To Maurice Firuski
Paris. June 16, 1930
If it is true, as I hear, that you were prosecuted for selling a copy of Lawrence, you have my sincere sympathy. I have read the book, or part of it,—it is to be had anywhere in Christian lands for 60 francs—and see no more harm in it than in the language and drawings occasionally to be seen gratis in privies: but the context hadn’t enough beauty or interest to support those high lights. It is otherwise, for instance, in the Arabian Nights or in Casanova—which I suppose are also forbidden in America. I am glad I am not there—and this is not the only reason. It all seems a mighty cataract of the inessential.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Four, 1928–1932. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Unknown