Letter from William Empson, London, to John Davenport, 1943 August 8 : typescript signed.

Concerning a possible film adaptation of H.G. Wells' "The Country of the Blind;" confirming points he believes he and Davenport agreed to in a meeting; saying "(1) H.G. Wells's short story when written fifty years ago was part of an attack sustained in his other stories of that period against the ruling-class refusal to recognise the changes that were coming. He made it a tragedy not out of a penchant for tragedy but in order to shock the reader as much as possible. The changes he envisaged however have now come. Considered as a political allegory, the story ought at this date to say not 'obviously you are hopelessly blind' but 'if you have twopence worth of sense you can still save yourselves, blind as your are'. (2) The harsh hopelessness of the story as written (and everyone feels it is as a political allegory) would make it both unsaleable and possibly harmful if sold as a full-length film. (3) The way out (as you suggested) is to have the explorer sent there because there were reasons to expect earthquake; he is a minor survivor of a geologist exploring party; and at the end, after going back onto the snow to die rather than accept blinding as the price of marriage in the community, he sees on the mountain the signs of coming earthquake and returns to warn the community. A few believe him; many do not; and the film ends on the continued indecision of many blind persons with the lava actually descending on their houses. This is the point of the story; by all means, for the reassurement of the audience, let the hero and the heroine be seen standing in apparent comfort high up on the snow; but the last shot ought to be a flashback to the indecision still in process in the doomed valley."