Tuesday, November 1st. [1938] (All Souls)

Dictionary: Alan & I do about 4 hours a day, sorting words: perhaps 100 words a day. We live (household) at about 25/- a week each including servants. I am now smoking cigars - a thing I used to do only very rarely. David set his room on fire with a spark from the fireplace while he went to the village: put it out with water. Laura doing Ghost, Aristotle, helping David (furniture), Dorothy (sculpture) writing her children's story; Dictionary with Alan & me. * Finishing the specimen page of definitions.

Wednesday, November 2nd. [1938]

Marie came to work and we got her room ready with rejected furniture & pictures from the attic. Alan & I went on bicycles to Montauban in the morning and I ordered two black corduroy trousers & a waistcoat, to measure, for 100 fr the trousers & 45 the waistcoat. And bought a black cotton heavy jacket for 45 francs. Returning; cleaned & polished the chandelier with ammonia. Dictionary with Alan and The Castle. At midnight we all drank wine mulled with lemon peel, orange juice, cognac, sugar, nutmeg, water; and ate melted cheese with toast. Laura made a new hippocamp monument.

Thursday, November 3rd. [1938]

Several hours Dictionary with Alan (morning & night). In afternoon signed 1060 sheets of the Lawrence book with Beryl's help; it took about 2 1/2 hours including the parcel-making. Sent off. A cycle of breakages: we attributed it to Marthe, as they are non-violent collapses of things. David has beautifully repaired the burn in his room - enlarging the fireplace with more tiles & putting in an insertion. Laura on Wives and helping David. [Gr1-1355-079: 14 pp letter from Sam Graves to Robert & Laura]

Friday, November 4th. [1938]

Laura up to 4.30 last night, 3 the night before, 3 night before. Dorothy, Beryl, Alan to Rennes. Dorothy to buy carving wood - no success. The others bought household things - took in my watch, Laura's green Majorcan brooch & my Marnius Aquellius brooch to repair. Copied out and revised Dictionary lists. Marie polishing all the floors - first time since we came here that this was really well done - & brass & windows also cleaned. Went to Montauban in the car that had brought Dorothy's carving bench - both drunk. The driver made very cautious & correct by drink his copain gloriously elevated. Ordered new mattress & pillow. Accounts: an hour spent over tracing 40 fr. deficit in the Rennes buyings.

Saturday, November 5th. [1938]

Dorothy & Alan went to Rennes again & this time got the wood - a beam of oak from an old house. Dictionary. Planned The Castle. In evening made chestnut & coffee jelly by myself. Got my black corduroy trousers & waistcoat, 135 i.e. 15/- the two, from the Montauban tailor. Alan came home very drunk & saying that whatever he said was true.

Sunday, November 6th. [1938]

Dictionary with Alan: also went over L's dictionary letter to the publishers with her. She had a bad 'octopus' today. David made a Cambeluk board to hang on the wall. Work on The Castle. Did not go out all day.

Monday, November 7th. [1938]

Laura had another octopus day. * Dictionary with her & Alan: sent off specimen pages. And with Alan alone. A hare påtá from Hotel Ouest, & Russian billiards with Dorothy & David at St Uniac. Worked late on The Castle.

Tuesday, November 8th. [1938]

Dictionary, sorting phantasmagoria words, typescript of Ch.IX of Swiss Ghost. At nights we read aloud 10 pp in turn of British Social Life in India. Cats still make messes in corners. Laura asked me to help in getting right a verse of Norman-&-her translation of Båteau Ivre about lunules and black hippocamps. Two bound copies of my poem proofs came; sent one to Karl. My second pair of black corduroy trousers: paid. Dorothy got her wood and is beginning her statue of hand, head & wheel. Govt troops cross the Segre, as Franco re-reaches right bank of Ebro.

