To Daniel MacGhie Cory
Hotel Miramonti
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. July 11, 1931
Strong arrived safely a week ago, having been driven from home by the unusual heat of the season. At first he seemed pleased, and felt no effects of the high altitude, (1200 metres). But today, during our drive, he said he wasn’t very happy, felt nervous and weak, and thought he wouldn’t stay very long.
There has been no unpleasantness or even awkward tension between us. We have talked of nothing but the weather and the views, incidents at the hotel, current politics, and a few anodyne books. This system is easy to practise because I see him only for a few minutes in his room before we go out, and then during our drive, when we are not tempted to enter into any serious subject.
Margaret seems to be stranded at Lakewood, New Jersey (Strong’s old house, which Mr. R. has given her); they haven’t the money, apparently, to get away. The old gentleman lives near by: they dine with him every evening and have to play a childish parlour-game with him, which bores them to death. And all to no purpose, because in financial affairs he has resigned control altogether to his son, who is their enemy–at least so George de Cuevas says.
They have a coronet on their note-paper: but I understand that the grant of the marquisate had not been published in the Gazette before the Spanish revolution, and now all titles are going to be abolished in Spain: but of course this won’t prevent them from sporting theirs in the international vanity fair of Paris.
I am glad to hear that you are playing tennis, and hope your partner (I assume a partner) will do you more credit than on a former occasion. Strong would doubtless be pleased if you sent him a part of the essay on Whitehead, actually in shape. He has only once talked about you, wondering at your unwillingness to have your style corrected. He says that should have been done for you at school, and that if you don’t learn to write like The Times, it will prevent your reputation from being established among the professionals. So look out!
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Four, 1928–1932. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY