down to the {one} last rooster. We bought him a wife They have now a cunning family of 11 chicks. All my love, Devotedly Una. A few weeks ago Dr. Neumeyer6 sent me a unicorn poem by Rilke7 & yesterday from her 8 came a photograph of a XV cent tapestry of unicorn & woman—a beautiful one—& it furnished us with a new German word. Wildweibchen9 Little wild woman (Robin says thats me. ALS. Yale. 4 pages.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. Life at Tor House was busy for a number of reasons, some of which were related to regional issues and national events. Una wrote this letter on the eve of Election Day, when Franklin Roosevelt was voted to a third term as president. A bond issue on the local ballot involved a fund-raising effort for the Fort Ord military base in northern Monterey County, presently going through feverish expansion under the command of Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell. Work on the base had begun in the summer, with orders to build a garrison for the recently reactivated 7th Infantry Division, a hospital, and other facilities large enough for 35,000 soldiers and support personnel. The hospital complex gives the clearest indication of what the government was preparing for. When completed four months later, it held 1,500 beds in 104 buildings linked by 6 miles of covered walkways. Supporters of the bond initiative (which passed) pitched their appeal in terms of patriotic duty and economic benefit: Fort Ord “will help our country” and “will bring fifty million dollars to county.” See “Vote for National Defense,” a special supplement to the October 25, 1940 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone. 2. The Selective Training and Service Act, signed into law by President Roosevelt September 16, 1940, instituted the first peacetime program of mandatory conscription in United States history. Under provisions of the law, all men between ages twenty-one and thirty-six were required to register with local draft boards. The first draftees, selected via a nationwide lottery that began at noon on October 29, were required to serve in the military for twelve months. 3. Garth worked for George Sebastian for several weeks as his personal assistant, handyman, and chauffeur. 4. The English bulldog puppy was about three months old when Robinson and Una brought him home from San Francisco on November 6. Because another dog had already been registered as Winston Churchill, for the kennel record Una named him Winston Churchill Trelawney. 5. In a previous letter not used in this edition, Una asked Blanche if she knew where Fortuny gowns could be recreased. Una’s gown was a gift from Noël Sullivan; see Collected Letters 2: 644. 6. Alfred Neumeyer (1901–1973), a German art historian, was the author of The Search for Meaning in Modern Art (1964), along with books on Filippo Lippi, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco, Paul Cézanne, and other artists. He taught at Mills College from 1935 to 1966, and directed the Mills College Art Gallery. As a result of Neumeyer’s contacts with European artists and intellectuals, Mills employed a number of exiles before and during the war years, including composer Darius Milhaud (1892–1974), who arrived with his wife Madeleine (1902–2008) in 1940. Robinson and Una were among the guests invited to a reception for the Milhauds in Carmel on November 9; they were also among those listed as sponsors for a recital given by the Milhauds in Carmel three weeks later.

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7. “Das Einhorn” (“The Unicorn”), first published in Rainer Maria Rilke’s Neue Gedichte (1907). 8. Eva Maria (Kirchheim) Neumeyer (1901–1992), Alfred’s wife, was the author of “The Landscape Garden as a Symbol in Rousseau, Goethe, and Flaubert” (1947) and other essays. Her German translation of Darius Milhaud’s 1949 autobiography, Noten ohne Music (Notes without Music), was published in 1962. 9. Wildweibchen und Einhorn, a small tapestry created in Strasbourg around 1500 for use on the back of a chair, depicts a barefoot young woman sitting on a stone amidst a verdant landscape, with a unicorn resting on her lap. A flower garland encircles her head, golden tresses cover her shoulders and fall past her hips, and her rough blue garment is cut in such a way that her breasts and knees are exposed. A rippled banner over the scene is inscribed with words that suggest melancholy and longing. The tapestry is located in the Historisches Museum, Basel, Switzerland.

UJ to Jean Kellogg Tor House. Carmel. California November 24. 1940 Dearest Jean: The Washington thing which you hinted at vaguely must be the offer Robin received {by wire} two days ago from Auslander1 to inaugurate Poetry Series Feb 27 Congressional Library.2 He {R. J} told me to decide & I said “Yes, but please write more details.” I really think it is an honor to be asked to do that. As I said in my card, Timmie & Maud are here at the La Playa. The war has worn them very much but they are in better shape than I expected and seem happy to be here. As for us, there are few people, indeed, that we enjoy so much. The most active news in our household is that we have a magnificent pure white English bulldog puppy (from Noël Sullivan). We call him Winston Churchill ♦ “Winnie” for short. He is full of mischief & frolic & utterly dear. His father (champion) “Playboy” is just about the finest dog I ever saw & I think our puppy will be like him. We have missed Haig terribly. Edna McDuffie Lyon gave a large buffet luncheon for Horace’s sister3 two days ago. Very nice. Edna looks better than she has for years. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I have just been rereading Rilke’s “Journal of my other Self.”4 It is even better than I thought at first. Yesterday I spent several hours with a 1 vol. edition (much compressed from 5 vol) of Parson Woodforde’s {(1758–1803)} Diary.5 Have you ever read it? A marvellous diarist— How mellow & fullflavored his days— Simple & sturdy! Both our boys are home for the moment. Garth was on the N. M. ranch for 18 mo. & got tired of it finally. He liked the cattle business & actual cow-boy stuff but found it boring when he had to take his turn at farming, & tending a big pump which regulated the ♦ water system of a new gov’t dam at the edge of the ranch. For two months {since then} he was driver, companion, & general factotum for a friend of Noëls & ours, Georges Sebastien (who owns a very famous Moorish house at Hamamet, Tunisia). They were always travelling about & meeting interesting people but when he {G. S.} decided to take a house in Hollywood Garth wouldnt go to live there. It was just an amusing stop-gap anyway. Now what next? Donnan & Mitzi Eaton6 have been doing some duologues for women’s clubs & groups around the bay. 5 skits they wrote themselves.7 They are amazingly good. We were most agreeably surprised as we knew nothing about it until they were ready. After weeks of golden weather, today is gray & looks wintry. A storm is coming. The water is still, scarcely a ripple away to the dark gray horizon, & reflects ♦ just here in front the house the dark spit of rocks, black low down with sea weed (for the tide is low) & white with guano {on top}. Enormous pelicans stretch & pose awkwardly at the edges. Sea gulls are calling, as they call before storms. {I write this by the sea-window} I still dip in every morning. It was icy today. I cannot leave off. Each morning has different lights & tones & some different slopes & arrangement & sand & pools. I want to see Williamsburg if we go to Washington. Did you notice that the Helen Levinson prize of $100 was given to Robin by Poetry Mag. awarded for his “Come, Little Birds” of some months ago.8 Very happy circumstance as {our awful tax bill came same day!} The next no. of Poetry will have a group of five short poems of his9 & the next Virginia Quarterly one rather curious one unlike his usual style.10 Watch for them.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Dear Jeanie we are lonely for you & your dear mother. Don’t get weaned away from us & Carmel. Much love from us both. Una. Isn’t it wonderful—Martin & Connie—11 And do you know Dan James’ new wife, Lilith.12 ALS. Yale S. 4 pages. 1. Joseph Auslander (1897–1965), poetry consultant at the Library of Congress from 1937 to 1943, was a Harvard-educated poet, professor, editor, and translator. He was the author of Sunrise Trumpets (1924), Letters to Women (1929), Riders at the Gate (1938), and other books; the co-author of The Winged Horse (1927), a history of poetry; and the translator of works by Jean de La Fontaine, Francesco Petrarch, and Heinrich Heine. With his wife, poet Audrey Wurdemann, Auslander also co-authored The Unconquerables: Salutes to the Undying Spirit of the Nazi-Occupied Countries (1943). 2. Jeffers was asked to inaugurate a series of readings at the Library of Congress titled “The Poet in a Democracy.” Newspaper accounts also referred to the series as “The Poet and Democracy.” The full schedule for the series included Robinson Jeffers, February 27, 1941; Robert Frost, March 27; Carl Sandburg, April 24; and Stephen Vincent Benét, May 29. 3. Romola (Lyon) Keeler Lyons (1883–1985), a 1904 graduate of Barnard College, earned an M.D. degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1929 and practiced dermatology at the Vanderbilt Clinic (Columbia–Presbyterian Hospital) in New York. Her first husband, Floyd Yates Keeler, was president of the New York Commodity Exchange. Her second husband, Lawrence Vosburgh Lyons, M.D., was a psychiatrist at Columbia–­Presbyterian’s Neurological Institute. 4. Rainer Maria Rilke, The Journal of My Other Self, translated by M. D. Herter Norton and John Linton (New York: W. W. Norton, 1930); originally published as Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge (1910). Una had been reading and thinking about Rilke throughout the year. In a February 24, 1940 letter to Jean Kellogg (ALS Yale S), not used in this edition, she mentions the Duino Elegies: “A great deal in them is obscure, & one needs both the German & English & copious notes. Some lines & passages are such indisputably great poetry that they cast an atmosphere of authenticity about more doubtful parts. I am more enthusiastic about them than is Robin.” 5. James Woodforde, Passages from the Five Volumes of The Diary of a Country Parson, 1758–1802, selected and edited by John Beresford (London: Oxford University Press, 1935). 6. Mildred “Mitzi” Cleo Eaton (1904–1986), an actress and puppeteer originally from the Seattle area, was active in Carmel’s drama community. With her brother John Eaton, she also operated John and Mitzi’s Marionette Theater. After serving in the Women’s Army Corps during World War II, she married John Hair and returned to Seattle. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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7. Donnan and Mitzi each wrote three skits. Donnan’s were titled “Via Cannes,” “Purple Patterns,” and “The Fatal Slip”; Mitzi’s were “Shadow Bound,” “The First Liar,” and “City Cinderella.” The couple performed the skits, usually five at a time, at women’s clubs meetings in a number of cities, including Santa Rosa and Santa Maria, California, and Reno, Nevada. 8. The Helen Haire Levinson Prize was awarded to Jeffers “for Come, Little Birds, printed in the October 1939 issue, and in recognition of the high merit of his contribution to modern literature”—Poetry 57 (November 1940): 164. 9. Robinson Jeffers, “Five Poems” (“9, 19, 1939,” “Finland Is Down,” “Great Men,” “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean,” and “The Bloody Sire”), Poetry 57 (December 1940): 171–175. 10. “My Dear Love” by Jeffers was published in the Virginia Quarterly Review 17 (Winter 1941): 70–71. 11. This and the following postscript are written across the top of the first page. Martin Flavin and Connie (Clampett) Shuman Bell were married in Baltimore, Maryland on November 2, 1940. 12. Daniel Lewis James, Jr. (1911–1988) and Lilith (Stanward) James (1914–1999). Dan James was the son of Daniel Lewis “D. L.” James, Sr. and Lillie James of the Carmel Highlands. Following his graduation from Yale University in 1933, he pursued a career as a writer. James worked with Charlie Chaplin on the script for The Great Dictator (1940), wrote a successful play, Winter Soldiers (1942), and co-authored (with Lilith) a popular musical, Bloomer Girl (1944), but his commitment to social causes and membership in the Communist Party eventually resulted in blacklisting. During the years he and Lilith were social workers in East Los Angeles, James published The Complete Bolivian Diary of Ché Guevara (1968) and Ché Guevara: A Biography (1969). His prizewinning novel about life in the barrio, Famous All Over Town (1983), written under the name Danny Santiago, caused a controversy when his identity as author was revealed. For an account of James’ career, with emphasis on the critical response to Famous All Over Town, see “Reception and Authenticity: Danny Santiago’s Famous All Over Town” in New Directions in American Reception Study, edited by Philip Goldstein and James L. Machor (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2008): 179–194.

RJ to George Dillon Tor House, Carmel, California. November 26, 1940. Dear George Dillon: Thanks for your friendly letter notifying me of the Helen Levinson Award, and let me express my appreciation, to Poetry, and to the donors and judges. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I should have answered instantly, but have been swimming up-stream in a long poem through the wind and fury of Thanksgiving week. Cordially yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page.

UJ to Remsen Du Bois Bird Tor House. Carmel December 9. 1940 Dear Remsen: Thanks for the Vorhees note. I expected to see you at Thanksgiving to say so but never got a glimpse of you. Please stop in to see us during the Christmas holidays you and Helen. —I want to show you a magnificent English bull-dog puppy—pure white—& a perfect angel, and full of mischief. Its a whole career to bring him up. We call him “Winnie” after Winston Churchill. Noël gave him to me. Ted Lilienthal {(Quercus Press)} is printing for his first item on the little m W Morris handpress he has, two poems by Robin with a short extract from my diary about Kelmscott Manor & a fine woodcut of the manor.1 I shall see that Occidental Library gets a copy if Albert B— does not attend to it. To be published before Christmas. I have heard that you have been in the East—perhaps still are. I daresay this will rest on your desk awaiting you with heaps of other letters. Robin rec’d a wire from Auslander & Macleish2 ♦ ten days ago asking him to “inaugurate the Poetry Series in the Congressional Library Feb 27. — honorarium $500. He said for me to decide & I wired “yes.” I do think it is an honor to be asked, dont you—& one well deserved! Love to you & Helen Una. ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Two Consolations—a pamphlet containing “Only an Hour” and “Vanished Englands” by

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Jeffers, an excerpt from Una’s travel journal about the Jeffers family visit to Kelmscott Manor dated October 14, 1929, and a drawing of Kelmscott Manor. According to the colophon, the pamphlet was “Set up and printed by hand at The Quercus Press in San Mateo California on the Albion proof press used by William Morris at his Kelmscott Press. Printed on Kelmscott hand-made paper in an edition of 250 copies of which 200 are for sale.” Earlier in the year, Lilienthal printed twelve copies of “The Condor,” a poem by Jeffers that first appeared in the June 9, 1904 issue of the Youth’s Companion. “Only an Hour” and an expanded version of “Vanished Englands” (Jeffers added one new stanza) were later published in reverse order as two sections of one poem, “Two ChristmasCards,” in Be Angry at the Sun, pages 139–141. See Collected Poetry 3: 36–37 and Collected Poetry 5: 659–661. 2. Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982), one of the most decorated poets of his generation, was also an attorney, Harvard professor, and government official. President Roosevelt appointed him Librarian of Congress in 1939, a position he held until 1944 when he was named assistant secretary of state for cultural affairs. Among his many works are Conquistador (1932), A Time to Speak (1941), J. B. (1958), The Eleanor Roosevelt Story (1965), and The Human Season (1972).

UJ to Theodore Lilienthal Tor House. Carmel December 20. 1940 Dear Ted: I hope you got the wire I sent off immediately upon receipt of the books for I haven’t been able to get off a letter to you since. We are proud to be connected with your book. It is so beautifully done—typography binding, paper, ink and the Kelmscott picture— well! it is a joy. Everyone says so. Thanks, we feel 12 was a very generous portion for us. I hope Fran will be feeling much better by Christmas and you able to rest from labors of the press. Is Fran pleased with the book, —and Mrs. Van Antwerp?1 If you know, I’d be glad to hear whether Albert Bender sent a copy to the Jeffers’ collection he has been forming at Occidental. I will send one if he didn’t buyt they can’t have two! Love & Christmas greetings to you both from Robin & Una. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. Postmark: December 20, 1940.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Edith (Chesebrough) Van Antwerp (1881–1949), a champion golfer and Bay Area social leader, was the wife of William Clarkson Van Antwerp (1867–1938), a financier, author, and close friend of presidents William McKinley and Herbert Hoover.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California December 20. 1940 My dear Bennett: I havent heard from you for a long time—nor written either for that matter. First, I hope you are as happy as a lark & your bride, too!1 Secondly I thought to see you in New York in Nov. & discuss many things. I do not know whether you were aware that a few days {weeks} before the date {for R’s talk in N. Y.} I had a letter from Dr. Potter asking if Robin would mind postponing the date of his talk a little as N. Y. was so warjittery he felt he might not be able to assure him of the really important audience he had expected. Of course Robin was delighted to postpone it & I was, too, for some reasons. The sum $500 which Robin was to receive would not much more than pay our expenses but that would have satisfied me if I could have visited my mother in Michigan as I had intended to do. Alas, she died during the late summer. —She was well over 85 but never ill, & so full of vigor & jollity that I had imagined her going on for years.— Well, several weeks ago Robin had a wire from Aus- ♦ lander saying he & Macleish hoped that Robin would inaugurate the Poetry Series in the Congressional Library on Feb 27. honarium $500. Robin told me to decide & I wired “yes.” We have heard no more and do not know exactly what it entails. —We may come on to New York. I wish I could tell you for a certainty when Robin will have something ready {for you}. He has a prodigious ms.—but he grows more & more selfcritical—besides ideas seem to be literally bursting in showers around him.— —I thought you could pin him down if face to face. (He says just now it will surely be ready by spring.) He has published a number of things in magazines this year you may have

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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noticed. His “Come, Little Birds” early in the year in “Poetry” just drew down the Helen Levinson Prize for $100. Poems in Virginia Quarterly, Sat Review of Lit.2 & an extremely good & characteristic group in this month’s “Poetry.” I think it is valuable—the magazine appearances—3 I am mailing you today Ted Lilienthal’s Christmas publication which is the first printing on his little Wm Morris press. (his & Fran’s dear toy)4 ♦ that is, the first printing in America. It is on Kelmscott paper really lovely. It is a few pages from my diary {(about Kelmscott)} & two short little Christmas poems by Robin. Here is wishing you all luck & happiness, & a merry Christmas! Faithfully Una. ALS. Columbia. 3 pages. 1. Cerf married Phyllis Fraser on September 17, 1940. Fraser (1916–2006), a cousin of dancer and actress Ginger Rogers, appeared in several Hollywood films before moving to New York in 1939 and beginning a career as a writer, advertising executive, and civic fundraiser. Cerf and Fraser remained married until Cerf ’s death in 1971. In 1975 she married Robert F. Wagner, an attorney, former mayor of New York, and diplomat. 2. Robinson Jeffers, “May–June, 1940,” Saturday Review of Literature 22 (August 10, 1940): 8. 3. An appearance of a different sort can be found in Famous Recipes by Famous People, edited by Herbert Cerwin (San Francisco: Lane Publishing and Sunset Magazine, 1940): 39. Jeffers’ contribution, titled by Cerwin “For a Poet’s Palate,” was Una’s recipe for Bermuda onions baked in cream of mushroom soup. 4. The parenthetical phrase is added vertically in the right margin.

UJ to Edith Greenan Tor House Jan 6. [1941] Don’t laugh at this envelope! —the only one I find in my desk! Jim1 wanted this clipping back. I’ve been too rushed to get up to your house. This is Epiphany & my birthday, & XIIth Night all in one. Time to put the crèche away. We are dining at Noël’s to celebrate. Have you read “The Pilgrim Hawk”?2 Do. It’s strange.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Ever so much love from Una The sea is wild & dark today. ALS. Hardy. 1 page. 1. James and Edith Greenan were in the midst of a divorce at this time. Their marriage ended February 10, 1941. 2. Glenway Wescott, The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940).

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California January 10 9, 1941 Phoebe darling: Robin & I just gasped when we undid the p’k’g & found the great Shelley books! I hadn’t the least idea of owning them but was very eager to read them. Now we can add them to our Shelley shelves— perhaps you don’t know what a rare Shelley-Byron-Trelawney lot of books we have. Many years ago when we first came to live in the Log Cabin here we devoted nearly a year to that circle & got many books from the State Library (they have a very generous arrangement about sending books down)— The night you left we had dinner with Clapps & Kurtzes as you know. I told Kurtz that I thought you were going to lend me your copy of the biography & he was eager to share it so I agreed. So within a few hours after our own books came, I had lent him the II vol. Knowing so much about Shelley I thought he’d just as soon plunge into the middle. He was delighted. A nice Ben. ♦ About Robin’s fees in the east. The Congressional Lib. pays him $500.00 for his reading & talk. That is what Columbia offered him {for} last Nov 11th & what they intended to pay him when he was to have done it next fall. However it is to be worked in during this trip & on March 6, & as their {current} budget for that sort of thing is nearly exhausted he gets just $200. But that’s all right since we will already be on the spot & no expense for travelling. At Harvard he gets $100 + his expenses from Washington. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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—It is all very helter-skelter. This sort of thing is usually arranged months & months ahead, & as it is now almost too late for any planning & we haven’t sought any dates—they’ve just happened.1 I wish there were several more dates (we are to stop for one at Utah for $100) so if that club could fit in a date I’d say yes, for $200 or $250 What do you think? Y They could write us directly & not bother you. The thought of our taxes spurs us on! ♦ O dear my last sheet & it cut. Donnan has been at this typewriting paper. Tomorrow the Pine Cone is to do some sort of a Jeffers celebration.2 Robin doesn’t know it yet. I don’t know how elaborate. Shall I send you one? The dress!! I’d feel like a murderous highway robber to take it. I’ll make a real effort to find one when I come up soon & if I cant then maybe. . . I mean to come up & look for that & some {a} very simple evening dress. We celebrated my birthday dinner at Lee Crowe’s little new house on Noëls place—his first guests for a meal. Enjoyed seeing you three—what a nice Button.3 and Hans looked so handsome. Devotedly Una. {} ♦ Auslander hasn’t come yet. Expecting to hear from him anytime. Eight of your carnations are still fresh & energetic. ALS. San Francisco. 4 pages. Postmark: January 9, 1941. 1. After all arrangements were made, Jeffers’ itinerary included the following dates and places: February 24, 1941, University of Pittsburgh; February 27, Library of Congress; February 28, Princeton University (later canceled because of snow); March 3, Harvard University; March 6, Columbia University; March 11, State University of New York, Buffalo; March 17, Butler University, Indianapolis; March 19, University of Kansas City; March 24, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. 2. The January 10, 1941 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone commemorated Jeffers’ fifty-fourth birthday with a number of articles, photographs, poems, and greetings from friends. 3. Hans and Phoebe Barkan’s daughter, Phoebe.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Edward Weston January 14. [1941] Tor House Carmel Dear Weston— Do you suppose you could finish up a proper size print print of the photograph of R J you & I were speaking of. I do want six small ones but need most a regular size. The Congressional Library, Wash. is to have an exhibit1 of R. J.’s things mss. pictures, etc. to be put on I believe middle of Feb or earlier. That picture (¾ length, ¾ face with pipe in right hand, other hand holding up right is the best one, altogether, ever taken of him.) Una J. APS. Occidental. Postmark: January 14, 1941. 1. For a description of the exhibit, see Charles Meyer, “Library of Congress Presents Exhibition Honoring Contemporary Poet,” Washington Post (March 3, 1941): 15.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California Jan 20. 19401 Dear Bennett: Robin’s date at the Congressional Library is Mar Feb 27, at Harvard Mar 3, at Columbia Mar 6. If you are toff for your belated vacation please tell Donald K—. I hope we shall see him & shall be sorry to miss you & yours. A very extensive exhibit of Robin’s things are {is} to be be put on {shown} at the Library for several weeks. Photographs, books, mss, snaps, letters, clippings etc. Do you know anything of Alberts? It is now 2 yrs or more since I have heard from him & he does not answer letters. I needed some information from him but no reply. No card this Christmas but on the two previous Christmases he sent the same card, —a weird, melancholy half-demented drawing. He was a trial sometimes, with his insistence & his easily hurt feelings, but a grand bibliographer! ♦

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Joseph Auslander & his wife1 were here at Tor House a week ago. Very nice & sympathetic. Came to arrange about the Library talk. We have an angelic new bulldog. Pure white like Haig. We love him very much. Thanks so much (to the Firm) for Books Alive.2 We’ve just been dipping in—too busy yet to get really into it—will tell you our reactions later. Robin says to tell you he will be able to put the ms of new book into your hands about three weeks after we return from the East. It is done but needs more revision & to be typed. My friend Mrs Russell Matthias at the Gotham Hotel will know accurately my plans & dates anytime later if you need to know. Love from us both. Una. Thanks for nice message to Pine Cone R. J. birthday no.3 ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Audrey (Wurdemann) Auslander (1911–1960), a poet and novelist born in Seattle, Washington, was a great-great-granddaughter of Percy Bysshe Shelley. George Sterling encouraged her talents as a writer and sponsored her first book of poetry, The House of Silk, which was published when Wurdemann was sixteen. Wurdemann, who continued to use her maiden name professionally after she married Joseph Auslander in 1933, became the youngest winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1935 for Bright Ambush (1934). Additional publications include The Seven Sins (1935) and Testament of Love: A Sonnet Sequence (1938). 2. Vincent Starrett, Books Alive: A Profane Chronicle of Literary Endeavor and Literary Misdemeanor, with an informal index by Christopher Morley (New York: Random House, 1940). 3. “I am happy to hear that the Carmel Pine Cone is devoting its Jan. 10 issue to Robinson Jeffers in honor of his birthday,” Cerf writes in a letter printed on page 10 of the newspaper. “In my opinion,” he adds, “Robinson Jeffers is the most important poet in America today and the friendship of Una and Robinson Jeffers has meant more to us here than can be put into words. Random House is proud to be his publisher, and I only hope that we will have the privilege of continuing in that capacity for the rest of our lives.” Joseph Auslander, Frederick Mortimer Clapp, Langston Hughes, Archibald MacLeish, and several other friends and acquaintances also sent greetings.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California Jan. 31. 1941 Phoebe dear— Did you mean it—could I borrow your black silk jersey, if it fits? I’ll be very careful of it. IWe dashed up to town on Wed. to take the exhibit of R’s things for the Lib. of Congress. They had arranged to have Gelber pack them. (books, first editions, photographs, complete mss. of “Solstice” etc etc etc) They insured them for $2,000. Well I had worked from ten am— to 2! am (Tues to Wed) getting the things together and itemized and felt a bit tired. However we managed to buy Robin a top coat, a pr. of trousers {slacks} to go with a handsome Welsh tweed coat the tailor is making. — (some quite lovely ~tweed~ the Clapps gave him) and I bought me a nice Dolls hat for travelling & an angel evening dress of black taffeta & velvet, period gown, but tried on a dozen dresses {&} looked at many more before finding this. ♦ By that time the day was gone. (and I do not expect to get up to town again). and we dashed off home. We are to stay with the Eugene Meyers1 in Washington. R. is to be the guest of honor at a faculty faculty luncheon at U of Pittsburgh Feb 25 & lecture afterwards. R did his freshman year—long ago at the U. of P. Love from Una. In an exhibit of Robin’s books at Occidental several years ago—the “Apology for Bad Dreams” (big unbound affair done by Ward Ritchie in Paris) was listed by the person in charge of the things, Lawrence Clark Powell, as the “rarest Jeffers book.” I noted for the Auslanders preparing the catalogue for Washington that this was {incorrect} The rarest is the “12 copies only & not for sale” Roan Stallion edition—one of which you have. N Only one copy of this has ever been offered the public for sale as far as I know—the copy belonging to T R Smith of the bankrupt Liveright firm. But ♦ we do not know where the vol. we gave Sterling is. Never been able to trace it. ALS. San Francisco. 3 pages. Postmark: January 31, 1941.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. Eugene Isaac Meyer (1875–1959) and Agnes Elizabeth (Ernst) Meyer (1887–1970). Eugene Meyer was a banker, corporate executive, newspaper publisher, and trusted government official. He directed the War Finance Corporation for Woodrow Wilson, the Federal Farm Loan Board for Calvin Coolidge, the Federal Reserve System for Herbert Hoover, and the World Bank for Harry Truman. In 1933 he purchased the failing Washington Post and, as editor and publisher, transformed it into one of the most influential newspapers in the nation. Agnes Meyer, a vice president of the Washington Post, was a journalist, philanthropist, public education advocate, founder of the Urban Service Corps, and author of Journey Through Chaos (1944), Out of These Roots: The Autobiography of an American Woman (1953), and other books.

RJ to Octavia Boylan [January 1941] Dear Mrs. Boylan: 2 Words have many meanings, often opposed ones. Emerson was using the word “great” in one {a noble} sense, I in another; {the common one;} but the sentence you quote from him, and my verses mean substantially the same thing. —“He is weaker by any recruit . . .” —I said, {in effect,} “less honest.” less himself.” Sincerely 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Octavia (Winder) Skinner Boylan (1869–1960) lived in Baltimore, Maryland. She was the author of An Arresting Voice (1924), a study of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boylan’s daughter, Josephine (Boylan) Jacobsen (1908–2003), a poet, critic, and short story writer, was Poet Laureate of the Library of Congress from 1971 to 1973. 2. This draft was written in response to a January 10, 1941 letter (ALS HRC Texas) from Boylan to Jeffers, in which Boylan offers a critical word of advice: “In your poem ‘Great Men,’ I read (in Poetry Magazine) ‘no man standing alone has ever been great.’ May I suggest you read Emerson’s essay Self-Reliance in which you will find the following: ‘It is only as a man puts off all foreign support and stands alone that I see him to be strong and to prevail. He is weaker by any recruit to his banner.’”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Blanche Matthias [February 1941] Dearest Blanche— Waiting {in car} for Robin in Monterey, & use this scrap for you. You wrote such a satisfactory letter about the Institute’s party! —Your {other} letter came today.— The date at Columbia is Mar 6. We shall probably arrive Mar 5th & stay until 9th. How lovely if we could have Esther’s ap’t.— but I would hate to miss her—shall I see her at all? The date for Washington is Feb 27, & before that on Feb 24 a {faculty} luncheon in his {Robin’s} honor at U of Pittsburgh & a talk afterwards. In Washington we are to stay with the Eugene Meyers.— In Cambridge {Mar 3} with Mrs. Kingsley Porter. Noël is driving east with us {leaving us at Pittsburgh} We start Feb 16. He cannot gcome back with us however as he must be here by Mar 8. He said he might go down from N. Y. to Washington for Feb 27 so maybe you’ll have a party together. The cocktail party at Mrs. Vankas1 sounds very nice—you decide for me about it. I will include in this a list of people I think of that I want to see Boys are not going with us. (con. on another sheet ♦ Feb. 4. to continue from other page. The lecture is in the evening, & Mrs Vanka’s sounds convenient. It seems such a nice friendly thing for her to want us. I enclose a list of people that I would like to see.2 If you think it is too many leave out those checked thus √ . Probably I’ve forgotten people, too. I don’t know what to say about the Poetry Society reception— It makes me shudder to think of Robin’s suffering but then the lecture & reading are so hard that he may be completely hardened. —I haven’t heard from her {E. Mills}.3 I wish I knew what you advise— Talk with Timmie & Maud about it, will you? In case there is no poetry reception, I would like to ask Edna Millay, & Canby and Bill Benet to the cocktails & Arthur Ficke if he is in N. Y. What I’d like best would be just to see you {two} & Clapps & a few. The Dr. Stookey on my list is the great brain surgeon. He is the old intimate friend R. had as a young man. ♦ LETTERS 1940– 1962

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No more time today Best love to Blanchie & Russell Devotedly Una. ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. Margaret (Stetten) Vanka (1907–1997), wife of artist Maximilian Vanka. Her father, Dr. DeWitt Stetten, was a prominent New York physician and surgeon. 2. The proposed guest list is a two-page, composite document. It contains names and supplementary information furnished by Una, along with additions and deletions by Blanche. Names provided by Una: Matthias, Clapps, Dr & Mrs Byron Stookey, Barbara Sutro, Donald Klopfer & wife, Mr & Mrs Michael Meyerberg, Elsie Arden, Charlotte & Jean Kellogg, Edgar Lee Masters, Henri Deering, Glenway Westcott, Mr & Mrs Benj. De Casseres, Esther Busby, {Dr. and Mrs. DeWitt} Stetton, {Mr. & Mrs. Maximilien} Vanka, {Mr. & Mrs. C. LeRoy} Baldridge, Marcella Burke, {Mr & Mrs} Louis Adamic, Dr Brill & wife, Mrs Edmund Dexter {Connie’s aunt}, Gobind Behari Lal, John S. Martin & wife, Mr & Mrs John Hall Wheelock, Carl Van Vechten. Names added (or added, then deleted) by Blanche: Mr. Ivor Richards, Mrs. James B. ­Curtis, Mr. & Mrs. Carl Curtis, {Mr. & Mrs. Eugene} Jolas, Sweeneys {Mr. & Mrs. J. J.}, Mima {Mrs. George Porter}, Emma Mills, Madame Naumberg Murry, Auden, Miss Josephine MacCleod, Tantine, Elizabeth Drew, Stephen Benét, Louise Bogan, Caldwell, Wicky {Frank Wickman}, Anna {Mrs. William Clark}, O’Keeffe {Mr. & Mrs. Alfred S­ tieglitz}, Mr. & Mrs. Leon Kroll, Mr. & Mrs. Geo. Blow, Miss Amy Bonner, Mr. & Mrs. Geo. B ­ lumenthal. 3. Emma Mills (1876–1956), a literary agent, critic, and lecturer, was regarded as a goodwill ambassador for the literary arts. For several decades she brought readers and writers together for conversation at formal breakfasts and luncheons at the Biltmore and other New York City hotels. As chair of the dinner committee, Mills was also an active member of the Poetry Society of America.

UJ to Charles Abbott Tor House. Carmel. California Feb. 5, 1941 Dear Dr. Abbott: All right—the evening of Mar 11 suits us. I suppose we shall arrive the afternoon of Mar 10, or the morning of Mar 11. Thank you very much for asking us to stay with you.1 I would be very much amused to drive 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

about Buffalo a little for Mabel’s sake—I have one friend amongst her family (in-laws) It is the sister of her first husband Carl Evans.2 I cannot at the moment recall her name, a delightful woman.3 We wish to have the opportunity, too, of examining your collection of mss. & getting an idea of the scope of it. We have not forgotten that we promised to furnish a ms. with work in progress shown, & shall do so. I had the intention of bringing it with us but have no time to look it out. Robin has just, within the last few weeks, finished a long poem4 he has been struggling with for a year & more—& then he had to think about his committmentsments to read.— ♦ I am glad to know you are a friend of Timmie Clapps. He has been one of my dearest friends for thirty years & Robin feels with me that he has not only rare qualities as a man but as a poet. Robin once wrote in a book of his own poems which he was giving to Timmie, “But how much rather I would have written yours.” Cordially yours Una Jeffers Will you please send me via air mail directions for getting to your house? I will of course let you know in advance when we will be there. ALS. Buffalo. 2 pages. 1. Charles Abbott and Theresa (Gratwick) Abbott (1906–1985) called on Robinson and Una at Tor House during a trip to Carmel in November 1939, so the couples had already met. 2. Karl K. Evans (1873–1903), son of Edwin T. Evans, a businessman affiliated with the Erie & Western Transportation Company, and Josephine Evans. Karl was killed February 25, 1903 when Buffalo attorney William Bryant shot him in the back during a duck-hunting expedition. Evans was placing decoys in the Niagara River near Fort Erie and Bryant was reloading his gun when the accident occurred. 3. Probably Margaret Evans, Mabel Luhan’s sister-in-law (the wife of Karl Evans’ brother James)—see Collected Letters 2: 995. 4. Mara. For a discussion of issues related to the composition of this poem, see Collected Poetry 5: 661–671.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Witter Bynner Tor House, Carmel, California. February 12, 1941. Dear Witter Bynner: Thank you for “Against the Cold,”1 and truly my thanks are not less warm and sincere for being late. I have had a dreadful lot of things to do lately, and—as you know—I am no good at writing letters. Your poems pleased me so much. “Spring at the Door” is a lovely thing; and “The Sowers,” and “Queen Anne’s Lace”—but of course I could name dozens. “The Edge” has a fine intensity; and “The Mummies of Guanajuata”—its large dimension and macabre splendor—you could have guessed I would pick that one. But what I admire especially is the lyric and youthful spirit that never leaves you. You must have a fine “fortitude against the cold”2 to sustain it in these unpleasant years. I wish it may last forever. Yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Harvard. 1 page. 1. Witter Bynner, Against the Cold (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1940). 2. A phrase in the last line of Bynner’s title poem.

UJ to Willard Thorp February 22. 1941 Dear Mr. Thorp—1 We are thus far on our way having motored across from California in six days. Very nice trip except a bad blizzard for 150 miles around Memphis & many miles of icy roads next day. Please send me a line to Washington to suggest where we should go when we get there, telling us the streets. Finding one’s way around in strange towns takes a lot of time. We would prefer if possible to be near the place for the lecture.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Our address in Washington is C/O Eugene Meyer 1624 Crescent Place NW Washington Faithfully, Una Jeffers ALS. Princeton. 1 page. Letterhead: Hotel Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh. 1. Willard Thorp (1899–1990) was an editor, literary scholar, professor of English, and founder of the American Studies program at Princeton University. He was the author of The Triumph of Realism in Elizabethan Drama: 1558–1612 (1928) and American Writing in the Twentieth Century (1960), and a co-editor of Literary History of the United States (1946).

UJ to Donald Klopfer Feb 25. [1941] Dear Donald— We expect to arrive in N. Y. Mar 5 late p.m. from Harvard. We are to have the apartment of a friend at Hampshire House (Mrs Busby) Blanche Matthias at the Gotham intended to ask you & Pat1 to cocktail party—we shall see you there—but in any case we shall arrange somehow for a quiet hour of talk to catch up with everything. Perhaps you will telephone us at Hampshire House the morning of Mar 6.? We leave on the 9th You will be glad to know Robin had a great success he in Pittsburgh.2 Love from Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Letterhead: 1624 Crescent Place, N.W. Washington. 1. Florence “Pat” (Selwyn) Wimpfheimer Klopfer (1906–1979), president of the Maternity Center Association in New York and a hospital trustee. 2. For his presentation at the University of Pittsburgh and the other universities on his itinerary, Jeffers prepared a lecture titled “Themes in My Poems.” See Collected Poetry 4: 407–416 for the text of the lecture and Collected Poetry 5: 961–980 for a discussion of its composition.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Charles Abbott Mar 1. 41 Dear Dr. Abbott— We expect to arrive in Buffalo pm of Mar 10, & will stay at your house if convenient—that night or the night of Mar 11 after lecture. We have a distant relative {whom we have never seen} who wishes us to stay with her— or as her guest at the Lennox one of the nights. Do you mind tell arranging with her what seems most convenient & then send me a line C/O Mrs. Leonard Busby Hampshire House {(150 Central Park, So} We arrive there pm Mar 5 ♦ Tell us where to go & how, as we get near Buffalo. {New} towns are boring to find ones way about in. Washington was rather an ovation for Robin.1 The hall was filled,2 then the adjoining little hall where he couldn’t be seen was filled, {but could be heard} Then several hundred were turned away. Surprised him tremendously. Our relative’s name is Helen Hampson.3 She teaches at Buffalo Seminary, hour 8:30–2:30 Tel Lincoln 6780 We are {motoring} in our own car.4 AL. Buffalo. 2 pages. Letterhead: Mrs. A. Kingsley Porter. 1. To accompany and illustrate his February 27 presentation, “The Poet in a Democracy,” Jeffers read the following: a portion of “Shine, Republic”; “Air-Raid Rehearsals”; “Night Without Sleep”; “Hope Is Not for the Wise”; “Watch the Lights Fade”; “The Bloody Sire”; “The Day Is a Poem”; “Vanished Englands”; portions of The Tower Beyond Tragedy; “Oh, Lovely Rock”; “The Beaks of Eagles”; “The Place for No Story”; “Shane O’Neill’s Cairn”; “The Low Sky”; “Ossian’s Grave”; “Now Returned Home”; “The Great Sunset”; “Hurt Hawks”; “Autumn Evening”; “Boats in a Fog”; “Birds”; “Night”; “Antrim”; a portion of Thurso’s Landing; “A Redeemer”; and “An Artist.” A recording of Jeffers’ lecture was made by the Library of Congress and placed in the archives of its Recorded Sound Reference Center. For a printed text of the lecture and a discussion of its composition history, see Collected Poetry 4: 399–406 and Collected Poetry 5: 953–961. 2. The setting for Jeffers’ presentation was Coolidge Auditorium, a 500-seat concert hall located in the Thomas Jefferson Building at the Library of Congress. The auditorium was named for its founding patroness, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (1864–1953).

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3. Helen Hampson (1881–1976) was a member of the English Department at Buffalo Seminary, a school for girls founded in 1851. She and her twin sister Harriet Hampson were nieces, by marriage, of Mary McCord (Aunt Mary). 4. Added above the opening paragraph, first page.

UJ to Ellen O’Sullivan [March 5, 1941] Oh Ellen darling such exciting times here. Lucy Porter is a darling & this house1 perfect! Saw K. Coffin2 twice She came here & to the lecture looking very smart, & endearing. All goes well but at such a gait.! Love U. J. APPS, “Elmwood.” HRC Texas. Postmark: March 5, 1941. 1. Elmwood, a mansion located near the campus of Harvard University at 33 Elmwood Avenue in Cambridge, was built in 1767 for Thomas Oliver, a lieutenant governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Subsequent owners included Elbridge Gerry, vice president of the United States under James Madison, and James Russell Lowell, poet, professor, and diplomat. Arthur Kingsley Porter purchased the house from the Lowell family in 1920. When Porter died in 1933, the estate was bequeathed to Harvard, with the stipulation that his wife Lucy could live out her life there. Since 1971, Elmwood has been the home of Harvard’s president. 2. Catherine (Butterfield) Coffin (1892–1992) was the widow of William Sloane Coffin (1879–1933), a businessman, real estate investor, and president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After her husband’s sudden death, Catherine moved her family to Carmel, where she and her children lived for three years (1934–1937). At the time this letter was written, Catherine resided in Boston. The Coffins’ son William Sloane Coffin, Jr. (1924–2006), an influential peace and social justice activist, was the chaplain of Yale University from 1958 to 1975 and the senior pastor of the interdenominational Riverside Church in New York from 1977 to 1987. In a sermon he delivered July 5, 1987—in the midst of “the bicentennial summer of our country’s constitution”—Coffin tailored his message to a reading of Jeffers’ poem “Shine, Perishing Republic.” A comment about Jeffers in the sermon includes a reference to Carmel, “where, as a kid on a bicycle,” Coffin says, “every morning at seven o’clock I threw over his fence the daily newspaper.” See “‘Shine, Perishing Republic,’” The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin: The Riverside Years, volume 2 (Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008): 546–550.

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UJ to Phoebe and Hans Barkan Mason Michigan March 16. 1941 Dearest Phoebe & Hans: Such a whirl never a moment to write—and can you believe it—not a moment to spend the grand present you sent us. However its in a special fund & its marked “To spend on pleasure, {and} irresponsibly” so thats still ahead of us. You’ll be glad to hear that Robin had quite a triumphal progress. Perhaps you have seen Noël and ♦ he has told you about his impression of it all in Washington. I am told he wired most enthusiastically to Carmel about it. We stayed in New York with an old and dear friend of mine {there}1 (Esther Busby formerly of Chicago) She & Blanche Matthias & the Clapps had every moment filled for us before we got there even. Such a whirl. O darlings, the Unicorn tapestries!!!!2 Mabel & Tony came on too, but left the next day after we did. Mabel had a cold. Noel, Robin & I ♦ had a regular lark going across the country. Drove fast, too, 631 miles one day, 615 another. I wont try to describe anything except that the auditorium of the Lib. of Congress was filled, then the little hall adjoining where he could be heard but not seen was filled then they turned between 2 & 3 hundred away. Everyone connected with the thing was delighted with it all—Agnes Meyer said it was an important audience & an intent one. We stayed {3 or 4 days} with the Meyers and had such fun. Delightful people, and of an activity! And many parties. Harvard was awonderful too. And warm & enthusiastic. We were staying with Lucy Kingsley Porter (you know of Glenveagh Castle Donegal.) — Phoebe you remember my dress & cape of the peacock colored tweed like yours from Donegal. I had a new dress made out of it & it’s preserved my life. For the first time the full force of its warmth was needed. We have had a remarkable experience with storms, since we ran into a blizzard (with Noël) in Memphis, Tenn. —another from Washington to Camden (the worst in 53 yrs), another from N. Y to ♦ Buffalo when in a few hrs 8 to 10 in of snow

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fell in N. Y. C. another in Ontario (Buffalo to Detroit) & yesterday we came down from Mich. in a gale of wind & snow at 8 pm it was zero. —The worst storm they remember & 42 dead. (As soon as we stop travelling the sun shines like summer). The cold, the slippery almost impassible roads, the blind driving, for we combat moment to moment frost on our ♦ window panes, make us forget at times what we are here for. After many hours of intent effort we think our life—& our success if we have it is merely to keep on the road—to keep going. Today here, —for now we are in Indianapolis, (R. at Butler Univ. tonight) Its Mar 17 St. Patrick’s Day. At noon so some very beautiful chimes rang out—“The wearing of the Green” & “Believe me if all those endearing”— we thought very mournfully of Albert. This was always the great day of his party. InWith him we lost a good friend.3 All our love darlings. Una. ALS. San Francisco. 5 pages. Letterhead (crossed out): Hampshire House. Postmark: March 17, 1941. 1. An arrow after “there” points to “Hampshire House” in the letterhead. 2. Una visited the Cloisters museum, where she saw the Unicorn Tapestries—a suite of seven masterpieces woven of wool, silk, silver, and gilt in the Netherlands, ca. 1500. The first tapestry in the series is conventionally titled “The Start of the Hunt” and the last “The Unicorn in Captivity.” 3. After a brief illness, Albert Bender died at home in San Francisco March 4, 1941.

UJ and RJ to Benjamin and Bio De Casseres March 17. 1941 Dear Ben & Bio: We are sorry & mad that we didn’t see you in New York. We were stopping with a very old & dear friend of mine at Hampshire House & she & several other friends had filled our every moment before we got there (what remained from the Columbia engagement & what it entailed and voice recordings1 at the Univ. of N. Y. C.) so that we actually didnt even open our letters until we were en route again & had looked in vain for you at the LETTERS 1940– 1962

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cocktail party your illness & perhaps wisely your lack of interest in a crowd pre- ♦ vented your attending. I hope you are better, —well! We wanted to catch up on your news & I wanted to tell you all about this excursion of Robin’s since he & I both feel you were one of his earliest advocates & helpers, certainly the most articulate & eloquent. Robin was asked to “inaugurate” a series of four poetry readings in the Library of Congress (Frost, Sandburg, Stephen Benet) to follow). An exhibit of his books, photographs, ms. —all kinds of memorabilia, a dozen cases are in the Lib. for a month. Robin was well paid for this—and even so could never have faced leaving his perch on our cliff if ourthe taxes {on our land there} hadn’t the last few years grown to such a prodigious figure that ♦ we needed the extra sum very much! {if we are to keep the place we love.} More than a dozen universities who heard of his trip asked him to stop & lecture He is managing {to do} eight. (One tonight at Butler U.) Home by March 26. The hall at the stu Lib. was filled, then an adjoining one (where he could be heard but not seen), then more than 200 turned away. The sponsors of this series were delighted but astonished that asso many felt people cared for poetry! After he finished he was asked to read ♦ several more {poems}, &, by chance, chose for one “An Artist.” Next day he had a letter from Mayfield— you remember him?2—thanking him {Robin} for reading it—he was in the audience. We are motoring & such blizzards as we have encountered all the way from Memphis, Tenn! They have almost pushed out of our mind what we are here for. One drives & drives & feels one’s duty quite accomplished if the car keeps the road. Our greetings to you both—but we would have liked to hear you flash & resound on world conditions & everything, Faithfully, Una Jeffers

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

—Dear Ben— I am terribly sorry you were ill, and that we missed seeing you. It is pleasant to be pointed home again— only two stops after this one—Univ. of Kansas City and U. of Utah. —Well, the year’s taxes are earned, and a little more. —Love to you and Bio. —R. J. ALS. Occidental. 4 pages. Letterhead: Claypool Hotel, Indianapolis. 1. See Una’s April 4, 1941 letter to Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. 2. John S. Mayfield printed Robinson Jeffers: Tragic Terror (1928), a limited-edition pamphlet containing an essay by De Casseres that was first published in the November 1927 issue of the Bookman. Mayfield also printed An Artist (1928), a limited-edition pamphlet featuring Jeffers’ poem of that title, along with an essay by De Casseres, a letter by Havelock Ellis, and other items. For previous references to both publications, see Collected Letters 1: 744–746.

UJ to Charles Abbott March 197. 1941 Dear Dr. Abbott: Here we are, having come down from Michigan in a horrid gale of wind & snow—perhaps you read about it. —Last night the temp. was zero. Robin at Butler U. tonight. We went from Buffalo via the King’s Highway and reached my old home 95 miles beyond Detroit that evening. The roads were bad but not too awful. The country, (Ontario) was unexpectedly dreary, at least in winter. We saw dozens & dozens & dozens {of} abandoned farmhouses. I wonder why. ♦ Thank you so much for your courtesy & friendliness. We enjoyed seeing you & your wife so much—but still bewail the loss of a visit to your country place. We were much interested in the Lockwood collection & will remember to send something when we arrive home.1 Will you please thank Mrs. Mitchell2 heartily for her hospitality to us. I forgot to take down her address before I left. I think she is a rare person—

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charming, and so full of understanding & wit. Please remember to tell her our thanks. Friendly greetings to you & Theresa Faithfully, Una Jeffers. ALS. Buffalo. 2 pages. Letterhead: The Claypool Hotel, Indianapolis. 1. See Jeffers’ May 1941 letter to Charles Abbott. 2. Lavinia Austin (Avery) Mitchell (1876–1968), Theresa Abbott’s aunt by marriage, was the daughter of Trueman G. Avery, a Buffalo industrialist, and Delia Avery. Her husband James McCormick Mitchell (1873–1948) was an attorney and chairman of the governing board of the University of Buffalo.

RJ to Daisy Bartley and Family Denver—a nice motor-camp March 21, 1941. Dear Daisy—and the others at Mason. Driving in here this evening, Una and I remembered that it was Friday, and Jerry would come home, and you could have a happy time over the weekend. Certainly we had a happy time when we were with you—thanks to all of you. It will live long in memory. I think Una told you what a wild ride we had after leaving you, in the slippery snow and roaring wind, to Fort Wayne and Indianapolis. When we reached the hotel in Indianapolis I had been driving, and consider this!— my hands were so cold that ♦ I couldn’t roll a cigarette for half an hour! Knowing me as you do—could I say more? Temperature—zero° Fahrenheit. After my hands unparalyzed, everything was all right. We had a rather nice but fluffy dinner with some young intellectuals, and I said my piece, and we had a nice but fluffy evening at a professor’s house, and left in the morning. The next stop was in Kansas City, {(Missouri)} and we had on the whole a quite pleasant time. We have some good friends there; and the president of the University, and his wife,1 with whom we stayed, are charming people, and know how to let guests have free time for themselves.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Only I had an hour’s signing of books to do, at a “reception” after the “lecture.” —In other respects, people were very kind to us. So we came away yesterday afternoon, and stopped at a place in Kansas, and to-day came on through spring weather but dreary scenery to Denver. We could make Salt Lake City to-morrow if we had to, but shall probably stop somewhere on the way, because our engagement there is for Monday night. I wish it were to-morrow night, and we could go home. ♦ Una is a wonderful companion on our travels, but really she is wasting her time. She ought to be at home writing up her journals of Ireland and Great Britain; you can’t imagine how many people everywhere—editors, {publishers,} and so forth—want her to write something for them, based on those journals, and her knowledge of Ireland and its antiquities “and all.” But also, people love her and want to talk to her. You Calls are a wonderful family. And I too feel that I have been wasting my time—pleasantly on the whole—but the visit to Mason, and the dollars earned, make it worthwhile. Tell Billie2 to stick to steam-shovels and electric motors—or to being ♦ a policeman—very satisfactory occupations. He won’t have to inscribe books—and maybe he won’t have to make conversation with University professors and their wives. But the drive across the country would have been amusing—if Kansas weren’t so wide and dreary. However—we took turns, driving and sleeping. Una says it is time to go to bed; and we both send dearest love to you all. Robin. ALS. Long Beach. 4 pages. Letterhead (crossed out): The Jefferson, Macon, Missouri. 1. Clarence Raymond Decker (1904–1969), president of the University of Kansas City from 1938 to 1953 and vice president of Farleigh Dickinson University from 1955 to 1967, was the author of The Victorian Conscience (1952). With his wife, Mary (Bell) Sloan Decker (1892– 1964), he also co-wrote A Place of Light: The Story of a University Presidency (1954). Mary Decker reported on the couple’s involvement with current international affairs in The World We Saw (1950), a book that features an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt. 2. Daisy and Jerry’s son William Call Bartley, born December 4, 1932. Billie’s early interest in technology and electronics stayed with him. When he grew up, he obtained B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Michigan State University and pursued a career as an administrator with the Department of State, the Department of Energy, and other government agencies.

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UJ to Blanche Matthias March 23. 1941 Salt Lake City. Utah Dearest Blanche: Here after many adventures—tomorrow night Robin speaks at the U. of Utah—then away we go fast home as ever was. We came away from Denver yesterday morn in snow as usual & went over a pass between 11,000 & 12,000 ft high, where our windshield frosted over completely & we fought for a little hole to see through with salt inside outside & glycerine inside. —Then a cloud enveloped us for an hour like the thickest pea soup fog in London. —This is just a note to tell you news of Lily & D. L.1 We stayed in ♦ Kansas City with Pres. of U. & Mrs. Decker—very charming people & friends of the James! D L & his sister Mrs Hill2 came to the lecture, & the little party afterwards but Lily was laid up with a bad ear—result of flu. She had had a high temp. & much pain & had to have the ear drum punctured. The next day D. L. had us for lunch at his club with both his {sisters}3 Then Robin & I went out to see Lily—very lovely she looked on a chaise longue with a beautiful striped yellow satin shawl thrown over her! We were enchanted with the old house4—you’ve heard them describe it, {(maybe you’ve stopped there?)}— large, rambling, mellow brick with high ceilings & noble proportion to rooms inside {Southern}—and beautiful hangings, etc & of course book & books & books in marvellous bindings. Lily inquired eagerly about you ♦ and all Carmel—(but I feel as if I’d been away from there for years.) D. L. was eager for us to stay another night & go with him to Symphony but we felt we must get on our way—the weather began to threaten. I forgot to say also at the luncheon was the James’ friend Tom Benton5 the painter. You must know his things. —They are a little like Grant Wood’s6 but more action. We went to his studio & saw a score of his paintings. He had just been varnishing some & getting them ready for a show (in N. Y. I guess.) Lily gave me a piece of lace with two unicorns in it, & a wood block to Robin ♦ old one probably a Bewick.7 Then away we went. Tomorrow we are going at noon to hear that great pipe organ in the Tabernacle. This place is spectacular tonight with the

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mts. rising {high} up all about it, all covered yards deep with snow, & sunset over all. We must decide tomorrow whether we shall go to Calif. via Tahoe— or try to avoid the snow via Barstow. If the latter we must stay a night at Palm Springs—Deep Well Ranch. Isn’t Kansas a tiresome state to motor across! Hundreds of miles looking just the same—wide, empty—forlorn. I must stop now—will you please give this to Maud. All my love, Una. Have you seen Esther any more? You know she is either a genius or utterly mad! That bio-chemistry business.8 Ask the Sweeneys9 about McSweeney’s gun10 at Horn Head near Dunfanaghy. ALS. Yale. 4 pages. Letterhead (crossed out): The Jefferson, Macon, Missouri. 1. Lillie and D. L. James lived in Kansas City, Missouri, where James directed the T. M. James & Sons company, a china, silver, and crystal wholesale business founded in 1863 by his grandfather. Their summer home was in the Carmel Highlands. 2. Vassie (James) Ward Hill (1875–1954), a civic leader and political activist, was the wife of Albert Ross Hill (1869–1943), president of the University of Missouri from 1908 to 1921 and director of the American Red Cross in Europe from 1921 to 1923. Vassie’s first husband, Hugh Campbell Ward (1864–1909), was a prominent Kansas City attorney. Ward Parkway in the prestigious Country Club district was named for him. 3. Vassie Hill was probably accompanied by Helen (James) Dunlap (1887–1969) of Kansas City. Another sister, Fannie (James) Egan (1883–1970), lived in St. Louis. 4. Lillie and D. L. lived in a Greek Revival mansion located at 1032 West 55 Street in Kansas City. The home, now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, was built in 1871 by Seth Ward (1820–1903), Vassie Hill’s former father-in-law. 5. Thomas Hart Benton (1889–1975) was a painter, lithographer, and muralist associated with such movements as American Regionalism and scene painting. Populist and Marxist sympathies influenced much of his work, including his illustrations for John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, published by the Limited Editions Club and Heritage Press in 1940. The Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio in Kansas City, Missouri is now a state museum. 6. Grant Wood (1891–1942), a Regional artist, lived and worked in Iowa. His best-known work, American Gothic, was painted in 1930. 7. Thomas Bewick (1753–1828) was an English wood engraver whose illustrations were featured in a number of children’s books, natural history books, volumes of poetry, and other publications.

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8. Esther Busby was deeply interested in new theories concerning health, nutrition, and homeopathic remedies for illness. 9. James Johnson Sweeney (1900–1986) and Laura (Harden) Sweeney (1902–1982). J. J. Sweeney, a writer, university lecturer, and museum official, was a leading proponent of modern art. From 1941 to 1948, he prepared and wrote the catalogs for exhibitions featuring the work of Joan Miró, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Marc Chagall, Henry Moore, and other artists at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he also directed the painting and sculpture division for one year. In 1952 Sweeney was appointed director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, a post he held until 1960. From 1961 to 1968 he was the director of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. His books include Plastic Redirections in 20th Century Painting (1934) and Vision and Image: A Way of Seeing (1968). 10. McSweeney’s (also McSwyne’s) Gun is a sea cave and blowhole on the headland above Tramore Beach at Horn Head on the northern coast of Ireland. During some Atlantic swells, seawater forced through the blowhole creates a thundering boom.

UJ to Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer Tor House. Carmel. California April 4. 1941 Dear Bennett and Dear Donald— Answering both your notes at once. Robin thinks he will be able to get his ms. off to you by in ten days. He is upstairs typing at it this moment. He calls it “This Pallid Comet.”1 (I don’t know why—haven’t read it yet. But thats rather a stunning title, I think) We got home safely after many adventures. We drove 8063 miles—a lot of it in horrid blizzards. —Did you know, Bennett, that Noël Sullivan drove east with us. We had a great lark. He had to return by train before we did. New York was a hectic five days. My old ♦ friend Esther Busby lent us her lovely ap’t in Hampshire House 24 floor overlooking the Park. She said she was going to stay at the other end of town—but didn’t. She took another ap’t at H. House—& increased our hurry. She is dynamic, —and every hour had been arranged for us before we even arrived. I missed a thousand things I wanted to do—& seeing people in the rush. Robin spent aone afternoon at the College of The City of New York making recordings2 & I with him for help—which he didn’t need. I had

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just now a letter from one of the men in charge, Kimball Flaccus3 who says “. . . proud of the splendid recordings of your poetry . . . . thanks for being so splendidly generous & co-operative in the rather tedious matter ♦ of making records. From the standpoint of voice quality & literary interest they are among the finest we possess. — —Future generations of students etc”. I hope you had an account of the exhibit at the Library of Congress. Very thrilling. There was some excellent publicity—in Washington notably on editorial page of Wash. Post of March 3,4 & article March 15 & in Boston Transcript March 106 I have no extra copies or I would send you them. He was most warmly received in Harvard. We stayed there some days with Mrs. Kingsley Porter— He gave eight talks altogether. Just saw a cryptic note about presumed death of Virginia Woolf. Suicide.7 Love from both of us, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 3 pages. 1. This Pallid Comet was a preliminary title for Be Angry at the Sun. 2. For a recording made March 7, 1941 at the City College of New York, Jeffers read the following poems: “Oh, Lovely Rock”; “The Beaks of Eagles”; “Shane O’Neill’s Cairn”; “Delusions of Saints”; “Iona: The Grave of Kings”; “Shakespeare’s Grave”; “The Truce and the Peace” (sections III, V, and VI); “The Cruel Falcon”; “Rock and Hawk”; “Life from the Lifeless”; “Praise Life”; and “Love the Wild Swan.” Jeffers also added his rendition of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 (“When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes”) to a recording that eventually featured Edgar Lee Masters, Marianne Moore, Allen Tate, and more than two dozen other poets reading the same work. The masters for both recordings are in the archives of the Recorded Sound Reference Center at the Library of Congress. 3. William Kimball Flaccus (1911–1972), a poet and professor, taught English and public speaking at the City College of New York from 1936 to 1942. While at City College, he established the Phonographic Library of Contemporary Poets. 4. “The Poetry Readings,” Washington Post (March 3, 1941): 8. In addition to this editorial and the March 1 article cited in the following note, the Washington Post published several other pieces about Jeffers. See “Robinson Jeffers to Read Poems” (February 17, 1941): 10; “Robinson Jeffers to Read Works on Thursday” (February 23, 1941): 8; “Poet Robinson Jeffers Is the Mildest of Men” by Charles Mercer (February 27, 1941): 12; and “Library of Congress

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­ resents Exhibition Honoring Contemporary Poet” by Charles Mercer (March 3, 1941): 15. P The February 23 article begins with the observation that Jeffers is “known to many as the greatest contemporary American poet.” 5. Edward Ryan, “Poetry Series Well Begun, Library Officials Are Jubilant,” Washington Post (March 1, 1941): 3. In describing the event, Ryan writes that “a poet’s shy, friendly smile, and the music of his slow rolling voice found their echo yesterday in the jubilance of Library of Congress officials over the opening success of their new reading series, ‘The Poet and Democracy.’” To meet Jeffers, Ryan adds, “there came hundreds of Washingtonians, along with visitors from New York, and the States between. School children crowded into the auditorium on Thursday night along with Supreme Court justices, Government workers with Cabinet officers. The crowd overflowed into the Whittall pavilion of the library, where they heard the program through radio amplifiers. Scores of others were turned away.” 6. John Holmes, “Poems and Things,” Boston Evening Transcript (March 10, 1941): 9. 7. Virginia Woolf disappeared March 28, 1941 after writing a farewell note to her husband, in which she says “I am certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can’t go through another of those terrible times. And I shan’t recover this time.” When her hat and cane were found on the bank of the Ouse River near her home at Rodwell, England, authorities presumed she had committed suicide by drowning. Her body was found April 18, 1941.

UJ to Louis Untermeyer Tor House. Carmel. California April 9. 1941 Dear Mr. Untermeyer: My husband will be glad to have you use any poems of his you wish in your Modern American & Modern British Poetry.1 He has no unpublished short poems available. There was a group of {his} poems that seemed to be much liked in “Poetry,” a recent number. I haven’t it at hand. The Library of Congress has not yet returned the part of the Jeffers’ exhibit we loaned them—the “Poetry” number in it. It was, say, three months ago. There is a poem of his in “Poetry” Oct 1939 which brought him one of their prizes—a rather curious poem called “Come, Little Birds.” In “The University Review” summer 1939 (U of Kansas City) a poem of his called “Watch the Lights Fade” is good. An unusual poem (I mean rather unlike his style) in a recent Virginia Quarterly “My dear love.” ♦ I am sorry not to

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be helpful enough to send you copies of these. I can’t, but assume you have access to magazine files. These poems will appear in a book of his promised to Random House for early fall publication, entitled “This Pallid Comet.” We are very sorry to have missed you in the East. Robin isn’t exactly a public man, you remember Yeats’ phrase.2 Nevertheless we had great fun all along. In Cambridge we were staying with our friend Lucy Kingsley Porter—perhaps you know her or her husband. We had last seen her in their wild & romantic Glenveagh Castle in Donegal. We really loved Cambridge. We shall always be here in this spot of coast, I think, & hope to see you here one day. Very sincerely Una Jeffers ALS. Indiana. 2 pages. 1. Louis Untermeyer, Modern American Poetry, Modern British Poetry: A Critical Anthology (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1942). Untermeyer’s first editions of Modern American Poetry and Modern British Poetry were released in 1919 and 1920, respectively; revised editions, published separately and together, appeared in subsequent years. 2. In “Among School Children” Yeats refers to himself as “A sixty-year-old smiling public man.” The Boston Evening Transcript article mentioned in the preceding letter includes a description of Jeffers’ demeanor. “Jeffers was introduced to the Harvard audience by Theodore Morrison,” John Holmes writes, “and said at once that he must read every word he had to say. He had carefully written out a talk in which he named the themes he thought most important in his poetry, and he illustrated them by reading appropriate poems. He looked as he must certainly have felt, fearful, shy, wary, unhappy and in the wrong place. Everything about a public reading of poems is contrary to his nature. He wore a light brown tweed jacket, and darker trousers; he looked somewhat older than pictures make him seem, and he was very still in body and in facial expression. He smiled perhaps twice, and he spoke and recited quietly and without showmanship, as one would expect. It was an ordeal, as he said. He looks like the hawks he writes about, and in a hall he looked still, dangerous, caged, but intelligent enough to get out safely.” Theodore Morrison (1901–1988), a poet, writer, and professor of English at Harvard University, directed the summer Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference at Middlebury College from 1932 to 1955.

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UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California April 12. 1941 Happy Easter, Dearest Melba: I am so sorry we didnt get to Palm Springs but I felt that the one night we could spend there would in no way be satisfactory for all we had to talk about. We had decided to let the state of the pass by Tahoe dictate our route—and we found the passes were both open, though the snow was banked to 15 ft. & we drove over an icy surface between the banks. I can only indicate briefly indeed our adventures, some of them amazing. The unexpected blizzards that followed us about like fate—the worst {were near} Memphis, then Washington D. C. to near N. Y. C., later N. Y. C to Buffalo & Buffalo to Detroit (via Ontario). An awful one Detroit to Ft. Wayne with a terrible wind that forced one into a skid. When we got out of our car at Ft. Waye it was just zero. And some more bad snow between Denver & Salt Lake City. ♦ Noël was the most amusing & admirable travelling companion. He left us at Pittsburgh & dashed up to N. Y. then came back to Washington to hear Robin The U of Pittsburgh had arranged for us to have lovely rooms at the Schenley Hotel which adjoin the Schenley apartments. We were about the 9th floor exactly opposite the tower, just the right elevation to feel all the beauty & significance of the tower.1 On the Sunday of our arrival we had lunch with Cousin Alice,2 then we drove about Pittsburgh, Allegheny etc & called on various connections & {houses} associated with the family {(where Belle-Mère was married etc)}. We saw the house & room Robin was born in,3 & the Craig’s were most cordial {at their house},4 then to Twin Hollows.5 The Stoners6 were in Florida but the boys & their governess were at home & had instructions to let us go all over the place. It seemed such a charming house & full of life & happiness. Then we drove all over Sewickley ♦ A thing that surprised me was the small part the river7 played in Robin’s life there. You remember it is just a little way below Twin Hollows & there were lots of river boats then. Forgive me if I’ve written you these details, such a rush I don’t know what I wrote. That evening

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

we went to dinner in Sewickly at a beautiful old house Cousin Lil Oliver8 (a Kentucky Robinson). Her sister9 was there—they were leaving for Calif. next morning. Noël (Alex’s son)10 was there with his attractive (3rd) wife— He is very fond of Yeats & we had talk of him. Queerly enough Cousin Alice is a George Moore fan & I was able to lend her Hone’s “Moores of Moore Hall” which she was eager to get & couldn’t, and send her some snapshots Mon.{day} morning we drove about some more & went to the Carnegie Museum & to old Fort Duquesne. At the museum I saw her old spinet (family heirloom) on loan—then to Stephen Foster Memorial Hall,11 a ♦ beautiful little building next to the tower. (Foster mss, pictures, his wee portable organ). Here Robin talked to an intensely interested audience in a fine little auditorium. After we had lunch with the English faculty (& others) we went all over the tower. There are dozens of classrooms each finished & furnished in the manner of different countries (China, Spain—etc). After this talk I had no worry about Robin for he spoke (read) easily & audibly. —Our stay was very happy there and it was pleasant to know how likeable the family are! and Robin’s old college were glad to claim him. In Washington we stayed some days with Eugene Meyer & wife (owner of Washington Post, ) former head Federal Reserve Banks). They live in a great house amongst the Legations. They made our stay completely delightful, —parties, expeditions, {(Mt. Vernon, Arlington etc)} & so on. One of her guests Mr. Justice Stone12 took us all over & explained Supreme Court {doings}— At one of Meyers’ stag dinners there Robin met Knudson13 who was ♦ giving some off-the-press interview opinions & estimates. The Lib. of Congress thing was an immense success. Afterwards the Meyers had a lot of people (—Alice Roosevelt14 amongst them—) in for drinks & my friends Matthias, Sweeneys, Noël & others who had dashed down from N. Y. C. & went back by 2. am train. The day we were to leave for Princeton about 180 miles or less {when we got up} we found it had snowed all night. We started away {at 10 am} in a heavy snowfall & it got worse & worse. Snow ploughs were all along the road but made little impression. By 5:00 we were at Camden—I dont

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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know how we ever got there—you could only see only a few feet ahead even when you got the windshield defrosted. I saw we could not get to Princeton although only 40 miles. We asked for buses & found the buses had given up an hour or more before. We wired Princeton apologies & so missed that delightful spot. Camden was like a madhouse {travellers detained there}— the garages full. We got the last garage space in town—it was ♦ a wee corner on 5th floor of a garage! Terrifying to see how simple things can become impossible —one could not for instance draw up to a curb anywhere the snow was so deep— The few streets in Camden possible at all had just two ruts cut through & one had to keep going, turning out around anything was impossible. One couldn’t turn into a service station for gas—most of them were closed up, drives impassible. Perhaps I told you how at last in our warm room with a tall glass of hot grog we made merry & Robin quoted a line from Wordsworth about “the tumultuous privacy of storm.”15 Harvard was grand! So enthusiastic and welcoming We stayed with Lucy Kingsley Porter at lovely “Elmwood” where Lowell was born, lived & died. It is to be left to Harvard at her death. Such a beautiful house a museum piece but comfortable nonetheless. She had ♦ many parties for us. We were there four days. People like Forbes16 head of Fogg Museum (Emerson’s grandson!) We went to Concord & made pilgrimages. If I can lay hands on it I will enclose a letter Ellen O’S. recd from Katherine Coffin a Boston friend of ours. {Please return} I forgot to say Agnes Meyer (Mrs. Eugene M) is writing a book on Thomas Mann.17 She had given {arranged} for us to have tea with him in Princeton which we missed of course, but Mann & his wife have just been here in Carmel and we lunched & dined etc together.18 Charming people, & they now speak very intelligle intelligible {intelligible} English. The exhibit at Washington was quite thrilling. 13 cases of all kinds of things. If you can stop here when your vacation starts—I will show you the list of things. Also clippings & so on. A member of the Tuttle family ♦ who saw the lineage chart Donnan had copied (I believe 13 generations back in America) traced her relationship & gave us some interesting family data from the Tuttle book I’ve never seen.19

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Recordings of Robin’s readings were made at Harvard20 & at the U. of the City of New York. I did not hear the former but the latter are to be are excellent. I was there & heard them read back after recording {recording.} The Harvard ones are to be sold by the Linguaphone Institute, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, N. Y. C. if you want them. Now no time to write more. Even to begin about our mad whirl in N. Y. —our exquisite apartment on 24 floor of Hampshire House overlooking Central Park. (lent us by Esther Busby). the Cloisters with Unicorn tapestries—five days of excitement. Wait until you come. We motored 8063 miles without any car trouble not even a puncture, & we both kept perfectly well. Love from Una. Albert Bender’s death was a sorrow to us. Are you interested to have these autographs for your books of modern verse?21 Shocking about Virginia Woolf.22 We heard excited Lend-Lease arguments23 in the Senate.24 ALS. HRC Texas. 8 pages. 1. The Cathedral of Learning, a landmark building on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh. The forty-two story Gothic Revival structure was begun in 1926 and dedicated in 1937. 2. Alice B. Robinson (1876–1974)—Cousin Alice, as she was called within the family— was the niece of John F. Robinson, Annie Jeffers’ foster father. 3. When Robinson was born, Dr. and Mrs. Jeffers lived in a faculty home provided by Western Theological Seminary, on Ridge Avenue in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. 4. Mark Rodgers Craig (1873–1963), an attorney, lived with his wife Elizabeth (Rodgers) Craig (1879–1960) and their three daughters at 44 Thorn Street in Sewickley, Pennsylvania— the home of the Jeffers family from 1888 to 1893. 5. In 1893 Dr. Jeffers moved his family about one mile north of their Thorn Street home to Twin Hollows, an estate in Edgeworth accessible via Beaver Road and Woodland Road. He sold the home in 1901. 6. Frank Rahm Stoner, Jr. (1903–1971) and his wife Jane (Nicholson) Stoner (1905–1975) purchased Twin Hollows in 1938. Stoner was a director of the Western National Bank and other financial institutions in Pittsburgh, and the founding president of Stoner-Mudge, Inc., a chemical manufacturing firm.

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7. The Ohio River, formed by the nearby confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers. 8. Eliza “Lil” (Robinson) Oliver (1868–1949) was the widow of Henry Oliver (1862–1936), chairman of the Oliver Iron and Steel Corporation of Pittsburgh and president of its subsidiary, the Oliver & Snyder Steel Company. Lil Oliver and Annie Jeffers descended from George Robinson (1727–1814), their great-great-grandfather who settled in Kentucky. 9. Mary Elizabeth Robinson (1871–1960)—called Mame or Aunt Mame by the family. 10. John Noel Robinson (1892–1944), president of the South Penn Oil Company and director of the Peoples-Pittsburgh Trust Company, the Pennzoil Company, and the South Penn Natural Gas Company. Alexander Cochran Robinson (1864–1957) was the president or director of several firms in Pittsburgh, including Peoples Savings & Trust Company, First National Bank, National Union Fire Insurance Company, Hillman Coal & Coke Corporation, and Western Allegheny Railroad Company. In addition to his business interests, he was president of the board of trustees of the Pennsylvania College for Women (now Chatham University) and a director and trustee of Western Theological Seminary. 11. The Stephen Foster Memorial, completed in 1937 on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, commemorates the life and work of Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1864), composer of “Beautiful Dreamer,” “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Oh! Susanna,” and other familiar songs. Foster was born in Lawrenceville, now a neighborhood of Pittsburgh. 12. Harlan Fiske Stone (1872–1946) was appointed to the United States Supreme Court by Calvin Coolidge in 1925. He was named Chief Justice by Franklin D. Roosevelt in June 1941. 13. William Knudsen (1879–1948), born Signius Wilhelm Poul Knudsen in Denmark, resigned his position as president of the General Motors Corporation in 1940 in order to serve as chairman of the National Defense Advisory Council. To oversee the manufacturing of all matériel for America’s war effort, he was appointed co-director of the Office of Production Management in 1941 and the director of production for the War Department in 1942. 14. Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884–1980), a national celebrity and a central figure in Washington’s social and political life, was the only child of president Theodore Roosevelt and his first wife Alice (Lee) Roosevelt. Her autobiography, Crowded Hours, was published in 1933. 15. From “The Snow-Storm” by Ralph Waldo Emerson. In the scene Emerson describes, a heavy snow blankets the countryside as people in a farmhouse sit “Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed / In a tumultuous privacy of storm.” 16. Edward Waldo Forbes (1873–1969) was the son of William Hathaway Forbes, the founder and first president of the American Bell Telephone Company, and Edith (Emerson) Forbes, the daughter of Ralph Waldo Emerson. Forbes was a trustee of the Boston Museum

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

of Fine Arts from 1903 to 1963 and the director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University from 1909 to 1944. 17. Thomas Mann (1875–1955), the Nobel Prize–winning author of Buddenbrooks (1901), Death in Venice (1912), The Magic Mountain (1924), and other works, left Germany in 1933—first for Switzerland and then, in 1938, for the United States. At the time this letter was written, Mann and his wife Katharina “Katia” (Pringsheim) Mann (1883–1980) were about to leave Princeton, New Jersey for the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, where they lived until 1952. Agnes Meyer was Mann’s friend and benefactor. Although she never completed the definitive study she hoped to write about him, she published a number of articles and translated Mann’s The Coming Victory of Democracy (1938). A record of their voluminous correspondence is contained in their Briefwechsel 1937–1955 (1992). 18. Thomas and Katia Mann traveled to Carmel to visit their youngest child Michael Thomas Mann (1919–1977), his Swiss wife Margaretha “Gret” (Moser) Mann (1917–2007), and their first grandson Fredolien “Frido” Mann, born July 31, 1940. Michael and Gret leased a home in Carmel, where Michael began his career as a professional violinist and violist. Michael later obtained a Ph.D. from Harvard University and taught German literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Like his gifted older brother, writer Klaus Mann (1906–1949), Michael committed suicide. Noël Sullivan hosted a luncheon for Thomas Mann and his family at Hollow Hills Farm, Saturday, April 5. Robinson and Una were among the guests. See the Carmel Cymbal (April 11, 1941): 8. 19. George Frederick Tuttle, The Descendants of William and Elizabeth Tuttle (Rutland, Vt.: Tuttle & Company, 1883). 20. A set of vinyl recordings (78 rpm) of Jeffers reading his own poems was produced under the auspices of the Harvard Vocarium, a program initiated by Frederick C. Packard, Jr. (1899–1985), a professor of speech and dramatics at Harvard University. The recordings feature the following works: “Shane O’Neill’s Cairn”; “The Low Sky”; “Inscription for a Gravestone”; “The Bed by the Window”; “The Coast-Road”; “Oh, Lovely Rock”; “To the Stone-Cutters”; “Suicide’s Stone”; “Wise Men in Their Bad Hours”; “Natural Music”; The Tower Beyond Tragedy (lines spoken by Clytemnestra after the murder of Agamemnon); “Hope Is Not for the Wise”; “Watch the Lights Fade”; “The Bloody Sire”; and “The Truce and the Peace” (section VII). 21. Written in top right corner, page 1. 22. Written vertically in left margin, page 1. 23. The Neutrality Acts of the 1930s sought to curtail America’s involvement in foreign wars by prohibiting loans to belligerent nations, requiring cash payments for American military supplies, and other measures. Great Britain’s pressing need for help, however, prompted President Roosevelt to call for a reconsideration of these policies. After a congressional ­debate, the

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Lend-Lease Act was signed into law March 11, 1941. The measure, titled “An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States,” authorized the president to provide money and matériel to any government that requested aid, based on the president’s determination that it would be in America’s best interest to do so. In effect, the new law ended America’s pretense of neutrality. 24. Written vertically in left margin, page 4—beside the paragraph about the visit to the Supreme Court.

UJ and RJ to Melba Berry Bennett [April 1941] Robin jotted these lines of his down from memory to read—(upon request) at a lecture.1 Thought you’d like them. ♦ And here is a piece of verse that was written three months ago.2 Vanished Englands The seas netted with ambushes, And the skies falling:3 Under that fiery rain England is dying again, Immortal and dying, Over vales beyond vales of vanished Englands. The pilgrims to Canterbury Ride by Kit’s Coty house:4 Someone before the Celt Raised those great stones, and felt Securely immortal Over vales beyond vales of then vanished Englands. Lichen and stone, the gables Of Kelmscott watch the young Thames: England dies in the storm, Dies to survive, and form Another and another Of the veils under veils of the vanished Englands. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

AL. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Letterhead: Hotel Schenley, Pittsburgh. 1. This note by Una is added on the reverse side of Jeffers’ handwritten poem. Jeffers included “Vanished Englands” in his February 27 lecture at the Library of Congress. He may also have read the poem at the University of Pittsburgh three days before. 2. Jeffers composed “Vanished Englands” in November or early December 1940. The poem was featured in the Quercus Press publication, Two Consolations; see Una’s December 9, 1940 letter to Remsen Bird. Una probably sent Jeffers’ copy to Melba along with her April 12 letter. 3. In his famous “Finest Hour” speech to the House of Commons on June 18, 1940, Winston Churchill said “The Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.” In the following months, as the German Luftwaffe unleashed a massive air assault on England, seas around the country were sewn with mines. 4. Kit’s Coty House is a neolithic chambered tomb (ca. 4000–3000 bce) near Aylesford in Kent, England. Three standing stones and a capstone remain of the structure, traditionally identified as the burial place of Catigern, a Welsh warrior prince who died ca. 455 ce in a battle with the Saxons. Horsa, a Saxon leader remembered by Jeffers in the late poem “Ode to ­Hengist and Horsa” (Collected Poetry 3: 423) is believed to have died at the same battle.

UJ to Edward Weston Tor House. Carmel. April 14 [1941]. Dear Weston— I’ve just heard that you and Charis1 are about to depart on another interesting trip.2 Congratulations. They are exciting—trips—but hard! Ours was 8063 miles in 5½ weeks through a dozen blizzards. Please send me a bill for those fine photographs—(the one {pose} I like best.) If I can’t entirely pay for your skill, I can make a token payment anyway. Mrs. Eugene Meyer arranged for Steichen3 to photograph R. in N. Y. C. He made two appointments from his farm in Conn. but couldn’t get out. Completely snow-bound. Yrs. Una J. APS. Occidental. Postmark: April 15, 1941.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. Helen Charis (Wilson) Weston (1914–2009) was the daughter of Carmelites Harry Leon Wilson and Helen (Cooke) Wilson. Following in the footsteps of her mother, who married a much older man, Charis was drawn to Edward Weston. He was almost forty-nine and unhappily married when she met him in 1934 at age nineteen. The couple lived together for several years before Weston divorced his wife, Flora (Chandler) Weston, and married Charis in April 1939. As an assistant involved in all aspects of Weston’s career and as the subject of many of Weston’s most famous photographs, particularly his nudes, Charis was essential to his creative life. She recounts her experience as Weston’s lover and muse in her memoir, Through Another Lens: My Years with Edward Weston (1998). Charis is mentioned briefly in a book about Weston’s formative years, Artful Lives: Edward Weston, Margrethe Mather, and the Bohemians of Los Angeles by Beth Gates Warren (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2011). The book contains vivid portraits of Antony E. Anderson, Charlie Chaplin, Russell Coryell, Max Eastman, Johan Hagemeyer, Billy Justema, Ramiel McGehee, Paul Jordan Smith, Gaylord Wilshire, Willard Huntington Wright, and many other people Robinson and Una knew when they lived in Los Angeles or after they moved to Carmel. 2. The Limited Editions Club commissioned Weston to take photographs across America for an illustrated edition of Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (1942). On an automobile journey that lasted nearly ten months, he and Charis explored twenty-four states. Weston took over seven hundred photographs along the way, of which forty-eight were included in the publication. 3. Edward Steichen (1879–1973) was a painter, photographer, and horticulturalist who, with his friend Alfred Stieglitz (1864–1946), helped raise the status of photography to that of a fine art. Steichen also made significant contributions to the fields of commercial, portrait, and military photography. His 1955 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, The Family of Man, provided the basis for a book that became an international best seller. In a letter to Jeffers dated March 8, 1941 (TLC HRC Texas), Steichen says, “Mrs. Eugene Meyer has written me about making a photograph of you. I have been a long time hoping for a chance to do just that.”

UJ to Virginia Quarterly Review Tor House. Carmel. California April 21. 1941 Editor Virginia Quarterly Dear Sir: Will you do us a favor, please? My husband wishes to include in his forth-coming coming book a poem of his you published in the Virginia Quarterly Winter 1940.1 He has no ms. of this & our copy of the V. Q. is at present in the Library of Congress in the exhibit of Jeffers which was on 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

view there for a month after his recent reading of his poems in the Library of Congress. He must very soon send his ms. off to his publisher & fears the items will not be returned from Washington. {in time.} Could you therefore lend us a {that} copy of V. Q.—or better, have the poem typed out for us? Sorry to be such a nuisance. Sincerely Una Jeffers (Mrs. Robinson Jeffers.) He will of course acknowledge in his book publication in V. Q.2 ALS. Virginia. 1 page. 1. “Prescription of Painful Ends,” Virginia Quarterly Review 16 (Winter 1940): 45–46. 2. Added in top right corner.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel April 28. 1941 Dearest Melba: Robin finished typing his new book today. It is to be called (probably) This Pallid Comet or Happy the Dead. {or “Be Angry at the Sun.”} Which do you find more interesting? Did I send you the two short poems that appeared in The Washington Post? “For U. J” and “Expect Change.”1 I did not copy the Vanished Englands.2 Look again. ’Twas Robin. It was a hasty reconstruction of the poem he jotted down to read at one of his lectures. Thats why I thought you’d like to have it. His ms. I forget whether I told you, records of his readings at Harvard (not the lecture but afterwards he spent an afternoon at it) can be had at {from} Linguaphone Institute, Rockefeller Institute {Plaza}, N. Y. C. I think I mentioned the extremely interesting letters I have had from a woman who has the same ♦ great, great, great {great,} grandfather as Robin. great, great, Ephraim Tuttle (1710–1773). She sends me such interesting data—some of it from old “Aunt Mell” who lives in North Carolina. Lately LETTERS 1940– 1962

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she has pointed out blood kinship of Robin and Jonathan Edwards.3 Robin was delighted! Gelber called Sunday. He had with him a James Laughlin4 editor & owner of “New Directions”—a publisher of many poetry books. A Harvard man, —nice person & very enthusiastic about poetry. You’d have enjoyed him. Are you really going east fishing? How long? & do you intend to go at all to Northern Calif. to your place there. Dinner last night at Noëls. Beth Wendall was there & spoke of her enjoyment of Deep Well & you. Does your boy graduate at Hotchkiss? Then what.5 Since I started this Ted L. came—looking very well We had a good chat—but I was sorry to hear that ♦ Fran isn’t better {than she is.} I thought he felt discouraged at the slow progress. {Donnan is appearing in some plays being put on for Fort Ord soldiers.} Garth has leave from his draft board to go away until August. He & the Tevis boys want to go down to Baja California & explore—way to lower end. Looks like awful country. Young Lloyd has a new station wagon they will use.6 Yes I have an envelope full of clippings about the trip to show you when you come. —I think I told you we motored 8063 miles—but perhaps I didn’t tell you how beautifully our car behaved—never missed a beat in any kind of weather—& not even a puncture. Shall you motor east & when do you return? Much love from Yours devotedly Una. The red coat appeared everywhere & everybody liked it! I think he has decided on “Be Angry at the Sun”7 ALS. HRC Texas. 3 pages. 1. The first two stanzas of Jeffers’ poem “For Una” were published as “For U. J.” in the February 27, 1941 issue of the Washington Post, page 10. All seven stanzas of the second section of “For Una,” titled “Expect Change,” appeared in the April 11, 1941 Washington Post, page 12. For the complete text of the poem, see Collected Poetry 3: 33–35. 2. The manuscript Una sent Melba about two weeks before.

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3. Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), New England minister, missionary, and theologian, was the author of one of America’s most famous sermons, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741). Robinson Jeffers and Jonathan Edwards both descended from William Tuttle (1607–1673) and Elizabeth Tuttle (ca. 1608–1684). Jeffers descended from their son Simon (see Collected Letters 2: 61), and Edwards descended from their daughter Elizabeth. 4. James Laughlin (1914–1997), a poet and writer whose books include Some Natural Things (1945), In Another Country (1978), and The Owl of Minerva (1987). In 1936, Laughlin founded the New Directions publishing company, a firm that specialized in cutting-edge, contemporary work. 5. C. J. Peter Bennett (b. 1922) graduated from Hotchkiss School in Lakeview, Connecticut in 1941, studied photography at the Art Center School in Los Angeles during the summer, and enrolled at Stanford University in the fall. His education was interrupted for military service in World War II, after which he returned to Stanford and then California Polytechnic State University, where he studied ranching. In addition to his career as a rancher, Bennett was a major shareholder of Berry Petroleum, one of California’s largest independent oil producers. 6. Garth and his friends Lloyd Tevis and Dick Tevis left June 1 for a seven-week journey to the southern tip of Baja California. Upon their return, Dick Tevis described the 3,000-mile adventure in “Through Baja California in a Camioneta,” Carmel Pine Cone (August 22, 1941): 7. 7. Written vertically in top left margin, first page.

UJ to Geraldine Udell Tor House. Carmel. California April 28. 1941 Dear Miss Udell:1 Replying to your letter of April 25. Robinson Jeffers agrees to the fairness of limiting the selection to {authors of} works published during the period of time since Miss Monroe’s death. He somewhat favors the selection of a young poet for the award. (In case an older poet were selected, he would vote for Frederick Mortimer Clapp in preference to Cummings.) He is agreeable to Muriel Rukeyser2 receiving the award, but in case Mr. Dillon wishes to recommend some other poet, would be glad to consider another. He thinks regard should be paid to need and special circumstances, other things being equal. Very sincerely, Una Jeffers. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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In case he should be asked to consider the work of another young poet, and there is need of haste, perhaps Mr. Dillon would lend him the volume. Sometimes books are not to be had immediately here on the coast. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. Geraldine Udell (1903–1998) joined Poetry in 1925 as Harriet Monroe’s assistant. Following Monroe’s death, Udell edited and oversaw the publication of Monroe’s autobiography, A Poet’s Life: Seventy Years in a Changing World (1938). Udell remained with the magazine as business manager until 1950, when she was fired by newly appointed editor Karl Shapiro. Loyalty to Udell and anger with Shapiro prompted several board and staff members to resign in protest. 2. Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980), winner of the 1935 Yale Younger Poets Prize for Theory of Flight, won Poetry magazine’s first Harriet Monroe Award in 1941. Judges for the $500 triennial prize, offered for “an American poet of distinction, or of distinguished promise” and “progressive rather than academic tendencies,” were Robinson Jeffers, Archibald MacLeish, and George Dillon (then editor of Poetry). See “News Notes,” Poetry (May 1941): 112–113, and Poetry (June 1941): 168–169.

UJ and RJ to Benjamin Miller Tor House. Carmel. California May 1. 1941 Dear Mr. Miller: My husband says he was much interested in reading your review of Amos Wilder’s book.1 {I quote him} 2“What you say is true & well put & in regard to my own part in it, I could not want a better defender. . . You have a very subtle mind but I understand what you mean in your letter by ‘mythologically true & not a literal possibility’. Yes, as to Orestes and his complete self-identification with the universe, but in regard to the verses you cite about ‘tragic music’;—‘to remain part of the music but hear it as the player hears it’ seems to me literally possible; not at all times but certainly at formative moments & as a basis for life. Thank you for the letter & review.” Our trip was most successful—in fact quite a triumph for Robin. He spoke at U of Pittsburgh (where he did his sophomore year). A lunch for him there & we renewed association with many family connections— Robinsons. The Library of Congress hall & the hall connecting with loud

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

speaker was packed. Harvard & Columbia were equally ♦ friendly & enthusiastic. —Also {U of} Buffalo, Butler at Indianapolis U of Kansas City, U of Utah. Twelve other universities invited him but we could not arrange {synchronize} dates so quickly. We motored 8063 miles some of it in awful blizzards. We missed engagement at Princeton, bogged down by storm. He made recordings of poetry readings at Harvard & at U of College of the City of N. Y. Excellent. The Harvard ones are to be sold by Linguaphone Institute Rockefeller City {Plaza} N. Y. C. There were thirteen cases of Jeffers’ exhibit in Lib. of Congress for a month.— Mss., photographs—all kinds of memorabilia. One item was a genealogical table showing twelve & eleven generations back in America on his mothers side (Robinsons & Tuttles Tuttles). A distant Tuttle kin of his noticed it & has written {to me} some very interesting family history. —A bit that may interest you—Jonathan Edwards is a blood kin of my husband. When he heard that he acted as if he’d been given a charming present! This letter is all news about us. You must tell me news of you—and that you & your wife are happy! Cordially, Una Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Amos Niven Wilder (1895–1993), Thornton Wilder’s older brother, was a poet, literary critic, and Bible scholar. Miller reviewed Wilder’s The Spiritual Aspects of the New Poetry (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1940) in the Review of Religion 5 (March 1941): 360–366. Miller praises Wilder for his “effort to assess modern poetry with respect to its religious and moral values,” but he disagrees with some of his conclusions—particularly those found in his chapter on Jeffers. “While Mr. Wilder is justified in naming the Jeffersian religious philosophy negative and nihilistic from the point of view of classical Christianity,” Miller writes, “he has at the same time contributed to a misunderstanding of this poet’s tragic realism and has restricted the meaning of the tragic sense of life.” 2. Jeffers’ original handwritten statement is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

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UJ and RJ to Frederic I. Carpenter Tor House. Carmel. California May 2. 1941 Dear Mr. Carpenter: My husband is busily typing his new book (probably to be called “Be Angry at the Sun.”) and seems unable to write letters. I have the following statement from him in answer to your question. “As to the hawk verses, note first—“except the penalties.” The penalties did not mean only hanging or imprisonment, but also the inner revulsion, the disgust & emotional discord, which, however, would spring from training, not nature. For people can be trained to kill as easily as they can be trained not to. The average hawk seemed to me (& still seems) a more beautiful & nobler creature than the average man; besides that men swarm by millions & hawks are rare. So if I had stopped to ask myself, ‘Is that a true statement?’ I should have said ‘yes— except the penalties.’ There was no misanthropy involved, but only a comparison. And there was no question of inflicting pain, —that would put a different face on the matter, —but only of sudden death. And I think it was a salutory statement, for certainly ♦ men over value themselves & their lives.” That is practically word for word his answer.1 May I add our thanks for a very interesting ride to Concord.2 I felt we recaptured something of its old aspect on that snowy morning. Everything was solitary & remote. I am glad I saw it then rather than crowded with tourists in summer. But I would have enjoyed walking about. We enjoyed your wife3 and seeing your home. — Thanks for everything! One of the many repercussions of the exhibit in Washington is a correspondence with a distant Tuttle connection who saw his {Robin’s} genealogy there. On his mother’s side Tuttles & Robinsons going back nine & ten generations in America. This Tuttle kin points at Robin’s blood relationship with Jonathan Edwards, which pleased Robin very much! With friendliest greetings to you both, Cordially, Una Jeffers.

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We saw friends of yours in Kansas City, Pres Decker & Dr Cappon. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Jeffers’ handwritten draft of this statement, substantially the same as Una’s transcription, is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. 2. Carpenter was living in Belmont, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, when Jeffers lectured at Harvard. The village of Concord—where Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau once lived—was just a short drive away. 3. Lillian (Cook) Carpenter (1903–1991), a psychologist.

UJ to Bennett Cerf 1941 MAY 13 PM 9 47 BENNET CERF 20 EAST 57 ST NYK MAILED MANUSCRIPT TODAY DECIDED TITLE GIVE NATURE TIME LOVE UNA1 Tlg. Berkeley. 1. In a note to Una dated May 14, 1941 (TCC Berkeley), Cerf thanks Una for this telegram and says, “I won’t say anything at all about the title until I have had a chance to read the script.” He then adds, “I keep hoping that those incredible idiots on the Pulitzer Committee will some day take cognizance of the fact that Robin is in the world. Maybe this new book will be the one . . . .”

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California May 13. 1941 Dear Saxe: Your letter of May 1 staggers us.1 We have no copyright cards of any description. {Details of} all of the vols. pub. by Liveright (in its various firm set-ups) must be known to your firm. Some of the books, as shown inside {them}, are copyrighted to them {the firm}, some to us but never a

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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card did we see. —Before that, Flagons & Apples was copyrighted by Robinson Jeffers in 1912. He says he may have had a card, can’t remember. Californians was copyrighted by Macmillan 1916. We have our agreement with them dated July 18, 1916 which stipulates that in case {issuing} the book is discontinued the copyright reverts to Robin & the company upon request will execute necessary assignment thereof. We never asked for the assignment. ♦ Several years ago Sydney Alberts got out at his own expense the necessary no. of copies for copyright purposes of the group of early poems which came out from time to time in the Occidental College magazine (dates 1903–1905).2 These copies were bought up & destroyed. The purpose was to protect Robin. The poems were very juvenile. He {Alberts} copyrighted them but we have no card! & now he seems to be in limbo. I mailed ms. of Robin’s book to you today. He calls it finally “Give Nature Time.” Its good. A messy letter this is, I am in great haste. Affectionately Una. It was nice of you to come to Washington! Robin does not usually acknowledge in his books, the publication of any {see ms.} short poems in magazines but in this case Poetry makes you agree to do so—so he mentions the other magazines also. Do you need a picture of Robin?3 Linguaphone Institute, Rockefeller Plaza is marketing the recordings of Robin’s {poetry} reading made at Harvard. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. In his May 1, 1941 letter to Una (TCC Berkeley), Commins writes, “I wonder if you could supply us with the material and facts on the copyrights of Robinson’s books prior to his coming to Random House? By material, I mean copies of any copyright cards issued by the Department of Copyrights in Washington. By facts, I mean the dates, copyright numbers, in whose name issued for each of the titles prior to 1933.” 2. Robinson Jeffers, Four Poems and a Fragment (Sydney S. Alberts, 1936). 3. This and the following postscript are added in the top margin, first page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California May 21. 1941

Dear Bennett: We heard in New York that you are expecting and I meant in a former letter to send our congratulations. If you are very, very lucky perhaps there’ll be twins! The nicest thing that ever happened to Robin & me. Please ask your order department to send me two copies of “Such Counsels You Gave to Me” & charge to author’s account. Referring to this enclosure I wonder if there wouldn’t have been $50 worth of advertizing in this? The Carillon1 was to is to be the first issue of a college magazine and, as far as I know, The Virginia Quarterly is almost alone {among college magazines} in paying properly for even first printings of poems. It was {is, of} course, is endowed. The best college publication I know in the west is Ka The University Review of Kansas City. It has ♦ month after month, articles from top notch writers & doesnt pay a cent for them. During the course of each year I receive at least 200 letters from all over the U. S. from college students writing theses etc on poetry {& R. J. in particular} & asking references to various items in his verses. {and information of various kinds.} 200 is an understatement, I’m sure, as there are eight here on my desk unanswered at the moment, & I dont allow them to collect if I can help it. My point is that boring as {answering} these letters are {is} to me (since I’d much rather learn than teach!)—I try to answer them properly, and regard these people as poetry readers & {the} buyers of vols. of poetry later—a part of our future audience. I’m sure I see eye to eye with you about anthology editors who try to get rights to poems for nothing, but I wonder whether you are in touch with college magazines or have thought over their the possible advantage of young enthusiasts addressing their peers! Love from Una.

ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. The Carillon, a bimonthly journal published from spring 1941 to spring 1942 by Stanford University, was conceived as “a medium for the expression of student thought and feeling on any subject of common interest, in politics, science, society, or literature.” LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California May 24, 1941 Dear Bennett— I am so happy that you at Random House like Robin’s new book.1 — Here are three other titles Robin considered. The one I give first seems most exciting to a number of our friends that we consulted. None of them has read the ms. just discussed titles, whether enticing or not. (1) Be angry at the Sun (2) The Bloody Sire (3) Never Weep. (WEEP) Do you like any of these? I meant to speak, in my letter yesterday of the books you sent us, & thank you. The one that I like best is “Hermit Place”2—a most unusual book! I will speak of the others later. I am too rushed today. Love from Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 pages. 1. “We are simply crazy about Robin’s new volume and think that it will make a sensation when it is published this Fall,” Cerf tells Una in a letter dated May 21, 1941 (TCC Berkeley). He adds, however, that nobody at Random House likes Give Nature Time for a title and urges Una to discuss the matter with Robinson and to suggest alternatives. “My own preference,” he writes, “would be The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean, or maybe Stars Over the Lonely Ocean. Frankly, I haven’t won much support for this title here in the office. What do you think?” 2. Mark Schorer, The Hermit Place (New York: Random House, 1941).

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California May 26. 1941 Dear Bennett— Here is another poem Robin wishes included in his book—just after The Bowl of Blood he figures it would be numbered 70½ on his ms.1 Go ahead

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

with the title Be Angry at the Sun if you are satisfied. We are if you are. One other title that suggested itself to Robin was “The Stars fly over.” Your Maritta Wolff2 lives with{in} 25 miles of my home town in Michigan—my little village only slightly larger than her Grass Lake. The {Her} book is getting good reviews.3 I haven’t read it yet but Garth was much interested in it. Love from Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Assuming Cerf followed his instructions, Jeffers sent “That Noble Flower.” 2. Maritta Wolff (1918–2002), a novelist known for her gritty depictions of working-class life in America, was the author of Night Shift (1942), Back of Town (1952), Buttonwood (1962), and other books. 3. Wolff ’s acclaimed first novel, Whistle Stop (New York: Random House, 1941), was written when she was a senior at the University of Michigan.

RJ to Lourinda Rhoades [May, 1941] You mean I have very little experience, either of reading poetry {to {an} audience} or of hearing it read; but Ishould’ll say first that it should not be read as prose; {the meter or cadence must be observed;} the lines must not be broken up {to pieces} for the sake of expression. Second, it must be read clearly SOn the other hand, it may {should} not be read sing-song, with monotonous inflections, so as to bore the audience and obscure the meaning. Third, it should not be read with elocution, nor too passionately, because good poetry is a little stylized, a little removed from average life. Finally, it should be read clearly and expressively, so that both {the} words and the meanings become {are made} apparent, —but this applies to any kind of reading. 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This draft was written in response to a May 8, 1941 letter (TLS HRC Texas) from Rhoades to Jeffers, in which Rhoades asks for help with a paper she was writing for a graduate oral interpretation seminar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her paper was titled “Desirable Elements in the Reading of Poetry as Expressed by Poets Themselves.” LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Lourinda Rhoades (1918–2002) obtained M.A. degrees in library science and in speech and drama at the University of Wisconsin, and an M.Div. from Colgate Rochester Divinity School. She was ordained as a Baptist minister and, later, as Wisconsin’s first woman Methodist minister. Lourinda and her husband Rev. Charles B. Sanford, whom she married in January 1945, worked together as pastors in Vermont and rural Wisconsin.

RJ to Charles Abbott Tor House, Carmel. —May, 1941. These are the first manuscripts of “Decaying Lambskins,” “Shiva,” “Now Returned Home,” and “Theory of Truth,” —the four concluding poems of “The Selected Poetry of R. J.” They are given to Dr. Charles David Abbott for the Lockwood Memorial Library, University of Buffalo, with best wishes. —Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Buffalo. 1 page.

UJ to Zena Holman Tor House. Carmel June 2. 1941. Dear Mrs. Holman: This note is to call to your attention Rudolph Gilbert who is seeking a job. We can highly recommend him for reliability and character. You probably have in your collection a book on Jeffers by Mr. Gilbert (“Shine Perishing Republic—Robinson Jeffers & the Tragic Sense in Modern Poetry.”) He is a scholar, has had work in libraries and so on in the East, also in the furniture dep’t of Macy’s in New York. He needs a job and fo would fit in in many departments. This note is just to ask you to give him favorable consideration.1 Faithfully— Una Jeffers. ALS. Tor House. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. In a note to Zena Holman dated June 9, 1941 (APPS Tor House), not used in this edition, Una thanks Mrs. Holman for considering Gilbert for a position at Holman’s Department Store in Pacific Grove, even though Gilbert was not hired.

UJ and RJ to Rosalie Stern Tor House. Carmel. California June 9. 1941 Dear Mrs. Stern:1 My husband & I thank you sincerely for the superbly printed tribute to Albert Bender. I have heard many people speak of the beauty and distinction & justice of Monroe Deutsche’s address.2 Albert cared very much for beautiful printing & he was always moved by the appreciation of his friends. I cannot end this little note to you without saying a word about the ♦ hospitality of your brother3 & Agnes Meyer. Their kindness & thoughtfulness to us in Washington was boundless. We have the happiest memory of our stay with them. Very sincerely Una Jeffers Robinson Jeffers.4 ALS. Mills. 2 pages. 1. Rosalie (Meyer) Stern (1869–1956) was the widow of Sigmund Stern (1857–1928). Sigmund was a co-owner and president of Levi Strauss & Company, the San Francisco clothing firm founded in 1850 by his father David Stern and his uncle Levi Strauss. In 1931 Rosalie purchased a wooded tract of land in the Sunset District of San Francisco and donated it to the city in honor of her husband. The Sigmund Stern Recreation Grove, or Stern Grove, includes an amphitheater for free music, dance, and theater performances. 2. Monroe E. Deutsch, Albert M. Bender (San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1941). A note on the cover of the publication says “This tribute to Albert Bender was delivered by Dr. Monroe E. Deutsch, vice president and provost of the University of California, at Temple Emanu-El, March 6, 1941. Three hundred copies have been printed for Rosalie M. Stern.” Monroe Emanuel Deutsch (1879–1955), author of Caesar’s Son and Heir (1928), The College from Within (1952), and other books, was a professor of Latin and an administrator at the University of California, Berkeley from 1907 to 1947.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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3. Eugene Meyer and Rosalie (Meyer) Stern were children of Eugene and Harriet (Newmark) Meyer. Their father was the president of the Franco-American Liberty Loan Association during World War I and a partner in the Lazard Frères banking firm. 4. Jeffers signs his name below Una’s, but the entire letter is in Una’s hand.

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California June 9. 1941 Dear Saxe: Robin says he should have said six, not five, poems from Poetry Magazine.1 They are: “Come Little Birds.” “9, 19, 1939” —(title changed in book to “The Day is a Poem”) “Great Men” “Finland is down”—(~title changed in book to~ “Moon & Five Planets”) “The Stars go over the Lonely Ocean” “The Bloody Sire” {called “Five Poems”}2 From Virginia Quarterly3 “Prescription of Painful Ends” “My Dear Love” From Univ. Review of {U. of} Kansas City4 “The Excesses of God” “Watch the Lights Fade” From Washington Post5 “For U. J” —now I of “For Una” “Expect Change”, now II of “For Una.” From Saturday Review of Lit.6 “May–June, 1940”—called in book “Battle.” ♦

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I, too, feel there are great poems in this new book. I am happy to hear you say so so. Love from Una Do you need another picture of Robin {for publicity}? I just got Edward Weston to finish several of a pose he took several years ago. I think it is the best photograph there is. {Have you it?} It is three-quarters view, holding pipe, both hands showing. I won’t send it unless you want it for Weston is not making portraits now and finished these just as a favor. I could send you one if you wish & an informal one with bulldog. U. J. ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. “Come, Little Birds,” Poetry 55 (October 1939): 1–6. “Five Poems,” Poetry 57 (December 1940): 171–175. 2. This line is written vertically in the left margin beside a large curved bracket enclosing the five poems from “9, 19, 1939” to “The Bloody Sire.” 3. “Prescription of Painful Ends,” Virginia Quarterly Review 16 (Winter 1940): 45–46. “My Dear Love,” Virginia Quarterly Review 17 (Winter 1941): 70–71. 4. “The Excesses of God” and “Watch the Lights Fade,” University Review 5 (Summer 1939): 238–239. 5. “For U. J.,” Washington Post (February 27, 1941): 10. “Expect Change,” Washington Post (April 11, 1941): 12. 6. “May–June, 1940,” Saturday Review of Literature 22 (August 10, 1940): 8.

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. June 27. 1941 Phoebe darling: I hear fine reports of your good recovery now.1 I hate to think of the wretched trip you must have had coming west. Are you going up in the Tahoe country this summer? Is there any chance of your seeing Tower beyond Tragedy here July 2, 3, 4, 5,?2 I think it will be wonderfully done—think—who can say beforehand but the main ones are

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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fine Judith Anderson as Clytemnestra, Hilda Vaughn3 Cassandra, Dorothy Adams4 Electra & so on.— Did you have a good trip before the bug got you. How is my Hans? Love always from Una. ♦ Robin’s new book to be out in early fall is on the press now. Random House, —all of them—, are most enthusiastic. They say that its the most important book of verse they or anyone have published in a long time. I hope the the book-buying public will think so, too.! — Title “Be angry at the Sun.” ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: June 28, 1941. 1. Phoebe was recovering from bronchial pneumonia. 2. Jeffers’ verse drama, The Tower Beyond Tragedy, was performed at Carmel’s historic open-air Forest Theater July 2–5, 1941. The play was produced by Charles O’Neal and directed by Gordon Davis. Based on what was said in articles about Jeffers and the play in local newspapers around this time, the production was a major community event. In the June 27, 1941 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone, for instance, Langston Hughes writes, “In Carmel there lives a great weaver of words and legends, Robinson Jeffers. Fortunate indeed are we to have him here. And fortunate that the city fathers have seen fit to grant the town’s lovely outdoor theater to a production for the first time in a professional manner of one of Jeffers’ plays with a great actress, Judith Anderson, appearing therein—thus Carmel herself writes a new page in the mighty history of the theater. And that vital lady, Clytemnestra, comes to life again just off Ocean avenue.” See “Ancient Contemporaries in the Forest Theater,” page 7. 3. Hilda Vaughn (1898–1957), described in biographies as “thin and tart-tongued” and “skinny and tough,” was an actress from Baltimore who appeared regularly in stage and screen roles. Film credits include Dinner at Eight (1933), The Wedding Night (1935), and Maid’s Night Out (1938). On Broadway Vaughn performed in Jacobowsky and the Colonel (1944), On Whitman Avenue (1946), The Devil’s Disciple (1949), and other plays. 4. Dorothy Adams (1900–1988) was a film and television actress often cast as a troubled or repressed character, such as Gene Tierney’s maid in Laura (1944). Adams’ husband, Byron Foulger (1899–1970), had a similar but far more visible career playing shopkeeper-types who were mean, meek, or both at once.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson [July 2, 1941] Tor House. Carmel Wednesday afternoon. Dearest Judith:1 Robin and I are looking forward eagerly to the performance tonight. Your Clytemnestra is magnificent even in rehearsal. Don’t think we are unaware of the terrific strain you must have been under here,—only your enthusiasm and energy could have brought this play to the point of presentation tonight. I shudder for all the agonies (Robin scarcely dreams what they all are, but after all, poor dear, he is ridden by agonies enough) ♦ The moments I thrill to most perhaps—when you say,—“They bungled the job making me a woman— —” —the steely strength— I adore it— Perhaps again when you come down the stairs with Aegisthus—“A long idle day—kill early, come home early”—your voice. . . . But every moment is memorable. All power to you, and love from Una & Robin. I think we shall see you after at the Eyres.2 ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Judith Anderson (1897–1992), born Frances Margaret Anderson-Anderson in Adelaide, Australia, began her professional acting career in 1915. By the mid-1930s she had achieved international fame for her performances in both classic and contemporary dramas, such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra. In February 1941, Anderson was nominated for an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress) for her portrayal of Mrs. Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940), the highly acclaimed psychological drama filmed at Big Sur, Point Lobos, and other California locations. Anderson was named Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in January 1960. 2. Wilfred Gerald Eyre (1899–1987), an American playwright and songwriter who lived in England for many years, and his wife Marjorie (Rose) Eyre (1900–1993) hosted a postperformance reception for the cast and crew of The Tower Beyond Tragedy at their home in Pebble Beach. Plays by Eyre performed on the London stage include Speed Limit (1929), Rough to Moderate (1932), and His Majesty’s Guest (1939).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Eugenia McComas Tor House. Carmel July 11. 1941 Dear Gene McComas:1 Thanks so much for lending us this old Greek hymn & music. Robin told me how you came by it. I cannot bear it—that we didnt go to Greece when we were in Europe in ’37. I had it all planned but Robin got one of his moods of not being able to endure another jaunt. Now when will any of us see it again! His father travelled there in 1866. Do drop in to see us if you are in this neighborhood, Faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. Huntington. 1 page. 1. Eugenia “Gene” Frances (Baker) McComas (1886–1982), a journalist, painter, and muralist who lived in Pebble Beach, was the widow of artist Francis McComas (1875–1938). She was known professionally as Gene Baker, Gene Frances, and Gene McComas.

UJ to Zena Holman Tor House. Carmel July 11. 1941 Dear Mrs. Holman: Thank you so very much for the beautiful roses—such color & fragrance! They came at the luckiest moment—just as I was expecting all the cast {of “The Tower —”} out for tea. The roses were lovely in my rooms. We had such an amusing time—they were jolly people as well as intelligent. It would be nice to have you here. Could you come for tea Thurs. (July 17), at 4:30. Faithfully, Una Jeffers. ANS. Tor House. 1 page. Postmark: July 11, 1941.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. July 12. 1941 Dear Saxe: I’ll mail you the corrected proof first thing Monday morn. It is wrapped up now, but our Post office was closed at noon today —it used to close at 12:30 Saturdays. (We just got to be First Class P. O.). Robin says the preface or note (prose) was not enclosed. —Also the narrative poem’s title was missing but thats probably on a separate page or something. Table of Contents not there either. I agree with you that Weston’s photograph is very good & Lyon’s not so good— I enclosed it for an informal one if you ever need it. The “New Poems {1940}” (anthology of British & American Verse) ed. by Oscar Williams—Yardstick Press N. Y.1 reviewed in Decision by Marya Zaturenska2 said that one of Robin by Lyon was the best one in the book. (They were all informal photographs.) ♦ Please show Bennett & the others this clipping.3 I will send you a program Monday. Someone was talking with us about titles yesterday & we said we had first suggested “Give Nature Time” & our friend said he thought that was a slogan for some patent laxative! Mercy, can that be? We are rather innocent about such things. If thats true you can change the name of the poem of that name in the Table of Contents to “I Shall Laugh Purely” (a phrase in the poem). Love from us, Una. That series of {35} photographs of “Jeffers Country” by Horace Lyon which he hopes some time to make a book of, created much favorable comment in the Library of Congress exhibit & is now on show at Breadloaf Conference Vermont. Middlebury College wrote for it first. It will go to several colleges & interest {Jeffers fans.} ALS. Columbia. 2 pages.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. New Poems 1940: An Anthology of British and American Verse, edited by Oscar Williams (New York: Yardstick Press, 1941), contains two poems by Jeffers, “May–June, 1940” and “The Bloody Sire” (pp. 123–125). 2. Marya Zaturenska (1902–1982), an American poet and writer who was born in Russia, won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for her collection of verse titled Cold Morning Sky (1937). She was the wife of poet Horace Gregory. Her review of Williams’ anthology appeared in Decision: A Review of Free Culture edited by Klaus Mann (June 1941): 83–85. 3. The clipping was not enclosed; see next letter.

UJ and RJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California July 14. 1941

Dear Saxe: I think I forgot to include the clipping1 in my letter yesterday. Here it is. Robin says he was wrong—the title “Mara” was on the page all right. Don’t forget the dedication in the book.2 Here is a note from Robin. Can you read it?3 He wants the line to say “like Assyria, Rome, Britain, Germany, to inherit those hordes”. Please have the order dep’t send me 4 copies of Selected Poetry & 2 Modern Lib. Roan Stallion Love from Una. ♦ Dear S. C.: In the poem called “Shine, Empire”, third from end of book, {last stanza} please change line “Now, thoroughly compromised, we aim at world power, like Assyria, like Rome, like Britain, to inherit those hordes—” Change to “like Assyria, Rome, Britain, Germany, to inherit those hordes” (I don’t believe Germany will get it, like the others, but certainly they are aiming at it and ought to be included.) I forgot to change this in the proof—please do it for me. ALS. Columbia. 2 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. An admiring review of the Carmel performance of The Tower Beyond Tragedy published in the July 7, 1941 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle; see Una’s July 26 letter to Judith Anderson, note 2. 2. Jeffers dedicated Be Angry at the Sun “To Donnan and Garth.” 3. Jeffers’ note is scribbled on a torn piece of paper.

UJ to Saxe Commins [July 1941] Looks fine—dear Saxe—and no corrections, except that we perhaps should have made acknowledgment for one poem to “The Silver Bough.” “The Sirens” was published (and paid for!) by ~“The Silver Bough”~ date Summer 1941, in Vol. 1. No 1.1 a beautifully printed {in Los Angeles} first no. of a new “Literary Journal” edited by a nice young man named Dion O’Donnol.2 It is our belief that there may be no further numbers of this little magazine but probably it should be credited especially as they had a fine picture of Robin on their cover & a good list of contributors inside. ♦ And use your own judgement about mentioning that 3 poems were privately printed by the Quercus Press, San Mateo. (You know thats Ted Lilienthal’s little hand press.) The poems were called in the his new book “The House-Dog’s Grave” & “Two Christmas Cards.”3 He did not copyright them.4 ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. Robinson Jeffers, “The Sirens,” Silver Bough: A Literary Journal (Los Angeles: Wagon and Star Press, Summer 1941): 5. 2. Dion O’Donnol (1912–2007), a Los Angeles poet and printer. As the owner of Wagon and Star Press, O’Donnol published small, limited editions of poetry, along with his own books, including Eggs in a Blue Bowl (1937) and Bright Singing Hour (1942). 3. The Lilienthals printed The House-Dog’s Grave: Haig’s Grave in June 1939 and Two Consolations (“Two Christmas-Cards”) in December 1940. 4. In a letter dated July 29, 1941 (TCC Columbia), Commins offers to add these acknowledgments to Jeffers’ prefatory note, but advises against it: “I honestly don’t see what purpose it would serve beyond bending over backward to be courteous.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California July 26. 1941 Dear Judith: I sent back your photographs, autographed, and a copy of Robin’s “Selected Poetry.” Bryant1 has at least one pretty good photograph of the stage & actors. —you on your knees by {before} Orestes on the steps. There were two good articles in the S. F. Chronicle by John Hobart, July 7 & Sun. July 13.2 I have had a letter from Sam Hume3 director of the {May–June} Berkeley Festival at Greek theatre. He wants the script to read, of “The Tower—” to consider doing it there next summer. Have you or anyone a complete script now? I would have Donnan copy it & return ♦ it to you if you have, & {will} lend it to me. This year they did Shaw’s “St. Joan,” Offenbach’s “Orpheus in the Underworld,” “Twelfth Night” & the S. F. Symphony Orchestra with Bruno Walter4 conducting. What do you think, should I try to encourage the idea? The {7th annual} Bach Festival week isends tomorrow with the great B Minor Mass, in the old Mission. It has grown into a very fine thing. Each year now they give one or two concerts not Bach to broaden the scope a little. This year Mozart, & an evening of early English music, Purcell, Byrd, Eccles, & The Beggar’s Opera. Noël sang very beautifully some Purcell. Yesterday 200 at lunch in Noël’s garden at little tables a lovely party. 160 of the guests were taking part ♦ in the music, others of us associated somehow. All you thought of Blackie’s5 management was justified —oh, and a lot more! It is said that $7,000 is owing.6 Isn’t that awful & he is gone. I dont know where. {It wouldn’t help if he were here. Money gone.} Noëls great friends George Sebastian & Porter Woodruff are back. They were here for some months last winter. George has that great house in Tunisia always being photographed in architectural magazines—the most beautiful of Moorish houses. I’d like to have you & George meet.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Judith—we miss you—and we admire you! a thrilling thing was missing from our life when the “Tower” performances ceased. Dear love from Una. Robin just finished correcting proof for his new book “Be angry at the Sun.” ALS. Tor House. 3 pages. 1. Fredric William Bryant, Jr. (1918–2000) was a photographer who lived in Carmel. 2. John Hobart, “‘Tower Beyond Tragedy’: Robinson Jeffers Has Written Drama Too Magnificent to Languish Between Book Covers,” San Francisco Chronicle (July 7, 1941): 7; John Hobart, “The Story Beyond the Tower,” San Francisco Chronicle (July 13, 1941): This World, 18. 3. Samuel James Hume (1885–1962), director of the Greek Theater at the University of California, Berkeley from 1918 to 1924, was a founder and director of the Berkeley Art Museum, director of the Berkeley Festival (a series of choral, opera, symphony, ballet, and theatrical events), and owner of At the Sign of the Palindrome, a fine arts bookstore. With Walter René Fuerst, he co-authored Twentieth-Century Stage Direction (1928). 4. Bruno Walter (1876–1962), born Bruno Schlesinger in Berlin, was one of the most esteemed conductors of his generation. Forced to leave Germany as a result of Nazi persecution, Walter moved to the United States in 1939 and continued his international career. 5. Charles “Blackie” O’Neal (1904–1996), the producer of The Tower Beyond Tragedy, turned to screenwriting in the 1940s and beyond. Film credits include The Seventh Victim (1943), I Love Mystery (1945), and Return of the Badmen (1948). He also wrote scripts for The Untouchables, Lassie, and other television programs. O’Neal was the father of actor Ryan O’Neal (b. 1941). 6. When the Del Monte Summer Theater, a local drama company led by Blackie O’Neal, ran out of money for basic operations and shut down, bills totaling more than $7,000—for costumes, lumber, carpenter, flowers, and other items—were left unpaid. Money paid to the company for advertisements in future playbills was also lost.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Townsend, Cronin, Jurgensen, and Guernsey Tor House, Carmel, California August 6, 1941. 1 Mr. Townsend, Dr. Cronin, Mr. Jurgensen, Mr. Guernsey: Gentlemen: Many thanks for your letter, but I warn you not to under-rate “Leaves of Grass.” If ever in Klamath Falls I’ll look for you, and hope to be fifth at another party. If you happen down this way I hope to see you. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Cooney. 1 page. 1. Probably Walter Lamar Townsend (1901–1976), an attorney; Joseph M. Cronin (1901– 1950), a physician; Wilbur L. Jurgensen (1901–1979), a grocer; and Otis G. Guernsey, Sr. (1905– 1975), a dentist—all of whom lived or worked in Klamath Falls, Oregon.

UJ to Alastair Miller [August 12, 1941] Tor House. Carmel. Tuesday p.m. Dear Alaistair:1 I would be glad to see you {& yours}2 anytime. Suppose you come on Sat at 4:30. It is possible Dali3 will be here. (he has a choice of Sat. & Mon.) If so we can take turns doing French with him.—or Spanish—. If luck favors us we can have a quiet time by ourselves. I had a nice moment with your father4 last night. Affectionately Una J. APS. Miller. Postmark: August 12, 1941.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Alastair William Rowsell Miller (1912–1974) was a teacher and freelance writer. Publications include The Man of Gingerbread (1933), Stages of Pursuit (1935), and The Quest of the Cat-Nip Mouse (1967). 2. In 1938 Miller married Valentine Porter (1915–2005), daughter of Susan Porter of Carmel. The couple divided their time between Carmel and Gaviota Pass, south of Big Sur, where Susan Porter owned Forty Acres Ranch. Their first child, Nicholas, was born in July 1941; he was followed by Alison (1944), Andrew (1947), and Jane (1953). 3. Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), Surrealist painter, and his wife Elena “Gala” (Diakonova) Éluard Dalí (1894–1982) were staying for an extended period at the Del Monte Hotel in Monterey. When this letter was written, Salvador and Gala were planning their “Surrealistic Night in an Enchanted Forest” for Tuesday evening, September 2 at the Del Monte. The lavish event was supposed to benefit refugee artists from Europe, but it lost more money than it raised. Attendees (including Clark Gable, Bob Hope, Ginger Rogers, and other celebrities) were asked to come “in a costume copied after your dream, or in a costume of a primitive animal or of the people of the forest.” The Dalís transformed the hotel ballroom into a woodland grotto, complete with animals from a nearby zoo, and provided a number of diversions, such as a nude model posing as an automobile accident victim and two dancers scantily wrapped in gauze bandages who performed a “Dance of Death.” Jeffers, dressed in a tuxedo, wore a laurel wreath on his head; Una, in an evening gown, attached a bird’s nest to her hair. For accounts of the event, see “Dali Will Give Surrealist Party at Del Monte,” Carmel Pine Cone (August 22, 1941): 3, and “Artist Dali Gives Screwy Party Tuesday,” Carmel Pine Cone (August 29, 1941): 1. Photographs of Robinson and Una, their tablemates Martin and Connie Flavin, and other guests were featured in the Monterey Peninsula Herald (September 6, 1941): 5. 4. Alec Miller’s woodcarvings were on display at Tilly Polak’s gallery in Carmel, August 11–15. Along with the exhibition, Miller offered a series of lectures. See “Alec Miller Carves Wood Portraits at Tilly Polak’s,” Carmel Cymbal (August 7, 1941): 11.

UJ and RJ to Blanche Matthias [August 1941]1 Dearest Blanche, I couldn’t get Robin to give his serious attention to this article2 but he did jot down a few thoughts. Love— U. J. ♦

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p. 133—1st ¶ Matter? —No—energy. Sentiency? —Not exclusive to man and animal, (and vegetable)—also attributed to “matter”—{e.g.} “drawing the planetary consciousness up to bright painful points.”4 3

134—“gas-line dropped stinking blood. . . etc.”— Just an ordinary metaphor, same as “car’s eyes” for headlights. Metaphor is of the essence of poetry.5 (As to Madrone’s little self-tortures—I was presenting a person who likes to bear and inflict pain. There are such people, and they are interesting.)6 — —Foot of page—“Shining” is another metaphor. The lines mean: “In the presence of these great things the small human being can offer intensity instead of greatness. Pain is probably his most intense experience.”7 135—last ¶. Common ghost-stories and séances, and the Homeric, and in general the primitive, ♦ view of death—all suggest a shadowy and fractional and rather brief survival by some fractional part of consciousness, “Forty years is a long life for a ghost.” I don’t believe nor disbelieve in this, but use it as mythology. It is certainly more probable than the Christian mythology.8 137—Christ and the Hanged God. The hope that Christ expresses is simply the ethical “Christianity” of our own time, that remains for {a}while after faith in the supernatural has died. Some of this hope is {has been} justified, though not permanently. It is my Christ’s view; not mine.9 138—Last two lines of Hitler poem were intended humorously, as “quotes” from certain critics. I thought they were rather amusing.10 Tamar—Point Sur— The reason was simple, and I explained it in the foreword. People liked the one, disliked the other.11 ♦ Finally— I don’t think I ever referred to my narratives as “tragedies.” — The most reckless attribution was—the title that heads this article—“beyond tragedy.”12

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

One or two thoughts U. J. had.13 141. I find it amazing to hear that it is forbidden to a writer to select his material.14 p 135. bottom. The writer of this article is evidently not familiar with the spiritualist’s belief in disembodied souls clinging for a time to their being earth bound for a time. cf, also Catholics’ limbo.15 p. 139. The writer of this article seems unaware of the centuries-old conflict still unresolved in most mens’ minds of free-will & predestination16 ALS. San Francisco. 4 pages. 1. The reverse side of a form from the Book Club of California, dated August 9, 1941, was used for a portion of this letter, so it was written sometime after that. 2. R. W. Short, “The Tower Beyond Tragedy,” Southern Review 7 (Summer 1941): 132–144. Raymond Wright Short (1903–1966), a professor of English, taught at Cornell University, Yale University, Sweet Briar College, and finally Hofstra University, where he chaired the English Department and served as dean of the faculty. Short co-edited Short Stories for Study: An Anthology (1941) and other textbooks. Jeffers is regarded as a philosophical and a tragic poet, Short argues in his sharply critical essay, “whereas the philosophic content of his poems is bogus, and for this and other reasons, the kind of art he practices with such energy and originality is disqualified as tragic art.” 3. Jeffers’ response to statements in Short’s essay begins here. 4. Short: “Jeffers’ philosophy is simple. He believes that matter, existing in eternity, passes through cyclic changes having nothing to do with human interests, humanity being but an accidental manifestation of this matter. Sentiency marks man and animal apart from insentient matter, but bestows no especial importance on them.” 5. Short (referring to a description of an automobile in Solstice): “Ruskin would have enjoyed disliking that employment of the pathetic fallacy.” 6. Short (referring to Madrone Bothwell in Solstice): “Mrs. Bothwell’s reason for rolling in the burrs does not sound like a very good one, but her servant appears reasonably satisfied with it, and if it does not satisfy our curiosity regarding Jeffers’ belief in pain, none of his other statements will.” 7. Short: “Jeffers’ atomistic view of life fails to support a conviction of the superior dignity of pain, or of any other human affair. If man has no purpose in connection with God, nature, or other men, it is hard to see how he can ‘shine’ in the eye of the ocean or at the foot of the mountain by any means whatsoever.” 8. Short: “Yet Jeffers is unable to construct an artistic substitute for the rejected concept of life after death. In poem after poem, the disembodied souls of human beings wander about,

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making pronouncements not only about the life they quitted, but about their experience since death.” 9. Short (referring to At the Birth of an Age): “Jeffers permits the Young Man (Christ) to conclude his action with a note of hope to humans.” 10. A reference to the concluding lines of “9, 19, 1939” (“The Day Is a Poem”), as published in the December 1940 issue of Poetry: “Well: the day is a poem: but too much / Like one of Jeffers’s, heavy with blood and barbaric symbols, / Painful to excess, inhuman as a hawk’s cry.” Short cites the poem as an example of Jeffers’ self-deception: “his hardness is a romantic posture, shallow and inconsistent, however firmly he himself may believe in it.” 11. Short: “It is odd, yet not surprising, that after this condemnation of Tamar, he should include it in his Selected Works, but omit The Women of Point Sur.” 12. Jeffers’ tragedies, Short claims, fail to follow the conventions of or measure up to works like Hamlet or Antigone. 13. The following notes were written by Una. 14. Short: “When artists, like scientists, become interested not in the wholeness of experience but in various of its component parts, they tend to exclude as irrelevant to their purposes all of the factors in life except those which for some reason seem to them of special significance.” 15. Una refers to the same passage Jeffers cites in note 8. 16. Short: “A careful reading of any of Jeffers’ long poems will disclose the confusion in which they were conceived: the strong statements of determinism, followed by equally strong expectations of the operation of free will.”

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California September 2. 1941 Dear Bennett: Robin and I send you warm love and congratulations on the birth of your son.1 We think you will make a wonderful father. You must be very happy to have the ordeal over and son & mother safe! I am late in writing you for your letter lay here several days while we were away. Then Agnes Meyer {Mrs. Eugene Meyer (you know Washington-Post etc)} came for two days, to see us on her way back to Washington—we devoted ourselves to her—her hospitality to us was so abounding when Robin & I were there in Feb. She wishes an advance copy

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

of Robin’s new book for review purposes & says she will get whosoever we want for ♦ review in N. Y. Times. —another advance copy for that. I suggested Babette Deutsch—whom do you think? She is a good critic (I always think her articles of {on} Yeats the best) and she has been appreciative of Robin in the past. Love to you & Phyllis & what is his name? Una. Agnes Meyer’s address is 1624 Crescent Place N. W. Washington, D.C. Mrs. John Gunther2 is visiting next house to us, & asked only a few days ago whether your child had arrived. I wish to order twenty copies of R—’s book (in addition to author’s copies) & I would like to have some of them advance copies which I will give out for review. Please place this order. ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. Christopher Bennett Cerf was born August 19, 1941. 2. Probably Frances Fineman Gunther (1897–1964), a journalist, foreign correspondent, peace activist, and author of Revolution in India (1944). She was married to John Gunther (1901– 1970), author of Inside Europe (1936) and other books, from 1927 to 1944.

UJ to Cyril Clemens Tor House. Carmel September 5, 1941 1 We think your description of George Sterling very accurate. We are doubtful of one thing only—none of us can say certainly what color his eyes were. I seem to remember a light brown—but you probably have talked with someone who is certain of the grey. One characteristic should be mentioned. He was a fast & tireless walker with a quick springy gait, & he always leaned forward very noticeably. {when walking.} He was an excellent swimmer & very good shot. He used to pick off a pest of ground squirrels for us here at fair distance, sitting on the ground back against the wall, & writing a sonnet between times. His hair was touched up when we knew him he hated to have it grey. I have marked one picture {by Hagemeyer} in this envelope in

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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“Out West” as looking exactly like George in his last year. It was a picture he himself did not like—he said be- ♦ cause some of his sweethearts didn’t like it. Once when he was staying with us he collected, with Robin’s help, two big gunny sacks of mussels {(from rocks in front of our house)} which he expressed to his friends at the Bohemian Club. He liked to get up early, go down & pry an abalone off the rock & cook it for our breakfast. He was as generous a person as I ever knew. I am enclosing a lot of magazine articles & clippings {I happen to have kept about him.} Probably you’ve already seen most of them. The “San Fran. Review” has the poem by R. J. you wanted.2 We have only {the first} four of dozens of letters he wrote us during the year & half we knew him. They are in this package. We do not keep letters as a rule. These happened to survive. Yes, his profile was very like Dante’s. He went to several fancy dress balls as Dante. His friends all liked Jack London’s description of his face “Like a Greek coin run over by a Roman Chariot wheel.” I have a rather extraordinary picture I took of him & Robin on the tower steps—which I will show you sometime. Cordially Una Jeffers. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. For a proposed biography of George Sterling, Clemens contacted people who had known him and asked them to share their recollections and impressions. In order to widen his search for information, Clemens also placed queries concerning Sterling in regional and national publications. See, for instance, Nation (November 8, 1941): 468. 2. Robinson Jeffers, “George Sterling,” San Francisco Review 2 (November/December 1926): 102.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Cyril Clemens Tor House. Carmel. Sept 16. ’41 So sorry we are not free any day this week—perhaps next week we can manage it. We think Sterling was influenced by Tennyson, Keats & somewhat by Shelley. He often quoted Keats. Robin says one of the poems by G. S. he likes best is “Autumn in Carmel.” Do not hesitate to stop in any time if you think we can be of further help.1 Did we speak of the deep influence on S. of the teaching of the Jesuit priest {(was it Father Tabb?)}2 early in his life? I honestly think he would have been contented & perhaps had some vocation for a monastic order. Faithfully, Una Jeffers APS. Stanford. Postmark: September 16, 1941. 1. Clemens probably visited Tor House a few days later, as Una suggested. The Clemens collection at Stanford contains a handwritten copy of Jeffers’ “George Sterling,” the poem mentioned in the previous letter. Beneath the poem, Jeffers adds an explanatory note: “— Written in haste, November 1926; copied for Cyril Clemens September 1941. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers.” 2. John Banister Tabb (1845–1909), poet, Confederate soldier during the Civil War, and Roman Catholic priest, taught English at St. Charles College in Maryland, where George Sterling was one of his students. Books by Tabb include Poems (1894), Child Verse: Poems Grave and Gay (1899), and Later Lyrics (1902).

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California Sept 25. 1941 Dear Bennett— We are eagerly looking forward to the first copy of Robin’s book which your letter says is on the way. Agnes {(Mrs Eugene)} Meyer says she will ask Archie McLeish to do the review for the Washington Post (her husband’s paper) and she was lunching with Donald Adams1 & meant to talk over a reviewer {for “Times”}. HShe writes from Seven Springs Farm, Mount

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Kisco, N. Y. She didnt say when she was going back to Washington— Her husband went over to England on a bomber. She was here four weeks ago to visit us, flew to Montreal next day to see him off. How is the way to do—to speak to Adams when the Times Book copy is sent—or how? Will you have 3 copies of “Selected Poetry” sent to me. and 1 copy to Patty Grant,2 934 Converse Avenue Zanesville, Ohio. ♦ Donnan is there in Zanesville now & will marry this girl Oct 22. at a notable wedding!3 I may go on—Robin perhaps. A hug & pat for Christopher Bennett. Are you still at the Navarro. Love from us. Una. We shall miss Albert Bender in our first sales! His estate, by the way, has just been probated. He was supposed to die with practically nothing, but the estate value is put at $377,665. which sounds a lot to me. He gave away his library before his death It {What remained} was listed at value in estate of $2.10! ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. J. Donald Adams (1891–1968) edited the New York Times Book Review from 1925 to 1943 and wrote the “Speaking of Books” column for the publication from 1943 to 1964. 2. Patricia Belle Grant (1922–2014) was a student at the Douglas School for Girls, an exclusive boarding school and equestrian academy in Pebble Beach, when she first met Donnan in 1939. According to Edith Greenan’s daughter Maeve, she, Patty, and a few other classmates were sitting in a theater waiting for a play to begin when Donnan entered. Patty stood up, pointed at him, and said “that’s the man I’m going to marry.” An announcement of their engagement appeared on the front page of the Carmel Pine Cone, August 15, 1941. 3. For detailed descriptions of the wedding, see “Patricia Belle Grant and Donnan C. Jeffers Exchange Marriage Vows at Weller Home,” Zanesville Signal (October 23, 1941): 6, and “Grandmother’s Gown Worn by Mrs. Jeffers at Her Wedding,” Zanesville Times Recorder (October 23, 1941): 5.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Oscar Williams Tor House, Carmel, California. September 29, 1941. Dear Oscar Williams:1 I recognize original and exceptional talent in your poems: —the imaginative power, the choice of words, the shock of the unforseen that turns turns out to be actual and inevitable. Beyond this statement, I am not qualified to discuss your work critically, because it is of a quite different kind from mine, and my thoughts, naturally, run along their own lines. I have also liked many of your choices for anthologies of current poetry. These two brief paragraphs sum up almost all that I know about you (though I hope to know more in the future)—and I leave it to your judgment whether they should be written on one of the blanks that the Guggenheim Committee sends out, —or would it be better for you to find a more concerned sponsor for third in your list, and include this letter among the clippings and critical opinion that you may care to show them? In either case, I wish you luck.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. L Congress. 1 page. 1. Oscar Williams (1899–1964), born Schie Kaplan in Russia, won the Yale Younger Poets Award in 1921 for The Golden Darkness. He then worked in advertising for a number of years before resuming his life as a writer and editor. Williams continued to publish his own poetry, but he was best known for his eclectic anthologies, including A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry, English and American (1946), Immortal Poems of the English Language (1952), and The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems (1953). Williams married poet and artist Gene Derwood (1903–1954) in 1922. 2. Whether Williams submitted Jeffers’ comments to the Guggenheim Foundation is unknown; in any case, he did not receive a fellowship.

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RJ to Herbert Carlin [September 1941] Dear Mr. Carlin: I’m afraid my views have not changed.2 Certainly the present war and Roosevelt’s “rrhetorical “four freedoms” cannot {do not} make them any more hopeful. Hitler {and Germany} can be smashed, {of course,} after years; but I wonder whether anyone realizes what the state of Europe and the world will be by that time? {Even} If those “four freedoms” were {to be} honestly established at thea peace conference, nobody but the U.S. could enforce them; and we shall never be Roman nor German enough to police the world for a long time. And if we did—could that be called freedom?3 One thing seems even more clear than when I wrote the verses: —that it is up to each person “to keep his own integrity. . .” and so forth. It is going to be a very difficult job. 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Herbert Deyo Carlin (1916–1986), a high school English teacher when this letter was written, later taught history at Oregon State University, Corvallis. 2. In a September 20, 1941 letter to Jeffers (TLS HRC Texas), Carlin quotes the first five lines of Jeffers’ poem “The Answer” (from “Then what is the answer?” to “These dreams will not be fulfilled”) and asks, “Have your views, as indicated by these verses, changed any because of the present world conflict? Do you feel that, as far as the ‘four freedoms’ are concerned, the United States is doomed to failure at the peace conference, assuming that the democracies win?” 3. In a January 6, 1941 speech to Congress, President Roosevelt listed four freedoms that everyone is entitled to: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. For the latter, Roosevelt called for “a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Fernand Léger [Autumn 1941] Mon cher Monsieur Léger: Je vous remercie {bien} mille fois mille fois pour la belle peinture—peutêtre que je devrais dire esquisse, ou dessein—“Etude pour Les Plongeurs.”2 C’est une chose Tahitienne, n’est-ce pas? —ou bien au moins de l’oOcéan Pacifique. Justement comme dans l’eau, on ne saurait dire—sans l’inscription, dont je vous remercie encore une fois — laquelle {uele} est la tête du dessein, et lequel le pied. Moi aussi, en nageant sous l’eau, j’ai senti la même doute. On parle {encore} beaucoup de votre visite encore à ce village-ci. {Notre amie,} la Mme. Lee Tevis—qui était un de vos étudiants les plus dévoués— est à présent en Bakersfield s’est un moment éloignée; elle est à Bakersfield. Quand elle revient j’aurai grand plaisir en lui montrant votre beau cadeau. {Et à Jeanne Kellogg, aussi, quand elle vient chez nous.} Et plusieurs {Mais il y a {déjà} bien} d’autres qui l’ont admiré. Cordialement, Je ne sais comment faire conclusion à une lettre française écrite en français et je vous dis simplement comme en Anglais, Cordialement {Sincèrement} à vous, —R. J.3 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Fernand Léger (1881–1955), an artist who created influential works in a variety of media, left France in 1940 in order to escape the Nazi occupation of his native land. He resided in the United States from 1940 to 1946. During the summer of 1941 Léger taught art at Mills College, and from September 22 to October 4 he offered a workshop at the Carmel Art Institute. In a memoir titled “Robinson Jeffers and the Quality of Things” (Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 71, January 1988, pp. 23–29), Jean Kellogg refers to Léger’s visit and mentions that she gave him a volume of Jeffers’ verse. According to an undated newspaper clipping in the archives at Tor House, Robinson and Una were guests at a dinner party for Léger hosted by architect Robert Stanton and his wife Virginia at their home in Pebble Beach. 2. During his tenure at Mills and for more than a year after, Léger worked on a series of studies titled Les Plongeurs (“The Divers”). 3. In this letter draft, Jeffers thanks Léger for his gift of a work of art, “Study for The Divers.” “It is Tahitian, isn’t it?” Jeffers asks, “—or at least of the Pacific Ocean. Just as in water, one cannot say—without the inscription, for which I thank you again—which is the LETTERS 1940– 1962

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top of the drawing, and which is the bottom. I too, in swimming underwater, have felt the same doubt.” Jeffers then refers to Léger’s visit to Carmel, and says he is anxious to show Lee Tevis (“one of your most devoted students”) and Jean Kellogg his beautiful gift, which others had already admired.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Sat. Oct. 18. [1941] Tor House. Carmel We can’t—but I wish with all my heart we could accept your lovely & funny invitation. I’ve just got out of a S. F. hospital operation1 & R & I are flying east on Mon. to Donnan’s wedding. It would be just right to stop off at Deep Well on our way back.— but it seems to be the consensus of opinion that the wedding is more than enough for me at the moment. Robin’s book is out just Dear love to you both & fun at the party Una APS. HRC Texas. Postmark: October 19, 1941. 1. Following a diagnosis of breast cancer, Una underwent a single mastectomy in San Francisco about two weeks before this letter was written. In an October 27 letter to Zena Holman (ALS Tor House), not used in this edition, Una mentions the physical discomfort she suffered, saying “I had rather a bad time in hospital.”

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp October 26. 1941 Tor House. Carmel. California. Darling Timmie & Maud: I just had a wire from Donnan saying they are very happy, & are having lunch with you tomorrow {today}.1 Tell me your impression of them. I suppose Donnan told you I’d had an unexpected operation—and then that we started to fly to wedding & failed to get on. Thats a tale. Robin & I left San F. at 5 pm Monday, expected to arrive Chicago next morning at 7:20, at Columbus Ohio, at 12 noon & then bus 50 mi. to Zanesville We were 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

in gay spirits.— it seemed an adventure and a luxurious one! (a dear friend had presented us with round trip tickets—yes, Noël) and flying was within the range of my strength (16 days after operation.) Well we got on, looking nice, & me rather {more} tender & feminine than is my habit. A wild red beautiful sunset over S. F. & the Golden Gate. We ♦ watched twilight fall, flying about above the curves & marshes of the Sacramento River. Then darkness & heavy rain. Our first stop was at Reno in a torrent of rain. Six people got on, one of them a voluble woman asked if we knew—and we didn’t—that we had been circling 35 min. over Reno. The pilot could not set his plane down & wished to go on without stopping but so many were waiting to get on. She herself was wild with anxiety lest he didn’t stop for she had to argue a case before the supreme court the next day {in Washington} & had important documents with her.2 On through darkness & rain. Grand dinner served on little tables attached between seats. All very cozy. Our course a bit bumpy. At 9:30 I asked the stewardess to make up my berth. She brought me a pillow instead because the pilot had told her that he expected we would be grounded at Salt Lake City—the flying conditions over Rockies reported impossible for flying. We were grounded ♦ in Salt Lake City at 10:30 and all sent up to very excellent Hotel Utah for night (unwilling guests there of the airline!) —Every moment expecting a call to the airport we waited around all night & until late next p.m. (Tues.) Then as the cstorms over Rockies kept on as bad or worse, the airport said we must all entrain. But that wouldn’t help us any—couldn’t get to wedding in time by train—so we took the first plane back to San F. —It was sent out in late afternoon. It was still bad over the Sierras & we had two hours of blind flying through fog or clouds at 12,000 feet. elev. I felt so defeated that I could scarcely sit up. I had gathered my strength for happiness but not to endure such frustration. The last I saw of the woman attorney she looked distraught, her hands full of briefcase & telegrams & train ticket. She had apparently overstayed her leave & was in a jam. ♦ All this made me distrust planes,— but they are very convenient if they function right. —Little gadgets like this—at one moment the pretty stewardess put into my hands a tool which—if plugged into socket by my

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seat was {became} a well-working oxygen inhalator. I didn’t need it but tried it out anyway. Garth is being foreman at the mill (ore-reducing) of the gold mine Lloyd Tevis owns 70 mi. from Bakersfield in mts.) He wanted to learn something about this kind of thing as one more knowledge of possible use if he gets into the Rockefeller Foundation (Pan American Foundation thing)— He came up to see {surprise} me in hospital in S. F. & made me weep with joy which shocked him. He and Donnan wrote me such love letters to console me there as made up for a lot of misery. They are not very demonstrative by nature. They’ve left that to me! GarthRobin & Winnie stayed at Noëls flat during my ♦ hospitalization. Robin spent hours every day with me—reading to me. He is wonderful when I’m under par so tender & quiet & so optimistic & encouraging that I am tempted often to take a gloomy view just for the sake of hearing him expound to me my wellknown recuperative powers. Molly O’Shea died while I was there.3 She was at St. Luke’s Hospital. I was in the “Children’s Hosp—” Robin went to her funeral. John looks such a ghost as would wring your heart. His long hopeless vigil made him lose 20 lbs. or more & his face is pale & lined. He has borne up with great courage & displayed great thoughtfulness toward everyone. He broke my heart by sending me on the morning of her funeral some flowers and a note—he had just heard I was there. Ella Young spoke at the service most beautifully, they say, the main speaker was a fellow-Bahaist of Molly’s. Molly’s sister, Mrs Pine, from Terre Haute, came out & was ♦ with her the last two weeks. I am afraid Molly suffered terribly. It was cancer of the stomach which had encroached upon the liver (before she went to the specialist it had been diagnosed as jaundice). She had some prejudice against opiates until the very last. Mrs. Pine is here with John. It is unfortunate that John & Molly paidhad taken {leased} that big gloomy house in Pebble B— for five years & put a lot of money into altering it. The lease has still {nearly} 3 years to run. He can’t possibly live there. (For Blanche. —You met that cultured & extremely witty Catholic cleric Monsignor O’Dwyer4 of Washington, D. C.? What do you think that

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understanding man brought me in hospital Not a lily, not a tract. A grand bottle of Bourbon!) I sent a list of people to Random House from hospital to send books to as I would not be home to get them written in & rewrap them. I do not know whether they put author’s card in. I named you, & Blanche, in your care. Did they arrive & do you mind asking Sweeney whether theirs came. Margaret Ingalls was in automobile accident. I think she escaped with little injury. Two people with her fared worse, one had broken breast bone. I think their car turned over twice at foot of her hill where sharp bend & white fence are. Devoted love as always,5 Una. Did Donnan tell you Claire Spencer’s daughter “Sister”6 was maid of honor7 Please give this letter to Blanche.8 Noël gave us dinner party on wedding night to console us. Champagne, bride’s cake, orange blossoms, bridal motif place cards etc & Langston wrote a special poem for us us. very nice!9 I will mail you some papers soon. I hate portrait of Robin. So vague.10 ALS. Yale. 6 pages. Postmark: October 26, 1941. 1. Donnan and Patty honeymooned in New York City. 2. Possibly an attorney involved in Edwards v. People of the State of California, the only case scheduled for a hearing by the Supreme Court Tuesday, October 21. 3. Mollie O’Shea died October 7, 1941 at age fifty-five. 4. Msgr. David T. O’Dwyer (1878–1944) began his career as a parish priest in Denver, Colorado. In 1927 he was appointed assistant chancellor (or procurator) of the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C. From 1933 to 1940 he was the director of Washington’s National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Roman Catholic church in the United States. Upon retirement, he moved to Carmel. Una mentions O’Dwyer in an essay about a Palestrina concert at the Carmel Mission. See Una Jeffers, “Music in the Mission,” Carmel Pine Cone (August 29, 1941): 4. 5. The closing and signature are written vertically in the right margin, last page. 6. Patricia Waterman (Smith) Ballantine Smith (1923–2002), a sculptor, studied at the Art Students League in New York. She later lived with her husband Peter Smith in Corrales,

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New Mexico, where she was a founding member of the Corrales Art Association, the Bosque ­Gallery, and other cultural institutions. 7. Written in top right corner, first page. 8. Written in top right margin, first page. 9. Written vertically in left margin, first page. 10. Written vertically in right margin, first page.

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California October 28. 1941 Dear Judith: Yes indeed, if you can put the idea over about matinees of “The Tower”! Meantime Robin’s new book is out—“Be angry at the Sun.” The second thing in the book is a short masque which I believe would play wonderfully. This morning we had a letter from Martin Flavin from Hollywood saying “‘The Bowl of Blood’ is great, & I think it would play beautifully. It seems to me if they could put it on a few times as a curtain-raiser to Macbeth it would be an interesting experiment at practically no expense & Evans could play Hitler himself. I advise you to have someone in N. Y. make the suggestion to Anderson. I would gladly write her myself, but I know her very slightly & perhaps there is someone you would rather have do so. —I think it would be highly effective” ♦ Perhaps you are so busy & absorbed with Macbeth that you won’t feel like giving your mind to it. I just now had a leaflet in the mail about your Macbeth Nov 13th for the Art Workshop.1 We have our trials & excitements, too. Robin & I started to fly to Donnan’s wedding in Ohio. Our plane was grounded at Salt Lake City {(Storms!)}—& after waiting vainly for 24 hrs. for to take the air we reluctantly gave up & returned home. We all wish we could be there for Macbeth. Affectionate greetings from us both. Yours, Una. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. With Maurice Evans in the title role, Anderson starred as Lady Macbeth in a wellreceived Broadway production of Macbeth. The play opened at the National Theatre November 11, 1941 and closed February 28, 1942. The November 13 performance benefited the Art Workshop of the Rivington Neighborhood Association.

RJ to Selden Rodman 1941 OCT 29 SELDON RODMAN 315 FOURTH AVE NYK SORRY NO. AM WRITING TARDY JUST RETURNED HOME FROM EAST— ROBINSON JEFFERS. Tlg. Wyoming.

UJ to John O’Shea Tor House. Carmel October 29. 1941 Dearest John:1 We are thinking of you every day. We have been thinking that you might like to walk with Robin someday in the cañons or over the ridges. A beautiful landscape or even a stark tragic one like the burned regions around Mill Creek, has so much of healing in it. We are going, —perhaps, on Sunday down to Bakersfield with Lloyd & Lee to spend a few days. (Chiefly to see Garth who is managing the mill at the mine 70 miles from there & expects to be snowed-in soon.) When we return perhaps you might send Robin a line if you ever feel like the walk. Best love from us both. Una. Donnan’s new mother-in-law Ethel Curphey 2 told him she knew you in Tucson. I don’t know when. Her maiden name was Weller.3 Her first husband Grant.4 Remember her?

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ALS. Stanford. 1 page. 1. After his wife Mollie died, John O’Shea (1876–1956) remained in their Pebble Beach home for another year. Late in 1942 he leased a home in the Carmel Highlands, where he and Mollie had previously lived, and in 1946 he moved to a cottage in Carmel. O’Shea continued to paint and participate in Carmel Art Association activities, but his own declining health soon ended his career. For additional information, see John O’Shea and Friends (Carmel, Calif.: Carmel Art Association, 1993). See also Collected Letters 1: 720. 2. Ethel Elizabeth (Weller) Grant Curphey (1898–1992). In 1935 Ethel married William M. Curphey (1896–1979), an engineer, real estate developer, and vice president of S. A. Weller, Inc. 3. Ethel was the daughter of Samuel Augustus Weller (1851–1925) and Herminnie “Minnie” (Pickens) Weller (1862–1954). Samuel founded the Weller Pottery Company, later S. A. Weller, Inc., one of the largest producers of ceramic ware in Ohio. At the beginning of his career, Weller manufactured jars, jugs, tiles, and other utility items, but he eventually expanded his business to include jardinieres, vases, and other decorative goods. Popular lines of art pottery made and marketed by his firm included Lonhuda (after Weller purchased the Lonhuda Pottery Company in 1895), Louwelsa, Eocean, Dickens, Sicard, Woodcraft, Coppertone, and Hudson. Weller was also a major real estate investor in Zanesville and a director of the Old Citizens National Bank. He and Minnie lived in a 22-room mansion on Sixth and Market Streets. 4. Frederic James Grant, Jr. (1895–1982), a ceramics engineer who graduated from Yale University in 1917, married Ethel Weller in 1921. In 1932, having worked at S. A. Weller for over a decade, he was promoted from vice president to president. He resigned soon after, when he and Ethel divorced. In 1933 Grant married Mary Kubischta, an art director and design specialist, and moved to California. The following year he was named vice president and plant manager at Gladding, McBean & Co., a Los Angeles ceramics manufacturing firm.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California October 31. 1931. [1941]1 Dearest Blanche: I sent a long letter {to Maud}, also a Cymbal with other clippings to pass on to you. This is an addendum. I meant in the letter to speak of Virginia Woolf ’s last book “Between the Acts.”2 I was tremendously interested, & her suicide, committed before she had even revised proofs, makes it more poignant. It is short—it takes place in one day. It is

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

completely disillusioned & cynical but not bitter—it is as if she said—“we can’t do a thing about it—life’s that way.” Melancholy refrain from gramophone at end, a sort of theme song “—dispersed are we, — dispersed—are—we.” Sorry—I hate to see crooked writing. I’m writing on my lap by the fire & my lapboard slips.3 I heard an appalling story about her madness from the Roberts ♦ I knew even before we went to her house in 1929 that she had recurrent spells of it but never knew more. She is supposed long ago to have killed her baby while delirious from puerperal fever. Ghastly. One remembers Mary Lamb who killed her mother with the butcher knife—and her long years after of intermittent insanity— she would go & get her straight-? {s strait-?} jacket & she & Charles start away to the mad-house when she felt it coming on!4 In her farewell letter to her husband V. W. said she felt her madness coming on again. Thanks for the clippings none of which I’d seen. Your advice {advice} about Mabel is sound. I cant imagine ever being fond of her again, or forgetting to be wary. She cannot resist using her “power” whenever she can do it. She warns you in her books! Notice in the clippings that Claire Spencer’s daughter Pat Smith was bridemaid of honor at Donnan’s wedding ♦ in Burgundy velvet. She must have looked beautiful. I had only a happy telegram from Donnan from N. Y. C. so I do not know whether you saw them. Judith Anderson writes me from The Gotham. Martin Flavin wrote a tremendously enthusiastic letter to us about “The Bowl of Blood” in Robin’s new book. He thinks it would play marvellously & wants Anderson & Maurice Evans to put it on as a curtain raiser. We didn’t have time to see the Kingsley Porter memorial at the Fogg. Tell me about it. Lucy Porter had the curator Mr. Forbes & his wife5 to luncheon for us & that was interesting. He is Emerson’s grandson & gets himself up to accentuate his resemblance to him. I heard awhile ago that John Evans had gone to Spain & France for “Look.” A little later I heard he was home with a nervous breakdown. I know nothing further. When I talked to John over the phone from Albuquerque last Feb. he was in a state of ♦ great excitement. They were packing to leave Taos. They had a row with Mabel.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Yes it was terrible to have Donnan leave. I sometimes think no parents ever had so completely happy a time bringing up their children. When we began to pack Donnan’s things for a completely divergent life, I felt as if my heart would burst—yet I want them {the boys} to marry & Donnan’s letters sound both happy & purposeful Garth is for the present managing Lloyd Tevis’ mill at his gold mine {mine} 70 mi. {in mts.} from Bakersfield. Robin & I are going down to Bak— with the Tevises on Sunday for a week & will go up to see him. A letter I had from him this morning says, if you’ll excuse him,— “The hill-folks up here are a picturesque immoral bunch of bastards, and would look quite at home in some of the old man’s verse.” We were glad to receive Timmie’s letter sent to Zanesville. Alas, poor Annie! Devoted love, Una. To Russell, too!6 I have letters from Patty’s mother & grandmother praising Donnan! They have been wonderfully cordial to him.7 Please give to Maud.8 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Una accidentally writes 1931 instead of 1941. 2. Virginia Woolf, Between the Acts (London: Hogarth Press, 1941; New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1941). 3. Una describes her lapboard in a January 29, 1934 letter to Lawrence Clark Powell (ALS Occidental), not used in this edition: “I am sorry this letter looks so untidy. I write on my lapboard as I dry my hair. I must confess that years ago under the spell of George Meredith I had a lapboard made like his of teak wood. Its heavy as lead and most impractical but I love it.” George Meredith (1828–1909), British novelist and poet, was the author of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), Beauchamp’s Career (1876), Diana of the Crossways (1885), and many other books. 4. Mary Anne Lamb (1764–1847) and her brother Charles Lamb (1775–1834) were living in cramped quarters with their debilitated parents when, one day in September 1796, Mary set down her needlework, seized a table knife, and stabbed her mother in the heart. Mary was judged insane, but because her mental illness was episodic she was released to her brother, who assumed lifelong responsibility for her care. Despite periodic relapses that required hospitalization, Mary became a gifted writer of children’s literature. She collaborated with her brother on Tales from Shakespeare (1807), Mrs. Leicester’s School (1809), and other works. Charles, a poet and

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

writer whose friends included Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, achieved popular success as the author of Essays of Elia (1823–1833). 5. Margaret (Laighton) Forbes (1885–1966) was an artist, gardener, and homemaker. 6. The closing, signature, and additional greeting are written vertically in the left margin, page 4. 7. Written vertically in left margin, page 1. 8. Written in top margin, page 1.

RJ to Blanche Matthias [Autumn 1941]1 Dearest Blanche: Here are three small pieces of verse that I left out of the book. Two were omitted because they were not good enough poetry; the last be because it was written too late to be included. —Love, Robin. THE OLD GENTLEMEN2 (May, 1941) Wagging their hoary heads, glaring through their bright spectacles, The old gentlemen yell for war, while youth Surprised, unwilling, compliant, watches them. This is not normal But really ominous. It is good comedy, But for a coming time it means mischief. The boys have memories. That famous revolution the false Prophets have been prophesying now becomes possible here. THE MEDDLERS3 (June, 1941) We are bound to meddle in the world’s woe, And bloody act follows fine phrase, But the cant of twenty-five years ago Is partly cancelled by to-day’s; The insanity that bit the fathers once LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Is partly reversed upon the sons. In this dark pain, in this fog of liars, Still there’s a devilish delight In thinking of the first American fliers Saluting France through a bomb sight, Dropping the blast, banking the plane, Saying, “Lafayette, here we are again.” NEXT ARMISTICE DAY4 Finally in white innocence The fighter planes like swallows dance, The bombers above ruined towns Will drop wreaths of roses down, Doves will nest in the guns’ throats, And the people dance in the streets, Whistles will bawl and bells will clang, On that great day the boys will hang Hitler and Roosevelt on one tree,— Painlessly, in effigy, To take their rank in history,— Roosevelt, Hitler, and Guy Fawkes Hanged above the garden walks,— While the happy children cheer, Without hate, without fear, And new men plot a new war. TL. Huntington. 1 page. 1. This letter is undated, but it was most likely sent in the same envelope with Una’s October 31 letter to Blanche. 2. A version of this poem, with different wording in some places and without the last two lines, is titled “Miching Mallecho” in Collected Poetry 3: 108. For a discussion of the poem, see Collected Poetry 5: 688–689. 3. This poem is not included among Jeffers’ published poems in the Collected Poetry, but information about it is provided in Collected Poetry 5: 689. 4. With slight changes in punctuation, “Next Armistice Day” (composed in June 1941),

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

is published as “Fantasy” in Collected Poetry 3: 109. Textual issues are examined in Collected Poetry 5: 689–690.

RJ to Selden Rodman Bakersfield—November [1941]1 (But the address is Tor House, Carmel) Dear Selden Rodman: Certainly I admired Fleming McLiesh’s poem in your anthology;2 but I know nothing else of his work, and I do not know the man, and cannot appraise him nor speak for him. Also I seem to be committed to another poet for this year’s crop of scholarships.3 But I should be very glad if McLiesh can find some luck when he needs it. Your poem about T. E. Lawrence4 is greatly conceived and admirable; its one misfortune is that it has Lawrence’s very articulate and more personal prose to compete with; —and your poem about Flight5—excellently wrought, and an orbit as wide as a planet’s—too spacious perhaps for epic unity. Homer didn’t describe the war at Troy, but a short arc of it; and I think as you grow older you will condense your splendid powers and scope. This is not advice but expectation. —The anthology is fine too.6 Sometime I hope to send a poem to Common Sense,7 but at the moment there is nothing finished that has not been published. I’d be very happy if you should appear in Carmel someday, as Samuel Barber did.8 Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers ALS. Wyoming. 1 page. 1. Both Jeffers’ original letter and a typed copy are burned around the edges. Words missing from these documents are gleaned from Ann Ridgeway’s Selected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, which was published before the damage occurred. 2. Archibald Fleming MacLiesh (1911–1973), a poet and writer, tried to differentiate himself from poet Archibald MacLeish by publishing as Archibald Fleming, A. Fleming Mac­ Liesh, and Fleming MacLiesh. He was the author of The Destroyers (1942), Cone of Silence (1944), The Eye of the Kite (1952), and other books. Rodman’s A New Anthology of Modern Poetry (1938) contains excerpts from two poems by

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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MacLiesh (as Archibald Fleming), The Jungle and The Destroyers. 3. Oscar Williams had already asked Jeffers to support his application for a Guggenheim Fellowship. See Jeffers’ letter to Williams, September 29, 1941. 4. Selden Rodman, Lawrence: The Last Crusade (New York: Viking, 1937). 5. Selden Rodman, The Airmen (New York: Random House, 1941). Subtitled “A Poem in Four Parts,” the book offers an extended meditation on the dream of flight from the ancient to the modern world, with sections on Icarus, Leonardo da Vinci, the Wright brothers, and Lauro de Bosis. 6. Selden Rodman, The Poetry of Flight: An Anthology (New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1941). In this book, Rodman gathers poems and prose selections about real or imagined flight, featuring works by Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Goethe, Whitman, Jeffers, Faulkner, and other authors. Jeffers is represented by “The Caged Eagle’s Death Dream” (from Cawdor), pages 77–80. 7. Common Sense, a non-partisan political journal founded by Rodman, Alfred Bingham, and C. C. Nicolet, was published from 1932 to 1946. 8. Samuel Barber (1910–1981), Pulitzer Prize–winning composer of Adagio for Strings (1938) and other familiar works, and his partner Gian Carlo Menotti (1911–2007), also a Pulitzer Prize–winning composer, spent a month in Carmel during the summer of 1941. “Dear fellows both,” Una says in an undated letter to Frederick and Maud Clapp (ALF Yale), not used in this edition. “Barber had a lovely alluringly velvety baritone & sang for us simply & often. We had fun.” A chatty letter from Barber to Una, dated December 5, 1941 (ALS HRC Texas), is infused with the spirit of friendship.

UJ to Oscar Williams Tor House. Carmel. California Nov 13. 1941 Dear Mr. Williams: We have been away from home & no mail forwarded, so this tardy answer. My husband regrets that he can not serve on the board of editors for your proposed anthology. He really has not the time for any work beyond what he has in hand, or planned. Very sincerely Una Jeffers ALS. Indiana. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California November 17. 1941 Dearest Melba: I sent Phoebe a letter yesterday & a paper which more or less caught up with our news, —and asked her to send them on to you. I cannot get my desk cleared to have any fun with letters yet. —I have just reread your letter for any questions. Donnan’s wife’s family have for several generations owned china & pottery works in Zanesville, O. Donnan is passing now through different parts of the works at a fair & increasing salary with the idea of ultimately being ♦ one of the firm. —He seems very happy & Robin and I hope he will settle down presently to his writing again. You asked about a present. I wonder how a wooden salad bowl would be, if you still are in doubt. I shall send you soon a picture taken at the cocktail party in N. Y. which Esther Busby (our hostess there) and Blanche Matthias gave for us. It has lain here in the desk for a long time. (The Clapps are in it & Tony Luhan & Esther) Also some papers & clippings which I saved ♦ for you about the “Tower beyond T—” production. Did I tell you about the very charming Dr & Mrs. John Kelso1 who were here for several months this summer. He knew Robin’s father, Belle-Mère & Robin & Hamilton in Leipszig in 1897! Dr Kelso {now retired} has been a prof. of Fine Arts—before that he & she were both profs. of Greek. They are dear people—he very handsome, she a great Jeffers’ enthusiast. You would find information about R’s family from him. Their address—if you are ever down in La Jolla, is, 438 Ravina St. They were full of talk about “Breezy Nest” the wee ♦ house Robin & I rented there in 1913–early 1914 from Mr Lieber2 who remembers us & talked to them of our stay there. Hamilton J. has been called to Boston Tech by gov’t for some defense work & flew his plane there.3 Was your party fun? How is Fran? Do you like “Be Angry —” Dear love from Una 4 Do not return A. R. letter Some autographs.5 I believe E. A. Robinson is rare.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. HRC Texas. 4 pages. 1. John Bolton Kelso (1875–1950) and Florence Kellogg (Root) Kelso (1885–1963). John Kelso received a Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig in 1901. During the years 1911 to 1932, he was a classics professor and a dean at the College of Wooster. He later taught art history at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Florence Kelso, a president of the National Association of Deans of Women, graduated from Smith College. She, too, was a classics professor and a dean at the College of Wooster. James Anderson Kelso (1873–1951), John Kelso’s brother, also received a Ph.D. from the University of Leipzig. From 1897 to 1900 he was an instructor of Hebrew and Old Testament literature at Western Theological Seminary, where Jeffers’ father taught. Kelso was appointed to a professorship in 1901 and led the institution as president from 1908 to 1943. His “Eulogy on the Death of Rev. William Hamilton Jeffers” was adopted into the November 16, 1915 minutes of the board of directors of the seminary. A text of the eulogy can be found in the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 43 (December 1975): 6–11. 2. Walter Scott Lieber (1859–1945), a La Jolla real estate broker. 3. With the formation of the National Defense Research Committee in 1940 and the Office of Scientific Research and Development in 1941, the United States embarked upon an ambitious effort to develop new instruments and weapons of warfare. Scientists from all over the country were recruited to work on key projects, such as guided missiles, explosives, structural defense and offense, radar, sonar, and the atomic bomb. Hamilton Jeffers took an extended leave of absence from his position at Lick Observatory to join the burgeoning research team at the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Early and urgent projects included the development of airborne radar sets for night fighters, precision aiming (gun-laying) systems for air and ground artillery, and a long-range navigational device, later called LORAN. 4. A November 14, 1941 letter (ALS HRC Texas) from Alice Robinson (Cousin Alice) to Una and Robinson is enclosed. Alice thanks them for sending her a copy of Be Angry at the Sun, a book she found “sympathetic—and strengthening, and calming, though whether Robin intended that latter effect is doubtful.” 5. The autographs are missing.

UJ to Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California November 21, 1941 Dearest Maud— Thanks so much for the booklet about the Flora of the Unicorn Tapestries.1 It completes & amplifies the magazine {article of 1938.} I 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

am so glad to have it. You sent me the 1938 one, do you remember by Mrs Marquand.2 It was a great experience for me—to see them (the tapestries). This is just a note to thank you also for the lovely things you did for Donnan & Patty. They were very grateful. You may well imagine how much I think about their marriage & new life together. I was very sceptical about the chances for their happiness at first but feel more & more reassured. I dont know, though, whether her wilful & selfish nature will allow or bring out the most important developments in Donnan. Who can tell— ♦ Robin and I think Donnan has {a} rare talent for writing but if he develops as slowly as Robin did he would need careful tending for years! Maybe quiet household virtues are the most important anyway. I often feel as if I’d seen more than enough Workers-in-the-Arts. Donnan is one of the most charming & even-minded companions. This is the third day of cold weather here—we think colder than any former Thanksgiving. Its very invigortating invigorating. We had a wonderful dinner at Noëls yesterday. Noël, we, George Sebastian & Woodruff & Ben Lehman. Somehow we were all very gay. We have planned to take our lunch down the coast tomorrow to the cove at the foot of Partington Cañon—a little rocky place {inlet} ♦ with a tunnel {through steep cliffs} & iron rings in the rocks to anchor {the} little boats long ago which came in to take out loads of tan bark. We have never been down to this cove for {but once & that} years {ago} for it has been closed by a locked gate at the road level. Now the gate has caved in. On Sunday we expect to ride horseback back to the back ranch at Palo Corona with the Fishes. Week before last we spent with the Tevises at their old run-down family estate Stockdale near Bakersfield. We had fun. Garth came down from the mine for the week. Young Lloyd came from his work in zoology at U. C. Reservation. Maj Morgan completed the party. Dickie Tevis left from New York at that time with a corps of ambulance drivers for African service. Dear love to you & Timmie Una. ALS. Yale. 3 pages.

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1. E. J. Alexander and Carol H. Woodward, The Flora of the Unicorn Tapestries (New York: New York Botanical Garden, 1941); reprinted from the Journal of the New York Botanical Garden 42 (May–June 1941): 105–122. 2. Eleanor C. Marquand, “Plant Symbolism in the Unicorn Tapestries,” Parnassus 10 (October 1938): 2–8, 33, 40; also published as a booklet by the College Art Association (1938). Eleanor Cross Marquand (1873–1949) was the wife of Allan Marquand (1853–1924), founder of the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University.

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California November 24. 1941 Dear Saxe: I wrote the office of Poetry Magazine about the copyright assignments. I hope they have sent them. I must confess I only now got the letter off. I had to be in S. F. hospital for a slight operation & found such piles of letters when I came home as left me helpless. We have not rec’d any author’s copies of {the special edition} “Be Angry at the Sun,” are they available yet? Affectionate greetings from us both. Una. At the bottom of their note sent with check is this sentence “It is understood that in reprinting these poems, either in a book of your verse or in anthologies, credit will be given to Poetry Mag.” Do they think that covers the situation? ALS. Columbia. 1 page.

UJ to Cyril Clemens Tor House. Carmel. California November 25, 1941 Dear Mr. Clemens: Thanks very much for the Housman memorial1 which we read with interest. No I do not think Jeffers was influenced by Housman either in philosophy 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

or form, for curiously enough, I have always accused him of having rather a blind spot about Housman. I am so tremendously fond of the Lad 2 and I’ve felt my husband rather luke-warm & even unaware of its content for he ♦ once denied that there was much bitterness & irony in it! He thanks you sincerely for the Crashaw.3 It has been pleasant reading. Faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Probably a copy of the “A. E. Housman Memorial Number” published by Clemens in the Mark Twain Quarterly (Winter 1936): 1–22. Jeffers was asked to contribute something to the memorial, but the brief paragraph he sent was not included. See RJ to Cyril Clemens, November, 1936 (Collected Letters 2: 624). 2. A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad (London: Kegan Paul, 1896). 3. Probably a book by or about the English poet Richard Crashaw (ca. 1612–1649).

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California December 4. 1941 Dear Saxe— Thanks so much—the copies of limited edition of “Be angry at the Sun” came today. We think they are beautifully gotten up. Thanks to all the people in the office who worked on both editions! Please say to Bennett that of course Robin will gladly autograph the copies for the Argus Book-Shop’s clients. Love to you both from Robin and Una. ALS. Columbia. 1 page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan Tor House. Carmel. California December 11. 1941 Dearest Mabel: A charming little Madonna arrived from you yesterday but as there was a slip inside addressed to Sonija,1 I dont know whether she is intended for me or should be sent on to Sonja. Please send me word. We are having a very interesting time with blackouts and alarms.2 Most people behave very coolly but enough are hysterical to make plenty of excitement. It is really very thrilling to walk around the Point at night and not see a pinpoint of light anywhere even in Pebble Beach. We have our guns loaded, daggers at hand, & required shovel, rake, pick axe, {&} sand prepared, and sit cozy & snug inside our shuttered windows. Oh and I have one weapon ♦ forbidden by law, a brass knuckles, given me by that wildly exciting woman, Hilda Vaughn who was the extraordinary Cassandra in The Tower beyond Tragedy. She is a whole career by herself. Garth is in a mine 70 miles in the mts. above Bakersfield—a gold mine the Tevises are trying to reopen. Garth has charge of the ore reduction mill. It is very wild & remote country. We were there a month ago. The Tevis family are living at Stockdale their old family estate (much run down) but they live as gay as larks. We are invited down for Christmas. Haven’t decided. For twelve years we have had Christmas dinner at their house with Lee’s mother as hostess, and all four of our boys there. Now Dick has left for Africa with an ambulance corps, young ♦ {Lloyd} is working on a Zoölogical Fellowship. Donnan married & Garth in the mine. I suppose Garth & Lloyd will be in the army before long. I think I sent you a paper with an account of Donnan’s wedding. The Clapps, Matthias, Elsie Arden, Esther Busby of Hampshire House all gave Donnan & bride a whirl in N. Y. Esther met Pat Smith through them & introduced her son Jack to Pat & they seem to have formed a friendship. Now ists Sunday Dec 14. Terrific rain storm & monstrous waves. We are starting off up to Noëls. Lloyd & Lee were here yesterday & we promised to go down to Bakersfield Dec. 23. Part of Carmel was evacuated the other

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

night but the order was countermanded before it reached us. It would be hell for us to abandon our house & bantams & everything. I found a compositon by Donnan the other day written in 1925—with his own fantastic spelling about the first bantams. All friendly greetings for Christmas & the New Year. Una. ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. Probably Sonya Levien. 2. Japan’s December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor—“a date which will live in infamy,” as President Roosevelt described it—shocked the United States. Nearly 4,000 Americans were killed or wounded during the assault on the Hawaii naval base, and over 200 planes and ships were lost. In his speech before Congress December 8, Roosevelt called for and obtained a declaration of war. “Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us,” Roosevelt said. “No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.” Three days later, in fulfillment of their obligation to Japan as a result of the Tripartite Pact, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. On the same day, Roosevelt sent the following message to Congress: “On the morning of December 11 the Government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States. The long known and the long expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere. Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty, and civilization. Delay invites greater danger. Rapid and united effort by all the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will insure a world victory of the forces of justice and righteousness over the forces of savagery and barbarism. Italy has also declared war against the United States. I therefore request the Congress to recognize a state of war between the United States and Germany and between the United States and Italy.” Congress complied with the president’s request, and World War II had officially begun. Prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, residents of the Monterey Peninsula were told they lived in “the sixth most dangerous [place] in the United States”—Carmel Pine Cone (September 5, 1941): 15. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Californians all along the coast braced for a possible invasion. Beaches were lined with barbed wire, blackouts were imposed, homes and businesses were barricaded with sandbags, and around-the-clock sentries searched the sea and sky for signs of the enemy.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Henry W. Wells Tor House, Carmel, California. December 14, 1941. Dear Mr. Wells: Thank you very much for your letter about my recent verses. I am late in answering, but not from lack of appreciation; only because I am a bad letterwriter. I don’t in the mornings and can’t in the evenings, and this is the first heavily rainy afternoon this season. Yes, I read “New Poets from Old”1 with interest and enjoyment, and mostly agreement, so far as my knowledge reaches. It is a fine subject, and you have the scope to deal with it. The humor also. I liked the passage about a California poet “striding morosely over the hills with a copy of Aeschylus in one hand and a shilling shocker in the other.” This is paraphrased from memory, and of course incorrectly, but the picture pleased me. So did the book.2 You are quite right about cultivating one’s garden. Ours is rocky and sea-salted, but the rock is fairly sane. Someone said the other day, looking at these misty promontories and ocean, “Why can’t people be like that?” The answer, of course, (which ♦ I did not give) is that the earth too has its periods of convulsion; there is an extinct volcano-throat half a mile from here; and people have their periods of repose. Selfishly, one likes these little excitements; it is only if you let your sympathies go—which one ought to do, according to endurance. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. Henry W. Wells, New Poets from Old: A Study in Literary Genetics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1940). 2. In New Poets from Old, Wells says, “Jeffers acknowledges and presumably feels fewer debts to English poetry than any contemporary writer of equal magnitude. Striding somewhat morosely over his California headlands with a Greek tragedy in one hand and an American dime novel in the other, he admits comparatively few literary companions” (p. 179).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Despite this claim, Wells finds ample evidence of tradition in Jeffers’ verse. In a section that focuses primarily on Jeffers’ tragic vision, Wells identifies medieval, Shakespearean, and Romantic influences. He concludes by saying, “It is certain that his art has a more generic relation to the great age of the poetical drama in England, from the medieval mystery plays to the last works of the Jacobean school, than to any other chapter in English literary history. More than any other nondramatic poet, he shows the power of Elizabethan drama to mold contemporary poetry” (p. 229).

UJ to Noël Sullivan [December 16, 1941] Tor House. Carmel Tuesday Dearest Noël— These are sad days for you. I found out from Eulah1 that your sister’s condition is very serious.2 Robin and I think of you constantly & love you always. I fear that before this coming year is over that personal sorrow—as well as the sense of world tragedy {that constant background!} will come to very many of us & our friends. Devotedly Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: December 16, 1941. 1. Eulah Pharr, Noël’s housekeeper. 2. Noël’s sister Alyce (Sullivan) Murphy was gravely ill with abdominal cancer.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1.  Robinson Jeffers Tor House, 1940 (opposite, in Una’s handwriting: “A millstone I brought from Taos, New Mexico. There are many down there.”) 

2.  Una Jeffers Tor House, ca. 1940 Photograph by Horace D. Lyon

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3.  Robinson with Noël Sullivan Lecture tour, 1941

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4.  Robinson and Una Library of Congress, 1941

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5.  Gala and Salvador Dalí Dalí party, Del Monte Hotel, 1941

6.  Dalí party, Del Monte Hotel, 1941 

7.  Robinson and Una Dalí party, Del Monte Hotel, 1941

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8.  Una and dog Winnie Tor House, 1940 Photograph by John Frederick Stanton

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9.  Donnan and Garth Jeffers, Robinson, and Winnie Tor House, 1941

10.  Garth Monterey Presidio, 1942

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11.  Holograph letter from Una to Bennett Cerf June 30, 1942 

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12.  Robinson Jeffers New York, 1941 Photograph by Clara E. Sipprell

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13.  Sundown, the Pacific, Carmel Highlands, California, 1946 Photograph by Ansel Adams

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UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel New Years Day 1942 Dearest Melba: My toast last night: May we be staunch and resourceful this year, {and} as Ruthless as Necessary! {Dinner & until after midnight at Noëls.} Thank you so for the BEAUTIFUL woolen blanket, with its little signature at the corner—Avoca Weavers and the little donkey & cart! Do you remember Avoca is the place of the meeting of the waters, in County Wicklow? We are not likely to see any more such fine blankets for a long time to come. And the wonderful fruit. I divided the dates with our friend George Sebastian, here waiting until its possible for him to get back to his great place in Tunisia. He is always talking about the marvellous dates there on the edge of the Sahara. I have him silenced. We spent Tu. to Sat. Christmas week with the ♦ Tevises at their place “Stockdale” near Bakersfield & managed to have a very pleasant time although Dick Tevis & Donnan were not there & her mother, Mrs. Girvin has died during this last year.1 They had been without news of Dick since he left for Africa with a British Ambulance Unit, but a cablegram came from a relative at Capetown just after Christmas which put them at ease. Garth managed to get down from the gold mine —the road is terrible but couldn’t get back for the time being because of deep snow. Makes me shudder, he is hauling back up the mt. a load of dynamite & drums of gasoline. O, will we ever be quiet & easy again. A sorority sister of mine in San Jose had a young son at Wake Island. No news of him, of course. The weather was very wild all the week, but we gathered bushels of mushrooms at intervals & ♦ ate them too. Winnie went with us, of course, & had great romps with their Irish setter. Winnie weighs 65 lbs. now! We’ve had much excitement here & arrangements for blackouts & so on. People mostly behaved very well, a few hysterics. Soldiers + citizen airwardens patrol & watch every foot of this coast, day & night.2 Donnan told in his last letter of an interesting bomb shelter in his town— probably never to be used but all ready anyway, —the big cellars & ¼ mi.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

long subterranean passage from them to the river, which used {used} before the Civil War to be a principal refuge of that region for slaves escaping from the south to Canada {via “Underground Railway”}. The cellars are under a big old house of a friend of theirs, a house in which the first meeting of the Ohio legislature was held. Donnan says you sent them a marvellous salad bowl & tools. I hope ♦ they have written you how much they like it. I had a tiny very conventional Christmas card from S. Alberts! The first word since the bitter maniacal one of two Christmases (or more) ago. On the envelope was the address (56 Berkeley Ave, Yonkers) that I gave you. What exactly did you say {report}—did you try to phone him? Was there any response? I mean to write him after a bit. We think he may have had a nervous breakdown & been in a sanatorium. He was much wrought up about the war & world conditions & the persecution of Jews. We see Ellis Roberts often—the English journalist. He & his wife3 live close by. Most amusing man—knows everybody that I am interested in, in England. I liked Virginia Woolf ’s “Between the Acts.” Perhaps her suicide even before the publishing of the book makes it seem more poignant. Charles Morgan may visit the Roberts soon. Did I send you a photograph of us, the Clapps, Tony & Esther Busby in N. Y. Thanks again for the wonderful Christmas presents.4 Devotedly, Una. ALS. HRC Texas. 4 pages. 1. Lee Tevis’s mother, Margaret Girvin, died January 16, 1941. 2. In late December 1941, nine Japanese submarines reached the west coast of the United States with orders to attack merchant ships and to launch a coordinated assault on cities and lighthouses at midnight on Christmas Eve. The latter plan was abandoned, but before returning to their base in the Marshall Islands the submarines attacked eight American ships, including two off Monterey Bay—the SS Agwiworld on December 20 and the SS Dorothy Phillips on December 24. 3. Harriet Ide Keen Roberts (1885–1971), the daughter of Herbert and Elizabeth Keen of Philadelphia, was raised in the United States and England. She was the author of Nana: A Memory of an Old Nurse (London: Macmillan, 1936), the story of her family’s beloved Irish servant and nursemaid. 4. This sentence, closing, and signature are written vertically in left margin. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California. New Years Day 1942 Darling Maud: Such heavenly fragrance—thank you with all my heart. I have here by my desk a wonderful glass bowl in which I had {only} some dried rose leaves— until your gift came—now all mingled & I sift them through my fingers when I come into the room, remembering old Lord Sackville—alas, my hands are not sensitive & aristocratic like his—when he was taking Robin and me all over SackKnole Park—there were many bowls of potpourri in the various rooms & he always sifted the leaves through his fingers as we talked. I suppose everyone thought earnestly about himself and his surroundings last night—where were you? We were at Noëls, just we & George Sebastian ♦ and GWoodruff & Mr & Mrs. Dwight Morrow, Jr.1 (he is Anne Lindbergh’s brother) D. M. is not very thrilling, but {has} a very attractive wife. My toast, may be {we} all be staunch & recourceful & ruthless as need be! Oh, I mentioned a glass bowl. It is old Waterford glass—precious—given me by a rich & eccentric young man Alex Tiers (—ask Blanche)— it doesnt look very beautiful but it rings if touched like a fine old Chinese gong, on— on—on. We spent Christmas week with the Tevises at their old (very much rundown) family estate Stockdale, near Bakersfield. Garth managed to get down from the mine over a dreadful mt. road. I dont know when he will be able to get back up there, for many inches of snow fell & the mt. road got completely impassible. I feel sick all over when I think ♦ of his trip back with a truck load of boxes of dynamite & drums of dynamite {gasoline}. A letter from Donnan speaks of such a beautiful bowl from you that they feel stunned when they look at it & realize it belongs to them. Donnan told us of a big tea-party given them by someone nearby who lives in an interesting old house in which was held the first meeting of the Ohio legislature. But, —underneath the house are big cellars, and a {subterranean} passageway ¾ mi. long to the river, —the principal refuge {before the Civil War} in that region for the slaves escaping from the South

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

to Canda via the “underground railway.” Now they are arranging it for an air-raid shelter—not likely to be needed, but just fit. Did I tell you that the {garage of the} house just near your land at Carmel Highlands shelters nine soldiers who are on guard day & night watching sea & sky—& with ♦ them numerous Highlands citizens watching, two at a time, the clock around. We drove up there one night just after dark, when Martin Flavin was on guard. There were no Japs, but the wind & sea & clouds were thrillingly wild, grass {rustling}. We had a copy of Sweeney’s book about Juan Miro.2 It is hard for me to find great pleasure in his kind of painting but Sweeney’s comments were most interesting and convincing—only I really don’t thrill to Miro.3 We really do not expect trouble from the Japs right here, although we’ve had blackouts & scares & even a partial evacuation one night. I got excited & mad at 3:30 night before last, I thought that someone, —possibly soldiers, were using flashlights around our house, then I was mad when I thought I heard whistlings. I called Robin &—then discovered it ♦ was lightning & the cocks were awake & crowing, butbut the sea was so loud it drowned part of their tune. Now I must stop. Work. We send our love always. Devotedly Una. Please give this to Blanche & I’ll write her in a day or so I had a card from Brian & Meta4 saying they would call here Dec 30—at 5, passing through, but they did not show up. Awfully stormy. Hamilton Jeffers is still at Boston Tech doing some kind of defense work, —some secret kind & may be there for months. I mean to ask Lucy to invite him to one of her Sunday afternoons. He is very silent but he is decorative. ALS. Yale. 5 pages. 1. Dwight Whitney Morrow, Jr. (1908–1976), a professor of history and economics, was a co-founder of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. At the time this letter was written, he was married to actress Margot (Loines) Morrow (1912–2013). 2. James Johnson Sweeney, Joan Miró (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1941). 3. Joan Miró (1893–1983), a Catalonian painter, sculptor, printmaker, and ceramicist whose work was linked to Surrealism, Dadaism, Magical Realism, and other schools of modern art. 4. Brian and Meta Curtis.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California January 2. 1942 Dear Bennett: We are vastly pleased to have the fine Random House edition of “Remembrance of Things Past” in two compact vols. beautifully bound & such clear print.1 I haven’t had anything from you since the complete one vol. Synge,2 that really appealled to me so much. I hope you had a nice Christmas with your little family. We spent the week with the Tevises in their old family place near Bakersfield. Very stormy. Garth got down from the gold mine where he is in charge of the orereduction mill, —70 mi up in the mts. above Bakersfield—down a terrific mt. road in a big truck. He is still held there by deep snow & doesnt know when he can get up again with his load ♦ of dynamite & drums of gasoline. You can imagine how little we like his slithering over these roads with such a load. He has an application in with the State Dept. for some work in So. America for which he has some special qualifications. Donnan continues happy in his Zanesville, Ohio. We’ve had much excitement here, blackouts & airplanes supposedly enemy ones, a partial evacuation, much organization of citizen defense etc. People behaved very well mostly, a few hysterical ones had to be soothed. Our loving & fwarm good wishes to you & our other friends in Random House, Una. Will you please ask your mailing dep’t to send a vol. of “Be Angry at the Sun” to (1) {Mr & Mrs} Benjamin De Casseres 593 Riverside Drive N. Y. C (2) Edgar Lee Masters, Players’ Club N. Y. C & enclose these cards & charge to author’s account Love from us both.3 Faithfully, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. In November 1941, Random House offered a boxed, two-volume edition of Proust’s

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Remembrance of Things Past, translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, to replace the four-volume set published in 1934. 2. The Complete Works of John M. Synge (New York: Random House, 1935). 3. This sentence, closing, and signature are added vertically in left margin.

RJ and UJ to Garth Jeffers [January 1942] Dear Garth— I was talking to a couple of soldiers who were bird-watching with me at Yankee Point the other night,1 and they said you should by all means play up your typewriting, Spanish, college degree etc., when you land in the army. Typewriting especially would help make you a non-com2 soon, {(better pay)} and they said definitely that you can always refuse a deskjob, because most of the eligible boys want just that; but typing is useful in the field too. As to cavalry service, they said apply for it and you’ll get it, because most people don’t want it. You’d probably be sent to Missouri for training; but anyhow it’s the army policy to train men a long way from home. (I think too that cavalry might ultimately be sent to places that would interest you more—Latin-America, for instance—than infantry or tanks will. As to your college degree and year of ROTC, I should think you might be offered apply for officer’s training in six months or so.) Anyhow—take care of yourself and watch try to get what you want. ♦ Mother and I are really quite troubled about your relations with your draft-board—(which is your draft-board, Monterey or Bakersfield?)—for fear of your not getting notice in time, and finally landing in the army under suspicion of irregularity. It is We don’t want you in, of course, but your name must have got lost in some kind of clerical slip-up; or perhaps some notice hasn’t reached you. Do be careful. We’d go over to Monterey and inquire, but feel it might be unwise to stir them up without consulting you. —Also—have you heard that the physi men are popped into the army instantly now when their number comes up? Army-doctors examine you and you’re in. It would be too bad if you couldn’t be at home a couple of days LETTERS 1940– 1962

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first. —Write to us when you can. Come home as soon as you can. And all the love in the world from Mother and me and Winnie. Father 3 4 Joe is a sergeant. Martin a ward-boy at present. The gov’t is sending Dick Bok5 & some others to Ecuador on important So. American relations. They are all over 30 tho! All my love, Mother ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. By the middle of January 1942, Jeffers had volunteered to serve as a sentry at the Yankee Point lookout station in the Carmel Highlands, near the home of Martin and Connie Flavin. 2. Non-commissioned officer. 3. Joseph Schoeninger (1916–1955), one of Garth and Donnan’s first childhood neighbors and friends, lived with his parents and two sisters in their home on Scenic Road at Stewart Way. At the conclusion of World War II, Schoeninger returned to Carmel and worked as an editor at the Monterey Peninsula Herald and the Carmel Valley News. He was stabbed to death in the bedroom of a busboy at the Highlands Inn, south of Carmel. 4. Martin Flavin, Jr. 5. Richard Boke.

UJ to Sydney Alberts Tor House. Carmel. California January 15. 1942 Dear Sydney: We were very glad to get your Christmas card—it seems a very long time since we heard from you. Confusion in the world has become more and more compounded—few souls {souls} escape the burden of it. We have some excitements of blackouts, & partial evacuation, even, of our village, & the sounds of the torpedoing of a coast-wise vessel by a Jap submarine off Santa Cruz, came to us plainly ♦ early one morning at 4:15. The tire shortage caught us with two new tires, but two others which have gone 24,000 miles! I think we shall become great walkers again. At present one can not get even a retread here.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

This is just a wave of the hand to indicate our best wishes for you in 1942. Faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. Occidental. 2 pages.

UJ to Garth Jeffers Tor House. Carmel Saturday Jan 24. 1942 Precious Garth: I feel pretty dreary today about your going off to war. I must say I am not surprised that they{’ve} chosen you, though.1 I can’t imagine a defender I’d rather have than you. How I wish I could go in your stead. I am rather depressed & wish I could do some act of bravery, or even endurance & work to pep me up. I think Ive never been so down. Donnan sent us some charming pictures of his house & the Grandmothers’ & Mrs. Curphey’s. I won’t enclose them for fear of losing them. Lee was kind enough to ask us to come down but we are so resolutely trying to save our tires that I don’t know that we should. We go to the village only every other day & walk lots of places. You’ll break my heart about little loving Butch.2 ♦ If you can’t get back to the mt. why dont you come home? Did I understand you to say that it would probably be a month? And can you be inducted here. Best love darling & take care of yourself, Mother It is raining very hard today, wind blowing & sea high— Vasili & Lester were there last night.3 Four sons of Grandmother Call went to war at once.4 But then she had 11 children & half of them didnt go. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Garth had just been informed by the draft board that his status was 1-A, “available for unrestricted military service.” LETTERS 1940– 1962

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2. Butch was Garth’s dog, a mixed-breed female. With his induction set to occur at any moment, Garth was concerned about who would take care of her when he was gone. 3. Probably Vasili V. Anikeyev, also spelled Anikeef (1890–1960), a singer and vocal instructor, and Lester Donahue. 4. Una’s grandmother Caroline (Crandall) Call (1813–1884) and grandfather Rev. Orlando Boardman Call (1810–1871) lost their son John M. Call (1830–1862) at the Battle of Bull Run. Three other sons fought in the Civil War and were wounded: Harrison Orlando Call (Una’s father), Henry Crandall Call (1840–1909), and Augustus Timby Call (1846–1908). Information about Una’s family can be found in The Call Family, a genealogy begun in 1939 by Helen Irene (Jones) Soper (1898–1994) of Elmira, New York, and completed with Una’s help in 1944. A copy of the document, inscribed by Una for her sister Daisy in April 1945 and augmented with handwritten notes, is held by the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

RJ to Jack Wilson1 [January 1942] First Man also is a part of nature, {he is} not a kind of {a} miraculous intrusion. And he is a very small part of a very big universe, that was here before he appeared, and will be here {long} after he has totally ceased to exist. Second Man would be better, and happier {more sane and more happy} if he devoted less attention and less passion {(love, hate etc.)} to his own species, and more to non-human nature. Extreme introversion in any single person is a kind of insanity; so it is in a race; and the human race has always and increasingly spent too much thought on itself and too little on the w world outside. Third It is easy to see that a tree, a rock, a star are beautiful; it is hard to see that people are beautiful, unless you consider them as part of the universe—the {divine} whole. The God You cannot judge nor value any part except in relationship to the whole that it is a part of. This is a brief and very incomplete abstract of some of the things I have tried to say in my verses. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. John “Jack” W. Wilson (1918–1995) was a senior at Teachers College of Connecticut (now Central Connecticut State University) majoring in English and social studies when he wrote Jeffers with a request for help on a term paper titled “The Philosophy of Robinson Jeffers.” He was later employed as a teacher and coach at schools in Connecticut and New York. Wilson’s letter is dated January 22, 1942 (TLS HRC Texas).

UJ to Garth Jeffers Tor House. Carmel. California Feb. 1. 1942 Darling Garth: I have waited & watched for a word from you to know what to do. We can’t use our tires to come down unless you are at Stockdale & that our only way to see you. I hope soon you will let us know about everything. I am at present busy with the advanced Red Cross First Aid Course and study several hours a day. We have a marvellous teacher who is making everyone learn things thoroughly. We go three evenings a week 7:30 to 9:30 (usually 10:00!) I’ve done 3 evenings. 6 to go. Also some afternoon practice. Take care of yourself! I love you so. Had a card from Ro{w}land from Arrowhead Devotedly, Una. ALS. Tor House. 1 page.

UJ to Noël Sullivan [February 1, 1942] Tor House. Carmel. Sunday Precious Noël— Our sympathy & loving thoughts are going out to you every moment.1 In fact I have felt sorrowful for you for days—I realized when you were here for lunch that you were very anxious about your sister.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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If I could have helped you in any way, I would have dashed to you straight off. We shall be present at the mass said for her tomorrow morning. Dearest Noel, all my love. Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: February 1, 1942. 1. Noël’s sister Alyce Murphy died January 30, 1942.

RJ to Henry W. Wells Tor House, Carmel, California February 10, 1942. Dear Mr. Wells: The Dephic lines you quote are beautiful and somehow catch the breath. Thank you for them, I never saw them before. The Cassandra-job is so tiresome, but if one could do it as beautifully as that! —and see none of the fulfilments. —My own verses came from a long night on one of the Dieselengined boats that feed Monterey’s canneries, and are still encumbered with it.1 I’d be delighted to see the chapter from your new book,2 and Mr. Richards’3 comments, but it’s unlikely I’ll have any of my own to offer—unless my wife should—she has a better head than I. Thank you also for your wish about weathering the war; it looks to-day as if we’ll have to live a long time to do that. But the world has seen longer ones than this will be, and in their limited way more ruinous. It is a pleasure to hear from you. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers ALS. diZerega. 1 page. 1. Jeffers’ poem “The Purse-Seine” was based on this experience; see Collected Poetry 2: 517–518. For Una’s account of the event, see Collected Letters 2: 491–492. 2. Henry W. Wells, The American Way of Poetry (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943). In addition to references to Jeffers scattered throughout the text, Wells devotes a chapter to him, “Grander Canyons,” pages 148–161. Jeffers is “one of the most extraordinary of all American poets,” says Wells at the close of his appreciative analysis. “By dedicating himself intensely

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

to place,” he adds, “he has deepened his own spirit and made a unique and characteristically American contribution to world literature.” 3. Edward Ames Richards (1898–1964), author of Time Strikes (1939) and other books, was a poet and educator. In the late 1930s, Richards was the associate director of the extension program at Columbia University, where Wells was a professor.

UJ to Garth Jeffers [February 1942] Friday morn. household Tor House. Carmel Darling Garth: I suppose Lloyd has gotten into communication with his parents & told them he has been rejected by draft {army} because of his eyes. His weight is OK. I met a girl in the village the other day—(I think the Sharpe1 girl, only she looked more forceful & focussed than usual) She told me that she is working at Ft. Ord. She asked about you & said to urge you to mention your ♦ R. O. T. C. training, your Spanish, & knowledge of horses—everything you’ve got. She said it makes a difference! in how you’re placed—better chances if you look out for yourself. So do so if you are taken. Let us know instantly if you have any news. Young Martin was taken. Philip MacD.2 was rejected for a tremor. ♦ The three boys had to go to San Jose for army exam. Lloyd said they were pushed & shoved around a lot. One boy with question about his eyes was accepted Lloyd happened to hear his eye report 20-40 A slip from State Dep’t says they can not place you at present but might later. You don’t do so very well about writing. I think of you so much. Devotedly Mother—in a hurry. Martin & Connie are coming for dinner {tonight.} ALS. Tor House. 3 pages. 1. Rosalind Sharpe (1918–1991), an artist and writer, was raised from infancy in the Big Sur at Bixby Creek; her parents, Howard and Frida Sharpe, owned the Rainbow Lodge and LETTERS 1940– 1962

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the Stone House (later Bixby Inn). As Rosalind Sharpe Wall, she was the author of When the Coast Was Wild and Lonely: Early Settlers of the Sur (1987), also published as A Wild Coast and Lonely: Big Sur Pioneers (1989). Other titles include The Word of One: The Aquarian Tarot Revelation (1975), co-authored with John Stark Cooke, and About Jeanne D’Orge and Carl Cherry (1978). 2. Phillip Stearns MacDougal (1920–1973) was the grandson of Daniel and Louise MacDougal. He was adopted by his grandparents following the death in childbirth of his mother Alice (MacDougal) Stearns (1894–1920). MacDougal’s father was Harold Stearns (1891–1943), a cultural critic, dissolute friend of Ernest Hemingway in Paris, and author of Rediscovering America (1937) and other books.

UJ to Langston Hughes Tor House. Carmel. California February 17. 1942 Dearest Langston: You were a dear to send us the record I wanted. I ought to have thanked you before but every time I went to Noël’s I forgot to get your address. Last time I did remember in spite of a great gathering—10 of one family! besides Noël, Lee, {Dick, George} Robin & Una, —the von Trapps.1 He is an Austrian baron—the Nazis took away his estate near Salzburg. The family all sing beautifully & they play on old instruments, —recorders, violas di gamba, spinet etc. So they go on tour once a year & make music. A charming family. ♦ Noël is well. He begins to look a little rested. he had a sad anxious time during his sister’s illness & death. I’ve been busy with an advance course in First Aid with a marvellous teacher & am one {member of one} of four units who are on duty night & day. Each unit has a week a month. I say on duty, I mean on call in case of an emergency. I do not expect any. Robin has been watching one night a week from midnight until 6 am at an outpost. Garth expects to be inducted any moment now. He has been put in 1A. ♦ SSince I started this, your book2 came & I’ve been readings bits of it. Many of the poems you have read aloud to us & I can hear your voice as I read them now.3 Thank you so much. When are you coming home?

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I have the Yeats number of the Southern Review.4 Have you seen it? It is duller than ditch-water. Devitalized & student-lampish, —almost all of it. Some of it is preposterous twaddle. It is awfully long & the few pages of value disappear in the dusty pile. Spring is here, all golden—but it is hard to keep happy just now, isn’t it. Robin sends his love with mine— Una. ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. Georg von Trapp (1880–1947), his second wife Maria Kutschera von Trapp (1905–1987), and their ten children began touring as the Trapp Family Choir (later the Trapp Family ­Singers) in 1935. The story of Baron von Trapp, his family, and their decision to flee Austria at the outset of Nazi occupation was popularized in The Sound of Music. The 1959 Broadway production by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein was adapted as an award-winning film in 1965 that starred Christopher Plummer and Julie Andrews. 2. Probably Shakespeare in Harlem (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1942). 3. Una makes a similar comment in a review of Hughes’ autobiography, The Big Sea. See “Speaking of Langston Hughes,” Carmel Pine Cone (May 2, 1941): 13. 4. The January 1942 issue of the Southern Review, edited by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, was devoted to W. B. Yeats. Contributors included R. P. Blackmur, Kenneth Burke, T. S. Eliot, Randall Jarrell, F. O. Matthiessen, John Crowe Ransom, Allan Tate, and others.

UJ to Garth Jeffers Tor House. Carmel. Feb. 19. 1942 Darling Garth: We have been looking for news of you. I hear that the Tevis family are visiting the Lansdale Ranch over near Pacheco Pass. What will happen to your mail & your notice from the Draft Board? If there should be some mix-up about your induction & you were made to go from there you must wire us so we could come down. We have managed to buy two secondhand tires. They are not perfect by any means bu but have some thousands of miles in them if driven carefully. I hear that 10 tires an hour (240 each

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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24 hrs) are being stolen in Los A. Also bought two second hand patched tires tubes. I hear Hasso von S— & Mrs. B. are in custody of FBI in N. Y.1 What did you think of Sue Shallcross marrying her Lieut?2 I wish to heaven I could keep Butch for you but simply can’t. Neither time nor space nor money for another ♦ dog. I cannot ask Noël—he is already saddled with too many. I’ve finished my advanced First Aid. Worked hard at it. Sidney & Esther are coming for dinner tonight. I’m still having a good deal of insomnia. LeavesGives me lots of time to worry!!!! We hear that Allan is going to give up that gold mine as hopeless. Isn’t that awful after these years of work & all of Edith’s savings sunk in it!3 Dearest love, Devotedly Mother. 4 Someone said Dick did not stay in Africa, do you know? ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Hans Hasso von Seebach (b. ca. 1909), a German Socialist active in the anti-Hitler resistance movement, and Julie Braun-Vogelstein (1883–1971), a resistance figure, art historian, and widow of journalist Heinrich Braun, left Germany for France and then the United States in 1935. They traveled to California in 1936 and lived in Carmel periodically thereafter. Because of their continued political activities, security concerns prompted an inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Working with Ella Winter as translator, Braun-Vogelstein edited The Diary of Otto Braun (1924), a collection of poems, letters, and journal entries written by her stepson, who was killed in World War I. She was also the author of Art: The Image of the West (1952). Along with Robinson, Una, and other guests, Braun-Vogelstein attended Noël Sullivan’s luncheon for Thomas Mann (see Una’s April 12, 1941 letter to Melba Bennett). 2. Susan Shallcross (1919–1995), an art student in Carmel, had been involved with George Kerr (1887–1965), an English mining engineer and close friend of Edith and Jim Greenan, prior to marrying Lt. Donald Chessman Beere (1916–1993) February 2, 1942. Following his graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1939, Beere was sent to Fort Ord. He was awarded a Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, and other commendations for his service as the commanding officer of a field artillery battalion during World War II. In a March 14, 1942 letter to Garth (ALS Tor House), not used in this edition, Una says “Kerr almost had a stroke . . . (anger & drink & high blood pressure!)” when Shallcross married Beere.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

3. Una’s half-sister Edith Allan and her husband John Allan left California in 1934 to prospect for gold in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. 4. Richard Tevis.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California March 6. 1942 Darling Clapps: I must write you a note this morning although after such a hiatus I ought to wait for a few days more until I get your immediate news from Noël. I’ve been envying you all seeing each other. Its just a year ago exactly that we were in N. Y.— This has been a long year & trying in many ways, —longer than any since I was very young & a year was a great stretch of time then. Garth is in Class 1A & expects to be called any time. He is still at the gold mine managing the ore reduction. He has just been snowed in again for a period of five weeks. Donnan writes happily of his life though he is casting about in his mind some way of helping. It is possible that part of their pottery works will be utilized by the gov’t for making flares. ♦ Robin has been watching one night a week from midnight until 6 am at Yankee Point—the tiny sentry box is on the little knoll below your place {to the west} & close to the sea. One night Winnie & I went along. I had been sleeping badly & thought a change of rhthym rhythm might be good. I took along a pillow & steamer rug & expected to doze off from time to time but couldn’t. Winnie was on constant alert. Robin was out of sight & we {W. & I} were in the car on the edge of the cliff—a wild night. Great squalls of wind & rain, even hail swept in across the sea & shook the car like a leaf. A magnificent night. Bright moonlight then black clouds—and a constant stir & whishing amongst the bracken & dry underbrush. At 5:30 I crept out in the pale windy light & found my way over the knoll {to Robin} with a thermos bottle of coffee & some sandwiches. For myself I have taken the advanced Red Cross First Aid & have a ♦

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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fair mastery of traction splints & bandages. I am on call one week a month for emergency work. Now I am about to take a course in motor repair. We were caught rather short on tires. Two first class ones, & {but} two which have gone nearly 24,000 miles! I got one spare retreaded & managed to buy two fairly good second hand tires & two repaired tubes. Thats the extent of our riches. We are careful about mileage & go to the village only two or three times a week. We are walking a good deal & working around our place and recapturing some of the bliss one can experience in quiet & being alone, a very special kind of happiness!! This is such a golden day—sunshine, warmth, clouds of yellow acacia bloom, the acacias to the south of our house have advanced up to the courtyard wall & press against it, great boughs of bloom lean over the wall & we’ve had to cut swathes out to give ♦ sunshine to the lavender —its {the lavender is} like a forest, too, so big & free. Here by my desk window is a bed of daffodils—they are so charming. Its a bed Garth planted ten or more years ago. My asphodels are hearty too—there are five big stalks of blossom—they have been looking rather tired late years but now renew themselves. George Sebastian said yesterday “This is the most romantic house I’ve seen in America.” I like it. The bantams walk about all day in a blossomey little group. They are the cheeriest happiest creatures I know. And lay plenty of eggs, too, with a great deal of conversation & argument. Noël will tell me news of you— I hope he’ll say you can come for a vacation. Do you see Lucy Porter? She had Hamilton for dinner at Elmwood. He is still on his defense job at Boston Tech. All our love to you dears. Una. How I try to picture just what spot our boys aarmy forces are in Ireland! Please give this letter to Blanche. A blimp1 like a fat child is playing around in front of our house.2 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Dirigibles based at Moffett Field (near Sunnyvale, California) began patrolling the coast February 1, 1942 in order to spot enemy submarines, ships, and planes. 2. Added in top margin, page 3.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California March 12. 1942 Dear Bennett: I wrote to your friend Sherman1 a fortnight ago asking him to tell me what free hours he had & we could arrange to bring him to Tor House. As I have had no answer I think he must have gone to another camp or else may be out on manoeuvers. I was not able to write to him the instant we got your letter because we were caught short on tires & couldn’t afford to go the fifteen miles to Fort Ord & back unless absolutely necessary. Now we have bought two fairly good second hand tires & are more comfortable about mileage. For many years we have never averaged less than 1500 miles a month, usually a lot more, & feel rather crippled by the rationing. We are walking more than ever. Thank you so much for the books. Robin was particularly interested in the Japan book.2 I think “Hangover Square” ♦ terrific—the most sinister atmosphere.3 Doomed from the first page! The Hellman plays are grim too!4 How that woman knows drama! I saw Bette Davis in “The Little Foxes.”5 Wonderfully done. Thanks so much for “Times” clipping.6 Will you have a copy of Robin’s “Selected Poetry” sent to the Zanesville, {Ohio,} Public Library. Put in my card & charge to author’s account. I enclose a letter from Oscar Williams. He will communicate with you I suppose. I told him Robin was perfectly willing to sign those sheets if agreeable to you.7 I notice Auden is signing. Robin is watching one night a week midnight to 6 am in a lonely outpost down the coast—high on a cliff over the water. Every foot of this coast is guarded night & day. I’ve just finished advanced Red ♦ Cross First Aid & am one of a group on call for emergency work one week a month. Slight gestures to the War Effort but willing to do more. I hope your little family flourishes. All good wishes to you and them. Much love from Una.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Berkeley. 3 pages. 1. In a February 5, 1942 letter (TLC Berkeley), Cerf asks Una to call on Tommy ­Scherman, an army private temporarily stationed at Fort Ord. After World War II ended, Thomas Keilty Scherman (1917–1979) began a career as the founding director and conductor of the Little Orchestra Society, a chamber ensemble that performed throughout the world. His father Harry Scherman (1887–1969) was a founder, president, and chairman of the Book-of-theMonth Club. 2. Carl Randau and Leane Zugsmith, The Setting Sun of Japan (New York: Random House, 1942). 3. Patrick Hamilton, Hangover Square (New York: Random House, 1942). 4. Lillian Hellman, Four Plays: The Children’s Hour, Days to Come, The Little Foxes, Watch on the Rhine (New York: Random House, 1942). 5. Bette Davis (1908–1989) starred in the film version of Hellman’s play The Little Foxes, released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company in 1941 and nominated for nine Academy Awards. 6. Probably a review of Be Angry at the Sun by John Holmes (1904–1962), a poet, critic, and professor of English at Tufts University. Holmes praises Jeffers’ grim—but, in light of present-day events, understated—assessment of the human condition and says, “He has tried all the ways he knows to tell a handful of truths—but what a tremendous handful. This new book is, to be sure, a restatement of things he has said before, with the different light cast on the statements by the passage of time, but it proves in its greater immediacy simply that he was right many years ago, and has gone on being right.” See “The New Books of Poetry,” New York Times Book Review (February 22, 1942): 18. 7. New Poems 1942: An Anthology of British and American Verse, edited by Oscar Williams (Mount Vernon, N.Y.: Peter Pauper Press, 1942), was published in a trade edition and in a signed, limited edition. The anthology contains one poem by Jeffers, “I Shall Laugh Purely” (pp. 123–126).

UJ to Evelyn Little Tor House. Carmel. California March 13, 1942 Dear Miss Little:1 I have kept here in my desk your letter of December 8 last in which you spoke of your wish to have a ms. of Robinson Jeffers’ in the Mills College Library. I am sending you several short mss. I wish to deposit them in memory of Albert Bender. They are

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I. The prose foreword by Robinson Jeffers to “Fire & Other Poems” by D. H. Lawrence with note by Frieda Lawrence, published by the Book Club of California MCMXXXX. 45 5 pages written by his own hand—the original ms. {signed.} 4 ~pages~ typescript of same. 4 ~pages~ preliminary notes to same. II original ms. of poem “West Coast Black-out” {(signed)} with typescript.2 Still unpublished. It will appear in an anthology “Calendar 1942,” edited by Norman Macleod issued by the Y. M. H. A. Poetry Center, New York City.3 III Ten lines from his “The Cruel Falcon” written in his own hand —but not the original ms. signed. Very Sincerely, Una Jeffers. ALS. Mills. 1 page. 1. Evelyn (Steel) Little (1890–1970). Despite misfortunes in her early twenties (she lost an eye when a golf ball shattered her glasses and, soon after, her husband drowned in a swimming accident), Little obtained an M.A. and a Ph.D. in library science. She joined Mills College in 1936 and served variously as librarian, professor of comparative literature, and dean of the faculty. She was the author of Backgrounds of World Literature from Homer to Tolstoy (1935) and other books. 2. “West Coast Black-Out,” written in December 1941 after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, was first published as “Black-Out” in New Poems 1944, edited by Oscar Williams (New York: Howell, Soskin, 1944): 88. It was later published as Part II of “Pearl Harbor” in Jeffers’ The Double Axe and Other Poems (New York: Random House, 1948): 122. See also Collected Poetry 3: 115–116 and Collected Poetry 5: 696, 697–700. The original manuscript contains a number of words and ideas that Jeffers considered and crossed out, such as a paragraph that begins “. . . wisely / You will watch and not weep.” What appear to be possible titles for the poem—“Darkness and Silence” and “Favete Linguis”—are also crossed out. The Latin phrase, used by Horace and others, essentially means “be quiet” or “hold your tongue,” and refers to the respectful silence required of those who attend a divine service or holy ritual. 3. Norman Macleod, Calendar: An Anthology of 1942 Poetry (Prairie City, Ill.: Press of James A. Decker / Young Men’s Hebrew Association, 1942). Jeffers’ poem was not included in Mac­ leod’s anthology.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ and RJ to Zelle Bishop Tor House. Carmel. California March 18. 1942 Dearest Zelle: It was pleasant to hear from you again. I find it a little difficult these days to be as buoyant as usual. {I lack intiative! initiative. runny ink!}1 (à propos of that—when my father was about 80 he wrote me, in a letter in which he was assessing certain values in his life—he said each of his children had endeared herself to him for certain qualities. I had, for instance, had more gaiety than the others. I hadn’t thought of it, but, in truth, I have been very happy almost all my life.) Except for personal integrity values are very mixed now in the world. One cannot take a simple view.— Well, Garth is 1A & may be called any moment. He has been for five months mining—managing the ore reduction mill in a gold mine belonging to our friend Lloyd Tevis. He has had a tough time there ♦ I think, but likes it. Tough because he has been snowed in up there as much as five weeks at a time. The mine is in the mts. above Bakersfield. I saw him last Christmas week. We spent it at the magnificent, old Tevis estate “Stockdale.” His great friend young Lloyd was there, but the other brother is driving an ambulance in an English corps in Africa. Donnan is very happily married & lives in Zanesville, O. Her family— the Wellers—have owned a big pottery factory there for three generations. Robin & I started to fly to the wedding but were grounded {at Salt Lake City} by frightful storms over the Rockies, having already come through bad enough ones over the Sierras. We hadn’t time then to go by train & were forced to return home, very frustrated. Donnan & Patty went to N. Y. C. {(wedding tour!)} & our friends gave them a good whirl. Donnan was deferred in draft by a slight heart murmur such as I have always had. ♦ I have finished the Advanced {Red Cross} First Aid & am one of a group on call night & day, one week a month. I do not expect trouble here though we have had a few blackouts, & I heard early one morning the bombs fired by Jap submarines! Robin watches one night a week midnight to 6 am in a lonely sentry box on the cliff above the sea some miles south of here.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Winnie my great English bull-dog & I went one night with him & stayed in our car some distance away from his place. It was a wild night of wind & rain with intervals of bright moonlight—the waves were enormous. A wild experience altogether. “Winnie” is named after Winston Churchill. He is one of the most maginficent bull dogs I {have} ever saw {seen} & gigantic in strength—weighs over 70 lbs. Noël Sullivan got him for me when he was 11 weeks old. He is 17 mo. now. I always write Robin’s letters. Occasionally he makes notes for me to use. He did so to answer your query {query} & I will enclose the slip—its legible enough & you may ♦ like to have his writing. I think you might enjoy reading the typewritten review I enclose by the English author & journalist Ellis Roberts.2 You will often see his reviews in the Saturday Review of Literature. He is invalided out of England & he & his wife live near us. This was written for an English paper. He chose to write informally as a letter to an imaginary critic, Mr. Chew. {After you have read} please forward it & the clipping from N. Y. Times to Daisy as I wish to keep them for my file & she will return them with her next letter. Warm love as always from Una. ♦ Shine Perishing Republic 3 The verses are an expression of regret that America is corrupting rapidly into {mass} vulgarity and dictatorship, and of patience that this is so. It is the way of all peoples and nations; they are born, they live, they grow old. —But it is possible for each person to keep his integrity, if he will, {even} while society corrupts. If the cities become rotten, go to the mountains. And do not be seduced from your integrity by the idea that you can save people by compromising with them, by sharing their evil in the hope that they will share your good. The noblest spirits have been trapped by that hope. ♦ The same thoughts are {perhaps} more clearly expressed in “The Answer” —page 594 of “Selected Poetry”. ALS. C Michigan. 6 pages. Postmark: March 18, 1942.

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1. This insertion is written vertically in the upper left margin, first page. 2. “Lonely Eminence,” Roberts’ review of Be Angry at the Sun, was published in the Saturday Review of Literature 25 (April 25, 1942): 8. “Jeffers is no booster for human nature,” Roberts writes, “nor was Jonathan Edwards, nor was, fundamentally, Abraham Lincoln. That one looks for analogues to Jeffers among men who were not poets is evidence of his lonely eminence as a poet. In this new volume, which contains some of his finest and most prophetic work, I am reminded of no other poetry except the later Yeats, another lonely and undeceived poet of our day.” 3. Jeffers’ answer to Bishop’s query is handwritten on scrap paper (a document from the Trust Department of the Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles dated May 12, 1941).

UJ to Garth Jeffers Saturday March 28. ’42 Tor House Carmel Precious Garth: I hear that Lloyd took Flavia1 down to Stockdale & returns today. I hope to hear news of you from him. Your draft slips seem to be in order. We can come down for you if you like. Remember how propinquity works. Also that life is long. & {also that} you’ve brains as well as brawn etc. We are eager to see you & love you with all our hearts. A letter from Percy today. His daughter was killed in a London bombing.2 Dearest love from Mother. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Flavia Flavin. 2. Sheila Elizabeth Peacock died November 5, 1941; she was thirty years old.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Zena Holman Tor House. Carmel March 28. 1942

Dear Mrs. Holman: Three items for your Sterling collection.1 You may have have the printed ones {already}. Robin & I see no reality in the death mask, but some others do. The typed poems with Sterling corrections in his own hand & red ink suggestions in another hand was given me by George S— years & years ago. I found it {lately} amongst old papers. Robin & I feel certain that he told us that the red ink is by Ambrose Bierce. You could easily verify this in San Francisco. (Bookshops where Bierce’s writing is known). I showed it to Jimmie Hopper yesterday & he thought it was Bierce. No one else stood in such a position of mentor to George. Faithfully, Una Jeffers. Did you ever know Maud Hogle?—old Carmelite. She would know. She was a protegée of Bierce. Contemporary with George S—

ALS. Tor House. 1 page. Postmark: March 28, 1942. 1. Una enclosed a typewritten draft of thirteen stanzas from Part I of George Sterling’s poem The Testimony of the Suns, with handwritten comments; a memorial pamphlet privately printed by Rudolph Blaettler December 1, 1940 that includes a poem by Sterling and a photograph of his death mask; and a pamphlet printed by Blaettler in January 1942 that contains a poem and a short essay by Sterling on John Keats.

UJ to Martin Birnbaum Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 April 2. 1942

Dear Mr. Birnbaum:1 In answer to your request of March 12.th I am sending you several items for the Academy & Institute Exhibition.2 {(by registered} mail today.)} (1.) 82 pages holograph ms. of “Mara” which, as printed in Robinson Jeffers’ last book “Be Angry at the Sun” comprises the first 67 printed pages—or half of the book. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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(2) an unmounted photograph of Robinson Jeffers—by Edward Weston. I consider this the best one ever taken of my husband.3 I am sorry I have no mounted one. Weston is at present engaged on a two year job which has taken him all his time & he is doing no portrait photography at present. He finished several of these contact-prints for me but had no time to either enlarge or mount them. You ♦ may have it mounted {there} if you wish. (3) a photograph of the bronze bust of Robinson Jeffers by Jo Davidson. (4) a photograph aged 6 of Robinson Jeffers aged 5. (45) I am asking Random House to send over to you a copy of “Be Angry at the Sun” and also “Selected Poetry” which has had an extremely favorable reception. The ms. should be insured for $500.00 on the basis of {the} $1000.00 for the whole book which corresponds to the price received for former mss. Very sincerely Una Jeffers. Will you kindly notify me of receipt of above. —I think—but can not remember certainly, that previous books of my husband have been given to the Academy & Institute Library. If this is so, the two books above may be retained for the collection. Otherwise please send them back to me when the ms. is returned. On approximately what date will this be returned? ALS. A Academy. 2 pages. 1. Martin Birnbaum (1878–1970), an art connoisseur and dealer who helped build some of America’s finest art collections, including the Grenville Lindall Winthrop Collection bequeathed to Harvard University’s Fogg Museum. Birnbaum was also an attorney, a musician, and the author of Vanishing Eden (1942), The Last Romantic (1960), and other books. 2. Birnbaum assembled an exhibition at the gallery and museum of the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York. The special display featured works by members of the Academy and the National Institute of Arts and Letters. It opened to the public May 8, the same day as the academy’s annual award and induction ceremony. Honorees for 1942 included artist Cecilia Beaux, composers Ernest Bloch and Aaron Copland, and writers Erskine Caldwell, James T. Farrell, and Katherine Anne Porter. 3. Probably the same photograph Una mentions in her October 10, 1938 letter to Robert Gros—the portrait used as a frontispiece in Jeffers’ Selected Poetry.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California April 2. 1942 Dear Bennett: Please send a copy of “Be Angry at the Sun” & {one} of “Selected Poetry” to Martin Birnbaum C/O the American Academy of Arts & Letters, 633 West 155th Street, N. Y. C. (—right away as I’ve been slow about this) They are for the “First Comprehensive Exhibition— —etc” I am sending them part of the ms. of “Be Angry—” & photographs etc as per request. Also send a copy of “Selected Poetry” to City Library, Mason, Michigan, Ingham Co. with my card. All charged to author’s account. Did you have one sent to the City Library Zanesville, Ohio, as I asked in a recent letter? Robin & I like Island Noon tremendously!1 Its real, its dramatic, its beautifully written. Do you know—or did I dream it—that you know my ♦ dear friend Walter Peacock, London. (drama & actor’s agent, etc)? His only child, a lovely young woman was killed in a London bombing a few months ago. It brought the horror home to me as nothing else has, except perhaps the fate (unknown) of a friend’s young son on Wake Island. Love from us both, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Mabel Louise Robinson, Island Noon (New York: Random House, 1942).

RJ to Whit Burnett1 Carmel, Cal. May 6, 1942 2 This passage is chosen chiefly for the sake of perspective, because “Tamar” was written twenty years ago. Probably I have done better since then . . . and worse . . . but the poem seems nearer my mind than many later things. Robinson Jeffers

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PL. Burnett. 1. Whitney “Whit” Ewing Burnett (1899–1973), a journalist, author, and creative writing instructor, edited The Seas of God (1944), Time to Be Young (1945), This Is My Philosophy (1957), and many other books. In 1931 he co-founded Story, an influential magazine devoted to short fiction. 2. This statement by Jeffers and the section of Tamar where Tamar dances naked on the seashore and is assaulted by ghosts (Collected Poetry 1: 40–50) were published in This Is My Best (New York: Dial Press, 1942), an anthology edited by Burnett. As Burnett explains in his foreword, This Is My Best “is a book by the leading living authors in America, each one of whom has, in a sense, ‘edited’ his entire lifetime output to select the one unit which in his own, uninfluenced opinion represents him at his best creative moment.” For Jeffers’ contribution, see pages 631–640.

RJ to Antoinette Cornish1 [May 1942] Adamic is an excellent writer and reporter, who understands perhaps more widely than anyone else the conditions—social, economic, psychological—of the groups and races more recently immigrated into this country. He has broad interests, but this I think is his specialty. He is doing an important work, and is particularly fitted for it by the sincerity and urgence of his thought and feeling.2 ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Ellen Antoinette Cornish (1921–1977) was a senior at Milton College in Milton, Wisconsin at the time this letter was written. She began a career as an English teacher at East De Pere High School (Wisconsin) in 1951 and married Thomas Ahasay in 1953. 2. This response is written at the bottom of a letter to Jeffers from Cornish dated May 10, 1942 (TLS HRC Texas). “For the final chapter in my thesis, ‘A Study in Americanism,’” Cornish says, “I wish to obtain from a number of American authors and critics a statement as to the place of Louis Adamic in American literature of today and perhaps his importance to the world as a whole.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California May 12. 1942 Dear Bennett: You were kind to send us “The Last Time I Saw Paris.”1 (I hope you are having a great sale with that!) But since I have a copy already I am daring to mail it back to you today & ask you to exchange it for Faulkner’s “Go Down, Moses”2 which I want very much! Robin and I are feeling pretty low—Garth has already been sent overseas. He went away gay as a lark. Few people have at once his physical strength, ♦ steady nerves & indifference to hardship. You know now how one feels toward a son. You’ll discover that the attachment grows stronger every year. I wonder whether you have had time to see the exhibition of mss. etc at the Academy of Arts Building? Our warm greetings to all at Random House. With love, Una. 3 A wee poem from Martin Flavin’s wife. It refers to Robin’s being on guard one night a week in a lonely lookout station down the coast. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Elliot Paul, The Last Time I Saw Paris (New York: Random House, 1942). 2. William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses and Other Stories (New York: Random House, 1942). 3. “‘12–6 a.m. War Time’ (After R. J. on Watch)” by Connie Bell Flavin was published in the Carmel Pine Cone (March 3, 1942): 6.

UJ to Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California May 22. ’42 Darling Maud: I haven’t heard from you. Did the Academy send you the tickets & was the show & cocktail party any fun? I forget when I wrote you. Garth was inducted Apr 13. & sent immediately (almost) overseas. We dont know

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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where. It seems likely that the boys are being trained over there. I would not like to think they are just cannon-fodder. We talked to him {by phone} the night before he sailed away in an enormous convoy. We were spending the night at Mollie Sutros. We had gone up to see him at Angel Island {in S. F. bay}. He said “I guess you wont see me in the morning. I think we are going out at 3 am.” He did. and we didn’t see him. Rumor said “Australia, Canal Zone, Alaska, Hawaii”? We havent heard. I hope that we {you & I} shall never quarrel about politics, but I ♦ will need to be shown a lot before I believe the issues in this war are clear cut & idealistic. I feel really very full of hate about a lot of things. Certainly after Pearl Harbour we are in it to kill & destroy & so we will do until we win. Its going to be a putrid world when the war is won. Very. Well, low as Robin & I feel—we bred & raised a creature so physically perfect, with such steady nerves, such indifference to pain & hardship & such a blank spot about ideals that he may is the perfect fighting man. He departed as gay as to his bridal night. {but he had no convictions except the pleasure of fighting.} He refused to put down in his aptitude thing that he could type. He was so afraid of getting one of the two billion clerical jobs that all our friends’ sons have. {As “Time” remarked the war is to be won in triplicate. A typewriter to each 12 men.} He said he was an experienced dynamite man & he is. He wished to get into a cavalry regiment. —Well, maybe he’ll be in a demolition gang. ♦ Blanche & Russell have been in California several weeks. I talked to Blanche over the phone the other night. She was at the Fairmont.1 I see Jean. She had a wonderful time in Arizona with her mother. You’ve seen her, {probably}. Robin still watches one night a week at Yankee Point. An exhibition of Robin’s work is to be shown for a month at the Art Museum in Santa Barbara. I am assembling the stuff now—some of the Lib. of Congress stuff. Such a job. Thank God Noël is to take the Jo Davidson bust down on his way to Los A. I hated to cope with packing that. A lovely spring advances here. Such flowers, such color. It seems queer to cover so little mileage. We drive very little, instead of 1500 or 2000 miles a month. But I’ve never looked out of my windows enough yet.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Are you ever coming? I sound doleful but we have very nice moments, & I have reconstructed a very thrilling (to me) inner life that had been much devastated & thinned. Robin is in a better condition than he has been in ten years & very thoughtful of me. Well, he suffers as much as I about Garth. All our love always, Una2 ♦ Macmillans write me that the Yeats’ life by hHone has again been postponed until Aug 11.3 I have just read a hither-to-unknown-to-me book about Yeats by Hone in “Irishmen of Today” series by Hone date about 1918.4 Its really funny when one sees the unexpected curve of Yeats’ development since then, {but} Hone is a good man. Not over-imaginative & he will tell the story, now. Do tell me that Timmie saw how comical that Southern Review no. of Yeats was. I can’t bear, at long last, that I should ever know better than Timmie. I do happen to know Yeats & all that can be said about him—his writing. I have every word he ever wrote. I’m not sure I could have loved the man but oh how terribly what he wrote matters to me! ♦ Nice if you could send Garth cards once in a while. The soldiers pine for mail apparently & receive only about 1⁄10 of any sent them. His address Pvt. Garth Jeffers No. 39837534 APO 1638 C /O Postmaster San Francisco. Dick Tevis is driving an ambulance in British Army. He was in Africa, now in Syria. They have heard from him 3 times in a year I dearly wish that Ghandi will have the pleasure of being at the boundary of India to lie down as the Japs arrive & see how they deal with civil disobedience & non-cooperation.5 ALS. Yale. 5 pages. Postmark: May 22, 1942. 1. The Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill in San Francisco. 2. Closing and signature are written vertically in left margin. 3. Joseph Hone’s biography, W. B. Yeats: 1865–1939 (New York: Macmillan), was not released until February 2, 1943. 4. Joseph M. Hone, William Butler Yeats: The Poet in Contemporary Ireland (Dublin and London:

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Maunsel, 1916). Una received this book as a gift, probably from John O’Shea, “In the year of (the big wind) The World War, 1942.” See Maureen Girard, The Last Word, page 55. 5. Mohandas Ghandi (1869–1948), leader of India’s independence movement, advocated non-violent resistance to oppression.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California June 8. 1942 Dearest Blanche: I was disappointed when you did not come last week. You must come soon. It is lovely here now. Indeed I know Garth would love to hear from you & here is his address. Private Garth J— no. 395 no. 39837534 MP. CO. 811. APO. 958 C /O Postmaster, San Francisco. If you put Soldiers Mail, By Clipper near the stamp I think you can send it for 6¢. The boat mail is so slow. He is in Hawaii & is doing Military Police at present. He was gone {from S. F.} four weeks before we knew where he was. Thank God the Japs got banged back at Midway.1 We would be in terrible anxiety if they hadn’t. If Meta is still with you give her my love. All is well here & happiness is in Donnan’s letters. Great excitement —we had a phone put in today! (after 23 yrs. here without.) My conscience troubles me making my friends ♦ use up their tires bringing messages. The number is 1868W. Devotedly Una. ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Midway Island, an atoll near Hawaii, was the site of a major air and naval battle between the United States and Japan, June 4–7, 1942. Japan’s defeat—with the loss of 1 battleship, 4 aircraft carriers, nearly 250 aircraft, and over 3,000 men—marked a major turning point in the war.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Mr. Meikle Tor House. Carmel. California June 12. 1942 Dear Mr. Meikle: If you ask whether Robinson Jeffers believes that one lives after death with {the} soame kind of personality intact that he had in this world I am sure he would say “no.” He feels that life persists, but somehow blended & fused into a universal force. But you will find in his writings over & over again spirits—or at least the voices of dead people talking, even sometimes semblances of their forms present. (See again & again in “Tamar” & in “Cawdor” & specifically in “Come, Little Birds” (in “Be angry at the Sun”). See “Ghosts in England” (in “Descent to the Dead”). It is not unlikely that fragments of personality persist sometimes after death—for a time at least. Certainly it seems true that a sensitive person occasionally feels the vivid imprint of a strong or a tragic personality on a locality or room—in the absence of that person who may be dead or not, but who is at least not present. If you have read “Of Una Jeffers” {by Edith Greenan} you will know about the one real psychical experience we have had. It has to do ♦ with a much-loved English bulldog.1 A great deal of the power of poetry lies in its evocative qualities. When it evokes overtones from association with folklore or race memories (which can easily be represented by the voices of the past, or by magical forces) it is often at its height. I do not think it is permissible to inquire too urgently of a writer— “Do you believe exactly this or that?” The interpretation lies with the individual reader ({in the case} of the greatest poetry) & his background will condition his understanding. These are {my own} random thoughts in response to your letter. My husband does not like talking about his work. Very sincerely Una Jeffers ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. See Edith Greenan, Of Una Jeffers, edited by James Karman (Ashland, Ore.: Story Line Press, 1998): 54. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel June 19. 1942 Dearest Melba: I was glad to have your letter this morning. I began to wonder what had happened to you. I have a few moments this afternoon while I am waiting for a friend & will try to catch up from this end. —Dan Hammack wrote me that you had called & that he had talked over things with you. He is a nice person. Do not forget to get in touch—if you ever have the chance, with Dr & Mrs. John Kelso, 438 Ravina St. La Jolla. They were here last summer & are very charming. He knew Robin’s father & mother & Robin when Robin was a little boy going to school in Leipzig. Dr Kelso was a professor of Greek—later of Fine Arts. Mrs. K. also was head of the Greek dep’t in an Eastern college & is an ardent Jeffers fan. Dr. John looks hale & hearty but he is getting on in years—so don’t put him off too long. She is younger but isnt awfully well. Perhaps I told you that Hamilton has been on loan to Boston Tech. for eight mo. doing some important & secret ♦ war work for the gov’t. Donnan is well & happy as one can be. He feels as though he should be in it & that he’s selfish to be happy. He sends us lots of {Kodak} pictures of himself & Patty & houses there of which there are dozens {of} old Penn. colonial style, —brick. They intended to drive out to see us this summer but cant now, —tires. May come in fall by train. He is liking his work. Garth is in Hawaii in a Military Police unit that seems to be doing a variety of interesting things which the censor does not permit describing. His address is—(& can’t you send him a card sometime—soldiers seem to pine for mail.) Pvt. Garth Jeffers 39837534. MP. Co. 811 APO. 958. C /O Postmaster, San Francisco. If you put by the stamp “Soldier’s mail by Clipper” it can go for 6¢ up to ½ oz. I enclose a letter from a friend of Robin’s & his family—about Robin’s age or a little older, who knew Robin as a child & boy & is very fond of him. He is ♦ related somehow to Robin’s family but R. doesn’t know how. (You know Robin’s vacant mind in that particular). I think if you would

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

write him {George E.}1 sometime & ask him questions, —he would give you material. He is a prof. of Lit. I think. When I was in Europe in 1912, he & Robin & Russ C—,2 mentioned in letter, lived together in Santa Barbara for a month or so & had a very amusing time. He is a very fine man. If you ever write, say I referred you to him so he will feel free to give you material. Only don’t write for ten days or so, even if you should have time. I must write him in answer to his letter. I see Robin isnt going to. John {George} writes about once in five years &, after waiting several months each time for Robin to answer, in vain, —I do it. Need not return letter. Hamilton told me that he thought cousin Alex. Robinson went to Palm Springs last winter, did you see him? We are doing some war work. Robin watches at a sentry post down coast. Night work. Last night he was on from 3 to 6:00. I am busy getting together a portion of the exhibit which was ♦ shown at the Library of Congress. R’s books, mss. photographs, books about R. & so on. The complete ms. of Solstice, & Jo Davidson’s bronze bust of R. These items are to be shown during the month of July at the beautiful Museum of Art in Santa Barbara. Donald Bear3 curator. Rudolph Gilbert is a subcurator there. I have just rec’d a brochure of their stunning exhibit of Ancient American art. If you have friends in S. B. tell them to look see. — I mean at the Jeffers exhibit. Where is the new Lilienthal house? How is Fran’s health?4 Robin remembers cutting his head on a nail in Charney {Charnley}5 chicken coop, —as a little boy.— Robin is writing away every day but I dont know what. Sometimes he burns a great sheaf of ms. & starts again. He is much disturbed by the war, & both of us get in an awful state about Garth sometimes. In spite of which I think he is looking better than in years. Our place has never been so entrancingly beautiful. I hate to leave it for a moment. We seldom go on pilgrimages—(conserve tires & gas), but walk. Robin is doing stone work this p.m. Sun. we go to a cocktail party & buffet supper at Edith Greenan’s for Hank Marsman.6 Edith & Jim have known him for 20 yrs. out in

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Philippines & China. Say he is absolutely exact. See his series “Escape from Hong Kong” in last 3 Sat. Eve. Posts. Much love from Una. My dear Percy Peacock’s lovely daughter Sheila was killed in a London bombing7 ALS. HRC Texas. 4 pages. 1. George Evans. 2. Russell Miers Coryell (1891–1941), a newspaperman, ship chandler, and writer of pulp fiction for romance magazines, was the son of John Russell Coryell (1851–1924), the prolific author of dime novels who wrote the first Nick Carter detective stories. In a letter written a few months before he died (TLS HRC Texas), Coryell provides Jeffers with a brief summary of his life in the past two decades and recalls the summer of 1912 when he, Jeffers, and George Evans lived together in Santa Barbara. “How’s your forty-five automatic?” Coryell asks facetiously, “And do you still practice shooting at bottles along the waterfront—from horseback?” Coryell also asks if Jeffers remembers comforting an intoxicated Evans with a phrase from the Aeneid—“Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.” (“Someday, perhaps, we’ll look back at this and laugh” or “remember this with pleasure”). 3. Donald J. Bear (1905–1952), an artist, lecturer, and administrator, was the director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art from 1940 until his untimely death by heart attack in 1952. 4. These two questions are embedded in the preceding paragraph, with an arrow indicating the order in which all the sentences should be read. 5. Walter Hatch Charnley (1850–1925), a lumber broker, Mary Vernon (Wolfe) Charnley (1855–1903), and their five children were neighbors of the Jeffers family in Sewickley, Pennsylvania. The Charnleys’ youngest son, William, was Robinson’s age. See also Collected Letters 2: 1016. 6. Jan Henrik “Hank” Marsman (1892–1956), a Dutch-born American businessman headquartered in Manila, was involved in gold mining, insurance, trucking, construction, and trade throughout the Far East. Marsman tells the story of his imprisonment by the Japanese in Hong Kong in December 1942 (just after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor) and his fortunate escape in “I Escaped from Hong Kong”—serialized in the June 6, 13, and 20, 1942 editions of the Saturday Evening Post and published as a book by Reynal & Hitchcock (1942). 7. Written in top right corner, first page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California June 30. 1942 Dear Bennett: Have you any particular connections with the a book store in Santa Barbara? If so, you ought to mention to them that an exhibit of Robin’s things is to be shown during the month of July at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art there. The curator, Donald Bear, asked to have a part of the things shown last year at the Library of Congress. He has {from me} all of the vols. both trade and special, besides the early Flagons & Apples, Tamar, Californians, etc, etc. pamphlets & single poems, books about R. J. many photographs, the bronze bust by Jo Davidson & the complete ms. of “Solstice.” It would be worthwhile, dont you think so—to have the bookshop take some sort of notice of this? It is a very beautiful gallery with important permanent possessions. During May they had an extraordinary exhibition of ancient American ♦ art—from Mexico, So. & Central America, etc. Thank you for “Go Down, Moses.” Its fine! But hard reading. I often wonder why I feel so convinced that Faulkner is a very important writer. I do, but it is an exasperating affair to read pages & pages of those involved family & racial interpenetrations—plastered with episodes utterly pointless unless you’ve read every page of all his books & have the kind of mind that remembers. Perhaps its like Proust, —it’s the final cumulative effect & impact of it all. Anyway, I look forward eagerly to every book of his. And “Meet Me in St. Louis”1—there’s fun and its a true picture, too, and the strength of it lies in {one’s} being able to like this family & to laugh at them without being snooty. Garth is in a Military Police Unit, some-where in Hawaii doing what he says he may not tell us but its mighty interesting. By that we know he isn’t dragging drunks out of bars. Love from us both Una. Menuhin played a magnificent program in Carmel Sun. p.m.2 Afterwards we had supper with him at Noëls. He’s very likable—do you know him?

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Sally Benson, Meet Me in St. Louis (New York: Random House, 1942). Benson’s memories of turn-of-the-century life in St. Louis became the basis for a 1944 hit movie musical starring Judy Garland. 2. Yehudi Menuhin’s June 28 performance at the Sunset School Auditorium benefited the American Women’s Volunteer Services organization.

UJ to Whit Burnett [July 1942] My husband suggests the title “Tamar Dancing.” He changed the biographical {note} a little to be veracious. Left out two small privately printed items {in bibliography}—as they are only two of perhaps ten so printed. Sincerely Una Jeffers 1

ANS. Princeton. 1 page. 1. In a letter dated July 1, 1942 (TLS Princeton), Burnett asks Jeffers if his selection for This Is My Best could be titled “The Dance of Tamar.” He also asks Jeffers to check the biographical note and bibliography printed on pages 1141–1142. Una wrote her note on Burnett’s letter, which she then sent back to him.

RJ to Connie Flavin [Summer 1942]1 Dearest love—2 It is very solemn here, reporting little boats and hoping to see you at midnight. —What a beautiful letter. We must plan— It is hard work. Beautiful girl, I am all yours.3 ♦ Darling— Of course I knew you’d come if you could. But never fear—nothing can prevent us from having an hour together sometime. I was thinking—if I knew where your room is—I’d climb up and scratch 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

on your window some night at 3 am—it would only take two hours to walk there—and you’d let me in. —So beautiful but a dream. I love you forever. ♦ DEAREST ♦ Darling— There is no one like you in all the world—every gesture beautiful, and every inflection of your voice and movement of your mind. I think of you every instant—really—day and night—don’t you feel it? And I shall when you are far away.4 It is very hard not to be able to see you every moment, and hear you and touch you. I can’t even talk about you—not all the time. Sweet love, be careful of yourself. And of me. ♦ I must see you—I must. I could meet you in that road any day at 11 am or 3 pm. Telephone before ten if possible. If later, and someone else answers, ask her to tell me that you saw Pigeon Point light from here, and I’ll look for you at eleven. Or say New Year’s Point light, and I’ll look for you at three. I love you. I love you. I love you. ♦ The night is wild with stars but ours has not risen yet. Some night it will—sometime soon—I hope I don’t go mad first. No plane—no ship—no car— Only your light. What more do I want?5 ♦ I LOVE YOU DEAREST ♦ Connie—6 We never see you— You have no telephone, and you’re never at home. Not even a note at the observation post.7 —R. ♦ I was disappointed but I know you couldn’t help it. Good-night dearest love. Certainly our star will rise. —Such a sweet letter from you. But we never meet! LOVE ♦

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Dearest love—8 The most incredible and heart-breaking accident. An appointment was made for me without my knowledge, with Bufano9 (!) and somebody else between two and three—of all hours! No way to escape it without confessing a previous engagement. It is horrible. So darling—come next Tuesday. —Phone Sunday night if you can. I love you with all my life and soul (if any). You are so beautiful. Our luck will change now. ♦ It is a thousand years since Friday—but how many thousand to the next meeting! —I can’t bear it. I think of you continually. You gave me a text out of Genesis:— There is another that says “How long, Oh Lord” but I don’t know what book it’s from.10 I love you, most beautiful— ♦ So bleak, darling, to see you in company—but better than not to see you at all. But even if I never saw you again, I would love you forever. I think it is {would be} useless to telephone you to-night. Call us any day you can, with news of our sick friend. Best before ten; or at least before 2 pm; —I will be there if possible. Perhaps you’ll have time to whisper— “Meet me to-morrow at eleven—same place.” It is the only happy and sheltered place that we know of. I love you, I love you. ♦ “Dear little sister whom men call Death, but if God spoke He would call you Change: is it not time, dear?” Laughing she kissed me: “Oh no, I’ll meet you in some valley twenty years away, Hard and white-haired, dying hard. Already you are too gray For those youth-lovers war and contagion, and too proud for suicide.” “You’ll never do it if not now.” I was contemplating the beautiful Mechanism of [illegible]. That little gipsy Has never lied yet. The lovely thing that I most wanted, 11

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

The joyful innocent flower was withered; the morning star Fallen by my fault into imbecile darkness, —and I Still breathe and walk. Deep in the dust.         Dear love. (Not Death I mean: I have you confused with Death, I have you confused with Life) You made a good guess about the ashes mingling but never the lives. Be happy. Be gay forever. Be good. But good and evil And evil Fall out of date, finally we’ll hunt the Sphinx— That prowls the horizons like a dark island, you see her profiled In eclipsed stars—haven’t you from Llagas Point?12—to her last rock. ♦ Have {Are} lately {And evil} Fall out of date. You see {Finally we’ll hunt} the Sphinx,— On the horizon, {The horizon prowls,} like a dark island by eclipse of stars? {profiled against} Eclipse of the setting stars? We’ll hunt her to her last rock. That prowls the horizon {The horizon in profile} That prowls the horizon like a dark island, you see her profiled On eclipsed stars, haven’t you from Llagas Point? {—to the last rock.} —to the her last rock.}13 AN. Berkeley. 14 pages. 1. These eleven notes and one poem fragment were most likely written in June and July 1942. Their precise sequential order is not known. 2. Cornelia “Connie” (Clampett) Shuman Bell Flavin (1897–1992), an actress, was the only daughter, in a family with five sons, of Rev. Frederick W. Clampett (1859–1929) and Cornelia “Nellie” (Ewing) Clampett (1868–1949). Rev. Clampett was the rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco from 1899 to 1920. In 1922, after traveling with her parents in Europe and living for several months in Paris, Connie married William Darlington Mullin Shuman (1895–1946), a partner in a San Francisco financial firm. Although Connie claimed in published interviews that Shuman died early in their marriage, in fact they were divorced in 1932, and he died of Huntington’s disease at age fifty. Their two daughters, Cornelia Ann Shuman (b. 1925) and Nancy Shuman (b. 1930), inherited the disorder. Connie was living in Carmel, where her parents owned a home, when she married theater director Galt Bell in 1934. The marriage ended in divorce four years later. In 1940 Connie married Martin Flavin, but that marriage also ended after four years. A second marriage to Flavin in 1949 lasted until 1962. In 1963 Connie married Monterey architect Francis Palms (1910–1982). LETTERS 1940– 1962

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3. This note is written on the back of a “Naval Flash Form” marked “This is Yankee Point.” The form records the presence of an unidentified boat about one mile southwest of the observation point, heading north. 4. Connie and Martin left Carmel in early June for a trip east, so Jeffers probably wrote this note at the beginning of the month. They spent a week in New York and then traveled to Massachusetts for Sean Flavin’s graduation from Deerfield Academy. The June 19, 1942 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone mentions their recent return (p. 8). 5. The reverse side of the note contains information, not in Jeffers’ hand, about aircraft seen from the observation point. 6. This note, addressed to “Mrs. Cornelia Flavin,” is written on the back of an unused sheet from a daily calendar dated Monday, June 29, 1942. 7. If Connie left notes for Jeffers at the Yankee Point observation post (located a short distance from her home), then Jeffers probably left notes for her in the same hiding place. All of his notes were folded small—down to an inch square, in some cases. 8. “To C.” is inscribed on the front of this note, “From R.” on the back. 9. Beniamino Bufano (1890–1970), an Italian sculptor who lived in San Francisco, created a large stainless steel and granite statue of Johan Sebastian Bach for the 1942 Carmel Bach Festival. Bufano was in Carmel for an unveiling ceremony scheduled for Saturday, July 25, in Devendorf Plaza. Before dawn on that day, however, someone stole Bach’s blue granite head. Bufano returned to Carmel in the middle of October, when the head was found among rubbish in a garage. 10. These words, used previously by Jeffers in a letter to Una dated December 6, 1912, are from Psalm 94:3. 11. An alternate draft of this poem fragment is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. See “Dear little sister whom men call Death” in Collected Poetry 4: 520–521 and Collected Poetry 5: 1024–1025. 12. There is no such place as Llagas Point on the Carmel coast, but an erased and very faint “Yankee” beneath “Llagas” in the strikethrough version of Jeffers’ text indicates that he had Yankee Point in mind. In Spanish, llaga means “a wound that does not easily heal,” or, figuratively, something “sick in the soul.” The phrase “las llagas de la guerra” refers to “the afflictions or torments of war.” 13. Editor’s note: I interviewed Connie in 1985, when she was eighty-eight years old. Much of our conversation dealt with general recollections, such as her experience of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, world travels, marriages, and adventures in Carmel. She was a charming raconteur, but her stories were pared down to basic elements that often seemed rehearsed. She spoke lovingly of Robinson and Una, placing her affaire de coeur within the context of a friendship that spanned many years. Connie candidly described the intense feelings she and Jeffers shared, and vividly recalled the times she left her nearby home in the middle of the night to

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

meet Jeffers at the Yankee Point observation post, where they stood and watched the ocean and the stars. She could not say how long the liaison lasted, but she indicated that Jeffers’ interest faded quickly—within a few months—and that the end was sudden. One day when Una was not at home, Jeffers brought Connie to Tor House. As soon as they entered the living room, Jeffers stopped and said “This isn’t right.” They turned around and left, and the spell was broken. Several months later, Connie placed each of Jeffers’ notes in separate accordion folds of a small, tapestry-covered orihon book. She inscribed the keepsake “Property of Connie Flavin, 1943, Carmel,” wrapped it with a ribbon, and tied it closed.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California JAugust 4. 1942 You are a love to remember our day & send the little Java cloth. I know exactly how I want to use it—under rolls on top my silver dish. —Its such a nice silver thing but never quite blending with my Jugtown! This will fix it. We are going today to a cocktail party at Sebastians for us {(our anniversary 2 days late}1 & Speedy Swift2 just arrived from Washington— perhaps you met him at the Meyers. Sunday our anniversary we were very quiet & reminiscent, —walked— refused several invitations but finally, oddly enough, went to the Kusters who drank our—happiness! —Gay telephoned over to ask us to come & see a relative of Teddie’s I knew long ago, & when I named the day she made us come. I thought of so many things to talk over with you after you were gone. There are certain aspects of things that I’d rather talk over with you than any woman I know. Come back. Dear love to you & Russell Una. India makes one uneasy. I know how they feel about England & truly sympathize but if Japan takes them over they will be in for a worse {fate.} ♦ Edward Weston is going about with a full beard.! Can you picture that. Did I ask you to tell any friends you have in Santa Barbara to look see the exhibit in Robin’s honor at Santa B. Museum of Art. Im told its interesting.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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A part of the exhibit shown in the Lib. of Congress. Mss. photographs, first editions, bust etc. ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Robinson and Una celebrated their twenty-ninth anniversary Sunday, August 2. For a reference to Robinson’s belated gift to Una, see Una’s letter to Zena Holman, February 14, 1943, note 1. 2. Wesley Merritt “Speedy” Swift (1887–1963), a diplomat affiliated with the United States Department of State, belonged to a distinguished military family. His father was Maj. Gen. Eben Swift (1854–1938) and his brother was Maj. Gen. Innis Palmer Swift (1882–1953).

UJ to Zena Holman Tor House. Carmel. California August 10. 1942 My dear Mrs. Holman: How thoughtful of you to send me the clipping about the unicorn Tapestries. You were the first one to call it my attention. {Of} The five {N. Y.} friends who are most sympathetic to my enthusiasm for unicorns, three are out in California & two in hospital. One of these, Dr. Clapp, is organizing director of the Frick collection & I went with him to the Cloisters to see the tapestries with the result that we were shown about by the curator1 & asked to stay for lunch. These tapestries are the most beautiful art objects I have ever seen. I hope all goes well with you & yours. Our son Garth is in a Military Police unit in Hawaii. We hear fairly often & even a cable ten days ago.—just love & well but that makes us very happy! We are told that there is much interest in the exhibit in honor of my husband now being shown in the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. (a portion of the collection shown in the Library of Congress) First editions, photographs, the complete ms of “Solstice,” the bust by Jo. Davidson etc. It has been there since July 12. With all good wishes, Faithfully Una Jeffers. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I’ve put the clipping with your name on it in my book.2 ♦ I hope I am not getting weak-minded. I cannot remember whether we’ve gone over this before or not. I have meant to tell you I would have Robin copy out for you, if you wish, some short poem if you like, for your collection. Albert Bender got him to do several for different collections he was interested in. I think it is a good idea. I was touched, the last time we were in N. Y. when we saw framed over his desk in Edgar Lee Masters apt in N. Y. C. a poem of R. J’s, copied for Masters. He is a crusty, crabbed old man according to most people. We have found him a wonderfully loyal—and amusing—friend. I believe he made a very distinct contribution to American literature. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. Postmark: August 10, 1942. 1. James J. Rorimer (1905–1966), the chief planner and first director of the Cloisters, joined the staff of the Metropolitan Museum after graduating from Harvard in 1927 and led the institution from 1955 to 1966. He was the author of The Cloisters (1938), Survival: The Salvage and Protection of Art in War (1950), and other books. 2. Written vertically in upper left margin, first page.

RJ to Una [Autumn 1942]1 Sleepy—Sweetheart— I’m slightly stuck, and I thought a little walk might unravel it as it did a few weeks ago. Back soon, darling. I love you. ♦ Darling—sleep well. I’ve gone another walk to see if the next chapter is in the sunrise— Back for early breakfast. I hope you and Winnie won’t be afraid last night, sweet faces. Love. ♦

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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On the shore, darling. Back soon. ♦ I love you—dearest in all the world. (Her name is Una.) AN. Tor House. 1. These notes were probably written in 1942, but their exact dates and sequence of composition are unknown. The only note that provides a clue is the one placed first in the series. It is written on the reverse side of an order form for Children Under Fire, a book by Alice Brady published by the Columbia Publishing Company in August 1942. If the order form was sent to Robinson and Una as a pre-publication announcement, it probably arrived (and landed on their scrap paper pile) in late July or early August. The first note, therefore, could have been written in either of those months or, more likely, in September or October.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel October 14. 1942 Darling Blanche: You are efficient! I hadn’t been able to locate that “Time” allusion to the card game. I had given our Times to a neighbor & the file at the Library is incomplete. How glad Garth would be to have it!1 I think your address for him is complete but here it is to make sure. 39837534. MP Corps 811 A.P.O. 958. C/O Postmaster San Francisco. Esther telephoned me Friday morning from S. F. & arrived that night. She stayed until Monday evening 9:00. Much talk!! I have no way of checking her statements. She sounds convincing! But I would be bored to death to think every moment of health procedure—precious as health is. She is fantastically devoted to her theories. Perhaps she will discover some important item! You know how comical Noël is. He went to call on her in New York (hadn’t met her before). He said she immediately plunged into what sounded to him like the most tremendously technical ♦ discussion of things he scarcely knew the names of. He concluded that she had mistaken him for some professor of chemistry. I wished after I had left you that I had shown you my scar. I will next 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

time. Don’t, meantime, fear that that part of the affair is terrible. God knows I would not like the fright of having my other breast affected but as for looks, I am much pleased with the operated one. Such a tidy, smooth affair—you know the Amazons used to have the breast on the side from which they shot their arrows, amputated. I suppose I must have seen a statue of such long ago, it all seems so familiar. I can’t write more. Robin & I & Noël are going to drive up to Martin Flavin’s ranch {(25 miles)} in Cachagua this afternoon & stay for dinner. Martin & Connie close that place tomorrow. With lack of gas & tires, they wont get there often anymore. I hope with all my heart that Russell is gaining— Life is certainly a struggle one way or another. With so much love— Devotedly, Una. 2 A sprig of thyme from our courtyard. ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Una had been searching for an article about the newly invented card game Lingo, which was designed to teach conversational Japanese. She hoped to obtain a set of the cards for Garth. See “Japanese in Ten Easy Lessons,” Time (August 10, 1942): 54. 2. Written in top right corner, first page.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California November 5, 1942 Dear Bennett: Thanks so much for the parcel of books. Robin has been reading with tremendous interest Cecil Brown’s book.1 I think Addams “Drawn & Quartered” appallingly witty.”!2 Garth came in unexpectedly from Hawaii about five weeks ago. He is in a M. P. Corps over there & brought over some prisoners of war & some enemy aliens. He was here only four days but that was enough to give Robin & me a fresh start.

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Donnan & his wife expect to present us with a grandchild next spring & thats our best news. I hope all goes well with you—, both family & firm. Affectionate greetings from us both Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Cecil B. Brown, Suez to Singapore (New York: Random House, 1942). 2. Charles Addams, Drawn and Quartered, with a foreword by Boris Karloff (New York: Random House, 1942).

RJ to Una [November 20, 1942] Friday night. —Tor House. Dearest child. It was a terrible ache to part, and leave you so little in the long train.1 We got home without incident, made fire and supper. But it is late. I think we got home about ten. Traffic was jammed solid all the way on 7th and 12th streets, and after that we never exceeded 38 m.p.h. though everybody else did. Met no dim-out until this side Salinas. Now we are going to bed, loving you and missing you so. Saturday—It is after eight o’clock and MacDougall2 hasn’t called yet—nor have I called John.3 Winnie slept normally—itches a little this morning—normal too—and has never gullupped. (I have just scratched his little behind again.) He rose at seven, I at six—temperature 40°. The moonset at six was incredibly beautiful, like a great shapeless fire-opal in the sea-mist. I wish to God I were soon going to make buttered toast for you. By the time you get this you will be happy with Patty and Donnan, to whom I send dearest love. And to you, lovely sweetheart, to Una from lonesome Winnie and Robin. —And four little roosters, a little stone house etc.—and the Pacific Ocean. We are all lonely for you. Winnie says we’ll take you to pieces when you get back.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

—MacD. called this moment—put it off to Monday—so the car will rest today, probably tomorrow until O. P.4 in the evening. I think I won’t call John until noon or later.5 All my love, dearest. AL. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: November 21, 1942. 1. Una traveled by train to Ohio to visit Donnan and Patty. 2. Daniel T. MacDougal or his grandson Phillip. 3. John O’Shea. 4. Observation Post. 5. This sentence and the closing are written vertically in the right margin.

UJ to Robinson Nov 21. ’42 Sat. 3:20 p.m. A little east of Green River, Wyoming Darling Robin— I’ve been thinking of you & Winnie all day—trying to imagine just what you are doing. All through the region around Truckee the snow was feet deep & the pines & firs heavy with the weight of it. The moon was very brilliant & the whole landscape enchanted. I kept the curtain open all night so I could see everything while I was awake. The porter told me this morning it was 6° below zero ♦ at one place in the night. There has been snow on the ground all the time today—more or less. I tried in vain to get a roomette or berth so finally settled down to thoroughly enjoy this lovely compartment. By manipulating a few gagets (or is it gadgets!) I can keep it at the exact temp. I want & full of fresh air. The train is crowded to the roof & there are lots of bumptious children so I am glad to sit quietly hidden in my own room. Quite a lot of servicemen—and all along the way hundreds at stations. ♦ The man in charge of the dining car tells me hei{s son} is in the Solomans & he is full of anxiety. Dinner was very fair last night—but very small portions like in England. I think a regular man would need two dinners.

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For breakfast I had orange juice, toast & coffee. For lunch I ate apples I brought with me. You are allowed only one cup of coffee, —smallish size, at a meal. How often last night as I looked out at the snow I thought of our really terrific trip Feb. Mar. 1941, & didn’t we have a good time— I hope you felt a little disconsolate to see my face put away on the train & you & Winnie leaving me all alone. —You had each other! I was altogether desolate. I try to keep my mind fixed on Donnan He & the cradle will look like home to me. Precious Robin I love you with all my heart. Una I’ve been thinking if we had a little box of our own at Ellens Roscoe1 could leave the milk there for us every other day & we pick it up & save his tires. They are on my conscience. ALS. HRC Texas. 3 pages. Letterhead: The Streamliner. 1. Roscoe L. Eaton (1916–1997), a dairyman who managed the goats on Noël Sullivan’s farm, delivered milk to Robinson and Una, Ellen O’Sullivan, and other friends of Noël.

UJ to Noël Sullivan About 100 mi. East of Cheyenne 9:30 Nov 21. 42 Dearest Noël: Ive had a very nice day quietly tucked away in my compartment which all my efforts could not exchange for anything less at any moment. So I am thoroughly {resolved to be} happy & luxurious & spacious. The train is crowded to the last berth & its a very long train— The roomettes look darling I would like to have one of the few which are entered by going up 5 steps from the corridor they look like oriel windows—have you seen them? There are few soldiers on the train—but thousands standing at various stations & as for tires I ♦ think I’ve seen 200,000 at least piled up at stations on express trucks.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

A magical landscape last night around Truckee. The mts. deep, feet deep, in snow & all the fir trees covered with snow & the brightest moonlight you ever saw. I kept my curtain up all night. It was 6° {below} zero at Wells. Tonight at 7:30 at Cheyenne was zero. Snow all day on the ground. There are hundreds of miles of desolate country in Utah & Wyoming with tiny frame houses set in bare heartbreaking country. When their little lights begin to be lit I try so hard to think out their interiors & just what they are doing. We have on several ♦ occasions woven back & forth on these roads {motoring}—once going to Horton’s HF Bar Ranch near Sheridan, Wy, & always felt the strange bare desolation. The only uplifting quality is the space—all U. S.! too. But I always quake to think some mother may be in one of these huts trying to take care of a sick baby & cooking cabbage & pork for ranch hands at the same time. If this train is on time I shall have ½ hr. to change stations in Chicago— get a train to Columbus, arriving at 8:11 {p.m} & no one has been able to say how to Zanesville. —Otherwise I wait in Chicago until 11:30 p.m. Art Gallery in that case. The names of the coaches on this train are amusing—“Ferry Building,” “Portsmouth Square,” “Embarcadero”— — “Twin Peaks”—thats mine. —“Fisherman’s Wharf ” I do hope Robin & Winnie are taking care of each other. In 30 yrs. R. & I have never been separated like this. Winnie was much depressed. I think Robin will be letting him have his own way altogether. Alas, no Kerr1 on the horizon! Much love, you darling person from Una I do like your wood interior so much. Charming & home like—.2 ♦ Sunday morn. 11:15 Dont yet know whether Ill get my connection. We lost 20 min. in a storm in Iowa but are now going at terrific speed to make it up. My unicorn with garnets on him is riding along here on my coat. Can you believe it I’ve got Mrs. Clamppetts fur coat! Connie came skipping over

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to offer it. Said ’twas old but Connie herself wore it to N. Y.—so would I? ♦ & I would—it looks nice! & its warm— Sue Smith & her sister Mrs. Nicholl3 waved to me as the streamliner left S. F. I don’t know who they were seeing off ALS. Berkeley. 5 pages. Letterhead: The Streamliner. Postmark: November 23, 1942. 1. Possibly a reference to George Kerr, who had lived in Carmel for an extended period, but had recently left the area for points east. See Una’s February 19, 1942 letter to Garth, note 2. 2. Added vertically in right margin, page 3. 3. Susan (Nicol) Smith’s sister was Helen (Nicol) Nielson (1892–1957). Smith also had two sisters-in-law, Hazel Nicol and Irene Nicol, who lived in the Bay Area.

UJ to Robinson [November 22, 1942] 11:20 Sun. morn Precious Robin & Winnie I mailed air mail letter to you last night at Cheyenne. I dont know yet whether I will make my Columbus connection. We are due in Chicago in less than an hr. We lost 20 min in a storm last night in Iowa & are going so terrificly fast to make up I can not keep my feet. Had to sit ♦ down to comb hair. Its worse than the ocean because bumps come from every direction— not a calculable wave swipe. Ive had a nice trip. Have seen I do think 200,000 tires piled at stations on express trucks I do miss you two Kiss each other —Let ♦ Winnie smell this letter. See whether he knows its granny I guess I depend on you a great deal darling Robin. I feel so bereft Your Una ALS. HRC Texas. 3 pages. Letterhead: The Streamliner. Postmark: November 23, 1942.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Una Tor House Sunday, 2 pm. November, 22. [1942] Dearest angel: I worked hard all the morning and am now piously eating an apple, as you bade me. Ellen called telephoned yesterday evening, just to inquire, and again this morning to tell me about the Serra mass at the Mission, but I didn’t go. Esther Fish phoned to ask me to dinner tonight—pheasants, and a Navy Commander on his way west—I had to refuse, explaining about the observation post. She says she’ll try again. No one else has phoned, except MacD. yesterday, and no one has come to the door. I hadn’t the heart to call O’Shea yesterday—called him this morning at nine and again at 12:30, but no answer. Winnie eats and sleeps well, {hasn’t gulluped once,} but every now and then he thinks of you and looks perfectly desperate, or stands and looks into my eyes, asking, asking— I try to tell him. The air-planes are very frequent and low to-day, so noisy that Winnie barks at them. I think we’ll go up town soon and buy him some meat if possible, and me a dozen eggs, and mail this. No mail came yesterday—I mean none worth opening. We miss you terribly, I as much as Winnie—or more—but I know when you’re coming back. All my love, dearest, and love to Donnan and Patty. Are your green dress, hat {feather} and purse much admired? Fancy me sawing wood at Weston’s tomorrow morning. Goodbye, sweetheart. Robin. Winnie just et. ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: November 22, 1942.

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RJ to Una [November 23, 1942] Tor House—Monday, 3 pm Thanks, dearest, for the wire, which was telephoned an hour ago, and made us glad. We had just returned from sawing wood. My employer is satisfied with me—he now proposes to trade us some pitch-pine for another half day’s labor! Weston and Caris look as amusing as ever, but Winnie didn’t like the cats, even from his throne on the car-seat. They have tremendous whiskers and eyebrows—we hope Flavin hasn’t been tomcatting around. I took Winnie along to the O. P. last night, and he nervously enjoyed it—warm weather—dazzling moonlight. Noel asked me to dinner (Thursday) when he relieved me, and dazed by four hours of fruitless watching I forgot to say no, according to plan. Also Ellen to-night, and dam it the Robertses for lunch to-morrow. {Harriet came in last night and pleaded, when I was getting ready to go to O. P.} You received letters to-day from Maud Clapp, Oliphant,1 Garth (which I enclose) and the Government. The stingy devils— —check for 14.80—“ceiling prices” for those tires. I put it in your desk. {The collision one was “grade 1, used”, but $2.20 deducted for further repair. The others were “grade 3, used.” There are five “grades” before “scrap.” } I just got around to filling out my “occupational” questionnaire2 —it looks very funny. Job for which best fitted? —Writer of poetry. Next best fitted? —Common labor. And so forth. I have to take the car to Ellen’s to-night, to leave Winnie in it, so I might as well go to the PO and mail this, maybe buy meat for Winnie—I myself ate half his hamburger {with fried potatoes!} last night—but not raw. Dearest, we love and adore and miss you so. Love to Patty and Donnan. Have a good time and take care of yourself, sweetheart. Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: November 23, 1942. 1. Richard H. Oliphant (1915–1993), a classmate and close friend of Garth, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1938. During their student years, they both resided at International House. After military service in World War II, Oliphant became an advertising executive.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

2. At the outset of World War II, men between the ages of forty-five and sixty-four were required to register with the draft board.

UJ to Robinson Tues. Nov 24. 1942 Zanesville O. Darling Robin: I hope you got my wire I arrived here {safely} early yesterday morn after such a trip! I’ll jot down bits. Arrived Chicago on time at 12.15 (noon). Was in rear part of very long train & walked I guess ¾ mi. {carrying} those bags of mine. Not a single porter anymore in that great station to do individual bidding. As you get off train they take your bags & pile on trucks pulled by hand or little engines. They do not advance until full & then go into station where you ♦ must wait for them to be sorted. I think it would not be less than 25 min. at least to get your own. As I had such little time I carried my own to Parmalee1 bus—found they could not get me over to other station in time so by luck found a taxi & got over. Such hurry as never was, a train load of soldiers. There was a parlor car I was let into on the chance that I could get a chair but did not know until train started. I got a chair & was fairly comfortable. Rained, and the train was several hours late as there was a wreck & trains were jumbled. So into Columbus station at 10:45 p.m. ♦ The conductor wasn’t sure about connections {to Zanesville}. —You can see how crowded it was in that enormous station when I tell you that it was ½ hr. before I could get up to any of the various ticket windows {to ask.} Such millions of people soldiers, sailors, English aviators, & civilians milling around close packed. A train was to leave at 2.00 am. so I sat & waited & watched many little dramas before I got away. Then on to a terrible day coach attached to a train to Pittsburgh. Queer people on it, too.— Train late arrived at Zanesville at 4:25 am. I can tell you I wondered what kind of a thing would ♦ befall me with those bags—& possibly no taxi. There was one. Also a nice husky workman carried my bags & put me into it. An elegant young woman was in it already—turned out to be a

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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friend of Patty’s family. —I had sent no wire to Donnan because I could not depend on getting here any time. After considerable knocking got them up. They sleep soundly! They had left their car out {in front} when they went to bed thinking I might call from somewhere & they would fetch me. They were astounded tho’ to see me at such an hour. —Had a nice day yesterday Many of family came to call & we went to call on Grandmother Weller ♦ & Grandmother Grant2 & evening at Patty’s mother with friends. We dine there tonight, at Grandmother W’s tomorrow night, & Thanksgiving day at Aunt Annabel’s.3 On Fri. Patty & Donnan & I are motoring up to Mason & returning Sunday. I expect to leave here Tuesday evening & leave Chicago Wed Nov 2,4 6: p.m. Thats a bare outline I find Patty & Donnan very happy together. Patty had gotten very pretty, too & well as charming & chic. Donnan is thinner than I like but says he feels well. This old house is lofty & dignified. All of the rooms beautifully proportioned & furnished in the most impeccable taste! Their drawing room is a gem. ♦ Very restrained & elegant (13 ft. ceilings) They are very happy over the coming baby & the increase in weight is very becoming to Patty. The family all seem fond of Donnan & are treating me as one of themselves. Patty’s mother is beautiful, rather made up, with marvellous clothes. She is tall, {languid}, & country-club settish. I’ll tell you all about them when I return. This is an old town full of fine old brick houses & stone houses {red}. Brick pavements, very uneven. Streets lined with shade trees now leafless. We are going to look at some on the outskirts of town later. I was so eager to tell you the news that I’ve no time left to talk about loving which {see back page 1} ♦ {Read after last page}5 isn’t news but goes on forever. I don’t think I’ll leave you & Winnie again! Only the boys could move me. Hug that fabulous true swan for me and wish me home, precious Robin. Get out the violin bow if Winnie scratches his tail. Dont spoil him & win him away from me. I love you both with all my heart. I am happy that Donnan is so evidently delighted to have me here. I love the boys so much. I forget to expect them to love me. Devotedly Your Una

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Grandmother Grant is leaving for Los Angeles in two days if she can get her reservation. Mr. Grant’s wife6 is ill. ♦ You might give my news to Noël—that is, the essential part. I sent him a letter from Columbus.7 Across the road from here is a lovely river slow-moving & edged with trees ALS. HRC Texas. 8 pages. 1. The Parmalee Transfer Company handled passenger and baggage transfers between railroad stations in Chicago. 2. Elizabeth “Bessie” (Hoge) Grant (1862–1945), a native of Zanesville, studied music prior to her marriage to Frederic James Grant (1862–1894), editor of the Seattle Post–Intelligencer in Seattle, Washington. Mrs. Grant returned to Zanesville after her husband was lost at sea in September 1894. 3. Annabel (Grant) Fassig (1866–1958), sister of Frederic James Grant, was Patty’s greataunt. Annabel was the wife of John M. Fassig, a prominent Zanesville physician. 4. Una meant December 2. 5. Having run out of space at the bottom of the page, Una concludes her letter on the reverse side of the first sheet. 6. Mary K. Grant (1902–1975), born Ethel M. Kubischta, was a writer, associate editor of Crockery and Glass magazine, and art director at Macy’s department store in New York before she married Frederic Grant. When the couple moved to Los Angeles, she joined her husband at Gladding, McBean, where she directed the design department. Together, the Grants designed and produced some of America’s most popular dinnerware, including the Franciscan Ware line that became famous for such patterns as Franciscan Apple and Franciscan Desert Rose. 7. This and the following postscript are written on the back of the second sheet.

RJ to Una Tor House—Tuesday, Nov. 24. [1942] Dearest: Your sweet letter from the train came this morning, and I let Winnie sniff it before I read it through, but I think the odors of the train confused him, he was bewildered and questioning, though of course excited when I said “Granny”. The moonlight and snow must have been beautiful; we have had terrific moonlight here too. I’m glad your air-conditioning worked so well, and that you could be shut away from the mob; and thanks to yesterday’s LETTERS 1940– 1962

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wire I opened the letter with a comforting assurance that all was well. Take care of yourself in that weather. Winnie and I have lately returned from lunch at the Robertses’—[illegible] roast lamb, potatoes, peas-carrots, persimmons, crackers cheese coffee, so I should be fortified. She kept saying it was like Simpson’s1—London—but I judge the persimmons were extra. Susan Porter came in late from down the coast, more or less expected, but her chief errand was to get some more whiskey from Ellis for Hilda,2 who is still staying there. She Susan is assured she will get extra gas-rations, just for living there. She says Jean K. drove up from there Sunday night {(and Monday morning)} to relieve Noel at the O. P., and is home now, very happy because God presented her with moon and stars and thunder-storms, (+ a lot of rain,) down there. Also that Flavia was down over night with two soldiers, wine and barbecue. Susan left before the coffee, and Kinnoul3 came in; insisted ♦ on Winnie (from the car) and Ali Baba4 making acquaintance! but Winnie ignored him but Ali seemed willing. Ali has bitten Cen Fearnley,5 {Hilda,} and the colored help, but didn’t offer either to bite or run {(much)} when he met Winnie again. —When I was saying thank-you, Adrian Beach6 came in {with a lot of art.} It was three o’clock and lunch had lasted till then, with all the interruptions. —Winnie on the window-sill has just seen a cat walking down the shell path, and is roaring and dancing with rage. Darling, does the cradle look nice in its new home? —Love to Donnan and Patty— I seem to be sending it to them every day now. Last night we left Ellen’s early, a polite twenty minutes after supper. Yesterday I finally got John O’Shea on the phone and agreed to have dinner with him to-night. {Lodge.}7 He is going away over Thanksgiving. (I am writing at your desk. (A soldier and a woman with light brown hair just knocked at the door. Winnie and I hid in the bed-room—I can’t identify them.) —Yesterday’s letter I told you Noel asked me to dinner Thursday. Later I called him to tell about your telegram, and discovered Thursday was Thanksgiving. Begged off, saying I was already engaged with Ellen. (Times don’t conflict, but one dinner will be enough.) So he said Friday.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Yesterday I struggled with draft—questionnaire—to-day with application for extra gas to Yankee Point, difficult to fill out in your absence—to-morrow Ellis’s Guggenheim8—when revolution comes to this country the important thing will be to burn all the paper—and paper-factories. You had a letter to-day from Catherine Walls,9 and a lot of advertising which I burned. I had a letter from you! All my love, dearest. Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Postmark: November 24, 1942. 1. Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, a London restaurant that has offered a traditional British menu since 1828. 2. Hilda Vaughan (1892–1985), a Welsh novelist known by her maiden name, was the wife of writer Charles Morgan. Vaughan was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1963 in recognition of her achievements as the author of A Thing of Nought (1934), Pardon and Peace (1943), Iron and Gold (1948), and other books. 3. Claude, Countess of Kinnoull (1904–1985), born Enid Margaret Hamlyn Fellows, was an heiress to a British tobacco fortune. In 1923 she married George Harley Hay-Drummond, 14th Earl of Kinnoull. When the couple divorced in 1927, Lady Kinnoull retained her title. As a convert to Roman Catholicism, Lady Kinnoull devoted herself to medical missionary efforts in Africa, hospice work in Paris, and support for the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War. In Carmel, where she lived from 1940 to the end of her life, she painted, wrote, continued her work on behalf of the church, and supported animal welfare causes. A portrait of Jeffers, painted by Kinnoull in the fall of 1942, currently hangs in Tor House. Writing as Claude ­Kinnoull, she published a novel in 1946 titled Come Home, Traveller. 4. Ali Baba was Lady Kinnoull’s poodle. 5. Cen Fearnley (1900–1964), born Cecil Carlyle Fearnley in England, was a writer who ­vacationed in Carmel and eventually made the village his home. His wife Sybil (Beer-­ Hofmann) Bolitho Fearnley (1892–1975), author of My Shadow as I Pass (1934) and other books, was the widow of noted journalist William Bolitho (1891–1930), born Charles William Ryall in Droitwich, England. 6. Adrian Gillespie Beach (1911–1983), a friend of Susan Porter, was a British artist and engraver. 7. The Del Monte Lodge at Pebble Beach, a resort hotel and restaurant. 8. If R. Ellis Roberts applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship, he did not receive one. 9. Probably Catherine (Allan) Walls, an older sister of John Allan and Chrissie Allan. Catherine was born in Tarbert, Scotland and lived in Edinburgh.

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RJ to Una [November 24, 1942] Tuesday night. Darling Una: I wrote to you earlier to-day, but we have just got home, from dinner with John O’Shea—11:15, not very late—so I’ll tell you about it and mail this in the morning with the R. D. postman for to-morrow’s letter. Winnie went along, and is now in high spirits biting me, glad to get home, there is some of his saliva on this paper. John was at his best, sweet and a little sentimental; he had asked me to come by daylight but I got there about 6:40 and parked Winnie by his front door. After two or three Irishes we walked over in the dark to The Lodge, leaving Winnie in the car and Kirschel1 in the house. John insisted on going to the bar before dinner, in spite of my protest, but we met an army there—Col. Allen Griffin, O’Donnell, Allen Griffin,2 Sam Morse,3 O’Donnel4 of the Herald, and General Ben Lear5 whom you may have heard of, besides countless other more or less military men—so we shook hands and went to dinner. Very acceptable, abalone chowder, baked mussels, chicken and so forth. Afterwards John took me down in the moonlight to the cliff below his house to look at the forms of rock and cypress. He thinks it is the most beautiful spot in the world—and perhaps it is—one of the most—but he doesn’t intend to stay there after {next} June when the lease expires. But doesn’t know where he’s going to. ♦ We went up to the house, and I un unlocked the car door and talked to Winnie again, and followed John in. He talked about Erskine and Sara, whom he visited two or three weeks ago—driving his own car with vast adventures up that hill. Erskine somewhat vague and purple-veined in the face {but still grand—}; Sara completely rejuvenated since her {her} operation. Also Ella Young, Arthur,6 and others. I didn’t mean to bracket those two together, but he talked so much about Gavin—whom he doesn’t like, so why talk about him? —I spoke of a three-pronged pronged poker that stood by the fireplace, and John instantly said that it was silver-coated iron, forged in Africa: was I interested in metals? Sensing that he wanted to

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give me something, I avoided the subject and spoke of the thin stone mask that hangs over his fire-place—used to hang there—I had to bring it home. I begged him to wait at least until June, when he leaves the place. —No doubt you remember it—Mexican carving— Molly gave it him for his birthday and it has hung there since they took the house—[I]7 said it was so associated with memories of him and Molly that I couldn’t take it. He said “Molly and I want to give it to you.” He had admired it in Mexico; she had bought it and saved it for his birthday, {hanging it by a string under her clothes, but it fell and a flake chipped off.} It made me sad and I came away soon afterwards. —Winnie was glad to see me, and here we are. Dearest, I love you with all my heart. I have made so much of this evening because I didn’t know what else to talk about, since answering your letter and wire. Love to Patty and Donnan. And to you, dearest. —Robin. Wednesday morning—Hello, darling Una.8 ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Postmark: November 25, 1942. 1. Kirschel, a female dachshund, was John and Mollie O’Shea’s last pet. 2. Robert Allen Griffin (1893–1981) was the founder and publisher of the Monterey Peninsula Herald. 3. Samuel Finley Brown Morse (1885–1969), best known as S. F. B. Morse or Sam Morse, was a developer, conservationist, and financier who founded the Del Monte Properties Company in 1919, the year he married Mary Relda Ford (1888–1951). Under his leadership, the firm created the Pebble Beach resort community, which included Pebble Beach Golf Links, Seventeen Mile Drive, and other Monterey Peninsula landmarks. 4. William Martin O’Donnell (1889–1949), a journalist active in community affairs, was the managing editor of the Monterey Peninsula Herald. 5. Gen. Benjamin Lear (1879–1966) began his military career when he enlisted for service during the Spanish-American War. He rose through the ranks during the Philippine-American War, World War I, and after. From 1940 to 1943 Lear was the commanding general of the Second United States Army, and from 1944 to 1945 he was commander-in-chief of Army Ground Forces. 6. Gavin Arthur. 7. A large ink spot fell on the page here, covering the word “I.” 8. Added vertically in right margin, page 2.

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RJ to Una [November 26, 1942] Tor House—Thanksgiving day. Dearest, I am beginning to wonder how many more daily letters to send to Zanesville; you know how vague I am about plans and dates, —and yours were slightly cloudy. I think to-morrow and Saturday I’ll send a couple to Mason, and hope to have heard more about your plans by Sunday. If letters go wrong you can be sure that my love and Winnie’s are still following you like hounds of heaven—or hell—which is which? This being the last to {you in} Zanesville, I want to send special love and good wishes to Patty and Donnan, and some Thanksgiving that they found each other and are so happy together. An hour ago Winnie and I came back from Ellen’s dinner—very pleasant— Winnie poor boy didn’t have any, but lunch beforehand. MacDuffys look very well, especially the statuesque lady. Her mind is almost totally occupied with USO etc. but she is nice. When I left the house, about three, Winnie was sitting at the wheel! First time I know of that he’s climbed over from the back seat. No mail to-day of course. This morning I drove to the Highlands and worked a full half day with Philip MacDougal, felling trees and sawing them— 8–noon, and promised for some day next week, in return for more wood. Poor Winnie had to sit in the car, with his jacket on mostly, it was cool. We came home and dressed, and were not late for Ellen’s dinner. Did you know it was her birthday too? This afternoon I went to turn over the signs on the gates—not at home— and Jim Greenan called to me from his car below—down for the day with his children—he has developed a tin mine and sends love to you. —I have heard nothing thank heaven from Marie Short nor Arthur nor any Flavins. Edith Greenan phoned yesterday to ask about you. Also Esther Fish phoned about 5:30 asking me ♦ to dinner. Col. Johnny Sherman was there—relative of Olga’s.1 He is on General Lear’s staff, one of the military that O’Shea and I met at the Lodge the night before. General Lear had never seen the Pacific Ocean, so they

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

made it a duty to fly out here from Memphis, and returned to-day I think. Sidney was a little dazed, having entertained the Colonel all afternoon; but not seriously. They are having vague trouble with Tex—they blame it all on his wife—he is changed—and threatens to enlist at any moment.2 The clock stopped yesterday, though the watches are going, and I think I began this letter later than I believed, because twilight is coming. So I must take this up town and mail it, and see if I can get Winnie a little meat. He lived on cans {from a can} to-day and last night. I love you dearest Una. —Robin ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Postmark: November 26, 1942. 1. Col. John Bartlett Sherman (1898–1971) and Olga Fish were first cousins; his father and her mother were brother and sister. Sherman was a grandnephew of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891) and a grandson of Maj. Gen. Joseph Jackson Bartlett (1834–1893). He was appointed to the United States Military Academy by President Woodrow Wilson and graduated in 1918. During World War II, Sherman was a member of the War Department General Staff and held leadership positions with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. 2. In an August 25, 1938 letter, Una told Mabel Dodge Luhan that Tex Raibourn’s wife Grace was happy because she was going to have a baby. The baby girl was born September 8, but she did not survive. By April 1939 the couple had separated, and within a year Grace was living with Theodore Light, a Big Sur cowboy whom she later married. Exactly one year after this letter was written, Grace died at age thirty-nine as a result of alcohol abuse. Tex worked at the Palo Corona Ranch for the rest of his life. He was badly burned there in December 1970 and died of complications.

UJ to Robinson [November 26, 1942] 405 Moxahala Ave. Zanesville Ohio. SThanksgiving Day. My dearest: We are home from a big Thanksgiving dinner. More & more relatives & friends. I’ve really had a most amusing time. And such kindness & cordiality from everyone. They have quite touched my heart. I haven’t time to write

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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much about it all but will remember every single thing to tell you when I return. Elegance & poise among alo a lot of them equal to any you’d see anywhere & amongst the whole set a sort of freemasonry {& understanding} from generations of {family} friendships that is a thing I understand to the full.— Tomorrow {morn} we start to Mason. Donnan & I figure that it is about 250 mi. or a little more. Ethel—Patty’s mother, insists on our driving her Packard Cadilllac. She thinks we’d be crowded so long in Donnan & Patty’s car. Ethel’s car is heated, too. So we are taking it with cushions & robes etc. & I think we will have a nice trip. Today has been cold & sunny. Dim with snatches of rain other days. Took a long drive yesterday with Grandmother Grant.— I cant start all that—wait until I come. I have had two letters from you darling ones. I love you so— ♦ I get into Oakland Pier at 9:15 am. Fri & into San Fran. 9:50 am. but I really think it best for you & Winnie to meet me at Monterey. I’ll come down on Del Monte Express. I guess its the one getting in around 7 pm. That means some hours wait {in S. F.} but I wont mind. Precious, I really dont think its very nice or proper to be separated do you—? But I’ve loved seeing Donnan & feel very enriched by the affection waiting for me here. Tell Winnie that the hosts today have a grand hunting dog who was present at the dinner. Very well behaved except for letting his eyes be pleading all the time. He leaned on me a good deal. Let Winnie smell this letter See whether he knows who wrote it Dearest love for ever Una ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Postmark: November 28, 1942.

RJ to Una Noon—Friday, Nov. 27. [1942] Darling Una— Your two letters, from Columbus and Zanesville, just arrived. Darling, what a horrible but wonderful set of experiences you have had. Enough to 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

think about and talk about for a year to come—and write in those journals of your life, which I deeply hope you’ll continue. I am so happy about your safe arrival and pleasure in Patty and Donnan. Since you leave Zanesville Tuesday, I’ll write you there to-day and tomorrow, but not Sunday, because I don’t think it could reach you. After that I can only wait for the beautiful joy of your return here. Yesterday’s letter I told you I was just leaving the house at twilight to post it—Mrs. Roberts walked in at that moment, overpoweringly sweet as usual, to ask me to lunch again to-day. I managed to refuse with grace, but had to buy a ticket to Ellis’s lecture—Bundles for Britain I think—at the Playhouse to-morrow.1 —Lee Crowe called {phoned} this morning to postpone dinner at Noël’s until to-morrow—Noël will be home so late to-night—so this day is clear at least. Winnie recognized your letter with pitiful perplexity—keeps asking and asking—it’s when you come home that he’ll wiggle inside his skin. {(And I too.)} He sleeps a great deal and has never vomited—all his physiological processes remain perfect. It rained last night and a little to-day, but we have a good fire. I wrote to Garth. Deep love to Donnan and Patty. And to you, my adored. From Robin. Lee Crowe wrote to you, but addressed it Monongahela Avenue. Neither he nor Noël could make out Moxahala. —I love you, dearest.2 No mail worth mentioning, except your two shining letters. —letter from Ghormley3 —telephone bill.4 ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: November 27, 1942. 1. R. Ellis Roberts presented a benefit lecture for Britain–America United, a relief society affiliated with the Bundles for Britain organization, at the Carmel Playhouse on Saturday afternoon, November 28. The title of his lecture was “My America, Your Britain.” 2. Written vertically in left margin. 3. Wilbur Hamilton Ghormley (1871–1949), a nurseryman who lived in the Kansas City, Missouri area, was Jeffers’ cousin. Ghormley’s mother Amanda Caroline (Jeffers) Ghormley (1833–1917) and Jeffers’ father William Hamilton Jeffers were siblings. A genealogical report by Ghormley, “Lineal Data of Joseph Jeffers and Barbara Moore,” was published in the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 54 (October 1979): 3–5. 4. Written vertically in right margin. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Una Saturday, Nov. 28. [1942] Darling: Your wire from Mason was phoned 7:40 last night. I am so glad that you had one more nice motor trip before the throttling. Yesterday I had the car tank filled, in case there should be a rush at the end, but will try to brim it again the last day. Noel’s to-night and Yankee Point to-morrow night will take a little. I hope you are having a grand time in Mason, and I—Winnie and I— wish you could be home instantly. He is well as ever, but got me up this morning at four o’clock by continually forgetting to breathe. After I left the bed he was all right, and lay comfortably till seven or so. Yesterday I had one of my defective inspirations and phoned Ellen that I would like to take her and her guests to Ellis’s lecture. (Since I have to go.) I meant, drive her, (and hoped she had other arrangements) but she said “How nice”—she’d give her two tickets to MacDuffys—so now I’m stuck with leaving Winnie home, cleaning the car, and buying Ellen a ticket. Anyhow I’ll take Winnie along to Noel’s dinner. M. Short called phoned yesterday. She is helping Beth Ingels1 or somebody write for the Herald about boys in service, wants datae about {of} Garth’s induction and a snapshot within next few days. I shall search the house and my mind presently. I have one or two little weeping blisters of poison-oak from working with MacDougal—wrist and ankle—really nothing—but the wrist one sticks on this paper. You had a letter to-day from the Gotham—Blanche I guess—nothing else of importance. I from “Poetry” and others ♦ but I haven’t opened them. Winnie is sitting on the window-sill, staring at the sea. Your birds are going by, and there is a boat in the bay. Sun and fog—rained again last night—you’d love it, I wish you were here. I and your Ocean are lonely for you. And Winnie of course. He says he never realized how much work you do around here—and how much life you bring into the house—and joy— until the poor old man took over.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Sweetheart, I think this is the last letter from me that could reach you before you leave Zanesville; and I hope it’s the last we’ll ever have to exchange at any distance. Happy journey home, darling. Tell Donnan and Patty that I love them with all my heart—and you too—and Garth—verifying that usually false verse about “Love in this differs from gold and clay—that to divide is not to take away.”2 I’ve been writing verses all morning and I guess it’s infected me—but none like that one—theme or rhyme! Come home soon, my dearest. —Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Postmark: November 28, 1942. 1. Elizabeth “Beth” Ingels (1905–1975) was born in Monterey and lived in the area for most of her life. As a writer and editor, she worked for the Carmel Pine Cone, the Monterey Peninsula Herald, and other publications. Ingels was a close friend of Carol and John Steinbeck. 2. From “Epipsychidion” by Percy Bysshe Shelley, lines 160–161. “Epipsychidion” (1821) is a poem about free love—or, more specifically, the experience of loving more than one person at the same time, even when married. Shelley composed the poem during the height of his infatuation with Teresa Viviani (1801–1836), a beautiful young noblewoman he met when he, his wife Mary, and Claire Clairmont were traveling in Italy. Teresa, whom the three called Emilia, aroused all of their passions, but Shelley’s feelings were the most intense.

UJ to Blanche Matthias [December 3, 1942] Near Rawlins, Wyoming Thurs. pm. Dearest Blanche: I’m on way home from two weeks trip to see Donnan & Patty. I’ve had a lovely time & am now all agog to get back to Robin & Winnie. Patty’s family did a thousand nice things for me. They’re terribly nice. Her mother is beautiful to look at, & such clothes!! & great fun besides. I’ll tell you & Maud all about everything when I get back to Tor House.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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This train is 1½ hrs late & is humping to make up time. Hard to write. ♦ I struck Chicago at an awful time. Zero when I got there yesterday morn. & the {gas} rationing & weather had made the most awful confusion I ever saw. Traffic was jammed everywhere. It was the coldest Dec 2nd since 1893. The wind a hurricane. I spent several hrs. at the Art Institute. A very fine collection of Old Dutch Masters is being shown (for the benefit of Dutch war effort) also collection of Grant Wood & of early American. I am very chagrined that I only found out later that Mrs. Thorne’s reproductions of rooms in miniature are perman- ♦ ently placed there.1 I would gladly have looked at them another hour. I spent all the time I could snatch seeing them at Treasure Is. San Fran. I went also to a lecture at the Planetarium. The wind out there was worse than any I ever felt & the screeching & moaning it made when you listened from inside was eerie. Only 13 in the audience because of weather etc. & I well nigh missed my train—no taxies & the lecture lasted 1½ hrs instead of the 1 hr. announced! I was nervous by the time I got to my train! It is so very difficult to get accomodations I might have had to wait for days. I hope to hear from you soon with a good report of Russell’s improvement. The book & magazines came to me safely after you left & were appreciated. Patty, Donnan & I motored up to Mich. 280 mi. to see my family. Had a very nice trip. Ethel (P’s mother) made us take her Cadillac which has a heater & defroster—in case—& we did need it. It was blizzardy in Mich. tho’ not as cold as Chicago. Tell Russell I wish he were here to share a bottle of Jamison 2Irish whiskey I have here, brought to me at the last moment by one of Patty’s family! ^Dearest love to Blanchie & please give this to Maud. Devotedly Una^3 ALS. Yale. 3 pages. Letterhead: The Streamliner. 1. Narcissa (Niblack) Thorne (1882–1966) was the wife of James Ward Thorne (1873– 1946), whose father George Thorne co-founded the Montgomery Ward retail and mail order

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firm. Mrs. Thorne became famous in the 1930s for the scale-model miniature rooms she commissioned, each of which illustrated a specific period style. Sixty-eight of the rooms are on permanent display at the Art Institute of Chicago. 2. The rest of this sentence is written vertically in the right margin. 3. The last sentence, closing, and signature are written in the top margin, first page.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California December 11. 1942 Darling Blanche: You determined woman! —I found Lingo here when I arrived & instantly dispatched it to Garth He wanted it very much & I hope he will find people to play with him & get a little speaking knowledge soon. He has been made a Corp. I do hope that he gets into Officers’ Training soon but I have heard that we are still fairly short of men over there & officers are unwilling to let go of capable underlings. Perhaps you hear from Emilie? She has her house rented & is expecting any moment to go over-seas (preferably Ireland) on a Red Cross job. I fancy she would be very efficient in that capacity. I have only talked with her over the phone & havent heard details.1 You can imagine I’ve been very busy since I returned. Winnie & Robin almost tore me apart—they found that ♦ men need a woman around the house. I found many jobs waiting me. Their ideas about keeping a house tidy don’t coincide with mine. I cant think just what I wrote you from the train. Zanesville is a very pretty old town with many handsome old houses of cut stone & brick. Donnan & Patty live in the old “Buckingham House”2 which has its picture in many books about old American houses for special features like its handsome doorway & noble stairway. They live in just half of it—it is very large—the back part is closed. The family all contributed furniture from their stores, & their drawing room is elegant & spacious & extremely dignified & correct! They are happy as turtledoves & Patty is striving hard to be a good housekeeper. She was a sweet little hostess & we had a thoroughly LETTERS 1940– 1962

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happy time together. The streets of the town are lined with great shade trees & right across from Donnan’s a lovely winding river flows along. It must be very beautiful in summer. ♦ Perhaps I told you D & P & I drove up to Mich. 280 mi. to see my sisters. That was fun, too even tho’ it turned blizzardy. Patty’s mother looks a little like Greta Garbo. Very alluring & beautiful—& the most wonderful clothes. She is great fun & her husband (P’s stepfather) is a handsome creature.— I found him very congenial. The two grandmothers & various great aunts & connections by marriage all live in style! & have a sort of country-club tone—you know—. They were all most agreeable to me; It was all a round of dinners. Of course it seemed to me they were far from {properly} war-conscious. But I will say I saw evidence that they are at least buying great quantities of war bonds & the Red Cross functioning in surgical dressings. It was most distressing coming back home to see all across the continent sad & teary families saying farewells to inductees. Thousands of them. ♦ I meant to say about D’s house. Their bedroom is lovely—a set of old dark mahogany, —high four-poster bed, enormous pier glass etc. that Grandmother Weller turned over to them. On Patty’s dressing table sit your two lamps looking very beautiful. At the foot of the bed sits my old mahogany cradle (Donnan was rocked {in} it—also I lent it to the Kusters for Colin). Patty was so eager to have it & as yet can’t bring herself to relegate it to the nursery which they are gradually furnishing. —On one wall of the nursery are—(in exactly the same {small} plain black frames) these pictures:3 They are now collecting their great grandparents. I have ready six of the eight I must send them. A rambling letter but I must stop. We & Noël, Martin & Connie are having dinner with John O’Shea at the Lodge. Mrs. Pine is coming back soon to stay with him for a while. —Please give this letter to Maud to whom I’ll write very soon. Devotedly Una I delivered the clippings you sent.4

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

My dearest love to Russell. I miss our talks & map-inspections5 I hope no friend of yours was in that awful Boston fire—6 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Emilie Coote’s husband, Maj. Ralph Coote, died suddenly July 3, 1941. Emilie was still adjusting to her loss and trying to make plans for a new life. 2. The Buckingham House on Moxahala Avenue in Zanesville was built in 1819 for Alvah Buckingham (1791–1867), a prosperous businessman, and his wife Anna (Hale) Buckingham (1795–1867). 3. An arrow points to a diagram shaped like an inverted pyramid. At the bottom is a small square (signifying a picture frame) marked “for baby.” Two squares in a row above that are marked “Donnan” and “Patty.” Above that row, there is another with four squares marked “their parents.” Finally, at the top, there is row of eight squares marked “grandparents.” 4. Written in top margin, page 1. 5. Written in top right corner, page 1. 6. Written across top, page 3. A fire at the overcrowded Cocoanut Grove nightclub on Piedmont Street in Boston killed 492 people and injured hundreds more.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California January 10. 1943 Dearest Melba: Its a darling box you sent me—thank you so much! It is here on my dressing table where I see it & am reminded of you at all hours. I had a thrilling trip to Ohio. Donnan & Patty are gloriously in love & live in an utterly charming house. Her family are delightful so I enjoyed every moment of it. We three motored up to Mich. (280 mi.) to see some of my relatives. Enjoyed it very much in spite of blizzards. {(They expect their baby in March} Travelling is strange now, crowds, delays, no porters etc. It is not the moment to go anywhere except for good reasons. DonnanRobin & Winnie survived my absence ♦ but seemed mighty glad to see me again. Today was Robin’s birthday. We went about to several friends to celebrate. Now its night—his night to watch 8–12 midnight down coast. Winnie & I sit by the fire. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Robin is busily writing these days on a long poem. He has helped a man at the Highlands cut down & chop a number of big trees for our winter wood. No wood can be bought at the wood yards here this winter. No one to cut or haul it. I think of you often & the busy days you must be living. I would love to hear all your news but know you must be too tired to write when you’ve pushed through your regular work. I shall send you a little parcel of books soon. Devotedly, Una I saw at Donnan’s the thrilling salad bowl you sent them!1 ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Written vertically in left margin, first page.

UJ to Agnes Meyer Tor House. Carmel. California January 15, 1943 Dear Agnes: Robin & I read with the utmost interest your articles on your observations in England.1 We’ve a lot to learn yet about mobilizing our forces. I myself in this out of the way spot know so many dozens of young men in the service doing tiny clerical jobs any intelligent girl could do with one hand. And of course we haven’t made a start {really!} with the possibilities of girls in actual labor. I see the indications of need for communal kitchens & nurseries. In a way, hard for me to take. I’ve lent your pamphlet to several people. Just now to the English journalist Ellis Roberts & his wife & their guest Hilda Vaughan (Chas. Morgan’s wife). Last month I made a quick trip to Ohio to see Donnan & his wife. (Perhaps you remember Robin & I were grounded {in Salt Lake City} when we tried to fly to the wedding). They are expecting a baby soon much to our delight. I found him ♦ in fine shape. Her family connections large & delightful. Zanesville is an old & a very pretty town—shade trees & a river. There are many old houses, colonial, of cut stone & brick very dignified. Donnan & Patty live in one of them— 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Garth is still in Hawaii {(M. P. Corps.)} He is at present learning Japanese & jiu jitzu! He was home for four days two months or so ago. Brought some prisoners of war. Surprised us. And put new life into us. I see Jean K. often, the darling girl. She has done hundreds of hours at a watching post. She is going with me Sunday to hear the much-heralded {Polish} pianist Malcuzynski.2 Affectionate greetings to Eugene from Robin & me. With love to you. Una. A message for you from Jean just now on the phone. Charlotte has just consented to go for rest {rest} (with nurse {nurse}) in a sanitorium for two weeks. {Address}: Desert Sanitorium, Tucson Arizona. ALS. L Congress. 2 pages. 1. Agnes E. Meyer, Britain’s Home Front (1942), a pamphlet containing reprints of six articles published in the Washington Post during the second week of November 1942. Meyer based the articles on a trip she took through England, Scotland, and Wales earlier in the fall. 2. Witold Małcużyn´ski (1914–1977), a pianist who specialized in the works of Chopin, performed January 17 at the Sunset School Auditorium in Carmel.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California February 2. 1943 My dear Bennett: Migdon Eberhart1 has been here at Tor House and then we took her for a ride way down the coast to Big Sur (you went there with us & we took our lunch, I think). She enjoyed the ride, I’m sure, & so did we, as we hadn’t been there for a long time—lack of gas. She is a charming person. We’ve been over to Del Monte Lodge for cocktails twice & shall meet again soon. I think she has met several very interesting people over at Pebble Beach. We very invited to a cocktail party there Sunday but were otherwise engaged. I know it was fun though. Thank you so much for her two mysteries.2 I seldom see that kind of

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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story but can easily see how one could get to be an addict. I couldn’t lay “with this ring” down until I’d finished. We thank you, too, for “The Wisdom of China & India”3 which is a fine addition to our library. Robin has read in it a lot. My favorite part is “Some {Great} Ancient Lyrics,” trans. by Helen Waddell for she is one of my very great enthusiasms. Heretofore I have known only her Latin translations and “The Wandering Scholars.” Grand books! Love from us both Una ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Mignon Good Eberhart (1899–1996), a prolific and popular writer of mystery novels, achieved early fame with stories featuring a female sleuth, nurse Sarah Keate. In a January 15, 1943 letter (TCC Berkeley), Cerf tells Una of Eberhart’s impending visit to the Monterey Peninsula. Since Eberhart was planning to write a novel set in the area (Escape the Night, published in 1944), Cerf asks if Una and Robinson would be willing to answer questions and show her around. 2. Mignon Eberhart, With This Ring (New York: Random House, 1941) and most likely Speak No Evil (New York: Random House, 1941) or Wolf in Man’s Clothing (New York: Random House, 1942). 3. Lin Yutang, editor, The Wisdom of China and India (New York: Random House, 1943).

UJ to Zena Holman Tor House. Carmel. California February 14th 1943 My dear Zena: How do you remember everything! I’ve been awaiting for months & months this “Life of Yeats”1—with impatience, its been promised for so long. Now I could scarcely lay it down until read—& some reread. Please know I send you a thousand grateful thoughts. & from Robin, too, who has just finished it. I suppose your work has grown more & more complicated every day with the endless new regulations & the difficulties of priorities.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

We are busy. Robin is working hard on a poem he has in hand. Affectionately Una. AL. Tor House. 1 page. Postmark: February 15, 1943. 1. Robinson had also given Una a copy of Joseph Hone’s W. B. Yeats: 1865–1939, inscribed “Darling—for our twenty-ninth anniversary. Many months late as usual, but that is not my fault but the postponing publisher’s. Love forever—Robin. Tor House—February 5, 1943.” See Maureen Girard, The Last Word, page 61.

UJ to Elizabeth McCloy Tor House. Carmel. California February {17.} 1943 Dear Miss McCloy:1 I have sent off three parcels of books to the Occidental Library. I hope some of them will be of value. I believe the Kingsley Porter (two vol. of Archeological Studies dedicated to him) will certainly be & some of the others. The Irish history ones are part of a collection given to me from time to time by Albert Bender. Some of them {are} duplicate material I already have. I assume that you have an Irish shelf. There is a curious one there on Round Towers by O’Brien of which I have a second copy.2 Don’t discard it, even if a few glances make you think it is fantastic & crackpot. Irish Round Towers is my subject & I have every book ever written about them & O’Brien’s theories, although so mixed up with {his thesis of} their phallic origin & a lot of Freemason history & so on, were so ably—, or fiercely, put forward, that archeologists have been compelled in every later book to give him much space. ♦ I hope you manage to carry on in spite of confusion & change. We miss the Birds—it was pleasant to have them for neighbors when they could come up here. Very cordially Una Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 2 pages.

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1. Elizabeth J. McCloy (1889–1967), nicknamed Beppy, was born in Macao to Scottish missionary parents and raised in China. She graduated from Oberlin College in 1913 and worked as a librarian there until 1924, when she accepted a position at Occidental College. A leave of absence enabled McCloy to earn a master’s degree in library science at Columbia University in 1928. When McCloy returned to Occidental that year, she was named college librarian—a position she held until her retirement in 1957. 2. Henry O’Brien (1808–1835), The Round Towers of Ireland: Or, The Mysteries of Freemasonry, of Sabaism, and of Budhism, for the First Time Unveiled (London: Whittaker and Company, 1834); reprinted as The Round Towers of Ireland: Or, the History of the Tuath-De-Danaans (London: W. Thacker, 1898).

RJ to Francis Gardner Clough [February 24, 1943]1 Dear Mr. Clough:2 The poems are very good, sincere and moving. Thank you for letting me see them. XLIX is Elizabethan in its cadence and rich simplicity; I comes next in my preference; but I like them all. As to publication I can’t advise you, but I think it would be better to wait a few years, until the war is over or has changed its shape, and people will be able to see it more objectively, and to distinguish more clearly between poetry and exhortation. I know no publishers really except my own, and it is certain that they would not undertake to publish the poems, at least at present. Good luck to you in any case, and if anything in this note can be of assistance, you are welcome to it. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. The handwritten original is undated; an accompanying typed transcription bears this date. 2. Francis Gardner Clough (1895–1966) was a clerk and writer who lived in New York’s Hudson Valley. His books, all self-published, include Flight and Other Poems (1928), Farewell Washingtonville with Digressions, or the Sadness of Living in a Mean Condition (1940), Sentenced (1943), and I the Hymn (1947). An excerpt from Jeffers’ letter appears in Sentenced beneath a poem titled “Word Is Out” (p. 60). Clough appends similar words of praise or encouragement—sent by

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Louis ­Untermeyer, Bertrand Russell, George Santayana, Eve Curie, Boris Pasternak, and Kenneth Fearing—to other poems. Follow the Hudson: Selected Prose and Verse by Francis Gardner Clough (Laramie, Wyo.: Wilson O. Clough, 1968) provides a brief biography of Clough written by his brother Wilson. The memorial volume was privately printed two years after Clough was struck by a car and killed while walking on a rural highway in New York. Wilson Ober Clough (1894–1990) was a professor of English at the University of Wyoming. He, too, was interested in Jeffers and published a poem about him titled “Tiger on the Road” in We, Borne Along (1947) and The Collected Poems of Wilson Clough (1990). He also discusses Jeffers at length in The Necessary Earth: Nature and Solitude in American Literature (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964).

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California March 8. 1943 Dearest Blanche— The darling stockings—precious, thank you so much! We had dinner at Hollow Hills the night after Noël arrived. He reports about everything he saw in New York all the plays, streets, darling friends—everything, and hopes you are coming later in the spring. We have, the last few weeks, had a great deal of rain after what had promised to be a drought, so already the wild flowers are bursting from the ground—it will be a lovely spring. Here in the courtyard a little bed of daffodils is dancing with blooms—a bed Garth planted years ago! Beside it are three tall stalks of aspodel {asphodels}. On the north side of the house by the great rock which is the cornerstone of the house—, we always called this rock “Thuban”,1 is a big bed of irises which I daresay you never saw in bloom They were planted by my half-sister twentythree years ago. They are all a bright blue now. Things dont change much at Tor House only little boys grew up & went away. ♦ Blanche—the book you sent Garth via me—alas, the Post Office will not accept any packages at present for overseas Army Post Offices (APO). They do for navy & marines. It may be the order is temporary. Robin has read the book with pleasure. My love to you & Russell & dear Clapps. Tell Maud she owes me a letter.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Garth is taking a very tough intensive course in Commando tactics.2 I do not think any oftener than I can help of what that may lead to. He has been at the judo & foot fighting & knives for some time. He loves it, but admits its tough. In his last letter he says he had just come in from a forced march of 15 miles over mountain terrain, —carrying full equipment. They did 15 miles in less than 3 hrs! I had a snap-shot of him a few weeks ago. Handsome. Devotedly Una. Noël is laid up with a cold. Had a temperature, etc. but that is all right today. He is keeping to his room, though. We missed him terribly!3 Have any of you read Hone’s “Life of Yeats”? Really how dreadful literary people are! Yes I mean Yeats, my hero! Their genius is paid for at the expense of any charm—4 ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Thuban is named for a star in the constellation Draco. Due to the precession of earth’s rotational axis, it serves as polestar every 26,000 years. It held that position at the dawn of civilization, from around 4000 to 1800 bce, and will return to it around 18000 ce. Additional information about the stone and star can be found in “Robinson Jeffers and Thuban” by Grant Hier, Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 91 (Summer 1991): 28–32. See also Jeffers’ poem, “To the Rock That Will Be a Cornerstone of the House,” Collected Poetry 1: 11. 2. Garth was selected for the elite Ranger Combat Training School at Fort Shafter, Oahu. 3. Added in the lower right corner of the page, beside Una’s signature. 4. Inserted in an open space above the last paragraph (“Garth is taking . . .”).

UJ to Michael Myerberg Tor House. Carmel. California March 8. 1943 Dear Michael: We were glad to have news of you again—and congratulations on the excitement & success of Wilder’s play.1 About “Dear Judas,” we are still of the same mind, we’d be glad if you could do something with it.2 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

We live along as best we can these queer days. Robin is writing busily & both of us are doing some war work. We read & walk a good deal & the evenings are cozy & shut-in by our dim outs and black-outs. Garth has been in an M. P. co. in Hawaii for nearly a year. He came home once, brought some prisoners of war. He is now taking a ♦ very tough intensive course in Commando tactics. jiu-jitzu, knife work, everything. I dare not think much of what this may lead to. He likes it tremendously, however. Donnan was deferred for a slight heart-murmur, married most happily & about to present us with a grandchild. I visited them in Zanesville in early December. Travelling is something now! I hope you are nearly well now—we send you & yours our affectionate wishes, Una Jeffers. ALS. Wisconsin. 2 pages. 1. Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth was produced by Myerberg and directed by Elia Kazan. The play opened November 18, 1942 at the Plymouth Theatre in New York and closed September 25, 1943. Despite accusations that Wilder had plagiarized material from Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce, The Skin of Our Teeth was awarded the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 2. In a letter dated March 17, 1943 (TCC Wisconsin), Myerberg says, returning to a proposal previously shared, “‘Dear Judas’ is constantly on my mind and I shall not be happy until I find a way to put it on the stage. I have been working quite intensively on this and have a format which I think will stand up dramatically and intellectually, as well as circumvent the curious conditions surrounding a religious production.”

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36. April 17. 1943 Darling Clapps: Donnan’s daughter was born this morning at 6:00.1 “All is well” he says. I must confess I had my heart set on twin boys, but one cannot always attain such ecstasy. I have really been very anxious about her—her grandmother wrote me she was perfectly enormous—had gained 40 lbs! so I expected LETTERS 1940– 1962

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twins, or otherwise I feared great difficulty for her. Of course she was very much underweight always & it may well be that when hunger at last drove her to eat that many pounds began to clothe her regular framework! She had gained 15 {lbs} or more when I was there & looked really beautiful. She was perfectly well all during her pregnancy. Please hurry up & telephone my dear Blanche! I cannot write her today. Today is my father’s 101st birthday. (He died at 85+). This his first gr-grandchild. Did you hear from Jean? She was in Arizona for several weeks with her mother whose doctor gave the most discouraging ♦ prognosis of her condition, so Jean moved her from Phoenix {Tucson} to TPhoenix & there put her in the hands of a doctor who is also an old family friend. This man says she will get better but gives no hope of her returning to her work in the East. She is to come to Calif. when it gets too hot there (its 98° now. That staggers me!) & go to some favorable place like Los Gatos. Her trouble, chronic bronchial inflamation tending toward bronchial pneumonia. Perhaps Jean told you all this. Jean says they had a dreadful train trip Tucson to P—, less than 100 miles—they were on the train an entire day. Jean looks tired but glad to be back in her studio & something definite settled about her mother. Tomorrow we lunch at Noëls. Muriel Draper is there, very sorrowful. {One of} Her sons was killed. RAF. I believe. believe.2 A letter from Garth today. He is well. Finished his terrific commando training with grade “excellent.” He writes in such cryptic style—but one sentence gives us hope he might be here on the mainland {soon.} —I don’t know whether the same mission as before. Such heavenly heavenly weather! And flowers!! I have worked several hrs. a day outdoors for a week—or more. Mostly pruning trees.3 I’m reading a fascinating book of a trip along the Euphrates in 1877 by Lady Anne Blunt (wife of Wilfred Blunt & granddaughter of Byron.)4 ^Jean has just been here. Her mother is coming almost immediately. Devotedly Devotedly Una.^5

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Candida Call Jeffers was born Saturday, April 17, 1943. 2. Raimund Sanders Draper (1913–1943), an American born in London, joined the British Royal Air Force in 1941. He died in an airplane accident at Hornchurch Aerodrome March 24. 3. Written vertically in left margin, second page. 4. Written vertically in left margin, first page. Lady Anne Blunt (1837–1917), a British adventurer, artist, musician, and horse breeder, was the author of Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1879) and other books. Her husband Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922) was a poet and writer. 5. The last paragraph, closing, and signature are written at the top of the first page.

UJ to Rudolph Gilbert Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 May 9. 1943 My dear Rudolph: I know I haven’t written for a long time. We have often thought of you & have duly rec’d several announcements & pamphlets from you, all interesting. I seem to have less time than ever these days. Its hard to get any help of any kind now—even most of our washing we do ourselves. (The only first class laundry hereabouts—the Del Monte is completely given over from now on to the Pre-Flight School which took over the Del Monte Hotel). I write constantly to Garth—still overseas & to Donnan. He & Patty have just presented us with a granddaughter, Candida. I cannot remember whether I wrote you that I visited them briefly a few months ago. He has married into a completely charming family & lives in a wonderful old house by the river—one of a half-dozen quite famous colonial houses in Zanesville. Carmel is full of people—officers’ wives & families. ♦ Luckily for us, gas rationing keeps cars from our road. Very few cars except {on} an occasional holiday or weekend. We are completely remote in our courtyard. At this moment a dozen fat quail are pecking away with the pigeons & golden bantams just outside my desk window and night herons roost in our trees all day. Robin hasn’t done anything to Dear Judas. I guess that will be up to

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Michael Meyerburg. A letter from him some weeks ago said he would be on the coast soon & come to see us. He is wildly enthusiastic about the play. I am not too keen about Hone’s “Yeats,” although it is pretty good as plain facts ago. But much seems to be held back. Perhaps because Mrs. Yeats1 & the rest of the family didnt allow all of the material to be used. Lacking details of his various love affairs makes some of his passionate verses hard to understand. I think on the whole that Hone’s “Moore” is better. Robin still does air-warden duty one night a week down coast. I give one full day a week to Red Cross office. {as} Staff Assistant. We hope you continue well & prosper. Affectionately Una. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Bertha (Hyde-Lees) Yeats (1892–1968), known as Georgie and George, married W. B. Yeats in October 1917, when she was twenty-five years old and he was fifty-two. Her experiments with automatic writing during and after their honeymoon inspired Yeats’ A Vision, “The Second Coming,” “Sailing to Byzantium,” and other key works.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 July 5. 1943 Dearest Melba: I am so sorry to hear of your mother’s1 illness. I hate to think of your anxiety. Do let me hear whether she came through the operation in good shape. The Clapps, after having horrid experiences trying to get settled in S. FB, have a cottage at El Mirasol2 & seem to revel in the “soft heat & cool nights & quiet garden.” —And Timmie is busy at whatever it is he is doing.— He is also expecting proof sheets at any moment. He finally decided to call his book “Against a Background on Fire.”3 They still talk vaguely about coming back here. If you should get in touch with Clinton Judy, be very discreet about

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

asking any direct questions about our old friendship. He is very reserved. It will be all right to ask him for Esther Busby’s address. Say that I thought he would know it if she is still in that region. That wcould be a starter. Now I must dash away to many tasks. Dearest love to you & remember me to all your family. Devotedly, Una. Put this on the address too, now. New help at the P. O. almost every day. A mess4 ♦ Robin & I have been doing a lot of hard work around Tor House this last week. I wish you could see the boys’ room in the tower & the dungeon now. They always were messy out there & were indignant when I made them clean the place. Said “Its ours isnt it, &, if you like, we’ll lock it & hide the key!” Besides all their projects out there, it has become a what English call “a glory hole.” I wish I had written down the contents. Copper ore from the Anaconda, black-out shutters, old luggage, hundreds of ft. of garden hose, old racquets, machine for restringing them, glue & varnish, shells, Garth’s mining tools, camping outfits, old andiorns andirons we found in an abandoned house in a mt. cañon, two {Chinese} guns so heavy that they need two men to fire them, {sacks of chicken feed—} —that list is just a beginning. Now its all grand & tidy. Much thrown away, the rest packed away in boxes & cupboards, orderly. Then we have had a great business cutting a view through the top of Donnan’s maze5 in the hollow so I can see my altar stone from dining & bedroom windows. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Alice Edna (Bush) Berry (1875–1946). Edna, also known as Tot, tells the story of her early life, her adventures in Alaska prospecting for gold, and her marriage to Henry Berry in The Bushes and the Berrys, a memoir first published by Ward Ritchie in 1941 and reprinted by her grandson C. J. Peter Bennett in 1978. Through her brother-in-law Clarence J. Berry, Edna and her descendants became shareholders in Berry Petroleum and other businesses. 2. El Mirasol, an elegant resort in Santa Barbara, California, featured a main building, expansive gardens, and fifteen private bungalows. 3. Frederick Mortimer Clapp, Against a Background on Fire: 1938–1943 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943). Timmie’s book was published November 23.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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4. Written in top right corner, first page, below address. An arrow points to “R. 1. Box 36.” 5. A maze of Monterey cypress created by Donnan in the early 1930s was located at the north end of the Tor House property.

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California July 14. 1943 Darling Phoebe: I had every intention of writing you instantly when your letter came, I was so glad to be in touch with you after what seems like a life-time! But I am busy as a bee all day every day &, at night, after I take up my book or paper, haven’t the resolution to lay it down. I am eager to see you & yours. I hope so much to get up to S. F. before Button goes back to college.1 I want to see what difference her life back there has made in her—not too much I hope. And dearest Hans, I am glad he is himself again—these operations are the devil! I know that Charlotte Kellogg went up from Montalvo {last week} to consult him about her eye & felt much reassured by his help & diagnosis. Some friend of mine, I think ’twas Melba Bennett here recently, who had just seen Bill & his wife2 on brief holiday at a ranch near Santa Barbara & reported all well with him. Of course you know we have a granddaughter, Candida Call Jeffers. I had planned to have twin grandsons but find that my heart is very much involved with her. I suppose ♦ you know I went east {the} last week in November & had a wonderful ten days with Donnan & Patty. They are very happy & {much} in love. When we meet I shall have lots to tell you about them, their charming house—an old family mansion, lofty & ceremonious enough to please Donnan, —and her delightful family! I have an errand or two in town & expect to go up very soon. I am thinking I may wait until Blanche returns from L. A. Aug. 1. I’ll write you ahead to be certain of seeing you. I want to hear all about your farm3 & your successes & labors. I know the arduous tasks on a farm very well, & the joys too. I do not know when we can get there. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

4. Written in top right corner, first page, below address. An arrow points to “R. 1. Box 36.” 5. A maze of Monterey cypress created by Donnan in the early 1930s was located at the north end of the Tor House property.

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California July 14. 1943 Darling Phoebe: I had every intention of writing you instantly when your letter came, I was so glad to be in touch with you after what seems like a life-time! But I am busy as a bee all day every day &, at night, after I take up my book or paper, haven’t the resolution to lay it down. I am eager to see you & yours. I hope so much to get up to S. F. before Button goes back to college.1 I want to see what difference her life back there has made in her—not too much I hope. And dearest Hans, I am glad he is himself again—these operations are the devil! I know that Charlotte Kellogg went up from Montalvo {last week} to consult him about her eye & felt much reassured by his help & diagnosis. Some friend of mine, I think ’twas Melba Bennett here recently, who had just seen Bill & his wife2 on brief holiday at a ranch near Santa Barbara & reported all well with him. Of course you know we have a granddaughter, Candida Call Jeffers. I had planned to have twin grandsons but find that my heart is very much involved with her. I suppose ♦ you know I went east {the} last week in November & had a wonderful ten days with Donnan & Patty. They are very happy & {much} in love. When we meet I shall have lots to tell you about them, their charming house—an old family mansion, lofty & ceremonious enough to please Donnan, —and her delightful family! I have an errand or two in town & expect to go up very soon. I am thinking I may wait until Blanche returns from L. A. Aug. 1. I’ll write you ahead to be certain of seeing you. I want to hear all about your farm3 & your successes & labors. I know the arduous tasks on a farm very well, & the joys too. I do not know when we can get there. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Melba has been here & gone, the Clapps also. But there is a constant succession of friends & as for the armed forces—there seem to be millions of them of all kinds & in constant movement. Garth apparently was very excellent in tough Ranger training & loves it. We have the impression he is teaching it but he is so non-committal. We expected him home two months ago, had news of him through a man just back—but were disappointed. How I loathe this war! O to survive it & be free of anxiety for our sons again! Phoebe do write again & don’t forget me 4 Love you dearly, Devotedly Una. What is your address in town? ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: July 14, 1943. 1. Phoebe “Button” Barkan, Hans and Phoebe’s daughter, attended Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York for two years and then transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where she completed a liberal arts degree with concentrations in English, German, and anthropology. 2. Adolph William “Bill” Barkan, Hans and Phoebe’s son, graduated from Stanford University in 1939 and married Joan Robbins (1921–2014), also a Stanford graduate, in 1942. He earned five battle stars as a lieutenant commander in the U. S. Navy during World War II. When Bill returned from service, he studied banking at Rutgers University and management at Harvard University before joining the American Trust Company (later Wells Fargo & Company), where he became a senior executive. 3. Hans and Phoebe bought a 40-acre farm around 1940. It was located in northern Marin County, near Novato, California. 4. The remainder of the letter is written vertically in the left margin, page 2.

UJ to Ben Abramson Tor House. Carmel. California R.1. Box 36. July 16. 1943 Dear Mr. Abramson:1 Replying to your letter of July 3, I have no extra copies of the items you inquire about.2 But a friend of mine who is in need of money would sell her Rock & Hawk & One Sundown3 for $40.00. {both autographed.} I LETTERS 1940– 1962

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cannot locate a copy {for sale} of The House-Dog’s Grave for you. I’m sorry; its a lovely little book. Rock & Hawk has an interesting history. In 1934 Frederick Prokosch, then almost unknown to us, printed as a surprise for us ( on a —(his {own,} I suppose),— handpress twenty copies of this poem 6 on Dresden, six on Arnold, six on rice paper, 2 on vellum. (The copy my friend would sell is one of the vellum). None were for sale. one was deposited in Yale Library, one in Harvard, and Mr. Prokosch & we each have a copy. The other 16 were given to friends of ours. I do not know of any of these sold. You ask if I have any memorabilia which I would part with. I have an extra copy of “The Beaks of Eagles” printed by Edwin Grabhorn for ♦ Albert Bender in 1936. It has a facsimile of the author’s ms. —or at least {probably} a fair copy, in his handwriting. Also a picture of Jeffers. This was a poem still unpublished when the Grabhorn printing was made. There is a copy of “Stars”—1930. I believe it is the first printing that Ward Ritchie ever did. A broadsheet—one of Jeffers few prose items called “All the Corn in one Barn” pub. by Gelber-Lilienthal 1926. Return {first publication}—a poem pub. by the Grabhorn Press {for Gelber-Lilienthal} 1934 Hope is not for the Wise, first publication 24 copies, 1937 by the Quercus Press— (a hand press owned by Ted & Fran Lilienthal) The Condor. 12 copies by the Quercus Press 1940. It is the first published poem of Jeffers. He was 17. Pub. in Youth’s Companion, June 1904 Letters of Western Authors. 1935—No. I. {by The Grabhorn Press} of the series (of 12 I think). This is a facsimile of a letter of Sterling’s with comment by Jeffers. Would you care to make an offer for these—any or the lot?4 I would like to call your attention to an interesting item—although I do not know of any copy for sale. Perhaps you’ve seen it—it was much liked. It is “Two Consolations” {1940} unpub poems ({first publication}) of 2 poems of Jeffers & two pages of my English diary, on Kelmscott paper, frontispiece a drawing by Wm Morris of Kelmscott manor. The

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

first publication by the Quercus Press on their Albion Proof Press, used by Morris at his Kelmscott Press. ♦ I have a few bits of ms. also the complete mss. of two of Jeffers’ books. My husband is busily writing—but what I do not know.5 He has never published much in magazines, as you know, preferring to have his work stand in greater bulk. —These times are very anxious ones. I think he finds it difficult to write steadily. With best wishes. Sincerely, Una Jeffers. I havent heard from Cady Wells for a year or more. He was in the service. I’d like to know news of him.6 ALS. Santa Barbara. 3 pages. 1. Ben Abramson (1898–1955), a native of Lithuania, opened the Argus Book Shop in Chicago in 1920, where he sold new, used, and rare books, along with prints, paintings, and other collectibles. 2. Abramson’s July 3, 1943 letter to Una (TLC Santa Barbara) was written on behalf of a collector named Frank Armstrong; see Una’s August 4, 1943 letter to Armstrong, and others that follow. “Armstrong,” Abramson says, “came into our shop this morning.” He “wants to have his Jeffers collection complete, price is, in the popular phrase, no object.” 3. Jeffers never published a poem titled One Sundown. Una acknowledges the mistake in her August 4 letter to Armstrong. 4. Another item of possible interest, although Una does not mention it, was Sincerely Yours: A Collection of Favorite Recipes of Well-Known Persons, compiled by Bess Boardman and illustrated by Lee Allen (San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1942). Jeffers’ recipe for kidney and mushroom stew is on page 22. 5. “Why,” Abramson asks, “has the immortal Robinson strummed no tuneful strings on the creative lyre during the past many months?” 6. Abramson identifies Armstrong as “a friend of Cady Wells.” Wells enlisted in the United States Army in February 1941, at age thirty-six, and remained on active duty until November 1945. During the last nine months of the war, he was on the ground in France and Germany, assigned to a unit that made topographical maps for use in combat.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel July 25. 1943. R1 Box 36 1

Answers to your questions. Robin and I had intended to be married by a Justice of the Peace but Belle-Mère thought that undignified so we went to the Presbyterian Church & were married by its pastor, the Rev. Hugh Mitchelmore2 {in his study at the church.}. The witnesses were Belle-Mère & Mr. Welty,3 the church organist, who happened to be practicing that morning (about eleven o’clock) & when we first arrived was playing very beautifully & made it seem like a real occasion. Belle-Mère went back to L. A. from Tacoma, we to Seattle. We three had spent the previous night in a hotel at Tacoma. Adèle Fortier Bechdolt. —is her name.4 Tristan Coffey {Titian Coffey} took care of me both times, —when Maeve was born & when our twins. He & Dr. Ainley5 were then the topranking obstetricians in So. Calif. I do not know which was better—and neither did the top-ranking nurse, Myra Stevens, an Englishwoman who was their chief nurse {& took care of me & the twins.} —or at any rate she wouldn’t say. I sometimes detected {in her} a little disapproval of Titian because he went about in society a lot. Titian was the Pres. of the Obstetrical Society or whatever it was called, of California. Titian really acknowledged ♦ an error of judgement in the case of Maeve. He should have done a Caesarian section. I was tremendously large. He had diagnosed twins—thought he could detect 2 foetal heartbeats—at that time they were not using Xray to look see about babies. —So many people said I was foolish to trust him a second time but we did not think so. He was extremely unhappy about the loss of Maeve & we thought he would get us a live baby if it could be done. He took wonderful care of me— & as it turned out, both boys had to have surgical help. Donnan started out breech presentment & had to be turned, Garth’s head appeared with the cord around his neck & he had to be turned. Both were hauled out feet first. And all in no time at all. I had no trouble of any kind. It is odd that the wonderful nurse, Miss Stevens, had—or has since nursed a number of {Donnan’s} Patty’s family for a long time. Maeve weighed nearly 10 lbs.

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Donnan 5 lb 2 oz. Garth 7 lb. 2 oz. As there were separate after-births for G. & D. you can imagine my size. Miss Stevens nursed Hazel once or twice. Teddie K. visited us many times after we came here, from 1914 on. Edith came often with or without him, sometimes staying a month at a time. He asked me to let Ruth, wife no. 3 ♦ stay with us for 6 weeks at Tor House before they were married, and she did. He bought his property next us the year after we built Tor House {in (1919)}—about 1920 or early 1921 He & Ruth lived for perhaps a year in a tiny chalkstone house on Monte Verde. {They also visited Hawaii.} I believe he built his house next us in 1923. Robin & I were called south when Dr. J. had a seizure early one morning. We think it must have been a stroke. He was downstairs cooking his breakfast.6 Belle-Mère heard the noise of a fall & then silence. HShe found him unconscious with his head within a few feet of the gas grate he had just lighted. {He died about two days after we arrived—never regained consciousness.} We stayed there at 822 for at least three weeks.7 I had a different impression then of the relationship of the Dr. & Belle-Mère than I had before for she was simply sunk with the loss of him—. I cannot even remember the Christmas part. I have no recollection of it at all. Hamilton was there I believe that he was at that time a student at Berkeley. He was born in 1893 so would have been 21. He went to Cal. Tech. {for awhile} after graduating from Pasadena High. I believe we stayed until great-aunt Mary8 hurried back from the east to be with Belle-Mère again. Robin & Hamilton betrayed no grief at all. They were the exact poker faces that Garth & Donnan are (& it upsets most people to understand them). I think ♦ Hamilton did not care. He was not fond of his father but Robin was very fond of him & felt he had been a great influence in his life. We stayed in Carmel until the middle {last} of June before our boys were born. (They were born Nov. 9.) Then we went down to stay with Belle-Mère & Aunt Mary. They were away for a time but we were all at 822 for most of the time taking long slow rides about the country {& all day pic-nics} ­­ & living a lot in the garden. We had a very pleasant time. I was very well. I was in the hospital for 2½ wks. & kept Miss Stevens for 6 wks. Then I had a practical nurse for awhile. Belle-Mère & Aunt Mary helped. Then they

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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went east. Hamilton was probably teaching Math. at the U. of Iowa by then. He went there after he got his Doctorate at U. C. We stayed on at 822 until early April {March 5.} & then, when they returned from the East, we came back to Carmel. They had made the most marvellous outfit for Maeve—they sewed exquisitely & when I had two—they duplicated it all. I forgot to say we had been without a car here in Carmel 1914–1916 but bought a new Ford & drove down {to L. A.} in it in June. Had many adventures, like—we came to a place where the road was being remade. ♦ If there had been a detour sign we had missed it. It was late p.m. & we hated to retrace our way, some unknown distance. At the same time there was a drop of four feet in front of us between the old road & the new. We thought it too big a bump for Me. I think, too, there was deep sand & no place to turn around. We solved it by going to the edge, stopping the engine, getting out, & pushing “Emily” (the car) over by herself. We felt very mean doing it. Then we expected to stop the night at an old adobe inn at TJolon where there was a famous old Chinese cook. We had Billie, our white bull dog, along. They refused to let him inside the hotel. We knew how he’d yell if we put him in the barn as they suggested. Our car was an open one so we couldn’t lock him in that, so we pushed on. There were no hotels. Night fell & the roads were terrible. At last we drew up beside a hay field, climbed under the wire fence & spent the night in a haycock. We left at dawn for all night a great dog had bayed at the farmhouse some distance away & Billie bristled— It was a very uncomfortable night. We were full of straw & grass. But the stars were wonderful & there was a very long shooting star—marvellous. ♦ At the Tretha{e}way house Robin wrote at night mostly. He was up until all hours & slept all morning. The house was built on a hillside & there was a room underneath the big living room which Mrs T.9 had used as a storeroom. We cleaned this out & pushed her trunks & boxes back into a corner & Robin had a table down there where he worked—when he did—in the daytime. At night he wrote in the living room. Most, —practically all of Californians was written {at the Log Cabin} in Carmel. I had brought Fifield up with me from Los A. & she served me well for

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

nearly 18 mo. She had done plain sewing & mending for me for many years {in L. A.}, then her eyes gave out & she was willing to take on this work. I don’t know how I could have managed without her while the boys were so little. After she left Robin helped with them more & the other work, too. Write again when you can. All your news. At last a letter from Garth yesterday. We were anxious. He says he is about due to get a 20 or 30 day furlough. We cannot tell whether that means he’ll get home. What news do you hear from Fran? I had a nice letter from Phoebe asking us to come to their ranch at Novato for a week. Hans has had an operation which caused them considerable worry but is all right now. They keep a cook at Novato & at their flat in town & swing back & forth. Fondly, Una ALS. HRC Texas. 6 pages. 1. Melba had been collecting information for a proposed biography of Jeffers since 1939. 2. Hugh T. Mitchelmore (1880–1973) was the assistant pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, Washington. 3. Benjamin Frank Welty (1868–1925) studied music at Wooster College in Ohio and in Dresden, Germany. He taught at Bethel College in Newton, Kansas and then moved to ­Tacoma, where he continued his career as a teacher and church organist. 4. Following the births of Donnan and Garth in Pasadena, Adele Bechdolt traveled from Carmel to visit Una. Bennett recounts the episode in The Stone Mason of Tor House, page 82. 5. Frank C. Ainley (1879–1940) was one of the first physicians in Los Angeles to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology; he began his practice in 1910. 6. In a fragment of a letter that may have been written around this time (ALF HRC Texas), Una describes Dr. Jeffers’ dietary habits. “He ate very queerly really,” she says, “—& they never noticed at all. It was I who was appalled that, though he seemed to eat nothing, practically, except thin dry butterless toast he often topped this off with & cups & cups of boiling water, he often topped this off with a lot of big English walnuts, which I thought demanded some digestion!” After checking with Robinson, Una continues her account: “I report correctly. Robin remarks that when his father was carrying on, we were not yet fussing about vitamins but his father had a real flair for banning them. He considered fruit, butter, eggs & milk perfectly poisonous!” 7. Robinson’s parents lived at 822 Garfield Avenue in Pasadena.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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8. Mary McCord. 9. Adelaide J. (Dickson) Tretheway (1859–1945) was the widow of John Tretheway (1847– 1913), a carpenter and conductor for the Central Pacific Railroad.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett [July 30, 1943] Monterey Fri p.m. waiting for Robin at dentist Answers to some of your questions {are} on your letter1 We bought our land in several parcels. The first in spring 1919. The last parcel, I believe, was 1930. It comprised the big 3 lots at end of our place next to Teddies Altar Stone on it. Paid $9000.00 for those 3 lots. We have 36 lots. They + our strip of shore land make approximately 5 acres The house was built not very long after we got our first lots ♦ We moved in Aug 15, 1919, on Teddie’s birthday. Curiously enough he visited us that very day on his way to Hawaii & left with us his big fawn colored Eng. bull-dog King. The name of the stone mason was Pierson We did not go to Fair {in S. F. } although Teddie & Edith visited us at the Log Cabin at that time & invited us to go as their guests Robin thought he’d be bored. However we had gone with them—or perhaps did go with them later I forget the sequence—for a day at ♦ San Diego Fair. They were living at La Jolla & we visited them. I think Edith speaks of some episode {there} in her book about me. 2 I think {In 1906 & ’07} Timmie first talked to me about Geo Moore & Arthur Symons, in particular Moore’s “Memoirs of my Dead Life.” Timmie gave me a book of Moore’s. I think it was “The Lake.”3 Esther Boardman Busby first mentioned Yeats to me. We had become great friends at U. S. C. in 1905. {& continued so.} She had read “The ♦ Shadowy Waters.” She was very enthusiastic about Yeats & Browning. I, too, about Browning I had a very thrilling ~Browning~ course with Nancy Foster.4 I think it was 2 or 3 yrs before I came to care so much for Yeats. Perhaps it was 1910 before I really cared so much.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Esther—, since I am mentioning her, —has as stimulating a mind as I ever knew in a woman. During some years—even after Teddie & I separated, he allotted $25.00 {a} month to me for books. I read without stopping. Love, U. J. ALS. HRC Texas. 4 pages. 1. Melba’s letter to Una is simply dated “Sunday,” but internal clues point to July 25, 1943. Una sent Melba’s letter back to her on Friday, July 30, adding brief answers to some questions in the margins, and providing supplementary information on additional sheets. In one answer, Una tells Melba that she and Robinson traveled to northern California by train when they first came to Carmel. In another, she says they bought their first automobile in 1916. 2. This paragraph and those that follow have a diagonal line drawn through them, as if to cross them out or to check them off. 3. George Moore, The Lake (New York: D. Appleton, 1906). This book remains in the Tor House library; see Maureen Girard, The Last Word, page 95. 4. Nancy Kier Foster (1865–1945) attended Wellesley College with her twin sister Maude Benney Foster (1865–1946) before they both moved to Los Angeles, where Nancy devoted herself to writing and teaching and Maude became a pioneering public health activist. Nancy was an instructor in the English Department at the University of Southern California from 1906 to 1910 and the author of Not of Her Race (1910), a novel, and Sonnets and Lyrics (1917), a book of poems.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel July 31/43 Dearest Melba: When I came home from Monterey where I wrote a letter to you from the car, I thought I would check up on dates & looked at Moore & Yeats. The dates of publication correspond to all I said. “The Lake” was {first} pub. 1905. “Memoirs” 1906. In looking at my copies of these—I have the first American Ed. of “The Lake” (1906) & the first English Ed. of “Memoirs”). I do not know which of these books Timmie gave me but in any case the important thing is, he was responsible for my first knowing Moore, and through me—Robin read him & cared, & so with {E. C. B.1 &} Yeats. “The LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Shadowy Waters” was first pub. 1900, so Esther B. may have talked about him anytime after we met. I did not instantly get enthusiastic but came to it. She never got completely entangled as I did so thoroughly in the Irish Renaissance. We have always—right up to now (for she visited me for some days a few months ago) had the most THRILLING times together. We always talked all day & most all of every night, a half of the time, perhaps, about literature {each} trying to force our tastes on the other. She now spends most of her time & has for years on Bio-Chemistry & there we part company. I have a “Madame Bovary” she gave me (see inscription on other side of sheet). It interested me very much. But her equal enthusiasm for his “Salambo” left me cold & I gave away the copy she gave me.2 ♦ U. C. K. from E. C. B. wondering if such a “Romantic Lady” can sympathize with Flaubert’s merciless Realism. July 16. ’09 Los Angeles. (Inscription in “Madame Bovary”) To Una Jeffers who (with clearest vision) has followed the call, even beyond the horizon. May she always hear it—& be happy! And forgive the mixing of my metaphors. E. C. B. B. Sept 7. 1920 San Francisco. (Inscription in Eugene O’Neill’s “Beyond the Horizon)3 She introduced O’Neill to me & I am interested to see this inscription. She sent the book after visiting me in 1920. We had been alienated since 1912. Lest you follow a wrong clue—WHY do you think Robin was unhappy about his work in 1917. He says he hasn’t the faintest recollection of it. ? We both remember he had days of unrest because he thought he ought to go to war—& there I was with two babies! But he hadn’t a bother in the world that he remembers, about his work. Say why you think he was & something may turn up, {in our memories—} interesting— Love from Una. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

^I found another big envelope of clippings.^4 ^We spent Aug 3 dinner—evening at Noëls.^ ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Esther Carver (Boardman) Busby. 2. Una’s copy of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (Boston: L. C. Page, 1906) is still in the Tor House library; see Maureen Girard, The Last Word, page 36. The novel was first published (serially) in 1856. Flaubert’s Salammbô was published in 1862. 3. Eugene G. O’Neill, Beyond the Horizon: A Play in Three Acts (New York: Boni & Liveright, 1920). Una’s copy of the book remains at Tor House; see Maureen Girard, The Last Word, page 101. 4. This and the following postscript are written in the top right margin of page 1.

UJ to Frank Armstrong Tor House. Carmel. California. R 1 Box 36. August 4. 1943 Dear Mr. Armstrong:1 I am sorry to have made such a mistake. The item my friend has besides “Rock & Hawk” is “October Week-End” {(published in “Such Counsels You Gave to Me.} one of ten copies printed in 1937 {(Quercus Press)}. — As a matter of fact my husband whom I have just consulted for the first time in this transaction says he has never written a poem called “One Sundown.” There is a poem “Winter Sundown” which appeared first in “Overland Monthly” March 1927, & reprinted Dec 1927 and in “Poems” printed by the book club of San Francisco, later in “Cawdor” with the title changed to “George Sterling’s Death.” I have just consulted Alberts’ Bibliography and find on page 2323 the {a} paragraph that says “R. J. gave a Mr. H. Taylor permission to reprint “Winter Sundown” in a projected anthology never published but Mr. T. made some copies {etc} on heavy white paper 1930.—” You read the paragraph. Up to this moment neither of us ever heard of this & never happened to notice the matter in the Bibliography, nor can we recollect “a Mr. H. Taylor,” ♦ unless it is Mr. Harvey Taylor whom we first met in 1939 here in Carmel. He was to help Edith Greenan write her little book “Of Una Jeffers” but the plan fell through & she got another helper. This Mr. Taylor never referred to “Winter Sundown”. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I wonder is this the item you wanted? I cannot help about it. I will write you later about the other items. I accept your offer for them & will adjust the matter of the sundown affair.— I am just leaving for San Francisco for a couple of days. Not as easy & jaunty an affair as we {when} we motored back & forth at least once a month. We haven’t been up for nine months—that was when our son departed for the second time for duty in the Pacific. The trains are crowded to the roof & we are held down to snail’s pace, motoring—and lucky to have any gas even so. So in a few days you will hear from me again. Cordially Una Jeffers ALS. Santa Barbara. 2 pages. 1. Frank H. Armstrong (1910–1969), the son of a Chicago grocery and canned goods magnate, acquired an interest in Jeffers when he was a student at Yale. He pursued postgraduate studies at the Sorbonne and earned a degree in law from the University of Michigan before embarking on a career as an attorney. His sister Jean (Armstrong) Corle (1911–1983) was married to Edwin Corle (1906–1956), author of Mojave (1934) and other books.

UJ to Frank Armstrong Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 August 13. 1943 Dear Mr. Armstrong: I have laid aside {for you} the copies I spoke of Beaks of Eagles Stars All the Corn in One Barn Return Hope is not for the Wise The Condor Letters of Western Authors {No. I} (Geo Sterling—comment by Robinson Jeffers.) and October Week-End 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

You suggested the sum of $75.00 for these. I think $65 will be correct since there was a mistake about “One Sundown”—I send the “October Week-End” to partly make up for that. I will not mail these until I hear from you whether you would like these inscribed to you or just autographed. I shall send you with these a copy of “Rock & Hawk” copied by R. J. (not the original ms. but just for your pleasure.) —It looks nice on a page! better than most of his very long line things! ♦ Very shortly I will go into my box of mss. upstairs & tell you what there is. I have been very busy of late but things are clearing up a little. I spend a good deal of time at Red Cross. Staff assistant. We are doing every bit of our own work here now. No help to be had—even most of our laundry! The Del Monte Laundry which has served us well for thirty years!—now is given over completely to the Pre-Flight school. So it goes. Our son Garth who has been doing Ranger training & teaching & MP work, too, on recalcitrant Japs—wrote us amusingly enough last week that his telephone rang in a rather remote place out in the islands & to his surprise a voice spoke with beautiful inflection &—it was Maurice Evans speaking for Judith Anderson who is out there entertaining the troops.1 She had promised us she’d look him up & have a party. Melba Bennett had a house here for a month. She is a fine person & an enthusiastic one. She has been gathering ♦ biographical material {on R. J.} for years & I have helped her a good deal with clues, leads— —many things, old photographs etc. Robin doesn’t take any interest in this. I happen however to care a lot about genealogy & have not only my own family records back to 1636 in this country but his also. Otherwise they’d be lost as he isnt even faintly interested. Nor is his brother. And I have kept all kinds of data about his writing I do not know what kind of a biography she can write but neither does she, but she is sparing no labor to make the record of facts exact & complete. Her conclusions may be off the beam but biographers often are. I have come to feel sometimes that a rather colorless but careful record of as many facts as are available is very valuable. (I am thinking just now of Joe Hone’s Life of Geo. Moore & of Yeats, my two pets.)

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Perhaps it will occur to you that if I didn’t run into such voluminous letter writing I’d have more time for other things. Very true {true}, too. Cordially Una Jeffers ♦ I am sorry we cannot give you any information about the bust by Archie Garner.2 We think it is perhaps a bust Robin gave one sitting for at a friend’s house in Beverly Hills in 1937. We went down there to graduating exercises at Occidental College {when} an honorary D. Litt. was given to Robin. The name of the man who was making the bust escapes us. Do you know what year it was done? ALS. Santa Barbara. 4 pages. 1. Judith Anderson traveled to Hawaii with the Camp Show program of the USO (United Service Organizations). She and Evans appeared in a production of Macbeth. 2. Lorraine Archibald “Archie” Garner (1904–1969), an artist, sculptor, and teacher, belonged to the group of friends that included Ward Ritchie, Lawrence Clark Powell, Gordon Newell, and others. In 1934 he designed and led the construction of the Astronomer’s Monument that stands in front of the observatory at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. In an August 10, 1943 letter to Una (TLC Santa Barbara), Armstrong mentions a bust by Garner that he purchased from Jake Zeitlin and asks Una if she knows anything about it. Una’s response indicates some confusion, as if two busts were in question, but the one Armstrong refers to was created by Garner in 1937, after a sitting at the home of Hazel and Roy Pinkham in Beverly Hills. See Jeffers Studies 9, nos. 1–2 (Spring and Fall 2005): 107.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel R 1 Box 36 Aug 22/43 Dearest Melba: I sent you a packet of clippings by express yesterday. I meant to send by mail but the P. O. is closed Sat. p.m. & I could not get up in time. In the p’k’t I made mention of the (1) fact that I have {here} a number of clippings referring to the production of the “Tower” here & in Berkeley also photographs of the sets Lincoln Kirstein made for it {a dozen or more} years ago, also of the ones made in London for a proposed production {by

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Ashley Dukes.}1 These are all together & you can see them when you are here. I have also the script used in Berkeley & the one here. (2) Of great value in a study of R. J. is a large packet of comments wrung out of him from time to time about Poetry, Life etc. {in answer to letters} You would need to see them here as they are practically illegible. They are dim pencil scrawls made for me to help me give his ideas in answering {these} letters. (3) An envelope containing correspondence etc. with Boyle.2 (4) Did you ever read the foreword Lyon {Robin} wrote for the proposed sebook of photographs of “Jeffers Country” by Lyon, & my several pages to go with it about this region? ♦ (4) Some typed lecture notes he used in Washington etc. (5) There is an enormous p’k’g of typed articles about R. J. by various people, mostly unpublished. On the enclosed yellow sheet I noted down certain magazine articles & pamphlets about him I have. Whatever way you arrange those clippings will suit me all right. If you haven’t decided otherwise, you could put the “rare” ones in order of time with their clippings of same period or whatever, & indicate on envelopes with a red star or something their presence in envelopes with name of item. What do you mean what I think about Robin’s prose? What have I said? I can’t tell from the context of your letter whether you think I consider it good or bad? I happen to think very highly of it—almost as highly as I do his poetry. As for his letters I tell you quite frankly some of them are false & insincere. In his desire to be gentle & kind & generous {& Responsive which isn’t natural for him} I know that he often said {things} & praised things & was more or less effusive in a very artificial manner. He has outgrown that somewhat ♦ but even now I sometimes—in his rare rare letters about poetry—or something he is being pressed about—ask “do you really think that?” Of course his natural way is not to answer any letter or respond to any gift of book etc. {(almost any in both case)} & doesn’t seem to realize that hurts people. He acknowledges the truth of what I’ve accused him—when he has laid a book or letter away with the vague intention of answering he

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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feels perfectly at ease with his conscience. He & I know {deep down} he’ll never get around to it unless I pummel him & I dont often. About his own poems he is always given to understatement. I dont know what letters you have—he can write such good ones if it so happens! It will be interesting to see if you can get an honest opinion out of him about the letters if theyre are any effusive ones. —He has an honest indifference about getting things straight about himself. —For instance your idea about {his} suffering during his early verses in Carmel. I said that looking back over our more than 30 yrs together it seems to me he was during our 1914–15 & early 1916 years here more simply & completely happy & at ease than I ever knew him at any other time & ♦ he said “yes, that is true”—& added “Moreover, you know I felt confident about my verses & really very pleased with them!” —So—I said “well, what shall I tell Melba?—” & he said “What does it matter—one way or the other. She will have some interesting theory. It will serve very well!” Well, what can one do with that kind of person. At any rate I can check {tangible} facts, & dates for you. And he remembers few of them! I wonder have you read & do you know the little foreword {he wrote} to Modern Library Publication “Roan Stallion.” You should. And I wonder whether you have looked lately at Alberts “Bibliog.” I am amazed at the amount of biographical material he squeezed in & the letters. I happened to be reading it yesterday for a date. What do you mean by Garth’s diary? I haven’t any idea. Did you see some passages in our Irish diaries of 1929 signed at edge by him? Of the 350 pages in the original diary I wrote at least 250 & Robin, Donnan, Garth did 100. — my rough guess. The copy you saw is a fair copy, done partly on shipboard coming home, copied by any of us who had time but mostly by me, & signed often in the margin with initials of the original writer. I have here in my Tower room the original diary ♦ you may be interested to see it some times. 2 fat very messy school notebooks written almost entirely in pencil blurred, badly written, often noted down as we motored along or written ouon our knees, {or} sitting on an inn bed. Other intervals, when we are settled for a time in the Glens of Antrim or in Oxfordshire the writing is more spacious.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

No sign of Garth yet. I told you didnt I about his saying one day {when} he answered the phone, to his surprise the faultless diction of Maurice Evans came over the wire—trying to arrange a meeting for Garth & Judith Anderson. I’m sorry you did not see Esther Busby. She is an experience! I enclose a letter from George Evans.3 Please return it as I haven’t answered it. You need not mention to him that you saw it. When must you go to Palm Springs. Still hot I fear. The Clapps left Santa B. for L. A. Aug 18. & expect to reach N. Y. the 27th. A messy looking letter. I am busy Love from Una. 4 Several things for you to look at here. ALS. HRC Texas. 5 pages. 1. Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), a British playwright, drama critic, producer, and director, owned the Mercury Theatre in London, where Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot was performed in 1935. In 1937, Robinson and Una were contacted by Margaret Hargreaves, an associate of Dukes, who expressed interest in a production of The Tower Beyond Tragedy at the Mercury, but the idea was not pursued. See Una’s November 6, 1937 letter to Lawrence Clark Powell. 2. Peter G. Boyle, publisher of Tamar and Other Poems (1924). 3. A four-page handwritten letter from George Evans to “Jeff,” dated August 9, 1943, is enclosed. Along with news about his current activities and interests, Evans mentions a letter he wrote to Melba in response to her request for memories concerning Jeffers and his family. Excerpts from Evans’ August 8, 1943 letter to Melba can be found in The Stone Mason of Tor House, pages 8, 11–12, and 52–53. 4. Written vertically in left margin, first page.

RJ and UJ to Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal [August 1943] One of the best things that ever happened to this region was the establishment of a game refuge. Its repeal would be a public disaster. Wild life has no chance in the populated area unless it is completely protected, and I think few people would like to see the water fowl shot off the lagoon and the tame quail from Carmel Point.1 Robinson and Una Jeffers

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. This statement is featured in an article titled “Carmel Leaders Protest Loss of Game Refuge,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (September 3, 1943): 1, 11. The issues involved are summarized in the first paragraph: “The people who have encouraged and protected the aesthetic values throughout the stormy history of Carmel come forward again to save the wild life of the Peninsula. Robinson and Una Jeffers, Laidlaw Williams, Herbert Heron are among the names signed to the flood of letters of protest the Pine Cone Cymbal has received since the Pacific Grove City Council, abetted by the Monterey City Council, proposed to petition the state legislature to abandon the game refuge on the Peninsula because the deer have been destructive to a few individuals’ home vegetable gardens.” Proponents of declassification hoped to legalize hunting and trapping on the peninsula.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California September 8. 1943 Dear Bennett: I meant to write you at once when I received your book “Thirty seconds over Tokyo.”1 Robin & I read it with greatest interest. What a raid—then afterwards the suffering & endurance! Sometimes I think that the terrific joy of managing a great plane in such an encounter would pay for almost any pain afterwards. Our Garth is still in Hawaii—a S/Sgt. Has had a lot of commando training which he adores. We continue, of course, to be anxious—. Great news this morning about Italy.2 I hope that the news we hear of internal dissension in Germany is true. I cannot remember wherether I told you that Donnan has a daughter— now 4½ months old. A great joy for Robin & me to think about. Robin continues his airplane spotting. There is plenty of practice here. We are in the midst of much manoeuvering. Two blimps also seem to use our tower for a pylon. Besides, two companies of amphibians {one north & one south of us} keep the water churned up all the time. ♦ Its hard to forget the war for more than a few moments at a time. Robin just passed with 95% grade, a stiff exam in plane identification, which is most amusing! Wonderful discipline for a person who happily confessed over so many years that he couldn’t tell a Rolls-Royce from a Ford. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I read your notes from time to time in S. R. L. The Gershwin ones —not long ago.3 He visited {Mrs.} Sydney Fish a few years ago & we saw him several times —he came to Tor House— {We saw} Ira4 a few times too. It was, perhaps, not much more than six months before he died. At that time Olga Fish {she was Olga Wyiborg} was dying of cancer, —but still beautiful & gay & never giving way. I have a photograph of Olga & Gershwin at the piano—he was singing in his wisp of a voice & playing bits of his last work—. We knew Olga had just a margin of days yet to live but little dreamed he had only two months more than she! Our love to all in the office. I hope your child grows apace. Yours, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Capt. Ted W. Lawson, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, edited by Robert Considine (New York: Random House, 1943). 2. Italy surrendered to the Allies September 3; five days passed before the armistice was announced. 3. Cerf ’s “Trade Winds” column in the Saturday Review of Literature covered art, music, literature, and current cultural affairs. His July 17, 1943 column was titled “In Memory of George Gershwin: September, 1898–July, 1937” (pp. 14–16). Cerf also reviewed The Story of George G ­ ershwin by David Ewen (New York: Henry Holt, 1943) in the September 4, 1943 issue of the magazine; see “America’s Homespun Musical Genius” (p. 16). 4. Ira Gershwin (1896–1983) wrote the lyrics for “Fascinating Rhythm,” “Our Love Is Here to Stay,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” and many more songs composed by his brother. After George died, Ira collaborated with other composers, including Kurt Weill, Jerome Kern, and Harold Arlen.

UJ to Frank Armstrong Tor House. Carmel. California September 10. 1943 Dear Mr. Armstrong: I sent off your items by Railway Express September 4th. The holograph “Rock & Hawk” is inside the front pages of “Hope is not for the Wise”—I think. —in one of them anyway. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I was delighted to have the two colored wood blocks from the Cuala Press shop in Dublin. I know the place well. You couldn’t have pleased me better. I am enclosing two snapshots—taken at Ballylee & at Moore Hall. We lived over there for some months in 1929 & 1937. We had our car both times & thoroughly explored every part of Ireland hanging our adventures mostly on my quest & study of ancient Irish round towers. I have been there also by myself before we were married. I am very sorry that I cannot at present offer you any short ms. But if one shows up I will let you know. We have kept the mss. of different books intact. Jock Whitney has the mss. of “Roan Stallion”, “The Women at Pt. Sur,” “Cawdor”, “Dear Judas” & “Thurso’s Landing.” He bought the last four of these from us through Ruder, a bookseller in New York. He got (I must confess I financed our jaunts abroad partly through these sales!) “Roan Stallion” was ♦ given to a person1 in the office of Horace Liveright when he requested it. I regret to say he sold it to Whitney without mentioning the fact to us. I wilshall not name him. I have the complete mss. of “Solstice”, “Such Counsels you gave to me” & “Be angry at the Sun.” “Solstice” was the ms. exhibited at the Library of Congress with Robin’s things in Feb–March {1941} when he inaugurated the series of four poetry readings there. It consists of 149 {151} typewriter size sheets written in pencil. About a fourth of them are written on the reverse side, —also, —either notes or comments or single lines—. It is a fair example of the three. I think I ought not to part with any one of these for less than $500.00, as they are a little reserve of value for me to have. {Two very short poems “Cruel Falcon” & “Distant Rainfall” are missing & are copied out—a fair copy, by the author. They were lent some years ago for an exhibit in the east & were stolen. —from the “Solstice” ms.2} OTwo years ago when I was choosing the ms. to send to the Lib. of Congress I discovered to my great regret & horror the the ms of “Give Your Heart to the Hawks” is not there in my trunk. Where it is, we do not know. We do not remember selling it to Whitney. Alberts in his Bibliography {in 1933} says we have it. I must really locate it sometime for the sake of

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

knowing. I have a hundred or so pages of notes to this mss. in an envelope which I had handled over often & believed to be the ms. itself. Two blimps are over us constantly today & numerous planes & a dozen landing boats practicing in front. Faithfully Una Jeffers ♦3 R. E. F. Larsson,4 borrowed orig. mss. of “Distant Rainfall” & “The Cruel Falcon” for an exhibit of mss. planned for a college—I think U. of Wisconsin. He reported that they were stolen from his room. We never saw them again. His final letter about this was Sept. 1934 I suppose they were lent late 1933. They are therefore missing from the ms. of book “Solstice” UJ “Give your Heart to the Hawks” ms. in possession of John Hay Whitney ALS. Santa Barbara and HRC Texas. 3 pages. 1. Donald Friede. 2. “—from the ‘Solstice’ ms.” is written vertically in the left margin. 3. A copy of this letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. It includes a third page that contains everything following Una’s signature. 4. Raymond Edward Francis Larsson (1901–1991), who published as Raymond E. F. Larsson and Raymond Ellsworth Larsson, was a newspaper writer and Catholic poet born in Green Bay, Wisconsin. After living in New York, Paris, and other cities, he returned to Green Bay in 1933 to work for the Green Bay Press–Gazette, but he left within a year. His books include Wherefore Peace (1932), Saints at Prayer (1942), and Book Like a Bow Curved (1961).

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. R 1 Box 36 September 16. 1943 Dearest Melba— Only time for a hasty letter. “Home”1 is a poem in an envelope in my trunk {on} which is written “a bad & unpublished poem.” Several years ago when I was trying to get a little order amongst the mss. I got him to label some of the stuff. How did you know there was such a poem? LETTERS 1940– 1962

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“Give your Hearts to the Hawks” was a phrase in his mind for some years before he wrote the poem named that, & before he in any way thought of the plot of it. Contrary to his custom he spoke of this phrase. —He doesn’t think so, but it is possible he had planned & written a little on the proposed poem—but discarded the early plans for it. I have found out that the ms. of “Give your Heart—” was sold to Jock Whitney. It was missing from my files & the transaction forgotten for awhile. I found the record of it the other day. Mollie O’Shea is dead—two yrs. It would do you no k good to write John. He is one of the most difficult of men—takes all the advantage he can of being a genius. He is one too, I think, & a very dear friend of ours. Sometime you must meet him—perhaps by going with me to see his pictures & then question him. He has often spoken of how thrilling it was to look at Robin—so handsome in those old days. I believe we met about 1919. ♦ Rortys address is Flatbrookville, N. J. If you take my advice you’ll approach him with caution! & not ask at once for letters! He is more difficult than John. Terribly sensitive, on the outlook for slights, {also watchful that he isn’t taken advantage of,} rugged, opinionated, very sincere, a fighter for causes which sometimes, at long last, he is convinced are no good, {& abandons.} free with criticism, which he —constructive, too. with {has} no polish, is at odds most of the time with society.— Well, if you ever write him you may say with honesty that Robin has never forgotten to give him the credit for his first important review, & help toward recognition. Mabel came here to meet Robin as her next genius to take in tow— Lawrence was in Vence, France. This was early 1930. We had arrived home from Ireland N. Year’s day 1930. She got Steffins, an old friend {of hers} to bring her to our house. She then rented the house back of Teddie’s—& our friendship began. Many picturesque details I have no time to write. Rorty made an appointment to see us at Hampshire House one morning & came in to N. Y. for that purpose. It was blizzardy & he was late & everything muddled & more people arriving so we had rather to neglect him. A photographer2 arrived by appointment & I had to go out in heavy

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

overshoes to stagger through snow bl banks a block to the garage to buy what was said to be the last unsold pair of tire chains in N. Y. C. I’ve often feared he might have been hurt. Don’t know. Love from Una.3 An accurate story by Spud J in this “Carmelite” but it infuriated Mabel4 Please read & return right away!5 ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. For the text of Home, see Collected Poetry 1: 216–235; for a discussion of manuscript issues, see Collected Poetry 5: 373–374. 2. Clara Sipprell (1885–1975), a landscape and portrait photographer. Her Moment of Light: Photographs by Clara Sipprell (New York: John Day, 1966) includes a portrait of Jeffers that “was made in his hotel in New York.” The same work appears in Mary Kennedy McCabe’s Clara Sipprell: Pictorial Photographer (Fort Worth, Tex.: Amon Carter Museum, 1990): 53. 3. The closing and signature are written vertically in the left margin. 4. “She Did It” by Spud Johnson—an account of Mabel’s successful plan to lure Jeffers and his family to Taos just a few months after they returned from their 1929 trip to the British Isles. The story was published in the Carmelite, May 29, 1930, pages 8–9. 5. The postscript is written in the top right margin, first page.

RJ to Frederic I. Carpenter Tor House, Carmel, California September [18], 1943. Dear Frederic Carpenter: I read your letter and meant to answer, and now I look with horror at the date. Months have gone by like drops of water, and it isn’t because I am particularly occupied with anything. Writing verses and usually burning them, and cutting firewood and heaving stones, with Time and the newspapers for an anesthetic in the evenings. We don’t often see the coast mountains any more, except from the window, on account of gas-rationing. I might walk to them, and in them, but don’t like to leave my wife and bull-dog alone; and we miss our sons; one of whom is a military police sergeant in Hawaii, guarding an internment camp, and the other is in Ohio, delightfully married, and has lately sired us a grand-daughter.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Yes, there is a little vacuum. One would like to be excited by literature, as in years long past, or by new landscapes, which are hardly come by at present, or by something new and large in science. And the continual sense of planet-wide grief and pain and terror saps one’s energies. But spring will come again. And, to speak literally, a good winter storm here is something to look forward to. That will come sooner. —Yes, there are two sides to the medal of civilization, and no doubt I have made too much of the wrong one. But think how few are the “organizers, the purposeful and the powerful,” as compared to the dough which they agitate. And the larger the community the fewer they become per million; and our civilization ♦ envisages a worldwide community, so the increasing rifts and the future breakdown are not altogether unwelcome. —However, there isn’t much to be said for barbarism either! These different facets turn and return, (though never the same); we can’t stay them nor speed them; and it seems to me that a good life is the affair of private persons, rather than of society. But alas, it requires luck as well as morals. —Why “The Torchbearers’ Race” was omitted from “Selected Poems”— Much had to be omitted; I chose hastily to save myself trouble; I had a feeling the thing was too long for its weight, and too obvious. Not too “optimistic” but too young. But just now I looked at it again and rather liked it—I mean in comparison. —I awoke this morning idealizing Anglo-Saxon words that I have practically forgotten—a semester nearly forty years ago—admiring the big heavy vowels, like rocks in a hissing surf of consonants, thinking how much our language has lost in gaining its atomic fluidity. It seemed to me that people who used such words might spend a whole winter rolling in mind one big thought or passion, instead of playing with a thousand little ones a day as we do now. —One rock versus a thousand pebbles. —I suppose this dream represents as well as possible the hardly logical reasons for my scunner against civilization. —Your thoughts about Man’s Coming of Age interest me very much. I hope you’ll make the book.1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

—My wife sends kind thoughts to you and yours. We both have the fondest memories of you, in Cambridge and elsewhere. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. Postmark: September 18, 1943. 1. Carpenter’s reflections on this topic did not result in a published book.

UJ to Charles Abbott Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 October 7. 1943 Dear Dr. Abbott: Robin & I were delighted to hear from you & I meant to have written at once to say so. You & Mrs. Abbott were so charming to us in Buffalo —we hope to get a chance some time to look about your farm, and particularly to see what is going on in the Lockwood Poetry Collection. One of our boys, —Garth, has been overseas for more than a year & a half. He came home just over a year ago & brought some prisoners of war. {& stayed four days}—I think from Midway, though he didn’t actually say so. We get very anxious sometimes. The other twin is married—he was deferred for a slight heart murmur. He lives in Ohio & has a baby girl five months old. This delights us, of course. Robin is busy writing. Both of us have done defense work since Pearl Harbor & wish we could do more. The navy & army fill up our village. Movement everywhere on sea, land & in the air. Fine when we get this job done, though the problems of peace promise a good deal of trouble. Our affectionate greetings to you both. Faithfully, Una Jeffers ALS. Buffalo. 1 page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California. R 1 Box 36 October 7. 1943 Dear Bennett: I have here your fall list and feel definitely hurt that you did not care to mention Robins “Selected Poems.” I know you are crowded for space etc in these hard days, but I see you give room to two of Stephen Spender whose books I am sure are not tremendous money makers!1 Yours, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Cerf ’s response (TCC Berkeley, October 12, 1943): “Please do not be hurt because the listing of the Selected Poems is omitted from the Fall announcement. This was done deliberately because we are just about running out of stock of the present edition and cannot get a new one until the tag end of the year. The book will have its usual place at the top of our poetry list in the announcement that goes to press early in December. Meanwhile, you will note that Be Angry at the Sun is still on the list.” After explaining the Spender situation (whose books were listed because copies of the original edition were still in stock), Cerf adds, “I want to be sure that you and Robin understand. I didn’t think it was necessary for me to tell you at this late date how proud I am that he is published by Random House.”

UJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Tor House. Carmel. Oct 27. 1943 Dear Larry, We would enjoy seeing your Ms. send it on sometime. Robin’s brother is back from the Aleutians & now goes to So. Pacific.1 All success in your new place! You’ll be all fresh for it after such a different job as you are doing now. Robin sends best wishes. He is writing; often discards what he’s done. There will be something worthwhile sometime. No idea when. Cordially, U. J. APS. Occidental. Postmark: October 29, 1943. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Hamilton Jeffers left the Radiation Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in May 1943 and joined the Eleventh Air Force as an operations analyst. He was sent to stations at Attu and Shemya, in the westernmost Aleutian Islands, where he engaged in combat planning and problem solving, primarily with regard to radar, weather, and communication. In September 1943, just prior to leaving the Aleutians, Hamilton served as acting chief of his section. For an account of the battles he helped fight and win, see chapter 11, “The Aleutians Campaign” by Harry L. Coles, in The Pacific: Guadalcanal to Saipan, August 1942 to July 1944—­volume 4 of The Army Air Forces in World War II, edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1983): 359–401.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 December 4. 1943 Dear Bennett: Yesterday a woman came to us & said she had been unable to find a copy of Robin’s “Selected Poetry” in her hometown (San Francisco) bookshops. This is the Christmas season & we have the right to expect the book to be displayed for sale. Our royalties are small but we need them. But {beyond that} it is of utmost importance to us, looking to the future, that this book should at all times be available to his public. Do I understand {you to say in a former letter} that the government does not allow you any paper for this book? I see an abundance of paper & binding & ink in plenty of lesser books. You have always been a good friend to us but in this case I find cause for disappointment.1 Sincerely Una Jeffers. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Cerf ’s response (TCC Berkeley, December 8, 1943): “Your note of December 4th leads me to believe that you never did receive a letter that I sent you on October 12th. In that letter I explained to you that our stock of the Selected Poetry was exhausted about a month ago and that, although an order was immediately placed for a new edition, it would not be ready until the tag end of the year. I told you then, and I repeat here, that the book will have its usual place at the very top of our poetry list in the new Random House announcement which is now being printed.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Frederic I. Carpenter [December 7, 1943] Dear Carpenter: Thank you for letting me read; the ideas are most interesting. Since you ask, I suppose I should choose No. 2 of the philosophies of history. But, like other philosophies, they are mostly a putting of names and analogies on a series of facts. Their significance is in their attitudes toward the future, and even in that regard they are not so widely divergent. I should not call No. 2 “pessimistic.” Civilizations rise and fall, ours has risen and will fall, so will others in the future—is no more pessimistic than to say that men are born and die. —Whereas the conceptions of adolescence and maturity seem to me a little too specialized. I cannot see any more (if as much) maturity in the mind of the present as {than} in the minds of Athens and Rome at their summits. More knowledge—but that is a different thing. —Also, some kind of culture (fire, flint, language, tradition, probably religion) has been going on for several hundred thousand years; and the four centuries you assign to cultural adolescence would seem much too brief for so long a childhood. About the American frontier, I think its importance has been overemphasized, as you suggest. Certainly the free land acted as a safety valve, for Europe and ourselves, but that only means it postponed processes that have now come into play again. Dec. 7, ’43. —What precedes was written I dare not think how long ago, and I am heartily ashamed of having kept your ms. so long. It is partly because I can’t concentrate in brief on so big a subject. One may be reckless in verse, but there ought to be some system about history or philosophy, and my ♦ thoughts fly away over the hay-stacks. No doubt from one point of view civilization is a single cumulative process. It tends to grow richer and bigger—because some knowledge is inherited across the gaps—but not therefore better—nor worse. Greek civilization was poorer and smaller than Egypt’s before and Rome’s after,

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

but certainly not worse than either. Ours is immensely richer and bigger; but not better. All I can conclude is that “Each for its quality / Is drawn out of this gulf.”1 As to a stable world-civilization in the future—I don’t believe in it—any more than in a world-state. People do not unite effectively except against enemies. They may live together in a heap, amorphous and passive, as China used to do; but if there is the energy to organize there is the energy to divide. But indeed I don’t want to believe in it. The small social groups—the few thousand of a Greek city or Israelite tribe, the few hundred thousand that made a nation when Europe was young—have produced most {the best part} of our literature, art, religion, basic science. The big agglomerations are sterile by comparison—though big armies, big architectures, big engineering no doubt have their uses. But there is that famous law of diminishing returns, and it seems to me that a few years from now, when Anglo-America and Russia will stand looking at each other, we shall have become about as “global” as Providence will permit. The images will split and fall apart, the kaleidoscope will turn and make new {new} patterns. Forgive this damned prophetic kind of writing. It is a bad return for yours yours. —Good luck with the book. If you have written any more chapters I should be very glad to see them. I hope we’ll meet again when the wars are over—and may it be soon. Yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. From Jeffers’ poem “Woodrow Wilson.” As originally published, the last word of the line is “depth.” See Collected Poetry 1: 106–107.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ and RJ to Judith Anderson Noëls flat. Hyde & Lombard. San Francisco December 24. 1943 Darling Judy: Garth is here. Came a week ago for twenty day furlough. He came with a picked squad—in a cadre—to train some men at Ft. Beale near Marysville, Calif. {for a few months.} I suppose then it will be far away again. But now today we are very gay. We’ve had Christmas eve with the Lloyd Tevis family for many years. One of their boys is stationed here so we six are going to make a night of it and try to telephone to Donnan in Ohio & their other son Dick—cavalry Ft. Riley. Garth faithfully brought back the beautiful Macbeth programs. I sent Lee Crowe’s on to Nova Scotia where he is spending Christmas ♦ and gave Noël his. This note is to thank you for giving Garth a happy time in the Islands, and to tell you we love you and hope you’ll have all success this coming year. We admire as well as love you! Think of us—happy. Devotedly Una. —and Robin.1 ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. Postmark: December 24, 1943. 1. Jeffers adds his signature to this letter.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel R. 1. Box 36. January 8. 19434 My room in the Hawk Tower. Dearest Melba: I am here today with a grand fire crackling on the hearth. There is a wild wind blowing—the sea out the oriel window is blue beyond belief, covered with white caps. The sun fills the room from the south windows & gleams on the waxed walls! Its a sweet place. I get so little time up here anymore. I ought really to spend an hour every day. It is a soul-renewing spot. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

We had a wonderful time with Garth. He was with us from Dec 15– Jan 3 ♦ He came over in a cadre (of 16 picked men) to train some men. He is at Ft. Beale for the time but doesn’t expect to be there long. I don’t know what then. He is in absolutely grand shape 200 lbs of muscle & calm—& feels on top the world. How we love him—and how frightfully hard to keep calm about everything. An hour ago news came to us that Bill Dickinson—our boys’ playmate & in shchool & college—just a block from us, {is} missing his ship lost.1 Not one moment free of anxiety. But gratitude for every day that heGarth remains safe. He had great ♦ wrestling bouts f with Winnie. Got down on all fours & practiced all kinds of tactics he’d learned from the great Col. D’Elisçu!2 Winnie loved it & they both fought with vigor. Now Winnie sits half-the-day in the window seat watching for him to come back. I would, too, if I were not busy—very busy. We had a merry time unpacking the great red stocking from TorPalm Springs. We love you & thank you for everything. Winnie painstakingly composed{posed} a note to Candida & is sending his bib to her. He has the ♦ idea that Candida dribbles more than he does. (I doubt it). For many years—perhaps 16—we have had Christmas or Christmas eve dinner with the Tevises. This year they persuaded us to go up to San F. & have it with them there. Young Lloyd is stationed in the hospital at Letterman3 & could get away only for the evening. We did—stopped at Noëls flat & {Christmas eve} had dinner with them at “The Fairmont” in their rooms & managed a gay time together.4 They talked to Dick T. at Ft. Riley next day, & we talked with Donnan one night while Garth was home. Robin’s brother called up ♦ from Lick. He was there for just a few hrs. Flew out from Washington. (He has been back from the Aleutians a couple of months.) He has already flown back east & expects to {go almost at once} overseas— Atlantic—on a mission which will take at least a year.5 I am head over heels in work. I took over the Chairmanship of Staff Assistance Red X Jan 1. We have about 50 in the corps that are active active, & some off-&-on. Perhaps you know our corps is supposed to man the offices, do clerical work, assist all the other corps in any way they ask for it.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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We have 3 constantly on ♦ duty at Ft. Ord Station Hospital. We have a desk there to which the ambulatory cases come to buy stamps, to get us to mail or express p’k’g’s, buy bonds, send M. O.s, do errands (like watches to be mended, etc) At our Head Q here we attend to the ordering & giving out the Red X uniforms pins—emblems etc, textbooks etc. {& arranges courses in First Aid, Nurses Aid, S. A etc} You, better than most, can visualize how much trouble all of these things can be—little details that seem unimportant but which messed up, gum up the works. We do a lot of work for the Gray Ladies. They serve in the wards & have a whole room full of stuff {at Head Q.} that must ♦ be worked on continually—their magazines (hundreds are left with us each week. They have to be sorted, the old ones thrown out, the new ones tied for carrying—) & the flowers! Bushels of them are brought, all tied in individual bunches for bedside tables. The Gray Ladies go out three days a week to Ft. Ord, about 18 at a time. I am glad to have a way to serve that is well within the bounds of my ability, but it is taking more time than I had expected to give. I expect to get it regulated better. Esther Fish is my vice-chairman. Lee Tevis is in charge of the schedule of workers & cars at ♦ Ft. Ord. It is 18 mi. from here &, gas being as it is, the ration board watches us like a hawk & every car is held to strict account—as it should be.— Just now Benj. Keith,6 the Steinway tuner, has been up in my room here. (He travelled with Rachmaninoff for ten years & only attends to Grands, but, as a favor, is fixing several reeds which have gone dumb in my melodeon.) The melodeon has been up here 20 yrs. & in good order until now. I need it up there {here} & felt undone when it got out of order. I am in such a state of unanswered letters—will you please send this one, which looks really long, on right away to Phoebe Barkan. I do wish to keep in close touch with her & may not be able to write soon. —I make Maud Clapp & Blanche share letters. Write & tell me all about Mabel & Tony— on their way to Mexico? Myron Brinig was here last month. Brett sent me a little painting at Christmas.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Love & all good wishes from us. Devotedly Una. Ellen has seen the inside of Allen house & I the outside. Both think you’d like it.7 “Mitch” in Martin’s book8 is supposed to be a combination of Lincoln Steffins & Bassett—eccentric editor “Cymbal”9 Christmas day we went to Burlingame to Willie Tevis—10 ALS. HRC Texas. 8 pages. 1. William Colbrooke Dickinson (1913–1943), the son of Henry and Edith Dickinson, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1936. He studied cooperative movements abroad prior to accepting a position with the Surplus Commodity Corporation, a federal agency that distributed food to relief organizations. As a merchant marine during World War II, he was an oiler on an ammunition ship in Bari, Italy when it was destroyed by the German Luftwaffe December 2, 1943. 2. Milton François D’Eliscu (1889–1972), a physical fitness expert, athletic coach, and ­lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, was the commander of the Ranger Combat Training School at Fort Shafter, Hawaii, and the author of How to Prepare for Military Fitness (1943) and Hand to Hand Combat (1945). 3. The Letterman General Hospital was located on the grounds of the Presidio of San Francisco (a United States military base established by Spanish soldiers in 1776). 4. Writing to Blanche Matthias January 9, 1943 (ALS Yale), Una says, “New Year’s eve we went to a thrilling big dinner party at Harry Hunts—stayed until 2:30 am.” Harry C. Hunt (1884–1962), a director of several oil companies, and his wife Jane Selby Hunt (1892–1976) had a mansion in Pebble Beach. They also owned the 7,000-acre El Sur Ranch, directly inland from the Point Sur lighthouse. 5. See Una’s August 9, 1944 letter to Frederick and Maud Clapp, note 7. 6. Benjamin Keith (1872–1946), an employee of Steinway & Sons, traveled with Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873–1943) as a personal piano technician. He also worked with Josef Hofmann, Rudolph Ganz, and other leading musicians. He died in San Luis Obispo, California after being struck by an automobile. 7. Written vertically in left margin, page 1. 8. Mitch Ballou—a close friend of Sam Braden, the protagonist of Martin Flavin’s Journey in the Dark (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1943). The novel, which was published October 20, 1943, won the 1943 Harper Prize and the 1944 Pulitzer Prize. 9. Written vertically in left margin, page 3. 10. Written vertically in left margin, page 4. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Noël Sullivan Tor House. Carmel. California 1/15/44 Noël darling: I’ve been too busy to write any personal letters this week except one to Garth. A very hectic week at Red Cross & the Fort. (This will calm down soon, I think, when we get things straightened out & schedules going.) But I’ve never once hugged Winnie or beheld his welcome & love when I come home without remembering how you must be missing Greta.1 I suppose we measure other people’s woes by our own. I suffered cruell cruelly when Haig died. I have had this morning, to my great surprise, a letter from de Margerie, from Shanghai, Consulat Général de France, date Sept 11. through the Swiss Legation in Washington brought over by the Swiss representative on the “Gripsholm.” He & his wife & children are well. They are prisoners & he says “we have every reason to believe we may stay imprisoned for years.”2 It is a charming letter, though, just of memories of the several times they were at Tor House & a walk & picnic. We took them up to the Falls near Big Sur. I enclose a Blanche letter. You need not return it— ♦ Garth has been sent east on a mission but says he will return shortly. Ellen have {had} some pictures taken of him for my birthday They are excellent. By Seron.3 I never noticed his pictures before. Dearest love. Devotedly Una. Dogs are a bit uncanny, they know so much. I was at the counter at Kips4 trying to buy some melt for Winnie. There were just a couple of pounds left. Joe,5 at the counter, said “Was some saved for the Whittlesey dog?” & I said, “If you haven’t any, Winnie shall give up his. That working dog has to have it.” Just then I turned around & Whittlesey & his dog were standing behind me.6 The dog looked straight into my eyes & wagged his tail as if thanking me. I didn’t dare pet him. I know Seeing-Eye trainers ask you not to. So I smiled as hard as I could at him & he was satisfied.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

At this point my egg man from Pt. Lobos came. Charged 50¢ for dozen to my surprise, down 10¢ from last week, whereas grain still goes up in price. I pd. $3.50 for cwt. last week. Said so to him & unloosed a torrent of abuse about the gov’t, “purposely squeezing the little men out.” Said a “revolution coming, sure as hell.” Same prediction as R. Roos7 who sees fighting in the streets soon! ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Greta was one of Noël’s German shepherds; her mother was Tina (See Collected Letters 2: 161). 2. Roland de Margerie (1899–1990), a French diplomat and government official, was Prime Minister Paul Reynaud’s chief of staff and a key member of France’s embassy in England during the crucial years prior to the Nazi invasion of his homeland. De Margerie participated in the meetings between Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle as the two sought ways to address the events of May–June 1940 that led to the fall of France, the resignation and eventual imprisonment of Reynaud, and the creation of Pétain’s Vichy government. De Margerie secured a position as ambassador to China and left Europe in August 1940 with his wife Jenny Fabre-Luce (1896–1991) and their children Bertrand, Emmanuel, and Diane. On the way to China, the family stopped in Carmel. In their adult years, Bertrand de Margerie (1923–2003) was a Jesuit theologian and author, Emmanuel de Margerie (1924–1991) was a diplomat and government official, and Diane de Margerie (b. 1927) became a novelist and critic. De Margerie’s account of his experiences was eventually published as Journal: 1939–1940 (Paris: Bernard Grasset, 2010). As de Margerie notes in the text, he wrote chapters 17 and 20, “Voyage à Londres avec le Général de Gaulle, 8 juin 1940” and “La Dernière Réunion du Conseil Suprême Franco–Britannique à Tours, 13 juin 1940,” in Carmel September 16–17 and September 9–10, respectively. Chapter 22, “Voyage du Château de Chissay à Bordeaux, 14 juin 1940” was completed “sur une plage de Californie” (“on a California beach”) September 13. De Margerie may have felt confined by his responsibilities in China, but he was never a prisoner. When he returned to France after the war, he was essential to the reconstruction of Europe as a leading negotiator, chief of the political department of France’s Foreign Ministry, and ambassador to Germany. 3. Henry Mihran Seron (1881–1945), born in Armenia, was a photographer in Marysville, California for much of his life. He and his wife Astrid moved to Carmel in 1941, where he opened a studio at the Pine Inn. 4. Kip’s Food Center, a Carmel grocery store and meat market, was located on the northwest corner of Ocean Avenue and San Carlos Street.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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5. Joseph C. Clague (1888–1976), a meat cutter at Kip’s, was originally from the Isle of Man. 6. Eben Whittlesey (1913–1991), an attorney in Carmel and mayor of the village from 1962 to 1964, lost his sight during his last year of studies at Stanford University Law School. According to his daughter Deborah (Whittlesey) Sharp (b. 1948), a trustee of the Tor House Foundation, his guide dog in 1944 was a German shepherd mix named Milt. 7. Robert Achille Roos (1883–1951), brother of Leon Roos and husband of Louise (Swabaker) Roos (1890–1962), was the president of Roos Bros., Inc. He was also a San Francisco civic leader and a colonel in the United States Army Reserve. At the outbreak of World War II, Col. Roos was called to active duty and served on the staff of the commanding general of the Ninth Corps Area, an administrative unit responsible for army activities and installations in the western states.

UJ to Rudolph Gilbert Tor House. Carmel. California 1/15/44 Dear Rudolph: I do apologize. I have had a letter, a book & 2 post cards from you. I have been working up to the limit of my waking hours for weeks & weeks. This is the second, (only), personal letter I’ve written this week. (The other to Garth—) I have taken over the chairmanship of the Staff Assistance Corps of our Red Cross Chapter here. We have a corps of sixty. We keep several busy constantly at the Chapter House here & three or four every day at Ft. Ord. There has been so much sickness here & also shifting of army families (many of our staff are officers’ wives or daughters—) that our schedules have needed incessant rearranging. The details of our work are countless. Then our Garth arrived home suddenly on an 18 day furlough. Robin & I felt rejuvenated by that! He left us Jan 3. We took him to the train at 8.00 in the morning. {It was raining & wind blowing.} I felt let-down when we came home & simply undressed & went to bed by the sea-window, wrote some letters & ♦ read for several hours two books of Poetry. Daly’s

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

& Clapp’s new one. I haven’t read any {poems} of Daly’s lately until this one {book}1 & felt a start of surprise & pleasure at their excellence. They are so sensitive, sometimes so tender & so aware of natural objects around us & of their beauty or power. They are modern in the best sense of being in the stream of new experiences & {using} words that evoke contemporary events. {experience}. In a few, I see a similarity to my dear Rilke—tell me whether Daly likes him? {I remember lines quoted from Rilke as heading to one poem.} I havent time to refer to the book now {n}or {to} write really competently of it as I should like. One poem that I reread several times because it pleased me so much was called “Stone-steep the Pier.” another I thought realized itself completely was “The Asker” Some of the poems— and this is an adverse criticism I also make of Rilke—seem needlessly involved, but, as in the case also of Rilke—Daly is able to surround them with a poetic enchantment. I wish I had time to say more, & more thoughtfully but I have an enormous mail here to answer. I hope Robin will write soon about this book but he still is afflicted with a paralysis about letter-writing that seems to me partial insanity. The {Ruins} picture on your card—lovely. Connie Flavin spoke of talking to you—with great pleasure, & Jean Kellogg speaks of you with interest too.2 Affectionately, Una. 3 We like your picture by the columns ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. James Daly, Poems: 1923–1943 (New York: Dryden Press, 1943). 2. This sentence, the closing, and signature are written vertically in left margin, second page. 3. Written in top right corner, first page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Sara Bard Field Tor House. Carmel. R 1 Box 36 January 28. 1944 Darling Sara: Our thoughts have been with you constantly since Noël called us on Saturday. But what a fine life you had with Erskine—just having him for a friend was a blessing to us. One of the noblest men I ever knew!1 I have been sick in bed since Sunday, or I would have written you at once. A very unpleasant but not serious disease which Mast Wolfson2 calls labyrinthitis—a disturbance of the inner ear {where our sense of balance mostly lies} which makes you so dizzy you can not stand alone. All you can ♦ do is to lie flat & keep your eyes closed. No fever or pain. Also no reading or writing! Its all around here—his wife & child3 had it last week. I’ll be up tomorrow. So I have just gotten able to write & write you first of all to send our dearest love & sympathy & to say how grateful we have always been for your & Erskine’s friendship. I hate to visualize what you are enduring these days. Devotedly Una & Robin. ALS. Huntington. 2 pages. 1. Charles Erskine Scott Wood died January 22, 1944, a month before his ninety-second birthday. 2. Dr. Mast Wolfson of Monterey was the Jeffers family physician. 3. Germaine (Levy) Wolfson (1896–1973) and Mast Wolfson, Jr. (b. 1927).

