To Lawrence Smith Butler
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6,
Rome. May 29, 1949.
Dear Lawrence
I am delighted to know that you are well and are coming in July! All my life I had assumed that only “four cats”, as the Italians say, could remain in Rome during the summer, and I would go to Cortina or to Switzerland, like any tripper; but now, since I came to this house, I have spent seven whole summers without moving, and found them very tolerable—in fact, better than the winters when, during the war, we had no central heating and often not enough light. However, I live in pyjamas and seldom go out, so that it is easy for me to keep cool and to profit by the comparative quiet, as far as curious strangers are concerned who come to have their copies of The Last Puritan, or of Persons & Places autographed by the author. It may be different for you who naturally will want to go about; and it is very hot in the sun until the evening, when both temperature and landscape are perfect.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Eight, 1948–1952. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
Location of manuscript: The University Club, New York NY.