Wednesday, November 9th. [1938]

David's birthday: he had gout. We did not tell him we knew of birthday till lunch - Láonie had made him a cake for it. He got presents. With Alan Beryl Dorothy cleaned up washing place - put down sand, provided a packing case on which to lay clothes, dug a sump. Láonie & Marie are now doing all the washing. Polished Laura's bed & bedside table. Work on Castle. Dictionary. In evening birthday celebration for David in Salon where a pumpkin ghost was, with a candle inside - made by me. Played a game: answering a question, silently asked by someone, with a composite sentence, a word each. I asked: What news of Sally's coming? Answer: "Ceremonious beginnings generally signify little previous experience of prophecy: but nevertheless this is significant in research on the subject, that findings continue to seem familiar." Alan asked: What is wrong with Montauban? Answer: "rather hesitantly she said: I undertake no responsibility for this wretched circumstance in which we find you placed." Laura asked: What is lacking here, if anything? Answer: "In time it comes about that queries which are also answers relieve anxiety, revealing perhaps everything important as truly as necessary."

Thursday, November 10th. [1938]

Laura worked till 3 am, so did I. But she has been up till 4 or 5 the last nights & slept late, having lunch in bed. Sunny day. Oaks still green, but most other leaves gone. Dictionary with Alan. More work on The Castle. Walk to St Uniac with Alan: but Russian billiards board not there at the cafá because of Armistice banquet tomorrow. Another walk with Beryl & Dorothy to the lake at night: fantastic trees under the moon. * World & Ourselves & * Collected Poems published today. Hear that I have to re-sign all T.E.pages because wrongly numbered.

Friday, November 11th. [1938]

Dictionary 100 words and 12 pp of Castle. Dorothy having trouble with her clay hands of statue. Beryl & I beat David & Alan twice running at Cambeluk. Midnight walk along Boisgervilly road with Dorothy. Laura wrote letters all day: & blurb for Left Heresy.

Saturday, November 12th. [1938]

Dictionary (115 words). Castle 14 pp. World & Ourselves, and Collected Poems came. Also Wodehouse The Code of Woosters which we read aloud now instead of Kincaid. Very warm weather. German pogroms because of Von Rath's assassination.* We burn 1 cord of wood a week = 3 cubic metres at 110 fr + sawing. Ordered 4 more. Later * We learn that they started 1/2 hour before the shot was fired.

Sunday, November 13th. [1938]

Dictionary 85 words, Castle 19 pp. Laura writing letters mostly. She has nearly done 5th scene of 6 in Greeks & Trojans. I do about 4 hours of assorted house-work daily. David has the gout. Curious slight happenings again: disappearance of water from bedroom jugs, noises, a bird tried to get in at Dorothy's window pane. Nothing sinister: only curious. New decree-laws sending up prices of all semi-luxuries.

Monday, November 14th. [1938]

So warm that Alan & I worked without a fire. Dictionary, & another great batch of Castle. David went to Paris. I polished all the furniture in my room. I now work in the Salon all the time. Made oat-cakes on galette griddle with Quaker Oats & butter. Walk with Beryl at 10.30 to post letters & get a drink at station hotel. Too late & no matches for cigarettes - only glow-worms - about a dozen of them in hedges. A goods train with bright fire-box & about 60 trucks. Conversation at dinner; (Laura reads out a bit about Voortrekar celebration in Transvaal. All men taking part must wear real beards, girls must not stain nails or smoke.) Self: Voortreker: shall we put that in the dictionary? Alan: Not a word I should use myself. Laura: The Boers themselves don't use it unless they grow beards first.

Tuesday, November 15th. [1938]

Hot & heavy. Laura did not feel well & spent evening in bed. At 12 o'clock I brought her a fire & her work but at 1 am she gave up again. Cigarette famine, owing to new prices & withholding of existing stocks. The drunken menuisier brought Dorothy her mallet & would not be paid but wanted to be invited to faire la chasse. He surprised D with an English sentence "Will you come for a walk with me on Sunday?" Dictionary and Castle. Long ember shovel from the Smith.

Wednesday, November 16th. [1938]

Same hot damp weather. Dictionary of Bible came & ditto Christian Biography - Alan had to lug them from Boisgervilly - a place I have never yet seen. Dictionary. Finished Castle: about 14,000 words. David rang up from Paris. At Montauban Mme Perou and Alan & I had a talk. French poetry came up & I said it was like French jam - too sweet and without the taste of the fruit. She said: but like French jam, much clearer. I said yes, and insipid. She said 'Ah, but not Emile Zola!' Finished reading the story of the Mutiny - the first book for some time - large print. Govt retired over Ebro: Anglo-Italian agreement signed.

