Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. Sent from 13 Rusham Road, Balham, [Oct 1908]. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/117
13 Rusham Rd
Balham S. W.

Oct 1908

My dear Gordon,

Of course artists don't
'write about' anything. I know.
Jefferies wrote loosely & he didn't
really mean that they do.
I admit he sometimes does, often does,
but not that he is not an artist.
I think many of his essays & 'Dewy
Morn' & Amaryllis' creative.
But surely an artist must at times
be weary of the competition with
God & in [illegible] to be content with
his really very great works?
I've just heard from
Guthrie. He seems pleased but
of course - low coast, elms &
Autumn, especially such an
Autumn would be pleasing.
I am glad to see 'Gunnar' is
getting ready. Oh lord, I have
not yet written a little note
for Guthrie to stick at the
beginning of an album he is
publishing. I work day & night
& can't get at my impressions
of his work at all.
Congratulate me. I believe
I have escaped from Barrow. Of
course it means losing some
weeks of solid work but then
to add to my laurels as a man who
has not written on so & so &
s0 & so makes 4 worth while.
The world does not know of these
things. The - including some
nice people - sneer at me for doing
so much & think me brazenfaced
& unaware of my limitations.
I am a passive artist if you like &
if it were not for the blank necessity
of keeping a house & household
going I would have nothing to do
with books, certainly not
reading & reviewing them. I wonder are stocks & share & cheap
furniture as defiling to those
who deal in them. I think perhaps
not just as often fornication
is far less evil than marriage
because its evil does not
continually encrust the soul.
Yours ever
Edward Thomas

de la Mare has chucked his
oil millionaire & taken to
literature. Friends are helping,
he has got some reviewing for
The Times.