Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from Wick Green, Petersfield, Hampshire. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/144
WICK GREEN
or Wyke PETERSFIELD

( These I now learn are the local
spellings: week is merely an
Ordnance Map offence)

15.iii.10

My dear Gordon,
Thank you for your letter & the
Morning Post cutting. I am writing now
very largely because I want to beg your
help yet again. I have undertaken -
very rashly but yet necessarily - to
produce three books at the next 12 months.
One is practically written. It is a sort of
county book but is really about a dozen
riders of horses & their people. I am trying
to get the publisher to take drawings for it
from Guthrie. The idiot refused to
pay Bone the very modest price he was
asking for 6 drawings. Some specially for
me! The other two books are
(1) on Maeterlinck & (2) on Women &
Poets - i.e. on the influence of women
on English poets & on the position
of women in their poetry, the attitude of
the poets towards the idea & the real
woman etc. Please give me
any pregnant suggestions that occur to
you & mention my books & passages to be consulted. Furthermore Duckworth
is reissuing "Hora Solituice' with some
ominous & worth the addition of the
last two papers from 'Rose Acre Papers'.
Do you recall any corrections that
must or ought to be made in either,
whether of misprints or of exceptional
[illegible]
In spite of all this before me
I have been thinking of you in this fine
weather & hoping you can enjoy it. You
ought to be here. Our brick terrace
all along the south wall would please
you very much in the sun. It is the
new house which was building all last
year. It has no name, but the
district which includes two or three
farms & cottage & two other new
houses is called Wick Green. I
wish you could come to it with Emily
before your American reputation makes
you too big for my house. Until then
I shall continue to be glad of it. What
are you working at now?
I have been reading Shurge Moore's
'Art & Life' & tho I have a most
complete admiration for his knowledge
seriousness & original thinking I do
find his power of expression very uncertain.
The book was very hard to read & I put it
down not merely to my own stupidity
but partly to his style which is (1) too
elliptical and (2) either too elaborate
or not elaborate enough, for it is patchy &
uneven & has no pervading quality.
I still hope for the grand edition
of LIthend. Meantime I hope Guthrie
in growing rich. In spite of my dying
conscience etc I am not.
We are very well & want to
know that you are Emily are. We send
our love.

Yours ever
Edward Thomas