To George Sturgis
Palazzo della Fonte,
Fiuggi, Italy. August 22, 1941
Dear George: Your telegram received on Aug. 17, saying: “Five hundred monthly permitted you in Switzerland. Hopeful of increasing Italian remittances. Writing.” completely changed the prospect opening by your previous telegram, received on July 29, and made me less impatient to receive the letter then promised, which has not yet arrived. . . . Now, it seems clear that I had better go to Switzerland. Even if my allowance in Italy were increased it would probably be insufficient for me to live on comfortably; and what is more, it would stop if there were actual war with the U.S. Now, if I am to leave Italy this autumn, I don’t need any more Italian money. If you send more, I shall have to stay on and spend it here, as I am not allowed either to change it or to carry it out of the country, unless by special leave . . .
Mercedes was overjoyed to find your $100 awaiting her in Vigo. . . . When it seemed that I too was to be reduced to $100 a month, I seriously considered the possibility of going to live with her at least in winter, in Madrid. I could have given her $80 a month, restoring thereby her old allowance; but she would have had to give me board and lodging. But the change and the endless great and little troubles that Spanish families are always having, would have shortened my life and prevented me from finishing my Autobiography. Scribner would have been distressed! Now, unless you suggest something better, I shall probably go for the winter to Lugano, Hotel Bristol, as I had intended three years ago. I think, with the evidence that I can count on $500 a month, the Swiss authorities will not refuse me admission. I will see to this in Rome.
Thank you for your energetic and successful action in this matter.
Yours affly
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Seven, 1941-1947. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA.