Box 1

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Written by Diana Stainforth, secretary to Rebecca West.

"Dear Ms. Shewell, Dame Rebecca is unfortunately not at all well at the moment and is therefore unable to comply with your request. She asks me to say how sorry she is, and she wishes you all success in your most worthwhile venture..."

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"My dear Rebecca, The editor of ADAM, my friend Miron Grindea, does not really need this introduction to you, since you certainly know all about ADAM, its quality, and its international reputation. All I could possibly add to what you know would be my great respect for his lifetime of effort, sacrifice and devotion, to create and to keep alive this excellent review..."

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"Dear Madam, At the time my old friend S.J. wrote the enclosed letter of introduction I learned from Alan Pryce-Jones that you had to leave at short notice for South Africa. He suggested I should wait for your return and promised to let me know if a meeting could be arranged at his flat in Albamy..."

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"Dear Dame Rebecca, Thank you very much for your cordial letter and invitation to lunch on Sunday. I am very much looking forward to meeting you and talk over a few things which I consider of some importance. [?] I have no car but I am sure I could find my way round after reaching High Wycombe. I should like to save you the trouble - may I only ring you up as soon as I reach H.W. probably some time before 1 p.m.?..."

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"Dear Mr. Grindea, Thank you very much for your letter and the enclosures which I am keeping because I would like to look over them. I am rather busy just now owing to various factors, one of them being that my husband is away. I wonder if you could come down to lunch on Sunday, the 11th, as that is almost my only free day. I think, in fact, we haven't met because I was not at the luncheon given in honour of H.G. Wells at the Dorchester..."

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"Dear Dame Rebecca, I cannot resist the temptation of letting you know that an American editor has asked me to write an essay of about 10.000 words on your work. I most sincerely hope that I will manage to cope with that rather formidable task. As I have mentioned to you already literary historians in the USA have complained about the scarcity of bibliographical material on your creative output..."

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"Dear Mr. Grindea, Following up our conversation the other day when you told me that it was important that the printers of 'Adam', who are threatening to foreclose unless they are paid, should receive some money. Will you please let me know whether the sum of £100 paid to the printers would provide a breathing space?..."

Scope and Contents "Dear Dame Rebecca, Your letter reached me with some delay as it was sent to an address which I left in 1943; it came though as a blessed relief for I began wondering whether I have done something to upset you. I know you will be glad to hear that since spending that gloriously sunny day at Ibstone House two Sundays ago the emergency position has changed very much in our favour. Indeed, thanks to a few contributions from well-wishers and after selling yet another important section of my...

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"Dear Dame Rebecca, I am really overwhelmed by the promptness and generosity of mind and heart with which you have approached your friend Ray over our predicament. I read his letter with great interest..."

Scope and Contents "Dear Mrs. Andrews: I was delighted to get your letter of September 12.[...]The Guggenheim Foundation's program is confined to the awarding of Fellowships to scholars and artists of distinction, and we have no funds for other purposes. Consequently, there is nothing that we can do to help Mr. Grindea with Adam. I have discussed Mr. Grindea's needs with Mr. W. McNeil Lowry, director of the Program in Humanities and the Arts of The Ford Foundation. He too feels that...