To Andrew Joseph Onderdonk
Grand Hotel
Rome, March 6, 1941
I am glad to know that you and Mrs. Onderdonk, with your brother (alone, or with his family?) are safe in the shades of old Cambridge. What an ugly place it was, and yet we had pleasant times there. Now I daresay it is more presentable in spots. the “Houses” by the river, for instance–but also larger and more crowded. I should hate to live there again.
. . . . When the editors or publishers of my books leave me in peace (which is only at intervals) I amuse myself now writing reminiscences, which needn’t be consecutive or complete. I am calling them: Persons & Places, or Fragments of Autobiography. It is great fun recalling old things and seeing them in the mild glow of sunset.
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Seven, 1941-1947. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY