I have a few half-written posts lying about in the draft section of Blogger, and tonight - coming in late, halfway through a book review and with the prospect of another Great British Bake Off recap on the horizon, I am turning to one of them. I no longer remember the wider framework which I intended to use for a review of Sylvia & David: The Townsend Warner/Garnett letters. So, instead, here are three wonderful quotations Sylvia Townsend Warner wrote to David Garnett...Warner to Garnett, 1967: I go home on Saturday, and on Monday the decorator comes, and all the books will have to be moved from Valentine's sitting-room and dispersed through a house where there are far too many books already. It will be a fine opportunity to read books I have forgotten we have, and even to find some I thought we had lost. Of course we should also see it as an opportunity to weed out books we don't want. Can you weed books? I can't. I discarded some Ruskin about thirty years ago and have often regretted it since. I don't know why exactly - but I know it was a mistake. I might have read it and liked it very much.
Warner to Garnett, 1972: 'What a lot of books we have written! This is borne in on me because I have carried basketsful of them out of this room into the next'
Warner to Garnett, 1974: 'I have been having visitors too. One of them was Peggy Ashcroft who summarised the plight of ageing actresses by saying in a smouldering voice "Now I have only Volumnia left me.". . .
First of all, yay at the prospect of another Great British Bake Off recap! Second, while STW was clearly writing more delightful letters, what are Garnett's like? I have read nothing by him and wonder if this might be a good introduction (since, I'm sorry to say, I'm not all that eager to grab up Lady Into Fox).
ReplyDeleteIt's been nearly a year since I read this - maybe more, actually - so it's difficult to remember... but I did cut one of his whilst editing this draft, and I doubt I deliberately excluded him in the first place, so I think they might not have been as wonderful as STW's! The collection as a whole is lovely, but not in the same league as STW/Maxwell.
DeleteI like STW's comment about weeding books, and know exactly how she feels about discarding Ruskin. Even when I get rid of books I know I will never read again I feel as if I should have kept them, because I might need them, or might discover something I missed first time around.
ReplyDeleteI think, if I have even a moment's pause over weeding a book, it has to stay. Not worth the regret!
DeleteI can't weed out books - and when I do, I regret it terribly. Discovered recently I had got rid of my copy of "Lady Into Fox" and also my "Little Women" from childhood - what I was thinking of???
ReplyDeleteOh, Karen, what WERE you thinking?? The horrors! I think sometimes the impulse to be Good overcomes us, and we don't think about the longterm regrets...
DeleteI know - I've metaphorically kicked myself a lot recently as I had to re-buy quite a few Elizabeth Bowens too. But I have found a nice copy of Lady Into Fox/Man in the Zoo and asked for a fancy Little Women for Christmas from OH. I do rather regret my children copy though :((
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