RJ to Stanley Willis Tor House, Carmel, California. February, 1944. Dear Stanley Willis—1 Nothing is easier than to write one’s name, so here it is. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers.2

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

APS. Willis. Postmark: February 21, 1944. 1. Stanley Dutton Willis (b. 1929) was fifteen years old when he sent a letter to Jeffers asking for an autograph. In later years he was a teacher at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C. For an account of his interest in Jeffers and his friendship with Rudolph Gilbert, see “A Memoir,” Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 53 (June 1979): 30–31. 2. The address and date are written beneath the signature, aligned with left margin.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 2/2/44 Candlemas Day! Darling Blanche: There you go being psychic again! I was sick when you were thinking about me. (Sometimes you think when I’m very glad, too!) I’m all right now but writing this in bed with my breakfast coffee. In a few minutes I have to get up & go to Red X & in pm have a 3½ hr. shift at the box office—Music Society.1 Britt trio,2 {our next one is Pinza.}3 I had a queer thing—thats been epidemic around the bay & a few cases here. “Labyrinthitis”—a disturbance or infection of the middle ear (where most of our sense of balance lies). It makes you so dizzy you can’t stand without hanging on to something—& the dizziness brings on nausea. But no pain of any kind nor any fever. Mast W— came out early one morning after the bed had been gyrating all night! Diagnosed it, said Germaine & little Mast had had it, the former a week, the latter 24 hrs. Mine lasted 4 days & left me weak as a kitten. I’ve been at the office 2 days now for a few hrs. each then came home & rested. Yes I’ll be careful. I dont want a relapse. ♦ I can’t make out about Esther—don’t know even whether its tactful to write to her. Seems if she must have come a cropper of some kind to be willing to stay with Janet4 with whom she is not very congenial. Maybe she is put away writing her book, or maybe she took an overdose of one of those queer herbs she discovers from time to time! I can’t remember a Christmas {before this} when she hasn’t sent me at least a few lines. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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My dizziness came on me just as we arrived at Charlotte Kellogg’s for lunch. I lay down but could see & hear all that transpired. Noël, Sebastian, Woodruff, Robin, Jean, Charlotte. George S. was most amusing & Charlotte was vastly entertained by his vivid polyglotic review of European politics. I got up after lunch & we went to Jean’s studio to see the painting of Partington Cañon she has worked at more than a year. It is perhaps not as well painted in some ways as some of her things but it has a great deal more vigor & freshness than anything she has done before. She seems to have thrown off Paul Dougherty at last. She’s a dear girl! I love her but she is woefully over-earnest about Everything—needs to be loosened up. ♦ Charlotte was at “The Cats” just before she came down here & said Erskine was in a bad state then, rather maudlin. When I saw him last, he said life had become a burden to him—his memory & faculties so weakened. Lee Tevis slipped in her bedroom a week ago yesterday & broke her hip. Badly I guess for she was 3 hrs on the operating table. She was taken to old St. Joseph’s in S. F.—the only hospital {where} they could get a bed, even there she was put in a room with others; after two days they got a private room but Lloyd had to have a cot put in for himself, to wait on her part of the time as they couldn’t get a special nurse & she needs much care. Garth is still at Camp Beale. He telephoned us Sunday morn. He had come to S. F. overnight. Connie got her divorce5 & departed in very cheerful spirits to Jokake, Ariz. Nancy6 is to be in school there. I think Martin treated her with great generosity in every way. I’m sorry that they had to part. ♦ I hope you are well now & that Maud is over her flu. I don’t believe winters there are good for her. But—after all, Calif. has been swept by flu, too. Please give her this letter, I am too busy to write much now. There is a great deal to do at Red X. Lee {Tevis} was managing the schedule at Ft. Ord, 12 of our staff go there each week. That comes back on me again—but all will soon be smoothed out. Esther Fish is my vice-chairman & excellent, & steady.— These torture stories about the Japs—sear my very soul. Perhaps the

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

suffering is no worse than nature inflicts in disease & tragedy, but that force is so invisible & unheeding.— To have all this inflicted wantonly by other human beings makes every cell in your body writhe & revolt. Best love to my dear Blanche. Devotedly. Una, Does Emilie Coote still expect a post abroad? Do you know whether Ralph’s first wife died?7 I was so surprised to hear {that} Emilie talked glowingly here to Gabrielle8 about beaux in Africa! Must be uncomfortable if Rafe remains at her elbow. ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Una was a member of the Carmel Music Society’s board of directors. 2. The Britt String and Piano Trio, led by cellist Horace Britt (1881–1971), presented a concert in Carmel February 6, 1944. 3. Ezio Pinza (1892–1957), an Italian opera star who also performed on Broadway and in Hollywood films, was scheduled to appear in Carmel March 26. 4. Esther Busby’s daughter, Janet (Busby) Walsh. 5. Connie and Martin Flavin separated in July 1943 and filed for divorce in January 1944. 6. Nancy Shuman, Connie’s daughter from her marriage to William Shuman. 7. Sir Ralph Coote’s first wife, whom he married in 1904 and divorced in 1932, was Alice Matilda Mary (Webber) Coote (1877–1975). The couple had two sons, Sir John Ralph Coote (1905–1978) and Thomas Charles Coote (1907–1981). 8. Gabrielle Kuster.

UJ to Noël Sullivan [February 1944]1 Tor House. Carmel Saturday morning. Dearest Noël: I do apologize for seeming seeming discourteous to you & your friends. The devotion you & Timmie feel for France ought to make me lay aside that prejudice. Its very easy to be annoying about some other country—I always felt Julie2 & Bess3 took far too exalted a view of England! But when Martin used to thunder at my going to Ireland & my obsession with it I

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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never thought he was insulting me or liking me less! I put it down as a rather tactless attitude. You must be as fair as that! I cannot be sorry about Proust. I think it is a great book & no criticism of mine will affect it. But I am not alone in the shudder I feel when I think of the long years its pallid writer sat in a padded cell & recollected for the reader’s sake, what dress the Princesse de Guermante {wore} that day when she received, —so many years’ back, Mme. de Villeparisis & whether the vague Prince d’Agrigente did marry Mlle. X or her sister? I’m sure George didn’t mind—but perhaps we’d all do better to put our strength into discussions of postwar plans. Love from Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Although the exact date of this letter is unknown, a note in the upper right hand corner, added by Noël or someone else, places it in 1944. In the last sentence, Una refers to George (Sebastian). As Una indicates in her February 2 letter to Blanche Matthias, he and Porter Woodruff were in Carmel in the early part of the year, so this letter must have been written during that time. 2. Julie Heyneman died December 28, 1942. Una wrote a memorial tribute to her friend, published as “Julie Heyneman” in the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (January 1, 1943): 3. 3. Bess O’Sullivan.

UJ to Noël Sullivan [February 1944]1 Tor House. Carmel Sunday Dearest Noël— Thanks for your letter. I shall be only too happy to forget all about this stupid business. I have to explain one thing however. Certainly, sane or crazy, I can’t imagine you trying to influence George about me & his party. But a very curious sequence of things happened. The morning after our discussion at your house George called me up & said “I hope, dear Una, you were not annoyed with me last night.” And I, “Heavens no!—I never thought 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

of such a thing. As a matter of fact, when the phone rang, I was having my coffee in bed with my complete edition of Proust beside me, dipping in here & there & enjoying it.” George said then, “Well I had intended to read Moore’s “Story-Tellers Holiday today.” And I: “Well, I hope you wont let Moore’s reputation stand on that alone.” If he didn’t feel perfectly friendly, why on earth did he call me? He sounded simple & natural. I have many exasperating traits. Getting hurt feelings hasn’t been one of them. And about a party! When all of my friends have constantly asked me to so many & many, and for several reasons I haven’t been able to do anything in return! This party, however, was a different matter since in some of the households—who were his particularly honored guests {at the party} we have defended defended George, very ♦ whole-heartedly. You are perhaps aware he seems {has seemed pe} to many people here an enigmatic figure, —perhaps a sinister one. This cannot surprise you when you remember that Sara & the Matthiases were dubious about him when he arrived. Two of the people at his party—I mean two from two households aforesaid, said to me “why weren’t you there?” when I said “Because I wasn’t asked,” they were properly amazed, as they thought he’d asked everybody he knew well at all. I, then, wondered about it myself & concluded he had gotten cross & peevish about our discussion sometime after the event, —perhaps when hehe had discovered in dis how disapproving you were, a very natural reaction for him, I suppose. Thats all I intend to say about the matter unless you ask me. I guess its clear —but not very elegantly written. I’ve been going through a great chest of papers all last evening & today until two {this afternoon}. I had the triumph, anyway, of locating some lost data. And now its evening & Robin about to go & I wish to send this with him. Faithfully, and fondly, Una ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. A note in the upper right corner of the first page, added by Noël or someone else, places this letter in 1944. The contents of the letter suggest that it was written soon after the one just preceding. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Benjamin Kurtz Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 March 5. 1944 Dear Ben:1 I have an uneasy feeling that I never wrote to thank you for the copy of “New Letters—”,2 such is {has been} the disorder of my correspondence the last few months. I thought thanks anyway. This morning I had occasion to consult the book & decided to say so. I cant imagine anything more thrilling than getting a chance at material like this—by & about a person one is tremendously interested in. Odd moments the last two years I've been writing to very distant kinsfolk about early ancestors of ours in Mass. —one thing leads to another, and what joy when two odd pieces dovetail! What a curious sensation—to hear of happy, vigorously-sucking, baby Fanny.3 I had scarcely thought of her as having any history except the gentle, tragic year or two before her death. —I wonder where she is buried. I think I told you of my visit to Bournemouth where the bodies of Mary & Godwin were moved, to lie beside Mary Shelley. I lead very busy days—(& gay ones for 18 days at Christmas. Our Garth was home on furlough.) Affectionate greetings to you & yours. Una Jeffers. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. 1. Benjamin Putnam Kurtz (1878–1950), a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, was the author or editor of From St. Antony to St. Guthlac (1926), The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1933), The Pursuit of Death: A Study of Shelley's Poetry (1933), and other works. 2. Following a visit to Tor House in early November 1943 (accompanied by his wife Barbara and their friend Hazel Niehaus, an affiliate of the University of California Press), Kurtz sent Una a copy of Four New Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft and Helen M. Williams (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1937), a book he co-edited with Carrie C. Autry. 3. Frances “Fanny” Imlay, the illegitimate daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and Gilbert Imlay, was just a few days old when Mary describes her in a May 20, 1794 letter to Ruth Barlow, an American friend living in Europe. After Mary died three years later, Fanny was raised by her stepfather William Godwin and thus grew up with her younger stepsisters Mary

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Godwin and Claire Clairmont. She killed herself in 1816—possibly, as some scholars argue, because of an unrequited love for Percy Bysshe Shelley.

RJ to Unknown [March 1944]1 Milton describes poetry as “simple, sensuous, impassioned”. It should be interesting not to the intelligence alone, but to the senses, instincts and emotions,2 of the reader or hearer. It must appeal to the aesthetic emotion. It must be expressed in rhythmic (usually metrical) language be expressed in rhythmic (usually metrical) language. (Rhythm is an organic instinct.) to which {[Illegible]} Almost all {good} poets are to some extent “nature” poets. I read poetry widely in English, Latin, Greek, {etc.} the Bible etc. Ruskin’s—“All great art is “[among other things]” {[illegible]} the expression of man’s delight in the works of God.”3 —No. great {Great} art may be the the expression of grief or fear. It brings delight to the beholder, but it does not necessarily express delight. John Campbell Shairp—“feeling for {the} beauty{. . .}ranges through many gradations. . .”4 True but rather obvious. Certainly one’s surroundings influence one’s life and work. Beautiful scenes of nature may awake {[illegible]} moral impressions if the morality is there to begin with. And they make a man think of God if he believes in God. Compare Coleridge’s and Shelley’s poems about Mt. Blanc.5 In a preface to the book called “Selected Poetry of R. J.” I have written something about the influence of the {Monterey–} Carmel coast on my verses. I return your letter for reference in connection with my answers to it. Sincerely yours, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This draft is written on the reverse side of a letter from the Red Cross dated March 1944. 2. A curved line around “instincts and emotions” indicates a transposition to “emotions and instincts.” 3. “I have had but one steady aim in all that I have ever tried to teach, namely—to declare that whatever was great in human art was the expression of man’s delight in God’s work”— John Ruskin, The Two Paths (New York: John Wiley, 1859): 48. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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4. “The feeling for the beauty by which the visible world is garmented ranges through many gradations, from a mere animal pleasure up to what may be called a spiritual rapture”— John Campbell Shairp, Aspects of Poetry (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1882): 61. 5. “Hymn before Sun-rise, in the Vale of Chamouni” (1802) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and “Mont Blanc: Lines Written in the Vale of Chamouni” (1816) by Percy Bysshe Shelley.

UJ to Zena Holman Tor House. Carmel. Saturday April 15. ’44 Dear Mrs. Holman: Random House has just published the 3rd Ed. of Robinson Jeffers “Selected Poetry.” It has had no copies {in stock} for six months. If your stock is exhausted I thought you’d like to know as many inquiries about the book have been sent to us from time to time Faithfully— Una Jeffers. APS. Tor House. Postmark: April 15, 1944.

UJ to Rudolph Gilbert Tor House. Carmel. R. 1. Box 36 April 29. 1944 Dear Rudolph: I’m awfully sorry I didn’t write at once about your little book,1 but I can’t apologize too much, either, because I am working terribly hard & never write letters to friends anymore. I just today wrote the first letter in six months to the Clapps in New York, & Timmy Clapp is my dearest friend in the world. But I did read your articles but {with} utmost attention. I like the Daly one almost as well as the one on Robin. You write as if you had the background of a scholar—meaning a man who has a very wide range of reading which he has had the time & the wit to weigh & assess, and it makes your opinions valuable & arresting. Thank you so much for this book.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Our dear Jean Kellogg wrote an article on Robin for her mother’s friend, Vinal,2 in “Voices.”3 She was very shy about it but it has a very nice quality & she did it from a painter’s standpoint which makes it different from most articles. Do you ever see “Voices”? A rather new book, “The Heritage of Symbolism,” I saw very well reviewed in several papers but it isnt very good. Have you seen it? By an Englishman named Bowra.4 Garth is at present stationed at Ft. Sam Houston, San Antonio a very pleasant old brick barracks. He is training men in judo, etc. ♦ I am Chairman of {Red Cross} Staff Assistance Corps here & am very busy—both here & at Fort Ord. My house is often in a turmoil of disorder Robin helps a lot. He is writing very busily these days. —I dont know what. The other day a woman Greek professor from Stanford came to call.5 She is head of Greek archeology dep’t & also teaches {a top} class in ancient Greek & modern Greek. A most interesting person who has been to Greece twelve times, living there four years one time. She has a house on the island Skcyros. She came to beg Robin to write some more Greek poems—or a play, came to find out how much he had lived in Greece to be so accurate & to beg him to write something about her own great pet Achilles. I had received her reluctantly being particularly busy but found her very exciting. She had much to tell us of Schliemann6 & some of his diaries & notebooks she had charge of for a time & of the treasures the U. of Athens {(is that its title—)} has (& buried for the duration) Dont forget us, & if we can just come through this hell & really live again. Affectionately Una. Up & down writing! I’m in bed this morning with a writing board— Must up & at it now! ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Rudolph Gilbert, Four Living Poets: Essays in Appreciation of James Daly, Robinson Jeffers, Ruth Pitter, and E. Merrill Root (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Unicorn Press, 1944). 2. Harold Vinal (1891–1965), founder and editor of Voices: A Quarterly of Poetry. 3. Jean Kellogg, “Robinson Jeffers in Carmel,” Voices 117 (Spring 1944): 39–44. 4. C. M. Bowra, The Heritage of Symbolism (London: Macmillan, 1943).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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5. Hazel Dorothy Hansen (1899–1962) earned B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University, where she taught in the Department of Classics for her entire career. Hansen was the author of Early Civilization in Thessaly (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1933). 6. Heinrich Schliemann (1822–1890), a German entrepeneur, archaeologist, and author, located and excavated Troy, Mycenae, Tiryns, Orchomenos, and other important sites of the ancient world.

RJ to Montgomery Hare [Late May 1944] Dear Mr. Hare: Your idea is most interesting;2 I wish {expect} and expect {wish} a fine success for it. But I see tho your letter is dated May 1st. It doesn’t It doesn’t seem possible it has lain here as long as {that would indicate. If it has, my answer is perhaps too late.} No, I never made a recording of “Apology”. Those ones few I have made (at Harvard and Columbia) were in passages from “Tower beyond Tragedy”, and a lot of number of short pieces. {Those recorded at Harvard are for sale I believe.} And probably anyone intelligent about poetry could read my verses better {as well} as the author can if not {or considerably} better. No doubt your choice of “Apology” is a good one; at least I have no better to suggest; and I shall gl be glad to leave to your judgment the question of music. the music to your judgment. Finally, I suppose {I suppose} it would be necessary to get permission from Random House, my publisher.3 Perhaps {Whether or} not for the recording, tho certainly for reprinting in the pamphlet you speak of. Will you mention write to them? You are nearer New York, and I’m sure they will not be hard to deal with. Sincerely yours 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Montgomery Hare (1911–1998), a 1933 graduate of Yale University, was a writer, theater producer, and conservationist. For much of his life he lived in Connecticut, where he was a director and president of the Housatonic Valley Association, an environmental protection organization. Hare’s publications include Three Eagles (1954) and To Beat the Air: Poems and Drawings (1964).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

2. In his May 1, 1944 letter to Jeffers (TLS HRC Texas), Hare asks for permission to include the first portion of “Apology for Bad Dreams” on a recording to be titled Antidote to Chaos. Working with Hargail Records, Hare hoped to produce an album of poetry and music featuring selections by Stephen Vincent Benét, Carl Sandburg, Archibald MacLeish, and other writers, along with an introduction by Eleanor Roosevelt. Based on a June 3 letter from Hare and other letters that followed, the project came near to completion, but the album was never released. 3. A curved line indicates a transposition to “my publisher, Random House.”

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. {R 1 Box 36} California June 7. 1944.

Dearest Melba, If I remember rightly, your girl1 is graduating today & I wish I could see her in her pretty dress! I know you will be frantic with work when you get back to Palm Springs. In spite of knowing that I am compelled to ask a favor. Would you write Jean Kellogg {R 1. Box 172 Carmel} a line to say I gave you her article to read {while here} & you liked it. She called up Sunday & asked to call. I had to put her off as we were going to Noëls (the first time in 6 weeks!). To my utter horror, she burst into tears & said she had realized more & more lately that I didn’t care to see her, or find her interesting. I have not wanted to see her or anyone much lately as you know —just wanted to ease my aching bones & get my work done. I suppose I was silly to try to get by without telling the world all about it— I’m sure other people than Jean have felt I was getting too detached. But I am very attached to her & admire her tremendously & wouldn’t for the world hurt her feelings. I wrote her ♦ a note & explained my difficulties but havent heard anything from her. I thought {think} she would be pleased if she knew I had cared enough about the article to show it to you. {Dont mention hearing from me now.} My bones are better. The sun helps perhaps & I soon will be as good as new—I think. I am sorry to have been so dull when you were here but I think I gave you all the material I had that you needed & we can make up another time the visiting part. I haven’t missed any time at my work anyway.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I look with absolute horror & physical collapse upon your labors with the clippings—the more so as my SA corps has been asked to do a very big clipping service project for a new branch at Ft. Ord—the Post Morale Service Unit. In thinking it over & trying to plan it efficiently I am compelled to envisage your work.— I’ve written on it in my black bold hand that t’was done by you, for the sake of {later generations.} I think you will have fun in N. Y. in spite of Summer. Be sure to see Timmie’s Fragonard room.2 Lots of love from us both. Una. I just finished “Razor’s Edge.” I really think he used Krishnamurti as a model for a lot of Larry Darnell.3 Saw Connie at a cocktail party. Very gay. Do you know her new beau Kellogg of Jokake & Santa Barbara4 Your relative Wanlen5 called by phone to get your abode, the day you left.6 ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Ethel Deborah “Deedee” Bennett (1927–2012) graduated from a private boarding school in San Francisco. She then attended Finch College in New York and studied at the University of California, Los Angeles while helping her parents run the Deep Well Guest Ranch. In 1959 she married Ralph Bering Busch, Jr., an anesthesiologist. The couple had six children and lived on a ranch in Ventura County. 2. The Fragonard Room at the Frick Collection features a series of paintings collectively titled The Progress of Love by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732–1806). 3. W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor’s Edge (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Doran, 1944). The novel tells the story of Laurence “Larry” Darrell, a non-conformist and spiritual seeker. 4. Written vertically in left margin, page 1. Kellogg may be linseed oil heir Spencer Kellogg, Jr. (1876–1944), a retired businessman and artist. Kellogg’s interest in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna inspired him to donate a hillside retreat in Montecito to the Vedanta Society of Santa Barbara. 5. Wanlyn (Carswell) Rivers (1894–1971), Melba’s cousin. Wanlyn’s mother Mary Edith (Bush) Carswell Perry was the twin sister of Melba’s mother Alice Edna (Bush) Berry. Wanlyn and her husband Henry E. Rivers (1889–1971) were part owners of Los Rios Rancho, a major apple-growing concern in Oak Glen, California. 6. Written vertically in top right corner, page 1.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett R 1 Box 36 Tor House. Carmel. July 29. 1944 Dearest Melba: I’ve read the mss.1 through very carefully & have it ready to express back to you {cant send it today (Sat)}. I decided regretfully that it was best not to send it to Donnan as he is in a particularly busy time at the pottery works & might not have time for a fortnight or so to get at it. Also they are expecting Garth for a brief furlough. I cannot detach myself enough from this material to be able to say how interesting people will find it. I honestly can’t! I am chiefly overcome by the tremendous amount of data you’ve gotten together & your great determination for accuracy. I didn’t see any big errors anywhere. I’ve made some pencil jottings on the margin about a few small ones. My guess is, Melba, any publisher who was interested would make you cut it a great deal, & a lot of material now in the text would {have to} be put away in your box of Sources. So busy this week—last fortnight no time to write —Blanche has been here at Peter Pan while Russell was at Bohemian Grove. Then Sara Bard Field came to Peter Pan. And Anne Lindbergh has been visiting the Morrows. I’ve seen what I could of her, an adorable person. Dont be disappointed if you cant get a publisher now. Its a bad time for several reasons. One is that at the moment ♦ Robin is not in favor of as much as he has been & will again. People like, in times like these, & I dare say are helped by poems like {the} God bless America Stephen Benét2 kind Put your ms. away to ripen. There is plenty of time & other interesting material will happen. In an awful hurry at Red X Devotedly Una So glad you are seeing Clapps & Sara. I sent your ms. off by express this morning. ♦

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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One viewpoint of mine you have scarcely accurate. I do not say all young poets should be discouraged. (not quite all!) My argument is this. No one in the world expects an eminent surgeon to spend his off-hours inspecting the efforts of some young new-comer in the surgical line. Neither does an important lawyer spend his leisure reading the briefs a young lawyer works up. No one would dare ask him to An important poet must have his leisure time to himself, and anyone who thinks otherwise degrades the profession of Poetry {(I am not fond of the word Art)}. Why writers of jingles or beginners {begining writers} of reall even important poetry think they should {dare} impose on a good poet’s time shows what I really suspect most people think—that writing poetry is just a parlor game, that anyone can do, given a pencil & scrap of paper. Literally thousands of ms. pages of Verse have been sent to Robin to read & praise! I resent the slur. He has other ways of refreshing his mind. In a hurry—but you see what I mean. ALS. HRC Texas. 3 pages. 1. Melba’s first draft of The Stone Mason of Tor House. 2. Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943), younger brother of author William Rose Benét, won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1929 for John Brown’s Body (1928) and again in 1944 for Western Star (1943).

RJ to Larry Wilson [August 1944]1 Dear Larry Wilson: I was glad to get your letter, and much interested in it; {in your letter}. all the more because yYou put your points very clearly, and I agree {in general} with what you say, and believe it represents a big section of the opinion of men in the Army. Your first point—about how officers will behave in peace time {after the war—} impresses me least of though. Probably it is true that they’ll be reluctant to give up their {No doubt many of them are hot to get

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

acquiring a taste for arbitrary} power, but probably their wives will be the chief sufferers. There are not {will not be able} enough of them to disturb the country much They are not what you can call a caste in this country, but mostly a {mixed} lot of civilians who have passed examinations. The veterans of the war {in general} —as you will be—{are} will have enormous power, {of course,} they are [illegible] politically, and but not particularly the officers. Even in Germany where they are a {the officers have [illegible]} {the officers they have been more or less a permanent} caste, it was a little non-com who came to the top. But I don’t think it will be peaceful after the war, here or anywhere else. for a long time. Your suggested contents for a volume seems very good, and I shall pass it on to my publisher. His ideas on these subjects don’t agree with ours, though. {not a bit, but so far he has not complained. Nor do all of {the ideas of} the influential newspapers and reviews, from N. Y. Times and Herald– {Tribune} down. My next book, {which I hope to finish in a few months,} may give them a bit of a workout.2 I hope to finish it in a few months. There will not be enough of them; and they havent are not really a caste here, but mostly ex-civilians. Of course if we keep a great standing army after the war, they may {in time} grow in time to be a caste But even in Germany, it was a little non com who came to the top. Well—I wish you {you all the best of s} luck and patience. One of my sons has been in the Army nearly three years—now a S/Sgt.—in Hawaii and Texas. {A S/Sgt For they are really better paid and in {much} less danger, {for in and {as S/Sgt—} really better paid.} He seems to be having quite a good time; but then he likes trouble—he chose to be a cowboy [illegible] as he got at a hard-rock mine rock mine. The other one is raising a family, and kept {stayed} out. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This draft letter was probably written around the time Garth completed his assignment in Texas. 2. Jeffers was working on poems eventually published in The Double Axe and Other Poems (1948).

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UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. R 1 Box 36 August 6. 1944 Blanche darling: How did you find Russell & was he pleased that you looked so rested! The next day after you were here Anne Lindbergh & Margot & Dwight came to tea. We fed them some of Sara’s delicious cake. The Fishes, too, were here & the next day we all went to their house. Anne had never met Esther before. When she & Charles L. visited the Fishes about ten or more yrs. ago, Olga was alive. I had a telegram yesterday from Donnan that Garth had arrived for a week’s furlough. We have arranged, I hope, to talk to them over the phone on Monday night. You can imagine how all our thoughts are in Zanesville. We felt like really old veterans when we contemplated the completion of 31 yrs. together! & celebrated very freely with the bottle of ♦ good whiskey provided by dearest Blanchie. Just now two soldiers came & peered in the sea window—noses flattened against the pane. —They thought no one was at home, and were surprised when Winnie dashed out from under the piano with a growl & a bellow & I likewise from my desk with the same. —I looked through the window at them & they said, “a very big dog!” & I said, “How would you like to have me let him out, —after all, one doesnt peer into windows, you know.” And now Robin is on top the tower with two Navy lads who came to the door & asked to look about! Their excuse was that one of them had been in the library of Congress when Robin gave his talk. Today is brilliant sunshine. Garth does not go back to Texas. Expects some manoeuvers in Louisiana before he goes overseas. Noël lent me “Sun Chief ”, pub. by Yale Press about Hopi Indians.1 I dont like them any better than I do Pueblo ones. Now Esther Fish is arriving with a great box 2 of fresh vegetables from her garden. Dearest love Una.3 My dear love to Phoebe & Hans if you see them.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Don C. Talayesva, Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a Hopi Indian, edited by Leo W. Simmons (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1942). 2. The rest of this sentence is written vertically in the right margin. 3. The closing, signature, and concluding sentence are written vertically in the left margin, page 2.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R 1. Box 36 8/9/44 Darling Clapps: Actually I am going to stay home all day unless something goes wrong up at Red Cross. And again I write you from bed. I’ve rested all morning & gazed out my sea window & finished Osbert Sitwell’s new book—memoirs— “Left Hand, Right Hand.”1 From time to time I’ve indulged in outbursts against the Sitwell trio2—but how they can write! Now pretty soon I must leap up & tidy the house— Mrs. Martinez3 just called up to ask whether Michaela & her husband4 could stop in to see us just after lunch on their way back to San Fran. after their week’s holiday here. He has finished a lot of schooling in various states & does another six month’s bit here on the coast—Languages—particularly Japanese. Lunch is cold roast lamb & stewed fresh apricots. Garth has finished the Texas shift & is doing manoeuvres down in Louisiana. But now he is visiting Donnan for a week, and night before last they called us up & talked a bit—sounded as if they hadn’t left us at all. Candida was put on the phone, too, & forgot the words they had coached her ♦ to say but managed some fat gurgles which pleased me just as much. Garth hates La. says its 110°–114° every day & very humid. He is practicing infiltration tactics. One bad 114° day 37 out of the 140 men passed out on a long belly crawl. Garth said this crawl took 10 lbs. off him, mostly sweat. Blanche was down for a fortnight at Peter Pan. I saw her several times but lack of gas prevented more—that & being busy. One day she & Sara Bard LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Field came for lunch & another day we all had a picnic lunch by Noëls river farm, a lunch he gave for Anne Lindbergh. I forgot whether you saw Noëls little stretch of river?—its across the road from Hollow Hills & a half-mile away. Its charming—a winding stream with young willows & alders close to the bank. He has had a swimming pool dredged out—& water is warm under the sun. {There was a slight breeze—enough to shake the leaves & turn their white sides up.} Anne Lindbergh is as shy & sensitive & finely intelligent as her books, a dear person. Did you ever read her “Listen, the Wind” & “North to the Orient.”? —“The Steep Ascent”5 is just a bit too studied at {in} the latter part. Margot Morrow, (Mrs. Dwight M) is almost as attractive. She is a pupil & an ardent one of Krishna-murti. I mentioned the new translation of Bhagavad Gita6 & said that ♦ war seems to be recommended in it & wondered whether Ghandi hadn’t read it enough. They answered that, in any case, Krishna-murti doesn’t adhere to that book of gospel, & continues to preach against the war. Ch. Lindbergh is out in the So. Pacific doing something about airplanes—high altitude flying I believe. Hamilton Jeffers is in India attached to the XX Bomber Command.7 Blanche looks very well indeed although Sara said the last time she had seen her in S. F. she looked very badly, & wondered about what magical healing lay in Peter Pan. Well, now its 6:00 pm. and we were very much surprised a few minutes ago to have another phone call from Zanesville. The boys & Patty & Candida were over at Ethel’s for dinner (Patty’s mother) {& she} arranged it. This time Candida managed a little “hello” to Robin. They said it was frightfully hot there in Zanesville. I talked to Jean Kellogg last night. There was a grass fire down near the gulch that goes by her place & I wondered whether she had been frightened, but she hadn’t. It was not near her & was very quickly put out. ♦ We see Noël sometimes but gas is hard to come by & we cannot go back & forth as we used to. Susan Porter is in the hospital—a milk mild tonsilitis or something like that. Her new granddaughter is named Alison,8 a nice name! Our big white

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

bulldog Winnie was sick for the first time lately & had to be taken to the vet 5 times to have his throat painted He had tonsilitis! Ellen is in S. F. staying with Maryanne9 who is having attacks of that queer disorder she used to have. —knotted intestine— She has been operated on seven times I believe but several surgeons like Eloesser in S. F. claim its all due to nerves & wont operate on her anymore. Michaela & husband came. Her chief talk was the National Gallery in Washington. They were in that region for some weeks & she spent most of her time there. She hasnt been painting. Says the Eastern climate made her lazy. I must stop. Ever & ever so much love Devotedly, Una. Thurs. am. This morning I rec’d a wee note from Anne Lindbergh from the train that made me very happy—because she compared me to— I’ll not tell you but I was flattered10 ♦ (Private for Timmie & Maud only) I thought some one of my friends might be with you & ask news of Tor House—& they can see the rest of my letter all right. I’ve been much plagued by that book of Melba’s! She cannot write. Its tedious and dull—there isnt a moment of intensity in it—& its utterly lacking in charm. I can’t help but admire her determination & energy. — Nothing is too much trouble for her, but how I wish she had chosen some other subject! I had no idea that she intended to try for a publisher now. I don’t believe she’ll find one, however. She sent me the ms. from N. Y. to read, and I had to write back very coldly about it. I am afraid I’ve hurt her. As far as facts go she is {usually} pretty accurate. Her conclusions & deductions are often far-fetched. I find in one place that she explains Robin’s use of the incest theme by sa showing my violent interest in it, caused by Timmie long ago bringing me old English plays to read!! I remember many, many books lent me by Timmie but never a play of any kind! And as a matter of fact I have a rather particularly strong dislike of the theme in spite of historical & Biblical examples & usage. Byron & his flighty Augusta11 I forgave—they had never met since children! ♦ She has been working on this nearly ten years, I

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do believe. At first I didnt pay much attention—then she caused us the most disagreeable publicity we ever had—rooted out some girl Robin knew before we met & got her all excited about some early poems {of R’s} she had {ms.} copies of, so she {the woman} gave interviews & things & a scandal sheet in Santa Barbara called Apéritif wrote a scurrilous article — all just damn foolishness.12 So I thought we’d better give her {Melba} access to material & keep her contented! She made one—maybe two trips east also to get Robin’s childhood. Another thing she told me {she had arranged} that all of this material she was collecting should come to me or the boys if she didn’t use it or died! Oh dear it has been a headache for years, to me. In my letter to her the other day I told her if anyone took it, they {he} would in all probability make her cut it in half, and relegate a good part of it to sources. ALS. Yale. 6 pages. 1. Osbert Sitwell, Left Hand, Right Hand! (Boston: Little, Brown, 1944). 2. Edith Sitwell (1887–1964) and her two younger brothers, Osbert Sitwell (1892–1969) and Sacheverell Sitwell (1897–1988). 3. Elsie (Whitaker) Martinez (1890–1984), daughter of novelist Herman Whitaker and wife of artist Xavier Martinez, was a member of Carmel’s early art colony. Xavier Martinez died in January 1943. 4. Elsie and Xavier’s daughter and son-in-law, artists Micaela (Martinez) DuCasse (1913– 1989) and Ralph DuCasse (1916–2003). 5. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Listen! The Wind (1938), North to the Orient (1935), and The Steep Ascent (1944), all published by Harcourt, Brace. 6. Bhagavad-Gita: The Song of God, translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isher­wood, with an introduction by Aldous Huxley (Hollywood, Calif.: Marcel Rodd, 1944). 7. In December 1943 Hamilton was named chief operations analyst for the XX Bomber Command, stationed in Kharagpur, India. According to a publication titled Operations Analysis in World War II (United States Army Air Forces, 1948), “The XX Bomber Command was assigned the combat mission of initiating B-29 strategic air attack against Japan and Japanese occupied Asia from bases in India and China, while pioneering the service testing of the Army Air Force new high altitude long range, very heavy bomber—the Superfortress.” Hamilton and his team helped plan and evaluate the outcome of attacks; they also provided technical support in areas involving statistics, electronics, aircraft performance, target selection, bombardment, and gunnery. While serving with the XX Bomber Command, Hamilton wrote a March 3, 1944 report titled “Use of the AN/APQ–13 Radar in Connection with Attacks on Japan.” A history of the unit during wartime can be found in chapter 4, “XX Bomber Command

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Against Japan” by James Lea Cate in The Pacific: Matterhorn to Nagasaki, June 1944 to August 1945— volume 5 of The Army Air Forces in World War II, edited by Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, 1983): 92–130. 8. Alison Creighton Miller was born July 13, 1944. 9. Probably Ellen O’Sullivan’s niece Mary Ann (Sutro) Bowen (b. 1906), daughter of Oscar Sutro and Mary “Mollie” (O’Sullivan) Sutro. 10. See page 5 of Una’s September 14, 1944 letter to Timmie and Maud Clapp. 11. Augusta Maria (Byron) Leigh (1783–1851), Lord Byron’s half-sister and paramour. 12. See index entries for Leonora (Montgomery) Swift, Apéritif, and John G. Moore in Collected Letters 2.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel R 1 Box 36 8/16/44 Dearest Blanche: Margot & I were just talking on the phone & she said she & Anne had such a lovely time with you & she was happy to have gotten to know you better. I had a darling—darling note from Anne on the train & really got a tear in my eye—for I seem to myself so dry & resisting{ant} to any new connection at the moment that I wonder if how any, except my oldest friends, can love me. {That she should care for me is a treasure.} Well, just now, when Percy Peacock & I were saying to each other that, “Yes probably letters were all—all forever now” & they seemed forced & bare—young Lloyd Tevis who is very dear to me & known to me almost as well as my two—has been sent overseas & lands at Percy’s doorstep. Lloyd is stationed in a Gen’l Hospital (he is a laboratory technician) at the edge of Salisbury {Plain} Downs in Wilts— {there is Stonehenge.} I know it all like my own hand—& Percy stays down there in their country place at Coombe Bissett most of the time. He is a ♦ prodigious walker, & so is young Lloyd, & this country is precisely the count region in all England for long walks—, immediately interesting. This is W. H. Hudson’s1 country & Gilbert White’s2 & Richard Jefferies3 & Cobbetts “Rural Rides.”4 {Besides the matchless

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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stone circles, etc.} I felt as if someone had given me a magnificent present yesterday when I heard this, & couldn’t sleep last night for reliving this & writing lists of things for Lloyd. {Lloyd is a naturalist with articles in scientific magazines, —no archeologist but that may come.} Percy & I covered a lot of England of {on} walking trips in 1912. At that moment we were taking brass rubbings & who knew so many old churches & epitaphs as he! A darling man. Noël has been sick—one of those “intestinal flus” that have so many varieties— you need not mention this if you write him. Besides Judy one of the Dachshunds has been very ill—had {to have} plasma etc—& much nursing. We {you & I} had no chance to talk—not long enough—there was such a lot to analyze. Psychopathic & neurotic objects—& a lot of queer turns ♦ people we know have taken. I am busier & busier at Ft. Ord. We are getting some heavy casualties now. I must stop & get supper. {Boned } Smelt tonight—we got it fresh from the wharf—most delicate! with a little browned butter & lemon juice its delicious. The herons are beginning their evening flight from our trees. Best love to you both Una ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. William Henry Hudson (1841–1922), an American born in Argentina who became a British citizen, was a naturalist and author. Maureen Girard’s The Last Word lists four of his books in the Tor House library—Adventures Among Birds (1920), Afoot in England (1922), The Land’s End (1927), and Hampshire Days (1928), the last of which is inscribed “For the Jeffers family from Percy—August 1929 / Dromore Cottage.” In Una’s response to a 1928 questionnaire (Collected Letters 1: 770), she says that Jeffers had read “all of W. H. Hudson” to his sons in evenings after supper by the fire. An edition of Hudson’s Collected Works was published in twenty-four volumes in 1923. 2. Gilbert White (1720–1793) was a naturalist and proto-ecologist who recorded his observations of the flora and fauna of southern England in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789) and other works. 3. (John) Richard Jefferies (1848–1887), a writer and mystic, tells the story of his intense love of nature in The Story of My Heart: An Autobiography (1883). In After London: Or, Wild England

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(1885), Jefferies imagines a time when a catastrophe depopulates England, wilderness returns, and the survivors revert to a primitive style of life. 4. William Cobbett (1763–1835) was a farmer, politician, polemicist, and reformer. The Tor House library has a copy of his Rural Rides in Surrey, Kent, and Other Counties (London: J. M. Dent, 1932), a two-volume work originally published in 1830.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 September 14. 1944 Darling Clapps: God, Timmie, how could you crucify yourself so—in that hot vacationless summer! not only to read that interminable ms. but to bend your mind to practical suggestions, —really priceless ones—I hope she understands that. I love you enough to give you a few pints of blood, or drag your unconscious form from a burning house, —but this other— I told her my guess was that if she could find a publisher, he would make her relegate much of the lot to “Sources.” It seemed to me one of the dullest presentations of any material I ever read, & strung along with no idea of selection. She wanted me to send it to Donnan to read but I did not. I would have needed to pay him a round sum. {It isn’t the moment for a biography of R, either} At the present moment, too, people are much less interested in Robin than they have been, & will be again, and with some reason, too. There is so much agony & uncertainty & dismay & chaos that I quite understand readers, even of our kind, being stirred a little {by} & trying to go along with God bless America poets like Stephen Benét. Even I Timmie who place you along with Yeats & Robin as my choice of any contemporary English (writing) poets, even I do not pick ♦ up your books as often as I have normally done. That terrific clarity of yours is as if I put a magnifying glass to my eye & saw with more cl terrifying clearness, & to a greater depths, things that already frighten me. I need to be lulled a little, or beguiled with some gay beauty or prodded to stern endeavor—in short, I am not at my best, I am tired & unexpectant and childish. And read Rilke who LETTERS 1940– 1962

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from out of morbid depths saw angelic creatures winging along—not that I understand what he saw or can avail myself of it. But I often take him up for a half hour & lose myself in a mystical fog. I was reading your last book1 last night for a while. At that time I had my greatest pleasure in it from your words—your casual use of new words—that belong to flight, say. Words like side slip, direction-{beam}—which we have assimilated but {very thoroughly} in every day reading, but they give a delightful start—in poetry where they’ve not had time to get embedded yet. {Your long range view, for another thing, is not very comforting immediately “An earthquake slips an age-long inch & sleeps.”}2 Two things I have toyed with a good deal this year, Round Towers (—my own material & the very fair, indeed, library I have on the subject—) and Genealogy. Two subjects I am much interested in, that hardly pertain to present crises. {Influenced} By the chance visit of a very distant kinsman I decided to complete my data of about my great, grand- ♦ mother Mercy Purinton Call.3 It has involved me in a tremendous amount of correspondence. Very rewarding for I have the whole {Purinton} line in detail back to 1636 in this country & a generation further back in Devon. Besides I found some very interesting kinsfolk. Mrs. Hotchkiss Murray of Riverton, N. J. is an ardent genealogist. Her husband was a Purinton descendant.4 She furnished me with much material & a late-found p’k’g of {Purinton} letters a hundred years old which detailed the settlement in West Va. of 3 Purinton brothers, (2 of them clergymen & one doctor) & my father’s uncle Rev. Joseph Call5 who was their cousin. The son of one of these Purintons was Daniel Boardman Purinton long pres. of the U. of W. V. This packet of letters was very interesting as detailing settling of virgin land in Va. also a lot of family gossip. There was a fourth Purinton brother who was a black sheep, (named Eskeridge P.!) & {he} had settled himself in the Indian-infested (& maleria-ridden) wilds of Wisconsin. There was much worry & speculation about him between these brothers & their father {also a Rev.} back in N. Y. Old Rev. Thomas P. wrote some very racy letters & plain spoken, to a degree. One unusual thing about this family, they were at once {classical} scholars & men who acquired fortunes.6 This family history & ♦

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

tree I have obtained entirely from family connections {which is nice,}—no professional genealogist. I paid a dollar or so to have two early deeds verified in Colrain, Mass by the County Clerk, —thats all. Well, to return to Melba. Did I tell you how our acquaintance began? Ten years ago—more I guess than that, letters began to come {to Robin} from Melba Bennett, Deep Well Ranch, Palm S. asking questions about Robin for an article she was going to write. I thought from her letters she was a schoolgirl on some lonely farm, (little did I picture Deep W.) I answered as well as I could. One day when I was away, Ted Lilienthal brought her here to call & Robin received them with his usual courtesy—very deceptive to strangers who often conceive an exaggerated idea of his friendliness. Within a few days there arrived a poem of admiration by Melba for him & a cute letter about {how} she would no longer be deceived by the “smoke-screen” I had thrown around him, she knew too much about that technique from Hollywood. I was seething mad & Robin said it paid me right for bothering with answering people’s letters. She has fine qualities though, energy, honesty, generosity & devotion. But no tact, no awareness, & a queer rubble foundation. I wish she’d chosen any other subject than Robin. Let us see whether she can learn, —what use she can make of your {suggestions.} ♦ It was vain & silly of me to speak of Anne Lindbergh’s note. But I was pleased & bucked up by it one dullish moment {morning} as I was dragging on my uniform to go to Ft. Ord. It was that I was Yeats’ woman “. . . . . whose powerful character Could keep a swallow to its first intent, And half a dozen, in formation there, Found certainty upon the dreaming air.”7 There was some talk of her renting Martin Flavin’s house but she has finally taken one in Conn. He is still in the So. Pac. but returns shortly & will have work here on the west coast, but mostly in the east. Blanche & Russell are at the Highlands. I talked to Blanche yesterday. Winnie is still very sick & is at home as the Dr. could do nothing further for him at the hospital & wanted us to follow the treatment at home where

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Winnie is more contented. I hope he will be so much better soon that I can play around with Blanche a little. Robin is looking very much better—& would look fine if he were not so worried about Winnie. I am working steadily at Ft. Ord, & H. Q. here. ♦ Garth expects to leave this country {in a} very short time. He seems to think Europe. One never knows, though. Hamilton says he hopes to leave India—& Asia {& be home}—by July 1st of next year as his extended leave of absence will then be up. He has lost 23 lbs. in India & says the stenches & vermin & heat are beyond belief even in the fancy officers’ quarters where he is stationed. He thinks that {the} 400,000,000 inhabitants is a much under-estimated number judging by the throngs he sees everywhere. Jean K. called me yesterday. She was leaving for a few weeks in S. F. IShe had a bad cold. I think she has been suffering from nerves, too. Did I tell you she brought a {quill} pen drawing she’d done of a hawk a few weeks ago, to show us. Very good, & spirited. {A few nights ago} I saw Ingerson & Denison (Cathedral Oaks, Alma, near Los Gatos) you’ve been there. With them was Mr Ballor8 (some such name) Yehudi Menuhin’s accompanist of many years. Yehudi & wife9 have taken a house in N. Y. for the winter. Mr & Mrs Ballor with them. Ingerson & Denison are to live in the top floor of this house. They hope to see you. You might have some fun with them. Mrs Menuhin is a darling person & their whole house is always full of music. Dearest love to you both. Devotedly— Una ^I have such a cunning picture of Candida, healthy & jolly & kodaks of Garth, Donnan, Patty & Candida^10 ALS. Yale. 6 pages. 1. Against a Background on Fire. 2. From “Destroyers on Sky Line,” page 114.

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3. Mercy Purinton (1781–1868) and Levi Call (1778–1868) married in 1798 in Coleraine, Massachusetts. The couple had twelve children. 4. Georgiana Groot (1876–1954) and Henry “Hal” Hotchkiss Murray (1871–1934) married in 1898. Murray was a Yale graduate and a mechanical engineer; he descended from the Purintons on his mother’s side. 5. Joseph Purinton Call (1806–ca. 1875), son of Mercy and Levi Call and brother of Una’s grandfather Orlando Boardman Call (1810–1871). 6. Members of the Purinton family mentioned in Una’s letter include Rev. Thomas ­Purinton (1778–1853) and sons Rev. Daniel Boardman Purinton (1805–1876), Rev. Jesse Martin Purinton (1809–1869), Dr. Orpheus Purinton (1803–1877), and Thomas Eskeridge Purinton (b. 1806). Jesse Purinton’s son Daniel Boardman Purinton (1850–1933) was president of Denison University from 1890 to 1901 and president of West Virginia University from 1901 to 1911. 7. These lines are from “Coole Park, 1929” by W. B. Yeats; Una’s quotation is not exact. 8. Adolph Baller (1909–1994), an Austrian pianist of Jewish descent, was tortured by Nazis (his hands were crushed) before escaping from Vienna with his fiancée Edith StraussNeustadt (1908–1987) in 1938. The couple married in Budapest and then came to the United States, where Baller began a new career. In addition to accompanying Menuhin in concerts around the world, Baller formed the Alma Trio and taught at Stanford University and other institutions. 9. Nola Ruby Nicholas (1919–1978) and Yehudi Menuhin were married in 1938. They divorced in 1947. 10. Written in top right margin of first page.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 September 28. 1944 Dearest Melba: We have had a great loss. Winnie died— I can’t tell you how lonely we are without him. Robin is devastated. I had a letter from Timmie the other day with a carbon of the suggestions he made on your ms. I think you were very lucky to get a top scholar & critic interested enough to give you his whole attention & best thought on the subject. Whether you agree with him entirely doesn’t matter so much. Its getting a perspective, & constructive criticism—priceless criticism. With all LETTERS 1940– 1962

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the thousand responsibilities you have, I daresay you are laying it {the ms.} aside for the time & perhaps feel fed up with it just now, but it will ripen & richen all by itself in the dark, you’ll see. Russell & Blanche are here for a fortnight.1 We were at Noëls last evening. Noël left at dawn today for New York. Fran was here one morning a few weeks ago. I was still in bed writing letters but rose up. Fran, bless her, brought in a bottle of whiskey & we had a cheerful drink—& then she bestowed the remainder of the bottle on us. A nice ♦ Swedish woman was with her. I thought Fran looked well, but Helen Heavey2 said she said she wasn’t feeling so very. Garth went up to spend a week with Donnan in Ohio. They had a gorgeous time. The family took a great fancy to Garth & Garth tells us the baby is very cunning. Garth, perhaps I told you—is training in La. — invasion tactics. He expects to go overseas almost at once. Hates La. I am told everybody hates to be put down there. Awful heat, damp, mosquitoes etc. Garth never minded N. M. or Tex. at any temp. This letter is already several days old & I must send it off. The Barkans have been here & we were occupied in off-moments with them. I don’t have a lot of leisure as we {the Staff Assistance Corps} have {has} taken on a few more duties at Fort Ord & as I regard {all} that as my contribution to the war effort, it comes first, & since Winnie has left us, Robin is so lonely I have to see to him. Dearest Melba—I do appreciate all your work—your really research work on R.— You have material that later no one could get.— Put style on it—you will! —There are only a few gt. biographies. I think of Lockhart’s Scott,3 & & a FEW others. —in my own range {day} is Catherine Carswell’s Life of Burns— Have you read it? Just now I am reading Osbert Sitwells “Left Hand, Right Hand” autobiographical 4material & all 3 Sitwells are snobs, but what style! Also read Lord David Cecil.5 There is style. One must have ha it! & there are lots of styles.6 ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. After Blanche and Russell Matthias left Carmel, Una wrote Blanche a letter dated October 25, 1944 (ALS Yale), not used in this edition, in which she mentions a visit to the home

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

of John Steinbeck—a significant reference because evidence of Jeffers’ contact with Steinbeck is otherwise scant. “This p.m. we were at John Steinbeck’s,” Una says. “He & wife & baby are living until Nov. 10 in Cynthia Criley Williams’ house at Highlands. He has just bought one of the old adobes in Monterey, the Soto house on Pierce Street, & they move in Nov. 10. He and dog motored out, a darling big English sheep dog with blue eyes, named Willie. He, {John S} seems very glad to get back to California.” 2. Helen Heavey (1903–1974), originally from Berkeley, lived most of her life in Carmel, where she was active in the American Red Cross, the Monterey Peninsula Country Club, and other organizations. Heavey was also a skilled mechanic who designed and built two automobiles at home. 3. The first edition of John Gibson Lockhart’s Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Bart. was published in seven volumes in 1837 and 1838. 4. The rest of the sentence is written vertically in the right margin, page 2. 5. David Cecil (1902–1986), Oxford University professor and author of The Stricken Deer or The Life of Cowper (1929), Jane Austen (1936), The Young Melbourne and the Story of His Marriage with Caroline Lamb (1939), and additional works of biography and criticism. 6. Written vertically in left margin, page 2.

UJ to Maeve Greenan [October 1944] Saturday Dearest Maeve—1 Forgive this paper. I am writing from H. Q. —I hope you will be fond of these old Staffordshire figures which I got long ago in England.2 They’ve watched many a stirring scene here at Tor House & and I hope for a vivid life with you, too. Many long years of happiness!— Thats what we wish for you.3 Lovingly, Una. ♦ Maeve I love you even if I didn’t have time to wrap it nicely! ALS. Hardy. 2 pages. Letterhead: The American Red Cross. 1. Maeve Margaret Greenan (b. 1924) married Maj. Ruland Hardy, Jr. (1919–1971) February 27, 1945. Following World War II, Maeve and her husband lived on an olive and almond

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ranch in Orland, California; they later moved to Sacramento with their three children—Ruland Hardy III (b. 1946), Catherine Ann Hardy (b. 1947), and Christopher James Hardy (b. 1949). 2. Una gave Maeve a set of two porcelain figurines depicting a lady and a gentleman from the eighteenth century. 3. The exact date of this gift is unknown, but since Maeve celebrated her twentieth birthday on Wednesday, October 25 and had recently become engaged, it was likely given to her around that time.

RJ to Unknown 11/5/44 A poem like any other event is to be understood by each person in his own way. The writer’s interpretation has no particular authority. Personally I think the woman fell in love with the stallion because there was no one else she could fall in love with; & then because the love was physically impracticable & the stallion seemed infinitely superior to any man she had known she identified him half-consciously with God. First with the God she had heard religious stories about, the Conception & so forth; & then with a more real God—not a human invention but the energy that is the universe. She was glad to sacrifice her husband to him—for whatever the man was worth. But at the end she slipped back into ordinary life, “obscure human fidelity.” An animal had killed a man—you must kill the animal. Though the animal was also God As to Christine’s fetching the rifle—it was obviously because she saw her father in trouble & must fetch {knew that} was the only way to save him. (Excerpt from a letter of R. J. explaining “Roan St.”) 1

ALF. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Una copied this excerpt on a piece of scrap paper. The sheet includes an unrelated sentence—“That was a special quality of his”—written vertically in the left margin.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Oscar Williams Tor House, Carmel, California. November 9, 1944. Dear Oscar Williams: Sorry not to have answered you sooner. Here is the authorization.1 If I can think of any comment about poetry and the war I’ll send it to you shortly; but that is doubtful, and it wouldn’t in any case be more than a paragraph.2 There hasn’t been any photo for a long time. I haven’t seen New Poems 1944.3 If a copy was sent me it must have got lost in the mail. The War Poets is a most interesting project —I wish you all good luck with it. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Harvard. 1 page. Postmark: November 9, 1944. 1. See the following letter. 2. Near the bottom of this letter, Williams or someone else added “Note: The promised comment on ‘War & Poetry’ never received.” 3. New Poems 1944: An Anthology of American and British Verse, with a Selection of Poems from the Armed Forces, edited by Oscar Williams (New York: Howell, Soskin, 1944). Williams’ anthology contains six poems by Jeffers: “Black-Out,” “Fourth Act,” “Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind,” “Calm and Full the Ocean,” “The Eye,” and “Cassandra” (pp. 88–92). In the previous year, Williams edited New Poems 1943: An Anthology of British and American Verse (New York: Howell, Soskin, 1943). Jeffers is represented in the anthology by “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean” (pp. 122–123).

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RJ to Oscar Williams November 9, 1944.1 Mr. Oscar Williams 35 Water St New York Dear Mr. Williams This note is your authorization to include the following poems Black Out   Fourth Act Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind Calm and Full the Ocean The Eye and Casandra, in all editions of THE WAR POETS anthology to be published by The John Day Company.2 A royalty arrangement based on the pro rata share of 10% of the publisher’s receipts (divided among the contributing poets twice during the year after publication and annually thereafter) is agreeable to me. It is also understood that should the publisher sell the book to a Book Club a payment shall be made in addition to this royalty, and that a contributor’s copy of the book will be sent to me on publication. Robinson Jeffers Carmel, California. TLS. Indiana. 1 page. 1. Williams typed this letter; Jeffers filled in blanks provided for the date, his signature, and address. 2. The War Poets: An Anthology of the War Poetry of the 20th Century, edited by Oscar Williams (New York: John Day, 1945). As published, the anthology includes all of the poems listed in the letter, along with “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean,” “I Shall Laugh Purely,” and “May–June, 1940.” See pages 352–359.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Hans Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 12/2/44 Dearest Hans: Well, your brother Fritz1 never showed up with my binoculars. Does the man want two pairs? His own & mine! I looked for him at the Casadesus2 concert but failed to see him. How magnificently Casadesus played! Afterwards we had supper with him at Noëls & he is pleasant to meet. They are not always so. Tomorrow we have the Roth Quartette. 3 We go on as usual. We have Garth’s A. P. O.—a N. Y. one. We feel anxious, of course, but I know he was completely fed up with training in La. which he thought a horrible place. He was eager to get away into combat zones. Sometimes I feel that the spirit of gaiety is so dead in me that I’ll never be on the top of the world again. And as for the election. It chokes us both to speak of it.4 The pleasantest thing in our lives {is} that Donnan’s second child is a month old now & blooming.5 Just a tinge of disappointment that its another girl. However they have set a minimum of five children so there is yet time for a grandson. ♦ Robin’s brother is still in India & says he knows nothing to recomen recommend the place, absolutely nothing. Esther Fish’s son David Moore6 just flew in his bomber to an Africa base. The two Tevis boys are in England. —All our children so scattered. Perhaps very early in the spring we will take advantage of your hospitality in town or in the country. Brian Curtis & wife were down from Saint Helena lately with ardent enthusiasm about their farm.7 Tales of hard work, too! How very happy we were to see you two & have such a good evening & visit with you. & wasn’t it a good dinner! We love you dearly as always. Devotedly Una And I am grateful for all your bother about my binoculars. I still have faith that you’ll make Fritz give them up.

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ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. 1. Fritz Barkan (1884–1994), a diamond importer, lived in Palo Alto, California. He and his wife Ella (Plate) Barkan (1887–1982) also had a home in Carmel. The couple had two daughters, Mary and Louise, and a son, Lt. Fritz Barkan, Jr., who was killed in a military plane crash February 1, 1944. 2. Robert Casadesus (1899–1972), a French pianist and composer, performed November 26 at the Sunset School Auditorium in Carmel. 3. The Roth Quartet, originally from Hungary, appeared in a December 3 concert sponsored by the Carmel Music Society. 4. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to his fourth term as president of the United States in the November 7, 1944 election. He and his running mate Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey and John W. Bricker. 5. Judith Bridget Jeffers was born November 3, 1944. 6. David Sturtevant Moore (b. 1924). 7. Brian Curtis worked in San Francisco as a state fisheries biologist, but he and Meta also owned property in the wine country. At the beginning of September 1942, Robinson and Una visited them and stayed two nights at Faradown, their Napa Valley farm and vineyard. Brian Curtis died in September 1960; Meta committed suicide in 1962, the same year she sold Faradown.

UJ to Barth Carpenter Tor House. Carmel R 1 Box 36 12/9/44 My dear Barth:1 I hope your mother2 is quite recovered from her operation. You must have been very frightened. The same day she had it, a young man we know very nearly died of a ruptured appendix, so the thing was very vivid to us. It was Maeve Greenan’s fiancé, a Capt. —& strange to say, although he had been sick a week, the army doctors did not diagnose it until almost too late. I had a letter from Garth today—in one of the air mail {envelopes} he said you had thoughtfully provided. I havent the least idea where ♦ he is. Have you? I can’t understand what he meant by saying he didn’t dare write to Tobb who wanted to hear from him. Tobb is Lloyd Tevis, you know, &

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

he is in Dorset. I think in or near Blandford. Dick Tevis is stationed in Bournemouth. I havent done anything exciting since I wrote you. I see a few intimate friends at dinner & cocktails etc but and thousands of soldiers at Ft. Ord every week, & {have heard} two good concerts. Casadesus & the Roth quartet. Today Robin & I are going out to the Highlands to a cocktail party at the James house—do you know it—on the sea cliff, stone, turreted, chalkstone. Its stone wall is right along the edge ♦ of the road. Its a magnificent place & very dramatic. It would be hard to have quiet emotions living there. We are taking Van Wyck Brooks & his wife.3 They have rented a house here. They lived here long ago when we first came. Have you read Brooks last book, “The World of Washington Irving”?4 It is a mine of information but rather tiring reading. It is almost like pages of footnotes. Represents a tremendous amount of preparation. Occasionally there are a few very vivid pages. The loveliest thing that has happened to me, seven wild swans rested all one day lately among the reeds in that water meadow near the river mouth. We were watching them in ♦ a rosy sunset when they soared up & away straight up the valley. An enchanting sight. The only other time I ever saw them swans here was once when our boys were little & we all watched a flight of 21 swans going overhead. Do you know that all over Ireland in the remotest spots you will see wild swans on little lakes & streams. Of course you know Yeats’ Wild Swans at Coole.5 I hope all is well with you. I try to be glad that Garth himself will think he is having a better time than at Camp Polk. —I cannot bear to dwell on the dangers. Work is the best help. With warm affection Una Jeffers. We have a friend—a prof. at Harvard named Frederick I. Carpenter. Any kin of yours? ALS. San Francisco. 4 pages. Postmark: December 9, 1944. 1. Barth Carpenter (1916–2007), born Catherine Marjorie Carpenter, used her maternal grandmother’s maiden name as her first name. Barth was one of Garth’s girlfriends at the

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University of California, Berkeley, graduating in 1938 with a degree in philosophy. From 1950 to 1975 Barth taught language arts at San Francisco State University. She married Norman Marshall in 1956. For a brief account of her friendship with the Jefferses, see “The Jeffers Family: A Reminiscence,” Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 69 (April 1987): 17–19. 2. Octavia (Klutch) Carpenter (1890–1962) was the widow of Edward Carpenter. Her husband, a real estate broker, died in July 1927 when he was run over by a truck while changing a tire. 3. Van Wyck Brooks (1886–1963) and Eleanor Kenyon (Stimson) Brooks (1884–1946). ­Eleanor graduated from Wellesley College and lived in Europe before she and Van Wyck ­married in 1911. She later translated books by Georges Duhamel, Robert Chauvelot, Camille Flammarion, and other French writers. 4. Van Wyck Brooks, The World of Washington Irving (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1944). 5. Wild swans appear as a salient motif in Jeffers’ poetry as well. See, for instance, “After Lake Leman,” “Love the Wild Swan,” “Shiva,” “Flight of Swans,” and the passage in The Tower Beyond Tragedy where Cassandra says “I have also stood watching a storm of wild swans / Rise from one river-mouth” (Collected Poetry 1: 147).

UJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 12/15/44 Dearest Mabel: I liked your article on Mary Austin much the best of any in the series.1 Most of the others were very dull. How come Biynner didn’t do one? Are you liking New York? Garth has just gone out from there to some unknown place. He wrote me he was able to get only a few hours leave which he used to keep an engagement with a girl he’d met when visiting Donnan in Zanesville. He had expected to see you & the Clapps & Matthiases but was unable to get away. He has been for some months in Texas & Louisiana training men. (He hated La.) I wish youd seen him. He is very handsome & cheerful & big. Donnan & Patty have another little girl, Judith Jeffers. I was a wee bit disappointed that she wasnt a boy but Garth said they have set their hearts on a minimum of five children so there is time for sons yet.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Young Lloyd Tevis is stationed in a lovely place down in Dorset near Cranbourne Chase. He is a technician in Hospital Lab.2 ♦ Dick Tevis was with the English Ambulance Corps in Africa for over a year now is a Lieut. in our Cavalry—in Bournemouth at {present.} I’ve worked like a demon all the year as Chairman of Staff Assistance Corps. {Red Cross.} I have over forty in my corps—all of them busy. Besides all our regular staff duties here at H. Q. we have at least three people of us at Ft. Ord each day. We are stationed in the Hospital & serve the Ambulatory cases. Have a booth—we sell them stamps, money orders, send telegrams, insure packages, cash checks & so on, besides taking care of the Information desk, the U.S.A.F.I.3 work & arranging interviews for patients with their case workers. Ft. Ord is one of the largest in the U. S. & is rather impressive—but horrifying too. Esther & Lee are my vice-chairmen & are wonderful workers. I had promised myself to resign at the end of my year Dec. 31, but dont know. I have to do something toward helping in this damnable (& unnecessary {we still say}) war—& I don’t know of anything within my range that I could do as well as this executive work. Esther Fishes son, David Moore is a bombardier. He is in Italy at present. ♦ Carmel is full of officers families. You remember the tall white house back of us, toward Teddies—thats Stillwells,4 you know. There are heaps of thrilling people here, but we dont see many of the new ones—just a few regulars. I dont feel gay at all & much prefer a little quiet after the daily ­hub‑bub. Robin is finishing a long poem.5 He has spent lots of time these last months thinning out our trees. We need the wood. Fuel is very scarce. {(No one to cut it & no way to haul it)} We burned coal most of last winter. Have a big crate that sits in our living room fireplace. Yesterday someone gave us a late Sat. Eve. Post. {(I believe Dec. 9.)} in which was an interesting article about some ancient stone towers in New Mexico, which have been recently {discovered &} explored, that is within the last several years, —in Gallina—cañon.6 Found {complete} with skeletons & artifracts of all kinds. Very mysterious & interesting. Have you heard of them?

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Are John & Clare7 still in Albuquerque? Love from Una. 8 Is Brett in New York? She’d know Cranbourne Chase & Farnham where Lloyd is. Crooked page! Im not dizzy, —but writing in bed having coffee. ♦ Ft. Ord is about 16 miles from Carmel, —over toward Castroville. In your day here I believe it was called Gigling Field. We used to go there at one time of the year to see the marvellous wild flowers, thousands of acres thickly carpeted. ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Mabel Dodge Luhan, “Mary Austin: A Woman” in Mary Austin: A Memorial, edited by Willard Hougland (Santa Fe, N. Mex.: Laboratory of Anthropology, 1944): 19–20. 2. Una corresponded with Lloyd and other young friends of the family who were serving abroad. A copy of The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy in the Tor House library bears the following note written by Robinson: “This book was sent to Cpl. Lloyd Tevis Dec. 1944 (at his request) to England. He was stationed in a Gen’l Hospital at Blandford Dorset. Returned to U. J. June 1945.” See Maureen Girard, The Last Word, page 51. 3. The United States Armed Forces Institute provided educational opportunities to military personnel, primarily through correspondence courses. 4. Joseph Warren Stilwell (1883–1946), a four-star general, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1904. He and his wife Winifred Alison (Smith) Stilwell (1889–1972) visited Carmel in 1912. Eight years later they purchased five lots between Ocean View Avenue and Inspiration Avenue, across the road from Robinson and Una’s property. In 1934 the Stilwells built Llanfair, a home for themselves and their five children, located about a hundred yards northeast of Tor House. As commander of the 7th Division of the United States Army, Stilwell oversaw construction of Fort Ord in nearby Monterey. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, he coordinated the defense of California’s coast. Early in 1942, President Roosevelt sent Stilwell to China to help Chiang Kai-shek train the Chinese armies; Stilwell had lived in China for many years and was fluent in several dialects of the Chinese language. He later served as the commander of American troops in the China–Burma–India theater. Stilwell’s life and military career are recounted in Barbara W. Tuchman’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945 (New York: Macmillan, 1971). 5. Jeffers was working on The Love and the Hate at this time, along with other poems that would be published in The Double Axe (1948).

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6. Frank C. Hibben, “The Mystery of the Stone Towers,” Saturday Evening Post 217, no. 24 (December 9, 1944): 14–15, 68, 70. 7. John and Clare Evans. 8. Dorothy Brett.

UJ to Maud Clapp [January 6, 1945] Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 Epiphany. Many heartfelt thanks, dearest Maud, for my precious sandalwood! —& rare tobacco.1 There are moments of tobacco famine here & this is a fine reserve for that fearful day when Robin doesn’t see tobacco in hand! Garth’s A.P.O. came yesterday. {A.P.O} 226, C/O P.M. N.Y. He seems to be in Somerset or Dorset. He says he isn’t very far from the Tevis boys. Dick is in Bournemouth & Lloyd was able to indicate that he is in or near Blandford, Dorset. Garth said, “I spent a nice interlude in Bath. The place has changed since {we} were were {there} in ’37. Not so much in outward appearance as in the rather feverish gaiety which, even hobbled by war-time shortages, still makes passes very enjoyable.” Garth knows that region very well & will have fun taking a look around if he stays long enough. I hope he will go to the Hobhouses. They live at Hadspen House, Castle Cary. We spent some lovely days with them. Garth won’t care to inspect the big es establishment & its ramifications as Donnan & I did (probably much less big now!) but I ♦ daresay he will remember his sport with Lady H’s prize pig. It took all of Garth’s strength & that of several helpers to heave & push the enormous white creature into the cart to go to the fair. Ellen has just been here with a packet of various very needed & useful household articles for my birthday. We are all going to Noël’s for dinner tonight. Someone whose writing I didnt recognize sent me lately a packet of cards of unicorn tapestries. I was particularly delighted to have one card I hadn’t seen before—a card showing {the long room &} the full set of tapestries as LETTERS 1940– 1962

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they hang on the wall. Very beautiful & impressive. Gives one a very correct idea of it all. Anne Browne2 sings here next week. —Have you heard her? Charlotte is still here. Her eye bothers her a great deal. She is not supposed to read or write but does. I believe she is not to drive her car anymore. Jean was up for Christmas. Do you know the Van Wyck Brooks? They are here again after 23 yrs. Nice people but not much sense of fun. Have you read his {“The World of} Washington Irving”—dull mostly but packed with material. I told him I thought the most fascinating pages were about the {Virginian} John Randolph of Roanoke3—{a thrilling Byronic figure.} What a novel right there! —The ♦ culminating bit—when he had gotten more & more eccentric & isolated—and impotent & wandered through the forests about his estate at night sometimes on foot, more often on horseback—tolling a bell and muttering “all is over—all is over”— (Both with himself & Virginia) Wild strain there. His brother & sister lived together & had a baby which one or both of them together killed. They were tried for murder but somehow escaped the noose, & she ultimately married the Gouveneur Morris of the day.4 Brooks was telling us of this episode which was covered in a series of old letters now in Ellen Glascow’s5 possession. —& wasn’t it queer we had seen a copy & synopsis of these letters some years ago. Sidney Fish’s brother Stuyvesant6 has sent them to him. —they {the Fishes} are somehow connected with the Randolphs. Now I must stop. With warm love Devotedly Una. I am saying today as I look back—this is the longest year I ever lived! Has it seemed so to you? ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. In a letter to Blanche Matthias written on the same day (ALS Yale), Una thanks her for sending a book of Gaelic songs and, for Robinson, a necktie. “He allows himself only two at a time,” Una writes. “Black one and blue one! & the blue he’s been wearing is one Mollie Sutro gave him years ago. It did look a bit tired.”

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2. Anne Wiggins Brown (1912–2009), an African American soprano trained at Julliard, worked directly with George Gershwin to create the character Bess in Porgy and Bess. Brown performed the role on Broadway when the opera opened in October 1935. She sang at the Sunset School auditorium in Carmel on January 14, 1945. 3. John Randolph (1773–1833), known as John Randolph of Roanoke, was a plantation owner, congressman and senator, minister to Russia, and spokesman for his cousin, President Thomas Jefferson. An illness during youth arrested his physical development, leaving him high-voiced, beardless, and fiercely competitive. 4. A major scandal in Virginia late in the eighteenth century involved John Randolph’s brother Richard (1770–1796) and their second cousin Ann Cary “Nancy” Randolph (1774– 1837), younger sister of Richard’s wife Judith (1772–1816). When Nancy was in her mid-teens, she moved in with Richard and Judith at Bizarre, their plantation near Farmville. On a trip together in 1792, the three stayed overnight with relatives. After everyone had gone to bed, screams and footsteps were heard in the house; the next day, blood was found in Nancy’s bedroom and a slave discovered a dead newborn baby on a woodpile. Attention focused on Richard and Nancy, who were soon charged with adultery and murder. Ably defended at trial by Patrick Henry and John Marshall, the two were acquitted for lack of evidence, since slaves were not allowed to testify in court and no one else saw the baby. Nancy eventually left Virginia and, in 1809, married Gouverneur Morris (1752–1816), the New York statesman and diplomat who helped draft the United States Constitution. A greatgrandson and namesake of Gouverneur Morris lived in Monterey. 5. Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945), a novelist born in Richmond, Virginia, won the 1942 Pulitzer Prize for In This Our Life (1941). 6. Stuyvesant Fish, Jr. (1883–1952) graduated from Yale University in 1905 and married Isabell Mildred Dick of Philadelphia in 1910. His avocation as a genealogist and historian complemented his career as a stockbroker, real estate investor, and financier.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 1/6/45 Dear Bennett: Belated holiday greetings to you & all there, & belated thanks for your “Try & Stop Me”1 which entertained me several nights. I am pestered with insomnia & found the book very gay reading & entertaining in the dark hours. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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We are well. Robin is busy writing—and busy chopping {wood}— You cant buy wood here now—& very little last winter. Our six fireplaces devour it—the only way we have to heat the house, but we only feed2 two of them at present. Robin has thinned out our forest—then we’ll try coal. Garth has gone overseas again. We just got a new APO from him yesterday from Southern England. The war seems very long. I am busy all the time with Red Cross—part of the work is at Ft. Ord. I am Chairman of the Staff Assistance Corps & we get through an enormous amount of work. Endless. Van Wyck Brooks & wife are living here—they were here over twenty years ago. Nice people. Greetings from us both. Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Bennett Cerf, Try and Stop Me: A Collection of Anecdotes and Stories, Mostly Humorous, illustrated by Carl Rose (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1944). 2. A curved line around “only feed” indicates a transposition to “feed only.”

RJ to Thorleif Larsen1 3/5/45 R. J’s ans “I agree with your point of view. Since the “worshippers” have vans— wings—they could hardly be human & the description must be visionary. There is a reminiscence evidently of the “panic” terror of noon, that Greek poets speak of. However I am rather pleased than otherwise that the verses have made some of your class think of an Aztec sun-sacrifice: it rather broadens the thing. 2

ALC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Thorleif Larsen (1887–1960), born in Norway, taught English at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. His publications include Pronunciation: A Practical Guide to Spoken English in Canada and the United States (1930) and A Century of Short Stories (1935). 2. In a letter dated February 28, 1945 (TLS HRC Texas), Larsen asks Jeffers about the meaning of the poem “Noon” (Collected Poetry 1: 203). During a recent seminar, he writes, his

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students were divided over the identity of the worshippers “who stand blazing with spread vans.” “Who are these?” Larsen wonders. Una’s transcription of Jeffers’ response is written on Larsen’s letter.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 3/5/45 Dearest Melba: I’m afraid you’ll not believe how thankful we were for the wonderful box of fruit & nuts—I have been so dilatory about telling you so. First, the dates were actually the best I’ve ever eaten & I know dates! And the citrus fruit— magnificent. Of course it just saved our lives, too, for we both had a sharp bout with flu which has been very prevalent here, not fatal in any case but one felt sick as a dog. Robin had a high temp. with his, & even now doesnt {doesn’t} feel like himself. Anyway we made great headway with the grapefruit etc, as we had no appetites at all for other things. So thanks, thoughtful Melba! Work goes on as ever. I am very busy at Ft. Ord & here. One person at least works harder than I do, thats Helen Heavey. She is Chapter Chairman this year, and she is doing a fine job. Mrs. Hudgins1 is Chairman of Publicity & is good at it. I had not intended to take on my job another year but as I must be helping somehow & can do this, I am still at it. ♦ Garth went over with a Combat M. P. Bn. three mo. ago. He is in Southern England at present & sees young Lloyd Tevis occasionally {when they can get leaves at the same time}. The later is a Laboratory Technician in a general Hosp. Dick T. comes & goes from England to & from the continent. He is Lt. in Signal Corps. My friend Peacock has a country house near Lloyd & has been very nice to him. Bobby Horton is in New Caledonia & sent me from there lately, a nice Sandalwood {knife} paper cutter. Lloyd says Garth looks fine! Our two grandchildren look adorable. I have a sweet picture of Candida rocking baby Judith in our old hooded cradle.

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Judith Anderson telephoned us from Santa Monica {Pacific} Palisades yesterday about a proposition made to Robin from by a New York producer.2 Two other ones from Hollywood. None of which R. has felt like accepting. He has been working very hard on a long thing which appears to be progressing well.3 If you have a not-too-high-brow friend who adores horses & hounds & hunting—give him (or her,) “The Bolinvars.”4 Its pure romance—the story— but oh what animals! I adored it. I hope all goes well with you—I know you must be terribly busy. Love always, Devotedly, Una. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Frances (Turner) Hudgins (1892–1989), widow of Carmel real estate broker Patrick Hudgins, shared a home for a time with Helen Heavey. 2. Jed Harris. See Una’s April 6, 1945 letter to Hans and Phoebe Barkan. 3. The Love and the Hate. 4. Marguerite F. Bayliss, The Bolinvars (New York: Henry Holt, 1944)—a novel set in the early 1800s about an aristocratic, fox-hunting New Jersey family and their horses and hounds.

UJ to Judith Anderson

Tor House. Carmel. 3/5/45 I forgot to tell you when we were talking on the phone, Donnan’s second daughter’s name. Judith Jeffers. Isn’t that an important name! A bit frightening! Devotedly, U. J. APS. Tor House. Postmark: March 5, 1945.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Barth Carpenter Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 3/11/45 My dear Barth: I wonder whether you know exactly where Garth is?— I think I do now. Chippenham about 12½ mi. N. E. of Bath. Garth spoke once of visiting Bath but acted as if it were far away. But he has given us, otherwise, no clue to his location although he could so easily do so since we have motored back & forth often over that country. So you will please not mention the above name as he sets so high a regard on discretion. I got the idea from Lloyd Tevis who writes me quite often. I had a letter from him one day full of talk about things & places we had discussed. Next day I got a cryptic note from Lloyd which said only, “You will be interested to know that I expect to visit Chippenham, near Bath.” As he & I never had any reference to ~Chippenham~ in our talk I conclude he meant me to make the above inference. It was Lloyd who cleverly gave me such hints that I made out where he is (Blandford, Dorset) by certain references to an old manor house which three of Henry VIII’s wives had had. (It is Pimperne). Believe it or not ♦ not a single Englishman we knew could guess, —but I have dozens of little books & guide books about that region & I finally found the manor in an obscure line. I told Garth before he went over & he wrote back I was exactly right. Garth visited Lloyd for three days. I think they are about 45 mi. apart. Lloyd says Garth looks “fine”! Garth spoke once about getting leave & visiting Lyme Regis. Did he ever mention that Robin & I had on our marriage announcements “at home after — at Lyme Regis, Dorset, England,” for there we had expected to live for many years. War prevented. How different our lives would have been! And under other skies wh would I have managed to achieve my ambition—to have twin sons! Garth was full of admiration for your {crafty} dissecting the German book & sending. His only request to me was {has been} for heavy underclothes & mittens which I got out of his trunk & sent—but, by the time

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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they arrived, he had gotten acclimated & said he had gotten to dislike a temp. above 40°. I have no news. I am very very weary of the war. Love from Una. One of my dearest friends in the world, anciently my lover, lives at Combe Bissett between Salisbury & Blandford.1 He has entertained Lloyd but I haven’t gotten Garth to go to him, nor to Sir Arthur Hobhouse’s estate only 25 mi. away & where we had such fun in 1937 “Headspen House.” Garth doesn’t seem inclined to mix war & social life!2 ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: March 12, 1945. 1. Percy Peacock. 2. Written in the left margin and across the top of page 2.

UJ to Hans and Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 4/6/45 Hans & Phoebe darlings— How are you?— Here is a verse I thought to send you. I guess we cant help “vexing” ourselves if ours are over there—but we can acknowledge that we are suffering nothing new—& are not “helping make a better world.” We are in it, damn it, because politics put us there and no good can possibly come of it. Garth is at the front in Germany! Writes & asks for 6 pr. Cotton {shorts!!} Donnan appears about to go in. He went to take out more life insurance & his heart murmur appears gone. He is offerring himself up. Patty & babies will come to Tor House if he does. — —With all those big households she could go to (he cant leave her alone because servants come & go so fast there now—mostly go—war works at Newark nearby) Anyhow he wrote & said “They would be safer with you than anyone & if you remember, Mother, although Tor House seems small, it was never crow {crowded} when Garth & I were there.” My children never pamper me very much, but that sentence was enough forever! & he doesn’t even know. ♦ 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I am at Ft. Ord a lot. Spend over 100 hrs. a month —sometimes a lot more. It is excessively tiring to me, but I get things done & I must help somehow. I’ve been there all day today. Exciting times, too, here. An exhausting 48 hrs. Jed Harris1 flew out from N. Y. to talk to Robin, who has agreed to do, & is doing, a new translation & adaption adaptation of Euripides’ “Medea.” He {J. H.} expects to put on a tremendous production. Bobby Jones is doing the sets. But it won’t be at once. Judith Anderson came up from Hollywood to sit in on the discussions. They left todayyesterday. Stimulating but wearing. Much love to you both. Devotedly— Una. ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: April 7, 1945. 1. Jed Harris (1900–1979), born Jacob Hirsch Horowitz in Austria–Hungary, was a leading Broadway theater producer and director with a high-strung, driving personality that endeared him to some people, but alienated many others. In 1938 he produced and directed Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize–winning play, Our Town. Martin Gottfried describes Harris’ visit to Carmel in Jed Harris: The Curse of Genius (Boston: Little, Brown, 1984): 181–183.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 4/21/45 Darling Clapps: Our letters are far between these days but my love goes flying to you every day. I have heard in a round about way that Russell is in the hospital for a severe operation Is this true? Last news of them before, was that they were to spend all of May in Ojai. We have had several great excitements. One: it seemed as if Donnan was going into the service. He had gone to have medical exam, to take out more life insurance & the doctors could find no heart murmur so he offerred himself up to his draft board. He felt certain he’d be taken & made all

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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arrangements. After much discussion it was decided to have Patty & babies come to Tor House. Here is the only place that Donnan felt they’d be safe. Our boys don’t make tender gestures & concessions to me, but I never felt more complimented in my life than when Donnan wrote, “I know Tor House is small but, if you remember, Mother, it never was crowded when Garth & I were home!” Indeed it wasn’t. The day the letter came I arrived home very tired from Ft. Ord about 5:30 & Robin said, “Donnan would like ♦ to have his family stay at Tor House.” I felt startled for a moment & wondered if I could swing it—went outdoors & walked around under the trees for a mom while & decided “of course”! I was wondering a bit about Robin’s reaction, he hadnt expressed himself, but as soon as I came in & said yes—he was overjoyed & insisted on wiring Donnan instantly. From then on for nearly a month I was busy planning it all out—& so was Robin. He’d come in from clearing under the trees & say “Thats where I’ll take Candida to walk,” & when I wanted to spray some weed-killer on the shell path, he said we couldnt because of the babies! Well, they rejected him {Donnan} at long last although they were nearly two hours in finding the murmur. I hardly told {hardly} anyone {of the possibility of having them here} because I know how much too difficult everyone would have thought it. But so would my friends have thought our life here with baby boys too diffc difficult, & it was sheer bliss! One of the chief problems would have been quiet for Robin, but he had decided he could use my tower room since he doesn’t pace constantly as he used! I would have given up my Red Cross work & gladly for another task! The thing goes on & on at Ft. Ord, —a ceaseless long procession of cases & needs, one cannot stem the tide . . . a heartbreaking job. ♦ {Two} After several months in England (either Somerset or Wilts) Garth was sent to France. Now he is at the front in Germany. Last letter we rec’d was date April 6. He says he is well & has scarcely a minute, night or day to write. He is never out of my thoughts. {Three} For two months Jed Harris has been bombarding Robin with wires & telephone conversations & letters to do a translation—or entirely new version of Euripides “Medea.” I was surprised that Robin consented.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

He was in the midst of a long poem & besides has never been able to take suggestions about themes for his writing. But somehow this seemed possible to him & is on its way—more than half done & fine, I think. Harris flew out to see him & Judith Anderson came up from Hollywood. We talked the thing over for two days. Robin had 27 typed pages done & they were tremendously thrilled with it. I had heard terrific stories about Harris one way & another. “High powered, crafty, Svengali-ish.” What impressed me was—he was the most stimulating person about this thing, that I could imagine, & that means stimulating for Robin & I share an awful lassitude when artists of one kind & another begin to expound or ask Robin to. Harris ♦ is reasonable, too, or was in this instance for Robin & he didnt see eye to eye about some of the situations. He brought with him five big drawings by Bobby Jones for sets—j just as suggestions & possibilities. I hope it turns out well. We had a letter from {Bennett Cerf} (Random House) the other day saying he’d never seen Jed Harris so excited about anything—& so on. I wish I had time to write of the funny midnight call we made on Noël so Judy could see Haidi the {gr.-}grandchild of two Dachshunds she used to own & how Noël tried to give Haidi to Judy & she wouldn’t take the dog, & how Noël acknowledged that Haidi was incorrigible—wouldn’t be housebroken & I said, “Do you spank her?” & Noël said “Oh yes, yes indeed & she doesnt care, but these other darling dogs are grief-striken when it happens,” & how he brought in, in his arms a 6-day old Persian lamb, jet, jet black who was being bottle-fed in the kitchen because its mother wouldn’t own it, & all the 8 dogs present were nice-mannered but a little cur dog—a stray dog {belonging now to Lee Crowe} tried to eat the lamb, & how Jed said “See its Hebraic profile—, exactly like Judith’s,” and Persian lambs really do {look that way}. And at long last we departed with Haidi held tight in Jeds arms, & Judith horror-striken. I must stop. Devotedly Una. If Russell is all right, please give this letter to Blanche, —but not if she is worried—its too scrambled.1

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Charlotte has gone east on Polish business. She has bought a nice lot on the Mesa above the Mission—not far from Edith Greenan & intends to build as soon as possible—2 Sat. night. I have just heard from Martin that Blanche wired him Russell came through safely3 How about Mable Mabel & Tony? You know I think Mabel is infinitely superior to him despite her obvious faults. Tony is a lazy, deceitful, worthless bum, sponging on people & despised by his own race. I’ve known Indians since my cradle & well! I have no illusions about them—if they are kept in their proper place. “Noble red man” is a joke & Tony is the poorest joke of all.4 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Written in the top margin, page 1. 2. Written vertically in the left margin, page 4. 3. Added in the top right corner, below the first postscript, page 1. 4. Written vertically in the left margin and across the top margin, page 3.

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel 4/23/45. The most interesting talk I’ve seen about “Medea,” I mean the woman herself, is in John Addington Symonds’ “Studies of the Greek Poets” (in the latter half of Chap. XIV. —the chapter is called “Greek Tragedy & Euripides.”)1 If your book dealer hasn’t it, you can surely get it in the Public Library. Love from Una. APS. Tor House. Postmark: April 23, 1945. 1. The first volume of Symonds’ Studies of the Greek Poets was published in London in 1873; the second volume appeared in 1876. Una’s undated set, printed by Harper & Brothers in the early 1900s, remains in the Tor House library.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R 1. Box 36 4/23/45 Dear Bennett: We are tremendously interested in the “Medea,” too. Its going to be fine reading whether it makes a great stage success or not. I hope it will go over—& Jed Harris feels it will. We found him a very stimulating companion. Perhaps he told you he & Judith {Anderson} were in Carmel a couple of days with much discussion— We will let you have the ms. when completed—it will be several weeks yet. What is the usual procedure for this kind of affair—to print the play as soon as its ready or to wait for publication until the production is announced or under way? We go on all right. Garth is at the front in Germany & never out of our thoughts. I hope you & yours continue happy. Love from us both Una. Jed brought with him five stage sets—tentative sketches—by Bobby Jones who is deep in this, too.! ALS. Berkeley. 1 page.

RJ to H. William Fitelson1 [May 1945] The contract for {which you drew up for Jed Harris about} an adaptation of Medea is unsatisfactory {to me,} and I should have informed you sooner, but delayed answering because I did not {hardly} knew what to propose instead. I know nothing about affairs of the theatre {such things}, and am not vitally interested. Since the script is half mine and half Euripides, I suppose over half the basic (minimum) royalties printed on the Dramatist Guild forms2 would be LETTERS 1940– 1962

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fair enough. This would be 3¾% foron gross box-office receipts between $5000 and $7000; 5% foron receipts for $7000 up {or more.} If you can send me a contract along those lines I’ll answer promptly, {either} yes or no. I don’t like to want to bargain. As protection against excessive (though “reasonable”) rewriting, there ought to be a further {an additional} advance of $100 for every five pages of rewriting required. If you can send me an amended contract I’ll answer promptly, either yes or no. I don’t want to bargain. —One of the quadruplicate contract-forms is enclosed with this for reference. The others have been burned. Sincerely yours, R. J. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. H. William Fitelson (1905–1994), an entertainment lawyer, represented the Theatre Guild, the American Repertory Theater, and other institutions. In 1947, as a member of its first board of directors, he helped create the Actors Studio (made famous by Elia Kazan and Lee Strasberg for its emphasis on “method acting”) . 2. The Dramatists Guild, established in 1912 as a professional organization for playwrights, composers, and lyricists, sought to safeguard the business interests of artists by providing model contracts and contract advice.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 5/29/45 Dear Bennett: Thank you so much for your trouble about our contract with Harris. Mr. Manges’ letter1 is {contains} exactly the information we wished to have, namely the percentages given to a typical adaptation {(like “Lysistrata”)}.2 I would not have dumped this into your lap except in an emergency. The contract was sent out to Robin by Mr. Feitelson & as it didn’t seem right was returned unsigned. Jed called me up from N. Y. one night & was very indignant & “hurt” that we hadn’t accepted these terms. He wanted to argue 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

the matter & settle it that very moment. So I said on the spur of the moment that if he put these terms before you & you thought them fair, we would agree without further discussion. It strikes me as very odd that Jed Harris & his lawyer misrepresented the terms given to Mr. Seldes. Is it possible that Harris & Feitelson were actually ignorant of these terms & believed they were being fair & generous? I am willing to assume that to be the case. On the next page I will set down the terms offered us by Harris & the terms Seldes received, for your future reference in case you wish to refer to them. ♦ Terms offered us by Harris. $500.00 advance against royalties 3% on the first $15000.00 of gross weekly receipts 4% ~on~ all gross weekly receipts in excess of $15,000 Terms rec’d by Seldes 2½% on first $4000 2½ ~on~ next $6000 5% ~on next~ $10000 7½% ~on next~ $2,500 10% ~on next~ $5,500 15% ~on~ excess of $28,000 Mr. Manges believes a poetic adaptation (such as “Medea”) should have even more. We are not very good Shylocks but really felt Harris contract not very fitting. If the thing proceeds further we will put it into the hands of an agency who will know what to do. Is the Morris agency as good as any? & Thanks for your patience & bother with it. Our Garth is with the 15th Army of occupation in Germany. Out here on the coast its hard to believe in V-E day, there is such tremendous business underway about the war in the Pacific.3 I am at Ft. Ord several days in the week. The activity is terrific. Love from us both. Una.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Horace Manges, a copyright law expert and founding partner of the Weil, Gotshal & Manges law firm, was Cerf ’s personal attorney and good friend. He examined Harris’ contract, comparing it to one drawn for a similar production, and reported his findings in a May 21, 1945 letter to Cerf (TCC Berkeley), who forwarded the letter to Robinson and Una. Horace Manges and his wife Nathalie visited Tor House in 1936. 2. An adaptation of Lysistrata by Aristophanes—written by Gilbert Seldes (1893–1970), an American critic, writer, television executive, and academic dean—was published as a book and performed on Broadway in 1930. A special edition of the play, with illustrations by Pablo Picasso, appeared four years later. With a Broadway revival scheduled for 1946, Manges asked Saxe Commins to contact Seldes and inquire about his royalties for the new production. 3. On V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day), May 8, 1945, about a week after Hitler shot himself and died in his Berlin bunker, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies, thus ending the war in Europe. The war in the Pacific, however, was still raging. In May 1945, hundreds of American B-29 Superfortress bombers saturated Japan with incendiary bombs. The campaign of aerial destruction continued through the summer.

RJ to Ernest J. Halter Tor House, Carmel, California May 29, 1945. Dear Mr. Halter—1 The book that I enjoyed writing, and am most tolerant of, is a series of short poems called “Descent to the Dead”, written in Ireland and Great Britain in 1929. It was published by Random House in a limited edition, and then in the volume called “Give Your Heart to the Hawks.” I like it because it is cool and quiet as the North Irish hills were at that time. Of course I have no idea which is the best of my books. The worst are the first and second. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Virginia. 1 page. 1. Ernest J. Halter (1906–1974), a business executive and book collector, was the author of Collecting First Editions of Franklin Roosevelt (Chicago: privately printed, 1949).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Whit Burnett Tor House, Carmel, California. June 13, 1945. Dear Mr. Burnett: I am sorry to be so late in answering your letter of April 26, about the verses which you wish to include in the high-school text-book.1 “Promise of Peace” was first printed in “A Miscellany of American Poetry, 1927,” and is now in the Modern Library “Roan Stallion”, page 281. “Hurt Hawks” was included in “Cawdor,” (1928), and is also in “Selected Poetry of R. J.” Both poems will have to be cleared through Random House, and the fee paid there.2 Enclosed is a brief comment about the poems, which you may use if you think it’s worth $25.00. I don’t.3 Also a kind of photograph is enclosed.4 I am sure the text-book will be interesting, under your editorship,—and good wishes to it. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. TLS. Princeton. 1 page. 1. American Authors Today, edited by Whit Burnett and Charles E. Slatkin (New York: Ginn and Company, 1947). 2. Jeffers’ two poems, “Promise of Peace” and “Hurt Hawks,” appear in a section of the book titled The Lyric Mood, pages 301–304. 3. The following statement by Jeffers introduces the poems: There is nothing in particular to say about these pieces of verse. They are not lyrical, nor dramatic, nor even narrative; they record incidents—the incident of the broken-winged hawk which I kept for a while and then killed; the incident of my youthful admiration for an old man who looked as if he were at peace with himself. The incidents were not important, and the poems are not. One of them was written nearly twenty, and the other nearly thirty, years ago; presumably they are still read a little, for they have been reprinted several times. So they seem to have served their purpose as records. Equally unimportant incidents were recorded by Greek poets more than two thousand years ago, and remain fresh and living to this day. The conclusion must be that there is something durable about poetry; even when it is made of very slight material it is not frail, but tough and resistant.

4. In the photograph provided, Jeffers sits in the courtyard of Tor House striking a pose that mimics Jo Davidson’s portrait bust of him; the bust itself is propped up on a bench beside him. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California 7/18/48 [1945]1 Dear Judith: Don’t you worry yourself at all! of course we were disappointed when Jed gave the project up, but we were not at all surprised, because people had warned us from all directions that he was very capricious & uncertain & would be more {so} than ever now when he hasn’t had a good success for some time. You were all that was {is} kind & friendly. There is a good side to the affair. The unfortunate side is that Robin was interrupted in a thing he was writing just when it was going full tilt, —the good side is that he has written (in the Medea) a fine thing which will be nice for his next book & I am pleased that his mind is flexible enough to have bent him{its}self to the work. I guess he doesnt care whether its flexible or not—he only shrugs his shoulders about Jed giving it up. However do we go along together I wonder? I think a fit of temper is a grand catharsis. He admits that I have more fun! Of course you must keep your copy of the Medea. Sometime Robin will write an inscription on it. for you. Love from us both. Una. The avocados from your garden were superb! Garth is in Cologne. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Una inadvertently writes “48,” but this letter was written in 1945.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 7/26/45 Darling Clapps: Where to begin? But of course now we shall never catch up with everything. Garth is either in Bavaria or Austria He said in his last that he had motored 90 miles to Berchtesgaden & climbed up the last 1000 or so ft. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

to Adlershorst.1 Even Garth was unable to refrain from exclaiming over the grandeur of the views from those wide windows! —snowy mountains & {little} deep-blue lakes between the peaks. I saw an advance Associated Press release several weeks ago which told of the magnificent work of Garths 508 M. P. Bn. They were in the front during the last 3 wks. or more before V-Day. Their special task at one time was protecting the Bridges. Several of the bridges have been renamed for some of their officers. We are not quiet in our minds about him yet. The paper said two days ago that there is considerable trouble in Bavaria with armed guerilla bands, & affrays. Ft. Ord is busier than ever now we are turned toward the Pacific. The Field Director has asked me {for} four instead of three Staff Assistants a day. Our chapter also sends 4 to 6 nurses Aides {a day}. ♦ There are quantities of paid workers out there of course but they couldnt get through their work without us—we never catch up even with us. Donnan scared us with an emergency appendectomy 7 wks. ago. All well now. The surgeon thought the appendix had been inflamed for some time by the way it looked & that it has probably been the reason for Donnan being so thin. Young Lloyd Tevis is due back from England in a couple of days He has been for over a year in Blandford, Dorset. General hospital. Laboratory technician. He wrote me often as that is a part of England I know very well & it is full of things interesting to me—& to him. He is very fond of natural history, & Gilbert White & Hudson were there so much—(in Wiltshire) Then Hardy & T. E. Lawrence & Powyses, & lots of prehistoric things like Avebury & Stonehenge. My friend Peacock has a little country house at Coombe Bissett nr Salisbury & he was very hospitable to Lloyd. Lloyd expects to go out to the Pacific front. Winston Churchill is out!2 I wonder how well Labor will do. It is startling to realize that Churchill won’t be at the head of it {the gov’t.} now. ♦ Blanche writes that they are nicely settled in at Portsmouth. I hope they will both rest & fatten! —Am I wrong in connecting Maudie with Portsmouth? I could swear I heard her & Alice Toulmin talking of the place. Maud’s step-mother3 lived there perhaps?

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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A very picturesque industry goes on in {on} the sea directly off our rocks now. Four boats (about the size of purse seiners) harvest seaweed {the big brown kind with huge round bladder ends}. They drag the sea weed off the surface of the water with a long two-pronged tool, then cut it off & hang it over the side of the boat in big bunches to drain before dragging it in. It looks like heavy work. There seem to be about eight men in each crew. I wish I could paint them or even do black & white—but the colors are fascinating, the tones of browns, & {with} tawny lights which vary with the brightness of the sun. Certain surfaces of the weed weed sparkle like diamonds. Then on black cloudy days, the color is drained out—it looks a gloomy business. They are at it when I look out first in the morning & work all day. It is shipped out in ton lots from Gilroy to the east for its content of iodine, gelatine, potash etc. You remember their burning it on the shore in west & north Ireland the ash being sent away for iodine also {ours is also used for} some war industry needs. ♦ Robin & I dined with the Dalis a few nights ago. They are staying at Del Monte Lodge. I dreaded it terribly. He speaks almost no word of English & hers is not good. Robin is always put next him anywhere we are & talks sprightly French in spite of himself. But it bores Robin to talk much—even English. I am thoroughly tired out after a session with them, doing my best to understand. As I anticipated there wasere just the four of us. Dinner went off very well but& instantly afterwards he took us to their rooms & showed us five paintings—three he had just lately finished & two portraits of Gala—really superb! The portraits were very simple & direct. One front view s sitting, —{not full length but down to} the knees—the other back view—bare back! very quiet, —yellowish {yellowish,} thin dress half off her—flesh luscious —He can paint! The others more or less symbolic, & with the clearest loveliest colors! He talked ¾ hr. about these—set us down within 3 ft of the canvases & started in. Worth a small fortune to an art student. It wasn’t altogether wasted on us either. Not that I was able to understand it all. I hoped it was the lapses of French in my mind but Robin couldnt either —(Robin’s French is better than Dali’s. His language is Spanish, —Catalonian Spanish. That

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

is one of the—dialects? Garth speaks. I longed for him.) ♦ The biggest canvas is called “The Triumph of Homer.”4 He was most emphatic about this canvas but even Robin doesnt know why its so named. At one the left side is a great female figure giving birth to something—didnt look human. Its {only} part of the female figure, you know the essential part. The inexplicable thing was, the figure was encased in thin plaster, breaking apart here & there. At the right side was a mass of queer figure objects. He pointed out to us the lines duplicated {the lines of} the female torso at the left. —In the center was a heavenly group. Birth of Venus. Such drawing & such colors!—& a divine sea. Why I dont know,—in this group was a stallion whose stallion-quality surpassed anything Robin or I could have imagined. But again my dears the colors—the luminous heartbreakingly beautiful colors. It was quite an evening. Even kind Timmie must deplore my obsession with genealogy. But I cant resist telling him my latest Call data, going back three generations in England before the American Calls—brings me to Sir John Paston’s dau. Margaret who married a Call. —Timmie will know the famous invaluable Paston Letters—5 (Time: War of the Roses) Now I have to run. All my love, always. Una ALS. Yale. 5 pages. 1. Berchtesgaden, located in the Bavarian Alps near Salzburg, was the site of a military command and bunker complex designed for Hitler. The installation included Kehlsteinhaus, also called Adlerhorst (Eagle’s Nest), a mountaintop chalet. 2. Results of the 1945 general election in Britain were announced July 26, with Clement Attlee’s Labour Party winning a landslide victory over Winston Churchill’s Conservative Party. Churchill was reelected to his seat in Parliament, but was forced to step down as prime minister. As leader of the opposition in the House of Commons, however, he maintained his hold on power. 3. Priscilla (Stearns) Ede (1832–1904), second wife of Maud’s father Edward Francis Ede (1828–1909), an attorney. Maud’s mother Fanny (Crutchley) Ede (1829–1877) died when Maud was eight years old. 4. When Dalí completed this painting, he titled it Apotheosis of Homer (Diurnal Dream of Gala). LETTERS 1940– 1962

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5. John Paston (1421–1466) of Norwich was embroiled in nearly two decades of legal battles as a consequence of the extensive holdings he inherited from Sir John Fastolf (immortalized by Shakespeare as Sir John Falstaff). His daughter Margery Paston (ca. 1450– 1479) married Richard Call (ca. 1431–1504), the manager of Paston’s estate. The story of the Paston family is told in a culturally significant collection of letters written between 1422 and 1509.

UJ to Lawrence Langner CARMEL CALIF 1945 AUG 6 LAWRENCE LANGNER1 THEATRE GUILD 23 WEST 53RD NY WE ARE INTERESTED IN YOUR PROPOSITION PLEASE CONSULT OUR AGENT JAMES GELLER2 OF WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY REGARDS UNA JEFFERS. Tlg. Yale. 1. Lawrence Langner (1890–1962) was a playwright, producer, patent agent, and co-founder of the Theatre Guild, a major Broadway drama company. He also co-founded the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Connecticut and the Westport Country Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut. 2. James Jacob Geller (1893–1963), head of the literary department at the Morris Agency, was the author of Famous Songs and Their Stories (1931) and Grandfather’s Follies (1934).

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 8/6/45 Dearest Judith: I rec’d this wire today: “after consulting Judith Anderson have decided would like to produce Medea in your translation with Judith playing title role. Would like to make contract with you with down payment covering

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

period of one year. Please notify us name of your agent to prepare contract We think your version excellent. Regards Lawrence Langner Theatre Guild.” I answered, “We are interested in your proposition. Our agent is James Geller of Wm Morris Agency. Please consult him.” U. J.— I have written Geller & suggested {that} he consult you & have told him any reasonable & proper contract would satisfy us. We had a letter from Cheryl Crawford1 dated July 31, which said, “I would be most interested to read your version of Euripides’ Medea. Judith Anderson is a close friend of mine having played the lead in my production of Family Portrait 2 & nothing would please me more than to work with her again. Medea should be a perfect part for her. I hope you will let me know if it is possible for me to see the script.” Cheryl Crawford ♦ I wrote him that I would ask Jed Harris to give the typescript we loaned him, to Bennett Cerf & Crawford could get it from him. A round-about way but I fancied Jed would be more likely to hand it over to Bennett than to another producer. Our typescript we cant give up at present as it differs somewhat from the original ms. It isnt worthwhile for Robin to type it all again when he mad may need to make alterations if it is produced. Since Mr. Crawford is only beginning to be interested & the Theatre Guild is ready to make a proposition, what do you say? Yours ever. Una. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Cheryl Crawford (1902–1986), a producer and director, was affiliated at different times with the Theatre Guild, the Group Theater, the American Repertory Theater, and the Actors Studio. She was also an independent producer. 2. Anderson performed the role of Mary, mother of Jesus, in Family Portrait by Lenore Coffee and William Joyce Cowen. The well-received play ran from March to June 1939 at the Morosco Theatre in New York.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 8/8/45 Dear Larry: I haven’t even asked Robin about the reading on the campus but I will say yes—when it is convenient. Let us wait a little until one can get about a bit & you & I will fix it up. Robin is certainly no showman but with certain audiences can make a deep impression. There was really an ovation at Harvard & several other places {where} he read. He seems now to have no impression of any of it & when I say—“Do you remember & do you think—?” he confesses he went into a complete daze while he was doing it & neither saw nor felt nor noticed. I hope you will come by here & we can talk. —You will be extremely interested in Robins tremendous tr adaptation of Euripides’ Medea. Jed Harris asked him to do it & I was amazed that he consented. Robin was in the midst of a long poem which was going well—but he stopped & did this & I had never seen his mind so flexible. Jed Harris flew out to see us and brought the six wonderful drawings Bobby Jones had done for the production. We had three exciting days together. As a person I cant say that Jed is very admirable but he is an exciting companion while talking about the theatre. Judith Anderson came up with him ♦ She was to be Medea. Jed accepted the play but we could not agree upon terms. Now the Theatre Guild has made {us} a very good an th {offer} with Judith in the lead. I think this will go on. However Robin won’t pay any attention to it further. He honestly is not interested in the theatre. So I am just keeping quiet & waiting. It would be nice to make a lot of money! In any case it will be a fine thing to include in his next book. When the time comes I will help you with the exhibition. Arthur Symons was a great influence in my life, —& I have everything he ever wrote I do believe. Now I cannot read some of his things —but they are a part of me already. No, I cannot tell you about files of Carmel papers. Why not insert a little ad. in the Pine Cone?

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Garth has three battle stars. He was at the front in Germany the last three weeks before V-day. He is stationed in Munich now with Patton’s 3rd Army.1 Greetings to Fay, Faithfully Una. ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Gen. George S. Patton, Jr. (1885–1945), commander of the United States Third Army, helped assure a victory for the Allies in the Battle of the Bulge (December 1944–January 1945). The battle, which stopped the westward advance of the Germans through the Ardennes, marked a major turning point in World War II.

RJ to Garth Jeffers R. Jeffers Box 36, R. 1, Carmel, California. August 14, ’45 Dear Garth—1 There have been a few false armistice alarms here, none of which moved us, though the Monterey fishing-fleet lost a night’s work to celebrate. Now the real news has come, and I have just put up the flag on the tower.2 Mother has been at Ford Ord R. C. duty, and I am waiting for her to phone me from the village when she returns. —She has just called. She was crying.— Monterey whistles are making a great noise, and a few Carmel carhorns. I was filling the pool—your pool under the trees—now stocked with mosquito-fish—when I heard the first car-horns, and came in and turned on the radio, then put up the flag and began to write to you. August 15.—Mother came home at this point yesterday. Said it was quite exciting at Fort Ord; was especially interested in the German PWs’3 reactions—neither glad nor sorry, but extremely alert and attentive, watching everyone’s face to see how Americans acted in victory. She was also interested—for your sake—in the truckloads of MPs being rushed all over

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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the place to keep the boys in order. . . . After talking to her I went down to the shore and got a big stone to commemorate the day—nice flat surface to carve a date on. We were asked up to the Fishes’ for dinner, moderate whisk4 before and after. Also asked to Marie Short’s, and stopped there for a moment at midnight; many people were drunk but we were not—and so to bed. We hope you had as pleasant a day—and now I’m very hopeful that you’ll be home within a few months. . . . We have enjoyed tremendously the letters and pictures you have sent. You seem to be in fine shape, and look a little younger than when you went away, in spite of hard work and action. I don’t know exactly why we feel so proud of you, but we do. —Yes, Mother expected you to come home with some particularly outrageous dialect of German; but I predict two dialects, and excellent Hochdeutsch besides. I’ve always heard that the best German is in Hanover, perhaps you’ll meet some displaced girl fro from there. . . . I hope you’re taking good care of yourself. Oneof Mother’s staff assistants very kindly told her that she knew a young man who was engaged in the same kind of work as yours in Germany, and he was killed by a sniper the other day. . . . Old Mr. Schoeninger reports that Joe is teaching economics somewhere in England! Do you suppose he’s on the faculty at Shrivenham? If so, you didn’t lose much when you didn’t get there—or, if you do, don’t take economics. Dick Tevis is supposed to be teaching something somewhere in Belgium. . . . Our neighbor Ben Stillwell,5 the general’s youngest son, has a Cooper’s hawk and a duckhawk (peregrine falcon to you) and he is trying to teach them falconry. It is quite thrilling to see them flying around our weeds and tower, uttering wild cries, and each jingling a bell on her leg. The pigeons used to be terrified, and the herons would fly up with angry shouts but the poor hawks are discouraged or something, nothing ever happens, and now the pigeons just sit and look at them. The peregrine struck one of our herons once, but seemed to get the worst of it. . . . Barth C. is here, came to call day before yesterday, and I think we’ll take her a ride down the coast tomorrow. Very sweet and intelligent girl; but we don’t commit you to anything—nor tell her about your Freundinnen.6 Dearest love from Mother and Father.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

TLS. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This letter, addressed to “S/Sgt. Garth Jeffers,” is typed on V-Mail (Victory Mail) stationery, the official form of correspondence used by servicemen and their families. 2. Following the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima on August 6 and August 9, 1945, World War II was effectively over. On August 14, radio broadcasts in Tokyo announced that Japan would surrender; official word reached President Truman later that day. Truman shared the news with a jubilant nation at a White House press conference at 7:00 pm (4:00 pm Pacific time). 3. Fort Ord held about a thousand German prisoners of war. An escape attempt was foiled in August 1944 when authorities found a tunnel 5 feet underground and extending about 120 feet from a recreation hall to open ground outside the camp. 4. Jeffers typed either “whiskies” or “whiskey” here, but the letter is torn and the remainder of the word is missing. 5. Benjamin W. Stilwell (b. 1927) graduated from Stanford University in 1949 and McGill University Medical School in 1953, specializing in clinical and anatomic pathology. 6. Freundinnen: German for “girlfriends.”

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 9/5/45 Darling Clapps: I had a long letter from Mabel the other day from River House, {at Embudo} 2000 ft lower elevation than Taos, at the junction of the Rio Grande & Embudo Rivers. Its a small low house built of lava I think. She has owned it a long time. She says she is there to get away from high altitude but that only means, as it has meant ever since I knew her, that she was feeling restless. Whenever she was bored she would dash away down to Albuquerque “to get to a lower altitude” I am really sad to have the Big House go out of our lives. It was all great fun fun & there was beauty & excitement there too. It was a real compliment {to the place} for me to like it so much as I am as out of my element, in hot desert dry dust, as a fish. Mabel did not say why she is selling it or trying to do so but I am not at all surprised. I have been expecting her to put it up for sale for five

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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years or more. $100,000 by the way is a very low price for the Big House. {with contents.} But {the} $20,000 she names for St. Teresa {House} I consider very excessive. For {the last} several years we were there she was finding it increasingly hard to run the ♦ house. Servants came & went. Big Black Beatrice1 who kept such a funny & complete diary about us all went away to run Cady Wells house at Jokake. {(I saw portions of this diary later at Cady’s)} Mabel’s idea of an establishment is to have everything move on like clockwork—perfectly & you never even hear the tick. She made it do so—there was an Indian woman named Albidia2 who did so much, —the ordering, the hiring—(also taught John3 SEX, when the boy was old enough!—with all the wonderful mystical indian deep-in-the blood, dark Mysteries!) Well, they fell away—Albidia et al were found to take peyote—all of the Indians did I guess—& it would take a long time to train another to the perfection of Albidia—one or another thing happened. Besides that Mabel often got fits of shyness or boredom when important people were coming (on invitation) & dashed away to Santa Fé or went to bed & left them on the doorstep. The last two years we were there she put us in the Big House & she & Tony retreated to the Tony House. They always came over to meals but I was supposed to be a sort of hostess I suppose at the Big House. Winters & other odd times terrific things happened to plumbings—deep pools ♦ developed in the cellar —there were doors & lifts {shafts} where mysterious pumps pumped away at odd times. The adobe walls washed away & as Mabel said, the houses ran down the lanes. —When we made the first of our nine visits to Taos we motored back from here with Mabel & Tony. I knew very little about her really {(but had read all her mss. —at that time in mss. typed & bound in leather!)} —We had just gotten back from Ireland 1930 & my mind was still there. —We arrived about 7:00 in the evening at her house. I was much interested in the whole thing—Albidia in bright colors & {gliding out to meet us—} in the lovely white soft skin high boots, {(the firelight, the fragrance of piñon}— the perfection of the machine {(of her household)}, everything moved so perfectly— Next day Mabel & I were up in the glass room—a sort of

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

look-out in the third story— it was a pale toneless hour—late afternoon— outside really endless monotony & Mabel slumped down on a cushion on the floor & looked out & said “What interminable hours I have looked out over this landscape —” She was certainly fed up! Completely so. But she came out of it. She hoped Robin would be another & perhaps better Lorenzo. For seven years she waxed—then in 1937—the year we went to Ireland again—something came over her again. We stopped there at Thanksgiving on our way home {from Ireland} & she said she had sat all summer in the garden in a sort of dream-like state—almost unconscious. ♦ She got Brill out again & had a grand time with psychoanalysis —she has several friends who were vitalizing (chiefly Myron Brinig) —(Brill was great fun. We were there together for a week or so. {once.} I think I scarcely ever laughed so much.)— If you want to know what I believe—Mabel had en had enough of Indians years ago—but she had built up such an elaborate edifice against the Indian background that she couldn’t think of anything interesting enough to erect to replace it. Mabel is a curious combination of furious enterprise & complete inactivity. What thousands of times I’ve seen her & heard her say—“Oh lets sit down & look straight ahead!” & she would, & rest herself when the days work for me was just starting. She hadn’t any impulse to travel or see other strange alien places—(Mexico, yes, since I knew her, but it was related to Indians.) She was interested a bit in terrifying new discoveries—the atomic bomb has been a great thing in her life. It is horrifying to me to see her trying to have {or having} a salon in New York. It is one of many things {about which} she used to say—“Oh I’ve got that done long ago.” It seems to me like the end of the trail for her going back to this. ♦ 9/10/45 I wrote this the foregoing pages some days ago & havent had a moment since then to finish. I guess I’ll never get time to complete my little discourse on Mabel. —You may show this to Blanche if you like.— & she If so, —to answer a question of hers—Medea will be published in Robin’s next book whether produced or not. It seems likely at the moment that the Guild will do it but neither of us talks of it or thinks of it much. We honestly are too

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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busy with other things & the theatre would be in our lives for a little {time,} at best. Robin has no intention of going to see it unless called. The contract they propose stipulates that Robin must go on to N. Y. upon a month’s notice if there is real need for alterations. (with proper pay of course) Of course, if he goes, so will I, & see Donnan et al en route. Yesterday we saw Jean’s pictures & I was truly astonished at the progress she has made! There are some powerful drawings, seals—birds—in black & white, (charcoal, steel pen, quill pen—), 20 little watercolors {“Impressions”—} (nice but unimportant). One oil of some trees—(one bare & broken) that is good! {One lovely cormorant in tempera} I am curious to know what your trained eyes will see in her things. She tells me she has concentrated {latterly} on drawing ♦ I had meant to talk a lot about Maud unpacking her paintings, hidden away so long. A short story in a page as she told it. (& I lengthened it & savored it —& relived a lot of the period when she was doing them—) I hope they wont be dispersed.4 I’ve I’d give a lot to have a look at them. Perhaps now you will go on again with painting?— I have to dash away I love you! Devotedly Una. Embudo is a desperate spot, I think.5 ALS. Yale. 6 pages. 1. Beatrice Johnson. 2. Albidia Reyna. 3. John Evans. 4. An undated suite of etchings of Florence and Venice by Maud is in the collection of the Yale University Art Gallery. 5. Written in the top right corner of the first page, just above the first sentence.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 9/15/45 Dear Bennett: It seems likely at the present moment that the Theatre Guild will sign a contract about Medea & on very excellent terms for us. The Morris agency is handling the matter. Jed Harris was furious that we did not accept the first contract he prepared—which you knew about. He must be a rather tiresome man to work with aside from the fact that his enthusiasm is stimulating. We are not in any way depending on this production going through but will be glad if it does so. Judith is still scheduled for the ♦ lead & Bobby Jones to do sets. We are beginning to feel a bit free-er, with plenty of gas. Our tires give us a bit of pause pause, though. I am still doing over a 100 hrs. a mo. Volunteer Staff Assistance at Ft. Ord. Four of my corps go over every day. No let-up there. Garth is still in Munich & having a more interesting time than usual. Love to you, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages.

RJ and UJ to Garth Jeffers Tor House. Carmel. California. R 1 Box 36 10/3/451 Dear Garth— We were very happy to get your notification about being home by New Year’s or sooner—I hope it is sooner—though I’m sure that many a blue eye in Bavaria will weep at your departure. One of your recent letters about the Bayrische Sprache2—is that spelled right?—told about about their saying “nimmer” for “never.” (That is perfectly good German, of course, though not so usual as nie or niemals.) LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Curiously, the morning your letter came, I woke up remembering my father, when we were going to Europe about fifty years ago, asking one of the sailors in mid Atlantic how deep the water was, and the man answering “Da kommt man nimmer zum Grunde.”3 Perhaps he was from Munich. This morning when we looked out the window there were two big pheasants in the front yard, and I remembered your passion for pheasants a good many years ago. We are almost overrun with quail this year— hundreds—crowding the pigeons out of their own courtyard. And the rock is full of pelicans and the trees of herons. There have been a lot of fires in Monterey County the past few days—one in Garapatas—a big one at Fort Ord—the air is full of smoke and the sunsets scarlet. It has been fairly hot weather, but the good old sea-damp seems to be coming in again now. Your dragon-tree in the hollow is making another flower—so is the one by the pool—but the century-cactus there has never flowered yet. I filled up the pool to-day. It is full of tadpoles and little frogs, and some kind of fresh water shellfish—how did that get there?—besides the mosquito-fish. ♦ I am sorry to see that your General is being replaced,4 —and I believe you are to blame for it—because one of the things the papers here say is that you MPs call yourselves Patton’s Gestapo—and the Germans believe you! You’d better come home before you get to be an SS trooper. —Mother is finishing this note. —Love, Father Darling Garth: Im afraid I cant write much. Ive been even busier than usual. Zelle Moody Bishop has been visiting us for a few days. Ft. Ord still as busy as ever. I hope you are planning to take advantage of G. I. Bill of Rights & have it help you get started on what you want to do. You as a college grad can get 1 yr. paid for, I believe, of further work. People who haven’t been to college can get 2 yrs. Do think up something nice. I love you precious. Mother. ¡5 Hug ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Una added the address and date. 2. The German dialect spoken in Bavaria. 3. German for “You’ll never reach the bottom.” 4. Gen. George Patton was relieved of his duties as commander of the Third Army by Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) in late September 1945, primarily due to conflicts concerning the denazification of Germany. Eisenhower had ordered a complete purge of Nazis from all positions of power, including business management, but Patton publicly disagreed with the plan. Among the many issues at stake, one of the most important involved Germany’s strength or weakness in the post-war world, as Germany and Europe faced the rising power of the ­Soviet Union. Eisenhower announced his decision October 2, and Patton relinquished command to Lt. Gen. Lucian Truscott, Jr. (1895–1965) in a brief ceremony October 7. On December 9, 1945, Patton was on his way to hunt pheasants in the German countryside when his limousine collided with an army truck; his neck was broken in the accident, and he died less than two weeks later. 5. Una drew a circle to symbolize a hug.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R 1. Box 36 10/5/45 Dear Bennett: Robin signed the Theatre Guild Contract—& they have,— For your own private inspection I will tell you the terms. $1500.00 advance royalty. The royalties are as follows 5% of first $5,000 weekly receipts 7½% on next $2,000 10% over $7,000 Unless produced before April 20th 1946, they lose their option. Adequate provision is made for contingencies of {his} having to go on to New York, etc. Robin is very adverse averse to going there & hopes to make any needed changes from here. Hastily— Una.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Judith called up from the south today —she is coming up here for two days next week to discuss some aspects of the play. R. 1. Box 36 should be put on our address as well as Tor House. So many changes in P. O. here. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page.

UJ to Bennett Cerf [October 1945] Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 Dear Bennett: Robin is typing Medea & I will mail you a copy within three days. He made a great number of changes & found it necessary to completely retype it. We think it would be fine to have it ready when the plan opens. Love Una. Judith was up here for three days —ten days ago. She is tremendously excited about the part ALS. Berkeley. 1 page.

UJ to Monterey Peninsula Herald Tor House, Carmel California. November 8, 1945. Editor, The Monterey Peninsula Herald. Dear Sir: 1 Referring to an article in last night’s Herald—“Inspectors can’t locate source of Point Odors.” Beginning in the fall of 1914, my husband and I walked the length of Carmel beach almost daily for many years. There were no houses anywhere

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

on the Point at that time, (except, of course, Reamer’s and Mrs. Well’s,2 far away on the south end overlooking the river mouth). From time to time in those early years we noticed an unpleasant odor near the cliff under Scenic Road close to Martin Way. We finally mentioned it to Mr. Devendorf, who said he had puzzled over it and had concluded there must be a sulphur spring which at times seeps out there. There was no possibility of sewage at that time. The nearest house was many blocks away—the Philip Wilson3 house at San Antonio and 14th. Sincerely, Una Jeffers. PL. Herald. 1. This letter was printed in the Letter Box column of the Monterey Peninsula Herald (November 10, 1945): 6. 2. Florence E. Wells (1864–1966), a president of the San Francisco Women’s Press Club, built her home on Scenic Road at Ocean Avenue in 1908. 3. Philip Wilson (1862–1944), a Carmel real estate agent and sports enthusiast, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He and his wife Laura May (Pearce) Wilson (1865–1962), a schoolteacher, moved from Texas to Carmel in 1905 and built their home on San Antonio Avenue in 1912.

UJ to Felicia Geffen Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 11/11/45 Dear Miss Geffen:1 Referring to your wire of the—29th Oct. I think, —re election of Robinson Jeffers to American Academy of Arts & Letters, —was there any hitch about this or did it happen? We have had no formal notification & are a bit puzzled.2 With best wishes, Sincerely Una Jeffers

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. A Academy. 1 page. 1. Felicia Geffen (1903–1994) was affiliated with the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters from 1941 to 1973, as assistant to the president and as executive director. After her divorce from Louis I. Brown, Geffen married Dr. George Heller (1906–1955), a microbiologist and Columbia University professor. Following his death, she married artist Stuyvesant Van Veen (1910–1988). Geffen and other officials are described in “Some Splendid and Admirable People,” an informative history of the institute and academy by Geoffrey T. Hellman, published in the “Profiles” section of the New Yorker (February 23, 1976): 43–81. 2. Jeffers had recently been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the elite (50-member) fraternity within the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Jeffers was already a member of the institute, having been elected in 1937. For information about the two-tier structure, see Jeffers’ January 13, 1937 letter to Henry Seidel Canby (Collected Letters 2: 648). According to a document in the academy’s archives, Jeffers was nominated by Van Wyck Brooks, Walter Damrosch, William Adams Delano, Robert Frost, Ellen Glasgow, Sinclair Lewis, Paul Manship, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Eugene O’Neill, Eugene Speicher, Chauncey B. Tinker, and Stewart Edward White. Another document, which indicates that five signatures were required for certification, has check marks beside the names of Frost, Glasgow, Lewis, Millay, O’Neill, and White. Sinclair Lewis, as spokesman for the group, submitted the following statement: “I wish to nominate Robinson Jeffers to the Academy as a poet of the greatest international fame and lasting accomplishment whose election will do honor to the Academy and whose position as a creative artist gives him a sounder claim on us than even the most admirable of scholarly researchers.” Upon election, Jeffers was assigned Chair Twenty-Eight—held by artist Edwin Austin Abbey and sculptor Herbert Adams prior to Jeffers, and writers Lillian Hellman, Erskine Caldwell, and William Styron after him. Senator J. William Fulbright delivered the keynote address at the May 17, 1946 annual meeting and induction ceremony in New York, which Jeffers did not attend. In a prototypical display of what soon became standard Cold War rhetoric, Fulbright used the occasion to chide isolationist Americans who sought peace in the world at any price, and to declare his position on foreign and domestic policy: “. . . it is highly important that all the world know that while we do not seek war, yet we are willing and able to fight whenever we believe any power threatens the right and opportunity of men to live as free individuals under a government of their own choice.” See “Fulbright Warns of Soviet Attitude,” New York Times (May 18, 1946): 7.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 11/12/45 Dear Mabel: I am having a sweet lazy day for once in a way. It is stormy & I am sitting up in bed with letters & sewing & some Irish archeological books on the bed. Robin close by—he comes in to turn on the radio for news. (that {news}— twice a day!) & brings a cup of hot coffee. Tomorrow I have a very heavy day at the Fort & tonight I have to go to a play Teddie is producing1— otherwise everything is free! —The black clouds & sea birds & waves are the wonderfulest sight in the world. And a south wind. Garth was supposed to be home a month ago but is still with tens of thousands of others awaiting transportation huddled in cold leaky huts while our precious dock-strikers play around in New York. ♦ Garth was in Germany {for} the last three weeks or more of the war & has some battle stars. He was in a combat M. P. Bn. & had a lot to do with defense of bridges. Later, after V-E day he went down to Bavaria with Patton’s Third Army. He really liked Munich & picked up a lot of German—to judge by his letters. Young Lloyd Tevis was stationed {Laboratory Technician} at a big General Hospital in Dorset for over a year, near my friend Peacock, {who has a country house in Wilts} Now he is discharged & will be home soon. He has been visiting Donnan—was there on the boys’ birthday Nov. 9, which is nice & homey. Lloyd wrote me from there that he has never been very fond of babies but lost his heart to Donnan’s two—they are so gay & jolly but Well-Behaved! For a time it seemed as if we might have ♦ Patty & the babies here for a while as Donnan’s heart murmur seemed to have disappeared & he went before his Draft Board— however they found it at last & turned him down. He wanted his family to stay at Tor House & Robin & I had it all planned. Robin was cutting paths through our woods to walk the babies —& I began rearranging cupboards & closets— Queer Donnan should have not been

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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in it—he is the only one of all the dozens of young men I knew, who was interested in military affairs. Neither here at home nor at Ft. Ord have I yet met any soldier except the professional ones who has any enthusiasm about this war. I hope to finish up my Red Cross work at the end of the year. But I shall feel like a quitter if I do. Our Surgical Dressings & Motor Corps have folded up but the Nurses Aides, Production, ♦ Gray Ladies & Staff Assistants {(mine)} are as busy as ever. I have put in over 3000 hrs. & wish now to indulge myself—but someone will have to do the work! I daresay I have told you we do the Banking & Telegrams & Mail business for the Ambulatory cases. {in the Hospital.} (Sometimes $10,000.00 a month.)— Medea will probably be produced in Jan. {at least} Judith thinks thats the date. The contract the Guild signed set Apr. 20. as the ultimate date {for production} after which date they would forfeit their advance royalties given us. Under certain circumstances (need for changes etc) we will have to go on to N. Y. Robin looks upon the idea with horror except that we can {could} visit Donnan. Gabrielle says that someone told her that St. Teresa house has been sold & to some person Gabrielle probably knows, but the informer could{nt} remember who ’twas {’twas}. Who is it—do I know? I felt really sad to ♦ hear the Big House was up for sale {Is it sold yet?}—a lovely place but keeping it up & properly properly staffed seems a terrible burden. Perhaps already easier now—but its been very difficult here to get any help, & carpenters & plumbers have gotten such a habit of looking down their noses if you asked them to do anything that I cant imagine them performing with alacrity, ever again. Houses no matter how big or little sell here for enormous prices. The place is filled & {with} army & navy. Generals’ wives & Admirals’ wives & G. I. Joes’ wives. They came to wait, & {but} say, now, they’ll never leave. Horrors, but we cant see any of them if we stay in our own place. Sally Boke & children2 have been here for some weeks. She tried to get a house here but couldnt. I hear that she is planning to live in Berkeley or near there.3 She stayed with Dick’s mother & sister here.4 ♦ We had lunch with the Durhams at Noëls lately. They were staying over

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

the weekend— You know Henriette Goodrich. They are so much in love & so congenial & so openly proud of each other that it is heart-warming. He was head of the Eng. Dep’t. at Berkeley, f but has resigned that & goes in only a few times a week to give a few courses he is particularly interested in. (Shakespeare & contemporary {to Sh.} drama) She did a lot of work at the Univ. last year in {morbid} psychology, —looking toward the Rehabilitation of Soldiers which her daughter is working at & I believe she will soon, also. They sped away in a swank car in the late autumn sunshine wreathed in smiles!5 Noël is now in N. Y. for a fortnight. The {atomic} bomb is fantastic but at present it seems as if people are indulging themselves tossing the ideas & terrors about it around. While they are shocking each other about it they feel rather free of need to help the ulcerous person on their doorsteps. How ♦ interesting if we could harness the thing for work, but if it is likely to knock the whole world to bits, what of it? We have always been schooled to believe this planet will end somehow—cool off or collide with some big meteor—. I can’t think this bomb would hurt much more than the other ways. Greetings to my Taos friends—how are Brett & Frieda & Marina & the Lockwoods & Kikers & Spud, & Myron, everyone, & Miriam—did she marry Arch or did {Sister?}6 Did you read a novel by Harry Sylvester about Taos & folks there & Penitentes. I think the name was “Day Spring.” Who is he? I read it.7 Jaime lives alone down the coast now very drunk & dirty, most of the time & often completely demented. Nancy & daughter8 live in Berkeley. Jaime has gone very native &, I am told, cast all his belongings & kitchen utensils (except one jack-knife) into ♦ the cañon. I am told it is a terrible sight to see him out fumbling around among the horses & they push him over. I think there are {certain} old settlers there go from time to time to see whether he is lying trampled, or to take him a loaf of bread. Lately Sam Trotter9 took him a pigeon he had just shot & Jaime grabbed it & tore it apart and ate it raw. Lots of love. Una

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Van Wyck Brooks & wife are just back here for the winter again. Such unusually nice people, an amusing combination—she especially, of old Bostonese & present day leftist direction. They were married here in Carmel in 1911 & lived first in that wee log cabin that Robin & I lived in when we came in 1914. Hamilton Jeffers flew down & took us a-flying in one (of his 2) planes a few Sundays ago. He was in the Aleutians, then in consultation at Boston Tech. & then India for 18 mo. attached to army. {Science} He is black as a Negro, hair white as snow, teeth flashing white! We hadnt seen him for 3 yrs. He is back at observatory10 ALS. Yale. 8 pages. 1. Teddie Kuster directed and acted in a revival performance of Sidney Coe Howard’s They Knew What They Wanted at the Carmel Playhouse (Monday evenings, November 5, 12, and 19). He first staged the play in 1927 at the Theatre of the Golden Bough. 2. Richard and Sally Boke had two children, Richard (b. 1932) and Sara (b. 1936). 3. The Bokes divorced; both eventually remarried. 4. Grace Boke and Marian (Boke) Taylor Todd. 5. Henriette de Saussere (Blanding) Goodrich (1891–1973), widow of attorney Chauncey Goodrich, was a director of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the San Francisco Symphony, and a trustee of Mills College. She married Willard Higley Durham (1883–1955) in 1941. Durham began his teaching career in English at Yale University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in 1909. He taught and held a number of adminstrative positions at the University of California, Berkeley from 1921 to 1953. Publications include Critical Essays of the Eighteenth Century (1915), Pope as Poet (1934), and British and American Plays: 1830–1945 (1947). After Durham died, Henriette married his friend and colleague Benjamin Lehman. 6. Of the friends Una names—Dorothy Brett, Frieda Lawrence, Marina Dasburg, Ward and Clyde Lockwood, Henry and Kathleen Kiker, Spud Johnson, Myron Brinig, Miriam Hapgood Dewitt, Arch Kepner, and Sister (Patricia Smith)—only the Lockwoods and Kepner have not been mentioned in previous letters. John Ward Lockwood (1894–1963), a painter, and Martha Clyde (Bonebrake) Lockwood (1892–1969) lived in Taos. Arch Kepner (1915–1949), Mabel’s friend and one of her guests in Taos, was an announcer and continuity editor at radio station WQXR in New York. 7. Harry Sylvester (1908–1993), a novelist and short story writer, explored religious themes in Dearly Beloved (1942), Moon Gafney (1947), and other works, but he eventually renounced his Roman Catholic faith and abandoned his craft. Visits to New Mexico inspired Dayspring (New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1945), a novel about Spencer Bain, an anthropologist who under-

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

goes an identity crisis while conducting research on a group of Penitentes. The novel takes place in Tarale, a fictional village based on Taos, where the decadent Anglo community is ruled by Marsha Senton, a wealthy, overbearing, and meddlesome woman modeled after Mabel. Bain, who feels pity and contempt for Senton, sees in her countenance “a nameless kind of wanton desire for sensation and shock: any sort, any thing, not unlike the undiscerning, tasteless, and blank maw of the shark.” 8. Guiomar “Gui” de Angulo (b. 1927), a poet and writer. Gui tells her father’s story in Jaime in Taos: The Taos Papers of Jaime de Angulo (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1985) and The Old Coyote of Big Sur: The Life of Jaime de Angulo (Berkeley, Calif.: Stonegarden Press, 1995). Writing as Gui Mayo, she published Selected Poems (2009) and other works. 9. Big Sur pioneer Sam Trotter died in 1938, so Una was referring to one of his sons— most likely Frank Alexander Trotter (1918–1989) or Walter Samuel Trotter (1920–1990), ranchers who lived near Jaime. 10. The last two sentences of the letter are written vertically in the right margin, page 8.

UJ to Felicia Geffen Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 11/15/45 Dear Miss Geffen: We received the announcement of R. J.’s election to the Academy today from Van Wyck Brooks. {(mailed here in Carmel)} He & his wife are here again for the winter. I fancy he expected to see my husband before this & hand it to him but we have been away & haven’t had a chance to look them up yet. Sorry to have bothered you. Sincerely Una Jeffers ALS. A Academy. 1 page.

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UJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Tor House. Nov. 24 [1945] Larry: Have you, by any chance, the cut of Robins photograph that faces the title page of both editions of your book?1 Several times I have had Ward Ritchie make a ½ doz. prints of it. Now he can’t find it & doesn’t seem even to remember which one I mean. I have just written again & referred to your book. I happen to remember now that it was lent to “The Silver Bough” & reproduced there. That was in 1941. {I wonder did they return it?} I would have sworn that I had prints made after that, but perhaps not. My time has been so confused these last years. That cut answers so well when I have to give someone a picture of R. & its my favorite, too, of any ever taken of him. Yrs. U. J. APS. Occidental. Postmark: November 24, 1945. 1. The first edition of Powell’s Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work was published in Los Angeles by Primavera Press in 1934. A revised edition was published by the San Pasqual Press of Pasadena in 1940. The frontispiece for both books is a 1933 studio portrait of Jeffers by Edward Weston. Jeffers is seated—facing right, leaning slightly forward—and holds a pipe in his right hand. A similar portrait made at the same time can be found in Collected Letters 2: 167.

UJ to Thomas Brumbaugh Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 11/26/45 Dear Pvt. Brumbaugh:1 There isn’t any scrap of ms. available at the moment—perhaps later there will be something. It has been our intention {& practice} to keep the ms. of each book intact & together—that is why there are no stray bits lying about the house. Our son—one of our twin sons—arrived in New York today. He was in the last battles in Germany, & then for months in Munich. He has been

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

in the service since a few days after Pearl Harbor. We are in a state of great excitement as we haven’t seen him since he came in from the Pacific close to two years ago. The best of luck to you & thanks for writing.2 Cordially Una Jeffers ALS. Long Beach. 1 page. 1. Thomas Brendle Brumbaugh (1921–2011), a combat soldier during World War II, collected autographs and manuscripts. He obtained a Ph.D. in art history from Ohio State University in 1955 and taught, for most of his career, at Vanderbilt University. 2. Brumbaugh had written to Jeffers previously. In addition to this letter from Una, the California State University, Long Beach archives contains a handwritten copy of a poem by Jeffers, “Love the Wild Swan.” The manuscript is inscribed “—Copied for Thomas Brumbaugh, with best wishes, and thanks for your letter. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. Tor House, Carmel, California. September 21, 1943.”

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California R 1. Box 36 11/28/45 My dear Saxe: I will set down a list of Robin’s books. He says leave out any you wish. I ought to have answered your letter before but Robin, who is apt to take a very negative view of circumstances, doubts even yet the production of Medea (& would almost prefer just to have the advance royalties & let it go—if his coming on to New York is insisted on,—& having to deal with whimsical stage bodies.) So he gets jittery at your beautiful setting up of Medea & wonders—if it shouldn’t come off could {you} use usethe set-up in his next book? You must decide on all that. He wishes to dedicate it thus (if it is produced) “To Judith Anderson, for whom this was written.” I suppose you noticed that Robin was elected to the American Academy of A & L.

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We are excited today. Garth has just arrived in N. Y. He has been in the war—out in the Pacific & in Europe since a few days after Pearl Harbor. ♦ Love to you. Una Tamar & Other Poems Roan Stallion, Tamar & Other Poems The Women at Point Sur Cawdor & Other Poems Dear Judas & Other Poems Descent to the Dead Thurso’s Landing Give Your Heart to the Hawks Solstice & Other Poems Such Counsels You Gave to Me Selected Poetry Be Angry at the Sun

1924 1925 1927 1928 1929 1931 1932 1933 1935 1937 1938 1941 U. J.

ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages.

RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp Tor House, Carmel, California. December 5, 1945. Dear Timmie: Yes, I will accept the charge, though the office of “Chancellor” seems a little heavy to bear. Your approval of the business means very much to me, and certainly Mrs. Bullock’s devotion and energy are splendid. Also I like the list of names, McLeish, Max Eastman and so forth, —it shouldn’t be hard to come to an understanding with such men.1 Personally, I think $5000 a year is a little extra, even for this inflation. I hope the fortunate poets will not form expensive habits.2

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

We are so happy to hear from you—always. Won’t there be another book of poems soon? I’ve told you before what I think of your work. I enjoy your poems more than any others of this time, particularly for clear sharpness of imagery, and for ascetic intelligence. Love to you and Maud, from Una and me. Garth has just arrived in California, and we are going to S. F. to fetch him home, —to-morrow probably. Isn’t that delightful? Yours, Robin. I used a bad pen and it sticks in the paper—therefore this crabbedness. ALS. Yale. 1 page. 1. A board of chancellors was established by the Academy of American Poets in 1945 (with a 1946 activation date). Board members were expected to represent the academy at public events and to serve as consultants for activities and awards. Jeffers held the position from 1946 to 1956. 2. In April 1946, the board of chancellors awarded the first Academy of American Poets Fellowship ($5,000) to Edgar Lee Masters. Subsequent winners during Jeffers’ years as a chancellor were Ridgely Torrence, Percy MacKaye, E. E. Cummings, Padraic Colum, Robert Frost, Louise Townsend Nicholl and Oliver St. John Gogarty (joint award), Rolfe Humphries, and William Carlos Williams.

RJ to Mary Gleason and Margaret Carson Tor House, Carmel, California December 7, 1945. Miss Mary Gleason,1 Margaret Carson,2 New York My dear Miss Gleason: Thanks for your note of November 24, asking about my present and prospective occupations. Recently I have been making a free adaptation of the Medea of Euripides, which the Theatre Guild plans to produce this winter, with Judith Anderson taking the title role. My publishers—Random House,—expect to bring it out as a book about the same time. Meanwhile I have been writing a narrative poem called “Rene Gore,”3 and LETTERS 1940– 1962

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many shorter pieces, which together will make a book to be published in due time, —probably next fall. I hope to add something to the book before that. There is nothing else to record. No doubt you have Who’s Who, etc., for past history. I have stayed strictly at home since 1941, and published only a few occasional pieces. Probably in 1947, when the congestion clears, we shall make another visit to Ireland and England. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. A Academy. 1 page. 1. Mary Gleason (1914–2002), a graduate of Smith College and Columbia University, taught at the American University of Beirut and worked as a research writer for Time magazine and other publications. As a temporary employee of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she helped collect public relations information. She later married Dr. Frank Ciancimino of Nyack, New York. 2. Margaret (Klein) Carson Ruff Sherrod (1911–2007) earned degrees from the University of Toledo and Ohio State University. Known professionally throughout her career as Margaret Carson, she handled press relations for the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Metropolitan Opera, and a number of private clients, such as Leonard Bernstein, Benny Goodman, and Michael Tilson Thomas. 3. “Rene Gore” was a provisional title for The Love and the Hate, the first section of The Double Axe. In the published version of the poem, Rene Gore’s name is changed to Reine Gore.

RJ to Van Wyck Brooks Tor House, Carmel, California December 16, 1945. Mr. Van Wyck Brooks, Secretary, American Academy of Arts and Letters. Dear Van Wyck: In conversation with you I spoke of my gratitude for election to the Academy, and now will you let me repeat the expression to you as Secretary, in the hope that you will convey my thanks to our President, Mr. Damrosch,1 and our fellow-members. I look forward to meeting them whenever it becomes possible.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Membership in this distinguished body is an honor that I appreciate highly, and wish to be worthy of it. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Pennsylvania. 1 page. 1. Walter Damrosch (1862–1950), a conductor and composer, persuaded Andrew Carnegie to build Carnegie Hall as a home for the Oratorio Society of New York and the New York Symphony Society. Damrosch led the Oratorio Society from 1885 to 1898 and the Symphony Society from 1898 to 1928. He gained nationwide attention with his Music Appreciation Hour, an NBC Radio music education program designed for children. Damrosch was president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters from 1937 to 1941 and president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters from 1941 to 1948.

UJ and RJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 12/18/45 Dear Saxe: Will you kindly ask the mailing department to send me five copies of R. J.’s “Selected Poetry” & charge to author’s account. I’m addressing you instead of it directly as I wanted to say {to you} that a soldier in Letterman Hospital{—San Francisco} wanted Robin to autograph “Selected Poetry” for him & he had to send out-of-the city to get the book after asking at three bookstores in San Francisco in vain. Have you an agent there who might call the book to their attention? I don’t know what bookstores the soldier visited but I do know that Paul Elder’s—one of the best known around the bay was guilty of the following— I went into the store one day in 1937 to buy a copy of a vol. of Yeats & when I couldn’t locate it or any Yeats in the Poetry Dept. I asked a clerk to get it for me & she said “We do not stock any Yeats.!” Possibly they have gotten around to doing so, now. Judith Anderson telephoned a few days ago in a dither from Hollywood about Medea. She thinks the Guild are now trying to hurry & put it on without the proper preparation ♦ as they have, she says, had two flops & now LETTERS 1940– 1962

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want to get on with something else. The theatre business is very tricksey! Judith is very eager to have it right—for her {own} sake {as well as ours.} Garth is here with us—in fine shape. Our best holiday greetings to you— & to Bennett & all there Affectionately Una. Enclosure—a slight alteration in the last lines of Medea which Robin begs you to attend to. ♦ 1 . . . But I, a woman, a foreigner, alone Against you and the force of Coringth, have gripped you throat for throat, evil for evil. Now I go forth Under the cold eyes of the weakness-despising stars; —not me they scorn. (She goes out of sight behind the right door-jamb, following the dead children. Jason stumbles up the steps to follow her, and falls between the two flickering lamps. The door remains open, the light in the house is mostly extinguished. A music of mixed triumph and lamentation is heard to pass from the house, and diminish into the distance beyond it. ALS. Berkeley. 3 pages. 1. Jeffers repeatedly revised the ending of the play, as Tim Hunt explains in Collected Poetry 5: 735–741. As a result, the script for actors published by Samuel French in 1948 is different from the trade edition published by Random House in 1946, and neither is exactly like Hunt’s version in Collected Poetry 3: 197.

RJ to Van Wyck Brooks Tor House, Carmel. December 23, 1945. Dear Van Wyck: These are distinguished poems, clear, musical and deeply felt. One is happy to listen to such a voice in the present hubbub of the world. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

—I am afraid this dull statement is worthless for any purpose; I have read the book carefully and cannot do better, though I should like to. It was wise of you not to come here the other day. My cold has been merely uncomfortable, but there is always a chance of contagion. We are going to Bakersfield over Christmas, and I should be rid of it when we return—Thursday or Friday—I hope to see you soon after that. Yours, R. J. ALS. Pennsylvania. 1 page.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 12/29/45 Darling Blanche: Indeed we made good cheer with the bottle you sent us via Mary Jepp & blessed Blanche & Russell for remembering us! We have been busy & happy & exhausted with Garth’s abounding vitality like a whirlwind in the house. I spent long hours in absorbing all his bags of queer objects, which ran the gamut of things as unlike as a wee wee padlock he had picked up in a chateau {house near Duisberg}, off a broken writing desk, (I had been wailing for years for just such a one to long {lock} this little built-in cupboard by the fireplace where I keep my {ivory} chessmen!) to a terrific gun, like a sub-machine gun with some terrific sights to it & I {a} long dagger—, home-made with such a point & such an edge that a new-born babe, even, could do murder with it! Well, & a two months collection of dirty clothes most of which I washed here at home, & a stone from Berchtesgaden & many other oddities. He had, already, about six big suitcases upstairs {relics of cowboy & mining days} & these we emptied out again to ♦ discover what was in them of immediate importance & everything was!—in his eyes. & then glory be all of his suits were taken out {from his closet} & inspected & not a moth-hole in any. (I don’t know how many LETTERS 1940– 1962

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times Robin & I had taken them out into the sunshine.) Very many of his friends found nothing to put on when they got home —the Tevis boys were loud in their complaints & practically not a suit to be bought in S. F. But one & all they shed their uniforms the instant moment they crossed their thresholds & would have gone starko before putting them on again. I view with chagrin a frightfully expensive uniform Garth had made in S. F. & wore only four times. {& I handled over dozens of times in his absence!} He was not allowed to take it overseas being attached to a combat unit, but young Lloyd took his {made by same tailor} & wore it constantly. He was a laboratory technician in a big Hospital in Dorset. I think Garth has never been in such wonderful shape physically indeed Robin & I whisper to each other that perhaps his chest & arms are almost monstrous, for {as} he dashes in & out stripped to the waist exercising. He has a madness for weight-lifting. ♦ His waist & hips are as slender as Robins. He weighs 205. {On arriving} He telephoned us one morning {from S. F.} asking if we’d come up & fetch him home, so we went up & met him at the St. Francis1 at 12:30. He wanted us to go inup to his room, I held back a little, thinking of our return trip & {slow} elderly tires—all but one of them has gone 30,000 miles! Anyway we went up & I was touched to the heart as I always am by any tenderness from my boys. They love me well I know but look upon me as a woman of iron & seldom think of little thoughtful attentions because I never cared {perhaps had time} to think of them. Anyway he had a bottle of whiskey for cheer & his trinkets laid out on the bed in a manner to please my eye. We talked until 4:30 without noticing the time. Then we started & he said he had to stop at Finnegan’s 2 on So. 12th— It was to buy a tremendous W weight-lifting apparatus—! R & I groaned {quietly.} He is at the Tevises big place, Stockdale, near Bakersfield until Sunday—& thats how I happen to have time to write {at any length.} ♦ Robin & I were there, too, over Christmas for four days. A big family house party, fourteen staying & many others coming & going. I think we have been their guests for 18 yrs. at Christmas (with one exception) It is terribly gay. They play all day & night with the mindless abandon of children. Pool, badminton, cards, {shooting} gathering mushrooms, excursions here & there.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Robin kept to his room a good deal on one excuse or another. I must say I would have gladly omitted this jaunt but of course Garth was delighted. He is like a son of the house there, as young Lloyd is with us. I truly have felt anything but gay in spite of boundless thankfulness for Garth’s presence. What odds & ends he lets fall about conditions in Europe are appalling! The misery & hunger, & cold, & the really innate animal ferocity in every human being, regardless of race! I think he dislikes the Poles almost the most. They are causing the most trouble—won’t go back to Poland if they can help it & cause all the trouble they can in Germany {in Bavaria where he was 4 mo.}. (My Scotch magazine contains each month horrible diatribes against the Poles. They are utterly sick of them in Edinburgh. This is just a little amusing if you remember how Charlotte described the congeniality of Scots & Poles) ♦ Garth is the last person in the world to bother about races but says now that he’d never given Jews a thought until he got into the army where invariably they were the most undesirable men in the ranks—pushing to get supplies, —if there was almost no hot water—the Jews got all there was & equally so with other necessaries that were scarce. They bought (or took) & {re-}sold everything they could lay their hands on & lent out money at shylocky rates of interest. Garth was extremely surprised to see how they went on. Said he’d do anything to avoid being cooped-up with them anywhere, again. Garth speaks German very fluently & keeps Robin beating his brains. He says that {at the start} he was very reluctant to be in the Military Police branch of the service but thinks now that if he had to go back into the service he would choose that first because of its interest. It is interesting to observe the way the returned men have thrown themselves into their life here. At Stockdale there were Garth & Lloyd, Jr, whose service I’ve told you, & Dick a Lt. in Signal Corps, in France & Belgium & Germany. He also served a year in Syria & Africa in an {American} Ambulance Unit with the English before we entered the war & ♦ Willie Tevis (uncle to Lloyd {Jr} & Dick) who was a cavalry major in charge of a hundred li miles of coastline north of S. F. Not one word connected with the war passed their lips. They seemed not to have a bit of interest in

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each others experiences except Willie once, I said “And are you out of it?” & he said “As of tonight, my dear, as of TO-NIGHT!!” (the end of his terminal leave). Americans really loathe looking forward to messing around with world politics & colonies, I think. I had a thrilling meeting at a cocktail party with a newly married pair, (ten days ago they married {in Reno})—the Villiers-Stuarts.3 I had been asked to talk to them—Irish folk. I had such an excitement when it turned out that she was {had been} the wife of Lord Hemphill a relative {& heir} of Edward Martyn who owned {the} Tillyra Castle that Yeats, Geo. Moore & Arthur Symons wrote about so much. In June 1929 Lord Hemphill took us all over the place (its out in Galway near Gort) & he had been so amused when I asked to see the black marble pillars & the old Spanish fireplace from Kinvarra Castle & the organ on which Martyn played Palestrina! all familiar to me. He had sold the organ. The place was terribly run down & he said he was desperate about it as Martyn had left him the place (entailed) & no money. {to keep it up.} He left his money to various causes—one the great Palestrina choir in Dublin Cathedral. We met Lady Hemphill whom I described in our journal as a “beautiful fair young American—& very nice”! & ♦ this Mrs. Villiers-Stuart was she! Isn’t that odd? You would think so if you knew in what a remote spot Tillyra is situated. I never actually knew anyone {except Gogarty} who knew the place. So I heard the rest of the story. She said she had for all these years lived on there with their son4 (now 17) & had put every cent of her own money she could lay her hands on into fixing up the place & the great park. (Some of the most enormous trees in Ireland are there). The boy loves it as much as she does & of course will inherit. Lord Hemphill was quickly fed up with the job & she said he had for many years lived almost entirely in Dublin. She loves to hunt (& I know the toughest hunting in Ireland is with the Galway hunt—if she’s stayed, she must be good!) so thats the way it was. Anyway her son brought home from school a boy his own age—the son5 of Villiers-Stuart & I gathered that she & V-S {met &} had loved each other for many years. In order to divorce they had to come over here. I thought of course of Rafe Coote’s case.6 It appears that a Reno divorce is not strictly legal over there but is recognized

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socially if you’re important enough {so Major Morgan tells me} & the V-Ss are a whole novel above in a page & half. Hemphill is Catholic. She is not. ♦ I forget whether you knew Edward & Charis Weston. Separated.7 Connie & Martin expect to marry in June, I believe, when her divorce from Galt is final.8 Wasn’t that an absurd set-up altogether. Anyhow they’ve had a wonderful six weeks in Guatamala feeling very much in love & abandoned {i.e. behaving with tremendous abandon,} & wic wicked and romantic. We are all delighted with their goings-on. We had cocktails at Noëls the other day, a party for Major Bowers9 who was back for a few days from Japan. He is McArthur’s10 interpreter & was with him when Hirohito came to call. What odd things everyone you see has been doing these days. By the way he is a tremendous admirer of McArthur Frieda Lawrence & friend Capt. Angelo Ravagli are here, trying very hard to get a house. I heard this morning they had taken the Achilles house (you remember the original Criley house—stone) with a lot of other people artistic & rowdy & bohemian & dirty. They were here for lunch the other day. They say Mabel is wild with boredom. None of her houses is sold yet. We had heard that one was. I miss you, dearest Blanche—I dont like to have our latter years lived so apart. What fun we had together in those old days! How carefree I felt & gay. I’m not very either now but very 11—sufficiently so to suit Robin’s pace. Devotedly, Una This letter has drawn out to a great length—so would you have the kindness to send {it} on to Maud & Timmie It will be weeks before I get clear of notes waiting to be done Dear love to all four of you.12 Tell Russell we will call at Tillyra on our Irish tour. Such a lonely spot. Yeats’ tower 2 miles away & Kilmacduagh one of the most interesting Round Towers 4 ~miles away~.13 ALS. Yale. 8 pages. 1. The St. Francis Hotel on Union Square in San Francisco. 2. The E. P. Finigan Co. of San Francisco, manufacturer of gymnasium and playground equipment. 3. Ion Henry Fitzgerald Villiers-Stuart (1900–1948), heir to the Dromana estate in County

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Waterford, Ireland, married Lady Emily (Sears) Hemphill (1901–1989), former wife of M ­ artyn Charles Andrew Hemphill, 4th Baron Hemphill (1901–1957), heir to Tillyra (also Tulira) ­Castle in County Galway. Emily was originally from Webster, Massachusetts, where her father was the president of a major shoe manufacturing business. Ion, who died suddenly in February 1948, was a landowner, social figure, and hunting enthusiast. 4. Peter Patrick Fitzroy Martyn-Hemphill, 5th Baron Hemphill (1928–2012). 5. James Henry Ion Villiers-Stuart (1928–2004). 6. Sir Coote, charging cruelty, filed for a divorce from his wife Alice in Reno, Nevada July 6, 1932, six weeks after establishing residency there. 7. The Westons divorced in December 1946. 8. After Connie and Martin Flavin separated in 1943, Martin’s attorneys discovered that Connie’s Mexican divorce from Galt Bell was not recognized in the United States; therefore, Connie and Martin had never been legally married. Their divorce proceeded, however, and was finalized in March 1945. To clear the record, Connie and Galt Bell filed for divorce in Los Angeles in April 1945, and their divorce was granted in July 1946. Connie and Martin did not remarry until February 1949. 9. Faubion Bowers (1917–1999), an American musician, linguist, and writer, was Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s aide-de-camp and interpreter in Japan from 1945 to 1948. As an admirer of Japanese art and culture, Bowers helped save kabuki theater in Japan when occupation authorities sought to ban it. Publications include Japanese Theatre (1952), The Dance in India (1953), and Scriabin (1969). From 1951 to 1966 he was married to writer Santha Rama Rau. 10. Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964), a supreme commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific theater during World War II, accepted the formal surrender of Japan on the deck of the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945. Thereafter, he worked with Emperor Hirohito (1901–1989) and other officials to rebuild Japan. 11. The rest of this sentence, the closing, and the signature are written vertically in right margin, page 8. 12. Written in top right corner, page 1. 13. Written in top margin, page 7.

RJ to Unknown [December 1945]1 (Answering questions about “Night”) 2 1. —He does not remember, except that it was not written in the tower. —Probably conceived the idea while out while out-doors, and wrote it at his desk in the house.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

2. —“To us the near-hand mountain Be a measure of height, the . . . cliff a measure of continuance. . .” He meant that our {our} minds get lost in thinking of stellar immensities; we cannot really grasp time space and time except in terms provided by the little planet we live on. He spoke of night as “secure” because she will always exist, on the dark sides of planets, and beyond the stars, and after the stars. But he says that the reader too makes a poem, and you have a perfect right to find things in it that the author perhaps did not consciously think of. ♦ The reader of a poem makes the poem and has a right to “squeeze in” ALD. St. Mary’s. 2 pages. 1. Jeffers drafted this response to a query concerning “Night” (Collected Poetry 1: 114–116) on the front and back of a letter he received from Occidental College. The letter refers to an event that took place in the recent past (Occidental’s October 23, 1945 commencement program), so it was probably mailed to alumni in late 1945. 2. This line is written by Una.

UJ to Felicia Geffen

Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 January 13, 1945 [1946]1

Dear Miss Geffen: I realize with some horror that I never acknowledged, formally, the receipt of the gold Key & Button, by my husband. As you know, Van Wyck Brooks is living here at present & they have talked over Academy matters on several occasions. I thought all was attended to. However today in clearing my desk I note that you ask acknowledgement of receipt. My excuse our son is home after four years service in {the} Pacific & in Europe. We can’t think of anything but that just now. Sincerely, Una Jeffers. ALS. A Academy. 1 page. 1. Though Una dates this letter 1945, it was written in 1946. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Van Wyck Brooks January 22. [1946] Dear Van Wyck: I am sorry—this was written long ago, but it seems impossible for me to get a note sent off:— —A poet of originality and power, a writer of distinguished prose, and a persuasive speaker, MacLeish is also notable for public service of various kinds. I am sure that he would be a valuable member of the Academy.1 —Is this satisfactory? Please amend it in any way that occurs to you. Sincerely, Robin. Jeffers ALS. Pennsylvania. 1 page. Postmark: January 22, 1946. 1. Archibald MacLeish, a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters since 1933, had been nominated for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1940, but he was not elected. In 1946, with Jeffers as his principal sponsor and endorsements by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Carl Sandburg, Robert Frost, and others, he was nominated again. Voting occurred later in the year; see Jeffers’ November 12, 1946 letter to the academy.

UJ to Ella Young Tor House. Carmel. California 1/24/46

My Dear Ella: You were kind indeed to send me the Gogarty book.1 Thank you very much. We often think & speak of you. Frieda & Angelino are here for the winter & Mabel is talking of coming. Frieda and A. are in the stone house on the cliff, the Achilles house. Mollie & John lived there for a year once after they sold their house. Its near the edge of Pt. Lobos property. Love to you, Una.

APS. GL Historical. Postmark: January 24, 1946. 1. Oliver St. John Gogarty, Perennial (Baltimore, Md.: Contemporary Poetry, 1944)—a collection of poems. The book remains in the Tor House library, inscribed “Una Jeffers from Ella Young, 12 Jan 46.” 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1 Box 36 1/31/46 Dear Larry: Yes I think Robin will be on hand {in March} to read from his work & perhaps comment a little as he did in the east. Can you tell us how long a time will be allotted him? Of course knowing Robin as you do you can guess he’d say the shorter the better. I believe he covered an hour in his appearances at the Lib. of Congress & Harvard etc. I myself think {that} three-quarters of an hour {is} long enough to listen to a poet reading from the platform, perhaps even that is too long unless all the audience are real enthusiasts. A short sharp impression better than a long attenuated one. I hate to burden you as I know you’re busy but if you could manage getting that photo business {done} I’d be glad—have the cut made & given to Ward1 for a dozen reproductions. Have them send the bills to me. There isnt any good firm around here to do the job. ♦ Robin has felt rather rotten for a month with {a} flu bug that has flourished around here characterized by relapses. Garth got home from Germany & is in superb condition. His last four months were in Military Gov’t in Bavaria, mostly Munich. He speaks German excellently well & keeps Robin on tip-toe recollecting his. I don’t know when “Medea” will be produced. The Guild paid us good advance royalties which they will forfeit if it is not in production by Apr. 20. Random House will publish it shortly.2 Robin corrected proof at Christmas time. Greetings from Robin Faithfully Una. Did you get a glimpse of Remsen? —he went down to have his portrait painted. I think he is feeling much refreshed from {by} his rest up here. ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Ward Ritchie.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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2. Jeffers’ Medea: Freely Adapted from the Medea of Euripides was published by Random House April 16, 1946.

UJ to Phoebe and Hans Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 2/1/46 Darling Phoebe & darling Hans: I’d like to know all about you & your affairs! I’ll give you a quick survey of ours. Garth got home before Christmas—he is in the most superb condition— simply radiates well-being & strength. He was for several months in Military Gov’t in Bavaria—mostly Munich after the last battles in the north—{where} his combat MP. Bn. was concerned particularly with defending bridges. He speaks a ready, fluent German (not always strictly {strictly} grammatical!) & keeps Robin on tip-toe recollecting his. He also confounds us with Bayrish dialect—a perfectly awful one as you know. Like many another returning soldier he likes the Germans a lot better than he does the French or Poles or Russians or even our English cousins. Our friends hate to hear that. Donnan & Patty & their two little girls are fine (the younger one has red hair like my Scotch Grandfather Lindsay.) Young Lloyd Tevis stopped to visit them on his way home & ♦ his reports made us quite content. Garth stayed a week with them on his way to Europe but couldnt stop on his return, as he flew out. We three went down to Stockdale, the old Tevis place near Bakersfield for a few days over Christmas, a big party {of 12} staying & lots more coming & going. Very very gay. Robin kept his room a good deal on the pretext of correcting proof. Holidays are like poison to him! Besides he has been fighting this prevalent flu thing for weeks & weeks, never very sick but feeling tired & lacking energy & coughing. But he is pulling out of it. I finished up my Red Cross work Jan 23. (at Ft. Ord) & yesterday received my decoration for 5,000 hrs. work! It was the only interesting thing that came out of the war, for me. but I neglected my home work a lot. I don’t know when Medea will be produced. The Guild gave us a fine advance 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

{royalty} which they forfeit if it is not in production by Apr. 20. Random House has it in print & it will be out soon. Garth has arrived for lunch. He has been cutting down some big trees at Pebble Beach All our love forever. Una. ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages.

RJ to Marie Bullock Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California February 4, 1946. My dear Mrs. Bullock: Thank you for your letter of December 11th, which should have been acknowledged long ago, —and I hope you will forgive me, I have a great difficulty in answering letters. But I do want to say that I admire your courage and devotion to the cause of American poetry; and it is an honor to serve on your board of Chancellors. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page.

RJ to Hugh Bullock Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. February 4, 1946. Mr. Hugh Bullock, Secretary, The Academy of American Poets, New York. Dear Mr. Bullock:1 Your letter of January 15th has been here for some days, and I am sorry not to have been able to think with assurance of any poet who seems to fulfil

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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the conditions of nomination for a fellowship. Yet I am sure there are many such—or at least a few—and I shall be much interested in considering the names and work that will be brought forward by others, and in helping to choose among them. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page. 1. Hugh Bullock (1898–1996), an investment banker, mutual funds expert, and author of The Story of Investment Companies (1959), was the president of Calvin Bullock, Ltd., a Wall Street firm founded by his father. Queen Elizabeth II named him Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1957 for his work as president of the Pilgrims of the United States, an Anglo-American fellowship society established in 1903. Bullock was an army officer in World Wars I and II, a hospital trustee, and an active member of charitable, educational, and cultural organizations—including the Academy of American Poets. He and his wife Marie had two daughters, Fleur and Fair Alice.

UJ to James Rorty Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 2/7/46 Dear Rorty: Occasionally as the years slip by, Robin says he must write several people—& you are one. But the moment never arrives. Writing a letter is still a torment to him. When we received your nice holiday greetings, he said “I like these lines better than any I’ve seen for a long time.” —Alas, he didn’t get any word put down on paper, though. I resolved to tell you our news & say we think of you. Our son Garth has been home from Germany now for a month or so. He is an enormous, husky fellow. He had been {in} the service since just after Pearl Harbor first in the Pacific, then in Europe. He is in fine shape & superb spirits. His future is not very plain yet. He was in Military Gov’t after the last battles of the war He liked it tremendously & would like to go back there in Civil Gov’t. How we adore having him home. ♦ 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Donnan was kept out of the war by a slight heart murmur. He married & has two adorable daughters & lives in Zanesville Ohio, in the firm of a great pottery works owned by his wife’s family for several generations. Did you ever know Robin’s brother the astronomer? He is just back at Mt. Hamilton after being connected with gov’t service as a scientist for 3½ yrs. first in the Aleutians and then India. I just got a 5,000 hrs. decoration for Red Cross work as chairman of staff assistance. Mostly at Ft. Ord. Rather strenuous. Robin is writing away busily. The fact that so many tragic & dismal things he long predicted came true doesn’t seem to cheer him much. Some months ago he made a very fine free adaptation of Euripides’ Medea. The Guild bought the rights to it & gave us a very generous advance royalty which they forfeit if it is not produced by Apr. 20. Judith Anderson as Medea. Carmel is growing prodigiously, alas. We are still protected by our land & trees but our taxes are very oppressive. This is just a wave of the hand. Cordially Una Jeffers ALS. Oregon. 2 pages.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 3/9/46 Darling Clapps: We had a most interesting evening yesterday. Charles Laughton is visiting Helen & Remsen Bird who live close by1 & he offered to read to us “Galileo”,2 the new play he will appear in in New York this fall, directed by Orsen Wells.3 He reads most marvellously well. Robin & I prefer to think of the play as a very dramatic & moving life-story of Galileo, but others see in it implications of atomic bombs, {etc} & of scientists of today under the domination of the military as then they were under the church. It is by a German named Brecht, LETTERS 1940– 1962

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long a refugee in Holland He is now in Hollywood & he & Charles wrestled out this translation during the last 18 mo. Charles thought none of his things had been done into English but Teddie brought back his “Die Dreigroschener Oper” from Germany twenty years ago & translated it as “The Thripenny Opera” & made a stunning production here at the Golden Bough. For “Galileo,” they propose a sort of planetarium setting—that should attract Maud. Around midnight he began to read ♦ some of those terrific old stories out of the Old Testament & enacted them—& later {some of} my favorite book of the ~Old Testament~ Ecclesiastes —that was very beautiful & moving ( & depressing to the optimists present.) I will tell you about Lucy Porter’s friends—do you know them at all? Maud Meagher & Caroline Smiley—they used to get out a little magazine {in Boston} “World Youth” dedicated to the bettering of conditions & relations of the youth of all the world! Lucy knew & admired them {there}—or at least one of them, M. M. They tried to settle at the Highlands here but were {would} not {be} allowed to set up their printing press. They built, then, at Los Gatos a big adobe house—one story {all} around a big patio {pavement & garden}.4 They lock the door to the patio & all is quiet & secure inside. They did most of the building of this house themselves during a period of 5 yrs. Incredible to think of, but they are amazingly energetic & capable. and {They} have had wide experiences in travel—Smiley lived 7 yrs. in India & saw a lot! Meagher lived in China & in the BChannel Isles & Cornwall & Constantinople etc. She is an er earnest amateur archeologist. They love Russia & what ♦ it stands for & can hear no wrong about it! The nicest place in the house is an enormous kitchen full of color & charm. Besides the electric stove there is also a large fireplace beside which they eat & sit in the evening. The big living room I imagine is never warm enough for comfort except in summer. They were lovely to us, {but} I must say in your ear that they are too high-thoughted & in too deadly earnest {& too all-for-art & uplift} to be quite perfect {suitable} companions for me. There is a little coterie of like-minded people in Los Gatos—the Menuhins, the Ballers, Sara Bard Field & the two men at Cathedral Oaks, Ingerson & Dennison, who see a great deal of

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

each other & have a nice time. Lucy seemed most happy & content there & quieter. When she is at her most active she exhausts me. Her intense interest & articulateness are hard to keep up with & she is really so keen—nothing escapes her eye. She was happy & busy pottering around, —doing her own room, making the toast, washing out her lingerie & towels. Everything about this house was spotlessly clean— to see the dish towels hanging in the kitchen all white as snow! That alone tells the tale. Lucy is a dear person as you know & we had several close little talks. Hamilton & she are going to Death Valley next week—motoring not flying so they can drive about {when they get there.} ♦ She said a comical thing about Hamilton. “For a silent person he is the worst listener I ever knew.” Garth is motoring across the continent with the Tevises to Dick T’s wedding in Boston.5 Lucy very generously said he could stay at Elmwood. The Tevises have had their accomodations at the Ritz for several months & it was doubted whether any could be gotten for Garth now. Frieda & Angelino are still here. We are all going to lunch at Noël’s tomorrow. Last Sunday Esther Fish had us up there & a very gay party. Frieda is at home & boomingly full of fun with everybody, —the above & also the untidy arty lazy Bohemians that circle {like hyenas} around anyone {here} in any way connected with the arts. Her nature is expansive enough to welcome all. So we have not seen as much of her as we might otherwise. Having spent a lot of thought on keeping clear of some of these creatures, I dont want to have them get at us now. Can you believe it, Miss Meagher has a unicorn horn {(narwhal of course)}. It is magical enough to break your heart! I never expected to see one outside of a museum. Certainly never to hold one in my hands. She bought it in a junk shop in a miserable part of London for 10/.6 Perhaps it {is the one Queen Elizabeth had.} I have a great bunch of asphodels in blossom, the most for many 7 years.— To look out & see them—& to see the golden pheasants strut about the courtyard, —thats magical too. I love you dearly. Your devoted Una.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Robin & I wonder very much whether the Catholics will allow this play to go on as is. Inquisition et cet. make one feel pretty sick. Also the Pope appears in person. —I doubt its being done.8 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. Postmark: March 9, 1946. 1. Laughton stopped by Tor House during this or another visit to Carmel. He includes a brief description of Tor House along with Jeffers’ poem “Boats in a Fog” in The Fabulous Country (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1962), an anthology of poetry and prose about America (pp. 160–161). Remsen and Helen Bird lived at the corner of Valley View and 16th Avenues. 2. Galileo, by German author Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956), opened at the Maxine Elliott Theatre on Broadway December 7, 1947 and closed December 14 after six performances. 3. Orson Welles (1915–1985), acclaimed for his 1941 hit film Citizen Kane, originally agreed to direct Galileo but later withdrew. The play was instead directed by Joseph Losey (1909–1984). 4. Maude Meagher (1895–1977) and Carolyn Dixon Smiley (1890–1960) were the editors and publishers of World Youth: Thrilling Adventure Stories and Authentic Tales from Distant Lands, a periodical for children. Meagher was also the author of White Jade (1930), The Green Scamander (1934), and other books. Working mostly by themselves from 1941 to 1946, the two built Casa Tierra, a large adobe home located at 15231 Quito Road, between Los Gatos and Saratoga, California. They describe their project in How We Built an Adobe House for World Youth (Los Gatos, Calif.: World Youth, 1950). Robinson and Una were overnight guests at Casa Tierra on Monday, March 4. 5. Richard Tevis married Vera Lee Thacher (1921–2000) March 23, 1946. 6. Ten shillings (in Britain’s pre-decimal currency). 7. The remainder of this paragraph, along with the closing and signature, is written vertically in the left margin of page 4. 8. Written vertically in the left margin, page 1.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 3/13/46 Dear Bennett: I return herewith your contract duly signed. Is the Medea book all bound? If it isn’t would it be possible to omit the dedication to Judith? (So in case she didn’t create the title role?) I 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

really don’t think it matters much, really. & she probably will. The Theatre Guild lose the $1500.00 {advance} royalty they advanced us if it is not in production by Apr. 20 (& in rehearsal by Mar 23.) All our conversation with them has been either through the Morris Agency or Judith & we have no idea what is happening & from what I’ve heard of the theatre probably we wouldn’t know even if we were accustomed to having a play produced. We had a letter from Sarah Rollitts1 of the Salkow Agency ♦ a few days ago saying she had a producer {& “prominent star”} who was eager to get hold of Medea, & what terms— Robin has had a bout with flu—not of a serious nature but he has felt rotten & I’m glad we hadn’t to go to N. Y. at present. Did you know he was made a member of the American Academy several months ago? Garth is motoring to Boston via the south to attend the wedding of Dick Tevis with Dick’s parents. He might call on you for a moment in N. Y. — but I doubt it. He keeps clear of Literature! Frieda Lawrence & her friend Capt. Angelo Ravagli have been here for the winter. She is hearty & amusing. Affectionately Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Sarah Rollitts, born Sarah Ralewitz in Canada in 1905, was an independent literary agent in New York, as well as a representative of the Salkow Agency in Los Angeles.

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California R 1. Box 36 3/16/46 Dearest Judith: Your letter came today. We were not surprised that the Guild had given up the production as we had heard nothing about rehearsals. What we

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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didn’t know was what kind of a struggle you were having with the whole thing. I should think you’d be heartily tired of it with all the pressure of your other work. But I hope you wont get too worn out to care about it! I believe the Guild loses its rights to the play if it is not in production April 20th & in rehearsal by March 23. —so in a few days now their option is over {(sorry blots!)} We have no intention of attempting to do anything about it ourselves—& wouldnt know how if we wanted to. Anything that happens to come up about it we will refer to Morris Agency & they should consult you. A few days ago a letter came from the Salkow Agency (by Sarah Rollitts) asking for a script & saying she had a N. Y. producer & “prominent star” who were very interested in it. I referred her to the Morris Agency. We are thrilled just to let our minds dwell on the set-up you had planned. Patience, my heart, I believe that some wonder- ♦ ful arrangement will yet be arrived at. I warned Random House some months ago that the Guild were very dilatory, but they went ahead with the printing of “Medea” anyway. & it will be out very soon now. Robin would have been content to save it to include in his next book. However perhaps the reading of it will create a favorable audience in advance. Love from us both. We appreciate fully all the work you’ve put into this project. Devotedly Una Messy blots! —I’ve just come in from raking leaves—my fingers are cold & awkward.1 ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Added in the top right corner of the first page, beside the address and date.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 3/19/46 Dear Saxe: Robin hasn’t had any good photographs for several years. I am sending you several cuts of the best photograph ever taken of him. It is so very like him &, besides, seems to show the inner man—what portrait painters go after. This photograph was taken by Edward Weston who recently (last month) had a show in New York that received most enthusiastic notices.1 It is my favorite of all the photographs ever taken of him. Several days ago when I returned a contract to Bennett, I told him all I knew about the situation of “Medea.” Perhaps you read the letter. Since then I had a long letter from Judith. She thinks {says} the Guild has abandoned the idea of producing it. —I think I shall enclose her letter which explains everything. Show it to Bennett & then return to me, please. I hope the book will sell anyway & the play get a proper production later. Garth, one of our twins, is in Boston to usher at the wedding of his friend Dick Tevis. He motored across with Dick’s parents. I wish he would stop in at Random House on his way through N. Y. C. He is rather 2 stunning! Best Love from Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. A retrospective survey of Weston’s work, featuring about 250 photographs, was on display at the Museum of Modern Art from February 11 to March 31, 1946. The exhibition was accompanied by an introductory booklet prepared by Nancy Newhall—The Photographs of E­ dward Weston (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1946). 2. This word is written vertically in the right margin, followed by the closing and signature.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Lewis Mumford Tor House, Carmel, California March 22, 1946. Dear Mr. Mumford:1 Our friend Remsen Bird mailed us the enclosed as he was leaving town for a fortnight, hoping we’d sign and return it to you.2 We have considered, and can’t sign it. I don’t believe the bomb particularly is a source of suspicion; the sources are deeper. Of course it is a wicked thing. We were fools to use it, and fools to advertise it; but now it is too late to renounce it. The Russians would neither believe us nor desist from their own effort. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 by Lyndon Johnson and the National Medal of the Arts in 1986 by Ronald Reagan for his contributions to American culture. He was the author of Technics and Civilization (1934), Values for Survival (1946), The Myth of the Machine (1967, 1970), and many other books. 2. As an opponent of atomic weapons, Mumford prepared and circulated a petition addressed “To the President and the Congress of the United States” that called for an end to the armaments race and for the eventual creation of a World Government—in order to “save mankind from an ultimate war of extermination.” Specifically, the petition states, American leaders should relieve immediate tensions and foster a spirit of international cooperation by halting the manufacture of atomic bombs, dismantling the bombs already created, submitting to “a complete system of United Nations’ inspection and control of atomic weapons and atomic energy,” and placing America’s stockpile of fissionable material under United Nations guard. Hoping to reach a nationwide audience with his message, Mumford published “Gentlemen: You Are Mad!” in the Saturday Review of Literature (March 2, 1946): 5–6.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 3/26/46 Dear Bennett: We are delighted with Medea. Everything about is right—even the jacket somehow expresses the book. There is a dark threatening look to the title Medea & a suggestion of Greek type—I can’t quite define it, & the temple—! I wish you {would} thank {all} of your Random House people {who worked on it} especially Saxe Commins who writes me grand little notes from time to time. Its all right about the dedication.1 Its likely that she will create the part. Anyway she & Jed Harris prodded Robin into doing it & its fine to have her on associated thus. Thanks for the check— & Robin will return today the signed contract about Thurso’s Landing in France.2 Affectionately—& hastily Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Medea is dedicated “To Judith Anderson for whom this was written.” 2. The Paris office of the William A. Bradley Literary Agency handled contractual ­arrangements for a French edition of Thurso’s Landing. See Jeffers’ letter to Julien Philbert, August 4, 1946.

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California R 1 Box 36 April 2. 1946 Dear Saxe: The book is beautifully done—I hope you saw the note I wrote Bennett. I wanted him to thank everyone in the office who worked on it. Binding, typography & jacket! Two days ago a sculptor who was here went across the room to pick the book off my desk saying “What a thrilling jacket—” not LETTERS 1940– 1962

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even knowing it was Robin’s book. The title looks so tragic & portentous!— Don’t worry if the blurb says the Guild is doing it1—someone else will be doing it shortly, as Luther Greene2 has taken an option on it with Judith in the title role. He has tremendous plans about it. —Stravinsky has promised to do the music— —I’ll tell you more about it soon.3 But we resolved from the start not to think too much about it. The stage is a torment I am told & Poetry is as much bother as we can deal with. ♦ Will there be more Selected Poetry forthcoming soon? Dr. Barkan here today from San Francisco tried three bookshops in town in vain—they said they couldn’t get more, & our Village Bookstore4 here said the same. I’ll send you news {as} soon as we hear about Medea. Morris Agency telephoned us today about it from Hollywood & were preparing the contract with the same terms as the Guild had. I wonder where the Guild were scared by Antigone which seems to have been rather messy?5 Love from Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. A note on the front flap of the book jacket states that “The Theatre Guild production of Medea in New York, with Judith Anderson in the title role, is a notable event of the 1946 theatrical season. Followers of Robinson Jeffers thus have an opportunity to see, as well as read, his most ambitious venture in drama in a setting and with interpreters worthy of his most eloquent work. Medea will, it is safe to predict, reaffirm Jeffers’ unique and unchallenged place among living American poets.” 2. Luther Greene (1909–1987), theater producer. For biographical information, see Una’s June 8, 1946 letter to him. 3. Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971), a Russian-born composer who became an American citizen in 1945, revolutionized modern music with The Rite of Spring (1913) and other compositions. Stravinsky did some preliminary work on the music for Medea, but he withdrew from the project when his financial terms were not met. See Stephen Walsh, Stravinsky: The Second Exile: France and America, 1934–1971 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006): 190, 612. 4. The Village Book Shop, formerly the Seven Arts Book Shop, was located on Ocean Avenue near Dolores Street in Carmel. Edith Griffin (1883–1966) purchased the shop from Herbert Heron in 1938 and managed it until 1951. 5. Jean Anouilh’s version of Sophocles’ Antigone, adapted by Lewis Galantiere and starring Katharine Cornell, opened in New York to mixed, mostly negative, reviews in February 1946.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Van Wyck Brooks Tor House, Carmel. April 18, 1946. Dear Van Wyck Brooks: I don’t remember whether we spoke while you were here of our friend Frederick Mortimer Clapp, but very likely you know him. If so, don’t you think he would be a credit to the Institute? Clapp is director of the Frick Collection (—and so forth—see Who’s Who if convenient) but he has produced some books of poems that I admire greatly, besides work of art-criticism. His poems will never be popular, but I think they are fairly unequalled at present for profundity of thought, precision of statement and variety of reference. He is also the best-educated man I know, and one of the most widely intelligent. It is late to make a nomination now and find seconders, but if you should be present at the April 26th meeting, perhaps you would be willing to suggest Clapp’s name for future nomination.1 We miss you here, and we hope you and Eleanor are well. Una joins me in sending love to you both, and wishing you here again. I had a nice note from T. Maynard,2 who says that he too once inhabited your and our log cabin! Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers.3 TLS. Pennsylvania. 1 page. Postmark: April 19, 1946. 1. Whether Clapp was officially nominated for membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters is unknown, but he was never elected. 2. Theodore Maynard; see Una’s letter to Zena Holman, January 6, 1949. 3. A handwritten draft of this letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 4/29/46 Darling Clapps: Blanche is at the Fairmont in S. F. I dont know anything about her illness as I haven’t heard directly from her since she was on her way to Coronado. Phoebe Barkan saw her & Russell at San Ysidro Ranch nr. Santa Barbara about the 12th of April & reported them both in fine shape. When she wrote me last they were not intending to go to S. F. until June 1, & then Peter Pan July 1—to end of Aug. —I dont know what their plans are now. Lucy {Porter} telephoned me from Los Gatos a week ago tomorrow & we had a farewell visit. I’m sorry she wasn’t so well the last few weeks of her stay out here. She got some ailment of the back—don’t know what— She said it was an old complaint which her own Dr. in Cambridge had dealt with before & she felt he would be able to help her again when she got home. She intended to go to Santa Barbara, Los Angeles each for a few days then to Chicago for a few days with Mrs. Carpenter.1 Lucy ♦ came down to Noël’s with Hamilton a fortnight ago, for lunch after which we inspected the ranch. Lucy was particularly interested in the goats, which She had never studied them close-up before. Yes, there is trouble in Donnan’s life & of course Robin & I have been much disturbed. I do not know whether the separation will be final. —Its all very queer—Patty suddenly declared (a few days before Garth got there) that she was tired of being married & wanted a divorce. Donnan was completely taken by surprise as were all of her {many} family connections there & her father out here in L. A. Everyone of the family stood solidly behind Donnan. She was not able to give any reason for her decision & there isnt any other man in her life. She chose a particularly cruel moment. Donnan has worked very faithfully at the {pottery} works works & was to have {had,} on April 1st, his salary doubled & retro-active to Jan. 1. (the salaries had been frozen during the war). Patty’s father had just bought a big handsome old house for them into which they were to move Apr. 12. & they

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

had spent days ♦ in plans for alterations etc. The last few months Patty has spent every waking hour collecting & buying & selling antiques! & honestly acts daft on the subject. Alas, she has made a fair amount of money out of this procedure & aims to make a career of it. Robin tells Donnan there is material for a good short story there—we’ve heard of almost every kind of alienation except because of an antique {shop.} Also she has {come into} a good allowance from the estate of her Grandmother Grant who just died2—& with the house & allowance & a fine old family colored servant from Grandmother Grant’s household (the servants up to now came & went speedily) she felt free to throw her weight around. The awful part is about the children. I have never known any man so utterly devoted to his children as Donnan Everyone spoke of it. Young Lloyd Tevis visited them a few {months} ago & talked to us about it. He says now when I ask him that the household then seemed happy as could be. Lloyd actually turned white with shock when I told him about the trouble. She {Patty} agrees that Donnan can have the children half the time—but of course the baby is only 18 mo. old & I ♦ think that is too young to be shuttled back & forth. If I have them I wshould much prefer to have them a year or more at a time & not 6 mos. —The Pottery works wanted Donnan to stay on in the office but he preferred to leave —so unless there is a reconciliation, he must now think of another career! He looked like a ghost when he arrived, but what with plenty of cod-liver oil etc & 7 or 8 hrs. work out doors a day {trimming trees} he begins to look very handsome again. {tanned and gained weight}. He is also busily re-writing a mystery story he started last year & isn’t actually having too horrid a time. He is remarkably self-controlled. Day before yesterday we had the flag hoisted on top the tower —Garth had arrived & we were all four together for the first time in nearly 5 yrs. The motor trip lasted just under 2 mos. & was done in very luxurious fashion with stays at Williamsburg, & Asheville & New Orleans & Taos! & various other places. Wasn’t Lucy kind to allow Garth & Maj Morgan (the other member of the Tevis party) to stay at Elmwood. Witter Bynner & Bob Hunt3 were here yesterday. They’ve been in Carmel 4 wks. {gay & well.}

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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No excuse for your Medea being held up. I am eager to hear your opinion {of it.} No immediate prospect of Ireland but I am making plans for it— I suppose it would be at least 18 mos. away even if we can af afford it then. I am enclosing 3 letters— Please return them after you’ve read as I wish to keep them. They will help you get a direct picture of the affair— I know you will be interested & troubled, too.4 Margaret Ingells is at Del Monte Lodge. I hear she looks so well. I haven’t seen her yet.5 Wasn’t it lucky Garth was a week in Z— & helped him over the bumps.6 I had expected to send you a Medea but in the confusion here—they all got away from me & no more copies yet7 AL. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Ellen (Mrs. John Alden) Carpenter. See Una’s March 1947 letter to Blanche Matthias. 2. Bessie Grant died December 17, 1945. 3. Robert Nichols Hunt (1906–1964) was the son of Pasadena architect Myron Hunt (1868–1952), designer of the Rose Bowl and other Southern California landmarks, and Harriette (Boardman) Hunt (1868–1913). Robert met Witter Bynner in 1930 and remained with him for the rest of his life. For biographical information and an account of his relationship to Bynner, see Who Is Witter Bynner? by James Kraft (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995). 4. Written in top right corner, page 1. 5. Written vertically in left margin, page 1. 6. Written vertically in left margin, page 3. 7. Written vertically in left margin, page 4.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 4/29/46 Dear Bennett: (1) Congratulations! We saw the notice about another son in your household.1

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(2) We have signed another contract for Medea—& the papers are in the hands of the Theatre Guild. {Dramatists Guild} for them to sign. Same advance as before. Its Luther Greene {of Hollywood} who has the contract with the understanding that he will negotiate for its production. (with Judith as Medea.) Theatre Incorporated is interested —I don’t know how it will come out. I will keep you informed (3) A word has been omitted on page 99 of Medea—fourth line from bottom—should be “Tell me at least. .” (“least” is omitted but the space is there) —can it be put in next edition {printing}. (4) Saxe C— asked me for recent pictures of Robin —there were none but I have some now & will send them as soon as glossy prints are finished. They are excellent. (5) Is it possible to hasten the copies of Medea out a little faster? The Village Bookshop tells me they rec’d only 10 of the 50 they ordered & [illegible] have lost many many sales. Today a letter {dated Apr. 25th} from Mrs. Frederick Mortimer Clapp 375 Park Ave. N. Y. C. says “We have not had ♦ our Medea although we ordered it as soon as we saw the notice in the Sunday Times. Why the delay?” Village Bookshop & S. F. {3 San Francisco} shops say they have been out of “Selected Poetry” for some time. (6) One of the best letters we have had about Medea is from Dr. Hazel Hansen, head of Greek Archeology at Stanford & professor of modern & ancient Greek {languages} She sent a whole typewritten page of appreciation which really means something. Her whole devotion is toward Greece {& Greek Literature} —She has lived there 12 times for months or a year at a time & has is a citizen of Skyros, where she has a house. She is already reading Medea with groups of students. Love from us Una ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Jonathan Fraser Cerf was born April 3, 1946.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 5/2/46 Dear Bennett: Congratulations to Random House for making such a beautiful book! We are so happy that Medea is one of the chosen four.1 We have noticed that even people who are rather insensitive about the makeup of a book are moved to comment on Medea’s outfit! It will be interesting to see how New York likes Yeat’s version of King Oedipus which the Old Vic company are is about to play in New York. there in repertory.2 Do you mind handing this on to the order department—I wish them to send me ten copies of Medea & charge to author’s account. Affectionately Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. In a letter to Una dated April 26, 1946 (TCC Berkeley), Cerf writes, “The book has just been chosen by the American Institute of Graphic Arts as one of the four most beautifully made books of the new season.” 2. London’s Old Vic Theatre Company performed five plays from May 6 to June 15, 1946 at the Century Theatre in New York. W. B. Yeats’ version of Oedipus Rex by Sophocles debuted May 20 in a double bill with The Critic by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Laurence Olivier (1907– 1989) impressed audiences with his back-to-back performances of doom-struck Oedipus in the tragedy and foppish Mr. Puff in the comedy.

UJ to Donald Klopfer Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 5/20/46 Dear Donald: Its nice to have a letter from you again—we feel a real friendship & affection for several of you there and it gives us a happy content with {in} 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

our connection with your firm. That being so, & being certain, also, that no one else could ever be as kind to us, I hate to dissent about anything, — however I must add (re your letter of May 6)1—that I do feel critical about Selected Poetry not being constantly available to our public. It is only a short time ago that it was {for} at least a year not available to booksellers—& now again! I know that shortages of various materials are at {a} great trial & exasperation, but I know also that pulpy best sellers are published in astronomical quantities. May I say that I feel very strongly that the very slow, but steady sale of {the work of} a man of genius should {deserves its} be{ing} available every moment—the best sellers would never k miss the small amount of material involved. It is important to us—that small steady sale & to our public. I think it would be only just, & perhaps merciful to think of that.2 I am enclosing a letter from Athene.3 Please send ♦ them a copy of Medea immediately. If your number of review copies are {is} exhausted, please charge to author’s account. The connection with {Greek} facultyies of universities & with a magazine of this calibre is important to us. For years Robin’s Tower beyond Tragedy has been constantly discussed & used in Greek Lit. classes & has evoked from time to time more intelligent comments than one hears from most sources. Affectionately Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Klopfer tells Una in a May 6, 1946 letter (TCC Berkeley) that “another edition of Selected Poetry will be coming through just as soon as we can get it bound. You wouldn’t believe that it would be possible to have as much pressure on the printers and binders as is now being exerted. They are all operating at 110% capacity and getting service from them is almost impossible.” 2. In a response dated May 23, 1946 (TCC Berkeley), Klopfer says “we realize full well the importance of the book” and explains that “the real reason the book is still out of stock” is a labor strike. He then adds, “We have tried at all times to keep our sound books in stock, and I assure you we never let them suffer at the expense of less worthy, transitory items. It is just as important to us, Una, to keep in stock those books on which our reputation is based as it is to the author, and I can assure you that we are making every endeavor to do just that.” 3. C. J. Lampos, the book review editor for Athene: The American Magazine of Hellenic Thought, asks

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Jeffers in a May 11, 1946 letter (TCC Berkeley) for a review copy of Medea. Random House sent Lampos a copy, and his review appeared in Athene 7, no. 4 (Winter 1947): 50. “Mr. Jeffers is one of the leading American poets,” Lampos writes, “and this play is not a translation, but rather a re-creation in beautiful, intense modern verse intended to be staged professionally by a first-rate company. It is eloquent in a truly classical way—restrained but powerful action, inspired verse, perfect language, and simple but original imagery. It is a living drama.”

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California 5/24/46 Darling Blanche: I’ve put off again & again writing you because I wanted to go into the subject of Donnan’s troubles & haven’t had the time to do it thoroughly & haven’t today either. When you come we will talk it all over. Patty suddenly like a bolt from the blue {(the last week in March)} decided she was tired of being married. She hadn’t indicated this in any way before & you can imagine the shock & distress for Donnan. They were just on the point of moving into a lovely old house that Patty’s father had given her. Besides, Donnan’s salary was to have been doubled on Apr. 1.st retroactive to Jan. 1. (It {(the salary)} had been frozen during the war & Donnan was about to reap the benefit of faithful service.) The worst thing for him was the question of the children whom he adores. He instantly left the office & the house & came home after about ten days. Garth who was in Boston with the Tevises arrived {in Zanesville} just as things fell apart & stayed a week with Donnan & so was able to give us an outside picture of it all. Patty’s family all took Donnan’s side & were as overwhelmed as we were. Patty’s father, too, who ♦ lives in L. A. He has just now returned from the East & is coming up to see Donnan. I think I will enclose three letters for you to read—you can get the whole picture better. Please return them. Maud wrote twice begging to know what was going on & I sent them to her. {& she returned them.} Donnan was terribly thin when he arrived but I’ve got many pounds back on him! & as he works outdoors many hours a day he is a better color. Of course now there is the question of a job! He has at least had the 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

4½ years of work in the office of the firm (3½ really as he was 1 yr. working in various departments of the Pottery.) He seems to have given satisfaction in the office, keeping books, dealing with orders, correspondence & so on, also he did considerable work on the family’s estate business. I don’t know what now for him. If you get a glimmer of an idea {let me know.} I mean what to urge him to. Garth had an exciting two mos. {motor} trip with the Tevises, way south & zig-zagging back & forth.— While they were in Boston five days for the wedding, Ga Lucy Porter lent Garth her lovely Elmwood {in Cambridge}. He gave several parties there. Maj. Morgan stayed there with him & the Tevi at the Ritz. Garth arrived ♦ with them at the Fairmont while you were there but didnt know it. They arrived one Thurs. p.m. & there was a big dinner party for them that night & at 11:00 p.m. Lee slipped in the bathroom & broke her hip again! So all was confusion next day until he started home otherwise somehow he might have become aware of you. Lee broke her hip about 1½ yrs ago—the same hip but in a different place. I saw Margaret just before she left & we had a good talk, she looked so pretty & chic. I was sorry not to see more of her but keeping house & feeding three big men takes most of my time. I have forgotten some of my old tricks that made work easier. The boys are full of all kinds of projects— the house would bulge with the dynamoes’ push if it were not of solid stone! One night at 1! am Joe Schoeninger coming home from a party dropped in to see what was going on with all the lights lit so brightly. {His eyes stood out—} It sounded like a big office—two typewriters going at full speed Garth typing German & Donnan a story. Part of the time also the Victrola was going full tilt. Garth speaks very fluent German now. He expects to return there within a few weeks. Has a job in Civil Gov’t.1 How we hate to have him go so far away. I hope you’ll see them both ♦ while he is here— They are stunning to look at! We have a wonderful time together. While waiting for his orders, Garth is felling trees for people & doing other hard work. He gets a dollar an hour & the amount he has earned is surprising! I am so glad you & Phoebe have gotten to be good friends—you are two

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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of my most loved & admired women & although you are so different you have in common great loyalty & staunchness—wonderful qualities—the best. It seems likely that Medea will be produced this fall with Judith in the title role. I will tell you all later. The book is selling very fast—fast for poetry, that is. Noël flew to N. Y. yesterday. Martin has arrived home & is trying to sell his Highlands House & intends to live in Cachagua. John O’Shea has done what seems a queer thing. He has bought a house in the woods—fairly near the Serra statue—you remember in the general region of where Tillie lived.2 So shut in. I am sorry I havent seen Jean K yet but we’ve had some talks {by phone.} The Adrianis3 said she looked terrible when she arrived but better now. I was rather low when the Barkans were here. I couldn’t eat or sleep for several weeks I was so distressed about Donnan but have arrived at a more sensible calm now. We are aghast at strikes4 &, in general, the state of the Union! 5I wont even begin at that. My dearest love to you both. Devotedly, Una. ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Garth joined the 1st Constabulary Brigade, a United States military unit formed in the wake of World War II to police occupied Germany. 2. The Carmel Woods neighborhood in the hilly northern portion of Carmel was developed in the 1920s. A shrine to Junípero Serra, featuring a statue by Jo Mora, is located at Serra Avenue and Camino Del Monte. Tillie Polak lived close by on Alta Avenue and Junipero Street. 3. Bruno Adriani (1881–1971) was an attorney and government official in Germany prior to Hitler’s rise to power. He and his wife Sadie (Adler) Adriani (1889–1968), an American artist, left Germany in 1936 and settled in Carmel the following year. As patrons of the arts, the couple gave a major collection of paintings and works on paper to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and other institutions. 4. Changes to the American economy following World War II led to decreased wages for workers. As a result, a wave of strikes that began in September 1945 and continued through December 1946 paralyzed the country. Nearly 5,000,000 workers in countless labor unions were involved. The Labor Management Relations Act (also known as the Taft-Hartley Act), passed by Congress in June 1947 over a veto by President Truman, restricted the activities of unions from that time on. 5. The rest of the letter is written vertically in the left margin, page 4.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Luther Greene Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. June 8, 1946. Mr. Luther Greene, Hampshire House, New York, N. Y. Dear Mr. Greene:1 I am disturbed by the contents of your letter received this morning. Certainly we would be willing to deal directly with you if it were possible, but we seem to be committed to the Morris Agency, who are the agents Judith suggested, and Bennett Cerf approved. We too have been troubled by the long lapse of time, which we could not account for. However, in the case of the contract we had some months ago with the Theatre Guild, the Morris Agency attributed the delay in that case to the Dramatists’ Guild holding up the papers, and I assumed that this delay also lay with them. Five copies of the contract with you were sent us from the Hollywood office April 10th. We signed and returned them within twenty-four hours, and heard nothing further until May 17, when another letter from Mr. Sachs2 of the Hollywood office enclosed an amended agreement changing the contract date to April 24, ’46, “at Luther Greene’s special request.” My husband agreed to this change, and now occurred the only delay in any way chargeable to us. We saw in the amended clause which they submitted that Morris Agency was to receive a percentage of royalties on the sale of the book “Medea.” I do not know whether this had slipped by us in the original contract. I wrote instantly to them to say that Morris Agency had nothing to do with the publications of the book,—all of my husband’s work is contracted for in advance by Random House. After a delay of nearly three weeks they sent us the corrected clause, which R. J. signed and returned to them June 7. What was wrong with the contracts, which you say were in extremely bad shape? Were they not drawn according to rules laid down by the Dramatists’ Guild?

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I perfectly understand that these delays have made things difficult for you. Please write us further. You will realize that we are much disappointed at this impasse. With cordial good wishes, Sincerely, TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Luther Greene (1909–1987), a graduate of the University of Virginia, produced eight plays on Broadway between 1935 and 1952, beginning with Ibsen’s Ghosts and ending with Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Following his work in the theater, he established a career as a rooftop garden designer in New York. 2. Samuel Sacks (1908–2006) was an attorney for the William Morris Agency and later headed the firm’s radio and television legal affairs department.

UJ to Theodore Lilienthal Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 6/10/46 Dear Ted: So nice to hear from you! and I think its a grand idea about the Big Sur etc. photographs. All the material is still available. Horace Lyon was away doing war work for several years—but he is back now & only last week said he had unpacked those photographs to show some faculty person at Mills who had heard of them & was eager to see them. Horace said said he got a great thrill looking at them. I do hope something will come of this.1 We are well but a bit worn down—haven’t yet gotten into the way of being “light & gay” again. (—Those are the words in the old Scotch ballad that describe my mother’s clan—“the Lindsays light & gay!”)2 We will have a good gossip when you come about Everybody & Everything! Love from Jefferses Una ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: June 10, 1946. 1. Despite their wish to publish Jeffers Country, a collection of photographs by Lyon

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a­ ccompanied by selections from Jeffers’ poetry, Lilienthal and Lyon were unable to move the project forward. Una first mentions the proposed book in a January 11, 1938 letter to Cortlandt Schoonover (Collected Letters 2: 790). 2. “The Rose-a-Lindsaye” by William Forsyth (1818–1879). For the lyrics and composition history of the ballad, see Robert Boucher, Jr., The Kingdom of Fife: Its Ballads and Legends (Dundee, Scotland: John Leng, 1899): 176–178.

UJ to William Morris Agency July 1 June 15 [1946] I am returning the contracts signed herewith. I wonder whether you know that the a Mr. Greene is in an extremely bad temper about these delays, which seem very queer to him as he says he gets only “confused & dim {vague}” replies when he calls up the Morris Agency. I understand he has been in N. Y. some time & do not know why things don’t go more smoothly. {move.} When I received his exasperated letter about “my agents” I looked into my file & must say I think the out delay looks outrageous. On April 10th you sent me the original contracts which I returned signed by return mail A complete silence ensued until you sent me May 17 a note saying there seemed to be ♦ a slight error in the agency clause. I cannot imagine why it took five weeks to discover it. {a slight error.} If I & do not blame Mr. Greene for being furious since this dilatory manner {procedure} must make any definite {theatre} arrangements on his part impossible. I wrote to him & explained {that} the last delay when we objected to the one clause but his fury antedated that. It would be pleasant to have some adequate excuse from Morris Agency, for this unseemly snail-pace Sincerely U. J. ^If any would for me build a true bier, Bring my dumb ashes to a pleasant spot.^1 ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. On the piece of scrap paper used for this draft, Una has also written these lines from “Sonnet LXXIX,” a poem by Charles Erskine Scott Wood included in his Sonnets (privately printed in 1918). See also Wood Works: The Life and Writings of Charles Erskine Scott Wood, edited by Edwin Bingham and Tim Barnes (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1997): 326. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Dorothy Brett Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 7/10/46 My dear Brett— Here is the quotation you asked for from “The Tower beyond Tragedy.”1 Under separate cover I am sending some fishing line—all I could get, though I looked in three different shops.— most of the stores here are for deep sea fishing. I notice that the name of the wholesale house in Los Angeles is printed on the roles so that you will be able to get more there I suppose. It cost 95¢ a role. $1.90 all told. Angelino said you are a mighty skillful fisherman. It does seem a very long time since I saw you—there will be a lot of news to catch up with. Garth enjoyed seeing all of our friends in Taos. He is still waiting for his orders—but has had all his shots again & passport is underway. He is putting in his time felling trees for a friend ♦ of ours in Pebble Beach & helping construct a new chapel at the {old} Mission. All of the original buildings are now almost restored. Garth works all evening on his languages. The Matthiases are here for a couple of months or more. Robin’s brother {Hamilton} was here lately & bought some lots at the Highlands beside the Clapps. (on the hill above Martin Flavin) We have never had such lovely wild flowers as this year & our wild courtyard is lovely, too. There are two big beds of thyme on Haig’s & Winnie’s graves & much lavender & mint & rosemary & santolina & lemon verbena—all sweet-smelling—the place is a-hum with bees. I just learned a word—for a century obsolete. It is in English literature long ago—its snoof & it means (corresponding with deaf & blind) it means when a person lacks his sense of smell. I’m glad I’m not snoof. {I tried to grow costmary—I brought a lot of slips from Mabel’s but it wont grow here.} Hamilton has just ordered another plane—his fifth I guess. 2You’ll be able to talk planes with him. My love to all our friends at Taos. I wish I could see your house. Love from Una Do you hear much from England?

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. The quotation is missing. 2. The rest of the letter is written vertically in the left and top margins, page 2.

RJ to Merle Armitage Tor House, Carmel, California July 21, 1946. Dear Merle Armitage:1 I was happy to hear from you, and to know that you are back in civilian life—no doubt by this time immersed in it, for your talents will not let you be idle. It was kind of you to write. I should have answered sooner, but it is almost beyond my power to write a letter. No, I didn’t have the luck to see “Accent on America,”2 and I should like to. I would promise to read and return, if copies are scarce, as by now they probably are. Yes, Lawrence Powell wrote a good book; whether he chose the subject well I don’t know.3 We haven’t seen him for some time, but it is nice to know that he is prospering at U. C. L. A. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. Merle Armitage (1893–1975), known primarily as an author and book designer, founded the Los Angeles Grand Opera Association, directed the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium, and managed the careers of touring artists. He also worked for Look magazine as editorial and art director, ran a government arts agency, and served as a lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Army Air Force during World War II. 2. Merle Armitage, Accent on America (New York: E. Weyhe, 1944)—an autobiographical memoir that includes a brief chapter on Carmel and Jeffers; see pages 191–193. 3. Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Julien Philbert August 4, ’46 Dear Mr. Philbert:— I was happy to hear from you again and certainly it is most interesting to see that your translation of Thurso’s Landing is to be published this fall.2 I look forward to seeing the book. French was {once} as familiar to me as English forty {long} years ago. (for I went to {a long time ago, when at} school in Switzerland) and I can still read it very well, so I shall be able to appreciate your work. {—the introduction also}. Do you know that Eugène Jolas (editor of “Transition”) made a translation of my “Roan Stallion”, which he published, (with some omissions), in an Anthologie de Poésies Américaines3 some {ten or} fifteen years ago? There was also a woman (whose ♦ name I cannot think of think of just now) {— Denise? —Farulli)} who translated “Cawdor” into French, and expected to have it published in Paris, but I believe the war supervened.4 You ask about “Medea”, which myour friend Lawrence Powell spoke told you of. It was written at the request of a New York theatrical producer and is really only {simply} a very free translation {in verse} of Euripides. It is to be produced in N. Y. this fall—so they say—{but} one never knows—but mMeanwhile {it} has been published as a book, {poem,} and I am sending you a copy. And now—forgive me for being slow in response to your kindness. I have no habit of correspondence and it is nearly all but impossible for me to sit down and write a letter. But I did write to you before. I wonder whether you received my letter in answer to your previous one? I wonder whether you rec’d my letter in response {answer} to your first one? for—to write. a letter. But I did write to you before. I have no habit of correspondence, and it is almost impossible Forgive me for being slow in responding; it is almost 5 {Medea} I wonder whether you rec’d my former letter in response to yours? 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Julien Philbert was a teacher and school superintendent in Dijon, Metz, and Vesoul, France. 2. Philbert’s translation of Thurso’s Landing was delayed until 1948. 3. Eugène Jolas, Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poésie Américaine (Paris: Simon Kra, 1928). 4. Denise Le Fée Fardulli and Jeanne de Wronecki published an edited translation of ­Cawdor in Mesures (July 15, 1939): 199–232. Earlier in the same year, de Wronecki published “Un Poète américain d’aujourd’hui: Robinson Jeffers” in La Revue de France (March 15, 1939): 283–286. 5. This line is added at the bottom of page 1.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 8/8/46 My darling Clapps: I enclose a Post Card—view taken from almost exactly your lot at the Highlands. Of course taken eight years ago before the trees grew up so high. You would need to cut them thoroughly. After looking everywhere, Hamilton chose to buy right there as you can see but he does not intend to build for years yet.1 No other house has been built out there & that house which seemed ugly at first has now {so} sunken away into the trees & vines & weather worn color until {that you} scarcely perceive it. I think it is probable that you would feel that this coast is too often gray & foggy for you although I hate to realize we could differ so in our loves. I do believe you could find within a range of five or six miles up the valley {from here} all the sun you could endure. A great deal of beautiful land has been opened up up there this last year, on both sides of the valley road. Then often you could come & sit in the sea windows at Tor House & see the thrilling S­ ea-enchantment I would like to gaze at for a hundred years. ♦ Garth has his passport in hand and instructions that he must be ready to go out at any time. “Alas!”—I feel, & to tell the truth I wonder how he really feels. There is very tough fibre in all four of us—various kinds of toughness (and if you could see the look in those two boys’ eyes if I act soft. Its awful. They allow me passion & anger & being unjust, —but

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softness, no.)— I will send you two snapshots soon of them. They are rather unusual objects. I sometimes tell them I’d gladly trade them off for a couple of boys who from babyhood up knew they would like to be a cabinetmaker or& an inventor of—mouse traps. They almost believe it. Garth is such an object of fascination to females old & young that if he is spoiled I couldn’t be surprised. They offer him all—& Anything! He has had such fun here that I wonder how he feels inside about going back to Germany. He thought, (perhaps thinks) he is in love with a German girl but watching him & Sheila Moore2 (Esther Fish’s daughter), I wonder now. The Tevises who took him to Boston & on a 2 mos. motor trip all {over} said Garth made the trip. Particularly in Boston. —A Boston girl has just been visiting Shiela. Watching her, I guess its true! ♦ Donnan who was so pale & thin when he came, is fine now. He has gained at least 15 lbs. & is nice & tanned. He has fun here, too, but his sphere is England. As “popular” as Garth is here—so is he over there. He & Garth are as funny together as ever, as divergent in their tastes & as combined in their stance against everyone else! We’ve had a thrilling time together. Patty’s father says he can get Donnan a job anytime in Los Angeles or San Fran.—but agreed with us that Donnan ought to stay here as long as he felt contented. He works hours a day on a mystery story he is writing—& other hours outdoors. and he is a darling to have around. I forgot to say Garth has been working steadily at felling timber & also building a chapel at the Mission. Patty’s father is arriving today for four days at Pine Inn.3 This is the second time he has been up here to see Donnan, & Donnan visited him in L. A. Mr. Grant says this separation has been a very hard thing for him to endure.— I forgot to tell you that as I write I see the lovely silver bowl you gave Donnan. Patty told him to take any gifts to them he had a sentiment about—& so he took several. Yours ♦ and a beautiful shallow silver bowl Noël gave them—one of the silver pieces from Mario Ramirez’ collection— Donnan has been for ten days up beside San Clemente Dam with the Tevises. Coming down tomorrow. Did you know that Elsie Arden’s body was brought out here—by plane—& buried near Mario’s grave in Monterey? Elsie died a Catholic, you know?4

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Last Sunday night Noël asked us—a few of us to hear some music in his beautiful new music room (—I’ll describe it later)—in memory of Elsie Arden. It happened that several musicians {friends of Elsie’s} were staying with him—Jacques Jolas5 (bro. of Eugene) played—a Brahm’s concerto, 2 Scarlatti sonatas & a Ravel concerto he is soon to broadcast over Columbia network. Stephanie — (Polish name)6 played second piano for the Ravel. Noël sang four of Schumann’s Dichter-lieder. Roland Hayes sang a very favorite song of Elsie’s “She never told her love.” It was really a beautiful & moving experience. It might easily have turned soppy & sentimental but it didn’t & we were, at the last, served some very excellent champagne! Blanche was there. Perhaps she will speak of it to you. ♦ Noëls music room is built where the little drawing room beyond the big one, was. It is long & big with the peak of the roof 17 ft high. No windows except two long narrow {wide, short in height} ones on one side looking into the garden by the swimming pool 7that shape. The room is dim unless lighted by the very-carefully placed {electric} lights. At the end {steep} steps go up to the library. (a cozy room that used to be Noëls bedroom.). At one {the other} end the plans called for a small high octagonal window. I cried out against it—a mean degraded Los Angeles bungalow bathroom shape {window}. So he threw it out—then said “you must tell what to do there.” I felt wild then. I couldnt think what to do, —in the night I said to myself “why break your habit all this time of not interfere-ing. See what you’ve let yourself in for!” Suddenly I thought of that old star window in the Mission—“its a little out of shape, etc—but it has great beauty & much value—as evocative”— He did it at once. Its fine —not quite all right yet because it hasnt the right glass in it— Oh mercy I havent a moment to write all this—and there is so much to gossip about. Timmie do you know the Paston Letters. I can’t imagine that you ♦ don’t because Ellis Roberts fainted because I didn’t Well anyway see Encylopaedia Brit— letters belong late 1400–early 1500 frightfully important. Just discovered an ancestor of mine wrote some of them. Ive had fun reading them today—got down from State Library8 Russell & Blanche were here yesterday. {Russell just returned from

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Bohemian Grove.} In grand shape & they’ve sold their Highlands property. They feel a little sad but mostly glad because honestly they are not geared to a settled residence. But I love them even so. Well at moments when I never sleep I wake Robin who always sleeps like the dead & say “what wonderfully lucky objects are B— & R— not a care in the world except their bodily functions!” He only groans & misses one snore perhaps. In the daytime I can easily make him into a completely neurotic case—but once night falls— he eludes me. How much I love you. Una. ALS. Yale. 6 pages. Postmark: August 9, 1946. 1. A hand-drawn map indicates the relative locations of Hamilton’s lot and the Clapps’ lot in the Carmel Highlands—across a road from each other, at the end of a cul-de-sac. 2. Sheilah Moore (1923–2005), daughter of Esther Fish and her second husband George Gordon Moore, graduated from Mills College in 1946. 3. Carmel’s Pine Inn, originally the Hotel Carmelo (built in 1889), opened on Ocean Avenue and Monte Verde Street July 4, 1903. The hotel was remodeled and expanded in 1941. 4. Elsie Arden died at her home in Manhattan December 8, 1945. Noël Sullivan arranged for her burial in Monterey’s San Carlos Cemetery. He marked her grave with a large slab of black marble, inscribed “Here in the peace of Christ rests Elsie Arden / Born San Carlos Borromeo Day 1882 / Died Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1945.” Three bars from Gluck’s opera Orphée et Eurydice are etched into the stone, along with a quotation from “Break, Break, Break” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: “But oh for the touch of a vanished hand / and the sound of a voice that is still . . . .” 5. Jacques Jolas (1895–1957), younger brother of Eugène Jolas, was a concert pianist and professor of music at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. 6. Stephanie Shehatovich (1898–1996), a concert pianist, taught at Dominican College in San Rafael, California and other institutions. She was a close friend and devoted correspondent of Noël Sullivan. Over two hundred of her letters to Noël, spanning thirty years, are archived at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley. 7. Una draws a ⅛” x 1” horizontal rectangle here. 8. The Paston Letters: Written by Various Persons of Rank or Consequence During the Reigns of Henry VI, Edward IV, Richard III & Henry VII, edited by John Fenn and re-edited by Laura Archer-Hind (London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1924).

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RJ to Rabbi Solomon Goldman Tor House, Carmel, California August 26, 1946. Dear Rabbi Goldman:1 I should have answered sooner, but I do not remember ever writing anything significant about the Bible.2 However, I have written much that was influenced by it, or derived from it. Its influence on our civilization and literatures is enormous, and continues even when we are not conscious of it. Several portions of the Bible—Ecclesiastes, Job, the Song of Solomon, many sayings and parables of Jesus—rank with the greatest of the world’s poetry. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Drew. 1 page. 1. Solomon Goldman (1893–1953), rabbi of the Anshe Emet Synagogue in Chicago for nearly thirty years, led the Zionist Organization of America as president from 1938 to 1940 and played a major role in securing a homeland for Jews in Palestine. Books include A Rabbi Takes Stock (1931), Crisis and Decision (1938), Undefeated (1940), and The Book of Human Destiny (1948). 2. For The Book of Books: An Introduction (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948), Rabbi Goldman solicited statements on the Bible from a number of cultural figures. The last two sentences of Jeffers’ letter are reprinted in a section titled “Echoes and Allusions,” page 173. Goldman also refers to Jeffers in a note about sun worship and quotes several lines from Jeffers’ poem “Ode on Human Destinies,” page 394.

UJ to Van Wyck Brooks Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 September 6. 1946 Dear Van Wyck— Our hearts ache for you—we think of you constantly. I hadn’t realized the seriousness, —not that it was a fatal illness & was profoundly shocked.1 Eleanor will always stay in my mind the tender, gallant & generous figure LETTERS 1940– 1962

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we saw here. Robin and I have often spoken of the fine understanding & companionship you two had—so few people we know have anything like that. I hope you will think of us as your affectionate friends. We hope to see you again before too long. Faithfully, Una. ALS. Pennsylvania. 1 page. Postmark: September 7, 1946. 1. Eleanor Brooks had recovered from pneumonia, but was then diagnosed with cancer. The disease spread rapidly and she died August 29, 1946. See James Hoopes, Van Wyck Brooks (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1977): 266–267.

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 October 1. 1946

Darling Phoebe: Thanks for the pamphlet about leather bindings & thanks for your darling letter just after you & Hans were here. I felt so down in the depths & your letter was just the right kind to help me stand up to things. Garth sailed for Germany Sept. 22. We are very curious & eager to hear what he will have to say about affairs over there now. He leaves a tremendous gap in the household which he kept in a state of turmoil while he was here— so many affairs & projects & objects —He & Donnan had a gay time together. Donnan is looking so well now, its a pleasure to see him. I do not see any prospect of a reunion with Patty & he misses his children very much which is the sad note. We have wondered so much about all that Hans saw & felt during his trip to Europe. Tell me not to forget ♦ anything before we see him. Wasn’t it fun to see Roy & Hazel. Hazel now has the theory that you & I look alike! I wish she had also said our characters are alike! You will be interested to hear that the man who broadcasts for B. B. C. from Belfast wrote to ask permission to have {some} of Robins poems for a their program.1 I like to think of them on the air, over the glens. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I hope you are seeing Blanche. I can’t tell you how much I hated to have them go although my hurried days allowed me so little time to seek them out we did have nice telephone talks often. We hope to begin going on pilgrimages again—we went on one three days ago—all day up Mill Creek Cañon to the Lime Kiln—beautiful narrow cañon wooded & a dashing stream which we had to cross a score of times.2 The sycamore leaves were all gold like rays of sunshine in the darkness of the cañon. John O’Shea went with us & 3was in an ecstasy about the colors Love to you all. Devotedly, Una. ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: October 1, 1946. 1. See also Una’s June 8, 1947 letter to Bennett Cerf. 2. Mill Creek Canyon was the original name of Bixby Creek Canyon—a Big Sur wilderness area 15 miles south of Carmel. The location is mentioned by Jeffers in Ruth Alison, The Loving Shepherdess, and other poems, and featured in “Bixby’s Landing” and Thurso’s Landing. For information about the canyon and the lime kilns, see Jeffers Country Revisted by Richard Kohlman Hughey and Boon Hughey, Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 98–99 (Spring–Summer, 1996): 40–42. 3. The rest of the letter is written vertically in the right margin.

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 October 8, 1946 Dear Mr. Levy:1 What a lovely surprise you gave me. Your unicorn is one of the noblest I have. Many years ago Blanche Matthias (a friend of the Clapps) gave me a Steuben glass goblet-shaped compote with a unicorn’s head etched on it. (or cut or what is the right word). It was by Waugh2 I believe. Your unicorn head is a bit differently treated but has an unusual design for the base line— which is the same as Blanche’s. So we’ve decided the same artist did both! I thank you with all my heart. I wish you’d been looking at Niagara that day lately when that enormous LETTERS 1940– 1962

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lump fell off the rim—that must have been a splash & a roar.3 We enjoyed our talk with you & hope to see you again. Faithfully— Una Jeffers ALS. New York PL. 1 page. 1. William Turner Levy (1922–2008) earned a Bronze Star for military service during World War II. When this letter was written, he was a graduate student at Columbia University. He eventually became a professor of English at City University of New York (City College and Baruch College), an Episcopalian priest, and, later in life, a teacher at Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California. With Victor Scherle, Levy was the author of Affectionately, T. S. Eliot: The Story of a Friendship, 1947–1965 (1968) and, with Cynthia Eagle Russett, The Extraordinary Mrs. R: A Friend Remembers Eleanor Roosevelt (1999). 2. Sidney Biehler Waugh (1904–1963), a fellow of the American Academy in Rome, was a sculptor who designed medals, architectural art, and public monuments. He also worked as a designer of etched and moulded artifacts for Steuben Glass Works in Corning, New York. 3. An earthquake triggered a major rockslide at Niagara Falls September 20, 1946, altering the appearance of the attraction on the New York side.

UJ to Noël Sullivan [October 17, 1946] Tor House. Thursday Noël darling: Again I am indebted to you for the concert tickets which are very important to my happiness! Heartfelt thanks—again! I wish you could have been here yesterday when that great plane with General Stillwell’s ashes circled over us twice so close down the tip of the wing seemed to touch the roof as it banked & then straight straight out toward the sun & out of sight at last. It was tremendously moving.1 Devotedly, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: October 17, 1946. 1. When Gen. Joseph Stilwell returned from the Marshall Islands in July 1946, having

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o­ bserved the atomic bomb tests on Bikini Atoll, he showed signs of ill health—including chills, fatigue, and dizziness. Stilwell was admitted to Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco September 28, where tests revealed advanced carcinoma of the liver. He underwent surgery October 3, but his condition was incurable and he died at the hospital nine days later.

UJ to Blanche Matthias [October 1946] Dearest Blanche: Here is the second article on Wickman’s death—in the Monterey Herald.1 The reporter told me that they knew it was suicide the first day but didn’t want to say so until the Coroner instructed them. Wickie made a cross or an X to mark the spot {on the top} where he leapt over the guard wall & then neatly folded his sweater over it. Looking at the place the other day I was surprised how high the bridge was & how ♦ wild the region. How lucky John O’Shea was not still living there when this happened. They had a very difficult time recovering the body. They had to use block & tackle— I had not intended to tell you we we intend to be in S. F. Monday for the matinee {Henry V}2 because I knew we couldn’t see you or anyone that day even if you were not engaged. Phoebe called up today & wanted us to spend the night but we will come up another time for visiting only. Love always, Una. ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Frank Wickman, a pianist and teacher who lived in the Carmel Highlands, died October 14 by jumping from Wildcat Creek Bridge on Highway 1, just south of Point Lobos. For newspaper accounts of the suicide, see “Wickman Death Held Suicide By Coroner,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (October 15, 1946): 2, and “Frank Wickman,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (October 18, 1946): 7. 2. Shakespeare’s Henry V, adapted for the screen by Laurence Olivier, was released in England in November 1944 and the United States in April 1946. It opened at the Stage Door Theater in San Francisco September 30. Olivier won a special Academy Award in 1947 for his work as producer, director, and lead actor in the film.

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UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 October 31. 1946 Dearest Melba: I meant to answer your letter long ago but have been too busy & often too tired to attempt it. When you’ve read this letter you’ll see why. —I can’t think when I wrote last to you but I think it must have been after Garth got home last December. He is so full of life & kept up such a din & excitement all the time that I could hardly cope with him & such an appetite too! 205 lbs. of muscle to feed! He applied {at once} for a job overseas—in Germany—Civilian Affairs under Military Gov’t. He was promised a job but did not receive orders to go until the middle of Sept. Meantime in March & April he motored to Boston with Lloyd & Lee Tevis to Dick T’s wedding, —& then all over Eastern & So. U. S. for two months. Had a wonderful & very luxurious time. Perhaps I told you all this & how Lucy Kingsley Porter then visiting in Calif. told Garth to stay in her lovely house “Elmwood” in Cambridge & give ♦ some parties if he wished (her staff were there to attend to everything.) So Garth did stay there & took Maj. Morgan {there too} & gave some parties for the bridal party, which was very pleasant. Then while the Tevises were in N. Y. C. Garth went down to stay a week with Donnan in Zanesville. Now comes the horrid news. Patty had just taken the notion she was tired of being married & wanted to separate—this was a few days before Garth arrived. It was a cruel & completely unexpected blow to Donnan who says he hadn’t the remotest idea that she had arrived at that state of mind. He was absolutely devoted to his two babies, & young Lloyd Tevis who had visited them a few months before for a week reported everything happy & serene. Patty chose a time to do it to upset Donnan most—his salary at the Pottery Works had been frozen during the war—& now it was to be doubled April 1st & made retroactive d to the first of the year. Also Mr. Grant had just given them ♦ a lovely big old house {about} which they were making many plans for alterations etc. All her family stood with Donnan—they told Garth so & wrote me so—(her mother & Patty were not on speaking terms

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for several months after this—) Donnan immediately gave up his job— although the family urged him to stay on. He had for two or more years been in the office of the works, doing bookkeeping, attending to orders, & also helping with estate matters (the Weller estate—Patty’s mother’s family). So he came home. I forgot to say that Patty had gotten terribly interested in buying & selling antiques & when they were to move into their big house had suggested she devote one liv room to a shop! Donnan hadn’t liked the idea but finally consented. This affair was actually the only bad disagreement they had ever had. Garth said she acted a bit crazy on this subject of antiques—flying here & there— They had a very excellent colored maid who had served her ♦ grandmother for years & who took most of the care of the babies —I dont think anything ever got me down as this did but in spite of all, we have loved having Donnan home & he has surprised us by his calm, &, latterly, happy manner. He was very silent when he first came home & thin & white but now I’ve padded him out. He & Garth as usual had a rollicking time —the walls of Tor House bulged— Garth worked all the time he was home—either felling timber for some friends of ours—or else at the Mission helping Harry Downie1 with walls & with an adobe chapel just added. They never went to bed before 2: am & sometimes two typewriters were going at once—Garth practicing for speed typing German (which he speaks well) & Spanish & French. Donnan writing a mystery story. —He has just now finished the first draft & much to our surprise, its very good. —So that may be his work in future! (I’m sure it will pay better than Poetry!) Donnan is busy from morning to night, either attending to the ♦ garden of a friend of his— ain Pebble Beach (a young woman who lives in San Fran. but has a house in P. B. she week-ends at)—or working on his maze. —a complicated Hampton Court sort of thing he planted {12 or} 15 yrs. ago which needed days & days {weeks really} of topiary work as we’ve never attended to it—then writing & a reasonable amount of social gaiety.2 At one moment I thought of writing to ask you whether you had any suitable job vacant for him, but he is all right here apparently. Patty’s father who lives in Los A— has been up here to see Donnan several times & Donnan visited him {&} his wife down there— He feels very much upset about all this.

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This has been a lengthy explanation but had to be to give you the picture.— Garth is stationed near Wiesbaden, connected with the 1st Brigade Constabulary, —Intelligence Dept. Much has gone on here. —I finished up my Red X work with a 5,000 hours decoration. —Many people coming & going. Frieda Lawrence & Capt. Ravagli were here for 3 or 4 mos. last winter & spring ♦ Matthiases here for 2½ mos. Ella Winter & other old friends. Some new ones. One of the nicest was Marquand & wife3 (So Little Time & The late Mr. Appley)— We were much saddened by the death of Eleanor Brooks (Mrs Van Wyck) They spent last winter here again—no two people could be nicer. Really dear people. I have, of course, much correspondence about Medea. The Theatre Guild forfeited the advance royalty they gave us & now Luther Greene has the rights & has given us a substantial advance. He has ~the rights~ until Jan. 19. You know he & Judith Anderson are married?4 During the last ten days I have had 3 inquiries about getting rights to it from New York producers. I don’t know what will happen to it—but even advances are nice! I actually think it is much finer than my pet, Yeats’ version of Oedipus. No, you were wrong in your guess—Robin did the job with great enthusiasm—much to my surprise for he usually finds it impossible to work at anything suggested to him. Perhaps you will like to see this letter of Dr. Hansen’s. She is an important archeologist. Is on the faculty of Stanford & during the war taught, also, besides archeology, ancient & modern Greek language & geography. She has been 12 times to Greece & is an honorary citizen of Skyros & has a house there. Her whole 5soul is wrapped up in Greece. Please return the letter. Tell me your news. Do you see Fran or Ted? Devotedly, Una. 6 Otinen, reputedly the finest sculptor of Finland has just finished a head of Robin.7 ALS. HRC Texas. 6 pages. 1. Harry Downie (1903–1980), a local craftsman, led the effort to rebuild the Carmel ­Mission. 2. Donnan was romantically involved with two women at this time—Lee Waggener, a

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newcomer to the Monterey Peninsula, and poet Muriel Rukeyser, a resident of San Francisco who regularly visited the Carmel area. 3. John Phillips Marquand (1893–1960), whose popular “Mr. Moto” novels were adapted for eight films starring Peter Lorre, won the 1938 Pulitzer Prize for The Late George Apley: A Novel in the Form of a Memoir. He married Adelaide Ferry Hooker (1903–1963) in 1937, following a previous marriage to Christina Davenport Sedgwick (1897–1951). Adelaide’s sister Blanchette was the wife of John D. Rockefeller III. Another sister, Helen, was married to Ernie O’Malley, author of On Another Man’s Wound; see Collected Letters 2: 629. John and Adelaide divorced in 1958. 4. Luther Greene and Judith Anderson were married July 11, 1946. 5. The remainder of the paragraph, the closing, and the signature are written vertically in left margin and top left corner, page 6. 6. Mauno Pietari Oittinen (1896–1970), a sculptor who created monumental works for Kajaani, Rauma, Hyvinkää, and other cities in Finland. Rosalind Sharpe describes the artist and discusses his visit to Carmel in “Finland’s Sculptor, America’s Poet Take Each Other’s Measure, Oittinen Doing Bust of Jeffers,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (October 25, 1946): 1, 9. 7. Written in top right corner, page 1.

RJ to American Academy of Arts and Letters [November 12, 1946] (Duplicate ballot, not to be used if original has been received.) From Robinson Jeffers Carmel, California.1 APS. A Academy. Postmark: November 12, 1946. 1. A letter to Jeffers from the academy, dated November 7, 1946 (TCC A Academy), says, “As we have not received sufficient ballots to elect anyone to the Academy, and as we have not heard from you, I am sending you herewith a duplicate ballot and hope very much that you will mark it and return as soon as possible.” Jeffers wrote his brief message in the upper left corner of the postcard ballot. Four names were on the ballot, with instructions to vote for three: Charles A. Beard, Gilmore D. Clarke, John C. Johansen, and Archibald MacLeish. Jeffers voted for Charles A. Beard (1874–1948), a historian known for his controversial critiques of American foreign policy; Gilmore D. Clarke (1892–1982), an arts administrator and landscape architect; and his own nominee, fellow poet Archibald MacLeish (see Jeffers’ January 22, 1946 letter to Van Wyck Brooks). These three gained admission to the academy; Johansen (1876–1964), a noted portrait painter, was not elected. The results of the election were announced November 19, but the official induction ceremony did not take place until May 22, 1947. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 November 13. 1946 Dear Mr. Levy: Thanks for your letters. I don’t know whether you know that Robin doesn’t write letters—not as many as two a year. So you won’t mind if you hear from me in answer to any queries you may propose. I think there is a possibility for an extremely interesting thesis on the prophetic content of his writing & there have come to us {during these last years} many acknowledgements of this {content} from his readers & friends—(many of them having very different views from his), who had in the past resented and dissented {dissented} from his opinions. If you carry out your project, you probably will, from time to time, wish to discuss or question some point. If you will write me about it I will get the answer, when there is one!, and relay it to you. Accurately, too. You spoke of a possible Calvinistic strain in R. J.’s poetry. You may be amused to know that Jonathan Edwards is a relative of his through the Tuttles. (J. E.’s grandmother was a Tuttle). I don’t know what sect J. E. was— but some of his doctrines were certainly Calvinistic. ♦ The Tuttle strain is a very vigorous one, & violent.1 I really am enthusiastic about your project. Faithfully, Una Jeffers I received a notice about the coming concerts at the Frick gallery. A fine list of artists. I wish I could be there. The latest news—(but not confirmed by her—to us), is that Judith Anderson is pregnant. It wouldn’t be very soothing for her & offspring-to-be to deal with Medea at present. She & Luther Greene have the contract rights to it until Jan. 19. ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. 1. Jonathan Edwards’ grandmother Elizabeth (Tuttle) Edwards was divorced by her husband Richard after he convinced a court that she was an unfit wife—having cohabited with

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him and at least one other man prior to their marriage, bearing a child that was not his, boasting of adultery when he was away from home, refusing conjugal relations, and threatening to kill him. The latter charge carried special weight because Elizabeth’s sister Mercy (Tuttle) Brown, accused in her youth of stealing and drinking liquor, murdered her seventeen-year-old son in his sleep by striking him in the head with an axe. Another sister, Sarah (Tuttle) Slauson, prosecuted for immoral conduct (kissing in public) when she was a teenager, was murdered by their brother Benjamin Tuttle in the same way. Following an exchange of words one evening, Benjamin got up from his place before the hearth fire and went outdoors for a moment. According to the testimony of Sarah’s young children, who witnessed the event, their uncle returned with an axe and struck their mother in the head several times with great force, saying as he did so “I will teach you to scold.” Simon Tuttle, a brother of Elizabeth, Mercy, Sarah, and Benjamin, was Jeffers’ ancestor.

UJ to Sydney Alberts Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 November 14. 1946 Dear Sydney: We were glad to hear from you again —it seems very long ago when we exchanged letters fairly regularly. The war years dragged out interminably although we kept ourselves very busy. I got a 5,000 hours decoration for Staff Assistance work in Red Cross—mostly at Ft. Ord, which is just fourteen miles from here. Robin has been busy writing. One of our sons, Garth, was in the army almost from the beginning of the war, first in Hawaii, then teaching Ranger tactics here &, at last, at the front until the end in Germany where he remained for some months in occupation. He was a {in a} Combat Military Police Batallion. He was home then for several months & has just recently taken a job over there in Civil Affairs under Military Gov’t. He is in Wiesbaden. The other son was not taken because of a heart murmur—he has been living in Ohio—married & has two little daughters. We would like very much to see your brother’s lithographs ♦ Robin says he will write a brief foreword if he can.1 It is not exactly in his line but for

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that very reason I think he might say something fresh & unstudied about his reaction to them. So much art criticism seems just cut & dried patter. Many people have said your Bibliography was the most scholarly & admirable one they had ever seen in America. I think so, too. Best wishes from us both, Faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Jeffers wrote a foreword for Black Masses, a collection of graphic works by Julien Alberts, but the proposed book was never published. For examples of Alberts’ artwork, Jeffers’ text, and information about the project, see Jeffers Studies 9, nos. 1–2 (Spring and Fall 2005): Portfolio insert, 43–44, and 97–98.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California Rt 1. Box 36 November 19. 1946 Dear Bennett: Please help me! Donnan has just finished writing a mystery story & its all right. If your list is too full to even look at it, can you suggest how to go about marketing it? I havent the faintest idea where to send it. We have a particular wish to help Donnan at this moment. His marriage went to pieces about six months ago. He is pretty disconsolate to be away from his two little daughters. However I hope soon to have them with us part of the time. He has interested himself writing this story & we hope he will have luck with it & be encouraged to go on with others he has {in mind}. Garth is back in Germany—at Wiesbaden in Civil affairs under military government. We had fun while he was home. We dont know yet the immediate fate of Medea. I believe Judith arrived in N. Y. from London last week. Luella Parsons {said} lately in her column that Judith is Expecting. I rather doubt it.1 She & Luther have the rights to Medea until Jan 19th. ♦

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Fanny Butcher 2 writes me from Chicago that Mignon Eberhart was married at her house. She says the groom produced for the occasion four grown sons, complete with wives, all hitherto unseen by the bride. But all was merry & happy!3 I’m sorry to have to bother you about Donnan’s Ms.4 Best from Robin Faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. In her November 10, 1946 gossip column (published November 11 in the San Francisco Examiner and other newspapers nationwide), Hollywood writer Louella A. Parsons (1881–1972) reports that “Judith Anderson, noted actress and her husband, Luther Greene have dated the stork.” The rumor was untrue, as Una suspected. 2. Fanny Butcher (1888–1987), wife of attorney Richard Bokum (1885–1963) and author of an autobiography titled Many Lives, One Love (1972), was a staff writer, columnist, and literary editor for the Chicago Tribune from 1913 to 1963. She and Mignon Eberhart were close friends. 3. Mignon had a complicated marital history. She married civil engineer and business executive Alanson Clyde Eberhart (1897–1974) in 1923, divorced him in 1943, remarried him in 1945, and divorced him again in 1946. In October 1946 she married John Prince Hazen Perry (1882–1956), a civil engineer and vice president of a construction company, but the marriage failed immediately. When her divorce from Perry was finalized in January 1948, Mignon married Eberhart a third time. The marriage lasted until he died. See Rick Cypert, America’s Agatha Christie: Mignon Good Eberhart, Her Life and Works (Selinsgrove, Penn.: Susquehanna University Press, 2004). 4. Donnan mailed the manuscript to Cerf on December 2, 1946. The typed cover letter from Donnan (TLS Berkeley) says, “Mother tells me that you are willing to have a look at this mystery story of mine, and if you cannot use it, to give me a hint about trying to place it elsewhere, or perhaps about rewriting some of it.” Beneath Donnan’s signature, Una adds a handwritten note: “Return postage enclosed. Regret to say there is not another big envelope in the village. U. J.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Michael Myerberg Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 November 27. 1946 Dear Michael: We were delighted to hear from you & wish very much that we could go up to San Francisco for your “Lute Song” but I fear its impossible.1 Robin is having an extensive lot of dentistry done & finds it all very uncomfortable & horrible. I am interested that you still have “Dear Judas” in mind. I wonder whether you could telephone while you are in S. F. in case you felt there is anything Robin could answer offhand—or perhaps write us any suggestions you have. We have often spoken of you & your wife & baby.2 It would be very pleasant to see you again & catch up on news. Just a few moments ago one of our Taos friends called up from San José, —Judge Kiker’s wife,3 remember her? & told us Taos news. Frieda Lawrence & Angelino spent last winter here in Carmel—in great form. Mabel & Brett haven’t been friendly for a year or so. I wonder how they manage without each other. Faithfully, Una Jeffers. ALS. Wisconsin. 1 page. 1. Myerberg’s production of Lute Song, a musical drama starring Dolly Haas and Yul Brynner, opened December 3, 1946 at the Curran Theater in San Francisco. 2. Michael and Adrienne Myerberg had two sons—Edward (mentioned in an October 10, 1938 letter from Una to Mabel Dodge Luhan) and Paul, born April 27, 1943. 3. Kathleen (Garrott) Pollard Kiker (1891–1975).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Leo Wolfson [November 1946] Dear Mr. Wolfson:— “Negative” is a word that people often use for those who do not share their illusions or their optimism. A medical man seems “negative” to a Christian Scientist; the prophets of Israel were negative, telling people that their Gods were not Gods, but mere images sticks and stones. From this point of view I have often been “negative”, and expect to be. People believe too much and too easily. As to the positive elements {present} in my verse It does not seem to me appropriate to be too easily “positive” {present always the} [illegible] message of the moment. To be all out {be} for Communism, for instance, when that was {is} fashionable, and then for Democracy, when that was in fash was {is} in fashion, and then perhaps for theHoly Catholic Church, when that becomes fashionable. For that sort of thing is what many critics are offering, when they say “positive.” It is too easy. As for the affirmative element {you feel} in my verses—as at the end of “Tower beyond Tragedy”, to which you refer—I think you understand it quite well. And yYou recognize that it is an attempt to look at man and the universe objectively—not from the human point of view, but sub specie aeternitatis, as the fellow said.2 This feeling of something enormously {enormously} greater than man, {—and I think better—}of which man is a part, seems to me ennobling and in the deepest sense religious, and a source of strength and endurance. {—it has some similarity to Greek sStoicism. It The universe is beautiful and important and in earnest, quite apart from the momentary life of any person, or {from} the transitory existence of the human race. There is some mysticism involved in its stature. here, but also common sense. For It {would be} absurd to think that all the value and significance of all the worldthe world will die when the last man dies. ♦ Often pieces of verse Thank you for writing 1

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[illegible] There is more to be said on these subjects, but itI won’t bother you with it now. If you have my “Selected Poetry” at hand you might be interested to look at “Rock and Hawk” (page 563)—Life from the Lifeless (564)—The Answer (594)—and so forth— Thanks for your letter. Perhaps in future I shall be able to make my meaning clearer— I hope so Of Of course you understand {also} that my much of my writing my work is not {specially} concerned with this particular matter. It mightmay be just poetry for poetry’s sake only or thought for truth’s sake. I think those are worthy objects. —Thank you for your letter. Sincerely Poetry for poetry’s sake; and thought for {objective} truth’s sake—I think those also are worthy objects Rock and Hawk 563 Life from the Lifeless 564 The Answer 59343 ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Leo Wolfson was a student living in Brooklyn, New York when he wrote to Jeffers November 14, 1946 (TLS HRC Texas) with a number of questions regarding the meaning of Jeffers’ poetry. Citing critics who see a preponderance of negativism in Jeffers’ work, Wolfson detects “signs of a positive philosophy,” but he is uncertain about its nature. “What indeed,” he asks, “is the meaning of ‘the tower beyond tragedy’? Does it signify the total withdrawal of man from his materialistic and spiritual[ist]ic bonds; or is it a catharsis, stripping the sham from that same materialism and spiritualism, that has made man the prisoner that he is?” 2. Sub specie aeternitatus: Latin for “under the aspect of eternity” or “in its essential form or nature,” a phrase attributed to Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677). 3. Written in top right corner, first page.

RJ to Paul Bordry [November 1946] Cher Monsieur Bordry: Je vous remercie de Je vous remercie de votre lettre du 15 Novembre, et je regrette {bien} qu’il {ne} m’est guère possible d’y répondre, et pour deux raisons. D’abord 1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

parce que je connais très peu la poésie contemporaine; je demeure{meure} à distance des centres littéraires, et je lis peu de poésie, au moins de poésie plus moderne jeune que {que celle de} Baudelaire en France et {de} Matthew Arnold. en Angleterre. Et la seconde raison c’est que je ne m’interesse pas beaucoup dans les tendances littéraires; {en effet je n’en sais rien;} c’est plutôt quelques poètes et quelques poèmes qui m’interessent. Je ne suis pas critique. Vous comprenez, alors, que ce ne n’est pas défaut de bonne volonté qui m’empêche de vous répondre. Et aussi {Aussi je vous prie de} pardonner, mon cher M. Bordry, les gaucheries de cette lettre. Il y a plus que quarante années que je n’ai ni écrit ni parlé {(sauf quelques minutes minuscules conversations)} votre belle langue. Sincèrement,2 ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Paul Bordry founded Jeunesse Artistique de France (Young Artists of France), an underground organization, at the University of Paris in 1943. In his November 15, 1946 letter (TLS HRC Texas), he asks Jeffers for his thoughts about contemporary American poetry. Bordry hoped to include Jeffers’ comments, he explains, in a radio program titled “Carrefour Littéraire” (“Literary Crossroads”) and in an essay he was writing. 2. Jeffers thanks Bordry for his letter, then says it is impossible for him to respond for two reasons: first, because he does not know much about contemporary poetry (he lives far from literary centers and reads very little poetry—at least nothing more modern than Baudelaire and Arnold); second, because he is not interested in literary trends and knows nothing about them. There are a few poems and a few poets that interest him, Jeffers adds, but he is not a critic. Jeffers concludes by saying that it is not a lack of goodwill that prevents him from responding. He apologizes for the awkwardness of his letter, explaining that he has not written or spoken Bordry’s beautiful language, except for a few brief conversations, for more than forty years.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Michael Myerberg Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 December 10. 1946 Dear Michael: Robin would be glad to make an arrangement with you about Dear Judas. Suppose you suggest your idea of terms etc, & if all is fairly simple probably we can do very well by ourselves. If there are complications, then we can use the Morris Agency. They had charge of our contracts (Medea) with Theatre Guild & Luther Greene & will doubtless continue on the subject as Greene’s contract ends were {very} soon now & other people are interested. They are all right I guess but slow & seem inclined ♦ to mislay papers & exasperate people. We heard fine things about your Lute Song. Best greetings from us both Una Jeffers. ALS. Wisconsin. 2 pages.

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel Rt. 1. Box 36 Dec. 12. ’46 1 If you are seeing the Colums, please find out from them whether any effort has yet been made to bring Yeats’ body back from Roquebrune.2 I cannot bear to think of him lying there. You remember he chose Drumcliffe for his grave. He called it the “most haunted spot in Ireland.” It is a lovely, lonely spot well-known to me. A stump of one of my old round towers is there & some carved crosses. {in the graveyard across the road. Once when we were there a pure white young goat that looked like a unicorn was skipping over the graves.} Yrs. Una Jeffers 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

APS. New York PL. Postmark: December 13, 1946. 1. Padraic Colum (1881–1972), a poet, writer, and folklorist, was a founder of the Abbey Theatre in Dublin and a friend W. B. Yeats, George Moore, James Joyce, and other major figures of the Irish Renaissance. Among his many books are Wild Earth (1907), The Story of Lowry Maen (1937), and The Flying Swans (1957). His wife, Mary “Mollie” (McGuire) Colum (1884–1957), was a literary critic and author of From These Roots (1937), Life and the Dream (1947), and other works. The Colums married in 1912 and moved from Ireland to New York City in 1914. Levy writes about his close friendship with the couple in “Padraic Colum (1881–1972),” New York Times Book Review (March 5, 1972): 47. 2. Yeats died in Mentone, France in January 1939 and was buried at Roquebrune-­­CapMartin, but plans were underway to bring his body back to Ireland.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 12/30/46 Dear Bennett: Thanks so much for prompt appraisal of Donnan’s manuscript.1 Yes, please return it for his disposal. We hope to see you early in the year if you get to California. We have had {& will continue} a very gay holiday week—this place is as thrillingly beautiful as ever—but we are longing again for a jaunt to the British Isles. Best of all things for the New Year! Faithfully, Una ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. “I had Donnan’s detective story read by our very best man on the mystery line,” Cerf writes in a December 19, 1946 letter to Una (TLC Berkeley), “and I am sorry to say that his report is most discouraging.” Along with thoughtful suggestions for pursuing the project further, Cerf adds, “My advice, however, would be for Donnan to rewrite the book before submitting it anywhere because, even if he could get it published in this present form, it would get him off to a start that I can only describe as unfortunate.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Charles Abbott Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 1/4/47 Dear Dr. Abbott: We are much interested in the growth of your Library with its unusual contents. During the course of this year I will try to get another set of my husband’s work sheets & send to you. And a few letters perhaps. Several times I have had conversations with people who have made use of your material there & were very enthusiastic about the whole scheme. When we get to the Eastern coast again, we will try to stop for a quick look at the Lockwood. With best wishes & holiday greetings from us both. Cordially, Una Jeffers I enclose two letters for your collection. I consider the one from Masters of extraordinary interest for various reasons.1 ALS. Buffalo. 1 page. 1. Edgar Lee Masters’ letter to Jeffers is dated August 31, 1927. A note on the reverse says, “Given to the Lockwood Memorial Library by Una Jeffers 1/4/47.” For excerpts from the letter, see Jeffers’ September 1927 response (Collected Letters 1: 702, note 2). The second letter donated by Una is unrecorded.

RJ to Harper & Brothers / Frederick Mortimer Clapp Tor House, Carmel, California. January 12, 1947. Harper and Brothers, New York, N. Y. Gentlemen: Let me congratulate you as publishers of The Seeming Real, these latest poems by Frederick Mortimer Clapp. It is his best book, I think, though New Poems and Said Before Sunset remain very near to me.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Ascetic, profound, allusive, and compressed to the cramping-point, Clapp’s poetry requires all the reader’s attention, and is worth it. There is no one else, now Yeats is gone, whose books I expect with so much interest and read with so much pleasure. Yes, Clapp is a little hard to read. Sometimes he has us gasping on Tibetan uplands of imagination, where mathematics and physics are the only birds; but the emotion is there, he is never inhuman, and for sheer depth and range of thought there is no one like him, in America or England.1 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. Dear Timmie: This is expressed almost as hastily as it is typed, but perhaps your publishers can use parts of it at least. It doesn’t half express my admiration. “The Seeming Real” is a noble book, and thank you for letting me see it. Affectionately, Robin.2 TLS and ALS. Lorson. 1 page. 1. As Timmie’s book, The Seeming Real (1943–1946), entered the final phase of production, Jeffers sent these words of praise to the publisher. The comments, slightly reworded in places, were used as a blurb on the inside front flap of the book jacket. 2. Jeffers’ handwritten note to Timmie is added beneath his typed letter to Harper & Brothers. Drafts of both documents are located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Rt. 1. Box 36 Carmel. California 1/13/47 Dearest Melba: That was the loveliest Christmas box you sent us We are still enjoying it. Such fruit & nuts & dates! —such flavor & such size! Thank you with all our hearts. And I love the silver scent box.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Garth doesnt tell us much about Germany. He is connected with the Intelligence Branch of the First Constabulary Brigade. We gather that things are very mixed up & the Russian zone doesnt try very hard to co{ö}perate with the English & American spheres of influence. The cold is severe {there} this winter & for some days during the late {coal} strike over here even the American officers quarters, where he stays, had no heat. Donnan is writing away & is fairly content. He looks just fine now. Such a thin ghost when he came home! You can imagine that it wasn’t very gay helping him shop for toys at Christmas—last year he had worked so happily on a doll’s house for Candida. Oitinen’s bust of Robin wasn’t a success. Mrs. Adriani athe wife of an art critic who lives here has taken a lot of pictures of Robin ♦ which are exactly as he is.1 Bruno Adriani was the head of Art & Drama part of the gov’t {gov’t} in Berlin for eight years. He got out just a little while before the war, being anti-Nazi. He has a great many fine books & paintings. Of the latter, the French Manet, Monet, Renoir are notable. They live in a chalkstone house on the street where you were in Yellow Shutters.2 Do you remember the driveway beside which was a stone with the name Skene3 cut on it? Thats the place. Nice people. I wonder whether you knew our friend Paul Dougherty who just died in Palm Springs?4 Our friends Blanche & Russel Matthias are at “The Desert Inn” for a month. Do you ever see T Town & Country. In the Nov. issue was a rather amusing article on Geo. Moore by Oliver Gogarty.5 Its about taking his ashes in the urn out to the lonely island in Lough Carra where they were buried. We went out there with great difficulty. Perhaps I showed you the pictures I took that day. It is said not as more than one person a year gets out to that island. {Also} In that Nov. issue is a picture of us & Marquand’s party at Del Monte.6 ♦ Two interesting books I finished yesterday. Edith Sitwell’s Fanfare for Elizabeth”,7 a really thrilling book, and Greenslets, “The Lowells & Their Seven Worlds.”8 The period from 1640–on for two hundred {150} yrs. is

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

very interesting to me—as they settled in Mass. & N. H. where my forebear’s were from 1630 & the letters & papers of the time fitted into some data that I already knew. That reminds me of your Biography & Timmie Clapp’s criticism of it. When Amy Lowell took her first draft of “Life of Keats”9 to her editor he said, “Amy, its a great book but you have given the reader the whole process of your research & thought not just the results which are what he wants. Remember, the more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows.”10 Are you coming up here this {next} summer? or will that eastern wedding trip take all your holiday time. Where will they live, the newly married ones”11 Love from both of us. Devotedly, Una ALS. HRC Texas. 3 pages. 1. Sadie Adriani photographed Jeffers in April 1946. A month later, at the suggestion of Remsen Bird, she sent seven prints to the Occidental College Library for inclusion in the Jeffers archives. 2. The Adriani home was located a few blocks east of Tor House, on Valley View Avenue between 15th and 16th Avenues. 3. Ralph and Charlotte Skene. 4. Paul Dougherty died of abdominal cancer January 9, 1947. 5. Oliver St. John Gogarty, “George Moore’s Ultimate Joke,” Town & Country (November 1946): 115, 206, 211–213; reprinted in a collection of essays by Gogarty, Intimations (New York: Abelard, 1950): 25–43. 6. A caption beneath a photograph in the November issue of Town & Country, page 202, describes the event: “John P. Marquand, whose new book ‘B. F.’s Daughter’ appears this month, chats on the sofa with Mrs. Robinson Jeffers, wife of Carmel’s well-known writer, who is standing directly behind her in the Lounge of the Del Monte Lodge in Pebble Beach, Calif. The others are Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gros with Mrs. J. P. Marquand.” 7. Edith Sitwell, Fanfare for Elizabeth (New York: Macmillan, 1946). 8. Ferris Greenslet, The Lowells and Their Seven Worlds (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946). 9. Amy Lowell, John Keats (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1925). 10. Greenslet, Lowell’s editor, recounts this incident in The Lowells and Their Seven Worlds, page 390. “The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows” is from a sonnet by

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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­ ichelangelo, translated by Mrs. Henry Roscoe in Vittoria Colonna: Her Life and Poems (London: M Macmillan, 1868): 169. 11. The wedding of Melba’s son Peter and his fiancée Alys Maud Faurot (1924–2000) was set for Tuesday, June 10, in Chicago.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. R. 1. Box 36 Carmel. California 1/13/47 Dear Bennett: Certainly I wasn’t offended at your sending me your reader’s opinion though I was extremely sorry not to give Donnan the “lift” of a favorable verdict at this time.1 I know its far from a top-flight mystery story but your man’s reaction was so violent that I couldn’t take him altogether seriously. I think he was very fed-up with the job of reading mss. that day or perhaps he happens to be of that far-left persuasion on whose ears the name Jeffers falls dolefully. In any case Donnan is writing away at something else & will probably improve if he keeps at it. Already the main purpose is achieved anyway—he has been busy & content here at home after the catastrophe of his marriage.2,3 Robert Haas & wife4 & cousins came to call. He is a dear person —they were all nice. We caught up with various bits of gossip, literary & otherwise. He is very enthusiastic about your new offices.5 Mona Williams, one of your authors,6 lives here & I told him where to find her. I believe they went on ♦ there from Tor House. Robin has been having a lot of painful dentistry done.— Well, its done! It didn’t add very much to the holiday festivities. We hope to see you in early spring. Greetings from Robin Affectionately Una You spoke in your note of Jan 3. of having sending Donnan’s ms. under separate cover. It hasn’t arrived yet but doubtless is on on the way. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. In a note dated January 3, 1947 (TCC Berkeley), Cerf writes, “You said nothing about your reaction to my criticism. I hope you weren’t offended by anything I said.” See Una’s December 30, 1946 letter to Cerf. 2. Donnan and Patty’s divorce was finalized December 11, 1946. 3. Both of the women Donnan had been seeing—Lee Waggener and Muriel Rukeyser— were now pregnant. 4. Merle Haas. See Una’s January 24, 1947 letter to Robert Haas. 5. Random House moved its headquarters from 20 East 57th Street to 457 Madison ­Avenue in 1946. 6. Mona (Goodwyn) Williams (1916–1991), a poet and novelist, was the wife of writer and Carmel bookstore owner Henry Meade Williams (1899–1984) and the daughter-in-law of Una’s friend Alice Williams. Mona’s second novel, Bright Is the Morning, was published by Smith & Haas in 1934. Subsequent books include The Marriage (1958), Voices in the Dark (1968), and The House Is Burning (1978).

RJ to Winifred Stilwell Tor House, Carmel, California. January 15, 1947. Dear Mrs. Stillwell:1 I am answering for my wife, to whom you addressed your letter. We have talked it over together, and I am {very} sorry but {that} the answer is has to be certainly “No” negative. These trees were planted before your house was built, with the idea that they should make a long natural wave, pruned by the sea-wind, —a long beautiful wave of foliage, such as we had admired at Moss Landing and elsewhere. It never occurred to us that anyone behind us would be troubled by it. 2 My wife, who is a realist, suggests that if you wanted to see the ocean shore from your windows you shcould have bought shoreline property, as we did. There were many lots on the shore still available at that time, and I cannot imagine that anyone would for {hope} {hope} to {control land that they do not own. Certainly we never have done so.}

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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If you have walked along the sea-road below our house, you must have observed how ugly the slashes were, that we allowed you to make two or three {a few} years ago. {Nature has nearly healed them {them} {it} now, but we couldn’t possibly allow it to happen again.}3 They are now nearly healed, and I shall certainly not {cannot} allow them to be cut {hacked open} again. You understand, of course, that several houses are going to be built on the lots behind us, ♦ any one of which would have a right to ask us to cut our trees out of its view if we we should do the same thing for you. When the trees were cut before, and you promised not to tell anyone, it was hardly a moment before your friend neighbor Schwabacher4 was asking us to do for him what we had done for you. To me it seems an extraordinary thing that you should ask a second time {again} for a privilege that we were obviously so reluctant to give you when you first asked it {yielded with such obvious reluctance}. The ocean is still {widely} visible from your roadway, {and will be for years to come} {as I have verified from the road by your house.} If it should ever be completely {badly} {entirely} hidden I will trim the tree-tops myself. I {We} cannot in any case allow anyone else to do it. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Winifred Alison (Smith) Stilwell (1889–1972) was the daughter of J. William Smith (1856–1933) and Lily Morris Smith (1856–1929) of Syracuse, New York. Her father was an engineer, industrialist, book collector, and patron of the arts. Seven hundred guests attended her lavish wedding to Lieut. Joseph Stilwell in Syracuse on October 18, 1910. 2. This paragraph is written on a separate sheet of scrap paper. Jeffers indicates the point of insertion with a letter “A.” 3. This crossed out sentence is written on the same piece of scrap paper as the inserted paragraph above. 4. Frank Schwabacher (1882–1963) and Hannah (Meertlief) Schwabacher (1896–1973) of Hillsborough, California owned a vacation home at the corner of San Antonio Avenue and Inspiration Avenue in Carmel. Schwabacher was the executive vice president of the CrownWillamette Corporation, a lumber and paper manufacturing firm founded by his father.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Robert Haas Tor House. R. 1. Box 36 Carmel. California 1/24/47 Dear Robert Haas:1 Thank you so much for remembering to send me “The Angelic Avengers.”2 It came today & I’ve already read several fascinating chapters. I’ve seen several enthusiastic reviews since we talked together. The firm of Whitehead & Rea3 (33 East 63rd Street, N. Y. C.) have signed a contract for Medea—6 months option—with Judith Anderson in the title role. I don’t know anything about these people, I believe they are a new firm but they have been writing me very nice human letters for five months & when Greene had the option, they tried to get in touch with him to put some money into the venture because they wished to be associated with it. He {Greene} was a queer person & simply went off to Europe without leaving any address with his Morris Agents. & then he & Judith divorced— after several months turbulent association!4 Please let Bennett see this ♦ as we agreed to keep each other informed about pros prospects of production of Medea. Robin & I were delighted to meet your cousins & to have you & Mrs. Haas5 at Tor House. My greetings to everyone in the office. Faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. Robert Kalman Haas (1890–1964), a graduate of Yale University, was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for heroism during World War I. In 1926 he co-founded the Bookof-the-Month Club and in 1932 the Harrison Smith & Robert Haas publishing company. His firm merged with Random House in 1936 and Haas became a vice president of the new corporation. Haas was also a trustee of Mount Sinai Hospital and other medical institutions. 2. Pierre Andrézel, The Angelic Avengers (New York: Random House, 1946). Pierre Andrézel was a pen name of Karen Blixen, who also published as Isak Dinesen. 3. Robert Whitehead and Oliver Rea formed a theater production company in December 1946. They planned to produce a play titled To Tell You the Truth by Eva Wolas in spring 1947, followed by a stage adaptation of The Man Who Died by D. H. Lawrence, but they set these projects

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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aside in favor of Medea, their first collaboration. For biographical information on Whitehead and Rea, see Jeffers’ May 12, 1948 letter to them. 4. Recent newspaper reports stated that Judith Anderson and Luther Greene separated in November 1946 and planned to divorce. The couple reconciled, however, and remained married—despite ongoing conflicts—until June 1951. 5. Merle (Simon) Haas (1897–1985), a nurse’s aide and dedicated hospital volunteer, was the translator of Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff ’s celebrated series of books (published by Random House) about Babar the Elephant. Merle and Robert’s only son, Lt. Robert K. Haas, Jr., was a bomber pilot killed in action in 1943.

RJ to Richard Nutt [January 1947]1 Dear Richard Nutt:2 Your letter was dated Dec. 11, and I am unhappy not to have answered in decent time. It is almost impossible for me to get a letter written. On the subject of atomic energy—the first use we made of it was horrible of course {certainly}, but only a magnification of our other bombings, which usually included civilian victims, and not always unintentionally. I am sorry about them, —I think {am sure that} most of us are. If it were used in a another {future} war, and should wreck the entire world knock us back into an agrarian stage of civilization—would that be very bad? Meanwhile its peace-time uses—a source of power, almost as cheap as coal!—don’t seem very important yet. Perhaps they will be; but applied science has never stirred me deeply. On the other hand But to know something more about the nature of things—that is important. that does stir me or rather to verify our theoretical knowledge—that does stir me. Pure science seems to add to life’s dignity—applied science only to its complications. ♦ As to the “rejection” you speak of—I see your point. But people generally believe so much that is not true, and accept so much that is not good—there has to be rejection or else dishonesty. Or else surrender {and join a church.} YouOne can say, for instance, “I know “Truth is undiscoverable. Perhaps the Church has it (or the cCommunist pParty). I will join the Church—I willshall

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

have fellowship and peace of mind—and perhaps some {the} truth—who knows? {also.”} It is quite reasonable, if one is tired enough. However, I don’t think it’s necessary. I think Wordsworth could have lived with his lake and mountain religion, and spared us the sonnet-cycle about the Christ. Thank you for your interesting letter. I don’t seem to have answered it exactly—only added some observations. Sincerely yours, ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. This draft letter is written on the same kind of scrap paper (blank pages from an old ledger) Jeffers used during the latter half of 1946. Jeffers probably responded to Nutt’s ­December 11 letter in January 1947. 2. Possibly Richard Sherman Nutt (1917–2006), a lieutenant in the Army Air Force and an administrative aide in the Office of Scientific Research and Development (the agency that directed the Manhattan Project and developed atomic weapons) during World War II. Nutt graduated from Yale University in 1947 and later taught English and American history at Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island.

UJ and RJ to Charles Cavalli Tor House. Carmel. California R. 1. Box 36 2/6/461 [1947] Dear Mr. Cavalli:2 My husband does not write letters. I ought to have acknowledged your book3 several weeks ago. Just lately he has been undergoing some painful dentistry {and getting through his work with difficulty} & I neglected to get his opinion to pass on to you & others. He says, “I like some of Mr. Cavalli’s poems very much; all of them show talent & a mind that is both sensitive & self-sustaining. It was kind of him to send the poems. I hope to see him {at} some future time, but cannot suggest any definite date as our plans for the coming spring & summer are very iuncertain.” Very sincerely Una Jeffers. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: February 7, 1947. 1. Una accidentally wrote the wrong year. 2. Charles Cavalli, a resident of Los Angeles, was the author of Selected Poems (Los Angeles: Highland Press, 1945).

RJ to Roland Meyer [March 1947] Mr. Roland Meyer, Crocker-Union, San Francisco. Dear Mr. Meyer:1 Seven hundred words about Point Lobos sounds like a pleasant job.2 I will send the manuscript within three weeks—that is, before April 7—but let me know if you need it sooner. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Roland Meyer (1902–1969) was an executive salesman for the Crocker-Union Lithograph Company, also known as the H. S. Crocker Company, in San Francisco. 2. Jeffers wrote a description of Point Lobos for See Your West, a series of essays and prints published by Standard Oil and distributed free at their service stations. The entire portfolio was reprinted as The Glory of Our West: See the West in Natural Color with Famous Authors and Photographers, foreword by Joseph Henry Jackson (Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1952). A photograph of Point Lobos by George E. Stone accompanied Jeffers’ essay. For the complete text, see Appendix A: 2.

RJ to Louis Mertins Tor House, Carmel, Calif. March, 1947 Dear Louis Mertins: This is a note of admiration for Robert Frost, and of regret that I cannot be present at his birthday party in San Francisco. Will you show it to him, please? Or read it to him, and to the fortunate celebrants.1 Certainly this party marks a memorable occasion. San Francisco and all California may be proud to have seen at least the inarticulate beginning

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

of New England’s poet; and though he went east—“against the course of heaven and doom,”2 as Shelley says—and prefers the shrewd and kindly idiom that grows north of Boston, yet he belongs to the whole country and speaks for it, the east and the west. I think of Frost as a worthy successor of Emerson and Thoreau,—to name my most admired New Englanders,—and as a man who expresses the universal through the particular, a regional poet who is also universal, like Wordsworth for instance. I wish him many future years and poems, for his own sake and ours. Good luck to you, Robert Frost. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers PL. Mertins. 1. This letter was read aloud at a party celebrating Robert Frost’s seventy-second birthday at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, Sunday, March 23, 1947. Invitations to the event listed Jeffers as one of the hosts (along with Louis Mertins, Gertrude Atherton, and others), but he did not attend. A handwritten draft of the letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. For an account of the party and for the printed text, see Louis Mertins, Robert Frost: Life and Talks-Walking (Norman, Okla.: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965): 259–262. 2. From Hellas: A Lyrical Drama (1821) by Percy Bysshe Shelley, line 67.

UJ to Blanche Matthias [March 1947] Tor House. Carmel. California Rt 1. Box 36 Darling Blanche: I enclose a clipping about the Carpenters.1 I cut it out for Lucy Porter 2 but it occurred to me you would be interested. Please forward it to Mrs. Kingsley Porter, “Elmwood”, Cambridge 38, Mass. {also to her the Judith Anderson clipping} We have seen a lot of them & made fast friends. Charming people! They have adored their house. It is very thrilling—the outlook over the sea & rocky shore. They have entertained a good deal since they came. Many people they know have either been here to stay or travelled LETTERS 1940– 1962

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through. On Friday of this week Thomas Whittemore is coming to see them & is bringing slides of the mosaics he uncovered in St. Sophia, Istanbul a few years ago. They are said to be very beautiful. He will show them Friday night.3 The Carpenters leave Sunday but swear to come back next year. Roland Hayes was at their house for lunch yesterday. We talked of our dinner with you & of Wickie. Roland said it was intolerable to think of— his suicide. We did not see Martin. He left several days ago {for Chicago} where he ♦ an appointment {with some fine surgeon} for a check-up. His stomach. He has gotten very thin. We would have chosen to have Donnan wait for a while before he married again—but it was one of those sudden impulsive moves—and may turn out very happily indeed.4,5 They seem very much in love. She is 20 & very pretty. Yellow, bright yellow hair, the fairest skin in the world & green eyes. Very tiny & full of gay spirits. She did some pre medical work at U. of Mich. & some work at at {an} art school in Detroit. In general, her mind is rather unfurnished which isnt too unusual at 20. I do not know yet whether she will care to learn. I rearranged the upstairs. It is sweet & comfortable up there. You remember there is a Franklin fireplace & wee organ & I put some wicker chairs etc. Its a nice bed & sitting room! With such a view! So they can sit up there & have their friends when they wish. Robin wrote up there for twenty five years—but latterly has worked downstairs. On Aug 15th we will have lived at Tor House 28 yrs. Donnan has horrid hours at the office 12 noon to 9:00 pm. We hope he will have better soon. For many reasons it is hard to have ♦ this addition to the household but one side of me is glad to have the young of the family here. Its what a house is for. {My father’s house was always full to the roof with relatives & family—} & sometimes I have fancied Robin & I were getting too self-indulgent all by ourselves. But it makes a lot more work & I have been much too busy already, with various things. I am not sure whether I told you that Donnan is in the office of Norberg Services. They do accounting, mimeographing, income tax advice, travel bureau (particularly plane). I hope that the business will grow—it seems to promise to and a fair opening for Donnan. They have a branch office at Ft. Ord. (sell about $500.00 of plane tickets a day)— When he

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

entered this office he planned to write mornings but doesn’t keep at it very well at present. Garth seems content in Germany for the time. He seems to be much in love with his Fraülein.6 She writes really sweet little letters in a funny English. Says that he expects soon to bring her back to Tor House—is shocked at Donnan’s hasty marriage & blusters—says when they get here the weakest couple will have to get out & he knows it won’t be himself. Robin & I guess it will be us. Well, we will depart for Ireland. ♦ I am much concerned that you have been ill—tell me you are better. Was it bronchitis, —pneumonia? Write me all about yourself & Russell. Will you be in Ojai at all? and how is Krishnamurti? Such an attractive {intelligent} young Englishman was here!—Ian Watt7—in some way connected with you. He came to us with a note from James Caldwell. Sara Bard Field comes down often. She looks many years younger & gayer since Erskine died. I think he was a great anxiety & care to her those last years. She couldn’t bear to see him failing in strength & mind. Thank Russell for the Wall Street Journal. I wish we could have darted away at once to take advantage of the ratio of $s & £s. How is Russell situated about maps {maps}?! You knew of course ofabout Carol Pickit’s8 operation. I believe she is recovering nicely & quickly. Four friends of the Fishes have been here for several months {from N. Y.} & there has been tremendous & continuous dimer {dinners,} cocktails, lunches —Do you know any of them. Cecilia von Rath,9 Mary Cass Canfield,10 Tatine Wood11 & Marjorie Chadbourne.12 Extremely interesting women. Myron Brinig is here too for three months. I must away now to the Music Society Directors’ meeting. An important meeting—probably last until midnight. We not only have our ordinary business but 13decisions must be made about our legacy of $25,000.00 from Mrs. Blanchard.14 —also old Mr. Green15 fell over a chain by the driveway at the last concert & broke his leg, & we are threatened with a suit. Devoted love from Una. I’m sorry to be a bother but will you send this letter to the Clapps. I wish so much to write them & seldom get a moment. Also forward them 2 papers I will send you tomorrow16

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ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. John Alden Carpenter (1876–1951), an 1897 graduate of Harvard University, was the vice president of his father’s shipping supply company in Chicago as well as an acclaimed composer. Among his many piano, vocal, and orchestral works are Citanjali (1914), Sea Drift (1933), and Carmel Concerto (1948). In May 1947 he was awarded a Gold Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in recognition of his distinguished career in music. Carpenter married Ellen Wallace (Waller) Borden (1885–1974) in January 1933. Ellen was the former wife of financier and adventurer John Borden (1884–1961). 2. Lucy Porter and Ellen Carpenter’s mother, Elizabeth (Wallace) Waller (1863–1919), were sisters. 3. Thomas Whittemore (1871–1950), a Byzantinist and Egyptologist affiliated with Harvard University, led the effort to uncover and restore the Christian mosaics of the Hagia Sophia basilica in Istanbul—a project that began in 1931. A story about his achievements was published in the January 27, 1947 issue of Time magazine, pages 63–64. Whittemore’s presentation in Carmel took place March 28 at Noël Sullivan’s Hollow Hills Farm. 4. Donnan married Leota “Lee” Merchant Waggener (1926–1999), the daughter of Clarence Dale Waggener and Grace (Allen) Waggener. Lee was a student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and the Miensinger School of Art in Detroit before moving to the Monterey Peninsula, where she worked in the office of Dr. Harry Lusignan, a pediatrician. A note in the March 14, 1947 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal says that Donnan and Lee were “married in Nevada several months ago” but kept their wedding a secret. 5. When Muriel Rukeyser told Donnan she was pregnant, she assumed they would face the situation together. The news that Donnan had already made a commitment to Lee came as a devastating surprise. Donnan denied that he was the father of Muriel’s child and severed their relationship. 6. Lieselotte Charlotte “Lotte” Riederer (1923–1986), daughter of Otto Hans Riederer and Albertine “Tina” (Eichschmid) Riederer of Munich. Garth and Charlotte married later in the year. 7. Probably Ian Pierre Watt (1917–1999), a former British Army lieutenant who was wounded in battle, captured by the Japanese, and put to work as a prisoner of war on the railroad project that inspired Pierre Boule’s novel and David Lean’s film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). Watt earned a doctorate in English at Cambridge University and taught at several institutions (including ten years at the University of California, Berkeley, where James Caldwell was a professor) prior to accepting a position at Stanford University in 1964. He was the author of The Rise of the Novel: Studies in Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding (1957), Conrad in the Nineteenth Century (1979), and other books. 8. Caroline Adeline (Cottrell) Pickit (1885–1957) worked for the Red Cross in Siberia and Poland during World War I and after. She came to Carmel from San Francisco in 1925.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

The following year, she and a business partner opened the Peter Pan Lodge in the Carmel Highlands. 9. Cecelia vom Rath. See Collected Letters 2: 677, note 1. 10. Mary Cass Canfield (1893–1966), who first visited Tor House in 1927, was an author, playwright, and sculptor. 11. Possibly Laura Cass (Canfield) Wood (1891–1988), Mary Canfield’s sister. 12. Marjorie (Curtis) Chadbourne (1888–1980) was the widow of attorney Thomas L. Chadbourne (see Una’s November 5, 1947 letter to Blanche Matthias). 13. The rest of the paragraph is written vertically in the left margin, page 4; the closing and signature are written in the top left corner, page 4. 14. Mary (Van Vechten) Pinckney Blanchard (1859–1946), an older cousin of Carl Van Vechten, was the widow of Chicago judge Merritt W. Pinckney (1859–1920) and University of Chicago professor Frederic Mason Blanchard (1867–1929). Mary was an active supporter of the Carmel Music Society, the Bach Festival, and other community organizations. She lived in the Carmel Highlands. 15. Charles Sumner Greene, nearing eighty at this time, recovered from a broken hip. 16. This postscript is written in the top right corner, page 1. One of the papers Una mentions was probably a copy of the March 14, 1947 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal, which contains a long article by Rosalinde Sharpe titled “Robinson Jeffers Completing New Poem, Double Axe; Says Cruelty is Only Wickedness He Knows,” pages 1 and 4. The article resulted from an interview Sharpe conducted with Jeffers at Tor House. Sharpe (writing as Rosalinde Sharpe Wall) refers to the interview several times in her chapter on Jeffers in A Wild Coast and Lonely, pages 113–125.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 March 28. 1947 Darling Clapps, Timmie’s book hasn’t come—did he forget?1 He said in his last he had it on his desk to send. I hope this doesn’t mean that the cold he spoke of turned into a long flu-thing. Do write us a line & let us hear how you both go on. Some days ago I wrote a detailed letter to Blanche ({San} Ysidro Ranch, Santa Barbara until May 1st) & asked her to send on to you. also I sent her two newspapers with the same request. I’ve been busy & part of

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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the time perplexed & simply in a whirl with the people coming & going. Donnan married to a new very pretty little blonde! & they here at Tor House. Judith Anderson & producer here for several days, —four women friends of the Fishes {for three mos. at hotel} here with an incessant round of activities. The John Alden Carpenters with a thousand things going on all around them—and all my usual duties as well. Most of all this ♦ sketched out in my letter to her {Blanche}. So after you read it you’ll see the general trend of events. How I hate to be pushed around so fast & mean to take a resolute new stand. I also have put in the noon hour every day for 3½ weeks at Red Cross during the Annual Fund Drive. I never stop loving you best of all & never give up hoping to have long long knee-to-knee conferences with you about everything! I am feeling very well & so is Robin. How queer one’s heart is— I had a letter today from my sister in Michigan today & my mind is full of it— When I was 16, I fell madly in love with a young man in his early 20’s— he had been expelled from High School in another town {& doing God knows what—I never knew—} & was rusticating & tutoring being tutored in the family of a clergyman in my town. After a half-year he went away to medical school with many anguished farewells (at least I was anguished) our little affair was secret. He never wrote me & I never until today knew his fate. He graduated from Johns Hopkins, was sent out to {a position in} Manila & died within a few months of a fever there.2 Sometimes I have not 3thought of him for years at a time—but when I did, I imagined him as gay & fascinating & mysterious as in those days a life-time ago! & I can’t bear today to realize he has been in his grave so long. I feel cheated somehow. Devotedly Una ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Frederick Mortimer Clapp, The Seeming Real (1943–1946) (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1947). Timmie’s book was published February 19. 2. George Conklin Kinne (1875–1926) was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He graduated from Mason High School in 1898 and then attended Alma College and the University of Michigan.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Kinne entered Yale University in 1904, earned an M.D. degree in 1908, and practiced medicine in Seattle, Portland, and other cities. He died of a heart attack in Honolulu, Hawaii September 15, 1926. In this letter, Una says she was sixteen when she was involved with Kinne, but she was actually fourteen and he was twenty-three. In a memoir titled Pretaerita: Recollections of a Michigan Childhood (a copy of which is held in the Tor House Foundation archives), Una gives more details. Other days—and then my heart would pound, —I went to meet G— K— at the edge of the wood. . . . He was my first love. I do not feel any reality in happy lyrics about fresh young love: mine was anguish from first to last punctuated by rare moments of joy—even they were too sharp to bear. I never knew what escapade sent him into this seclusion. He was older than the other boys in High School, —twenty I suppose, and I was fourteen. He looked proud and reckless and handsome with vital black hair, green eyes, black-lashed, and a mouth both tender & scornful —oh, and a roman nose gave him a curious distinction. . . . [W]e seldom saw each other alone except at intervals we kept these stolen trysts in early morning. He would . . . come into Raynor’s wood from the far side and through the wood along a bridle path rough and strewn with twigs & broken branches until he could wait for me near my edge. So I came galloping up romantic & breathless to slide off into his arms. Oh but the air was clear & fresh, the dew sparkling & sharp fragrance crushed from the leaves & flowers as we paced along —but brief, brief the few ardent kisses & caressing words, —away we both must dash. . . . After a year he graduated from M.H.S. and I never saw him again. . . . I had had a year of tumultuous emotion; several greater loves since but I have never been so undone! Last item: I kept a beautiful photograph of him hidden away in my copy of “St. Elmo.” When I came home from Berkeley, married to Teddie, I solemnly took down that book from the top shelf, gazed hard at that face always to remain an enigma to me, and burnt it . . . and now he seldom comes to mind unless I smell syringa blossoms, for once—perhaps the only time, he took me home from somewhere in the evening we paused beside a syringa laden with bloom—our murmuring words, the heavy sweet scent, warm air and heartbreaking beauty of moonlight all inextricably entangled in my memory forever.

St. Elmo (1866) by Augusta Jane Evans (1835–1909) was one of the most popular romance novels of the nineteenth century. The novel tells the story of Edna Earl, a virtuous, intelligent, and willful adolescent orphan whose initial abhorrence of St. Elmo Murray—an older man who possesses all the characteristics of a troubled Byronic hero—gives way to enduring love and St. Elmo’s eventual redemption. 3. The rest of the letter is written vertically in the left margin and across the top of the second page.

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UJ to Robert Gros Tor House. Carmel. April 1 —’47 Thanks for your note— I haven’t seen the new number of Whats Doing —probably not out yet. Toni Ricketts came out to see (—interview Robin—)1 & spoke of your pictures. I am afraid I was the obstacle in the way of their doing an article some months ago. They asked me to suggest someone to write it & I never did. Robin thought it would impose a burden on someone. Now they’ve managed it themselves. We hope to see you soon. Faithfully, Una Jeffers APS. Mears. Postmark: April 2, 1947. 1. Toni Jackson (1911–2006), born Eleanor Susan B. Anthony Solomons in Oakland, California, was a writer and editor. For several years she lived with marine biologist Ed Ricketts (1897–1948), John Steinbeck’s close friend, and sometimes used Ricketts’ last name. Jackson later married microbiologist Benjamin Elazari Volcani (1915–1999). Writing as “tj,” Jackson recounts her meeting with Jeffers in “The Hawk and the Rock,” What’s Doing (April 1947): 14–15, 36. A portrait of Jeffers by Monterey artist Bruce Ariss (1911–1994) is featured on the cover of the cultural affairs journal, and two photographs by Jon Frederic Stanton, also known as Jon Fredric, John Fredrick, and John Frederick Stanton (1913–1984), accompany the text.

UJ to Noël Sullivan April 10 ’47 Tor House. Carmel Noël: I wonder whether you saw it?— There is an article in {March 15th} Saturday Review of Literature, by Dorothy Thompson—“The Last Time I Saw Berlin”1 I am sure you would find very interesting. Its hard to get back numbers of anything, —but there is a file of S. R. L. in the Library here. Also it is likely that Ellis has a copy. He writes for S. R. L. so often. Have you read “Sex & Anarchy” in Harper’s yet?2 I got some surprises in it. I knew that batch of people is unwashed, promiscuous & all of them 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

panhandlers but I didn’t know they had evolved a ♦ complete system (to go along with their jargon), which relates their orgasms to deity. Yrs U. J. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. Postmark: April 11, 1947. 1. Dorothy Thompson, “The Last Time I Saw Berlin,” Saturday Review of Literature (March 15, 1947): 9–10. 2. Mildred Edie Brady, “The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy,” Harper’s Magazine (April 1947): 312–322. In this essay, Brady describes the reappearance of Bohemianism in San Francisco, Berkeley, and especially the Big Sur, where Henry Miller and friends were fashioning a liberated lifestyle based on art, easygoing self-sufficiency, and free love. Miller (1891–1980) moved to Big Sur in 1944 and remained there, except for times of travel, until 1962. He was the author of Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957) and many other works. Two months prior to the publication of this essay, Harper’s Bazaar profiled the artists and intellectuals of northern California in “The Intellectual Climate of San Francisco: Nineteen Personalities” (February 1947): 220–223. Both Miller and Jeffers were included in the article.

UJ to Langston Hughes Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1 Box 3 April 18. 1947 Dear Langston: Robin & I have read your “Fields of Wonder”1 with deep pleasure. I won’t be untrue to former poems of yours but it seems as if these are your best yet, —which is as it must be for your understanding heart beats in everything you write, & it understands more & more. We are all well here. We were at Noëls night before last for dinner— & had fun talking about the article in this month’s “Harpers” about “Sex & Anarchy” (in Carmel!) Most of it true, too! But some of it was a surprise to me. As usual many interesting people are here & keep our days over full. Do you know the John Alden Carpenters of Chicago? She is our friend, Lucy Kingsley Porter’s {(of Cambridge)} niece. They had a house here for several months & we saw a lot of them. One of the important pleasures they

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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brought to us was a talk & showing of colored slides by Thomas Whittemore the famous archeologist. Slides of the mosaics he has ♦ been uncovering in Santa Sophia since 1932. I couldn’t have believed {beforehand} that this would b prove to be such an inspiring experience. Slides were shown in Noëls music-room. Myron Brinig has just left. He is in great form, looks husky & very lovable. We’ve been reading Lowry’s “Under the Volcano.”2 Amazing & terrifying. Is spring beautiful in the south? Just now here it is a riot of gold. California broom & acacias bursting over every garden wall in Carmel. You know how it looks. Roland Hayes was here, too. A dear person but saying goodbye, he said “I don’t know when I’ll ever be back.” What did that mean. Garth carries on lustily at Wiesbaden & writes his letters in German. — Donnan has married a new wife young {(21)} with bright yellow hair— We both send our love. Faithfully, Una. ALS. Yale. 2 pages. Postmark: April 18, 1947. 1. Fields of Wonder, a book of poems by Langston Hughes, was published March 20, 1947 by Alfred A. Knopf. 2. Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano (New York: Reynall & Hitchcock, 1947). Lowry’s novel, released February 19, was highly praised in a February 27 New York Times review as a “Drunken Nightmare of the Damned.”

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 May 12. 1947 Dearest Judith: I enclose a few lines of Medea in which Robin made some changes. I am forwarding these lines {to you} to New York via Whitehead & Rea in case

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

you are not in Hollywood. {(Where were you & Evans last night?)} I want to thank you for sending Donnan the sample radio script—& to apologize for not writing you—& also for his inactivity— He suddenly, & it seemed to us, with little forethought—plunged into {another} marriage. She’s a sweet pretty little thing of 21—with bright yellow hair— They seem much in love & so thats fine, but it means he must keep grinding away in his office work & not take time out for {other} ventures—lest they fail & leave him without a job. They are living here with us for the present & have the upstairs to themselves —(the attic! But it’s quite charming, have you ever been up there? There’s a fireplace & tables & beds & a wee organ & chaises longues & {a} magnificent view) It takes some planning to manage ♦ and I know lots of people who wouldn’t attempt it, but Robin & I feel that Tor House is the boys’ home too & they must never feel shut out. And so all goes along very busily & laboriously. Carlton Smith1 was here some weeks ago & we had fun together. He spoke with great fervor about your wonderful ability as an actress & seemed tremendously interested in your success. We heard you & Maurice Evans over the radio last night in Macbeth & were breathless as we listened— Of course we are thrilled to hear of Gielguds2 connection with the {Medea} production. Last night a young & very attractive mulatto girl sang at Noëls—a whole program—lovely voice—mezzo soprano.3 Vivid & beautiful to look at, with a great deal of dramatic ability. She is a pupil & protégée of Lotte Lehman4 & quite easily may be a great success. You knew Alice Doyle—Noëls niece. He flew down to Phoenix a few days ago to see her first baby.5 (and his nephew Fred Murphy has twins!)6 Love from Una. I bless you every time I take up the bottle of beautiful scent you brought me!7 ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Robert Carleton Smith (1908–1984) was a university professor, European correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune, and music editor for Esquire magazine. In later years, he sought

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ways to increase public awareness of distinguished achievements in fields not covered by the Nobel Prize. As the director of the National Arts Foundation and the International Awards Foundation, he helped create the J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Prize and the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Jeffers inscribed a copy of The Women at Point Sur during Smith’s visit. “Dear Carleton—,” he writes, “You asked which poem of mine I liked best. —I think, this one—(except of course the latest, which is not yet finished—it will be called The Double Axe)— I think, on the whole, this one. But nobody else does. Cordially, Robin. Tor House, Carmel, March 7, 1947.” 2. John Gielgud. See Jeffers’ August 1947 letter to Gielgud. 3. Hortense Love (1910–2001). Hermione Hortense Love was born in Oklahoma to African American and Native American parents. Following her graduation from Northwestern University in 1931, she studied voice with Lotte Lehmann’s brother Fritz Lehmann (1882– 1963) and other teachers. Her concert career began at New York’s Town Hall in 1941. From 1965 to 1990, Love was the minister of music at the Monumental Baptist Church in Chicago. 4. Charlotte “Lotte” Lehmann (1888–1976), one of the most highly regarded sopranos of her generation, tells the story of her career in Midway in My Song (1938) and My Many Lives (1948). Retiring to Santa Barbara, California in the mid-1940s, she taught master classes at the Music Academy of the West, an institution she helped create. 5. Alice Phelan Doyle (1923–2011) was the daughter of Noël Sullivan’s sister Gladys (Sullivan) Doyle and Richard E. Doyle. In May 1946 Alice married William P. Mahoney, Jr. (1916– 2000), an attorney, judge advocate in Pacific war crimes trials, and United States ambassador to Ghana from 1962 to 1965. William P. Mahoney III, the first of the couple’s nine children, was born April 18, 1947. 6. Frederic Laurence Murphy, Jr. (1910–1958) was the son of Noël’s sister Alyce (Sullivan) Murphy and Frederic L. Murphy. He and his wife Margaret Ann (Partridge) Murphy (1923–1947), the daughter of a prominent East Bay banker, were parents of twins Mark Phelan Murphy and Alice Susan Murphy, born September 13, 1946. Six weeks after this letter was written, Margaret sped through a tollbooth on the Golden Gate Bridge, stopped at the center of the span, jumped from her car with the engine still running, and leaped over the railing. Her body was swept out to sea and never found. 7. Written in the top right corner of the first page, beside the address and date.

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UJ to Michael Myerberg Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 May 14. 1947 Dear Michael: I herewith return two signed copies of the “Dear Judas” agreement. I assume that you intended us to keep the third copy. It looks all right to us & we hope fervently that you will have a success with it.1 We acknowledge receipt of $300.00 check for advance royalties. I envy you your trip to London—whether business or just fun. Its one of my most favorite places in the world! Cordial greetings from both of us. Sincerely Una Jeffers. ALS. Wisconsin. 1 page. 1. In a letter dated June 6, 1947 (TCC Wisconsin), Myerberg says, “An extraordinary thing has happened on ‘Dear Judas.’ For years I could get no interest whatever in the play from actors or theatre people of any kind. Suddenly, without changing my original text at all, everyone seems to see it and haves become tremendously excited. I have high hopes for it and will certainly get it on the stage this summer, and New York for the fall, I hope.”

UJ and RJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 May 24. 19467 Dear Mr. Levy: Answers to your questions first.1 Robin says: Re Christ child vision (1) “It was not so intended {(as affirmation etc)}—at least not consciously It was suggested, of course, by the date—Christmas Eve—but aside from that I don’t know how it came into the story.” Re Calvinistic training (2) “My father made me commit to memory the Presbyterian ‘Shorter Catechism’ which is really quite long, but he

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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explained that this was done as ‘mental discipline’ for Sundays. He was really quite liberally vague in religious belief, for a clergyman of that era. Then instruction2 ceased when I was put in school in Switzerland, age ten or eleven. But at eighteen I ‘joined the church’ {without much thought} & instantly quit it without any particular revulsion.” (3) “I never read Sa¯dhana¯. No doubt was influenced by Indian pantheism but not directly.” (4) “Yes, Wordsworth was a considerable influence.” (5) “Feeling of right & wrong no doubt comes chiefly from education & social pressure or is it to some extent intuitive, & directed by social pressure? I don’t know the answer. It is generally supported by religion, & is weakened when it loses the old alliance.” ♦ Thanks so much for the Pierpont Morgan Library Catalogue of “The Animal Kingdom.”3 It fits just exactly into my collection. Also I am sure I owe a very beautiful catalogue from the makers of Steuben glass, to you— probably a follow-up of the exquisite piece of glass you sent me last year— with the engraved unicorn head. We read & We read & thoroughly enjoyed Mary Colum’s book.4 I thought her account of the Irish rebellion & Irish politics in general as plain & fair an account as could be done. One thing that puzzled me very much was her resolute omission of the name of her birthplace. A place name is very evocative. —Ballyhaunis, Killinchy, Kilmacduagh, Mooncoin—every one has a distinct flavor & color & transports me to the region. I missed the name she should have put there. I am glad she had such favorable reviews. I loved her praise {(of)} & devotion to Yeats! We read with utmost attention Timmie Clapp’s new book.5 No doubt about it, his poems are difficult, most of them but its the reader’s deficiency if they dont yield up their treasures. I wish I could have heard Eliot’s lecture on Milton.6 With every good wish, Faithfully, Una Jeffers

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I just finished reading this morning Satre’s plays “No-Exit” & “The Flies.”7 Terrific! Both would be improved by cutting ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. 1. At the close of an undated letter to Una (TLS HRC Texas), Levy asks if she would be willing to pass along to Jeffers the following set of questions. Una copied Jeffers’ handwritten answers from a manuscript now in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. 1. Is the Christ child vision in Roan Stallion a sort of affirmation of Christ au naturel, with the Latin music a symbol of tradition, or do I make too much of it? 2. How thoroughgoing was Mr. Jeffers’ Calvinistic training as a boy and young man? None of the references to it seem to indicate its extent or duration. 3. Has Mr. Jeffers read Sa¯dhana¯, The Realisation of Life, by Sir Rabindranath Tagore, or been at all influenced by part of the Indian view of man-and-nature, the whole of which I realise he rejects in several of the poems? 4. Does he feel that Wordsworth is an influence? I am thinking especially of the Senecan Stoicism, and the consciousness of mountains. 5. In Mara Mr. Jeffers speaks of right and wrong, then calls religion the unsure basis of morality, I am not sure that I understand how right and wrong is arrived at—or is it recognizable, an absolute value, like color? 2. Jeffers’ script is sometimes difficult to read, but he wrote “These instructions” here, not “Then instruction.” 3. The Animal Kingdom, with a foreword by Helen M. Franc (New York: Plantin Press, 1940)—an “illustrated catalogue of an exhibition of manuscript illuminations, book illustrations, drawings, cylinder seals, and bindings” at the Pierpont Morgan Library, November 19, 1940–February 28, 1941. 4. Life and the Dream, a memoir by Mary Colum, was published by Doubleday, March 20, 1947. 5. The Seeming Real (1943–1946). 6. T. S. Eliot, introduced by Timmie Clapp, delivered a lecture on John Milton at the Frick Collection May 3, 1947. The lecture was reprinted as “Milton II” in Eliot’s On Poetry and Poets (1957). Accounts of the event can be found in “People Who Read and Write,” New York Times Book Review (May 18, 1947): 8, and “Milton Is O.K.,” Time (May 19, 1947): 108. 7. Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit & The Flies, translated by Stuart Gilbert (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1947).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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14.  Candida and Judith Jeffers Zanesville, Ohio, 1945

15.  Una in Red Cross uniform Tor House, ca. 1945 

16.  Robinson Jeffers Carmel, 1946 Photograph by Sadie Adriani

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17.  Judith Anderson Medea program cover Photograph by Alfredo Valente 

18.  Judith Anderson as Medea, 1947

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19.  Una and Maeve Jeffers Tor House, 1948

20.  Robinson and Hamilton Jeffers Tor House, 1948 

21.  Charlotte, Garth, and Maeve Jeffers with Donnan, Lee, and Lindsay Jeffers Tor House, 1948

22.  Una, Lindsay, and Maeve Tor House, 1948 

23.  Tor House and Hawk Tower, 1948 Photograph by Nat Farbman

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24.  Robinson Jeffers Tor House, 1948 Photograph by Nat Farbman

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25.  Robinson Jeffers Hawk Tower, 1948 Photograph by Nat Farbman

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26.  Una Jeffers Hawk Tower, 1948 Photograph by Nat Farbman

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27.  Clockwise, from left: Donnan, Maeve, Charlotte, Robinson, Una, Garth, Lee, and Lindsay Jeffers Tor House dining room, 1948 Photograph by Nat Farbman

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28.  Robinson Jeffers Tor House, 1948 Photograph by Nat Farbman

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UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 May 26. 19471 Dear Bennett: We were sorry you could not get down here when you were in California but felt we had had our share of attention when one of the firm came shortly before. —Haas—whom we enjoyed seeing again. Try to come next time. All goes well here. Robin has almost completed his new book.2 We hear about Medea from time to time. Judith called us from Hollywood a few nights ago to ask us down to Hollywood for a visit. She said rehearsals start in early September. Michael Meyerburg has contracted with us to pay a percentage of 2% I believe (haven’t time this moment to look it up) for what use he makes of Dear Judas in a play he is going to write founded on it. I don’t really think anything will come of it. He has been talking about this for ten years since we met him, down at Taos. ♦ Garth is still in Wiesbaden & content. He is planning a two weeks’ holiday trip in Bavaria—is negotiating for a folding boat to go down the Rhine in. Donnan is married again! to a pretty little girl with yellow hair. Never a dull moment when you have children, is there? We begin to long to go to the British Isles again but don’t dare to even hope for the trip for another year yet when perhaps the boats will not be too crowded & the prices too excessive. Love from Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. In a letter written the day before (ALS Yale), Una tells Blanche Matthias about a recent sailing excursion arranged by Noël Sullivan. “Everything was perfect,” she writes, “—even to our close-up views of four whales who cavorted around us. . . . We went out beyond the tip of Pt. Lobos & sailed about for four hours. The coastline was beautiful from the sea. I had never seen it from there before (I have from the air.) Our place & the monastery were the most thrilling.” 2. The Double Axe and Other Poems.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Rt. 1. Box 36 Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 June 8. 1947 Dear Bennett: Sorry to bother you with this long tale. —About six months ago a man wrote us from Ballymorra, Co. Antrim, Ireland. He had discovered Robin’s “Descent to the Dead” & was wildly enthusiastic about it. He wanted to know exactly in what cottage we lived in the Glens of Antrim near Knocknacarry etc. ETC. & said could he read some of the verses over {“North Ireland Home Service”} B. B. C. in Belfast. I said “yes,” & actually didn’t think of any cash involved at all. Robin was very delighted to have this association with the wild glen & the neighboring country & to find their reaction so happy. On the 3rd of March we rec’d a cheque from Hogarth Press (signed by Leonard Woolf) for £5-10 £5-10-3 with the explanation that B. B. C. had paid them 7 guineas for the poems used over B. B. C. from Descent to the Dead. They had taken out a nice commission {of 25%} & sendt us the remainder. We thought it very odd for Hogarth Press to have any hand in these particular poems but let it go at that & deposited {cheque} in our local bank. (We hadn’t expected anything.) Our bank gave us $22.34 for same. In some ♦ weeks time the {our} bank sent us {notice that} the cheque had bounced, —came back marked “do not pay”. I was bored by that time. —& wrote to Hogarth Press & said so & said “how did you come by our money anyway?” So I enclose the answer.1 Now you tell me are Curtis-Brown2 our (or your) agents? If so, & they have sent you the money, all is well. If not, I intend to get it from them. A very well known English journalist is living here at present & I told him about it.3 He was vastly indignant & said not to let them get away with it. Twice lately he has been done out of sums owing him by a London agent & thinks “the tone is getting shockingly low!” ! Curtis Brown have now had this 7 guineas for several months & may as well give it up.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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If I must carry on with this, please return the enclosed letter. Again, Im sorry to bother you. Love, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. The response from Hogarth Press is missing. 2. Curtis Brown, Ltd., a literary and talent agency, was founded in London in 1899 by American journalist Albert Curtis Brown (1866–1945). A New York office opened in 1914. 3. R. Ellis Roberts.

UJ to John and Peggy Short Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 July 2. 1947 Dear John & Peggy:1 I have thought of you so much since your happy expectations ended so sadly & feel as if I can understand better than many others your particular loss. My first baby, a darling little girl lived only twenty-four hours. There had been a prolonged & very difficult surgical delivery & the baby was exhausted. Robin & I had been so happy about her coming & I was so completely well & strong always that the thought of any mischance {had} never entered our minds. I felt so wounded & rebellious that it seemed at first that I could never feel calm or reconciled. Then two years & a half later my twin boys were born—easily & quickly— Her birth had made theirs safe, it seemed,—and the bitterness I had felt left me forever. Every story varies a little—but I feel sure that later you will have your children around you & this sorrow will have been {made} an additional bond between you. With warm affection, Una. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: July 2, 1947. 1. John Douglas Short, Jr. (1919–1985) and Madge “Peggy” (Saunders) Short (1918–1998) married in June 1946. John owned a bookstore in Carmel for a number of years and also taught

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

English at the Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach and at Monterey Community College. Later in life, Peggy co-founded The Body Shop, a cosmetics firm based in Berkeley. Their first child, a daughter, died at birth, but they had three other children: Manda Kate Short (b. 1948), Lenci Hathaway Short (b. 1950), and John Douglas Short III (b. 1953).

RJ to George Dillon Tor House, Carmel, California. July 21, 1947. Dear George Dillon: You can choose any of these, or the four, as may suit your space.1 And I wish Poetry Magazine good luck and a long life. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. Four poems by Jeffers were published in the October 1947 issue of Poetry, pages 5–9: “Greater Grandeur,” “Real and Half Real,” “Their Beauty Has More Meaning,” and “Orca.”

UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 July 27. 1947 Dear Saxe: Yes, please do make that correction. Sorry we hadn’t noticed it before.1 A few days ago we had a wire from George Dillon asking for some poems for the next number —35th Anniversary— Robin sent four & you may be interested in George Dillon’s reaction. —You need not return this note.2 These are poems to be included in Robin’s next book. He has nearly finished typing it. I hope there will be plenty of copies of Medea on hand in November—in case the stage production proves interesting. You know they expect to put it on in N. Y. Nov. 3, John Gielgud directing.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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All goes well here. Donnan is living here {at Tor House} with his pretty little wife. He has a job in an office here in Carmel. It is very pleasant for all of us. Garth is still in Wiesbaden Germany. He went back there last Sept. connected with the Intelligence. He is a civilian. Is with the First Constabulary Brigade stationed there. ♦ Garth has just had a fortnight’s holiday mostly tramping around Bavaria. He also went down the Rhine in one of those portable folding boats. It is almost frightening to see all of America on the move this summer— the roads all across the continent, we are told, are packed with cars hurrying in every direction. It is now a long time since we’ve been farther from home than San Francisco. We dream of going to the British Isles in another year— dream! We remember you with much affection! Una. ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. Commins spotted a serious typesetting error on page 97 of the Modern Library edition of Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems (1935). When the book was first released, and in subsequent reprintings up to this time, line 9 of “Shine, Perishing Republic” began with “You make haste on decay” instead of “You making haste haste on decay.” 2. Dillon’s note was not saved.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 August 5. 1947 Dearest Melba: I have loved to receive your letter, notes & clippings et cetera & I’m afraid I don’t seem to deserve them but I assure you every hour & minute even, of my life is crowded & I have come to avoid looking into my desk & remembering all the letters I’d like to write. —I’ve followed your travels pretty well & thought about the wedding, & your days in New York & now your life in Mass. Yesterday someone sent me a clipping about the {sudden}

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

wedding in New York of Ellen Carpenter’s daughter—Pirie,1 & said she wore—at it—or going away, a hat & dress she’d gotten for the Faurot-Bennett wedding in Chicago.2 Do you like your new daughter-in-law—have you seen much of her? Where will they live? What is Pete doing? I am happy to say Donnan’s marriage goes along beautifully & Robin & I find it delightful to have Tor House well occupied again. Donnan is doing well at his job. Garth is still in Germany & said he has been offered three good jobs over there when his year of this one is up (in Sept.) He hasn’t decided yet ♦ whether he will stay longer. I was most interested to have your program notes of the Berkshire Bach Festival. Ours is just over &, considering everything, —the lack of prolonged rehearsals & the few professionals, went very well. The entire six Brandenburg concertos were given. One very unusual item was a concerto for Viola D’Amore & orchestra by Stamitz (1746). Perhaps you have heard Madam Maruchess with her viola D’Amore. She played here before in concert. Exquisite. I am glad you are at the Biography again. From time to time I see some comment on the problems of that kind of writing & think of you. —Here on a separate slip is a note I made from Ellery Sedgwick’s last book. It was à propos of some unbecoming episode in Lincoln’s life. I don’t believe of course that all unpleasant bits should be sent down to footnotes but I do think its well to remember the many legitimate uses a footnote can serve.3 Fran & Ted Lilienthal have been here twice lately & taken us out to dinner. Both times Ted’s cousin {niece} was along, —a yo physiotherapist from New York. Her name eludes me at the moment. We had very amusing times with them. Ted was in ♦ gay spirits & Fran very dear. She has been through a lot of nervous disturbance I believe. You probably have kept in close touch with her. I think she now lacks confidence in herself. A friend of hers who was here lately—Evelyn Barron4—perhaps you know her? says she believes that Fran needs now to have some regular & fairly exacting work. —I don’t know. Its not easy to understand a case like hers. Evelyn thinks Fran has so much ability, —now in abeyance.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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We have long letters from Gielgud who is deep in plans for Medea. I think early in November is the proposed date for New York. Aline MacMahon seems to be very fine as the Nurse,5 & things shaping up well.— I hope Michael Meyerburg is able to do something with Dear Judas. He has been longing to use it for nearly ten years. Do you know him? He produced Skin of Our Teeth & Lute-String. We met him first at Mabel’s. Robin is just typing the last pages of his new book— He calls it “The Double-Headed Axe.” I do not know whether it will be ready for fall. I think likely spring publication ♦ Did you happen to see Frost’s poems in April Atlantic?6 I think there is a completely different tone in his late poems. I had to leave off here {at 4:30}. Iris Tree came with her 7 white German police dogs. (They stayed in the car!) Then we went up to Noëls for dinner & music afterwards. Jacques Jolas (brother of Eugene) is staying there & played Chopin, Debussy & finally (with Stephanie Shehatovich at second piano) the great Rachmaninoff concerto for left hand. It was written for the one armed pianist Wittenstein7 & Jolas plays it, for he had a terrible injury to his right arm that interrupted his concert playing for a long time— forever I guess though he now plays with it again. An amazing & exciting performance. Pete Steffens is here for a couple of months. He has just two more months at Harvard. Ella Winter is in Europe & called on Garth a fortnight ago. She is free-lance reporting. There have been millions of people here this summer. Although I do my best to keep a bit of quiet around, there is a lot of interruption. Is Lenox all your address? In haste, —with love Devotedly, Una. Robin’s reply just now when I asked why 3 Inquisitors8—said two seem like conspirators, three is like a public meeting!9 ALS. HRC Texas. 4 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Mary Elizabeth “Betty” (Borden) Pirie (1909–1961) was married to Robert S. Pirie, a business executive affiliated with the Carson, Pirie, Scott & Company department store firm. Pirie died in a United Airlines plane crash January 31, 1946. In 1947, Betty married Ralph J. Hines (1900–1950), heir to a Chicago lumber and building supply fortune. Hines died three years later from injuries suffered in a fall at home. Ellen Carpenter’s other daughter, Ellen (Borden) Stevenson (1907–1972), was married from 1928 to 1949 to Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965)—governor of Illinois, ambassador to the United Nations, and candidate for president of the United States. 2. Betty Pirie’s daughter Joan was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Melba’s son Peter Bennett and Alys Faurot. 3. Una’s note is written on a small piece of scrap paper: “Ellery Sedgwick, Editor of Atlantic to Albert Beveridge (criticizing his ms. of Life of Lincoln) ‘For heavens sake print the truth, but print it in fine type! Footnotes are privileged from Gibbon down. Drop your discussion to the bottom of the page & the dignity of history will be upheld.’” The quotation is from Ellery Sedgwick, The Happy Profession (Boston: Little, Brown, 1946): 164. 4. Evelyn Hyacinth Barron (1890–1956) was the daughter of Edward Barron (1831–1893), an Irish immigrant who arrived in San Francisco in 1852 with 10 cents and died a multi-millionaire, and Eva Rose (O’Leary) Barron (1857–1925). Evelyn lived in San Mateo. 5. Aline MacMahon (1899–1991), a theater, film, and television actress, won an Academy Award in 1945 for her performance in Dragon Seed (1944). Scheduling difficulties forced her to withdraw from Medea just as rehearsals began. Veteran actress Florence Reed (1883–1967) stepped into the role of Nurse. 6. Four poems by Robert Frost—“No Holy Wars for Them,” “The Importer,” “But He Meant It,” and “Etherealizing”—were published in the Atlantic (April 1947): 54–55. 7. Paul Wittgenstein (1887–1961), a pianist, teacher, and brother of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951), was an Austrian army officer in World War I when his right arm was amputated due to battle injuries. A number of leading composers wrote special works for him, including Maurice Ravel (not Rachmaninoff), whose “Piano Concerto for the Left Hand” was first performed by Wittgenstein and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in 1932. 8. Jeffers’ poem, “The Inquisitors,” first appeared in the University Review (Spring 1947), pages 186–187. It was also published in The Double Axe, pages 147–149. 9. Written vertically in left margin, first page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 August 5. 1947 Dear Bennett— Thanks for many things! In particular for the packet of books—all of them worth reading—, four of us here at Tor House with books in our hands most of the time means a lot of books. And for the bother of the mixed up checks from B. B. C. As I told you before, Robin had expected to give the BBC the use of the glens of Antrim poems for sentiment’s sake but I feel very cheerful to grasp a few dollars for same. A fearfully crowded summer here. So many folks from your home town here I think New York must be fairly empty. Ten days ago some nice people—Marshalls—he a lawyer, she a writer (Lenore—?)1 came with a letter from Harrison Smith & we had an amusing little visit. Robin had a long & interesting letter from Gielgud a few days ago. He is deep in the direction of Medea & wonderfully enthusiastic about it. ♦ It has turned out to be a very happy thing to have Donnan & his bride here. She is so pretty & gay, & had her 21st birthday two days ago! And a baby to arrive soon!2,3 Love from us both Una. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. James Marshall (1896–1986), an attorney, philanthropist, and author, was a member of the New York City Board of Education from 1935 to 1952 and president from 1938 to 1942. Lenore (Guinzburg) Marshall (1897–1972), a poet, novelist, and peace activist, founded the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy and the Committee for Nuclear Responsibility. The Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, established in 1975 and now administered by the Academy of American Poets, recognizes the most outstanding book of poetry published in the United States each year. 2. Lindsay Allen Jeffers, Donnan and Lee’s first child, was born September 3, 1947. 3. William Laurie Rukeyser, Muriel Rukeyser’s son by Donnan, was born September 25, 1947.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to John Gielgud [August 1947] Dear John Gielgud: Thank you for your very {very} kind and clear letter. I was immensely pleased, of course, like all others concerned to know that you are going going to direct the play, and {now I} am glad {happy} to hear from you. on the subject on the subject. About possible alterations in the text—you will find me very tolerant; and if something {whatever} needs reshaping I’willll do what I can, {though inexpert.} This is the first thing I have written for the stage rather than as a poem, and of course I value {defer} {value} your judgment.— The improvement {change} you suggest in the matter of showing the children’s bodies to Jason and the audience seems to me a good {fine} idea. It would {will} require revision of the re-writing of several pages of dialogue; because Jason would see them as soon as the door wasis opened, and {but} to maintain any suspense he will have to believe for a time that they are asleep. Then Medea would {will} uncover them completely, and he will will see {that} they are dead. I shall undertake this revision to-morrow, and no doubt {hope} {no doubt} it will work {come} out all right. I’ll send it {to you} in a few days. Judith’s idea of letting {permitting} letting no one but herself touch the bodies is excellent too. But she could not {gracefully} carry them both off stage; therefore the house-door will have to be closed at the end, instead of left open, as {it is} at present, to suggest the {final} vacancy of the house. But that too can be arranged. ♦ As to suggestions from me about scene or character, —all that comes to me at present {the moment} is that the setting should be as simple as may be, and rather architectural than realistic. Perhaps something further will come to mind as I make the revision, and I’ll write further when I send it to you, a few {in two or three} days. from now. I am very happy that you are in charge of production {directing the play}; it gives confidence in the s and I too hope that we may meet. in course of time. Sincerely yours, 1

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Sir Arthur John Gielgud (1904–2000), one of the most celebrated stage and screen actors of his time, was also an award-winning director and producer. Just prior to his involvement with Medea, from March 3 to May 10, 1947, Gielgud directed and performed in a revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest on Broadway. From May 26 to July 5, 1947, he directed and starred in Love for Love by William Congreve.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 August 21. 1947 Darling Clapps: So you did get away from town for a little. What sort of place was it, and how are you? I get very panicky sometimes when these months & years go by and I do not see you whom I love so much. How hard I try to keep space & a feeling of time-enough around me and I succeed badly. The crowds of people passing through here (& staying if possible!) the letters, the house, —Donnan’s affairs —and baby coming! besides the thousand things I am interested to do & see & hear & read!— you know it all, though the {your} set up is different— I am always thinking that its bad management on my part that I am pushed about so. But I’ve been happy. It is amazing to see how easily we have adjusted to having Donnan & his Lee here. Of course we always seemed to have the boys here even when they were far away. Lee is a lovely child & has developed amazingly in the last few months. At first I thought “beautiful but dumb”— but she ♦ isnt dumb & we love her very much. It always troubles me when all the house isnt busy. (—The multiple houses an English family has, always frightened me —how could one make all the rooms come alive?) Well we are functioning now upstairs & down. Thanks for telegram & for clipping. We haven’t any idea what will come of “Dear Judas”—but we had a nice little advance on it! Michael Myerberg is the man who produced “Skin of our Teeth” & “Lute String.” We met him at Mabel’s in 1938 & he even then was planning & hoping to produce 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

“Dear Judas.” Robin always felt there were great difficulties in the way of the production. He {(Michael)} likes difficult things. He bought “Balloon” I believe, by Padraic Colum.1 Your friend Levy sent us the ms. of it & it seemed just too hard. We have letters from Gielgud & yesterday a cable from London {where he is briefly.} You probably know he is directing Medea. He is very enthusiastic. I hope so much for its success but we don’t think about it much & Robin never speaks of it. He has just finished typing his new book, which will be published in the spring, I suppose. He calls it “The Double-Headed Axe.” There is a long poem & some short ones. Garth loved & used a doubleheaded axe a lot when he was home —there’s the title—(but not Garth—) ♦ Some nice people here for several months {Dr. Kelso & wife} from La Jolla. He was in History Dep’t & later Fine Arts in some eastern Univ.—in Penn. I think. He was a young professor when Robin’s mother {father} was an old one & so they came into our lives several years ago. Mrs K. is very keen about poetry & at that time I introduced her to Timmie’s. Hesitant at first, she ultimately grew very enthusiastic & bought all his books. Just now she was reading “The Seeming Real” & getting her friends to do the same. She says there are several poems she does not understand but expects to before long! I wrote above “Robin’s mother” instead of father, because she has been much in my mind today. A cousin of hers sent me in this morning’s mail two letters written by her {Belle-Mère} to her aunt.2 The first one was dated Feb. 1885 & told her aunt that she had just promised to marry Dr. Jeffers {a man 22 yrs. older than herself} & described him—& said they were to be married in a couple of months & go to Europe. The second dated 1899 was from Vevey. She was living there for a couple of years & didnt like it as well as Leipsig where they had been living. Robin is described as in boarding school (he was 12) & Hamilton (age 5) in day school. HeShe said only French was spoken in Robin’s school & Robin was fluent in French. —How strange to see these letters—how curious what fragments of life survive. —And I ♦ knew as I read that she would have resented fiercely having these pages lying about so long, —& our seeing them. I never knew a woman more reserved about her personal life. She was wonderfully kind to me & grew to love me

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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dearly as I did her & talked to me more freely than she ever did to her sons —but I always felt she was never off guard about her own life & emotions. She loved to laugh {with me} & be gay but you felt she had never been out from under iron discipline. Robin told me she had been much loved by a young Englishman she met at Lausanne—named Sartoris3 but of course nothing was allowed to come of it. I once saw a snapshot of him in hunting garb with a deer he had killed, a handsome fascinating chap.4 I got a little pang about it. Life must have been strange with Robin’s father. He was strange almost to madness. Actually there is a queerness about Jeffers men. Not long ago Hamilton was here & after he left I heard Lee say to Donnan “He seems a very queer man!” & Donnan answered “All the Jeffers men seem odd!” Well, its nice when it comes out as genius genius! Now I have to dash. Actually I am very happy even when I complain of overwork. I do many thrilling things & read a great deal & am brushing up my German, & I cannot remember when I’ve had an instant of boredom & I am well as ever. But, oh dont forget me dears! I love you. Devotedly, Una We see a lot of Noël & hear much music—the finest—in his music room. Jacques Jolas (bro. of Eugene) has been staying with him again a dear fellow.5 Surprised to have a letter from Oliver Gogarty this morn. about some things we discussed many years ago. He wrote from Renoyle House, Connemara. My heart is bursting to go over there again.6 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Balloon: A Comedy in Four Acts by Padraic Colum was published by Macmillan in 1929. Myerberg began working on a production of the play in 1945. He staged it at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit, Maine in 1946, but he was unable to bring it to Broadway. 2. Both letters, from Annie Jeffers to her aunt Hettie Bosworth, are located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. 3. Victor Alexander Sartori, Jr. (1882–1914) was born in Philadelphia but was raised and educated in Europe. He was the son of Victor Alexander Sartori (1850–1907), a marble merchant and American consul in Switzerland and Italy, and Anna (Gordon) Sartori (1850–1928), an Englishwoman born in Spain. Victor was more than twenty years younger than Annie,

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

so a serious romance between them was unlikely, but they did spend time together. He later returned to the United States and opened a civil engineering firm in the Philadelphia area. In 1958, when Jeffers was working on an adaptation of the story of Oedipus, he recalled for himself an event that bothered him when he was in his early teens. The following notes are written on a holograph manuscript in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. Ear infection—quarrel with boarding-school rulers—goes to appeal to mother, but she is sailing on the lake of Zurich with Victor— I strained my eyes: “which of those bright little craft . . . ?” This was my first jealousy and also my last. What a dirty passion. it is. That is the first and last time I have been jealous. What a dirty emotion it is. This was my first and my last jealousy. What a dirty passion it is. I was a little boy in a Zurich boarding-school

4. Several photographs of Victor Sartori are in the Jeffers archives at Tor House. In one photograph Sartori is standing with an infant in his arms; another shows him in a boat with a large animal (a moose or a stag) he has just killed; and another displays the results of a hunt, with a half-dozen deer lying dead on the ground. 5. Written vertically in left margin and across top, page 4. 6. Written vertically in left margin, page 1.

RJ to Judith Anderson Tor House, Carmel, California. August 26, 1947. Dear Judith: I supposed that you were in New York, and that Mr. Gielgud was presenting your suggestions as well as his own, (as in fact he was, to some extent), and I wrote accordingly. The revision was tentative, subject to his approval and yours; if you dislike it so much it can be changed or scrapped. I myself felt that it was rather diffuse, and expected further suggestions. Certainly you must be consulted before changes are made in the text. I am sure that the producers and the director will agree with me in this. And if I have your address I will consult you before any are authorized. Frankly, the idea of your taking both the dead children off stage behind an open door does not seem to me practicable. Carrying one and dragging one, or however you might do it, would it not look rather odd? But I

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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am ignorant of the stage. If it can be worked—OK—I’ll revise the text accordingly; but perhaps it ought to be tried first, in rehearsal, after you are in New York; and see what you yourself think about it. No doubt there will be a number of changes to make in the text—mostly minor, I hope—while rehearsals go on, and you and Mr. Gielgud can consult together; and I think it would be better not to make any revisions previously. I am quite willing to scrap this one, but I don’t want to work for nothing again. Love, my dear, as always—and good luck on your journey.1 Yours— Robin. (Robinson Jeffers) TLS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. A handwritten draft of this letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

RJ and UJ to Michael Myerberg Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 August 29. 1947 Dear Michael: We are intensely interested in all your adventures with “Dear Judas.”1 We have received various clippings from friends about the production.2 I wish we were there to see it but thats impossible at the moment.3 Best luck, & good wishes from Robin & Una4 ANS. Wisconsin. 1 page. 1. Objections to Dear Judas were raised as soon as a tryout performance in Maine’s Ogunquit Playhouse was announced. A letter to the managing director of the theater from Francis W. Sullivan, an attorney and prominent Catholic layman, urged cancellation. “I am informed,” he writes, “that the play is, to say the least, a humanistic presentation of some themes from the life of Christ and is revolting to a Christian.” For an account of the controversy, see “‘Dear Judas’ Trial Opposed in Maine” by Sam Zolotow, New York Times (July 11, 1947): 10. 2. Myerberg’s one-week production of Dear Judas opened in Ogunquit August 4, 1947— with Ferdi Hoffman, Harry Irvine, E. G. Marshall, and Margaret Wycherly in leading roles, 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

music by Johan Sebastian Bach selected and arranged by Lehman Engel, and dances choreographed by Esther Junger. A review of the opening night performance in the August 5 edition of the New York Times was generally positive. “Inquiry of patrons at intermission,” Harold C. Cail reports, “showed that few were offended by the play but that few understood it. Only one charge of sacrilegiousness was heard” (p. 26). Objections were renewed when Myerberg attempted to stage the play in Boston. City leaders were persuaded by the argument that the play was “offensive, dangerous and should not be performed as it would surely damage the faith of the people.” When the mayor’s office informed Myerberg that the play would not be permitted to open on August 25 as scheduled, he was forced to cancel the production. See “Acting Mayor J. B. Hynes of Boston Bans ‘Dear Judas,’ Play Based on Jeffers Poem,” New York Times (August 14, 1947): 25. 3. In a September 5, 1947 response to this note (TCC Wisconsin) and with a forward look to the October 5, 1947 opening in New York, Myerberg says, “In these days of trial, self examination and doubt, it’s nice to have an expression of good wishes and confidence. I regret very much that you won’t be here because I am extremely proud of the way I have handled the play. There is tremendous interest, however, prospects for a successful run are in the hands of the Gods.” 4. The note was written by Una.

UJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Tor House— Sept 1. 1947 Dear Larry: Perhaps I’ve done you a wrong but several times lately I’ve refer told people your address so they might inquire whether you knew where any copies of your book {on R. J.} could be purchased— Now I write to say that if an earnest young man comes to see you or writes & says he is in the Theological Seminary in N. Y. C with and entering Yale next year & is writing a thesis on R. J. please tell me his name & address. We were able to give him only a few moments the other day. I was dressing but heard R. J. being completely non-commital & unhelpful about everything. It occurred to me afterwards that it would have been the exactly decent thing to have given him the address of W. T. Levy a young man teaching in the Eng. Dept at N. Y. C. College who has just written his master’s thesis on R. J. & on the strength of it & an oral dissertation has been asked by Prof. Bird {Stair}1 ♦ (who is LETTERS 1940– 1962

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{I am told} considered one of the finest contemporary teachers in Eng. Lit.) to cover undertake some of the Poetry Lectures in his courses next yr. This Levy was given a note of introduction to us last yr. by Frederick Mortimer Clapp & we found him the most intelligent & stimulating young man we’d met in a long time. I have only this morning gotten around to read his thesis which he sent me 6 wks. ago. Its fine, & he would gladly, I know, give the young man I spoke of earlier a few helpful hints—if I can get in touch with2 We have been almost destroyed by people—crowds & crowds! Nice people too but how they eat up time. Remsen & Helen leave for N. Y. in two days to be gone 2 or 3 mos. Robin has just finis finished a new book to be published in the spring. It is a terrific indictment of war, in a story laid down coast here. I got a stomach ache for hrs. after I read it a few days ago. 2 narrative poems & a lot of short ones3 In gt. haste Faithfully Una. Have you in any of your libraries a copy of either of these 2 editions of The Paston Letters? (none of the other editions will help me) Both of these I want are edited by Gairdner (1) 4 Vols. pub by Constable, 19004 (2) 6 Vols. ~pub by~ Shatto Windus, & by Commin, 1904.5 Do you think, if you have, I could get {hire} some needy student to type out certain passages for me? U. J. ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Bird Stair, born Burton W. Stair (1879–1957), taught in the English Department at the City College of New York from 1905 to 1950. His courses in contemporary literature and critical theory were especially popular. 2. An arrow points to “young man” in the line above. 3. Jeffers held onto the manuscript of The Double Axe for another month before sending it to Random House. 4. The Paston Letters: A.D. 1422–1509, edited by James Gairdner (Westminster: A. Constable, 1900–1901).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

5. The Paston Letters: A.D. 1422–1509, edited by James Gairdner (London: Chatto & Windus; Exeter: J. G. Commin, 1904).

RJ to Michael Myerberg Tor House, Carmel, California. September 12, 1947 Dear Michael Myerberg, Thank you for the occasional notes about “Dear Judas.” You have shown great imagination and great courage, and the foolishness in Boston has probably been rather helpful than otherwise.1 Whatever the result may be, you can be sure of my admiration and good wishes. Sincerely—your friend— Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Wisconsin. 1 page. 1. Despite the controversy surrounding Dear Judas in Ogunquit and the setback in Boston, Myerberg was firmly committed to an October 5 opening in New York. According to Sam Zolotow, however (writing in the New York Times, September 22, 1947, p. 28), Myerberg was still seeking investors for the production. “This play has been panned, banned, damned, boycotted . . . praised, cheered, jeered,” Myerberg wrote in a mid-September appeal sent to more than five hundred potential backers. “Seen by some six times in one week—others refused to return after the intermission. It attracts and repels with equal force. It has the substance and form of great theatre, the impact of great art. It offers an extraordinary opportunity for profit to the adventurous spirits who invest in Broadway plays.”

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 Sept 17. 1947 Dear Levy: You’ll forgive me, wont you, that I’ve been so long in writing you. I am most tremendously interested in your thesis.1 It is scholarly & its alert & fresh & doesn’t sound like someone put away in a dusty library! Do you

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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mind if I don’t say whether I approve or disapprove of any of your theories? That is the way we have proceeded throughout the years. Robin really feels that a poem may have as many interpretations as it has readers & each one legitimate. If you or anyone who is worthy of it should ask a direct question as “Do you really mean this—or that?” I will get an answer, but for the general trend of all the poems—each reader must conclude for himself. One of your conclusions gave me pause—your belief in his fear of death & up to this moment I haven’t questioned him about it. He will answer me truthfully—but during our nearly 35 yrs. of constant companionship he has seemed, more than anyone I know, least concerned, personally, with death.2 It & its ♦ manifestations & approach. But how often he does speak of it in his poems! Long metaphysical discussions about the hereafter—or our continuance in some form or other bore him to tears. —Yet how strongly he feels that each one is part of some everlasting process—we & our little world along with an infinite number of other worlds. —but not as individuals. No, I am sure of that. Not indivually. {individually.} When I say “Oh what a lark if it should happen that all four of my precious bulldogs should be just leaping with delight (along with several friends I loved who are dead) when death takes me to them.” —He looks at me with love & pity—& says “well, maybe it will be so.” But without conviction. It wont be that way we are joined again, I know he feels {feels}. I wish he would read these articles himself but he hasn’t & won’t, & {so} don’t take anything I say as his opinion unless I say it is. What a lovely present the “Spheres”!3 We all read every English magazine we can get our hands on & regularly take “The Illustrated London News” from our library. Thank you so much. All our good wishes— Una Jeffers Dr. Lawrence Clark Powell, now Librarian at U. C. L. A (Los Angeles) asked me for your name & details of your thesis. He means to write you.4 ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. 1. Levy’s M.A. thesis, “Notes on the Prophetic Element in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers” (Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, June 1947), uses three questions Jeffers asks

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

in “Theory of Truth” (and previously in The Women at Point Sur) for chapter titles: “Is There a God and of What Nature?” “Whether There’s Anything After We Die but Worm’s Meat?” and “How Should Men Live?” 2. In chapter 3, “Whether There’s Anything After We Die but Worm’s Meat?” Levy examines Jeffers’ thoughts concerning death. 3. The Sphere was an illustrated news weekly published in London. 4. Added vertically in left margin, second page.

UJ to Michael Myerberg 1947 SEP 26 PM 6 48 MICHAEL MYERBERG 234 WEST 44 ST AIR MAILED YOU TODAY MAGNIFICENT ARTICLE ON DEAR JUDAS1 LOVE UNA Tlg. Wisconsin. 1. In mid-September, Myerberg sent Jeffers a Western Union Dayletter (Tlg Wisconsin) with the following message: “The New York Times requests an article from you on Dear Judas of about one thousand words for Sunday, October 5th, our opening day. This would be enormously helpful to us. Please wire collect whether you can possibly do this and have it in my hands by Monday, September 29th the latest.” Jeffers agreed to the request, and Una mailed the manuscript as soon as it was ready. The article, titled “Preface to ‘Judas’” and subtitled “Writer Explains the Inspiration for His Poem Now Set for the Stage,” was printed in the Drama–Screen section of the New York Times (October 5, 1947): X3. It was reprinted in the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (November 21, 1947): 10–11. For a complete text of the essay, see Appendix A: 3.

UJ to Jay B. Hubbell Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 October 3. 1947 Dear Mr. Hubbell:1 Robinson Jeffers wishes me to thank you for your note of September 24th. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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He is interested in your college anthology.2 He thinks the poem to which you refer “May–June 1940” was included in his book “Be angry at the Sun”, pub. by Random House, 1941. In this vol. it was entitled “Battle.” (The first line of this poem is “Foreseen for so many years: these evils, this monstrous violence. . . .” Is that it?) It will be necessary for you to get permission from Random House, 457 Madison Avenue. N. Y. C. 22. He thinks there will be no difficulty about that.3 Very Sincerely Una Jeffers ALS. Duke. 1 page. 1. Jay Broadus Hubbell (1885–1979), a professor of English at Southern Methodist University and Duke University, founded American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography at Duke in 1929 and chaired its editorial board until 1954. His books include The Enjoyment of Literature (1929), Southern Life in Fiction (1960), and Who Are the Major American Writers? (1972). 2. Jay B. Hubbell, American Life in Literature, two volumes (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949). 3. Seven of Jeffers’ poems are included in the second volume of American Life in Literature, pages 676–683: “To the Stone-Cutters,” “Apology for Bad Dreams,” “Age in Prospect,” “Hurt Hawks,” “Subjected Earth,” “Shine, Perishing Republic,” and “Battle.”

UJ and RJ to Judith Anderson 1947 OCT 3 PM 6 47 JUDITH ANDERSON PRINCETON INN PRINCETON NJER ENVIOUS OF THOSE WHO SEE YOUR MEDEA TONIGHT1 LOVE UNA AND ROBIN. Tlg. San Francisco. 1. Prior to its opening in New York, Medea premiered at the McCarter Theatre in Prince­ ton, New Jersey on Wednesday evening, October 3. A matinee and an evening performance on Thursday completed the tryout run.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. Oct 7 [1947] Dearest Judith: I am enclosing this letter received today. You will know what is best to do with it. The writer is a college professor {(I think in U. of N. Y. C.)} who gives lectures on Milton & Shakespeare & is closely connected with the stage.1 (He was formerly the husband of {novelist} Frances Winwar,2 do you know her?) We met him just once a few months ago—he came with Blanche Yerka3 & some students he was coaching in Shakespeare. He is ♦ tremendously interested in Robin’s work & I believe gave his best best & most intense attention to the production. So if these suggestions are of any use put them before the proper person. A long telegram from {Taylor4 of} Morris Agency said that Princeton gave its greatest ovation ever, to the Medea—performance. {It mentioned the need for further work.} If convenient I would like to have the letter returned to me. We are proud of you! Love, Una. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Bernard Grebanier (1903–1977), a professor of English at Brooklyn College from 1930 to 1964, was the author of The Heart of Hamlet (1960), The Truth about Shylock (1962), A Simplified Approach to Milton (1965), and numerous other books. 2. Frances Winwar (1900–1985), born Francesca Vinciguerra in Sicily, was a novelist, biographer, critic, translator, and outspoken opponent of fascism in Italy. Among her many and varied publications are The Ardent Flame (1927), Poor Splendid Wings: The Rossettis and Their Circle (1933), and American Giant: Walt Whitman and His Times (1941). Winwar and Grebanier were married from 1925 to 1942; he was the second of her four husbands. 3. Blanche Yurka (1887–1974), a performing artist for more than fifty years, offers a personal account of her stage and screen career in Bohemian Girl (1970). 4. Albert B. Taylor, an entertainment industry executive, worked for the William Morris Agency, CBS–TV, RKO Pictures, and other companies.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House—Carmel. Oct 14 [1947] Dearest Clapps: How AWFUL, are you actually in Santa Fe & we flying to New York, arriving next Sunday. And you were the people I wanted most to see. —& a friend dashes up & lends me three Valentina1 gowns to look nice in & you wont be there to see me! Reviews of Dear Judas most dreary as expected2 but violently excitedly enthusiastic ones from Philadelphia3 (—4 papers) & from Princeton about Medea. Judith wires & phones constantly for us to come & we finally go! N. Y. opening Oct. 20. We shall stay only a few days— will you be coming to California. I rec’d the articles from you via Berkeley in unknown hand, with your Santa Fe address in on back of envelope Devotedly, Una. ALS. Yale. 1 page. 1. Valentina (Sanina) Schlee (1899–1989), a Russian émigrée fashion and costume designer, was known professionally by her first name. Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, and Lynn Fontanne were among the women who wore her gowns. 2. Dear Judas closed October 18, 1947 after sixteen performances at the Mansfield Theatre on Broadway. Reviews following opening night were mostly negative, as the headlines indicate: “Drama About Judas Theatrically Dull,” “‘Dear Judas’ Is Awkward and Unimpressive Upon Stage of Mansfield,” “A Poem Wholly Fails to Get By as a Play.” For the complete texts of these and six other reviews, see New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews 8 (October 13, 1947): 315–318. Some comments were positive, however. Brooks Atkinson, writing in the New York Times (October 6, 1947, p. 26), found the play engrossing. “As theatre,” he says, “‘Dear Judas’ has an aura of magnificence that is increasingly rare on Broadway.” John Martin, also writing in the New York Times (October 19, 1947, p. X6), was impressed with the chorus and, especially, with the masked dancers—“who created an atmosphere curiously remote and unreal, yet with life and emotional contours of its own.” “‘Dear Judas’ is no Broadway slickie to take your out-of-town cousins to,” Martin adds, “but it is definitely something to go to yourself.” 3. After the premiere of Medea in Princeton, it moved to the Locust Street Theatre in Philadelphia where it played for two weeks and earned $36,000 in ticket sales.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Lindsay Jeffers 1947 OCT 21 PM 3 51 LINDSAY JEFFERS CARE ROBINSON JEFFERS CARMEL CALIF HOPE YOU ARE GETTING SOME COOPERATION DARLING MEDEA A TRIUMPH1 13 CURTAIN CALLS. GRANDFATHER TOOK A BOW.2 TELL YOUR PARENTS. DEVOTEDLY— GRANNY. Tlg. HRC Texas. 1. Opening night reviews of Medea, as headlines attest, were exuberant, especially in regard to Judith Anderson’s performance: “‘Medea’ a Harrowing Drama, Magnificently Played by Judith Anderson,” “Hell Hath No Fury Like Medea’s When Miss Anderson Gets Going,” “Judith Anderson Superb in Jeffers’ ‘Medea.’” Anderson “set a landmark in the theatre at the National last evening,” says Brooks Atkinson in the New York Times, “where she gave a burning performance in a savage part.” “Here is a performance of such scope and forcefulness, of such boldness of imagination,” writes Richard Watts, Jr. in the New York Post, “that it is not likely to be forgotten by anyone who witnesses it.” Jeffers’ “simple, direct, striking, and eloquent verse,” Watts adds, “is both dramatically and poetically satisfying.” For the complete texts of these and other reviews, see New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews 8 (October 27, 1947): 295–298. While they were in New York, Robinson and Una stayed in the home of Ella Winter Stewart and Donald Ogden Stewart, who were in London at the time. They also were overnight guests of Marjorie Chadbourne at her estate in Glen Head on the Gold Coast of Long Island. 2. In a description of the event shared with Melba Berry Bennett (Stone Mason of Tor House, p. 201), Una offers additional details: “At intermission the audience was standing in the aisles and shouting. Many old friends rushed into our box, and there was no doubt that the play was a success. At the end, after Judith had taken 13 curtain calls, there began to be cries for ‘Author, author.’ Robin was slow to understand that he must take a bow, he had been too lost in watching the players to remember his connection with it at all.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Michael Myerberg Tor House, Carmel, California October 30, 1947. Dear Michael Myerberg: I am deeply sorry not to have seen “Dear Judas.”1 We met a number of people who had seen it, and one or two who had acted in it, and all accounts agreed that it could not have had a more beautiful nor more imaginative production. We had not intention of going to New York to see “Medea” but the pressure mounted until we were practically compelled to go. The day of our arrival, and the next day, we tried many times to reach you by telephone, and never were able to make connections, and finally decided that you must be out of town. We were in New York only three days, and our time was terribly preoccupied. But I wish I had seen you—if only to say that I appreciate all you did for the poem, and that your labor was not wasted, for those who saw your production saw a beautiful thing, even if many were not able to understand it. This note is only an expression of my thanks and admiration.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Wisconsin. 1 page. 1. In a letter to Robinson and Una dated October 25, 1947 (TLC Wisconsin), Myerberg says, “I suppose you have all the latest on ‘Dear Judas’. Believe me I produced it as well as it is possible for me to produce anything. I am afraid that the lack was with the people—not with us. My only regret is that you did not see the production. We work in a perishable medium and it is all gone now. Perhaps later people will be more ready. Believe me, one of the bright spots has been your confidence and faith in me. You have my gratitude.” 2. A handwritten draft of this letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 November 4th 1947 Dearest Judith: Notices & oral reports {continue to pour in} of the great impact Medea is making on audiences. When we remember your determination & indomitable struggle to get this produced we are happy beyond words that you are having this great personal triumph in the role. It has {is} been a wonderful thing for Robin’s fame! (besides relieving us for a long time to come of the strain of meeting our horrible tax bills on our five acres here,—a very luxurious space for a poets income, but I do not think Robin would be happy elsewhere.) Exciting are the projects you suggest for Medea. I {We} hope Charles Feldman1 will come up & confer with Robin. Our trip was hurried & exhausting but there were several pressing reasons why we needed to come back at once. We went down to Zanesville, Ohio (& sent you a wire from there on Sunday morning) & visited Donnan’s ex-inlaws. They are gay charming people & love Donnan as if he were their own child. The little girls are dear & very intelligent & well-behaved. Judith is a rare beauty & ♦ causes a sensation whenever she appears. She has brilliant dark red curls & deep blue eyes & a rose petal skin. She talks in such a comical way—very distinctly except that she drawls the last word in every sentence. (my Scotch grandfather Lindsay had red hair & it has shown up often in his descendants.) I lunched at Noël’s Sunday—he had a lot of people there eager to hear about Medea. Afterwards he took me up to his bedroom & there in a beautiful basket was a very peaceful, contented-looking Judy completely surrounded by fat sleek puppies—the biggest one he lifted up, & said he had named her Medea. I think Noël will go to N. Y. to see the play. I wonder, did you know Lilian May Ehrman (now Ullman)?2 I had a letter from her from Brentwood full of excitement about the play & saying she & her husband were going on to see it.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Our hometown papers carry columns about the play, very proud & happy to be connected with it, & reminiscent of {about} “The Tower beyond Tragedy” at the Forest Theatre. I don’t know whether I told you that Robin’s publisher Donald Klopfer & his wife took us to see “All our Sons”—3 ♦ I suppose it is a tragedy & the theme is certainly timely. It was well-acted, too, but, actually, after Medea it seemed as tepid & limp as {a bit} cold a bit of cold fried cod. Klopfer felt that way about it, too. You have shown Robin & me & countless others what great tragic acting can be, & you gave us an unforgettable experience. Bless you, my dear. Robin sends his love with mine. He picked up a terrific cold on the plane & after a struggle, I got the doctor in & filled him with sulpha & aborted it. It was settling in his lungs. He is getting on all right but feels dopey still. Love from Una. 4 Mr. Orosz sent his copy of Medea to be autographed. If you happen to think of it tell him Robin wrote in a missing word on page 99.5 —There were a few copies first off the press that had that omission (& of course are collector’s items!) ALS. Tor House. 3 pages. Postmark: November 4, 1947. 1. Charles K. Feldman (1904–1968) was the founder and president of the Famous Artists Corporation, a major Hollywood talent agency, and the producer of such films as Macbeth (1948), The Glass Menagerie (1950), A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), and Casino Royale (1967). 2. Lillian May (Kahn) Erhman Ullman (1903–1991), a dancer and graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, was the sister of Hollywood director and talent agent Ivan Kahn (1890–1951). Her first husband, Bernard Charles Ehrman (1893–1972), was a businessman; her second husband, Arthur V. Ullman (1902–1979), was an investment broker. 3. All My Sons, an award-winning drama by Arthur Miller, was produced and directed by Elia Kazan. The play opened at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway January 29, 1947 and closed November 8, 1947. 4. Eugene Orosz (1898–1982) was Judith’s hair stylist for Medea and other plays. 5. In the first edition of Medea, the word “least” is missing from a line spoken by Jason: “Uncaused. There was no reason. . . . Tell me at least / Whether she took my boys with her.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California. Rt. 1. Box 36 November 5. 1947 Darling Blanche: How horrid to be in New York & you not there & how happy I would have been to have you share the thrill of Medea’s first night. Esther was busy to help & amuse us when there was a moment’s time. —Ask her about all that happened & her final {cocktail party.} I wish you could have seen the beautiful emerald green velvet cape I wore & know its history! It’s the loveliest garment I ever saw (by Worth)1 & Martin Flavin gave it to me. It was Sally’s, I was told worn but once or twice. We had a most interesting time at Zanesville staying at Ethel Curpheys (Patty’s mother.) Her grandmother, aunts cousins—everyone did every kind thing—dinners etc. & most of all making it possible {for us} to see the children all the time. One is staying with Ethel & one with Grandmother Weller. Each with a nurse & exquisitely attended to. They are good children & neither did a naughty thing while we were there. ♦ Candida is brilliant,— with Donnan’s eyes— the little one, Judith, is a raving beauty,—dark red curls & rose leaf skin. Patty has just remarried—to someone who has always lived in Z-ville but unknown to any of them.2 Patty is having the big house her father gave her, remodelled into a duplex & will rent the upper. She says she doesn’t have the babies with her during this process. —I don’t know, she seems hard & cold like ice & indifferent. I hope the time will come when we can have both of them for keeps. I hear from the Clapps. I thought they would leave Santa Fé when the altitude didn’t agree with Timmie but they are still there. I was tempted to stop at Santa Fé for a night but everything got too hurried. We borrowed one of Bill Curphey’s cars & drove up to Mich. 300 mi. to see my sisters. Tiresome driving—a succession of small towns slows you up intolerably. But the autumn foliage! in particular the maples & oaks & elms & great stacks of gorgeous bitter-sweet at way-side stands. And the corn-shocks lined up in steady formation!

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I wonder whether Russell ever knew Tom Chadborne3 in ♦ Chicago or New York. She {His widow} has latterly become a dear friend of ours & we had one lovely night at her house in Glen Head. I love all the little shoes that Blanchie sent. They came after you left S. F. & I never got in touch with you again. I suppose I could have sent a line C /O Pearl & Al4 And thanks too for your thoughtfulness in sending clippings.! We have never subscribed to a clipping service & must depend on friends for them & so miss many. Most people find it almost impossible to cut out an article & post it. I haven’t tried to tell you about our reactions to Medea. The lines are great—Euripides & Robin are a grand pair but there was also a really great tragic actress. I saw for the first time in my life tragedy enacted all out in the grand manner! We went our third night in N. Y. with one of Robin’s publishers to “All Our Sons.” I suppose this is tragedy & well enough acted & on a timely topic. —But after Medea it seemed as limp & stale as a piece of cold fried codfish. Write me everything do {do}! Always, devotedly {Devotedly}, Una 5 I called up the Sweeneys ♦ I left a message with the maid—to come to Hampshire House for cocktails—ask them whether they got it. —I wanted to ask them particularly about their summer in Donegal. Be a good Blanchie & find out for me exactly where they stayed! Was it near Dunfanaghy —did they take a house— can you hire a care in Ireland now? Its soon now I hope to be there. Our little red haired grandson (Lindsay after my mother’s Scotch family—) is a regular angel. He & his mother came home from the hospital on 8th day & I took full charge. Robin & I adore him. He is here at my side this instant moment in his old hooded cradle. How nice it is now the fashion to love & cuddle babies again. Love U J.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Charles Frederick Worth (1825–1895), a trendsetting fashion designer, established the House of Worth in Paris in 1858. The haute couture firm closed in 1956, following the retirement of Worth’s great-grandson, but later reopened under new owners. 2. Patty Jeffers married William H. Gilger (1916–1971) September 18, 1947. The couple had one child, Jennifer Gilger, born April 17, 1948. They divorced in 1956. 3. Thomas Lincoln Chadbourne, Jr. (1871–1938), founder in 1902 of the New York law firm eventually known as Chadbourne & Parke LLP, was an influential corporate attorney, business executive, government appointee, political fundraiser, and proponent of workers’ rights. 4. Pearl (Coates) Luedeman (1886–1973), Blanche’s first cousin, and her husband Alfred C. Luedeman (1890–1977), an accountant, lived in Los Angeles. 5. Written vertically in left margin, page 3.

RJ to Herbert Lyons Tor House, Carmel November 10 [1947] Dear Mr. Lyons:1 I am sorry your letter of October 28 remains so long unanswered.2 As soon as we came home I had flu, and then—what was worse—sulfa tablets, and am just recovering beginning to come to. I like your suggestions of a plan for the article and shall try to follow them, only wishing I had more acquaintance with contemporary poetry.3 But we have a good library here, and as I told Barry Hyams,4 I’ll do what I can with the subject. {Beginning to-morrow,} I ought to be able to take send you something in a week’s time.5 Sincerely yours ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Herbert Hilary Lyons, Jr. (1909–1980) was an editor of the Sunday Magazine and the Book Review section of the New York Times. He was also the author of two novels, The Rest They Need (1950) and Other Lives to Live (1951). 2. In his letter to Jeffers (TLS HRC Texas), Lyons invites Jeffers to write an essay for the New York Times “on the current state of poetry.” 3. “The article might be written along these lines,” Lyons suggests. “Is modern poetry, as is often charged, too special for the ordinary man? If the charge is true, whose fault is it—the

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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poet’s, or the reader’s, for lack of education and poetic feeling? What, in any case, is the poet’s primary function—to speak to the few, and wait for time to bring him an audience, or to move the many in his own time? Does the theatre perhaps suggest a means whereby the poet can at once enlarge his audience and be faithful to his muse? Along the way, I hope, you can give examples from contemporary poets who, in your opinion, are either too special or simply ahead of their time.” 4. Barry Hyams (1911–1989), a Broadway producer, publicist, and business associate of Robert Whitehead, was in charge of publicity for Medea. 5. Jeffers worked on “Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years” for the rest of the month and sent Lyons a copy of the finished manuscript early in December. The essay was published in the January 18, 1948 issue of the New York Times Sunday Magazine, pages 16 and 26. See also Collected Poetry 4: 422–427 and Collected Poetry 5: 987–997.

UJ to Theodore Lilienthal Tor House. Carmel. California Rt 1 Box 36 November 21. 1947 Dear Ted: Thanks so much for your considerate plan for a Jeffers’ exhibit. I ought to have answered more promptly but we found a lot of work piled up for us when we got back from New York, & were too tired to do anything extra. Robin got a sharp attack of flu {caught on the plane} & thinks that the sulpha they filled him with made him sicker than ever. (but did prevent pneumonia, I believe). If it {(the exhibit)} can be arranged it would be excellent for Robin in many ways. I will help as much as I can.1 The Natural Music Folio is beautifully done.2 Congratulations! Robin sends affectionate greetings with mine to you & Fran. Yours Una. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. Lilienthal hoped to arrange a book exhibit and a reception for Jeffers in San Francisco, but soon dropped the idea. As Una says in a December 31, 1947 letter to him (ALS Occidental), not included in this edition, “Do please forget about your reception project. Robin hates that kind of affair anyway & is pleased to be free of it!”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

2. Robinson Jeffers, Natural Music (San Francisco: Quercus Press for the Book Club of California, 1947)—number 12 in a keepsake series of California poetry folios. In a brief introductory statement, Jeffers explains the origin of the poem: I was by the mouth of the Carmel River in early spring, and noticed that the little floodstream, on its rocks in the broken sand-bar, was making exactly the same song that the ocean was making on all the shores of the bay; the same pitch, the same accents. This was in 1920 or ’21, when fear and famine and civil war were abroad in the world as they are at present; and the two sides of nature, the human and the “elemental,” both natural, came together in my mind and made the verses. There was more hope in the world at that time—therefore I spoke of the girl “dreaming of lovers”—but I think the poem remains true. Hopes have proved false; it is possible that despairs will prove false; I think that a simple recognition of the beauty and naturalness of things is a better foundation to build our lives on.

RJ to Oscar Williams December 1, 1947 Dear Oscar Williams, 1 This note is your authorization to use the following poems “Black-Out”, “Fourth Act”, “Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind”, “The Eye” and “Cassandra” in all editions of your A Little Treasury of American Poetry.2 It is understood that I am to receive a fee together with two contributors’ copies upon publication. (Publication in 1948). Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers Tor House, Carmel, California ALS. Indiana. 1 page. 1. This form letter was typed by Williams. Jeffers filled in the blanks provided for the date, signature, and address. 2. A Little Treasury of American Poetry: The Chief Poets from Colonial Times to the Present Day, edited by Oscar Williams (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948). In addition to the poems listed here, Jeffers is also represented by nine other poems in the anthology: “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean,” “Apology for Bad Dreams,” “Promise of Peace,” “Night,” “Shine, Perishing Republic,” “Hurt Hawks,” “Prescription of Painful Ends,” “May–June, 1940,” and “I Shall Laugh Purely” (pp. 439–456).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 December 8. 1947

Dear Saxe: Actually Robin had never unwrapped the ms. of “The Double Axe” since you gave it back to us at Random House.1 He had a very sharp attack of flu after we got home &, since he has more or less recovered, has been struggling with an article he promised to write for the N. Y. Times while we were there2 He says it would be certainly six weeks from now before he could hand it over to you, but I don’t see why that would prevent you from announcing it for your spring list, —or would it?3 Do you think “The Inhumanist” would be a better title {than “The Double Axe”?} Another thing, Saxe, do you think your firm wishes to publish this book— and, if they do, will push it properly? Robin’s view of politics & a sick world differs so much from yours.4 The impact of fan letters & earnestly expressed enthusiasm for Robins work I think has, at long last, made him realize a little how much he has impressed his particular public. It would be best to tell tell us now if you’d prefer to skip this particular book, & would in no way alter our friendly feelings toward Random House. Affectionately Una.

ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. Jeffers sent The Double Axe to Random House at the beginning of October. In a letter dated October 7, 1947 (TLC Berkeley), Bennett Cerf tells Una that “the manuscript of Robin’s new book, The Double Axe, arrived this afternoon and elicited cheers from the entire Editorial Department.” The enthusiasm soon faded. Saxe Commins was appalled by the manuscript and expressed his displeasure in a long inter-office memo to Cerf on October 13. For the complete text of the memo, see Dorothy Commins, What Is an Editor? Saxe Commins at Work (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978): 121–125. Two days later, on October 15 (TLS HRC Texas), Commins forthrightly shared his concerns with Jeffers. The following week, when Robinson and Una arrived in New York for the October 21 opening of Medea, Commins returned the manuscript to Jeffers, with the hope that he would revise it. After not hearing anything for over six weeks, Commins wrote to Jeffers on December 4 (TLS HRC Texas); “I keep wondering,” he asks, “why there has been no word from you on The Double Axe.” 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

2. “Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years.” 3. Commins mentions the scheduling issue in his December 4 letter: “Our Spring catalogue is being prepared now, but I cannot make an announcement in it until I hear from you. May I have word soon as to when the revised manuscript will be coming my way?” Commins closes the letter with a friendly word of praise for Medea: “On your account I am happy indeed. Who deserves such a success more than you?” 4. Commins’ objections to the book are clearly stated in his October 15 letter. “I am disturbed and terribly worried,” he writes, “and that’s why I can do no less than be completely candid about my misgivings. . . . I refer, of course, to the frequent, damning references to President Roosevelt. Manifestly he cannot defend himself, and on that score there arises the question of fairness and good taste. But what is worse, in my opinion, is the conviction that these bitter charges will feed the prejudices of the wrong people, especially those, with the worst motives in the world, who have tried so hard and so vindictively to discredit him. It is startling indeed to find that time after time you lash out at his memory, as if the need to do so had become almost obsessive.” Frankly, Commins adds, “I cannot make myself understand it. This may be because I do not share your bitterness toward Roosevelt nor his historic role; nor do I believe, as you reiterate so frequently, that this country was drawn into the carnage by fools and treacherous men or that a better destiny would await us if we had isolated ourselves from the rest of the world.” While acknowledging Jeffers’ rights as an artist, Commins nevertheless urges him to make changes: “I am writing this letter on my own responsibility, and with the hope, for the sake of your book and the effect it will have, that you can temper these references before we think of beginning composition.”

UJ to Saxe Commins

Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 December 15, 1947

Dear Saxe: Robin says he will go to work directly on his ms. & I will let you know soon how he gets on. I agree with you that The Double Axe is a much better title than The Inhumanist. I think he was only toying with the idea of the latter title. Affectionately Una. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 Dec. 20. 1947 Darling Blanche: Such a hive of industry here. —Letters are hard to get at. First, thanks for everything! little shoes, & clippings & wire . . . . I haven’t heard from Sweeney about Donegal & Ireland. Did he forget to write, after all? Our little Lindsay grows apace, over 14 lbs now & the merriest, best little soul you ever saw. I keep him nights. He almost always sleeps from his 10 o’clock feeding until 6 am. when I feed him—then he usually goes to sleep for another two hours. Sometimes I am almost too sleepy to live at 6 am but when he sees me, he laughs so hard & says “ah-ghee!” & I forget I’m tired. You’d be surprised how well we all fit in here. Donnan put up a partition & made two apartments {bed-sitting rooms!} upstairs—very cozy. Lieselotte rearranged their room (looking into the courtyard) & hung a lot of Bavarian pictures, & pressed Edelweiss & gentians {in a frame} & put an embroidered linen cover (with German coats of arms & a motto (it belonged to Belle-Mère) over the table, & behold! ♦ its like an old room over there.1 She is expecting her baby any moment —that will be a new thing to cope with! She is very well—strong as a horse! She speaks some English & we get on very well. She calls me Mother & is touchingly eager to please & do the right thing & be helpful. I don’t know what Garth is planning for their future—it may be South America but he is so happy to be home & so gay, & at home that we are not pressing him to think about the future until after the baby comes. There is no denying that I am working terribly hard. The girls are very willing to do the {what} work they can but you know some one person has to know every thing & have her finger on it all to make it synchronize & to keep everyone doing his share &, well, manage. It is a triumph for me really to see that {in this wee space house} we all have our space & our privacy & our fun, & I am making a thing work that many a master of a big house couldn’t. I have every expectation that when we get our new baby & it gets to be a month—or two months old—I shall have

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

things working so well that I can get away quietly to my tower room ♦ for an hour or so a day for my own concerns. The dining room now is occupied all the time. It has been idle a lot because it to took so much wood in that great fireplace—& constant attention—& during the war we couldn’t buy wood here part of the time & descended to grates & coal. I have had a metal sheet put over the fireplace-mouth, painted it stone gray & then Lee painted on the sheet a dozen white unicorns with blue eyes, & garlands of flowers everywhere. Then I bought an antique little stove that thrives on either coal or wood {whose pipe goes through the sheet &} lo! in fifteen minutes the room is warm. Robin works out there as much of the day as he wishes & evenings the children live there & have their friends & act as rowdy as they wish. We shut the door to the dining room & not a sound comes through & we sit as we have several dozen years & read & listen happily to the waves pounding on the rocks.2 How I blessed you for sending me the BEAUTIFUL Art News Annual with all the wonderful tapestry pictures in.3 This exhibit is the same one, I believe, that was shown in London & there was a long article about it in Illustrated London News. I ♦ made Robin copy from it a sketch of St. Stephen & unicorn.4 I begged Mrs. Byron Stookey to send me some post cards or other data on the exhibit (she is a sponsor) but they haven’t come through yet. I didn’t know that the Cluny La Dame à la Licorne series was to be exhibited here.5 How thrilling if that series could be hung briefly opposite those beautiful ones in the Cloisters! To meet after all these centuries! I suppose you heard rumors of the tangle Connie & Paula got into.6 Connie {was staying with P. at Highlands &} was to go as paid companion with Paula to Palm Springs—but disappeared a few nights before & didn’t even telephone for 24 hrs. Kept Paula awake all night. Paula finally went off alone. I don’t know Connie’s side of the story. She is coming in for a chat this p.m. What do people say about Denis King’s Jason? 7 The John Alden Carpenters are coming early in Jan. They have taken the same house at the Highlands again for four months.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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All of us are going to the Tevises as usual for Christmas dinner. What a darling darling picture of you & Russell—on your ~Christmas~ card! Are you finding New York exciting? I was too busy even to go into shop or see the windows! I did dash into the Yeats exhibit8 with Carlton Smith. I did not like it much.9 All our love to you both & a happy New Year!10 Devotedly, Una. Please give this to Maud! I find the utmost difficulty in getting time to write any letters of my own. There is a great amount of correspondence to do about Medea—Many projects afloat about it, here & abroad.11 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Garth and Charlotte arrived at Tor House in late November. They were married September 24, 1947 in Wiesbaden, Germany. 2. Pounding waves could also be felt inside Tor House. “If you rest your hand upon the windowsill,” Una tells Timmie and Maud Clapp in a November 25, 1945 letter (ALS Yale), not used in this edition, “you can feel a sort of tremor that comes up from the very ribs of the rocks beneath this knoll.” 3. ARTnews Annual 1948, 46, no. 9 (November 1947) features three articles about the art, style, and craft of French tapestries, each with numerous illustrations. Publication of the Annual coincided with the November 21 opening of a special display of French tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 4. For examples of Jeffers’ sketches, see A Book of Gaelic Airs for Una’s Melodeon, collected by Una Jeffers, illustrated by Robinson Jeffers, and introduced by Dave Oliphant (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1989). 5. See Collected Letters 2: 600, note 4. 6. Connie Flavin and Paula Dougherty. 7. Dennis King (1897–1971), a veteran stage actor, stepped into the role of Jason on November 29, when John Gielgud left Medea in order to begin rehearsals for his next Broadway play—a dramatization of Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment. 8. A collection of paintings by Jack B. Yeats was shown at the Associated American Artists Galleries (Fifth Avenue at 55th Street) from October 5 to October 26, 1947. 9. This paragraph is written vertically in the left margin and across the top of page 4. 10. The last sentence, closing, and signature are written vertically in the left margin, page 1. 11. Written vertically in the top right corner, page 1.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 December 25. 1947 Dear William: Christmas Day & I hope you are having a merry one. I think of you so often &, gratefully, for your various kind deeds! We were much interested in your sketches, there is a freshness & immediacy about them. We want you to write more. I am returning them today under separate cover. {vividly observed and felt}1 I often think of your problem about choosing the subject for your thesis. Two subjects I might consider if I were writing one are 1st, Arthur Symons. He is suffering at the moment what occurs to most writers at times—being disregarded. Robin & I have read every book of his & both of us regard him as an extremely acute & discriminating critic & with a style, at its best, very rich & vivid & flexible. —His Symbolist Movement & Romantic Movement in Eng. Lit. & Studies in Prose & Verse, did much to shape our taste—and he was of great importance in the early careers of Yeats & Moore, to name only two. The other topic—wouldn’t it be rather interesting to make a comparison of Emily Bronte & Christina Rossetti—their lives & surroundings & what influenced them & shaped their minds & the verse writing they produced.— ♦ What a darling unicorn on the tile! & how interesting to us to have any book from his {Hardy’s} library. {We admire him so tremendously} — And that reminds me—what about Wm Barnes. He is a rich subject & never written about in this country? The first poems of his I ever saw were in the vol. Hardy edited for love of the man & his works. I have the 2 vol. edition, Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset dialect, a very favorite book. What do people think of Denis King? Thanks for the clippings & the programs. Several people have asked for them. That was thoughtful of you. We are a full house—both our twin sons are home at present & their

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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wives—& the baby son of one & the German wife of the other is expecting any moment! There is much excitement & activity every hour. It is now Jan 4. & I see that I am not going to be able to get any time for letters for a long time. Our little granddaughter Maeve came home from the hospital today, —a week old.2 Now two babies in the household. It seems to Robin & me to have turned the clock back 30 yrs. when we had twin boy babies to deal with. We hope to go to Ireland in the early sprinsummer. Affectionate best wishes for 1948. Yrs Una Jeffers ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. 1. This interpolation is written vertically in the left margin, beside the opening paragraph. 2. Garth and Charlotte’s first child, Maeve Carola Jeffers, was born December 28, 1947.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 December 31. 1947 Dearest Melba: Your ms. came last night & I glanced hastily through it after midnight. We are living in a desperate whirl at present & it might be as much as ten days before I can give it a proper reading. It seems to me you have tightened it up very much since your first version & it is improved thereby! I saw & read very hastily two bits which we would object very much to publishing. One was the incident about Friede.1 There is no doubt of his culpability but it is a serious affair to accuse a man of theft unless you {one} wishes to really go into court & so on. We would prefer to drop the matter forever, as long as we are living anyway. He acknowledged & apologized long ago in a vague way for his wrongdoing. Saying in a letter he had regretted an action of his in regard to Robin & wished to discuss {& explain} it sometime. We have ♦ seen him only once since then as far as I can remember & nothing was 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

said, but our coldness was a reproof which I could see he felt. If reference to this action of his is necessary to your narrative it should be stated more indirectly without naming him or his firm. Secondly we could not have Random House criticized about their apparent indifference to Medea. They are still R. J’s publishers & will be as per contract for some time. It would be excessively unpleasant, & perhaps detrimental to R. J. to infuriate them. It was & is a complete mystery to us why they did nothing to push the play. They did make a beautiful book of it to start with. However, I made myself disagreeable enough about the matter the first morning we arrived in New York & went to Random House, & feel that nothing more should be said. I had After our initial scolding we had a pleasant enough time & a dinner, theatre party & cocktails with the firm. I had a note from Bennett yesterday saying “. . . & I want {to be sure that} you both know how proud I am to be Robin’s publisher. He and ♦ Gene O’Neill were our first two important authors on the Random House list & I will never forget that. I think that on the strength of the tremendous success of Medea, The Double-Axe can be launched with extra fan-fare this spring. I promise you we’ll do our very best. {Love,} Bennett” Cerf ”2 This, I take it, is his way of promising more cooperation in future. I think it looks bad for both publisher & author to be on bad terms. Ted Lilienthal & several other old friends of Bennetts have spoken to me of how changed he has seemed & spoiled by {great} financial & social & business success. But underneath perhaps he retains still that lovable warmth & enthusiasm he showed showed earlier, from the first time he came to see us. (I think {in} 1928)3 I mention the two above items so you can be considering them while I read the ms. Garth & his German wife are here. She is in the hospital here with a lovely baby born Sunday, 7 lb. 12 oz. named Maeve. You can imagine how full our days are (& nights!) Devotedly Una. ♦

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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And thanks—warm thanks for the lovely box of fruit—Delicious. All such a treat to Lotte & Garth after Germany. I sent you yesterday the new Weston book, given us by the editor Merle Armitage. We have no place for books we are not actively using in our present condition. I thought you would have & it would be of interest to travelling guests. —There is an article by R. J. in it4 ALS. HRC Texas. 4 pages. 1. Letters and manuscripts Jeffers sent to Donald Friede at Boni & Liveright (later Liveright, Inc.) were retained by Friede and then sold by him in 1935, two years after the firm went bankrupt. Jeffers refers to the matter in a November 13, 1935 letter to Donald Klopfer. 2. Cerf ’s letter to Una is dated December 23, 1947 (TCC Berkeley). 3. Cerf first visited Tor House in May 1929. 4. Fifty Photographs: Edward Weston, edited by Merle Armitage; essays by Merle Armitage, Donald Bear, Robinson Jeffers, and Edward Weston (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1947). For Jeffers’ contribution, see Appendix A: 4.

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 January 8. 1948 Dear Bennett: Thanks for your Christmas note & for the Dictionary1 sent us by the firm. We are really grateful for it. Our big old Standard Dictionary has served us well for twenty-five years—but there are so many new words in the language these last few years, this new one fills a need. We are of course very happy about Medea’s success. Morris Agency arranged excellent terms for us—we are getting 10% of gross receipts. And various foreign rights are being arranged. Decca is doing or about to do recordings.2 Robin expects to get his ms. off to you in {within} five days. Did I ever {Do} you ever see Jed Harris? I think he may gnash his teeth about Medea. He told some people we know in N. Y. that he gave up producing it because I was so mercenary. He ♦ doesn’t know that your lawyer examined his proposals. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

This morning Mignon Eberhardt called me from Pebble Beach. She was in town only 24 hrs {overnight}. was motoring through with several friends who were in a hurry to get to San Francisco. We are in a whirl here—with {both} boys bot & wives & a baby each. It is exciting & really delightful but leaves little time for extra-mural activities. Affectionate greetings to all at Random House. Una ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. 1. The first dictionary published by Random House—The American College Dictionary, edited by Clarence L. Barnhart—was released November 25, 1947. 2. A recording of Medea featuring Judith Anderson was released by Decca Records on four 78 rpm discs in spring 1948. A 33⅓ rpm LP recording on one disc came out the following year. In a December 24, 1947 letter to Judith Anderson (ALS Tor House), not used in this edition, Una provides additional information: “Decca seems to have acquired the rights to your Medea records as Morris Agency wired us, asking us to confirm (3% of retail price for us). —You know Remsen Bird (was 25 yrs. president of Occidental College, now living here.) He is, at a fantastic salary I hear, advisor to Decca & he is overjoyed because Decca are to do the recording. He means to make a very intense campaign to place the records in every possible library, college & school et cetera.”

RJ to William Rose Benét Tor House, Carmel, California. January 25, 1948. Dear Bill Benet: Delighted to hear from you. Enclosed are two pieces of verse, neither of which seems very appropriate for the SRL poetry number, but I hope you can choose one of them. Don’t trouble to return the other. They will both be in my next book—The Double Axe—which I guess Random House will publish sometime this year. —Of course, if you should want both—but I don’t know why—you could have them.1 Sincerely, Robin Jeffers

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Yale. 1 page. 1. Jeffers sent “What of It?” and “Original Sin.” Both were published in the March 20, 1948 issue of the Saturday Review of Literature, page 18.

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 Feb. 5. 1948 Judy darling: How are you — I just saw the note in Time that you were out of the play for the week.1 I must say it wouldn’t surprise anyone if you stayed out a year & rested. No one can understand your endurance for so long. I assume there is no understudy. for Medea. I can’t imagine one. We go on well here. It is a very full house but Robin & I feel as if the clock had turned back 30 yrs. as we sit & rock these babies who might be twins. Garth’s baby is named Maeve after that famous old Irish queen. We have arranged the house, small as it is, so that Robin has privacy for his work. He felt rather wretched for weeks after his flu but now at last seems like himself again & is busy with his writing. I wonder whether you saw his interesting article in New York Times magazine section, Nov. 18,2 “Poetry, Gongorism & a Thousand Years.” He has had so many letters about it. Robin was very much touched & pleased with the wires from the cast & from you on his birthday. ♦ I wonder how Gielgud is doing with Crime & Punishment?3 I believe the first reviews were not very favorable but perhaps better now. I had heard he had great success with it in London. Do you remember Mrs. John Garrett4 of Baltimore? She was here yesterday & joined with the John Alden Carpenters in admiration for you & Medea. (Mrs. G is sister of Mrs. Ellis5 in Berkeley.) —Jock Whitney, too, was with us two Sundays ago & talked a long time about it. I wonder whether you’ve ever seen Jed Harris & what he says. Does he gnash his teeth! And Rabbi Wiseman. —You must remember him. He was staying with

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Noël last week. (He has new twin daughters 2½ mos. old. named Judith & Deborah. Judy & Debby are cunning names!)6 I am working awfully hard —but it will ease up here very soon. Robin & I are toying with the idea of going to Ireland & England & Scotland for 3 mos. in the summer. Its a long time since we’ve had a real holiday. Devotedly love from us both. Una. Keep well —but {and} don’t go on too long without a rest. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Suffering from fatigue, Judith was diagnosed with anemia and given a blood transfusion Tuesday night, January 27. Medea was canceled for the rest of the week. Performances resumed February 1, continued through February 19, and then ceased again from February 20 to March 7. Judith recovered her strength and was back on stage March 8. 2. Una meant to write “Jan. 18.” 3. The Robert Whitehead and Oliver Rea production of Crime and Punishment, starring John Gielgud, Lilian Gish, and Dolly Haas, opened to lukewarm reviews December 22, 1947 and closed after forty performances January 24, 1948. 4. Alice (Warder) Garrett (1877–1952), a philanthropist and patron of the arts, was the widow of John Work Garrett (1872–1942), a banker and diplomat. The Garretts bequeathed Evergreen, their 48-room mansion in Baltimore, along with its contents (including a major art and rare book collection), to Johns Hopkins University for use as a museum. 5. Elizabeth (Warder) Ellis (1875–1952) was the widow of Ralph Nicolson Ellis (1858– 1930), a New York attorney and yachtsman. The Ellises divided their time between homes in Berkeley and Long Island. 6. Una is referring to Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein (1902–1974), the spiritual leader of Chicago’s Congregation Kehilath Anshe Mayriv from 1939 to 1967, and a nationally recognized labor negotiator, wilderness advocate, and author of The Place of Understanding (1959) and other books. The Weinsteins’ twin daughters Judith and Deborah were born November 11, 1947. Earlier in his career, Weinstein was the head rabbi of Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco. He returned to the Bay Area after he retired and served as rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-el.

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UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel California Rt. 1. Box 36 Feb. 5 ’48 Darling Phoebe: I am so sad to think you’ve been having such a miserable time, & overwhelmed too because you represent a tower of strength to me! You know the night we dined with you at Peter Pan I said to Robin you were looking really exhausted, but then next day when you all came, you looked well—& I forgot all about my first impression.—1 But I believe you are philosophic enough to know just how to readjust things to a slightly slower pace & youll have an excuse to indulge yourself in reading (& writing?) & let someone else do some of your work. I also {often} have thought if I can see & can use my hands I’d be able to get along happily with quite a lot of othe infirmities! I hate sewing but am still hopeful of learning to do petit point when I’m laid up! How lucky you are to have the darling Button there to take over for a while. ♦ We’ve had torrents of rain for two nights & the most wonderful dramatic clouds over the sea, & snow on the hills up the valley. Soon the fields will be transformed. On the puddle in the courtyard & the little spots of water in the hollows of the stone pavement the yellow pollen from the cypress trees floats about. The pigeons bathe constantly. They are a bit insane about water. Dearest Phoebe don’t mind taking in a little sail, you can spare some. With love from all of us. Devotedly Una— ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: February 5, 1948. 1. A little more than a week before this letter was written, Phoebe suffered a severe heart attack at a hotel in the Carmel Highlands. Hans brought her back to San Francisco, where doctors treated her at home.

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UJ to Noël Sullivan Tor House. Carmel. Feb 10 ’48 Dear Noël: You may need for your files this written confirmation of Robinson Jeffers’ oral acceptance of your request that he serve as one of the Committee of Award {in Literature} acting for the Phelan estate.1 Faithfully Una Jeffers APS. Berkeley. Postmark: February 11, 1948. 1. The 1948 Phelan Award in literature, announced June 5 in San Francisco, was given to Homer L. Sutton of Monrovia, California. Robert Duncan of Berkeley was named alternate; Virginia Dunbar, William Galbraith, Adele Levi, Rosalie Moore, Sanders Russell, and James Schevill won honorable mentions. Jeffers judged the competition, along with Marie Welch and James Caldwell.

RJ to President and Fellows of Harvard College February 16, 1948 The President and Fellows of Harvard College Administrative Offices Massachusetts Hall Harvard University Cambridge 38, Massachusetts Gentlemen: The Library of Congress and myself are about to conclude mutually satisfactory arrangements for the future publication of material contained in the following identified phonograph record heretofore published by the Harvard Film Service in the Harvard Vocarium series: P-1046.47 — containing Shane O’Neill’s Cairn, The Low Sky, Inscription for a Gravestone, The Bed by the Window, The Coast Road, and Oh, Lovely Rock This letter will request and authorize the President and Fellows of

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Harvard College to transfer to the Library of Congress all rights of manufacture and sale of the above described disc, and will release the President and Fellows of Harvard College from any further obligation to me, specifically any obligation described in the agreement dated March 4, 1941 between myself and the Harvard Film Service, with regard to said disc, except for the final payment of royalties held for my account on sales up to the effective date of the transfer agreement with the Library of Congress, which royalties are to be paid to me promptly after completion of the above described transfer. Yours very truly, Robinson Jeffers TLS. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Saxe Commins Tor House. Carmel. California1 Rt. 1. Box 36 February 19, ’48. Dear Saxe: (1) If you insist, let the verse read “To feed the powerhunger of a politician”—instead of “paralyzed man.”2 And I hope you will always protest when Caesar’s epilepsy is mentioned. Or Dostoievski’s—though it influenced his genius, just as Roosevelt’s paralysis influenced, and to some extent excuses, his character. This was my reason for speaking of it. (2) As to “little Truman”—the adjective cannot possibly refer to physical size, since Truman is a bigger man than either Churchill (except the fat) or Hitler. But you will admit that he is “little” in a historical sense (and also “innocent”) compared to either of them. However—to show you what a good fellow I am—Write “Harry,” if it really matters to you, instead of “little.”3 (3) As to other things, I’m sorry we don’t agree completely. And I do agree that Hitler deserves worse than he gets—but you know the whole world is full of people cursing Hitler.4 

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(4) As to the suggested “Publisher’s Note”—it will certainly make every reader think of politics rather than poetry, and is therefore deplorable. But put it in, by all means, if it is a matter of conscience.5 I shall probably in that case have to add a short paragraph to my own “Note”, saying that any political judgments in the book are not primary but part of the background, the moral climate of the time as I see it; and perhaps ending with a sentence from Shaw’s preface to “Heartbreak House”—I quote badly, from memory—“Only a man who has lived attentively through a general war, not as a member of the military but as a civilian, and kept his head, can understand the bitterness . . .”6 (5) No—I don’t think of any dedication.7 Thanks for your clear and fair letter. And for your not complaining about the dirty manuscript—I didn’t have time or energy to type it over again. It was a joy to see you recently; and I hope to repeat the pleasure if we go to Ireland this spring, as appears likely. Yours— Robinson Jeffers8 TLS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. The address, handwritten by Una, is added at the top of the page. 2. Jeffers sent a revised version of The Double Axe to Random House in January. In a February 12, 1948 letter to Jeffers (TLS HRC Texas), Commins refers to changes in the manuscript as “immense improvements.” However, he asks Jeffers to consider a further revision to a passage in The Love and the Hate (on page 27 of the published book). “You changed the line ‘To feed the vanity of a paralytic and make trick fortunes’ to ‘To feed the power-hunger of a paralyzed man and make trick fortunes,’” but, Commins argues, “this is hardly a change at all. Would you consent to a further revision to make it read ‘To feed the power-hungry and make trick fortunes?’” Jeffers settled on “To feed the power-hunger of politicians and make trick fortunes.” In Collected Poetry 3: 234, the line is restored to “To feed the vanity of a paralytic and make trick fortunes.” 3. “I do wish I could persuade you to take out the word ‘little’ describing Truman” (in “Moments of Glory”), Commins writes. “To me it seems that the adjective, referring to size, is as gratuitous an insult as if you described a man by a physical defect, as ‘consider hunchback Steinmetz.’ It would be hitting below the belt in that instance. As it is, your poem, without the adjective, is contemptuous enough.” While “Harry” is used in the Random House version of the poem, the phrase reverts to “little” in Collected Poetry 3: 198.

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4. Commins does not offer any additional suggestions, but he restates his general, and vehement, disagreement with Jeffers’ view of recent events. “Certainly I can’t subscribe to your apologia for Peron, when you say ‘I would praise also Argentina, for being too proud to bay with the pack,’ nor your defense of isolationism in ‘Historical Choice’ and in ‘Fourth Act.’” Also, he adds, “I cannot subscribe to the mildness with which you chasten Hitler.” 5. “But lest there be any misapprehension about the difference of views between us,” ­Commins concludes, “it occurred to me to write a publisher’s note to appear on the flap of the jacket and also in the front matter of the book as a statement of our position. Here it is as I have written it for that purpose. Tell me candidly how you feel about it. At best it is an honest statement of my viewpoint and at worst it will serve to underline certain passages which otherwise might even go unnoticed. Since both of us are responsible for our convictions and must stand by them, why not have them out in the open?” Commins typed “A Publisher’s Note,” but crossed out the “A” by hand and thus changed the title to “Publisher’s Note.” Upon release, the following “Publishers’ Note” (having been endorsed by others at Random House) was printed on the inside back flap of the book jacket and on an unnumbered page following Jeffers’ preface. The Double Axe and Other Poems is the fourteenth book of verse by Robinson Jeffers published under the Random House imprint. During an association of fifteen years, marked by mutual confidence and accord, the issuance of each new volume has added strength to the close relationship of author and publisher. In all fairness to that constantly interdependent relationship and in complete candor, Random House feels compelled to go on record with its disagreement over some of the political views pronounced by the poet in this volume. Acutely aware of the writer’s freedom to express his convictions boldly and forthrightly and of the publisher’s function to obtain for him the widest possible hearing, whether there is agreement in principle and detail or not, it is of the utmost importance that difference of views should be wide open on both sides. Time alone is the court of last resort in the case of ideas on trial.

6. In a section of his preface to Heartbreak House (1919) titled “War Delirium,” George Bernard Shaw writes, “Only those who have lived through a first-rate war, not in the field, but at home, and kept their heads, can possibly understand the bitterness of Shakespeare and Swift, who both went through this experience.” Jeffers does not quote Shaw in the final version of his preface. 7. “By the way,” Commins asks in a postscript, “you did not provide a dedication. Do you want one? To whom?” 8. Commins responded to Jeffers on February 24 (TLS HRC Texas). “First of all,” he writes, “let me tell you how much I appreciate the friendliness of your letter. It is heartening to know that mere differences of opinion need not affect a relationship tried by the years. If only the same tolerance could exist where other differences of view separate whole peoples! All moralizing aside, I can only say that I was made happy by your letter.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Phoebe Barkan [February 25, 1948] Wed. Tor House. Carmel Phoebe darling: I’m glad you are getting on so well & resting! We’ve been having several wearing days. Robin has bronchitis —& there are inhalations & drops & even temp. to be kept in the room night & day & keeping him in bed protesting, & Penicillin shots. He will be all right soon I think. Today I’ve ordered tickets to Ireland. Adorable babies are blooming. Devotedly. Una. 1 Pascal quartet played at Noëls Sunday night— Beautifully!2 APS. San Francisco. Postmark: February 25, 1948. 1. The Pascal Quartet, founded in France by violist Léon Pascal (1899–1969) , was on a concert tour of the United States. 2. Added in top right corner.

RJ to Saxe Commins March 2, ’48. Dear Saxe: Will you please substitute the enclosed page for the “Note” that I think is page (1) of the manuscript? —As you see, it is practically the same thing, except ione paragraph added in response to your “Publisher’s Note.”1 And since there are now three paragraphs I call it “Preface!”2 Best wishes— Robin.3 ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. In response to Random House’s disclaimer concerning The Double Axe, Jeffers added a paragraph to his introductory statement: As to the Publishers’ Note that introduces this volume, let me say that it is here with my cheerful consent, and represents a quite normal difference of opinion. But I believe that history (though not popular history) will eventually take sides with me in these matters. Surely

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it is clear even now that the whole world would be better off if America had refrained from intervention in the European war of 1914; I think it will become equally clear that our intervention in the Second World War has been—even terribly—worse in effect. And this intervention was not forced but intentional; we were making war, in fact though not in name, long before Pearl Harbor. But it is futile at present to argue these matters. And they are not particularly important, so far as this book is concerned; they are only the background, or moral climate, of its thought and action.

2. The final version of Jeffers’ preface is considerably shorter than his first draft. Both texts are reprinted and discussed in Collected Poetry 4: 418–421, 428–429 and Collected Poetry 5: 981–987, 997–1001. 3. In a letter to Jeffers dated March 4, 1948 (TCC Columbia), Commins thanks Jeffers for the revised preface. “I am really happy,” he adds, “that you have stated your position so clearly and precisely. Even though we differ, it is certainly reasonable that our opinions should be stated forthrightly. It will be interesting to watch the reaction of a jury of readers.”

UJ to Bennett Cerf Tor House. Carmel. California Rt 1. Box 36 March 6. 1947 [1948]1 Dear Bennett: Ince2 wrote us that you {Random House} had consented to Theatre Arts reprinting Medea in August Theatre Arts & asked Robin’s consent.3 I wrote him that it was all right if you agreed. You must know better than we do whether it is good for the book— Robin happened to notice the enclosed clipping (in Commonweal) which seems to indicate another theatre row going on.4 Robin & I expect to fly to Ireland in June if all goes well. We noticed that the jacket on Medea has a new line or so with Whitehead & Rea given their due. Best wishes to all at Random House. Faithfully Una ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Una dates this letter 1947, but it was written in 1948. 

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2. Alexander Sandor Ince; for biographical information, see Jeffers’ December 1950 letter to Ince. 3. The complete text of Medea, along with a portrait photograph of Jeffers and three photographs from the Broadway production, was featured in Theatre Arts 32, no. 5 (August– September, 1948): 71–97. Jeffers’ portrait was supplied by Carmel photographer Morley Baer (1916–1995). The importance of this commission for Baer’s subsequent career is discussed in Stones of the Sur: Poetry by Robinson Jeffers, Photographs by Morley Baer, edited by James Karman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001): 4–5. 4. The clipping, which Una affixed to the letter, is a “Note” by Kappo Phelan from Commonweal 47, no. 20 (February 27, 1948): 495. Phelan laments the sale of Theatre Arts Monthly and its editor’s sudden loss of a job. Alexander Ince purchased the journal, ended its publication with the February 1948 issue, hired a new editorial team, and resumed publication in April as a bi-monthly (combined with Ince’s Stage magazine) titled Theatre Arts.

RJ and UJ to Louis Untermeyer Tor House, Carmel, California. March 20, 1948.

Dear Louis Untermeyer: I hope you can find a heading for the enclosed—perhaps “Note” or “Foreword?”—and that it will serve your purpose.1 This morning I received by mail from Mr. Rady2 the cut version of the play for the records, and have only had time to look it through hurriedly, but it seems to me to be done as well as possible. Indeed I trust Judith Anderson’s judgment in this respect more than my own, and Mr. Rady says that both you and she have been consulted. I am sorry of course to miss the Nurse’s prologue, which—for once in the play—is nearly a straight translation from Euripides; but I quite realize that space is limited, and am satisfied with the cuts as indicated. Yours, Robinson Jeffers. Sorry—this is the only long envelope in the house U.J.

ALS. Smith. 1 page. 1. The Decca recording of Medea included an introductory essay by Jeffers; see Appendix A: 5. As cultural editor for Decca, Louis Untermeyer was involved in the project. 2. Simon Rady (1909–1965) was a producer and department head at Decca Records. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Glenn Clairmonte Tor House. Carmel. March 26. 48 Dear Glenn:1 I will address the group on Tues. April 6. I ought to have answered more promptly but did not know until today whether I would be out of town on business on that date. The talk will be very informal & {principally} about George Moore. Sincerely Una Jeffers Please let me know the hour set & how long these talks are.2 APS. Virginia. Postmark: March 26, 1948. 1. Glenn Clairmonte, born Nina Joy Gerbaulet (1896–1986), was a columnist for the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal and the author of John Sutter of California (1954) and Calamity Was the Name for Jane (1959). 2. Clairmonte’s literature discussion group, sponsored by the Carmel adult education program, met Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 9:30 at the Sunset School.

UJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 March 26. 1948 Dearest Mabel: I wish we could stop in Taos—I often think fondly of all the lovely times we had with you—but I can’t see any possibility very soon. We have plane tickets to Ireland June 11, & I don’t see a minute of leisure before that time. We expect to return the last of September after some time in Eng, Scotland & the Outer Hebrides. If Brett has gotten back to Taos she will have told you of our busy—and fruitful household! Donnan & wife Lee & baby son Lindsay (nearly 6 mos. {old}), Garth & Lotte {(=Lieselotte)} & baby girl Maeve {(3 mos.)} are here. The house is bursting its seams with life. I love it & only wish I had twice the energy I have. We have

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

very carefully worked out the division of space & work—we all work & all manage to have some privacy. The dining room is in constant use—when the kitchen door is shut it is completely shut off— Robin works there, and evenings when the young have guests we shut them out there. My tower {room} ♦ also comes into constant use. Upstairs we have divided into two rooms. Garth & Lotte’s end looks very Bavarian with all the pictures of BavaMunich—and pressed Edelweiss & gentians, & a gay peasant clock with long pendulum {on a chain} swaying back & forth along the chimney. We painted that red brick chimney white & the end {stone} walls white. With the fire glowing in the Franklin fireplace—& two cradles full of babies it is very cheerful! I am utterly mad about these babies. I dont see how I can ever part with them. Garth is going back to college to take some work. He feels he can’t attempt to do anything with his anthropology which would {either} confine him in a museum (he is horrified at that) or take him on long expeditions away from Lotte & Maeve. We believe forestry will be right for him.1 I didnt see much of Brett—there was a horrid flu going around Robin got it & followed up with a bad bronchitis while she was here. I am sorry you didn’t see Medea in New York. Judith is magnificent. I doubt if greater tragic acting has ever been seen in America. We flew east for the opening—Robin reluctant, but the producers sent us return tickets & there seemed no excuse. It was a great experience! really, & to have it a smash hit was ♦ very very nice indeed! So many interesting people come & go (& stay) here, we are dizzy. I would like to be quiet & free from people for a little. That may happen in Ireland. The Harwood Foundation2 sounds fine! I often think of your beautiful Santos there. I am roasting a turkey & must give my mind to it. It was a present for Easter & this is only Good Friday but the creature was so big it took all the room in the ice box. Lotte is a Catholic (of sorts) & has just returned from the old Mission Tres horas services. They have for some years revived here the old Spanish

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ritual of taking the corpus down from the cross & laying it in a tomb (side chapel) until Easter. Very solemn. Now I must run. Lots of love from us all, Una The babies both came home from the hospital at 8 days (so crowded there) & I learned a lot I didnt know about tending to wee babies! My boys were 6 wks. old before I had charge of them 3 Robin had an extremely interesting article in magazine section of N. Y. Times Jan. 18. He has rec’d letters from all over U. S. about it. I hope you saw it. “Poetry, Gongorism & a thousand years.” ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. Having decided to pursue a career in forestry, Garth enrolled for the fall semester at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University) in Corvallis, where he planned to earn a degree in forest management. 2. The Harwood Foundation in Taos, now the Harwood Museum of Art, was founded by Elizabeth “Lucy” (Case) Harwood (1867–1938) in 1923 as a memorial to her husband, artist Elihu Burritt “Burt” Harwood (1855–1922). 3. This postscript is written in the top right corner, first page.

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 March 29. 19481 Dearest Judith: It is such a crushing disappointment to us to hear that you intend to leave the play May 29th,2 that we scarcely know what to say. It has seemed so wonderful that, with your help, Robin was receiving proper rewards for his years of toil. We have not heard from Whitehead & Rea on this matter yet but I do not believe they will abandon the nation-wide tour they have planned, at a moment when the build-up & interest in Medea is so high. It is hardly possible to imagine anyone but yourself in the title role, but their contract says distinctly {that} while you are to be given first chance, they 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

are free to look elsewhere if you refuse. And we could not prevent them. Besides merit, there is so much luck involved in the success of a play that it is sad to break up this pattern of s. Of course this all rests with you & I can well believe you are tired & need a rest, but I hope you can bring yourself to canvas every possibility of staying with Medea. Do you ♦ not think in this crisis that Whitehead & Rea could be persuaded to make financial arrangements more suitable suitable for you? The thought of you in the T. B. T. again is exciting & with such a producer & director!3 Robin will make his own arrangement of this when the time comes. Love from us both. Una. Upon rereading the contract we do not find it entirely clear about the English rights. It appears that they rest with Whitehead & Rea. Morris Agency could explain it to you—& us, I suppose. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Una was unaware that Judith had just won a Tony (Antoinette Perry) Award. At a ceremony in New York the night before this letter was written, three actresses were honored in the “distinguished performance” category: Judith Anderson (Medea), Katharine Cornell (Antony and Cleopatra), and Jessica Tandy (A Streetcar Named Desire). 2. An irresolvable salary dispute between Judith and the producers of Medea prompted a mutual decision to close the play Sunday, May 29; see “‘Medea’ to Close at Royale May 29: Disagreement Between Judith Anderson and Producers to Halt Run of Classic” by Sam ­Zolotow, New York Times (March 26, 1948): 26. In severing relations with Whitehead and Rea, Judith also canceled a summer performance of the play in Colorado, as well as her participation in a projected nationwide tour. At the end of April, a decision was made to close the play two weeks prior to the announced date, so the last of 214 performances was Saturday, May 15. 3. To follow her success with Medea, Judith was interested in reviving her role as Clytemnestra in a new production of The Tower Beyond Tragedy.

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UJ to Arthur Coons Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 April 13. 1948 Dear President Coons:1 I am replying rather tardily to your letter of March 25—life is very hurried & complicated in our household at present. I shall be delighted to help Miss McCloy2 in any way I can, and I can contribute various items, (as for instance a French translation of Thurso’s Landing which arrived today,3 —a Danish translation of Medea.4) Some pages of mss. etc. I heartily agree that it is very desirable to have {a full} collection of an author in one library & not bits scattered everywhere. This afternoon Robin {(he didn’t)} & I & the Birds are going to see the portrait of my husband by Rem Remsen. It was painted at least 22 yrs. ago, but when it was uncrated the people who saw it yesterday said it is still like him, —& very like him at that date. It is full length—& the background is the sea & Pt. Lobos—& they remain as then! After I see it today Ill add a note to this. I hope it can find a place at Occidental. {on some long loan basis or whatever arrangement is fitting.}5 Langston Hughes is an old & dear friend of ours. I am sorry the controversy arose.6 I think these upsets often are brought about by ♦ people who probably have good intentions & ideals but not enough real work to do. Of course that poem is was foolish & ill-advised.7 I believe many years have elapsed since it was written. I wish that he would renounce it entirely. He has always belonged to the left wing since I knew him but never seemed unreasonable. Once when he & I were having a friendly argument about it he pointed out, justly as I believe, how hardly dealt with his race is. The Radicals seemed to promise a fairer deal. I shall be glad to hear from Miss McCloy when she needs my help. The list of Jeffers material should go to (1) William Turner Levy, 609 West 137th Street, New York 31 (he is an instructor in Eng. Dept in City College of N. Y. & has done much work on Jeffers poems—(theses etc)

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(2) Rudolph Gilbert, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, State St. at Anapamu, S. B. (3) Melba Bennett, Deep Well Ranch, Palm Springs, Calif. (4) & particularly to Sidney S. Alberts, 56 Berkeley Ave. Yonkers, N. Y. (He did the Bibliography {a magnificent one} of Works of R. Jeffers) Thanks! Very cordially Una Jeffers Wed. Several of us saw the portrait of my husband & were full of enthusiasm. Many portraits have been done but this is the best. ALS. Occidental. 2 pages. 1. Arthur Gardiner Coons (1901–1968) graduated from Occidental College in 1920 and returned to teach there in 1927 after obtaining a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania. While leading the college as president from 1946 to 1965, Coons held a number of other influential positions, including president of the American Association of Colleges, chair of the committees that drafted and implemented the influential Master Plan for Higher Education in California (1960), and chair of the Los Angeles Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank. 2. Elizabeth McCloy, Occidental College librarian. 3. Robinson Jeffers, Thurso, translated by Julien Philbert (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1948). 4. Robinson Jeffers, Medea: Frit efter Euripides’ Tragedie, translated by Kai Friis Møller (Copenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, 1948). The Danish publication was released in an edition of 800 copies February 26, 1948. 5. Ira “Rem” Remsen’s 1926 portrait of Jeffers was acquired by Occidental College and placed on display in the college library. 6. Langston Hughes was invited to speak at Occidental College March 31 as a guest of the Eagle Rock Council for Civic Unity, but Occidental’s board of trustees canceled the event— prior, according to a newspaper report, to hearing of a public protest by California state senator Jack Tenney, chair of the Senate’s Un-American Activities Committee. “At this particular time,” Coons replied when asked about the decision, “it is considered unwise to present anyone at a public meeting on the campus whose views are apt to be socially and politically devisive.” The trustees, Coons added, discussed Hughes’ writings at an informal meeting and “apparently interpreted some of them as not particularly loyal—at least not in line with Occidental’s policy as a Christian college.” See “Tenney Protests Poet’s Billing as Oxy Cancels Date,” Los Angeles Times (March 24, 1948): 3. The Occidental event is cited in the Fourth Report of the Senate Fact-Finding Committee on UnAmerican Activities (1948) published by the California legislature, where Hughes and Paul Robe-

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son are denounced “as notorious Negro leaders in the Communist field.” The report mentions “Hughes’ blasphemous poem ‘Good Bye Christ’ in which all religion is lampooned and Marx, Lenin and Stalin are praised” (p. 353). 7. “Goodbye Christ” was first published by Hughes in The Negro Worker (November–­ December 1932): 32. See also The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994): 166–167. “Goodbye, / Christ Jesus Lord God Jehova,” says the speaker of the poem, “Beat it on away from here now. / Make way for a new guy with no religion at all— / A real guy named / Marx Communist Lenin Peasant Stalin Worker ME—”.

RJ to Bennett Cerf CARMEL CALIF APR 20 [1948] BENNETT CERF RANDOM HOUSE PLEASE GIVE INFORMATION TO CARLTON SMITH FOR LIFE ARTICLE IF HE ASKS FOR IT1 ROBINSON JEFFERS. Tlg. Berkeley. 1. For an article in development at Life magazine, Carleton Smith and Nat Farbman interviewed and photographed Jeffers at Tor House in late March. See Una’s June 22, 1948 letter to Melba Berry Bennett.

RJ to Judith Anderson April 26, ’48. Dearest Judith: We are up here at McKenzie Bridge, Oregon, to see Garth (and wife and baby) start his career of forestry.1 —Rain and snow, beautiful country. Tomorrow we begin drive home. Love from Una and me. Robin. APPS, Proxy Falls. Tor House. Postmark: April 27, 1948. 1. With his studies at Oregon State College set to begin in September, Garth took a job with the United States Forest Service at McKenzie Bridge in central Oregon, midway between Eugene and Bend.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Hans Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 April 30. 1948 Dearest Hans: There is lots of news of one kind & another but first & most important I want to ask your opinion on something. Garth’s little girl Maeve has a stopped-up tear duct. Our pediatrician here in Monterey {Dr. Bates}1 says not to bother about it for months yet. Just keep the eye clean with boracic or pure water. He has seen many cases which {have} cleared up by themselves. He also suggested massage twice daily along the nose from the corner of the eye. He said if the eye got all inflamed to go to eye man. —Just now Garth has entered the Forestry Service in Oregon. Robin & I took Lotte & Maeve up to him this week—wildest place you ever saw—my God! Well, he has a car & Eugene is only 50 mi. away & Dr. Louis T. Campbell2 is to be their pediatrician. But I wish so much you would say—if, generally speaking, the above advice covers the situation. That little creature is much dearer than life to me & it seemed as if my heart would break when I left her there. What a darling thrilling time these six months have been to us. Someone said I am a regular Matriarch. Well, I am. ♦ Maeve is so comical & such a witch. From the instant {at 8 days!} she came home from the hospital she began to LAUGH out loud when she saw me & struggle toward me to be in my arms. She kept everyone laughing here, too, because whenever I came into the room she always began a long complaint about what had happened to her (Lotte said “she always yammers to granny about everything.”) Garth has a good job in a wild spot until last of Aug. He has decided to make Forestry his life-work. Sept. 1st he enters Oregon State {College} for some technical work. His anthropology offers him only 2 possibilities— (1) Inside work in a museum—which he thinks would kill him —& (2) expeditions {to remote regions} and he can’t bear to leave wife & baby. What Robin & I saw & did on this jaunt to Oregon deserves telling to you as we sit down knee to knee! Rain & sleet & snow for 8 days.

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Hug my precious Phoebe for me. Devotedly, Una th Our plane tickets to Ireland June 11 . Return Sept 20. Lindsay has 3 teeth! His last act to Maeve was to bite her leg until she yelled. Eileen Hirlie3 (see “Life” about her in Laurence Olivier’s “Hamlet”)4 is to play Medea in Canada & England Gielgud directing I think opens at Old Vic in Aug.5 Someone scared Lotte by saying if the tear duct wasn’t fixed right away, she {Maeve} might get cross eyed.6 ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: April 30, 1948. 1. Talcott Bates (1912–1985), a nationally known advocate for child welfare, was a pediatrician in Monterey and a member of the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University. 2. Louis T. Campbell (1910–1992) was a physician and surgeon affiliated with the Eugene Hospital and Clinic. 3. Eileen Herlie (1918–2008), born Eileen Herlihy in Scotland, was a stage, screen, and television actress. From 1976 to 2008 she starred as Myrtle Fargate in All My Children, a daytime television drama broadcast by ABC. 4. A photograph of Herlie, in rehearsal for her role as Queen Gertrude, is included in “Speaking of Pictures: Sir Laurence Olivier Directs His Movie of ‘Hamlet,’” Life (November 24, 1947): 18–20. Olivier’s Academy Award–winning film opened in London in May 1947 and New York in September 1948. 5. Arrangements for a production of Medea in England had just been made; see “Deal for ‘Medea’ Closed in London: Hugh Beaumont to Join Rea and Whitehead in Production— Lead to Eileen Herlie” by Louis Calta, New York Times (May 4, 1948): 29. Hugh “Binkie” Beaumont (1908–1973) was an influential theater manager and producer affiliated with the H. M. Tennent production company and the Globe Theatre. Medea, again directed by John Gielgud, opened at the Globe on September 29, 1948. 6. This sentence is added vertically in the left margin, page 1.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Harold Vinal Tor House, Carmel, California April, 1948. Mr. Harold Vinal, Secretary, Poetry Society of America. Dear Mr. Vinal:1 I am grateful to the Poetry Society for electing me to honorary membership, and I accept with pleasure. Will you please make known to the President and Board of Directors that I fully appreciate the honor and their kindness. And with personal greeting to yourself— Sincerely. Robinson Jeffers.2 ALS. Kafka. 1 page. 1. Harold Vinal (1891–1965), a native of Vinalhaven, Maine, was the founder and editor of Voices: A Quarterly of Poetry and the author of White April (1922), Hymn to Chaos (1931), Hurricane (1936), and other books. 2. A draft of this letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

RJ to Felicia Geffen Tor House, Carmel, California May 1, 1948. Dear Miss Geffen: We have just returned from a journey into Oregon, and I find here your letter and enclosures about the UNESCO Conference in San Francisco, May 13 to 15.1 I am grateful to our President, Mr. Manship,2 for designating me as representative of the Academy, but it is an honor which I must regretfully decline. We are starting for Ireland early in June, and I have a press of work to finish first, and must stay at home and pick away at it. I have just written to Mrs. Russell, who is a friend and more-or-less

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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neighbor of ours,3 expressing my regret that I cannot serve; and I hope you will tell Mr. Manship for me that I am sorry. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers.4 ALS. A Academy. 1 page. 1. The theme of the Pacific regional conference of UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) was “Meeting Crisis with Understanding: You Can Help.” Three thousand delegates discussed ways to combat war, promote peace, and increase international understanding. 2. Paul Manship (1885–1966), an American sculptor, was president of the American Academy of Arts and Letters from 1948 to 1953. His iconic gilded figure of Prometheus was installed in New York’s Rockefeller Plaza in 1934. 3. Helen Victoria (Crocker) Russell (1896–1966), a banking heiress, San Francisco philanthropist, and arts patron, was the chair of the UNESCO conference convening committee. Helen and her husband Henry Potter Russell (1893–1943) owned the Double H Ranch in Carmel Valley, a 300-acre equestrian estate with a Mediterranean-style manor house and elaborate gardens. Helen’s brother-in-law and sister, André and Ethel (Crocker) de Limur, were also friends of Robinson and Una. 4. Twice in 1948, Jeffers participated in academy business in ways that did not require travel. In March, he was one of ten members who nominated Mark Van Doren for membership in the academy; in September, he endorsed William Faulkner.

UJ to William Turner Levy [May 1, 1948] Tor House. Carmel. May Day. We just returned from 8 day motor trip to Oregon to take Lotte & Maeve to Garth who is now in the Forest Service. Willamette National Forest. Continual rain varied only by sleet & snow. A tough trip. Have you considered Stephen Hawker1 along with Barnes?2 a great old fellow, the Vicar of Morwenstow, or Cobbett—you must delight in his rRural rRides. Robin says give Ossian {(McPherson)}3 a chance—has anything proper been done on him. He was not debunked on the continent {as Dr. Johnson did him in Eng.}4

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APS. New York PL. Postmark: May 3, 1948. 1. Robert Stephen Hawker (1803–1875), the vicar of Morwenstow in Cornwall, was an eccentric poet and clergyman whose works include “The Song of the Western Men” (1824), The Quest of the Sangraal (1864), and Cornish Ballads (1869). 2. By this time, Levy had selected William Barnes for a graduate school research topic—as Una had suggested in her December 25, 1947 letter to him. He completed his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1953 with a dissertation titled “An Introduction to the Poetry of William Barnes,” later published as William Barnes: The Man and the Poems (Dorchester, UK: Longmans, 1960). 3. James Macpherson (1736–1796), a Scottish writer, published Fingal in 1762 and Temora in 1763, both purported to be translations of previously unknown epics written in Gaelic by Ossian, an ancient warrior and poet. Macpherson also published a two-volume Works of Ossian in 1765. 4. Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) doubted the authenticity of the poems and denounced them in A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775) and other works. This aroused Macpherson’s ire and provoked a debate among British readers that lasted for decades. The fact that Johnson’s judgment was correct had little consequence in Germany and other European countries, where Ossian’s poems formed part of the substrate of the Romantic movement.

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 Carmel. California May 7. 1948 Dearest Judith: We expect to fly from N. Y. to Ireland June 11. We hope to be in New York two or three days before we leave. If you are still there, we must have a good visit. It would be fine if you could talk over The Tower B. T. & make suggestions about any alterations or additions you would like. Robin could work on it over there. We intend to stay a fortnight in Stornoway, in the northernmost of the outer Hebrides. (Lewis).1 It would {will} be an ideal place {for Robin} to work, I think. Do I hear the news right—that you are going on tour with Medea.2 Nothing could please us better. Impossible ever to separate Judith & Medea in our minds—ever. We are eager to know all that has transpired about the play.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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We had a wild trip to Oregon. Rained torrents every moment when it didnt sleet & hail & snow. I wept many tears to leave my precious baby Maeve in that wild forest under dripping trees. But it is right work for Garth, & I think all will go well. If you change your address before we come, let us know. Devotedly Una. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. The Isle of Lewis. 2. Several interested parties were negotiating with Whitehead and Rea for the rights to a touring production of Medea, but an agreement had not yet been reached.

UJ to Phoebe Barkan [May 8, 1948] Darling Phoebe: Thanks so much for everything & for being always your dear self. I was refreshed by my stay with you & the quiet cozy evening with you three. Hans wrote such a careful clear explanation of the tear duct trouble. What it is to have people you love friends over a long course of years! So many things happen & change. Love remains. Devotedly Una1 APPC. San Francisco. Postmark: May 8, 1948. 1. The postcard on which this note is written features a photograph of the baptismal font at the Carmel Mission, where, according to the caption, “over 5,000 Indians were Baptized.” Beneath and along both sides of the photograph, Una writes, “Maeve Carola Jeffers christened here April 10, 1948 She wore wore Robin’s christening robe. Godparents Ellen O’Sullivan & Noël Sullivan.” On other family documents, Una dates the ceremony April 17.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Robert Whitehead and Oliver Rea Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California May 12, 1948. Whitehead and Rea,1 39 East 38th Street, New York 16, N. Y. Gentlemen: As my wire of May 12th informed you, I am not willing at this time to consent to any actress except Judith Anderson playing in America the title role of my adaptation of Medea. I do not know in fact that such a move is under consideration, but this has been suggested to me; and I object to it because the play was written for Miss Anderson, and without her genius it might not have had any success; and the tour projected for the coming season could hardly do well without her. She is certainly the person whom people want to see in this part. Also she is an old friend of ours, for whom we have great affection, and knowing that she wants to play the part, I must do my utmost to see that she gets it. I earnestly hope that you may be able to work out some agreement with her. Let me say also that my own relations with you have been altogether satisfactory. I want to thank you again for your consideration and kindness. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. TLC. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Robert Whitehead (1916–2002), a native of Montreal, settled in New York after World War II and rose to a position of preeminence in American theater. As a producer and director, he championed intelligent, challenging, and artistically significant dramas by the leading writers of the time, such as Jean Anouilh, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Thornton Wilder, and Tennessee Williams. Oliver Rea (1923–1995) worked with Whitehead for only a short time. After Medea and Crime and Punishment, they produced (along with Stanley Martineau) Carson McCullers’ hit play The Member of the Wedding (1950), and then ended their partnership. Rea co-founded the Tyrone Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and served as its managing director from 1963 to 1966.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ and RJ to William Turner Levy [May 1948] Robin ans. these questions on a scrap of paper which I enclose, lacking time to write a proper letter.1 Our baby ♦ Lindsay adores his water ball! We will arrive in N. Y. late evening of June 7 & leave early morn. June 11. We fly to Shannon. We have a lot of tiresome business in N. Y. but hope to see you for a moment anyway. We will be at the Hotel Wellington 439 Madison Ave. N. Y. 22 Affectionately Una Judith Anderson spent yesterday with us. ♦ 2 1. Mixed—triumph and misery. But in “Solstice” neither one of these is particularly conscious—rather, instinctive, as in a fierce animal. In Euripides’ Medea and my adaptation they are entirely conscious, and consciously chosen. With Medea it is a matter of principle—a moral duty, really—to take one’s vengeance, {when insulted or injured,} and triumph in it. 2. Fera is the Latin world for wild beast At the publisher’s request I wrote an introductory note for “Cawdor”, which they printed on the dustjacket. {It doesn’t mean much, however.} —The story is essentially the story of Hippolytus and Phaedra—the chaste hunter and his too loving stepmother—the same story that O’Neill used in “Desire under the Elms.” Cawdor’s cutting out his eyes is of course a theft {from Oedipus.} 3. Fera is the Latin word for wild beast; it is also a softened pronunciation of the name Phaedra. The name “Martial” just came into my mind; nothing to do with the Roman poet. I picked the name “Cawdor” from a map of Scotland—the name of a town there. Strangely enough I never thought of Shakespeare’s Macbeth when I chose it. 4. This “Redeemer” is only a mild lunatic, {who made himself stigmata, —however the Catholic saints got them.} The poem was written partly for

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

the pleasure of describing landscape; partly to suggest that America too needs redemption. We have generous impulses but our record is not stainless, and our {singular} happiness—compared to other countries—has been more a matter of luck than of our deserving it. 5. Yes—I think of God as the sum-total of all things. He is not loving in any human sense, but he is beautiful, and one loves him for his beauty, not for returning love. Man of course is a part of this God, as trees or stars are. Alas that man in general seems to disappoint our aesthetic instinct—more than trees or stars do. ALS. New York PL. 3 pages. 1. Una’s response is written on both sides of a sheet containing the following questions from Levy: 1. I am interested in Mr Jeffers’s understanding of Medea. My essay concludes she is “unsuccessful”. Yet in Solstice I detect a strong note of triumph. Or is it mixed? 2. What note on the origin of Cawdor would Mr Jeffers have written had it been among the notes on origins at the close of the Selected Poetry Foreword ? (Oedipus and the Joseph story seem included; and the main theme that of pain.) 3. Did Mr. Jeffers have any symbolism in mind when assigning names to the people of Cawdor? Should Fera summon to mind iron; Martial, the poet; etc.? 4. Was the Redeemer of A Redeemer real or ideational (I ask this remembering that Christ did not redeem only by pain; sought, indeed, to avoid pain. Also in mind is the line: “It is necessary for someone to be/ fastened with nails”.) 5. The Christian and Indian notion of God as lover not tyrant—finding joy in union with man’s will to love in return, stands opposed to the self-torturing God of Cawdor and At The Birth Of An Age. Are we to understand, then, that God as Mr Jeffers sees Him is the sum-total of things that exist without his willing their being? Or is man the mistake? 2. Jeffers’ answers to Levy’s questions begin here.

RJ to Nancy Sayre [May 17, 1948] Dear Miss Sayre:1 For origins and ideas of Roan Stallion and Tamar—see Introduction Foreword to “Selected Poetry of R. J.” LETTERS 1940– 1962

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As to “Medea”, it was written at Judith Anderson’s request. The endeavor was to present Euripides’ tragedy in a form and in poetry that might be interesting to a contemporary audience an intelligent but not learned contemporary audience. There is much in any Greek play that would seem dull or absurd to anyone but a classical scholar; I tried to omit all this and to emphasize the essential values of the play. I am sorry to have neglected your first letter. It is almost impossible for me ever to answer one. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Norton. 1 page. Postmark: May 17, 1948. 1. Nancy Rogers Sayre (1928–2010) was a student at Denison University in Granville, Ohio when this letter was written. She graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska and settled in Osceola, Nebraska, where she edited the Osceola Record. Prior to her marriage to businessman Harry J. Somermeyer, Sayre had been married to attorney and judge William Haden Norton.

RJ to William van Wyck [May 1948] Dear William Van Wyck: I had flu and a sizzling fever when the translations of Cyrano and Chanticleer arrived, and a couple of recurrences since then with work piled up in the intervals, — otherwise I should {at the best} {and under the best conditions} {it is nearly {all but} impossible for me to write a letter— {but} surely {I should} have thanked you sooner for the than this beautiful gift for the beautiful volume.1 The translations are most ingenious and seem to me just about as good as possible; the prefaces are full of information and interest. The plays of course are landmarks in their way. —You and —, {Professor Bissell,}2 and Ward Ritchie too, are to be congratulated—and thank you very much. We are leaving {here} June 7th for Ireland to return in four months or

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

so, and Britain, three or four months or so, and indeed I hope very much to {to} see you again when after we return come home. Sincerely, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Edmond Rostrand, Cyrano de Bergerac / Chanticleer, translated by Clifford Hershey Bissell and William van Wyck (Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie, 1947). 2. Clifford Hershey Bissell (1887–1981) was a professor of French language and literature at the University of California, Berkeley from 1925 to 1954.

RJ to Julien Philbert [May 1948] Dear Mr. Philbert— I should have thanked you more promptly for the book “Thurso”, and especially for {your} translation of Thurso and the copy you sent me. It is nearly almost impossible for me to write anya letter at any time, and that is my only excuse. The translation I think is one of excellent very fine; your somewhat poetic use of French prose seems faithfully to represent my verses, and the language is dramatic and simple. It is more than forty {nearly fifty} years since I have habitually {[illegible]} spoken or read the French language, but I [illegible] {I was in school in} Europe and habitually spoke and read the French language, but I remember it well enough to know that you have done excellent work. Thank you very much. The Double Axe is not published yet; it is promised for {will probably be out in} is promised for July.1 ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. The Double Axe and Other Poems was released July 19, 1948.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Otto Schütte [June 1948]1 Dear Otto Schütte:2 I think the translations are {very} well done; thank you for letting me see them;, {and you have reproduced the rhythm very well.} But I noticed one or two errors. In “To the Stone-cutters,” —{3rd line—} “Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits (not rock-splits) “Esst znischen (cynischen?) Arbeitslohn, wissend dass der Stein sich spalt—{knowing (that) rock splits—(nicht rock-splits). That is the meaning; you can probably {no doubt} find better words for it. In the In the same poem one line is omitted {in the German}— “die muntere Erde wird sterben, die Die tapfere Sonne blind sterben. . .” tapfere Sonne th And in “Intellectuals”, 4 line—should it not be Hürde instead of Herde? Herde means flock, I think, but Hürde (oder Schafstall) is fold. I really cannot tell which of my longer poems you should {had better} choose for translation. In France “Thurso’s Landing” has {lately} been translated and published in prose, as a novel—“un roman”—but that is the longest of them all. Perhaps “Tamar” or “Roan Stallion”—“Graurötlicher Hengst”—but you can judge better than I can. Along with this letter I am mailing you a copy of my “Selected Poetry.” I am sorry not to have sent it sooner, but have been too busy even to write letters or mail a book. With best wishes to you— Sincerely, R. J. My next book of poems, “The Double-Axe,” will be published in July. We shall be in Ireland then, but I’ll or Scotland then, but I’ll have a copy sent to you. from New York. nicht Herde, sondern Hürde oder Schafstall Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits. die tapfere Sonne Blind sterben und zum Herzen kalt werden

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Your poems, Hope and Beschränkung, in English and German, both are interesting; Beschränkung I think is {a little} better because {it is} more thoughtful 3

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This undated draft is written on the same sheet of scratch paper as the draft of Jeffers’ letter to Max Eastman that follows. 2. Hans Otto Schütte (b. 1902) was a businessman with interests in India and China prior to World War II. After the war, he lived in Wetzlar, Germany, where he tried to establish himself as a writer and translator. In his first letter to Jeffers, dated August 11, 1947 (TLS HRC Texas), Schütte praised Jeffers’ poetry and asked for permission to translate it into German. 3. These comments are written in the top right corner of the page.

RJ to Max Eastman Tor House, Carmel, California June 1, 1948. Dear Max Eastman: I am ashamed not have thanked you yet for “Enjoyment of Living.”1 It is just impossible for me to write letters—is no excuse, but it is true. I read the book with great interest and pleasure. It is probably the most honest piece of autobiography that I have ever seen; honest and decent too, and the persons characterized by the way are true to life. The extraordinary qualities of your mother would strain belief if all the rest were not so clearly truthful. Thank you for a very sane and happy book. —And here is the first objective account (in the world!) of that Los Angeles Times dynamiting trial; which our friend Lincoln Steffens used to describe, and I never clearly understood what happened.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Indiana. 1 page. 1. Max Eastman, Enjoyment of Living (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1948). 2. On October 1, 1910, during a period of intense labor conflict, dynamite was placed beside the building that housed the Los Angeles Times, an anti-union newspaper. The explosion, which was intended to damage the building alone, killed twenty-one people. Brothers J. B. and LETTERS 1940– 1962

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J. J. McNamara were arrested for the crime, but their trial was stopped when their attorney, Clarence Darrow, persuaded them to plead guilty and accept prison terms rather than face the likelihood of execution. Eastman discusses the event—and, in passing, criticizes the involvement of Lincoln Steffens—in Enjoyment of Living, pages 427–432. Steffens himself addresses the tragedy at length in The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1931): 656–689.

RJ to Dramatists Guild June 1, 1948 Dramatists’ Guild— Gentlemen: 1 I need your immediate advice and perhaps your help in the matter of my play Medea—adaptation from Euripides—which has recently closed in New York and is scheduled to oepen this fall in London. As you perhaps know, there has been some dissension between Whitehead and Rea, the producers, and Judith Anderson, who has played Medea; consequently Miss Anderson is unwilling to work any longer under this management. An English actress will take the part in London, and I have approved the selection; but I will not agree to have Miss Anderson replaced in this country—Whitehead and Rea agree to this, and I am writing to you on the subject of a road-tour which is planned to begin in September in San Francisco. It was arranged that Whitehead and Rea, since Miss Anderson is unwilling to work with them, should lease the play to another management—Lewis and Young2—for the projected tour; but Miss Anderson tells me that Lewis and Young will not give her the salary she asks, and have refused a compromise offer, and that she does not feel it would be useful to negotiate further with them. On the other hand, she has made entierely satisfactory arrangements with Guthrie McClintic3 as manager and director; and McClintic is willing to lease the play from Whitehead and Rea on the same terrems that Lewis and Young offer; but Whitehead and Rea will not let him have it. Miss Anderson feels that this refusal is motivated partly by personal feelings, related to her troubles with Whitehead and Rea; and partly by the fact that their attorney, a Mr. Reinheimer,4 who is conducting negotiations 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

for them, is also attorney for Lewis and Young, and represents their interest. I cannot judge these matters, and only one side of the story, which I would gladly discuss with Whitehead and Rea, but I understand that they are both in Europe. Meanwhile the projected tour is completely and blocked, although McClintic has made definite bookings for 26 weeks to gbegin in September in San Francisco. I have not been represented in these negotiations, though I have financial and other interest in them, and it is suggested to me that the Guild may be able to do something in this matter—by persuasion and prompt arbitration or otherwise—to protect my interest. Personally I should much prefer to have McClintic’s manage the tour; and it would seem reasonable, since he is willing to lease the play on the same terms that Lewis and Young offer, that he should have it. But the matter requires haste; Mr. McClintic must make his arrangements and confirm his bookings as soon as possible. (And every delay must involve a slackening of public interest in the play.) Therefore I ask your immediate attention, and hope for a prompt answer. I am leaving here in seven days for a previously planned trip to Ireland; we fly to N. Y. the morning of June 7th, and from N. Y. to Shannon June 11th; if it seems useful I should like to ♦ call on you during our brief stay in N. Y. to discuss this business. TLD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. This letter exists in two versions, a handwritten draft by Jeffers (illegible in places) and a typed copy. The typed draft, used here, was probably prepared by Melba Berry Bennett. 2. Russell Lewis (1908–1992) and Howard Young (1911–1993) produced plays and musicals on Broadway and on the national touring circuit. In 1951 they co-founded the Sacramento Music Circus, an institution that continues to offer summer stock performances of professional musical theater. 3. Guthrie McClintic (1893–1961) was a Broadway producer and director. His wife, legendary actress Katharine Cornell (1893–1974), was also his business partner. 4. Howard Reinheimer (1899–1970), a graduate of Columbia University, was an attorney who specialized in contract, copyright, and theater law.

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RJ to Charlotte and Garth Jeffers Evening, June 8. [1948] Dear Lotte and Garth— We had a fairly tiresome plane ride, mostly over clouds, but some wide scenery of snow-mountains above Tahoe and Western Nevada, and fine thunderstorms between Chicago and N. Y. Altitude mostly 17–19,000 feet. Pleasant little meals served. Delayed by late start and storms, reached N. Y. after midnight. To-day we have gone around and seen people—about Medea, Double Axe, etc.—and to-morrow we’ll go around and see people— + lunch with George Sebastian, cocktail party and dinner with Timmie Clapp. Day after to-morrow we’ll probably have to go around and see people— But in Ireland, by God’s mercy, we won’t see anybody. You’d have laughed to-day to see Random House give me another copy of Stewart’s “Fire”.1 We’ve already had two copies destined for you. I believe it’s a fine book, and maybe I’ll read it on the plane to Ireland. ♦ We have thought about you daily for a week or two as we read the newspaper stories of floods in Oregon and north, and we were happy that the McKenzie was never mentioned. I’m sure it must have run pretty high, considering the rain and snow we saw there, but you were not molested I hope. —And we thought much of you, Lotte, —the nights you had to spend alone in the cabin—{alone with little darling—}no wonder you were terrified. But I think that is really a rather safe place. It is in or near the big cities that a woman alone may be in danger. Those are wonderful pictures you sent us of little darling Maeve. Una has been showing them to everybody—at home, on the plane, in N. Y.—I have never seen sweeter nor funnier. (What a queer-looking word this last is as I have written it. I mean, more komisch.2)— —Well, it is completely amazing how much Mother and I love Maeve—and Lindsay too—not because they are grandchildren, but for their own—shall I say virtues {virtues}3? —The little wretches. And we are very happy that our sons have got such nice women to mother the little wretches. If I had any influence in New York—but I haven’t—I’d make sure that

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Life Magazine should print one of those dining-room pictures we saw ­­to‑day—with the whole tribe in it. And one of the shots of Garth, virility and 4muscles, with the double axe. —Maybe one landscape picture—and none of your loving Father. Mother says please send this letter to Donnan and Lee after you’ve read it. And they are to send you hers to them.5 ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Letterhead: Hotel Wellington, New York. 1. George Rippey Stewart, Fire: A Novel (New York: Random House, 1948). 2. Komisch: German for “amusing” or “comical.” 3. Una rewrote the word “virtues” because Robinson’s handwriting was difficult to read. 4. The rest of this sentence is written vertically in the right margin. 5. Added in top margin, first page.

RJ to John Gassner June 10, 1948 Mr. John Gassner New York, N. Y. Dear Mr. Gassner:1 This will confirm our agreement, as follows: Our collaboration agreement2 concerning a play based upon my poem “TOWER BEYOND TRAGEDY”, is hereby terminated, upon the terms and conditions hereinafter set forth and you and I release and discharge each other of and from any and all obligations in connection with said collaboration agreement, except as hereinafter set forth. If I write a play based upon said poem and the play written by me is produced as a first class stage production, I shall pay or cause to be paid to you the sum of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.), which sum shall be paid to you only in the following manner: You shall receive one-half (½) of my first earnings from such stage production (to be computed after deduction of agents’ commissions and Dramatists Guild assessments based upon such production) until such sum of $500. is paid.

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If I do not, in my lifetime, write a play based upon said poem, then upon my death, said collaboration agreement shall be reinstated in full force and effect. Until and unless the collaboration agreement is reinstated as above provided, no use whatsoever shall be made of the play or adaptation written by you based upon the poem. Very truly yours, Robinson Jeffers Agreed to and Accepted: John Gassner TLS. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. John Waldhorn Gassner (1903–1967) was an author, critic, and professor of drama at Yale University and other institutions. For additional information about him, see Collected Letters 2: 854, note 1. 2. A four-page “Memorandum of Agreement,” drafted for the 1941 production of The Tower Beyond Tragedy in Carmel, is included with this letter. Among the terms of the “Collaboration Contract,” as it is also called, is a provision giving Gassner the right to make changes to the script “found necessary in rehearsal.” The practical effects of this provision are described by Una in a November 16, 1942 letter to bookseller Louis Henry Cohn (ALS Columbia), not used in this edition: “John Gassner of N. Y. ‘arranged’ the script, which meant, really, in a few cases curtailing certain speeches & in some instances putting descriptive passages into the mouth of the ‘Chorus.’”

UJ and RJ to Judith Anderson 1948 JUN 11 JUDITH ANDERSON 2074 WATSONIA TERRACE HOLLYWOOD CALIF SEEN EVERYBODY EXPECT TO TALK TO WHITEHEAD FROM IRELAND HOPEFUL BUT NOT SETTLED LETTER FROM PLANE LOVE UNA & ROBIN. Tlg. Tor House.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Noël Sullivan June 12. 1948 Noël Darling: I have just finished a letter to Ellen & asked her to hand it to you, so I will give you other news than I gave to her. George Sebastian looked fine! He was in good spirits & seemed as happy to see us as we were to see him. We lunched at one of his favorite spots—Sherry Netherland.1 {good!}2 He had with him a friend whose name escapes me—a thin whimsical, satirical fellow. Intelligent. I think he wrote One Touch of Venus —Is that a book?3 Anyway he is an interior decorator, too. I asked George to come along to Clapp’s cocktail party which he did. James & Laura Sweeney were there too & went with Clapps & us to Maud’s club (Cosmopolitan,?) to dinner. I had such fun with both Sweeneys. They are to meet us in Donegal on a round of tumuli, graves & ♦ ruins. At least James will go to the ancient remnants with me {I mean to learn a lot from him}. When we were driving back to our hotel, Laura & I were on the front seat of her station wagon & she whispered to me she meant to turn into a night spot for a round of mint julips. We did, & you’ve never seen such consternation as the Clapps! I cannot begin to speak of the dozens of interviews we had about Medea, & the confusion and hatred. Judith must have been infuriating, & she frustrated them so much that they are unable now to keep from being revengeful though they won’t admit it. Robin disliked being mixed up or negotiating. He ought not to {have to} either. Writing it is enough for his part. This town {village} is very ancient & full of history. Owing to the paternal care & the continued wealth of the Earls of Dunraven it is clean & lively & well kept up. There are many thatched houses all in good repair with bright flower gardens around them. Most beautiful ruins of castles & churches & abbeys. There is a sweet flowing river winding through lush meadows4 & white swans floating about & teaching their babies how to float, too. Our car is behaving beautifully. George was still waiting to get a new form of passport. Some law helpful to his case is pending before Congress.5

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I am happy here. Devotedly, Una The noble devoted Clapps arose at 5:30 & came way out to La Guardia to see us off. A lovely old inn— ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. Letterhead: Dunraven Arms Hotel, Adare. 1. The Sherry Netherland Hotel, located on the corner of East 59th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York. 2. A circle is drawn around the word “good.” 3. One Touch of Venus, based on The Tinted Venus (1885) by Thomas Anstey Guthrie (1856–1934), was adapted for the stage in 1943 by Ogden Nash, S. J. Perelman, and Kurt Weill. A film version of the romantic comedy starring Robert Walker and Ava Gardner was released in August 1948. 4. The remainder of this sentence and the single-line paragraph that follows are written vertically in the left margin. 5. This and the following sentence, along with the closing, signature, and postscripts, are written vertically in the left margin and across the top of the first page.

UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Now at, C/O David Algeo. Ballymore P. O. via Letterkenny Co. Donegal. Eire June 232. 1948 Dearest Melba: I think with horror of the length of time I kept your ms. I intended to keep it until I had time to write you at length but that moment never came. If you could know the excess{ive} amount of work Ive gotten through this year perhaps you’d forgive. Not a night I didn’t drop into bed exhausted. — If the letter had been an easy one to write perhaps it would have gotten itself written. The simple truth is I don’t think that book is ready to be published.1 But I find it hard to say why. With two exceptions you have used extreme tact & good taste (I refer to Teddie—our deceptions there I think ♦ were too fully explored & the Friede matter, too). The latter part of the book seems to me much the best written. My impression of the material presented about

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Robin’s {mother} & father is that it sounds drab & somehow shabby & of our early life together the facts are there but the tumultuous joy & wild sharp savor of our life is {are} missing. You have more material & facts collected than ever will be in one person’s hands again I’m sure. —Lately Carleton Smith {not Carleton S. Smith2} (see Who’s Who I havent time to describe him) has been doing an article on Robin for Life.3 Their photographer Nat Farbman4 was around us for a week— I hope they’ll use at least two or three good pictures out of the more than hundred he took— I started out to say that ♦ I did not feel that I had the right to allow him {C. S.} to read your ms. but gave him your address & he may have written you. I don’t know what else to say. When I think how much toil & care you’ve put into this book I hate to suggest more. But I honestly believe as it stands, it isn’t good enough. The early part I have in mind really, it needs to be more vivid—& to have style. We flew from N. Y. to Shannon June 11. A drive-yourself car met us & we started forth at once. I am writing this from {Ballymore, Co.} Donegal where we shall stay ten days at a farm guesthouse where we four stayed a month in 1937. We intend to stay in ♦ Ireland a month longer then to Scotland & England, fly home Sept 20. We are going up to Stornoway in the farthest north of the Outer Hebrides. & a week at least in East Anglia to follow up the Pastons. Medea is to open the Edinburgh, En Festival,5 in& open in London later, with Eileen Hirlie as Medea. You know perhaps that Judith quarrelled with our producers & the scheduled tour around U. S. wa {is in jeopardy} They want to use someone else for the part & she wants other producers. Whitehead & Rea have the rights to the play but could lease them if terms can be agreed on. Part of my work this year was babies. Donnan’s son Lindsay now 9 {9}+ mos. —born in Carmel & home from hospital on 8th day & Garth’s dau. Maeve same history. She is almost 6 mos. old. It was like having twins again. They were scarcely out of my sight day or night. (Upstairs is divided into 2 bedrooms now.) We 8 people had a jolly & arduous time. Garth now is in the Forestry Service—in Willamette Nat. Forest. Lotte & Maeve were taken up to him {by us} when he had been there 2 wks. 6in early May. We were gone 8 days. It rained & snowed & hailed every minute.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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He is near McKenzie Bridge.7 Written in inglenook by peat fire. Scraps of paper in my letter folder.8 AL. HRC Texas. 4 pages. Letterheads: Imperial Hotel, Castlebar, and Great Southern Hotels, Galway. Postmark: June 22, 1948. 1. When this draft of her biography of Jeffers also met with Una’s disapproval, Melba set the manuscript aside. In ensuing years, however, she continued to work on the project. Her book was eventually published as The Stone Mason of Tor House: The Life and Work of Robinson Jeffers (Los Angeles: Ward Ritchie, 1966). It was reprinted by C. J. Peter Bennett and the Tor House Foundation in 2007. 2. Carleton Sprague Smith (1905–1994), a musicologist who taught at Columbia University and other institutions, was the director of the Spanish Institute in Manhattan, the cofounder and director of the Brazilian Institute of New York University, and a board member of the Museum of Modern Art. 3. The article, still in development at this time, was never published. 4. Nathaniel “Nate” or “Nat” Farbman (1907–1988) came to the United States from Poland in early childhood and lived in San Francisco for much of his life. From 1954 to 1972 he was a staff photographer for Life magazine. His wife Patricia “Patsy” (English) Farbman (1914–2010) was Ansel Adams’ darkroom assistant in the mid-1930s, and, for a brief time, the object of an infatuation that threatened Adams’ marriage and undermined his health. 5. The Edinburgh International Festival of Music and Drama, one of the oldest and largest events of its kind in the world, was founded by Sir Rudolf Bing (1902–1997) and others in 1947. The 1948 festival began August 22 and ended September 12. 6. The remainder of the paragraph is written vertically in the left margin, page 4. 7. Written vertically in right margin, page 4. 8. Written vertically in left margin, page 3.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp /O Algeo

C

Ballymore P. O. via Letterkenny. Co. Donegal. Eire June 23. 1948 Darling Clapps: Here we are again at the nice old farm guest house where we stayed a month in 1937. It seems very familiar, we have scarcely forgotten any path or old tumble down cemetery! Our Drive-Yourself car skips about very nimbly. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Its a Ford Prefect made over here. Low horsepower but enough. It uses very little gas. The driving on the left is not trouble at all but changing gears with the left hand is not quite automatic yet! We are next door to Marble Hill house where Lucy lived & I believe the Sweeneys had it, too. and about 10 mi. from Glenveagh Castle. How noble you two were to come to ♦ La Guardia that morning. I think its one of the dreariest places in the world. Our plane was over an hour late in starting—perhaps as much as 1½ hrs. The flight was uneventful, but I find flying very tiring—you are so wrapt round & trapped by the high {backed} inclined seats. {Lights too dim to read or write—the night is long.} Wonderful meals & high balls! It was nice to step out at Shannon into Ireland again. We spent a weekend at Adare one of the loveliest little towns in Ireland {in} a charming very old inn on the beautiful demesne of the Earl of Dunraven. To complete my happiness we found two of my ancient Round Towers within 30 miles, Kilmallock & Dysert Carrigeen. They happen to be two with unusual features & I had never seen them before. We have had plenty of rain but also sunny days when the place is almost too beautiful to bear. The green fields & yellow iris & wild roses & foxgloves and ♦ rhododendron forests & fuchsia hedges. Then the black peat in great piles of turves, & bog cotton waving in the wind where the turf has been cut away. Little blue lakes & pools with {wild} swans floating. The clouds are lovelier in Donegal than anywhere & the hills have shadows {of} deeper {purple} than elsewhere. I do like Donegal best of all. We had a tough trip out to Aran Islands. Sailed at 8:30 {am} & didn’t get back until 10:00 {pm} & nothing to eat but a slice of bread & a cup of bitter tea, —our delay was caused by the amount of cargo unloaded at all three islands, only one of which has a pier. At the other two we lay {hours} in the trough of the waves while men in curraghs came out to take the stuff off—it ran all the way from flour & chairs & timber {& coal & oranges} to squealing pigs & a cow who gave herself up for lost. We ♦ went out to Aran once in a terrible storm—with Garth & Donnan but this was more trying because the cold was bitter—a terrible wind & no place to take

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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shelter except in a cabin below which was full of very very sea-sick people. Impossible to go below. I found that day in a village 2 miles from the pier a stump of an Irish Round Tower which we hadn’t time to see the other time. an interesting one, too. We expect to stay here another ten days or so & if you write after we leave, our letter will be forwarded to us. We never thanked you properly for the nice cocktail party & the dinner! We liked getting to know the Sweeneys better. Aren’t they amusing companions! & it was a joy to look into your faces again. We stayed a night at Bunbeg on the Bloody Foreland & the woman at the and {inn} was still acting mysterious about Kingsley Porter’s death!1 Letters from our children say all are flourishing. Today we drove to Carrigart & I bought each boy a marvellous “length 2of cloth,” —homespun for suits. Mrs. Doogan, your weaving woman, is dead Will you be kind enough to send this to Blanche. Its hard to get time for letters here. I will write her very soon.3 With all our love.4 Devotedly, Una ^Wouldn’t Kingsley {have} writhed—we saw a wonderful old cross (not sculptured) stands near a village—asked a man there about it, & he answered “Oh its an old freak of nature, just. Dug it up in a field.^5 ALS. Yale. 4 pages. Letterhead (crossed out): Dunraven Arms, Adare. 1. The circumstances surrounding Porter’s death are discussed in Collected Letters 2: 230, note 1. 2. The rest of this paragraph is written vertically in the left margin, page 4. 3. This paragraph is written vertically in the left margin, page 1. 4. The closing and signature are written vertically in the right margin, page 1. 5. This paragraph is written at the top of page 3.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Stanton Arthur Coblentz Ballymore, County Donegal, Ireland. June 25, 1948. Dear Mr. Coblentz:1 In this rainy climate, away from home and grandchildren, I have time to respect the decencies of correspondence, and I have long wanted to thank you for your letter—which you have probably forgotten—about that N. Y. Times article. It was kind of you to write; I am interested in the article from “Wings”, and glad that your thoughts on the subject of poetry and artificial poetry are similar to mine.2 My article was written because it was promised to the editor in an expansive moment, and I am not proud of it, but it does express my convictions. But it is more satisfactory to express convictions in action—that is, in the writing of poetry, rather than in writing about it. This is not to say that my poetry satisfies me either—but I like yours. Sincerely; Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Boston. 1 page. 1. Stanton Arthur Coblentz (1896–1982), a poet, editor, and novelist, was the author of The Decline of Man (1925), Songs by the Wayside (1938), Into Plutonian Depths (1950), and many other works. 2. Coblentz was the founding editor of Wings: A Quarterly of Verse, published in Mill Valley, California. For each issue of the journal, Coblentz wrote an essay that argued for traditional poetic values and techniques. He probably sent Jeffers the spring 1948 issue of Wings, which featured an essay by Coblentz titled “Beauty Is Beyond Debate” (pp. 3–5) and an approving reference to a point made by Jeffers in “Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years” (p. 32).

RJ to Marion Strobel Ballymore, County Donegal, Ireland. June 25, 1948. Dear Miss Strobel:1 Your thoughtful letter of March 10th, asking for autobiographical fragments or suchlike, should have been answered, though the answer had to LETTERS 1940– 1962

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be negative. Here in this raining climate, away from home and grandchildren, I have time to say that I am sorry, I have never written nor preserved anything autobiographical, except the bits of foreword to my “Selected Poetry” and the Modern Library “Roan Stallion”, —which were written at my publisher’s bidding. My wife keeps a journal whenever we travel; it is interesting, and I hope sometime she will edit and publish it, but it is about Ireland and Britain and so forth, not me. Ireland is beautiful, particularly here in the northwest; the mountains and seas through gray rain, and the abject beauty of the brown bogs, with rock biting up through them. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. Marion Strobel (1895–1966), a Chicago heiress and wife of physician James Herbert Mitchell (1881–1963), was a poet, editor, and novelist—and the mother of Joan Mitchell (1925–1992), a post-war Abstract Expressionist painter. Strobel was an associate editor of Poetry magazine from 1920 to 1925 and again from 1942 to 1950. Among her books are Once in a Blue Moon (1925), Saturday Afternoon (1930), Fellow Mortals (1935), and Kiss and Kill (1946).

RJ to Judith Anderson [June 25, 1948] JUDITH ANDERSON 110 MALIBU WROTE WHITEHEAD SWITZERLAND PARIS WRITING TODAY LONDON URGENTLY. LOVE ROBIN Tlg. Tor House.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson {C/O Algeo} Ballymore. C/O A {P. O} via Letterkenny Co. Donegal. Eire June 26. 1948 Dearest Judith— Your cable reached us in this far away spot—at the world’s end. You sound as if you had not rec’d my letter mailed in Galway. I will briefly rehearse what I said, before going further. We spent four entire days in New York on Medea. —four entire with the exception of two interviews about “Tower beyond”—which much to everybody’s surprise turned out to our complete satisfaction. We had dinner with Clapps & lunch with George Sebastian {& interview with Carleton S— about Life article}. Otherwise I didn’t as much as buy a lipstick or even phone my friends. — First you must know that however exasperated you are with Whitehead & Rea, they—as interpreted by their office—are more so with you & they feel perfectly virtuous in their procedure. There is no use in going into all their feelings of injuryies. Their foremost one at the moment was that you had dallied so much with Lewis & Young & allowed them to go far with their arrangements before you said “no” that they had a right to some redress. Also that you ha did not say “no” until they had scurried around & found their money, etc. & they {Whitehead R} wanted to make somewhat harder terms for McClintic—they had made somewhat soft terms for Lewis & Y— as friends. Thats their story. It was only after much conversation with us that they turned a willing ♦ ear to McClintic at all. If we would not consent to let anyone play this but you in America at this time, they didn’t mind letting it drop for a while & revive it later & felt they could have a great success on the road with another actress. We went to the Guild & had a long talk {with} Mr. Ten Eyck1 particularly. He had gone over the whole matter with Miss Sillcox2 before we came. Very nice & intelligent man but the consensus of opinion there was that the issue was too confused to warrant any interference from them yet. They promised to try in every way to help if it came within their scope. We talked to Reinheimer & Feitelson{man?}3. The truth is Robin is the worst served of all. A wonderful play is falling

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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apart because of quarrels w between producers & actress. We urged the producers {office} with every weapon we know to make concessions. And honestly I can not leave this before saying honestly to you that in view of the fact that you reached in this role the peak of your career thus far, that you ought to forego some of the rights ♦ your genius entitles you to, to keep this play on the stage. No one who saw it will ever forget you in Medea. What if you earned less than you deserve, —{that is sad but} you won much from it, too! Now for Whitehead. In the midst of the conversations, I saw {said} “Let me talk to him on the phone, or cable”— Impossible, he was in Italy & just moving on to Lausanne & Paris {Rea, too}. Robin wrote a long letter to him on the plane & mailed it to his hotel in Lausanne. We have had no answer. We wrote him very urgently yesterday to the Hotel Savoy in London an address which he was to have later, & are just about to try to phone him. I don’t even know whether he is there. I think he would listen to reason more quickly than Hyams—but maybe not. A wise person tries to consider the weapons of an opponent. It is wise to consider that Whitehead & Rea have the whip hand here for they have two powerful reasons ♦ (1)—their contract, (2) the fact that they believe in the play so thoroughly—or say they do—& certainly act as if they do—that they are content to put another actress into the part when they can. This has been a source of very great worry to us of course & if I had known that this confusion was coming I would never have taken us on this trip at this time, but waited until it was cleared up. {But} We have had our plane tickets for six months & many engagements of various kinds over here & I scouldn’t see my way clear to throw it all up—particularly as there was no certainty that we could help. As for the Tower. Mr. Gasner was very obdurate at first & kept insisting on 50% of the profits if & played & credit on the bill with Robin ♦ but I had a letter written by him long ago which I produced in which he stated he would not stand in the way of other adaptations if his was not produced in a reasonable time {& 10 yrs is not a reasonable time.}. He finally gave way & we have it back. If it is produced {(R’s version)} we are to pay him $500.00

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

for the work he did & trouble. Also in case Robin dies before making his own version, Gasners is to be used. Robin wishes to do a good deal to the last act, also he is not satisfied with the idea of a narrator—has another idea there. We are staying at a big old farmhouse in this wild region. We stayed here with our boys for a month in 1937 & know the people well & the whole region. It is one we love. We hired a little {Irish built} Ford Prefect & it is hopping about with great agility. The fare is plain to austerity & few luxuries—none really. I am sitting in an inglenook by a turf fire & using odd bits of paper I find here in my letter folder.4 Love from Robin Devotedly, Una ALS. Tor House. 5 pages. 1. Mills Ten Eyck, Jr. (1920–2009) was the executive secretary of the Dramatists Guild, an organization affiliated with the Authors League of America. In later years, he sold antiques in Southport, Connecticut. 2. Luise Marie Sillcox (1889–1965), a key figure in the struggle to protect the legal and financial rights of writers, joined the Authors League in 1914 and effectively ran the organization until she retired in 1961. 3. H. William Fitelson. 4. One page of this letter is written on air mail stationery; two additional sheets are from the Dunraven Arms Hotel, Adare. The Dunraven stationery is turned upside down, with the letterhead at the bottom.

RJ and UJ to Charlotte, Garth, and Maeve Jeffers Lac-na-Lore Ballymore, Co. Donegal, Ireland June 26, 1948. Dear Lotte and Garth—& Sweetheart Maeve1 We have had sweet letters from you—also from the other household— the farewell letters to N. Y., which were returned and redirected, reached us this morning. Thank you, and I we hope everything goes as well as LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ever. This place is little changed, in spite of new rooms and a little new plumbing—attractive as ever, and we still have to bathe in a wash-basin, with a pint of cold water. There is a new dog, but apparently the same three ducks, waddling indignantly over the rocks in the back yard. {The same sheep and cows.} Some new building is going on at Portnablagh, but the country has room for it. The bay at Dunfanaghy is completely silted up—or else the tide is always out when we are there—nothing but a great mud-flat. Mother got her No. Ireland driving-license by mail this morning, so we can move on when the time comes. We are asked to lunch to-morrow— Sunday—by Henry McElhenny,2 the new owner of Glenveagh Castle—and of Dunlewy House too—but he lives at Glenveagh, when not traveling, or home in Boston {Philadelphia}. Errigal and Muckish are as fine as ever, but I don’t suppose we’ll climb them this time, without you and Donnan {and Bertie!}3 to encourage us. Besides it rains more or less all the time. Sunday evening One of three ducks (vide supra) disappeared in the night, it was supposed that a fox had come; but later the body was found. He had fallen on his back, couldn’t get up and suffocated, like a sheep. Did you know that ducks do that? We went to Glenveagh through storms of wind and rain, got horribly lost in the bog roads, asking our way of a hundred peasants, and arrived half an hour late for lunch, but it didn’t matter. There was only one other guest—a young man McElhenny knew in the navy, who was staying there for a week. Navy, Groton and Harvard are their connection—but also our host impressed us as a person who would not care for young women. ♦ It was a little like Lord Faringdon’s household & friend. McElhenny is rather young, alert, intelligent and active, as wealthy young men ought to be. The guest (I never hear names) knew Stuyvie Fish at Harvard, spoke of him with amusement as an odd character. {Do you know why?—?}4 The castle still looks romantic, the lough was whipped into tempest by the wind, rain fell heavily when we walked in the garden. We saw a stag beside the road, 200 yds. from the castle, and his antlers were at least as long as his legs. Also a tame doe in an enclosure. McElhenny is to let us know when he goes {over}

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

to Dunlewy House, so we can visit there too. And I forgot to say—Donnan will be happy to know that Whitesides the perfect butler is still at Glenveagh. {A woman guest arrived while we were there—white hair, young face, first wife of ex-ambassador Bullitt.}5 We stayed for tea, and got horribly lost again on the way home. Judith A. is tormenting us by cable; Mother phoned Whitehead in London and he wasn’t there; we have to cable his N. Y. office for his address, also cable Judith—tiresome and expensive. It is bitterly cold weather, at least for June, besides continual rain. There are jungles of rhododendron {in bloom} all about Glenveagh, under the Scotch firs, etc. We have seen rhododendron all over Ireland, really growing wild {—unplanted—} in the wastes of Connemara, and all in bloom. — McElhenny says there is hardly ever frost at Glenveagh. —{There is} Aa grove of Monterey pines, all tipped over by the wind, below Marble Hill House here. You remember the Monterey pines and cypress in the Ards monastery park. —Meals at Lac-na-lore are exactly what they used to be—9 am, 1, 6, and 10 pm—all sorts of soda-bread—but sometimes there is a little beef instead of permanent mutton as formerly. We had to get ration-cards at the police-barracks for sugar—nothing else rationed—but I think we may be hungry in Northern Ireland and Britain.6 You girls have been very faithful about writing. I love to hear every little thing that happens to you—it helps me to picture all your life together. How glad I am that boht {both} my boys are so happy in their households. Your long letter, Lotte, was forwarded to me here & one from Lee. Its been bitterly cold & windy. I’ve been wearing constantly that heavy black knit dress Luisa Jenkins7 gave me—its a beautiful heavy one she had worn travelling but like new. —well I wear that all the time besides on top of it the cardigan of the red knit dress I bought in San Fran. Don’t let my babies get into any biting match with those mouthfulls of teeth when they get together. 8 Medea is to open in Edinburgh Aug 23. Did I tell you? We are enjoying being footloose for a while but oh how happy we will be to get back to Tor House again & then I want an English bulldog too. I’ve decided to keep the babies for myself. Hope you can spare the witchlein.

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Can’t you get Donnan to send you a bunch of air mail sheets from Carmel. If you write right way direct C/O Postmaster Killinchy Co. Down Northern Irel Ireland Thats Northern Ireland after that C/O Postmaster Kilkenny Co. Kilkenny, Eire Did you receive Maeve’s silver cup. You never said. & Donnan, you said the dirty shirt came but did the envelope with papers, first class come? I’m eating some clove candies Lee gave me at this moment. Heather enc. AL. Long Beach. 2 pages. 1. Robinson addressed this letter to Lotte and Garth; Una added “& Sweetheart Maeve.” 2. Henry Plumer McIlhenny (1910–1986), a member of a prominent Philadelphia family with roots in Ireland, purchased Glenveagh for use as a summer home in 1937. In the following decades, McIlhenny carefully restored the property and added an extensive garden. In 1975 he sold the land to the government of Ireland, and in 1983 he donated the castle and gardens. The entire estate, covering thousands of acres, is now the Glenveagh National Park. In Philadelphia, McIlhenny was a trustee and major benefactor of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. 3. David Bertram “Bertie” Shott Algeo (1918–2009), son of David and Fanny Algeo, the owners of Lac-na-Lore. 4. This question was added by Una. 5. Aimee Ernesta (Drinker) Bullitt Barlow (1892–1981) also belonged, like Henry Mc­ Ilhenny, to a prominent Philadelphia family. Her marriage to William C. Bullitt (1891–1967), American writer and diplomat, ended in 1923 when Bullitt divorced her in order to marry Louise Bryant, the widow of John Reed (author of Ten Days that Shook the World). Writing as Ernesta Drinker Bullitt, she published An Uncensored Diary from the Central Empires (1917), an account of life in Europe during World War I. Ernesta married composer Samuel L. M. Barlow (1892–1982) in 1928. During World War II, via a radio program titled Commando Mary, she encouraged women to participate in the war effort. 6. Robinson’s portion of the letter ends here; all the rest is written by Una. 7. Louisa (Meyer) Jenkins (1898–1989), an artist, lived in Pebble Beach with her husband Matthew and family. When the Jenkinses leased Teddie Kuster’s home in 1949–1950, they were Robinson and Una’s neighbors. Jenkins later had a studio on Partington Ridge in the Big Sur where she offered workshops in art and spirituality. She is best known for mosaics, such as her “Stations of the Cross” at Mount Angel Abbey in St. Benedict, Oregon; see “New Religious Art in U. S. Churches,” Time (January 25, 1954): 91. 8. The following sentences are written in the margins of the letter.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson Ballymore, P. O. via Letterkenny. Co Donegal June 30. 1948 Dear Judith— After a prolonged wait we got through to London on the phone from this end of the world spot, Sunday morning, only to find that Whitehead was not at the Savoy. So we cabled to N. Y. & got the enclosed answer. Now Robin has written to him there. When we spoke to Terry Fay1 in N. Y. she said that Rea & Whitehead were to meet in Paris, —but whether they are together now we don’t {know}. I hope the letter will move Whitehead but am not too optimistic. {We hear that} He thinks another actress will be {as} satisfactory in the part. I am certain he ♦ is making a great mistake in that. —But as we have not so far had direct contact with him perhaps Hyams exaggerated. I deplore this whole misunderstanding after the magnificent start of Medea. If you should write us instantly, address C /O Postmaster, Killinchy, Co. Down. Northern Ireland & then for another week to C /O Postmaster, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny, Erie & (always) Hold for arrival. We will have stayed at this old farmhouse more than two weeks but mostly are driving along with no fixed abode. But C/O Mrs. Denis O’Sullivan, No. 7. Lansdowne Road, London W. 11 will always get to us fairly soon. Love—{to you both.} Devotedly, Una —& Robin Austerity is certainly the motto here! ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. Theresa “Terry” Fay (b. 1914), a Broadway casting director, was the wife of theatrical manager Oscar E. Olesen (1916–1981).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Phoebe and Hans Barkan [June 30, 1948] Balleymore Co. Donegal via Letterkenny Dearest Phoebe & dearest Hans: You both appear in my children’s letters lately, the two at Tor House because they were so happy to see Phoebe & the two in the forest because they were so grateful to have some authority to lean on if Maeve’s eye {duct} needed help! I often think of you two as we drive along day by day. I must say austerity is the word as far as warmth & food are concerned & will be more so in England, I fancy. But we are having a most interesting time visiting spots we know well & seeking out others I’ve heard of. We know already so many people here that its been great fun to be here again. We leave next Monday having stayed then 2 wks. & a day. and then we begin our {the} one & two night stands which have already in other years taken us the length & breadth of Ireland so many times. The last few days we’ve been having some luxury at Glenveagh Castle. You’ve heard perhaps of that romantic place—twenty-five miles away from here ♦ in the oldest possible pla {spot}, mts. rising up all around. Around the castle which sits at the edge of a dark beautiful lake, is {is} a wood of splendid trees & a great walled garden filled with beautiful roses & flowers of all descriptions & a greenhouse with fruit & vegetables. Then beyond are the estate’s 20,000 acres of fenced deer forest, the largest in Ireland. This place is owned now by Henry McElhenney who bought it from Lucy Porter {Mrs. Kingsley P.} We went over there Sunday & in a blinding rain lost our way & travelled miles over terrible, rough, narrow endless roads over the bogs. {There is never a fingerpost in this region} —Never a human being to ask anything of nor a habitation for miles on end around us dark menacing mts! & would you believe it coming back in late p.m. 7:00 but still light, we got lost some more! But we always arrive eventually! Yesterday we met McElhenny at his other estate Dunlewey House which joins one end of Glenveagh by the Poisoned Glen. We had lunch & many an adventure there, too, —& afterwards we sought ♦ & found the house

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

James Sweeney {(you know Clapps & Matthias friend in N. Y?)} rented last summer & will come back to this July 15. It is 5 miles off a none-too-good main road. 5 miles of desperate stoney narrow roads over bogland with Errigal towering close by. The road begcame practically impassible & dipped steeply down to a lonely house amid trees beside a reedy, {rough} “rippling” {tiny} lake. Its a desperate place & as he had no car I cant understand how they ever arrived there or got supplies. We left a note. I’ll bet we’re their only callers! —When you get well along on one of those bog roads you must often go for miles before there is a place to turn around. No place to meet another car either, but few attempt to go there. I believe that last year he was trying to write his book on T. S. Elliott. The heather is just beginning to flower. We intend to climb Horn Head this p.m. & perhaps will find out there a sprig or two of lucky white heather. I love Donegal & if I lived here would be able to make myself comfortable. (but not at ♦ Cashel-na-gore, Sweeney’s place!) I’d keep a sitting room really warm—thats the chief trouble. They build a fire & then open all the doors & windows not having the remotest idea that that fire will heat only a given amount of cubic feet! Then you could come in out of a wild windy walk to warmth. I manage well here though by craftily following around & closing the doors that lead into this stone-paved hall. There is an inglenook with settles about the turf fire here. & Here I sit now by it having introduced a little table to write on. I’ve had a nice morning & we will start on our jaunt to Horn Head at 2:00 Meals are 9:00 Breakfast, 1:00 dinner, 6:00 supper 10:00 tea. We expect to stay another 3 wks. in Ireland, then to Scotland & up to Stornoway in the farthest north of the outer Hebrides. I don’t know what next. For two weeks {now} mail {will} wait for us C/O Postmaster, Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny, Eire. & anything directed to Bess O’S. will get to us. I have much to tell you Phoebe about visits to Yeats’ place & Geo. Moore’s & Lady Gregorys. Don’t forget us, we love you dearly. Faithfully Una Jeffers ALS. San Francisco. 4 pages. Letterhead (crossed out): Dunraven Arms, Adare. Postmark: June 30, 1948.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Judith Anderson Ballymore, etc July 1st, 1948 Dearest Judith: A letter from Whitehead this morn {from Paris}. The gist of it is, “I have written to Hyams telling him please to reach an equitable agreement with Guthrie McClintic. As I agree with what you say, rather than dwelling on the past, we should try to salvage what is left for the present.” Whitehead’s address is (until July 11th) George V Hotel, Paris & then after that C /O H. M. Tennent, Ltd Globe Theatre Shaftsbury Avenue. London Love from Una. I wrote you yesterday our next addresses ALS. Tor House. 1 page.

UJ to Judith Anderson Ballymore. Co. Donegal July 3. 1948. Dearest Judith: I wrote you two days ago but your letter came afterwards Robin says he would not attempt to do anything to Wilde’s Salome. He is thinking about the “Tower” but not working on it yet. We just rec’d Luther’s letter about Taub & hope the venture develops.1 I am hoping with all my heart that some agreement has been achieved between Whitehead’s office & McClintic. In my last letter I quoted Whitehead’s wishes about it. —It always surprises me when letters & cables etc get safely to their destination from this corner beyond the world’s end. But they do. Wild rain today {sweeping} in great gusts up the glen between us & the 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

hills on the other side. We are starting away from here on Monday. I gave you some addresses in my last letter. California & golden sunshine seem far away from this dim light. But we needed the change. Ten years since we had a holiday. Robin looks fine now. Best love & thank Luther for his letter. Una. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. Postmark: July 3, 1948. 1. Anderson signed a contract with William L. Taub (1913–1982), a producer affiliated with Ganesh Film Productions, to star in a British film version of Medea; see New York Times (July 19, 1948): 11. The project never materialized, however. In subsequent years, Taub was revealed to be “an imposter, deadbeat, and flimflam artist,” as Paul O’Neil describes him in “The Unknown Man Who Knew Absolutely Everybody,” Life (September 29, 1972): 78–80. Taub defended himself, and told his side of a number of sensational stories, in Forces of Power (1979).

UJ to Blanche Matthias Ballymore P. O. via Letterkenny. Co. Donegal July 3. 1948 Darling Blanche: Can you smell peat smoke? I am sitting almost inside the chimney—its nice & warm. {Sandy} The dog here beside me—Robin, too, & outside, a driving rain sweeps in gusts down the glen. We have just had breakfast & the only other guests, 7 schoolgirls with their two headmistresses from N. Ireland have all pranced out for a three hour stroll in the wind & rain. Thats all right with me, but how are 9 complete rain outfits to be dried when they come in? Not by my peat fire. I know that. What a wild beautiful country this is & how inconvenient. I am going to write part of this letter on the back of one I rec’d from Reliability Cars, Lt. {Dublin} from whom we hired our car.1 Frustrating! Neither they, nor the Automobile Association, nor the police Barracks here have any idea how we are to get gas coupons {in N. Ireland}. If I were to heed their tentative suggestion about tins of petrol, Robin & I would soon be sitting in jail. And they have no list of firms in Eng. or Scotland who rent out cars. But we’ll find them anyway & gas too, somehow. Show the letter to Russell! Yet somehow things get done. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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This is the end of the world, yet we {have} got long & complicated cables from America & I got through a person to person call to London. (The exchange is from here to Sligo, then Dublin, then London). My but James & Laura S. are going to be surprised when they find our note at their house when ♦ they arrive in ten days or so. We were returning from lunch with McElhinney at Dunlewey House in the Poisoned Glen. He has bought this place {too}—it adjoins Glenveagh Castle which he bought from Lucy Porter. It was raining gently. I was in a state of exhilaration because my intuitions & determination & Robin’s brute strength had triumphed over some rusty keys & locks {& bolts} & gotten us into an old & beautiful marble church (which no one had been able to accomplish for a long time). Its on Dunlewey House estate. So as we went through Gortahork I said, “Now lets really find Kennedy’s house at Cashel-na-gore which the Postmistress says is where the Sweeney’s stay but she says its 4 long Irish miles, most of it horrible roads.” She was right. The last two miles & more were indescribable, narrow stoney one-tracks roads raised 2 ft. above the f bog. You could not pass another car but of course none would often appear there. There was a mile or more across a plateau of bogland, which is unusual, as the bogland is usually ups & downs. Finally we met a laborer just as we were completely mystified. The road wasn’t even anything but a mess of stones that dipped away steeply out of sight. He pointed down & said “Go away down” & we did. At the foot was a little reedy lake & beside it among tall dark trees a whitewashed house—The Sweeneys! Steep, forbidding & steepfascinating white Errigal mts rises up just beyond the lake. How they ever managed there, without a car, about supplies I cannot imagine. ♦ We are leaving here day after tomorrow & going into N. Ireland. In ten days or less we will be in Eire again, & will pick up mail at Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny, Eire C/O Postmaster. Hold for arrival. The heather is now coming into bloom, & such a riot of yellow irises, honeysuckle & pink & white wild roses everywhere. Bog cotton waving its sweet little white flags everywhere the turf has been cut, & red fuchsias as high as trees growing wild down every lane.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Tell Russell we’ve gotten some bottles of Jamieson whisky at $8.00 {6.60} a bottle. But this is the first place we coug {could} buy any. The dealer always would say that he—or she—had only 1 or 2 bottles & they could make more money selling it by drinks, than by bottles, & they were on a quota—just got a few bottles at long intervals. A body needs a drink {here} from time to time to keep out the cold & wet! All my love Devotedly, Una. Maybe you could send this to Clapps. They will like to hear about Sweeneys.2 Sea gulls are crying outside.3 ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. The third page of this letter is written on the back of a June 29, 1948 letter to Una from Ann Howard, secretary of Reliability Cars Ltd. 2. Written vertically in left margin, first page. 3. Written in top margin, first page.

UJ to William Turner Levy Club House Hotel Kilkenny July 11. 1948 Dear William: We wired you yesterday to meet us here if possible but I assume you must have left Dublin. None of the places I planned to meet you have been successful. We had intended to spend this weekend at Ballygalley Castle on the Antrim Coast {and ask you to wine} but were defeated by the trouble we had about petrol coupons. If we had {had} our own car or had hired one in N. Ireland we could have had all we wanted. But this car we are driving we hired in Dublin! {Then} we thought we would just put this car in a garage & hire one up there but there were none to be had! So we cut our trip short after using up the few N. Irish coupons we had gotten hold of. ♦ When we were in Sligo we went to Drumcliffe again. You know Yeats asked to be buried there but they have never brought his body back {from

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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France}. He ought never have been buried there at all. We talked to the sexton there. He said a lady had flown over from England just lately to choose the spot in Drumcliffe churchyard & the burial would be soon.1 Joe Hone (his biographer & Moore’s) wrote me from Dublin he didn’t know a thing about this but he & we both thought the lady might be {the} Duchess of Wellington (Yeats’ Lady Dorothy Wellesley). I wrote her C/O Apsley House but she & the Duke do not live together I hear,2 & the letter had to be sent on—& no answer yet. I had thought you would be interested to go with us to the ceremony in Drumcliffe, but am unable to name any date yet. We expect to go to Scotland in about 10 days. We thought of you in Ballyshannon. ♦ We will pick up mail in Limerick in about six or seven days. —Limerick. Co. Limerick, Eire Hold for arrival We h expect to fly from Shannon to Du Prestwick. In Scotland our address will be C /O Miss Chrissie Allan “Beechbrae” Uplawmoor, Renfrewshire Scotland. I hope you are having a thrilling time. We are. Affectionately Una. ALS. New York PL. 3 pages. Letterhead (upside down): Adair Arms Hotel, Ballymena. 1. Yeats’ remains were brought back to Ireland and reinterred in his chosen churchyard September 17, 1948. 2. Dorothy Violet (Ashton) Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington (1889–1956) and Gerald Wellesley, 7th Duke of Wellington (1885–1972) married in 1914. The couple separated in 1922 but never divorced. Lady Wellesley was a poet and writer; she was also one of Yeats’ closest friends in the last few years before he died.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson Kilkenny. Co. Kilkenny Erie July [19] 1948 Dear Judith— I have had a ghastly week. Robin has been GRAVELY ill & only yesterday took an upward turn. It was a strep. infection in pleura & which also encroached on the pericardium. For that reason {the heart}—he must at best be almost motionless for weeks. An ambulance {with nurse} is coming from Dublin for him tomorrow where he will be in a hospital on Mount St. in order to be under the constant eye of Dr. Pringle.1 He is the eminent specialist the doctor here called from Dublin to consult. I have been almost frantic but feel much easier today from Dr’s report. Some wonderful people rose up to help me, & the local doctor2 is fine fortunately. Love to you & Luther Una. I sent the copy of [illegible] letter to Whitehead. I think Hyams is the obstruction. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. Postmark: July 19, 1948. 1. Robert Brian Pringle. See Jeffers’ February 10, 1951 letter to Pringle. 2. Henry Joseph Roche. See Jeffers’ August 23, 1948 letter to Una.

UJ to William Turner Levy /O Hudson1

C

25 Northumberland Road Dublin July 25. [1948] Dear William— Did you ever get the wire I sent you to meet us in Kilkenny July 11 if possible? —There on July 12 Robin fell desperately ill of pleurisy, a strep infection. Fortunately a good doctor & a hospital. The doctor called down an eminent specialist from Dublin. In a week Robin was brought here by ambulance & is under the care of two specialists who have been coming 3 & LETTERS 1940– 1962

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4 times a day. He has ♦ improved steadily the last two or three days after having a set-back one day that was very dangerous indeed. Whitehead & wife2 (he the N. Y. producer of Medea) flew over from London & will stay until Tues. Judith is to go on tour in U. S. starting in San Fran. Sept 6.3 I had expected to see Hirlie open in Edinburgh in it SAug 23—but it seems doubtful now. I have left Shelbourne & am in an a’p’t in a private house near hospital. I had a wire probably from you, late & much garbled signed by T. L. Williams giving us Belfast Consulate Address. I hope you are having a thrilling time. Faithfully Una ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. Letterhead (crossed out): Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin. 1. Mrs. Nellie Hudson, for many years a restaurant manager in Dublin, rented guest rooms in her private home, located three blocks from the hospital. 2. Virginia (Bolen) Whitehead (1916–1965), a stage designer and theater professional, was a working partner in her husband’s production company. 3. Negotiations between Guthrie McClintic and Robert Whitehead regarding an American tour of Medea were successfully concluded. Tentative plans called for a trial run in Santa Barbara September 3 and 4, then three weeks in San Francisco beginning September 6, followed by performances in Los Angeles, Fresno, San Jose, Portland, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and other points east.

UJ to Noël Sullivan [August 4, 1948]1 May 4. 48 Noël darling: Robin has now been steadily improving for 12 days. No set backs. Progress very slow but sure. Today he is to sit up 1 hr in morning & 1 in p.m. I am sitting by him here at the Elpis Private Hospital2 Mount St. as I do every day most all day {reading}. His room is enormous with high ceiling, great marble fireplace & huge windows reaching from floor to ceiling (iron 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

balcony outside), looking into walled garden, for this is one of those old houses just off Merrion Square—famous Dublin houses. This hospital is fine & beautifully run, & 2 specialists have watched over Robin constantly, coming 3 & 4 times a day for a while. I’ve had a terrific time, but won’t complain since he is getting well. My plans for next weeks are in great confusion—must wait & see. Whitehead & wife flew over from London when he was sickest. I worked constantly on the Judith Medea business, in N. Y. & from this end, & believe we swung it through Whitehead’s influence. The man in his office {in whose hands} he had left the arrangements {in N. Y.}, was so full of hatred of Judith he didn’t want ever to have anything to do with her again. I had a letter from Gielgud yesterday. He thinks the production with Eileen Hirlie promises to be fine. James & Laura Sweeney have been here a few days on their way to Salzburg. They left children & nurses at that wild spot in Donegal that I wrote home about. They gave me a lot of introductions to people here, I have many already (one to Garret3 from R. Armsby4) & I know some people here but I have preferred to wait with all of them until R. is better. Each day for a week I’ve spent an hour or more at museums & galleries & I manage a walk every night after I leave here at 9:30. Daylight lasts nearly 2 hrs. after that. Forgot to say I like the Sweeneys! I hear that you sang beautifully at the Bach Festival. What lovely people I’ve met over here. No one could exceed them in kindness during our troubles. Not the least was a little under chambermaid at Hotel in Kilkenny who kept up my fire at night in my room & brought me hot milk & a word of cheer & a prayer at midnight. Devotedly Una C Direct my letters to /O Mrs. Hudson, 25 Northumberland Road {Dublin}5 ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark (day missing): August 1948. 1. Though Una writes “May,” the letter was written in August. 2. Elpis Private Hospital, located at 19–21 Lower Mount Street in Dublin, was founded in 1890 by Margaret Huxley (1856–1940), a leader in science-based nursing care and a niece of biologist Thomas H. Huxley (1825–1895). Elpis means “hope” in Greek. W. B. Yeats lived nearby, at 82 Merrion Square, from 1922 to 1928. John Millington Synge died at the hospital in 1909.

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3. George Angus Garrett (1888–1971), an investment banker, diplomat, and social activist, was the United States envoy to Ireland from 1947 to 1950 and ambassador (when the legation became an embassy) from 1950 to 1951. 4. Probably E. Raymond Armsby (1879–1971), a San Francisco insurance executive and art patron. 5. Added in top margin.

UJ to Judith Anderson Thurs. Aug 5. 1948 25 Northumberland Road Dublin Dearest Judith: Your cable came & your letter & picture of us yesterday. Thanks for all! We do not need anything thank you (but probably would have if this had happened in England or Scotland). Robin is improving day by day. Slowly but no set backs since two weeks ago today when he went down to his lowest. It was a very bad time & I cannot be too thankful for these wonderful Dublin doctors. Two specialists on the job who came three & four times a day & never relaxed a moment. Robin & I both are happy indeed that you are going on with Medea. It would be hard to satisfy the public with anyone else in that role. We are glad, too, about Hilda & Servoss. I think that casting is fine!1 Robin sat up {in chair} 1 hr. in am & 1 in pm. yesterday {He is sitting up being shaved at this moment.} The doctor in charge told me yesterday that we would be wise not to {even} try to get earlier tickets than Sept 20 (our present date) but to have Robin rest & eat & build up. I think we will stay in that a’p’t I have—the woman who owns it (—its really a private house—) will give us excellent food & attention. I will hire a car for part time to ride a little every day & I think with the quiet & leisure, Robin will get at his writing. —he spoke of it yesterday. There is a picturesque little canal close by with a tow path where we can walk. Love from us both to you two. Devotedly Una ALS. Tor House. 1 page. Postmark: August 5, 1948. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Hilda Vaughn was signed for the role of Nurse in the touring production of Medea, and Mary Servoss (1881–1968) was cast as the First Woman of the chorus. Jason was played by Henry Brandon (1912–1990).

UJ to William Turner Levy 25 Northumberland Road. Dublin. August 9. 48 Dear William: The flowers were lovely & I took most of them to Robin, as I sit with him all day. Did I tell you this is a (swank!) private hospital belonging to several important doctors here. How different from American hospitals—queer! Its one of the famous old houses off Merrion Square. You go into great halls & {panelled} rooms, high ceilings, old mahogany furniture, polished brass & copper, & dignified winding stairs! Robin’s room enormous, {with} high carved {plaster} ceiling, big marble fireplace, enormous windows from floor to ceiling looking into walled garden. Your flowrs{owers} are in bowls along mantel & on the dresser. Robin improves steadily. He sits up 2 hrs. a day & more soon. X ray shows still some fluid in pleura but Dr. doesn’t expect to drain more than once more & hopes any more fluid will absorb. No fever or pain now. I have to get out of my a’p’t Aug 20-30, (horse show) room long promised. {So} Robin wishes me to (& the doctor says its all right,) go to Edinburgh for opening Medea. I am going also to fly up to Stornoway, Outer Hebrides {to see Stone Circle at Callernish}. Also spend a few days in Norfolk, gazing at Paston tomb & castles & manors, & London for a day or so. I will be back here on the day I can have my apartment {again} & take Robin there. We stay there until time to fly home Sept 20. If he is fit enough I’ll hire the car again & ride every day for a few hours. There is a canal close to my a’p’t with a tow path & green grass & trees. We can have nice walks as he gets stronger. This is the Grand Canal & reaches across Ireland to the Shannon which flows into Lough Derg & then out through Limerick to the sea. Yesterday I wat {watched} the first yacht that ever made the trip from English shore around south of Ireland & up west coast

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to Shannon Mouth & around {across} to Grand Canal & out to sea from here. It was 24 tons & there wasnt an inch to spare height, breadth or length, getting through the lock here at Mount {Mount} St. Bridge. Mostly barges with fuel etc. I will write you whether we arrive {N. Y.} Sept 20 or 21. I forget what time of day we start. I thought if Robin is still a bit puny I’ll send you word to meet us if you can & help us to the hotel. I am going to have Donnan send you our plane tickets N. Y. to Calif. I’m having him buy them. His travel bureau may as well have the commission. I thought best to stay a couple of days at our hotel again in N. Y. as there are several things I must attend to & Robin can be quiet. ♦ If Country Life{s}1 piles up at your house, when you finish with them it would be kind to send them to Tor House even before I come back. Donnan dotes on them. I was with the Sweeneys for a few hours here. They were on their way from Donegal to Austria. I go every day to some gallery or museum for an hr. or so. There are thrilling things at the museum. The ancient {pre-historic} gold things dug up in the bogs are the finest in Europe. I went to Abbey Theatre saw “The Drums {Drums} are Out,” good stark little play about the troubles, & “Kathleen ni Houlihan”.2 It was very badly staged & I must confess the play itself seemed poor stuff. Ria Mooney3 the producer at the Abbey took me to the back Sstage & Green Room & I saw so many mementoes of the early Abbey Days that I’ve read so much about. in Judith Anderson opens U. S. road {tour} in Medea Sept 6, San Francisco. We are delighted that Hilda Vaughn will be the Nurse. She is the actress who played Cassandra in “Tower beyond T—” & was extraordinary. I’ll never forget her. You would be a wonderful travelling companion for me, your interest in things, & enthusiasm & energy even outstrip mine. Your Dorset experiences fascinate me. I hope to have a chance to hear everything about Barnes. I should think his work on the Dorset language {dialect} (didnt he do a dictionary or something) would make good material. Did you have time to look at Hardy things or see the weird little house of T. E. Lawrence? We were interested in your clipping.4 Robin sends his greetings, too. Affectionately, Una

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. Postmark: August 9, 1948. 1. Country Life, a weekly magazine featuring stories and photographs of rural England, has been published in London since 1897. 2. The Drums Are Out (1948) by John Coulter (1888–1980) was performed at the Abbey Theatre from July 12 to August 14, 1948. For six nights beginning August 2, Kathleen ni Houlihan (1902) by W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory followed as a double bill. 3. Ria Mooney (1904–1973), an Irish actress and teacher, was the artistic director of the Abbey Theatre from 1948 to 1963. 4. An article in an English newspaper mentions Levy’s journey to Dorset in search of information about the life and work of William Barnes, attributing Levy’s interest in Barnes to the influence of “a well-known American poet, Mr. Robinson Jeffers.” See “Crossed Atlantic to Study Barnes,” Dorset County Chronicle and Swanage Times (July 15, 1948): 1. See also Maureen Girard, The Last Word, pages 8–9.

UJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan 25 Northumberland Road: August 13. 1948 Dublin. Eire Dearest Mabel: Yes, Robin has been ill, desperately but is recovering steadily. He was struck down with pleurisy, a strep. infection in Kilkenny. A good doctor there & a little hospital. The doctor called down an “eminent” Dublin specialist who said he was gravely ill—ordered him brought to Dublin {in ambulance} put him in hospital where two specialists worked over him faithfully, coming 3 & 4 times a day. There were 3 days when they gave me little hope, then he began to improve. It is five weeks day after tomorrow since he got sick. He suffered much pain at first & for 3 weeks couldn’t li {lie} down {was propped up in bed}. I had a ghastly time of anxiety & coping with everything, but found people so kind & helpful, I have a whole new set of friends! Now he has to get back his strength, is up 2 hrs. a day & can walk back & forth in his room a little. I have an a’p’t close to hospital & sit with him all day. Before he got sick we had 5 wks. of constant motoring & saw many old familiar places besides some enchanting new ones. The weather has been abominable, only a few days even reasonably warm, & almost constant rain. {& no house properly warm.} Of course the rest of our trip to Scotland & England is LETTERS 1940– 1962

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cancelled. Robin is coming over to my a’p’t Aug 30. & our plane tickets home are for Sept. 20. {Before then} We will walk & motor a bit each day & I hope he will quickly get strong. I left the Shelbourne a few days after we got here & had the great good fortune to get a big nice room with a wonderful woman—{in} a private house. She gives me my meals served & cooked beautifully, in my room & will take care of Robin’s build-up, too. I am going over to {fly to} Edinburgh Aug 20 to the opening of Medea {Aug 23}. John Gielgud is directing. He writes that Eileen Hirlie who is playing Medea is “beautiful, magnetic, powerful but will ♦ not equal Judith in the tigerish parts.” I suppose you know Judith starts her {American} road tour in S. F. Sept 6. I don’t know yet which company will do Canada. I have two very dear daughters-in-law & I adore the babies. Each came home from the hospital to Tor House on the 8th day & I took care of them. They are like my very own & strangely enough the daughters fall in with complete acquiesence with {to} my Hitler-ish methods & never have a cross word. We had a wonderful time when we were all there {at Tor House} together 5½ mos. Garth loves his forestry & I have fine reports of him from various people up in Oregon. He has to leave his job & take a year at Oregon State for some technical Forestry work. Charlotte is just the girl for him— strong & resourceful & madly in love with him. Donnan is doing awfully well too & Lee is a beautiful yellow haired creature. I am very eager to see your mss. We must pry it out of the doctor’s clutches.1 Love from Una. Love to Frieda & Brett & all my friends there. Do write again. Barrels of penicillin were pumped into Robin Intra-muscular every 3 hrs. & many deep injections into pleural {pleural} cavity.2 ALS. Yale. 2 pages. Postmark: August 13, 1948. 1. Earlier in the year, Mabel completed a three-part biographical study—Una and Robin, Una and Robin in Taos: 1938, and Hildegarde: Eight Years After. She sent the manuscript to her psychiatrist A. A. Brill, who determined that it should not be published at that time, or even publicly shared. Una read the first portion of the manuscript soon after it was written in 1930, but it is unlikely that she ever read the second part, and it is certain that she had not read the third.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

The focus of the second section is Robinson’s relationship with Hildegarde Donaldson in the summer of 1938 (see Collected Letters 2: 868, note 1, for Hildegarde’s biographical information) and Una’s attempted suicide. The third section tells the story of Hildegarde’s return to Taos, where she died in August 1946. Both of these sections are merciless in their depiction of Una and vindictive in intent. The fact that Mabel mentioned the manuscript to Una is in itself revealing. As Mabel relates in Hildegarde: Eight Years After, Hildegarde left Taos in 1938 in a fractured emotional state. Despite psychiatric intervention and the efforts of a team of doctors, her mental and physical health steadily deteriorated. In the spring of 1946, suffering from various illnesses and a host of debilitating symptoms, Hildegarde returned to Taos, hoping to find some relief in the healing waters of nearby Ojo Caliente. Mabel was not anxious to see her again. “Though I was hoping she could be helped I did not feel glad she was coming back to New Mexico,” she admits. “I did not want to revive the painful days of her visit eight years before. It had all been so distasteful that I had blanked it out of mind. . . . I had never forgiven Una for her attempt to kill herself up in our bath room at the Big House for it had seemed just too inconsiderate, to Robin and the boys, to Tony and me.” Mabel was shocked when she first saw Hildegarde, lying weak and emaciated in a hotel room. Her face and body were “like nothing human I had ever seen before,” she writes. Hildegarde looked like a skeleton, with white hair, hollow cheeks, missing teeth, twisted fingers, colorless skin, and dull, dead-looking eyes. When Mabel drew closer, Hildegarde looked at her with a queer expression and gasped, haltingly, “Mabel—I think—Una—put—a—spell on me.” The waters at Ojo Caliente only exacerbated her suffering, and Hildegarde continued her precipitous decline. Her husband and children were called to Taos and were with her when she died August 10. Mabel wrote Hildegarde: Eight Years After in the winter and spring of 1947–1948, in the midst of Jeffers’ triumph on Broadway with Medea. At one point in her narrative, Mabel mentions what she regarded as Una’s selfish dominance of Robinson; in another, referring to what she saw as Una’s possessive love of Garth and Donnan, she says “Una had destroyed her little sons when they were already very young.” These remarks prepare the way for her denouement, where Hildegarde (like Creusa in Jeffers’ drama) is felled by witchcraft, Una can be seen for who she really is (jealous Medea), and the tragic events of Taos in 1938 can be placed in their proper archetypal setting, where art and life are one. Mabel concludes her story with a quotation from Jeffers’ play: “You will stay here, / And watch the end,” Medea says to a group of cowering women. “You came to see / How the barbarian woman endures betrayal: Watch and you’ll know.” 2. Written in top right corner, first page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Una August 20. [1948] Dearest love— Afternoon coffee came in two hours ago and broke my heart—as almost everything does today.1 Nobody else has come in, except the Matron and a nurse or two—only for moments. It was fun {for them} to come in and stay, when you were here. —So I have almost killed another novel, in spite of a solid hour’s sleep from 2 to 3. Pringle hasn’t been here yet—and there is no reason why he should. I write this sitting up—very warm—sun has been in this window for an hour, and still is. But calm yourself: I am wearing all you expect, shoes, stockings and gown. Laugh! I have just spent five minutes interrogating the Jew’s pen, in order to address your envelope. At last I know. I am now back in bed, because the new nurses are spying on me. One cross-questioned me—was I allowed up? —for how long? Soon the tall white one came, to see if I had fainted. —So I have not dared be up one minute over my hour—and you see I am taken care of! A “hot jar” has just come in. How beautiful and brave you looked this morning, dearest. You always do—but more than ever. I think of you continually—I worry about you—I adore you. Please give my deep love to the Whiteheads—and urgent good wishes to them and Gielgud, and the others. To you, dearest—my everlasting love—and admiration! What a cold word. —Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: August 20, 1948. 1. Una had to vacate her Dublin apartment for ten days beginning August 20. She traveled to Scotland and England during this time.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Una Saturday, August 21. [1948] Dearest— I am glad you are not flying from here to-day. The weather is the worst yet seen—a raging southeast wind, shark-color sky, continuous fine rain. My window is shut tight. Last night Dr. Pringle suddenly came in, brandishing his stethoscope; but he didn’t use it, the call was purely social, and his talk entirely about you. This morning Dr. Thompson,1 mostly to reclaim the {his} surgical needles, etc., but did use his stethoscope and expressed satisfaction. He expects to be there when they X-ray me next week—fluoroscope too apparently, to observe action. (Feels to me as if this pen were running dry—I must save it to address envelopes.) It is nearly noon, and I have just turned on the light, the day is so dark, more like a wolf ’s throat now than a shark’s flank. Is it raining where you are? They say the fine Irish harvests are imperilled. Your sweet little letter from the air-port came early this morning, and I shall dutifully observe all your bidding. I love you, dearest. The morning paper also came. Dr. Thompson says I mayn’t have even a bed-bath until Monday, on account of the weather. The nurses—particularly McCarthy—send their love to you, and want me to say that they feel their responsibility. I repeat—in case yesterday’s letter should fail to reach {you} by any chance—my love to the Whiteheads and good wishes to them and Gielgud and the others. I am sure they will do well. You are my dearest love forever. —Robin. —Next letter goes to Norwich. ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: August 21, 1948. 1. Alan Herbert Thompson (1906–1974), a pathologist, physician, and professor of medicine, was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1960. For many years, Thompson answered questions and gave medical advice as a popular “Radio Doctor” on Radio Éireann. He and his brother Arthur Geoffrey Thompson (1905–1976), a physician and psychiatrist who practiced in London, were close friends of Samuel Beckett.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Una Monday—August 23 [1948] Dearest love— I wrote to McKenzie Bridge yesterday, and began a letter to Tor House. Finished this morning and sent them off—had a {pleasant} interview with Dr. Pringle—then shaved and paced the floor, read a couple of letters, and am back in bed, a little tired. It is one pm, and a great tray of food will come presently! About four pm Mr. Maggi1 will come—he has not yet brought any mail, only newspapers—he is very kind and quite interesting but sometimes stays a little too long, but leaves when I suggest it. —Dr. Pringle did a bit of knocking and listening, and is perfectly satisfied. We spoke sadly of Dr. Roche,2 whose baby son, born the 18th, lived only 36 hours.3 (I had already seen {the} enclosed queer little notice in the paper.) Dinner came in, and with it your wire from Edinburgh. Thank you, dearest; I’m glad the letters got there. Yesterday came a cable from Ellen (including Donnan, Lee, Lindsay) with humorous good wishes to “Medea in Kilts.” This morning a long letter to me from Daisy, and an apologetic note to you from Ria Mooney—I’ll try to answer it—she proposes lunch on Tuesday—to-morrow—letter dated Saturday. —Letters the day after you left, from Garth (I mean Lotte)—Maud Clapp (I haven’t opened it)—Aunt Carrie—Ella Winter (I haven’t opened it). Lotte was unhappy because Garth has to leave her for two weeks, and Maeve had anti-diphtheria inoculation and some blood taken from the sole of her foot. I don’t know what the devil that means. —Letters this morning were from R. Mooney and a long one to me from Daisy, mostly about their week-long vacation-trip. And she hopes I can stay a long time in Mason and rest, before going home. It was so stormy the day after you left that the Mauretania was held up two days off Cobh harbor, waiting until the tender could come out to her. It is 2:25 and I had better sleep—Maggi will come soon. — — — Coffee came and waked me; now I am up, and no doubt my friend will be in presently, but I could bear it if he didn’t. Sun is roaring in this window, over my back and the table I am writing on; it is suddenly hotter than “tunket.”4 But I can’t think of any more news—unless Maggi brings some—if he does

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I’ll write a P. S. —Darling, I love you with all my heart—I hope you see everything in all East Anglia! —poor child! Come home soon. —Robin. P. S.— Not Maggi came, but Mrs. Hudson; she stayed only fifteen minutes and spent most of them praising your charm and kindness. And how much she misses you. She brought two letters—a very affectionate  ♦ but newsless one to me from Violet, and (2) a long and hugely complicated claim for exemption from British income tax—a duplicate of which has been sent to Whitehead—from W. Morris Agency. This has to be signed before a notary. It is not instantly pressing, and can wait until you get back and I get out. I will study it some more to make sure, but there seems no doubt but it can wait a week—or month. Whitehead has received a duplicate of it to sign: I expect we’ll hear from him presently. W. Morris’s lawyer—a new one {(Leon Kellman)5—} seems not perfectly sure that it wouldn’t be better if signed in America. However, I shall not be in England. —There was no covering letter to me at all—only a copy of the one to Whitehead. Oh—and Mrs. Hudson brought a sack of oranges—she said you ordered. Thank you darling (I thanked her too.) —Your little blonde zany— Kathleen or Catharine—has suddenly disappeared {overnight,} on vacation, and appointed Nurse McCarthy to bring me the morning paper. I think this is all—except dearest love to you. Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Postmark: August 23, 1948. 1. In Una’s unpublished travel diary, Mr. Maggi is described as “an Estonian merchant seaman who often stayed at Mrs. Hudson’s.” 2. Henry “Harry” Joseph Roche (1902–1996), a physician in Kilkenny, was the son of Henry J. Roche of Enniscorthy and Mary Josephine de Sales (Shriver) Roche of Baltimore. The Roche family owned Enniscorthy Castle, a medieval stronghold located in County Wexford, Ireland. The castle is now open to the public as a museum. 3. William Roche was the fifth child of Harry and Margaret (Ryan) Roche (1917–2010); four more children followed. 4. “Tunket” is a meaningless word used as a euphemism for “hell.” 5. Leon Kellman (1909–2006), a New York entertainment attorney.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Robinson [August 23, 1948] ROBINSON JEFFERS ELFIS HOSPITAL 19 LOWER MOUNT ST DUBLIN ARRIVED CALEDONIAN FOUND LETTERS ALL MY LOVE TAKE CARE OF MY DARLINGS UNA Tlg. Tor House. Postmark: August 23, 1948.

UJ to Robinson [August 24, 1948] ROBINSON JEFFERS ELPIS HOSPITAL 19 LOWER MOUNT STREET DUBLIN NOT AT REMENDOUS AS DUDITH BUT VERY FINE1 A TRIUMPH LOVE YOU DARLING UNA Tlg. Tor House. Postmark: August 24, 1948. 1. The August 23 opening night performance of Medea at the Edinburgh Festival garnered muted praise. The production was popular with audiences but less so with critics, who were unmoved by Eileen Herlie’s acting as well as Jeffers’ script.

RJ to Una August 25 [1948] Dearest— Presently I have to shave, but I’ll give the fat girl a chance at the dusting first—if she chooses to come in, which is always doubtful. Yesterday morning Lucy appeared—(the little old excitable one) back from vacation, and fondled my hand and wept on it for ten minutes—but she works down‑stairs now. —Yesterday was busy—your wire about Medea—(the 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

news I expected—the best one could hope for)—and your phone-call in the evening was reported to me; and an anonymous gift of five gorgeous nectarines came in—a letter from Lee, with many snap-shots of her mother and Lindsay—letter from W. Morris’ Albert Taylor saying that I have no British tax problem, only Whitehead has, but they are willing to try to help him avoid paying tax himself on my share, which is clear by contract— doesn’t all this break your head?— Then came Dr. Pringle and found me pacing the floor, so he had me pace rapidly four or five times, taking my pulse before and after, and said All right: you can have tub-bathing now: if the weather’s warm. —Then came Mr. Maggi, then Miss Holmes—then Dr. Roche!—poor man. He was very nervous—trembly—I think he uses a good deal of his father-in-law’s product1—but spoke with composure of their disappointment— When Mrs. Roche is out of hospital they will go back and have another week’s vacation. What brought him to Dublin was to have his mother operated on—it had just been done successfully—“obstruction”. He has his share of troubles, doesn’t he? His mother occupied for a day the room that I had, at Aut Evan.2 —Eleven am: I had better shave now.— What do you think? —The instant I finished shaving I am summoned to a hot bath—very hot—but I was only in for six minutes, and am back {warm} in bed. You may call this progress! Now Maggi has come, with letters from Lotte (Maeve is in wonderful health)—Blanche (Margot divorcing Dwight3 ♦ for extreme mental cruelty)—Walter Peacock (haven’t opened)— —E. O’Sullivan (Lee’s new hair-do, very sweet and youthful; Lindsay’s toothy smile)—W. Turner Levy (to me— nothing particular) = 5 letters. —But maybe I’d better look into Percy’s. —Yes: He’ll “wait to hear from you, and see you at the earliest possible moment.” Well, since he knows you’re in you’re in Britain, you ought really to let him come up to London. Rather than Dublin next month! He is now of course at Coombe Bissett, Salisbury, Wilts. I am aghast to realize that this letter cannot go to Norwich—but {must} to London. How time flies—I mean your time, darling; not mine.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Please give my affectionate greeting to Bess O’S.; and commend me to Biddy, if you see her. The Horse-show is having rotten weather. Take care of yourself, dearest Una, and come soon. —Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Margaret Roche’s family, the Ryans, owned Powers Distillery (est. 1791), makers of Powers Irish Whiskey. 2. Aut Even Hospital in Kilkenny, where Jeffers was taken when he first fell ill. 3. Margot and Dwight Morrow both later remarried—Margot to John Wilkie (1904–1991) and Dwight to Nancy (Schallert) Lofton (1917–2009).

UJ to Robinson [August 26, 1948] ROBINSON JEFFERS ELPIS HOSPITAL 19 LOWER MOUNT ST DUBLIN SAFE AT MAIDS HEAD EVERYTHING FASCINATING LOVE UNA Tlg. Tor House. Postmark: August 26, 1948.

UJ to Robinson [August 27, 1948] ROBINSON JEFFERS ELPIS HOSP 19 LOWER MOUNT DUBLIN WONDERFUL PASTON TRIP ALL YESTERDAY ARRIVE LONDON SATURDAY NOON THANK DEAR DR PRINGLE FOR MY NOTE MY LOVE FOREVER UNA Tlg. Tor House. Postmark: August 27, 1948.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Una [August 27, 1948] Darling— I hope this will reach you. It will have to be the last—until happy 30th. Yesterday evening Dr. Pringle came in with a lot of machinery, which he left with me overnight, saying he would like a second electrocardiogram in the morning. (You remember he took one in Aut Evan.) So I expected him all morning, but nothing has happened. I shaved, expecting interruption at any moment, and then read—Edgar Wallace!1 {(First one I ever.)} They write better stories now. All yesterday and this morning not one drop of rain: do you believe me? To-day no wind, either: how the Horse-show rejoices! Recently I read—discovered!—the worst novel that has ever been written and published. It is called “Souci,” and was confectioned in the 1890-s by a woman named Mrs. twells!—apparently {perhaps} American—but scenes are in France, Switzerland, Italy, and publisher English.2 I assure you it is worse than even “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, which made Goethe’s reputation. Mrs. Twells has been undeservedly forgotten. —A Thesis for our friend Levy. —Sorry, here is dinner. —1:45— As dinner went out, your wire came in. So glad to hear from you—and especially so happy about your day-long visit (yesterday) with all the Pastons. That must make amends for  ♦ something. Be sure and remember, so you can write it all. —Do you remember at all where the Pastons stopped when they came up to London? Love to Bess of Hardwick—I mean of Sullivan. Now, honey, this seems to be the last one to you abroad—yet how long to the 30th! Take care of yourself my dear love, and as Nurse McCarthy still says every evening—“God bless. . . .” (When Doyle bids farewell at 8 am she always says sleepily—“Good-night.”) God bless you dearest love, and good-morning! —Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Edgar Wallace (1875–1932), British journalist, playwright, and author of over two hundred works, including the first draft of the screenplay for King Kong (1933).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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2. Souci: A Novel by Julia Helen Twells was published in Philadelphia by J. B. Lippincott in 1878 and in London by Richard E. King in 1900. Prior to Souci, Twells wrote The Mill of the Gods (1875). Her daughter, sometimes identified as Julia Helen Twells, the Younger (or Jr.), was the author of A Triumph of Destiny (1896), By the Higher Law (1901), and other books.

UJ to Robinson [August 28, 1948] ROBINSON JEFFERS ELPIS HOSPITAL LOWER MOUNT ST DUBLIN SAFE AT NUMBER SEVEN1 SEE YOU MONDAY ALL MY LOVE UNA Tlg. Tor House. Postmark: August 28, 1948. 1. Bess O’Sullivan’s home at 7 Landsdowne Road, London.

UJ to Blanche Matthias 25 Northumberland Road. Dublin. September 1. 1948 Blanche darling: So happy to have your letters from time to time. You & our family & several dear friends have done a lot to keep up our morale {morale}. I got back from Scotland & England two days ago. Robin & I are fearfully disappointed because the Doctor had said he could go to my a’p’t when I got back, but X rays that day still showed fluid in the pleura & this must be overcome. What a long trial we’ve had! He feels all right except for extreme weakness. He has walked in the garden twice for ten minutes & went in a motor car with the doctor once Pfor X rays. —more efficient than the portable unit used on him here at hospital. The Edinburgh Festival was a great success, the city all en fête, flags flying, flowers everywhere. I had a beautiful room at the Caledonian looking directly out at the Castle. Eileen Hirlie was fine as Medea but not as good as Judith. Evely {Kathleen} Nesbit1 excellent as the nurse. Hirlie is beautiful & magnetic with a

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

magnificent flexible voice {but not as tigerish as J.}. Many friends there— (Gabrielle Kuster & daughter appeared. Haved been in Switzerland.) —I flew down from Edinburgh {to London} with Hugh Beaumont the English producer (after a lot of parties connected with Medea). His car met us & took me to Liverpool St. I went up to Norwich by train & hired a car & for several days tirelessly searched out the manors, tombs, castle & other haunts of my relatives, the Pastons. Norwich is an ancient town full of interesting things. Have you been there? I’d like to go again. Here at the art gallery in the Castle I encountered Queen Mary,2 no less. Rather ♦ better looking than her pictures but anything but cheerful. Then I went down to London & stayed at Bess O’Sullivans. The weather was heavenly all my days in England. Peacock came up to see me from Wiltshire. And back here on the 30th. I have arranged to have a car again on Sept 7 & expect to drive Robin about every day, {a little!} I can have {take} it to Limerick & leave it when we fly from Shannon. I wish Margot hadn’t had all those children by Dwight. How COULD she? To think of that poor fellow having for sister3 & for wife two of the loveliest women alive! Yes, do save me any reviews or clippings convenient. Time is only one we’ve seen. Will you please read this to Phoebe & send to Clapps. {They will wish to know about Robin.} and dear love to Russell. Devotedly, always, Una. Sweeneys here at Shelbourne last night—to Donegal today ALS. Yale. 2 pages. Postmark: September 1, 1948. 1. Cathleen Nesbitt (1888–1982), a popular British actress, performed on stage, screen, and television for more than seventy years. 2. Queen Mary (1867–1953), wife of King George V of Great Britain, was queen consort from 1910 until her husband’s death in 1936 and queen mother thereafter (during the reigns of her sons Edward VIII and George VI). 3. Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to William Turner Levy {25} Northumberland Road. Dublin. August Sept 8. 1948 Dear William: Your letters about your adventures over here have been very interesting. You did so many things I would do & have done. We’ll have to plan a jaunt together sometime! Robin had a terrible setback the other day. Nearly died. A bubble got into his bloodstream when pleural cavity was being washed out & penicillin put in. Artificial respiration had to be used & stimulants injected. We had a terrible fright. He was delirious for nearly 24 hrs. afterwards. The specialist sat by his bed all night & the consultant came several times {in the night}. I feel as though a steamroller had passed over me. —Well, we expect to go home on the date planned. I tried for a later day but the last of Oct. is the first vacancy so we will go then Sept 20 if possible. Our plane is American Air Lines, Flight C161, leaving Shannon 10:45 p.m. Sept 20 & arriving New York 9:05 {am.} Sept 21. I believe it is La Guardia Field: If you are busy don’t meet us—we can manage, but I thought Robin may feel pretty tired & there is so much to-do-ing around customs & getting a taxi. Will you please give this letter to Clapps. I don’t know yet where Donnan has got our reservation but I will call them {when we are settled}. It is entirely out of the question for Robin to go out anywhere there but it would be nice to see the Clapps if they’d call on us. I am afraid I gave Maude the wrong date of our arrival. I hadn’t my ticket in hand when I wrote her. Robin has had empyema1 (spelling?) which is worse than plain {pleurisy} pleurisy. The fluid of ~empyema~ is full of pus. There was a strep. infection. Some former inflamation there had caused lesions, & each one of ♦ the pockets had to be located, drained & dealt with. I had a wonderful time in Norfolk. Hired a car & explored all the Paston country. I’ll tell you when we meet. Edinburgh & {London were fun too.} Thanks so much for those fluffy mints. We bestowed one of the boxes tins! on the nurses here & won much favor. Thanks for everything. Affectionately Una. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I do hope Timmie’s hospital stay will be over when we arrive. I wonder whether you’d be so kind as to call up my friend Mrs Leonard Busby Hampshire House {House} & tell her our date in N. Y. I don’t believe she even knows we are over here. ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. 1. Empyema, also referred to as pleural empyema, pyothorax, or purulent pleuritis, is an infection that spreads from the lungs to the inner lining of the chest.

UJ to Judith Anderson 25 Northumberland Road. Dublin September 14. 1948 Judith darling: You can imagine with what excitement & happiness we have read the newspaper cuttings about your performance in S. B. & San Fran. & the flock of letters from our friends, all & every in a tremendous state of excitement! I can’t tell you what a disappointment for us not to be there. Robin is still in hospital & will remain until we start for Limerick in our car next Sunday to fly home on Monday. You see a terrible thing happened to him ten days ago. The doctor was washing out the pleural cavity for the last time, as he thought, when an air bubble got into the bloodstream. This is almost always fatal. Robin appeared to be gone. They used artificial respiration & injected heart stimulants & pulled him back. He was delirious & fighting for 30 hrs. The doctor never left his side for a day & night. —Horrible!! This all put a terrible strain on his heart & he was in a dangerous condition for some days. Robin has had epyema (a bad brother of pleurisy) —I hope we are leaving all this illness over here in the rain & damp. He will steadily regain his strength at darling Tor House. I guess I won’t start him off travelling again for a long long time! ♦ I flew over to Edinburgh & on to Norfolk & London. I had to give up my a’p’t {here} for 10 days as it had long been promised (—Horse Show week). Everything full in Dublin. Robin was getting on well at that time so I was able to feel free in my mind. Eileen Hirlie is interesting in Medea LETTERS 1940– 1962

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but there is no use for her or anyone else to try to match you in it. It is your part. She is beautiful & {magnetic &) has a lovely voice & she is enthralled with the part & is putting every ounce of her strength into it—but she isn’t experienced enough yet {nor passionate enough}. Kathleen Nesbit was excellent as the nurse. Somehow or where I expect to catch up with you on your tour. —Robin & I. Love to you both, Devotedly, Una. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. Postmark: September 14, 1948.

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Sept 25 ’48 Dear William: We are safe home & already Robin looks better. It was a very tiring trip.1 Robin was so exhausted on during our second day in New York that I felt very frightened to start home that night, but he felt that New York was very too wearing—the constant noise & bustle. I suppose Maud told you he wasn’t equal to going over to see Timmie as he had hoped to do— just lay in bed all day & seemed weaker all the time. How thankful I am to be home— the weather is golden—but not too warm, & the sea a wonder of ♦ deep blue & foamy white. I looked into my vol. of Wm Barnes today, & found this note I had copied long ago. Perhaps you’ve seen it before. You might send this back sometime— Thanks again for all your capable help & your kindness to us in New York. Affectionately, Una. ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. Letterhead: Glentworth Hotel, Limerick. 1. Robinson and Una left Dublin on Sunday, September 19 and traveled to Limerick, where they stayed at the Glentworth Hotel. They boarded a plane at Shannon Airport and departed Ireland Monday night. After two days in New York, they continued on to California, arriving home Thursday, September 23.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 October 8. 1948 Precious Phoebe: You are so busy, I know, with Button & a new house that you probably haven’t even realized I haven’t written since I got home. I have had such a lot to do—things have piled up so—& I am tired as tired. But happy! I see Robin getting stronger every day which gladdens me, but also makes guarding him more complicated. He never has enjoyed being careful. But now I threaten him—one little cold & cough & I’ll whisk him to the DESERT. That gives him pause all right. How we enjoyed seeing Hans, —one of our very special friends in all the world & catching up a little on your family news. And Button in love & happy! I’m one of the enthusiasts about the married state. Anything else is incomplete. Hans gives me a good account of the man, —& so does Lee. i feel that I am particularly blessed in my daughters-in-law & am so grateful to them for adding to our happiness. Button will be a darling wife. He is lucky.1 I have tickets for Robin & me for the San Jose Medea, with room at the St. Claire for over night, but I doubt Robin’s being there. I dont like to risk anything. I shall go in any case. Dear love to you—& spare yourself all you can. Devotedly, Una ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. Postmark: October 9, 1948. 1. Phoebe “Button” Barkan (1924–2014) married John “Jack” Wallace Gilpin (1918–1994) November 6, 1948 in a private ceremony at Hans and Phoebe’s San Francisco home. Gilpin graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1941 and served as a commander on combat destroyers in the Pacific Fleet during World War II. Following a fierce battle in May 1945, when a serious injury resulted in the loss of a leg, he was awarded a Silver Star for “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity of action.” Gilpin earned an M.B.A. at Harvard University in 1948 and settled in San Francisco, where he entered the corporate business world as an executive manager.

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UJ to Jerome Green Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 October 12. 1948 Dear Mr. Green:1 Perhaps our son wrote you that Robinson Jeffers & I were in Ireland for over four months & home now for a fortnight. He was dangerously ill in hospital in Dublin for ten weeks—pleurisy. Now home & convalescent. He is not writing any letters—&, in any case would not wish to suggest or comment on articles written about him. However indirectly he will be of help because I am willing to answer any queries of yours I can & will ask him questions from time to time. This is not really an answer to your letter except to say that your outline of major influences is fairly comprehensive. One error, curiously enough he has always been fairly indifferent to D. H. Lawrence & certainly never been at all influenced by him. There are similarities between the two men. (Note, St. Mawr & Roan Stallion were written the same year.) You speak incidentally of Wilbur Daniel Steele.2 Neither of us ever heard of him. I believe Nietzsche would have to be classed as a major influence & certainly this California locality must be major (as major as Hardy’s Wessex with him). Another influence necessary to be considered is his three years at medical school. ♦ He writes very little about himself— is loathes talking about his work or himself. However he gives a few personal details in the short preface to the Modern Library edition of Roan Stallion & in the long preface to his Selected Poetry pub. by Random House. I suppose you are familiar with the remarkably good Bibliography of the Works of R.— J. by Sydney Alberts, Random House, pub. 1933. It contains much material not usually included in a Bibliography It is now out of print. I am a very busy woman but not too busy to help you when I can—if you will ask definite questions. Very sincerely Una Jeffers. ALS. Green. 2 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Jerome Green (b. 1923), a graduate student at New York University when this letter was written, earned an M.A. in 1950 with a thesis titled “The Development of Robinson Jeffers.” He earned a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1963 with a dissertation on Carl Sandburg, and was employed as a teacher and principal in the New York City public school system. 2. Wilbur Daniel Steele (1886–1970), an American novelist, playwright, and prizewinning short story writer, was the author of The Man Who Saw Through Heaven (1927) and other books.

UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 October 26. 1948 Darling Clapps: My days are so crowded I no longer can keep track of what I have done as distinguished from what I have thought of doing. Up until yesterday Robin has spent a part of each day in bed but yesterday he was dressed all day & says he intends to be from now one. For several weeks he has taken a little walk around the Point every day, & really has made steady improvement—but {but} slow. He has had a complete check-up by Wolfson, & X rays etc. & all he needs is quiet & food. He looks fine & I can even see that he has added a few ounces to his ribs. Saturday night Jean K. drove me up to San Jose for Medea. She hadn’t seen it & so I gave her Robin’s ticket. We had a most interesting time. Her mother is still in hosp Santa Barbara. She will need to go back to the hospital a little later for further surgery. Do not speak of this when you write to her. The land they bought last year on the cliff at the Highlands has been a terrible liability (this land adjoins the old Criley place on the north). The buildings were full of termites & had to be scrapped; hidden springs made the ground unsure. ♦ Drainage from the Highway, funnelled onto their land, from the made great crevices—the whole thing has been quite disastrous & crazy. Charlotte is 72 & frail & why she can’t live {happily} in her convenient home & Jean close by in her beautiful studio is beyond my comprehension. But they both wish to be well apart. I obviously have LETTERS 1940– 1962

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no artistic temperament. Luckily. Tor House will always be bursting with life—I hope & expect, & still a bit of privacy for all. The Barkan’s daughter Button will be married in ten days or so to a young man Hans & Phoebe approve of. I think I shall send Donnan & Lee up to the wedding to represent us, & I will take charge of the Rose-aLindsaye.1 While we were away Donnan & Lee prepared a great surprise for us. Working like beavers, they managed to get a dear little plot of lawn going over near the sundial, and a flower garden in other parts of the courtyard. They did not disturb the rosemary & Spanish mint & rose geraniums & lemon verbena already growing nor the great clumps of lavender now all abloom, with bees & butterflies & hummingbirds fluttering over the lovely bloo blossom stalks. Robin & I were very much touched by their sweet thought. We have a ♦ happy household. Lee is such a pretty sweet thing & keeps her baby boy in spotless healthy condition. He is gay & laughing. A letter from Blanche said they will be in Carmel for a day & night about Oct 28. We have {had} one golden day after another since we came home. Today there is sunshine but a warm west wind & dark clouds on the horizon hint of rain. Robin hasn’t had enough rain yet, but I feel as if I could do without it for a while. Give my affectionate greetings to Sweeneys & William Levy. How thoughtful & kind everyone was to us—you & everybody. I want to hear that Timmie feels stronger, —but he must remember {that} any surgery is a great shock & not hurry himself. Robin sends love. Always your devoted Una. Such a beautiful clump of chrysanthemums just outside my window— russet—my favorites. I was foolish enough to accept the chairmanship of our Red Cross chapter before I went to Ireland. I expected to return full of vigor. Now I hate to fail to do what I promised. One of the most important thing the Red Cross ever did is just starting—the Blood Bank Program ♦ all over

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

America. You must have read about it. Free blood for every citizen {in U. S.} needing it. Organizing such an {nation-wide} endeavor is terrific as you would know. O We are to provide 50 donors a month. We had our first blood-letting ! last Mon. The mobile unit comes from San Jose with 2 doctors 5 nurses & all equipment. All told 40 aides are needed here to do the various jobs. It was a great pleasure to see the whole thing run so smoothly. Unless I get rested sooner than I believe possible I shall resign as soon as this thing is surely underway here.2 Different hotels here take turns in providing the roast beef sandwiches given to the martyrs after their ordeals! Fruit juice & coffee also. ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Lindsay Jeffers. See Una’s June 10, 1946 letter to Theodore Lilienthal. 2. At the end of an October 7, 1948 letter to Blanche Matthias (ALS Yale), not included in this edition, Una writes, “I am very tired & find it hard to get my life in order again.”

UJ to Luther Greene 1948 OCT 30 AM 11 29 LUTHER GREEN CAMLIN HOTEL SEATTLE WASH HAD ALREADY WRITTEN GILKEY1 WE WOULD CERTAINLY COOPERATE TO THAT END HE SHOULD LAY BEFORE MORRIS AGENCY AND DRAMATIST GUILD HIS FIGURES AND ESTIMATES AND INFORMATION AS TO CUTS OF FIFTY PERCENT TAKEN BY OTHER INTERESTED PARTIES BEST WISHES UNA Tlg. Tor House. 1. Stanley Gilkey (1900–1979) was a Broadway producer, theater manager, and business associate of Guthrie McClintic.

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UJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 November 1. 1948 Dear Larry: Don’t come here just for us as I don’t know whether Robin can see you or not. But if you come, call me & we could perhaps see you for half an hour. Let me hear in advance & also what kind of an interview you want.1 —What angle? Robin nearly died in Dublin &, now home, hasn’t gone to one place —I mean to friends. He needs no medicine but needs rest & nourishment. He begins to look better than he has for several years but he gets tired very easily & I protect him from everything I can. Best wishes from us both, Faithfully, Una. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. As Powell explains in a letter to Una dated October 26, 1948 (TLC Occidental), he and an associate planned to be in Carmel November 6. With Una’s permission, he hoped to bring a tape recorder to Tor House and “have a sort of interview reading by both Robin and you.”

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 November 5. 1948 Dear William: Glad as ever to get the English magazines & very interested indeed to have a catalogue of the German paintings—so much controversy about moving them around.1 You are a dear! Robin continues to gain strength but still doesn’t do anything social—not even a call. (which suits him exactly!) He rests in bed several hours a day,

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

then goes outdoors & potters around—chops wood & other little chores about the place. He looks quite himself now. I was amused to note that you had written to the London Times for {Barnes} information. For many years I f rec’d that paper every week from an English friend & never failed to read the letters & answers. Over a course of months there were letters about Shelley’s heart—which is one of my subjects—(not only Shelley’s—). I have two rare books on Enshrined Hearts 2 & have pages of ms. of notes I’ve made on the subject as new data came to my eye. Do you for instance know the ultimate fate of Napoleon’s heart & do you ♦ know about the Dean {Buckland} of Westminster swallowing the heart of Louis XIV.?3 . . . . . . . . . . I had intended to send you a snapshot of Drumcliffe churchyard where Yeats is buried but there were such good pictures in Life4—which you doubtless saw. However I am sending you a snap of the stump of a round tower exactly across the narrow road from the church. I really am delighted with Country Dance by Sitwell5—you sent me. I hadn’t seen it. Affectionately —Una. We had an invitation to Eliot’s lecture on Poe’s influence on {on} French Literature.6 That’s a very fertile theme. The human warmth, & love & feeling {Earthy! with the enrichening & renewing quality of fertile land.} for natural objects, the dear honesty & simplicity of Barnes never fails to move me to the heart. Here are some titles of poems I marked long ago in my Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset dialect & still love today—“The Spring” “Evenèn’ an’ Maïdens out at Door,” “Our Fathers’ Works,” “woak hill” “The Turnstile” & dozens of others. O William! Just now I threw some paper in the fire & one piece was this Country Dance. Of your mercy will you copy it again for me —Please! And give us your Devon trip notes when you have time.7 Will Would you like several pictures of my favorite round towers?8 ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. 1. Near the end of World War II, a cache of paintings was found in Germany and brought to the United States for safekeeping. Many of them were exhibited in American museums

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before being returned. See, for instance, Masterpieces of Painting Saved from the German Salt Mines: Property of the Berlin Museums (Chicago: Art Institute, 1948). 2. Heart Burial by Charles Angell Bradford (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1933) and Enshrined Hearts of Warriors and Illustrious People by Emily Sophia Hartshorne (London: Robert Hardwick, 1861) remain in the Tor House library. See Collected Letters 2: 888, note 4. 3. William Buckland (1784–1856), dean of Westminster Abbey from 1845 to 1856 and professor of geology at the University of Oxford, was an adventurous omnivore. According to Augustus J. C. Hare, Buckland visited Nuneham House in Oxfordshire, where he and several guests were shown a silver box that contained a portion of Louis XIV’s heart. “‘I have eaten many strange things, but have never eaten the heart of a king before,’” Buckland exclaimed, “and, before anyone could hinder him, he had gobbled it up, and the precious relic was lost forever.” See Augustus J. C. Hare, Story of My Life, volume 5 (London: George Allen, 1900): 358. 4. “The Burial of Yeats,” Life (October 25, 1848): 146–150. 5. Edith Sitwell, “Country Dance,” The Collected Poems of Edith Sitwell (London: Duckworth, 1930): 130. 6. T. S. Eliot delivered a lecture titled “From Poe to Valéry” at the Library of Congress on November 19, 1948. The day before this letter was written, the Swedish Academy awarded Eliot the 1948 Nobel Prize in Literature. 7. These sentences are written above and below the last paragraph of the letter, where Una refers to Sitwell’s Country Dance. 8. Written in the left and top margins, page 2.

UJ to Judith Anderson 1948 NOV 17 PM 6 33 CARMEL CALIF JUDITH ANDERSON PARK PLAZA STL ROBIN HAS TOLD MORRIS AGENCY HE WILL ACCEPT ANY FAIR PERCENTAGE. FOLLOWING YOUR SOUND ADVICE HE HAS LEFT BUSINESS NEGOTIATIONS WITH HIS AGENT FROM THE START LOVE UNA Tlg. Tor House.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Judith Anderson Tor House, Carmel, California. November 23, 1948. Dear Judith: I was glad that Una was willing to write answers to Luther’s letters—first, because I am not well, though a lot better than I was—second, because I am very poor at correspondence as well as business—third, because I am trying to be busy with another kind of writing. Naturally she has shown me her letters before sending them, as I suppose Luther has shown his to you. It seems to me that Luther’s letters have been a little peremptory—don’t you think so? He has never told me, for instance, what your interest in the matter is. I imagine that you receive a salary and some percentage of the gross, but I have no means of knowing that it matters to you whether the tour loses money or not. I do not know that the backers; of course if you are one of them it would make a quick difference to us. So I asked Morris Agency to attend to the matter for me, saying that I would take any cut required.1 They may not know very much on the subject, but at least they will know more than I do—and will see the accounts— besides that I have agreed to let them do business for me. That seems the natural way to attend to the matter, and nothing has been shown me to indicate that it is not the proper way. If there are reasons that Luther has not entrusted to me, I’ll be glad to know them; but the threat of the tour being broken off is not a sufficient reason. You will remember that it was at your repeated request that we were able—with some difficulty—to persuade Whitehead and Rea to lease the play to Guthrie McClintic. We were glad to do it of course; and you thought everything would be all right then. I am sorry to have to write all this business stuff to you. I would much rather pass on some of the great things we have heard about your acting and your genius; and our loving hope that your health remains at least reasonable (which mine isn’t) in spite of the fierce strain of your work. Affectionately—and with best wishes to Luther—2 Robin.

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TLS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Before Judith received this letter, and thus before she knew that Jeffers was willing to comply with her wishes, she sent an indignant telegram (November 28 at 7:56 am) demanding that he do so. “DEAR ROBIN AND UNA,” she writes, “FROM OUR EARLY WARM AND PLEASANT ASSOCIATION WHEN I BROUGHT MEDEA TO YOU AND WE WERE ALL WORKING FOR ITS SUCCESS WITH COMPLETE MUTUAL FAITH I FIND IT TRAGIC NOW TO FIND SO LITTLE FAITH. I HAVE ALWAYS FOUGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS. IT IS NOW UNBELIEVABLE TO ME THAT I AM FORCED TO SAY THESE THINGS BUT I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW SHOCKED I AM TO HAVE JUST LEARNED THAT YOU EXPECT ME TO CONTINUE TO WORK AT A REDUCED SALARY. . . . YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED REPEATEDLY BY THIS FINE AND MOST HONORABLE MANAGEMENT THAT IT IS NOT POSSIBLE WITH EXISTING TOURING COSTS AND YOUR FULL ROYALTY TO MAKE ANY PROFIT FOR THE BACKERS WHO HAVE MADE POSSIBLE THIS TOUR. BAD AS IT WILL BE FOR ME IF THE PLAY MUST CLOSE BEFORE THEY GET BACK THEIR INVESTMENT I WILL NOT GO ON UNLESS YOU AGREE TO A STRAIGHT FIVE PERCENT ROYALTY ALL THE MANAGEMENT CAN AFFORD.”

2. A handwritten draft of this letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California. Rt. 1. Box 36 November 26. 1948 Darling Blanche: I have so often thought of writing you since you were here to say how much I love you & delight to be with you—both of you—but my work is never done & my necessary letters exhaust my writing time. Thanks so much for clippings etc. many of them I would never have seen otherwise. Robin is gaining, but its slow. Four days ago he wasn’t so well & Mast came out twice & gave him a little extra boost, & your whiskey! {Thanks.} I have had much work with Red Cross. Before I went abroad I accepted the Chairmanship of the whole chapter (with 4 mos. leave of absence.) There was about to start off—a very big nationwide project—the Blood Bank Program you must have read about. I was lucky to be able to set up a series of committees who have done a marvellous job. There is a very complicated system. The mobile blood unit comes from San Jose once a

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

month complete with equipment, 2 doctors & 3 registered nurses & {2} unit men. We must furnish in conjunction with Monterey 5 {6} Nurses Aides, 8 Staff Assistants, 6 canteen staff & 7 motor corps. We use the big finely equipped Army & Navy Y. M. C. A. quarters {in Monterey.} ♦ Appalling amount of work to organize. I got Paul Whitman1 to head it with Matt Jenkins,2 vice. Lucille Parrot3 head of Nurses Aides etc. It Remsen Bird publicity. It was all a well set-up system for the first bloodletting when I got home. Muriel Vanderbilt Adams4 comes down from Burlingame to captain her Motor Corps to which she is devoted. We’ve had 2 occasions now & I am proud of the smoothness. Our quota is 47 pts. a mo. & to get that we process almost twice the number. —Anyway I think women who have a full time job at home might leave public service to others. And I wouldn’t hesitate resigning for a moment if I hadn’t had that generous leave of absence (from which I expected to come home a giant refreshed). Now I mean to keep on for a bit & then get out. The general opinion is that Martin & Connie will remarry, but everyone has gotten so bored with the long drawn out staleness of the romance that it isnt an exciting topic of conversation anymore. Connie & Matt have been in love for 3 yrs. & she told so many people she meant to get him away from Louisa, that the whole town knows. But Matt in the end wouldn’t leave Louisa5—tho’ she doesn’t care a hoot about anything except her painting & Barbara6 I am told. Anyway Connie has just had a hysterectomy; she says she has told Martin about Matt, & Martin still hovers about. Martin needs— AWFULLY to get away from his prolonged boredom & Connie needs security. I hope they get together. Devotedly, Una.7 Now I am afraid I shall forget to tell & to ask about all the wild & thrilling experiences we’ve been through in these years.8 ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Paul Whitman (1897–1950), a retired insurance broker, came to the Monterey Peninsula from St. Louis, Missouri in order to pursue a career in art. In addition to his work with the Red Cross, he was a vice president of the Carmel Art Association. 2. Matthew Comstock Jenkins (1898–1982), a graduate of Williams College, owned land

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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in the San Joaquin Valley where he produced peaches, almonds, and grapes. He was a founder of the Stillwater Yacht Club in Pebble Beach. 3. Lucile (Cary) Armstrong Parrot (1895–1988), later Lucile Paul, was the wife of Kent K. Parrot (1881–1956), attorney, politician, and de facto mayor of Los Angeles from 1921 to 1929. 4. Muriel (Vanderbilt) Church Phelps Adams (1900–1972), an heir to the Vanderbilt fortune, was the wife of John Payson Adams, M.D. (1906–1985) at the time this letter was written. In the 1930s she owned the Los Laureles Ranch in Carmel Valley, where she raised thoroughbred racehorses. 5. Matt and Louisa Jenkins eventually divorced. Less than four months after this letter was written, their eleven-year-old adopted son Jonathan hung himself at the couple’s home in Pebble Beach. 6. Barbara Jenkins (b. 1928) was Matt and Louisa’s daughter. As Barbara Mills, wife of Carmel architect Mark Mills (1921–2007), she and Louisa co-authored The Art of Making Mosaics (Princeton, N. J.: Van Nostrand, 1957). 7. Written vertically in the left margin, page 2. 8. Written in the top right corner, page 1.

RJ to Albert Taylor Nov. 27 [1948] {To} A. Taylor. Please send me following wire “approve 50% cut road tour Medea for 4 wks. beginning week ending 10/23/48 until 11/13/48 subject to approval Dramatists Guild & subject to director taking 50% cut” R. Jeffers1 ATD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This draft for a telegram is handwritten by Una.

RJ to Albert Taylor 1948 DEC 3 AM 8 05 ALBERT TAYLOR CARE WILLIAM MORRIS AGENCY 1270 6TH AVE NYK WILLING TAKE FIVE PERCENT OF GROSS UNDER 22,000 AND TEN PERCENT IF GROSS IS OVER 22,000 FOR BALANCE TOUR MEDIA

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

COMMENCING WEEK ENDING NOV 27 THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE NEW YORK PERFORMANCES IF ANY SUBJECT TO APPROVAL DRAMATIST GUILD ROBINSON JEFFERS Tlg. HRC Texas.

UJ to Harry Downie [December 13, 1948] Dear Harry: Thanks for your generous hospitality to unexpected guests! Here is a snapshot to add to your San Antonio views.2 We used to go down there every Nov. 9th on the boys birthday. Cordially Una Jeffers 1

ANS. Carmel M. 1 page. Postmark: December 13, 1948. 1. Henry “Harry” John Downie (1903–1980), a cabinetmaker born in San Francisco, dedicated his life to the restoration of California’s missions—principally the Carmel Mission, but others as well. Downie was named a knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Pius XII in 1954 in recognition of his service to the Catholic Church. 2. The Mission San Antonio de Padua, located in the Salinas Valley near Jolon, was established by Junípero Serra in 1771.

UJ to Jean Kellogg Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 December 14. 1948

Dearest Jean: I am so glad your mother came through her operation so gallantly. My ordeal with Robin is of just {such} recent & vivid memory that I am more than usually sympathetic & understanding of this kind of anxiety. Please call us up when you are down, with further news. We will go down to your cliff some sunny day soon. Noël was saying just a few days ago that he never saw a more beautiful spot. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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What can I say to you about the holidays—not merry for you this year, but full of thankfulness for safety thus far & I’m sure a sense of deepening love. Our warm love to you & Charlotte. Yours ever Una. A terrifying step in our lives—we are ordering electricity put into Tor House. We can no longer get proper wicks, shades, & equipment for our old oil lamps. We are sorry.1 ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. 1. The work of installing electricity at Tor House took several months to complete. Meanwhile, Robinson and Una continued to use candles and kerosene lamps for light, a kerosene stove for cooking, and wood fires in their fireplaces for heat.

UJ to Zena Holman [January 6, 1949] Zena Holman The little cabin (4th & Monte Verde {Carmel}) where Robin & I lived 1914–1916 (Van Wyck Brooks had spent his honeymoon there— Theodore Maynard1 also & other writers). Thanks for gorgeous holly & beautiful Irish calendar! I am mailing you today Samuel French edition of Medea with stage directions, incidental music etc.2 Very best wishes for the New Year from us both. Faithfully, Una Jeffers. APPS, Cabin. Tor House. Postmark: January 6, 1949. 1. Theodore Maynard (1890–1956), a poet, historian, and professor of English at Dominican College and other institutions, wrote a number of books about Catholicism, including The Story of American Catholicism (1941), The Long Road of Father Serra (1954), and Saint Ignatius and the Jesuits (1956). 2. A paperback “Acting Edition” of Medea, intended for use as a production script, was published by Samuel French in 1948. Incidental music was composed by Tibor Serly (1901– 1978), a Hungarian-born violinist, violist, composer, and teacher. Serly’s musical style was influenced by his close association with Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to William Turner Levy Carmel, January 19, 1949. Wednesday (?) Dear William: (So Una calls you, and I hope I may.) She asked me to write because she is ill at present—and of course I am glad to, but forgive the pencil, even if you can read it. She took flu after New Year’s—half the town has been sick—but she was exhausted too—our son Garth and his family were here besides Donnan and his—it made a houseful—and Una has been over-tired for a year and more. The flu got well and an obscure abdominal infection appeared with fever and alarming white blood-cell count, etc. Yesterday She was hospitalized Sunday; our two best—doctor and surgeon—couldn’t make a complete diagnosis; they operated yesterday, not daring to wait in uncertainty, and found the rather small area of infection, which they feel sure the anti-biotics, penicillin and so forth, will take care of. They had feared worse—the operation was mostly exploratory. Everything else was normal. They hope to have her out of hospital in ten days, if all goes well. Of course, she has had a lot of pain and discomfort, and still has—much more than I in Dublin {—and severe weakness.} I am writing from the hospital and without a table—hinc illae1 pencil-scratches. Una and I have spoken often with pleasure about that silver unicornbrooch, and the magnificent muffler, of which I am by no means worthy— and other things—including of course your vivid letters, which we read with delight. Thank you so much. And what a pleasant and complicated meeting at the air-port with you and Maud Clapp, when I was supposed to be ill but wasn’t really. But how sorry not to have seen Timmie. We have had wonderful weather lately—for Carmel—all the gardens frozen, and many water-pipes and car-radiators, night after night. Snow on hills, thick ice on pools, 17° in parts of Carmel, but we were a little warmer—24° or so—beside the ocean. Our fire-places roared, and we were very comfortable. Will you telephone news of Una to the Clapps, please? She has not had time to write for a good while, and lately too ill, but I know that she will

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when she gets up out of this. She sat in a chair for five minutes to-day—the new surgical practice after operation—but not with pleasure. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. New York PL. 1 page. 1. Hinc illae : Latin for “hence these.”

RJ and UJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp January 30, 1949. Dear Timmie and Maud: Una is much better now, and I believe she can come home from the hospital in a couple of days, but I hope she will be willing to rest and be a convalescent for some time. She was exhausted after New Year’s—thence the bad attack of flu—and I think she had been over-tired for years. She has such a sense of responsibility—a beautiful thing in moderation—a beautiful thing always—but exhausting, giving herself to me when I was sick in Ireland, and to grandchildren and all of us here. After the flu she was nearly well, and then this obscure abdominal infection appeared—fever again, bad white blood-cell count, and extreme prostration, continued nausea {—no food whatever—} —The doctors couldn’t make a definite diagnosis, feared eventual peritonitis, and didn’t dare not operate, and see with their eyes what was the matter. {X-rays revealed nothing}1 They found the rather small area of infection, and connected with bad adhesions from the operation of twenty-three years ago, removed some of the adhesions, and packed the place with sulpha-powder. Afterwards a short intensive course of penicillin and streptomycin. The operation was perhaps unnecessary, except as exploration, but it is comforting to know that every abdominal organ was inspected and pronounced normal, except that small place. And now the blood-count is normal, no infection remains, and little by little Una is beginning to eat food and drink water again. Her pierced veins are pretty tired of saline solution with dextrose, and blood-transfusions. ♦ Today she was able to get out of bed and walk on the balcony, and make loving lovng loving signals to her 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

grandchild Lindsay and his golden-haired mother (Lee—Donnan’s little wife, who has managed the household most competently in her absence)–, and will manage it when she comes home, as long as we can keep her more or less in bed.) She has never descended as low as I did when I was ill, to the reading of mystery and detective stories, though she tried to; but she allowed me to read Hardy to her all one day, and Weir of Hermiston2 the next. The latter—as I remembered it—was the most adult but also in spots the most tiresome of Stevenson’s. Well, we are out of the fog now, and going happily. I want to thank Maud—perhaps again—for her patience and goodness at the New York air-port, when I was supposed to be sick, and could hardly wait for a chance at the charming bottle of whiskey she had in store for us. (But I think Una got the larger half). And I was terribly sorry—very sorry—not to see you, Timmie. Una assured me that I was ill, and I believed her—perhaps I was at least convalescent—but that is all over now—for you I hope as for me—and for Una in a {few} weeks. or two. When will there be another volume of poems, Timmie? I admire and enjoy yours, as I have told you, more than any other of this time. Once or twice in the later volumes they have been a little dark to me—or too erudite for my ignorance—but I still enjoyed them. Love to you both, from Una and me. Robin. Monday3 Darlings, so good to get your wire & letter. I’ve been pretty miserable, but now recovering. Little strength yet. I came down with flu Jan 5, & haven’t been dressed since. I cannot remember ever having felt so low. I left great piles of unanswered letters on my desk. I felt very sad about not having thanked Wm Levy for a darling unco unicorn and 3 doz. snap-shots of places connected with us in Ireland & Devon. So Robin wrote him for me & sent a message to you. Will you thank him for his note & say we hope soon to be proper healthy citizens—both! Will you please send this note to Blanche (Desert Inn, Palm Springs).

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She telephoned one night since Ive been in hospital but I was so dopey that I don’t know what was said. It is hard to get letters written Devotedly Una. The surgeon & Dr. Wolfson think I can leave here Wed. ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Una added this insertion. 2. Robert Louis Stevenson, Weir of Hermiston: An Unfinished Romance (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896). 3. Una’s note is written in the left, top, and right margins of the first page and in the left and bottom margins of the second page.

UJ to Board Members, Carmel Chapter of American Red Cross Tor House. Carmel February 4. 1949 To the Board of Executives Carmel-by-the-Sea Chapter of Red Cross I am bitterly sorry—but must resign from the office of Chairman of this chapter. I had looked forward to the work of this office & to the association with the other members of the chapter, but I have had fantastically bad luck these last six months—first my husband’s long illness in Ireland, then his long convalescence which had just ended when I was struck down with a bad case of flu. Just as I began to creep around I was dragged off to hospital for a major operation. Here I am home now but it is quite evident I won’t be a useful citizen for many weeks yet. So I am vacating the chair to make room for someone who has energy to carry on the work properly. When I get going again, I’ll help out anywhere I can. Sincerely & regretfully Una Jeffers I have to thank Red Cross for two important blood transfusions. ALS. Red Cross. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ and RJ to Blanche Matthias Saturday, February 5 (?)—1949 Dictated by Una.1 Darling Blanche— Home here in my bed at Tor House, looking out over the ocean—weak as a rag, but expect to be better very soon. Mast has just been here, and for a wonder didn’t inject any sort of medicine or suggest anything except to rest and eat. I had so many intramuscular and intravenous injections at the hospital, and saline solutions and blood-transfusions, that I feel like an old pin-cushion. I can’t say how grateful we are to Mast for his incessant care and work on me, till he got me fixed up. There’s a very brilliant and muchloved surgeon here—Dr. John Gratiot2—who was equally kind. Mast was present during every moment of the operation. It’s a bright cold morning after rain, blazing fire in the hearth—Robin is here with me as usual. The living-room door is shut—the living-room is a scene of constant activity. Lindsay has a pair of big brown laced shoes, which look very naughty and continually lead him astray. Thanks very much for your letter and thoughts of me. The little unicorn scarf came, and was added to my unicorn collection. The box of wonderful dates arrived in time for Lotte and Garth to have a good share of them. Even little Maeve had some tastes—this child has an enormous appetite. We never saw anything as comical as the two children were together. Lindsay showed her every trick he could think of; when he couldn’t think of anything else would throw himself prostrate on the floor and pretend he was swimming violently. She followed him everywhere, walking stiff-legged like a mechanical doll, clapping her hands and laughing. ♦ Maeve had her first birthday while they were here; Lindsay had sixteen months. The children findfound asylum under the piano, just as my bulldogs used to do, when they thinkthought they need{ed} a spanking. Garth and Lotte were here two weeks. Sheila Moore’s wedding took place at that time; there were lots of festivities.3 (Sheila is Esther Fish’s daughter.) Lotte and Garth left Maeve

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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here three days and went down to Stockdale—(old Tevis estate near Bakersfield)—for a big party. I suppose you’ve heard that Martin and Connie married.4 Flavia has a little house on the Point, not far from us. The Carpenters are back here, in the same house. We suppose you’ve seen Paula down there. She asked us to come and visit her, but at present it doesn’t seem likely. I feel too weak to imagine going anywhere. Noël asked us to come up and recuperate in his guest-house. Perhaps—sometime. Charlotte Kellogg had a very serious operation—is home, and seems to be recuperating. I’d like to see Russell’s car. But am pretty well satisfied with our new hundred-horsepower Ford—very steady and very roomy. I got to stop now. Send all my love. Devotedly, Una. Love to you and Russell. —Robin. Garth is doing wonderfully well with his Forestry. He has lots of hard courses in Higher Mathematics which really make him work. Wish he had his Uncle Hamilton’s aptitudes. Please send this to darling Clapps Love to Paula if you see her ALS. Yale. 2 pages. 1. The entire letter was written by Jeffers, except for the postscripts added by Una below his signature. 2. John Gratiot (1907–1975) attended high school in Pacific Grove, where his father established a medical practice in 1922. Following studies at Stanford University and Harvard University Medical School, Gratiot returned to the Monterey Peninsula and worked alongside his father as a physician and surgeon. 3. Sheilah Moore married Henry Tompkins “Duffy” Rathbun December 29, 1948 at the Palo Corona Ranch in Carmel Valley. Rathbun (1922–2009), a 1948 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School, practiced in Washington, D.C., where he joined the Wilmer, Cutler, & Pickering law firm as a founding partner in 1962. Two years later, the couple purchased Fay Gate, a farm in Middleburg, Virginia, where they bred horses for racing. 4. Connie and Martin Flavin married a second time February 2, 1949.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to John Hobart Tor House, Carmel. February 17, 1949. Dear Mr. Hobart:1 I have seen very few plays, and read rather few, and have no acquaintance with the theatre, except distantly in the past two or three years, therefore I do not feel that I could be a good judge for the play-contest.2 Also I am still lazy and convalescent from my illness last summer—the first in my life—but it is not laziness that makes me decline to serve, but a sincere feeling that you can find better judges. Have you asked our friend Martin Flavin, for instance? Don’t say that I named him to you, but I think he might serve. He knows a lot about the theatre, and has written, as you know, a number of successful plays, and would probably pick the right play for the right reasons, —whereas my reasons might have little to do with the theatre. I am sorry that I cannot answer more helpfully. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. John Hobart (1911–1961), a graduate of Princeton University, was the drama critic for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1937 to 1951 and critic-at-large for the Daily American in Rome, Italy from 1953 to 1961. Hobart’s enthusiastic review of the opening night performance of Medea in San Francisco, “A Great Actress and a Great Role: ‘Medea’ Triumphs at the Geary,” was published in the September 8, 1948 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle, page 11. 2. The San Francisco Municipal Theatre sponsored a playwriting contest in 1949, with professional production for the winning entry and a $500 prize.

RJ to Mr. Griffith Tor House, Carmel, California. February 23, 1949. Dear Mr. Griffith—1 I am sorry, I haven’t time just now to look up “Hurt Hawks” and copy it. I will write the two lines that stand clearest in my memory— LETTERS 1940– 1962

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The wild God of the world is sometimes merciful to those That ask mercy; not often to the arrogant. I don’t know why these two lines stick, and the others only come in fragments. It is not particularly for their meaning— Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Probably Benjamin W. Griffith, Jr. (b. 1922), a graduate student at Northwestern University, where he received an M.A. in 1948 and a Ph.D. in 1952. In August 1956, when Griffith was a professor of English at Mercer University, he wrote Jeffers a letter in which he shared information about his current research interests (ALS HRC Texas). In 1973, when Griffith was chair of the English Department at the University of West Georgia, he wrote an article titled “Robinson Jeffers’ ‘The Bloody Sire’ and Stephen Crane’s ‘War Is Kind,’” published in Notes on Contemporary Literature 3 (January 1973): 14–15.

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 March 4. 1949 Dear William: You’ve been a wonderful faithful friend what with notes & unicorns & English papers & that stunning note paper. —I’ve been living in such a twilight of activity that I don’t know whether I’ve thanked you for any of these things. I still must rest in bed part of the day —a sort of rest cure. That flu took every bit of strength out of me before my operation & it has been hard to bounce back. We, too, were shocked to hear of Ted Spencer’s death.1 During the several days we were in Cambridge staying with Mrs. Kingsley Porter we saw him several times & lunched at his house. He was so keen & witty—such an agreeable companion. I wish I could have heard your talk about biography with Van Doran. I wonder whether he, besides discussing the theory of writing, named any

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

he liked very particularly? I like to read Biography—almost better than anything. —I remember two that I read several years ago that gave me such pleasure, ♦ Catherine Carswell’s Robert Burns & Lord David Cecil’s Young Lord Melbourne. The latter {particularly} for a chapter of {or} two of reconstruction of the XVIII cent. I was reading Orlando 2 the other day for the sake of that description of the Great Frost (1603 I guess) and I was surprised to see {in the foreword} amongst the names of people she was mo indebted to for help, the names Mr & Mrs T. S. Eliot.3 Did you know he was ever married? Are his eyes as yellow & his movements as rhythmic as Osbert Sitwell says they are? Robin sends his greetings Affectionately Una. We’ve had the coldest winter on record in California ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. 1. Theodore Spencer (1902–1949), Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University, died of a heart attack January 18, 1949 while riding in a taxicab. His publications include Death and Elizabethan Tragedy (1936), Poems: 1940–1947 (1948), and Shakespeare and the Nature of Man (1949). 2. Orlando: A Biography (1928) by Virginia Woolf. 3. Eliot married Vivienne Haigh-Wood (1888–1947) in 1915, but the marriage soon fell apart. Eliot left Vivienne in 1933 and had almost no contact with her after that time, although he remained married to her until she died. For the last nine years of her life, Vivienne lived in a private mental hospital in London.

UJ to Zena Holman [March 17, 1949] St. Patricks Day. Tor House. Carmel. Dear Zena Holman. I am not the most unappreciative person in the world although I must seem so. I love the exquisite bed jacket you sent me & ought to have had my little daughter-in-law telephone to you about it. After my siege in the LETTERS 1940– 1962

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hospital I was commanded to take a rest cure & haven’t even written any letters. I feel almost like my normal healthy ♦ self again. The sunshine is gay, too. Much as I love storms, months of rain in Ireland was too much for me added to our rains here. Monday—This note didn’t get on its way. Today Robin & I are going up to Noëls to spend a few days or longer. They all think I must find young grandson too exciting at home (I don’t.) Actually I am ashamed to tell you Robins coat size (its 40) but we don’t deserve any further ♦ kind things from you!1 Medea is still on the road —we hear reports from various friends— Detroit, Ithaca, etc. I believe they expect to reopen on Broadway May 2. You must bring your “Apology for B. D—” over one day to have inscription brought up to date With many thanks for your thought of us. Affectionately Una Jeffers ALS. Tor House. 3 pages. Postmark: March 21, 1949. 1. In a letter dated April 6, 1949 (ALS Tor House), Una thanks Zena for the gift of a new leather jacket—“perfect for Robin to work about outdoors in.”

RJ to Friedrich Strothmann [Spring 1949] Dear Mr. Strothmann: I was greatly attracted by the theme and promised to think it over; I should have known my own disabilities in the first place, for now the kindness of your letter and Mr. Hagerty’s2 makes it doubly difficult to say no, and for several reasons I must do so. First, I am a wretched public speaker; I have to read whatever I say and {even} if mythe paper were interesting it might {would} be half spoiled in the delivery. Second, I was ill last summer, for the first time in my life, and my energy is not wholly {all} restored yet. {I am trying to get something of my 1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

[illegible]} but Even at best my brain only works for a few {two or three or four} hours in the morning, {a day,} and I am trying to get something of my own written; and anything extra would take the time from it. Third, and perhaps most important, I don’t feel on consideration that I could do Goethe very proper justice. I have the greatest admiration for him as a pillar of European {Western} literature, {—and life too; a genius on {a great man} standing superior to wars and nationalities, undisturbed by superstitions and tumults and fanaticisms; but, —the my own fault no doubt— though I knew German very well in my youth, I have never read Goethe, {even the most imaginative scenes from Faust} with the rich {eager} enthusiasm that I have given at times to much lesser men {poems}, German and French and English. poets {like Shelley’s} My own fault, no doubt. But enthusiastic {liking} is necessary for the occasion; without it I should either be false to Goethe or to my own feeling. Forgive me that I did not think envisag realize these hindrances more instantly.3 If you are ever down this way, {and care to come in} I should be happy to see you. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Friedrich W. Strothmann (1904–1982), a professor at Stanford University for forty years, chaired the Department of Modern European Languages, directed the graduate program in Humanities at its inception, developed the Overseas Campuses program, and taught courses in German and Medieval Latin. 2. James L. Hagerty (1899–1957) was a professor in the English, History, and Philosophy Departments at St. Mary’s College in Moraga, California, and dean of the School of Arts and Letters. 3. Strothmann and Hagerty were active in the Great Books program and other cultural enrichment initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is likely that they invited Jeffers to participate in one of several events held in honor of Johan Wolfgang von Goethe’s bicentennial (Goethe was born August 28, 1749 in Frankfurt, Germany).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Roland DeMunbrun Tor House, Carmel, California. April 9, 1949 Dear Roland DeMunbrun:1 I have read “Peril is the Shadow” with interest. I don’t like the title, but the drama has good poetic values, of phrase and vision.2 There is some carelessness; and some of the lines, especially at the beginning, have no intensity nor distinction. The brutality of war and the yielding of women are well expressed. The psychology—the reasons or instincts that cause the action—are not presented so vividly. The author’s gift is not yet mature, nor sufficiently cultivated; and I have read poems of his that seem to me better than this drama; but cet certainly it shows an unusual poetic mind, good promise, and much ability. This is as honest a note as I can make on the subject, and I hope it may be of some use to you. But really it seems to me that academic qualifications, which no doubt you can produce, would serve your purpose better than any poetic play, no matter how excellent. Good luck to you. Please give my thanks to Mr. Burris3 for his note. That photograph of you and your son is very attractive. What a handsome child. And thank you very much for the New Mexico picture. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Stanford. 1 page. 1. Roland R. DeMunbrun (1915–1989) was a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps during World War II. As he says in an unpublished memoir titled “The Tower of Bashan” (Special Collections, Stanford University Library), he had admired Jeffers for many years and had visited Tor House. At the time this letter was written, he was studying journalism at Highlands University in New Mexico and applying for admission to the graduate program in creative writing at Stanford University. In a previous letter to Una, DeMunbrun asked if Jeffers would read a sample of his work and write a letter of recommendation. Una responded March 26, 1949 (ALS Stanford) and told him to send the manuscript: “. . . my husband will read it & give you his opinion. He is breaking his rule to do this as he has consistently refused to criticize mss. for some years now. So many were sent him that they consumed too much time.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

2. In “The Tower of Bashan,” DeMunbrun says he later changed the title to “The Trojan Wench.” 3. Quincey Guy Burris (1901–1971) chaired the English Department at Highlands University.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 June 10. 1949. Blanche darling— How glad we were to get even a glimpse of you two—loved so many years now. I never had a friend more loyal & firm than you—never a misunderstanding or doubt between us in all these years! I do appreciate you, —so much of my strength is used up nowadays (& for years past) in meeting the work of every day, that I don’t begin to show anyone I love, half of the devotion I feel toward them. I am sending you here two letters which I wish you to return. I felt really remorseful about Esther; for the first time in 44 yrs. I refused to let her come to my house. (She used to stay weeks at a time in L. A.). I felt so utterly tired I couldnt face her sky-rockets. Some of them real & some so crazy {phoney} but all demanding my attention. However I wrote a second letter a fortnight later & said I’d be glad to see her & she seems to feel all right about it. The other letter—it is sheer vanity for me to send, but the letter moved me deeply.1 I heard a lot about him when ♦ I was with the theatre crowd in Scotland & England. He had been out of the business for several years but still kept in touch. Jed Harris told us once that Peacock was the toughest man to deal with in the English Theatre, had more power & instant decision—see next page ♦ Sunday morn. Resting in bed. We are going to Noëls for lunch So he came up to see me in London from their country place in Wiltshire. —It was our last time together. He had gotten his reservations

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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for Dublin & was to come over for a week with us & with his friend Lord Longford who is now financing the Gate Theatre (Lady L. writes plays!)2 Alas, that air embolism—& R. so sick, I wired him not to come—and soon Percy was dying.3 We landed in Ireland a year ago yesterday. I feel a bit melancholy—I don’t know when I’ll be able to get up enough resolution to go again. A year ago today we were in Adare at the Dunraven Arms & I had already seen two new (to me) Round Towers. Adare is 25 miles or so from Limerick, in a country-side very like a lush pastoral region in England. We spoke of it so often that day—the sunshine & larks & deep meadow grass filled with buttercups, the winding stream between Abbey ruins, the sweet scent of haycocks. And a neat, {un-Irish} thatched roofed village outside the estate grounds of the Earl of Dunraven. ♦ Ive had four sessions with the osteopath & hope my sacroiliac regains tone & firmness to stay put, & I have a board under my mattress! Thank you a thousand times for the Theatre Arts. You never forget anything! Garth finished his college year today {yesterday} & goes to McKenzie Bridge today to start Forestry work tomorrow.4 I hope Lotte won’t find the Forest too lonely after all the gaiety amongst the wives & babies of the college men at Adair Village. I wanted Garth to take a little holiday but he wouldn’t. Says any thing {work} in the Forest is a holiday after the classroom grind. Please give our love & news to the Barkans. (Electricity is the news!)5 & devoted love to you & Russell Una. Last Sunday we went with Elyse Hopkins6 to spend the day with her son & his wife.7 They have a house (& swimming pool) on top of ridge up Partington Cañon & 1½ miles beyond the Nick Roosevelts.8 Its magnificent country—but nothing would lure me to live up there. I would go mad. Any life or human breath ever lived there has evaporated in that hot crystal-clear air. It seems to have no human connotation. ALS. Yale. 4 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. One of the letters Una shared with Blanche, apparently from Esther Busby, is missing. “The other letter” is probably the last one she received from Percy Peacock. Writing November 14, 1948 (TLS Tor House), Percy expresses gratitude for the time he spent with Una in August, when she was in London. “If I were alone,” he tells her, “I would transfer myself to California to be near you, for the rest of my life. How little you had changed! The same gaiety, the same vitality, courage, sincerity, real simplicity, and the same wonderful charm that is indescribable! You seemed to me to be so little changed, and it was so easy for me to picture you as you were once physically, although the changes even there seemed to me comparatively small. In fact you were the old, or rather the young Una. How changeless for us are the few people we really love.” 2. Edward Arthur Henry Pakenham, 6th Earl of Longford (1902–1961) and Christine Patti (Trew) Pakenham (1900–1980). As co-founders of Longford Productions, Lord and Lady Longford were affiliated with the Gate Theatre in Dublin for more that twenty years. 3. Percy died of cancer of the spine February 12, 1949. “This is a sad letter I have to write to you,” his wife Barbara says in a letter to Una dated February 17, 1949 (ALS Tor House), “but I must do it as soon as possible. This is to tell you that my darling Percy (whom I know you always loved, as, indeed, he did you) died last Saturday. . . . You were his oldest and most loving friend—& I have always loved you for being that.” 4. At the close of the academic year at Oregon State College, Garth returned to McKenzie Bridge, where he had worked for the Forest Service the previous spring and summer. 5. The work of installing electricity at Tor House was completed by the end of May. See “The Robinson Jeffers Carmel Home Gets Electricity,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (June 1, 1949): 1. 6. Elyse (Schultz) Hopkins (1889–1971), a Carmel resident, was the former wife of Samuel Hopkins, a member of the railroad and banking family that included Mark Hopkins (one of California’s “Big Four”). 7. Samuel Hopkins, Jr. (1914–2003) and Nancy (Jory) Hopkins (1926–2001) married in August 1948. They had a home in Carmel, but spent most of their time at their home on ­Partington Ridge. Nancy’s letters to her parents, in which she describes life in the Big Sur during the 1950s, were published as These Are My Flowers: Raising a Family on the Big Sur Coast, edited by Heidi Hopkins (Big Sur: Heidi Hopkins, 2007). 8. Nicholas Roosevelt (1893–1982) and Tirzah Maris (Gates) Roosevelt (1907–1961). Nick Roosevelt, a cousin of President Theodore Roosevelt, was a diplomat, New York Times correspondent, and author. His books include The Restless Pacific (1928), A New Birth of Freedom (1938), and Conservation: Now or Never (1970). A photograph of Roosevelt—along with photographs of Sam and Nancy Hopkins, Eric Barker, Robinson Jeffers, Louisa Jenkins, Henry Miller, Susan Porter, and others—is included in a feature article titled “Rugged, Romantic World Apart: Creative Colony Finds a Haven in California’s Big Sur,” Life (July 6, 1959): 56–63, 65.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Hans Barkan Tor House. Carmel June 23. 1949 Hans: You are a darling to remember my pains. Actually you’ve helped a lot. As I didn’t seem to be getting better very quickly, I had some X rays to see what! As it turned out my sacro-iliac business is all right & all those pullings & yankings I had were the worst possible thing. All the boney (or is it bony?) structure is in good shape. Its all a question of inflamed nerves (—or irritated ones?) down my right leg with some involvement of the ♦ sciatic nerve. I say some, because twelve years ago I had a short but acute attack of sciatica & don’t believe I could live through another! I am having nice soothing things done to me now, —gentle manipulation, heat, electricity. In the night I have a bit of a bad time, —for only two hours last night, & then I slept {with your help} like a dead man, —or Robin. How we loved seeing you—two of our dearest! You thought you were improvising, just for fun, {on} the theme of Phoebe & Una in Ireland. Wait & see. You’ll hear more about this affair. Love from Una. About five minutes after you left, Lindsay began to say Eye. He says it more plainly than any other word.1 ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: June 24, 1949. 1. Added in the top right corner, page 1.

RJ to Monterey Peninsula Herald Tor House, Carmel, Calif. July 18, 1949. Editor, Dear Sir:1 I believe that the Carmel Sanitary Board is acting illegally: first, in opening bids when blocked by a majority protest; second, in presenting a new estimate (fifty per cent less) immediately after their first one was rejected.2 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

However, I am not going to file an injunction. It is possible that there are one or two streets where a few houses need sewers. These should be attended to. But that does not make it necessary to dig up every road on the Point and install a complete gridiron of sewer-pipe. I only hope (if the protest is not sustained) that some cleverer business man than I am will make sure of two items. First, whether this low bid covers all the work; for one of the three bids opened and read was incomplete, but I did not notice which one. Second, if the low bid is a complete one, whether the contractor will carry it through; for he will certainly be operating at a loss, if the first estimate meant anything at all. As to our own place, it is ridiculous to assess us more than six thousand dollars (according to the new cut-rate estimate) for a facility which we shall never need; while a big new house covering a little lot, which therefore perhaps really needs the service, will pay less than one hundred and fifty dollars—more than forty times less. But we shall not press this absurdity; but consider ourselves fortunate so long as we are not actually compelled to hook up with a system that at present shockingly defiles the river-mouth and may in future pollute the bay.3 Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. PL. Herald. 1. Jeffers’ letter appears in the Letter Box column under the heading “Robinson Jeffers Will Not File Injunction,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (July 20, 1949): 4. Jeffers wrote the letter in response to an ongoing debate, begun more than a decade before, about the need for a sewer system on Carmel Point. With the Carmel Sanitary District Board determined to go forward with the project at this time, residents were voicing their opinions pro and con. For related articles, see “Jeffers Protest Is Rejected by Supervisors,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (July 19, 1949): 1; “35 Carmel Point Owners Drop Protests of Proposed Sewer; Final Hearing Set for Monday,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (July 21, 1949): 1, 2; and “Carmel Point Sewers Ordered: Majority of Residents Favor Move,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (July 26, 1949): 1, 4. 2. When plans for the project were first announced, “property owners were shocked at the amounts they would be forced to pay”—as reported in “Citizens’ Meeting Today to Study High Sewer Costs,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (June 24, 1949): 1. Robinson and Una’s assessment was estimated at $12,000. A petition signed by 215 property owners threatened to stop the

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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project, but opposition was overcome when the Sanitary Board announced a 50% reduction in costs. 3. In October, when digging for the project was well underway, parts of a skeleton were uncovered, along with other Native American artifacts—leading officials to conclude (as was already known) that “Carmel Point was at one time an Indian camping or burial grounds.” See “Bones Found in Sewer Excavation,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (October 7, 1949): 1. According to the article, “several relics described as Indian stone and pestals [sic] were first unearthed by the large mechanical ditching machines in the vicinity of Robinson Jeffers’ Tor House.” The exact number of relics “was impossible to determine immediately as workmen on the project were reported to have taken them home for souvenirs.” Two months later, a cave-in trapped two workers digging in the area. One man was rescued, but the other suffocated beneath 15 feet of dirt. See “One Dies, One Saved in Sewer Ditch Cave-In,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (December 9, 1949): 4.

UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel. California. Sept 1. ’49 Dear William: We are pleased to hear that you had such a successful summer session. —I’ve failed writing you because we have had an intolerable year! For two months I’ve suffered with excruciating sciatica —if you have ever known anyone with it, you will have heard how agonizing the pain is. We have had practically all the illness due us in our 36+ yrs. together packed into one year! Robin is feeling fine now, thank Heaven, & is busy writing & also building a stone wing {small} (living room, kitchen, bath, 2 bedrooms & play room) for the children. I am staying in bed, much ♦ better than I was & hoping I’ll soon be out of this. Our fine surgeon here is treating me with a technique lately devised & successfully used by Mayo Clinic. He injects into the spinal column a quantity of saline solution. —The theory is to dialate the tissue around the inflamed sciatic nerve & let it rest, {also take much B. vit. complex.} Ency. Brit. describes sciatica as very “intractable”, & it is! I’ve had osteopaths, 2 kinds of diathermy, electric treatments—god knows what! Anyway it’s better. But I lost the happiness of all the time with the Clapps that we had been looking forward to. They are leaving today after all 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

the month of August here ♦ & we’ve had so little time together. They both look exceedingly well—never saw them look better. We have had lovely golden weather which they both enjoy so much more than fog. (We like fog really best of all!) They go to San Fran. today & I believe leave there by train Sept. 17th, shipping the Jaguar. The Matthiases are staying at the Fairmont in San Francisco. Robin has written the first draft of an adaptation of Hipolytus— “Phaedra”. An actress (not Judith) has been begging him to do it for her.1 Nothing definite about the production yet. There are negotiations going on for Judith to make a motion-picture in Italy of Medea. Send us a line when you have free time. Affectionately Una. ALS. New York PL. 3 pages. 1. Jeffers had worked sporadically for several months on an adaptation of Hippolytus, a play by Euripides first produced in 428 bce. The project was proposed by stage, screen, and television actress Agnes Moorehead (1900–1974).

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. Carmel Sept 6 ’49 Where would one find another Phoebe! such a constantly thoughtful friend! And we may take advantage of your wonderful offer—but not yet— Dr. John Gratiot, our very fine surgeon here, is trying on me a technique they have been using very successfully at Mayo Clinic. He injects a quantity of saline solution into spinal column. {Has done it four times.} I am better—much, but still in bed most of the time as it tires my leg awfully to walk. —Oh, the theory of the injection is to dialate the ♦ tissue around the inflamed & swollen nerve. —The pain of sciatica is EXCRUCIATING! How horrible it was to have my dear Clapps here for a month & to be able to see them so briefly & then Russell & Blanche! How dreadful to have that thing come on Hans way up in the mountains. Thank God it is clearing up. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Our bodies can martyr us. I have just been rereading Katherine Mansfield’s “Letters.” Did you ever read them or her “Journals”?1 An amazing woman. Her terrible T. B. which killed her ♦ eventually—besides that, heart & rheumatism & allergies & pneumonias —& such exhaustion. How could she write & write in the midst of such weakness & pain & the constant search for new climates etc! {and doctors & possible abodes!} The most heart-breaking book. And her husband Middleton Murry—such a monster of coldness & selfishness. {Why did she adore him.} Almost half of the letters are written to Brett, —our Taos Brett. All my love—and thanks, darling Phoebe. Yours devotedly, Una Garth & Lotte expect another baby. ♦ in Nov. I think they would have been wiser to have waited for a couple of years—but they seem very cheerful about it. Garth has enjoyed being out in the Forest & on the mountains this summer. The work seemed like play after being shut up in the classroom. Lindsay was 2 yrs. old Sept 3 such a darling age. He sits in bed with me for 1½ hrs. every day & we play with chess-men, dice babies & other little trinkets & I read to him. ALS. San Francisco. 4 pages. Postmark: September 7, 1949. 1. The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927) and The Letters of Katherine Mansfield (1928) were edited by John Middleton Murry and published by Constable & Co., London.

UJ to Luther Greene and Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 October, 1949 Dear Luther & Judith: Just a line to say that the typewritten translation {of Maria Stuart} arrived safely.1 Robin is reading it & says he can see great possibilities in it— whether for him or not—he cannot tell yet. You need not send the German play as I think we have it,— packed away at the moment. In any case could 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

borrow it from a friend. At one time Robin spoke very fluent German, —he went to school as a child in Leipsig, & later used it in school in Zürich & Lausanne. He would need this German text. Robin had months of convalescence but now is very well. Works all day mornings, indoors, afternoons—out. Its been a very horrid year. I’ve been crucified by the most agonizing bouts of sciatica for months. I am getting better finally but slowly. It has been a dreadful experience. The ranch at Carpinteria sounds delightful.2 Affectionately Una. Robin would be glad to talk this over with you. If you are coming this way with any inconvenience to yourself, perhaps you’d better phone him first to find out his reaction to the play. U. J. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. “For some time Judith has been considering Schiller’s Maria Stuart as a possible vehicle for next season,” Luther Greene writes in a letter to Jeffers dated October 22, 1949 (TLC Tor House). “She and I would be most happy if you would again supply her the version of a great play she must have,” he adds. Greene enclosed a literal translation of the play and offered to provide a version in the original German. Maria Stuart (1800), a drama that explores the conflict between Queen Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots, was written by Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805). 2. Judith purchased over 50 acres of land, with a panoramic view of the Pacific coast, on Shepard Mesa in Carpinteria, California—about 10 miles south of Montecito.

UJ to Babette Deutsch [November 1949]1 Dear Miss Deutsch: I send you these notes I’ve been collecting for years. I find the material endlessly fascinating. Cordially, Una Jeffers Scrawled out as I lie here in bed. —Much better. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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(Read other side first) Natalia. {once named “The Inconstant.”} wrecked Monterey Bay 1834. She was the boat Napoleon escaped from Elba on & later was acquired by Mexican gov’t for coastwise trade. We have a large octagonal brass porthole from her built into the Tower. Enough teak was salvaged from her to panel a room in one of the old Monterey houses. A piece of her hull showed during a freak tide 15 yrs. ago. all but one of her crew were drowned Star of the West. English brig on Pt. Lobos 1846. Cargo, fine materials, etc. mostly rescued. damaged {enough to escape customs.} Los Angeles. wrecked at Pt. Sur 1873 Ventura — 1879 ~wrecked at Pt. Sur~ cargo fine linen & knockdown wagons St. Paul went ashore bows on at Pt. Joe in August fog 1896. She was on her way north from San Simeon loaded with calves & sheep. The rescuer of her The Gypsy crew & cargo, The Gypsy was wrecked between Pacific Grove & Monterey, 1904. Celia wrecked on Moss Beach near Pt. Joe in August fog 1906. Her {distress} whistle blew all night, (lashed down) before she was noticed. When we came {1914}, there was much wreckage from the St. Paul & Celia lying along the 17-Mile Drive, & signs indicated where they went down. Rhoderick Dhu wrecked on Moss Beach 1900 in April. We have an old door from {this.} Santa Rosa ~wrecked on Moss Beach~ 1911 Steamship Flavel on Cypress Point, 1926 {In our courtyard we have a hitching post made from the top of the Flavel’s mast which had a big copper cap & ring on it, —{with rope} adjusted it could be used to haul up cargo & discharge same I forget its nautical name.} {J. B.} Stetson —Pt. Do {the last wreck here} on Cypress Point. Coastguard Cutter on Moss Beach 1947 a big Japanese freighter —on rocks by Pt. Sur Lighthouse 1932 Frank H. Buck —near Pt. Pinos about 25 yrs. ago. ♦ There have been other wrecks but these are the best known. When we came here in 1914 there were quantities of all kinds of shipwreck wood, &

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

copper nails & brass fittings (The copper & brass {worked} woods make the lovely driftwood colors when burning) {all along the coast north & south.} Once a little yacht broke up near Pt. Lobos & many bits of mahogany & rosewood panelling drifted in. About 3 yrs. ago an enormous bronze anchor was dragged up from the bottom of the Monterey Bay; by chance the anchor of a warship had gotten tangled with it. It is fastened now to a great iron post by the customs house. It is hoped that in time the anchor will be identified—at least its probable source, for bronze anchors are fairly rare & the composition, (alloy etc {amount of} alloy, etc) should lead to cl clues.— I believe the seamen over there feel it is several hundred years old. In 1935 the {($3,450,000)} giant navy dirigible Macon, escorted by 34 craft of battle fleet, went down total loss, on rocks near Pt. Sur. Total loss, reason unknown, 83 on board all saved except radio operator, & Jap mess-boy. Near Pt. Joe is a bit of water called “Restless Sea,” much dreaded by mariners Several currents come together at that point. ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. 1. This letter was written after Babette Deutsch and her husband visited Tor House in late October or early November. Una mentions the visit in a November 13, 1949 letter to Timmie and Maud Clapp (ALS Yale), not included in this edition. Deutsch’s glowing review of Tamar and Other Poems in the May 27, 1925 issue of the New Republic helped launch Jeffers’ career.

RJ to Luther Greene Tor House, Carmel, California. November 8, 1949. Dear Luther: Yes, I’ll do as well as I can. The adaptation won’t be as frree as Medea, because both Schiller and the subject are recent history; but free enough. The play is powerful and moving; much better than I remembered; not lyrical, but grand, and goes to its goal like a strong machine. A marvelous idea, for Judith to alternate the Mary and Elizabeth parts; it should create great interest, and make people want to see the play twice at least. And how well she will do it!

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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About business: the 5% you spoke of will do. But the play would be useless to me unless produced; it shouldn’t be published as a book, as Medea was; Schiller is too near our own time. Therefore, if you have a producer in mind, I ought to get a fair advance payment before going far with the task. I will write two or three scenes first, and then should have an advance and contract. Writing and revision can be finished in six months {or less if necessary.}1 It will be wonderful to see Judith do it. Tell me whether you want the original shortened at all (these yous are plural oof course—you and Judith) and any other dieas ideas you may have about adaptation. The polay is all blank verse in German; I suppose I have liberty to vary the meter if it seems appropriate; and even to use a little quick prose occasionally. And to change, of course, some of the more hackneyed blood-and-thunder expressions— which perhaps were fresh enough in their time. Our dear love to Judith—we look forward to seeing both of you s sometime soon.2 Cordially, Robin. TLS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. The added phrase is handwritten. 2. A handwritten draft of this letter is located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

RJ to Judith Anderson and Luther Green 1949 NOV 12 AM 11 22 WIRE FROM HILDA VAUGHAN WANTS TOWER FOR PROFESSIONAL BUT OFF BROADWAY THEATRE AM MAILING HER WIRE TO YOU1 LOVE ROBIN Tlg. Tor House. 1. See next letter.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson and Luther Greene [November 12, 1949]1 Nov. 11. 1949 Tor House. Rt. 1. Box 36. Carmel Dear Judith & Luther: (Forgive scrawl. Resting in bed.) Here is the wire, Robin mentioned in his telegram to you.2 What is your reaction? Are you still interested in The Tower for some future time— &, if you are, would this off Broadway production be detrimental to it? We don’t know much about the policy of such things. About three months ago we were approached by a New York firm {(not Hilda etc)} about the status of The Tower, if we would care to go into negotiations about its production & we replied we felt committed to you about this play until you decided whether you were likely to use it. Will you let us know your feeling about it so we need not keep Hilda waiting. It has always seemed like your play. In case you & Robin proceed with Maria Stewart, —please let us know whether {we are} to be completely silent about it until you announce it. We are expecting momentarily a wire or phone call from Garth, a baby due, —overdue. What a flock of grandchildren! You still have the copy of The Tower as Robin rearranged it. We did not hear your feeling about it. Affectionately Una ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Una probably wrote this letter the same day Jeffers sent his telegram. 2. In a November 11, 1949 telegram to Robinson and Una (Tlg Tor House), Hilda Vaughn asks, “HOW AGREEABLE WOULD YOU BE TO A PRODUCTION IN AN OFF BROADWAY THEATRE BY PROFESSIONAL ACTORS INCLUDING ME OF TOWER BEYOND TRAGEDY. THIS IS JUST A FEELER WITH OF COURSE MANY THINGS TO BE WORKED OUT. ARE YOU COMMITTED TO JUDITH ON TOWER AND SHOULD I GET IN TOUCH WITH HER OR WILL YOU IN CASE THIS IDEA INTERESTS YOU. . . .”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Melba Berry Bennett Tor House. Nov 13, [1949] Rt 1 Box 36 Dearest Melba How sweet of you to bring me the little “face piece”1 from Scotland. I have two others—one given to me in Cornwall {in 1912}, another, a unicorn {not like yours} was given me by an ardent horsewoman in Oxfordshire {in 1929}. They have been hanging on a nail in the dining room by Garth’s spurs. I hadn’t thought of them for some time until the night before your pkg. came we were looking at an old English book that had several pages devoted to face pieces. Our Lee said she’d never seen any before. Imagine her surprise at next morning mail. Melba, I’ve had the most TERRIBLE 2 months of my life—from the last of June on. Sciatica. The pain is excruciating. The encyclopedia says “{it’s} agonizing, & stubborn”. It is inflamation of the sciatic nerve, the biggest in the body {from spine down back of leg to heel}. I’ve been worked on constantly—a dozen different tactics I am better but very weak—its tiring to move & I still have bouts of HORRIBLE agony. My spirit is almost broken I fear! Did you ever know anyone with this? The Hans Barkans & Matthiases were here for awhile & the Clapps a whole month but I couldn’t play with them, a great loss to me! I have had your cards from time to time & tried to follow your wanderings—. It all sounded very festive. Your address seems to be—not at the ranch? Are you having a rest? Is the address, maybe, your mothers house? ♦ Our Garth will finish his forestry & get his degree, we hope, in June with prospects of a fine job. He has done REMARKABLY well. He & Lotte are expecting a baby any minute now. Their Maeve is {1 yr &} 11½ mos. old. Robin is feeling fine now. He is writing the whole morning & doing stone work in p.m. on the annex for the children here. We call this new house Over Stile Isnt that English! How far north did you go in Scotland? Robin likes Scotland better than Ireland.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Love to you & Frank— Devotedly Una ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. A face piece, also called a horse brass, is an ornament attached to the browband of a horse’s halter. 2. Una draws a circle around this word several times.

RJ to Luther Greene Tor House, Carmel. November 21, 1949. Dear Luther: Thank you for the wires1 and letters. I knew, of course, that Judith didn’t want the Tower for some time to come, if ever, and I was only anxious to know how she would feel about this proposed production. I wired regrets to Hilda as soon as I heard from you, and wrote that Judith didn’t mind, but I had decided better not. Sorry too, for Hilda was a wonderful Cassandra; but I know nothing about the rest of it. What you say about Maria Stuart interests me much, and I’ll go to work within few days. It will have to be a very free adaptation, evidently; perhaps it could be called “The Queen’s Peace” 9(or some such title) “based on Schiller’s Maria Stuart.” Each of the two queens reaches a kind of peace at the end—Mary through religion and death—and Elizabeth—at least her most pressing problems are solved. So the title would do for either one.2 And “based on” instead of “adapted” might give me more room for my own ideas and Judith’s. I think, for instance, that neither of Schiller’s queens is quite as fierce as she ought to be and probably was; and that Mary must have had more ghosts in her mind—more vengeful and haunting memories of her past in Scotland—and wilder alternations of hope and despair. Likewise for Elizabeth. But we’ll see how it turns out. It will be written and revised by next summer, I expect.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Meanwhile we look forward to seeing you. I’ll send you two or three scenes as soon as may be. Una joins me in love to Judith and best wishes to you. Sincerely, Robin. TLS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. In a draft of a telegram to Una dated November 19 (Tlg Tor House), Luther says “­Judith will not want Tower for some time but would not stand in way of first-rate production.” He adds, however, that “she advises against such as this which could only harm the play.” 2. In subsequent correspondence, Luther tells Jeffers that Judith thinks the play should be titled “Mary and Elizabeth.”

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House Carmel Nov 21 ’49 Darling Blanche— Garth & Lotte have another girl, name Diana Call J. all well.1 I improve but at a snail’s pace. I am so weak on my legs & still have bouts of pain. The wonder drug makes me sick for some hours after injection. But no fever {(never has been)}, & just had a blood check three days ago. — in fine condition! I asked Maud to give you a letter I wrote her. I am very dull about writing & have lots of business letters to do.— Robin is doing another play—for Judith very exciting—not ready to be announced yet. Two different sets {of people in New York} ♦ of people have approached him about The Tower beyond T. (one set included Hilda Vaughn who was such a magnificent Cassandra {in Carmel})—but Judith has a claim on the play that she does not like to relinquish. Afternoons he is busy with the annex. He is making the fireplace today. We call it Over Stile (you remember the stile in the corner) Isn’t that English! Connie’s mother 2 died {day before} yesterday. Did you know her? A sweet little wisp of a woman, fluttery & wistful. She {always} looked very

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

fragile. It was perhaps through bending & swaying that she survived a life full of work & troubles—difficult sons, Connie with her various detours, & the big ♦ handsome debonair clergyman husband, the delight of women & most unfit for harness. Everyone delights to see how happy Connie & Martin appear to be. Both lucky to have another chance to make the marriage a success. You probably know Martin bought the Pebble Beach House {where they were living}. (It was once Jo Mora’s3 stable.) an amusing little house— Connie has great plans for fixing it. Lindsay is sweeter every day. I’d forgotten how sweet babies are. He brings his little flowered pottie into {my room} beside me & manages to manoeuver the water into it, then he skips about waving it & saying “Noble Baby! ” He sits in bed with me an hour or so & plays chess & reads (I read) every day. I had a letter from Flavia way up at Stornoway in the Upper Hebrides. She said she was loving it. I heard Landowska4 play most beautifully Sunday {over Radio}, never so well. Tell me news of all our friends that you see. Shall you stay the winter in N. Y.? Noëls unicorn mosaic by Louisa Jenkins is superb All my love to you both. Devotedly Una. Please hand this to Clapps. ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. Diana Call Jeffers was born November 16, 1949. 2. Cornelia “Nellie” Clampett. 3. Joseph “Jo” Mora (1876–1947) was a sculptor, artist, author, and book illustrator whose publications include Dawn and the Dons: The Romance of Monterey (1926), A Log of the Spanish Main (1933), and Trail Dust and Saddle Leather (1946). Mora was also widely known for his fanciful maps of Carmel, the Monterey Peninsula, and other California locations. 4. Wanda Landowska (1879–1959), a Polish keyboardist, composer, and advocate of early music, reintroduced the harpsichord to the concert stage.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House. Carmel, California Rt. 1. Box 36 Nov 22 49 Dear William: Still in bed most all day—legs so weak, but getting better & the pains not so acute. Its been an intolerable experience. My share of Purgatory has been much lessened by this dire agony—that’s if there’s justice anywhere. Robin is busy all morning with a play he is doing for Judith not announced yet. Afternoons he is working on Over Stile the boys’ house just beyond the {courtyard} wall. It has a big living room, garage & kitchen downstairs, three bedrooms {& bath} upstairs. He will write you a note soon with his observations about Careers! I don’t know what he will say. It is odd, we were discussing his brother Hamilton just a day or so before you wrote. He is, as you know, an astronomer at Lick Observatory. He has a mathematical mind not much short of genius. He is a rather solitary creature, does not care for society, takes pleasure in his motor cars, always good ones, & he has owned his own planes, —one or two at a time for 22 yrs. He keeps plane at San Jose & flies off weekends. Doesn’t care for women, (had a wife who went insane!) but is followed about by clusters of dames— who try to get his attention.1 He plays the pipe organ & has an important library of recorded symphonic music. You can see how unlike Robin he is. He cares no more for literature ♦ than Robin does for math! During the war he was attached to the service as advisor—was at MIT Lab. & Washington & later, months in the Aleutians & in India. We later discovered that he was engaged on the Radar stuff. {then a secret.} He refused a good commission for fear he couldn’t get out of it all as soon as the war was over. —Well, whereas he had seemed admirably adjusted to Lick Ob. & his job before the war, he now confesses to me very indirectly that its rather stale & that he found India more fascinating. (This is a queer pass for him to come to, too, because he is a fanatic about cleanliness & I believe scarcely dared even look at the incredible filth around him in Calcutta.) The moral {if any} of this little sketch is unknown. It does show that two widely disparate careers

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

seem to be within his range of functioning—but not mixing together. He is 56 yrs old. I can see you in a War Time army but I’m not sure about a Peace time one—whether one would not weary of all the book work & planning & supervising unless there seemed a War in sight. Perhaps there always will be one from now on. Thank you so much for the Irish snapshots. I can’t have too many. Tell me do you have Prokosch’s poems—or access to them in a Lib. I have several of his books but not the poem “The Lonely Unicorn” in one of them. I want that poem.2 ♦ In listing the books you have of Robin—you must have forgotten to mention “Selected Poetry”? You ought to have that for the sake of the prose preface by R. J. —also the little modern Library ed of “Roan Stallion” (no. 118 I think) for the sake of its short preface. Robin so seldom speaks of his work. Here below are several little items—which I’ll be glad to give you if you haven’t them, and I’ll give you a copy of Samuel French’s edition of Medea— with all the stage directions put in. Have you Natural Music   by R. J. Book Club of Calif. Poetry Folio 1947 George Sterling ~by R. J.~ {comment} ~Book Club of Calif. Poetry Folio~ 1935 Stars ~by R. J.~ Ward Ritchie 1930 I’ve been reading the new Life of Tennyson by his grandson & comparing it with the one of 50 yrs. ago by his son.3 I find a mention in one of Barnes visiting Tennyson when Allingham4 was staying with him, in the Isle of Wight. Hard for me to think of Barnes outside Dorset. The other speaks of Tennyson & Allingham visiting Barnes at his Rectory. My love to Clapps if you see them. Affectionately Una. ♦ I’ve been reading Lockhart’s “Life of Scott” in the watches of the night Ah, theres a man! Few can match him in virility—candor, energy, loyalty & manliness. I can’t think of any literary man of his century I would so loved to have as a friend.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. New York PL. 4 pages. 1. Hamilton’s first wife, Gladys (Wallace) Jeffers, died in the Napa State Hospital in 1961, but the marriage was dissolved long before then. Hamilton married Bobbe DeVore (1918– 1991), a secretary at Lick Obervatory, on June 7, 1950. 2. Frederic Prokosch printed The Lonely Unicorn, a collection of his own poems, in 1929. The title poem also appeared in the February 1932 issue of Harper’s Magazine, page 353. 3. Charles Tennyson, Alfred Tennyson (New York: Macmillan, 1949) and Hallam Tennyson, Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir by His Son (New York: Macmillan, 1897). 4. William Allingham (1824–1889), an Irish customs officer, poet, and editor, was the author of Day and Night Songs (1854), Lawrence Bloomfield in Ireland (1864), and other books.

RJ and UJ to William Turner Levy Tor House, Carmel, California. November 26, 1949. Dear Levy: I was very much interested—and surprised—by the question of your choice of vocation; but of course I cannot advise, only consider. You have talent undoubtedly to make your way in either career; and you like them both; and it is impossible to tell—for you as well as for me—which one would leave you best satisfied at the end, when retirement age comes. For that depends on the accidents of assignment and promotion, war or peace, just war or unnecessary war—accidents which you cannot command nor foresee. So it becomes simply a question of liking; and if your liking and ability for either course seem equally balanced, one might as well flip a coin, the decision will be as good as any other. But there are two or three further points to consider. You liked your life in the army: would you have liked it so well in peace-time, when there is a comparative stagnation of the unselfishness and sense of purpose that you felt? And did you not, even then, think sometimes with longing about the quietness and relative freedom of academic life? “When this is over—when I can go back to my proper business—”? It is notorious of course that farther pastures look greener—and so it may be with you now—from the standpoint of academic life the army looks more exciting and refreshing than perhaps it would if you were in it. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Then—to be merely practical—but a point which you must have considered already: is it not true that men from West Point are a kind of well-knit aristocracy in the army, and the others in some degree outsiders? The old school tie and all that? This might make little difference in wartime, and none in social life, but it might in advancement—the normal progress which you have a right to expect. —I don’t know. ♦ So I can’t advise; I only know which career I should choose. And I want to thank you for innumerable kindnesses to Una and myself. —Most cordial good wishes— Robinson Jeffers. Dear William: Don’t trouble to look for the Prokosch poem “The Lonely Unicorn.” A friend sent it to me a few days ago. Yrs U. J. ALS. New York PL. 2 pages.

UJ to Noël Sullivan 1950 JAN 6 AM 8 06 COLLECT—SAN FRANCISCO CALIF NOEL SULLIVAN CARMEL CALIF I AM AWFULLY SICK PLEASE HELP ROBIN ALL YOU CAN DEVOTEDLY— UNA Tlg. Berkeley.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Luther Greene and Judith Anderson San Francisco, January 9, 1950. Dear Luther and Judith: No doubt you have received Donnan’s letter. The work was just getting well started when Una had to go to the Hospital, and now up here. {Univ. of Calif. Hospital, S. F.} There are two or three scenes done, but in a scribble which no one can read except myself. In a fortnight probably I can go to work again, and by February first have something to show you. I see now that the whole play will have to be re-written—not translated and versified— for your purpose. At present I am in Una’s hospital-room from morning to evening (besides three special nurses) and of course it is impossible to work there. She is having a very bad time; but now the diagnosis is made and treatment begun she should be better soon. She has already said that she wants me to go home and go to work as soon as she begins to be convalescent, even if she has to stay here a few weeks longer. (She is rather amused—through all the pain—at the number of doctors—twelve, consultants and internes under Dr. Nafziger,1 —besides the X-ray men!) I am sorry to put all this into your vision instead of a scene from Maria Stuart, but you will understand. Of course I have no mortgage on the play; I know I can get it ready before next summer, I think I can send you a scene or two by February. To-day, in one of the hospital reception rooms, I saw a salutation to Judith as Medea in an old “Look” magazine—“the greatest emotional actress”—but we always knew that! Sincerely, Robin. (R. Jeffers) ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Howard Christian Naffziger (1884–1961), a president of the American College of Surgeons and a regent of the University of California, was a leading brain surgeon and an authority on tumors of the spine. He joined the faculty of the University of California Medical School in San Francisco in 1912, chairing the Department of Surgery from 1929 to 1947 and the Department of Neurosurgery from 1947 to 1951.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Hans and Phoebe Barkan January 19, 1950. Dear Hans and Phoebe: Your children heard from you in Paris yesterday, I think, and perhaps you are in Switzerland already. I hope you have a fortunate time there, though it cannot be altogether happy. Greet the country for me for my school-days’ sake. And my best wishes to your mother,1 though of course she won’t remember me. Una is about as she was when you left—a little weaker I’m afraid. The nausea is gone, but she has no desire to eat, and little ability. At least she can drink water. They give her enough narcotics so that she is not much troubled with pain. But the kidneys are not functioning sufficiently; they spoke of uraemia, but now with medication the function is somewhat restored. But they have ceased for the time giving testosterone, because it increases retention of salt and water; and the X-ray treatments stopped after the first one, because of her pain and weakness. So—the main trouble is not being treated at all. But I am satisfied that everything possible is being done. I am with her all day, and it seems to be helpful to her; and her three nurses are very good; she is quite charmed by one of them. Dr. Nafziger told me that his expectation when we brought her here was to operate low on the spine and cut the nerves of pain, which he says can be separated from the others; but the X-ray pictures show other involvements higher up. The only other thing is lobotomy, but he ♦ doesn’t propose it—nor do I. And I don’t think she could survive any operation now. I am afraid that she won’t even have the two or three years I hoped for, but of course miracles happen. Meanwhile she doesn’t know what is the matter, and wonders through the morphine-fog how she ever “got into this mess,” but I think still expects to get well. One of the nurses told me to-day that it was beautiful to see her smile. She is a rare person, as you know. She loves life far more than I do, but she is also far more courageous. She would take it gallantly if we told her what is wrong, but of course we won’t. Little Phoebe and Jack are awfully good to me—and Wing too! I only

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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see them at dinner for an hour or two, but they are very kind. I am interested in the stamp of the Navy on Jack’s face—a look of endurance and daring—I have seen it in many other navy men before. I am sorry to trouble them with my continued presence here, though they don’t seem to mind it. The doctors tell me that they expect a turn pretty soon, perhaps they mean downward, but perhaps it will be toward life again. Meanwhile she is not suffering too much, and seems glad to have me by the bed. Look across the lake toward the French Savoye, where I had my first adventure—the first time I was independent of school and parents.2 Now I have to learn independence again, but this is Una. She is more important to me than my parents (psychologically) and I admire her more. Does the Dent du Midi still make such a figure along the lake as it used to do?3 Sincerely, Robin.4 ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Letterhead: University of California, University Hospital. 1. Hans and Phoebe went to Switzerland to see Hans’ mother Louise (Desepte) Barkan (1856–1951), who lived in Montreaux with his sister Fanny (Barkan) Offerman and family. 2. For an account of this incident, see Una’s May 1939 letter to Melba Berry Bennett— Collected Letters 2: 1019. 3. La Dent du Midi (Tooth of the South) was a name given to La Haute Cime, the highest peak of Les Dents du Midi, a range of mountains that rises above the southeast shore of Lake Geneva. Jeffers refers to the locale in “After Lake Leman,” a late poem published in Collected Poetry 3: 461. “It was there,” he writes, “and from the roses with rain in them / When I was allowed out of school one April dawn I learned how beautiful things are.” 4. Included with this letter is a piece of scrap paper (an envelope postmarked January 7, 1950) with notes Una dictated to Robinson. Some of the notes are intended for Donnan and Lee: “Look in little drawer by bed whether any medicine ought to be put away. Do you remember to keep window in bath-room locked? Hide leather box with Una’s moon-stone in it. Look on shelves for ‘Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles’ by Stefan Zweig. If you see anything in magazine or newspaper about ‘Member of the Wedding’ please clip for us.” Other notes are intended for Hans and Phoebe’s daughter: “Poor long-suffering little Phoebe—please read this sort of note to Molly Sutro. ‘Thank you dearest Molly for the flowers and loving thoughts

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

and prayers—and tell Ellen how grateful I am to her also, and appreciate her long kindness and devotion.’ Una And give Una’s love to your parents when you write— Tell them that both Una and Robin feel I am considerably better—but the case still remains mysterious to this whole band of doctors.”

RJ and UJ to Zelle Bishop January 22, 1950 Univ. of Calif. Hospital Third and Parnassus, San Francisco. Dear Mrs. Bishop: —Una Jeffers, dictating, wants to say to her dear Zelle that she is sorry not to have written in so long. She has been suffering for many months with a painful and mysterious disease that began as sciatica and has got worse, so that now she is very weak, and has to take hypodermics for the pain. She was in the hospital for some time in Carmel, and now up here, where a number of first-rate doctors are working on the case. She is gravely ill, but I hope we’ll get her home in a few weeks. —I am staying up here, so as to be with her during the days at least. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. APS. C Michigan. Postmark: January 23, 1950.

