Author: David Spiech Page 213 of 283

Letters in Limbo ~ May 18, 1933

On May 18, 2022

To Daniel MacGhie Cory
Hotel Bristol
Rome. May 18, 1933

You seemed to be worried at the fact that professors have opposite views, and hate one another. When was it otherwise? And if you eschewed philosophy on that account, and took, let us say, to history, because there everything is big clear and unmistakably on the most superficial human plane, you would find the same endless and bitter controversy.

From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Five, 1933-1936. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Butler Library, Columbia University, New York NY

Letters in Limbo ~ May 17, 1951

By David Spiech

On May 17, 2022

In LETTERS

George Writing To C. L. Shelby
6, Via Santo Stefano Rotondo
Rome. May 17, 1951

Dear Mr. Shelby,
Here I have no extra copies of my new book, but nothing is easier than to ask the publishers to send you one from New York, with my compliments.

I know what the thirst for reading is when buying them is impossible. In America I always got on well with public and university libraries, but Seymour, Texas may not offer the same facilities.

I have just discovered an error on p. 169, line 20. “Work” should be arch. Please correct it, and don’t think that I write without making sense.

Please let this note do instead on an autograph in the book

Yours sincerely,
G Santayana

From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Eight, 1948-1952. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
Location of manuscript: Alderman Library, University of Virginia at Charlottesville

Letters in Limbo ~ May 16, 1924

By David Spiech

On May 16, 2022

In LETTERS

To Charles Augustus Strong
Hotel Bauer-Grünwald
Venice. May 16, 1924

I came here ten days ago—sooner than I expected—and under strange though (as it has turned out) very pleasant circumstances. Until this morning I have been accompanied by two of the Chetwynds, Philip and Betty, aged respectively eighteen and sixteen. Randolph had gone back to Oxford and Joan, the youngest, was in a private hospital with scarlet fever, and as I saw that the others were much disappointed at having to stay in Rome and miss their intended tour, I suggested that they might come with me to Venice. They and their mother jumped at the idea, and there was nothing left for me but to carry it out. I have had a nice time, keeping in my room as usual in the morning, and sometimes leaving them to do their sight-seeing alone in the afternoon as well: but we had our meals together, and spent the evenings in the piazza or in a gondola or in talk. They are very nice children—Betty quiet and Philip lively, and they have very nice manners and have behaved very well. The only unpleasant part was having to dine in this German hotel in a hot room on not very good fare: but that is now over, and I have made an arrangement by which I can have both my meals out, and have already begun to make trial of the Venetian restaurants, which seem to promise well. I have a curious little room on the ground floor, looking out on the terrace and the Grand Canal, where in spite of some passing and voices in the morning, I enjoy great inner privacy, and find I am able to work well.

Venice is lovely, but warm and suggestive of swells: I don’t know how long I shall like to stay, but there is no need of deciding until the time comes. For the present I am quite happy.

From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Three, 1921-1927. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2002.
Location of manuscript: Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow NY

Letters in Limbo ~ May 1948

By David Spiech

On May 15, 2022

In LETTERS

George-Santayana (1) To Arthur Tisch
Rome. May 1948

Science is neither a method nor a body of knowledge. It is a body of changing, learned opinion, aspiring to be true. There are certain facts about nature and history; our grasp of those facts is constantly changing.

From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Eight, 1948-1952. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
Location of manuscript: Collection of Arthur Tisch, Palm Beach Gardens FL

Letters in Limbo ~ May 14, 1925

By David Spiech

On May 14, 2022

In LETTERS

Spring Rain 2012 (142) To George Sturgis
Hotel Bristol
Rome
May 14. 1925

The Spring here has been unusually cool and rainy. I am still wearing winter clothes, and expect to stay at least until June 1– when I shall go to Paris; but all my plans are unsettled, owing to the instability of the female will, on which for the moment I seem to be dependent. I was going to England to stay with the Chetwynds—but Mrs Chetwynd is going to Dartmoor—no, on the whole, to Ireland. I was going to Switzerland to see Mrs Toy (who has suddenly invaded Europe) but Mrs Toy has grown homesick and doesn’t know what she will do or where she will be. I was going to Spain, but heaven knows what may happen first. In any case, Mercedes, with three lady-friends and the unhappy husband of one of them, announces that she will arrive in Rome on a pilgrimage on May 23rd. I am clay in the potter’s hand; but I daresay in time I shall recover my independence and return to my natural and reposeful level.

Strong is already in Paris, having gone in his motor-car from Florence in 8 1⁄2 days, and says he is expecting me at the apartment, where he is much enjoying the electric heating which his daughter Margaret had installed there against his will: but probably I shall go to a hotel, as Margaret herself may turn up at any moment—another case of La donna è mobile, especially with an auto-mobile, if you will excuse an Italian pun. For Margaret has one of her own much better than her father’s.

Yours afftly,
G Santayana

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