Thursday April 1

A poem Smokebecame "The Smoky House"? DW; eds. in two drafts, and unexpected royalties of £200 from Barker. Claudius has in 3 years brought in about £8500. Money at present: £650 in Paris, £250 in London, £200 here.

Going over Schools with Laura

Reports of disorganization and attempted revolts behind Franco's lines, and a Govt Government victory at Pozoblanco; and pressure on five other pointsfronts KG. For the first time general English newspaper opinion is that Franco is beaten.

Coffee with Str & Schw. but we refused to talk politics in the circs.

Nice letter from Honor: reassuring about G.E.

Govt Government victory on the Burgos Bilbao road.

Friday Ap 2 1937

A bad day. Did no work of any sort: to Lugano to get my pension witnessed by the Consul. The rest was discussion of the hopelessness of carrying on any decent writing or publishing business in face of the dark age opposition to anything good.

Laura has been having bad dreams: her bedroom has evidently had a lot to do with death at one time or another.

Mola's attack on Bilbao begins.

Sat. Ap 3.

Laura had a bad night: nerves upset her disgestion digestion .

She stayed in bed & I stayed in.

This morning she reported word for word two nonsense stories she had told me late at night when I was looking after her, & a poem.

He, she, who – Who weeps last Laughs last. It tried to be a lot of islands And then pretended to talk Trojan. Saying Myrga por ora. I said: "Do not talk nonsense. You are just pretending to talk Trojan." Then it said Myrga pee.

(The best was: )

"Would you like to hear a story : There were all the old maypoles, One for every year. I could not see a new one for this year. Then from the left came two tall people Dancing in among. Why two tall people? No, not two tall people but one whole person Dancing in among. And this is why they did not notice That there was no maypole For the new year."

She stayed in bed all day. No work. Seventy hands of 66card game eds. at night. Watt has fixed Lawrence book in U.S. United States

Sunday Ap 4.

Laura wrote a letter to the Telegraph about the Dark Ages.*

Schools again.

I wrote a letter to Winston Churchill enclosing a Heraldo de Madrid protesting against an article of his (in the Neuer Zurichner Zeitung Neue Zürcher Zeitung KG; Swiss newspaper eds.) about Trotskyites in Spain.

Am taking perloidshomeopathic remedy? KG again: the boil, still there, seems slightly better : .

Schw & Str. told us of a thing at Deyá after we left – Leman & Pepe L.'s catamite KG, afraid of being bombarded lived in a hill-cave with blankets, champagne, tinned food & a gramophone.

* Did not appear: perhaps because she mentioned Hadow unfavourably who was then ill and died a few days later.

Monday Ap 5

A letter from Jenny very happy at Cannes – she preferred a week of luxury there to three dull weeks on a cruise & has had battles of flowers and things. Needs money.

We hope to be back in Deyá in three months – but intend to return to England on June 10th.

Enthusiastic review of Tr.Ending in Manchester Guardian by old Wilfred Gibson.

We have settled into a routine of late mornings, Libera Estampa Liberal Press? Spanish newspaper? eds. for me at the kiosk at eleven, lunch at 1, post at 4, Lugano (Olimpia or Gambrinus) till until 6. Supper at 7 (I cooking, Karl laying.) then 66card game eds. till someone reaches 10. Intervals are all work & up to 12 at night.

Schools & several letters each.

All the local camellias & flowering shrubs in bloom.

Tuesday Ap 6

Schools all day: and trying to recover a poem originally called Moments in Never that I lost with all my other fair copies in London. Remembered 2 verses & 2 lines out of 3 verses.

Report of presence of 80,000 expeditionary force in the Balearics (L'Oeuvre) but cannot believe that there is as much.

At 66card game eds. four attempts at a taylor running – I lost 2, made one, Karl lost one.

Wed Ap 7

Schools all day.

A letter from Short (uncensored) enclosing one from Juan to Anita telling her of G's imprisonment and begging her to keep calm, for Gelat's case was in good hands & nothing further had happened. The accusations were: – The water, the road Canellun KG, his being mayor.

Letters. Great depression, fine weather.

Thursday Ap 8

Schools. An amende honourablehonorable mention eds. by Louis MacNeice in a Spectator review of Troy. Dirt by one Shawn Taylor in New Statesman.

In the afternoon a walk beyond Gentillino to Montagnola in hot sun: villas some good some bad mixed views, lots of flowers.

Tried to work out a poem on the way, but no good.

Another draft of A Wounded Man.

Checked some of Laura's Collected Poems.

It occurred to me The Fox did not eat the sour grapes; so his children's teeth were not set on edge.

Friday Ap 9

Went on high hill above Paradiso (San Salvatore) picked flowers, a green Christmas rose, a flower between a harebell & a buttercup, bilberry flowers. My boil suddenly better, not quite gone, but better.

Jokes about Laura's college-girl dress.

Schools.

Anita writes that Juan of the Moli who went to Majorca to explain about his illicit trade in oranges is in prison – did we denounce him?

Basler Spezial beerspecial beer from Basel eds. & kidneys at Gambrinus.

Sat Ap 10th

Schools.

Got money from Lugano: paid Poggi for month (266 fr francs = £13.odd)

Draft of a poem about a hotel bedroom Hotel Bed eds..

Laura going over Norman's Rimbaud.

Margaret Russell sent Laura a yellow & pink knitted shawl.

News that Merle Oberon is out of nursing home & that Korda is likely to finish the film later in the year.

Miaja's counter-offensive at Madrid.

Laura's letter about Kierkegaarde in T.L.S

Sunday Ap 11

Schools

Three more drafts of Hotel Bedroom.

Ziebert as usual: full. Nickel gone, Schw & Str. alone. A lot of nonsense about Str going to rescue Schw. 'Egyptian head' which is quite safe enough in the gardener's possession.

Worked on Schools till until 2 am.

Boil much better.

General confidence about Spain.

Financial News praises the Govt Government 's financial honesty. (March 25 reported in a Heraldo de Madrid of 5 Ap April )

Monday. Ap 12

Pathetic letter from Rennes. Apparently Juan del Moli is in prison.

Nancy writes that Jenny is STUPID and that she is still at Cannes, and refused David's offer to camp with her in France.

5 further drafts of A Wounded Man.

Wrote to Nancy.

Schools.

Laura gave Karl & me the task of buying things for 20 fr. francs including supper. We got a pack of English cards, lobster salad in scallopsscallop-shells KG, mixed pickles, & an old silver buckle, scoring book & pencil for 66card game eds., & an early Wodehouse The Little Nugget The Little Nugget by P.G. Wodehouse. London: Methuen & Co., 1913. eds which we started reading aloud.

Began homily on Tolerance.

Tuesday Ap 13

Laura doing Rimbaud translation (going over Norman's stuff) & arranging her own poems.

Raining all day (& yesterday)

Tolerance.

Karl & I to Lugano to buy novel foods to cheer up a dull day – chicken-sausages in gelatine, pine-apple glacé, herring roe fillets, etc.

Bought a cigarette machine, not being able to get tubes for my old Deyá one.

Laura having a red & white striped dress made; with the Ibizan buttons & yesterday's silver belt.

Wed Ap 14

Tolerance

A dull walk along the motor road away from Lugano by the Lake-side.

A new pencil sharpener bought.

A dull, but quite a happy day because I am feeling well.

My first ride on a funicular – from the station. Two cars balanced, the descending one weighted with water.

Thurs. Ap 15.

Tolerance: slow work

Letters: to Eric Partridge about dictionary, Eric Tattersall.

Laura working on Music.

Only difference in days seems between what we get for supper.

3 International letters today: two stupid, from a mystic & a woman economist, one good one from Tanny Brown.

Visit to Schw. & Str in their new flat.

Friday Ap 16

A really hot day: walk to Gentillino. Orange tip butterfly, buttercups and things.

Ox. Univ. Oxford University Press turned down dictionary as too individual & personal... words cannot be put into strait jackets. ( Another example of tolerance of illiteracy for the sake of lexicographic richness)

Tolerance.

Heathen, according to R. Haas, well written but not exciting enough for the Am. American public: only taking 100 copies

To Lugano after supper, alone: Laura to bed early not feeling well.

Lots of provincial English honeymooners admiring lake & coloured lights.

Sat Ap 17

Apparently Jenny has been accepting money from Charles, & not telling me.

Finished Tolerance.

Laura going over Schools and her poems.

We walked in the Lugano municipal park & it was charming butby KG the lakeside, big trees and an old house.

Read Wodehouse's early 'Little Nugget.'see April 12, 1937 eds.

Sunday Ap 18

Three drafts of a poem

Pledge to Strangeness

Laura had a migraine. We went to Lugano with Str & Schw. for coffee at Buri's. Lugano packed.

Monday Ap 19

Two more drafts of Pledge to Strangeness.

Schools.

Juan of the Moli, according to a letter from Rennes, was denounced from Rennes & arrested on the evening of his arrival at Deyá.

These days have been full of reports of truce-making in Spain.

* Non-Intervention control starts at midnight.

Tuesday Ap 20

Three drafts of a poem " To Address Posterity "; a walk behind Gentillino to middle of Lugano; bread ham & beer on the way. The longest walk since a year or so. Then in the evening, with Karl & Laura, a funicular ride half way up Monte Bré and then a walk up there (Pear blossom, tall grass) & back by Castagnola. Beer in an inn with two pencil pictures by an 'alcoholic' nephew. One a 'dream of war', one a kitchen interior, both brilliant.

Laura working over her poems.

1937 Ap. 21 Wednesday.

Two more drafts of To Address Posterity, which L read & passed.

Schools. Went over Tolerance.

Anxiety about Honor, who does not answer letters. Sent her another note, by air.

New Nationalist offensive at Bilbao: & general disgust in England at lame Govt Government explanations of why foodships are not allowed to run the blockade.

Antigua has sold 2500 in about a month in U.S.A.

Checked Laura's poems after typing: found two small ones left out, not Carl's fault.

Ap 22 Thursday.

Epilogue III published.

* Laura & I planned a new book together. The Kind Ghost tentatively & talked over the first ch chapter which I began. Laura working over Schools.

Goodbye to Schw & Str who have are going to Rome, leaving Pippa Strenge's terrier eds. behind onin KG a village on Mont Bre. We warned them against Majorca – Schwartz still wants his Egyptian head, & to send Str. there.

To a cinema: saw Barbary CoastBarbary Coast (1935) directed by Howard Hawks eds. with Ed. Robinson & Miriam Hopkins – badly synchronized in French – 49 Goldrush – & 193 6 7 automatic pistols.

Ap 23 Friday.

Anita wrote: Senor of the Padrissa had phoned, she did not know from where, asking if they had sent the documents proving that Juan of the Moli had not traded in contraband oranges. She said yes. She asked if G. was in the same place as Juan . The S.P. Senor of Sa Pedrissa replied No, elsewhere & I believe he will be released this week.

Also a reassuring letter wire from Maisie. Honor has lost her maid Grace & therefore has not written: all well there.

Laura bought some yellow linen for a ¾ coat & skirt (4 yards for £1) & wore Honor's black garnet Christmas buckles on red ribbon as wristlets for the first time. Her new Italian Straw hat a success.

Ghost. Schools until late. Have reached (typed) page 70.

Wrote Nancy sending £60 – enough until August, now.

Found a new path down from Gentillino through woods, with wild single narcissus.

Ap 24 Saturday.

Ghost; also Schools with Laura.

Honor wrote. Nearly has a job – something to do with Press, & advertising, at £8 a week.

Robin Hale has gone to America for ever: unless she goes broke or earns £40,000.

Laura & I went to police. Told to report again before we go.

Miaja expects war to end in one to two months. Franco will not fix a date. Govt Government making small advances on various fronts – Aragon, Huesca, Asturias, Cordoba; Mola still attacking at Bilbao. Blockade broken.

We spend £70 a month here.

Laura going over her poems (Lying Word now).

Ap 25 Sunday

Ghost. finished my draft of first chapter; Laura rewriting now.

Going over (punctuation especially) early poems, typed by Carl.

Laura, Karl & I, for a walk to GentleGentillino by the Tunnel Grotto wood.

Laura wearing her red & white striped dress.

Ap 26 Monday.

Cold wind.

Going over my poems again: gave it all to Karl to to type.

Laura going over my ch chapter of Ghost. We all felt rather low (Laura & I tried going without lunch, but having a high tea instead, but it was cheerless). Walked in Lugano at the back of the town beyond the Consulates.

Boil has returned.

Ap 27 Tuesday.

Started Chapter 2 of Ghost: Laura has gone over first chapter.

Air-raid 'lights out' by municipal order. Laura going over her poems.

Gloom over the day by success of resumed Bilbao offensive with capture of Eibar : but Nationalist claims obviously exaggerated. But We found a new way home from Town by a very lovely old painted cloisters and(Franciscan) & a narrow lane.

Ap 28 Wednesday.

Cold wind, the last two days.

Laura has given me the snake-wood walking stick with the silver knob. I nearly always now go to Gentillino for my walks.

Ghost: nearly finished second chapter draft.

Laura on letters and Schools again.

General exclamation of horror at Guernica massacre by German bombers – even in Morning Post.

Copy of Epilogue III.

Ap 29 Thursday.

On the San Salvatore mountain violets, small periwinkle, vetch: yellow- & red, red & blue, yellow & white. Swallow-tail, high brown, Camberwell beauty, sulpher sulphur butterflies. Brought back a bunch of blossom a sort of wild apple but with pointed petals and a mole – I must have killed it by mistake on the path on the way up – brought home on a long Spanish-chestnut leaf. It had a grass in its mouth.

Finished draft of Ch. Chapter 2. Ghosts .

Checked some of Laura's poems.

Walk to Lugano in the evening, avoided a cinema, ices & a grenadine at Gambrinus.

Auden sent proposed encomium for Laura's poems, requested by Random House. Laura replied to him.

Ap 30 Friday.

Working with difficulty on a poem beginning:

Like a lizard in the sun, but not scuttling

No possible draft yet.

Else did nothing – nor did Laura – not well.

Curse pronounced generally: – on all but the good true. 'Total war' continues in Basque land. War threatening in Czechoslovakia?