RJ to Daisy Bartley and Family University of California Hospital Third Ave. and Parnassus, San Francisco. January 23, 1950. Dear Daisy and the family in Michigan: Donnan and Lee have told you how things are with us, but Una wants me also to write. As you know, her suffering began about seven months ago with that terribly painful sciatica, which still continues, so that she has to have morphine hypodermics every four hours, which enable her to sleep a good

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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deal. She is very weak, but seems {a little} stronger the past two days. There are complications—lately of the kidneys, but they seem to be functioning almost sufficiently now. She doesn’t like to be in the city—even the water tastes bad to her—but she will have to be much better before she can stand the ambulance trip home again. Dr. Nafziger, the doctor now in charge of the case, is said to be one of the greatest nerve-surgeons in the world. His idea in having us come up here was to cut the nerves of pain, low in the spinal cord, where they can be separated from the other nerves. But the X-ray pictures, taken here, show involvements higher on the spine, so that the operation would not be useful—besides that I don’t think she could survive an operation now—and no operation is proposed at present. There is other treatment, and that is being done of course. Dr. Nafziger has called in several consultants, and Una was much amused to count twelve doctors visiting her here, besides X-ray men, also doctors, and technicians of other varieties, and three special nurses—3 x 8 = 24— besides me too at her bedside from morning to evening every day.  ♦ The nurses have spoken to me of her smile and gallantry—we know that of course. She loves life much more than I do—but also she is much more courageous than I am. Una wants me to go home and go to work—because I am supposed to be writing a play that might mean something financially—but she will have to be a great deal stronger before I leave her alone in the big city. I still think we will get out of this, and go home together. She is very ill—but we’ll have some years yet. Affectionately, Robin. She is really better to-day than yesterday, and that was better than the day before. ALS. Long Beach. 2 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Daisy Bartley January 25, 1950. (Address would be Univ. of Calif. Hospital, Third Avenue and Parnassus, S. F.) Dear Daisy: We received to-day at the hospital your sweet and loving letters—a page to me and a page to Una. Let me say first that Una is better, and I think she may go home to the Carmel hospital in a week or two, and after a few weeks can go home to Tor House. She has almost died. You are so dear to us, and your mind is so sound, that I think I ought to tell you the truth—but there is no need of anyone else knowing it except Jerry—and our sons, of course—not even Violet, from whom also we had a sweet letter lately. It is almost certain that Una’s illness is a return of the breast-cancer, which was operated I think nine years ago. Una does not know this, and I think she does not even suspect it. I have never had to lie to her, but of course I would lie until I choked before I told her.— Not that it matters—we all expect to die in a few years—and Una may get well and live for several years yet. She is sixty-five now: that won’t be a bad life. My lead-pencil has gone dull, and I have just found a pen. We were brought up here because Dr. Nafziger, who is said by good men to be one of the greatest nerve-surgeons in the world, ♦ expected to operate on Una low in the spine and cut the nerves of pain. There was a small tumor pressing on the sciatic nerve, which caused the suffering that she has endured so long—I think seven months.— But now the X-ray pictures show involvements higher up, so that they cannot operate successfully. The treatment is testosterone—male hormone—(which makes an unhealthy climate for female breast-cancer, but has no other effect)—and X-rays. Both were suspended while Una was so terribly ill, but now they are resumed. Meanwhile the kidneys almost failed, and the heart almost failed, (as mine {almost} did last year in Ireland) but she is out of danger now for the time. The pain is controlled by a morphine injection, not oftener than four hours. If the treatment works she won’t need it—the morphine—and will have a good time for several years.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Una loves life far more than I do, but also she is more courageous. I have no objection to dying, but Una can stand up against it. She is rather amused to count up twelve doctors visiting her, besides the X-ray men and other technicians, and the three special nurses. And me at her bedside, from 9 am to six-thirty. A hospital is an awful place, but I think we’ll get out of it pretty soon. Love, Robin. Love to all our family in Michigan, from Una and me. ALS. Long Beach. 2 pages.

RJ and UJ to Luther Greene January 25, 1950. Dear Luther: Una is growing stronger now, though still seriously ill, but the improvement has continued for several days. She wants me to go home next Sunday and go to work—maybe I will—but she seems very little and helpless to be left alone in the big city, even with three nurses and a dozen doctors. We think that she may be able to go back to the hospital in Carmel in a week or two. This illness was terribly painful—she {still} gets morphine every four hours—and for some days she was near death. I got Zweig’s Mary Queen of Scotland,1 and have read it through while I sat by the bedside. It will be very helpful when I get to work again. Una sends love to Judith and so do I, and affectionate regards to both of you. I’ll write again on Sunday or Monday, from here or Carmel. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. We were grateful for your thoughts, and the flowers you sent. Dearest J— L— Robin will be back in Carmel Sunday night & begin work Mon. morn. again. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I shall wrangle with our little Lee for a quiet schedule for Robin He can only work in his own study Una (Una)2 ALS. Tor House. 1 page. Letterhead: University of California, University Hospital. 1. Stefan Zweig, Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul (New York: Viking Press, 1935); first published as Maria Stuart (Vienna: H. Reichner, 1935). 2. Una’s scribbled note is written vertically in the lower left corner of the page. Beside her signature, which is barely legible, Jeffers writes her name again in parentheses.

RJ to Luther Greene January 30, 1950. Dear Luther— Una had a bad relapse yesterday, and I couldn’t leave. I am very sorry. To-day she is comparatively much better. It seems possible that she herself might be taken home to the Carmel hospital in about a week. Or if not, she will at least be established enough so that I can go. I can’t work in the hospital room, of course, except to read about the two queens. Tell Judith how much I regret these delays, and that I’ll try to make up for them. Una is even sorrier than I am. Give Judith our love, and best regards to you also. The time of her love for Bothwell1 was the peak of Mary’s life, and I have been wondering whether that could be added to Schiller. I hate tricks and flashbacks. Maybe one could add a first act, or maybe Mary could remember vividly enough. —But she wouldn’t still be in love with Bothwell —she wasn’t that kind of woman. But here I can’t think very well. Sincerely, Robin. Una says to tell you that she is having X-ray treatments and they were too many and too long. That is probably what caused the set-back yesterday. —R. J. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. Letterhead: University of California, University Hospital.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell and Duke of Orkney (ca. 1535–1578) was a soldier, adventurer, and master of court intrigue. He married Mary Stuart in 1567—allegedly after murdering her husband and forcing himself on her—but changes in their respective fortunes soon drove the couple apart.

RJ to Hans and Phoebe Barkan February 1, 1950. Dear Hans and Phoebe: I am still here, and hope I am not too much of a nuisance to your children. Judith Anderson is beginning to stir uneasily down at Carpinteria— how soon will I be able to get some work done on her new play?—and Una wanted me to go home last Sunday, when our children came up to visit. But Sunday was her worst day since the two or three days of her arrival, and I couldn’t possibly leave. All the time the children were here, and while our other children called up from Oregon, she was lying very weak, on a somewhat blood-spotted bed, with a needle in her vein, getting a three-hour dextrose-saline transfusion. To-day is the best day she has had in a long time. I pray we’ll have no more setbacks. We think she can go home to the Carmel hospital whenever she is strong enough to stand the ambulance trip. She doesn’t suffer too much pain now, and has gone as much as thirteen hours between hypodermics. It was weakness and nausea that frightened me last Sunday. Here veins are worn out with transfusions, and were very little and hard to tap in the first place. ♦ She is well taken care of, three nurses still, of course, and the various doctors kind and attentive. Dr. Nafziger comes in most days. When Una said she could eat a little chicken he gave her a wild duck, but that is still in the deep-freeze. He has also given her a decanter of very choice sherry, but I think she prefers her tablespoonful of brandy. Nothing new in the medical situation. Threatened kidney failure has been averted. X-rays are omitted again since Sunday, but will be resumed. {(Una says not—that Dr. N. said it wasn’t necessary.)} We’ll have her out of this yet. We have your letters, from the ship and from Montreaux. Thank you 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

very much. We are glad of the good news about your mother, Hans, and delighted that you both seem to find the trip tolerably interesting. Even your children didn’t know that you plan to go into Germany as well as Vienna. It was a queer feeling I had, seeing Chillon1 and the Tooth of the South again, on your card, Phoebe. Your children are very good to me, and I love them. They are wonderful people. So is Wing, in a different way! I never tasted such flavors. Una sends dearest love to you—so do I—and gratitude. Also I am cheerful—Una is like her old self to-day. Yours, Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Letterhead: University of California, University Hospital. 1. The Château de Chillon, an island castle on the eastern shore of Lake Geneva, near Montreaux, Switzerland.

RJ to Violet Hinkley February 2, 1950. Dear Violet: Una was much touched by your call ten minutes ago, and sad that she didn’t feel able to answer. This morning she could have, but she gets tired toward the end of day. Last Sunday she had a very bad day, which came perhaps for {too much} X-ray treatment—now suspended for a week—. Since then she has got better. Yesterday was the best day in months, and to-day almost as good. The pain is very much less than it was. She is allowed a hypodermic every four hours, but tries to postpone it, and has gone without for as much as thirteen hours lately. Her worst sufferings now are from extreme weakness and nausea. For awhile she was unable to eat or drink anything, and only kept alive with intravenous transfusions, blood and plasma, dextrose dissolved in slightly salted water, and so forth. But now she is able to eat a little again, forcing it down, and to drink almost enough. I think we’ll get her back to the hospital in Carmel in a week or so, and LETTERS 1940– 1962

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home perhaps in a week or two more—I hope so. This city hospital is an impressive place, huge, and full of activity and misery. At first the doctors and consultants came in troops to Una’s room. Not so many now; only two or three come regularly. ♦ They are all good men, very kind and attentive, especially the famous Dr. Nafziger, who is in charge of the case, and Dr. Hopper,1 the laboratory man, whom we have known since he was a little boy in Carmel. Dr. Nafziger had us up here with the idea of operating, but after studying further X-ray pictures he decided not to. He gives Una little presents from time to time—a wild duck to tempt her appetite, but it is still in the deep freeze—a decanter of very choice old sherry—and so forth. Una has three special nurses, so that somebody is in continual attendance, and they are all very nice women. The hospital is high on a hill, and Una’s window looks out {over San Francisco} across the woods of Golden Gate park, and the channel and great bridge-towers of the Golden Gate—wild mountains beyond—and even the distant ocean. —But we’d rather be home. I spend the days at the hospital, and sleep at the house of our friend Dr. Hans Barkan, 2330 Lyon St., S. F. The Barkans are now in Switzerland, visiting his 95 year old Mother, who will not live much longer.2 Their daughter and son-in-law, delightful young people, live in the house while they are gone; also their Chinese cook, who prepares wonderful dinners. We’ve had an awful time, but we’ll get Una out of this yet, and she’ll go home and be happy again. Love to you and Neil from both of us. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. Long Beach. 2 pages. Letterhead: University of California, University Hospital. 1. James Hopper, Jr. (1910–1990), son of Jimmie and Mattie Hopper of Carmel, graduated from the University of California Medical School in San Francisco in 1939. He was employed by the institution from 1943 to 1977 as a research professor, nephrologist, and director of clinical laboratories at University Hospital. 2. Louise Barkan died October 2, 1951.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson Peninsula Community Hospital. Carmel Feb 9 [1950] Dearest Judith: We’ve been back here since last Sunday I, making this {hospital} a way station. Robin works at home at his desk until p.m., then {stays} here with with me. I expect to go home in a few days. I had a terrific time at U. C. hospital, spectacular—, terrible pain, 12 doctors—& god knows what else. Dr. Naffziger the renowned nerve surgeon expected to operate on me (sever & dissect out the sciatic nerve in spinal column—) but I was cured by some of those incredible sex {(male)!} hormone things dealt out with caution & suspense—! An air of mystery & excitement prevails throughout the great hospital about all these newly discovered hormones it is like atomic bomb stuff— The happiness of our return home was spoiled by Sidney’s death. He died in his sleep during the night Sunday.1 ♦ Lester happened to be arriving Mon morning, & will stay for a few days yet. He is coming to see me tomorrow. He is a comfort to Esther. Affectionately —in haste, Una. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. Letterhead (crossed out): University of California, University Hospital. 1. Sidney Fish died unexpectedly February 5.

RJ to Edgar Johnson Tor House, Carmel, California. February 19, 1950. Dear Mr. Johnson:1 Mrs. Jeffers and I have known William Turner Levy for a number of years, as a very kind and thoughtful friend. I have no experience of his teaching and academic work, but I should think they must be of high quality. Certainly his letters and conversation show him to be unusually alert and LETTERS 1940– 1962

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intelligent, and a thoroughly cultured person, in the sense of conduct and interests, especially his interest in English literature. We were in the British Isles something over a year ago, when he was there, and were impressed by his prompt ability to find help and material, whenever he needed them, for the studies he was conducting at that time. I was severely ill in Dublin, and my wife thinks that Levy should be recommended for his resourcefulness and good judgment in managing some troublesome details of our journey home. But—aside from our friendship—I think that Levy’s eager mind, coupled with great energy, make excellent promise for his future. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. New York PL. 1 page. 1. Edgar Johnson (1901–1995), chair of the English Department at the City College of New York, was the author of Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph (1952), Sir Walter Scott: The Great Unknown (1970), and other books.

RJ to Hugh Bullock Tor House, Carmel, California February 19, 1950. The Secretary, The Academy of American Poets. Dear Mr. Secretary: I have your reminder that my ballot for the 1949 Fellowship has not been received. I am sorry. My wife has been very ill, and I stayed with her more than a month in a San Francisco hospital, and did not have my mail forwarded. She is much better now, and has come, first to the hospital here, and now to her own home. The ballot is enclosed with this. I hope its lateness has not caused you great inconvenience.1 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. The winner of the 1949 Academy Fellowship was Edna St. Vincent Millay, but she did not accept the award. Millay’s husband, Eugen Boissevain, died of lung cancer August 20, 1949. Millay died of a heart attack a little more than a year later—October 19, 1950.

RJ to Luther Greene Tor House, Carmel. February 23, 1950. Dear Luther: I should have written sooner, but wanted to get a little more done first. Now I have finished paraphrasing Schiller’s first act. Mine is about half as long as the German—perhaps a little more flexible and humanly vivid— certainly less regular. I will send it to you and Judith in three or four days, when our daughter Lee finishes typing a copy. It is not even semi-final, but subject to any changes; but will at least give us something to talk about. Mary is pretty well characterized here; sorry Elizabeth does not appear yet. Una is very much better, and home again, though still unable to leave her bed. The worst of the pain is gone; she is still very weak and nervous, but improves daily. Was it from you or someone else (for I have been absent-minded the past two months)—that I heard you are going to raise avocadoes on your 55 acres? Wonderful idea—I remember the great basketful that Judith brought us once, of her own growing, —as big as base-balls and richer than olives. — Una joins me in love to you both. We hope to see you before long. Sincerely, Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Phoebe and Jack Gilpin Tor House, Carmel. February 28, 1950. Dear “Little” Phoebe and Jack: Una is ever so much better, and we have to restrain her from limping around the house more than five times a day. She is still weak and a little nervous, and the pain returns mildly—no resemblance to what it used to be—but she is looking better than she has for months or perhaps years. We had a very good journey home to Carmel. Una came in an ambulance, you remember, to S. F., and suffered on the way; going home she was quite comfortable sitting in her own car. She stayed in the hospital here for about a week, and since then has been in her own bed—whenever she consents to stay in it. Our daughter Lee is very helpful—daughter in law and affection—she has had a little training as a nurse, though very young still—knows how to give a hypo, and so forth—and the touching thing is that she has just acquired a big book on the Theory and Practice of Nursing, and studies it. —And for other things—we are proud and happy about Donnan’s choice. Besides the beautiful grandson, whom I love almost as noisily—as he is. ♦ Your letter came this morning, Phoebe. I heard about it, and have just— late at night—had my chance to read it. First I want to congratulate you and Jack most devotedly, and to wish you as cunning an offspring as Lindsay is— what more could I say!—and a nice big place to bring him {or her} up in.1 March 3rd. —I began this note as dated at the beginning, but have been prevented from finishing it. Please forgive me for not writing sooner. You were very good to me, — you two and Hans and Phoebe—I’ll not forget it. I hope your parents are still finding Europe passably pleasant, and that we’ll see you and them soon. Very best wishes to you. —Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. 1. Phoebe and Jack were expecting their first child. John Dana Gilpin was born September 2, 1950. Their second son, David William Gilpin, was born June 23, 1952.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Mast Wolfson [March 1950] Tor House. Carmel. Rt. 1. Box 36 Monday Dear Mast— I thought you might might like to see this note from Dr. Naffziger.1 Please return when convenient. I am getting stronger & my left leg is somewhat less swollen. I had some pain for several days last week in my right leg. Started with getting angry at people takin trying to take our cliff away from us!2 Must I never get angry anymore? I can’t endure much pain now. I wrote for more of the testaterone (spelling?) tablets & received another bottleful. Affectionately Una ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. In a note dated February 28, 1950 (ALS HRC Texas), Dr. Naffziger says he is happy to hear that Una is improving. 2. See Una’s April 1950 letters to Remsen Bird and Margaret Owings.

UJ to Blanche Matthias Tor House Carmel Rt 1. Box 36 March 8. 1950 Darling Blanche: How sweet of you to send the Sandalwood. The p’k’g was mislaid at little Phoebe’s for several weeks but even so its more than two weeks ago that she forwarded it & I ought to have written. I have here in my drawer the wooden box & {in it} the bottle that contained the first sandalwood you ever sent me—from Cairo! You have always remembered the things I like! —All these years! Dear Blanchie. I was in the S. F. Hospital a day over 4 weeks. 12 doctors & I dont know how many laboratory men worked on me. No trouble about the diagnosis— LETTERS 1940– 1962

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sciatica—but that is caused by various things & there are many remedies that work more or less. Ultimately the thing that worked was what our fine Dr. John Gratiot {here} had just begun {to use} (after a dozen trial & errors of things suggested by Mayo Bros.)—male sex hormone. However Dr. Gratiot could never have gotten enough of it to work—there is only a little of it available yet & one must have a great pull to get it. —Dr. Naffziger, the great neuro-surgeon was intending to operate, (open spinal column & cut the sciatic nerve—& I don’t know what else but would have consented to anything to stop the unendurable pain). But they began to give me this hormone & ♦ I improved so much that the operation was given up. {Before this} they began X rays & I had 3 treatments but they made me so desperately ill they could not go on. One day I spent in an oxygen tent from the X ray. I couldn’t eat for a long time & spent half my time strapped to apparatuses which dripped blood, plasma, or nourishment into my veins. When I tell you that I who was practically born with a book in my hand wasn’t able to read even a paragraph all that month & only the last 3 days read the front page of a newspaper—you can see my state! I was taken up in an ambulance but was able to come back in the back of our car with lots of cushions & mattress & stopped at our hospital here for a week I still spend most of my time in bed—my legs are very weak & I still am taking the hormone stuff (bull’s testicle I am told!!). It was wonderful to get back to Tor House—Lee had it all so clean, & flowers everywhere & brass shining & fires burning & my nice bed just waiting for me to stretch out & gaze at the sea & rocks & birds Lindsay is the sweetest baby I ever saw & talks more than any child of 2½ I ever knew. He has a very large ♦ vocabulary & talks great long sentences. He is very comical. He came in the other day & stood by my bed & said “This is a joke, Grandma-mama-ma,” (He tells me its a joke first, so I won’t worry) “Lindsay is going to throw that old spinning wheel outdoors! Ha! Ha!” In the grocery marketing he made everybody laugh “Mahmi Mah-mi buy candy!, me needs it!” Bess O’Sullivan has been here from London & says I look infinitely better than I did when I flew over from Dublin to Edinburgh & London. Very comforting.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Wasn’t it lovely for Robin that Hans & Phoebe had Button & her husband keep him while they went abroad. They left their old Chinaman Wing in charge & he helped watch over Robin. Little Phoebe writes me she expects a baby in August. It made a tremendous difference in Robin’s comfort not to have to stay in a hotel. He stayed with me all day every day. The nurses (I had to have 3, —as they work only 8 hrs. shifts) all waited on Robin too. I had one of the two best rooms in the hospital as the place was full & Dr. Naffziger sent one of his patients home {early} in order to get ♦ me in. It looked out over the Golden Gate Bridge. The University of Calif Hospital is as you know, perhaps, on 3rd & Parnassus Aves. on the hill. My joy in getting back was ruined by the sudden death during that night, of Sidney Fish. We had gotten to be very dear friends these last years & he had been very much concerned about my illness. He & Esther went to bed rather early that night & read. He laid his book down & said “We must take this book to Una tomorrow—I want to hear what she thinks of it.” — Almost his last words. He went to sleep & about 4 am Esther discovered that he had died without a sound. She actually came to see me that very day & brought the book. It was “I leapt over the wall” by Monica Baldwin—niece of Stanley B—.1 She was a nun {in} an enclosed order for 28 years & then left the convent because she had no vocation! Its a very queer book. She still is a devout Catholic. Mario Ramiriz’ brother Pedro has come up from the Argentine to visit Noël. He is a painter. Robin & I are going up to Hollow Hills to spend a week or two as soon as I feel able. I want to wait until I finish the salt-free diet I am on at present so I won’t miss any of Dom’s delicious cooking! Please give this to Clapps. Devoted love to all four of you.2 Una ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Monica Baldwin (1893–1975), niece of Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, was the author of I Leap Over the Wall: Contrasts and Impressions After Twenty-Eight Years in a Convent (New York: Rinehart, 1950). Baldwin also wrote a novel about the cloistered life, The Called and the Chosen (1957), and a travel memoir, Goose in the Jungle (1965). 2. The last two sentences of Una’s letter and her signature are written in the top right corner, page 1. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to James R. Patton, Jr. [March 13, 1950] Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 Dear Mr. Patton:1 Robinson Jeffers will be happy to autograph your books if you enclose stamped addressed wrapper. I am sorry he cannot just now undertake to look over your article. He is terribly behind hand with some work he promised to finish some time ago. I have been desperately ill in a hospital in San Francisco for a month & a half & he scarcely left my bedside ♦ and wasn’t able to write a line for all those weeks. Now I am recovering, and have made a little progress with the pile of letters I find in my desk here. As I reread your letter I see your paper is one written some time ago & not in need of constructive criticism. That being the case, we would be glad to read it.2 You speak of Forestry.3 Our big twin son is finishing Forestry at U. of Oregon in June, did three years in two. He graduated in Anthropology at U. C. but four years in the army {(3 as a Ranger)}, & a wife & baby have {killed} his longing for expeditions into far countries so he has turned to his 4 next choice. Thanks for your appreciation. Faithfully, Una Jeffers ALS. Patton. 2 pages. Postmark: March 13, 1950. 1. James Richard Patton, Jr. (b. 1928) founded Patton Boggs, a major Washington, D.C. law firm, in 1962. He also served as a director of the Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and other cultural organizations. 2. Patton majored in English at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he wrote an honors essay titled “The Philosophy of Robinson Jeffers Through His Symbolism” (1948). 3. After completing his undergraduate studies, Patton enrolled in the School of Forestry at Yale University, but he soon decided to study law instead. He obtained a J.D. from Harvard University in 1951. 4. The remainder of the letter is written vertically in the right margin.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Judith Anderson and Luther Greene R. 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. April 6, 1950. Dear Judith and Luther: I have typed for three days—I am not good at it, but nobody can read my scribble. The enclosed is the only typed copy. Our daughter-in-law would have made another copy, and carbon, if there were time—but I thought better to send it off.— After you have read it at your leisure (a fortnight if you like) will you return it—with any suggestions for revision—so that Lee can make a copy, to be sent back to you? This seems to be about ⅓ of the play—the interesting part is still to come. Una and I were delighted to know that you have the family with you— after all that uncertainty. I hope it won’t be long before your brother comes.1 I had a happy time, visiting you, and the ranch will be wonderful. Thank you very much. Love to you both, from Una and me. Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Frank Burbank Anderson (1895–1960), his wife Laura, and their four children (a fifth child was born in California) moved from England to Carpinteria, where Frank became ­Judith’s ranch manager.

RJ to Luther Greene R. 1, Box 36, Carmel. April 11, 1950. Dear Luther: 45 days is a safe guess—less than that if I work afternoons as well as mornings. There are 90 pages left of the original, and I see that I have done 2 pages each morning that was devoted to it. So I’ll promise the play for June 1st—but a little earlier if necessary. (It has been my understanding that Judith didn’t need it until July, so I was not hurrying.) LETTERS 1940– 1962

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We are safe against interruptions, I’m sure. Una is by no means well yet, but she will not have to be hospitalized again. Did I ever tell you how much she appreciated the rich wildflowers and semi-tame ones that Judith and you sent? Thank you. And many of the lemons are still with us, besides one or two fat but not yet soft avocadoes, done up in brown paper. It gives me a shivery thrill to hear that the deep reservoir has been filled. Odd coincidences—I had a letter several weeks ago {(still unanswered)} from a man named Dekker,1 {whom we met once,} President of University of Kansas City, asking whether I could provide a play to be done there. Had I ever thought of doing Schiller’s M. Stuart? (Naturally I have not talked about the {play} to anyone.) Other coincidence: our friend Lester Donahue talked about Judith and you two days ago—among other things how a N. Y. paper had compared her to Modjeska2—Lester thought there was a likeness—then he talked about Modjeska playing Maria Stuart—but clearly he does not know that Judith has the play in mind. Let me know presently whether you think June 1st is soon enough, and whether Judith wants me to go ahead. Love to you both from Una and Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Clarence R. Decker. 2. Helena Modjeska (1840–1909), a Polish American actress who handled tragic and comedic roles with equal skill, mentored Donahue early in his career.

UJ to Zelle Bishop Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 April 13. 1950 Dear Zelle: Our love & sympathy go out to you continually. It will be very hard for you to adjust your life alone after so many years of close companionship.1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

When Robin was so close to death in Dublin, I tried to face the thought & could see only desolation ahead. The very night I came home from the San Francisco Hospital one of our dearest friends here died suddenly ♦ of a heart attack—(Sidney Fish, son of {the late} Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish of N. Y).—a dear person— My joy at getting home was completely spoiled, but we all realized how much better it is to go that way than to lie helpless & suffering for months before being released. His wife Esther was so brave & so thoughtful of others. That night {I arrived} we had all talked over the phone & he was so delighted I had come home. —He read in bed that night & finally called out to her that they must take me ♦ the book in the morning—he wanted my opinion of it. Almost his last words—because he went to sleep at once & a few hours later when she switched on her light for something, he was dead —without a murmur. Robin came very early to the hospital to tell me before I heard it otherwise. I could scarcely believe my eyes when she came in a little later & brought the book & his message. I am afraid I couldn’t be so self-controlled. You will need to plan your future—it will be very difficult to know what is best—but one thing I do know has been very helpful to friends of mine in grief—a long voyage. New faces & new places divert the mind but at home every object reminds one of days gone by. My heart.2 Devotedly, Una. ALS. C Michigan. 3 pages. Postmark: April 13, 1950. 1. Carleton H. Bishop, Zelle’s husband of forty years, died March 17, 1950. 2. In a March 10, 1950 letter (ALS C Michigan), not included in this edition, Una tells Zelle about her recent hospital stay, saying that “my room was filled with exquisite flowers & fruit & sherry, & messages {of love} & I resolved to really deserve this love more when I got out of there. It filled me with regret to think I hadn’t done more for everybody than I have.” In closing, Una writes, “We have loved each other, you & I, for nearly 60 years! Some kind of record!”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Luther Greene [April 18, 1950] Tor House, Carmel. June 18, 1950.1 Dear Luther: Here is the end of the first act—approximately half the play. I have begun the second (and final) act, but would like to know whether Judith wants me to go ahead—and is June first early enough? Otherwise I’d rather work on a book of my own. Love from us both, to Judith and you. Sincerely, Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Jeffers misdated this letter. It was probably written April 18.

UJ to Remsen Bird [April 1950] Wed. Dear Rem: I was astonished that you seemed irritated by my talk last night. The family think you couldn’t have understood my point of view. Here it is—of course I think it would be fine for that lagoon & river mouth & beach to be public property, but I saw {see} no reason for taking {including} our cliff & beach in that project.1 (our cliff is from foot of Stewart Way to Kuster’s {or that chalkstone house} on the north) Our deed reads that the pedestrian public shall always be allowed on our shore to fish or picnic etc. We had legal advice on the wording of this deed & have never tried to keep any pedestrian off the shore but have insisted that any motorist park his car on one of the side streets at the side of our land & walk to the shore. Thus we have kept the cliff free of cars & the view completely open. If the land is taken away from us of course we could not prevent cars being parked cheek by jowl the whole length of the cliff. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

You didnt not like my talk of discrimination—it was half in joke I said it, but really why not take some or all the spectacular shore belonging to Sam Morse or Matt Jenkins or down at the Highlands. Why take our bit which is serving the public already. Yours, Una ALS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. An idea for a municipal “shoreline park,” with Robinson and Una’s property on Carmel Point included, had been in the air for several years and was now being discussed as a real possibility. In February, the County Board of Supervisors gave the Point Lobos League $25,000 to proceed with their plan to secure the Carmel River beach and lagoon, south of Tor House, “as a permanent recreation area”—see “Lobos League Opens Its Campaign for Funds to Purchase Lagoon Area,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (February 17, 1950): 1. Buoyed by this success, proponents urged the county to include Scenic Road—as far north as Robinson and Una’s property line at Stewart Way—in its beach acquisition master plan, with the expectation that the Tor House acreage would remain undeveloped and thus provide an open vista all around Carmel Point. After Jeffers argued against the proposal at two planning commission meetings, the idea was dropped, “at least for the present.” See “Carmel Point Beach Out of Master Plan,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (April 25, 1950): 1.

UJ to Remsen Bird [April 22, 1950] I meant to tell Helen—to tell you—that “Poetry, Gongorism etc” was chosen one of the 50 best books of the year (best as to format) by the Institute of Graphic Arts for their annual exhibit.1 It is photographed & described on page 1 {of their book}. Very nice for all concerned. Yrs. U. J. APPS, McKenzie River. Occidental. Postmark: April 22, 1950. 1. In October 1949, the Ward Ritchie Press published a limited edition (200 copies) of Jeffers’ essay Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years. The book was selected by the Institute of Graphic Arts for its “Fifty Books of the Year” exhibition that opened April 4 in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Margaret Owings1 [April 1950] Our deed to the cliff has the proviso that the pedestrian public should be allowed on our beach to fish, picnic, etc. We have never tried to prevent the public doing this, but,—taking advantage of the word pedestrian we have insisted that motorists must leave their cars on the side streets by our property & walk down to the shore. Thus we have kept this entire cliff free of cars parking cheek by jowl all along the sea front & destroying the beauty of the scene. Our deed also stipulates that we erect no building of any kind down there. And we kept this beach clean for 30 years. What more do these public spirited people want? (Note the filth on the Carmel beach.)2 AN. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Margaret (Wentworth) Millard Owings (1913–1999), wife of architect Nathaniel O ­ wings (1903–1984) and resident of the Big Sur, was an artist and conservationist affiliated with the California Mountain Lion Preservation Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife, Friends of the Sea Otter, and other environmental organizations. Her book Voice from the Sea, and Other Reflections on Wildlife & Wilderness (Monterey, Calif.: Monterey Bay Aquarium Press, 1998) contains several references to Jeffers. Owings also discusses Jeffers in an extended interview published as Margaret Wentworth Owings: Artist, and Wildlife and Environmental Defender (Berkeley, Calif.: Regional Oral History Office, Bancroft Library, 1991). 2. Una’s note is written on an envelope postmarked March 6, 1950, used as scrap paper. In November 1993, Owings gave the item to the Tor House Foundation. “I am sending you the note written by Una Jeffers,” Owings explains in a letter to foundation president John H. Hicks (1919–2010). “Needless to say, when we worked on having the County take over the shore land between Scenic Road and the sea—it was an effort to help the Jeffers, not to intrude into their magnificent region. (Appraisals had been made and we had worked with the Bd. of Supervisors for their approval—but Robinson came to the meeting and gravely said ‘no.’ ” In another letter to the Tor House Foundation, Owings provides more details. “A number of us were trying to have the county and city of Carmel purchase the land between the Jeffers house and the sea,” she writes. “This could have saved it from all the solid mass of building that occurred after their deaths—and would also have set off their wonderful stone house as it should have remained amidst all the wild growth and stones. But when Una lay dying, she was very disturbed to hear about what she felt was public intrusion onto their land and she sent Robinson Jeffers to the Board of Supervisors asking that this not be done. He had never attended a public meeting before & because of his presence, they voted it down. Una sent me this note written on the back of a letter— It was a sad mistake.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Luther Greene Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 April 28. 1950 Dear Luther: Robin received your letter several days ago. Of course he is disappointed that you do not wish to use the play.1 He has spent spent so much time on it & completely laid aside other work he had in progress. Please send back the type-written ms. as he did not make a carbon of a part of it & it is bothersome even for him to make out his long-hand scribbles.2 Judith must be very happy to have her family with her & they will certainly like it, the English always love California. Faithfully, Una Jeffers ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. In a letter written “Saturday” (ALS HRC Texas), Luther tells Robinson that he need not continue with the “Mary and Elizabeth” project. “Judith and I have had several talks about the play,” he says. “We have come to feel that it is impossible with this progress to have a play that she can study this summer and play next season.” In closing, Luther expresses his and Judith’s regrets: “You have no way of knowing how great our disappointment in this is from every point of view. There is no need for a lot of words—only enough to convey to you our admiration, our affection, appreciation for your efforts on our behalf.” 2. Both the typescript and handwritten draft of the play are in the Jeffers collection at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

UJ to Muriel Rukeyser Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 May 23. 1950 Dear Muriel:1 How sweet of you to think of me & sympathize! I’ve had almost a year of suffering—sciatica {excruciating!} which has completely deranged the whole nervous system. I am convalescing but so slowly. Altogether we’ve LETTERS 1940– 1962

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had a devastating year & half. Perhaps you heard that Robin nearly died in Ireland. We were motoring over there when he was struck down with pleurisy & empyema. Ten weeks in a Dublin hospital. Fortunately there were some fine specialists there & they brought him through. ♦ While we were there Yeats’ body was brought back & buried close to one of my cherished ancient round towers—at Drumcliffe near Sligo. It was fine to see Ireland honoring him properly. The government sent a corvette to France to bring him home. Robin & I went again to his Ballylee Castle {in Galway}, (an ancient tower with five little cottages joining together at its base). It was sad to see this place—we’ve been there many times before—but now its in a horrible state. The cottages have all fallen in—they’ve been used for stables. Roofs off & full of dung. The tower’s walls of course will last another few centuries but the windows & ♦ everything breakable has been broken & degraded. I flew over to Edinburgh for the first night of Medea at the Edinburgh Festival. Eileen Hirlie had the lead & John Gielgud directed again. Hirlie was not as good as Judith Anderson. Marie Short is well & blooming—perhaps you hear from her. Kraig is happy & has a nice son, Mark.2 I don’t see anyone often. Quiet is the word for me. For weeks we have been planning to go to Noëls for a fortnight but I’ve not been quite up to it. Do you ever see Ella Winter? My love to her. They lent us their flat when we were in New York. We were very grateful—it was at a moment when every hotel was booked up. Thanks again for thinking of me. Robin sends greetings. Affectionately Una. Perhaps this letter sounds too complaining. All of our illness of 37 yrs. of marriage has been concentrated in this stretch. ALS. New York PL. 3 pages. Postmark: May 23, 1950. 1. Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980), a poet known for her commitment to social justice and for emotional candor, was the author of The Green Wave (1948), Body of Waking (1958), The Speed of Darkness (1968), Breaking Open (1972), and other books. Jeffers was one of three judges who selected her for Poetry magazine’s 1941 Harriet Monroe Award (see Una’s April 28, 1941 letter to

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Geraldine Udell). Muriel first met Robinson and Una in 1944, after writing to say she would be living in Ella Winter’s Carmel cottage for the summer. Una and Robinson did not know that Donnan was the father of Muriel’s child. Donnan never spoke of the relationship and Muriel kept Donnan’s name a secret, sharing his identity only with her immediate family and a few close friends. Muriel’s poetry, however, contains a record of her experience. In “Nine Poems for an Unborn Child,” “Night Feeding,” “For My Son,” and “All the Little Animals,” she speaks of the life-changing joy of giving birth to and raising a son; in “Orpheus,” “The Poem as Mask,” and portions of “The Gates,” she addresses the heartbreak of abandonment. “Orpheus,” written soon after her son William was born, captures the archetypal complexity of her situation. Eurydice is a lost lover, left in the underworld alone; Orpheus is a poet, torn asunder but still compelled to sing. In “The Gates,” written nearly thirty years after “Orpheus,” Rukeyser recalls the “fierce loneliness and fine well-being” that followed her son’s birth, “when all life seemed prisoned off.” In section 12 of the poem, she recollects her anguish: For that I cannot name the names, my child’s own father, the flashing, the horseman, the son of the poet— for that he never told me another child was started, to come to birth three weeks before my own. Tragic timing that sets the hands of time. 2. Marie Short’s daughter, Marie Kraig Short (1925–1987), married Edward Weston’s son Lawrence Neil Weston (1916–1998). The couple lived in Carmel. Their son Mark Neil Weston was born October 5, 1949.

UJ to Phoebe Barkan Tor House. June 8 [1950]

Dearest Phoebe— Tell me something. —Does Button happen to have the Decca records of Judith & others doing Medea? We wanted to give her {Button} something to remind her of Robin’s stay with her —(She took such care of him!). We gave David Moore & Renee McCreery1 these records & they were talking a few days ago of their pleasure in them,—then I thought thats what Button would like, perhaps!—

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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How are you?— so dear of you to telephone us last week. We were at Noëls—expected to stay a week or two, but after five days came home. My heart sort of acts up sometimes. I feel so breathless & fluttery (but no pain). The heat up the valley was not agreeing with me. But I am convalescing ♦ anyway. Sorry its so slow. A note from Blanche today. They are just arriving at Jasper Park, Alberta, and word from the Clapps. They will arrive in Calif. about July 13. They can’t decide whether to bring their precious Jaguar II. Maude says they are coming via the Canal. (Jaguar I got some scratches on mudguard last yrs. trip) The needful amount of bonds were sold for the rebuilding of The Golden Bough, which will be started soon.2 Teddie will have an important part in it at least for a year or two. Send me a line soon, darling. Love to you both. Devotedly, Una. Garth got his degree in Forestry & a good job.3 ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: June 9, 1950. 1. David S. Moore married Renee McCreery (1921–1997) on April 22, 1949. 2. When Teddie Kuster’s Theatre of the Golden Bough was destroyed by fire May 19, 1935, he also owned another theater in Carmel—the former Arts & Crafts Hall on Monte Verde Street between 8th and 9th Avenues. At the outset, Kuster called the second facility (used for both movies and theatrical productions) Filmarte, but he later changed its name to the Golden Bough Playhouse. In the early morning hours of May 21, 1949, the Golden Bough Playhouse was set ablaze and burned to the ground. Arson was suspected, as it was when the first Golden Bough caught fire. Coincidentally, the same play—By Candlelight, a Viennese comedy by Siegfried Geyer—was in production both times. The Carmel community rallied around Kuster and raised funds on his behalf to help him rebuild. 3. Garth completed his studies at Oregon State College in June 1950 and accepted a permanent position with the United States Forest Service. In the ensuing years, he held a variety of management positions in northern California and southern Oregon. One of his most important responsibilities drew upon his training in anthropology and his preference for field work. He searched the forests for sites once inhabited by Native Americans, mapped their locations, and then routed logging roads around them so they could be left undisturbed.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. California Rt. 1. Box 36 June 22. 1950 Dear Judith: Please advise me. Read the enclosed letter and tell me whether you see any objection to Robin’s allowing this university to produce “The Tower —.”1 About six colleges have asked {during the last few years} & been refused for the time being. But considering the production of “The Tower —” at the University of California {—in} about 1933 and the interest excited at that time which still brings letters about it to this day, I can see no reason against it. I can’t think that amateur productions at colleges would be unfavorable to a later production by professionals. I know that students kept the interest & excitement for years after the U. C. production. I would be glad to have you send back your copy of “The Tower” {typewritten} which I brought to you in San José as Robin has only the carbon made at that time & if he allows the college performance, he will need it. Please return this letter from Georgia, as I haven’t answered it. ♦ We hope that your mother has steadily improved.2 I’ve found that a long illness is a desperate thing. I’ve still a long way to go before I am well. These nerve things are elusive elusive & affect every organ of your body in curious ways. However I am not suffering any torturing pain. Weakness mostly now. Esther Fish told me about her visit with Lester to your place. She thought your new house, its situation etc very exciting. Robin sends his love with mine, to you both. Una. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. In response to a request from the Drama Department at the University of Georgia, Athens, Jeffers granted permission for a student production of The Tower Beyond Tragedy. The play, directed by James E. Popovich, was performed November 28–30, 1950. 2. Jessie Margaret (Saltmarsh) Anderson (1862–1950), who lived with Judith, suffered a series of strokes that left her partially paralyzed.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Phoebe Barkan [June 23, 1950] Friday night. Darling Phoebe: The music store here promised to mail you today the Medea records for Button. Robin wrote inside cover. —I had them directed to you, as I don’t know whether the young have gone into their new place yet. If the records do not arrive promptly, let me hear from you. I never trust stores absolutely! Did I tell you that Garth is now at Bass Lake. {His work is in the} Sierra National Forest. at present he is in charge of a crew {mapping the region for} working on the suppression of Blister Rust, which attacks white pines. They haven’t a house yet but for the present are all right in a tent beside the Lake. The heat away from the lake is terrible. The Clapps are on their way to S. F. via Canal. They expect to arrive in S. F. about July 4 & come here soon after. Please impress on their minds (tactfully!) that I won’t ♦ be any fun to play with this summer. I am afraid they may take an a’p’t here with the idea that we can jaunt about as of yore but really I find I can see almost no one & they ought perhaps to plan to be near other of their old friends who are in their usual strength of health. I do {can} not go out at all until my heart gets nice & steady again. I had such a dear & loving letter from Hazel who had just arrived at the thought that I’ve been really ill & she wanted to say how much I had {always} meant to her even if she can’t bring herself to write! It almost made me weep! Lindsay is more adorable each moment. He takes the most passionate interest in all the concerns of the household & comes to my bedside, clasps fat arms across his broad chest & tells me about a spider under the piano & the little 1hole a spark made in the rug. Love to all of you Devotedly Una2 ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: June 24, 1950.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. The rest of the letter is written vertically in the right margin. 2. “Una’s last letter to me,” Phoebe writes on the envelope. “We visited Tor House in July ’50 saw Una.”

UJ to Judith Anderson Tor House. Carmel. Calif. June 28 ’50 Dearest Judith: We are completely puzzled by “The Tower beyond T—” which you sent us—a version {(adaption)} by Gassner which we never saw before.1 What I wanted was the revised & extended one by Robin which I brought to you in San José on your tour. Before we left N. Y. in June ’48, we & Gassner & our agents {met} (his & ours) & agreed that he was to have no part nor parcel in any “Tower beyond T” from then on.2 {(except in the contingency of Robin’s death without doing his own adaptation.)} Don’t bother your head about it. If Georgia University should do this play, we will take a chance on lending our carbon copy.— When Luther gets back from Va. we will try to get it from him. He probably can lay hands on it. How vulnerable one is {when} loved ones get sick! More {distressing to me} than my own pain in my sickness has been the anxiety I’ve caused Robin & the children & the disruption of our regular life. Dogs have a more sensible way—crawl into a hole & disappear until you are fit to live with. Devotedly Una ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Judith sent a draft of The Tower Beyond Tragedy that was slightly different from an earlier arrangement by John Gassner. See Una’s May 29, 1938 letter to Bennett Cerf or Donald Klopfer (Collected Letters 2: 853). 2. See Jeffers’ June 10, 1948 letter to Gassner.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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UJ to Noël Sullivan [July 13, 1950] Dearest Noël— Thanks for remembering about Jane W. C.1 Books make all the difference to me now.2 With plenty of them & only fatigue to bother—I am quite content (though useless) J. –W–C was a remarkable woman—if we ever get time to talk about her— Devotedly, Una. Stuyvie is home— The little sitting room (where Esther’s portrait is) has a bed in it & all is arranged more conveniently. He feels very wretched from all the shots. Pain too, but not intolerable. Lester is coming Sat. also Olga’s niece, Sara Murphy’s daughter.3 ♦ “I cannot involve the whole world in my grief. Everything goes on as if nothing had happened—& I too, as if nothing in my life had changed. This is partly because she everything she represented for me subsists untouched by her death. She was a direction of my heart; and already during her lifetime, her voice, at times, seemed to me to come from a great distance.”4 André Gide about his wife, Em. (née Emmanuèle Rondeaux.) (1867–1938) We were speaking of Gide’s love for his wife. I think this paragraph says all about it. U. J. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. Postmark: July 13, 1950. 1. Jane Welsh Carlyle (1801–1866), wife of Thomas Carlyle. A book about her had just been released—Jane Welsh Carlyle: A New Selection of Her Letters, edited by Trudy Bliss (New York: Macmillan, 1950). 2. Among the books Una was reading, mentioned in letters not used in this edition, were The Essence of Plotinus (1948), based on the translations of Stephen MacKenna, and W. B. Yeats: Man and Poet (1949) by A. Norman Jeffares. 3. Honoria (Murphy) Shelton (1917–1998) married investment broker and Carmel resident William M. Donnelly, Jr. (1916–1988) in November 1950. With Richard N. Billings, she was the author of Sara and Gerald: Villa America and After (New York: Times Books, 1983). 4. From The Journals of André Gide, Volume III: 1928–1939, translated by Justin O’Brien (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949): 408.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

UJ to Luther Greene Tor House. Carmel. July 14. 1950 Dear Luther: Thanks—the typed ms. of “The Tower beyond Tragedy” came back safely. Robin means to work on it some more—sometime! In the meantime if the University of Georgia group want to use it, we will let them type it. We have now in hand the typed copy & its carbon (the only copies in the world!) & whenever Judith wants it, or wants to think about it again we will send her one or the other. She may be interested in the enclosed letter. These people paid well for an option but you see they found it too hard! Don’t trouble to return this letter. Tell Judith a bit of news. —I think she must know Billy Justema.1 Tell her he became a Catholic during the last year & now is actually entering an order —Benedictine, which deals more kindly with the arts than most orders. He ♦ has just sold his darling little house in Pacific Grove & enters his new life this week. If she remembers him, she will be surprised. Also Eula is now a R. C. & left a few days {ago} to see some of the Holy Year happenings in Rome. She told me she has been 22 yrs. with Noël. I don’t know what happened finally to bring her into the fold. Lester is arriving again Sat. Stuyvie Fish got his knee smashed to bits— polo. I think Lester will help him over these first weeks. Expects to be in a cast at least four months. I am mailing with this the translation you sent of Maria Stuart. I had mislaid it. Affectionately Una. I hope your invalids improve. I do, at a snails pace. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. William “Billy” Justema (1905–1987), a friend of Margrethe Mather and Edward Weston during his youth in Los Angeles, was an artist, photographer, poet, and wallpaper designer. He entered the Mount Angel Abbey in St. Benedict, Oregon as a novitiate, but left after a year. Books include Private Papers: Poems of an Army Year (1944), The Pleasures of Pattern (1968), and Pattern: A Historical Panorama (1976).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Daisy Bartley Tor House, Carmel, August 26 (I think) 1950. Dearest Daisy: Forgive me for not writing. There is so little to tell. Una’s condition goes up and down, and remains ultimately on the same level. She suffers a great deal, but mostly from extreme weakness and nausea. The pain is very well controlled by morphine and the male hormone injections. I think she hardly ever suffers {much} actual pain. To-day she has been asleep almost all day, but completely awake and aware whenever she had occasion to talk to me or to the doctor. Or to our daughter, Lee, who has a little training as a nurse, and gives the injections whenever needed. We are very fortunate to have Lee here. She is a sweet and beautiful girl, {(from Michigan)} better than Donnan or I deserve, but of course Lindsay deserves the best, —and all of us try to make Una as happy as we can. She {Una} has a sweet room, looking down on the ocean and rock-islands covered with birds, gulls, pelicans and cormorants; and the sea-lions passing; and the land-birds, quail and the singing sparrows and linnets, in the bushes under the window. Her favorite books are on the walls or nearby, and her friends—all over the country—are continually bringing her new books and flowers, and new kinds of food—only hoping to please her—particularly Noël Sullivan and Esther Fish, who come or call almost daily, and the Clapps and others in N. Y., and the Pinkhams in Los Angeles. There are many more. I am sure that Una feels how important and how much loved she is. But she refuses (usually) to see anyone. I don’t wonder. I too would want to be let alone. Harry Teabolt1—among others—called up day before yesterday, saying that you sisters of Una’s wanted news. I gave him all that I could, but didn’t ask him to visit here. We have no visitors now; a few people lay gifts on the door-step; others use the mail. Love to you, Daisy, and your household, and the others in Mason. Forgive the blots. Affectionately, Robin.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Long Beach. 1 page. 1. Harrie Herniman Teaboldt (1882–1973) and his wife Mae M. Teaboldt (1884–1970) were friends of Una and the Call family. They lived in Los Angeles, where Harrie was a salesman, but they were originally from Michigan. A volume of Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems, now in a private collection, contains a sketch of Tor House and Hawk Tower by Jeffers, along with an inscription: “Illustrated for Harrie Teaboldt, the man who furnished the biggest stone in the Hawk’s Tower, by his friend, Robinson Jeffers. Tor House, Carmel, California August, 1926.”

RJ to Hans Barkan 1950 SEP 1 PM 9 05 DR. HANS BARKAN 2330 LYON ST SFRAN UNA DIED THIS EVENING PLEASE TELL OUR FRIENDS IN SAN FRANCISCO WITH HER LOVE TO THEM AND TO YOU AND PHOEBE AFFECTIONATELY ROBIN Tlg. San Francisco.

RJ to Daisy Bartley September 4, 1950 Dear Daisy— Thank you for your thoughts and messages. I know that you love Una very deeply. No one was ever more deeply loved.1 The end came much more quickly than I expected, but apparently it was no surprise to the three doctors we had here. We had a very dear letter from Violet, specially delivered this morning, and her questions have led me to write the enclosed letter to all of you. Perhaps you can show it to Violet and Carrie, and then send it to Edith. Please greet Jerry and Bill for us. Dearest love, Robin. ♦

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Tor House, September 4, 1950 To Una’s dear sisters: Our loss seems to become more intolerable as the days pass, and unbelievable here in her remaining presence, among the things that she cared for, and in the house that she loved. And it amazes me. I never doubted until this year that she would long survive me, since all her ancestors and relatives seem to live well beyond eighty, and she herself was so vital and indomitable. I think it was nine or ten years ago she went to our friend Dr. Wolfson, probably the best doctor in this neighborhood, and asked him to prescribe a tonic. She thought she had been going to too many parties, and her energy was not altogether what it used to be. He at once gave her a thorough physical examination. Nothing whatever was wrong, except one or two {little} lumps in her breast; and he tells me now that some glands in the armpit were swollen. He sent her to Dr. Kilgore,2 one of the best surgeons in San Francisco. During the operation which she took gaily and without fear, the tissue was examined in the laboratory and I was told that the growth was malignant. The breast was amputated, and all the neighboring lymph glands. She recovered rapidly and I believed, as she did, that all danger was past. As soon as she came home she went back to Dr. Wolfson’s office. “I’m feeling a little tired. Can’t you give me a tonic?” He jumped out of his chair. “My God, woman, don’t you know whats happened?” And she enjoyed laughing at him. Nine years after the operation she began to suffer sciatica— inflammation of the big nerve at the back of the leg—which persisted and became intensely painful. She went to Wolfson and other doctors, none of whom were able to deal with it. Finally Wolfson sent her to Dr. Naffziger, ♦ who is regarded as the best nerve-surgeon in San Francisco. The intention was to sever the nerves of pain, which can be separated from the other nerve-fibers low down in the spinal cord. But the day we left Carmel the X-ray pictures, which had been taken a number of times, showed other involvements in the bones of the spine, besides the little nodule that was pressing on the sciatic nerve. This told the doctors at once, both here and in

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

San Francisco, that the trouble came from metastases—spreading colonies— of the old breast-cancer, and that operation was useless. There was really no need of our going to San Francisco, since they couldn’t operate, but at least Una had the advantage—whatever it was worth—of many good doctors, and the X-ray and chemical laboratories at the University of California Hospital. We were there the whole month of January, and Una came very near to dying then, but recovered a little. Una never knew that her trouble was cancer, and I think never suspected it, except once near the end, but I laughed at her when she suggested it, and I think drove the thought out of her mind. And of course I didn’t want to tell anyone, for fear the idea might somehow be reflected to her. The great pain that Una suffered from sciatica was controlled with morphine as soon as her condition was understood, and has never troubled her {very} much since then—during the past eight months. Her suffering was from stubborn nausea and extreme weakness. When we took her again to the hospital here four days before she died, the heart and liver and right lung, and probably other organs, were all dreadfully involved. She was kept almost completely unconscious, with morphine and barbiturates, during those last days. She talked a good deal, conversations with imaginary people, sometimes angry and sometimes laughing. I couldn’t understand the words but heard her mention Garth and Donnan several times and once Lindsay. {She died unconscious, her rapid breathing just stopped.} She was very brave and indomitable. I have been stunned ever since January, and now realize more and more every day how much we have lost. Thank you for your letters and messages. Garth and Lotte and their babies came here the night that Una died, so that with Donnan and Lee and Lindsay we have a houseful. Love— Robin. ALS. Long Beach. 3 pages. 1. An obituary in the September 2, 1950 issue of the Monterey Peninsula Herald, page 1, begins with a tribute: “The death last evening of Una Call Jeffers, wife of Carmel’s distinguished poet, Robinson Jeffers, brings a deep sense of loss to this community in which the influence of her unique and vibrant personality has been felt over a long period of years.” See also “Una

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Call Jeffers Dies at 65,” San Francisco Chronicle (September 3, 1950): WA8, and “Una Jeffers” by R. Ellis Roberts, Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (September 8, 1950): 3–4. 2. Alson Raphael Kilgore (1887–1959), a California native, graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1913. He returned to San Francisco in 1920 and established a practice as a general surgeon.

RJ to Luther Greene R. 1, Box 36, Carmel, California September 11, 1950. Dear Luther— I was glad to get your letter.1 There are hundreds here, very sweet and loving, from all over the country—and I can’t bring myself even to open the envelopes. I thought yours might have some kind of business in it—since we have talked already—and, as you say, that occupies the mind for a few minutes. There is no remedy but time—which will not cure the sorrow, but will bring it into proportion. I agree to your various paragraphs: (1) Judith has my permission to make any changes; I trust her judgment. If she would like new words written in connection with any change, I shall be glad to help. (2) Judith has exclusive rights to the Tower now and always, I should think, but certainly for two months after the ANTA production closes. (3) I am content with a royalty of 5% on gross receipts, in case a commercial production is arranged, after the one by ANTA. (4) (not numbered in your letter)—Thank you. I should be glad if you will represent me in dealings with ANTA. It is kind of you. However, I think any possible royalties will have to come to me through W. Morris Agency. I think our contract requires that, though it leaves me free to make arrangements. I had occasion to look it up several weeks ago— the University of Georgia wanted to stage The Tower locally, and we told them to go ahead. (So far as I know, nothing was said about royalties.) I looked at the contract to see whether I was free to give permission without consulting {the Agency,} them, and apparently I am. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Love to Judith and you. Sincerely, Robin. —Robinson Jeffers. ♦ PS. Please remind Judith that Hilda Vaughan was an excellent Cassandra, in the production here in Carmel. You may remember that we refused permission for a production that she proposed some months ago; partly on Judith’s advice. But Una and I were a little sorry to refuse. We could hardly imagine a better “Cassandra.” I add this note because I think that Una would want me to. Sincerely, Robin. ALS. Tor House. 2 pages. 1. In a letter to Jeffers dated September 8, 1950 (TLS HRC Texas), Greene addresses a number of business issues related to a planned production of The Tower Beyond Tragedy by the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA). “At this time,” he writes, “all but the final few details are made for Judith to do Tower for four weeks in New York under the auspices of ANTA, which, as you may know, is a non-profit Government sponsored theatre whose aim it is to bring the best theatre to our country. Judith’s reason for doing Tower with them is to give it a distinguished trial production in the hopes that she will be able to take it immediately after into the regular theatre.”

RJ to Zena Holman Tor House, Carmel, California. September 27, 1950. Dear Mrs. Holman: Thank you for your kind and beautiful letter. It is very lonesome for us now—worse than that—but we shall do all we can to continue a normal life here. We’d be happy to see you if you care to come in sometime. You were kind to send the check and I accept it gratefully, and have given it as from Una Jeffers to the Carmel Red Cross. She served the Red Cross very faithfully and well during the war and after; I think she would LETTERS 1940– 1962

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be happy that your generosity makes possible this extra contribution. Thank you very much. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. Postmark: September 28, 1950.

RJ to H. Kauti Tor House, Carmel, California September 27, 1950

Dear Mr. Kauti:1 Yes, I’ll write something in your book, if you care to send it. I should have answered sooner, but my wife died recently, and I am not able to get anything done. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers.

ANS. diZerega. 1 page. 1. H. Kauti (sometimes spelled Kouti) was a pseudonym of George Adams Van Nosdall (1893–1965), an unscrupulous autograph and manuscript dealer who pretended to be interested in an author’s work in order to obtain signed items, such as this letter, that he could sell. A sharply critical portrait of Van Nosdall, “The Nazi Who Forged ‘Home, Sweet Home,’” can be found in Great Forgers and Famous Fakes by Charles Hamilton (New York: Crown, 1980).

RJ to Karl Shapiro Tor House, Carmel, California September 29, 1950.

Dear Mr. Shapiro:1 Thank you. Yes, I have several things a page or two long that I should be glad to let you have for Poetry. But they are put away in pencil-scribble. It will be two or three weeks before I can find them and type them and send them to you. Best wishes— Robinson Jeffers. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

APS. Chicago. 1. Karl Shapiro (1913–2000), editor of Poetry from 1950 to 1956, won a Pulitzer Prize for V-Letter and Other Poems (1944). Additional books include English Prosody and Modern Poetry (1947) and In Defense of Ignorance (1960).

RJ to Hugh Bullock Tor House, Carmel, California. September, 1950. Dear Mr. Bullock: I appreciate your sympathy and thank you for it. She and I were very dear to each other. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page.

RJ to John Martin [September 1950] Dear John Martin: I have signed the affidavit, and return them {the two copies} with this. I hope they will be sufficient. I should have told My wife established these savings {bank} accounts when our sons were minor children, and used the account in the Bank of Carmel as a family savings account, making withdrawals and deposits according to convenience, over her own signature, {without consulting our sons.} I did not know that the accounts were in our sons’ names, and I think my wife had forgotten it. Certainly she had no thought or intention of evading {or ignoring} inheritance or gift taxes. I should have told you these things more clearly in our last when I last saw you. but I expect what you have in the aff They could be added to the affidavit if you judge think it advisable; but I expect what has been signed will be enough. Thank you very much for the trouble you are taking. 1

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. John F. Martin (1916–2006) was an attorney in the Monterey Peninsula law firm of Hudson, Martin, Ferrante & Street. His father, Carmel Martin (1879–1965), co-founded the firm in 1908.

RJ to Varian Green [September 1950] Mr. Varian Green: Will you Please sell about 3000 $3000 dollars’ worth {(more or less)} of the bonds {securities} in my trust voluntary trust account {agreement} with your bank, and send me a check for cash. My wife, Una Jeffers, died on September first, and our property {and earnings} here—which I {have} always {for intimate reasons} made over to my wife—are temporarily frozen for some months. I could get a loan, of course, or a court order, but this seems easiest. Sincerely, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp R. 1, Box 36, Carmel, California October, 1950 Dear Tim and Maud: Thank you for your letter, but I know what you felt, you didn’t need to write. Your letter is more real to me than any other of the hundreds; it isn’t sympathy, though I know you feel that too, but loss. We have lost so much that I don’t want to speak of it. I tell myself cold comfort, that her awareness and beauty are dissolved into the world, and make it more beautiful. But an old superstition keeps me praying silently: “Make Una joyful, wherever she is.” She enjoyed her little ride with you in the Jaguar; and she enjoyed her ten days in England and Scotland, when I was convalescent in the hospital

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

in Dublin, and she was driven out of her lodging there by the Horse-show. And visiting the old places in Ireland, and some new ones, was a joy to her. I think of those recent things; after a while, if I live long enough, I shall think of her life as a joyous whole. Since the first of January, this year, I have known that she was fatally ill; and we managed to conceal it from her. She was still in love with life, and I thought it better not to let her know. Perhaps I was wrong, but I didn’t know how soon the end would come. Affectionately, Robin. TLC. Yale. 1 page.

RJ to Judith Anderson Tor House, Carmel. October 10, 1950.

Dear Judith: This is taking an awfully long time, though I have been hard at it, morning and afternoon too. Here is the revised First Act. I will send Scene I of the second act in two or three days, and scene II as soon as possible—three or four days later. I have used all your suggestions—and glad to—so far as I noted them down, or can remember them.1 This is the only typescript there is of the revised play, and I don’t feel that there is time to have it copied before you see it. Sorry it is so messy. Thank you very much—and I am grateful to Luther too—for the pleasant and extremely interesting time I had with you. The place is magnificent, so is the house, and things will soon grow up around it.2 My love to your mother, and to Luther too, and the others of your handsome family. Affectionately, Robin. TLS. Tor House. 1 page. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. With plans moving forward for a New York production of The Tower Beyond Tragedy, Judith asked Jeffers to revise portions of the script. 2. In order to work together on the project, Jeffers traveled to Rancho Verde, Judith’s estate in Carpinteria. Inspired by her career-defining roles as Medea and Clytemnestra, Judith’s new Palladian villa featured a portico designed in the style of a Greek temple—with four unfluted Doric columns and a plain pediment.

RJ to Judith Anderson Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, Calif. October 14, 1950. Dear Judith— Here is the second act. I hope it will do, and that it reaches you safely. This is the only typescript there is. I enjoyed our telephone conversation this morning. I love you, Judith, and naturally I wish you good luck on your travels. Sincerely, Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page.

RJ to H. Kauti Tor House, Carmel, California October 17, 1950. Dear Mr. Kauti: —I have neither time nor inclination to copy the whole of “Shine, Perishing Republic.” Isn’t the title enough? The poem is on page 95. Inscribed for H. Kauti— Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. WWW. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Glenn Clairmonte Tor House, Carmel—October 21, 1950 Dear Glenn Clairmonte: I can’t dictate, and I can’t write a legible manuscript, so it is up to me to do my own typing, at least the first draft. And this year there is nothing in prospect, except a few pages. I am sorry, and sorry to hear of your difficulty. Prices in Carmel are notoriously steep, but I hope you won’t have to leave. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Virginia. 1 page.

RJ to Karl Shapiro R.1, Box 36, Carmel, California. October 23, 1950. Dear Karl Shapiro: Here are the poems I promised you.1 Sorry they are a few days late; a lot of unforeseen business has delayed me. I have numbered the pages in sequence, but of course you are welcome to rearrange the sequence, or to send any or all back to me. These may be more than you want. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. “Fire,” “The Beauty of Things,” “Animals,” “The World’s Wonders,” “Time of Disturbance,” “The Old Stone-Mason,” and “To Death” were published in Poetry 77 (January 1951): 187–196.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Luther Greene R. 1, Box 36, Carmel. October 25, 1950. Dear Luther:1 Thank you for your letter; I’m glad Judith had a good flight. I have heard nothing more from Robert Breen2—but then I haven’t answered his letter. I expect $1000 would be right. Five hundred of that, if I get it, will go to John Gassner, for agreeing to give up the undated and perpetual contract, accepting his adaptation of “Tower” and giving him 50% of any profits, which I signed when it was produced in Carmel. We met him in 1948, on our way to Ireland, and with the help of William Morris Agency (where the meeting took place) persuaded him to relinquish that contract. He refused stubbornly, but finally yielded, standing alone against Una and me and the Agency. We rather liked him, and I think it was Una who suggested that he should receive five hundred of the first thousand earned, and that his adaptation should be used if I should die without making one.3 This is a boring subject, and certainly I wouldn’t bother Judith with it. Best wishes to you, and my love to Judith when you write. Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Luther’s name is crossed out, probably by Judith, who filed for divorce in May 1951. 2. Robert Breen (1909–1990), an actor and theatrical producer, was the executive secretary of the American National Theatre and Academy (ANTA). Opening night for The Tower Beyond Tragedy was scheduled for November 26, but contractual details were not yet finalized. Members of the cast included Judith Anderson as Clytemnestra, Thelma Schnee (1918–1997) as Cassandra, Marian Seldes (1928–2014) as Electra, and Alfred Ryder (1916–1995) as Orestes. 3. Although the collaboration agreement between Jeffers and Gassner had been terminated in 1948, Gassner mentions his adaptation of The Tower Beyond Tragedy—and the attention it brought to Jeffers’ work as a dramatist—in his introduction to Medea, a play he describes as “the one distinguished high tragedy written by an American poet.” See Best American Plays: Third Series, 1945–1951, edited by John Gassner (New York: Crown, 1952): 396.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Daisy Bartley October, {26,} 1950. Dearest Daisy: Enclosed is an old letter that I wrote to you and never mailed.1 Una asked what I was writing, so I gave it to her, and have just found it in one of her drawers here. I think that she read it through. I don’t think she thought she was dying, as I knew she was, and the letter suggests, but I had to give it to her when she suddenly asked for it. She knew she was gravely ill; I don’t believe she thought any further than that. Not recently, but very long ago, Una and I told each other what kind of burial we wanted. No funeral ceremony—cremation—and the ashes to be buried in the courtyard of our house here—only a few inches deep, so that the tree-roots might sooner absorb them. That is what we did with the ashes of our little first-born, Maeve. It is now against the law in California, and most other states except Nevada, so that ♦ I had to have the ashes sent to an undertaker there, and next month they will be brought back secretly and laid where Una wanted them. I remember that my worst worry, when I was near dying a couple of years ago in the Dublin hospital, was that there probably isn’t a crematory in Catholic Ireland—the Catholics don’t approve of cremation—and what a nuisance it would be for Una to have to transport me to England for cremation. An odd fancy!—but it really was my worst worry. Our Catholic friend Noël Sullivan had Mass said for Una in the old Mission here, and many of our friends attended it. The music was beautiful—and it satisfied their need for some kind of ceremony.2 Donnan and I went, and Una’s doctor sat beside us. The mail has just come, with your letter of the 23rd. Thank you, dear. You are very kind to write so often; I wish that I could. We saw California poppies highly valued in many English gardens. Their own beautiful red one was regarded as a weed. —Yes, I am very glad that Donnan and Lee and Lindsay are here. —I certainly don’t want to go East. If I am forced to, the only pleasant thing about it will be to see you again.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Love to you, Daisy, and my best greetings to your family and your sisters. What a messy writer I am always! Robin. 3

ALS. Long Beach. 2 pages. 1. Probably Jeffers’ January 25, 1950 letter to Daisy. 2. A Requiem High Mass was held for Una at the Carmel Mission on Tuesday, September 12, 1950. 3. The last two sentences of this letter and the signature are written vertically in the left margin, page 2.

RJ to Luther Greene R. 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. November, 1950. Dear Luther:1 I have just received your letter from New York. Thank you for it, and thank you for bargaining on my behalf. The cuts in the manuscript will be all right, if Judith approves of them. I am glad that you have such fine people in the show, and of course I know beforehand that Judith’s Clytemnestra will be superb. I should like to be there, but my almost total inexperience of the theatre—I should only be useless or in the way. I told Judith that I couldn’t afford to go. That was not absolutely true, but near enough. All my earnings from Medea and various books, were put into accounts that Una initiated in the names of our sons when they were babies—quite right too—we could draw on them, but since Una’s death they belong to Garth and Donnan. The boys would gladly let me use them, but I don’t intend to—except to pay the shocking county taxes on our home— 1500 or so—this year. Of course I have a small inheritance and so forth to get along on; but I felt I ought to explain to Judith—through you—why I pleaded poverty so soon after Medea. I notified the William Morris Agency a few days ago, in answering a note from them, that I probably had a small royalty—1000 dollars had been suggested, but I did not know—to collect from ANTA. I am bound to them

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

as my agents—recommended by Judith, when we began Medea—by a five year contract, which I signed in 1948. Please tell Judith that I love and greatly admire her—but I think she knows it. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Luther’s name is crossed out.

RJ to William Turner Levy Tor House, November 1, 1950. Dear William: My earnest thanks for your letters; and for the “Country Lifes”, which Donnan and I enjoy seeing. When you communicate again with T. S. Eliot, please tell him that I am grateful for his message.1 Here we have had a grand roaring winter storm already. October is early for them. All good wishes— Robinson Jeffers. ALS. New York PL. 1 page. Postmark: November 2, 1950. 1. As a friend of both Jeffers and Eliot, Levy provided a link of sorts between them. Some of the exchanges are recorded in Levy’s memoir, Affectionately, T. S. Eliot.

RJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan Tor House, Carmel, California November 6, 1950. Dear Mabel: I have just found a letter of yours among Una’s things, and I think there was a letter since Una’s death, but I cannot remember all the letters I received lately. You know of course that Una died, the first of September, —metasteses from the old breast-operation, nine or ten years ago— LETTERS 1940– 1962

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though it was done by one of the best surgeons in San Francisco; and her extraordinary vitality must have kept the disaster suppressed for a long time. She never knew why she was ill; but I have known certainly since the first of the year, and had to conceal it from her. It was not easy; her mind was so powerful and so exacting. And I thanked God for the morphine, which was given quite freely since the diagnosis—the first of this year—preventing most of the pain and blurring fogging the consciousness. Perhaps that is what we all need—opium or alcohol—when we live long enough to see our dearest ones die. I never dreamed she would die before me. She loved you as you have loved her. Only that foolish accident, the time before last—I think—that we saw you, prevented her from saying so. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. This was written some days ago. I never can get my letters mailed, as Una did; nor most of them written. R. J. November 14. ALS. Yale. 1 page.

RJ to Monterey Peninsula Herald [November 9, 1950] Editor, The Herald: Allow me to second or at least to echo, Gelett Burgess’s fine plea,1 in last Friday’s Herald, for the preservation of our redwoods.2 We have no ancient buidings in California—two or three centuries are not much, to compare with Stonehenge or the Tower of London—but we have these oldest and greatest trees, beautiful green monuments that have stood throughout historical time. We ought to preserve them, if only to feed our imaginations; to remind us that time is not merely today and last week, not a narrow thread of light on a screen of darkness, but a wide ocean. It seems almost providential that the most recently populated countries, California and Australia, which have few other memories of ancient life, 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

have the most ancient and magnificent trees. So we had better save them. If we do, they will always be with us, even to our most remote descendants. For the redwoods seem never to die of old age, as other trees (and men and civilizations) do. They are practically immortal; even forest-fire cannot kill them; they die only of human exploitation. Robinson Jeffers PL. Herald. 1. Gelett Burgess, “California Giants in Danger,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (November 3, 1950): 6. Frank Gelett Burgess (1866–1951) was an artist and humorist who authored the famous “I never saw a purple cow” quatrain—first published in the Lark, a San Francisco magazine he co-founded in 1895. 2. The Monterey Peninsula Herald published Jeffers’ letter in the Letter Box column on November 9, 1950 (p. 4) under the headline “Echoes Pleas for Redwoods.”

RJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp R. 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. November 13, 1950. Dear Tim and Maud: I haven’t any intention of going to N. Y., though it would be a great pleasure to see you two, and Blanche and Russell. Judith Anderson tried to persuade me to go, but I was quite firm on the subject. Of course, if the play should be successful enough to go into commercial production after its four weeks with ANTA,1 Judith will probably coerce me into going— and in that case Lee and Donnan might come along—but that seems highly doubtful. I have just written to Robert Breen, executive secretary of ANTA (American National Theatre and Academy), asking him to make {4} tickets available for opening night for you and the Matthiases. I gave him your addresses, and I hope he will act accordingly. Yesterday Donnan, Lee, Lindsay and I drove up the Valley to the top, Chew’s Ridge, about 4,000 feet high. We took lunch along and brought back

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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a lot of those huge coulter-pine pine-cones, besides a few hundred-weight of stones to build with. A very pleasant excursion. No acting version of “Tower” has been published, and I don’t see why any should be; there is very little change, except {necessary} cancellation of a lot of Cassandra’s laments and prophecies. N. Y. Times’ drama editor 2 asked me to write an article about “Tower”, which I did rather unwillingly, and he will print it before the opening.3 Please give my love to Blanche and Russell. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. Yale. 1 page. 1. The Tower Beyond Tragedy was booked for thirty-two performances at the ANTA Playhouse, November 26 to December 22, 1950. 2. Lewis B. Funke (1912–1992), a writer and editor at the New York Times for nearly fifty years, was the author of Actors Talk About Acting (1961) and other books. 3. Jeffers’ essay, accompanied by an illustration by artist Don Freeman (1908–1978), was published as “‘Tower Beyond Tragedy’: Poet and Playwright Tells How He Wrote Drama Based on Greek Stories,” New York Times (November 26, 1950): Drama–Screen, X1, 3. For the complete text, see Appendix A: 6.

RJ to Saxe Commins Tor House, Carmel, California November 20, 1950. Dear Saxe: Thank you for your prompt message of sympathy. I had never dreamed that Una could die before me—she was so full of life—and I miss her continually. She liked you very much, Saxe. So do I. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ANS. Princeton. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Noël Sullivan Tor House, Carmel. November 22, 1950. Dear Noël: I have had I think hundreds of letters since Una’s death, and I can answer only the few persons whom she most loved. You are one of those few, and that is why I am writing to you, although I have seen you several times since then, and probably this letter will be no more expressive than our meetings have been. I only want to thank you for having been one of Una’s best friends. She loved you, and she liked to think of you as her friend. We miss her continually. Let me and my family wish you all happiness for your Atlantic and Mediterranean voyages. May they be as successful as ours to Ireland were, except the last one. Take good care of yourself. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: November 24, 1950.

RJ to Judith Anderson 1950 NOV 26 PM 3 39 JUDITH ANDERSON DELIVER 245 WEST 52 ST LOVE AND ADMIRATION. WISH I WERE THERE1 ROBIN Tlg. Tor House. 1. Jeffers sent this greeting on the opening night of The Tower Beyond Tragedy. The message was printed on special Western Union stationery that had flowers in the background and “Congratulations” across the top.

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RJ to Carmel Music Society [November 1950] Mrs. — Carmel Music Society: I have your letter of the 22nd, and am grateful to the Carmel Music Society for your words about Una Jeffers, and to the Board of the Carmel Music Society for their remembrance for the gift {to two young musicians in memory of her,} to two young musicians in remembrance of her. I miss her continually, and cannot write any more than “Thank you.” Sincerely, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Whom It May Concern [November 1950] {Thank you for your thought writing to me about Una.} I can’t write a letter and at this time I can’t even write a few words {in answer though I had hoped to. I have never been able} to write letters, but now less than before, and I have asked my son Donnan to get this printed {multigraphed?} {engraved?} for me. It carries thanks and good wishes. Sincerely, R. J. ALDS. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Luther Greene and Judith Anderson [December 10, 1950] Will arrive New York {early Tuesday} —. — and go to 280 Park Avenue (stop) stop unless you wire to the contrary. Stop. Agree to changes and think I can make them in ten days. (Stop.) Deeply sorry about Judith’s

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

loss. Stop. Love and best wishes. Robin. Will come promptly on receipt of wire {telegram} from you.1 Stop. Love and sympathy to Judith.2 Best wishes. Robin TlgD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Hoping The Tower Beyond Tragedy would be booked at another theater after the ANTA production closed, Judith asked Jeffers to come to New York and rewrite portions of the script. He left Carmel Monday, December 11 and returned at the end of the week. 2. Judith’s mother died Friday, November 24—two days before the opening performance.

RJ to New York Times [December 24, 1950] No doubt Charles O’Neal is right. It was a long time ago, and I spoke carelessly. One of my sons carried a spear in the play but not as an “amateur.” He did it as a filial duty. Robinson Jeffers. Carmel, Calif. 1

PL. NY Times. 1. In response to Jeffers’ November 26, 1950 comments concerning The Tower Beyond Tragedy in the New York Times, Charles O’Neal sent a letter to the drama editor, Lewis B. Funke. “I’m sure Mr. Jeffers intended no slight upon Judith Anderson’s supporting cast in the Carmel Forest Theatre production of some nine years ago,” he writes, “but he mistakenly referred to them as being ‘largely amateur.’ Every speaking part in this earlier production was played by paid professional performers, all in good Equity standing. Even the Greek soldiers were in a way ‘professionals,’ being borrowed from the Army at Fort Ord for the occasion.” O’Neal had staged the 1941 production of the play in Carmel. Both letters were printed in the Drama Mailbag column, New York Times (December 24, 1950): 42.

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RJ to James R. Patton, Jr. Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California December 28, 1950. Dear Mr. Patton: Thank you sincerely for your letter. I don’t know whether you know that my wife died last September after a long illness. I have been too preoccupied with my loss to answer letters or write anything else, but no doubt I’ll get used to it after while. “The Women at Pt. Sur” has always mystified me also a little, as you say it does you. It seems to me that Barclay was a man who had a great vision, but it was instantly twisted and perverted by inner conflicts, and particularly by his desire to dominate other people. “Theory of Truth,” the last piece of verse in my “Selected Poetry,” refers to this; and seems to explain the matter as well as I am able to. I am glad my verses have been of some use to you. The thought and feeling they represent have somewhat sustained me in my own bitter time. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Patton. 1 page.

RJ to Theodore and Frances Lilienthal R. 1, Box 36, Carmel December 29, 1950. Dear Ted and Fran: I was grateful for both your letters, and sorry not to have answered them. Una used to attend to our correspondence, as you know, and in this time of depression I am more than ever incapable of doing anything about it. I look forward to seeing you whenever you come here. All good wishes— Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. Postmark: December 30, 1950.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Melba Berry Bennett Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California December 30, 1950. Dear Melba: I am deeply sorry that I can’t write letters. Hundreds have come, and hardly any of them is even acknowledged. I can’t ask Donnan or Lee to do what I am too shiftless to do—though Lee has often offered to. They are sweet children. But Donnan has his job, his writing and his garden; Lee has her baby and the household to take care of. We’ll be delighted to see you if {when} you come here next spring or summer. I have been more or less stunned since September—very unhappy and useless—but now I must get over it. There have been distractions enough. I had to go to Santa Barbara to see Judith Anderson about the play— I refused to go to New York, but then about a month ago I was compelled to—flew of course—and was there five days. Saw the Clapps and Matthiases and my publishers, after my business was done. Saw the play twice. Judith is of course tremendous; and carried the whole thing on her shoulders. The others were fine actors, but some of them were badly miscast, and it seemed to me that there were other serious errors. So I am glad that they will not reopen immediately, as was planned, after their month with ANTA (American National Theater and Academy). The talk now is of bringing it to California in the spring. ♦ The reviews were various. Brooks Atkinson,1 in the N. Y. Times, seemed to say that it was the best thing he had ever seen. His opinion is important, but there were many others who thought otherwise, though all of them praised Judith’s extraordinary talent.2 To me the play seemed less impressive than the production in the Carmel Forest Theater nine years ago. More polished, of course, but slighter and less interesting. However—I know nothing about the theater. Never a moment of the day or night that I don’t miss Una—terribly. I try to remember the thought and feeling that made my verses and are habitual to me, and I think that they have sustained me against despair—

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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or rather in despair—and this loss will come into proportion after while. We were married for thirty-seven years, and loved each other longer than that. She was so full of life, and all her ancestors and family lived beyond eighty—I never dreamed she would die before me. But it is here. Over Christmas, a few days after I returned from New York, we visited Garth and his family, at North Fork, near Yosemite. He is making a career in the U. S. Forest Service. What landscapes—and what driving—mostly on twisted mountain roads at night. We went up to Huntington Lake, so that the babies could put their hands in real snow. I’ll be very happy to see you, Melba, whenever you come here. Please give my good wishes to Frank and Deedee. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. Postmark: January 2, 1951. 1. Justin Brooks Atkinson (1894–1984), a writer and drama critic, began his career at the New York Times in 1922. He retired in 1965, but continued to contribute articles and reviews until 1980. Atkinson won a Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for a series of articles about life in the Soviet Union, and he was the author of New Voices in the American Theatre (1955), The Lively Years (1973), and other books. 2. In his review of the opening night performance of The Tower Beyond Tragedy, Atkinson calls the play a “masterpiece,” an “inspired production”—praising Jeffers for writing “lines of fire that make an ancient theme immediate and devastating” and Anderson for performing with unforgettable passion and grandeur; see the New York Times (November 27, 1950): 38. Writing again two weeks later, Atkinson lauds Jeffers’ “clean and pulsing verse” and Anderson’s “complete virtuosity” that combine on stage to create drama with “terrible, burning vitality”—New York Times (December 10, 1950): X5. Other critics were not as complimentary. According to Richard Watts, Jr., writing in the November 28 issue of the New York Post, “The Tower Beyond Tragedy is certainly worth the attention of an experimental theatre, but it is less than completely satisfying as tragic drama.” See New York Theatre Critics’ Reviews: 1950 (week of November 27, 1950): 180–182.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Alexander Ince [December 1950] Dear Mr. Ince: I am sorry to have kept you waiting while I make up my mind {taken so long to come to a decision} about “The Mute Knight.”2 The play is attractive and might be successful; there are it is rich with color, {and would make a fine opera libretto.} But it is too fantastic to interest me deeply properly, and I couldn’t and too artificial for me to take a proper interest in it, {interest me properly, {deeply,}} and therefore I couldn’t give it the words {poetry} it deserves. I return the script under separate cover. Thank you for offering me the opportunity, though I can’t use it. Sincerely, 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Alexander Sandor Ince (1889–1966) was a theater personality in Hungary prior to World War II. He left his homeland in 1940, settled in New York, and established himself on Broadway as a producer and as the publisher of Theatre Arts magazine. 2. Ince wrote to Jeffers October 24, 1950 (TLS HRC Texas) and enclosed a copy of The Mute Knight, a play by Hungarian author Jenö Heltai (1871–1957). Originally titled A néma levente, the light romantic drama was translated into English by Humbert Wolfe (1885–1940) and performed in London in 1937 as The Silent Knight. Ince wanted Jeffers to create a new version of the play for the American stage.

RJ to Daisy Bartley Tor House, Carmel, California January 7, 1951. Dear Daisy: Forgive me for not writing. I just can’t write a letter—except on a simple matter of business, and that takes all day. It is ridiculous, and I can’t understand it. Una used to attend to most of my letters, but simply because I couldn’t. Now all the letters that came during her later illness have been thrown away unanswered. At least two hundred letters of condolence are in a box here, unacknowledged; they come from her friends LETTERS 1940– 1962

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all over the world. And most of the other letters I have received since her death remain unanswered. They will haunt me until I burn them. Let’s change the subject. I had to fly to N. Y. in December, about the play. I had refused before, but now they said it was necessary. It was not. I was there five needless days, saw the play twice, attended three parties, and flew home. One of the parties was given by our friends the Matthiases at their hotel-apartments. There I saw Noël Sullivan, on his way to Europe for the end of the Roman Holy Year, and to see France and the Mediterranean {again,} before the Russians take over. With him (but not for Europe) were two pleasant young men and the daughter of India’s envoy to the United Nations, Miss ?? Rau.1 I believe Miss Rau has written a book lately.2 ♦ She was handsome, & Hindu-color, and {beautifully} half-Hindu dressed; but six feet tall, and held a glass of whiskey and water in her hand, which is rather unusual for Hindus. One of the young men explained to me that she had lost caste anyhow, by crossing the ocean, so the whiskey didn’t matter. Another, but smaller, party was at Admiral “Bull” Halsey’s3 apartments, to which Judith Anderson took me after I had seen the play. Queer to see him in New York. The third party was for the cast of the play, at Judith’s apartments. They are very nice young people, and excellent actors, but some of them badly miscast. The play was fairly successful but not good. The direction was bad and the stgge stage-set worse; all that I had thought of as hard had been made soft; and the cutting, for which I had given permission, had cut most of the poetry out of the play. I was amazed that the N. Y. Times—Brooks Atkinson, their most famous critic of drama—said it was one of the best plays he had ever seen. I don’t think so. But Judith Anderson, of course, was superb. She had done it magnificently in the Forest Theater here in Carmel, and had always wanted to do it in N. Y. A few days after I came home we drove to North Fork, California, to visit Garth and his family over Christmas. He is a forester, as of course you know—U. S. Forest Service. He loves his work, especially the out-doors part

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

of it. He has amazing st strength and endurance and energy, and loves to spend them in the mountain forest. His only question is whether he ought n to go back to college for a year and get a Master’s degree in forestry, to insure more rapid promotion. Our Christmas was ♦ delightful and a little tiring— long cold drives up to snow-line through magnificent scenery—and rowdy nights when the neighbors came in to play poker. The children—Maeve, Lindsay, Diana—had a wonderful time and wonderful presents, besides the snowy mountains and the white-fir Christmas tree. This was the first time that Lindsay hads seen snow—perhaps Maeve and Diana did in Oregon. So we came home. It is a five or six hour drive—250 miles or so—we seem always to do it at night, and in a fog. New Year’s eve we spent quietly at home. We had been invited to parties and refused them. We had a few drinks together and I thought desperately of Una—probably Donnan did too. Her absence—her death—is the worst thing I have ever suffered, or ever shall suffer. I’d better keep still. What a handsome and talented son you have. Give my regards to him, please. Love to Jerry, and our family in Mason and Lansing—Canada too, when you write. We enjoyed very much that record of the family voices. January 6 was Una’s birthday, as of course you know, and Ellen O’Sullivan, who so deeply loved her, had us with Lindsay for dinner that evening. No one else, of course. Miss O’S. also had a mass said for her that morning, which I attended. Noël had one said for her a few days after her death; and Miss O’Sullivan’s servant, Mary McNicholas, had one said for her in Ireland, when she was visiting her old mother there. —Pure superstition, but it shows how they love her. Affectionately, dearest Daisy, Yours, Robin. ALS. Long Beach. 3 pages. 1. Vasanthi “Santha” Rama Rau (1923–2009) was the daughter of Sir Benegal Rama Rau (1889–1969), ambassador to the United States and governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Her uncle, Sir Benegal Narsinga Rau (1887–1953), was a jurist and statesman who helped draft India’s constitution. 2. Rau graduated from Wellesley College in 1944. Writing as Santha Rama Rau, she pub-

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lished Home to India in 1945 and East of Home in November 1950. Additional books include This Is India (1954), My Russian Journey (1959), and The Adventuress (1970). Rau’s 1951 marriage to Faubion Bowers ended in divorce. She later married Gurdon Wallace Wattles, Jr. (1920–1995), a legal affairs official for the United Nations. 3. William Frederick “Bull” Halsey, Jr. (1882–1959), a 1904 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, commanded the South Pacific Forces, the Western Pacific Forces, and the Third Fleet during World War II. He was named fleet admiral in 1945, the highest possible rank in the United States Navy (equivalent to a five-star general).

RJ to Cyril Clemens Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. January 17, 1951. Dear Cyril Clemens: I enclose a paragraph about Bernard Shaw for your symposium,1 and thank you and the society for your birthday wishes. I will write in Sterling’s book when it comes, and return it to you. Your chat will Hardy interested me very much indeed, and thank you. It is on the shelf with our other books by him and about him.2 It would have interested Mrs. Jeffers too. I am bitterly sorry to have to tell you that Una died last September, after a long illness. I have sons and grandchildren, but it is not easy to go on without her. With best wishes— Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ♦ Tor House, Carmel, California January, 1951. When we are very young we look to literature to set the mind free, and that is what Bernard Shaw’s earlier plays {and prefaces} seemed to do for me; they dared me to think freely. It was the same excitement that I had sought in so many books, from Lucretius to H. G. Wells. I didn’t consider Shaw’s plays as comedies, but as intellectual excursions. It was much later that I recognized the cold Anglo-Irish quality of his wit, and its affinity with

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

the Anglo-Irish wit of Oscar Wilde, and the ice-cold fury of Dean Swift. Bernard Shaw was a great man in our time, and I am thankful to him.3 Robinson Jeffers. For the International Mark Twain Society— Symposium for Bernard Shaw. ALS. Berkeley. 2 pages. Postmark: January 18, 1951. 1. Although Clemens was collecting statements for a symposium on Shaw at this time, he did not publish the results right away. See Jeffers’ May 11, 1954 letter to Clemens. 2. Cyril Clemens, My Chat with Thomas Hardy, introduced by Carl J. Weber (Webster Groves, Mo.: International Mark Twain Society, 1944). 3. A draft of this statement, located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas, contains material that Jeffers decided to omit: When we are {very} young we look to literature to set the mind free, and that is what Bernard Shaw’s earlier plays seemed to do for me, {as I read them.} They dared me to think {freely.} It was the same excitement that I had sought in so many books, from {Heraclitus and} Lucretius to Darwin and H. G. Wells. I never thought {didn’t consider} Shaw’s plays as comedies, but as intellectual excursions. It was much later that I recognized the cold {Anglo-} Irish quality of his wit, and its affinity with the cold {Anglo-Irish} wit of Oscar Wilde and the ice-cold fury of Dean Swift. The Bernard Shaw was not an originator was a great man of our times in our time; {not an originator} and a very successful one {but a great expositor and I am thankful to him.} and I am grateful to him. am {remain very thankful to him.}

RJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp Route 1., Box 36, Carmel, California. January 18, 1951. Dear Tim and Maud: You know that I cannot write letters, and I am sorry. There are more than two hundred here that I should have answered, or at least acknowledged. The letters of sympathy I have piled into a deep box, half of them unopened. I dreamed that I might deal with them in time, but of course I can’t. Una was much loved, and they come from everywhere. I suppose this is a fumbling apology for not having thanked you for your kindness to me in New York, and for not having answered—until now—

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your letter of December 23rd. I do thank you—very much. I hope to write to Blanche and Russell soon—and please thank Mrs. Sweeney for me— who, besides {the pleasure of} her company, drove me to the air-port. It is wonderful to sit behind a woman driver who never makes a mistake. As to the play—I saw it twice, and I liked it less and less. It was cut to the bone, most of the poetry cut out—(I had given permission to cut)—but what annoyed me was the miscasting of the actors, and the softness of their stage. Everything that I had thought of as hard had been made soft. And I had thought of Cassandra as tall and dark—and some dignity. She was little and blonde and unimportant. I had thought of her as Clytemnestra’s equal, when I wrote the poem, but most of her lines had been cut—and of course she could not compete with Judith Anderson. ♦ All the players were good, and Judith was superb. But perhaps for that reason—for lack of balance—the play looked rather dull to me. If it ever goes on the stage again, I shall try to control it and re-arrange it.1 ALF. Yale. 2 pages. 1. Jeffers did not finish this letter. He set the fragment aside for several months and began a new letter where this one leaves off. See Jeffers’ August 31, 1951 letter to Timmie and Maud.

RJ to Reece Halsey [January 1951] Dear Mr. Halsey: I enclose two copies of my first acting version of “Tower beyond Tragedy.” It needs a lot of cutting. I made a second version after talking with Miss {Judith} Anderson, cutting all I could, and the play as {finally} produced was cut unmercifully— detrimentally I think—much of the poetry was cut away. {destructively I think.} I have only one copy of this version, and I don’t like it cannot send must retain it, in case Miss Anderson should wish to use the play again. It is not much different from the first, except in the cuts. If the play had continued, I would have made a third version for Miss Anderson, very considerably changed—and perhaps may do it sometime. 1

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The poem on which herthe play is based is almost entirely dramatic in form, and could be staged with only a few minor changes, and some cutting, as has in fact been done. It is published in #118 of the M “Roan Stallion, Tamar and other poems”— #118 of the Modern Library, published by Random House, New York. Also in “Selected Poetry of R. J.”, same publishers. Cordially, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Reece Richardson Halsey (1915–1980) was the head of the literary department at the William Morris Agency. He left the company in 1957 to start the Reece Halsey Agency, a firm he co-founded in Los Angeles with his wife Dorris (Vilmos) Halsey (1926–2006).

RJ to Radcliffe Squires Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. February 3, 1951. Dear Mr. Squires:1 Thank you—I’ll be glad to see the second volume of your poems, to be published this spring.2 I confess that I have no remembrance at all of the first one3—but you write as if that may not be displeasing to you. Probably I didn’t even acknowledge it. Writing letters has always been ridiculously difficult for me; I can’t answer a quarter of those that come; but I’ll do my best to write an answer about your book. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. diZerega. 1 page. Postmark: February 5, 1951. 1. James Radcliffe Squires (1917–1993) completed his graduate studies at Harvard University in 1952 with a Ph.D. dissertation titled “Robinson Jeffers and the Doctrine of Inhumanism.” From 1952 to 1981, he was a professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Squires published The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers in 1956. Other books include The Major Themes of Robert Frost (1963) and Allen Tate: A Literary Biography (1971). 2. Radcliffe Squires, Where the Compass Spins (New York: Twayne, 1951). 3. Radcliffe Squires, Cornar (Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1940).

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RJ to Robert Pringle Tor House, Carmel, California, U.S.A. February 10, 1951. Dear Dr. Pringle:1 Thank you for your Christmas message; it was kind of you, and I was glad to receive it. It was addressed to Mrs. Jeffers and myself, and it is hard for me to tell you that Mrs. Jeffers is no longer living. She had an operation about ten years ago which we thought was completely successful, but the illness finally returned—metastases of breast-cancer—and my dearest died September first of last year. It has been hard to bear. You know how vital and how faithful she was. We had the best advice and the best hospitals; and the pain was almost entirely prevented, as soon as the diagnosis was made. She had suffered from sciatica before that—a little bone-tumor pressing the nerve. I am glad to say that she never knew her disease; we were able to conceal it from her. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Robert Brian Pringle (1905–1987), the physician who oversaw Jeffers’ care in Ireland in 1948, had special expertise in industrial medicine and in the treatment of pulmonary diseases. He was president of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland from 1963 to 1965.

RJ to Margaret Stookey February 14, 1951. Dear Mrs. Stookey— We received the Wrestlers, and I am glad to have it, and grateful to you.1 I can’t apologize sufficiently for our silence, and the trouble it has caused you. Una Jeffers always took care of my correspondence—it is almost impossible for me to write a letter—but I should have been more attentive. Una was very ill when you first wrote to us. She did not know it, but I did, and could hardly think of anything else. We were in and out of hospitals, here and in San Francisco. Una died last September first; and it is as if the world ended then. But it goes on; and we have five grandchildren, so I suppose we go along with it.

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Your gracious hospitality, and our days at Hermosa, are a wonderful island to look back to. Dr. Stookey—Lyman—is the only teacher I ever had who interested or influenced or excited me. And Byron was my best friend— except Lyman perhaps. I have a thick-necked son—in the U. S. Forest Service—who would gladly have shared our wrestlings and beaten any of us; but I do not include myself among ♦ the wrestlers; it was only flattery, and Lyman’s good will. I must tell you that I have wanted to write to you several times, in recent months, but your address was completely gone. Una had noted it, of course—or had it in memory—but I could not find any notation. We saw Byron in New York—twice, I think—I mean two different trips of ours to Ireland and England. We had dinner with him and saw his family. Once he came to a literary cock-tail party for my sake, and once he took me to see one of his operations on the spinal cord. It was beautifully done; but I had a horrible cold at the moment, and couldn’t help myself under the gauze mask—I didn’t enjoy it any more than the victim did. Please let me know if you ever come near Carmel. I should love to see you again. With all good wishes, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Margaret sent Jeffers a small marble statue of two men wrestling. When Jeffers was a young man, he and Margaret’s husband Lyman and Lyman’s brother Byron wrestled at Hermosa Beach. Jeffers refers to the experience in an August 21, 1920 letter to Lyman Stookey (Collected Letters 1: 443).

RJ to Evalyn Shapiro Tor House, Carmel, California. February 20, 1951. Dear Evalyn Shapiro:1 Let me thank Poetry Magazine—somewhat late—I am sorry—for the check that was sent me for my verses; and you particularly for the good

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wishes on the margin of the card that accompanied it. I have a kindly feeling for Poetry ever since Harriet Monroe visited us here, rather a long time ago. And I have read some of your husband’s work with pleasure and admiration. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. Evalyn (Katz) Shapiro (1918–2007) worked alongside her husband Karl as the managing editor of Poetry. The couple divorced in 1967, after twenty-two years of marriage. Evalyn was employed by the Peace Corps in Washington, D.C. for a short time, then joined the Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped at the Library of Congress, where she worked as a librarian from 1969 to 1989.

RJ to Marie Bullock Tor House, Carmel, California March 3, 1951. Dear Mrs. Bullock: I am grateful to the Academy of American Poets, and to you, for the beautifully shaped and golden-hued gift which arrived here daybefore-yesterday. The proud inscription troubles me just a little, because I have been—not negligent—but deficient—in fulfilling my duties as Chancellor. I am not much acquainted with contemporary poets, and therefore quite sterile in making nominations, whether for the awards or for Chancellorship. Nearly all I can do is to vote on those whom others may nominate, and I am sorry. Thank you, Mrs. Bullock, for your kind note of sympathy on the subject of my wife’s death last September. I answered your husband’s note but unhappily not yours. I have not been able to answer more than a few of the hundreds that came. The loss was bitter for me to bear, and will always be. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Sheridan Van Dolah Tor House, Carmel, California March 4, 1951. Dear Mr. Van Dolah:1 Thank you for Candle, Book and Bell, and your inscription in it. I like the poems, they are sensitive and intelligent, with passages of uncommon beauty. And I like the lines you quote from Theodore Spencer, but they are more appropriate to Spencer’s thought than to mine. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: March 8, 1951. 1. Louis Sheridan Van Dolah (1916–1983)—described by friends as a writer, philosopher, adventurer, and eccentric who kept a monkey on his front porch, swung from trees, and liked to demonstrate his skills as a contortionist—was raised in Lexington, Illinois, where he belonged to a prosperous farming family. His book of poems, Candle, Book and Bell, was selfpublished in 1950.

RJ to Burt Kessenick Tor House, Carmel, California March 8, 1951 Dear Burt Kessenick:1 Thank you for your very kind letter. If you ever come back here, take all the photographs you like—and, if you’ll telephone first, I’ll be glad to see you.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Burton David Kessenick (b. 1928), a California native, completed an M.A. thesis titled “The Imagery of Carlyle” at the University of Rochester in 1953. He later lived in Santa Cruz, California, where he worked as a sculptor. 2. Jeffers enclosed typed copies of “Continent’s End” and “Tor House”—“Signed for Burt Kessenick—Cordially, R. J.” and “Signed for Burt Kessenick—with best wishes, R. J.”

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RJ to William Turner Levy Tor House, Carmel, California March 14, 1951. Dear William: Thank you for your letter—I was already in debt to you—it is just impossible for me to write the letters that should be written. I am a wretched correspondent—Una used to attend to that—or occasionally she would set {it} before me as duty. But now her hundreds of friends—who were therefore mine—remain unanswered. Also the strangers who write— two or three a week—“R. J., poet,” defective address, or “R. Jeffers, Carmel, Jeffers County, Calif.!” —They are nice people and I wish I could answer them. (Except the high school children who want me to write their little theses for them.) The Country Life’s are much appreciated here. We read them, and lend them to our neighbors, and then perhaps read them again. My blonde daughter-in-law, Donnan’s wife, is strangely fascinated by them—and I believe by her memory of Una’s feeling for England—she reads the advertisements of country houses to be sold—“Couldn’t we buy this one? Or this one? Couldn’t we live in England?” She was born in Michigan and adopted into California, just as Una was. And now she is taking musiclessons, in order to play on the little organs and melodeons that Una loved and left here, one in the Tower and three in the house. We have been fortunate in our sons and daughters-in-law and grandchildren. I am sorry that I can’t write more cheerfully, but to write any letter at all is almost a triumph. With best wishes, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. New York PL. 1 page. Postmark: March 15, 1951.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Stanley Willis Tor House, Carmel, California. March 14, 1951. Dear Stanley Willis: Thank you for the little essay about Una Jeffers.1 It is beautiful and true, and will be kept here with the poems and other tributes to her that have been sent me.2 It has been hard to live without Una. But indeed she is still present here: almost all the objects and books in this house—and the house itself—are of her choosing, so that everything reminds me of her; and even my blonde daughter-in-law, living here with our son Donnan, is rapidly acquiring some of Una’s interests and characteristics. If you ever come west I’d be glad to see you again. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. Postmark: March 15, 1951. 1. Stanley Willis visited Tor House in 1947, when he was eighteen. After Una died, he wrote a brief portrait of her titled “Passionate, Untamed, A Falcon”—later published in the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 73 (June 1988): 16. 2. See, for instance, “He Built Her a Tower” by Mrs. Fremont Older, American Weekly (February 25, 1951): 18–19. “There was only one woman in the world for Robinson Jeffers,” Older writes. “She helped him to become—perhaps she forged him into—one of the most powerful poets of his age.”

RJ to The Humanist March 25, 1951 The word Humanism refers primarily to the Renaissance interest in art and literature rather than in theological doctrine; and personally I am content to leave it there. “Naturalistic Humanism”—in the modern sense—is no doubt a better philosophical attitude than many others; but the emphasis seems wrong; “human naturalism” would seem to me more satisfactory, with but little accent on the “human.” Man is a part of nature, but a nearly infinitesimal part; the human race will cease after a while and leave no trace, LETTERS 1940– 1962

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but the great splendors of nature will go on. Meanwhile most of our time and energy are necessarily spent on human affairs; that can’t be prevented, though I think it should be minimized; but for philosophy, which is an endless research of truth, and for contemplation, which can be a sort of worship, I would suggest that the immense beauty of the earth and the outer universe, the divine “nature of things,” is a more rewarding object. Certainly it is more pleasant to think of than the hopes and horrors of humanity, and more ennobling. It is a source of strength; the other of distraction.1 PL. Humanist. 1. Jeffers sent this statement to writer and human rights activist Warren Allen Smith (b. 1921) in response to a query concerning the meaning of the word “Humanism.” Having previously identified seven types of Humanism, including Naturalistic Humanism (the type favored by the Humanist), Smith asked a number of authors to state their own position—what kind of Humanist did they consider themselves to be? Smith placed the results in four categories: “The Affiliates” (authors who consider themselves Naturalistic Humanists), including John Dewey, Erich Fromm, Julian Huxley, Conrad Aiken, A. J. Ayer, Joseph Wood Krutch, Sinclair Lewis, and Albert Schweitzer; “The Associates” (authors who seem to share the outlook of Naturalistic Humanism but who do not lay claim to the label), such as Walter Lippmann, Archibald MacLeish, Thomas Mann, Bertrand Russell, and George Santayana; “The Ambiguous or Equivocal” (authors who may or may not agree with the tenets of Naturalistic Humanism), including Jeffers, E. E. Cummings, Arthur Koestler, Norman Mailer, and John Steinbeck; and “The Anti-Humanists” (authors who reject Naturalistic Humanism but usually accept one of the other kinds of Humanism), such as Faith Baldwin, John Dos Passos, Robert Graves, Lewis Mumford, Upton Sinclair, and James Thurber. See “Authors and Humanism,” Humanist 11 (October–November, 1951): 193–204.

RJ to Unknown1 March 26 [1951] Sorry to be so late in answering—I just can’t write letters. I have copied some lines for you—from “The Double Axe”, page 113. . . . “It is more than comfort: it is deep peace and final joy To know that the great world lives, whether man dies or not. The beauty of things is not harnessed to human

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Eyes and the little active minds{: it is absolute.} . . . It is the life of things, And the nature of God.” Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This draft was probably intended for Gustav Davidson and the Poetry Society of America. See next letter.

RJ to Gustav Davidson [March 1951] Dear Mr. Davidson:1 I have copied the enclosed for the Poetry Society with great pains and bad result.2 No one writes worse with a pen than I do and hardly anyone with a pencil. I did not know about my honorary membership, and must thank the Society very sincerely, and hope to be worthy of the honor. Cordially yours, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Gustav Davidson (1895–1971), a Polish-born American poet, editor, and founder of Fine Editions Press, was the executive secretary of the Poetry Society of America from 1949 to 1965. His books include Thirst of the Antelope (1945), Moment of Visitation (1950), and A Dictionary of Angels, Including the Fallen Angels (1967). 2. Davidson asked Jeffers to contribute a handwritten copy of one of his poems to the Poetry Society’s collection of holograph manuscripts at the New York Public Library. Jeffers sent a signed copy of “Inscription for a Gravestone.” A note at the bottom of the sheet says “Copied for the Poetry Society of America from ‘Selected Poetry of R. J.’, page 480.” Davidson acknowledged the gift in the May 1951 issue of the Poetry Society of America Bulletin, page 9.

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RJ to Mildred Ligda Tor House, Carmel, California March 27, 1951 Dear Mrs. Ligda:1 I am glad to give permission for your printing of “Meditation on Saviors.”2 The poem was copyrighted again by Random House, New York, when they published my “Selected Poetry”, but since you intend only three copies, none for sale, I am sure they wouldn’t object, and needn’t be consulted. The type and management of the galley-proof you sent me are very fine. I noticed a few small errors which will no doubt be picked up on revision. One of them, however, is in the original you followed, both in “Cawdor” and “Selected Poetry”, —a comma misplaced—it should come before “Oh dreadful agonist” in II, not after the “Oh.” The only other thing to speak of concerns the spaces between stanzas—the first three are spaced; I suppose the rest will be, when you revise. I’ll inscribe the copies if you wish, and I’ll be pleased that Kenneth Burke3 will have one. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. P. S. I return the proof with a few corrections—I haven’t read it carefully. R.J. TLC. Long Beach. 1 page. 1. Mildred Scott Ligda (1910–1973) and her husband Theodore P. Ligda (1912–1997) owned a small printing concern in Los Altos, California, where they published items under the Palopress imprint and Hermes Publications. Their son Alan Scott Ligda (1942–2008) operated the press for a time and published The First Editions of Robinson Jeffers by Robert B. Harmon (Los Altos, Calif.: Hermes, 1978). 2. In a letter to Jeffers dated March 20, 1951 (TLS Long Beach), Mrs. Ligda asks for permission to print and bind three copies of Meditation on Saviors. As the project progressed, the number was increased to five copies. 3. Kenneth Burke (1897–1993), a friend of the Ligdas, was a poet, philosopher, music critic, and literary theorist. He was the author of The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action (1941) and many other books.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Karl Shapiro Tor House, Carmel, California April, 1951. Dear Mr. Shapiro— I am sorry not to be able to accept the invitation to give a reading for Poetry Magazine in Chicago.1 It is an honor, and it would be a pleasure to meet you and other friends of Poetry. And I should be glad to serve the Magazine, if my presence could be of any value to it. But my life was badly shaken last year by my dear wife’s death—I haven’t, for instance, been able to write a line of verse since then (if it matters!)—and the only way to become normal again will be to stay at home as quietly as possible and feel the hills and the sea. —Besides that I am a bad lecturer and a reluctant one; I tried it ten or eleven years ago, and I don’t like the job. Forgive me for not having written sooner. It was not because I hesitated, but only because I am drowning in a sea of unanswered letters. Cordially yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. Shapiro wrote to Jeffers March 15, 1951 (TLC Chicago), inviting him to be one of six poets to participate in a series of readings at the Art Institute of Chicago, with each reading complemented by a dramatic performance of the author’s work at the Goodman Theatre. “I hope you will not consider this merely another lecture invitation,” Shapiro tells Jeffers. “This is in the nature of a crusade for Poetry Magazine.”

RJ to Jerome Green Tor House, Carmel, California. April, 1951. Dear Mr. Green: I am bitterly sorry to have to tell you that Mrs. Jeffers died last year, September first. I must try to answer your interesting and thoughtful letter. Question 1. Long ago, almost or quite in childhood, I read several books of Hawthorne, and have nearly forgotten them, except of course the Scarlet

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Letter. I remember looking into his Italian novel about the Faun,1 but at that time it did not interest me. I have never read anything of Cooper’s, though I admire him by hearsay. I have never read through any book of Thoreau’s, I am sorry to say, only snatches here and there, though I have great admiration for him, and feel well acquainted with him. 2. — No: I do not look on quietism as a satisfactory end-result. The world is not geared for it; destiny and the people will not let you be quiet. Also there are human loyalties that require action, and cannot on decency be rejected. {Loyalties to the family, to the nation, to mankind in general—I think they ought to be conscientiously considered, and the irreducible minimum accepted.}2 But for contemplation and for philosophical thought I should wish to uncenter the mind from humanity, to “fall in love outward.” And since we can’t do much about the outer universe—except to admire or love or worship it ♦ —I suppose the attitude tends toward quietism. We know that the human race is minute and momentary on any world-scale; it will disappear after while and leave no trace; but the beauty of this planet and the splendors of the universe will go on. I think we ought to realize this knowledge habitually in our thought. I don’t find mankind in general an inspiring or uplifting object of contemplation; but certainly land and sea and the stellar universes are beautiful, and to contemplate them calms the mind and ennobles it. Further—in a practical sense—there is no doubt that people spend too much time and energy on each other—in every sort of way—socially, in government and politics, in war and peace, in needless commerce and competition, in “making friends and influencing”—it is tiresome to think of. A little isolation and a moderate “quietism” would be good for all of us. 3 —“How consciously does R. J. include. . . his philosophy. . . and the note of prophecy” (!) “in his poetry?” —I think in full consciousness—I try to tell the truth as I see it. Perhaps the rhetoric of the occasion has sometimes led let {led} {led} me to over-emphasize it. 4. Without doubt my thought has been influenced by Emerson, (whom you don’t mention) but more by Wordsworth. I don’t feel any influence from

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Thoreau or Hawthorne; but a strong sympathy with the former, and with the latter perhaps some similarities, not in thought, but in choice of stories to tell. Fenimore Cooper I have never read, and don’t know. I hope these answers to your questions are at least comprehensible. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Green. 2 pages. 1. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun: Or, The Romance of Monte Beni (1860). 2. This sentence is written vertically in the left margin, page 1.

RJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. April 26, 1951. Dear Larry Powell: Thank you for the beautifully printed lecture to Professor Wortham’s class in narrative poetry.1 I hope they begin with Homer, and—to be quite frank—why shouldn’t they end with Beowulf ? —(Our last epic except Paradise Lost, which unfortunaly bores the reader.) My little stories are almost lyrical in comparison to these—I mean in their littleness and their emotionality, if there is such a word. But I do thank you, without entire agreement, for what you said about them. Do you know that my dear Una died last year—September first—after a long illness? Don’t write to me about it—I have more than two hundred unanswered letters here, {mostly unopened,} and there is no consolation. I am beginning to lay stones again, and perhaps after while I may write verses there is always masonry to be done here.2 And my son Donnan, who lives here with his bright blonde wife and baby, urges me on. Perhaps I may write verses again sometime—there seems to be an inner need—but I shall have to have “changed my mind” first—still with regard to truth—and found something new. I wonder whether there is any story—even Homer’s Achilles—big enough for a poem—or a novel.3 ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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1. Lawrence Clark Powell, Robinson Jeffers: A Lecture to Professor James L. Wortham’s Class in Narrative Poetry, given on May 22, 1949 (Los Angeles: Press of Los Angeles City College, 1951). James L. Wortham (1911–1958), formerly a professor of English at Occidental College and a translator of Japanese for the U. S. Navy in World War II, was teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles when Powell addressed his class. He left California in 1950 for the University of Kansas, where he was appointed chair of the English Department. He died of a heart attack in Colorado eight years later while on a ski trip with students. 2. Jeffers’ intermittent work on additions to Tor House continued for several more years. With the help of Donnan, who assumed responsibility for finishing the projects, a small doorway was created between the dining room and the adjoining garage in 1954, and the garage was converted to a wood-paneled kitchen and breakfast room with bay windows and French doors. The two-story east wing (or Over Stile, as Una called it)—with a sitting room, office, and garage on the ground floor, plus three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs—was completed in 1957. In 1963, Donnan built a structure that connected the original house to the east wing, adding a back kitchen, laundry room, family room, inner courtyard, bathroom, entrance hall, and doorway facing Ocean View Avenue. 3. Jeffers set this draft aside and wrote a shorter version a few days later; see next letter.

RJ to Lawrence Clark Powell Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California May 2, 1951. Dear Larry Powell: Thank you very much for the beautifully printed little book of your lecture to Professor Wortham’s class in narrative poetry. It was a graceful and understanding discussion, and it made my verses sound interesting—even to me—which is unusual, except at the moment of writing. I have missed that interest now for a good while; I have written nothing since Una’s death, last September first, and very little before that, during her long illness. She was so vital that I never dreamed she would not outlive me, and it has been like a state of shock, but very likely I’ll pull out of it after while. I hope you’ll call here if you should come north on vacation this summer; it would be a pleasure to see you and your wife again. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Mildred Ligda Tor House, Carmel, California May 15, 1951 Dear Mrs. Ligda: I have not been well for a week—some kind of virus—and should have answered your letter sooner. I am sorry. But at best it is very hard for me to answer letters. It is far from me to be able to give advice—or even opinion—about the disposal of type on a page.1 Whatever is clearest and plainest seems to me most desirable—least distracting—but I cannot judge, and have no objection to the irregularity of margins. Ornament, and particularly color, seems rather dangerous. However, you know about these things and I do not—I am sure the booklet will be beautifully done.2 Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. R Cooney. 1 page. 1. In a letter to Jeffers dated May 9, 1951 (TLS Long Beach), Mildred asks for advice concerning the layout of the Ligdas’ edition of Meditation on Saviors. She wonders if Jeffers would “approve in principle . . . an irregular treatment of the type.” 2. The Hermes Publications booklet was designed by Adrian Wilson, founder of the Press at Tuscany Alley in San Francisco, and printed in September 1951. An account of the enterprise can be found in “Meditation on Saviors: A Publication Odyssey” by Robert J. Brophy, Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 65 (December 1984): 5–7. Adrian Wilson (1923–1988) was just beginning his illustrious career as a printer and book designer when he accepted this commission. He discusses the project in The Work and Play of Adrian Wilson: A Bibliography with Commentary, edited by Joyce Lancaster Wilson (Austin, Tex.: W. Thomas Taylor, 1983): 35. At the very end of his career, Wilson designed The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, edited by Tim Hunt, for Stanford University Press. Basic elements of his design were used for this edition of Jeffers’ Collected Letters.

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RJ to Eva Hesse Tor House, Carmel, California, U.S.A. May 15, 1951. Eva Hesse Munich, Germany. Dear Miss Hesse:1 I am sorry to have been negligent in answering your letters. I have never been able to answer letters, but it is worse since my wife’s illness, and her death last September, hundreds of letters have piled up unanswered. I give you full permission to adapt “The Tower Beyond Tragedy” as a radio-play for the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation. I also give you permission to translate it, as a poem, or to adapt it as a play; but before publication as a poem it would be necessary to have permission from my publisher also—Random House, 457 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N. Y. Judith Anderson produced “The Tower” last December in New York. It was much talked of, but was not successful like “Medea”; it only went on for three weeks. I did the adaptation, but did not like it when I saw it on the stage, and I have no copy of my adaptation. I am mailing to you (under separate cover) the stage version of “Medea,” and give you permission to translate. ♦ As to “The Double Axe”—I gave permission two years ago (more or less) to Mr. Otto Schütte, Haarbachstrasse 21, Wetzlar, and he sent me last February his translation of the frst first part of the poem. But he says that he has not been able to interest any publisher. My permission to him was not exclusive, and there is no reason why I cannot give permission to you also, and particularly if you have a publisher in mind. I am not familiar enough with German to be able to judge Mr. Schütte’s translation. It is literal, and is written not in verse but in prose paragraphs. I like very much your translations of three short poems, {Kassandra, etc.} which you sent me in June 1949. It seems to me that you reproduced most excellently both the meaning and the rhythm. I am very sorry to have neglected to answer the letter.

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I have a friend here, Mr. Bruno Adriani who is “echt deutsch” in spite of the Italian name, and he agrees with me about the excellence of those translations. Mr. Adriani was connected with the Ministry of Fine Arts under the Weimar Republic, but lived after that in Switzerland, and now here. He was so much interested in your letters, which I showed him, that he is sending you a photograph of me, taken by his wife, saying that it might be convenient for you to have it in case of publication or magazine articles or something of the sort. With best wishes. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 2 pages. 1. Eva Hesse (b. 1925) acquired English as a child in London, where her father Fritz Hesse (1898–1980) directed the German News Bureau prior to World War II and handled press relations for the German embassy. Studies in Munich after the war prepared Hesse for a long and distinguished career as a writer, critic, and translator of poetry by E. E. Cummings, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Robinson Jeffers, Marianne Moore, Ezra Pound, and others. Hesse’s husband, Michael Skeffington O’Donnell (1916–2002), worked closely with her as a researcher and editor.

RJ to Hugh Bullock Tor House, Carmel, California May 18, 1951. Mr. Hugh Bullock, Secretary, Academy of American Poets, New York. Dear Mr. Bullock: I am sorry not to have answered more promptly. I had some sort of virus fever for two or three weeks, and my mail was neglected and then mislaid. If these ballots arrive too late it will be quite all right to disregard them. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page.

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RJ to Frederick W. Huff Tor House, Carmel, California. May 22, 1951. Dear Mr. Huff:1 I am glad that your class was interested in my earlier verses—according to your letter of April 19—but I cannot imagine one doesn’t ask a casual stranger for a sketch of his life and a statement of his aesthetic principles.2 If the st My life may be found, dated, in “Who’s Who in America”. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Frederick William Huff (1930–2010) was an English teacher at Waldron High School in Waldron, Arkansas. He later held appointments as a teacher, high school principal, and librarian in Missouri. 2. In his April 19 letter (TLS HRC Texas), Huff tells Jeffers that his students enjoyed reading three of his poems and that “we would now appreciate it if you would send us a brief account of your life and a statement concerning your theory and practice of poetry or of your aesthetic principles.”

RJ to John Hay Whitney Tor House, Carmel, California May 24, 1951. Dear Mr. Whitney: It is kind of you to let me know that you are giving those manuscripts to the Yale University Library. I’m afraid they are rather messy palimpsests, but if they are worth preserving I cannot think of any more honorable place for them—though indeed I always liked to think of them as in your possession. It was a little romantic to remember that the money you paid for them encouraged and partially financed us in our first and most enchanted trip to Ireland, in 1929. It is a pleasure too to remember meeting you in the crowded house at Pebble Beach, I can’t remember how many years ago. You speak of my wife, and I am bitterly sorry to have to tell you that Una Jeffers died, after a rather long illness, the first of September last year. She was so vital, and so loved, that I still can’t believe it, except with the surface 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

of my mind. One of my sons, and my bright blonde daughter-in-law and their baby, live with me here. If you ever return to this end of the world we should be very glad to see you. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Yale. 1 page.

RJ to Gustav Davidson [May 1951] Dear Mr. Davidson: I have a normal{ly} human {human} dislike of questionnaires, {for which I apologize,} but—aside from that—it is impossible for me to give an account of the career of {about} any poem of mine, because I have not kept any records.1 I do not know when the poem was published, nor how often reprinted, nor what royalties I received. In the early nineteen-twenties I offered A book called “Tamar and Other Poems” was printed (at my own expense) in the early {early} nineteen-twenties. {None of the poems} The copies were all sold, thanks to three or four interesting reviews. None of the poems had been offered to any magazine or publisher. I have never sent verses to magazines, unless they were asked for. I have never sent verses to magazines, unless they were asked for. The book was reprinted {published}, with additions, by Boni and Liveright, 1925, I think, under the title “Roan Stallion, Tamar and other poems;” {and later by Horace Liveright Inc.} There were several reprintings—ten or more, I can’t remember—before the book was taken over by Random House, in the early nineteen-thirties {nineteen-thirtytwo, more or less.} It is now published by Random House as one of the books of their “Modern Library”, and also in their “Selected Poetry of R. J.” Some of the shorter poems, and fragments of the longer ones, have appeared many times in anthologies, but I can’t remember when or where, {nor which poems.} You see how unsatisfactory my account is. {} ♦ One of them, {a dramatic poem called} “The Tower beyond Tragedy”, was staged at LETTERS 1940– 1962

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the ANTA playhouse in New York last year, but was not so successful as my version of “Medea” had been, although Judith Anderson had the leading part, as in “Medea”. {Berkeley Carmel} As to what suggested the poems—I spent some thought on that {several years ago,} when I was asked to write a preface {foreword} to “Selected Poetry of R. J.” I said what {all} I could {remember—}—and since the book is still published, and probably can be found in a public library, it doesn’t seem necessary to repeat the statement. But {let me} thank you for being interested. Sincerely yours preface in “Selected Poetry” for occasions of writing. ALD. HRC Texas. 3 pages. 1. In a May 7, 1951 letter (TLS HRC Texas), Davidson tells Jeffers of his plan to run a ­series of articles in the Poetry Society of America Bulletin “on the ‘Life History’ of well-known poems by distinguished contemporary poets. The attached questionnaire, when completed, will serve as factual bases for the series.” The articles were supposed to appear in the October 1951 to September 1952 issues of the Bulletin, but the plan was eventually dropped.

RJ to Walter G. Tolleson June 14, 1951 Dear Mr. Tolleson:1 I am sorry to be so slow in answering—I just can’t write letters. The evening at Noel Sullivan’s was delightful. I was happy to meet you, and proud of your music. We enjoyed it indeed, although we are not a musical family—so did Mr. Sullivan, and the others who were there. I shall be glad if you can make an opera out of Thurso’s Landing, or any other narrative poem of mine, but I can’t promise to collaborate. I know nothing about opera, and very little about the stage; I’d be quite unable to make suggestions—besides that I don’t like to give my mind to former verses of mine; it is more interesting to start something new. But of course I’d be delighted to see you again.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

This is written in haste. We are starting to the Sierras to visit my son who is in the U. S. forestry service—and your letter has been on my conscience. I am sorry to say that there are a dozen others of some importance that won’t get answered. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers PL. Ridgeway. 1. Walter Gist Tolleson III (1925–1997), a San Francisco trumpeter and band leader, performed extensively with the Walter G. Tolleson Musical Organization. He also handled bookings for artists through his Tolleson Talent Agency. Tolleson’s Songs of Granite and Men, based on several of Jeffers’ poems, was featured in a recital by bass-baritone Vahan Toolajian (1928–1989), a San Francisco teacher and musician, at New York’s Carnegie Hall on December 11, 1960.

RJ to Garth and Charlotte Jeffers [June 1951] Dear Garth and Lotte: We have no news to tell you; we are still scraping along as well as possible, and none of our mules has run away,1 but I do want to thank you for making us at home in the High Sierra ranger station. The great panorama of snowtopped mountains was wider than I ever saw in Switzerland; and I was very happy to be with my dear family. Maeve and Diana are very sweet. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. See Jeffers’ June 28, 1951 letter to Mabel Dodge Luhan for an explanation of this comment.

RJ to Ernst Krenek [June 20, 1951] Dear Mr. Krenek:1 I am much interested in {pleased to hear of} your work with “Medea,” and that Mme. {Blanche} Thebom is interested in it.2 I think that my free permission is quite sufficient; but, {in order to make sure,} I have written as

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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enclosed to Samuel French, publisher of the acting version. in order to be sure. As soon as I receive an answer I will send a note to Mme. Thebom, and one to you. With best wishes, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Ernst Krenek (1900–1991), a Viennese composer who became an American citizen, was briefly married to Gustav Mahler’s daughter Anna. Early in his career, he achieved international acclaim with Jonny spielt auf (1925), an opera about an African American jazz musician. Krenek’s openness to new ideas—such as atonality, serialism, and chance—placed him in company with Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and other members of classical music’s avant-garde. 2. On behalf of Metropolitan Opera star Blanche Thebom, who commissioned the work, Krenek asked Jeffers for permission to set portions of Medea to music. See Jeffers’ September 19, 1952 letter to Thebom.

RJ to Samuel French, Inc. Tor House, Carmel, California. June 20, 1951. Samuel French, New York. Gentlemen:1 Some months ago, in answer to the enclosed (typewritten) letter, I gave Mr. Krenek free permission to write a musical composition based on my “Medea.” Now he writes a second letter (also enclosed) saying that Mme. Blanche Thebom is interested in presenting his work in some of her concert appearances, but wants assurance that no monetary remuneration would be due to me or my publisher. I myself do not ask any payment, but I am not sure whether your permission is required for such a musical production. Will you please let me know? And if you have a claim in this matter, will you give free permission, as I have done? Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. 2 (2 enclosures) 

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TLS. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Samuel French, Inc., a firm that publishes and licenses plays, was founded in the mid1800s by Samuel French (1821–1898), a New York entrepeneur. 2. The enclosures are missing.

RJ to Mabel Dodge Luhan Tor House, Carmel, California June 28, 1951. Dear Mabel: —Such a ridiculous idea. Certainly I am not married again, and have no tendency toward it. The young man who told you that must have been a little détraqué. My amusement is to sit up until 3 or 4 a.m., many nights, reading Una’s diaries of our journeys to Ireland, which seem to bring her present to me more than anything else can. —To Donnan also: —I noticed that he spent several days, just after her death, reading those diaries—which had never much interested him before. Donnan and his beautiful little bright-blonde wife, and their approaching-four-years-old son Lindsay, live with me here. Garth is in the U. S. Forest Service, stationed for the summer in the high Sierras, eight hours’ drive from here. He went to Oregon State College for his education in forestry, and is going up the ladder, and dreads the time coming, when he will have to sit behind a desk instead of using his muscles. But his increasing family seem to make it imperative that he should accept promotion. ♦ We drove up to see them two or three weeks ago. They are very happy, except that two pack-mules had broken out of the corral and got lost in the mountains. Garth spent much of the time we were there tracking them. The view from the High Sierra ranger-station, where Garth lives, is incredibly beautiful—huge granite rocks and forest, and then the tremendous panorama of snow-peaks. Altitude about 7000, like Taos. Garth’s blue-eyed Bavarian wife, whom he chose out of the wreckage of Germany, is very sweet—so are his two little daughters. Donnan is keeping books for several merchants here. He has a fine talent

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for fiction, but does not want to use it. He helps me in the afternoons, building the last of our stone walls here—the last addition to our house, so that there will be room for many grandchildren—five already, and a sixth in the offing! Donnan’s two little girls in Ohio have never come here, but they will when we have room for them. Love to you and Tony— Robin. ALS. Yale. 2 pages.

RJ to Sara Bard Field Tor House, Carmel July 5, 1951 Dear Sara, I’ll be happy and deeply moved to visit The Cats again, and to see you and the Matthiases. All the best to you— Affectionately, Robin. ANS. WWW.

RJ to William Turner Levy Tor House, Carmel, California July [10], 1951 Dear William: We were astonished last month when your gift arrived—30 lbs. of Country Life and Illustrated London News! It was most kind of you to think of us, in the midst of packing-cases and what must have been the great labor of moving. We enjoy the magazines—so many at once seem nearly inexhaustible—and then we shall have the pleasure of lending them to a few other people. It surprises me that English austerity—poverty in fact—can

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still produce such publications; and that the bird-watching, hunting, shooting and fishing still go on blithely. I am very much interested in your candidacy for Holy Orders—and congratulate you.1 It is certainly a well rounded mind and education that can choose freely and equally between religion, literature, and a military career. I am glad to have had some part in your decision—as you say—and hope it was for the best. I expect you will be a book-writing Bishop, ultimately, in the manner of Dean Inge2—not a Gloomy Bishop—but I have never thought of him as athe Gloomy Dean—it seems to me that he just tells the truth, generally, and time proves it. Your new apartment in Riverdale sounds most attractive. If I ever go to or through N. Y. again I’ll be delighted to visit you there. We are all well. The loss and the loneliness have been bitter to bear, and will never cease while we live, ♦ but both my sons are happy in their little families, and in their work—Garth as a forest-ranger in the Sierras and Donnan as an accountant—he and his bright-blonde wife and nearly four-year-old son live {with} me here. As for me, I am just beginning to write verses again;3 I have been mute and dull for a year. With all good wishes, Affectionately, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. New York PL. 2 pages. Postmark: July 10, 1951. 1. Levy was ordained to the diaconate of the Episcopal Church in 1952 and to the priesthood in 1953 by Bishop Horace Donegan of New York. He served as curate of All Angels Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan from 1952 to 1960. 2. William Ralph Inge (1860–1954), professor of divinity at Cambridge University and dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, was the author of The Philosophy of Plotinus (1918), Christian Ethics and Modern Problems (1930), The End of an Age (1948), and many other books. Inge was popularly known as “the Gloomy Dean” because of his mordant criticism of contemporary culture and skepticism concerning progress. 3. Jeffers was working on “Told to a Dead Woman,” eventually retitled Hungerfield.

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RJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp August 31 [1951] This old letter is included, though I never finished nor mailed it1—only to show that I did try to write to you. As to the play—I must have been hypnotized by fatigue and theater, or I could hardly have bothered to talk about it. I had your telegram two or three days ago. It was very sweet to hear from you. Midnight has just passed, and this day is the anniversary of Una’s death. Passage of time does not make it more endurable. You were her best friends, besides myself, and your loss is deep. She loved you both, constantly and faithfully. She was very dear to us. I mustn’t say any more, because the “hysterical passion” that troubles me would look ridiculous in a letter. There is no news of any importance. My son Donnan and his brightblonde wife and child live with me here. Donnan is working ten hours a day and interested in his work—bookkeeping and accounting—amazing what narrow straits the merchants merchants of Carmel manage to survive. Lee, my daughter-in-law, yellow-haired and quite beautiful, is one of the sweetest girls I have ever known. Their son, Lindsay, with curly blonde hair, is most endearing, and reminds me of what Godwin said about his son-in-law: “Shelley is so beautiful, it is too bad that he is so wicked.”2 Garth and his family are high in the Sierras, forest-ranging. We visited them this summer—from their porch was the most magnificent panorama of snow-peaks that I ever saw, here ♦ or in Switzerland. Lotte (Charlotte) and her babies, Maeve and Diana, are very dear to me. You can see that I am pleased with my sons’ choices—and products. Garth is a tremendous fellow, in muscles and mind too, but he was mostly away from home while we were there, chasing runaway pack-mules—and, according to Lotte’s letters, has spent most of the later summer in fighting lightning-set forest-fires. When the fire season ends they will come down to see their old place at North Fork, near Yosemite. So I feel like a stretched Titan, with one foot in the ocean and one in the high mountains. I feel miserable, as a matter of fact, and am writing nonsense to cover it up. Nothing will ever make up for what we have lost.

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My business at present is to make verses in the morning, and to add a stone or two to the new house-wall in the afternoon. The tasks that Una would want me to attend to if she were here. But I don’t answer letters—which she would have set before me from time to time—and I avoid visitors as much as possible. Lee fends them off for me. The sea-otters, which were supposed to be extinct south of Alaska— killed off for their valuable fur—are coming back here. There are small herds of them down the coast; and individuals, or pairs, appear often off our own rocks—little playful fellows, less than a quarter the size of sea-lions, that seem to have delight in beating {splashing} the water with their webbed hands. Or floating on their backs, munching on abalone, with its shell for dinner-plate held on their bellis bellies bellies. And the night-herons have chosen our woods to nest in—terrific birds, “that brawl on the ♦ boughs at dusk, barking like dogs”—if I may quote my own verses.3 I planted the trees, under Una’s supervision, and have probably some right to {quote} the herons th and squirrels that live in them. There is a man who lives on the road behind us—he calls the squirrels every afternoon, with encouraging words and clicking nut-shells, and the swift gray creatures come down and eat out of his hands.4 Lindsay loves to go out under the trees and fraternize with him and them. Lindsay expects a brand-new brother or sister next December5—I am sure it will be as nice and as wicked as Lindsay, who will be four years old {the day after} to-morrow. Dear love to both of you. I hope you will return here sometime. You are the visitors (besides Blanche and Russell and one or two others) whom I don’t want to avoid. Sincerely, —I mean with affection— Robin. ALS. Yale. 3 pages. 1. Jeffers begins this letter on the second page of his uncompleted January 18, 1951 letter to Timmie and Maud. 2. In a March 23, 1815 entry in her journal, Mary Shelley mentions her father William Godwin’s remark to Charles Clairmont—“Shelley was so beautiful, it was a pity he was so

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wicked.” See The Life and Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, edited by Mrs. Julian Marshall (London: Richard Bentley, 1889): 111. 3. From Hungerfield. See Collected Poetry 3: 376. 4. William Ernest “Bob” Robinson (1895–1968) and his wife Claire retired to Carmel in 1948. They lived on the east side of Ocean View Avenue, directly across from Tor House. 5. Una Sherwood Jeffers was born December 18, 1951.

RJ to Daisy Bartley September 1, 1951. Dear Daisy— I thank you with all my heart for your letters and telegram. This has been a hard day to live through. Now it is midnight, and I am writing on my lap, because the children are asleep and there is no proper light at my desk, where I work in the mornings—nor here either—so forgive me when the lines run crooked. I had a telegram two or three days ago from the Clapps in New York, who were Una’s dearest friends, except you and me, and I have just written to them. I saw I saw them last December, when I had to go east about the play; and have heard from them, but it is almost historical when I write a letter. I cannot talk about the thing that both you and I are thinking of. Una was so beautiful and powerful powerful that I feel as if our lives had been drained drained and emptied. We have to go on ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Eva Hesse Tor House, Carmel, California—U.S.A. September 5, 1951. Eva Hesse, Munich, Germany. Dear Miss Hesse: I give full permission for the {radio} production of your adaptation of my poem “The Tower Beyond Tragedy” by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I have no idea what payment—if any—should be made to me. Therefore I relinquish to you the German radio rights, for this occasion, and if any payment to me seems appropriate I may trust you to send it on, or to let me know. Have you heard that my “Medea” is one of the American plays to be produced for the “Festival of West Berlin” this month? It will be in English, however. The superb actress Judith Anderson, who played the title role here, has gone over to do it there.1 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 1 page. 1. A major arts festival, featuring concerts, operas, ballets, and plays performed by American, English, French, German, and other companies, was held in Berlin September 6–30, 1951. One reason for the festival was to showcase Western cultural achievements and thus to counter communist propaganda. The United States, with funding provided by the State Department, was represented by productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! and Jeffers’ Medea. According to one reviewer, audiences were “thrilled and chilled by Judith Anderson’s bravura performance . . . in the cold-blooded classical tale,” noting that “the theme of the monstrous forms that revenge can take is of interest in Berlin.” See “Miss Anderson Plays Medea Role in Berlin,” New York Times (September 24, 1951): 22.

RJ to Norman Kreitman Tor House, Carmel, California, U.S.A. September 15, 1951. Dear Mr. Kreitman:1 I am quite willing {shall be glad} to let you use my poem “Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind,” for your anthology.2 It is possible that my publishers— Random House, 457 Madison Avenue, New York 22, through whom you have addressed me—may ask a token payment. I don’t think it is any is necessary, but I must let you deal with them. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Norman Kreitman (1927–2012), a young British physician when this letter was written, became an influential psychiatrist with special expertise in the areas of suicide, alcoholism, and LETTERS 1940– 1962

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depression. Kreitman was also a philosopher and poet whose books include Parasuicide (1977), Against Leviathan (1989), and Dancing in the Dark (2010). 2. Norman Kreitman, The Dove in Flames: An Anthology of Modern Verse (London: Housemans, 1952). Kreitman’s pacifist anthology, featuring works by seventeen British and American authors, addresses the problem of violence and warfare in the modern world. Jeffers’ poem, “Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind,” is on page 20.

RJ to Viking Press [September 1951] Thank you very much for Horace Gregory’s “Selected Poems”.1 It is good poetry, and I should have acknowledged it a month ago, but I can’t write letters. Gregory2 has a fine talent more intelligence than passion {or invention,} but a fine talent, clear, sane and discriminating. He is one of our best. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Selected Poems of Horace Gregory was published by Viking Press on August 20, 1951. 2. Horace Gregory (1898–1982) was a poet, critic, and translator who taught at Sarah Lawrence College. Among his many books are Catullus (1931), The Shield of Achilles (1944), and Another Look (1976). He collaborated with his wife Marya Zaturenska on a number of projects, including A History of American Poetry, 1900–1940 (1946) and The Mentor Book of Religious Verse (1957).

RJ to Beulah Hagen Tor House, Carmel, California October 27, 1951. Miss Beulah Hagen Assistant to Cass Canfield, Harper and Brothers, New York. Dear Miss Hagen:1 Thank you for having “The Indigo Bunting” sent to me.2 I am sorry not to have answered more promptly: it is almost impossible for me to write a letter. Vincent Sheean has written a beautiful memoir; the birds and the poet are woven together like themes in a great music. The book is worthy Edna

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Millay was a woman of genius, and the book is worthy of her. {the book is both} {This little book is better than any biography} And he presents an exact portrait. I met Edna Millay only three times, at decade intervals, {and was quite ignorant of her special interest in birds} but every gesture and mood of hers that {Sheean} he describes seems familiar to me. Edna Millay {she} was a woman of genius—not less admirable because it was partly frustrated, and this book is better than a biography. The little book is better than {a} biography. Sincerely yours, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Beulah (Wescott) Hagen (1902–1994) worked for Harper & Brothers (later Harper & Row) from 1935 to 1975. For much of that time, she was Cass Canfield’s administrative assistant and liaison with authors. Cass Canfield (1897–1986) joined Harper & Brothers in 1924 and led the firm in successive roles as president, chairman of the board, and senior editor. Canfield also wrote a number of books, including Outrageous Fortunes: The Story of the Medici, the Rothschilds, and J. Pierpont Morgan (1981). 2. Vincent Sheean, The Indigo Bunting: A Memoir of Edna St. Vincent Millay (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1951).

RJ to Vincent Sheean [October 1951] Dear Vincent Sheean: Harper’s have just sent me “The Indigo Bunting”, and I am grateful to you and to them. It is beautifully woven together, the birds and the girl—for she always remained a young girl, and still does. You make me know her better, and Eugen too, than I ever did in our few meetings. She was the only woman of genius whom we have bred in America. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

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RJ to Eva Hesse Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California November, 1951. Dear Eva Hesse: I should long ago have answered your letter about the broadcasting of “Die Quelle”.1 My only excuse is that it is practically impossible for me to write or answer any letter. A week or two later, $190.00 was deposited for me in the local bank by the Bavarian Broadcasting Company. It is more than I expected, and I wonder whether you—who did the work—received any proper compensation. If not, I should be glad to send back to you at least $90.00. The clipping which you enclosed with your letter was nice and amusing. “Der Weise von Mt. Carmel”—sagt man!2 Your translations—those that I have seen—are very good indeed, and if any book of mine should be translated into German I should wish you to do it. With best wishes, Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 1 page. 1. Die Quelle [The fountain] was Hesse’s title for her translation of The Tower Beyond Tragedy. 2. “‘The Sage from Mt. Carmel’—so they say!”

RJ to Karl Shapiro Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. November 7, 1951. Mr. Karl Shapiro Editor of Poetry, Chicago. Dear Karl Shapiro: Let me thank you most cordially, and the others of the editorial staff, for your award of the Eunice Tietjens Memorial prize to my verses in Poetry last January, and for your kind letter.1 

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On impulse—perhaps because I have to-day finished typing it—it occurs to me to offer for publication in Poetry my narrative poem “Told to a Dead Woman”—the first {piece of verse} that I have written in a year and a half or more. But it is probably too long for your convenience—twenty-five pages of double-spaced typescript—which I guess would be nearly thirty of Poetry. Let me know if you care to see it.2 Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. TLS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. “We are glad to inform you,” Shapiro writes in a letter to Jeffers dated November 1, 1951 (TLC Chicago), “that, by vote of the editorial staff of Poetry, you have been awarded The Eunice Tietjens Memorial Prize for 1951. This prize, which we award annually, is in recognition of your group of seven poems published in the January, 1951 issue. Our check for $100 is enclosed. Please accept our congratulations and best wishes.” The announcement of the award appeared in Poetry 79 (November 1951): 100. Eunice (Hammond) Tietjens Head (1884–1944), author of Leaves in Windy Weather (1929), The World at My Shoulder (1938), and other books, was a member of Poetry magazine’s editorial board from 1913 to 1944. 2. Shapiro responded November 13, 1951 (TLC Chicago), telling Jeffers that he “would be glad to see the narrative poem ‘Told to a Dead Woman’. We can’t promise publication of such a long poem but I shall certainly try to talk myself into it.”

RJ to Karl Shapiro Route 1, Box 36, Carmel, California. November 17, 1951. Dear Karl Shapiro: Here is the poem: you will notice that I have changed the title.1 You are kind to wish to see it—and please remember that it was offered on impulse, and it doesn’t matter to me whether Poetry can use it or not. It is really too long for a magazine, and I shall have it in my next book—probably next fall, if I should get some more written to make a book’s length. For that reason it ought to appear in Poetry not later than midsummer—

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if at all. If you don’t use it, please send it back pretty soon, and I’ll reimburse you by return mail with a lot of three-cent postage stamps. With best wishes, to you and Mrs. Shapiro, and to the magazine— Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. Sunday, November 25.— This was held up for some changes, but will no doubt be mailed to-morrow— R. J. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. Jeffers considered several titles for “Told to a Dead Woman”—including “To a Dead Falcon” and “Farewell”—before settling on Hungerfield. See Collected Poetry 5: 830.

RJ to Hugh Bullock Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. January 9, 1952. Dear Mr. Bullock: I am sorry not to have voted sooner, but at least this will reach you before the deadline. Let me thank you and Mrs. Bullock for the charming Christmas card— the family portrait—it is a happy thing to look at. With all best wishes for this year and future ones, Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page.

RJ to Ellen O’Sullivan Tor House, Carmel. January 18, 1952. Dear Ellen: We should have telephoned, but didn’t know you were back from the city until you called us last night.

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I have been deeply saddened by your loss. Molly was good and gay and gracious; she will be greatly missed by so many of us.1 But you have great consolation in your faith, which makes death only a temporary absence. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. Harrison. 1 page. 1. Mary “Mollie” Sutro, Ellen’s sister, died January 13, 1952.

RJ to Karl or Evalyn Shapiro Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California March 12, 1952. Editor, Poetry Magazine. Dear Carl (or Mrs.) Shapiro: The letter with the proof was missent, in spite of its clear direction, but I hope not much delayed. The proof is nearly perfect; I was sorry to have a line to add to it. Will you please send me eight copies of the magazine when it is published, besides the two you commonly send, and retain payment for them from whatever check you may send me? Or if that isn’t convenient I will pay by return mail. There are half a dozen people I should send copies to. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page.

RJ to John Bauer May 1, [1952] Dear Mr. Bauer:1 I was happy to hear from you, and let me thank you and Mrs. Bauer for your offer of hospitality, which I should be glad to accept if I were going

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down there. But I don’t expect to go—it is really a little painful to me to be present when anything of mine is put on—even by a {so} great {an} actress as Judith Anderson.2 And certainly not because I fear it might fall short of my conception—quite the contrary. As to a limited edition of these excerpts, together with the slight connecting bridges, I can’t feel favorable to the idea. The little introduction is merely prose; the rest is simply Miss A.’s parts as Medea and Clytemnestra with the other parts (except Jason’s) omitted—is that worth making a book out of—even if it would sell? As to “royalties,” I will ask only the expense of the typist I’ll have to hire, in order to get two or three copies prepared in time for Miss Anderson and Henry Brandon3 to study them. Now one thing more—I didn’t then remember to call it to Miss Anderson’s attention when she was here. Samuel French (25 West 45th N. Y. 19—also 7362 Sunset Blvd. Hollywood 46) has rights in {any} Medea—amateur and stock—all {also also} “amateur or professional readings, permission for which must be secured in writing from Samuel French.” I suppose you and Miss Anderson will know what to do about this. With all best wishes, to you and Mrs. Bauer, and to the Ojai Festival, Sincerely, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. John L. J. Bauer (1908–1978), a 1930 graduate of Princeton University, directed an art gallery in Los Angeles and co-founded the Los Angeles Community Concert Association. With the help of his wife Helen (Bateman) Burton Bauer (1901–1988), he founded the Ojai Music Festival, a celebration of the performing arts held each year in Ojai, California. 2. The sixth Ojai Music Festival, planned for the weekend of May 30, 1952, included excerpts from The Tower Beyond Tragedy and Medea performed by Judith Anderson and Henry Brandon. Anderson discusses the presentation in “Anderson Greek Art Needs Word: Queen of Tragedy to Introduce New Staging at Ojai Fete,” Los Angeles Times (May 18, 1952): E1. 3. Henry Brandon (1912–1990), born Heinrich von Kleinbach in Berlin, studied acting at Stanford University and the Pasadena Community Playhouse drama school. In his extensive stage, screen, and television career, he was often cast as a villain.

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RJ to Karl Shapiro Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. May, 1952. Dear Karl Shapiro: Thank you for the two copies of Poetry, which have just reached me; and for the check, which was—for a magazine of verse—munificent. I was quite overwhelmed to find myself alone in the book, as a versemaker.1 I didn’t realize that the poem was so long. But the critical articles were excellent, as mostly they have been, ever since Harriet Monroe’s time. And I was slightly overwhelmed by Selden Rodman’s somewhat ruinous photograph of me. I was feeling like hell the day Rodman and his friend were here, but I didn’t know it was that bad. It doesn’t matter, of course. I remember that “Poetry” asked me to send a photograph, and I found one for you and forgot to send it. The eight copies that I asked for have not yet arrived. But most of the people to whom I intended to give a copy seem to have got one already. I hope you enjoyed your European visit, besides the duties accomplished. My best greetings to Mrs. Shapiro—and to you. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. Hungerfield was the only poem published in Poetry 80 (May 1952): 63–87.

RJ to Judith Anderson Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California May 13, 1952. Dear Judith: At last! I am sorry I couldn’t get it to you sooner. I can’t write legibly, you know, and it has been hard for the typist. Here are two copies—I don’t know Henry Brandon’s address, and hope

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you can send or hand one of them to him. The whole thing is of course subject to change, according to your convenience. This is only “Medea”, but the “Tower” is typed now too; only I have to go over it for errors and send it to you to-morrow. I hope the two together will be long enough—I don’t know—and there is so little time. Howard Young (of Lewis and Young) came to see me a few days ago— nothing particular was decided, but I like him very much. All my best wishes to you, Judith. Love, Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page.

RJ to Judith Anderson Tor House, Carmel. —May 1952. Dear Judith: Here is the second instalment. —Clytemnestra. I am terribly sorry these things have taken so long. It was the business of getting them typed. And I wonder whether the text is long enough. But I have included all the passages that you suggested. Remember that you may change, add or subtract, anything you want. I’m afraid there is no time left for me to help with that. —I’ll have more time to work on Lewis and Young’s version, whenever you agree with them. It was delightful to hear your voice on the telephone last night—but I’m sorry that you’ve been worried. Good luck, Judith, and love— Robin. ALS. Tor House. 1 page.

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RJ to Radcliffe Squires Tor House, Carmel, California. May [16], 1952. Dear Mr. Squires: I enjoyed your book—“Where The Compass Spins”—and was much interested. But it is practically impossible for me to write letters. I have resolved, time after time, to write at least the more important ones—and it always fails. My wife used to answer some of them for me, and now my daughter-in-law does—a few—but she has a family of her own. Your doctoral dissertation—as you describe the tension of your thought—must be very interesting. And perhaps disturbing, as you say. I should normally like to see it. But what can I do or say about it? —I will make a great confession: My particular desire has been to be dead—or at least unconscious—before people begin to talk about my verses. —Not that they are bad—not that they are good. I have given them to the world, if it wants them; and perhaps I shall write more in the future; but I wish that this particular aggregation of cells—myself—were not concerned. Best wishes, and sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. diZerega. 1 page. Postmark: May 16, 1952.

RJ to Klement Simoncic [May 1952] Dear Mr. Simoncic:1 Your letter to Miss Walsh {of Random House} has been forwarded to me; and I am glad to give permission for the printing of your translation in “Stopa.”2 I shall never read it, alas. I could get along in German or French, passably in Spanish or Italian, but my education in the other {the Slavic} languages was completely neglected. They didn’t seem, in my childhood, so important as they do now. Sincerely yours,

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ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Klement Simoncic (1912–2010) was a language instructor at Columbia University and an editor for Radio Free Europe, where he was in charge of broadcasts to Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1973. He was also a field worker for Czechoslovak refugees in the United States. 2. Simoncic intended to publish his Slovak translation of “Apology for Bad Dreams” in Stopa, a literary review planned by Czechoslovak writers living in exile, but, as Simoncic explains in a February 6, 1957 letter to Jeffers (TLS HRC Texas), the journal never came to fruition. He adds, however, that he took the liberty of publishing an excerpt from Jeffers’ poem in a newspaper printed in New York by the Council for a Free Czechoslovakia. See Cˇ eskoslovenské noviny (February 1957): 8–9.

RJ to Saxe Commins [May 1952] Dear Saxe Commins: 1 Will {Would} Random House consider publishing a hybrid book, part verse and part prose? You remember that when I was in N. Y. last January I told you that I had written nothing since Una’s death. A year after her death I made a poem, which seems to me to express what I have felt—my private feeling, but certainly a good poem. My suggestion is that you publish this, and some other short poems of mine, in one book w with Una’s diary of our trips to Ireland and Britain (edited and condensed), and with a memoir written and privately published, {printed in 1939,} by a dear friend of hers, the second wife of her first husband. Una’s diary is impeccable, only it needs to be condensed This relationship—and {Una’s beauty,} the landscapes of Carmel—are more or less the theme of the memoir. The writing is a little {rather} cheap cheap, but it is good and true and amusing and faithful. I send my only copy with this—and I beg you to take care of it and send it back. It needs editing; I think the lady will {would} agree to that. It is possible Una’s diaries are impeccable that a copy has been offered to you already—or soon will be—but of course {I doubt} you could consider it by itself. I should be glad to leave leave the editing to you or your assistants.

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Una’s diaries are of course impeccable, {and will sometime be published whole} but they would have to be shortened and condensed for such a book as I have in mind. I should be willing to do the condensing, although it would be difficult for me to cancel a word of hers. The question is simply—after you have read the The writing is cheap, no doubt, but true and faithful enclosed poems—whether Random House would care to publish such a book. I don’t care, in any degree. I should be glad to wait until ♦ my own verse accumulates to book length, and offer {send} it to you. Anyhow, Saxe, I am glad to think of you as a friend. {but} My interest is to see Una’s diaries published. A friend of ours in Los Angeles is willing to do that at any time—the man2 who printed Edith Greenan’s memoir—but I’d be glad to have Random House publish the first series. I don’t know whether the idea is valid. The enclosures are The enclosures are: 1) My poem, called “Death’s Little Dog.” “Hungerfield.” 2) Some shorter poems, published in “Poetry” of Chicago which have just earned me a $100.00 prize, the Eunice Tietjens Memorial award. The announcement 3) Edith Greenan’s little book, called “Of Una Jeffers.” 4) 4) One of the many volumes of Una’s diary about her visits to the British islands. Most of these books are irreplaceable. I beg you to take care of them and send them back to me. ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. This draft was discarded in favor of a revised version; see the letter that follows. 2. Ward Ritchie.

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RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California May, 1952. Dear Saxe: I was glad to hear from you; I have an affection for you, as Una had.1 I have just sent my permission to Mr. Simoncic, whose letter to Miss Walsh you forwarded to me. So far as I am concerned, anyone can translate me—or anthologize me. Of course for anthologies in America there ought to be some token payment—but I wouldn’t know how to ask for it. You ask whether I am deep in a new volume of poems. Not very deep. I will send you to-morrow—or as soon as my spare copies arrive—a moderately long narrative poem that has just been published in “Poetry,” of Chicago. (They paid well for it, too. Amazing for a poetry magazine.) This is the only thing I have written in the past two years. It speaks of Una. I haven’t yet been able to become interested in any narrative or dramatic poem unrelated to her. But that will come, no doubt. Meanwhile I dream sometimes that a book might be made of this poem (called “Hungerfield”—25 closely typewritten pages) and a few shorter poems, also published in “Poetry” of Chicago (where they won a prize, by God!)—and then carefully chosen excerpts from Una’s diary of our visits to Ireland and Great Britain. {I should write an introduction.} It has been suggested to me a hundred times that I ought to have these diaries printed, and I have done nothing about it. We were there during Yeats’s and George Moore’s lifetime (and were too decent to deliver letters to them.) We visited Moore Hall, the burnt out ruins, and Yeats’s beautiful stone shell left from ♦ its burning, and Yeats’s tower in Galway, with trim cottages at its foot, but all rotted away when we last saw it. And Lady Gregory’s house, which we had seen standing square and solid, was absolutely erased, not a stone left, and her woods were being cut for timber. It was the end of an era. However, there is no likelihood of you Random House publishing a hybrid book like that—poems and travel-diaries, however charming the latter.

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And it doesn’t matter. Parts of the diaries will be printed sometime; and sometime I’ll have another full book of poems to send you.2 Affectionately—as I said— Robin. ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. In a response (TLC Columbia) dated May 20, 1952, Commins says, “I can’t tell you how deeply touched I was by your more than generous expression of friendship for me. Through all the years I have cherished a close bond for you and Una. I think I understand, in a small way, your loss and could feel it in the throb that pervades your poem ‘Hungerfield.’ The issue of Poetry came on the heels of your letter and I read it at once with a kind of close identification with you and Una.” 2. At the close of his letter, Commins says, “I would like to suggest that you send all the material you have to me and let me see which is preferable—two books, one of poetry and one of prose, or a single volume of what you modestly call ‘a hybrid book.’”

RJ to Judith Anderson 29 MAY 1952 MISS JUDITH ANDERSON OJAI FESTIVAL HEADQUARTERS EL ROBLAR HOTEL, OJAI, CALIFORNIA LOVE AND GOOD WISHES. WILL BE THINKING OF YOU.1 ROBBIN CARMEL, CALIFORNIA Tlg. Tor House. 1. The Ojai Music Festival opened Friday afternoon, May 30, with performances of works by Martinu˚, Haydn, Strauss, and other composers. Anderson’s reading of excerpts from The Tower Beyond Tragedy and Medea, with Henry Brandon assisting, took place Friday evening. The performance was reviewed in the Los Angeles Times (June 2, 1952): B9.

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RJ to Otto Schütte Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California, USA. June 3, 1952. Mr. Otto Schütte, Wetzlar, Germany. Dear Mr. Schütte: I have received your letters, and also those which you sent to my publishers have been forwarded to me. I regret my negligence in not answering. It is almost impossible for me to answer letters. Particularly since the death of my wife, nearly two years ago, I have hardly answered any. I should have written to you, no doubt, but it seemed really unnecessary. I gave you permission to translate my verses, but it was not exclusive permission; and when Miss Eva Hesse wrote to me, considerably later, enclosing samples of her translation, I gave permission to her also, telling her that I had given permission to you, but so far nothing had been published, and I had never promised that you should be the only tr translator of my verses into German. To be quite frank with you, I prefer her translations—what I have seen— to yours. Yours are well done: but it seems necessary to speak plainly. Her understanding of English seems to be perfect; and she has an excellent talent for carrying over into German the rhythms of my verses. But of course I shall not withdraw the permission that I gave to you. And I send you my best wishes. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. TLC. Hesse. 1 page.

RJ to Eva Hesse Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California, U.S.A. June 3, 1952 Dear Eva Hesse: I enclose the latest letter from Mr. Otto Schütte, of whom you may have heard, and a copy of my answer. I should have written to him long ago. But 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

it is truly almost impossible for me to answer letters. Forgive me for not answering yours when they come. Several weeks—or perhaps months—ago I sent you “The Women at Point Sur”, my most ambitious and longest poem, and certainly the least liked—except perhaps “The Double Axe”, which naturally expected to be unpopular when it was published. I should have sent you “The Women. . .” when you first asked for it; but it is out of print, and I have only thought I had only one copy. Later my daughter-in-law discovered two others in the house, and sent you one of them. But I don’t think it will be useful to you. It is interesting that the Bavarian radio wants to use your “Die Quelle” again. —Another letter I haven’t answered; but I hope you have made arrangements with them. Now Radio Bremen wants to use it, and I will answer their letter to-day or to-morrow, though German is very difficult for me; it is more than 45 years since I have used it, except to read. Mr. Scz. . .1 I can’t spell it, but he pronounces it “Chessny”—was here awhile ago, and later sent me the manuscript of “Die Quelle” from Germany. I haven’t read all of it, but it seemed excellent as translation. If you see Dr. “Chessny” please thank him for me. I enjoyed seeing him and his friend. I am sending you (but not air-mail) a copy of my poem “Hungerfield,” printed in the May issue of the magazine “Poetry.” It is the only thing I have written—and finished—since my wife’s death. —Cordially yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 1 page. 1. Gerhard Szczesny (1918–2002), the director of special programs for the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation from 1947 to 1961, was the co-founder of the Humanist Union, a German civil rights organization, and the author of The Future of Unbelief (1961) and other books.

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RJ to Wallace Bruce Smith Tor House, Carmel, California. June 7, 1952. Dear Dr. Smith:1 I was glad to hear from you, and enclose with this a brief note on the lines of your suggestion.2 It would be a pleasure to see you and Mrs. Smith,3 if ever you come this way. Please give my very affectionate greeting to the Barkans when you see them. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Alabama. 1 page. 1. Wallace Bruce Smith (1880–1971), a physician and educator, chaired the Division of Otolaryngology at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center from 1924 to 1945. 2. See the following letter. 3. Alice Whitehead Smith (1904–1984).

RJ to University of Alabama Tor House, Carmel, California. June, 1952. To whom it may concern at the University of Alabama: Dr. Wallace Bruce Smith, of San Francisco, tells me that he and Mrs. Smith are giving their collection of the various editions of my poetry to the University of Alabama, Dr. Smith’s native state, and he suggests that I might care to write an accompanying note. Of course I am glad to do so. I feel very little interest, really, in first editions as such, but I value the honor, and shall be happy to be represented at the University. Dr. Smith tells me that one of his particular wishes in giving the collection is to compliment Mr. Hudson Strode1 and his teaching. It is a pleasure to join in greeting to Mr. Strode, some of whose literary work I know and appreciate.

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And I am glad to send my best wishes to the University. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Alabama. 1 page. 1. Hudson Strode (1892–1976), a revered professor of English and creative writing at the University of Alabama, was the author of a number of travel books and a three-volume biography of Jefferson Davis.

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. June 16, 1952. Dear Saxe: Thank you for your very kind letter of May 20th. I felt, immediately after writing the letter which yours answered, that my idea of publishing my verses with selections from Una’s travel-diaries in one book was not a good one. It would be better to have the diaries published locally, in a very limited edition; and to postpone the verses until I can send you enough to make a full-size book. But now—a few days ago—our friend Ted Lilienthal of San Mateo came to see me, and asked whether I would let the Book Club of California (they made me an honorary member a quarter century ago)—whether I would let them publish a limited edition of “Hungerfield”—200 copies or so—printed probably by Grabhorn. I told him that I had no interest in letting “Hungerfield” be printed again at this time—you would publish it sooner or later—but I was interested in having selections from the diaries printed. He said “That also of course,” but he and some others felt that “Hungerfield” must be reprinted soon—the edition of “Poetry” was sold out and unobtainable—many people wanted it—etc. I told him that I must write to Random House on that subject. I didn’t know whether my contract with you took account of small books locally published in little editions, but I couldn’t agree if you objected. So please tell me freely how you feel about it. It seems to me that a little edition of LETTERS 1940– 1962

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“Hungerfield” wouldn’t interfere with your sales, when you publish it with other poems as a full-size book; it might even advertise the book a little; but you are to judge; and I don’t much care what your answer is. The diary-selections will be printed sometime in any case, whether by the Book Club or not, maybe 20 or 30 thousand words out of—at a guess—200,000. (I think I’ll confine my selections to Ireland—omit England and Scotland.) I’d gladly let you see the diaries, but I don’t want to entrust them to the mail, and I don’t think that Random House would want to publish them. The interest is too special; we didn’t visit people, but landscape and ruins. —“Weed and Ruin”—the title George Moore chose when he first thought of writing a novel about Ireland.1 With cordial affection, Robin Robinson Jeffers. TLS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. In the “Overture” to Ave, Part I of George Moore’s trilogy “Hail and Farewell! ” (1911), Moore says, speaking of Ireland, “If ever the novel I am dreaming is written, Ruin and Weed shall be its title—ruined castles in a weedy country” (p. 6).

RJ to Theodore Lilienthal Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. June 26, 1952. Dear Ted: Forgive the paper, it is all I can find at the moment. I told Saxe Commins that it didn’t matter much, but I’d be glad to give the poem to the Book Club if Random House didn’t object. Here is his answer, which came yesterday, and I’d have sent it on to you, but yesterday was a busy day. I had told him that I wanted to do something for the Book Club, which made me an honorary member a quarter century ago; but evidently Random House doesn’t sympathize.1 I think I’ll edit the diaries, whenever I get time—write an introduction, and reduce the 200,000 words (more or less) to twenty thousand, mostly

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by leaving out our travels in England and Scotland. Ireland seems enough for once. But I expect the whole thing may be printed in course of time. As you will notice in his letter, I told Saxe that he couldn’t see it, because I wouldn’t entrust it to the mail. I’ll type a copy copy as I edit it, but that will take several months, since I’m trying to do something else at the same time—besides the stone-work in the afternoons, which I have neglected for a couple of years, and must get on the job again. Best wishes to you and Fran—and I’m sorry the project didn’t carry through. As I said, I’d like to do something for the Book Club. Cordially, Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. Postmark: June 26, 1952. 1. Commins advised against a Book Club of California edition of Hungerfield. “After all these years,” he writes Jeffers in a June 23, 1952 letter (TLC Columbia), “I would hate to see anything written by you appear under any other imprint, even in a limited edition.” Such a book, he adds, would interfere with Random House’s plans for Jeffers’ next volume of verse. Nevertheless, Lilienthal persisted and obtained permission to print thirty copies of Hungerfield in a private, not-for-sale edition. The project was undertaken by Grabhorn Press and completed in December 1952.

RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California June 26, 1952. Dear Timmie: —Please forgive the paper—it is all I can find at the moment, and evidently my little grandson, Lindsay has worked on it. He loves tools in action—he loves shears. I am very sorry that Ted Lilienthal bothered you about a foreword to the poem called “Hungerfield.” He spoke of it when he was here, and I meant to write and warn you, but it is almost impossible for me to get letters written. It was never worth your trouble. I have said, and I repeat, that I would rather have written “Said before Sunset” or any other of your later poems, than any LETTERS 1940– 1962

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of mine. And I told Ted Lilienthal that I would not let “Hungerfield” be printed by the Book Club unless Random House (my publishers) consented to it. The thing seems not to be covered by contract, but yesterday I had an apologetic letter from them, saying that they do not consent. So that’s off. They want “Hungerfield” for the title title-poem of a new volume, whenever I have enough verses to make one. I have not ben been fruitful, recently. ♦ Of course the “Hungerfield” poem is important in my life, because it remembers Una. That is why I sent to you and Maud a copy of the magazine, although someone here told me that you had already seen it. The ten copies I ordered were late in arriving, but I hoped that my poor inscription might make it mean something, though you had seen it already. My little grand-daughter, for whom I am baby-sitting while her mother is at the dentist’s, has exactly Una’s great blue eyes. Their intelligence scares me. And her secret smile, as if she were saying “You and I know.” But otherwise she is not like Una, she has flame-colored hair and a different skull-formation, but a dear baby. Do you realize that Una and I have now seven grandchildren? Two of Donnan’s here—this little extraordinary girl and green-eyed Lindsay with his blond curls—and two who live with Donnan’s divorced wife in Ohio, very dear children, who write to him from time to time—and Garth’s three little daughters.1 Garth lives up in the Sierras, in the wild-wood, with his Munich-born wife and the sweet children. And two dogs, a pit-bull and a bull-mastiff—both of whom collectively Donnan’s English {bull-dog} wants to kill—but it might be the other way around. We have to keep him imprisoned in the Tower when Garth visits us. His name is Heathcliff ♦ and he looks the part, but Lindsay calls him Teethcliff. I don’t know why I can’t write with a pen—lack of practice probably. And a desk piled high with abortive manuscripts—in pencil—and unanswered letters. I must really make a clearing and a burning—someday. A curious thing—my “Tower beyond Tragedy” has {been} twice performed as a “Hörspiel,”2 translated of course, on the Bavarian radio. And now Bremen wants it. The curious thing is that they pay real money for it— American dollars to me, and the same in German marks to the translator—a

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

very intelligent young woman named Eva Hesse. Who never writes to me if she can avoid it, having learned that she will probably get no answer. She is translating other things of mine—also Walt Whitman and Eliot and Ezra Pound. There was a man to whom also I had to gave permission to translate, and the poor fellow did a lot of work, but I finally had to tell him that she was better. I probably have an enemy now, in Wetzlar where he lives. I can’t imagine why I bore you with all this. My interest is to know about you and Maud—how you are, and whether you will ever come again to this coast. You have many friends and admirers here, of whom I am perhaps ♦ the least, but we all wish to see you and Maud again. (Lindsay has cut this paper so crookedly that my pen is bewildered on each new page.) Why don’t you drive your latest Jaguar across the country? It would find a compatriot here; Donnan drives a Morris Minor, and scorns my muchbattered old Ford sedan. (The door of the stone garage is narrower than the width of the car, and every time I go in I knck knock something. Or peel off the strips of chromium.) My dear and remembering love to Maud, and to you also. Affectionately, Robin. Postscript: —I intend to have Una’s travel-diaries printed fairly soon, or at or at least the Irish part of them. If you are willing to write any foreword I wish it would be for that. I shall probably have to write an introduction, but your preface will be better. I told Lilienthal, when he first came to see me, that I had no interest in letting “Hungerfield” be reprinted; my interest was in the diaries. They bring me to her; and I noticed that both our sons, just after Una’s death, spent their time reading them, although they were sufficiently acquainted with the contents. Sincerely again— Robin. ALS. Yale. 4 pages. 1. Morna Isabel Jeffers, Garth and Charlotte’s third child, was born April 14, 1952. 2. Hörspiel: German for “radio play.”

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RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. September 5, 1952. Dear Tim: Thank you with all my heart for the “Foreword.”1 It is beautifully done, and all too kind an expression of your constant friendship for Una and me, so that my eyes wept a little as I read it through. It is very good of you to have taken the trouble. I was happy and surprised to hear your voice and Maud’s on the telephone—but also it reminded me that I ought to write a letter from time to time. Letters were always difficult for me, but now—I don’t know why— they have become practically impossible; even the merest letters of business. But I might change! We are going on as usual here here. Donnan is working quite hard at his accounting business, and I suppose will become a C.P.A. next year, and go into partnership with one of his present employers. He likes the work, and is extremely good at it. Lindsay is just five years old and will be starting to school in a few days. His little sister, Una Sherwood, has seven months I think, and is the happiest baby I have ever seen. She has at last produced a crop of hair—flame-color—or carrot-color if you like vegetables—and she has Una’s great intent blue eyes. One of her particular pleasures is to sit in the courtyard in her baby-carriage and watch the birds. I wish you and Maud lived nearer to us—I wish you could come in and see us sometimes. It has been a pleasant summer, with the right alternations of sun and cloud—i.e. mostly cloud. Last night we had a small thunderstorm and the first rain of autumn, if this is autumn. Please give my affectionate good wishes to Maud, and greeting from all of us. Devotedly, Robin. ALS. Yale. 1 page. 1. In his two-page foreword to the Grabhorn Press edition of Hungerfield, Clapp refers to “the shadow of Una Jeffers’ death” that both darkens Jeffers’ poem and bestows luminous

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i­ntensity. “Beautiful and of rare intuitive sensibility and intelligence,” Clapp writes of Una, “she was for nearly forty devoted years so sustaining an influence in his life, so constantly the hidden stimulus behind his work as a poet and so sagaciously his first auditor and most discerning critic, that the universal tragedy in Hungerfield’s story is, in a real sense, enclosed and framed in Jeffers’ personal grief.” In spite of the starkness and brevity of Hungerfield, Clapp observes, “a discriminating eye sees, in its terse symbolic evocation of scenes and situations of grandeur, violence and terror, an indirect revelation of how deeply Jeffers has penetrated the fatal spiral of existence, and with what humility and awe. His compassion has now become so fierce and dark that it makes the pity and sadness of his earlier narratives, memorable and tragic though they are, seem no more than preludes to this culmination.”

RJ to Theodore Lilienthal Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California September [8], 1952. Dear Ted: Tim Clapp sent me a copy of his “Foreword” the other day, as he has to you and Noël. I think it is beautifully done, and all too kind. It was good of him to take the trouble. I have just remembered a precaution to be taken with Grabhorn, if he should print the poem. A good many years ago he printed for Random House a book of mine called “Solstice”, and did a beautiful job of course, but he cut up my long lines into phrases, making secondary verses, which changed and I think spoiled the rhythm that I intended. I didn’t see any proofs until the final ones, and then didn’t have the heart to make him do his work over again—for he is an artist—but I wouldn’t want it to be done {happen} again. The lines have to be broken, of course, because they’re too long for a page; but they ought not to be broken to indicate sound or sense, but merely according to space, as in the magazine. (By the way—I was able to get five more copies of the magazine, so I could give you an extra one if you need it.) I have lost your San Mateo address—I think it was 777 Bromfield Road, but am not sure of the Bromfield—that is why I send this to your place of business—that address is lying here.

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It will be delightful to see you again, and I hope Fran also, when you come down here. Best wishes, Robin. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: September 8, 1952.

RJ to William W. O’Connor Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California September, 1952. Dear Mr. O’Connor:1 I almost never answer letters: it is stupid of me, but I have not the talent nor the patience. And yours is too long to answer in detail—but certainly not too long to read—it is extremely interesting. You have read widely, far more widely than I ever did, and with excellent understanding; and you have had, and will no doubt continue to have, more varied experience. I must wish you all good luck on your further adventures, whether in London or in Lebanon. As you say, my verses are hardly at all known in England. “Roan Stallion—Tamar” and “Cawdor” and “Dear Judas” were published there, by Leonard and Virginia Woolf ’s “Hogarth Press,” but I never heard that they attracted any attention, beyond three or four persons. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. William W. O’Connor (1922–2006), a graduate of Loyola College in Baltimore, sent Jeffers a four-page letter from London August 17, 1952 (TLS HRC Texas). In the course of a wide-ranging discussion of Jeffers’ poetry, he mentions a hope to someday write a book about Jeffers, and he lists the many authors who helped shape (and save) his life. Upon his return to the United States, O’Connor taught sociology at Baltimore Junior College (now Baltimore City Community College) and did volunteer work for a number of organizations devoted to peace, ecology, and social justice.

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RJ to Blanche Thebom Tor House, R. 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. September 19, 1952. Dear Blanche Thebom:1 It is kind of you to write, and I am glad that Mr. Krenek’s music will have its opportunitiesy, {and that {you} have part in it.}2 I appreciate the honor. My life is so full full of labors and grandchildren that I could hardly get up to San Francisco, {nor later the N. Y.,}3 but it is good of you to think of me. Very sincerely ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Blanche Thebom (1915–2010), a mezzo-soprano with an international career, performed regularly with the Metropolitan Opera from 1944 to 1967. She enjoyed early success as a Wagnerian, but she was equally adept in other roles. 2. Thebom’s interest in Jeffers’ Medea led to a collaboration with Ernst Krenek, who composed Medea, op. 129, for her. The 20-minute work for voice and orchestra premiered in Philadelphia on March 13, 1953, with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The same ensemble presented the work at Carnegie Hall on March 24. Thebom kept Medea in her concert repertoire and subsequently performed it in Vienna, Darmstadt, Athens, and other cities. For representative reviews, see “Blanche Thebom Presents Striking Academy Concert,” Philadelphia Inquirer (March 14, 1953): 6; “Thoughtful Mezzo,” Time (March 23, 1953): 46; “Ormandy Conducts, Thebom Sings in ‘Medea,’ New Work by Krenek,” New York Times (March 25, 1953): 38; and “Viennese Critics Acclaim Thebom: Press Unanimous in Praising Metropolitan Opera Star’s Performance in ‘Medea,’” New York Times (June 17, 1954): 36. 3. In a September 15, 1952 letter to Jeffers (TLS HRC Texas), Thebom discusses the Medea project and invites Jeffers to attend the concerts in Philadelphia and New York. She also invites him to San Francisco, where she would be performing with the San Francisco Opera for the next three weeks in Aida and Der Rosenkavalier.

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RJ to Theodore Lilienthal Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California September 1952. Dear Ted: Here are the twelve pages of proof. I never saw any printing that I liked so well. I am grateful to Ed Grabhorn, and to you for your trouble, and to Noël, though I have noted your saying that he wants to remain unnamed. All good wishes— Robin. ALS. Occidental. 1 page.

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. October 25, 1952 Dear Saxe: I wish I could answer letters, or even read them. They accumulate and get lost. But now, thanks to you, I have written cordial permission to John Holmes, whom I remember meeting at Harvard. And of course I remember your presence in Washington. I didn’t know there was any typescript of those “lectures” still in existence.1 You speak about hoping for a new book of mine. It will come in time, no doubt, but I haven’t written anything since “Hungerfield”, except three or four very short things. I can’t find the theme nor the mood. But it occurs to me that I wrote an adaptation of Euripides’ Hippolytus three or four {or five} years ago, which I called “Phaedra”—an adaptation similar to the one of Medea. A well known actress, whose name I can’t remember at the moment,2 asked for it, and I gave her one of two copies. She said she liked it, but she was divorced soon after and changed her interests; I haven’t seen her again, and she has probably lost her copy. The other copy Una lent to Bob Whitehead when he was here—of Whitehead and Rea, who produced Medea3—and he probably still has it. With “Hungerfield” and some shorter poems this “Phaedra” would 

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make a book; and if you are interested in publishing one of mine next year, perhaps you could call up Robert Whitehead and ask him for it—on my account—I don’t know his address. Then you can judge whether you’d care to print it. It is a good poem, but I should want to go over it again; it was written when I was recovering from my hospital experience in Ireland.4 And give my good wishes to Bob Whitehead, if you call him up.5 He was a good friend of Una’s, and is of me. Ever yours, Robin. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. The day after Jeffers delivered his “Themes in My Poems” address at Harvard University in 1941, John Holmes borrowed Jeffers’ manuscript and arranged to have a typist copy it. He then personally typed another copy for himself. In the years that followed, Holmes used the lecture in his courses on modern poetry at Tufts University and shared it with friends and interested scholars. In 1955, in response to a request from Professor James D. Hart (later director of the Bancroft Library), he gave a copy to the University of California, Berkeley. 2. Agnes Moorehead. 3. Whitehead and Rea’s production of Medea retained its landmark status, but new productions were attracting attention worldwide. In France, for instance, a translation by Julien Philbert opened at the Théâtre Montparnasse–Gaston Baty in Paris on October 4, 1952. The play was produced by and starred Marguerite Jamois (1901–1964). For information and reviews, see “Marguerite Jamois va incarner Médée” by Christine de Rivoyre, Le Monde (October 4, 1952): 12; “Médée” by Robert Kemp, Le Monde (October 9, 1952): 12; and “Verse Drama on the Paris Stage” by Ruby Hakin, Poetry (August 1953): 294–302. 4. In a draft of this letter located at the Humanities Research Center, Texas, Jeffers considered other possibilities for this paragraph. “I should {’d} have to go over ‘Phaedra’ again,” he writes, “{since my vitality was low at the time when I wrote it. It seems rather good, as I remember it, fair enough as I remember it but I wrote it in bed and would want to go over it again—a great woman and a homosexual homosexual man young man and his hero father —trust the Greeks for twisting up families—but I’d like to see it again, and perhaps make some improvements. Will you get it for me? Whitehead thought of staging it, but has done nothing that I know of in that direction, And I’d I would rather see it as a poem than as a play. ‘Phaedra’ and ‘Hungerfield’ ‘Hungerfield’ and ‘Phaedra’ and some shorter poems would make a good book, —my daughter-in-law says.” 5. Commins responded October 30, 1952 (TLC Columbia): “Just as soon as your letter arrived I called Robert Whitehead’s office and learned that they indeed did have a typescript of

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your version of Euripides’ Hippolytus. I sent a messenger over for it and now have it on my desk. Even before finishing it—I’ve read the first 30 pages this morning—I want you to know that it is safely in my hands. As much as I have read impresses me more than favorably; it has the intensity and torment of your version of the Medea. But let me finish it before I offer you any kind of real opinion. In any case, I know that, with Hungerfield and a few shorter poems, we really should have a distinguished book. Could you possibly send me another copy of Hungerfield and as many shorter poems as you would want to include in the new book?”

RJ to Theodore Lilienthal Route 2, Carmel, California November 19, 1952 Dear Ted: You are most kind. I should be delighted to let Albert Sperisen and the Black Vine Press1 print the diaries—i.e. excerpts from them—the whole would be too big a book, of course. I think I could choose intelligently. The questions are of financing and publication. I don’t want you, nor our friend in the Valley,2 to assume any financial burden for the printing; and I couldn’t afford it, beyond $100 or so. As to publication, I should be completely useless. I don’t know book-shops, and I couldn’t even make lists of friends. Una’s many friends were mine, but I couldn’t name them, beyond a dozen or so, and I don’t know their addresses. If anything can be done on this basis I’ll be glad to edit the diaries, concentrating on Ireland, which Una first visited at noon of its literary “renaissance”. When we were last there Lady Gregory’s house was utterly razed and abolished, Moore Hall had fallen to pieces, Yeats’s tower and cottages were smothered under dry-rot and cow-dung, and Yeats’s body was brought home from France for final burial. It was most impressively the end of an era, and makes an interesting end for the diaries diaries. Yours, Robin. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: November 20, 1952. 1. See Jeffers’ December 2, 1952 letter to Sperisen. 2. Noël Sullivan.

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RJ to Karl Shapiro Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California November 20, 1952. Dear Karl Shapiro: Let me thank you sincerely, and the others of the editorial staff, for the Union League Civic and Arts Foundation award given to my poem “Hungerfield.”1 And through you I should like to thank the donors also. I am sorry to be a little late in acknowledgment: I have been away from home a few days, visiting my son in the Sierras. “Hungerfield” will be the title-poem of my book to be published in the fall of next year by Random House, and I’ll not forget to make acknowledgment to “Poetry” for permission to reprint. I am sorry that I had nothing to contribute to “Poetry’s” anniversary number. With best wishes, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Chicago. 1 page. 1. As Jeffers learned in a November 6, 1952 letter from Shapiro (TLC Chicago), the editorial board of Poetry selected Hungerfield for the 1952 Union League Civic and Arts Foundation Prize. The award was announced in the November 1952 issue of the magazine, page 125.

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. November 20, 1952. Mr. Saxe Commins Random House, New York. Dear Saxe: Your letter is dated a month ago, and it doesn’t seem possible that I haven’t answered sooner. I just can’t cope with letters—and I have been away from home a few days—and time moves faster than I do. It was kind of you to get the “Phaedra” from Robert Whitehead’s office, and I am glad that you liked it—particularly because it does seem time for me to have a new book in mind for publication. My mind has been quite LETTERS 1940– 1962

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sterile the past few years, except “Hungerfield,” but I’ll probably recover in course of time. I expect “Hungerfield and other poems” would be a good title for the book. I am sending you with this a second copy of “Hungerfield,” and my only copy of some verses called “Seven Poems”, which were published in “Poetry” magazine two or three years ago. There will be a dozen pages of other short poems, but few of them are written yet, and none typed. In return, will you send me the “Phaedra” manuscript? I can’t remember much of it, and would like to go over it again, quite apart from the Greek original, and improve it perhaps a little. My best greeting to you— Robin. ALS. Columbia. 1 page.

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Carmel, California November 30, 1952 Dear Saxe: Thank you very much for sending the “Phaedra,” which arrived yesterday. I will return it as soon as possible. As to the dozen pages of short poems— perhaps I was reckless—I thought the book would not go to press for four or five months yet, and they would surely be written by that time. I’ll send you anything I have when you need it. Enclosed is a letter from an English anthologist1 which I must refer to you. No doubt you can make him nominal terms, since his publication does not include U. S. nor (probably) Canada. I have scribbled on his letter my reply to it. Ever yours, Robin. ALS. Columbia. 1 page.

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1. Geoffrey H. Moore (1920–1999), a professor of literature who helped establish American Studies as an academic field in Great Britain, taught at the University of Hull and other institutions. His influential Penguin Book of Modern American Verse (London: Penguin, 1954) included four poems by Jeffers: “Apology for Bad Dreams,” “Hurt Hawks,” “Love the Wild Swan,” and “The Eye” (pp. 120–127).

RJ to Albert Sperisen Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California December 2, 1952. Dear Mr. Sperisen:1 Thank you for your interesting and thoughtful letter, which I should have answered more promptly. There have been many distractions. I’ll be glad to see you, or Mr. Seeger,2 whenever you happen to come down here; but I think you’re right that the book should be planned before we talk about it much. Particularly I’d like to know how long you think it should be—100 pages?—more or less?— There is material, of course, for several hundred; almost all of it interesting, I think, but much may be omitted. I’ll try to adapt the manuscript according to your idea of how long it should be. Could you give me some conception on this point? — in terms of double-space typewritten pages? —(I suppose each contains about 300 words.) As to the illustrative material you speak of—we have a good quantity here of photographs and snap-shots, and can produce almost anything you like—except a photograph of Una and me together. She generally refused to be photographed, and when we travelled she held the Kodak. There are good and amusing pictures of the boys and me—I think particularly of one in the Hebrides, with a little native looking on—there are good pictures of Irish round towers and landscape—and there are good pictures of Una. I think, in any case, she ought to be seen alone in the frontispiece. It was her diaries, to which our sons and I contributed by invitation. Tell me how long a book will be convenient for you, and I’ll try to get it done as soon as possible. My publishers in New York expect a book for next

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year; and I am a very slow typist—besides my duty as a stone-mason on an addition to our house here. I see some laborious months ahead. —Yours sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: December 3, 1952. 1. Albert Sperisen (1908–1999) was a San Francisco graphic artist, advertising executive, and Book Club of California official. The Black Vine Press, co-founded by Sperisen and printers Lawton Kennedy and Harold Seeger in 1939, specialized in fine limited-edition books, keepsakes, and ephemera. 2. Harold Norman Seeger (1899–1965) was a bibliophile and a co-owner of Johnck & Seeger, a San Francisco printing firm.

RJ to Eva Hesse December 6, 1952 Miss Eva Hesse, Munich, Germany Dear Miss Hesse: As requested I hereby grant you exclusive German rights for the translation of any or all of my poems and plays and for the radio or stage production thereof, or the publication thereof in any form. I agree with your suggestion that all broadcasts, stage productions or book publications shall be preceded by a formal contract which shall be submitted to me for signature when the time comes. I reserve the right to modify or terminate the above exclusive rights after a period of five years as of the present date. I trust that this will enable you to make all the necessary arrangements. With best wishes, TLD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

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RJ to Fran and Theodore Lilienthal [February 2, 1953] Dear Fran: I am sending this in a hurry—forgive informality. As I told you, I have one or two shorter poems—one page—if you should prefer that.1 Our best to you.— Sincerely, Robin. ♦ TO THEODORE LILIENTHAL Dear Ted: Your wife telephones and gives me some family gossip: that you will attain the robust age of sixty on February twenty-fifth. From my height of sixty-six I am not impressed. But no doubt it marks an era, and Fran has thought that a poem of mine, printed by Ed Grabhorn, who is probably the best printer in the world, might be a birthday gift from her to you. I am glad to dedicate to you the poem that follows. It has just to-day been finished, and seems to be the best I have written lately. The Latin title is stolen from Lucretius, as you will recognize, but I suppose De Rerum Natura has become “public domain” by this time. I will trespass again on “public domain” in wishing you from my heart many happy returns of the day. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. Tor House, Carmel. February 2, 1953. ANS and TL. San Francisco. 2 pages. 1. Along with the typed greeting that accompanies his note to Fran, Jeffers sent a typescript of “De Rerum Virtute.” Later in the month, thirty copies of a booklet containing both the greeting and the poem were printed as a keepsake for Ted; see Robinson Jeffers, De Rerum Virtute (San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1953). Slight differences between the Grabhorn text and the final version published in Hungerfield are discussed in Collected Poetry 5: 839–847.

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29.  Una and Robinson Tor House, late 1940s

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30.  Point Sur, Storm, Monterey Coast, California, ca. 1950 Photograph by Ansel Adams 

31.  Holograph letter from Robinson to Daisy Bartley and family January 23, 1950 

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32.  Robinson Jeffers Hawk Tower, 1950 Photograph by Ira H. Latour

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33.  Robinson Jeffers Tor House, early 1950s

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34.  Diana, Charlotte, Garth, and Maeve Jeffers Tor House, 1950

35.  Una Jeffers Tor House, 1954 

36.  Robinson, Lee, Una, Donnan, and Lindsay Jeffers Coolmain Castle, County Cork, Ireland, 1956

37.  From left: Stuart, Lindsay, Maeve, Robinson, Diana, Morna, and Una Jeffers Tor House, 1956 

38.  Robinson and Lindsay Hawk Tower, 1956 Photograph by Leigh Wiener 

39.  Una and Robinson Tor House, 1956 Photograph by Leigh Wiener 

40.  Robinson Jeffers Tor House, 1956 Photograph by Leigh Wiener

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41.  Robinson Jeffers Tor House, 1956 Photograph by Leigh Wiener

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RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. February 7, 1953. Dear Saxe: Here is the rest of the book—I guess. Thanks for having been patient with me. The “Phaedra,” which I couldn’t remember, seems fair enough after all, and I have changed almost nothing except the title. The prime-mover in Euripides’ play is Aphrodite, and my poem might as well acknowledge her. I wish I could give you a cleaner copy of the manuscript, but I think it is all legible. I have laid on top of the manuscript an index of contents—to be completed—and a note of acknowledgment. I really want to thank Poetry Magazine—they paid good space-rates (as verse goes) and gave me hundreddollar prizes besides, though they are very poor. Let me thank Random House for the birthday card you sent me last month—the high-kicking girl with a dislocated hip and champagne in her hand—very liberating. Best wishes to you, as always, Robin. TLS. Columbia. 1 page.

RJ to Albert Sperisen Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California February [17], 1953. Dear Mr. Sperisen: I hope you can forgive me for not having answered you within a reasonable time. It is nearly impossible for me to answer letters—but also I have remained undecided, trying to imagine some way of fairly representing the diaries in so brief a book. I have reluctantly decided that it can’t be done; it would be merely a sample, nothing consecutive. I should need at least twice as much room. So it seems necessary to call off the project, and

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I am very sorry that you have been bothered with it. I didn’t understand, of course, how short a book you proposed printing. One hundred pages seems like a lot, but not if it represents only thirty pages of double-spaced typescript. It will be better for me to keep the diaries for some future time.1 Meanwhile let me repeat that I am very sorry to have taken up your time and thought. If you ever come down this way, with Ted Lilienthal or otherwise, I should be delighted to see you. Yours sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. The reason given—lack of space—is the only one. All else was acceptable. —R. J. ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: February 17, 1953. 1. See Jeffers’ March 10, 1954 letter to Ward Ritchie.

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California February 28, 1953. Dear Saxe: You are quite right, and I was thinking of it when your note arrived, —besides that the name “Aphrodite” has become badly vulgarized, and makes one think of the Artists’ Ball.1 “Phaedra” will do—or “The Cretan Woman”—“Phaedra”, I guess.2 As always—and thank you— Robin. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. The Carmel Art Association sponsored “A Night with the Gods,” a costume pageant and ball, at the Del Monte Lodge in Pebble Beach on Saturday, February 7. A front-page article about the event in the January 30 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal was titled “Enter Aphrodite on Half Shell in Paint and Pearls.” Promotional materials included Jeffers’ name in a list of patrons. 2. “Now that I am getting ready to prepare your manuscript,” Commins writes in a Feb-

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ruary 25, 1953 letter (TLC Columbia), “I begin to have some misgivings about the new title, Aphrodite. I can see a certain logic in it, but I am afraid that the general connotation will be in relation to the goddess of love and beauty. ‘Phaedra’ suggests, to me at least, far more of the violence of the tragedy.”

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. March 9, 1953 Dear Saxe: I am glad that you like “The Cretan Woman” for the title of the play.1 It is my choice too. I meant to answer you sooner, but after I had typed the enclosed—“Ocean”—I read it with disgust and had to write it over again. Even so I am not particularly pleased, but it makes a good enough lump to end the book with. As always, Robin. TLS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. Writing March 2, 1953 (TLC Columbia), Commins tells Jeffers that he prefers “The Cretan Woman” for a title, rather than “Phaedra” or “Aphrodite.”

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. March 28, 1953. Dear Saxe: January, ’54 for publication is all right with me. I have been delayed in answering, but hoped you would understand that silence gives consent. I have just finished two more little poems, and will send them to you as soon as they are typed—tomorrow or next day. Perhaps you can still add them to the book; or else replace “Ocean” with them—unless you like “Ocean” better than I do. Whichever you choose to do will be all right. In

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either case I should like to end the book with one of these latest poems— “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones.” The other is called “Skunks.” It is not as bad as it soun the title sounds. All my best, Robin. ALS. Columbia. 1 page.

RJ to Saxe Commins [March 1953] Dear Saxe: Here are the verses—hope you can still use them. I send carbon copies because the others are so dim.1 As ever, Robin SKUNKS The corruptions of war and peace, the public and wholesale crimes that make war, the greed and lies of the peace And victor’s vengeance: how at a distance They soften into romance—blue mountains and blossomed marshes in the long landscape of history—Caligula Becomes an amusing fool, and Genghis A mere genius, a great author of tragedies. Let us not speak of Hitler, Stalin and Roosevelt For a hundred years and they’ll be harmless Undamned abstractions. We have little animals here, slow-stepping cousins of mink and weasel, Striped skunks, that can spit from under their tails An odor so foul and stifling that neither wolf nor wild-cat dares to come near them; they walk in confidence, Solely armed with this loathsome poison-gas.

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But smelled far off—have you noticed?—it is surprisingly pleasant. It is like the breath of ferns and wet earth Deep in a wooded glen in the evening, Cool water glides quietly over the moss-grown stones, quick trout dimple the pool. —Distance makes clean. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. This note is handwritten at the bottom of the page, beneath a typed copy of “Skunks.” “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones” is not included in the Columbia archives.

RJ to Mildred Ligda Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California March 29, 1953 Dear Mrs. Ligda: Constitutionally we have as few visitors as may be, but I’d be delighted to see you here, and Kenneth Burke and his family. It might be better for you to wait until after Easter, in hope that this village and the roads may be less crowded; but come whenever it’s convenient, and if you’ll send a card beforehand I’ll be sure to be home. I look forward to seeing “Counter-Statement,”1 and thank you very much. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Long Beach. 1 page. 1. Under their Hermes Publications imprint, the Ligdas published the second edition of Kenneth Burke’s Counter-Statement in 1953. They also published other books by Burke, including From Time to Time (1953), Permanence and Change: An Anatomy of Purpose (1954), and Attitudes Toward History (1959).

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RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California April 17, ’53. Dear Saxe: I’ve had a wonderful dose of the flu, and am still semiconscious. —The enclosed seems to be my best version of “Skunks”, and leaves out the name that you don’t like want mentioned except with approval.1 If the ms. has gone out of your hands already we can fix it up in the proof—the change is only a few words. As ever, Robin. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. Commins acknowledged receipt of “Skunks” and “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones” in an April 2, 1953 letter (TLC Columbia). “It seems to me,” he writes of “Skunks,” that “your point is dulled by the political implication in the reference to Hitler, Stalin and Roosevelt.” By deleting the line that includes these three names, Commins suggests, the references to Caligula and Genghis would direct attention to the distant rather than the recent past, strengthening Jeffers’ assertion that “Distance makes clean.” In the revised version of the poem submitted with this letter, Jeffers changed “Let us not speak of Hitler, Stalin and Roosevelt / For a hundred years and they’ll be harmless / Un­damned abstractions” to “Our own time’s chiefs of massacre—Stalin died yesterday— / Watch how soon blood will bleach, and gross horror / Become words in a book.” Commins responded April 20, 1953 (TLC Columbia): “Indeed that is a great improvement. From your letter I surmise that you take me to be a blind worshipper of the name of Roosevelt. It isn’t that at all! I just don’t believe that your dislike of him should be so underscored in a poem. It almost seemed gratuitous to me. However, the poem is so much better in the new version and that’s the way it will be in the book.”

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RJ to Benjamin Lehman Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California April 23, 1953. Dear Ben: Forgive me for not answering promptly. I have had a wonderful dose of flu, and am convalescent but still semi-conscious. I cannot find any letters of George Sterling’s here.1 I believe that Una gave them all that we received from him to our friend (though I have only seen her once) Mrs. Wilford Holman, who collects Sterling as well as me. But it is possible that Una retained one or two of them; I never pay attention to such things, and can’t find anything among our papers. Melba Bennett, whom you have probably met, expects to be here sometime this spring, and no doubt can answer the question; she have has all our mss. etc. sorted and indexed—but it does me no good. Mrs. Holman’s address—if you care—is 769 Lighthouse Avenue, Pacific Grove. She is a very nice person, the wife of Holman’s department store. Probably you know her —Jack Alexander2 is in charge of the book department there. It was pleasant to hear from you, though I am so horribly lame at answering —and I hope to see you again pretty soon. Yours, Robin. (Robinson Jeffers) ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Writing March 19, 1953 (TLC Berkeley), Lehman informs Jeffers of the Sterling collection being assembled at Bancroft Library and asks if he would be willing to donate any letters or manuscripts still in his possession. 2. John Jerome “Jack” Alexander (1889–1966), the book department manager at Holman’s and later at Wells’ Book Store in Carmel, was the husband of Betty Alexander, a concert pianist and friend of Noël Sullivan. The couple died in a highway accident north of Santa Cruz when their automobile hit a guardrail, rolled down an embankment, and struck a tree.

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RJ to Eva Hesse Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California, USA. June 4, 1953. Miss Eva Hesse, Munich, Germany. Dear Miss Hesse: I am glad to give you a clearance of copyright on my “Medea” for the use of your translation by the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation. And it would be most kind of you to arrange with Dr. Szcesny about whatever royalty rate may seem appropriate. I give you full authority to act as my agent in this matter. It is a pleasure to hear from you again. If I have anything new published I’ll be sure to send you a copy. My next full-length book of poems will be published in January, 1954. With all good wishes, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 1 page.

RJ to Fraser Drew Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California September 1, 1953. Dear Fraser Drew:1 I am very sorry not to have inscribed your books more promptly. Or at least I should have acknowledged receipt. The package has lain unopened in our living-room, and every day I have thought “to-morrow”—and every five days my son has reminded me of it. I have inscribed so many hundreds of books—it is no task—I can’t imagine why I kept postponing. —Perhaps because it was such a neat and well made package—if you had come to the door I’d have done it instantly. It has just been done, and the books will be mailed at the same time as this note. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. F Drew. 1 page. 1. Fraser Bragg Drew (1913–2013), a professor of English and Irish literature at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1945 to 1983, was the author of John Masefield’s England (1973) and other works.

RJ to Ellen Van Volkenburg Tor House, Carmel, California. September 4, 1953. Dear Ellen Van Volkenburg:1 It was a surprise and a pleasure to hear from you, and of Maurice. But I have no memory whatever of the phrase you would like placed. I never wrote it, nor has the sentiment been mine; but Maurice may attribute it to me if he likes, though I should think “Author Unknown” would be just as convenient. It is great news to hear about the autobiography.2 It seems a hundred years ago that the Golden Bough here had its inspired beginning; and Maurice will have many greater stories to tell. I remember last seeing him in London; he was going once a week to Belfast—quite a long ferry-passage— to lecture on drama at the University there. I’m sorry that I can’t claim the phrase he wants to quote.3 —Well—in a way sorry. Please greet him for me. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Michigan. 1 page. 1. Ellen Van Volkenburg (1882–1978), an actress, director, and puppeteer, co-founded the Chicago Little Theatre with Maurice Browne in 1912, the same year she and Browne married. The couple divorced in 1924, but remained lifelong friends. 2. Maurice Browne, Too Late to Lament (London: Victor Gollancz, 1955; Bloomington: Indiana University, 1956). 3. In a chapter titled “The Years Between,” Browne recalls the early 1920s in Carmel when he assisted Teddie Kuster with the opening of the Theatre of the Golden Bough. He also recalls a more recent visit to the village that included a conversation with Jeffers at Tor House. “‘You don’t think much of my Medea,’ ” Jeffers says in Browne’s retelling, “‘Nor did I, until I

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saw it acted. Judith Anderson was superb; her triumph enabled me to buy seclusion. Was it not Anatole France who said: “The talent of the players is too great; they hide the play from me”?’” (p. 274).

RJ to Saxe Commins Tor House, Carmel, California September 24, 1953. Dear Saxe: I was very sorry to hear of your illness, and very glad to be informed that you are making strides toward recovery.1 You must rest and take it easy for a good while—no doubt your doctor and your family can speak convincingly on that subject. When Una and I visited Random House you were always at your desk, and Una thought you were the only one of the partners who seemed to be really working. Perhaps you will travel a little during your convalescence—perhaps you’ll even come out to California; I should love to see you here. Meanwhile—if you have to be in hospital awhile, I wish it were an Irish one. I rather enjoyed my term in Dublin, though I was supposed to be critically ill. The hospital was so much less formal than an American one, and the doctors kinder and less professional, and the nurses so much more amusing. Good luck to you, my dear Saxe, and all good wishes. Sincerely, Robin. ALS. Princeton. 1 page. 1. Commins suffered a severe heart attack August 23, 1953 and remained hospitalized for six weeks.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal [October 9, 1953] Richard Ellis Roberts died last Monday morning at his home in Carmel, and he will be sadly missed by many friends, in this country and abroad. When Ellis left his more active work in London and came to America, and soon afterwards, in 1940, to Carmel, he had already lived a full and distinguished career, as editor, author, critic, poet and journalist. As editor—of The New Statesman and Nation, and of Time and Tide, Life and Letters—but I need not give the list—he was able to afford help and advice to a generation of young writers; and he knew familiarly most of the literary men of his time in England. As critic and journalist he contributed brilliantly to a great series of periodicals, English and American. Of the books he wrote—again I will not list them—I think particularly of Ellis’s translation of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, with the rollicking double and triple rhymes that meet the original on its own ground. Ellis had an amazing ability to read and remember. It seemed to us that there was not a book of any literary pretension, great book or small one, at least since the eighteenth century, that he had not read and digested, and more or less enjoyed. If you had half a quotation in mind, he was almost always able to supply the other half, very often from memory. And his interest in literature, even the most recent and modernist, remained ever sharp and fresh. He was the most widely read man I have ever known. But now it is not Ellis’s wide reading, nor his distinguished talents, that stand foremost in my mind. It is rather his kindness, his conversation, his friendships, and his good-humored tolerance. A man whose principles are as steady as Ellis’s were, and his faith as firm, can afford to be tolerant. He can listen without dismay to opinions that conflict wildly with his own. I remember—soon after Ellis came here—with what eloquence and emphasis he read to a group of friends some verses of mine, written at the bitter time of the war, that must have seemed to him quite blasphemous. He read them beautifully, and let them pass for whatever they were worth. Ellis loved to read poetry aloud; he loved to intone it—particularly Chesterton’s “Ballad of the White Horse” and “Don John of Austria,”1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

those marvelously intonable ballads—or epics if you like. And he took great pleasure in stressing and rolling the Rs, which to an Englishman of course are forbidden, but Ellis remembered that his father was a Welshman. I am writing too much and too far among my memories of Ellis Roberts. I ought to say only that we shall not meet his like again. And that we of the Monterey Peninsula, neighbors of his, are joined with many others, in Britain and America, in extending love and deep sympathy to his wife Harriet Roberts, who has been—if I may say so—his ministering angel.2 PL. Pine Cone. 1. “Lepanto” is the title of G. K. Chesterton’s poem about military hero Don John of Austria (1547–1578), the illegitimate son of Emperor Charles V. 2. Several of Roberts’ friends wrote memorials for the October 9 and the October 16, 1953 editions of the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal. Jeffers’ contribution, titled “In Tribute,” was published October 9, pages 1 and 12.

RJ to Howard Greenfeld Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California October 12, 1953 Dear Mr. Greenfeld:1 I am mailing you the proofs of “Hungerfield” at the same time as this note; but this of course is air-mail. The galleys have been well proof-read already, evidently, and there was very little to correct. I am sorry to have been delayed a few days. Another matter came up—besides that it seems to be almost impossible for me to get things to the post-office. Thank you for your trouble and your attention. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ANS. Holmes. 1 page. Postmark: October 12, 1953. 1. Howard Scheinman Greenfeld (1928–2006) was Bennett Cerf ’s editorial assistant at Random House from 1952 to 1956. He left Random House to establish the Orion Press, a firm that specialized in translations of books by European authors, and to pursue his own career as a writer. Greenfeld’s books include Marc Chagall (1967), Puccini: A Biography (1980), and After the Holocaust (2001). LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. October 24, 1953. Dear Saxe: Needless to say that I was delighted to receive your letter, and written in your own hand as proof of convalescence. I was very grateful too for the letter from a member of your family—wife or daughter1—giving good news of you while you were still in hospital. And it was kind of Belle Becker 2 to write me about you. The galley-proofs came and were in fine shape, hardly needed any correction. Many thanks, Saxe, for the care you took about the book before you became ill. I hope you will have a pleasant autumn—in Princeton, not N. Y.—and rest and take it easy. Here we have had our first rain already—only half an inch, but that’s a promise—and another mild storm seems to be brewing. We have to wait till Christmas for the loud ones. With all good wishes, dear Saxe, Affectionately, Robin. ALS. Princeton. 1 page. 1. Saxe and Dorothy Commins’ daughter Frances Ellen (Commins) Bennett (b. 1930), a graduate of Swarthmore College, was the wife of William R. Bennett, Jr. (1930–2008), a distinguished physicist who taught at Yale University for nearly forty years. Saxe and Dorothy’s son Eugene David Commins (b. 1932), Bennett’s friend and graduate school classmate at Columbia University, became a prize-winning physicist at the University of California, Berkeley. 2. Belle Becker Sideman (1907–1989) was a senior editor at Random House. She published several anthologies, including Bedside Book of Famous French Stories (1945), Europe Looks at the Civil War (1960), and The World’s Best Fairy Tales (1967).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Jean Ennis [October 1953] Dear Jean Ennis: Since I last sent “biographical material” to my publisher {—} which was more than a quarter century ago It is more than a quarter century since I last sent “biographical material” to my publishers, but really there is little to add that could be of interest to a reader. Dates, and where educated, etc. may be found in Who’s Who. We have made {travelled} three summers {made three long visits} to Ireland and Great Britain, but no farther, and it is unlikely that I shall travel any more. My wife, Una Jeffers, died three years ago; and it was for her pleasure that these trips {pilgrimages} were undertaken. She was in many ways a mediator between me and the world. I was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Jan. 10, 1887. My parents lugged me to Europe several times, but {while I was a child;} I was too young to remember much {anything} {much} but the seasickness. When I was nine years old my father began to slap Latin into me, literally, with his hands; and when I was eleven he put me in a boarding-school in Switzerland—a new one every year for four years—Vevey, Lausanne, Geneva, Zurich. Then he brought me home and put me in college as a sophomore. I graduated accordingly {(now in} at eighteen, not because {that} because I was precocious, {intelligent,} but because I by sporting my languages and avoiding mathematics. Then, {having the habit,} I took postgraduate courses {studies}—in English {and} European literatures, {even a little forestry,} finally three years in medicine—medical school—not knowing what else to do; and finally then drifted into mere drunken idleness. I wrote verses (I wrote verses {ever since I was eight years old,} but they were no good.) I was married in 1913. In 1914 we came to Carmel, having heard {knowing no one here, and having heard} that it was a beautiful place. In 1916 our twin sons were born; and in 1919 we built a little stone house here, and I planted 2000 trees around it. Dates, where educated, {Further dates,} books published, etc. may be found in Who’s Who. 1

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{4.} I still walk the dogs two or three times a day, and sometimes my little grandson goes along. Avocations: {2)} I still try to avoid meeting people, and find it practically impossible to answer letters. {3)} I still do stone-work, of{—}granite sea-boulders—to enlarge our house; for there are several grandchildren. {1)} I still live in the same {place} and open my eyes every morning on the same scene of rocks and ocean, but under the weather forever changing. {not a monotonous scene, but forever changing with {ever new under} the restless weather and the flighty sea-fowl.} —Dates, and where educated, {etc.,} (if wa) can {may} be found in Who’s Who except, possibly, as it is expressed in my verses. ♦ Avocations Recreations: Stone-masonry, Reading Undirected {Indiscriminate} reading of all kinds, and { the art of being a grandfather} dog-walking, intervention in dog-fights, and the art of being a grandfather. Dates Books published, where educated, etc., {and so forth,} may be found in Who’s Who. double space. {Sorry I} Sorry I can’t be more interesting. —Will this help you? double space As to photographs, any of those you sent me will do, except the one that has its eyes turned up like a dying duck. I am returning them to you in {in} this package. Also enclosed I enclose with them two others {taken by a friend} {Sadie Adriani,} {(Sadie Adriani, if you give credit for publicity pictures)} which are a little better looking, but it doesn’t matter. Would you mind returning to me these latter if you don’t use them? Thanks for the trouble you are taking. Sincerely ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Jean Ennis (1916–1970) was the director of publicity and public relations at Random House. Soon after being named a vice president of the firm, she died of a heart attack.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. February 23, 1954. Dear Saxe: It was kind of you to write, and I am joyful to know that you are well enough to be back on the job. But do take it easy—and live a thousand years. I return with this Mrs. Linn’s letter.1 If it had come to me in the first place I should have weakly said “Yes”—I always do—{—if I answer at all—} but I’m delighted to let you decide for me. However, I don’t see any likelihood that “The Cretan Woman” will ever be produced as a play—so it doesn’t matter. much.2 I can’t tell you, Saxe, how pleased I am that you are up and about again. But take care of yourself—don’t do all the work at Random House. Yes, “Hungerfield” is a beautifully made book.3 Thank you and Random House. I am glad to be so well dressed up. Affectionately,4 Robin. Why don’t you and your family take a trip to California sometime? I’d love to see you here. R. J. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. Eleanor Morrison (Ringer) Linn (1920–1992), an actress and director, wrote on behalf of the University Theatre at Cornell University with a request for permission to present a reading of The Cretan Woman. Eleanor’s husband, John Gaywood Linn (1917–1986), was an instructor in the English Department at Cornell and a specialist in theater history. 2. A production of The Cretan Woman opened for a brief run at the President Theatre in New York March 12, 1954—less than a month after Jeffers made this comment. For information about other productions, see Jeffers’ September 25, 1954 letter to Fraser Drew. 3. Hungerfield and Other Poems, the last book published by Jeffers during his lifetime, was released January 11, 1954. In January of the following year, Hungerfield and Other Poems was given a Special Award ($1,250) from the Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards organization and was a finalist for a National Book Award.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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4. The friendship between Jeffers and Commins deepened over time. In earlier years, Commins closed his letters to Jeffers with “Yours,” “Best Always,” “Ever,” and other conventional terms, but from 1952 on, his closings were often more expressive: “With all devotion,” “Always with deep affection,” “My deep appreciation and my love,” and several times simply “Love.” Commins concludes an August 9, 1954 letter (TLC Columbia) with “I think often of you and with life-long devotion.”

RJ to Ward Ritchie Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California March 10, 1954. Dear Ward Ritchie: It is a joy to hear that you will print and more or less publish a little volume of selections from Una’s diaries.1 I know beforehand that you will do it beautifully—you and Caroline Anderson.2 Thank you for returning the portion of manuscript. I wanted to see it again—though now I don’t think it needs much changing, but a few erasures to save space. I expect Ted Lilienthal told you that I contemplate a book about twice as long as the ms. you have seen—that is, between 50 and 60 pages of double-spaced typescript. —Is that too long for you? Ted says that he was mistaken about the tower picture, you wanted an Irish round tower. We have a lot of round tower pictures: I enclose one that seems most typical and most clearly printed of those I have looked at. It stands at Glendalough, County Wicklow. Ted said you suggested including in the book a short poem of mine. I can’t make ’em to order. If you want one, we could include the first of my poems in the series called “Descent to the Dead” (page 462 of “Selected Poetry”) —it seems appropriate, and I feel sure Random House would give permission.3 —Greeting—and all good wishes. Sincerely, Robin. (Robinson Jeffers) (Enclosure.)

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

P. S.— I will go over the diaries as fast as I can, and send you the ms. as soon as I can—within a fortnight if possible. R.J. ALS. UCLA Clark. 1 page. 1. When negotiations with Albert Sperisen ceased in February 1953, plans for a book based on Una’s travel diaries were suspended. Ward Ritchie revived them with his announcement that he would publish Visits to Ireland: Travel-Diaries of Una Jeffers. 2. Caroline (Bennett) Anderson Fogle (1910–2000) was the widow of Ritchie’s first business partner, Gregg Anderson. She helped run Anderson, Ritchie & Simon, a commercial printing business that included the Ward Ritchie Press. 3. Jeffers suggested “Shane O’Neill’s Cairn,” a poem dedicated “To U. J.”

RJ to Ward Ritchie Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California April 14, 1954. Dear Ward Ritchie: I just couldn’t get this done sooner.1 I am sorry—and I’m terribly sorry the typing is so queer and dim. All best wishes, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. UCLA Clark. 1 page. 1. A revised and expanded version of Visits to Ireland, with a foreword by Jeffers.

RJ to Newton Taylor1 [April 1954] He lived for his friends, and they were very many. Kind and Amusing and {kind and} generous and [illegible] certainly a [illegible] —He always had little things in his pockets— He was a remarkable person; kind and generous and amusing, full of crotchets {and whimsies.} He lived for his friends, and they were many. If my wife were living I should ask you to come down and see us; she

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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could tell {give} you vivid impressions and anecdotes of Albert. But for myself—I don’t observe people much—it seems to me that what I should have to say would be {very} little and {rather} dull. Come if you want. but I can’t feel that it would be worth your while. I am almost always at home in the afternoons, but it might be best to telephone beforehand or send a postal card beforehand. But I don’t think it would be worth your while. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Newton Taylor (1908–1969), a San Francisco book dealer, wrote to Jeffers April 10, 1954 (TLS HRC Texas) and asked if he could visit him at Tor House. Taylor wanted to interview Jeffers for a book he was writing about Albert Bender. The book was not completed.

RJ to Cyril Clemens Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. May 11, 1954. Dear Cyril Clemens: I am sure that I wrote the enclosed, but I can’t remember when, nor for what occasion.1 As to your other questions—No, I am not available for the platform, as you put it, and only some bitter unforeseen need of money could make me so. And I am not writing my autobiography, and don’t expect to. There are more important things to write about. Glad to hear from you. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: May 11, 1954. 1. Clemens sent a copy of the paragraph Jeffers had written about George Bernard Shaw three years before (see Jeffers’ January 17, 1951 letter to Clemens), asking him to proofread it prior to publication in the Mark Twain Journal (formerly the Mark Twain Quarterly). Jeffers’ response is located at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, but the envelope in which it was sent is at Stanford. The envelope bears a notation: “Robinson Jeffers returns as O.K. his proof of his contribution to Mark Twain Journal’s Bernard Shaw Number, Summer 1954. Cyril Clemens.” For the printed text, which Clemens titled “A Great Man in Our Time,” see the Mark Twain Journal 9, no. 4 (Summer 1954): 10.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

The gap between the time Jeffers wrote the paragraph and the time it was published might have resulted from Clemens’ legal problems. In a 1951 court action, Clemens was unable to substantiate his claim that he was related to Samuel Clemens. In 1954, following an ongoing fraud investigation of the International Mark Twain Society, the United States Post Office sought to bar Clemens from using the mail for distribution of his Mark Twain Quarterly.

RJ to Ward Ritchie Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. July 5, 1954. Dear Ward Ritchie: I am mailing you the proofs under separate cover.1 The printing is beautiful, and there are surprisingly few errors. It is too bad that I never can get things mailed promptly, and now the holidays have caused a further delay, but I hope it does not inconvenience you. Ted Lilienthal is as pleased with the proof as I am, and no doubt has told you so. Cordially yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. UCLA Clark. 1 page. 1. Page proofs for Visits to Ireland.

RJ to Blanche Matthias July 9, 1954. Dear Blanche: The book is inscribed and sent with this.1 Please forgive me for the ridiculous delay.2 I can’t write letters—I can’t mail packages—I can’t realize how time passes—until it has run out. Stupid infirmities— But devoted love to you and Russell, from Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Probably Hungerfield and Other Poems.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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2. Blanche’s copy of Hungerfield, “Inscribed for Blanche and Russell, with love from Robin. Tor House, Carmel. —February, 1954,” is at the Huntington Library.

RJ to W. Price Turner July 19, 1954. Dear Mr. Turner: Thank you for your letter, which was forwarded to me from New York. I am glad to hear that you are interested in “Hungerfield,” and glad to give you permission to reprint “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones” from that volume.2 (It is quite true, by the way, not a poetic fancy, that I found those four or five deer-skeletons huddled together above the river-gorge.) Best wishes to you and to The Poet. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. 1

ALS. diZerega. 1 page. 1. William Price Turner (1927–1998), a Scottish poet and writer, was the author of The Rudiment of an Eye (1955), Bound to Die (1967), and other books. From 1951 to 1957 he edited and published The Poet, a magazine of verse printed in Glasgow. 2. Turner included “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones” in The Poet 9 (Autumn 1954): 14–15.

RJ to Ella Young Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. August 4, 1954. Dear Ella Young: The little horse came, so well packed and safely, and I am most grateful for him. He seems like a beautiful pebble that the sea himself has carved, and thrown up on the beach to last forever. So solid and jewelled—and trying to bite his own tail, like the serpent of eternity. Perhaps he will reach it sometime.1 You are very kind, and I’ll keep your little letter with the gift, partly as a reminder to my children about Stanford Univ. Museum, if the little animal should ever need another home than this Tor House. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I look forward to seeing you again, either here or at your home on the dunes. With thanks and all good wishes, Robin Jeffers. ALS. GL Historical. 1 page. 1. Young sent Jeffers a fossilized seahorse. The body of the 4-inch specimen is curved in such a way that its nose nearly touches its tightly coiled tail. It remains on display in the living room at Tor House.

RJ to Saxe Commins August 14, 1954. Dear Saxe: The production rights of “Medea” belong to Samuel French, who seems to be Czar of amateur plays, {(after Broadway)} and sends me a small royalty from time to time. I have just written to Mr. Kranitz1 of Altoona, Pa., to tell him so. Thanks for forwarding the letter. But the best was, to hear from you again. I am ver {am very} glad that you are still in good shape, commanding your “temperament and the bad habits of a lifetime.” What does that mean? —It means that you have worked too hard and must relax a little.2 My dear Una used to say that you were the only man at Random House whom she ever saw at his desk, working. No doubt Bennet and Klopfer work too, but not so visibly. Please greet them for me. And if it is not too inconvient, will you convey my thanks to Jean Ennis—“publicity” I think, but I am not sure of her first name—she has sent me several batches of clippings about the latest book, but also told me about your health; and I am grateful to her. I wish I could answer letters, but I can’t. There is a bushel-basketful here piled up. My daughter-in-law burns them once a month, but it weighs on my conscience. Yours always— Robinson Jeffers. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Columbia. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Lionel Kranitz (b. 1933), a senior at Bucknell University, directed a student production of Medea in January 1955. In later years, Kranitz balanced an ongoing interest in the theater with a career as a clinical psychologist in Millbrae, California. 2. Commins wrote again October 14, 1954 (TLC Columbia), just to assure Jeffers that he was well and able to work again—“not that I accomplish very much,” he says. “My chief concern is that you too should be strong enough to carry forward what you have fought so hard for all your life. That’s what we have and must defend.”

RJ to Fraser Drew Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. September 25, 1954. Dear Fraser Drew: I hope you didn’t pay too much for those little books. Certainly one of them is nearly worthless, except maybe as a curiosity, and even its author didn’t have the heart to ask people to buy it.1 But I’ll be glad to inscribe them for you. “The Cretan Woman” was not performed in Provincetown, but by a group that calls itself “The Provincetown Players”.2 Apparently it is going to try its luck on Broadway now—theatrical producers are brave men. I am much interested to hear about the courses you are giving in contemporary literature. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. F Drew. 1 page. 1. Drew informed Jeffers in a September 19, 1954 letter (TLS HRC Texas) that he had recently purchased first editions of Tamar and Other Poems and Flagons and Apples. 2. The Cretan Woman, directed by Theodore Marcuse, opened at the Provincetown Playhouse in Greenwich Village July 7, 1954 and closed after ninety-five performances September 26. See “‘Cretan Woman’ Staged by Village Group,” New York Times (July 8, 1954): 18; “‘Cretan Woman,’” New York Times (September 5, 1954): X1; and “The Stage: Two Masterpieces,” Commonweal (September 10, 1954): 558. Jacqueline Brookes (1930–2013) won a Theater World Award for her outstanding debut performance as Phaedra. She was featured in “Love-Crazed Queen,” a photo essay about the play in Life magazine (September 13, 1954): 142, 145, 146.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Prior to its opening in New York, Jeffers discussed The Cretan Woman in an essay published in the July 4, 1954 issue of the New York Herald Tribune, section 4, page 2: “Play from ‘Scandalous’ Mythology by Robinson Jeffers (American poet whose newest play, ‘The Cretan Woman,’ opens Wednesday at the Provincetown Playhouse here).” See Appendix A: 7. The first major production of The Cretan Woman was in Washington, D.C., where it was performed for three weeks at the Arena Stage, beginning May 4, 1954. In reviewing the play, Brooks Atkinson called attention to hearings underway in the U. S. Senate involving Joseph McCarthy. “During this dismal interval in the capital’s history,” he writes, “the most edifying show in Washington has been Robinson Jeffers’ ‘The Cretan Woman,’ now reaching the end of its run at the Arena Stage. Although the script is stormy, the characters are franker, the form is more compact, the moral issues clearer and the language less monotonous than in the Army– McCarthy snake-oil carnival. In fact, the language is extraordinarily distinguished.” See “‘The Cretan Woman’ Put On in an Arena,” New York Times (May 21, 1954): 17. Eric Bentley included The Cretan Woman in his anthology, From the Modern Repertoire: Series Three (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1956). In the foreword to the book, Bentley refers to it as “surely one of the finest of American plays.”

RJ to Peter Craig [Autumn 1954] Peter Craig—Little Theatre, Univ. of Cape Town—Orange Street, —Cape Town, South Africa.1 Dear Mr. Craig—2 Thank you for your letter. I am interested to hear that “Medea” may be done in South Africa.3 But I don’t know just how to answer, and am referring the matter to my agent in New York; —The William Morris Company, Agency, 1740 Broadway, New York 19, N. Y. I hope you will hear from them presently. The amateur rights in this country are held by a company called Samuel French. I don’t know whether they are concerned in production abroad. Sincerely yours, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. This and the following letter to Helen Harvey are written on opposite sides of a grocery store invoice dated September 22. The address information for Peter Craig is added beneath the letter to Harvey.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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2. Peter Craig was the stage name of Peter Curtis (1919–2006), an actor, director, and theater manager. Curtis left his native England after World War II and lived in South Africa for over thirty years. From 1966 to 1979 he was the head of the English Drama Company, an institution that performed at the Nico Malan Theatre under the aegis of the Cape Performing Arts Board (CAPAB). 3. Curtis directed a Cape Town Theatre Company production of Medea that premiered at the Rondebosch Town Hall in Cape Town on October 24, 1955. He also played the part of Jason, opposite Lydia Lindeque (1912–1997) as Medea. In subsequent years, Curtis directed productions of Medea by the Brian Brooke Company in Johannesburg, the Lyric Theatre Company in Durban, and the University of Cape Town Dramatic Society.

RJ to Helen Harvey [Autumn 1954] Dear Helen Harvey— Could you possibly answer the enclosed letter for me? I have no idea what to say, and I don’t know whether {the} Samuel French {Company,} who have the deal in the amateur rights of “Medea”, are concerned about productions abroad. I am acknowledging this letter; saying that the matter is referred to my agent in N. Y. Since the checks have stopped coming, I judge that “The Cretan Woman” is not going to be done on Broadway.2 But let me thank you again for your kindness. Cordially, 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Helen Harvey (1916–1997) was a theatrical agent at the William Morris Agency. She eventually left William Morris and established her own firm, Helen Harvey Associates. 2. Theodore Marcuse announced plans to open The Cretan Woman at the Bijou Theatre October 15, but changed his mind after Jacqueline Brookes accepted a leading role in another play (The Clandestine Marriage by David Garrick) and withdrew from the production. In the months that followed, Marcuse turned his attention to The Tower Beyond Tragedy. His Vox Poetica Repertory Company, a traveling ensemble, gave readings of the play in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. One of the readings in New York, presented by the Poetry Society of America on March 31, 1955, drew an overflow crowd. For a descriptive review of the performance, with photographs of the cast (featuring Helen Craig as Clytemnestra, Marian

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Seldes as Electra, and Hilda Vaughn as Cassandra), see the Poetry Society of America Bulletin (April 1955): 3–9. Marcuse directed the west coast premiere of The Cretan Woman at Stanford University, July 21–23, 1955. Marian Seldes (1928–2014), who debuted on Broadway in the Judith Anderson production of Medea and who won a Tony Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, led the cast as Phaedra.

RJ to Theodore Lilienthal Route 2, Box 36, Carmel. January, 1955. Dear Ted: Forgive me—I just can’t answer letters. It is a kind of insanity I suppose— they pile up and paralyze me. The little book is beautiful,1 and I feel most truly grateful to you and Noël, who managed it, and to Ward Ritchie also. He sent me eight copies and I haven’t yet acknowledged them, nor sent one of them away; except that I gave one of them to Garth, when he and his family2 were here over Christmas. There has always been a horrible gulf between me and the post office, but it is growing deeper. I’ll sign your book and return it to you just as soon as my beautiful daughter-in-law can get it wrapped up. All my best to you and to Fran, and again thank you. Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. 1. Visits to Ireland: Travel-Diaries of Una Jeffers, with a foreword by Robinson Jeffers. Production details are provided in a colophon: “Three hundred copies printed in Los Angeles by Anderson, Ritchie & Simon in December 1954. Designed by Ward Ritchie, with wood engravings by Paul Landacre.” 2. Garth and Charlotte’s fourth child, Robinson Garth Jeffers, was born September 2, 1954.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Ward Ritchie Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California January 18, 1955 Dear Ward Ritchie: It is a beautiful book. The designing must have been a stiff problem, and you solved it triumphantly. The printing is most attractive, with never an error, and I like Landacre’s round tower, it is excellently drawn and clearer than any photograph could be. Forgive me for not having written to you last month, when the ten copies reached me. I was and remain most grateful to you, but it is ridiculously impossible for me to write letters. Thank you again, very much. Everyone admires the book—I mean your part in it—and people seem to like the diaries too. Best wishes to you. Cordially, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. UCLA Clark. 1 page.

RJ to Reece Halsey Feb 7, 1955 Dear Reece Halsey: Thank you for your letter, and the copy of Miss Rosenthal’s1 memorandum. It was pleasant to hear from you again. My heirs—my two sons—would be quite willing to agree with me in giving to Columbia the right to renew the copyright on “Thurso’s Landing” before it lapses.2 But this would give Columbia more than the film rights; could a reservation be made to give me or my heirs control of book-publication? Probably this is not a matter of importance, and I hate to trouble you with it, but someone might sometime wish to re-publish. “Thurso’s Landing” is still in print, in a book called “Selected Poetry of R. J.”, published by Random House in 1938.3 Sincerely yours, ALD and TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 

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1. Ann Rosenthal, also Ann Rosenthal Stein (1899–1970), was the head of the legal department at the William Morris Agency; she retired in 1962. 2. In a deal announced by executive producer Jerry Wald (1911–1962), Columbia Pictures acquired the screen rights to Roan Stallion, Thurso’s Landing, The Women at Point Sur, and Give Your Heart to the Hawks. See “Columbia to Film Poems by Jeffers,” New York Times (March 17, 1955): 28, and “Epic Poems by ‘Medea’ Author Bought,” Los Angeles Times (May 6, 1955): B7. 3. Two versions of this letter, a handwritten draft and a typewritten copy, are held in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas. This transcription is a composite that combines elements of both.

RJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp February 26, 1955 Dear Tim and Maud: Please forgive the pencil: It writes in my hand more fluently than pen or typewriter—at least it writes. I can’t. There is a stack of mail here, about a foot high, that I ought to answer. My daughter-in-law offers too, if I will tell her what to say—but that’s harder than writing a letter. —Besides that I mustn’t allow her to work for me—she has plenty of her own, a house to take care of and two little children, the straw-blond boy and the red-gold girl. Accordingly we burn the unanswered mail, once every two months, sadly and solemnly. This is a stupid thing to write about, but it obsesses me. I have a guilty conscience. —Although I know that nearly all the letters are of no importance, and almost all the verses are bad. I am surprised that Charlotte Kellogg had heard about our misfortune with the bulldog. I have never talked about it, I didn’t suppose anyone else had. Donnan bought him, in memory certainly of Una’s love of bulldogs, and he was a grand creature, vital and powerful and absolutely fearless. But he was eighteen months old, had been chained day and night out-doors, and I think teased by children. He had to be walked on leash always, because his one ambition was to kill every dog he met; and the duty {of walking with him} was mine, because Donnan has other business to occupy him. Every walk was an adventure. I used to take a stick along, to try to fend them off, but we left

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a trail of injured Boxers and Dobermans and Kerry Blues behind us. That was all right: he was on leash and they were attacking. ♦ But then he began to be ferocious at home. He would mistake me or Donnan or one of the children for an intruder. The only person he spared was Lee, my beautiful blonde daughter-in-law, who had always disliked him. It was easy enough for us to knock him down, and he would come trembling to beg forgiveness HEATHCLIFF death of a dog. We had a dog, and all he wanted or dreamed was to kill. An English bulldog, twice as big as bigger than the breed runs, But not so big as a mastiff; he killed a mastiff, And after that I walked him only on leash With a club in my hand. He was not slow like the breed, nor snuffly, But killed at sight. I prevented that for awhile {mostly} awhile With a club in my hand, but then the deep instinct— Psychosis rather—frustrated abroad on our walks, Found ways at home. He would attack me or my son For no reason; you could see the sudden glaze in his eyes When he thought we were strangers to be destroyed; and when we had knocked him down, the horrible Trembling penitence when he crawled at our feet. There ought to be Some heaven for him; he was faithful in his fashion. I loved him. But after the long gash he made In my little grandson’s shoulder he was totally courageous, And in his fashion faithful. But when he tore My little grandson’s shoulder open to the bone I was his Judas {Pilate} and agreed to his death. He was monstrous and tragic, totally made To kill. That was his virtue. I loved him well And {I} betrayed him. I am bitterly ashamed If I had had the courage To kill him myself I would think better of myself.1

ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. For the final version of this unpublished poem, see Collected Poetry 4: 545.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Anne Curtis-Brown [March 1955] Anne Curtis-Brown Dear Miss Brown Curtiss-Brown:1 Thank you. I accept the Argosy’s offer to buy for “The Shears.”2 In sending assignment of copyright the New American Library asks me to request that they (the Argosy I suppose) print an acknowledgment that the poem first appeared in New World Writing, published by the New American Library of World Literature, Inc.3 This seems a little burdensome, but I must pass it on to you. Sincerely, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Anne Curtis-Brown (1919–1965), a literary agent, was the granddaughter of Albert Curtis Brown, founder of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Following a divorce from novelist John Nixon Brooks, Jr. (1920–1993), she married writer and editor Bucklin Moon (1911–1984). 2. The Amalgamated Press of London, publisher of Argosy magazine, offered two guineas for the first British serial rights for “The Shears.” 3. Two poems by Jeffers, “Animula” and “The Shears,” were included in New World Writing: Fifth Mentor Selection (New York: New American Library, 1954): 97–98. The annual publication featured works of fiction, drama, poetry, and criticism by established and emerging authors. The guest poetry editor in 1954 was Richard Eberhart (1904–2005), winner of the 1966 Pulitzer Prize for his Selected Poems: 1930–1965.

RJ to Walter W. Wriggins [March 1955] Dear Mr. Wriggins: {Thank you sir} Cordial thanks for the assignment of copyright on “The Shears” and “Animula”. In answering Miss Curtis-Brown I made the req asked, according to your suggestion, that they print an acknowledgment that the poem first appeared in New World Writing, published by the New American Library of World Literature, Inc. Sincerely, 1

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ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Walter W. Wriggins (1914–1996) was the administrative editor for the New American Library of World Literature, Inc., a publishing company that specialized in affordable paperback books.

RJ to Elizabeth McCloy [April 14, 1955] Dear Miss McCloy: I thought the enclosed was wanted by the middle of April, and was horrified yesterday to hear that it was March. I am very sorry, and can only hope my delay isn’t fatal. Best wishes. —(By the way—the title of the enclosed can b may be changed at will. I didn’t know what to call it—I wish it were more interesting.) Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ♦ WITH ALL GOOD WISHES1 When I first went to Occidental College—What?—Fifty-two years ago—there was a literary magazine written and edited by the students, although Occidental was a very small place then. The magazine was called the “Aurora,” and I remember thinking it odd that Occidental—the west, the setting sun—should be represented by a magazine called Aurora, the dawn. At least it gave us a wide range, the whole daylight sky. I was continually writing verses in those days. Nobody, not even I myself, thought they were good verses; but Aurora’s editor accepted many of them, and it gave me pleasure to see my rhymes in print. They did rhyme, if that is any value, and were usually metrical, but why was I so eager to publish what hardly anyone would read, and no one would remember? I suppose that the desire for publication is a normal part of the instinct for writing. Any good talker or speech-maker wants an audience; but the writer sits at home, and the mere fact of being printed provides his verses with a kind of audience, his work is on record if not read. So, having that vanity partially satisfied, he can go ahead and try to do better work.

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But this is the least of the values of a college magazine. I was only seventeen {sixteen to eighteen} years old at the time I speak of, and it took me a long ♦ time to grow up. I believe that Occidental College, with more maturity and greater numbers, can produce a magazine that will be well worth reading. I believe it is a good discipline, for the student editors and contributors, to work very hard in order to produce a good magazine; and there is always a chance that it may bring to light some man or woman of great talent. Miss McCloy, your librarian, has asked me to write a greeting to the new publication, and I am glad to wish you all the luck in the world. Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Occidental. 3 pages. Postmark: April 14, 1955. 1. Elizabeth McCloy, the Occidental College librarian, asked Jeffers to contribute an essay to the inaugural issue of Focus, a publication of the Associated Students of Occidental College. See next letter.

RJ to Elizabeth McCloy Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California May 17, 1955 Dear Miss McCloy: Thank you very much for sending me the magazine, and forgive me for being a few days late in my acknowledgment. “Focus” is a fine publication and I am proud of it, and pleased that this number is dedicated to me.1 It is excellently done, and has both dignity and charm. The two articles about Jeffers and his work, by Tom Ohlson and Patricia Moisling, are kind and intelligent, and much more accurate than some other articles I have seen on the same subjects.2 I send cordial congratulations and good wishes to the new magazine, and to its editors and advisors and contributors. And thank you for the autographs, yours and Evelyn Thompson’s and Nancy Graver’s.3 With sincere appreciation, Yours, Robinson Jeffers. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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ALS. Occidental. 1 page. Postmark: May 17, 1955. 1. The first issue of Focus, published May 3, 1955, was dedicated to Jeffers in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of his graduation from Occidental. A prefatory essay by Remsen Du Bois Bird, “From Neighbor and Friend,” appears on page 4 of the issue; Jeffers’ essay, “With All Good Wishes,” without the reference to Miss McCloy in the last paragraph, is on page 5. 2. Students Tom Ohlson and Patricia Moisling contributed essays titled “Robinson Jeffers: A Biographical Sketch” (pp. 14–16 ) and “Jeffers, The Poet” (pp. 27–32). 3. Evelyn Thompson was one of four faculty advisers for the journal; Nancy Graver was editor-in-chief.

RJ to Remsen Du Bois Bird [May 17, 1955] Dear Remsen: Here is what I wrote to President Coons1—since you are named in it. I hope you can read the scribble—don’t bother if you can’t—but thank you very much indeed. Yours, Robin. ANS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. See next letter.

RJ to Arthur Coons Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. May 17, 1955. President Arthur Coons, Occidental College. Dear President Coons: I am very grateful to Occidental College, and to you, and to others concerned, for wishing to celebrate in some manner the fiftieth anniversary of my graduation from )Occidental. It is a generous thought, and I appreciate it deeply. I am truly sorry to tell you that I don’t expect to be present there.1 Indeed I have been troubled about it for months, knowing 

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that I didn’t want to take part, even as one of the audience, and wondering whether in common gratitude I ought to. A few days ago I took my troubles to Remsen Bird, asking his advice. He was entirely sympathetic; he knew of course already that I didn’t want to go, and he said I hadn’t promised to go, there was no moral duty, and he thought that you and others would understand. I really don’t like such occasions; I can’t feel that they do much good to any of the participants. But if my wife were living we should probably go down there, because iyt would please her, I think. She had more interest in such matters than it is possible for me to feel, and I remain ever grateful to Occidental—and U. S. C. also—for having pleased her by conferring honorary doctorates on me. But now I am alone, and slightly growing old, it seems better for me to stay at home and attend to my own business. If you have any sort of a day reserved for me down there, it will not be Hamlet without the Prince, it will only be Hamlet without the ghost. And my absence will spare me the expense of spirit and waste of time—as Shakespeare didn’t say. Forgive me for not answering your letter until now, and believe me that I am most grateful to you, and to the others concerned. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. TLS. Occidental. 1 page. 1. Two years earlier, in a letter dated June 26, 1953 (TLC Wellesley), President Coons told Jeffers that “the administration of Occidental is joining with me in plans for a great celebration in 1955 of your fiftieth graduation anniversary and of the reunion of the Class of 1905. We want to plan an especial celebration honoring you and your work.” Despite Jeffers’ lack of enthusiasm for the idea and his final decision not to attend, plans went forward. Lawrence Clark Powell and Joseph Wood Krutch were the featured speakers at a ceremony honoring Jeffers on Alumni Day, June 10, 1955, during commencement weekend.

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RJ to Merle Armitage Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California June 7, 1955. Dear Merle Armitage: I hope the enclosed will do for the foreword you have in mind.1 But if there is anything wrong with it, please let me know. I got it written nearly a fortnight ago, but it is always difficult for me to get things typed and into the post-office. I have sent Jean a carbon copy—perhaps she will have corrections to suggest. Please remember me to Mrs. Armitage.2 I should love to see her again, and to hear her guitar talking either French or American. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Jeffers wrote a foreword (see next letter) for a deluxe limited edition of The Loving Shepherdess (New York: Random House, 1956). The book, designed by Armitage and printed by Ward Ritchie, featured nine original etchings by Jean Kellogg. 2. Isabelle (Heymann) Armitage (1922–2000), a native of France, was awarded the Croix de Guerre for her work with the Resistance movement during World War II. She was married to Merle Armitage from 1953 to 1964, after which she earned B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in French and taught at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

RJ to Jean Kellogg [June 1955] Dear Jean: Here’s a carbon of what I have just sent to Merle Armitage. Is it all right? If there is anything absurdly wrong do let me know. The mountain-lion story—I know it is unfinished (and ends in the Zoo), but so far as it goes it is true enough I think. —Yours, Robin.1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

FOREWORD A brief foot-note to one of Walter Scott’s novels,2 which long ago I read aloud to my sons, tells of a half insane girl who wandered up and down Scotland with a huddle of sheep. Her father the shepherd had died and she had taken over the flock. But they dwindled and perished, one by one; at last the girl herself disappeared in the mist and was seen no more. This little story, which Scott had heard, I think, from someone who had seen the girl, seemed to me to suggest the vulnerability of life, the small and terrible nakedness of human life. I used it as basis for my poem, which I called “The Gentle Shepherdess,” and intended to give that title to the book. But my publishers at that time—in nineteen twenty-eight—could not bear the title. They were afraid I was going gentle on them. So I wrote “loving” instead of “gentle,” which for some reason comforted them a little, and we named the book after the other long poem in it, “Dear Judas.” A few months later one of my publishers confessed that maybe I had been right after all, the “Shepherdess” should have been the title poem, for people liked it better at least than they did the “Judas.” As to that—it is true, no doubt, and makes little difference. But I am glad that my friend Jean Kellogg has liked the “Shepherdess” ♦ well enough to labor over it and spend her unquestionable talent on it. The poem has never received more distinguished reg{c}ognition than through the clear imagination and excellent simplicity of her draftsmanship. Add to that the sheer physical toil of printing from the etched plates, and the experience and discretion required to make a good print—well: yes: it makes me believe there must be some value in the poem, or she would not have bothered. But of course it is not only the poem that has interested her, but also its reflection of the beauty of this mountain coast, through which the shepherdess slowly wanders northward. Here the coast-range goes down steeply into deep sea, hawk-swooping declivities of thin pasture on hard rock, and the canyons are dark with ancient forest. It was a wild and secluded region before the road-builders came, not very long ago; and the few families that lived here, on the lean cattle ranches, were more like natural growth of the mountain than like docile members of our society or this nation. Jean Kellogg

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has known survivors of these people; she knows and loves this hundred-mile sea-wall of mountains, with its deer and coyotes, rocks, hawks and foxes, the birds on the island-rocks and the sea-lions and otters in the offshore {shorelong} ocean. She has even stalked one of the region mountain-lions— not with a rifle, and not to photograph him, but to observe his fluent beauty and paint his portrait. I am glad to give my poem into her hands. Robinson Jeffers. ANS. Yale S. 2 pages. 1. Jeffers’ note to Kellogg is written on a typed draft of the foreword. 2. The Heart of Midlothian. See Una’s April 15, 1932 letter to Lawrence Clark Powell, note 4 (Collected Letters 2: 91).

RJ to Samuel French, Inc. Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California June 15, 1955.

Samuel French, Inc. New York. Gentleman: I refer to you this letter; I believe you have dealt with South Africa once before on my account.1 But if it is too much trouble just ignore it. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. WWW. 1 page. 1. See Jeffers’ letter to Peter Craig, Autumn 1954.

RJ to Jean Kellogg Route 2, Box 36, Carmel. July, 1955.

Dear Jean: Notoriously I can’t write letters—but now you see I can’t even get them mailed when written, stamped and directed. I’m very sorry, and hope my 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

disability hasn’t much inconvenienced you. Thanks, Jean, for showing me Adrian’s interesting letter.1 He is a true artist, I think. So are you. I’m glad you aren’t tired of the “Shepherdess”—I should think you would be. Yours, Robin. ALS. Yale S. 1 page. 1. Possibly Adrian Wilson.

RJ to Lee Petrasek [August 1955] Dear Mr. Petrasek— Oh, yes, I give permission to you and the University Library. But I seem to remember that the verses—except perhaps the “fragment”—are worse than juvenilia—infantilia in a college magazine—and were copyrighted in order to prevent some bookseller from printing them as an “item.”2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. 1

ANS. Berkeley. 1 page. 1. Lee Petrasek (1926–1978) was an acquisitions librarian at the University of California, Berkeley. 2. Writing July 20, 1955 on behalf of the university library (TLS Berkeley), Petrasek asked Jeffers for permission to obtain a microfilm copy of Four Poems and a Fragment (1936) from the Library of Congress.

RJ to Eric Barker Route 2, Box 36, Carmel. October 19, 1955.

Dear Eric Barker:1 Thank you very much for sending me the poems.2 Will it be all right for me to keep them until November 2, when I’ll no doubt see you at the Kellogg’s? If you need them sooner than that, please let me know. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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They are good, and I have enjoyed reading them. And I am grateful to you for the little book of Big Sur poems, with its inscription.3 I have now two of those booklets, thanks to your generosity, and I value them—but my blonde daughter-in-law, who puts things away for me, hasn’t yet been able to lay her hand on the first copy you gave me. But it is here, somewhere, and will appear again. And the fault is not hers, but mine—for leaving things around—books and papers, and letters that ought to be answered and never will be, —and so forth. I hope and expect to write a little foreword for your book, since Merle Armitage says it may be helpful.4 I’ll try to deliver the manuscript November second. It will be easy to write, but my times are rather whimsical. I wish you and I could afford to hire secretaries. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Syracuse. 1 page. 1. Eric Wilson Barker (1905–1973), a poet, was born in England and moved to the United States with his parents when he was sixteen. Prior to settling in the Big Sur, where he belonged to the community of artists that included Henry Miller, he worked as a railroad switch operator. He was the author of In Easy Dark (1958), A Ring of Willows (1961), Under Orion (1970), and other books. 2. Barker sent Jeffers a manuscript copy of Directions in the Sun, designed by Merle Armitage (New York: Gotham Book Mart, 1956). 3. Eric Barker, Big Sur and Other Poems (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Noel Young, 1955). The last poem in this pamphlet is titled “Robinson Jeffers.” 4. In addition to Jeffers’ foreword, Directions in the Sun contains two other introductory essays: “A Concept of Poetry” by Merle Armitage and “The Poetry of Eric Barker” by John Cowper Powys. For Jeffers’ contribution, see Appendix A: 8.

RJ to George Abbe October 31, ’55. Dear Mr. Abbe:— 2 Oh, yes, you may use it. Forgive me for answering like this—I just can’t write letters. I am drowning in a sea of unanswered ones.3 1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

The poem appeared first in my book “Hungerfield”—Random House, N. Y.—then in “Voices,”4 then in an English magazine5—but attribute it to “Voices” if you like. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ANS. Boston. 1 page. 1. George Bancroft Abbe (1911–1989), a poet and novelist, taught in the English Department at Mount Holyoke College and other institutions. Among his books are Wait for These Things (1940), The Winter House (1957), and Dreams and Dissent (1970). 2. Jeffers wrote this note in the top left corner of an October 21, 1955 letter from Abbe (TLS Boston), wherein Abbe asks for permission to include “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones” in a book he was writing. An excerpt from the poem appears in Abbe’s You and Contemporary Poetry: An Aide-to-Appreciation (North Guilford, Conn.: Author–Audience, 1957): 48. 3. One unanswered letter, dated October 15, 1955 (ALS HRC Texas), was from John G. Moore, the author of “The Beginnings of Jeffers,” a sensationalized story printed in the October 1935 issue of Apéritif. Moore wanted to visit Jeffers at Tor House prior to publishing another article about “Lenore M.” (Leonora Montgomery Swift)—the “Helen,” he believed, of Flagons and Apples. “I should be glad to pay a call on you {sir} at your own convenience,” Moore writes, “—sometime during this month preferably—and there have my second ‘face-to-face’ and, if possible, man to man TALK with you, —before I do what I shall do —i.e. go on and publish the entire History of this Episode, (an ‘Anecdote’ only, perhaps) in the Life of a ‘CRITIC’ striving for Honesty and Objectivity in an age of strange ‘double-talk’. Will you have the Kindness to reply, I wonder?” “P.S,” Moore adds, “I understand you are now a ‘sick old man,’ but I don’t like to believe all I hear!” On the outside back flap of the envelope, Moore writes another postscript: “It is my present opinion, based on a statement ‘Una’ made to me in one of her ‘Letters’ (to me), that you never had read my ‘Letter’ to you, of July 31, 1935! So, at least, will you {kindly} let me know if you have done so or have NOT!?” Jeffers was already aware of Moore’s renewed interest in “Lenore M.” Swift had written to Jeffers June 20, 1955 (ALS HRC Texas) to tell him about Moore’s plans and to assure him that she would not allow Moore to identify her by name without Jeffers’ permission. “Beautiful memories never die,” she writes. “Please—let us be friends, Bob—I do not want any further misunderstanding.” There is no record of a reply. Five years later, Moore wrote to Jeffers again. “I cannot believe my friend lied about it all, as it seems you or Mrs. Jeffers inferred,” Moore tells Jeffers in a letter dated June 5, 1960 (TLS HRC Texas). “For the sake of those who will want to understand better this entire chapter of our cultural past,” he adds, “I want to make a little book out of this experience. . . . If you

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object of course, I may have to wait a little longer to do the work or else print it ‘privately.’” The book was never written. 4. “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones” was published in Voices 153 (January–April, 1954): 3–4. 5. The Poet, edited by W. Price Turner.

RJ to Robert Greenwood [November 1955] Dear Mr. Greenwood: Oh, yes, you are welcome.2 Sorry I didn’t reply sooner. I simply can’t answer letters nor write them—it is ridiculous but true. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. 1

ANS. Reno. 1 page. 1. Robert Greenwood (b. 1926) and his partner Newton Baird (1928–2004) founded Talisman Press, a publishing company that specialized in books about the history and literature of the American West. From 1952 to 1958, Greenwood and Baird also produced Talisman, a literary journal. 2. In an October 17, 1955 letter (TLS Reno), Greenwood asks Jeffers for permission to include an excerpt from “The Purse-Seine” in an upcoming issue of Talisman. A second letter, dated October 30, 1955 (TLS Reno), repeats the request. Jeffers’ reply is written on the bottom of Greenwood’s second letter. Ann Stanford discusses the excerpt in an essay titled “Metrics and Meaning,” Talisman 8 (Winter–Spring 1955–1956): 68–69.

RJ to Noël Sullivan December 8, 1955. Dear Noël: Lee, my blonde daughter-in-law, met Eula on the street the other day and was shocked to learn that you have been ill. We knew nothing about it. We are happy that you are up and around again, and all of us are wishing you un très joyeux Noël, in both senses. Affectionately, Robin.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

—While I write this, Garth’s Lotte has just telephoned from a hospital in Mendocino County, to say she has produced another little boy.1 My God, my ninth grandchild! R. J. ALS. Berkeley. 1 page. Postmark: December 9, 1955. 1. Stuart Hamilton Jeffers was born December 7, 1955.

RJ to Jeanne D’Orge Tor House, Carmel. December 19, 1955. Dear Jeanne D’Orge:1 It is a beautiful book, of beautiful and sensitive and sustained poems.2 I am grateful for it. Please forgive me for not thanking you more promptly. It is just impossible for me to get a letter written. I often write them in my mind, but they don’t get onto paper—or if ever one does I can’t get it mailed. I have lost the address, I can’t find an envelope, I can’t find a stamp. I am sure I make fifty enemies each year, by ignoring letters that ought to be answered. But this is my private folly, I shouldn’t bore you with it. Thank you again for “Voice in the Circle.” “Red Seed” and “White Root” are deeply perceptive; perhaps I like best the Point Lobos sequence, as rock and ocean are more beautiful than any human soul. But it is all really one poem—let me congratulate you. Yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Tor House. 1 page. 1. Jeanne D’Orge was the pen name of Lena (Yates) Burton Cherry (1879–1964), an artist and writer who lived in Carmel. See Una’s September 22, 1924 letter to Hazel Pinkham, note 8 (Collected Letters 1: 475). 2. Jeanne D’Orge, Voice in the Circle (Santa Barbara, Calif.: Noel Young, 1955).

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RJ to Witter Bynner Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. January 3, 1956. Dear Witter Bynner: Forgive me—it is just impossible for me to write a letter—even to write “thank you,” though I can say it. I do thank you. I have read the Book of Lyrics1 with pleasure and gratitude. I hope you feel as Horace did: Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseres Sublimi feriam sidera capite.2 —If you count me among the lyric poets (beginning with Sappho) I shall strike the stars with my uplifted head. This is one of the few tags of Latin or Greek that stick in my mind—though it has little to do with my own expectations—and I send it to you with thanks and admiration. Cordially and sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. —Why did I translate the couplet? You probably know it as well as I do, and you know that Sappho was in Horace’s mind, as first of poets, though not in his verses. —R. J. ALS. Harvard. 1 page. 1. Witter Bynner, Book of Lyrics (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955). 2. The concluding lines of a poem by Horace (Odes I, 1, 34–35 ) are slightly misquoted. The last word should be “vertice” instead of “capite.”

RJ to Norman Foerster January 21, 1956.1 Dear Mr. Foerster: I think these dates are accurate.2 I believe that “May–June 1940” is the poem called battle “Battle” and dated May 28 in my book “Be Angry at the Sun.”3

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As to 1887—my birthday was January 10, so I am still, probably, a little ahead of you. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ANS. Stanford. 1 page. 1. The date of this note is added beneath Jeffers’ signature. 2. In a January 15, 1956 letter, Foerster lists several poems by Jeffers and asks when they were written. Foerster was working on the fourth edition of his American Poetry and Prose (1957) at the time. Jeffers supplied a date for each title and returned Foerster’s letter to him. According to Jeffers, “Roan Stallion,” “Boats in a Fog,” “Science,” and “Shine, Perishing Republic” were written in 1925, and “Ascent to the Sierras” was written in 1928. 3. Foerster asks if “May–June 1940” was composed in those months; “June—I should think,” Jeffers replies. The poem was first published in the August 10, 1940 issue of the Saturday Review of Literature. For Be Angry at the Sun, Jeffers changed the title to “Battle” and added a specific date, “May 28, 1940,” in parentheses.

RJ to Hugh Bullock On board Holland–America Ship Dalerdyk. February 20, 1956. The Secretary, Academy of American Poets. Dear Mr. Secretary: Thank you for the enclosed $100.00 check. I am returning it to the Academy because I am simply not competent to earn it. I don’t know enough about contemporary poetry and criticism; I can’t make nominations, whether for awards or chancellorships, because I don’t know the people who should be nominated. Therefore it has seemed to me for a long time that I ought to offer my resignation as chancellor of the Academy. And now I shall be traveling for a year more or less,1 with no fixed address beyond “American Express, London,” it will be even more impossible for me to perform my duties as chancellor. So, with sincere regret, I do offer my resignation. I don’t insist on it, nor set a date, and I hate to cause you the nuisance of another LETTERS 1940– 1962

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election; I beg to lay the matter into your hands. Will you please show this letter to Mrs. Bullock, to whom I wish to express my regret, and my cordial greeting.2 Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page. 1. Jeffers, along with Donnan, Lee, Lindsay, and Una, sailed from San Francisco February 5 on the SS Dalerdyk. They arrived in England via the Panama Canal March 7, and planned to spend six months to a year touring the British Isles. 2. Marie Bullock responded to Jeffers’ letter March 2, 1956 (TLC AA Poets), insisting that he accept the $100 honorarium for his work as a chancellor in the previous year. Jeffers rejoined the academy as a fellow in 1958.

RJ to Saxe Commins Melrose, Scotland. April 7, 1956. Dear Saxe: It was a great pleasure to hear from you. I wanted news of you and your health, and I am very glad that it is good news. As to the agreement with Claude Rains or whatever his name is—which I ought to know and don’t— of course I am in favor of it.1 I answered promptly on the subject, but my mail had been delayed, lying at American Express, London, while we sailed for a month, from S. F. through the Panama Canal to Southampton. Now we have been drifting around England for another month, from Land’s End to Sussex and East Anglia, and are going gradually northward, in an English station-wagon which my son Donnan had waiting for him in London.2 We shall go up to Orkney and Shetland and the Hebrides, and then over to Ireland.3 My interest is mostly in the landscapes and the sea-cliffs, Donnan’s in history; and Donnan’s bright blonde wife has not been abroad before. Her eight-year-old boy and her red-haired three-year-old daughter are not a bit more bored than they would have been at home. They are sweet children, and fairly nice in hotels.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

As you see, I have neither type-writer nor pen and ink, though I suppose I could get some. All my best wishes to you. Robin Jeffers. —I ought to tell you—“Medea” is still going around the world. Judith Anderson had a great success with it in Australia,4 and now somebody in Italy is producing it.5 Why?—I don’t know. There are already so many Medeas in France and Italy, and France only liked it.6 ALS. Princeton. 1 page. 1. Claude Rains (1889–1967), a London-born stage and screen actor, planned to tour the United States in the fall of 1956 with a dramatic recital based on works by Jeffers (from Hungerfield ), T. S. Eliot, Lord Byron, and other authors. 2. Donnan purchased a Hillman Estate Wagon in advance of their arrival. 3. The Jeffers family sailed from Stanraer, Scotland to Larne, Ireland April 16. After a week in County Antrim, they embarked on a more or less clockwise driving trip around Ireland, reaching County Donegal the second week of May. Their itinerary included return visits to round towers and sites of special interest, such as Dromore Cottage, Shane O’Neill’s Cairn, Florida Manor, Newgrange, Thoor Ballylee, and Drumcliffe. Details of the trip can be found in Donnan’s travel journal; a copy is in the Tor House Foundation archives. See also “Revisiting Ireland Proves Pleasant Experience for Carmel’s Famed Poet,” Monterey Peninsula Herald (September 26, 1956): 21. 4. A four-month tour of Medea in Australia, produced by English director Hugh Sydney Hunt (1911–1993), included an October 5, 1955 performance in Canberra before Governor General William Slim and Lady Slim, Prime Minister Robert Menzies and Dame Menzies, and other dignitaries. See “Moving Performance of Medea Thrills Crowded Albert Hall,” Canberra Times (October 6, 1955): 2. Zoe Caldwell (b. 1933), a young Australian actress who toured with the company as the Second Woman in the chorus, later married producer Robert Whitehead after his first wife died. In 1982 Caldwell won a Tony Award for her performance as Medea in Whitehead’s Broadway revival of the play. Judith Anderson was cast as the Nurse in the production, which was filmed for television broadcast by PBS on Kennedy Center Tonight in April 1983. 5. A regional theater company from Emilia-Romagna performed Medea in Turin, Genoa, and Sanremo in 1955 and 1956. The play was translated by Alfredo Rizzardi (b. 1927) and directed by Gianfranco De Bosio (b. 1924). 6. “Salute to France,” the name of America’s contribution to the 1955 Festival de Paris, featured a production of Medea starring Judith Anderson at the Théâtre Sarah-Bernhardt, June

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14–18. Christopher Plummer (b. 1929), who played the role of Jason, describes the event in his memoir, In Spite of Myself (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2010): 134–139. See also “La Medea de Robinson Jeffers, au Festival de Paris” by Robert Kemp, Le Monde (June 17, 1955): 12.

RJ to Noël Sullivan [June 25, 1956] Dear Noël— We have been almost everywhere in England, Scotland and Ireland, and are now dropping down toward Southampton on our way home.1 I hear that the ship—“America”—goes from Southampton to Le Havre before turning west, so we’ll think of you if we stand for a moment on French soil. Lee and Donnan join me in affectionate greeting to you. Sincerely, Robin. APS. Berkeley. Letterhead: Talbot Hotel, Leominster, Herefordshire. Postmark: June 25, 1956. 1. Jeffers’ decision to return home earlier than anticipated was prompted by events unfolding in Carmel. In January, just before Jeffers began the trip, the Carmel Planning Commission opened discussion of reports concerning the future of Carmel submitted by a citizens’ advisory committee and consultant Lawrence Livingston, Jr. By April, a preliminary master plan had been drafted that contained a number of controversial proposals, such as the closure of Ocean Avenue to vehicular traffic and the creation of a pedestrian shopping mall surrounded by parking lots. A map of the proposed changes, published on the front page of the April 26, 1956 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal, included a provision for a Robinson Jeffers Library and Park. Jeffers’ Carmel Point land, Livingston explains in an accompanying article, would be preserved “exactly as it is today. His home would also be preserved, although some alterations might be necessary for the library. This latter would be a branch library and also house a permanent collection of the literature which is the ‘Carmel heritage.’ . . . All additions to the existing construction would harmonize with the poet’s home.” Jeffers received a copy of the map and article May 18. “He was furious and much distressed,” Donnan writes in his journal, and talked of “going home immediately.” With Lee and the children having already expressed feelings of homesickness, Donnan began making arrangements later that day.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Blanche Matthias [June 25, 1956] Dear Blanche: We lived for a month about half a mile from the place pictured;1 the rest of the time we have been scrambling like mad all over Gt. Britain and Ireland. Now we have come down to Southampton on our way home—should reach N. Y. about July 5th. Affectionate greeting from all of us to you and Russell. Yours, Robin. APPS, “Near Shandon, Portnablagh, Co. Donegal.” San Francisco. Postmark: June 25, 1956. 1. From May 11 to June 14, the day they returned to Great Britain, the Jeffers family once again stayed with the Algeos, using Lac-na-Lore as a home base for their travels.

RJ to Hans and Phoebe Barkan [June 25, 1956] Dear Hans and Phoebe: We have been scrambling all over Great Britain and Ireland, then lived about a month near the place pictured. In the forest left of the road there are a few Monterey cypresses three or four times as big as any at Pt. Lobos or Cypress Point, where they belong.— We have scrambled almost everywhere in G. B. and Ireland, and {We} are now going home. —Affectionately, Robin. APPS, “The road to Creeslough showing Muckish, Co. Donegal.” San Francisco. Postmark: June 25, 1956.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Fraser Drew June [26], 1956. Dear Fraser Drew: I am very sorry that your letter of February 14 went unanswered until now. We left home about that time, and it got lost in my disorderly luggage, and has only now reappeared. Several times I thought of it sadly and could not find it. Now we are going home, sailing to-day.1 We went on a pleasant Dutch cargo-passenger ship through the Canal, got a station-wagon in London, and proceeded to lose ourselves on ever almost every unlikely road in Gt. Britain and Ireland. Our only stops were for a week in North Devon and a month in the extreme northwest of Donegal. My fellow passengers were one of my sons and his wife and two children. ♦ I hope to be home in Carmel within a month from now, and then I’ll write my name six times—inscribed for Fraser Drew—on a big piece of typewriting paper and send it to you if you still want it. Or in the books if you’d rather. My mail will not be forwarded now, but wait at home for me. With best wishes and sincere apologies, Yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. F Drew. 2 pages. Letterhead: Dolphin and Anchor Hotel, Chichester, Sussex. 1. Jeffers and his family sailed from Southampton June 26 on the SS America and reached New York July 3; the Hillman wagon had already arrived on a different ship. They stayed for two weeks in Montauk, Long Island with James Tyson (1906–1975) and Carolyn (Kennedy) Massinger Tyson (1905–1996), friends who also owned a home on Isabella Avenue near Tor House. On their drive back to California, the family stopped in Zanesville, Ohio to see Donnan’s daughters Candida and Judith. They arrived home on Sunday, July 29 and found a village roiled by debate over Carmel’s master plan.

RJ to Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal [August 30, 1956] My friend James Hopper has just died, after a long illness.1 It is not one’s own eventual decline and death that make it a little sorrowful to grow old,

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

but the deaths of our friends.2 In our late sixties it begins to seem epidemic. It is in fact epidemic, and it is natural. Jimmie was old and tired, and I am grateful for his release. I think of him as when we first knew him, broad-chested and blond and vigorous, “like a Breton sailor,” as Mary Austin wrote. He had been a football hero in his youth, the Berkeley bleachers used to rise up and scream when he came on the field, and a good deal of his work as a writer of short stories derived from those collegiate triumphs. But there was much beyond that. And there were many works of pure and beautiful fantasy, like The [S]hip in the Bottle,3 which particularly I remember. Then came Jimmie’s work as war-correspondent, during the war of 1914. Before that was his amusing collaboration with Fred Bechdolt, when they imported a retired burglar to Carmel, and took him to live with them, and wrote a book about his life and adventures.4 That was a little before our time here; we heard echoes of it. But the Jimmie Hopper whom I remember most gladly is the man who used to stand and talk at our garden sea-gate, the man who loved this cold ocean, and could swim from Carmel Point to Point Lobos without taking thought. PL. Pine Cone. 1. Having endured a chronic heart condition for several years, Jimmie Hopper died at home in Carmel, Tuesday, August 28. Jeffers’ “Remembrance” was published in the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (August 30, 1956): 1, 12. 2. John O’ Shea died April 29, 1956; Ella Young died July 23, 1956. For Young’s memorial, the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal used excerpts from a portrait Una had written, first published in the December 20, 1935 issue of the newspaper, and reprinted April 11, 1941 and March 14, 1947. See “Ella Young,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (July 26, 1956): 12. 3. James Hopper, “The Ship in the Bottle,” Good Housekeeping 74 (January 1922): 10–14, 142. The Pine Cone-Cymbal printed the title as “The Chip in the Bottle.” 4. James Hopper and Frederick R. Bechdolt, 9009 (New York: McClure, 1908). The muckraking novel about America’s prison system chronicles the relentless dehumanization of John Collins, convict 9009. Some material for the book was supplied by one of Bechdolt’s friends, a former criminal.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal [September 20, 1956] We think first of Noel Sullivan’s goodness, his kindness and compassion and generosity, his wide and deep sympathies.1 He was like a saint, and like a saint he was capable of sudden rages against injustice, but if the persecutors had been laid at his mercy he would have forgiven them. Then we think of Noel’s understanding, his rapid and fascinating intelligence; he never had time to read, but by instinct or through conversation he knew all that was going on. We think of his deep interest in the arts, but especially in music; we think of his far-flung friendships, here and in Europe, his devotion to his friends, and his hospitality. And there was a kind of magnificence in his life and mind—the word is too pompous but it says what I mean—that cannot be forgotten. When I heard of his death it was as if a tower had fallen. He has left us and we shall never know another like him. PL. Pine Cone. 1. Noël Sullivan died Saturday, September 15, 1956 after suffering a heart attack at the Bohemian Club in San Francisco four days before. Jeffers’ tribute is included in the September 20, 1956 issue of the Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal, page 3, along with statements of remembrance and appreciation by Claude Kinnoull, Remsen Bird, Langston Hughes, and other friends.

RJ to Judith Anderson [October 30, 1956] Dear Judith— Love from me too.1 —Robin. ANS. Mandel. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Enclosed with the note is a clipping from the Peninsula Parade column by the pseudonymous “Prof. Toro” of the Monterey Peninsula Herald (October 30, 1956): 13. Billet Doux. I have a love letter for Judith Anderson (now appearing in SF in The Chalk Garden and the star of Robinson Jeffers’ Medea) and for Robinson Jeffers. It is from Earl Oren of Pebble Beach and it says: “So in love have I been all these years with Judith Anderson, that not until I read your column was I reminded that Jeffers is the author of Medea, in which character my heart first turned to that inspiring lady.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

“I’ve never met Miss Anderson, nor since read Mr. Jeffers’ play, but if either sees this, each can know that here, on the Monterey Peninsula, is an aged gent who one night was lifted high by both, and on one rim of whose mind is something by Mr. Jeffers that Miss Anderson declaimed, though to save his neck the aged gent can’t remember what the declamation was. “He does, however, remember the declaimed line as beautiful, which is enough.”

Earl M. Oren (1894–1957) was a newspaper, advertising, and public relations executive who moved to the Monterey Peninsula from Chicago. Less than four months after this note was written, he died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident on the Pacheco Pass highway.

RJ to Elizabeth Downs October, 1956. Dear Miss Downs: Will you please forgive me for my idiot inability to answer a letter? “Themes in my Poems” is a beautiful book;2 Mallette Dean has done a fine job and I congratulate him.3 I wish the contents may be worthy of the setting he has given them, but that is not for me to judge. Of course I’d be glad of his signature, to one of the books at least, but not to inconvenience him. I don’t collect signatures. I don’t even collect books. As to the matter about copyright—the error you speak of—I don’t think it matters at all. Let me thank the Book Club most cordially for the beautiful apparel they have given to my little “lecture.” And for the check— if that was in the bargain I don’t remember it. I must thank them also for the papers about California history that are sent to me from time to time. They are extremely interesting. And I must renew my thanks for the honorary membership in the Book Club, which was given me so long ago. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. 1

ALS. BC California. 1 page. 1. Elizabeth (Watson) Downs (1898–1982), a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, was the secretary of the Book Club of California from 1945 to 1961.

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2. Robinson Jeffers, Themes in My Poems, preface by Benjamin Lehman (San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1956)—a limited edition of Jeffers’ 1941 lecture at Harvard University, based on a copy of the lecture made by John Holmes. See Jeffers’ October 25, 1952 letter to Saxe Commins, note 1. 3. H. Mallette Dean (1907–1975), a San Francisco artist and teacher, designed, illustrated, and printed the book.

RJ to Eric Barker [Nov 21, 1956]1 Dear Eric Barker: I should have answered your letter, but you know I can’t. Now Guggenheim has asked my opinion,2 and I am sending them what is scribbled on the other side of this piece of paper—but nicely typewritten, with rather blurry type. I hope they will be decent to you. I hope they are not entirely taken up with physicists and pedagogues. Isn’t it a wonderful and daring adventure that Jean Kellogg has undertaken!3 Bearding the Reds along their boundaries for the sake of Art. My son—not the one who lives here, but the forest-ranger—is going to Germany, with his German wife and five little children.4 They were here yesterday to say good-bye, and I made them promise to keep away from the East German border. What a world we live in.5 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ♦ I am glad of this opportunity to commend Eric Barker’s work. It has given me strong and true pleasure to read it, and that is more than I can say about most contemporary poetry. There is nothing artificial in it, no tricks, no self-conscious vanity, but the natural man speaking beautifully. The poems, —with all their imagination, are more solid solid {and} more natural and more beautiful, than the work of any other other poet whose verses I have looked at {seen in the past fifteen or twenty years.} And Barker understands the rhythms of the English {Anglo-American} English language, which most of his contemporaries seem to have lost {or

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

perverted.} I hope he has sent you his latest book, and that the committee will read it a little. This will indicate his powers more clearly than any sponsor’s description can. Let me add that what Mr. Barker says about his circumstances and his need of a congenial landscape is entirely true. Sincerely, R. J. ALS. Syracuse. 2 pages. 1. The date, written by someone other than Jeffers, is added in brackets on the opposite side of the sheet. 2. Barker’s application for a Guggenheim Fellowship was denied. 3. Kellogg had just begun an extended travel and study tour of India and the Far East. 4. Garth and his family returned from Germany on the SS Statendam in February 1957. 5. Jeffers’ dismay over the political situation in East Germany was matched by his distress over a bitter state of affairs at home: the expressed desire among local officials to condemn Tor House and seize his land. To mitigate this threat, Jeffers sold four lots on the north end of his property—to pay his exorbitant taxes, he says in a November 8 newspaper interview, and to make the city’s acquisition of Tor House more difficult. “The property is shown as a park on the Master Plan,” Jeffers explains. “Rather than tie it up in one piece I thought I would give several people the opportunity to own some of the land.” See “Jeffers Sells Four Lots to Pay Taxes; Keeps Famous Tower and ‘Tor House,’” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (November 8, 1956): 1.

RJ to William Turner Levy February, 1957. Dear William: I can’t write letters—I never could, but now it has become impossible. Una used to write them ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Theodore Lilienthal

Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California March 11, 1957.

Dear Ted: It’s good to hear from you, and it’s kind of you to consult me about the letters. I think Larry Powell is right. Occidental would be as good a custodian as any. Una wrote beautiful little letters, and she liked you very much.1 Do you know that my red-haired little granddaughter—the one who lives here—is named Una? She doesn’t go to school yet, but reads a little. She came lately carrying a big book. “My book.” —“Why?” —“My name: it says Una-bridged.” —(Unabridged). I’m afraid that Larry Powell was a little discontented with me when you saw him. I have acted badly—refusing to go to Occidental when they commemorated my graduation, though Powell and Wood Krutch were the speakers. And two months ago—a telegrams from a number of people for my seventieth birthday—Larry’s name headed the list—and I have not acknowledged any of it. I just can’t write letters, I haven’t written any for several years. But now I have done it! Perhaps the curse has been removed. Yours, Robin. I look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. 1. Ted and Fran Lilienthal donated most of the letters they received from Robinson and Una to Occidental College, but they also gave a substantial number to the University of San Francisco.

RJ to Saxe Commins

Route 2, Box 36, Carmel, California. March 29, 1957.

Dear Saxe: I am very glad to hear from you. I have thought of you often and wished for news, and was planning to write to Jean Ennis—isn’t that her name?—to ask about you. I didn’t want to burden you with an extra letter. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

As to Milwaukee–Downer College, my impulse is to give them permission, unless you advise against it, but really I don’t think it matters.1 Royalty charge? I’d give it for nothing. I enclose their letter, for the address. You ask whether I’m well—Oh, yes, there’s nothing to go to the doctor about.2 But I turned seventy last January, and haven’t the energy that I had twenty years ago. It makes me mad, as they say. As for my verses—they are very slowly collecting, and it will be several years before I bother you with a new book. Last July we were in New York, coming home from Great Britain and Ireland—one of my sons and his blonde wife and their two little children and their {the} grandfather. I thought of visiting Random House, but the heat was abominable, and I was sure that neither you nor Bennett Cerf would be there. We spent a couple of weeks with friends on Long Island, where the temperature was quite tolerable. Yours, dear Saxe, affectionately, Robin. ALS. Princeton. 1 page. 1. The Mountebanks, a dramatic club at Milwaukee–Downer College in Wisconsin, staged Medea in 1952 and The Tower Beyond Tragedy in 1958. 2. The issues that compelled Jeffers to abruptly leave Ireland in June 1956, and in November 1956 to sell a portion of his property, continued to burden him. On March 20, 1957 the Carmel Planning Commission voted to recommend that the city council approve most of the provisions of the master plan, including acquisition of Jeffers’ property. See “City Planning Board Will Recommend Almost All of Livingston’s Plan,” Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal (March 21, 1957): 1, 14. In the end, the master plan was never implemented and Jeffers’ property was left alone, but proponents and detractors of the plan returned to it in policy discussions for years to come.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36 Carmel, California. April 23, 1957. Dear Saxe: I don’t want to bother you with these questions; I think you can refer them to the right person. (1) Was the coypright on “The Loving Shepherdess” (in my “Dear Judas” volume) {But republished in my “Selected Poetry of R. J.” in 1937 I think}1 renewed when it lapsed? (In 1950, I suppose. It was first published in ’29.) A man is contracting to buy the motion picture rights,2 and another is making offers,3 but if there’s no copyright they can have them for nothing. (2) Have any copyrights on my books been renewed as they lapsed? I supposed Random House was doing it, but there’s no particular reason why they should. (3) How should I go about renewing those that have not yet expired? It is not very important but it might be of some value, as in this case. I know almost nothing about copyrights, and should be grateful for a clear answer to these questions. Thank you, Saxe, for the goodness of your recent letter. All good wishes to you. With sincere affection, Robin. Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. This insertion is written vertically in the left margin. 2. See Jeffers’ April 24, 1957 letter to David H. Kornblum. 3. See Jeffers’ May 22, 1957 letter to Nicholas Cominos.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Martha Boaz Tor House Route 2, Box 36 Carmel, California April 24, 1957 Martha F. Boaz, Director School of Library Science University of Southern California Los Angeles 7, California Dear Miss Boaz:1 I am sorry for the delay in answering your letter of January 14, in which you outline your plans for a series of lectures and their subsequent publication. While the aim of your project is most admirable, I must decline your invitation to appear as a speaker; I never lecture. With my best wishes for success in your venture. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Martha Terosse Boaz (1911–1995), dean of the School of Library Science at the University of Southern California from 1955 to 1978, edited The Quest for Truth (1961), a collection of essays based on lectures presented at the university by prominent authors.

RJ to R. McAllister Mangham April 24, 1957 R. McAllister Mangham 2675 Tartary Drive Tallahassee, Florida Dear Mr. Mangham:1 Thank you for your letter of April 8, in which you write of your interest in composing a musical score for “Medea.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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It is with regret that I must inform you that permission for such right has already been granted to someone else.2 Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Robert McAllister “Mack” Mangham (b. 1928) wrote to Jeffers April 8, 1957 (TLS HRC Texas) on “McAllister Mangham Music” stationery, expressing interest in writing an opera based on Medea (along the lines of Carl Orff ’s Antigonae), and asking for permission to proceed. 2. Ernst Krenek.

RJ to David H. Kornblum April 24, 1957 David H. Kornblum William Morris Agency, Inc. 151 El Camino Beverly Hills, California Dear Mr. Kornblum:1 Thank you for your letter about Mr. Murphy’s wish to buy motion picture rights, etc., of my poem, “The Loving Shepherdess.”2 The question of copyright never occurred to me. “The Loving Shepherdess” was published in 1929, and the copyright must have lapsed in 1950—isn’t that right—unless it was renewed. Certainly I did nothing about renewing it, and I doubt whether Random House, my publishers, did. I have just written to ask them and will inform you of their answer. Tell Mr. Murphy that he may get the poem free for nothing, if it’s in “public domain,” and I wish him good luck. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. David H. Kornblum (b. 1930), an attorney with the William Morris Agency, entered private practice soon after this letter was written.

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2. Kornblum wrote to Jeffers April 10, 1957 (TLS HRC Texas) and enclosed copies of a contract submitted by Dudley Murphy with a $1,500 purchase offer for motion picture and other rights to The Loving Shepherdess. Murphy (1897–1968), who early in his career directed B­ allet méchanique (1924), St. Louis Blues (1929), The Emperor Jones (1933), and other films, owned the Holiday House hotel in Malibu.

RJ to Eva Hesse April 24, 1957 Miss Eva Hesse Franz Josefstr. 7 Munich, Germany Dear Miss Hesse: Thank you for your letter of April 17 about the reading of your translation of “Tower Beyond Tragedy”, and about the possibility of the Hamburg Schauspielhaus placing the stage play of “Medea” on its repertory.1 The copyright, 1946, is held by me. As to royalties, I shall appreciate it if you will have the Schauspielhaus make an offer, including a percentage of the gross receipts. Since I do not have extra copies of the “Medea” volume containing text and stage directions, I suggest that you obtain them from the publisher, Samuel French, 25 West 45th Street, New York, New York, (Medea—Acting Edition—copyright 1946). With best wishes,2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLS. Hesse. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Actresses Elizabeth Flickenschildt (1905–1977), Maria Becker (1920–2012), and Antje Weisgerber (1922–2004) took part in a reading of Die Quelle at the Hamburg Lesebühne (reading theater). Flickenschildt, along with actor Gustaf Gründgens (1899–1963), asked Hesse to inquire about copyright issues as a step toward securing Medea for the Hamburg Playhouse. 2. This line is handwritten.

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RJ to Oscar Rose Tor House Route 2, Box 36 Carmel, California April 24, 1957 Oscar Rose, Special Events Officer Broadcasting Service Voice of America 330 Independence Avenue, S.W. Washington 25, D.C. Dear Mr. Rose:1 This will acknowledge your letter of April 18, concerning the Voice of America program series, “Poets of America.” I shall be happy to cooperate in recording under studio conditions the reading of those of my poems mentioned in your letter. It is understood, of course, that you will make all necessary arrangements for recording. I shall appreciate it if you will let me know in advance the date and arrangements made for the reading. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Oscar Rose (1913–2000), an attorney, radio announcer, and broadcasting executive, was the author of Radio Broadcasting and Television: An Annotated Bibliography (1947).

RJ to Judith E. Wray April 24, 1957 Mrs. Judith E. Wray 131 West Main Littleton, Colorado Dear Mrs. Wray:1 This will acknowledge your letter of April 18, asking for my comments on various questions concerning the reading of poetry aloud. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

I regret that beyond telling you that I do not read my poetry aloud, I cannot be of assistance to you. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Judith (Edworthy) Wray (b. 1929) was writing a Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on contemporary poets as readers of their own poetry when she wrote to Jeffers (TLS HRC Texas) with eight questions, such as “Do you write all your poetry to be read aloud?” and “Do you enjoy reading your poetry before audiences?”

RJ to Charlotte Kohler April 24, 1957 Charlotte Kohler, Editor The Virginia Quarterly Review 1 West Range Charlottesville, Virginia Dear Miss Kohler:1 I regret that I cannot comply with your request to write a poem for the Jamestown commemorative issue of your publication.2 Thank you for your interest, and please accept my best wishes for the issue’s success. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Charlotte Eugenia Kohler (1908–2008) earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia in 1933. Kohler was appointed managing editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review in 1942 and editor in 1946. She retired in 1975. 2. Fourteen poets, including Robert Frost and Marianne Moore, contributed poems to “A Garland of Verse in Honor of Jamestown 1607–1957,” a special section of the autumn 1957 issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review, pages 497–520.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Theodore Marcuse April 24, 1957 Mr. Theodore Marcuse 6659½ Bonair Place Hollywood 28, California Dear Mr. Marcuse:1 As you requested in your recent letter, I have written to the Library of Congress authorizing Mr. Harold R. Hooper to issue to you a copy of the tape recording of “Tower Beyond Tragedy”; enclosed is a copy of the letter.2 With best wishes for your success. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Theodore Marcuse (1920–1967), a stage, film, and television actor, earned a B.A. and an M.A. in classical literature from Stanford University. As a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy during World War II, he was awarded the Silver Star and Bronze Star for heroism on the submarine Tirante. Marcuse’s career as an actor began after the war, when he joined Guthrie McClintic’s theater company and performed with Judith Anderson in Medea. 2. A typed copy of an April 24, 1957 letter (TLC HRC Texas) to Mr. Hooper, an administrative assistant in the recording laboratory at the Library of Congress, is enclosed.

RJ to Gene De Wild Tor House Route 2, Box 36 Carmel, California May 1, 1957 Gene De Wild Pasadena Playhouse 39 South El Molino Pasadena 1, California Dear Mr. De Wild:1 I have your letter of April 22 and note with interest that you have directed a production of “The Cretan Woman” as a part of the work toward your 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Master’s degree. I note, also, that you have several questions concerning my work in relation to your thesis essay, “A Comparative Study of the Hippolytus Legend as Treated by Euripides, Seneca, Racine and Jeffers with Emphasis on Plot and Character.” Hippolytus rashly incurred the anger of Aphrodite and was destroyed by her. That is the Greek story, and more interesting I think than to put all the blame on Phaedra. It provides another dimension. As to Artemis, she didn’t interest me. She is only a goddess, Aphrodite is a force of nature. As to my Hippolytus being homosexual—I thought I got a hint of it from Euripides. Anyway, it came to my mind and seemed appropriate. You don’t write with conscious reasons but take what comes to mind. As to Hippolytus’ horses running away, scared by a sea-beast, in answer to prayer—it seems a little funny, a sort of superfluous miracle. I don’t like miracles; they distract attention from the play. And Theseus, with his record of homicide—it is natural for him to kill his son with a sword, not a prayer. I quoted the prayer (in reverse sense) in order to say: “Yes, I know. I am changing the story a little. I think this way is more likely.”2 Yours sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Eugene “Gene” De Wild (1929–2014) was a graduate student at the Pasadena Playhouse College of Theatre Arts when this letter was written. He remained at the institution for several years as an instructor, director, and dean of students. De Wild then moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where he taught high school drama and speech. 2. A handwritten draft of this letter, containing all but the first paragraph, is also located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Nimai Chatterji Tor House Route 2, Box 36 Carmel, California May 1, 1957 Mr. N. Chatterji 253 Uxbridge Road London W. 12, England Dear Mr. Chatterji,1 I have read with interest your letter of April 23 in which you speak of the book you are writing on Tagore2 and his reputation in the West. Fifty years ago, more or less, I read Tagore’s poems with interest and pleasure, but not with enthusiasm. There was not enough evil in them to make them representative of life, no tragic passion, no suffering that I remember. My memory, of course, may misrepresent the poems completely— fifty years is a long time.3 However, the poems were good, though they seemed to lack force. Perhaps some day I shall read them again, and revise my judgment. Yours sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Nimai Chatterji (1933–2010), a producer in the Bengali division of the BBC World Service, was a major collector of post–World War II art and art-related miscellanea. The Tate Archive acquired his collection in 2008. For several decades beginning in the 1950s, Chatterji sent letters to poets and others around the world, stating his interest in writing a book about Rabindranath Tagore and asking for an assessment of Tagore’s work. Chatterji never completed the book, but saved all the replies. About 2,500 letters were stacked beside his armchair when he died in his London home. See “Man of Letters” by Shrabani Basu, Calcutta Telegraph (February 20, 2011): www.telegraphindia.com. 2. Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941), a Bengali poet, writer, and musician, won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was the author of Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912) and many other works. 3. In a handwritten draft of this letter, also located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas, Jeffers strikes a line from the second paragraph: “Fifty years ago, more or less, I read Tagore’s poems with interest and pleasure, I was reading Maeterlinck at the same time, and Yeats’s young lyrics but not with enthusiasm.” 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Saxe Commins Route 2, Box 36 Carmel, California May 21, 1957.

Dear Saxe: I was grateful for your letter about copyrights, and sorry to have called it forth.1 I thought you could hand over that burden to some other person. This business was about a proposed sale of motion picture rights in “The Loving Shepherdess,” and I was willing to agree to it until I read the Agreement. The buyer’s lawyers had been too active, and I have refused the whole thing.2 We are having wonderful weather here, rain in late May is almost unprecedented. Every night I hear it beating on the roof, washing the trees and the mountain. Yours devotedly, Robin.

ALS. Princeton. 1 page. 1. In an April 29 response (TLC Columbia) to Jeffers’ April 23 letter, Commins informs Jeffers that Random House had renewed the copyrights for Dear Judas (including The Loving Shepherdess), and for all his other books. 2. In a handwritten draft of a letter to David H. Kornblum (ALD HRC Texas), Jeffers mentions a number of objectionable provisions in the contract agreement, such as clauses granting Dudley Murphy perpetual rights to the poem and permission to use Jeffers’ name in advertising.

RJ to Richard Exner May 22, 1957 Mr. Richard Exner Department of Modern Languages and Literature Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey Dear Mr. Exner:1 I have your letter of December 6, asking my permission for the use of some of my poetry for a bi-lingual volume which you are preparing for publication by the Limes Verlag in Wiesbaden. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I regret that I must withhold permission, since excellent translations of my poems have already been made. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Richard Exner (1929–2008), a poet and scholar born in Germany, completed work for a Ph.D. in German at the University of Southern California in 1958. He taught at Princeton University and other institutions prior to joining the faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he taught from 1965 to 1992. Publications include Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s “Lebenslied” (1964), Reading Thomas Mann (1975), and Gedichte, 1953–1991 (1994).

RJ to Paul E. Grande May 22, 1957 Paul E. Grande Wien VI Kaunitzgasse 14 - 9 Vienna, Austria Dear Mr. Grande:1 I have your letter requesting my help in obtaining copies of three of my earlier works. I regret that I cannot send you copies, since I do not keep extra ones. It is often difficult to obtain out-of-print editions, but I believe that booksellers in New York are the best source. If they cannot supply the books, perhaps they can refer you to book-locating firms. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Paul Edgar Grande (b. 1928) was a teacher of German and English who worked for several years as a prefect and tutor of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Grande wrote to Jeffers January 14, 1957 (ALS HRC Texas), asking if Jeffers knew where he could purchase copies of Flagons and Apples, Californians, and The Women at Point Sur.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Nicholas Cominos May 22, 1957 Mr. N. H. Cominos 506 North Foothill Road Beverly Hills, California Dear Mr. Cominos:1 It was very kind of you to send me “Translations from the Chinese” by Arthur Waley.2 I am looking forward to reading the book when I am not so pressed for time. I have decided, for the present, against any adaptation of “The Loving Shepherdess” for filming. Both your views and your offer to negotiate for me are appreciated, and should I change my mind in the future, perhaps we can discuss the matter further.3 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Nicholas Harry “Nick” Cominos (1923–2008), a native of Greece, received a Bronze Star for heroism during World War II. He earned a degree in international relations from the University of California, Berkeley in 1953 before beginning a career as a documentary filmmaker. Titles include Battle of the Bulge (1963), On the Trail of Stanley and Livingstone (1968), and Wind Raiders of the Sierra (1973). From 1981 to 2001, he taught in the Radio–Television–Film Department at the University of Texas, Austin. Cominos visited Jeffers at Tor House in April 1957 to obtain footage for Once Upon a Sunday, a film about Point Lobos that featured appearances by Jeffers and Henry Miller. The documentary was shown at the Cork Film Festival in Ireland in 1958. 2. Arthur Waley, Translations from the Chinese (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1955). 3. During Cominos’ April visit to Tor House, he told Jeffers that he was interested in obtaining the film rights to The Loving Shepherdess. He reiterated this idea in subsequent correspondence, adding that he would be pleased to serve as a production consultant if Jeffers preferred to work with someone else.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Elizabeth McCloy May 22, 1957 Elizabeth J. McCloy, Librarian Occidental College Los Angeles, 41, California Dear Miss McCloy: Enclosed you will find a copy of a letter of permission I have sent to the Library of Congress so that you may obtain a copy of the tape recording of “The Tower Beyond Tragedy” for your Library.1 I shall miss hearing from you officially, but I hope your retirement from the College will not preclude an occasional visit to us here at Tor House. 2 This summer, I hope. With best wishes, Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLS. Occidental. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Jeffers sent McCloy a copy of a May 22, 1957 permission letter (TLC HRC Texas) addressed to Harold R. Hooper at the Library of Congress recording laboratory. 2. This sentence is added by hand.

RJ to Eva Hesse May 22, 1957 Miss Eva Hesse Franz Josefstr. 7 Munich, Germany Dear Miss Hesse: Thank you for your letter of May 8 informing me of the developing interest in your translations of “Medea” and “Die Quelle.” Should the publishing house of Rowohlt Verlag approach me directly, I shall follow your suggestions in granting any rights. However, as you say, the firm will probably negotiate with you.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I am sure that negotiating such matters involves a great deal of time and work. Please be assured that I am most grateful for your interest. I am sorry that I have no new poems to send you. “Hungerfield,” which you say you have read, is my most recently published work. With best wishes, Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers I have got a young woman to answer my letters for me, and she does it intelligently but a little coldly.1 This is warmly meant.2 R. J. TLS. Hesse. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Jeffers hired Jane “Janie” (Hopper) Boone Vial (1917–1984), the daughter of Jimmie and Mattie Hopper, to help with his correspondence. Jane and her second husband Herbert Vial (1907–1975), a building contractor and yachtsman, lived on Carmel Point near Tor House. 2. The body of the letter is typed; the postscript is handwritten.

RJ to Eva Hesse Tor House Route 2, Box 35 Carmel, California June 5, 1957 Miss Eva Hesse Franz Josefstr. 7 Munich, Germany Dear Miss Hesse: Thank you for your letter of May 28 telling me of your progress in negotiations with the Hamburg Schauspielhaus and the Rowohlt publishing house about the two plays. I agree with your suggestions that we accept the Schauspielhaus offer if it is a clear one of from 8% to 10% and that we let Rowohlt’s agency try to place the plays in the provinces if they will also publish at least one play in book form or publish a book of my poems. As you wrote, if they do not

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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agree to this, perhaps it would be better to allow Bloch in Berlin to act as agent.1 I am therefore enclosing a letter of authorization for your use in the event that it should be necessary for you to make a rapid decision.2 I am sure your judgment concerning the granting of rights will be correct. Thank you, also, for sending the newspaper clippings. As to the division of the receipts from the Schauspielhaus, I feel we should share equally. If, however, you think that one-half is not adequate compensation for your work, please do not hesitate to let me know; I’m sure we can work out an arrangement agreeable to both of us. I shall look forward to hearing more of your progress. With best wishes, Robinson Jeffers TLS. Hesse. 1 page. 1. Hesse was negotiating with two theatrical agencies, Rowohlt Theaterverlag and Felix Bloch Erben, for the publication and production rights to her translations of Jeffers’ plays. 2. Jeffers enclosed a letter addressed to “Whom It May Concern” authorizing Hesse to act on his behalf and to sign documents related to her translations of Medea and The Tower Beyond Tragedy for printed publication and for radio, television, film, and theatrical production.

RJ to James R. Squire Tor House Route 2, Box 35 Carmel, California June 5, 1957 James R. Squire, Associate Director Supervised Teaching for the Asilomar Planning Committee School of Education University of California Berkeley 4, California Dear Mr. Squire:1 Thank you for your letter of May 29 telling me of your plans for the meeting of the Central California Council of Teachers of English at Asilomar in September. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

It was kind of you to ask me to attend and to take part in your panel meeting, “Conversation about Books.” I regret that I shall be away at the time of your conference and must decline your invitation. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. James Robert Squire (1922–2003), a language arts and education specialist, was the executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English from 1960 to 1967.

RJ to Richard Exner Letter to Richard Exner—June 5. [1957] Dear Mr. Exner: My letter of May ? was the result of a misunderstanding and I am very very sorry. about it. It is about impossible for me to write letters, or answer them, but and I had got a young woman to answer for me a great {shocking} accumulation of them. I signed her answers without reading or thinking. If I had thought I should of course have remembered the permission I gave you some time ago. Please Forgive my carelessness. I do give permission for the publication of your translations. in the small bilingual edition to be published by Limes Verlag {in the} Limes Verlag volume.1 I have given a number of permissions for translations into German, I don’t and given the matter little thought; there was nothing exclusive.2 I don’t think any No translation {that I know of} has been published in book form {a few in periodicals.} I believe, only only My “Tower beyond Tragedy”, which the translator calleds “Die Quelle”, has been done several times on the radio, —Munchen or {in Munich and Hamburg.} Telefunken {I think—} and something I can’t remember in Hamburg. I have kept no record, but remember that I was {being} surprisingly well paid for those radio productions. Now there is negotiation ab about stage production of “Die Quelle” and “Medea.” {two or three plays.} These translations and adaptations wereare by Eva Hesse of Munich, whose work is the best I have seen. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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With best wishes to you, Sincerely1 ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. In response to Jeffers’ May 22 letter, Exner wrote May 31 (TLS HRC Texas) and reminded Jeffers of a previous agreement. “I must tell you,” he says, “that this letter comes as a complete surprise to me as I am in possession of a handwritten letter of yours, airmailed to me on December 12, 1956 in which you said: ‘Yes, you may choose whatever you wish among my poems for the small bi-lingual edition by Limes Verlag, with your translations.’” 2. See, for example, “Nova,” “Selbstkritik im Februar,” and “Wiederaufrüstung” (“Nova,” “Self-Criticism in February,” and “Rearmament”), translated by Kurt Heinrich Hansen, Gedichte aus der Neuen Welt: Amerikanische Lyrik seit 1910 (Munich: R. Piper, 1956): 19–20, 46–47, 56.

RJ to Dan Magnan [July 1957] Dear Dan Magnan: Thank you very much for the trouble you have taken about {with} this unfortunate business. about the “Shepherdess.” I do feel sorry about it— {about it—} but more for your sake wasting people’s time with my indecision. As to Mr. Murphy’s legal expenses:—it was precisely the work of his lawyers that made me refuse the contract. They thought up too much and claimed too much, making me sick of the whole business. much, making many things much. I do feel a li However, I do feel a little responsible, and would share his expenses {indemnify him} up to fifty dollars me lose all confidence in Mr. Murphy’s the project. I’d be glad to indemnify him, up to fifty dollars, but I can’t tell him so; it would seem like a confession of responsibility. much, making me sick of the whole business. But I think the project would have been a failure and Mr. Murphy is saving money by not going on with it. Sincerely, I’d gladly contribute fifty d not more than fifty dollars toward his {Murphy’s} expenses 1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Dan Magnan (1921–1998) was a literary agent at William Morris; he later worked in Hollywood as a film and television story editor, and as a producer.

RJ to Mark Van Doren August 1957. Dear Mark Van Doren: Of course you are welcome to quote. I don’t remember the sentences, but I look forward to seeing them in your book—and particularly to seeing the book.1 —Yes, it is a long time.2 More than once, the past few years, I have thought of writing to you; but there was no occasion, and I almost never write nor answer letters, except in my head. Congratulations on your son’s exploit; it required a prompt and steady mind as well as a stored one.3 My two boys don’t do anything like that, but they are strong intelligent fellows, and have presented me with ten grandchildren,4 which seems absurd. Well—I am very glad to hear from you again. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers.5 ALS. Columbia. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Van Doren was putting the finishing touches on The Autobiography of Mark Van Doren, published in October 1958 by Harcourt, Brace. Page 152 of the book includes quotations from letters Jeffers sent to Van Doren May 23, 1927 and October 17, 1928. 2. The lives of Van Doren and Jeffers intersected more than twenty-five years before, when Van Doren’s March 11, 1925 review of Tamar in the Nation helped launch Jeffers’ career. 3. Van Doren’s son Charles Lincoln Van Doren (b. 1926) was a professor of English at Columbia University when he appeared as a contestant on Twenty-One, a popular television game show that tested general knowledge. In weekly appearances from November 26 to March 11, 1957, Van Doren gained nationwide fame for his erudition as he defeated opponent after opponent on his way to winning nearly $130,000 in prize money. 4. Donnan and Lee’s third child, Donnan Call Jeffers, Jr., was born July 14, 1957. 5. Jeffers and Van Doren, along with more than 150 other authors, critics, editors, and publishers, signed the May 5, 1957 “American Civil Liberties Union Statement on Censorship LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Activity by Private Organizations and the National Organization for Decent Literature.” The statement of opposition was issued in response to a nationwide campaign, undertaken by an organization composed primarily of Roman Catholic laymen, to ban offensive books.

RJ to Mr. Forbes [August 1957] Dear Mr. Forbes: Enclosed is the quit-claim deed.1 I am glad to have been slightly helpful to you. Thank you for the addressed envelope and the five dollars for expenses. Sincerely yours ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. A quitclaim deed could be used to grant motion picture or other specified rights to a literary work.

RJ to Robert Allen Griffin [August 1957] Dear Allen:1 Cordial thanks for your Thanks for your letter. The little episode did not hurt me, though it surprised m Thanks for your letter. The little episode hasd no importance and did though it surprised me a little. and I have no reason to blame Ed Kennedyyour editor, {nor anything of yours.} He wants to print the news, as he did at the end of the war, and apparently {he thought} that unpleasant attack on me was news —to compare {very} small things with great ones— was also news. But I have suffered the same kind of thing {more than once} before, and remain mosquito-proof.2 To change the subject We have been much interested in your letters {to the Herald} from Europe, ♦ and thank you for them. They are brave people in West {and East} Germany, and recklessly gay people in Austria; I hope to God nothing more happens to them. Sincerely, Robin Jeffers. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

and thank you for them, though I don’t know that you scraped bottom. You had a good journey and your readers share it a little. Cordial thanks for your letter. The episode had no importance, and I have no reason to complain, to blame the Herald, nor your {assistant} editor. He wants to print the news, as he did at the end of the war, and apparently {maybe} he thought that unpleasant {shoddy} unpleasant attack on me—to compare {very} small things with great ones—was also news. I don’t think it was. But I’ve read {endured} the same kind of thing before, and remain {still} {remain fairly} mosquito-proof. We have been much interested in your lette letters to the Herald from Europe. I went to school in Switzerland, but since then have never ventured farther than Ireland and Britain and Ireland and Great Britain. You had a good journey, and welcome home. Sincerely yours, Robin. Jeffers {Robinson Jeffers} ALDS. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Robert Allen Griffin (1893–1981), a 1917 graduate of Stanford University, was the founder, editor, and publisher of the Monterey Peninsula Herald. As a captain in the United States Army during World War I, he was wounded in action and decorated for valor. Nearing age fifty at the outset of World War II, he reenlisted as a major, rose to the rank of colonel, and commanded a regiment in Europe, where he was again wounded in combat and decorated with the Silver Star, Bronze Star, Croix de Guerre, and other honors for valor. 2. The editorial page of the August 14, 1957 issue of the Monterey Peninsula Herald featured a reprint of “In Defense of Jeffers,” a review of Radcliffe Squires’ The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers written by San Francisco poet and author Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982). Rexroth’s harshly negative critique first appeared in the August 10, 1957 issue of the Saturday Review, page 30. “The stock of Robinson Jeffers has fallen,” Rexroth claims, “for an entire literary generation it might be said to have plummeted and still be plummeting.” After denigrating Jeffers’ status as a poet, Rexroth turns to a more personal attack. “In my opinion,” he states, “Jeffers’s verse is shoddy and pretentious and the philosophizing is nothing but posturing. His reworkings of Greek tragic plots make me shudder at their vulgarity. . . .” The Herald printed the essay under a descriptive heading, “Decline of a Poet,” without comment. “It serves no purpose to explain how such a thing happened,” Griffin tells Jeffers in an August 27, 1957 letter (TLS HRC Texas), “because when all is said and done, there it was. I can LETTERS 1940– 1962

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only express to you my deepest regret that my newspaper reprinted a piece that was senselessly embittered, unfair, irresponsible and untrue.”

RJ to Robert Allen Griffin [August 1957] Dear Allen: I am really {truly} glad that Ed Kennedy1 had nothing to do with it{—} though it doesn’t matter, and I’d have borne him no grudge. I hope he’ll have as fruitful a time in Europe as you did. It is interesting to see him go off to Europe as soon as you return, as if you were seeing the last of something. But we have seen that twice before, and poor old Europe goes on. Thank you again. Sincerely, Robin. ALDS. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Edward Kennedy (1905–1963), a journalist who worked for the Associated Press from 1932 to 1945, lost his position when he disobeyed a government censorship order and announced Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allies. Kennedy witnessed the May 7, 1945 event in Reims, France. He explains his decision and discusses its aftermath in a memoir published posthumously as Ed Kennedy’s War: V–E Day, Censorship, and the Associated Press (2012). Kennedy joined the Monterey Peninsula Herald as assistant editor and publisher in 1949.

RJ to Radcliffe Squires [September 1957] Dear Mr. Squires: I owe you humble apologies—a number of them. First for that silly article in the Saturday Review. The dislike hatred was directed, again of course, against me, but you had to be included in it, and I’m sorry. Second, and {maybe} worse, I have to confess that I have never to this day read your book.1 You sent it to me, or someone did, but all those faces on the dust-jacket so frightened me that I put it away unread.2 That was pure self-indulgence. And I didn’t even acknowledge the gift. 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

That was pure self-indulgence. I always try to avoid reading about myself, but at least I should have acknowledged the gift, and I’m sorry to have failed. Now I have br Now I’ve brought the book out again and turned a few pages. It seems to me well written and well thought, and I {sincerely} thank you for it. most sincerely. As to Rexroth’s article: it is not disturbing but merely obvious. It has happened several times before, and they always say the same things. I don But I’d never have read it—I don’t read the Saturday Review—except that our {local} newspaper, here the Monterey Peninsula Herald, reprinted it on their editorial page, with a big bad portrait of me. My daughter-in-law read it first, and said “You have an enemy.” I said, “Thousands of them.” (So many people I have insulted by not answering their letters, and I blame myself for it.) But the Herald’s correspondence columns were thick for several days with indignant letters to the editor. Then they reprinted several poems of mine, on their editorial page, and paid me for the use of them.3 And the editor wrote me a letter of apology. It is all very funny. Now I have brought it out and turned a few pages; it seems {the book seems} to me well written and well thought, and I thank you for it. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers was published in October 1956 by the University of Michigan Press. 2. A small portrait photograph of Jeffers was reproduced multiple times on the front jacket. 3. When readers responded negatively to the Herald’s August 14 reprinting of Kenneth Rexroth’s essay, Ed Kennedy offered an explanation and partial apology on the editorial page of the August 19 issue of the newspaper. “Kenneth Rexroth’s views in the Saturday Review on Robinson Jeffers were reprinted on this page as a matter of interest,” he writes, “since they dealt with this area’s most distinguished poet. They do not represent The Herald’s appraisal of Jeffers. A note to this effect should have accompanied the Rexroth article. We regret the oversight of its omission.” Friends and supporters of Jeffers were not mollified, however, and several more letters of complaint were printed in the Herald on following days. Wishing to put the matter to rest, on August 29 the Herald published a photograph of Jeffers, a brief complimentary statement titled “The Poetry of Robinson Jeffers,” and a poem with local interest, “The Purse-Seine.” On August 30 the newspaper published another positive statement about Jeffers, titled “A Poet’s Answer,” and another poem, “Night.”

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Otto Schütte November 5, 1957 Mr. Otto Schütte Amberg/Opf. Sulzbacherstr. 103 West Germany Dear Mr. Schütte: It is nice to hear from you again, and I am sorry for the delay in answering your letter of September 1st. I regret that because I don’t read German very well any more I really couldn’t criticize or discuss your manuscript.1 However, please accept my best wishes, and thank you for asking my opinion. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. In his September 1, 1957 letter (TL HRC Texas), Schütte tells Jeffers of his move from Wetzlar to Amberg, where he was working as a sales manager in an ironworks firm, and of his ongoing efforts as a writer. Schütte wondered if Jeffers would read and evaluate a play he had submitted to several theaters and publishers, so far without results.

RJ to Clayton Garrison November 5, 1957 Clayton Garrison 10892 Rainier Court Anaheim, California Dear Mr. Garrison:1 I am sorry not to have answered your letter sooner. Although I don’t think your amendment to Medea is an improvement, you are welcome to change the lines if you wish.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Emery Clayton Garrison (b. 1921) earned a Ph.D. in speech and drama from Stanford University in 1956. He taught at Long Beach State College; the University of California, River­ side; and the University of California, Irvine, where he was appointed founding dean of the School of Fine Arts in 1964. 2. Garrison directed a student production of Medea at Long Beach State College November 21–23, 1957. In a letter to Jeffers dated September 15, 1957 (TLS HRC Texas), he requests permission to “end the play with Medea closing the doors . . . , Jason sobbing on the steps, and the women speaking quietly.” He also asks if he can borrow lines from The Cretan Woman for a closing.

RJ to Alice N. Jones November 5, 1957 Alice N. Jones William Morris Agency, Inc. 1740 Broadway New York 19, New York Dear Miss Jones:1 Thank you for your letter of October 7, and for your advice concerning the Yugoslav Author’s Society’s request for a contract for the production of Medea. I am sure you know best; you might as well enter into the contract, even if you believe they will not honor it. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Alice (Neuberger) Jones (1909–1984), a 1930 graduate of Vassar College, was a literary agent at William Morris.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Richard Exner November 6, 1957 Mr. Richard Exner 2206 West 21st Street Los Angeles 18, California Dear Mr. Exner: I am sorry to be so tardy in acknowledging receipt of the reprints of your translation of the introduction of Hungerfield with your introduction which you sent in August.1 Thank you for letting me have them. I am happy to know that you enjoyed your visit here.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Exner published “An Una,” a translation of the opening lines of Hungerfield, and “Der Dichter Robinson Jeffers,” a brief introductory essay about Jeffers, in Neue Deutsche Hefte 36 (July 1957): 316–318 and 345–347. In a letter to Jeffers dated August 6, 1957 (ALS HRC Texas), Exner describes “An Una” as a Vorabdruck (preprint) of verses he planned to include in his Limes Verlag volume. 2. Exner visited Jeffers at Tor House in July 1957 in order to discuss his proposed book and other translation plans.

RJ to Dan Burne Jones November 6, 1957 Mr. Dan Burne Jones 816 North Boulevard Oak Park, Illinois Dear Mr. Jones: I am sorry to be so tardy in replying to your letter of September 2. Thank you for sending the kodacolor print of little Una. Thank you, also, for your kind offer to send me typescripts of the letters you mentioned, but I really don’t care to have them.1

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

I hope that Mr. Heron can help you obtain the books you wish,2 and I’m happy to know that you enjoyed your visit here. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TL. Balcom. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. Postmark: November 27, 1957. 1. Jones wrote to Jeffers September 2, 1957 (TL Balcom), after he returned home from a summer vacation that included a visit to Tor House. In thanking Jeffers for his hospitality, he mentions his collection of books and ephemera, and offers to make typescripts of two letters in his possession: a November 1925 letter from Jeffers to Bayard H. Christy and a November 6, 1936 letter from Una to Jones. 2. Wanting to complete his collection of Jeffers’ books, Jones contacted Herbert Heron, the retired founder of the Seven Arts bookstore and art gallery.

RJ to Eleanor Short Norton November 6, 1957 Mrs. Eleanor Short Norton Associate Professor Music/Education College of the Pacific Stockton 4, California Dear Mrs. Norton:1 I have your letter concerning the lecture you are preparing on the Big Sur country. You have my permission to use quotations from “Selected Poetry” in any way you like. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Eleanor Short Norton (1896–1976) was a supervisor of music education in San Jose, California prior to joining the faculty of the College of the Pacific.

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RJ to Miss Abram November 18, 1957. Dear Miss Abram (if I read your name correctly): Sorry that I have no photographs to send away, but here’s my autograph. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. Thanks for your good wishes. ANS. WWW. 1 page.

RJ to Eva Hesse [November 20, 1957] November 5, 1957 Dear Miss Hesse: I am sorry for the delay in answering your several letters. Thank you for keeping me posted on your negotiations and for the copy of the agreement with the Rowohlt Theaterverlag. What a tremendous lot of business you are working at! I hope you enjoyed your holiday in Italy. If Bad Hersfeld was chosen because of its fine amphitheater for the production of Medea and if Ulrich Erfurth is the fine, or rather well-known, director you say he is, certainly your efforts have been in the right direction. Perhaps all these factors will assure a good production.1 I have always forgotten to tell you that a man named Richard Exner wrote to me a year and a half ago from Princeton University, asking permission to use a few short poems and a small section of “Hungerfield” to make a little book to be published by Limes Verlag (of Nurenberg? I forget), a small edition with the English original facing the German translation on the opposite page. I heard from Exner quite recently, and the booklet may appear any time.2 I’m sure it makes no difference to you. Thank you again, and with best wishes, Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Miss Eva Hesse Munchen 13 Franz-Josefstrasse 7 ♦

3

November 20. This was not mailed when it should have been, and meanwhile your letter of November 10 has come. It contains many questions and I can’t answer any of them. I had nothing to do with any productions of “Medea,” and I simply don’t know who did the staging and directing. I wrote the verses, and that is all. But I have just heard that Judith Anderson, whom I haven’t seen for several years, will be here this week-end. I will show her your letter, and perhaps she can help us a little. I must add that if any earnings should result from these proposed productions, you are entitled to more than your share as translator. You are doing all the negotiating, and I want you to take 10 percent of my share, whatever it is, as my agent. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. TLS and ALS. Hesse. 2 pages. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. Hesse informed Jeffers in an October 25, 1957 letter (TLS HRC Texas) that Medea had been selected for the summer 1958 theater festival in Bad Hersfeld, Germany, and that it would be directed by Ulrich Erfurth (1910–1986), an actor, theater director, and film director. 2. Because of disagreements concerning the contract, Exner’s proposed Limes Verlag volume was never published; see Jeffers’ December 29, 1957 letters. 3. The addendum is handwritten.

RJ to Eva Hesse [December 8, 1957] Dear Miss Hesse: Judith Anderson was here, but she didn’t seem able to help us much. She suggested no names to write to. Finally she said she would lend us

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her note-books, (but not the most private one). They indicated staging, lighting and so forth—I said “Like those acting editions of Samuel French’s?” She said “Exactly. The same thing.” She is humorously a little1 jealous: “I hate every woman who plays Medea!” “But you can’t {play} it in German,” I said. She said “Why not? I could talk English and let the others talk German.” I remember that you wanted one of those book Samuel French books {“Medeas.”} Were you able to get it? If not, I’ll make a search here. I know that I have one copy, and I think if I can find it I’ll send it to you. I am sending {after Xmas} most of the other books you speak of. I can’t find any copy of “Cawdor”; and {the} “Dear Judas” volume is the o seems to be the only one I have, so let’s say that it is on loan to you for a few years; though other copies are no doubt obtainable. The books will go by ordinary mail as soon as I can get them wrapped up and posted. As to Radcliffe’s Squire’s “Loyalties of R. J.” That al Also Radcliffe Squire’s “Loyalties.” —The only copy I have. I never read it nor thought of it—scared away perhaps by all those {dissonant} pictures on the dust-jacket—until your letter spoke of it. (The kitty-cat) ♦ I must have given permission for quotations—or perhaps Random House did—I don’t remember. In another envelope I am sending (air-mail) the your {further} authorizations about plays and books. Now I must write to Richard Exner and refuse the contract that he sent me some days ago. No doubt he’ll be angry. But I never told him encouraged him to think that I was ready to make a final agreement with him and Limes Verlag—or whoever they are—I haven’t read the contract yet. Thank you for the charming picture of yourself and the cat that you strangle every afternoon. My {bright} blonde daughter-in-law—who reads my mail with my permission, but alas doesn’t answer it, —shaving babies of her own—she said “Is this Eva Hesse? But she’s so young: I thought she was middle-aged.” Certainly it’s a pleasure to see you. Sincerely,2

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALD. Hesse. 2 pages. 1. Jeffers adds a transposition line around the words, changing the phrase to “a little humorously jealous.” 2. Another draft of this letter, located in the Jeffers archives at the Humanities Research Center, Texas, contains an additional paragraph: “There is another play in the ‘Solstice’ volume, called ‘At the Birth of an Age,’ which might interest Germans more than it does Americans. But I don’t think it is {I’m sure it is not} fit for the stage.”

RJ to Eva Hesse December 8, 1957. Miss Eva Hesse München 13 Franz-Joseph Strasse 7 West Germany. Dear Miss Hesse: Extending the Rowohlt agreement, I give you full authority to deal with them concerning your translations and adaptations of any other plays of mine mine. Also I authorize you to negotiate and sign any agreements that may be required in connection with the publication of my poems in German, in your translation. Royalties (as with the plays) are to be divided equally between you as translator and agent and myself as author. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House.

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RJ to Eva Hesse Tor House Carmel, California December 29, 1957 Dear Miss Hesse, I have been seriously ill with pneumonia (sequel of that Asiatic virus), and have been quite unable to write a letter or even read one. Since starting a reply to yours of December 1, I have received your letter of December 22 and a letter from Mr. Exner in which he enclosed a copy of his contract with Limes Verlag for my signature; I have not, of course, signed the contract. I gave certain permissions to Mr. Exner, without compensation, at a time when you seemed to have lost interest in translating my poems, or at least were not able to find a publisher for them. But I greatly prefer you as translator and am giving you (so far as possible) exclusive rights to translate my poems, and to negotiate with publishers on my behalf—this right shall also apply to the plays. Perhaps you have received the authorizations I sent you . . . they were alone in an envelope. I am preparing and shall send to you tomorrow (or as soon as possible) a formal authorization and copies of my letter to Mr. Exner. I intend to send a copy of that letter, as well as my authorization to you, to the publisher. If I find that we do not have the address of Limes Verlag, I’ll send the copies to you so that you may present them to Limes Verlag. If you think that the new authorizations are not sufficient—or are in any way inadequate—please draft your own and send them to me for consideration and/or execution. About your letter of December 1: I have written Random House asking that they send you the books you requested. If they are unable to do so, perhaps we can obtain them through other means. We will also try to obtain a copy of the Samuel French Medea and forward it to you. I know how difficult all this work must be for you . . . again, know that I appreciate deeply all your efforts on my behalf. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. jv 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Enclosures: Letter to Mr. Exner Letter to Limes Verlag Authorization TLS. Hesse. 1 page.

RJ to Richard Exner Tor House Carmel, California December 29, 1957 Mr. Richard Exner Department of Modern Languages & Literature Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey Dear Mr. Exner: I am returning herewith, unsigned, one copy of the Limes Verlag contract written by Mr. Max Niedermayer1 of Limes Verlag for the publication of your German translation of my works. I am retaining one copy for my records. Your letter and the contract indicate a misunderstanding between us as to what rights you have been granted.2 If you will review our correspondence, I believe you will find that you requested permission to translate excerpts of my poetry, specifically the introduction to Hungerfield and the Aphrodite speech from The Cretan Woman for “a small bi-lingual volume” to be published by Limes Verlag. Permission was granted to you (with no formal agreement, nor any arrangements for compensation to me) for the original volume you mentioned. I can see no reason for your insistence that I give you exclusive rights for translation of my work; you already have, of course, permission to translate and publish the introduction to Hungerfield and the Aphrodite speech. Further, since I have made it quite clear that I prefer Miss Hesse’s translation of my verse and plays, I cannot understand why you have taken the liberty to negotiate with Limes Verlag for the publication of other of my works.3 LETTERS 1940– 1962

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In order to avoid further misunderstanding, I am enclosing a copy of my agreement with Miss Hesse; I shall also send a copy of the agreement, as well as a copy of this letter, to the editor of Limes Verlag. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers Enclosures cc: Miss Eva Hesse Editor, Limes Verlag TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. See next letter. 2. Exner wrote to Jeffers December 1, 1957 (THL HRC Texas) and enclosed a contract for the small bilingual volume discussed in previous correspondence. In explaining the terms of the contract, Exner calls Jeffers’ attention to a clause that would grant Limes Verlag an option “on all further translations of your work into German.” Exner also tells Jeffers that “it would be simpler for Niedermayer . . . if he had one authorized translator,” and that he wanted the job. “May I assure you,” he writes, “that in the case that you do give me permission, I shall not leave a stone unturned to present your work in German in the best possible manner.” 3. Exner’s proposed arrangement with Limes Verlag would permit him to translate Jeffers’ lyric poems, a selection of his narratives (such as Tamar, Cawdor, and Hungerfield ), and one or two plays.

RJ to Max Niedermayer Tor House Route 2, Box 36 Carmel, California, U.S.A. December 29, 1957

Editor in Chief Limes Verlag Speigelgasse 9 Wiesbaden, West Germany Dear Sir:1 The enclosed copy of my letter addressed to Mr. Richard Exner of Princeton, New Jersey, is self-explanatory.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Also enclosed you will find a copy of my agreement with Miss Eva Hesse pertaining to her rights for the translation, publication and theatrical production of my works in Germany. I hope this will clarify Mr. Exner’s standing, so far as you are concerned, in the matter of his translation of my works. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers jv Enclosures TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Max Niedermayer (1905–1968) was the founder and director of Limes Verlag, a post– World War II publishing firm that specialized in classic German texts and translations of fiction and poetry.

RJ to Miss Wood [December 1957] Dear Miss Wood: I admire the work of Albert Camus, and should be delighted to adapt one of his plays.2 But I don’t think it could be successful—or even possible. I know almost nothing about the theater I have seen not more than half a dozen plays in my lifetime, and two of them and have little interest in it; I have seen no more than half a dozen plays in my lifetime. I have read a little about the theater in ancient Athens, and that is all. I have read a little about {the Greek ancient Greek theater,} and that is all. Of course I should be glad to know about the play and consider it, but I don’t think it would be worth your while. Please convey my greetings to M. Camus.3 ♦ I admire the work of Albert Camus and should be glad to {do an} adaptation of one of his plays. But it how could it need adapting? The French and {the} anglo-American theaters are not very far apart. And, as for me, I know nothing of the theater. I have seen no more than six or seven plays in my lifetime, and two were in German, one in French, two were my 1

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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own, and one was Shakespeare’s. I like to adapt plays from Greek tragedy, though fe {—the very few} that are interesting enough{—}but I doubt very much that I could do anything successful for Albert {M.} Camus. Please give {convey to him} him my most friendly greeting. Sincerely ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Possibly Audrey Wood (1905–1985), a literary and theatrical agent whose firm, LieblingWood, Inc., represented Tennessee Williams, William Inge, and other leading playwrights. Wood had recently returned from a trip to Europe, where she previewed plays and met with authors. 2. Albert Camus (1913–1960), a French Algerian writer and philosopher, won the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature. The source of Camus’ interest in Jeffers is undocumented, but the fact that he sought an adaptation of a play, not a translation, suggests familiarity with Jeffers’ Medea. 3. A large X is drawn through the entire text of this draft; the second draft is written on a separate sheet of paper.

RJ to Mr. Duniway [1957] Dear Mr. Duniway: I am sorry not to have answered more promptly. Your letter was mislaid almost as soon as I had read it, and I had no address to write to. I found it again to-day, under stacks of paper. under heaps of paper. I regret this the more because I can’t serve on the committee of judges. I am seventy {years old} and have some work of my own to do. {iIn any case,} Iit seems to me, that a writer of narrative poetry would not be the best judge on that subject; he would be prejudiced by his own practise. Any professor of literature might do better. Sincerely, yours, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Eva Hesse Tor House Route 2 Carmel, California U.S.A. January 22, 1958 Dear Miss Hesse: Thank you for your letter of January 6, with its good suggestions. Although I am feeling much better, I have delayed answering it. I hope you have not been worrying about the mix-up on translation rights. There was no formal contract with Mr. Exner, and I shall not execute any contract with him for additional translations of my work for publication by Limes Verlag. As I wrote Mr. Exner long ago, I have given a number of permissions for translations into German, and given the matter little thought; there was nothing exclusive. I also wrote him, more recently, that he had, of course, permission (which was originally given only by an exchange of friendly letters) for the translation and publication of what he chose for the one edition. Perhaps it will make it clearer to say that he himself quotes my permission in a letter he addressed to me, dated May 31, 1957, as follows: “Yes, you may choose whatever you wish among my poems for the small bi-lingual edition by Limes Verlag, with your translations.” Inasmuch as what appeared in that particular edition was what he chose to translate, I see no reason for anyone to assume that he has permission to negotiate with the publisher for further translations.1 There should be no more doubt as far as you or the Rowholt contract is concerned. Mr. Exner’s reply to my last letter, a copy of which was sent to you, indicates that he now understands all this perfectly. If you still feel, as you mentioned in your letter, that the additional agreement with you is necessary, please let me know; if necessary, we can copy it and forward it to you. To turn to a more pleasant subject, I enjoyed receiving the lebkuchen,2 which we sampled but are saving for my daughter-in-law from Munich, who

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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now lives in California and will be here this week. It was most kind of you to think of us. My other daughter-in-law, “Mr. Lee Jeffers,”3 has sent you the books we were able to obtain. We may be able to send you some others shortly— Dear Judas for one, —however, you may find that these are inscribed copies which have been loaned by friends. I am sure we can rely upon you to return any such copies so that we may give them back to our generous friends. ♦ Random House has sent us the name of the publisher of The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers: University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Michigan. We believe that the author is now a faculty member at the University of California at Berkeley, and if you are unable to locate the book, perhaps we can get a copy from him. (Lee, however, wishes me to tell you that she considers the author’s material highly inaccurate. . .his name, by the way, is James Radcliffe Squires.) To help you in some small way to visualize the present residents of Tor House, I am enclosing a recent photograph of us: my son, Donnan, his wife, Lee, and Lindsay, their son. . . .seated beside me is their small daughter, Una, who is holding her new baby brother, Donnan, Jr. Thank you again for all the difficult work you are doing, and for your patience in helping to straighten out the confusion on permissions for the translations. Best wishes, Robinson Jeffers Miss Eva Hesse Munchen 13 Franz-Josefstrasse 7 West Germany Many thanks for the picture of yourself and the Kitty-cat. It is beautiful.4 R. J. TLS. Hesse. 2 pages. 1. Three weeks before, when Jeffers returned the unsigned Limes Verlag contract to Richard Exner, he ended Exner’s prospects for a small bilingual edition of his poems.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

“What appeared in that particular edition” refers to the poems Exner originally planned to publish. 2. A soft gingerbread cookie traditionally baked for Christmas. 3. In previous correspondence, Hesse was uncertain of Lee’s identity and referred to her as “Mr.” 4. The postscript is handwritten.

RJ to Edward F. Pierce Rte. 2, Box 288 Carmel, Calif. 3rd February, 1958 Mr. Edward F. Pierce Editorial Associate “Think” International Business Machines Corp. 590 Madison Ave. New York 22, N.Y. Dear Mr. Pierce:1 This will acknowledge with thanks your letter of 24th January enquiring whether I would care to submit anything to you for publication.2 I regret that I have nothing at the moment that I would care to offer, but thank you anyway for the interest expressed. Very truly yours, Robinson Jeffers RJ/j TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Edward F. Pierce, Jr. (1921–2001), an editor at IBM, later directed the public relations division. 2. Think, a general interest magazine for business and government managers, was published by IBM from 1935 to 1971.

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RJ to Loula May Rt. 2, Box 288 Carmel, Calif. 3rd February, 1958 Miss Loula May 633 S. Berendo Los Angeles 5, Calif. Dear Miss May: With reference to your letter of 28th January, I regret to say that I can give you no information as to the whereabouts of Mr. Totheroh.1 The present director of the Wharf Theatre in Monterey, which, I assume you must mean when you say the “Monterey Theatre”, is, I believe, Mr. Ray Brock.2 A letter to him, C/O the Wharf Theatre, would, no doubt, reach its destination. I hope you have good luck in finding a producer for your play. Very truly yours, Robinson Jeffers RJ/j TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. In her January 28 letter (TLS HRC Texas), May tells Jeffers that she had tried unsuccessfully to contact playwright Dan Totheroh, a founder of the Wharf Theater in Monterey. She also asks Jeffers if he could provide her with the name and address of the current director of the theater, because she wanted to send him a play she had written. When Jane Vial typed this letter, she addressed it to “Louler May.” 2. Tom Brock (not Ray Brock) was managing the Wharf Theater at this time, along with Bob Carson.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Robert Emmett Ginna Tor House Rt. 2, Box 288 Carmel, Calif. 3rd February, 1958 Mr. Robert Emmett Ginna National Broadcasting Co., Inc. RCA Building, Radio City New York 20, N.Y. Dear Mr. Ginna:1 This will acknowledge with thanks receipt of your letter of 28th January, enquiring whether I would be interested in taking part in the NBC television network series of film programs entitled “Wisdom”.2 While I thank you for thinking of me in connection with this series, I must advise you that at the moment I would be unable to participate in it for a number of reasons: the pressure of other work, the fact that I am just recovering from a short period of ill-health, and perhaps most important, that my field is the written rather than the spoken word—I do not enjoy speaking in public. Thank you again, however, and best wishes for the continued success of your program. Very truly yours, Robinson Jeffers RJ/j TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Robert Emmett Ginna, Jr. (b. 1926), a writer, television producer, magazine editor, and editor-in-chief of the Little, Brown publishing company, later taught writing and film courses at Harvard University. His publications include The Irish Way: A Walk Through Ireland’s Past and Present (2003). 2. Wisdom, formerly called Conversations with Elder Wise Men and Conversations with Distinguished Persons, was a half-hour television program produced by NBC from 1957 to 1965.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Voice of America [April 1958] It is a great honor for a foreigner to have his play produced in Vienna, that great {famous} city with its proud tradition of the theater. famous city with its proud tradition of the theater.1 I hope I recognize the honor, and I hope that you will find the play interesting. It was written {thirty five years ago} as a poem, not a play. I had no idea thirty five at that time that it could ever be staged. {I wrote it as a poem, having no idea} that it could ever be staged. Let me speak also of my translator, Frau Eva Hesse of München. She has extraordinary ability in both languages, English and German and English, and I am glad to entrust the play to her. My own acquaintance with German and French {the great languages of Europe} has sadly deteriorated. It is nearly sixty years since I went to school in Leipzig and Zürich; and around Lake G Lac Léman the Lake of Geneva—Vevey, Lausanne, Geneva, and so forth. In those days I knew German and French as well as I did English. But now I can only thank Eva Hesse for translating the poem, and you for listening to it. Mein Deutsch ist aber vielleicht doch ausreichend, um ihnen—von meinem Haus am Strand des Stillen Ozeans—meine besten Wünsche und warme grüsse zu senden.2 ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Walter Ducloux (1913–1997), a professor of opera at the University of Southern California and a representative of the Voice of America organization, wrote to Jeffers February 3, 1958 (TLS HRC Texas) and asked if he would be willing to tape an interview for broadcast on Radio Vienna about a production of Die Quelle at the Burgtheater in Vienna. “If you speak some German,” Ducloux adds, “it would, of course, be advantageous.” Jeffers’ remarks were taped at Tor House in April. Die Quelle premiered at the historic Burgtheater November 10, 1958. The play was directed by Josef Gielen (1890–1968), and featured Liselotte Schreiner (1904–1991) in the role of Clytemnestra and Albin Skoda (1909–1961) as Orestes. 2. “I think my German is good enough to send you—from my house on the shore of the Pacific Ocean—my best wishes and warmest greetings.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Eva Hesse Route 2, Box 288, Carmel, California, USA May 1, 1958. Dear Eva Hesse: Thank you very much for your interesting letters (I wish I had the ability and patience to write a letter). There is little to tell you in return. Two young men, German or Austrian, were here from Los Angeles the other day with a tape-recorder, wanting me to say something à propos of the Vienna production. They said they were employed by “Voice of America.” So I muttered something for their machine about the honor it was for a foreigner to have his play produced in Vienna, with its great tradition of the theater; and I added some words about my translator, Frau Eva Hesse of Munich, and her unusual ability in both languages—I was glad to entrust the play to her. The little speech was so muttered and mumbled that it is worth nothing. I said so, and the men said, “You don’t know what electronics can do.” Also I had a {cordial} letter from the Rowholt Verlag Rowohlt Theaterverlag (Hamburg—Klaus Juncker) naming the cities and dates of the plays, and asking whether I could come to Germany. I shall try very hard to answer the letter, but I don’t think I’ll go abroad, though I’d love to meet you. With best wishes—sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 1 page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Klaus Juncker Route 2, Box 288, Carmel, California, U.S.A. May 1, 1958. Rowohlt Theaterverlag, Hamburg. Herr Klaus Juncker.1 Gentlemen: Thank you most cordially for your kind and informative letter. Frau Eva Hesse had told me about the list of city and state theaters, but it still surprises me;2 and your description of the theater at Bad Hersfeld, in the wide ruins of the cathedral, is most interesting. It really tempts me to go there, in response to your kind invitation. But I don’t like traveling, I traveled too much when I was a child, and I don’t enjoy meeting people. At my age a man ought to stay at home and try to finish his work, or else be quiet. I am very fortunate, as you suggest, in having Eva Hesse as my translator—and you, I may add, as my publishers. I am glad to entrust plays to her hands and yours. If I should ever go to Germany—which remains possible, of course, though very unlikely—I should look forward to meeting you. Sincerely, and with best wishes, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 1 page. 1. Klaus Juncker (1922–2011), dramaturge of the Düsseldorf theater, founded Rowohlt Theaterverlag, a division of the Rowohlt publishing company, in 1957 and led the firm until he retired in 1984. 2. In a letter dated April 15, 1958 (TLS HRC Texas), Juncker tells Jeffers that the Bad Hersfeld premiere of Medea would take place June 29, followed by performances in Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, Baden-Baden, and Basel, and that Die Quelle would open in Vienna and Braunschweig in October.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Viking Press Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California May 26, 1958 The Viking Press Editorial or Publicity Departments Gentlemen: Thank you very much for sending me the proof-sheets of Horace Gregory’s new book, his translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses.1 It is the best translation of a long poem that I have ever known; and Ovid, whom I have always avoided, has suddenly become in my mind one of the first-rate Roman poets, who can be counted on one hand’s fingers. Gregory’s persuasive and enlightening Introduction has some share in converting me; but the beauty and clarity of the translated poem, and the deft daring of its construction, speak for themselves.2 I’m sorry that I have lost your letter and can’t remember who signed it: Therefore I am addressing this to the firm in general. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. TLC. Syracuse. 1 page. 1. Gregory’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, illustrated by Zhenya Gay, was published by Viking October 16, 1958. 2. Viking used all but the first sentence of this paragraph as a blurb on the back of the book jacket.

RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp [May 1958] Dear Tim: Forgive me for not writing. For years now it has become impossible for me to write a letter. Sometimes I have a young woman come in—not to take dictation, but Forgive me for not writing. I can’t. Since Una died there is no one to

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answer letters, and I suppose I have got discouraged, seeing them pile up. unanswered ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Klaus Juncker [June 1958} My thanks for your interesting letter of May 27 . Your English is very good, {is not “bad”, as you say, it is quite good,} though it is it is not perfect like Eva Hesse’s. It is aAt least {it is} a hundred times better than my German. I went to school long ago in Leipzig {Germany} and in Switzerland, {and in Switzerland, and spoke good German (not Leipziger; and not Schwytzer Schwytzserdütsch) but one can forget but one can forget a great deal in fifty or sixty years. As to the performance of my play “Medea” for the first time in Germany at the Bad-Hersfeld Festival, I should like to send my best wishes for succ to the actors and the management, and indeed to the whole Festival. (I have been told how beautiful—) As to the performance of my play “Medea” for the first time in Germany, at the Bad Hersfeld Festival, I am of course very much interested, I have {I am} {and} sorry that I cannot be present. You have told me about the theater there, surrounded by {backed by} the great ruins of an ancient abbey. It must be a beautiful place. I should like to send my greeting and good {best} wishes to all who are concerned with the play, actors and management, and indeed to the whole Bad Hersfeld Festival, which I’m sure will be very fine. Especially give my I send my greeting to Hil {let me greet salute} the Medea, Hilde Krahl;1 I hope that she is will be (on the stage) a very fierce and wicked woman. And I am grateful to Eva Hesse, the talented translator of the play. Sincerely yours,2 th

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Hilde Krahl (1917–1999), born Hildegard Kolacˇný in Austria-Hungary, began her career as a cabaret performer. Adept at both tragedy and comedy, she became an award-winning stage, screen, and television actress. 2. Beneath this draft, on the same sheet of paper, Jeffers adds an unrelated comment: “At seventy-one You want the pleasure of writing just one more poem—hell! Hell {hell—}are you never {satisfied?}”

RJ to Kamil Bednárˇ Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California, U. S. A. June 7, 1958. Dear Mr. Kamil Bednárˇ:1 I am truly sorry not to have written to you sooner; it is almost impossible for me to write or even dictate letters. Yet I am eager to send you my greeting and good wishes. Your book, “Mara,”2 arrived here a few days ago, and I wish I could read it. I learned German and French when I was a child at school in Switzerland, and have nearly forgotten them, but Czech was left out of my education. “Mara” is an attractive little volume, and the illustrations are most interesting. Thank you for sending it—and also for translating the poem. I value your interest in my work, and am truly grateful for your expressions of friendship. Perhaps I shall see you some day—who knows?— in spite of the present distances between us. If I can find any interesting photographs of my two sons and their families, or of this house, I will send them to you. With best wishes, Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Památník. 1 page. Postmark: June 11, 1958. 1. Kamil Bednárˇ (1912–1972), a poet, translator, and editor, encountered Jeffers’ work in 1950 when he read Be Angry at the Sun. His first book publication, Mara, was followed by nearly a dozen more volumes of Jeffers’ verse. For a survey of Bednárˇ’s life and career, see “Czech Poet,

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Jeffers Translator: Kamil Bednárˇ, A Memoir and Tribute” by H. Arthur Klein, Robinson Jeffers Newsletter 35 (May 1973): 10–19. 2. Robinson Jeffers, Mara, translated by Kamil Bednárˇ (Prague: Ceskoslovensky spisovatel, 1958).

RJ to Edward Arnold Publishers, Ltd. [June 1958] Tor House Route 2, Box 388 Carmel, California Edward Arnold (Publishers) Ltd.1 41 Maddox Street London, W. 1 England Gentlemen: This will acknowledge your letter of June 3, in which you request permission to include Hurt Hawks in a poetry anthology edited by W. M. Smyth of the Seddon Memorial Technical School of Auckland, New Zealand.2 School books are supposed to be profitable to the publisher—but let it go. You have my permission to include the poem. Hurt Hawks was first published in Cawdor in 1928. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. The Edward Arnold publishing company was founded in London in 1890 by Edward Augustus Arnold (1857–1942), a nephew of poet Matthew Arnold. 2. “Hurt Hawks” was published in A Book of Poetry, edited by W. M. Smyth (London: Edward Arnold, 1959): 314–315. William MacLurg Smyth (1913–2003), a teacher and school inspector, also edited Poems of Spirit and Action (1959), Good Stories (1964), and other books.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Bennett Cerf [July 1958] Dear Bennett: I was very sorry to read about Saxe Commin’s death1—so sorry that I have to speak of it to someone who knew him, and am therefore bothering you with this needless letter. Don’t trouble to answer. Saxe was a good man and a great editor and a good friend. I should have liked to tell him about a certain success that my plays are {seem to be} having{—}in translation— in Germany and Vienna and Switzerland. It would have pleased him. And about the Czech translations He sponsored one of them—“Die Frau von Kreta”2— {they call it—} in “Hungerfield.” {told me it was good enough to print, when I was doubtful.} But it will be years before I have another book-manuscript which I might {have} offered him. I have got to the age when my friends seem to be dying all around me. I wish you a long life, Bennett, and myself a moderately short one. Sincerely,3 ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Saxe Commins died July 17, 1958. The New York Times published an obituary July 18, 1958 on page 21. For a detailed account of his life and career, see Dorothy Commins, What Is an Editor? Saxe Commins at Work (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978). 2. Die Frau aus Kreta was the title of Eva Hesse’s recently completed translation of The Cretan Woman. 3. The entire text of this draft is crossed out.

RJ to Eva Hesse Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California, U.S.A. July 27, 1958.

Dear Eva Hesse: I am grateful for your long and very interesting letter dated July 14. You have a brilliant critical intelligence, and I believe what you say about Hilde Krahl as compared to other Medeas. But I shouldn’t like Judith Anderson to hear it. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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You ask why I haven’t written an Oedipus, and the answer is very simple: because nobody asked me to. Judith asked for Medea, and another actress whom I chanced to meet wanted a Phaedra, but lost interest before I finished it. Oedipus of course is a more serious undertaking—and I’d rather tell my own stories than adapt another’s—even Sophocles’.1 The stage at Bad Hersfeld, in the abbey ruins, must have been wonderfully impressive. I hear that you had an hour and a half of rain to endure, and that audience and actors met it bravely. I’d like to have been there. My bank account has no number that I know of. I am sure that “Robinson Jeffers, Bank of Carmel, Carmel, California” would be sufficient. But I still feel that you ought to have ten percent extra as my agent. Your President Theodor Heuss was here a few weeks ago, taking a little rest on his tour of the country. (I see that he is Lord Protector— Schirmherr—of the Hersfeld Festspiele.) He stayed at the same hotel where Adenauer stayed some time ago—not the best hotel but the most beautifully ♦ placed one, with mountain and ocean and rocky cliff and deep pine-forest all in the windows.2 My son and daughter-in-law send you cordial greeting. Did I ever tell you that my other son Garth fell in love with a girl in Munich and brought her home after the war? He is a U. S. forester in the great forest regions of Northern California, a great change from the Gemütlichkeiten3 of Munich, but Lotte seems to like it. Thank you again. I wonder where in the world you learned such perfect English. —A Czech translator, Kamil Bednar, has lately published as a book a narrative poem of mine called “Mara.” I had nearly forgotten it—I think it is in the book called “Be g “Be angry at the Sun Sun.” He also published “Hungerfield,” in a magazine called “Foreign Literature”—or something like that.4,5 My best wishes to you. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Hesse. 2 pages.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Responding to this letter August 18 (TLS HRC Texas), Hesse says, “I was amused to hear from you how your ‘translations’ of Medea and Phaedra came about. And I could not help wondering if you would ever consider doing an Oedipus Rex for me! Please do not think that I am putting myself in the same category as Miss Anderson and your other friends—all I can muster to back up such an immoderate request is just my love and enthusiasm for great poetry.” Despite his reservations, Jeffers took Hesse’s request seriously and began making notes and writing dialogue for his own version of the Oedipus legend. 2. Theodor Heuss (1884–1963), president of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1959, arrived in Carmel June 14, 1958. His itinerary included afternoon tea with friends Bruno and Sadie Adriani. Konrad Adenauer (1876–1967), chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 to 1963, spoke at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on Friday, April 11, 1953. He spent the rest of the weekend sightseeing in Carmel and the Big Sur with his daughter Lotte. Both Heuss and Adenauer stayed at the Highlands Inn. 3. Gemütlichkeiten refers to both a warm and friendly place where people are together, such as a home or restaurant, and to a relaxed and happy atmosphere. 4. Bednárˇ’s translation of Hungerfield was published in Sveˇtová literatura: revue zahranicˇních literatur [World literature: foreign literature review] 3, no. 1 (February 1958): 72–91. 5. Although Jeffers does not mention it to Hesse, a book about him had just been published. Robinson Jeffers: A Study in Inhumanism by Mercedes Cunningham Monjian was released by the University of Pittsburgh Press on July 11.

RJ to Klaus Juncker Tor House Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California July 30, 1958 Klaus Juncker Rowohlt Theaterverlag Bieberstrasse 14 Hamburg 13, West Germany Dear Mr. Juncker: Thank you very much for your telegram and the letter which followed it. Mr. Bruno Adriani very kindly translated the letter and gave me a typed copy of his translation, but I could have understood it in German. I am delighted, of course, that the play had this success; and I lay it LETTERS 1940– 1962

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at the feet of two women, Eva Hesse, the translator, and Hilde Krahl, the Medea. But I am sure that Ulrich Erfurth and some others equally deserve my contrgratulations. And please present my thanks and my greeting to Mr. Rowohlt1 and Mr. Ledig-Rowohlt.2 Cordially yours, Robinson Jeffers, RJ:jv TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Ernst Rowohlt (1887–1960) founded his publishing company in 1908, but was forced to close it during World War I and again during World War II when the Nazis were in power. With his son Heinrich, he reopened the firm in 1945. 2. Heinrich Ledig-Rowohlt (1908–1992) was the first publisher authorized by American occupation officials to print and distribute books. He introduced inexpensive paperbacks to the German market and specialized in translations of foreign authors.

RJ to Otto Herbst Tor House Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California July 30, 1958 Herr Otto Herbst Dramaturg Intendanz der Festspiele Postschliessfach 19 Bad Hersfeld, West Germany Dear Herr Herbst:1 Thank you for your kind letter, and please give my cordial greeting to Mr. Johannes Klein,2 managing director of the Festival. And thank you for the booklet about Bad Hersfeld and the Festival; it is a beautiful place and a beautiful stage. Some day it may become possible to put a roof on the old arches. I have been told that the audience and the actors resisted an hour and a half of rain during the first performance of Medea.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

That was wonderful—and a summer rain can do no harm—but it can be quite uncomfortable. However, I wish I had been there to see and feel it. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers RJ:jv TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Otto Herbst (b. 1923), a theater manager, established an opera program at the Düsseldorf music conservatory in 1959 and later served as the artistic director of the National Theatre in Munich. 2. Johannes Klein (1897–1976) co-founded the Bad Hersfeld Festival and directed the annual event from 1951 to 1959.

RJ to Margaret Carpenter Tor House Rt. 2. Box 288 Carmel, California July 30, 1958 Margaret Carpenter 1032 Cambridge Crescent Norfolk 8, Virginia Dear Miss Carpenter,1 I have corrected a couple of misprints on the enclosed poems. The poems are from my book “Cawdor and Other Poems,” published by Horace Liveright (I think), in 1928 (I think). The copyright is in my name. Yes, Mr. Braithwaite has my permission to use the poems for his anthology.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers RJ: jv Enclosures TLS. Virginia. 1 page. 1. Margaret Haley Carpenter (1917–1985), a writer and schoolteacher, was the author of Sara Teasdale: A Biography (1960) and A Gift for the Princess of Springtime (1964).

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2. William Stanley Braithwaite included three of Jeffers’ poems—“The Women on Cythaeron” (also published as “The Humanist’s Tragedy”), “To a Young Artist,” and “Hurt Hawks”—in his Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1928 and Yearbook of American Poetry (New York: Harold Vinal, 1928): 186–191. In 1959, after a thirty-year hiatus in the series, Braithwaite and Carpenter released a joint publication titled Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1958, edited by Braithwaite, and Anthology of Poems from the Seventeen Previously Published Braithwaite Anthologies, edited by Carpenter (New York: Schulte, 1959). “To a Young Artist” and “Hurt Hawks” were reprinted on pages 298–300.

RJ to Ogden Plumb [July 30, 1958] Dear Mr. Plumb: I can’t answer letters but I am interested in trees. This Point was bare to the sea-wind when we first came here, and eucalyptus could not have grown up without cypress to shelter it.2 Once in northwestern Ireland we were told that the biggest tree in Ireland grew in a monastery garden nearby. It was huge, and it was a Monterey cypress. —Also the south of England is full of them, but mostly clipped into hedges. —That winged roof—Oh dear!3 Sincerely— 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Ogden Truesdale Plumb (1930–2007) graduated in 1953 from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. He completed an M.F.A. in creative writing at the University of Iowa in 1957 and published a book of poems, New World Eclogues, in 1971. 2. Writing July 1, 1958 (TLS HRC Texas), Plumb tells Jeffers that he had recently walked by Tor House and noticed that the imported eucalyptus trees seemed to be doing better than the native Monterey cypresses. He wanted to know if Jeffers had a theory that could explain this. 3. “The trees and Tor House will probably be just there when you and I are gone,” Plumb writes, “but I wonder about that winged roof between you and Lobos that I had not seen before.” The house with the winged roof, called the Butterfly House, was located just south of Tor House, on the ocean side of Scenic Road. It was completed in 1952 by architect Frank Wynkoop (1902–1978).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Theodore Lilienthal August, 1958. Dear Ted: I have a big table-drawer that I drop everything into—short poems, suggestions for poems, experiments and nonsense—and I hope there may be something in the mess that may be suitable for you.1 I have been digging in the drawer for several days and am only half through; I have to consider each scrap of paper—to burn or save—mostly I burn. I am also delayed by having to write letters to Germany. They are putting on my Greek-derived plays there—in translation—in a number of cities, and in Vienna and Basel. Medea had an “immense success” (! they say) at the Bad-Hersfeld drama festival.2 Vienna—the old Burgtheater is going to put on “Tower beyond Tragedy” in November; others will have “Medea” or “The Cretan Woman.”3 They wanted me to go to Germany and I wouldn’t, but it gives me nervous prostration to answer letters. I’m {very} sorry that you and Fran have had disabilities. Mine is that I go to sleep in the afternoons. I hope you are all well now. I’ll let you know when I find something. Best wishes to both of you. Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. Letterhead: Tor House. 1. In response to Lilienthal’s request for an unpublished poem suitable for printing as a limited-edition pamphlet, Jeffers sent a copy of “The Ocean’s Tribute.” See Jeffers’ October 11, 1958 letter to Marie Bullock, note 1. 2. See, for example, “Ein mysteriöses Mysterienspiel” by Johannes Jacobi, Die Zeit (July 10, 1958): Zeit Online. “The greatest artistic success (besides Murder in the Cathedral) presented at the Festival in eight years,” Jacobi writes [in German], “was the Medea of American Robinson Jeffers. This was a complete realization of monumental theater, pagan to the last trembling shiver.” 3. Die Frau aus Kreta premiered at the Schauspielhaus in Bochum, Germany on September 25, 1960, with Carmen-Renate Köper (b. 1927) as Phaedra.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Bennett Cerf [August 1958] Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California. Mr. Bennett Cerf President, Random House, New York, N. Y. Dear Bennett: No doubt your secretary can answer this. I hardly know whom to address at Random House since Saxe Commins died. A young man named Nicholas Cominos wants to make a motion picture of my narrative poem “Give Your Heart to the Hawks;” and I don’t think it will come to anything, but I am willing to sign an Agreement with him.1 For this I need the number and date of copyright, and assurance from Random House that you make no claim to motion picture rights. It would be kind of you, though I am convinced that my ten percent of the net will be 10% of nothing. But of course let me know if you have any objection: I have signed no contract yet. I don’t suppose you have heard of the surprising interest in my Greekderived plays in Europe. It began I think when the Telaviv players put on “Tower beyond Tragedy” in Paris, along with “The Dybbuk.”2 Then “Medea” was “an immense success” (they say!) at the Bad-Hersfeld drama festival in June-July; and a number of other theaters in West Germany and Switzerland3 are going to produce it, others will put on “The Cretan Woman;” and the historical Burgtheater in Vienna is producing “Tower beyond ♦ Tragedy” (called “Die Quelle” = “The Fountain”) in November. They say that will be “an event.” I have an admirable translator, a bilingual young woman of Munich, named Eva Hesse; and a first-rate publishing house, Rowohlt Verlag of Hamburg, has undertaken to publish my poems, translated by Miss Hesse, in two volumes: “Dramatic Poems”4 and “Lyrical and Narrative Poems.”5 They wanted me to go to Germany for premières but I wouldn’t.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

With best wishes to you, Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Columbia. 2 pages. 1. Cominos asked Jeffers to sign a contract for a film version of Give Your Heart to the Hawks, although he had not yet written a script nor found financial backers. 2. The Habimah Theatre, named the National Theatre of Israel in 1958, performed S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk and Jeffers’ Medea (not The Tower Beyond Tragedy) at the Théâtre SarahBernhardt in Paris July 9–22, 1957. Israel’s foreign minister Golda Meir attended the opening performance of The Dybbuk, along with ambassador Ya’Akov Tsur, Marc Chagall, and other dignitaries and celebrities. The star of both plays was Hanna Rovina (1888?–1980), widely regarded as Israel’s greatest actress, so the same audience likely returned for Medea. A reviewer who had previously seen Marguerite Jamois and Judith Anderson perform the title role in Paris thought Rovina was superior to both—“Elle défie toutes comparaisons.” See “Le Théâtre Habimah présente la Médée de Robinson Jeffers” by Claude Sarraute, Le Monde (July 17, 1957): 9. Rovina first performed Jeffers’ Medea, translated into Hebrew by Yaakov Malkin, at the Habimah Theatre in Tel Aviv November 5, 1955. The following year, Rovina was awarded the Israel Prize for Theater Arts. 3. Medea premiered April 24, 1959 at the Stadttheater Bern, with stage and screen actress Heidemarie Hatheyer (1918–1990) in the leading role. 4. Robinson Jeffers, Dramen: Die Quelle, Medea, Die Frau aus Kreta, translated by Eva Hesse, was published by Rowohlt in 1960. Each play was also printed separately. 5. Rowohlt did not publish a volume of lyric and narrative verse, but Hesse continued to write about and translate Jeffers throughout her long career. See, for example, Robinson ­Jeffers, Gedichte (Passau: Andreas Haller, 1984); Unterjochte Erde: Gedichte (Munich: Piper, 1987); and Die Zeit, die da kommt: Gedichte (Munich: Carl Hanser, 2008).

RJ to Eva Hesse Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California August September 7, 1958. Dear Eva Hesse: I referred to you the writer of the enclosed letter,1 saying that you are my agent in Germany, as well as translator, and have full authority to act for me. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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I don’t care what answer you give him—but probably you don’t care either, and I shouldn’t have bothered you with this. Thank you very much for your always interesting letters. When I wonder where you had found your English it was not because you use it perfectly, but chiefly because I couldn’t guess whether it was good American English or good English English. Usually there is a difference, but you have the language pure, so to speak. The three hundred and eleven dollars, or whatever it was, for radio broadcast arrived punctually, and I should have acknowledged it sooner, but I still find it very difficult to write a letter. Don’t bo bother with accountants, at least so far as I am concerned. Your reckoning is quite sufficient. ♦ I remember from your last letter that you were going to visit Ezra Pound, whose work you have had in hand for eight years, didn’t you tell me?2 —An extraordinary man, and ridiculously mistreated in this country. However, in the state of opinion at that time, I suppose he was lucky. I wish I liked his work better, but indeed I have read very little of it. What most impresses me is that Yeats of Ireland, who was a first-rate poet and an arrogant man, seems to speak of Ezra Pound as a disciple might of a master. That is really surprising. You asked me, some time ago, whether my “Dear Judas” was a play or a poem. It was modelled, more or less, on the Japanese Noh play, a play of dreamy ghosts repeating a tragic action of their lives, which Ezra Pound I think introduced to western literature and Yeats used for his own purposes. As to “Dear Judas”—a brave man from Hollywood tried nobly to present it as a play.3 He planned to try it out in Boston and bring it to New York. But the mayor and police of Boston prohibited it as blasphemous, so he brought it straight to New York and it starved to death before the week was up. Best wishes to you. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

ALS. Hesse. 2 pages. 1. See next letter. 2. Hesse’s lifelong interest in Pound resulted in more than twenty book publications. Her bilingual edition of Pound’s Cantos, published by Arche Literatur Verlag in 2012, won the prestigious Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2013. 3. Michael Myerberg.

RJ to Christopher Middleton Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California, USA. August 8 {September 8}, 1958 Dear Mr. Middleton:1 Thank you for your letter about the trilingual war-poem anthology; it will be an interesting book.2 But as to inclusion of my verses—“Eagle valor, chicken mind”—I must refer you to my translator and agent in Germany, Mrs. Eva Hesse, Munich 13, Franz-Josefstrasse 7, West Germany. She has full authority to act for me in this matter, and I am sending her your letter. Incidentally—she knows Mr. Ledig Rowohlt, and has arranged with him the publication in German of some plays and poems of mine. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers ALS. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Christopher Middleton (b. 1926), a poet, translator, and editor, was born in England and educated at Oxford. From 1966 to 1998, he was a professor of Germanic studies at the University of Texas, Austin. Representative books include Torse 3: Poems, 1949–1961 (1962), Pataxanadu and Other Prose (1977), and Selected Poems of Goethe (1983). 2. Ohne Hass un Fahne: Kriegsgedichte des 20. Jarhunderts / No Hatred and No Flag: War Poems of the 20th Century / Sans haine et sans drapeau: Poèmes de guerre au XXe Siècle, edited by Wolfgang G. Deppe, Christopher Middleton, and Herbert Schönherr (Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1959). More than a year after this letter was written, Middleton wrote Jeffers an apologetic letter (ALS HRC Texas), informing him of an editorial decision to limit the English section of the book to poems written by British authors.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Nicholas Cominos [September 1958] Dear Mr. Cominos: I am sorry and ashamed to have kept you waiting. It was only because I can’t bear to write letters. Some days ago I managed to write to Random House about the copyright, and enclose their reply. But probably, after my negligence, you don’t want to hear any more about this. If so, I’ll be glad to agree with you. If you do {cho} wish to go on with it, I’ll sign any agg agreement on the lines of the draft you sent me. But, fFrankly, I don’t thick think “Give your Heart etc.” can possibly be profitable for either you or your backers, {backers. And as an artistic problem{—}which I think mostly interests you—seems to me that there is no proper solution. {I doubt that you can find a satisfactory} But maybe I’m wrong, and you have very truly my best wishes.} But you have {very truly} my best wishes. Kindest good wishes, Sincerely, ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp [September 1958] Dear Tim: I am growing old, and I can’t write letters. When I try to, everything else stops, and still the letter doesn’t get written. Forgive me. But now {now} I know it was Una who answered the letters, and I am simply and knew which to answer and which to forget. I should be very {am} glad to know {think} that her letters to you will be with {among} your papers in the Yale library.1 Let me thank you. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. In a process that took several years to complete, Clapp donated his and Maud’s papers to Yale University. The collection of correspondence, manuscripts, research notes, and other items (more than 50 linear feet of material) is housed in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Raymond J. Pflug [September 1958] Dear Mr. Pflug: I’m sorry to be so slow in answering your letter. Most letters I cantdont {can’t—or don’t—} answer at all, and I hope it may be considered one of the disabilities of old age. I was more prolific when I wrote those letters to George Sterling. Oh yes, you may quote from them. I don’t remember what I said, except a vague suspicion of two or three rather florid passages paragraphs, but if I’ve been foolish I won’t try to keep it hidden.2 As to what you call the {my} Harvard speech,3 I never knew {nor asked} until now where it was dug up from. I know it was not the Library of Congress speech reading, because that had some {mild} suggestions that we need not {it was foolish dangerous to} {it would be stupid to} let Franklin Roosevelt trick us into {the} war. And so it was. Walter Clark’s work interests me. I didn’t know about his thesis at Vermont.4 I met somebody a few days ago who said Clark’s latest book was not good5—“He can write stories about animals, not about human beings.” I said, “The Ox-bow Incident?” I’m sure I shall like his latest book too, when I come to read it. Sincerely, 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Raymond J. Pflug (1919–1993) taught composition and literature courses at the College of San Mateo in California. He was the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: The Evolution of a Classic (1965) and the editor of The Ways of Language: A Reader (1967). 2. Another version of Jeffers’ opening paragraph exists on a separate sheet: “Oh, yes, you have my permission to quote from my letters to George Sterling. I don’t remember at all what was said in them, {but dimly} except a few passages of extravagant praise of a few passages of extravagant praise for George’s poems. I still like and even admire his work them; but at that time I was grateful to him for what he said about mine, and sorry for him because he spoke of himself as ‘out-moded.’ As if that mattered!” 3. Themes in My Poems. 4. “A Study in Robinson Jeffers” (Department of English, University of Vermont, 1934). 5. Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Tim Hazard (London: William Kimber, 1951).

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RJ to Emanuel Harper [September 1958] Dear Mr. Harper: Thank you for answering the questions in my letter to Mr. Cerf, who also replied to me. You indicated that you would like, for the record, to be informed of any agreement {contract} I made signed {made} {might sign} for making a motion picture out of any poem of mine. I have signed an agreement with a company called “Alba Productions,” which is mostly {largely} a friend here named Nicholas Cominos. A clause in the contract makes it void after two years if he has not found the means and material. As you see, I expect nothing from it, or rather ten percent of nothing. 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Emanuel “Manny” Harper (1905–2002), the first person Cerf hired when he founded Random House, was the treasurer and a director of the firm.

RJ to Bennett Cerf Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California September 27, 1958. Dear Bennett: Thank you for your letter, but I have no book in prospect for a year or two. It was seven years between books last time, and I think the time before. Next time will probably be my last book, so I might as well make it good. It’s surprising to be nearly seventy-two years old all of a sudden; I’m not sure that I like it. However, I’ll have a book for you.1 With cordial greeting, Robin. Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Columbia. 1 page. 1. Jeffers continued to write until the end of his life, but he did not submit another book. The manuscript of The Beginning and the End and Other Poems, published posthumously by Ran-

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

dom House in 1963, was prepared by Melba Berry Bennett. The book contains a number of noteworthy late poems, such as “Metamorphosis,” “The Last Conservative,” “Monument,” “Birds and Fishes,” “The Beautiful Captive,” “Passenger Pigeons,” “The Ocean’s Tribute,” “Vulture,” “Granddaughter,” and “Pleasures.”

RJ to Theodore Cominos [October 1958] Dear Mr. Cominos: I have signed the copies of the Agreement and return four of them with this. The title of the poem is “Give your Heart to the Hawks”—plural— but I didn’t think it needed correcting in the Agreement.2 Your brother will attend to that. And I wish him good luck. Sincerely yours, 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Theodore H. Cominos (b. 1924), a younger brother of Nicholas Cominos, was an attorney in Salinas, California. 2. Cominos sent Jeffers the original and six copies of the agreement September 26, 1958 (TLS HRC Texas).

RJ to Marie Bullock Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California October 11, 1958. Mrs. Hugh Bullock, President, Academy of American Poets. Dear Mrs. Bullock: Thank you very much for your letter, and its precursor on the telephone. You are very kind, and it was a pleasure to hear your voice. I must thank also your Chancellors for electing me a Fellow of the Academy of American Poets, and for the substantial award.1 I note the names of those who nominated me, and shall try to write to them. You have an illustrious board of Chancellors.2 LETTERS 1940– 1962

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Also I should wish to thank the donors of the fund which makes possible these Fellowships; and yourself in particular, for your devotion to poetry and your admirable persistence. I hope the photograph that my daughter-in-law sent you was passable. It is one of many press photographs that have been given us, but perhaps we could have chosen more wisely. I have no vanity. ♦ It would please us greatly if you could come avisiting here, sometime when you are in California. You might enjoy seeing our sea-boulder house above the ocean cliff, built by my own hands and latterly my son’s, and the great mountain-coast south of here. Most sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers ALS. AA Poets. 2 pages. 1. The Academy of American Poets selected Jeffers for its 1958 Fellowship. Bullock publicly announced the $5,000 award for “distinguished poetic achievement” October 14. Ted Lilienthal learned of the award in time to mention it in the colophon for The Ocean’s Tribute: “In honor of the awarding of the 1958 Fellowship of the Academy of American Poets to Robinson Jeffers, this poem, printed by the Grabhorn Press for Ted Lilienthal and Carroll Harris, is presented to their friends in the Roxburghe and Zamorano Clubs. October 28, 1958.” 2. Chancellors of the academy in 1958 were J. Donald Adams, W. H. Auden, Witter Bynner, Henry S. Canby, Max Eastman, Robert Hillyer, Randall Jarrell, Marianne Moore, Robert Nathan, John G. Neihardt, Frederick A. Pottle, and John Hall Wheelock.

RJ to Jean Kellogg Route 2, Box 288. October 13, 1958. Dear Jean: It is so hard for me to write a letter that I thought nothing less than that could express my gratitude for your gift. Ever since it arrived I have been mentally putting ink to paper, but as usual got nothing done. I should have telephoned. It is a magnificent hawk’s head, with all the stoicism and stored-up fury that are in their blood. I am truly grateful to you.1 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

Laidlaw Williams must be a marvelous bird-surgeon as well as observer.2 I should be helpless in that respect, perhaps mostly from fear of hurting them; I remember how ignominiously I failed, even in trying to wash clotted tar off a gull’s wings. Thank you, Jean, very much; I treasure the picture. Sincerely, Robin. ALS. Yale S. 1 page. 1. A draft of this letter, located at the Humanities Research Center, Texas, is substantially the same except for deletions to the second paragraph, as follows: “It is a magnificent hawk’s head, with all the silent {stoicism} and concentrated {stored-up} fury that is {are} in their blood. They don’t throw away their fury {rage}, as humans do {in the human manner,} but use it for practical purposes, and therefore can be patient too with great {strong} selfconquest. {I am truly grateful to you.} I am truly grateful to you.” 2. Local ornithologist Laidlaw Williams, co-author of “Breeding of the Parula Warbler at Point Lobos, California” (1958), was a frequent contributor to the Condor and other journals.

RJ to Agnes Meyer Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California October, 1958 Dear Agnes: I am delighted with the photograph portrait; it is certainly monitory but also benevolent, besides the straight eyes of a beautiful woman. Thank you: I’ll see and heed it.1 As for Oedipus, poor man, I seem to like him less the more I think of him. But he has some secrets still, which Sophocles perhaps overlooked.2 Sophocles is too careful, too well planned; I prefer Aeschylus “drunkenly” (as was said) heaving mass on mass. I was very happy to see you again. Yours, Robin.3 ALS. L Congress. 1 page.

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1. Meyer visited Carmel in July. Writing to Jeffers July 28, 1958 after she returned home (TLC L Congress), she says, “It was so wonderful to see you that I can scarcely believe that it took place in reality, that it was not just another one of those imaginary conversations I hold with you when I read your poems.” On August 4 she wrote again (TLC L Congress) and enclosed a gift. “I found a photograph of myself which will look you straight in the eyes,” she writes, “and I am sending it to you to remind you that I expect great things from you.” Meyer tells Jeffers to “place the photograph somewhere where you will be obliged to look at it now and then for it will speak to you when I am unable to do so.” 2. In her July 28 letter, Meyer refers to conversations with Jeffers about current writing projects. Jeffers had mentioned that he was making notes for a play about Oedipus. 3. Meyer sent Jeffers a telegram October 16 (TlgD L Congress) to congratulate him for receiving the Academy of American Poets Fellowship, and she wrote to Jeffers two more times after that. In her last letter, dated July 22, 1960 (TLC L Congress), she mentions a decline in Jeffers’ health. “I have heard from our dear mutual friend, Jean Kellogg,” Meyer writes, “that you have not been well of late. This is a real sorrow to me. Please get that valiant spirit of yours to overcome the weakness of the flesh. The country needs you but I need you more than most people you know. I wish to remind you of my love, and hope it will help restore your will to live and to write.”

RJ to Marjorie Currey [October 1958] Dear Miss Currey: Thank you. I shall be quite content with the terms offered, or any terms that you and the Czechs can {may} agree on. Thank you for writing taking the trouble. I suppose the selection of poems for the book will be made by the translator, Kamil Bednar.2 He has written to— Certainly I am too lazy to do it. The mother-in-law of a friend here is a Czech, and she says the translation {of “Mara”} was very well {expertly} done. Mr. Bednar has written to me several times, and {believe it or not,} I have answered once. He seems a nice fellow, a little wistful and lonely. Thanks again for the trouble you are taking. Sincerely yours 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

1. Marjorie E. Currey (1917–2002), a 1938 graduate of Mount Holyoke College, was the director of the foreign rights department at Random House. 2. Bednárˇ was working on a collection of Jeffers’ lyric poems titled Jestrˇabi krˇik [Hawk’s cry].

RJ to Unknown [October 1958] All right— You have my permission. The verses are from my book “Thurso’s Landing and Other Poems”—Random House {1935 I think—} and the title is the “The Place for No Story”—but you needn’t be particular on the subject. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Hans Barkan Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California. December 1958. Dear Hans: It was a great pleasure for us when Phoebe and Button came visiting the other day; we only wished that you had come along with them. Since then a letter from Phoebe says that you have been in hospital for an operation; and I am very sorry to hear it. I don’t like hospitals, except the one I knew in Dublin, where the nurses had Catholic Irish charm and the management had Protestant ability. I think of you so often, Hans. I think of your kindness and Phoebe’s when Una was ill; I think of the fun we had in Oxfordshire, when you were in the Watlington hotel with that maniac landlord and his shooting-irons. But I am sorry we never traveled with you in Ireland. What an oversight! I think of you us in the prehistoric earth-works atop of White Horse

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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hill; and the bottle of sherry you brought, and Una’s ecstatic delight in it. I think you took a picture of that—she grinning, hoisting the bottle. And I remember the great block of stone called King Alfred’s trumpet?— bugle?—you blew through a hole in the rock and made a clear loud noise, but I couldn’t evoke even a whisper. You musicians!1 ♦ I wish I knew why I can’t write letters. I love my friends, who are very few, but I can’t write to them; much less to the people unknown to me—my “fans,” Una used to call them, that horrid name out of Hollywood—but that doesn’t matter—except that it makes me many enemies—who cares? But I can’t write to you and Phoebe. I can’t write to Tim Clapp, Una’s best friend and mine too, though he has sent me four or five letters that urgently required answering. It is a stupid predicament. Of course Una used to answer my mail for me, when she thought it necessary. And she wrote such beautiful letters. As for me—my right eye was hurt at birth, and progressively dimmed, and is now stuffed up with a cataract. And the other seems {feels} pretty old.2 But that’s no excuse, there must be other causes. Best love to you, Hans. And please give my love to Phoebe, and to Button and her husband, who were so kind to me. Yours always, Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 2 pages. Postmark: December 27, 1958. 1. Una mentions these experiences in an October 17, 1929 letter to her mother and family; see Collected Letters 1: 872–873. 2. Jeffers writes about his eyesight in “Birthday (Autobiography),” a poem composed in his seventieth year: “As to the eye: it remained invalid and now has a cataract. / It can see gods and spirits in its cloud, / And the weird end of the world: the left one’s for common daylight” (Collected Poetry 3: 442).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Marie Bullock Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California. January, 1959. Dear Mrs. Bullock: I am very much ashamed of myself. It is almost impossible for me to answer letters, but I meant to answer yours; I read it hastily and have completely lost it. Sometimes, when I leave letters lying around in hope to answer them, my beautiful daughter-in-law picks them up and puts them in a safe place and then forgets where. But in this case that is only a mean suspicion. Then further, I have been ill—nothing serious—but it took away my last ounce of energy. Thank you cordially for the citation as fellow of the Academy, and for “The Night of the Hammer,” which I don’t understand.1 Please forgive me for my stupid inability to answer letters.2 Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. AA Poets. 1 page. 1. The Night of the Hammer, a collection of poems by Ned O’Gorman (1929–2014), was named the 1958 Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets. The award was announced in November 1958; each member of the academy received a copy of the book following publication by Harcourt, Brace in January 1959. 2. A draft of this letter (ALD HRC Texas) contains a paragraph Jeffers did not include in the final version: “I believe you asked me to serve for a season as editor of something for the Poetry Pilot. I agree to do so, if I am capable of it, and if I come to know what the Poetry Pilot is. The name is unfamiliar to me.” The first issue of the Poetry Pilot, a newsletter published by the Academy of American Poets, was released in August 1959.

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RJ to Marjorie Currey [March 1959] My dear Miss Currey— Thank you for your letter regarding the offer from the Czechoslovak Theatrical and Literary Agency in Prague to publish the Bednar translation of Hungerfield and The Roan Stallion.1 Since you feel that the offer, as outlined in your letter of March 18, 1959 is reasonable, I authorize you to enter into an agreement with the publisher, on my behalf. With kind regards, Sincerely yours Robinson Jeffers DL. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Robinson Jeffers, Hrˇebec grošák / Silák Hungerfield, translated by Kamil Bednárˇ (Prague: Mladá Fronta, 1960).

RJ to Eva Hesse [April 1959] Dear Eva Hesse: Theis ridiculous inability to write letters is on me again, and I am ashamed of it, but at least it and don’t really understand it. My best friend lives in New York, a man a few years older than I am, caring for his insane wife, keeping her out of hospital feeding her, watching her, keeping her out of hospital—he never speaks of it but his friends know it—and also meeting a {small} circle of his friends twice a week to translate and discuss Plato’s dialogues and Thucydides—I mean and also writing his poems—he has just {lately} published a new book of them.1 Admirable is a silly word, but this man is admirable. His career was as a connoiseur of paintings for one of the great galleries in New York {his career was as a connoiseur of great paintings, from early Italian to the present for one of the great galleries in N. Y.}2

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Dear Eva Hesse: I am ashamed and sorry that I can’t answer letters—not even to thank you for yours—not even {nor} to thank you for the Lebkuchen in their handsome container. The cookies {little cakes} disappeared like magic, mostly down the throats of my grandchildren; the container is still in service, for home-bred cookies. I do thank you, and for your letters. Two questions of yours I should have answered at once: —Could I make “The Cretan Woman” longer, so as to fill up an evening? —No. I don’t see how I could. —Has “The cCretan —” been performed before? —Yes, {for several months,} in a little theater in N. Y. New York but “off Broadway.” It seems to have been quite successful there. I believe It has been done in other places too. I have congratulated myself that neither “Cretan” nor “Medea” has been performed in this little town Carmel or Monterey, though the place is permeated with little theaters. and groups supporting them. But now, this summer, two different groups of people are putting on the two plays.3 I don’t like it, but I’shall have nothing to do with it; everyone here knows that I do not attend go to the theaters nor attend lectures, nor readings by visiting poets. This sounds bad-tempered but it is not; it is only self-preservation. ♦ This was a simple and quiet country when we first came here. —Cretan Woman. Plays have been produced in U.S.A, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, South Africa; also translated and produced in {translation in} Denmark, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy. Poems translated and published in Germany, and Czechoslovakia and elsewhere. $5,000 Award from Academy of American Poets, 1958. ALD. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Frederick Mortimer Clapp, Cadenza in C Minor (New York: Spiral Press, 1957). 2. Jeffers crossed out this entire paragraph and started over. 3. The Sponsors’ Club of the Robert Louis Stevenson School in Pebble Beach presented a reading of The Cretan Woman as a fund-raising event May 16, 1959, and the Forest Theater in Carmel opened its fiftieth summer season with ten performances of Medea, June 26–July 5, 1959.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Bollingen Foundation [April 1959] Bessinger Foundation: {I have been ill or should have answered more promptly.} You ask me to give an opinion on Eric Barker and his work. I believe that {he} Eric Barker is worthy of any help you {the Foundation} may give him, and will return good value for it. I know that he is very faithful to his calling, and has in effect half starved himself in order to have room and time for his work. O Eric Barker’s {His} poems please me more than any others that are {being} written at this time. They are natural and quiet, and beautiful very far removed from the exhibitious {exhibitiousnist} nonsense that afflicts the poetry magazines. Barker’s verses go straight, and he has a great theme in the coast-range mountains above Big Sur. He has unspoiled imagination, and a good feeling for musical verse. You ask me to give an opinion on Eric Barker and his work. His poems please— 1

ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. In a March 9, 1959 letter from the Bollingen Foundation (TLS HRC Texas), Jeffers is asked if he would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for Eric Barker, an applicant for a fellowship. A follow-up letter from the foundation, dated April 17, 1959 (TLS HRC Texas), thanks Jeffers for his assistance. On this draft, Jeffers mistakenly writes “Bessinger” instead of Bollingen.

RJ to Nicholas Cominos [April 1959] Dear Nick Cominos: I am very sorry. It is ridiculous or worse that I cannot write a lt letter, nor mail wrap up a package and mail it. I have been ill and am not yet {quite} well: that is my only excuse excuse. Except the {my} stupid lifelong habit of never answering letters.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

But as for reading the script and making suggestions—didn’t I make it clear from the first that I can’t do that? —It would be useless if I did, for I know really nothing about the cinema. Well—Well—my one suggestion (not having read your script) is that you should feature the mountain landscape, {the great precipitous cliffs,} and the broad ocean, more if possible than the human actors.1 But I’m afraid ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Cominos sent Jeffers a draft of his screenplay for Give Your Heart to the Hawks in early April. He worked on the project for more than another year, but abandoned it at the end of 1960 for lack of adequate funding.

RJ to Marjorie Currey [April 1959] Dear Miss Currey: Unless you disapprove, I am quite willing to let them use the verses, free and for nothing. Oh, yes, Let Mr. Lutjens1 have the verses free and for nothing. That seems natural for any book that is not anthologizing is not anthologizing but discussing them. I think he has chosen quite well for his fragments. Thank you sincerely for your letter and the typescript. You say the letter {typescript} need not be returned to you. But if for any [illegible] reason you would like it returned, just let me{me} me know. Cordial greetings, RJ ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Probably David Bulwer Lutyens (1929–1987), a British poet and writer, and a grandson of architect Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens (1869–1944). Lutyens used a number of excerpts from Jeffers’ poetry in “Robinson Jeffers: The ‘Inhumanist’ at Grips with the Dilemma of Values,” chapter 3 in his book about American poetry, The Creative Encounter (London: Secker & Warburg, 1960): 37–65.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Librarian, Yale University April 22, 1959 Tor House Carmel, California Librarian Yale University Library New Haven, Connecticut Dear Sir: This is to assure you that I have given my permission to our good friend, Frederick Mortimer Clapp to present to your Library his collection of the letters of my wife, Una Jeffers. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page.

RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp April 22, 1959 Carmel, California. Dear Tim: My conscience troubles me that I have failed to answer your good letters, but I have counted on your familiarity with my congenital dislike for this form of writing, to understand and forgive me. As you can see, I have now taken to dictating the few letters which I send out. Enclosed is the letter of permission which you requested for the releasing of Una’s letters to the Yale University Library. And Melba tells me that she wrote you the news of Tor House which mostly centers around Lee and Donnan’s three children now. My own days follow a simple pattern. I was sorry to learn that Maud’s health has not improved, but I hope that your own is good. It is evident, from your new book of poems, that your mind is as active as ever. I regret that I could not thank you sooner for

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

having sent it to us, but my own health was as wintery as the weather here, when it came. It is still my hope that we shall see you again in Carmel. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. 1 My love to you, Tim. TLS. diZerega. 1 page. 1. Jeffers’ postscript is handwritten.

RJ to Mark Van Doren Box 36 {288}, Route 12 Carmel, California July 20, 1959 Dear Mark Van Doren: Two months have passed since your visit to our coast, and it has been in my mind to write you, but action lags shamefully behind intention, and I am now not certain that this letter will reach you. When my daughter-in-law told me of your telephone message, we made every effort to reach you, as Lee called numerous hotels without success.1 I had been receiving no visitors—trying to regain my strength after a prolonged illness—but I would have enjoyed a visit with you. Rorty, Van Doren, and Deutsch—the three brave souls who wrote the reviews of Tamar which lifted Jeffers from obscurity!2,3 It is probably too much to expect that you will be returning to California very soon again, but if you should, we shall look forward to a visit from you at Tor House. Thank you, too, for sending me the Autobiography, which, I suspect, only half tells the story of an active and constructive life! Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers P. S.— Dear Mark:— A kind and courageous lady has taken over my correspondence (since I am incapable of answering letters) and the letter LETTERS 1940– 1962

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above was written by her.4 Perhaps you noticed a manner somewhat different from my own. But what it says is what I want it to say—that I am very sorry to have missed you, and hope for another chance.5 Yours, Robin. TLS. Columbia. 1 page. Letterhead: Robinson Jeffers. 1. Van Doren wrote to Jeffers May 17, 1959 (ALS HRC Texas) from the Aptos Beach Inn on the north shore of Monterey Bay, near Santa Cruz, California. He telephoned Jeffers from the inn two days before, but was unable to reach him. 2. “I sit here now, looking across the bay at your mountains,” Van Doren writes, “and once more regret that I can’t see you. You have never been out of my mind in thirty years—or more, for it was in 1925 that Jim Rorty first told me about you.” 3. Jeffers mentions his indebtedness to Rorty, Van Doren, and Deutsch in “First Book,” published in the Colophon (May 1932) and reprinted in Breaking into Print, edited by Elmer Adler (1937). James D. Hart included the essay in My First Publication, a book printed by Adrian Wilson for the Book Club of California in 1961. For the complete text, see Appendix A: 9. 4. Melba Berry Bennett. 5. The postscript is handwritten.

RJ to Alice N. Jones Sept 30, 1959 William Morris Agency Dear Mrs. Alice Jones: Several years ago I signed an agreement with Miss Eva Hesse, — Munich— giving her rights as translator and agent for my plays and poems in Germany. The profits are shared equally between us. She has been surprisingly successful, getting the plays—particularly Medea—produced at a dozen or more theatres in west Germany, besides Vienna and Switzerland. Two or three of the plays have been broadcast, also; and a thick volume of translated poems is about to be published.1 This agreement is my only commitment abroad. It may be either revoked or extended at the end of this year (1959) but I don’t want to revoke it.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Thank you very much for your bargaining and telegrams—you are a very good bargainer. RJ TLD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Robinson Jeffers, Dramen: Die Quelle, Medea, Die Frau aus Kreta, translated by Eva Hesse (Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1960).

RJ to Judith Anderson Tor House Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California. October [18] 1959. Dear Judith: Deeply I wish you all the best. To-day is Sunday pm, California time, and your job must be gloriously fulfilled.1 I can imagine what bitter hard work it must have been to prepare for it. For my part, even now, I don’t at all know what’s going on. Until your letter I had no information from anyone except Wm. Morris Agency, and they knew next to nothing. Jerry Woll—is that the name?—made two appointments to call on me here, and then wired that he couldn’t keep either.2 So all the more I continued knowing nothing, not even whether that had to do with this. Dearest love to you, Judith. Please forgive the pencil: I answer no letters and have forgotten how to write with a pen. Yours always, Robin. ALS. San Francisco. 1 page. Postmark: October 19, 1959. 1. A new syndicated television series, Play of the Week, opened its first season on Monday, October 12, 1959 with Medea, starring Judith Anderson. Produced by David Susskind and directed by José Quintero for WNTA–TV, the videotaped production aired at 8:00 pm for six nights and concluded October 18 with a 2:00 pm Sunday matinee. An estimated audience of 2,300,000 watched Judith give “a performance of stunning and enveloping power” in Jeffers’

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“lucid” drama. See “Television: Judith Anderson’s Stunning Medea” by Jack Gould, New York Times (October 13, 1959): 79, and “Popular Gamble” by John P. Shanley, New York Times (November 1, 1959): X13. 2. Jerry Wald, executive producer at Columbia Pictures, issued a press release early in September concerning his plan to meet with Jeffers in Carmel. Wald wanted Jeffers to write the screenplay for a film tentatively titled Point Sur. See “Wald Seeking Deal with Poet Jeffers to Script Feature,” Daily Variety (September 4, 1959): 1, 4.

RJ to Miss Pregerson [October 1959] Dear Miss Pregerson:1 I wrote to m I am truly sorry that I failed to renew the copyright as promised. {Several years ago} I wrote to Random House, my publishers, on the subject; and my f one of my particular friends there, Saxe Comins, their head editor, answered that I di needn’t worry about renewal of copyright, that was done automatically by Random House. Saxe Comins has died since then, but I have his letter so I gave the matter no further thought. I am sorry to say that Saxe has died since then. But {But} I have his letter {on the subject} which would seem to exempt me from which would seem to absolve me from gross negligence. I enclose the papers which you sendt for my signature. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Probably Diane Pregerson (b. 1925), a Beverly Hills attorney. Pregerson later married real estate developer Guilford Glazer (1921–2014).

RJ to Mark Van Doren [November 1959] Mark Van Doren—Falls Village—Connecticut Big and beautiful magnolia tree in front of Aptos Inn—used to climb on the car’s roof to get a blossom from it for my wife. Dear Mark: Thank you for your letter.1 And forgive me now for speaking of 

LETTERS 1940– 1962

something that you must be your son’s trouble I remember the Aptos Inn, and a big beautiful magnolia tree that stood in front of it {in front of it— perhaps is still there. In flowering time—} In blossom flowering time I used to climb onto the car’s roof to get {pluck} a blossom {or two or two} from it for my wife. I won’t bore you by talking about your son’s trouble, except to send our sympathy and good wishes. The thing is a nuisance, not a calamity. But damn publicity anyhow.2 Yours publicity has a golden hand with a dagger it it; but this will soon blow over. ♦ and your son is spotlessly innocent—compared to the people who seduced him, and the people who are making a Roman holiday out of his misfortune. Not one in a hundred of them would have refused to play the game.♦ to pluck down a blossom for her. I don’t know whether the tree {magnolia} tree is still there. trees have a hazardous life in this country. This note is only to assure you of my sympathy with you and your son in his trouble. Ninety nine percent of his detractors would have done the same thing—it was forced on him—or perhaps {maybe} a hundred % percent. {that is why they are so excited.} Now he will have to begin his life over again: and that {which} is a privilege, if takes it right, not a martyrdom. My best wishes to him—and to you, old comrade. friend. Sincerely, ALD. HRC Texas. 3 pages. 1. In response to Jeffers’ July 29 letter, Van Doren wrote October 12 (ALS HRC Texas) to apologize for not telling Lee that he was staying at the Aptos Beach Inn when he telephoned in May. “You know,” he says, “it might have been just as well that I didn’t trouble you. Anyhow, it gives me deep pleasure to hear I would have been welcome.” 2. After winning nearly $130,000 on the television game show Twenty-One, Mark’s son Charles Van Doren became a national celebrity (see Jeffers’ August 1957 letter to Mark Van Doren). When questions about the legitimacy of the show were raised, Van Doren defended its integrity, but he was forced to admit the truth at a hearing of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. Testifying November 2, 1959, Van Doren

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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said he was given the correct answers in advance and told how to act (with delayed responses, worried facial expressions, and other ruses) in order to increase audience interest. Van Doren pleaded guilty to second-degree perjury for lying to a grand jury in a previous hearing, and resigned from his position at Columbia University in disgrace.

RJ to Henry Hewes [1959] Dear Mr. Hewes:1 Sorry I’m sorry—that’s how it is. I can’t do better. Sincerely, R. J. I just can’t answer these questions, {being almost entirely {completely} ignorant of the theater.} I have seen over only five or five {six} plays in my life; two of them were in German, and two by Shakespeare, and one was my “Medea” two of two of mine were mine {and two were mine.} Sorry I can’t give {straight} more lucid answers. I have never thought of myself as a playwright. But I don’t think of myself as a playwright. {But} I am not a playwright, but only the author of two or three plays in verse. R. J. 2 The Cretan Woman theme: Based on Euripides Hippolytus. 3 Possibly an “Oedipus.” I don’t know None. {Probably none.} 4 I have really no first favorite. any one “Dear Judas,” “Medea,” “The Cretan Woman”—I cannot choose. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Probably Henry Hewes (1917–2006), theater critic for the Saturday Review from 1955 to 1973 and founder of the American Theater Critics Association. The date of this letter is unknown, but it was probably written in the late 1950s.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Judith Anderson [January 1960] Dame Judith Anderson Carpinteria , California Congratulations to you and the British Empire.1 Love and g good best wishes for nineteen-sixty. Robin TlgD. San Francisco. 1 page. 1. Judith Anderson, a citizen of Australia, was named Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire on December 31, 1959 (effective January 1, 1960). Queen Elizabeth II bestowed the honor in recognition of Judith’s “most distinguished contribution to the stage.”

RJ to Fine Editions Press January 19, 1960 Fine Editions Press 227 East 45th Street New York, 17 Gentlemen: In answer to your card requesting further information regarding the poems, “Signpost”, “Return”, and “The Answer” for which you asked permission to reprint in your anthology THE GOLDEN YEAR, you should have on record my permission for their inclusion.1 The first of the two poems were printed in the volume “Solstice” by the Random House press, in 1935. The latter poem was printed in the volume “Such Counsels You Gave to Me”, by Random House, in 1937. If you need permission from Random House, please contact them directly. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Jeffers’ poems were included in The Golden Year, edited by Melville Cane, John Farrar, and Louise Townsend Nicholl (New York: Fine Editions, 1960): 150–151. The Poetry Society of America published the anthology in honor of its fiftieth anniversary. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp [April 10, 1960]1 Carmel, Rte 2. Box 288 Mr. Frederick Mortimer Clapp. Dear Tim: I have been ill a long time and was unable to write letters or dictate them, but surely I should have managed to tell you that I’d be glad to have Una’s letters to you, etc., preserved among your papers at Yale. And somehow I should have expressed my deep sorrow and sympathy when Maud died.2 Forgive me. And I did not acknowledge your book; but at least read and admired it. All good wishes to you. Affectionately, Robin. ALS. diZerega. 1 page. 1. A draft of this letter, dated April 10, is among Clapp’s papers at the Beinecke Library. 2. Maud Clapp died February 2, 1960.

RJ to Frederick Mortimer Clapp May 17, 1960 Dear Tim: I have made futile attempts to write you some word of solace since learning of Maud’s death, but I am forced to write without having found the word. I can only hope that it was a release for her, and that you have found the strength to endure your loneliness. Did you hear that Lee and Donnan had their fourth child on April 7th, and have named him John Robinson II?1 Garth and Charlotte, with their six children,2 visited us for a few days last month, and I found myself in a whirlpool of progeny! No, I have not been well—an irritating and tiresome series of illnesses. But Lee and Donnan take good care of my needs.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

Forgive my inadequacy, but know that I think of you with continued affection. TLD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. John Robinson Jeffers, Donnan and Lee’s last child, was born April 7, 1960. Donnan and Lee raised their family at Tor House and lived there for the rest of their lives. Donnan died February 5, 1982; Lee died December 16, 1992. 2. Garth and Charlotte’s sixth child, Garth Colin Jeffers, was born August 28, 1958. Their seventh and last child, Monique Lieselotte Jeffers, was born March 12, 1966. Garth and Charlotte were living in Redding, California when Charlotte died July 18, 1986. On August 12, 1987, Garth married Noël Sullivan’s niece Brenda (Doyle) McNamara (b. 1925) in the courtyard at Tor House. They resided in San Francisco, where Garth died May 12, 1998.

RJ to Eva Hesse Route 2, Box 288 Carmel, California, U.S.A June 9, 1960 Dear Eva Hesse: Thank you very much for your letter. It was—truly—a great pleasure to hear from you again. I wish I could respond in kind, but that is not possible. I am not well, and I hate to confess it, but perhaps we have a little license to be sick after age seventy. The illness has no name and no pain, no particular symptoms, but it has gone on for years and destroys my energies. Probably it is just the common nuisance of old age coming on. I don’t mind that, but I don’t like to insult my best friends, here and abroad, by not answering their letters. The book—“Dramen”—arrived here the day before your letter. It is beautifully made, and I am grateful to you and the Rowohlt Verlag, and thank you for the volumes that you are going to send. I shall never find a better translator. Thank you for the list of royalty receipts; I wish they were enough to repay you for your labor. I have just received a book of my short poems translated into CzechoSlovakian.1 They translated and published a long narrative poem some time ago—and naturally I can’t read a word of either book. LETTERS 1940– 1962

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With all good wishes to you— Robinson Jeffers. Please forgive the pencil—I can’t find a decent pen.2 ALS. Hesse. 1 page. 1. Robinson Jeffers, Jestrˇabi krˇik, translated by Kamil Bednárˇ (Prague: Státni nakladatelství krásné literatury, hudby a umeˇní, 1960). 2. This note is written in the top left corner.

RJ to Kamil Bednárˇ June 28, 1960 Mr. Kamil Bednar, Praha XII, W. Piecka 103 Czechoslovakia Dear Mr. Bednar: You have my permission to translate and adapt for the stage the poem “The Love and the Hate” from the volume “The Double Axe”. With warm personal regards, Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers {DJ}1 TLS. Památník. 1 page. Letterhead: Robinson Jeffers. 1. Donnan signed this letter for his father.

RJ to Kamil Bednárˇ August 28, 1960 Mr. Kamil Bednar, Praha XII, W. Precka 103 Czechoslovakia Dear Mr. Bednar: We were very pleased to receive your translations of my poems, and I wish I were familiar with your language so that I might express an intelligent

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

opinion. But I am aware of the amount of work and time they represent and appreciate this, and the success of your translations in Czechoslovakia. I wish also to express my good wishes for your marriage, of which Melba Bennett has informed me.1 My warm personal regards. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLS. Památník. 1 page. Letterhead: Robinson Jeffers. 1. Emilie (Jirincová) Stambolieva Bednárˇová (1907–1998), a writer and translator, married Bednárˇ in 1960. Writing as Emilie Stambolieva and later as Emilie Bednárˇová, she published a number of books, including Pod staropražským nebem [Under the old Prague heaven] (1941), Obraz ve studni [The image of the well] (1944), and Strˇíbrné strˇevícˇky: Vzpomínky z deˇtství [Silver shoes: memories of childhood] (1967).

RJ to John L. Saltonstall, Jr. [October 1960] John L. Saltonstall Jr. 18 Tremont Street, Boston Mass. Sorry I ca {cannot} endorse Kennedy—nor Nixon either.2 R. J. (collect)3 1

TlgD. HRC Texas. 1. John L. Saltonstall, Jr. (1916–2007), a Massachusetts attorney and politician, was the director of the Committee of Arts, Letters, and Sciences for John Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. 2. Democrats John F. Kennedy (1917–1963) and Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) were running against Republicans Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994) and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. (1902– 1985) for president and vice president of the United States. 3. This draft for a telegram is entirely crossed out, so the message may not have been sent.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Melba Berry Bennett December, 1960 Dear Melba— You are so kind. The enclosed has got to be answered, and I cannot do it. Could you write a note according to the lines suggested below?1 Dear Mr. — Mr. Jeffers is ill (seriously but not finally) and cannot answer letters. He says that that after sevnty seventy a man has a right to an illness now and then. But he wants me to express his most cordial thanks for the award, and for your letter. He is sorry he can’t go to New York—2 This letter is written by my dear friend Melba Bennett, of Palm Springs I’m sorry, Melba Melba—you can do it. Love and good wishes— Robin. My good friend Melba Bennett of Palm Springs answers answers this letter. Sincerely, Robinson Jeffers. ALD. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. During the last years of Jeffers’ life, Bennett spent extended periods of time at Tor House. As a friend and secretarial assistant, she handled some of Jeffers’ correspondence, organized his papers, and helped Donnan and Lee with miscellaneous affairs. After Jeffers died, Bennett edited The Beginning and the End and Other Poems: The Last Works of Robinson Jeffers (New York: Random House, 1963). She also formed the Robinson Jeffers Committee to preserve Jeffers’ artistic legacy, and served as the founding editor (1962–1968) of the Robinson Jeffers Newsletter. Bennett’s biography of Jeffers, The Stone Mason of Tor House: The Life and Works of Robinson Jeffers, was published by the Ward Ritchie Press in 1966. 2. Jeffers was notified in mid-December that he had won the Poetry Society of America’s 1960 Shelley Memorial Award for distinguished lifetime achievement. The honor, with a $1,250 stipend, was formally announced January 19, 1961 at the Poetry Society’s annual dinner in New York.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to John F. Kennedy [February 1961] To President Kennedy, With admiration and all good wishes. 1

Robinson Jeffers.2 ANS. Kennedy. 1 page. 1. Kennedy narrowly defeated Nixon in the November 8, 1960 election, becoming the thirtyfifth president of the United States. He was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. 2. Having declined an invitation to attend Kennedy’s January 20, 1961 inauguration, Jeffers received a letter from journalist and socialite Kay Halle (1904–1997), a close friend of the president-elect and a member of his inaugural committee. Writing February 3, 1961 (TLS HRC Texas), Halle says, “We were so disappointed that you were unable to share in President Kennedy’s Inaugural. Of the 167 creative Americans specially invited to attend the ceremonies some fifty came and wrote their personal sentiments on a page in a leather bound book which will be presented to President and Mrs. Kennedy. Even though you were unable to attend, we thought you might also wish to be represented.” Jeffers sent this note in response to Halle’s request, along with a photograph of himself seated outdoors on the stone bench in front of the dining room window at Tor House.

RJ to Random House March 31, 1961 Random House, Publishers 457 Madison Avenue New York, 22 NY Gentlemen: You have my authorization to permit the Czech publishing house of Mlada Fronta, Young Front to publish the Bednar translation of my “Loving Shepherdess”. I understand that they have contacted you and that it is of importance to them that the matter be expedited. Kind personal regards, Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Kamil Bednárˇ March 31, 1961 My dear Mr. Bednar: You have my permission to translate and publish my adaptation of Euripides’ Medea into Czech.1 We have written to Random House urging them to send you publication privileges for The Loving Shepherdess.2 You have my permission and best wishes for its success. It gives me pleasure to know that my verses have been accepted by your people and I am sure that it must be {due} in great part to the excellence of your translations. I am happy to say that I am recovering splendidly from my recent illness. My kind personal regards and thanks to you and Mrs. Bednar. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLS. Památník. 1 page. Letterhead: Robinson Jeffers. 1. Robinson Jeffers, Medea, translated by Kamil Bednárˇ (Prague: Dilia, 1962). 2. Robinson Jeffers, Pastýrˇka putující k dubnu, translated by Kamil Bednárˇ (Prague: Mladá Fronta, 1961).

RJ to Judith Anderson 1961 MAY 17 CARMEL CALIF 1147A JUDITH ANDERSON CARPENTERIA CALIF DONT KNOW WHAT AN EMMY IS BUT CONGRATULATE YOU1 LOVE ROBIN JEFFERS2 Tlg. Tor House. 1. Members of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Anderson an Emmy on May 16, 1961 for her performance as Lady Macbeth in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Macbeth. The drama aired November 20, 1960 on NBC. Maurice Evans also won an Emmy for his performance in the title role, and the production won three more Emmy Awards, including one for “Program of the Year.”

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

2. Jeffers sent this telegram on special Western Union stationery decorated with a bouquet of flowers and a card that says “Congratulations.”

RJ to Natalia Danesi Murray June 28, 1961 Miss Natalia Danesi Murray Mondadori Publishing Co. 597 Fifth Ave. New York 17 Dear Miss Murray:1 The Mondadori Publishing Company has my permission for a three months option on my poem HUNGERFIELD for publication in Italy, with the provision that the Italian translation be made by Principessa Mary de Rachewiltz.2 Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers TLC. HRC Texas. 1 page. 1. Natalia Danesi Murray (1901–1994), a writer and editor, directed the New York office of the Arnoldo Mondadori publishing company. She was later named vice president of the Rizzoli corporation. Her close friendship with writer Janet Flanner (1892–1978) is chronicled in a book Murray edited, Darlinghissima: Letters to a Friend (1985). 2. Mary (Rudge) de Rachewiltz (b. 1925), daughter of Ezra Pound and violinist Olga Rudge (1895–1996), lived with her husband Prince Boris de Rachewiltz (1926–1997) at Brunnenburg Castle in the Tyrolean Alps. Campofame, her translation of Hungerfield, was published by Edizioni del Segnacolo in 1962. De Rachewiltz also translated two other works by Jeffers—La Cretese (The Cretan Woman) and La Bipenne e Altre Poesie (The Double Axe and Other Poems), published in 1967 and 1969.

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to Josef Kalas 22 September, 1961 Dilia-Czechoslovak Theatrical and Literary Agency Vysehradska 28, Prague 2 Nove Mesto Czechoslovakia Att’n: Mr. Josef Kalas,1 Managing Director Your ref: 22123 Gentlemen: In reply to your letter of 18 September, 1961, I hereby consent to the transfer to you of my author’s rights to my play, “Medea” for a term of three years from the date of this letter, in consideration of a royalty payable to my account of six per cent. of gross receipts of any production or productions in Czechoslovakia of a Czechoslovakian translation of the play.2 I further agree that the above mentioned royalties be paid in Czech crowns for my account at the Czechoslovakian State Bank, such account to be drawn upon only by myself or by anyone appointed by me during my, or his, stay in Czechoslovakia. It is distinctly understood that the above agreement relates only to my play, “Medea”, in Czechoslovak translation, and only to production on the legitimate stage. ♦ If you should see Mr. Bednar, with whom I have had, in the past, pleasant correspondence, please give him my best regards, and best wishes for the success of his efforts and those of the S. K. Neumann Theatre. Very truly yours, Robinson Jeffers RJ:dj TLC. HRC Texas. 2 pages. 1. Josef Kalas (1921–1977) had previously served as the director of Státni nakladatelství krásné literatury, hudby a umeˇní [State publisher of literature, music, and art]. 2. Medea, featuring stage and television actress Blanka Vikusová (1925–2011), premiered at the S. K. Neumann Theatre in Prague on April 13, 1962. The production was directed by Václav Lohniský (1920–1980).

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

RJ to Whom It May Concern Tor House Carmel, California U.S.A. November 1, 1961 Permission is hereby granted, until December 31, 1966, to Emily and Kamil Bednar, for the following: 1. Exclusive right for the purpose of translation into Czech of any or all of my poems. 2. Exclusive right for the purpose of translation into Czech of any or all of my plays. 3. Exclusive right to negotiate for the theatrical production of their translations in Czech of my plays in Czechoslovakia. 4. Exclusive right to determine the amount of any and all royalties and in what way they shall be paid: their division resting in a personal agreement between me and the Bednars. The Bednars retain, and I retain, the right to revoke this agreement upon its expiration date, December 31, 1966. However, should both of us agree, or any person having their or my powers of attorney agree, to its continuance beyond that date, this agreement shall remain in effect for the period which shall be specified below the first signatures.1 J. Robinson Jeffers TLS. Památník. 1 page. 1. Bednárˇ wrote about Jeffers and translated his poetry until his death in 1972. He published Ženy od mysu Sur, a translation of Jeffers’ The Women at Point Sur, in 1965. Additional books include Básneˇ z Jestrˇábí veˇže [Poems of Hawk Tower] (1964); Sbohem, morˇe [Farewell, sea] (1968); and a memoir, Prˇátelstvi prˇes oceán [Friendship across the ocean] (1971). Petr Kopecky´ discusses Bednárˇ’s commitment to Jeffers in “The Warm Reception of Robinson Jeffers’s Poetry in Cold War Czechoslovakia,” an essay in The Wild That Attracts Us: New Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers, edited by ShaunAnne Tangney (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2015). Kopecky´ also mentions Bednárˇ in Robinson Jeffers a John Steinbeck: Vzdálení i blízcí [Robinson Jeffers and John Steinbeck: Distant and close] (Brno: Host, 2012; Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita, 2012).

LETTERS 1940– 1962

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RJ to National Institute of Arts and Letters [January 19, 1962] I shall (√ ) attend the next Dinner Meeting of the Institute. Robinson Jeffers APS. A Academy. Postmark: January 19, 1962. 1. Like other pre-printed cards sent in previous years regarding attendance at the dinner meeting, this one asked Jeffers to mark “I shall” or “I shall not” attend. Jeffers (or Donnan, who may also have signed the card for his father) checked “I shall.” Jeffers died at Tor House the day after the postcard was mailed. A formal notification was sent to members of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Letters January 31, 1962: “The Directors of the Academy announce with sorrow the death of Robinson Jeffers on January Twentieth, Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-two at Carmel, California. Mr. Jeffers was elected to the Academy on November Second, Nineteen Hundred and Forty-five and was the third occupant of Chair Twenty-eight. His death is the one hundred and seventy-seventh since the Academy was organized.” A special luncheon in honor of Jeffers, featuring a commemorative tribute by Mark Van Doren, took place at academy headquarters in New York, December 5, 1962. The tribute, “Robinson Jeffers: 1887–1962,” was published the following year in The Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Letters 13 (1963): 293–297.

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LETTERS 1940– 1962

APPENDIX A Miscellaneous Prose 1. Foreword to Fire and Other Poems by D. H. Lawrence (San Francisco: Grabhorn Press for the Book Club of California, 1940): iii–viii. See UJ to Albert Bender, February 1, 1940, note 1. D. H. Lawrence put his poetry into novels and stories; he was not usually, I think, a first-rate poet in verse, except many lines and passages, and his last and very beautiful poem “The Ship of Death.” But he was a man of genius; therefore almost all that he wrote is considerable, and worth preserving. When it is not poetry nor good prose it is at least perceptive, or grotesquely imaginative, or carries voices from the queer dark back-world of myth and magic that he took everywhere with him. And it is always personal, the man himself speaking. The best poems in this previously unpublished collection are, I think, “Fire,” “Change of Life,” “Reach Over,” and “Eagle in New Mexico.” The last-named is the best of all, but not exactly new to the reader, being an earlier draft of the poem published in “Birds, Beasts and Flowers.” It is interesting to compare the two versions, the final one somewhat longer, somewhat improved, but weighted by its humanistic tag at the end, which was not in the original conception and does not belong with it. “Reach Over” presents one of the most characteristic of Lawrence’s attitudes—or should one say desires?—and its emotion is strong and sincere. “Fire” is a lovely poem, though somewhat diffuse and unfinished; “Change of Life” is rather a sort of poetic treatise, gemmed with some beautiful imagery and some fine lines. It would be better, and emotionally more convincing, if it were half as long. These poems of Lawrence’s, like so much free verse of that time, generally lack concentration, and too often they substitute excitement for intensity, and too often serve as a catch-all for temporary ideas and surface emotion. As for instance the piece entitled “O! Americans!” which has moments of vision but is . . . perhaps “public speech” . . . certainly not poetry.

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And there are one or two poems included here that show Lawrence at his very worst, screaming and vulgar, with the extraordinary English vulgarity that is as thick as plum-pudding. But even the worst poems—“Are you pining to be superior?” is the worst—represent true perceptions. And they also serve as a warning: that it is very hard to express hatred and contempt with dignity.—“To hell with dignity,” Lawrence might have answered, “I have something to say.” He had many things to say, and often they were confused or contradictory, but they must be said, they were like burning coals in his mouth. No appreciable writer since the author of “Pilgrim’s Progress” has been so desperately convinced that the world was lost and society contemptible, and that he could save them if they would hear him. I think of Lawrence as the last Protestant. His earnestness and missionary zeal, his quest of salvation, his sacrifice of dignity, his faith in intuition, the inner guidance—he called it sometimes “thinking with the blood,” others have called it inspiration by the Holy Ghost,—his distrust of establishments and institutions, even his penetration into the dark corners of psychology:—all these are the powerful qualities of early Protestantism. But this is Protestantism far gone in decline; it retains its energies and has lost its direction. Bunyan was entirely sure of the means of salvation; Lawrence wished to be sure, often convinced himself that he was sure. The prescription was on the tip of his tongue; but it was hard to formulate, and it varied from time to time. Was it in the blood-stream, or the base of the spine, or the dark consciousness? Or was it in love of men, not mankind? Or in “tenderness” and mere abolition of prudery. Somewhere, certainly, mankind had taken the wrong turning; we had been following a clue through the labyrinth and had lost it somewhere. The animals were fairly happy but man was not—at least European man; and Europe, after so many centuries of Christianity, had blundered into the great war. Both ­Europe and Christianity had confuted themselves. Lawrence went about the world looking for that lost clue to the labyrinth; perhaps it was in Asia, perhaps the Buddhists in Ceylon had it—but no! they were worse than the Christians. Perhaps it might be found in a remote brandnew country like Australia; he went there, and “God,” he wrote in a letter, “how I hate new countries.” Perhaps the gentle Pueblo Indians had it—no,

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Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose

not they,—or perhaps the Mexican Indians, before Spain smashed their culture and their mythology. Then Lawrence tried again, further back in time: perhaps the Etruscans had the secret, those happy comfortable Etruscans, before Rome destroyed them. Last, in his best poem, he began to consider the Egyptians . . . he never found what he sought; but his work, and in some degree his genius, were produced by that febrile search. And who has ever found the magical faith, or magical knowledge, on which to build a new culture? I think of one example: the early Christians did. But they did not know it, nor even imagine such a thing. They were not preparing for a new age, but for the end of the world. Well, the world did not end; but in this time of its temporary decline, with the lurid play of ideologies and war for background, it becomes quite apparent that we have lost the way, or never found it. The Catholic Church, a great and ancient statue that looks like marble but remains reasonably plastic, points a way for its flock—but if one is not of that flock? And there is a recent Marxist statue, certainly not of marble, and rather discredited at the moment pointing another way. And there are more pointing statues, even more recent and more discredited. Then there is a great vague voice advocating democracy without ever defining the word, without ever stopping to think whether it means absolute rule by majorities, or individual freedom, or only that “one man is as good as another.”—Or whether democracy is . . . enough? We have lost the way, and we know it at last. We must just live as well as we can, and listen to the Sibyls muttering—the inspired persons: Lawrence is one of them—finding in their obscurity and confusion many bright flashes, and sometimes a little guidance.

2. “Point Lobos,” See Your West (Standard Oil, 1947); reprinted in The Glory of Our West (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1952). See RJ to Roland Meyer, March 1947, note 2. Point Lobos means Point of Wolves, but it was not the gray robber of the forest that the Spaniards had in mind, but what they called sea-wolves—lobos

Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose

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marinos. We call them sea-lions, or seals. They were here when the Spaniards came; no doubt they were here ten thousand years ago, when the Indians came; they are still here, their long streamlined bodies playing in the surf under the rocks, and their roaring and barking voices are heard offshore. But the old cypress trees have been here a great deal longer. They are Monterey cypress—cupressus macrocarpa—the last grim stand of a great forest that grew up and down the coast in geological times, and now there are only a few acres of them left, except those that have been planted by human hands—in southern England for instance. They flourish wherever there is damp air and not too much frost. But it is only here in their own place, growing old on the rock verge of the Pacific, that they take their characteristic shapes, the trunks twisted and buttressed against storm, and the roots like ships’ cables, winding far among the great rocks for anchorage. They are hung with Spanish moss and jeweled with red lichen; they look immensely old, desolate and enduring, like the ancient trees that Chinese artists love. And the granite cliffs that they grow on are like the rocks in a Chinese landscape-painting. That was my impression of Point Lobos when I first saw it—that it was Oriental, it did not belong to this country, but must have drifted, like a ship across the Pacific, from the headlands of Asia. Point Lobos was part of a great ranch granted in Mexican times to a man named Marcellino Escobar; a ranch that extended from the Carmel River to the Little Sur, some twenty miles of ocean frontage, and “as far east as the cattle would graze.” Señor Escobar got this principality in 1839 and he lost it in 1841, all in one night, in a gambling game with ten soldiers at the Monterey Presidio. Land was not so valuable in those days, and the stakes on the other side are not recorded, but it must have been an exciting evening. And presently one of the winners, a Captain José Castro, bought up or wangled the shares of the others—he was their ranking officer—and became second owner of the place. Since that time Point Lobos has passed through many vicissitudes. It has been used as a whaling station; men watched the sea from Whaler’s Knoll and boiled blubber in the cove; and it has been used as a rock-quarry; the San Francisco Mint and Colton Hall in Monterey were built of granite quarried here.

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Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose

It has been used as a port for shipping coal, which was mined in a canyon to the south. It is now a state park, visited by thousands of people every summer. And none of these vicissitudes has ever seriously marked it, nor damaged the fantastic beauty of the place. The ancient trees have been preserved by some miracle; the hordes of sea-birds still roost on the islands, the sea-lions roar in the water; and the tall cliffs and foaming waves cannot be injured.

3. “Preface to ‘Judas’: Writer Explains the Inspiration for His Poem Now Set for the Stage,” New York Times (October 5, 1947): Drama–Screen, X3. See UJ to Michael Myerberg, September 26, 1947, note 1. “Dear Judas” was written nineteen years ago, but it is about ten years since Michael Myerberg told me that he was interested in the poem and would like to put it on the stage. This seemed to me a passing fancy, not to be taken seriously, because—although the poem is dramatic and stageable—it was not written for the stage; the thoughts and attitudes it presents are not those that would be expected by any probable audience, and people are bewildered or repelled by what is strange to them. If they come to see a passion play, I thought, they expect either chromo or technicolor sentimentality; but “Dear Judas” needs some quickness of intelligence to be understood at all. Therefore I dropped the matter from mind; but Mr. Myerberg did not. Several times during the past ten years he has written to me on the subject; and this year he took the thing in hand. So now it will presently be seen whether I underestimated the grasp and adaptability of the minds I had not written for. Mr. Myerberg is an artist, a man of imagination and courage, and attracted perhaps by “the fascination of what’s difficult.” He knows the theatre through long experience, but I think he has been amazed as I have been at the absurdities of boycott and prohibition that this play (since I may now call it so) has met with, first in Maine, then in Boston. We hear often enough of books being “banned in Boston,” not so often of plays; but this is the first time, so far as I know, that the “banning” has been not on a moral but frankly on a theological basis. It is ridiculous and I suppose illegal, and clearly it sets the clock back

Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose

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(in Boston) to a time before freedom and before the Protestant Reformation. However, the affair is too far out of time and out of this world to have much importance. I don’t think that the heresy trials are about to begin, nor the fagots preparing. And certainly “Dear Judas” was not written with the purpose of disturbing any person’s religious faith. It was written, like other poems of mine, because the great passions that produced some significant event came visibly into my mind and sought expression. But these were the passions of Jesus, of Mary, of Judas; I was not fool enough to think that I could depict these passions or these persons directly, and succeed where Milton nobly failed; therefore I chose the method of the Japanese Noh plays, which present a haunted place and passion’s afterglow, two or three ghosts or echoes of life, re-enacting in a dream their ancient deeds and sorrows. Certainly, if any place is haunted, the garden of Gethsemane should be, more than the Roman forum or the mounds of Troy; the passion suffered there was so much more intensely concentrated, and the event more important—for all future time—“No man shall live,” Jesus says in the play, “as if I had not lived.” To anyone who reads the gospels attentively—as I was required to do under the stern eye of the Presbyterian clergyman, my father—it soon becomes apparent that, though the deeds and sayings are of a beautiful simplicity, the minds of some of the persons are very far from simple. Peter’s mind was simple, no doubt, faithful, impulsive, bewildered, very human. The mind of Jesus is shown to us as if unintentionally, in wonderful glimpses, through the objective narrative. It is deep, powerful and beautiful; and strangely complex, not wholly integrated. He is the Prince of Peace, and yet He came “not to bring peace but a sword.” He is gentle and loving, yet He drives men with whips from the temple, He calls down destruction on Jerusalem, His curse kills an innocent fig-tree. This is not the mind of a mere incarnation of love, as the sentimentalists represent Him, but of a man of genius, a poet and a leader, a man of such great quality that He has been regarded as God—literally, God—by successive millions of people, for eighteen or nineteen centuries (and some future ones) of the greatest age of human history. That is why there is no attempt in my

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play to represent this mind directly; but only through its ghost, its haunting echo or after-flame. Again, the mind of Judas, as represented in the gospels, is obscure and sick and divided. It may be tragic, or it may be reptilian, according to the motive that drives him; but surely the motive was not mere lust for money. He was a man who had been entrusted with money, and apparently been honest; he had been accepted among Christ’s disciples; his despair at the end was so deep that he threw back the silver to those from whom he had received it, and went and hanged himself. One is left free to imagine his mind, provided only that it tallies with his acts; and I have imagined it as skeptical, humanitarian, pessimistic and sick with pity. But finally I should like to say that the play is not about Judas. My title is deceptive perhaps. The emphasis should be on the word “dear”—“dear” Judas—the man was dear to Jesus even while He was being betrayed by him. The play is about this man of transcendent genius who was capable of loving even His enemies, even Judas; and who deliberately sought crucifixion because He understood that only a fierce and dreadful symbol could capture the minds of a fierce people. Only the cross, and death by torture, could “fill the wolf bowels of Rome”; and conquer the blond savages from the North, who were about to take over Rome’s power and primacy.

4. Introductory essay, Fifty Photographs: Edward Weston, edited by Merle Armitage (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1947). See UJ to Melba Berry Bennett, December 31, 1947, note 4. Waiting for Weston to come in, I looked at the row of books along his mantelshelf, and a fat one caught my eye,—Taine’s History of English Literature, the same edition and binding that used to stand in my father’s library,—a book that had excited me when I was very young. I took it down and opened at random, wondering whether the Frenchman’s enthusiasms would still be infectious after so many years; and indeed the book opened on treasure; two ten-dollar bills lay between pages. A dollar was still a dollar in those days, and

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when Weston came in I made haste to tell him what I had found. He answered rather sheepishly, as if ashamed of owning so much money: yes, he didn’t need them at the moment, and had tucked them away there; this book was his bank. I think of the anecdote because it seems characteristic; Weston’s life and his work are like that, simple, effective, and without ceremony. He knows exactly what he wants to do, and he does it as simply as possible. He is not interested in the affectations and showmanship that distract many talented persons; I think he has never even been interested in having a career, but only in doing his work well. But concentration is not enough; there must be energy also; and this brings to mind my earliest impression of Weston at work; the almost unseemly contrast between the hot vitality of his red-brown eyes and the cold abstract stare of his camera; as if the man and the instrument had been specially designed to supplement each other. W. B. Yeats had something very different in mind when he wrote of “passion and precision” made “one,” but the line is applicable.1 Photography in itself is only a mechanical kind of reporting and recording; the directive passion, the energy for endless experiment and the passion for beautiful results, make it much more than that. Now I hear rumors of an old-fashioned controversy on the subject of art; can photography be considered an art? It seems to me that the question is rather verbal than vital; but it may be answered by looking at the photographs. If they have the effect and value of works of art, as clearly these do, then photography is the art that produced them; for we judge a tree by its fruits. And if the intention and effect are primarily aesthetic, then photography, at that level, is one of the fine arts. It has not the prestige of history and prehistory, as painting has; and its future is doubtful, for it depends on a machine, and machines have a high mortality-rate, they are always being superseded; but for its active century or two, and as long afterwards as the films and prints survive or are reproduced, photography has its honored place. It does not compete with painting; it has its own special qualities—its precision, infinite value range, instantaneous seeing—and they are important. Edward Weston was a pioneer in the recognition and development of these qualities. He is one of those who taught photography to be itself, not a facile

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substitute for painting, or an anxious imitator. It was an exciting adventure; and the more so because of the newness of photography. The field was nearly clear; whereas the painter has twenty thousand years of experience to guide— and discourage him. The human hand with a graver’s tool or a daub of pigment is the same hand that made pictures on the cave-walls in France, in a bay of the last ice-age; and really it has not increased in skill,—look at the best of the cave-paintings!—though the mind has longer knowledge and the brushes are a little better. But the camera was something new to work with. And Weston wanted pure photography; he was zealous, he was honest, he was for a time even bigoted, in his refusal to retouch or use any kind of trick or mistiness. He really believed in the beauty of things, and that included their accidents and asperities; the beauty of harsh stone, or broken wood, or a blemished face. He would choose, of course, long and carefully, but he would not conceal nor soften. Nothing perhaps since the beatitudes is more endlessly quoted and believed than that famous line about “beauty is truth, truth beauty.”2 I doubt whether Keats himself believed it, except in some transcendental sense; but Weston believes it. —And on this note let me end. I am not qualified to speak technically of Weston’s work, nor of his wide and living influence; but one does have ordinary human judgment. I know the man, and I can recognize honesty, single-mindedness, originality, ability, when I see them. 1. From “Upon a House Shaken by the Land Agitation” (1910) by W. B. Yeats. 2. From “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1820) by John Keats.

5. Foreword to Medea, Decca Records (Spring 1948). See RJ and UJ to Louis Untermeyer, March 20, 1948, note 1. Greek tragedy, like the English glory of Elizabethan drama, ran its whole course of production in the space of a man’s lifetime, seventy years or so from beginning to end, a brief and blazing explosion of energy. It began in a time of exultation, when the great defensive war with Persia was triumphantly concluded, just as Elizabethan drama began when the epic struggle with Spain ended in victory. Both these happy periods closed in times of disorder and

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foreboding: in the Peloponnesian War, and in the gloom and gathering anger that prefaced the English Civil War. They were voices of triumph. National triumph inaugurated them; national and social disorder ended them. And there are many other resemblances between these two bursts of dramatic and poetic energy, though the English and Athenian flowerings are separated from each other by a complete change of culture and outlook and circumstance, and by more than two thousand years. When we think of Elizabethan drama we think first of Shakespeare and then of the many others. But Greek tragedy has three heads instead of one: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides; and, whatever we English-speakers may think, it is likely that each one of the three stands as high in world-literature, and surely world-estimation, as Shakespeare does. Euripides was the youngest of this triumvirate, and he was never so entirely accepted by his contemporaries as the two others were; but in later time his influence was deeper and wider. When an Alexandrian, or a Roman like Seneca, tried to write tragedy, it was generally Euripides whom he imitated. But while Euripides lived, there was always a suspicion, which in fact remains to this day, that his work was not quite moral or solid, not quite “classical,” compared to the work of the two older men. Aeschylus labored the theme of sublimity; the persons of his plays, and even the language, the great mouth-filling words, are larger than life. The work of Sophocles was valued for its nobility, the dignity of his characters, the noble sweetness of thought and speech. Euripides understood, no doubt, that he could not be more sublime than Aeschylus nor more noble than Sophocles; he must make his advance in other directions. And perhaps the public showed signs of wearying a little of Aeschylean sublimity, though no one ever confessed it. The younger man had to attract and hold an audience; he had to be interesting at least, whether admirable or not. He had to be a modernist in his time; and the conservatives distrusted him. He introduced romantic incident into his plays, even if it damaged their integrity a little, and realism into character. He presented real and understandable human beings, people you could identify with yourself, rather than ideal heroes and demigods. And he introduced pathos, which is somewhat less than a tragic value; he was accused of dressing his actors in rags, in order to make the audience weep for their misfortunes.

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There were other counts against Euripides. His great precursors were more than poets and playwrights; they were also exemplary citizens. Aeschylus had fought at Marathon, that day of glory; Sophocles had taken an admired part in civic affairs, and was appointed a general of the army. But Euripides remained a private man, a disillusioned student and man of letters. The world had changed in his time, the great dream was fading. Recently Athens had been the savior of all Greece; but now Greece had fallen apart, and Athens, though grown much greater, was only an imperialistic power struggling with Sparta for supremacy, busy with confused battles and oppressions. Therefore, as many honest men have done since his time, Euripides chose to stay aloof from public life; and it seems to me that he was right in his time; but his fellow-citizens judged otherwise. He was also accused of being a woman-hater—apparently because he was interested in women and understood them, whereas Athenian custom kept them shut up, out of sight, and generally out of mind. The elder dramatists presented types of women—the mother, the faithful wife, the devoted sister— but Euripides was hissed off the stage for showing a real woman desperately in love; his first Phaedra. He had to rewrite the play, cancelling half its pity and immediacy, before it could be accepted. And the two greatest plays of Euripides are about women: the Bacchae, a study of women gone wild with religious enthusiasm; and the incomparable Medea, the subject of this discourse. Medea is the portrait of a proud woman scorned; a loving woman, whose love, rejected and betrayed, turns terribly to hatred; a barbarian woman who triumphs over Greeks in their own country; a woman of such power and guile—which the Greeks admired, remembering Odysseus—that she is able at last to stand alone against her husband and his friends and the whole city of Corinth, and overturn them. The intensity and fury of this passion is sublime as anything in Aeschylus, but in another direction. It is as if Euripides were saying to his Athenian audience: “You have prejudices. You think yourselves superior because you are masculine, and because you are civilized Hellenes. Yet consider that you might be mistaken. Be careful. Despise no person.” This is a modernist sentiment; it is something that Aeschylus would not have said nor thought. It belongs to the widening afternoon of a civilization, not the

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arrogant morning. But it did not make Euripides popular with his fellow citizens: the play won third prize. However—even as I write this—I wonder whether it is wholly true. For it is hard to reconstruct the thoughts of former men, and it is easy to impute one’s own interpretation into a great poem. Perhaps, to Euripides as to his audience, Medea was mostly an exciting monster, a deadly wild beast tormented by some qualms of maternal instinct; and Jason and his friends were normal unfortunate people whom the monster destroyed. That astonishing chariot drawn by winged dragons, in which Medea soars away at the end of the play (though not in my version) seems to support this view—or was it only a concession to the well-known Greek love of stage-machinery? This play by Euripides was not the first Medea, for a man named Neophron had written a tragedy on the same subject, which is lost to us, only a six-line fragment surviving. But there is no doubt that Euripides used it as a starting-point, just as Shakespeare used for his own purposes the earlier and otherwise forgotten play about Hamlet . . . and I speak of Neophron’s Medea because it is vaguely comforting to me to know that—if I have ventured to adapt a Greek tragedy to modern uses—Euripides did it first. Since his time, of course, there have been numberless adaptations; and this one of mine will not be the last—but, I thought, as I watched Judith Anderson’s great and creative art, surely the luckiest! It is nearly four years, I believe, since Miss Anderson asked me to make an adaptation of Medea for her. Her reason needs some explaining. She had become interested several years before that in a dramatic poem of mine called The Tower Beyond Tragedy, in which Greek myth is used more or less in the Greek manner, but it is not an adaptation of any play. Miss Anderson considered that this poem needed but a little clipping in order to fit it for the stage, and she wanted the part of Clytemnestra in it; but producers were naturally wary of a poem not primarily intended for acting, and written by an author unknown as a dramatist. The play was finally staged in the village of Carmel, California, in our outdoor theater in the midst of a pine-forest. The direction was spotty, rehearsals hurried, and the cast partly amateur, but the play’s allotted four nights were locally very successful; it must have been seen by a

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good part of the population of this region. Miss Anderson’s part in it was of course magnificent; and her desire to have it professionally staged remained unabated. Eventually she was told by one of the most well-known New York producers that he was not willing to undertake The Tower, but, if she could get me to write a Medea, he would consider it. She accepted the compromise; in the hope, she says, that it might serve as a stepping-stone toward an eventual production of The Tower; and I, though I have never before made a poem to order, was glad to attempt this one, only stipulating that I must be allowed large freedom of adaptation, because every Greek tragedy contains passages that would seem very dull, and others that would seem absurd (on account of changes of taste, interest, and convention) to a present-day audience. The writing progressed rapidly; and I am bound to say that I had not only the benefit of Euripides for guidance, but also of some invaluable suggestions by Miss Anderson and the proposed producer, visiting me here. But the producer’s contract, when it was given to me to sign, proved ridiculously unreasonable; and he would not mend it, and I would not accept it. So the matter rested. After a year or so the play was published as a book; two or three more years passed before it found producers and came to the stage. I did not want to go to New York for the opening night; simply because I do not like to hear my own verses recited; it is a source of self-consciousness, which (for me at least) does not stimulate either happiness or productiveness. When persuasion was renewed and became compulsive, my wife and I flew to New York and were there three days. As to my dislike of hearing my own verses recited—I need have felt no anxiety. I heard them and—to confess it—enjoyed them, as if I had had nothing to do with them. They belonged now to Judith Anderson and the others, who had renewed and vitalized the words, and made them beautiful in action. Miss Anderson of course especially—for the play is all Medea’s—had taken the somewhat static attitudes and gestures which I in the Greek tradition imagined, and the monotony with which a man says verses to himself when he is making them, and wrought them all into fluid fire.

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6. “‘Tower Beyond Tragedy’: Poet and Playwright Tells How He Wrote Drama Based on Greek Stories,” New York Times (November 26, 1950): Drama–Screen, X1, 3. See RJ to Frederick and Maud Clapp, November 13, 1950, note 3. Emerson said, speaking of the ancient Greeks: “our admiration of the antique is not admiration of the old, but of the natural.”1 And likewise Ernest Renan: “The Greek miracle . . . a kind of eternal beauty, without any local or national taint.”2 I quote these sayings—whether or not they are quite accurate—because they express exactly the feeling that led me to write “The Tower Beyond Tragedy.” In making poems of contemporary life—this was more than twenty-five years ago—I had found my mood cramped by the conventions and probabilities of the time; particularly by our convention of understatement. It is our custom to avoid lyrical speech, and to express any great passion in whispers, or perhaps not at all. The human voice is a terrible organ, we must not extend it. To express a violent motion violently, or a beautiful one beautifully, would be shocking in daily life; but it is normal in Greek tragedy. Certainly the Greeks, too, had their reticences and inhibitions—but different from ours, and they do not much concern us now—and perhaps the Greeks of prehistory did not. At least, according to tragic myth, they were singularly uninhibited in action. They represented elemental human nature, stripped—like Greek sculpture—of its neutral and unessential clothing: the customs and costumes that require attention in a story of contemporary life, or in any other period-piece. This was my feeling when I wrote about Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. I don’t remember clearly why that story in particular was chosen—except that it is one of the most dramatic in the world—but I think that photographs of the famous Lion-gate, and other prehistoric stone-work, still standing at Mycenae, had something to do with my choice; and I think also that the end of the poem—the experience of Orestes, which gives the poem its name—was present in my mind from the beginning; and was my first reason, or at least my best excuse, for writing.

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I needed an excuse; I was a little ashamed to take two or three Greek tragedies, change them considerably, and make them into a poem. It seemed lazy and self-indulgent; for the story and the characters, except for my changes, were already created by better men than we are. Also it looked like neglect of duty to leave America and dream about ancient Greece; my proper business was not with antiquity. And I was not even assuming the disciplines of dramatic writing; the poem was not intended for the stage; some parts of it were frankly narrative. So I was glad to have something of my own to present at the end, though it is quite alien to Greek thought. This was the pantheistic mysticism of Orestes, which comes to him like a religious conversion after he has committed his criminal act of justice. The house of Agamemnon is a wicked house, corrupted by power, heavy with ancestral crime and madness; of all its descendants only Orestes at last escapes the curse; he turns away from human lust and ambition to the cold glory of the universe. A patriot may identify himself with his nation, or a saint with God; ­Orestes, in the poem, identifies himself with the whole divine nature of things; earth, man and stars, the mountain forest and the running streams; they are all one existence, one organism. He perceives this, and that himself is included in it, identical with it. This perception is his tower beyond the reach of tragedy; because, whatever may happen, the great organism will remain forever immortal and immortally beautiful. Orestes has “fallen in love outward,” not with a human creature, nor a limited cause, but with the universal God. That is my meaning in the poem. It would probably sound like nonsense to a Greek of classical times—“to the Greeks foolishness,” as St. Paul remarked—and perhaps it does to you. Certainly it is a hard mouthful for a poem to assimilate, and still harder for a play; but it is my meaning. The poem was written about 1924, and published in 1925, in one book with “Roan Stallion” and “Tamar.” Although not intended for the stage, it had, I was told, some dramatic values, and stage versions of it were made, not by me but by others. One of these was performed by students of the University of California. Another was produced in the outdoor “Forest Theatre” of our home village, under the fog-dripping pine trees; and this time although the cast was largely amateur, Judith Anderson took the part of Clytemnestra. Consequently

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the play was very successful, for its four scheduled evenings. Miss Anderson had excellent support, on the whole; but still it was a bold adventure, and a generous one, for her to take part in that chaotic and half amateur production. She acted, of course, magnificently; so did Hilda Vaughn as Cassandra. This was nine years ago; and Miss Anderson has constantly retained interest in the play. It was on account of this interest that she asked me to adapt the “Medea” of Euripides for the modern stage. “Medea” had a surprising success—at least to me surprising—but Miss Anderson said she regarded it as a stepping-stone toward a new production of “The Tower.” Now, thanks to the American National Theatre and Academy, the “Tower” will be produced again, this time in New York, beginning tonight. Judith Anderson will play Clytemnestra; and she has asked me to make the adaptation from poem to play. I have no experience of the theatre—aside from “Medea”—but I have had the advantage of Miss Anderson’s advice and criticism; and in fact the adaptation has not been difficult, only ruthless; it is almost exclusively a matter of erasure. Particularly Cassandra’s lamentations have been cut to the bone. They seemed appropriate enough in the poem; but in the theatre we are not such a patient audience as the Athenians were. Also at the very end I have introduced a piece of action—the bitter collapse of Electra—which is not in the poem, nor in the Greek stories, but here it seems to be logical and necessary. The Greeks themselves were always changing their stories, and I think we inherit the privilege. The incestuous feeling between Electra and Orestes is another change from the Greek story. It was imagined in my poem as a symbol of our human obsession with humanity—“It is all turned inward,” Orestes says—and I was interested to find it again, without that symbolic intention, when I read Eugene O’Neill’s “Mourning Becomes Electra.” There was also the same rhythm of the same events—wave and counter-wave, crime and answering crime—transferred from prehistoric Greece to post–Civil War America. I have never met our great playwright, and I don’t know that he ever looked at my poem, but I’d be glad to think that it may have contributed suggestions toward the making of his play. Or else that our minds worked so similarly on the Greek story.

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But this is a digression; I have said all that I want to say about “The Tower.” Judith Anderson’s Clytemnestra will be superb—we know by experience—and I am sure the American National Theatre and Academy will do all it can for us. 1. From “History” (1841) by Ralph Waldo Emerson, paragraph 29. 2. From “Prière sur l’Acropole” in Souvenirs d’enfance et de jeunesse, translated as “Prayer on the Acropolis” in Recollections of My Youth (1883), by Ernest Renan, paragraph 2.

7. “Play from ‘Scandalous’ Mythology by Robinson Jeffers (American poet whose newest play, ‘The Cretan Woman,’ opens Wednesday at the Provincetown Playhouse here),” New York Herald Tribune (July 4, 1954): section 4, 2. See RJ to Fraser Drew, September 25, 1954, note 2. Greek Mythology is a vast and vague collection of scandalous stories about gods and heroes, and it was from this rubble heap that the authors of Greek tragedy had to choose their themes. The story of Oedipus, for instance—the unlucky man who killed his father by mistake and by mistake married his mother—is ludicrous and rather disgusting, but Sophocles was able to take it over and make it noble. It was like a juggler’s trick. By emphasis and suppression and sheer poetry he carved his ridiculous subject into great plays. But there were also quite normal stories in the scrap heap. The story of Medea is one of them; it is savage and bloodthirsty but still humanly credible. But the story of Phaedra and Hippolytus is the most human of them all—a fierce old man, and his desirous young wife, and his splendid son. Euripides made the son the hero of the play, fooled into death by a scorned woman. But those who have written the same story after Euripides—as I have done, and Racine, and Seneca no doubt, and a hundred others—have usually titled the play with the name of the tortured and treacherous young woman—Phèdre, with a grave accent on the first vowel, or Phaedra, or The Cretan Woman. For Phaedra, like Medea, was a foreigner in Greece. She came from a higher civilization—the wealth and amenities of the island of Crete—as Medea did from the barbarism of Colchis, the darkest country on the Black Sea. Women

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were controlled and suppressed in Athens; if a crime had to be done it was better to have it done by a foreign woman. Except, of course, the flaring guilt of Clytemnestra. I have spoken about the play being widely copied. The great poet himself, Euripides, did it first, and did it twice. An obscure writer named Neophron (I think) had written a play on the subject of Hippolytus and Phaedra. Euripides took over the story and apparently used the play as a quarry, building his fine ashlar out of the rubble work of Neophron—just as Shakespeare built his Hamlet out of the naive Hamlet of some obscure predecessor. But Euripides, presenting the play, had failed to reckon with his audience. Athens had taboos (senseless restrictions) as Polynesia had, and as we have; and the play—a woman pleading for love, adultery desired, and an accusation of rape—the audience could not accept, and it was howled off the stage. But the story was too good to lose. Euripides kept it in mind, and wrote the play a second time, carefully guarding it against offense. He laid the guilt on the lap of the gods, imputing it to a quarrel between Aphrodite and Artemis, the goddess of love and the goddess of field sports. And he made Phaedra too modest to speak of her own love, but only through the lips of a servant. The play did not win the first prize, but it was accepted. That is the play we have. The earlier and more sincere version is lost forever. I wish Bernard Shaw had used the story. He could so easily have made it a great comedy, simply by endowing the fierce old man, Theseus, with a little skeptical intelligence. How I came to write my version of the play is a matter of no importance to any one; but I am willing to speak on the subject, if you are to listen. It is not my trade to write plays from the Greek, nor any other kind of plays, but when Judith Anderson asked me to make a “Medea” for her I assented of course, and the play had a considerable success—thanks to Miss Anderson— in New York and across the country. Therefore another actress, who was becoming almost equally famous, asked me to write for her a version of Phaedra, and again I consented, as I do always at a cocktail party. It was a cocktail party, not a contract. My wife and I were going to visit

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Ireland and the Hebrides again, and I never thought of Phaedra until I fell ill—a brand new experience for me—and was hospitalized in Kilkenny and then in Dublin. There—it was a pleasant hospital, with nice Irish nurses—I remembered my promise, and began to write my Phaedra, “The Cretan Woman,” between the smooth sheets of a bed. It was finished during the lazy weeks of convalescence, after we flew home to California. I sent a copy of the manuscript to the actress who had asked for it, but she meanwhile had divorced her husband and developed new ambitions. I did not send a copy to Judith Anderson, because she had told me long before that she was not interested in Phaedra. So I let the manuscript lie in a drawer for six years and then brought it out to add it to [a] book of poems that was being published. I did not remember it well, and I read it with interest. The thing was better than I remembered, and seemed not to show any scars of the violent pleurisy that helped me write it.

8. Foreword to Directions in the Sun by Eric Barker (New York: Gotham Book Mart, 1956). See RJ to Eric Barker, October 19, 1955, note 4. Wordsworth looks forward in one of his poems to “Younger poets, who among these hills will be my second self when I am gone.”1 I haven’t verified the quotation, Wordsworth is too voluminous for that, but my memory is fairly good, I don’t think I am traducing the old master. His lines come to my mind as I read Eric Barker’s poems, and recognize in many of them the same hills and canyons that prompted my own writing forty years ago. It is beautful precipitous country, this coast-range southward from Point Lobos—beautiful in itself and in its qualities of lonely resistance and occasional break-neck violence. It seems to be bearing up pretty well against the erosions and vulgarizations of our crowded century. The hills are hardly changed in forty years; they are a little more accessible and a little more inhabited—not quite their pure selves—but this only compels the poet to consult his own mind a little more; to take what he needs, and abolish what he does not want, and imagine the rest. The Coast is not spoiled yet, neither are the poems.

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But the quotation from Wordsworth, as I think of it again, seems very inappropriate. Eric Barker is nobody’s “second self;” he is Eric Barker, an original poet and a good one. He has worked out his own music, his own rhythms and visions and perceptions. His poems display an enviable wealth of color and imaginative metaphor. They are brief—perhaps all the better for that—and sometimes inconclusive, or else I read them stupidly. I don’t, for instance, understand what is meant or intended by the little poem that has my name for title. No matter: I shan’t ask: enough that it is a good poem, though not the best in the book. Look at “Birds” for that, or the poem about the foghorns, that procession of mournful giants, or a number of others. But it is foolish to compare poems—good, better, best—as if they were apples. They are different, that is all; each one serves its own need and occasion. Let me quote Wordsworth again: “Shine, poem, in thy place, and be content.” I have changed only one letter.2 Barker is a “modern” poet in the sense of skillfully broken meters and rejected conventions. But he does not write prose in snippets and call it free verse; he does not go in for college-boy foolery nor oracular nonsense. So many bad and pretentious modernist poets have been acclaimed from time to time, in the little magazines and even in more serious criticism, that I am glad of the opportunity to recommend this good one. But don’t take my word for it; look again at “Birds,” “Atropos,” “Sierra Clouds,” “The Pebble.” There are great visions in them. Robinson Jeffers Tor House, Carmel October 1955 1. From “Michael” (1800) by William Wordsworth, lines 38–39; Wordsworth speaks of “youthful poets,” not “younger.” 2. From “If Thou Indeed Derive Thy Light From Heaven” (1832) by William Wordsworth, lines 3 and 16; Wordsworth writes “Shine, Poet! in thy place, and be content.”

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9. “First Book,” in My First Publication: Eleven California Authors Describe Their Earliest Appearances in Print, edited by James D. Hart (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1961). The essay originally appeared in Colophon 10 (May 1932): 1–8, and was reprinted in Breaking into Print, edited by Elmer Adler (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1937): 87–91. See RJ to Mark Van Doren, July 20, 1959, note 3. I am willing to tell the history of my first book, though it is not clear why it should interest anyone; certainly it does not interest me. In 1912 I came into possession of a little money, a little more than was immediately required, a novel experience. I had written verses, like almost everybody, and had not offered them to magazines, but it occurred to me that now I could afford to get them printed. For the purpose I made acquaintance with an older author of verses who was somehow interested in a printing-shop called the Grafton Publishing Company. I asked him to luncheon, drank with him, and showed him my typewritten little poems. I believe he really thought well of them, although it seems to me now an impossible generosity. It was arranged that they should be made into a book; I was very willing to pay for the manufacture of five hundred copies, and took away my manuscript to arrange it for the printer. This was in Los Angeles; I lived rather solitary at one of the beaches twenty miles distant, and was too young for my age, and drank a good deal when I came up to town. At Redondo, on my way home in the evening, I left the electric car to visit a bar-room frequented by longshoreman friends of mine. I stayed there until the cars stopped running, and had to walk the three miles home. For several hours I had thought nothing about my verses, which only interested part of my mind, for I had no confidence in them. It was not until the next morning that I looked for the bundle of manuscript; which had been under my arm, but it must have been laid down somewhere, and was not to be found, either at home or in Redondo. The loss was not serious in any sense; not even serious for the moment, because I have always had an excellent memory for trifles, and every line and rhyme was lodged in my head, only needing to be typewitten again.

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A name had to be found for the book, and discovering that all the verses were more or less amatory, I thought sadly of the conversation reported in George Moore’s Confessions of a Young Man, which I had lately read. “My dear Dayne, you always write about love; the subject is nauseating.”—“So it is, but after all Baudelaire wrote about love and lovers; his best poem—”—“True, mais il s’agissait d’une charogne—there was carrion in it, and that elevates the tone considerably.” But I had no charogne in my little verses, and was never witty, and could only think of the line in the Song of Songs, “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love.” So the small book was called Flagons and Apples, a title much too big for it. Something was said at the printing-shop about sending out review copies; but my interest in the book was waning, the irrational need of publication seemed to be satisfied by the printing, and nothing further was done. Soon after this, life became more interesting than anybody’s book; I went away to Seattle and left my 480 volumes in the printer’s cellar. Twenty I had taken; I gave away three or four, and later burned the rest. I cannot remember how much time passed before a letter from the printer reached me in Seattle, asking what he should do with the volumes left on his hands. I told him to have them pulped, I remembered thinking that perhaps their substance would save a young forest-tree from the paper mills. But the honest printer wanted to cut my loss; he sold the whole edition to a second-hand book-shop, for twenty cents apiece, I cannot imagine how it was accomplished, and sent me the check. Holmes’s Book-store—or was it Dawson’s?—remained of course unable to re-sell their bargain; I have lately heard that they were reduced to giving away the volumes, and would broadcast them to be scrambled for, at auctions of other books. I had had my printing and was satisfied for four years, until a new accumulation of verses began to trouble me. This time I thought of regular publication, and mailed my manuscript across the continent to the Macmillan Company, who astonished me with a favorable answer. This book was called Californians; it found no readers, but it seems interesting that it found an excellent publisher at the first attempt. After this I wrote many verses but was entirely unable to get them published, and I am glad of that.



Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose

In 1920 or 1921 I wrote a story in verse called Tamar; and I have heard that it was sent in vain to publisher after publisher, but that is not true. It was offered to none; it was so lengthy that I believed no publisher’s reader would look it through. Tamar was kept in a drawer until I saw a little advertisement by a New York printer, Peter G. Boyle, in a book-review section of The New York Times. Boyle has since then retired from business. The advertisement offered printing, not publishing, and my mind reverted to my folly of 1912, yet with differences. This time I had no extra money burning my pocket; on the other hand, it seemed to me that the verses were not merely negligible, like the old ones, but had some singularity, whether they were good or not. Perhaps, if they were printed, someone might look at them sometime—habent sua fata libelli—little books have such queer destinies. Boyle read Tamar and Other Poems, and set a price on the printing, one that I knew was very moderate. He added some praise of Tamar that seemed to me excessive, but I learned later that he was sincerely enthusiastic about it. After several months of hesitation I told him to print, but only five hundred copies, not the thousand he advised. Publishing was not in the bargain, but Peter Boyle was generous, and did his utmost as a publisher. He sent review copies in all directions, at his own expense of time and postage; but quite in vain, no one would notice the book. Suddenly he despaired, and shipped me 450 copies in a big packing-box, across the continent. I stowed them under the eaves in the attic. Meanwhile, the Book Club of California was preparing an anthology of verse by California writers, afterwards called Continent’s End. George Sterling, James Rorty and Genevieve Taggard were the editors. Someone, having perhaps heard of my Macmillan volume, told them that I also wrote verses; and a letter came from Rorty asking me to contribute. I sent some pages of verse; and when Tamar was printed I mailed a copy to Rorty because of our correspondence, and one to George Sterling because he had lived in Carmel before my time, and knew the scene of my stories. Rorty was only temporarily in California; when he returned to the East he persuaded Mark Van Doren to read Tamar. Soon a review of the book by Rorty appeared in the Herald-Tribune Books, Mark Van Doren wrote about it in the Nation, and Babette Deutsch in the New Republic.

Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose



I received a telegram from Peter Boyle saying that people wanted to buy Tamar and he had none to sell; then the big packing-box, as big as a coffin, was dragged out from under the eaves and shipped back to New York. As it emptied, Boyle proposed to print a second edition, but on second thought he decided that a more established publisher might be to my advantage. He offered the book to Boni and Liveright, and it was reprinted in my Roan Stallion volume. It pleases me to think of Boyle’s honesty and good will, and of the active generosity of Rorty, Mark Van Doren, George Sterling and some others, to a writer at that time perfectly unknown to them. To close the story, it appears that the Los Angeles book-shop which so recklessly bought the edition of Flagons and Apples had not been able to dispose of it, even by giving it away at auctions. There were still copies in the cellar; after Tamar was spoken of they were dug out and sold for more than they had cost. So now it has become impossible for me to buy them up and drown them, as I should like to.



Appendix A: Miscellaneous Prose

APPENDIX B Additions and ­Corrections Additions

RJ to Llewellyn Jones Carmel, California. June 21, 1925 My dear Mr. Jones:1 I’m sure it isn’t customary, but perhaps you’ll let me say thank you for the intelligence and sympathy of your review of “Tamar and other Poems”,2 sent me the other day from New York. You talked mostly about the little private poems that few others have noticed much; and you evidently share my feeling for nice stones. The book has run through its edition and no more are to be had, but Boni and Liveright intend to republish it this fall, with some other little poems. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. diZerega. 1 page. Postmark: June 22, 1925. 1. Llewellyn Jones (1884–1961), literary editor of the Chicago Evening Post from 1914 to 1932, was the author of How to Read Books (1930) and other works. 2. Llewellyn Jones, “Songs of Sea and Granite,” Chicago Evening Post Literary Review (June 5, 1925): 1, 3. “Milton was two thirds right when he said that poetry should be simple, sensuous and passionate,” Jones writes in his concluding paragraph. “Mr. Jeffers is flamingly passionate and every line he writes has its sensuous appeal—in the good sense of the word, of course, his images, indeed, being often on the grand scale. But he is not simple in the sense of being elementary. His impressions are never naive, they are those of a man who sees thru, rather than with his eye: he sees with mind and soul as well as eye. His granite and sea and sky are not only that to him, but the mirrors of strength and desire; and it is of these in their endless cycles that he sings.”



RJ to Ernest G. Moll Carmel, California May, 1929 Dear Mr. Moll:1 I come to you as a penitent. My wife usually is good enough to look at and answer {if necessary} letters that come for me—because I never can get it done. When yours came several months ago she said “They are very good poems,” and I said “Then let me answer the letter.” But I did not read at that time; the letter was laid aside for me and I never found it again until to-night. I am very sorry. They are, as she said, very good poems. So good that I was able quite to forget myself in reading, and not even wish that they had a better subject. Thank you sincerely, and let me congratulate you on the power and music of the lines. Three weeks from now we are going away for a year to Ireland and England—I hardly know why, unless for the children’s sake. After that, if you are south sometime, I hope you will come and see me and my stones. Sincerely yours, Robinson Jeffers. ALS. Australia. 1 page. Postmark: May 17, 1929. 1. Ernest George Moll (1900–1997), a native of Australia, earned an M.A. from Harvard University in 1923 and taught in the English Department at the University of Oregon from 1928 to 1966. Publications include Sedge Fire (1927), Cut from Mulga (1940), and The Rainbow Serpent (1962).



Appendix B: Additions and Corrections

Corrections Substantive corrections to Volumes One and Two are listed by page and note (n) number; an arrow () indicates a change from the text as printed to the correct version.

Volume One 29

St. Theresa ¦ St. Teresa

33

Wedgewood ¦ Wedgwood

60

July 3, 1937 ¦ June 27, 1937

67

Timmie and Maud Clapp ¦ Phoebe Barkan

69

Van Wyck Brooks ¦ William van Wyck

76

to live through. . . . anything ¦ to live through . . . anything

110

storm-fed-ocean ¦ storm-fed ocean

111

sagebrush ¦ sage-brush

119

Tel Aviv . . . production of the Tower Beyond Tragedy ¦ Medea

140

San Francisco University ¦ University of San Francisco

153

add Australia Manuscript Collection, National Library of Australia (Canberra, Australia)

154

Copley ¦ diZerega Gere diZerega, M.D. (San Luis Obispo, California) Note: The contents of the James S. Copley Library in La Jolla, California were sold at auction in 2010 and 2011. Letters in the collection written by Robinson and Una Jeffers were purchased by Gere diZerega.



159

Drew ¦ F Drew

159

Kavlock ¦ diZerega Note: With the exception of RJ to Orrick Johns (August 1927), letters previously owned by Arlene Kavlock were purchased at auction by Gere diZerega.

Fraser Drew (Buffalo, New York)

Appendix B: Additions and Corrections



160

add Norton

Lisa Dale Norton (Santa Fe, New Mexico)

207

Monday June 10.1 ¦ Monday June 10. [1912]1

273 Sept 11. Night. ¦ Sept 11. Night. [1912] 296

ALS. Texas. ¦ ALS. HRC Texas.

308n3

Pelléas et Melisande ¦ Pelléas et Mélisande

345

from int in practice ¦ from int itn practice

387

Robinson Jeffers.1 ¦ Robinson Jeffers.2

389n2

Frederick Mortimer Clapp (1879–1968) ¦ (1879–1969)

393n4

Maud Caroline (Ede) Clapp (1876–1960) ¦ (1869–1960)

425n1

Probably Miss Stevens delete Probably

426

Capt. C. G. Stivers is Charles Gaskill Stivers, M.D. (1869–1933).

455n2

Yorkshire, England ¦ Glasgow, Scotland

496n1

Henry Melvin Young, Jr. (1916–1943) ¦ (1915–1943)

511

It seemsed ¦ It seemed

544

TL. Copley. ¦ TL. diZerega.

590

ALS. Copley. ¦ ALS. diZerega.

596n5

Barbara (Blackman) O’Neil (1880–1963) ¦ (1879–1963)

598n1

Percy Hutchinson ¦ Percy Hutchison

601n1

Maud Caroline (Ede) Clapp (1876–1960) ¦ (1869–1960)

601n1

Frederick Mortimer “Timmie” Clapp (1879–1968) ¦ (1879–1969)

603n3

Jean (Howard) McDuffie (1879–1955) ¦ (1878–1955)

644

Mr. Salpeter is probably Harry Salpeter (1895–1967), literary editor of the New York World and author of Dr. Johnson & Mr. Boswell (1929).

686n2

Wheeler ¦ Scripture

717n1

Canfield (1894–1966) ¦ (1893–1966)

784n1

Elsie Arden (1883–1945) ¦ (1882–1945)

790n4

Trelawney ¦ Trelawny



Appendix B: Additions and Corrections

790n5

Edward John Trelawney ¦ Edward John Trelawny

794n1

Elsie Arden (1883–1945) ¦ (1882–1945)

800

ALS. Copley. ¦ ALS. diZerega.

804

ALS. Copley. ¦ ALS. diZerega.

837n4

Martyn Charles Andrew Hemphill, 4th Baron Hemphill (1901–1958) ¦ (1901–1957)

922n4

Caroline Blackman (1889–1930) ¦ (1888–1936)

960n8

Christina Casati Stampa di Soncino ¦ Cristina Casati Stampa di Soncino Hastings

966

Carmel Mission add 15

967

add cradle, 307, 311, 389, 406

968

De Casseres, Benjamin, Robinson Jeffers: Tragic Terror add 745n2

974 Hutchinson, 605 ¦ Hutchison, Percy, 598n1, 605 975

Jeffers, Robinson, appearance and personality add 959n6

982

Matthias, Russell add 706n1

986

pilgrimages from Tor House delete from Tor House

988

Robinson Jeffers: Tragic Terror (De Casseres) add 745n2

994

Trelawney, Edward ¦ Trelawny, Edward

Volume Two 59n7

“Significant Others: The Defining Domestic Life of Carolyn Seymour Severance” ¦ “. . . Caroline Seymour Severance”

228n8

Noël’s aunt ¦ Noël Sullivan’s aunt

276n2

delete and Madame Helena Modjeska

279n4

Thorton Wilder ¦ Thornton Wilder

307n2

Possibly Donald J. Paquette delete Possibly

329

ALS. Kavlock. ¦ ALS. diZerega. Appendix B: Additions and Corrections



351

ALS. Kavlock. ¦ ALS. diZerega.

538n3

Una’s Irish grandfather ¦ Una’s Scots-Irish grandfather

600n3

Katharine Cornell (1898–1974) ¦ (1893–1974)

765n4

Edward Trelawney ¦ Edward Trelawny

767n3

Robert K. Hass (1890–1974) ¦ (1890–1964)

1065

Burke, Marcella add

1068

add Commins, Dorothy, 442n1

1073

Gilbert, Rudolph add

1081

Johns, Charis delete 178

1090

pilgrimages, Palo Colorado Canon ¦ pilgrimages, Palo Colorado Cañon

1090

Pinkham, Anne, 319, 697 ¦ Pinkham, Anne, 319, 698

1091

Powys, Philippa add

1098

Thompson, Dorothy add

1099

Trelawney, Edward ¦ Trelawny, Edward



cl

1

cl

cl

Appendix B: Additions and Corrections

1

1 cl

1

INDEX 1 or cl 2 at the end of an entry indicates that information may also be found in The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers, with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers, Volume One: 1890–1930 or Volume Two: 1931–1939. cl

Abbe, George, letter from RJ to, 820 Abbey Theatre, 578 Abbott, Charles: letter from RJ to, 110; letters from UJ to, 72, 76, 81, 275, 436; cl 2 Abbott, Theresa, 73n1, 275 Abram, Miss, letter from RJ to, 864 Abramson, Ben, letter from UJ to, 251 Academy of American Poets, 654, 723; fellowship, 899, 905; chancellorship, 370, 385, 710, 825; cl 1, cl 2 ACLU Statement on Censorship, 855n5 Adamic, Louis, 194; cl 1, cl 2 Adams, Ansel, photographs by, 167, 771; cl 1, cl 2 Adams, Dorothy, 114 Adams, J. Donald, 129 Adams, Muriel, 605. See also Vanderbilt, Muriel, cl 2 Addams, Charles, Drawn and Quartered, 213 Adenauer, Konrad, 886 Adler, Elmer, Breaking into Print, 912n3; cl 2 Adriani, Bruno, 406, 438, 723, 887 Adriani, Sadie, 406, 438, 796; photograph by, 463 Aeschylus, 154, 901; cl 2 “After Lake Leman” (Jeffers), 324n5, 644n3 “Age in Prospect” (Jeffers), 494n3 Ainley, Frank, 254

“Air-Raid Rehearsals” (Jeffers), 76n1 Alberts, Julien, Black Masses, Jeffers’ foreword to, 427; cl 1 Alberts, Sydney, 6, 67, 106, 169; letters from UJ to, 174, 427; A Bibliography of the Works of Robinson Jeffers, 266, 428, 531, 596; cl 1, cl 2 Alexander, Betty, 788n2; cl 2 Alexander, E. J., The Flora of the Unicorn Tapestries, 148 Alexander, Jack, 788 Algeo family, 564n3, 829n1; cl 2 Ali Baba (dog), 224 Alice, Cousin. See Robinson, Alice Allan, Chrissie, 572; cl 1, cl 2 Allan, Edith (Call), 182, 677; cl 1, cl 2 Allan, John “Jack,” 182; cl 1, cl 2 Allingham, William, 639 “All the Corn in One Barn” (Jeffers), 252, 262 altar stone, 249, 258; cl 1 American Academy of Arts and Letters, 535; letter from RJ to, 425; exhibit, 191, 193; election to, 361, 367, 372–373, 381; cl 1, cl 2 Anderson, Antony, 98n1; cl 1 Anderson, Caroline, 798 Anderson, Frank, 661 Anderson, Jessie, 671, 697n2



Anderson, Judith, 337, 360, 443, 496, 540, 551, 702, 865–866, 885; letters from RJ to 487, 532, 558, 603, 632, 642, 661, 685, 686, 695, 696, 743, 744, 749, 832, 913, 917, 924; letters from RJ and UJ to, 280, 494, 550; letters from UJ to, 115, 120, 138, 332, 338, 344, 348, 391, 456, 495, 499, 516, 528, 537, 559, 565, 568, 573, 576, 593, 602, 628, 633, 653, 671, 673; named Dame Commander, 917; Emmy Award, 924; Macbeth, 138, 263, 924n1 (bottom); marriage to and divorce from Luther Greene, 424, 444n4, 688n1; Medea, 335, 373–374, 500, 516, 527, 528–529, 539, 642, 735, 742, 744, 749, 827, 913n1 (bottom); photographs, 464, 465; Rancho Verde estate, 629, 655, 685; Tony Award, 529n1; The Tower Beyond Tragedy, 51, 114, 115, 529, 633, 680, 688n2, 695, 699, 742, 744, 749; cl 1, cl 2 Andrézel, Pierre, The Angelic Avengers, 443 Angelino. See Ravagli, Angelo Anikeyev, Vasili, 175 Animal Kingdom, The (exhibition catalog), 460 “Animals” (Jeffers), 687 “Animula” (Jeffers), 811 Anne. See Lindbergh, Anne Morrow Anouilh, Jean, Antigone, 396 “Answer, The” (Jeffers), 132n2, 189, 432, 917 ANTA (American National Theatre and Academy). See Tower Beyond Tragedy, The (Jeffers): ANTA production “Antrim” (Jeffers), 76n1 Apéritif, 14, 308, 821n3; cl 2 “Apology for Bad Dreams” (Jeffers), 19, 298, 494n3, 505n2 (bottom), 767n1; translation, 745 Apology for Bad Dreams (Jeffers), 23, 69 Aptos Beach Inn, 912n1, 914–915



Index

Arden, Elsie, 152, 414–415; cl 1, cl 2 Argosy (British magazine), 811 Armitage, Isabelle, 816 Armitage, Merle: letters from RJ to, 411, 816; Accent on America, 411; Fifty Photographs: Edward Weston, 514 Armsby, E. Raymond, 575 Armstrong, Frank, letters from UJ to, 261, 262, 269 Arnold, Matthew, 433; cl 1, cl 2 Arthur, Gavin (Chester), 226; cl 1, cl 2 “Artist, An” (Jeffers), 76n1, 80 Artist, An (Jeffers), 81n2 “Ascent to the Sierras” (Jeffers), 825n2 Athene, 403 Atkinson, Brooks, 496n2, 497n1, 699, 702, 805n2 atomic bomb, 355, 365, 394, 444 At the Birth of an Age (Jeffers), 867n2 Auden, W. H., 36; cl 2 Auslander, Audrey (Wurdemann), 59n1, 68 Auslander, Joseph, 57, 61, 68 Austin, Mary, 324, 831; cl 1, cl 2 Aut Evan Hospital (Ireland), 587, 589 automobiles, Robinson and Una’s, 256, 614, 757; cl 1 “Autumn Evening” (Jeffers), 76n1 Bach Festival, Carmel, 41, 120, 479, 575; cl 2 Bad Hersfeld Festival (Germany), 864, 880, 882, 886, 887–889 Baer, Morley, 525n3 Baird, Newton, 822n1 Balch, Earle, 29 Baldwin, Monica, I Leap Over the Wall, 659 Baldwin, Stanley, 10, 659 Balfour, Arthur, Lord, 10 Baller, Adolph and Edith, 314, 388

bantams (pet chickens), 23, 53, 55, 153, 184, 214, 247; cl 1, cl 2 Barber, Samuel, 145 Barkan, Adolph William “Bill,” 250; cl 2 Barkan, Fritz, 321 Barkan, Hans, 257, 652; letters from RJ to 643, 650, 677, 829, 903; letters from UJ to, 78, 321, 334, 384, 533, 566, 624; cl 1, cl 2 Barkan, Joan (Robbins), 250 Barkan, Louise, 643, 652 Barkan, Phoebe, 405–406, 903; letters from RJ to, 643, 650, 829; letters from UJ to, 65, 69, 78, 113, 250, 334, 384, 418, 518, 523, 538, 566, 595, 627, 669, 672; cl 1, cl 2 Barkan, Phoebe (daughter), 250, 595, 598; cl 2. See also Gilpin, Phoebe Barker, Eric, 623n8, 908; letters from RJ to, 819, 834; Big Sur and Other Poems, 820; Directions in the Sun, Jeffers’ foreword to, 820, 947–948 (text of) Barlow, Aimee, 564n5 Barnes, William, 511, 536; Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect, 511, 601; cl 1, cl 2 Barrington, Margaret, Turn Ever Northward, 32 Barron, Evelyn, 479 Bartley, Daisy (Call), letters from RJ to, 82, 645, 647, 676, 677, 689, 701, 734; cl 1, cl 2 Bartley, Jerry, 647; cl 1 Bartley, William, 83, 703 Bassett, Willard K., 38, 283; cl 2 Bates, Talcott, 533 “Battle” (Jeffers), 112, 494, 824 Baudelaire, Charles, 433; cl 1, cl 2 Bauer, Helen, 741 Bauer, John, letter from RJ to, 741 Bayliss, Marguerite F., The Bolinvars, 332 BBC radio broadcast, 418, 475, 482

Beach, Adrian, 224 “Beaks of Eagles, The” (Jeffers), 76n1, 87n2 Beaks of Eagles, The (Jeffers), 252, 262 Be Angry at the Sun and Other Poems (Jeffers), 27, 276n1, 370; dedication, 118; limited edition, 151; manuscript, 68, 104, 105, 106, 270; page proofs, 117, 118, 121; preliminary titles, 87n1, 99, 100, 105, 106, 108, 109, 117; publication, 114, 134, 138; reviews, 186n6, 189 Bear, Donald, 201 Beard, Charles A., 425n1 Beaumont, Hugh, 534n5, 591 “Beautiful Captive, The” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) “Beauty of Things, The” (Jeffers), 687 Beaverbrook, Lord (Max Aitken), 10 Bechdolt, Adele, 254; cl 1 Bechdolt, Frederick, 831; cl 1, cl 2 Becker, Belle, 794 “Bed by the Window, The” (Jeffers), 95n20, 519 Bednárˇ, Kamil, 886, 902, 920n1 (top), 927; letters from RJ to, 883, 920, 924; Jeffers’ works translated by, 883, 886, 902, 906, 919, 920, 923, 924, 927n1; cl 1 Bednárˇová, Emilie, 921n1 (top), 927 Beginning and the End and Other Poems, The (Jeffers), 898n1 (bottom), 922n1 Beittel, Grace, letter from UJ to, 47 Bell, Cornelia “Connie,” 3, 59; cl 2. See also Flavin, Connie Bell, Galt, 3, 207n2, 379; cl 2 Belle-mère. See Jeffers, Annie Bender, Albert, 24, 62, 111, 130, 186, 799– 800; letter from UJ to, 13; death of, 79, 93; cl 1, cl 2 Benét, Stephen Vincent, 59n2, 80, 301, 311

Index



Benét, William Rose, 71; letter from RJ to, 515; cl 1, cl 2 Bennett, Deedee, 299 Bennett, Melba Berry, 788, 899n1 (top), 911–912; letters from RJ to, 699, 922; letter from RJ and UJ to, 96; letters from UJ to, 5, 13, 90, 99, 134, 147, 168, 200, 237, 248, 254, 258, 259, 264, 271, 280, 299, 301, 315, 331, 422, 437, 478, 512, 552, 634; biography of Jeffers (The Stone Mason of Tor House), 257n1, 263, 301–302, 307, 311, 313, 315–316, 439, 479, 512–513, 552–553, 554n1, 922n1; Often I Wonder, 5; cl 1, cl 2 Bennett, Peter, 101n5, 440n11, 479; cl 2 Benson, Sally, Meet Me in St. Louis, 203 Bentley, Eric, From the Modern Repertoire, 805n2 Benton, Thomas Hart, 84 Beowulf, 719; cl 1 Berry, Edna, 248 Bewick, Thomas, 84; cl 1 Bhagavad-Gita, 306; cl 1 Bible, 295, 388, 417; cl 1, cl 2 Bibliography of the Works of Robinson Jeffers, A (Alberts), 266, 428, 531, 596; cl 2 Bierce, Ambrose, 191; cl 1, cl 2 Big Sur, 239, 817–818. See also under pilgrimages, cl 1, cl 2 Billie (dog), 256; cl 1 Bird, Helen, 241, 387; cl 2 Bird, Remsen Du Bois, 241, 387, 394, 605, 814n1 (top), 815; letter from RJ to, 814; letters from UJ to, 61, 664, 665; cl 2 “Birds” (Jeffers), 76n1 “Birds and Fishes” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) Birnbaum, Martin, letter from UJ to, 191 “Birthday (Autobiography)” (Jeffers), 904n2 Bishop, Zelle, 358; letters from RJ and UJ to, 188, 645; letter from UJ to, 662; cl 1



Index

Bissell, Clifford, Cyrano de Bergerac / Chanticleer, translations of, 542 “Bixby’s Landing” (Jeffers), 419n2 Black Masses (J. Alberts), Jeffers’ foreword to, 427 “Black-Out” (Jeffers), 187n2, 319n3, 505 Blaettler, Rudolph, 191n1; letter from UJ to, 46 Blanchard, Mary, 449 Blanche. See Matthias, Blanche “Bloody Sire, The” (Jeffers), 76n1, 95n20, 112 Blumenthal, George and Mary Ann, 41 Blunt, Lady Anne, Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates, 246 Blunt, Wilfrid, 246 Blythe, Samuel, 24 Boardman, Bess, Sincerely Yours: A Collection of Favorite Recipes, 253n4 “Boats in a Fog” (Jeffers), 76n1, 390n1, 825n2 Boaz, Martha, letter from RJ to, 839 Boissevain, Eugen, 655n1, 737; cl 1, cl 2 Boke family, 364; cl 2 Bollingen Foundation, letter from RJ to, 908 Boni & Liveright. See Liveright, Horace Book Club of California, 13n1, 187, 753–756; honorary membership, 753, 833; Jeffers’ works published by, 505n2, 510n4, 639, 833, 912n3; cl 1, cl 2 Book of Gaelic Airs for Una’s Melodeon, A (R. Jeffers and U. Jeffers), 510n4 Bordry, Paul, letter from RJ to, 432 Bosworth, Hettie, 486n2; cl 2 Bothwell, Earl of, 649 Bowen, Mary Ann, 307 Bowers, Faubion, 379, 704n2 Bowl of Blood, The (Jeffers), 108, 138, 141 Bowra, C. M., The Heritage of Symbolism, 297 Boylan, Octavia, letter from RJ to, 70

Boyle, Peter, 265; cl 1, cl 2 Bradford, Charles Angell, Heart Burial, 602n2 Brady, Mildred Edie, “The New Cult of Sex and Anarchy,” 454 Braithwaite, William Stanley, 889; cl 1 Brandon, Henry, 577n1, 742, 749n1 (bottom) Braun-Vogelstein, Julie, 182 Brecht, Bertolt, Galileo, 387; cl 1 Breen, Robert, 688 Brett, Dorothy, 282, 365, 628; letter from UJ to, 410; cl 1, cl 2 Brett, Oliver. See Esher, Viscount Brill, A. A., 355; cl 2 Brinig, Myron, 282, 355, 365, 449, 456; cl 2 British Isles, Robinson and Una’s 1948 trip to: plans, 372, 400, 474, 502, 517, 523, 524, 526, 534, 537; Ireland, 551, 553, 554–556, 558, 562–563, 566–567, 569–594; Scotland, 586, 590–591; England, 588, 590, 591; return, 592, 594; summaries, 622, 668, 684–685 British Isles, Robinson’s 1956 family trip to, 825–830 Brittain, Vera, 36 Brontë, Emily, 511; cl 1, cl 2 Brooke, Rupert, 36; cl 1 Brookes, Jacqueline, 804n2 (bottom), 806n2 (bottom) Brooks, Eleanor, 323, 366, 417–418. See also Brooks, Van Wyck, cl 2 Brooks, Van Wyck, 323, 328, 366, 367, 608; letters from RJ to, 372, 374, 382, 397; letter from UJ to, 417; The World of Washington Irving, 323, 328; cl 2 Brophy, Robert, 721n2; cl 1 Browder, Earl, 10 Brown, Anne, 328 Brown, Cecil, Suez to Singapore, 213

Browne, Maurice, 790; Too Late to Lament, 790; cl 1, cl 2 Browning, Robert, 258; cl 1 Brumbaugh, Thomas, letter from UJ to, 368 Bryant, Fredric William, 120 Buckland, William, 601 Bufano, Beniamino, 206 Bullitt, William, 563 Bullock, Hugh, letters from RJ to, 385, 654, 683, 723, 740, 825 Bullock, Marie, 370, 826; letters from RJ to, 385, 710, 899, 905; cl 2 Burgess, Gelett, 692 Burke, Kenneth, 716, 786 Burnett, Whit, letters from RJ to, 193, 343; letter from UJ to, 204; American Authors Today, 343; This Is My Best, 194n2 (top), 204n1 (bottom) Burris, Quincey, 620 Busby, Esther (Boardman), 85, 212, 258, 259, 260, 289, 621; Hampshire House, 76, 86; cl 1, cl 2 Busby, Jack, 152; cl 1, cl 2 Busby, Janet, 289; cl 1, cl 2 Butch (dog), 175, 182 Butcher, Fanny, 429 Butterfly House (Carmel Point), 890n3 Button. See Barkan, Phoebe (daughter) Bynner, Witter, 399; letters from RJ to, 74, 824; Against the Cold, 74; Book of Lyrics, 824; cl 1, cl 2 Byron, Lord George Gordon, 65, 246, 307; cl 1, cl 2 Caesar, 520; cl 1 “Caged Eagle’s Death Dream, The” (Jeffers), 146n6 Caldwell, James, 449, 519n1; cl 1, cl 2

Index



Caldwell, Zoe, 827n4 Californians (Jeffers), 106, 256 Caligula, 785 Call, Harrison, 176n4, 188, 246; séance, appearance at, 4, 7–8, 15; cl 1 Call, Isabelle, 48, 51, 63; cl 1, cl 2 Call, Orlando and Caroline (Crandall), 176n4; cl 1 Call family, 176n4, 312, 347 “Calm and Full the Ocean” (Jeffers), 319n3 Campbell, Louis, 533 Camus, Albert, 871 Canby, Henry Seidel, 71; cl 2 Canfield, Cass, 737n1 Canfield, Mary Cass, 449; cl 1, cl 2 Cappon, Alexander, 105; cl 2 Carillon, 107 Carlin, Herbert, letter from RJ to, 132 Carlyle, Jane Welsh, 674 Carmel (Carmel-by-the-Sea, Calif.): crowds and growth, 247, 251, 364, 387, 480; environmental issues, 40, 267; Robinson and Una’s early years in, 255, 256, 260, 266; cl 1, cl 2 Carmel Cymbal: letter from RJ to, 38; letter from UJ to, 40; cl 1, cl 2 Carmel Mission, 410, 415, 423, 607n1, 689; Tre Ore service, 25–26, 527–528; cl 1, cl 2 Carmel Music Society, 289, 449; letter from RJ to, 696 Carmel Pine Cone, 29–30; Jeffers birthday number, 66, 68; cl 2 Carmel Pine Cone–Cymbal: letters from RJ to, 792, 830, 832; letter from RJ and UJ to, 267 Carmel Point: development plans, 40n6, 657, 664–665, 666, 828n1, 830n1, 835n5; odor, 360–361; pollution, 40



Index

Carpenter, Barth, 352; letters from UJ to, 322, 333; “The Jeffers Family,” 324n1 Carpenter, Ellen, 398, 447, 455, 479, 509, 614 Carpenter, Frederic Ives: letters from RJ to 273, 278; letter from RJ and UJ to, 104; letter from UJ to, 31; “The Values of Robinson Jeffers,” 31; cl 1, cl 2 Carpenter, John Alden, 447, 455, 509, 614 Carpenter, Lillian, 104 Carpenter, Margaret, letter from RJ to, 889 Carpenter, Octavia, 324n2 Carrie. See Walls, Caroline “Carrie” (Call) Carson, Margaret, letter from RJ to, 371 Carswell, Catherine, The Life of Robert Burns, 316, 617; cl 2 Carter, Nettie, 5; cl 1 Casadesus, Robert, 321 “Cassandra” (Jeffers), 319n3, 505; translation, 722 Casson, Stanley, 46 Cats, The, 730; cl 1 Cavalli, Charles, letter from RJ and UJ to, 445 Cawdor (Jeffers), 199, 540; manuscript, 270; translation, 412 Cawdor and Other Poems (Jeffers), 370 Cecil, David, 316; Young Lord Melbourne, 16, 20, 617 Cerf, Bennett, 513; letters from RJ to, 532, 885, 892, 898; letter from RJ and UJ to, 44; letters from UJ to, 17, 28, 63, 67, 86, 105, 107, 108, 126, 129, 172, 185, 193, 195, 203, 213, 239, 268, 276, 277, 329, 339, 340, 357, 359, 360, 390, 395, 400, 402, 428, 435, 440, 474, 475, 482, 514, 524; Try and Stop Me, 329; cl 1, cl 2 Cerf, Christopher, 126 Cerf, Jonathan, 400

Cerf, Phyllis, 63 Cerwin, Herbert, Famous Recipes by Famous People, 64n3 Chadbourne, Marjorie, 449, 497n1, 502 Chadbourne, Thomas, Jr., 502 Chaplin, Charlie, 98n1; cl 2 Charlotte (mother of Jean Kellogg). See Kellogg, Charlotte Charlotte (wife of Garth Jeffers). See Jeffers, Charlotte Charnley family, 201 Chatterji, Nimai, letter from RJ to, 846 Chew’s Ridge, 693–694 Chicago Art Institute, 234 Chillon, Château de (Switzerland), 651 Churchill, Winston, 97n3, 285n2, 345, 520 City College of New York, vocal recordings, 86–87, 93 Civil War, American, 16, 21, 169, 170, 176n4 Clague, Joseph, 284 Claire (or Clare). See Spencer, Claire Clairmont, Glenn: letter from RJ to, 687; letter from UJ to, 526 Clampett, Cornelia “Nellie,” 207n2, 217, 637n2 Clampett, Frederick, 207n2, 637 Clapp, Frederick “Timmie,” 258, 259, 315, 548, 551, 626–627, 676, 904, 906; letters from RJ to, 370, 436, 684, 693, 705, 732, 755, 758, 809, 881, 896, 910, 918; letter from RJ and UJ to, 610; letters from UJ to, 3, 25, 29, 48, 134, 183, 245, 305, 311, 335, 344, 353, 387, 398, 413, 451, 484, 496, 554, 597; Frick Collection, 11, 33, 210, 300, 397, 426, 461n6; Jaguar (automobile), 627, 670, 684, 757; photographed by Hagemeyer, 30; Robinson’s appreciation of poetry by, 33, 73, 101, 371, 397, 437, 611,

755–756; Una’s appreciation of poetry by, 311, 312, 460; Una’s feelings for, 57, 73, 296, 452; Yale, donation to, 896, 910, 918. Works: Against a Background on Fire, 248, 312; Cadenza in C Minor, 906; “Figures in a Coast Range Dance of Death,” 33; foreword to Hungerfield (Jeffers), 755, 758; New Poems, 33, 436; Said Before Sunset, 33, 436; The Seeming Real, 436–437, 451, 460. cl 1, cl 2 Clapp, Maud, 551, 626–627, 676, 906, 910; letters from RJ to, 684, 693, 705, 732, 809; letter from RJ and UJ to, 610; letters from UJ to, 3, 9, 25, 29, 48, 134, 148, 170, 183, 195, 245, 305, 311, 327, 335, 344, 353, 387, 398, 413, 451, 484, 496, 554, 597; artwork, 356; Una’s feelings for, 452; death of, 918; cl 1, cl 2 Clark, Gilmore, 425n1 Clark, Walter Van Tilberg: “A Study in Robinson Jeffers,” 44n1 (bottom), 897; The Ox-Bow Incident, 44, 897; Tim Hazard, 897 Clemens, Cyril: letters from RJ to, 704, 800; letters from UJ to, 127, 129, 150; My Chat with Thomas Hardy, 704; cl 2 Cloisters, The, 41, 79n2, 509 Clough, Francis Gardner, letter from RJ to, 242 Clough, Wilson Ober, 243n2 “Coast-Road, The” (Jeffers), 95n20, 519 Cobbett, William, Rural Rides in Surrey, Kent, and Other Counties, 309, 536; cl 2 Coblentz, Stanton Arthur, letter from RJ to, 557 Coffey, Titian, 254; cl 1 Coffin, Catherine, 77 Coffin, William Sloane, Jr., 77n2

Index



Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 295; cl 1, cl 2 Colum, Mary, 434; Life and the Dream, 460 Colum, Padraic, 434; Balloon, 485 “Come, Little Birds” (Jeffers), 58, 88, 112, 199 Cominos, Nicholas: letters from RJ to, 849, 896, 908; film proposals, 849, 892, 896, 898, 899, 909; Once Upon a Sunday (film), 849n1 Cominos, Theodore, letter from RJ to, 899 Commins, Dorothy, 794; What Is an Editor?, 506n1, 885n1. See also Commins, Saxe, cl 2 Commins, Saxe: letters from RJ to, 520, 523, 694, 746, 748, 753, 762, 765, 766, 782, 783, 784, 785, 787, 791, 794, 797, 803, 826, 836, 838, 847; letters from RJ and UJ to, 118, 373; letters from UJ to, 105, 112, 117, 119, 150, 151, 369, 393, 395, 477, 506, 507; children of, 794n1; The Double Axe, reaction to, 506; death of, 885, 914; cl 2 Condor, The (Jeffers), 62n1, 252, 262 Connie. See Flavin, Connie “Continent’s End” (Jeffers), 711n2 Coons, Arthur: letter from RJ to, 814; letter from UJ to, 530 Cooper, James Fenimore, 718, 719 Coote, Emilie, 235, 291; séances, participation in, 4, 15, 21, 48; cl 2 Coote, Ralph Algernon, 237n1, 378; cl 2 Cornish, Antoinette, letter from RJ to, 194 Coryell, Russell, 98n1, 201 Coulter, John, The Drums Are Out, 578 Country Life (magazine), 578, 691, 712, 730 cradle, 216, 224, 236, 331, 502; in photograph, 462 Craig, Helen, 806n2 (bottom) Craig, Mark and Elizabeth, 90 Craig, Peter, 818n1 (bottom); letter from RJ to, 805



Index

Crashaw, Richard, 151 Crawford, Cheryl, 349 Cretan Woman, The (Jeffers), 784, 844–845, 907, 916; international productions, 891, 892, 907; Jeffers’ New York Herald Tribune essay about, 805n2, 945–947 (text of ); miscellaneous U. S. productions, 797, 804, 806, 844, 907; original title (“Phaedra”), 627, 762–763, 765, 766, 782, 783; reviews, 804n2 (bottom); translations, 885, 892, 912, 925n2 Cronin, Joseph, letter from RJ to, 122 Crowe, Lee, 66; cl 2 “Cruel Falcon, The” (Jeffers), 87n2, 187, 270, 271 Cuala Press, 270; cl 1 Cummings, E. E., 101; cl 1 Curphey, Ethel, 139, 222, 233, 236 Curphey, William, 140n2 Currey, Marjorie, letters from RJ to, 902, 906, 909 Curtis, Brian and Meta, 171, 321; cl 2 Curtis-Brown, Anne, letter from RJ to, 811 Curtis Brown, Ltd., 475 Daisy. See Bartley, Daisy (Call) Dalí, Gala, 123n3, 346; photograph, 160 Dalí, Salvador, 122, 346–347; Apotheosis of Homer, 347; photograph, 160 Dalí party, 123n3; photograph, 160 Daly, James, Poems: 1923–1943, 286–287; cl 1 Damrosch, Walter, 372 Darwin, Charles, 705n3 Dasburg, Marina, 365; cl 2 Davidson, Gustav, letters from RJ to, 715, 725 Davidson, Jo, 192, 196; cl 1, cl 2 Davis, Bette, 185 “Day Is a Poem, The” (Jeffers), 76n1, 112

Dean, Mallette, 833 de Angulo, Gui, 367n8; cl 2 de Angulo, Jaime, 365; cl 1, cl 2 de Angulo, Nancy (Freeland), 365; cl 1, cl 2 Dear Judas (Jeffers), 894, 916; Jeffers’ New York Times essay about, 493, 933–935 (text of); manuscript, 270; Michael Myerberg production, 244, 247–248, 430, 434, 459, 474, 484–485, 488, 491, 493, 496, 498, 894; reviews, 496 Dear Judas and Other Poems (Jeffers), 370 “Dear little sister whom men call Death” (Jeffers), 206–207 “Death of a Dog” (Jeffers), 810 De Casseres, Benjamin: letter from RJ and UJ to, 79; Robinson Jeffers: Tragic Terror, 81n2; cl 1, cl 2 De Casseres, Bio, letter from RJ and UJ to, 79; cl 1, cl 2 “Decaying Lambskins” (Jeffers), 110 Decca Records, 514, 525, 669, 672 Decker, Clarence, 83n1, 84, 105, 662; cl 2 Decker, Mary, 83n1, 84 Deep Well Guest Ranch, 85, 100, 134; cl 2 “Deer Lay Down Their Bones, The” (Jeffers), 785, 802, 821n2 de Gaulle, Charles, 285n2 de Limur, André and Ethel, 536n3; cl 2 D’Eliscu, Milton, 281 “Delusions of Saints” (Jeffers), 87n2 de Margerie, Roland, 284; Journal: 1939– 1940, 285n2 DeMunbrun, Roland, letter from RJ to, 620 Dennison, George, 314, 388; cl 2 Dent du Midi, La (Switzerland), 644, 651 de Rachewiltz, Mary, 925 De Rerum Virtute (Jeffers), 769

Descent to the Dead (Jeffers), 19n1, 342, 370, 798; BBC radio broadcast, 418, 475, 482 Deutsch, Babette, 127, 911; letter from UJ to, 629; cl 1, cl 2 Deutsch, Monroe, Albert M. Bender, 111 Devendorf, Frank, 361; cl 1 De Wild, Gene, letter from RJ to, 844 Dewitt, Miriam Hapgood, 365; cl 2 de Wronecki, Jeanne, 413n4 diary, travel. See under Jeffers, Una. See also Visits to Ireland (U. Jeffers) Dickinson, Henry and Edith, 283n1; cl 1, cl 2 Dickinson, William, 281 dictionaries, 514 Dies, Martin, 10 Dillon, George, letters from RJ to, 60, 477; cl 2 Directions in the Sun (Barker), Jeffers’ foreword to, 820, 947–948 (text of) “Distant Rainfall” (Jeffers), 270, 271 D. L. See James, Daniel Lewis Donahue, Lester, 175, 653, 662, 675; cl 2 Donaldson, Hildegarde, 581n1; cl 1, cl 2 D’Orge, Jeanne: letter from RJ to, 823; Voice in the Circle, 823; cl 1 Dostoevsky, Feodor, 520; cl 1, cl 2 Double Axe, The (Jeffers), 714–715; translation, 722 Double Axe and Other Poems, The (Jeffers), 303, 474, 515, 751; dedication, 521; manuscript, 480, 485, 490, 506, 514, 521; preface, 523; publication, 543; Publishers’ Note, 521, 523; revisions, 520–521; title, 480, 485, 506, 507; translation, 925n2 Dougherty, Paul, 290, 438; cl 2 Dougherty, Paula, 509; cl 2 Downie, Harry, 423; letter from UJ to, 607 Downs, Elizabeth, letter from RJ to, 833

Index



Doyle, Alice (Mrs. William P. Mahoney, Jr.), 457 Dramatists Guild, 339–340; letter from RJ to, 546 Draper, Muriel, 246; cl 2 Draper, Raimund, 246 Drew, Fraser, letters from RJ to, 789, 804, 830 DuCasse, Micaela and Ralph, 305, 307 Ducloux, Walter, 878n1 Dukes, Ashley, 265. See also Hargreaves, Margaret, cl 2 Duniway, Mr., letter from RJ to, 872 Durham, Henriette. See Goodrich, Henriette Durham, Willard, 364–365 “Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind” (Jeffers), 319n3, 505, 735, 895 Eastman, Max, 98n1, 370; letter from RJ to, 545; Enjoyment of Living, 545; cl 1, cl 2 Eaton, Mitzi, 58 Eaton, Roscoe, 216 Eberhart, Mignon, 239, 429, 515; With This Ring, 240n2 Eberhart, Richard, New World Writing, 811 Ede, Priscilla, 347n3 Edith. See Allan, Edith (Call) Edward Arnold Publishers, Ltd., letter from RJ to, 884 Edwards, Jonathan, 100, 103, 104, 426; cl 2 Ehlers, Alice, 41 Elder, Paul & Company, 373; cl 1 Eliot, T. S., 460, 617, 691; “From Poe to Valéry,” 601; cl 1, cl 2 “Ella Young” (U. Jeffers), 831n2 Ellen. See O’Sullivan, Ellen Ellis. See Roberts, Richard Ellis Ellis, Elizabeth, 516



Index

Eloesser, Leo, 307; cl 2 Elpis Private Hospital (Ireland), 574–575, 791, 903 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 70, 447, 718; “The Snow-Storm,” 94n15; cl 1, cl 2 Emily (or Emilie). See Coote, Emilie Emily (automobile), 256; cl 1 Ennis, Jean, 803, 836; letter from RJ to, 795 environment, concern for, 40, 267, 692–693 Erfurth, Ulrich, 864, 888 Esher, Viscount (Oliver Brett), 20 Esther. See Busby, Esther Esther (wife of Sidney Fish). See Fish, Esther Ethel. See Curphey, Ethel Eugen. See Boissevain, Eugen Eulah. See Pharr, Eulah Euripides, Hippolytus, 627, 782, 845; Medea, 336–337, 338, 339, 502, 540, 542; cl 1 Evans, Augusta Jane, St. Elmo, 453n2 Evans, Claire. See Spencer, Claire Evans, George, 201, 267; cl 1, cl 2 Evans, John, 8, 141, 354; cl 1, cl 2 Evans, Karl, 73; cl 1 Evans, Margaret, 73n3; cl 2 Evans, Maurice, 9, 16; Macbeth, 138, 457, 924n1 (bottom) “Excesses of God, The” (Jeffers), 112 Exner, Richard, 864, 866, 868, 873; letters from RJ to, 847, 853, 862, 869 “Expect Change” (Jeffers), 99, 112 “Eye, The” (Jeffers), 319n3, 505, 767n1 Eyre, Wilfred and Marjorie, 115 “Fantasy” (Jeffers), 144n4 Farbman, Nat, 532n1 (top), 553; photographs by, 468–473 Fardulli, Denise Le Fée, 412 Fassig, Annabel, 222

Faulkner, William, 536n4; Go Down, Moses, 195, 203; cl 2 Faurot, Alys, 440n11, 479 Fay, Terry, 565 Fearnley, Cen, 224 Feldman, Charles, 499 Ficke, Arthur Davison, 71; cl 1, cl 2 Field, Sara Bard, 226, 305–306, 388, 449; letter from RJ to, 730; letter from UJ to, 288; cl 1, cl 2 Fifield, Mrs., 256–257; cl 1 Fifty Photographs: Edward Weston (Armitage), Jeffers’ introductory essay in, 514, 935– 937 (text of) Fine Editions Press, letter from RJ to, 917 “Finland Is Down” (Jeffers), 112 “Fire” (Jeffers), 687 Fire and Other Poems (Lawrence), Jeffers’ foreword to, 13, 187, 929–931 (text of) “First Book” (Jeffers), 912n3, 949–952 (text of) Fish, Esther, 149, 282, 304, 352, 389, 659, 663, 676; cl 2 Fish, Olga, 228, 269, 304; cl 1, cl 2 Fish, Sidney, 37, 149, 304, 352, 653, 659, 663; cl 1, cl 2 Fish, Sidney Stuyvesant “Stuyvie,” 562, 674, 675; cl 2 Fish, Stuyvesant, Jr., 328 Fisher, Alfred Young, The Ghost in the Underblows, 51; cl 2 Fitelson, H. William, 340–341; letter from RJ to, 339 “Five Poems” (Jeffers), 58, 112 Flaccus, Kimball, 87 Flagons and Apples (Jeffers), 106 Flaubert, Gustave: Madame Bovary, 260, Salammbô, 260; cl 1 Flavin, Connie, 123n3, 179, 213, 217–218, 236,

300, 509, 605, 637; letters from RJ to, 204– 207; Galt Bell and, 3, 379; Martin Flavin and, 59, 290, 379, 605, 614, 637; marriages and divorces, 207n2, 380n8; “‘12–6 a.m. War Time’ (After R. J. on Watch),” 195. See also Bell, Cornelia “Connie” Flavin, Flavia; 614, 637; cl 2 Flavin, Martin, 15, 123n3, 179, 213, 236, 501, 615; The Bowl of Blood (Jeffers), idea for, 138, 141; Connie Bell Flavin and, 59, 207n2, 290, 379, 605, 614, 637; Journey in the Dark, 283; cl 1, cl 2 Flavin, Martin, Jr., 15, 179 Flavin, Sarah “Sally,” 501; séance, appearance at, 4, 15; cl 2 Flavin, Sean, 15; cl 2 Flewelling, Ralph Tyler, 43n11; cl 2 “Flight of Swans” (Jeffers), 324n5 Focus (magazine), 812–813 Foerster, Norman, letter from RJ to, 824; cl 2 Forbes, Edward Waldo, 92, 141 Forbes, Margaret, 141 Forbes, Mr., letter from RJ to, 856 Forest Theater, 9, 114n2, 500, 697n1 (bottom), 699, 702, 907n3 Forsythe, William, “The Rose-a-Lindsaye,” 408 Fort Ord, 56n1, 310, 326, 351 “For U. J.” (Jeffers), 99, 112 “For Una” (Jeffers), 100n1, 112 Foster, Nancy, 258 Foster, Stephen, 91 Four Poems and A Fragment (Jeffers), 106, 819 “Fourth Act” (Jeffers), 319n3, 505, 522n4 Fran. See Liliethal, Frances Franklin, Beatrice, 34n2 Franklin, Lenore, letter from UJ to, 33

Index



Frick Collection, 11, 33, 210, 300, 397, 426, 461n6; cl 2 Friede, Donald, 22, 271n1, 512–513; cl 1, cl 2 Frost, Robert, 59n2, 80, 362n2, 446–447, 480; cl 1 Funke, Lewis B., 694 Gabrielle. See Kuster, Gabrielle Garner, Archie, 264 Garrett, Alice, 516 Garrett, George, 575 Garrison, Clayton, letter from RJ to, 860 Gassner, John, letter from RJ to, 549; cl 2. See also Tower Beyond Tragedy, The (Jeffers): John Gassner arrangement Gay. See Kuster, Gabrielle Geffen, Felicia: letter from RJ to, 535; letters from UJ to, 361, 367, 381 Gelber, Leon, 100; cl 1 Geller, James, 348–349 Genghis Khan, 785 George. See Sebastian, George George Sterling: With Comment by Robinson Jeffers (Jeffers), 18, 252, 262 “George Sterling” (Jeffers), 128 “George Sterling’s Death” (Jeffers), 261 Gershwin, George, 269, 329n2; cl 2 Gershwin, Ira, 269. See also Gershwin, George, cl 2 Ghandi, Mohandas, 197, 306 Ghormley, Wilbur, “Lineal Data of Joseph Jeffers and Barbara Moore,” 231n3 “Ghosts in England” (Jeffers), 199 Gide, André, 674 Gielgud, John, 457, 477, 480, 510n7, 516, 534, 575; letter from RJ to, 483; cl 2 Gilbert, Rudolph, 31, 110, 201; letters from UJ to, 32, 45, 247, 286, 296; Four Living



Index

Poets, 296; “Robinson Jeffers’ Huge Background,” 33; Shine, Perishing Republic, 31, 110; cl 1, cl 2 Gilkey, Stanley, 599 Gilpin, Jack, 595n1, 643–644, 651; letter from RJ to, 656 Gilpin, Phoebe, 643–644, 644n4, 651, 659, 669, 903; letter from RJ to, 656. See also Barkan, Phoebe (daughter) Ginna, Robert Emmett, letter from RJ to, 877 Girard, Maureen, The Last Word, 198n4, 310n1, 326n2; cl 2 Girvin, Margaret, 168; cl 2 Give Your Heart to the Hawks (Jeffers): film rights, 809n2, 892, 896, 899, 909; manuscript, 270, 271; title, 272 Give Your Heart to the Hawks and Other Poems (Jeffers), 370 Glasgow, Ellen, 328, 362n2 Gleason, Mary, letter from RJ to, 371 Glenveagh Castle (Ireland), 562–563, 566; cl 2 Godwin, William, 294, 732; cl 2 Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 619; The Sorrows of Young Werther, 589; cl 1 Gogarty, Oliver, 378, 438, 486; Perennial, 382; cl 2 Golden Bough, Theatre of the, 42n5, 670, 790; cl 1, cl 2 Goldman, Rabbi Solomon, letter from RJ to, 417 Gone With the Wind (film), 13, 16 Gonne, Maud, 4 Goodrich, Henriette, 365; cl 2 Grabhorn, Edwin, 252, 759, 762, 769; cl 1, cl 2 Grabhorn Press, 13n1, 252, 753, 755n1, 758n1, 759, 769, 900n1; cl 2

Graham, Ellwood, 16, 20 “Granddaughter” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) Grande, Paul E., letter from RJ to, 848 Grant, Bessie, 222, 399 Grant, Frederic, 139, 414, 423 Grant, Mary, 223 Grant, Patricia “Patty.” See Jeffers, Patty Gratiot, John, 613, 627, 658 Graves, Robert, 36; cl 2 “Greater Grandeur” (Jeffers), 477 “Great Man in Our Time, A” (Jeffers), 800n1 “Great Men” (Jeffers), 70n2, 112 “Great Sunset, The” (Jeffers), 76n1 Grebanier, Bernard, 495 Green, Jerome: letter from RJ to, 717; letter from UJ to, 596 Green, Varian, letter from RJ to, 684; cl 2 Greenan, Edith, 3, 20, 201, 255, 258; letter from UJ to, 64; Of Una Jeffers, 6, 8, 21, 199, 261, 746–747; cl 1, cl 2 Greenan, James Owen, 64, 228; cl 1, cl 2 Greenan, Maeve, 130n2, 322; letter from UJ to, 317; cl 1, cl 2 Greene, Charles Sumner, 449; cl 2 Greene, Luther, 396, 603; letters from RJ to, 631, 632, 635, 642, 649, 655, 661, 664, 680, 688, 690, 696; letter from RJ and UJ to, 648; letters from UJ to, 407, 599, 628, 633, 667, 675; marriage to and divorce from Judith Anderson, 424, 444n4, 688n1. See also Medea (Jeffers): Luther Greene option Greenfield, Howard, letter from RJ to, 793 Greenslet, Ferris, The Lowells and Their Seven Worlds, 438 Greenwood, Robert, letter from RJ to, 822 Gregory, Alyse, Wheels on Gravel, 20

Gregory, Horace, 736; Metamorphoses (Ovid), translation of, 881; Selected Poems, 736; cl 1 Gregory, Lady: Coole Park, 748, 764; Kathleen ni Houlihan, 578; cl 1 Greta (dog), 284 Griffin, Robert Allen, 226; letters from RJ to, 856, 858; cl 2 Griffith, Mr., letter from RJ to, 615 Griggs, Maitland, 48 Gros, Robert, letter from UJ to, 454; cl 2 Guernsey, Otis, Jr., letter from RJ to, 122 Gunther, Frances, 127 Gunther, John, 36, 127n2; cl 2 Haas, Merle, 440, 443 Haas, Robert, 440, 474; letter from UJ to, 443; cl 2 Hagemeyer, Johan, 98n1, 127; cl 1, cl 2 Hagen, Beulah, letter from RJ to, 736 Hagerty, James, 618 Haidi (dog), 337 Haig (dog), 23, 57, 284, 410; cl 2 Halle, Kay, 923n2 Halsey, Reece, letters from RJ to, 706, 808 Halsey, William “Bull,” 702 Halter, Ernest J., letter from RJ to, 342 Hamilton, Patrick, Hangover Square, 185 Hammack, Daniel, 200; cl 1, cl 2 Hampson, Harriet, 77n3; cl 2 Hampson, Helen, 76 Hansen, Hazel, 298n5, 401, 424 Hansen, Kurt Heinrich, 854n2 Hardy, Ruland, Jr., 317n1, 322 Hardy, Thomas, 3, 511, 611; The Return of the Native, 326n2; cl 1, cl 2 Hare, Montgomery, letter from RJ to, 298 Harper, Emanuel, letter from RJ to, 898

Index



Harper & Brothers, letter from RJ to, 436 Harper’s Bazaar, “The Intellectual Climate of San Francisco,” 455n2 Harris, Jed. See Medea (Jeffers): Jed Harris proposal Hart, James D., 763n1; My First Publication, 912n3 Hartshorne, Emily Sophia, Enshrined Hearts of Warriors and Illustrious People, 602n2 Harvard College, President and Fellows of, letter from RJ to, 519 Harvard University, vocal recordings (Harvard Vocarium), 93, 298, 519–520 Harvey, Helen, letter from RJ to, 806 “Hawk and the Rock, The” (Jackson), 454n1 Hawker, Robert Stephen, 536; cl 1 hawks, 104, 343n3, 352, 900 Hawk Tower, 280; flag, 399; photograph, 468; cl 1, cl 2 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 719; The Marble Faun, 718; The Scarlet Letter, 717; cl 2 Hayes, Roland, 415, 448, 456; cl 2 Hazel. See Pinkham, Hazel heart burials, 601; cl 2 Heathcliff (dog), 756, 809–810 Heavey, Helen, 316, 331 “Hellenistics” (Jeffers), 52 Hellman, Lillian: Four Plays, 185; The Little Foxes, 185 Heltai, Jenö, The Mute Knight, 701 Hemphill, Martyn, 378; cl 2 Heraclitus, 705n3 Herbst, Otto, letter from RJ to, 888 Herlie, Eileen, 534, 580, 590–591, 593–­594 Heron, Herbert, 9, 268n1, 863; cl 1, cl 2 Hesse, Eva, 750, 757, 853, 869, 878, 880, 882, 888, 912; letters from RJ to, 722, 734, 738, 750, 768, 789, 841, 850, 851,



Index

864, 865, 867, 868, 873, 879, 885, 893, 906, 919; Jeffers’ works translated by, 722, 738, 751, 789, 850, 885, 892, 912, 919; cl 1 Heuss, Theodor, 886 Hewes, Henry, letter from RJ to, 916 Heyneman, Julie, 291; cl 1, cl 2 H F Bar Ranch, 217; cl 2 Hibben, Frank C. , “The Mystery of the Stone Towers,” 325 Hicks, John, 666n2 Hill, Vassie, 84 Hinkley, Violet (Call), 647, 677; letter from RJ to, 651; cl 1, cl 2 “Historical Choice” (Jeffers), 522n4 Hitler, Adolf, 132, 144, 342n3, 520, 785, 787n1; cl 1, cl 2 Hobart, John, 120; letter from RJ to, 615 Hobhouse, Arthur and Konradin, 327; cl 2 Hogarth Press, 475, 760; cl 1, cl 2 Hogle, Maud, 191; cl 2 Holman, Zena, 788; letter from RJ to, 681; letters from UJ to, 18, 23, 52, 110, 116, 191, 210, 240, 296, 608, 617; cl 2 Holmes, John, 89n2, 186n6, 762, 834n2 Home (Jeffers), 271 Homer, 719; cl 1, cl 2 Hone, Joseph, 572. Works: The Life of George Moore, 248; The Moores of Moore Hall, 91; W.  B. Yeats: 1865–1939, 197, 240, 248; William Butler Yeats, 197. cl 2 Hooper, Harold R., 844, 850n1 “Hope Is Not for the Wise” (Jeffers), 76n1, 95n20 Hope Is Not for the Wise (Jeffers), 252, 262 Hopkins, Elyse, 622 Hopkins, Samuel, Jr. and Nancy, 622, 623n8 Hopper, James, Jr., 652

Hopper, Jimmie, 191; Jeffers’ memorial tribute to, 830–831; cl 1, cl 2 Horace, 824; cl 1, cl 2 Horton, Bobby, 331; cl 2 Horton, Frank and Gertrude, 217; cl 2 “House-Dog’s Grave, The” (Jeffers), 23, 119 House-Dog’s Grave, The (Jeffers), 119, 252 Housman, A. E., 150–151; A Shropshire Lad, 151; cl 2 “How Carmel Won Hearts of the Jeffers Family” (U. Jeffers), 30n3 Hubbell, Jay B.: letter from UJ to, 493; American Life in Literature, 494 Hudgins, Frances, 331 Hudson, Nellie, 573, 585 Hudson, W. H., 309; cl 1, cl 2 Huff, Frederick W.: letter from RJ to, 724 Hughes, Langston, 7, 10, 16, 55, 114n2, 137, 530; letters from UJ to, 180, 455. Works: The Big Sea, 16; Fields of Wonder, 455; “Goodbye Christ,” 532n7; Shakespeare in Harlem, 180. cl 2 Hugo, Jean, 9 Humanist, letter from RJ to, 713 “Humanist’s Tragedy, The” (Jeffers), 890n2 (top) Hume, Sam, 120 Hungerfield (Jeffers), 734n3, 740n1, 743, 746–749, 751, 756; award, 765; limited edition, 753, 755n1, 762; manuscript, 741; translations, 862, 886, 906, 925 Hungerfield and Other Poems (Jeffers): award, 797n3; dramatic recital, 827n1; ideas for, 756, 762–763, 765, 766; manuscript, 782, 783n2, 784, 793, 794; preliminary title (“Told to a Dead Woman”), 731n3, 739; publication, 784, 797 Hunt, Harry and Jane, 283n4

Hunt, Robert, 399 Hunt, Tim, The Collected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, 374n1, 721n2; cl 1 Huntington, Ruth, 30 “Hurt Hawks” (Jeffers), 76n1, 104, 343, 494n3, 505n2 (bottom), 615–616, 767n1, 884, 890n2 (top) Hyams, Barry, 503, 565, 573 Illustrated London News, 492, 509, 730 Imlay, Fanny, 294 Ince, Alexander, 524; letter from RJ to, 701 “In Defense of Jeffers” (Rexroth), 857n2, 858, 859 Ingalls, Margaret, 137, 405; cl 2 Inge, William Ralph, 731 Ingels, Beth, 232 Ingerson, Charles, 314, 388; cl 2 Inhumanism, Jeffers’ philosophy of, 104, 176, 431, 541, 713–714, 718; cl 1, cl 2 “Inquisitors, The” (Jeffers), 480 “Inscription for a Gravestone” (Jeffers), 95n20, 519, 715n2 “Intellectuals” (Jeffers), 544 “Iona: The Grave of Kings” (Jeffers), 87n2 IRA (Irish Republican Army), 16 “I Shall Laugh Purely” (Jeffers), 186n7, 320n2, 505n2 (bottom); preliminary title, 117 Jackson, Toni, “The Hawk and the Rock,” 454n1 James, Daniel Lewis, Jr., 59 James, Daniel Lewis (D. L.), 84, 323; cl 2 James, Lilith, 59 James, Lillie, 84, 323; cl 2 Jamois, Marguerite, 763n3 Jean. See Kellogg, Jean Jeffares, A. Norman, W. B. Yeats, 674n2

Index



Jefferies, Richard, 309 Jeffers, Annie (Tuttle), 9, 90, 254, 255, 485– 486; cl 1, cl 2 Jeffers, Bobbe, 640n1 Jeffers, Brenda (Doyle) McNamara, 919n2; cl 2 Jeffers, Candida, 245, 305, 306, 331, 336, 499, 501, 830n1; photograph, 462 Jeffers, Charlotte, 508, 527, 732, 919n2; letters from RJ to, 548, 727; letter from RJ and UJ to, 561; marriage to Garth, 450n6, 510n1; photographs, 467, 472, 776; cl 1 Jeffers, Diana, 636, 703, 727, 732; photographs, 776, 777 Jeffers, Donnan: appearance and personality, 28, 136, 149, 255, 414; automobiles, 757, 827n2, 830n1; birth and infancy, 254–255; career plans, 9, 19; children of, 247n1, 322n5, 482nn2–3, 734n5, 855n4, 919n1; clothing, 3, 20; employment, 7, 147, 398, 405, 448–449, 729, 732, 758; England, fondness for, 414; gambling adventure, 3, 7; illnesses and afflictions, 188, 245, 345; marriage to Patty Grant, 130, 149, 152, 200, 222, 237, 250; separation and divorce from Patty, 398–399, 404–405, 418, 422–423, 441n2; marriage to Lee Waggener, 448, 479; maze, 249, 423; Muriel Rukeyser and, 424n2, 441n3, 450n5, 482n3, 669n1; photographs, 163, 467, 472, 777; portrait, 16, 19–20; theater work, 9, 16, 19, 25, 41, 49, 54, 58, 100; Tor House, return to, 399; Tor House, work on, 598, 720n2, 730, 900; World War II (see World War II, Donnan Jeffers and); writing, 147, 149, 399, 405, 414, 423, 428, 435, 440, 729–730; death date, 919n1



Index

Jeffers, Donnan, Jr., 855n4 Jeffers, Garth: letters from RJ to, 351, 548, 727; letters from RJ and UJ to, 173, 357, 561; letters from UJ to, 175, 177, 179, 181, 190; appearance and personality, 28, 136, 195, 196, 255, 281, 324, 376, 386, 414; Baja California trip, 100; Bell Ranch (N. Mex.), 8, 48, 51, 58; birth and infancy, 254–255; Boston trip with Tevis family, 389, 399, 405, 422; children of, 512n2, 637n1, 757n1, 807n2 (bottom), 823n1, 919n2; Christmas surprise visit, 3, 5, 19; clothing, 19–20, 333, 334, 375–376; education, 527, 622, 670; employment, 54, 58, 136, 152, 172, 410, 423; foreign language skills, 173, 213n1, 239, 346–347, 377, 405, 410, 423, 456; forestry career, 527, 533, 622, 670, 672, 700, 702–703, 732; Germany, family trip to, 834; Germany, post-war service in, 405, 418, 424, 438; marriage to Charlotte Riederer, 450n6, 510n1; military service (see World War II, Garth Jeffers’ military service during); photographs, 163, 467, 472, 776; portrait, 16, 19–20; Tor House, return to, 510n1; death date, 919n2 Jeffers, Garth (grandson), 919n2 Jeffers, Gladys, 640n1; cl 1 Jeffers, Hamilton, 184, 255, 256, 387, 398, 638; airplane pilot, 366, 410; appearance and personality, 171, 389; Carmel Highlands property, 410, 413; photograph, 466; World War II (see World War II, Hamilton Jeffers’ service during); cl 1, cl 2 Jeffers, John Robinson, 919n1 Jeffers, Judith, 321, 331, 332, 499, 501, 830n1; photograph, 462

Jeffers, Lee, 424n2, 441n3, 448, 484, 598, 611, 712, 713, 732, 874, 919n1; marriage to Donnan, 448, 479; photographs, 467, 472, 777; Robinson, care for, 655; Tor House, care for, 598, 658; Una, care for, 656, 676; cl 1 Jeffers, Lindsay, 482n2; letter from UJ to, 497, photographs, 467, 472, 777, 778; Robinson’s descriptions of, 548, 703, 732, 733, 755, 756, 809, 826; Una’s descriptions of, 502, 508, 534, 598, 613, 628, 637, 658, 672; cl 1 Jeffers, Maeve, 4, 254, 476, 689; cl 1, cl 2 Jeffers, Maeve (granddaughter), 512n2, 513, 516; letter from RJ and UJ to, 561; christening, 538n1 (bottom); photographs, 466, 467, 472, 776, 777; Robinson’s descriptions of, 548, 584, 703, 727, 732; Una’s descriptions of, 533, 534, 538, 613; cl 1 Jeffers, Monique, 919n2 Jeffers, Morna, 757n1; photograph, 777 Jeffers, Patty, 245–246; father (see Grant, Frederic); mother (see Curphey, Ethel); marriage to Donnan, 130, 149, 152, 200, 222, 237, 250; plan to live at Tor House, 334, 336; separation and divorce from Donnan, 398–399, 404–405, 418, 422–423, 441n2; marriage to and divorce from William Gilger, 503n2; children of, 247n1, 322n5, 503n2 Jeffers, Robinson: letters from UJ to, 215, 218, 221, 229, 586, 588, 590; appearance and personality, 89, 265, 272, 314; autobiographical information, 795–796; awards and prizes, 58, 60, 738, 765, 797n3, 899, 922; childhood, 47, 52n1, 90, 201, 358, 459–460, 485, 644, 651; cigarette

and pipe smoking, 16, 82, 327; climate preferences, 598, 627, 758; clothing, 3, 69, 89n2, 123n3, 328n1, 609, 618; Connie Flavin and, 204–207; criticism, response to, 745, 856–859; daily routine, 256, 273, 634, 733; death, understanding of, 124, 199, 206–207, 492, 684, 703; drawing skills, 509; education, 27–28, 274, 629, 709; Emily (automobile), adventure in, 256; England, plan to live in, 333; environment, concern for, 267; exhibits of work, 67, 69, 87, 92, 98–99, 103, 117, 191, 193, 196, 201, 203, 271; fatherhood, 107, 142; father’s influence, 255; food and cooking, 26–27, 64n3, 168, 214, 219, 220, 224, 226, 253n4; foreign language skills, 295, 346, 357–358, 412, 485, 525, 543, 544–545, 619, 629, 745, 751, 766, 860, 878, 882, 883; Garth and family, trips to see, 532, 533, 536, 700, 702–703, 727, 729, 732; genealogy, disinterest in, 263; God, concept of, 176, 295, 318, 541, 616, 714–715; Greece, plan to visit, 116; holograph letter (photograph), 772–773; honorary degrees, 815; illnesses and afflictions, 232, 331, 375, 383, 384, 430, 440, 500, 503, 504, 523, 721, 787, 837, 868, 904, 905, 919, 922; illness in Ireland, 573–594, 791; illness in Ireland, recovery from, 595, 597, 600–601, 604; influence of other writers, 460, 511, 596, 717–719; inheritance income, 690; Inhumanism, 104, 176, 431, 541, 713–714, 718; Ireland, Jeffers family 1929 trip to, 724; jealousy, 487n3; judge, literary awards, 102n2, 519; juvenilia, 47; letters, sale of, 22, 512–513; letter writing, difficulties with, 74, 154, 287, 386, 412, 696, 701–702, 745, 758, 803, 809, 881–882, 904;

Index



Jeffers, Robinson (continued) magazines and journals, publishing in, 253, 725; marriage to Una, 254; memberships, professional, 361, 367, 370, 385, 535, 715; neutrality, 394, 524n1, 921; own work, explanation of, 70, 102, 104, 124, 176, 189, 199, 318, 330, 343n3, 380–381, 431–432, 480, 505n2 (top), 540–541, 542, 802, 817, 845, 894; own work, opinion of, 266, 274, 342, 719, 720, 916; own work, reading, 843; own work and life, reluctance to discuss, 199, 557–558, 596, 639, 800; Phi Beta Kappa, election to, 29, 31, 32; photographs, 156, 158, 159, 161, 163, 166, 463, 466, 469, 470, 472, 473, 770, 774, 775, 777, 778, 779, 780, 781; poets and poetry, 109, 295, 432, 433, 492, 710, 825; politics, 3, 53, 132, 506; portraits, 525n3, 530, 623n8, 743; public speaking and events, aversion to, 618, 717, 800, 814–815, 839, 853, 877; reputation, 311, 440, 499; royalties, 277, 320, 459, 496n3, 514, 515n2, 690, 803, 867, 912; Scotland, fondness for, 634; sentry service (see World War II, Robinson’s sentry service during); sleeping, 416, 624; social reticence, 32, 71, 224, 346, 350, 377, 384, 733, 880; stone work, 201, 273, 626, 634, 636, 719, 755, 768; travels (see British Isles; lecture tour; Long Island, N. Y.; New York City; Zanesville, Ohio); Una’s death, coping with, 678, 680, 684, 694, 698, 699–700, 703, 704, 708, 710, 717, 720, 724–725, 731, 732, 734, 748, 758n1, 795; Una’s descriptions of, 45, 136, 197, 201, 265, 313, 369, 403; vocal recordings, 76n1, 86–87, 93, 298; worldview, 45, 154, 274, 278–279, 444–445; World War I,



Index

260; World War II, 35–36, 178, 185, 303; World War II, draft questionnaire, 220, 225; writing, 27, 28, 51, 63, 201, 238, 241, 245, 253, 256, 273, 276, 297, 330, 336, 337, 344, 387, 424, 509, 719, 734, 762, 765– 766, 812, 837, 883n2, 887n1, 898; youth, 34, 201, 709, 812–813; death of, 928n1 Jeffers, Robinson: works (see specific titles for page numbers) — books: Be Angry at the Sun and Other Poems; The Beginning and the End and Other Poems; Californians; Cawdor and Other Poems; Dear Judas and Other Poems; Descent to the Dead; The Double Axe and Other Poems; Flagons and Apples; Give Your Heart to the Hawks and Other Poems; Hungerfield and Other Poems; Medea: Freely Adapted from the Medea of Euripides; Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems; The Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers; Solstice and Other Poems; Such Counsels You Gave to Me and Other Poems; Tamar and Other Poems; Thurso’s Landing and Other Poems; The Women at Point Sur — miscellaneous: “All the Corn in One Barn”; An Artist; Apology for Bad Dreams; The Beaks of Eagles; Black Masses (J. Alberts), foreword to; A Book of Gaelic Airs for Una’s Melodeon; The Condor; The Cretan Woman, New York Herald Tribune essay about; Dear Judas, New York Times essay about; De Rerum Virtute; Directions in the Sun (Barker), foreword to; Fifty Photographs: Edward Weston (Armitage), introductory essay; Fire and Other Poems (Lawrence), foreword to; “First Book”; “Five Poems”; Four Poems

and a Fragment; George Sterling: With Comment by Robinson Jeffers; “A Great Man in Our Time”; Hope Is Not for the Wise; The House-Dog’s Grave; Hungerfield (limited edition); Jeffers Country (Lyon), foreword to; The Loving Shepherdess, foreword to; “Mary and Elizabeth”; Medea, foreword to Decca recording; Meditation on Saviors; Natural Music; The Ocean’s Tribute; October Week-End; Poems; “The Poet in a Democracy”;“Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years”; Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years; “Point Lobos”; “Red as I wouldn’t have you red”; Return; Rock and Hawk; Stars; “Tamar Dancing”; “Themes in My Poems”; Themes in My Poems; “Thoughts Contingent to a Poem”; “Thoughts Incidental to a Poem”; The Tower Beyond Tragedy, New York Times essay about; Two Consolations; “With All Good Wishes” — poems and plays: “After Lake Leman”; “Age in Prospect”; “AirRaid Rehearsals”; “Animals”; “Animula”; “The Answer”; “Antrim”; “Apology for Bad Dreams”; “An Artist”; “Ascent to the Sierras”; At the Birth of an Age; “Autumn Evening”; “Battle”; “The Beaks of Eagles”; “The Beautiful Captive”; “The Beauty of Things”; “The Bed by the Window”; “Birds”; “Birds and Fishes”; “Birthday (Autobiography)”; “Bixby’s Landing”; “Black-Out”; “The Bloody Sire”; “Boats in a Fog”; The

Bowl of Blood; “The Caged Eagle’s Death Dream”; “Calm and Full the Ocean”; “Cassandra”; Cawdor; “The Coast-Road”; “Come, Little Birds”; “Continent’s End”; The Cretan Woman; “The Cruel Falcon”; “The Day Is a Poem”; Dear Judas; “Dear little sister whom men call Death”; “Death of a Dog”; “Decaying Lambskins”; “The Deer Lay Down Their Bones”; “Delusions of Saints”; “Distant Rainfall”; The Double Axe; “Eagle Valor, Chicken Mind”; “The Excesses of God”; “Expect Change”; “The Eye”; “Fantasy”; “Finland Is Down”; “Fire”; “Flight of Swans”; “For U. J.”; “For Una”; “Fourth Act”; “George Sterling”; “George Sterling’s Death”; “Ghosts in England”; Give Your Heart to the Hawks; “Granddaughter”; “Greater Grandeur”; “Great Men”; “The Great Sunset”; “Hellenistics”; “Historical Choice”; Home; “Hope Is Not for the Wise”; “The House-Dog’s Grave”; “The Humanist’s Tragedy”; Hungerfield; “Hurt Hawks”; “The Inquisitors”; “Inscription for a Gravestone”; “Intellectuals”; “Iona: The Grave of Kings”; “I Shall Laugh Purely”; “The Last Conservative”; “Life from the Lifeless”; The Love and the Hate; “Love the Wild Swan”; The Loving Shepherdess; “The Low Sky”; Mara; “May–June, 1940”; “The Meddlers”; “Metamorphosis”; “Miching Mallecho”;

Index



Jeffers, Robinson: works (continued ) — poems and plays: (continued ) “Moments of Glory”; “Monument”; “Moon and Five Planets”; “My Dear Love”; “Natural Music”; “Next Armistice Day”; “Night”; “Night Without Sleep”; “9, 19, 1939”; “Noon”; “Nova”; “Now Returned Home”; “Ocean”; “The Ocean’s Tribute”; “Ode on Human Destinies”; “Ode to Hengist and Horsa”; “Oh, Lovely Rock”; “The Old Gentlemen”; “The Old Stone-Mason”; “Only an Hour”; “Orca”; “Original Sin”; “Ossian’s Grave”; “Passenger Pigeons”; “Pearl Harbor”; “The Place for No Story”; “Pleasures”; “Praise Life”; “Prescription of Painful Ends”; “Promise of Peace”; “The Purse-Seine”; “Real and Half Real”; “Rearmament”; “A Redeemer”; “Return”; Roan Stallion; “Rock and Hawk”; Ruth Alison; “Science”; “Self-Criticism in February”; “Shakespeare’s Grave”; “Shane O’Neill’s Cairn”; “The Shears”; “Shine, Empire”; “Shine, Perishing Republic”; “Shine, Republic”; “Shiva”; “Signpost”; “The Sirens”; “Skunks”; Solstice; “The Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean”; “Subjected Earth”; Such Counsels You Gave to Me; “Suicide’s Stone”; “Summer Holiday”; Tamar; “That Noble Flower”; “Their Beauty Has More Meaning”; “Theory of Truth”; Thurso’s Landing; “Time of



Index

Disturbance”; “To a Young Artist”; “To Death”; “The Torch-Bearers’ Race”; “Tor House”; “To the Rock That Will Be a Cornerstone of the House”; “To the Stone-Cutters”; The Tower Beyond Tragedy; “The Truce and the Peace”; “Two Christmas–Cards”; “Vanished Englands”; “Vulture”; “Watch the Lights Fade”; “West Coast Black-Out”; “What of It?”; “Winter Sundown”; “Wise Men in Their Bad Hours”; “The Women on Cythaeron”; “Woodrow Wilson”; “The World’s Wonders” Jeffers, Robinson (grandson), 807n2 (bottom); photograph, 777 Jeffers, Stuart, 823n1; photograph, 777 Jeffers, Una: letters from RJ to, 211, 214, 219, 220, 223, 226, 228, 230, 232, 582, 583, 584, 586, 589; anthologies, opinion of, 107; appearance and personality, 188, 293, 413–414; birth and death of daughter, 254, 476; birth of twin sons, 254–255, 476; books and reading, 259, 617, 658, 674, 676; busyness, 54, 250, 451–452, 484; Carmel Music Society, 289, 449; climate preferences, 618, 627; clothing, 3, 55, 66, 69, 78, 100, 123n3, 217–218, 219, 243, 496, 501, 563, 613, 617; diary, travel, 24, 61, 64, 83, 266, 558, 729, 746–749, 757; Emily (automobile), adventure in, 256; emotional states, 188, 197, 321, 379, 408, 418; England, plan to live in, 333; environment, concern for, 40, 267; fatigue, 335, 422, 552, 595, 599, 609; favorite writers and books, 34, 45, 258, 263, 287, 311–312, 350, 511; finances, 277, 350, 403, 683, 684, 690; food and

cooking, 23, 26–27, 64n3, 168, 216, 305, 310, 331, 527; Garth and family, trip to see, 532, 533, 536; genealogy, interest in, 263, 312, 347; Greece, plan to visit, 116; holograph letter (photograph), 164–165; home life, managing, 247, 249; illnesses and afflictions, 288, 289, 299, 331; illness, terminal, 609–614, 616, 624, 626, 627, 634, 638, 641–653, 657–660, 667, 673, 676, 678–679, 691–692, 708; insomnia, 182, 183, 329, 406, 416; Ireland, fondness for, 16, 291; jewelry, 9, 217, 609; lapboard, 141; letter writing for Robinson, 107, 189, 201, 265, 708, 896, 904; marriage to and divorce from Teddie Kuster, 6; marriage to Robinson, 254; mastectomy, 134, 136, 150, 212–213, 678; morning dip in ocean, 58; motherhood, 107, 142, 195, 222, 333, 334, 336; photographs, 157, 159, 161, 162, 462, 466, 467, 471, 472, 770; politics, 18, 406; public speaking, 48, 526; Red Cross (see World War II, Una’s Red Cross service during); Robinson’s descriptions of, 55, 646, 648; round towers, interest in, 241, 270, 312; sandalwood fragrance, 7, 327, 657; sea, love for the, 413; séances, participation in, 4, 7–8, 15, 21, 48; sewing, 363, 518; suicide attempt (in 1938), 692; travels (see British Isles; lecture tour; New York City; Zanesville, Ohio); twins, absence of, 243; World War II, 35–36, 168, 185, 196, 236, 251, 275, 316, 334; youth, 452; death of, 677–679, 689. Works: A Book of Gaelic Airs for Una’s Melodeon, 510n4; “Ella Young,” 831n2; “How Carmel Won Hearts of the Jeffers Family,” 30n3; “Julie Heyneman,” 292n2; “Music in the Mission,” 137n4; Pretaerita, 453n2; “Some

Notes on Julius Caesar in Rehearsal,” 11n3; “Speaking of Langston Hughes,” 181n3; Visits to Ireland (publication of), 807 Jeffers, Una (granddaughter), 734n5; photographs, 776, 777, 779; Robinson’s descriptions of, 756, 758, 809, 826, 836; cl 1 Jeffers, William Hamilton, 52n1, 116, 148n1, 231n3, 255, 358, 485, 486; séance, appearance at, 4, 15; cl 1, cl 2 Jeffers Country (Lyon), 117, 408; Jeffers’ foreword to, 265; cl 2 “Jeffers Family, The” (B. Carpenter), 324n1 Jenkins, Barbara, 605 Jenkins, Louisa, 563, 605, 623n8, 637 Jenkins, Matt, 605, 665 Jepp, Mary, 375; cl 2 John (son of Mabel Luhan). See Evans, John Johnson, Beatrice, 354; cl 2 Johnson, Edgar, letter from RJ to, 653 Johnson, Samuel, 536; cl 1 Johnson, Spud, 365; “She Did It,” 273; cl 1, cl 2 Jolas, Eugène, Anthologie de la Nouvelle Poésie Américaine, 412; cl 1 Jolas, Jacques, 415, 480 Jones, Alice N., letters from RJ to, 861, 912 Jones, Bobby, 335, 337, 339; cl 2 Jones, Dan Burne, letter from RJ to, 862; cl 2 Jones, Llewellyn, letter from RJ to, 953 Judy, Clinton, 248–249; cl 1, cl 2 Judy (dog), 310, 499 Jugtown Pottery, 209; cl 1, cl 2 “Julie Heyneman” (U. Jeffers), 292n2 Juncker, Klaus, 879; letters from RJ to, 880, 882, 887 Jurgensen, Wilbur, letter from RJ to, 122

Index



Justema, Billy, 98n1, 675 Kalas, Josef, letter from RJ to, 926 Kauti, H., letters from RJ to, 682, 686 Keats, John, 129; cl 1, cl 2 Keith, Benjamin, 282 Kellman, Leon, 585 Kellogg, Charlotte, 23, 239, 246, 290, 338, 597; cl 1, cl 2 Kellogg, Jean, 8, 133, 239, 246, 290, 299, 314, 356, 597, 816n1, 834; letters from RJ to, 816, 818, 900; letters from UJ to, 41, 57, 607; “Robinson Jeffers and the Quality of Things,” 133n1; “Robinson Jeffers in Carmel,” 297; cl 1, cl 2 Kellogg, Spencer, Jr., 300n4 Kelmscott Manor (England), 24, 61, 64, 96, 252 Kelso, James, 148n1 Kelso, John and Florence, 147, 200, 485 Kennedy, Ed, 856, 858 Kennedy, John F., 921; letter from RJ to, 923 Kepner, Arch, 365 Kerr, George, 182n2, 217 Kessenick, Burt, letter from RJ to, 711 Kiker, Henry, 365; cl 2 Kiker, Kathleen, 365, 430. See also Pollard, Mary, cl 2 Kilgore, Alson, 678 King, Dennis, 509 King (dog), 258; cl 1 Kinne, George, 452 Kinnoull, Claude, Lady, 224 Kipling, Rudyard, 47; cl 1 Kip’s Food Center, 284 Kirschel (dog), 226 Kirstein, Lincoln, 264; cl 1, cl 2 Kit’s Coty House, 96



Index

Klein, H. Arthur, 884n1 (top); cl 1, cl 2 Klein, Johannes, 888 Klopfer, Donald, 22, 67, 500; letters from UJ to, 75, 86, 402; cl 2 Klopfer, Florence “Pat,” 75, 500 Knole Park (England), 170; cl 2 Knudsen, William, 91 Kohler, Charlotte, letter from RJ to, 843 Kopecký, Petr, 927n1 Kornblum, David H., 847n2; letter from RJ to, 840 Krahl, Hilde, 882, 885, 888 Kranitz, Lionel, 803 Kreitman, Norman, letter from RJ to, 735 Krenek, Ernst, 840; letter from RJ to, 727; Medea, op. 129, 727–728, 761; cl 1 Krishnamurti, Jiddu, 306; cl 1, cl 2 Krutch, Joseph Wood, 815n1, 836; cl 2 Kubischta, Mary, 140n4. See also Grant, Mary Kurtz, Barbara, 294n2; cl 2 Kurtz, Benjamin, 65; letter from UJ to, 294; Four New Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft and Helen M. Williams, 294; cl 2 Kuster, Colin, 236; cl 2 Kuster, Edith. See Greenan, Edith Kuster, Edward “Teddie,” 41, 209, 255, 258, 259, 363, 388, 670, 790n3; cl 1, cl 2. See also Golden Bough, Theatre of the Kuster, Gabrielle, 209, 591; cl 1, cl 2 Kuster, Marcia, 591; cl 2 Kuster, Ruth, 255; cl 1, cl 2 Lac-na-Lore (Ireland), 553, 554, 562, 563, 829n1; cl 2 La Jolla, Calif., 147; cl 1 Lamb, Charles and Mary, 141 Lampos, C. J., 403n3 Landacre, Paul, 807n1, 808; cl 2

Landowska, Wanda, 637 Langner, Lawrence, 349; letter from UJ to, 348 Langston. See Hughes, Langston Larsen, Thorleif, letter from RJ to, 330 Larsson, Raymond E. F., 271 “Last Conservative, The” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) Latour, Ira, photograph by, 774 Laughlin, James, 100 Laughton, Charles, 387–388; cl 2 Lawrence, D. H., 355, 596; Fire and Other Poems, Jeffers’ foreword to, 13, 187, 929– 931 (text of); St. Mawr, 596; cl 1, cl 2 Lawrence, Frieda, 379, 389; cl 1, cl 2 Lawrence, T. E., 145, 578; cl 1, cl 2 Lawson, Ted W., Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, 268 Lear, Benjamin, 226, 228–229 lecture tour, 1941: plans, 35, 44, 48, 51, 53, 57, 63, 65–66, 69, 71; itinerary, 66n1; en route, 74; University of Pittsburgh, 69, 75, 90–91; Library of Congress, 57, 61, 63, 76, 78, 80, 87, 91, 96; Princeton University (canceled), 91–92; Harvard University, 75, 77, 78, 87, 89, 92, 104, 141, 762, 834n2, 897; Columbia University, 72n2, 75, 78; State University of New York, Buffalo, 72–73, 76; Butler University, 79, 81, 82; University of Kansas City, 82–83, 84; University of Utah, 84; vocal recordings, 76n1, 86–87, 93, 298, 519–520, 844, 850; summaries, 78–87, 90–93, 100, 102–103, 216, 350 Ledebur, Friedrich (Count), 16; cl 1, cl 2 Ledig-Rowohlt, Heinrich, 888 Lee. See Tevis, Lee Lee (wife of Donnan). See Jeffers, Lee Léger, Fernand, letter from RJ to, 133

Lehman, Benjamin, 53, 149, 366n5, 834n2; letter from RJ to, 788; cl 1, cl 2 Lehmann, Lotte, 457 Leigh, Augusta, 307 Lester. See Donahue, Lester Letters of Western Authors, The. See George Sterling: With Comment by Robinson Jeffers Levinson Prize, 58, 60 Levy, William Turner, 489–490, 653–654; letters from RJ to, 609, 691, 712, 730, 835; letters from RJ and UJ to, 459, 540, 640; letters from UJ to, 419, 426, 434, 491, 511, 536, 571, 573, 577, 592, 594, 600, 616, 626, 638; “Notes on the Prophetic Element in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers,” 492n1 Lewis, Sinclair, 362n2; cl 1, cl 2 Lewis and Young. See Medea (Jeffers): Lewis and Young offers Library of Congress: exhibit, 67, 69, 87, 92, 98–99, 103, 117; lecture tour (see under lecture tour; see also “Poet in a Democracy, The”); vocal recordings, 76n1, 844, 850 Lieber, Walter, 147 Life (magazine), 532, 553, 623n8, 804n2 (bottom) “Life from the Lifeless” (Jeffers), 87n2, 432 Ligda, Mildred, letters from RJ to, 716, 721, 786 Lilienthal, Frances, 24, 316, 479; letters from RJ to, 698, 769; cl 2 Lilienthal, Theodore, 61, 100, 313, 479, 798, 900n1; letters from RJ to, 698, 754, 759, 762, 764, 769, 807, 836, 891; letters from UJ to, 22, 24, 62, 408, 504; cl 1, cl 2. See also Quercus Press Lin, Yutang, The Wisdom of China and India, 240

Index



Lindbergh, Anne Morrow, 301, 304, 306, 307, 309, 313, 591; Listen! The Wind, 306; North to the Orient, 306; The Steep Ascent, 306; cl 2 Lindbergh, Charles, 304, 306; cl 1, cl 2 Lindeque, Lydia, 806n3 Lindsay, John, 384, 499; cl 1, cl 2 Lindsay family, 408; cl 1 Lingo (card game), 213n1, 235 Linn, Eleanor, 797 Little, Evelyn, letter from UJ to, 186 Liveright, Horace, 22, 105, 270, 514n1, 725, 889; cl 1, cl 2 Living Age, 3; cl 2 Lockhart, John Gibson, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, 316, 639 Lockwood, John Ward and Martha Clyde, 365 Lockwood Library, poetry collection at, 73, 81, 110, 436 log cabin, in Carmel, 65, 256, 366, 397, 608; cl 1 London Times, 601 “Lonely Eminence” (Roberts), 190n2 (top) Longford, Lord and Lady (Edward and Christine Pakenham), 622 Long Island, N.Y., Robinson’s 1956 family visit to, 830n1, 837 Longstreet, Stephen, Decade, 17 Longworth, Alice Roosevelt, 91 Lorca, Federico García, 10 Lorenzo. See Lawrence, D. H. Lotte. See Jeffers, Charlotte Love, Hortense, 458n3 Love and the Hate, The (Jeffers), 326n5, 332n3, 521n2; preliminary title (“Rene Gore”), 372n3; translation, 920 “Love the Wild Swan” (Jeffers), 87n2, 324n5, 369n2, 767n1



Index

Loving Shepherdess, The (Jeffers), 419n2; dramatic arrangement, 50–51; film rights, 838, 840, 847, 849, 854; Jeffers’ foreword to, 816–818; translation, 923, 924 Lowell, Amy, John Keats, 439; cl 1 Lowry, Malcolm, Under the Volcano, 456 “Low Sky, The” (Jeffers), 76n1, 95n20, 519 Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers, The (Squires), 857n2, 858–859, 866, 874; cl 1 Lucretius, 704; De Rerum Natura, 769; cl 1, cl 2 Lucy. See Porter, Lucy Luedeman, Pearl and Al, 502 Luhan, Mabel Dodge, 4, 78, 272, 338, 379; letters from RJ to, 691, 729; letters from UJ to, 35, 152, 324, 363, 526, 579; relationships, strained, 141, 430; salons, 15, 18, 26, 355; Una’s comments about, 141, 353–355; Hildegarde: Eight Years After, 580n1; “Mary Austin,” 324; cl 1, cl 2 Luhan (Lujan), Tony, 78, 338, 354; cl 1, cl 2 Luther. See Greene, Luther Lutyens, David, The Creative Encounter, 909 Lyon, Edna (McDuffie), 57; cl 2 Lyon, Horace: photograph by, 157; Jeffers Country, 117, 265, 408; cl 1, cl 2 Lyons, Herbert, letter from RJ to, 503 Lyons, Romola, 59n3 Mabel. See Luhan, Mabel Dodge MacArthur, Douglas, 379 MacDougal, Daniel and Louise, 180n2; cl 2 MacDougal, Phillip, 179, 228 MacLeish, Archibald, 61, 370, 382, 425n1; cl 1, cl 2 Macleod, Norman, 187 MacLiesh, Fleming, 145 MacMahon, Aline, 480

Macpherson, James, 536 Madeleva, Sister Mary, 53 Maeterlinck, Maurice, 846n3; cl 1, cl 2 Maggi, Mr., 584, 587 Magnan, Dan, letter from RJ to, 854 Małcużyn´ski, Witold, 239 Malkin, Yaakov, 893n2 Manges, Horace, 340–341; cl 2 Mangham, R. McAllister, letter from RJ to, 839 Mann, Katia, 92 Mann, Michael and Gret, 95n18 Mann, Thomas, 92; cl 2 Mansfield, Katherine, Journal and Letters, 628; cl 1, cl 2 Manship, Paul, 535 Mara (Jeffers), 35, 41, 51, 73, 118; manuscript, 191; translation, 883, 886, 902 Marcuse, Theodore, 804n2 (bottom), 806n2 (bottom); letter from RJ to, 844 Margaret. See Ingalls, Margaret Margot. See Morrow, Margot Maria Stuart (Schiller): Jeffers’ adaptation of (“Mary and Elizabeth”), 628, 631–632, 633, 635, 636, 642, 648–649, 655, 662; manuscript, 661, 664, 667 Mark Twain Quarterly, 151n1, 800n1 Marquand, Eleanor, “Plant Symbolism in the Unicorn Tapestries,” 149 Marquand, John and Adelaide, 424, 438 Marshall, James and Lenore, 482 Marsman, Hank, 201 Martin. See Flavin, Martin or Flavin, Martin, Jr. Martin, John, letter from RJ to, 683 Martinez, Elsie, 305 Martyn, Edward, 378; cl 1 Martyn-Hemphill, Peter, 380n4

Maruchess, Alix Young, 479; cl 2 Mary, Queen, 591 “Mary and Elizabeth” (Jeffers). See Maria Stuart (Schiller) Mason, Mich.: Robinson and Una’s visits to, 79, 81, 82, 83, 501; Una’s visit to, 222, 230, 234; cl 1 Mast. See Wolfson, Mast Masters, Edgar Lee, 211, 436; cl 1, cl 2 Mather, Margrethe, 98n1, 675n1 Matthias, Blanche, 305–306, 415–416, 702; letters from RJ to, 143, 801, 829; letters from RJ and UJ to, 123, 613; letters from UJ to, 7, 15, 52, 54, 71, 84, 140, 198, 209, 212, 233, 235, 243, 289, 304, 309, 375, 404, 421, 447, 501, 508, 569, 590, 604, 621, 636, 657; Una’s feelings for, 405–406, 604, 621; cl 1, cl 2 Matthias, Russell, 415–416, 702; cl 1, cl 2 Maugham, W. Somerset, The Razor’s Edge, 300; cl 2 May, Loula, letter from RJ to, 876 Mayfield, John, 80; cl 1 “May–June, 1940” (Jeffers), 64n2, 112, 320n2, 494, 505n2 (bottom), 824 Maynard, Theodore, 397, 608 McCarthy, Charles “Chick,” 11n3; cl 2 McClintic, Guthrie. See Medea (Jeffers): Guthrie McClintic touring production McCloy, Elizabeth, 530; letters from RJ to, 812, 813, 850; letter from UJ to, 241; cl 2 McComas, Eugenia, letter from UJ to, 116 McCord, Mary (Aunt Mary), 77n3, 255; cl 1, cl 2 McCreery, Renee, 669 McCullers, Carson, The Member of the Wedding, 539n1, 644n4 McDuffie, Duncan and Jean, 228; cl 1, cl 2

Index



McGehee, Ramiel, 98n1; cl 2 McIlhenny, Henry, 562–563, 566 McNamara, Brenda (Doyle). See Jeffers, Brenda McNicholas, Mary, 703; cl 2 McSweeney’s Gun, 85 Meagher, Maude, 388, 389 “Meddlers, The” (Jeffers), 143–144 Medea, 338, 540 Medea (Jeffers), 790n3, 865, 916; Decca recording, 514, 525, 669, 672; Decca recording, Jeffers’ foreword to, 525, 937– 941 (text of); Guthrie McClintic touring production, 546, 547, 559, 568, 574, 577n1, 593, 597, 599, 602, 603–604, 606­–607, 618; international productions, 534, 553, 586, 590–591, 735, 763n3, 789, 805, 827, 841, 861, 864, 880, 882, 887–889, 891, 892, 926; Jed Harris proposal, 335, 336–337, 339–341, 344, 350, 357, 514; Lewis and Young offers, 546, 559, 744; Luther Greene option, 396, 401, 407–408, 409, 424; miscellaneous U. S. productions, 742, 744, 749, 804n1 (top), 827n4, 837, 860, 907; program cover (photograph), 464; reviews, 497n1, 615n1, 735n1 (top), 763n3, 827, 891, 892, 913n1 (bottom); royalties, 339–341, 359, 496n3, 514, 515n2; television production, 913n1 (bottom); Theatre Arts reprint, 524; Theatre Guild option, 348–349, 350, 355– 356, 357, 359, 369, 371, 373–374, 391–392, 396; Whitehead and Rea production, 443, 483, 487–488, 494, 496, 497, 524, 528–529, 539, 546–547, 550, 551, 559–560, 565, 568, 603, 762 Medea, op. 129 (Krenek), 727–728, 761 Medea: Freely Adapted from the Medea of Euripides (Jeffers), 369, 371, 392, 395–396, 402,



Index

513, 542, 839; dedication, 369, 390, 395; manuscript, 339, 360, 374; publication, 383; review, 403n3; Samuel French acting edition, 374n1, 608, 841, 866; translations, 530, 763n3, 789, 827n5, 850, 892, 893n2, 912, 924; typesetting error, 401, 500 Meditation on Saviors (Jeffers), 716, 721n1 Meikle, Mr., letter from UJ to, 199 Mell, Aunt, 99–100 melodeons (reed organs), 282; cl 1, cl 2 Menotti, Gian Carlo, 146n8 Menuhin, Nola, 314, 388 Menuhin, Yehudi, 203, 314, 388; cl 2 Meredith, George, 142n3; cl 2 Mertins, Louis, letter from RJ to, 446; cl 2 Meta. See Curtis, Meta “Metamorphosis” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) Meyer, Agnes, 69, 78, 91, 111, 129–130; letter from RJ to, 901; letter from UJ to, 238; visits Tor House, 126, 902n1; Britain’s Home Front, 238; cl 1 Meyer, Eugene, 69, 78, 91, 111; cl 1 Meyer, Roland, letter from RJ to, 446 Michaela. See DuCasse, Micaela “Miching Mallecho” (Jeffers), 144n2 Middleton, Christopher, letter from RJ to, 895 Milhaud, Darius and Madeleine, 56n6 Millay, Edna St. Vincent, 71, 362n2, 655n1, 737; cl 1, cl 2 Mill Creek Cañon, 139, 419 Miller, Alastair, letter from UJ to, 122; cl 2 Miller, Alec, 122; cl 2 Miller, Alison, 306 Miller, Arthur, All My Sons, 500 Miller, Benjamin, 32; letter from RJ and UJ to, 102; cl 2 Miller, Henry, 455n2, 623n8

Mills, Emma, 71 Mills College, Jeffers collection at, 186–187 Milt (dog), 284 Milton, John, 295; Paradise Lost, 719; cl 1, cl 2 Miró, Joan, 171 Misión San Carlos Borromeo del Río Carmelo. See Carmel Mission Mitchell, Lavinia, 81 Mitchelmore, Rev. Hugh, 254; cl 1 Modjeska, Helena, 662 Moll, Ernest G., letter from RJ to, 954 Møller, Kai Friis, 531n4 Mollie (or Molly). See O’Shea, Mollie “Moments of Glory” (Jeffers), 521n3 Monjian, Mercedes, Robinson Jeffers: A Study in Inhumanism, 887n5; cl 1 Monroe, Harriet, 710, 743; cl 1, cl 2 Monterey Peninsula Herald, 857n2, 859; letters from RJ to, 624, 692; letter from UJ to, 360; cl 2 “Monument” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) “Moon and Five Planets” (Jeffers), 112 Mooney, Ria, 578 Moore, David, 321, 325, 669. See also Barkan, Hans: medical assistance, cl 2 Moore, Geoffrey H., Penguin Book of Modern American Verse, 767n1 Moore, George, 259, 263, 438, 526, 754; Moore Hall, 748, 764; The Lake, 258, 259; Memoirs of My Dead Life, 258, 259; A StoryTeller’s Holiday, 293; cl 1, cl 2 Moore, John G., 14, 309n12, 821n3; cl 2 Moore, Sheilah, 414, 613 Moorehead, Agnes, 627n1, 762 Mora, Jo, 406n2, 637 Morgan, Charles, 225n2; cl 2 Morgan, (Major) Roland, 149; cl 2 Morris Agency. See William Morris Agency

Morris, Gouverneur, 328 Morris, Gouverneur (great-grandson), 329n4; cl 1, cl 2 Morris, May, 24; cl 1 Morris, William, 24, 61, 64, 252; cl 1 Morrison, Theodore, 89n2 Morrow, Dwight, Jr., 170, 304, 587, 591 Morrow, Margot, 170, 304, 306, 587, 591 Morse, Sam (S. F. B.), 226, 665 Mumford, Lewis, letter from RJ to, 394 Murphy, Alyce, 155n2, 178n1 (top). See also Murphy, Florence, cl 2 Murphy, Dudley, 840, 847n2, 854 Murphy, Frederic, Jr., 457 Murphy, Sara, 674; daughter of, 674n3; cl 2 Murray, Georgiana and Henry, 312 Murray, Natalia Danesi, letter from RJ to, 925 Murry, John Middleton, 628; cl 2 “Music in the Mission” (U. Jeffers), 137n4 “My Dear Love” (Jeffers), 88, 112 Myerberg, Adrienne, 430; cl 2 Myerberg, Michael, 41; letters from RJ to, 491, 498; letter from RJ and UJ to, 488; letters from UJ to, 244, 430, 434, 459, 493; cl 2. See also Dear Judas (Jeffers): Michael Myerberg production Naffziger, Howard, 642, 643, 646, 650, 678 National Institute of Arts and Letters, 362n2; letter from RJ to, 928; exhibit, 191, 193; cl 1, cl 2 “Natural Music” (Jeffers), 95n20, 505n2 (top) Natural Music (Jeffers), 504 Nesbitt, Cathleen, 590 Neumeyer, Alfred and Eva, 55 Nevin, Ethelbert, 6; cl 1

Index



Nevin, Jane, 6 New World Writing (Eberhart), 811 New York City, trips to: 1941 lecture tour, 75, 78, 86; 1947 Medea premiere, 496, 497n1, 498, 501; 1948 business visit, 540, 547, 548, 551, 559–561; 1950 business visit, 696, 699, 702 New York Times, letter from RJ to, 697 “Next Armistice Day” (Jeffers), 144 Niagara Falls, 419–420 Niedermayer, Max, 869; letter from RJ to, 870 Nietzsche, Friedrich, 596; cl 1, cl 2 “Night” (Jeffers), 76n1, 380–381, 505n2 (bottom), 859n3 “Night Without Sleep” (Jeffers), 76n1 “9, 19, 1939” (Jeffers), 112 Nixon, Richard, 921 Noël. See Sullivan, Noël “Noon” (Jeffers), 330 Norton, Eleanor Short, letter from RJ to, 863 “Notes on the Prophetic Element in the Poetry of Robinson Jeffers” (Levy), 492n1 “Nova” (Jeffers), translation, 854n2 “Now Returned Home” (Jeffers), 76n1, 110 Nutt, Richard, letter from RJ to, 444 O’Brien, Henry, The Round Towers of Ireland, 241 Occidental College, 106, 241, 531n6, 812–815, 836; Jeffers collection, 24, 61, 62, 439n1, 530, 850; cl 1, cl 2 “Ocean” (Jeffers), 784 “Ocean’s Tribute, The” (Jeffers), 891n1, 899n1 (top) Ocean’s Tribute, The (Jeffers), 900n1



Index

O’Connor, William W., letter from RJ to, 760 October Week-End (Jeffers), 261, 262 “Ode on Human Destinies” (Jeffers), 417n2 “Ode to Hengist and Horsa” (Jeffers), 97n4 O’Donnell, Michael, 723n1 O’Donnell, William, 226 O’Donnol, Dion, 119 O’Dwyer, Msgr. David, 136–137 Oedipus, 887n1, 901, 916 O’Faoláin, Seán, “Æ and W. B.,” 45 Of Una Jeffers (Greenan), 6, 8, 21, 199, 261, 746–747; cl 1, cl 2 O’Gorman, Ned, The Night of the Hammer, 905 “Oh, Lovely Rock” (Jeffers), 76n1, 87n2, 95n20, 519 Oittinen, Mauno, 424, 438 Ojai Music Festival, 742, 749 Older, Cora (Mrs. Fremont), “He Built Her a Tower,” 713n2; cl 2 “Old Gentlemen, The” (Jeffers), 143 “Old Stone-Mason, The” (Jeffers), 687 Oliphant, Richard, 220 Oliver, Lil, 91 Oliver, Mary, 36; cl 2 Olivier, Laurence, 402n2, 421n2, 534 Once Upon a Sunday (film), 849n1 O’Neal, Charles “Blackie”, 114n2, 120, 697 O’Neil, Barbara, 13n2 O’Neill, Eugene, 362n2, 513, 540; Beyond the Horizon, 260; cl 1, cl 2 “Only an Hour” (Jeffers), 61n1 O. P. (Observation Post). See Yankee Point “Orca” (Jeffers), 477 Oren, Earl, 832n1 (bottom) Orestes, 49, 102; cl 2 “Original Sin” (Jeffers), 516n1 Orosz, Eugene, 500

O’Shea, John, 4, 136, 198n4, 224, 226, 272, 406, 419, 831n2; letter from UJ to, 139; cl 1, cl 2 O’Shea, Mollie, 4, 136, 227; cl 1, cl 2 Ossian, 536 “Ossian’s Grave” (Jeffers), 76n1 O’Sullivan, Bess (Mrs. Denis), 20, 291, 591, 658; cl 1, cl 2 O’Sullivan, Biddy, 20; cl 1, cl 2 O’Sullivan, Ellen, 20, 228, 232, 538n1 (bottom), 645n4, 703; letter from RJ to, 740; letter from UJ to, 77; cl 1, cl 2 Over Stile. See Tor House: east wing annex Ovid, Metamorphoses, 881 Owings, Margaret, letter from UJ to, 666; cl 1 Palms, Connie. See Flavin, Connie Palms, Francis, 207n2 Palo Corona Ranch, horseback riding at, 149; cl 2 Parrot, Lucile, 605 Parsons, Louella, 428 Partington Cañon, 149 Pascal Quartet, 523 “Passenger Pigeons” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) Paston, John, 347 Paston family, 591; letters of, 347, 415, 490 Patton, George S., Jr., 351, 358 Patton, James R., Jr.: letter from RJ to, 698; letter from UJ to, 660 Paul, Elliot, The Last Time I Saw Paris, 195 Paula. See Dougherty, Paula Peacock, Barbara Burnham, 21, 623n3; cl 2 Peacock, Percy Walter, 21, 190, 193, 309, 310, 331, 334, 587; with Una in England, 591, 621–622; cl 1, cl 2 Peacock, Sheila, 190, 193; cl 1, cl 2

“Pearl Harbor” (Jeffers), 187n2 Pearson, Robert, 258; cl 1 Percy. See Peacock, Percy Personalist, 32, 42 Petrasek, Lee, letter from RJ to, 819 Pflug, Raymond J., letter from RJ to, 897 “Phaedra.” See Cretan Woman, The (Jeffers) Pharr, Eulah, 155, 675, 822; cl 2 Phelan Award, 519; cl 2 Phi Beta Kappa, 29, 31, 32 Philbert, Julien, 395n2, 531n3, 763n3; letters from RJ to, 412, 543 Phoebe. See Barkan, Phoebe Pickit, Caroline, 449 Pierce, Edward F., letter from RJ to, 875 Pierson. See Pearson, Robert pilgrimages, 26; Big Sur, 239; Chew’s Ridge, 693–694; Mill Creek Cañon, 419; Partington Cañon, 149; Point Reyes, 34–35, 37; cl 1, cl 2 Pine, Emma, 136, 236; cl 1 Pine Cone. See Carmel Pine Cone Pinkham, Edith, 19; cl 1, cl 2 Pinkham, Hazel, 264n2, 418, 672, 676; letter from UJ to, 19; cl 1, cl 2 Pinkham, Roy, 21, 264n2, 418, 676; cl 1, cl 2 Pirie, Betty, 479 “Place for No Story, The” (Jeffers), 76n1, 903 “Pleasures” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) Plotinus, The Essence of Plotinus, 674n2 Plumb, Ogden, letter from RJ to, 890 Plummer, Christopher, 828n6 Poems (Jeffers), 19n1, 261 “Poet in a Democracy, The” (Jeffers), 59n2, 76n1 “Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years” (Jeffers), 504n5, 516, 528, 557; cl 1

Index



Poetry, Góngorism, and a Thousand Years (Jeffers), 665 Poetry (magazine), 58, 88, 112, 477, 682, 687n1, 709–710, 717, 782; awards, 738, 747, 765; Hungerfield (Jeffers), publication of, 739–740, 741, 743, 748, 753; cl 1, cl 2 Poetry Society of America, 535, 715, 726n1, 806n2 (bottom); award, 922; cl 1 “Point Lobos” (Jeffers), 446, 931–933 (text of) Point Reyes, Calif., 34–35, 37. See also under pilgrimages, cl 2 Porter, Arthur Kingsley, 77n1, 556; cl 2 Porter, Lucy, 77, 89, 171, 184, 389, 398; Elmwood, 77n1, 92; cl 2 Porter, Robert, 26 Porter, Susan, 123n2, 224, 623n8; cl 1, cl 2 Porter, Valentine, 123n2; cl 1 Portland Vase, 52 Potter, Russell, 52 Pound, Ezra, 894; cl 1 Powell, Lawrence Clark, 69, 815n1, 836; letters from RJ to, 719, 720; letters from UJ to, 50, 276, 350, 368, 383, 489, 600; Robinson Jeffers: A Lecture, 719; Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work, 368, 411; cl 1, cl 2 Powys, Llewelyn, Love and Death, 9, 20; cl 1, cl 2 “Praise Life” (Jeffers), 87n2 Pregerson, Miss, letter from RJ to, 914 “Prescription of Painful Ends” (Jeffers), 14, 99n1, 112, 505n2 (bottom) Pretaerita (U. Jeffers), 453n2 Pringle, Robert, 573, 583, 587; letter from RJ to, 708 Prokosch, Frederic, 252; The Lonely Unicorn, 639, 641; cl 2



Index

“Promise of Peace” (Jeffers), 343, 505n2 (bottom) Proust, Marcel, Remembrance of Things Past, 172, 203, 292; cl 1, cl 2 Psalm 94:3, 208n10; cl 1 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, 105n1 (bottom); cl 2 Purinton family, 312–313 “Purse-Seine, The” (Jeffers), 178, 822n2, 859n3; referred to as “Sardine-Fishing,” 46 Quelle, Die, 738n1 Quercus Press, 5, 24, 61, 64, 97n2, 119, 252– 253, 505n2 (top); cl 2. See also Lilienthal, Theodore Rady, Simon, 525 Raibourn, Grace, 229; cl 2 Raibourn, Ira “Tex,” 229; cl 2 Rains, Claude, 826 Ramirez, Mario, 3, 414; brother of, 659; cl 2 Randau, Carl, The Setting Sun of Japan, 185 Randolph, John, 328 Randolph, Nancy, 329n4 Random House, letter from RJ to, 923; cl 1, cl 2 Ranee of Sarawak. See Sylvia, Ranee of Sarawak (Lady Brooke) Rau, Santha Rama, 380n9, 702 Ravagli, Angelo, 379, 389; cl 2 Rea, Oliver, 443n3; letter from RJ to, 539 “Real and Half Real” (Jeffers), 477 Reamer, George and Catherine, 361; cl 2 “Rearmament” (Jeffers), translation, 854n2 “Red as I wouldn’t have you red” (Jeffers), 10–11 Red Cross, letter from UJ to, 612. See also World War II, Una’s Red Cross service during

“Redeemer, A” (Jeffers), 76n1, 540–541 Reed, Florence, 481n5 Reinheimer, Howard, 546–547 Remsen. See Bird, Remsen Remsen, Ira “Rem,” 530; cl 1, cl 2 “Rene Gore.” See Love and the Hate, The “Return” (Jeffers), 917 Return (Jeffers), 252, 262 Rexroth, Kenneth, “In Defense of Jeffers,” 857n2, 858, 859; cl 1 Reyna, Albidia, 354; cl 2 Reynaud, Paul, 35, 285n2 Rhoades, Lourinda, letter from RJ to, 109 Richards, Edward Ames, 178 Ricketts, Toni. See Jackson, Toni Riederer, Charlotte. See Jeffers, Charlotte Rilke, Rainer Maria, 287, 311–312; “Das Einhorn,” 55; Duino Elegies, 59n4; The Journal of My Other Self, 58; cl 2 Ritchie, Ward, 6, 264n2, 368, 542, 747, 807; letters from RJ to, 798, 799, 801, 808; Jeffers’ works published by, 18–19, 23, 69, 252, 639, 665, 816; Theodore Lilienthal, Robinson Jeffers and the Quercus Press, 25n1; cl 1, cl 2 Rivers, Wanlyn, 300 Rizzardi, Alfredo, 827n5 Roan Stallion (Jeffers), 318, 596, 825n2; film rights, 809n2; manuscript, 22, 270; translations, 412, 906 Roan Stallion, Tamar and Other Poems (Jeffers), 19, 370, 725; foreword, 266, 558, 596, 639; presentation copy, 52, 69 Roberts, Harriet, 169, 231, 793 Roberts, Richard Ellis, 51, 169, 231; Jeffers’ memorial tribute to, 792–793; “Lonely Eminence,” 190n2 (top) Robinson, Alexander, 14nn1–2, 91

Robinson, Alice, 90, 91, 148n4 Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 147; cl 1, cl 2 Robinson, Mabel Louise, Island Noon, 193 Robinson, Mary, 94n9 Robinson, Noel, 91 Robinson, William “Bob,” 734n4 Robinson family, 91, 102 Robinson Jeffers: A Lecture (Powell), 719 Robinson Jeffers: A Study in Inhumanism (Monjian), 887n5 Robinson Jeffers: The Man and His Work (Powell), 368, 411; cl 2 Robinson Jeffers: Tragic Terror (De Casseres), 81n2; cl 1 “Robinson Jeffers and the Quality of Things” (Kellogg), 133n1 “Robinson Jeffers Completing New Poem, Double Axe” (Sharpe), 451n16 “Robinson Jeffers’ Huge Background” (Gilbert), 33 “Robinson Jeffers in Carmel” (Kellogg), 297 Robinson Jeffers Newsletter, 922n1 Roche, Henry, 573n2, 584, 587 “Rock and Hawk” (Jeffers), 87n2, 432 Rock and Hawk (Jeffers), 251, 252, 261, 263 Rodman, Selden, 743; letters from RJ to, 139, 145; cl 2 Rollitts, Sarah, 391 Roos, Leslie, 6; cl 2 Roos, Robert, 285 Roosevelt, Alice. See Longworth, Alice Roosevelt Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 56n1, 132, 153n2, 322n4, 520, 785, 897; Jeffers’ opinion of, 144, 507n4, 787; cl 1 Roosevelt, Nick and Tirzah, 622 Rorimer, James, 211n1

Index



Rorty, James, 272, 911; letter from UJ to, 386; cl 1, cl 2 Rose, Oscar, letter from RJ to, 842 Rosenthal, Ann, 808 Rossetti, Christina, 511 Roth Quartet, 321 round towers (Ireland), 241, 270, 312, 379, 555, 622, 798; cl 1, cl 2 Rovina, Hanna, 893n2 Rowohlt, Ernst, 888 Rowohlt Theaterverlag, 850, 851, 864, 867, 879, 880, 892, 919 Ruder, Barnet, 52, 270; cl 1, cl 2 Rukeyser, Muriel, 101; letter from UJ to, 667; Donnan Jeffers and, 424n2, 441n3, 450n5, 482n3, 669n1 Rukeyser, William, 482n3, 669n1 Ruskin, John, 295 Russell. See Matthias, Russell Russell, Helen, 535 Ruth Alison (Jeffers), 419n2 S. A. (Staff Assistance). See under World War II, Una’s Red Cross service during Sacks, Samuel, 407 Sackville-West, Charles, 170; cl 2 Sally. See Flavin, Sarah “Sally” Saltonstall, John L., Jr., letter from RJ to, 921 Samuel French, Inc., 374n1, 608, 742, 803, 805; letters from RJ to, 728, 818 San Antonio Mission, 607. See also under pilgrimages, cl 1 Sandburg, Carl, 59n2, 80; cl 1 Sandy (dog), 569 San Francisco, Calif., 42; cl 1 San Juan Bautista Mission, 26 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, exhibit at, 196, 201, 203



Index

Santiago, Danny. See James, Daniel Lewis, Jr. santos, 527; cl 1 Sappho, 824; cl 1 Sara. See Field, Sara Bard “Sardine-Fishing.” See “Purse-Seine, The” (Jeffers) Sartori, Victor, Jr., 486 Sartre, Jean-Paul, No Exit & The Flies, 461 Sassoon, Siegfried, 36; cl 1, cl 2 Saturday Review (of Literature), 64, 112, 515, 857n2, 858, 859; cl 2 Sayre, Nancy, letter from RJ to, 541 Scherman, Tommy, 185 Schiller, Friedrich. See Maria Stuart, Jeffers’ adaptation of Schliemann, Heinrich, 297 Schoeninger, Joseph, 174, 352, 405 Schorer, Mark, The Hermit Place, 108 Schütte, Otto, 722, 757; letters from RJ to, 544, 750, 860 Schwabacher, Frank, 442 “Science” (Jeffers), 825n2 Scott, Sir Walter, 639, 817; cl 1, cl 2 séances, Una’s participation in, 4, 7–8, 15, 21, 48 Sebastian, George, 36, 54, 58, 120, 149, 168, 184, 209, 292–293; in New York City, 548, 551 Sedgwick, Ellery, The Happy Profession, 479 Seeger, Harold, 767 Seldes, Gilbert, Lysistrata, 340–341 Seldes, Marian, 688n2, 806n2 (bottom) Selected Poetry of Robinson Jeffers, The (Jeffers), 19, 110, 276, 370; foreword, 295, 541, 558, 596, 639, 726; shortage of, 277, 296, 396, 403 “Self-Criticism in February” (Jeffers), translation, 854n2 Serly, Tibor, 608n2

Seron, Henry, 284 Servoss, Mary, 576 Shairp, John Campbell, 295 Shakespeare, William, 872, 916; Hamlet, 9–10, 16, 534, 815; Henry V, 421; Julius Caesar, 9, 16, 19; Macbeth, 41, 43–44, 138, 457, 540, 924n1 (bottom); Sonnet 29, 87n2; Twelfth Night, 41; cl 1, cl 2 “Shakespeare’s Grave” (Jeffers), 87n2 Shallcross, Susan, 182 “Shane O’Neill’s Cairn” (Jeffers), 76n1, 87n2, 95n20, 519, 798 Shapiro, Evalyn, letters from RJ to, 709, 741 Shapiro, Karl, 102n1; letters from RJ to, 682, 687, 717, 738, 739, 741, 743, 765 Sharp, Deborah (Whittlesey), 286n6 Sharpe, Rosalind, 179, 425n6; “Robinson Jeffers Completing New Poem, Double Axe,” 451n16 Shaw, George Bernard: Jeffers’ statement on (“A Great Man in Our Time”), 704– 705, 800; Heartbreak House, 521; cl 1, cl 2 “Shears, The” (Jeffers), 811 Sheean, Vincent: letter from RJ to, 737; The Indigo Bunting, 736–737; cl 2 Shehatovich, Stephanie, 415, 480 Shelley, Mary, 294; cl 1, cl 2 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 65, 129, 295n3 (top), 295, 601, 619, 732; “Epipsychidion,” 233n2; Hellas, 447; cl 1, cl 2 Sherman, Johnny, 228 “Shine, Empire” (Jeffers), 118 Shine, Perishing Republic (Gilbert), 31, 110; cl 2 “Shine, Perishing Republic” (Jeffers), 77n2, 189, 494n3, 505n2 (bottom), 686, 825n2; typesetting error, 478n1 “Shine, Republic” (Jeffers), 76n1 shipwrecks, on California coast, 630–631

“Shiva” (Jeffers), 110, 324n5 Short, John Douglas, Jr., letter from UJ to, 476 Short, Kraig, 668 Short, Marie, 352, 668; cl 2 Short, Peggy, letter from UJ to, 476. See also Saunders, Madge “Peggy,” cl 2 Short, R. W. , “The Tower Beyond Tragedy,” 123 Shuman, Cornelia, 207n2 Shuman, Nancy, 207n2, 290 Shuman, William, 207n2 Sidney. See Fish, Sidney “Signpost” (Jeffers), 917 Sillcox, Luise, 559 Silver Bough, 119, 368 Simoncic, Klement, letter from RJ to, 745 Sipprell, Clara, 273n2; photograph by, 166 “Sirens, The” (Jeffers), 119 Sister. See Smith, Patricia Sitwell, Edith: “Country Dance,” 601; Fanfare for Elizabeth, 438 Sitwell, Osbert, 617; Left Hand, Right Hand!, 305, 316 Sitwell family, 305, 316 Skene, Ralph and Charlotte, 438; cl 1 “Skunks” (Jeffers), 785–786, 787 Smiley, Carolyn, 388 Smith, Alice, 752 Smith, Carleton, 457, 510, 532, 553 Smith, Carleton Sprague, 553 Smith, Katherine “Kitty,” 21; cl 1, cl 2 Smith, Patricia, 137, 141, 365; cl 2 Smith, Paul Jordan, 98n1 Smith, Susan, 218; cl 2 Smith, Thomas R., 69; cl 1, cl 2 Smith, Wallace Bruce, letter from RJ to, 752 Smyth, Joseph Hilton, 4n1

Index



Smyth, W. M., A Book of Poetry, 884 Solstice (Jeffers), 540 Solstice and Other Poems (Jeffers), 370, 759; manuscript, 270 “Some Notes on Julius Caesar in Rehearsal” (U. Jeffers), 11n3 Soper, Helen, The Call Family, 176n4 Sophocles: Antigone, 396; Oedipus Rex, 402, 886, 901; cl 1, cl 2 “Speaking of Langston Hughes” (U. Jeffers), 181n3 Spencer, Claire (wife of John Evans), 8, 137; cl 2 Spencer, Theodore, 616, 711 Spender, Stephen, 276; cl 2 Sperisen, Albert, 764, 799n1 (top); letters from RJ to, 767, 782 Sphere, 492 Spinoza, Baruch, 432n2; cl 2 Squire, James R., letter from RJ to, 852 Squires, Radcliffe: letters from RJ to, 707, 745, 858; The Loyalties of Robinson Jeffers, 857n2, 858–859, 866, 874; Where the Compass Spins, 707, 745; cl 1, cl 2 Stair, Bird, 489–490 Stalin, Joseph, 10, 785, 787n1; cl 2 Stanton, John Frederick, 454n1; photograph by, 162 Stanton, Robert and Virginia, 133n1 Starrett, Vincent, Books Alive, 68 Stars (Jeffers), 18, 23, 252, 262 “Stars Go Over the Lonely Ocean, The” (Jeffers), 112, 319n3, 320n2, 505n2 (bottom) Steele, Wilbur Daniel, 596 Steffens, Lincoln, 272, 545; cl 1, cl 2 Steffens, Pete Stanley, 480; cl 1, cl 2 Steichen, Edward, 97



Index

Steinbeck, John, 317n1 (top); The Grapes of Wrath, 21 Steinway piano, Una’s, 282; cl 1 Sterling, George, 52, 127–128, 129, 191, 788, 897; “Autumn in Carmel,” 129; cl 1, cl 2 Stern, Rosalie, letter from RJ and UJ to, 111; cl 2 Stevens, Myra “Teevie,” 254, 255; cl 1, cl 2 Stevenson, Robert Louis, Weir of Hermiston, 611; cl 1, cl 2 Stewart, Ella Winter. See Winter, Ella Stewart, Donald Ogden, 497n1; cl 2 Stewart, George Rippey, Fire, 548; cl 2 Stilwell, Benjamin, 352 Stilwell, Joseph, 56n1, 325, 420 Stilwell, Winifred, 326n4; letter from RJ to, 441 Stokowski, Leopold, 41; cl 2 Stone, Harlan Fiske, 91 Stone Mason of Tor House, The (Bennett), 554n1, 922n1 Stoner, Frank and Jane, 90 Stookey, Adele, 28 Stookey, Byron, 27, 71, 709; cl 1, cl 2 Stookey, Lyman, 27, 709; cl 1, cl 2 Stookey, Margaret, 509; letters from RJ to, 27, 708; cl 1 Straight, Beatrice, 16 Stravinsky, Igor, 396 Strobel, Marion, letter from RJ to, 557 Strode, Hudson, 752 Strothmann, Friedrich, letter from RJ to, 618 “Study in Robinson Jeffers, A” (Clark), 44n1 (bottom) Stuyvie. See Fish, Sidney Stuyvesant “Subjected Earth” (Jeffers), 46, 494n3 Such Counsels You Gave to Me (Jeffers), 50n9

Such Counsels You Gave to Me and Other Poems (Jeffers), 370; manuscript, 270 “Suicide’s Stone” (Jeffers), 95n20 Sullivan, Noël, 8, 10, 23, 48, 71, 149, 538n1 (bottom), 670, 676, 689, 702; letters from RJ to, 695, 822, 828; letters from UJ to, 43, 155, 177, 216, 284, 291, 292, 420, 454, 519, 551, 574, 641, 674; gifts from, 56n5, 61, 135, 762, 807; hosts events, 3, 29, 95n18, 120, 137, 203, 306, 379, 450n3, 457, 480, 523, 726; Jeffers’ memorial tribute to, 832; music room, 415; photograph, 158; portrait, 37n5; singing and acting, 9, 16, 120, 415, 575; cl 1, cl 2 “Summer Holiday” (Jeffers), 46 Sutro, Mary “Mollie,” 196, 328n1, 644n4, 741; cl 1, cl 2 Swasey, Robert, 32; letter from UJ to, 34 Sweeney, James Johnson, 85, 551, 567, 570, 575; Joan Miró, 171 Sweeney, Laura, 85, 551, 570, 575, 706 Swift, Jonathan, 48, 705 Swift, Leonora (Montgomery), 14, 309n12, 821n3; cl 2 Swift, Wesley “Speedy,” 209 Sylvester, Harry, Dayspring, 365 Sylvia, Ranee of Sarawak (Lady Brooke), 20; cl 2 Symonds, John Addington, Studies of the Greek Poets, 338 Symons, Arthur, 258, 350, 511; cl 1, cl 2 Synge, John M., 575n2; The Complete Works of John M. Synge, 172; cl 1, cl 2 Szczesny, Gerhard, 751, 789 Tabb, John Banister, 129 Tagore, Rabindranath, 846; Sa¯dhana¯, 460

Talayesva, Don C., Sun Chief, 304 Talisman (journal), 822n1 Tamar (Jeffers), 193, 199 Tamar and Other Poems (Jeffers), 19n1, 370, 725, 911, 953 “Tamar Dancing” (Jeffers), 204 Tangney, ShaunAnne, The Wild That Attracts Us, 927n1 Taos, N. Mex., 35, 50, 273n4, 353–355, 526, 580n1; friends in, 365, 430; millstone (in photograph), 156; cl 1, cl 2 Taub, William, 568 Taylor, Albert, 495, 587; letters from RJ to, 606 Taylor, Harvey, 261; cl 2 Taylor, Newton, letter from RJ to, 799 Teaboldt, Harrie, 676 Teddie. See Kuster, Edward “Teddie” Ten Eyck, Mills, Jr., 559 Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 129, 639; cl 1, cl 2 Tennyson, Charles, Alfred Tennyson, 639 Tennyson, Hallam, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 639 Tevis, Lee, 6, 37, 133, 139, 282, 290, 405, 422; cl 2 Tevis, Lloyd, Jr., 100, 179, 309, 325, 333, 345, 363; cl 2 Tevis, Lloyd, Sr., 136, 139, 142, 422; cl 2 Tevis, Richard “Dickie,” 100, 149, 197, 325, 389; cl 2 Tevis, William, Jr. “Willie,” 16, 34, 37, 283, 377–378; cl 2 Tevis family, 22, 26, 149; Christmas with, 3, 152, 168, 281, 376–377, 510; cl 2 Tex. See Raibourn, Ira “Tex” “That Noble Flower” (Jeffers), 109n1 (top) Theatre Arts (magazine), 524, 622 Theatre Guild. See Medea (Jeffers): Theatre Guild option

Index



Thebom, Blanche, 727–728; letter from RJ to, 761; cl 1 “Their Beauty Has More Meaning” (Jeffers), 477 “Themes in My Poems” (Jeffers), 75n2, 762 Themes in My Poems (Jeffers), 833, 897 Theodore Lilienthal, Robinson Jeffers and the Quercus Press (Ritchie), 25n1 “Theory of Truth” (Jeffers), 110, 493n1 (top), 698 This Is My Best (Burnett), 194n2 (top), 204n1 (bottom) Thompson, Alan, 583 Thompson, Dorothy, “The Last Time I Saw Berlin,” 454; cl 1, cl 2 Thoreau, Henry David, 447, 718, 719; cl 2 Thorne, Narcissa, 234 Thorp, Willard, letter from UJ to, 74 “Thoughts Contingent to a Poem” (Jeffers), 30n1, 43n11 “Thoughts Incidental to a Poem” (Jeffers), 43n11 Thuban (rock), 243 Thurso’s Landing (Jeffers), 76n1, 419n2; film rights, 808; manuscript, 270; opera proposal, 726; translations, 395, 412, 530, 543 Thurso’s Landing and Other Poems (Jeffers), 370 Thurston, Herbert, 48 Tiers, Alex, 170; cl 2 “Time of Disturbance” (Jeffers), 687 “To a Young Artist” (Jeffers), 890n2 (top) Todd, Marian (Boke) Taylor. See Boke family “To Death” (Jeffers), 687 “Told to a Dead Woman.” See Hungerfield (Jeffers) Tolleson, Walter G., letter from RJ to, 726 Tony. See Luhan (Lujan), Tony



Index

“Torch-Bearers’ Race, The” (Jeffers), 274 Tor House, 48, 201, 474n1, 508–509, 510n2, 526–527, 713; blimps near, 184, 268, 271; building of, 258; burial ground, Native American, 626n3; east wing annex, 626, 634, 636, 638, 720n2; electricity, 38, 608, 622; furnishings, 23, 37n5, 52, 64, 168, 170, 209, 227, 282, 317, 375, 448, 634, 644n4, 709n1, 802; heating, 325, 330, 509; land purchases and sales, 38, 258, 835n5; maze, 249, 423; nature and wildlife, 41–42, 58, 184, 214, 243, 247, 310, 323, 352, 358, 389, 410, 456, 518, 598, 676, 733; photograph, 468; property, threats to, 657, 664–665, 666, 828n1, 835n5; seaweed harvesting near, 346; sewer project, 38–39, 624–625; signs on property, 228; stones, 243, 249, 258, 352; taxes, 58, 66, 80, 81, 387, 499, 690, 835n5; telephone, 23, 38, 198; trees, 441–442, 890; weather, 4, 16, 58, 65, 152, 594, 609; cl 1, cl 2 “Tor House” (Jeffers), 711n2 Toscanini, Arturo and Carla, 8 “To the Rock That Will Be a Cornerstone of the House” (Jeffers), 244n1 Totheroh, Dan, 876; cl 1, cl 2 “To the Stone-Cutters” (Jeffers), 95n20, 494n3, 544 Toulmin, Alice (Larkin), 345; cl 2 Tower Beyond Tragedy, The (Jeffers), 50n9, 324n5, 403, 431, 529, 537, 559, 632–633, 635, 636; ANTA production, 680, 686n1, 688n2, 690, 693, 695, 699, 702, 706, 722, 725–726; Forest Theater 1941 production, 113–114, 116, 697n1 (bottom); international productions, 722, 734–735, 738, 751, 756, 841, 853, 878, 880, 891, 892; Jeffers’ New York Times

essay about, 694, 942–945 (text); John Gassner arrangement, 549, 560–561, 673, 688; manuscript, 675, 685, 686, 690, 696, 706; miscellaneous U. S. productions, 51, 671, 675, 680, 742, 744, 749, 806n2 (bottom), 837; recordings, 76n1, 95n20, 298, 844, 850; reviews, 120, 699; translation, 722, 738, 751, 850, 892, 912 “Tower Beyond Tragedy, The” (Short), 123 Townsend, Walter, letter from RJ to, 122 Tree, Iris, 16, 480; cl 1, cl 2 Trelawny, Edward, 65; cl 1, cl 2 Tretheway, Adelaide, 256 Tretheway cottage, 256; cl 1 Trotter, Sam, 365; cl 2 “Truce and the Peace, The” (Jeffers), 87n2, 95n20 Truman, Harry, 322n4, 520 Turner, W. Price: letter from RJ to, 802; The Poet (magazine), 802, 822n5 Tuttle, Ephraim, 99 Tuttle, George Frederick, The Descendants of William and Elizabeth Tuttle, 92 Tuttle family, 92, 101n3, 103, 426 Twells, Julia Helen, Souci, 589 Twin Hollows, 90; cl 1 “Two Christmas–Cards” (Jeffers), 62n1, 119 Two Consolations (Jeffers), 61n1, 62, 97n2, 119n3, 252 Tyson, James and Carolyn, 830n1 Udell, Geraldine, letter from UJ to, 101 Ueland, Brenda, Me, 29 Ullman, Lillian and Arthur, 499 unicorns, 55, 217, 389, 509, 511, 639; gifts, 4, 6, 9, 84, 327–328, 419, 609, 613, 634; Wildweibchen und Einhorn, 57n9; cl 1, cl 2 unicorn tapestries, 78, 148–149, 210, 509

University of Alabama, letter from RJ to, 752 University Review, 88, 107, 112; cl 2 Unknown, letters from RJ to, 295, 318, 380, 714, 903 Untermeyer, Louis: letter from RJ and UJ to, 525; letter from UJ to, 88; Modern American Poetry, Modern British Poetry, 88; cl 1, cl 2 Valente, Alfredo, photograph by, 464 Valentina, 496 “Values of Robinson Jeffers, The” (Carpenter), 31 Van Antwerp, Edith, 25n2, 62. See also Quercus Press, cl 2 Van Dolah, Sheridan, letter from RJ to, 711 Van Doren, Charles, 855, 915 Van Doren, Mark, 536n4, 616–617, 928n1; letters from RJ to, 855, 911, 914; The Autobiography of Mark Van Doren, 855, 911; cl 1, cl 2 “Vanished Englands” (Jeffers), 61n1, 76n1, 96, 99 Vanka, Margaret, 71 Vanka, Maximilian, 72n1; cl 2 Van Riper, Charles, 38; cl 2 Van Volkenburg, Ellen, letter from RJ to, 790; cl 1 van Wyck, William, letter from RJ to, 542; Cyrano de Bergerac / Chanticleer, translations of, 542; cl 2 Vaughan, Hilda (writer), 224 Vaughn, Hilda (actress), 114, 152, 576, 578, 632, 633, 635, 681, 807n2 (top) Vial, Jane, 851. See also Hopper, Jane, cl 1 Viking Press, letters from RJ to, 736, 881 Villiers-Stuart, Ion and Emily, 378

Index



Villiers-Stuart, James, 380n5 Vinal, Harold, 297; letter from RJ to, 535 Violet. See Hinkley, Violet (Call) Virginia Quarterly Review, 14, 45, 58, 88, 107, 112, 843; letter from UJ to, 98; cl 2 Visits to Ireland (U. Jeffers): plans for, 746–749, 753, 754–755, 757; Sperisen proposal, 764, 767, 782–783; Ritchie publication, 747, 798–799, 801, 807, 808; cl 2 Voice of America, 842; letter from RJ to, 878; recording for, 878–879 Voices (magazine), 297, 535n1, 821 vom Rath, Cecelia, 449; cl 2 von Seebach, Hans Hasso, 182 von Trapp family, 180 “Vulture” (Jeffers), 899n1 (top) Waddell, Helen, The Wandering Scholars, 240; cl 2 Waggener, Lee. See Jeffers, Lee Wald, Jerry, 809n2, 913 Waley, Arthur, Translations from the Chinese, 849 walks and walking, 26, 139, 175, 184, 201, 209, 211, 245. See also pilgrimages Wall, Rosalind Sharpe, A Wild Coast and Lonely, 451n16. See also Sharpe, Rosalind Wallace, Edgar, 589; cl 2 Walls, Caroline “Carrie” (Call), 677; cl 1, cl 2 Walls, Catherine (Allan), 225. See also Allan, Chrissie, cl 2 Walter, Bruno, 120 Warren, Beth Gates, Artful Lives, 98n1 Washington Post, 70n1 (top), 87, 91, 99, 112, 129 “Watch the Lights Fade” (Jeffers), 76n1, 88, 95n20, 112 Waters, Frank, 26



Index

Watt, Ian, 449 Waugh, Sidney, 419 Wedgwood, Josiah, 52; cl 2 Weinstein, Rabbi Jacob, 517n6 Welch, Marie, 519n1; cl 1, cl 2 Weller, Samuel and Herminnie, 140n3 Weller Pottery Company, 140n3 Wellesley, Dorothy, 572 Wells, Cady, 253, 354; cl 2 Wells, Florence, 361 Wells, Henry W., letters from RJ to, 154, 178; The American Way of Poetry, 178; cl 2; New Poets from Old, 154 Wells, H. G., 704; cl 1 Welty, Benjamin, 254 Wendel, Beth, 100; cl 2 Wertham, Fredric, 49 Wescott, Glenway, The Pilgrim Hawk, 64 “West Coast Black-Out” (Jeffers), 187 Weston, Charis, 97, 379 Weston, Edward, 98n1, 113, 117, 192, 209, 219, 368n1, 379, 393, 675n1; letters from UJ to, 67, 97; cats, 220; Fifty Photographs: Edward Weston (Armitage), 514; cl 1, cl 2 “What of It?” (Jeffers), 516n1 White, Gilbert, 309 White, Stewart Edward, 362n2 Whitehead, Robert, 443n3, 574, 762–763, 827n4; letter from RJ to, 539 Whitehead, Virginia, 574 Whitehead and Rea. See Medea (Jeffers): Whitehead and Rea production Whitman, Paul, 605 Whitman, Walt, Leaves of Grass, 122; cl 1, cl 2 Whitney, John Hay, 22, 270, 271, 516, letter from RJ to, 724; cl 1, cl 2 Whittemore, Thomas, 448, 456 Whittlesey, Eben, 284

Whom It May Concern, letters from RJ to, 696, 927 Who’s Who, 724; cl 2 Wickman, Frank “Wickie,” 421, 448; cl 2 Wiener, Leigh, photographs by, 778–781 Wilde, Oscar, 705; Salomé, 568; cl 1, cl 2 Wilder, Amos, The Spiritual Aspects of the New Poetry, 102 Wilder, Thornton, The Skin of Our Teeth, 244; cl 2 William Morris Agency, 341, 348–349, 690–691; letter from UJ to, 409. See also under Morris, William, cl 2 Williams, Laidlaw, 268n1, 901; cl 1, cl 2 Williams, Mona, 440 Williams, Oscar, 117, 185; letters from RJ to, 131, 319, 320, 505; letter from UJ to, 146; The Man Coming Toward You, 30, 32 Willis, Stanley, letters from RJ to, 288, 713; “Passionate, Untamed, A Falcon,” 713 Wilshire, Gaylord, 98n1; cl 1 Wilson, Adrian, 721n2, 819, 912n3 Wilson, Jack, letter from RJ to, 176 Wilson, Larry, letter from RJ to, 302 Wilson, Philip and Laura, 361 Wind, Edgar, 42 Wing (cook), 643, 651, 659 Winnie (dog), 168, 183, 189, 214, 219, 226, 228, 231, 232, 281; cats and, 220, 224; name, 55, 57, 61; photographs, 162, 163; illness and death of, 306–307, 313–314, 315, 316, 410 Winter, Ella, 182n1, 480, 497n1, 668; cl 1, cl 2 “Winter Sundown” (Jeffers), 261 Winwar, Frances, 495 Wisdom (television series), 877 “Wise Men in Their Bad Hours” (Jeffers), 95n20

“With All Good Wishes” (Jeffers), 812–813 Wittgenstein, Paul, 480 Wolff, Maritta, Whistle Stop, 109 Wolfson, Germaine, 288n3, 289 Wolfson, Leo, letter from RJ to, 431 Wolfson, Mast, 288, 604, 613, 678; letter from UJ to, 657; cl 2 Wolfson, Mast, Jr., 288n3, 289 Wollstonecraft, Mary, 294; cl 2 Women at Point Sur, The (Jeffers), 370, 458n1, 698, 751; film rights, 809n2; manuscript, 270; translation, 927n1 “Women on Cythaeron, The” (Jeffers), 890n2 (top) Wood, Charles Erskine Scott, 226, 288, 290, 409n1, 449; cl 1, cl 2 Wood, Grant, 84, 234 Wood, Laura Cass, 451n11 Wood, Miss, letter from RJ to, 871 Woodforde, James, Passages from the Five Volumes of The Diary of a Country Parson, 58 “Woodrow Wilson” (Jeffers), 279n1 Woodruff, Porter “Dickie,” 36, 120, 149 Woodward, Carol H., The Flora of the Unicorn Tapestries, 148 Woolf, Leonard, 475; cl 1, cl 2 Woolf, Virginia, 87, 93; Between the Acts, 140–141; Orlando, 617; cl 1, cl 2 Wordsworth, William, 445, 447, 460, 718; cl 1, cl 2 “World’s Wonders, The” (Jeffers), 687 World War I, 10; cl 1, cl 2 World War II: pre-war tensions, 35–36, 53, 55, 63; neutrality, U. S. rejection of, 95n23; U. S. enters, 153n2; local reaction to, 152, 168, 171, 172, 174, 184, 351–352; tire shortage during, 174, 181–182, 184, 185, 220, 376; England, 42, 96; France, 35–36, 285n2;

Index



World War II (continued) Germany, 37n2, 97n3, 118, 132, 153n2, 268, 342n3, 351n1, 359n4; Italy, 153n2, 268; Japan, 153n2, 169n2, 188, 198, 209, 290–291, 342n3, 353n2, 380n10; V–E Day, 341; end of, 351–352, 364; cl 1, cl 2. See also under Jeffers, Robinson; Jeffers, Una World War II, Donnan Jeffers and, 10, 54, 183, 188, 200, 245, 334, 335–336, 363–364 World War II, Garth Jeffers’ military service during: draft status, 54, 173, 175, 179, 180, 183; induction, 195–196; Military Police (Hawaii), 198, 203; furloughs, 213, 280, 286, 304, 316; commando training, 244, 245, 246; ranks, 235, 268; Texas and Louisiana, 297, 305, 316, 324; England and France, 327, 331, 333, 336; Germany, 334, 336, 341, 344–345, 351, 357; battle stars, 351; return home, 357, 363, 370, 371, 374, 375–376, 381, 384; Germany, postwar, 405, 418, 424, 438 World War II, Hamilton Jeffers’ service during, 147, 171, 200, 276, 281, 306, 314 World War II, Robinson’s sentry service during, 173, 180, 183, 188–189, 196, 201, 237, 248, 268 World War II, Una’s Red Cross service during, 681; first aid course, 177, 180, 182, 183–184; staff volunteer, 248, 263, 452; Staff Assistance Corps chair, 281–282, 284, 286, 297, 300, 325, 330, 336, 364, 384, 427; Carmel Chapter chair, 598–599, 604–605; resignation, 612 Worth, Charles, 501 Wortham, James L., 719, 720 Wray, Judith E., letter from RJ to, 842 Wriggins, Walter W., letter from RJ to, 811 Wright, Willard Huntington, 98n1; cl 1



Index

Wygant, Edith. See Pinkham, Edith Yale University, Librarian, letter from RJ to, 910 Yale University Library, Jeffers collection at, 724, 896, 910, 918 Yankee Point, 173, 183, 196, 208n3, 208n7, 208n12, 232 Yeats, Bertha “Georgie,” 248 Yeats, Jack, 510; cl 2 Yeats, William Butler, 45, 197, 244, 258, 263, 373, 437, 575n2, 846n3, 894; reburial, 434, 571–572, 601, 668, 764; Southern Review issue, 181, 197; tower (Thoor Ballylee), 34, 748, 764; Una’s lecture on, 48. Works: “Among School Children,” 89; “Coole Park, 1929,” 313; Kathleen ni Houlihan, 578; Oedipus Rex, 402; The Shadowy Waters, 258, 260; The Wild Swans at Coole, 323; The Words Upon the Window Pane, 48. cl 1, cl 2 Young, Ella, 4, 9, 136, 831n2; letter from RJ to, 802; letter from UJ to, 382; cl 1, cl 2 Young, Roland, 4; cl 2 Youth’s Companion, 62n1; cl 2 Yurka, Blanche, 495 Zanesville, Ohio: Robinson and Una’s attempted 1941 trip to, 134–136, 138; Una’s 1942 trip to, 214, 215–218, 221–223, 229–230, 233–234, 235–236; Robinson and Una’s 1947 visit to, 499, 501; Robinson’s 1956 family visit to, 830n1 Zaturenska, Marya, 117, 736n2 (bottom) Zeitlin, Jake, 19n1; cl 1, cl 2 Zugsmith, Leane, The Setting Sun of Japan, 185 Zweig, Stefan, Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles, 644n4, 648