This item is part of a collection of autograph letters and manuscripts of War Poetry related to World War I; see collection record (MA 5141) for more information.
Telling him he asked Macdonalds to send him a copy of D[onkey] B[oy] and commenting that it "is dropped out of their advertising, after 8 weeks out. Perhaps that is long enough for a novel that isn't being bought. It has done half what the [Dark] Lantern did, which book didn't get near its advance;" commenting, at length, on the biography of Arnold Bennett by Reginald Pound; saying "I fancy what and how we write of others has validity only in revealing our own 'truth', or hubris;" thanking him for his invitation to speak at the Goldsmith's College literary society and asking if it could "be later on, when I have got my series done, do you think? I suspect I shall continue without a break until they are finished. Though I shall have to take a walk! I am almost like the queen white-ant or termite when she is on her side and exuding eggs day and night. Getting very stale, which is not wise. Anyway, I don't see anyone, and avoid going into houses, etc, not that I know any down here, beyond about 3;" requesting that if he gets his book and writes about it that he "won't mention the numerous errors and misprints: I have so far found 105. There may not be another printing while I live, but the list of errors is in with the printers;" commenting on an article in The Observer about printer-publishers and their relation to a writer; concluding "One works here beset with doubts and fears. Is it worth going on with? Is the 'poetry', as A[rnold] B[ennett] found in the potteries, not arising? The truth is I dislike the district greatly, and have since the second year of the first war. Prejudices choked me. I was most dreadfully & awfully unhappy. The flower was trodden out beneath the foot. Perhaps that is why the two books, so far are ignored. I don't know."