Author: David Spiech Page 199 of 283

To George Sturgis
Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. August 1st 1926

My time here passes pleasantly enough, but I seem incapable of finishing anything. I read all sorts of things, — I have just finished “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” — and begin enthusiastically various articles and chapters, but get embroiled in the abundance of my repetitions, and have to leave the thing unfinished. I suppose it is an effect of old age, fatigue, and too much chewing the cud in solitude.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Three, 1921-1927.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.
Location of manuscript: The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge MA

To Daniel MacGhie Cory
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. July 31, 1947

The sooner you come the more likely you are to find me alive; but I am quite well; and as to convenience, all days and months are equally full and equally empty.

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

 To Henry Ward Abbot
[Rome, Italy, or Paris, France]
[Summer 1932]

. . . pessimism, questionings about a future life, or the desirability of death. Somehow I seem not to feel the edge of those uncertainties, as I did fifty years ago: but, more objectively considered, the moral anarchy of the world is no less interesting. I am reading an excellent book by Papini, “Gog”: the Catholics seem now to be the best critics: Maritain, Papini, T. S. Eliot (an amateur Catholic): it is not their faith that makes them clear-sighted, but their remoteness from the delusions of the age. In America, Edmund Wilson seems rather good: but he is academic; has learned his authors.

I have been rereading John Locke, for a lecture I am to give in Bloomsbury in October: a bit prosy, and speculatively poor, but pungent and genuine in his common sense.

You keep asking about my novel: it is not finished, perhaps never will be, and is not likely to be published in my life-time. Don’t think of it. I will send you my lectures on Spinoza and Locke when they are printed— my last appearances in public!

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

To Ezra Loomis Pound
Clinica della Piccola Compagnia di Maria
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. July 29, 1942

In reading the R[ealm] of Spirit (if you go on with it) please keep in mind that I don’t believe anything existent can be defined, only indicated; so that all sorts of different fingers or words pointed at it are better than any one name. So when I say “form of life”, the expression is casual and might have been “kind of life”, or “zone”, as you suggest. I meant merely that life in places issues in spirit, and that spirit is not an independent substance or centre with a persistent individuality: only a spark of light.

From The Letters of George Santayana:  Book Seven, 1941-1947.  Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2006.
Location of manuscript: The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven CT

To Daniel MacGhie Cory
Via Santo Stefano Rotondo, 6
Rome. July 28, 1945

The parcel containing lined slippers was picked up yesterday by me–or rather by two Sisters who accompanied me in a motor on an excursion to town. The slippers are just what I needed–not now, for it is the hottest time of the year—but next winter. The parcel had been opened and was rather crushed, but all was well with the contents. The card with the description of the contents is a new feature and makes it harder for rascals to tamper with what is sent, as has often happened. This encourages me to ask you to send me two pairs of pyjamas, of the largest size, here N^o 4, because I can easily shorten the legs and sleeves and like the width elsewhere.  I have been living night and day for years in pyjamas. I had three good pairs, two made to order, and they have lasted four years. Poplin seems to be the most durable stuff, and does not shrink. I prefer even colours, not stripes, anything that is quiet and will do for a shirt by putting a black tie on with it. In this way, with a scarf over, I can go out in pyjamas even in winter. If you will always put down the price payed, I will make a note of it, $7.50 this time, and eventually send you the money.

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