To John Hall Wheelock
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. November 10, 1944
Volume second of Persons and Places is ready to be sent to you, but I know of no means of conveyance. It would be easier for you, perhaps, to find one, either diplomatic, as before, or through the military. I don’t think MS is as yet accepted by the Post Office. My conscience is still uneasy about indiscretions in this volume. There are many about Earl Russell; but he was a public character, and I avoid the most scabreux episodes, and have changed the names of such ladies as were not publicly mentioned in the law courts. Still, I am a little afraid that his brother Bertrand may think I might have been more reticent. But these complications were the most exciting that ever came even vicariously into my life; and I can’t leave them out. The alternative could only be to postpone publication until all who can object have disappeared. This is what we must do about volume third, which intrudes even more into people’s private lives.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Seven, 1941-1947. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: Unknown