Thursday, November 17th. [1938]

Alan & I realize that there are not many thousands of words left to group for Dictionary - perhaps another 6 weeks. Going over the Castle again, now called The Castle-keeper, and putting it into chapters. Plague of fleas. Juan came early to hunt with M. Fauxchou. They toiled all day for 2 rabbits & a hare: he gave us the hare. Anita rang up that her pregnancy test was negative - which suggests a growth. So Juan went back to her as soon as he came in. He brought back my watch, mended, and Laura's green glass Majorcan brooch & my Marius Aquillius are mended. David, from Paris, brought a few cigarettes only, not enough and chocolate beans, rum, Eno's etc. Alan went to the village had 2 Pernods, fell of bicycle & cut his cheek, was given Calvados, then drank wine & rum. Was very sick. The cats bathed by Beryl & Dorothy.

Friday, November 18th. [1938]

Laura & I went to Rennes in the afternoon and there Anita told us that the word was not 'negative'. We suggested 'positive' & that was it. Laura went with her to the Clinic where it appeared that she was having a child and that the birth might be awkward but not very. So we drank champagne. I got four glasses of the bottle which made me sleepy in the car on the way home. I did the shopping, things like really good beef & watercress & root-celery and endive which one can't get in the village: and a pair of goloshes. There were two discursive & wet letters from Montague to Beryl & Laura. Laura & Dorothy stayed up to 5 am answering finally. No dictionary today but I finished going over The Castle-Keeper.

Saturday, November 19th. [1938]

Four cords of wet wood arrived, unsawed. I burn the lengths in the Salon and when they are ends not lengths transfer them to other smaller fires. Dictionary with Alan. Toothache all day. Began a poem about pursuit & leisure. Dorothy's wood split in her carving. Laura looked into our book about Poets again.

Sunday, November 20th. [1938]

Dictionary with Alan, getting much quicker now at sorting. Laura working with David most of day: Greeks & Trojans at night. We discussed next chapter of Swiss Ghost. More work on poem. Russian billiards with Alan on a very fiery tilted table at Priour's cafá. Very wet weather.

Monday, November 21st. [1938]

No reviews yet of poems published on the 18th - preliminary suscriptions amounted to £7.19.O. Belisarius published today in U.S.A. A mad letter from Mary Lucy saying that she is mediumistic & always having feelings about me - and I must not tell anyone. I was very angry and told everyone present. Recently she wrote of a dream about my breaking my glasses & getting eyestrain: but she got it wrong, it was Alan who has done this. All day except Dictionary ...[?]on poem. At 12 p.m., when Beryl Dorothy & Alan came to have tea with me in the Salon, I asked Beryl to burn it, which she did. Work on Swiss Ghost Ch.X.

Tuesday, November 22nd. [1938]

Dictionary & work on Swiss Ghost. Old man sawing wood for us. Watt phoned that I would have to go to England to sign sheets of Lawrence books in time for Xmas publication. I refused, & he arranged that a Miss Nernie would bring them to Paris for me to sign there. That clouded the day, & it rained heavily too. Laura working mostly with David: & wrote letters in my bedroom most of the night. Evening walk with her along Boisgervilly road.

Wednesday, November 23rd. [1938]

Alan will come to Paris with me. Dictionary, doing colours and adverbs today. Swiss Ghost. Dorothy made a beautiful flapper of blue & silver. The little black cat recovering from its bath - the petroleum in it was too strong. Chamberlain & Halifax visit Paris: are booed. Beryl's joke: Frappe, frappe, Qui là? Allemand. Allemand quoi? Alimentation. Thursday, November 24th. Dictionary & 16 pp of Swiss Ghost. Waiting all day for news from Watt. Finally telephoned: stuff not arrived. Expected tomorrow. Walk to Montauban with Dorothy: who has got a worried letter from Mary about Montague. O dear. Laura on Furniture & Greeks & Trojans. Petit Henri brought a present of mistletoe.

Friday. November 25th. [1938]

Dictionary We waited most of the day for a telephone call from Miss Nernie in London. It came at 4 and we arranged to meet in Paris at 10.30 tomorrow for me to sign the sheets. Margaret has lost her job from being separated from her husband. Karl has got permanent leave to live & work in England.

Saturday., November 26th. [1938]

To Paris at 2.30 am. Laura decided to come, though she had no preliminary sleep as I & Beryl & David had. M. Priour drove us. We had rugs, cigarettes & a bottle of Calvados. It blew and rained violently all the way. We stopped for breakfast at a village inn, but it stank so and was so filthy and night-before-lastish that we only had coffee & went straight on to Paris. We went by Laval, Le Mans, Chartres. At Le Mans saw a tall man running in the rain: he was le mans to us. At 9.30 arrived at the outskirts where Priour wanted to put us down and let us go on by taxi. However, we went on to Cafá Bel-Air, a Breton Cafá and freshened up. Then we went to 66 rue Miro Mesnil where Miss Nernie should have been. I was there all day waiting: she sent an unintelligible wire from the boat. It appears that instead of going the quickest way she had gone by Le Havre, so as not to arrive in Paris too early. The boat had not sailed until next morning. At 5.30 she arrived & I had signed the T.E.sheets by 7. But they will not go off till Tuesday after all. Oh, I had lunch with the others & Joyce Reeves at the DuQueselin in Montparnasse. Beryl spent the morning with Cecily Scott, an Oxford friend married to the Paris - D.Express correspondent & had champagne. Denise Clairouin the literary agent in whose office in Miro Mesnil I spent the day was very hospitable & a very good person I thought. For a moment I also saw Jewel (?) one of Morrow's people. Laura bought me a blue scarf & we got cakes for David & a candlestick for Dorothy.

Sunday, November 27th. [1938]

After supper at Etoile we collected Priour from his uncle's and came home. Started at 9 p.m. Met a lot of fog and did not get back till 4.30 am. Not much sleep in car. David & Dorothy had lit fires in bedrooms for us. We slept till lunch-time when some of us had breakfast and some a bread & cheese lunch. By 4 o'clock we were ready to start work again. First review of my poems; in T.L.S - peremptory and stupid. Swiss Ghost Ch X and Dictionary. To bed at midnight.

Monday November 28th. [1938]

Still half asleep from our journey. Swiss Ghost Ch.X. Dictionary: going through dictionary to catch words that have not yet been grouped. Conversation: Alan to Beryl: What is an acouche? Beryl crossly: Why should I know? Alan: I thought you just might. Beryl: Well, I just might don't. A walk to the big lake now overflowing the weir and through the soaking fields, with Beryl & Alan, past Ribandiáre. No green now on trees except mistletoe. Laura dictated letters, felt weak, went to bed early.

Tuesday, November 29th. [1938]

Alan & Beryl went to Rennes to get money. There was a letter two days ago from Mary Lucy to me, privately, all about clairvoyant feelings about me. I didn't like it at all, & of course showed it to L. Laura wrote to her asking her to stop it & saying that it was this sort of thing that encouraged John Lucy to his stupidities. Now Mary Lucy writes in farewell - I am cruel & Laura puts mind before heart. We are all relieved to be free of that. She owes Laura £10 though. Very cold. Dictionary. Ghost finished Ch.X draft. Walk at 2.30 am with Dorothy: stars as usual. Laura stayed up till 4.14 am, working over a chapter of David's, & I with her.

Wednesday, November 30th. [1938]

French General Strike. It did not seem very general to us - we got letters, newspaper (Ouest Eclair) watched trains go by, used phone. Laura misses the syringe which I broke: David bungled the job of replacing it when he went to Paris. Bellyache all day and & in evening broke 10 dessert plates by dropping a box of dates on them. We play Cambeluk in evening (Alan, Beryl, David & I) 2 against 2 changing partners. Dictionary: planned next Ch. of Ghost.

[Log Entries of] Letters [for November, 1938]