Nervous reactions

Thursday, October 21st., London.

Rivers came to lunch at the Reform on Tuesday. He and Shufflebotham were talking about miners' eye diseases, etc. and Rivers said that the danger factor on the nervous system had never been properly taken into account. Shufflebotham said that he had been preaching it for years. Shuff said that you could always distinguish miners from potters on their way to early morning work. Miners had an apprehensive look. Potters would whistle on their way to work; miners never. It appears that someone has just pointed out in The Times that if you put the mines in order of frequency of accidents, and also in majorities for strikes. the two lists coincide! All this of course, so far as the miners are concerned, is chiefly subconscious. Shuff said that of course boys voted for strikes. They had not had time to become accustomed to the danger, and the instinctive reactions were very strong.

See also 'Laughing gas?', February 14th., -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/laughing-gas.html

W H R Rivers

William Halse Rivers Rivers, FRCP, FRS, (1864 -1922) was an English anthropologist, neurologist, ethnologist and psychiatrist, best known for his work with shell-shocked soldiers during World War I. Rivers' most famous patient was the poet Siegfried Sassoon. He is also famous for his participation in the Torres Straits expedition of 1898, and his consequent seminal work on the subject of kinship. Sassoon was deeply saddened by the death of his father figure and collapsed at his funeral. His loss prompted him to write two poignant poems about the man he had grown to love: "To A Very Wise Man" and "Revisitation".

I got frightened about the opening of my novel "Mr. Prohack" yesterday. But on reading it through I thought it wasn't so bad.

Additionally for October 21st., see 'Getting ready to write' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/getting-ready-to-write.html

I find that if I am to begin my new novel, "Clayhanger", on 1st Jan. 1910, I must make a series of preliminary enquiries. I do this perhaps at the rate of half an hour or an hour a day. I have read "When I was a Child", and all I need of Shaw's "North Staffordshire Potteries", and tonight I re-read the "social and Industrial" section of the Victoria History, which contains a few juicy items that I can use. I work on the plot itself about once a week when I have an hour and feel like it.

Theatricals

Monday, October 20th., Cadogan Square, London.

Josephine Victor

First night of Harwood and Tennyson Jesse's "Pelican" at Ambassadors last night. Josephine Victor, and actress new to London, played the lead. I heard she came from New York and is of Hungarian extraction. She played magnificently and acted everybody else off the stage, really. Only Herbert Marshall and Nicholas Hannen could compare with her at all.

Then to Garrick Club, and ate a kipper (6d.) which was magnificent. Clubs are useful.

Lawrence Langner came to see me today. He said positively that the American taste was against drawing-room plays and decidedly in favour of what he called genre plays, i.e. plays of character strongly developed, middle class or lower middle class. He urged me to write a Five Towns play, even if I did it especially for U.S.A.

Lawrence Langner (1890 – 1962) was a playwright, author, and producer who also pursued a career as a patent attorney. Born near Swansea, South Wales and working most of his life in the United States, he started his career as one of the founders of the Washington Square Players troupe in 1914. In 1919 he founded the Theatre Guild, where he supervised over 200 productions. He was also founder and Chairman of the American Shakespeare Festival, and with his wife, Armina Marshall, he created and operated the Westport Country Playhouse. Besides theatre, Lawrence Langner wrote several books, including an autobiography, titled Magic Curtain. He was awarded the 1958 Tony Award for best play production.

Additionally for October 20th., see 'A surprising reaction' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-surprising-reaction.html

Today I took the 12.5 back to London, which went through the Potteries. The sight of this district gave me a shudder. Why should that be? I have written about it with affection, and have described it as having a unique 'beauty'; it has been the source for most of my work which has received critical acclaim; it has contributed not insignificantly to my material comfort; it is the foundation for who I am.
I am now sixty: that may be the problem!

Away from home

Friday, October 19th., Trinity Hall Farm, Hockliffe, Beds.

Wallpaper is a problem at present! I am experiencing difficulty in ensuring that the terms of an agreement I made with Adams to obtain particular wallpapers from Essex & Co., London, at an agreed price, are adhered to. But I am nothing if not determined, and it will be done.

In the meantime, because only two or three rooms can presently be lived in with dignity, I have taken a holiday in North Wales and returned yesterday.

Predominant colours, grey and green. Grey of the stone, especially the ubiquitous slate, and green of the vegetation which thrives in the damp climate. In fact there was not much actual rain, and the rivers, streams and lakes were rather less full than is usually the case in my experience. Much fungus, especially in the woods around the Conwy valley. Some spectacular toadstools, bright red with yellow veins, larger than a tennis ball, like a child's drawing of a toadstool. And colonies of smaller, dark, sinister looking fungi on the forest floor, or infesting damp, dead trees.

Conwy and Caernarfon both dominated by their castles. I prefer Conwy of the two. Circuit of walls largely intact. Like looking down on a model town. Grey streets. Spectacular views out towards the Great Orme. Much Welsh spoken in the north west Wales area, including Anglesey. Most people seem able to move easily from Welsh to English and vice versa. A sort of sense now and then that the staff and some customers in cafes deliberately move into Welsh when English people are present. Given the treatment of the Welsh by the English over the centuries I can hardly feel surprised by some lingering hostility.

Telford's suspension bridge over the Menai Straits is a triumph of engineering in the landscape. Not so the nearby railway bridge, which is functional but not beautiful. And of course the A5, Watling Street, connects this place to Holyhead as directly as could reasonably be imagined by a visionary engineer.





Additionally for October 19th., see 'Americans' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/americans.html

Lunch at Harper's, with chief members of staff including Major Lee, under presidency of Colonel George Harvey. I liked Harvey. Quiet, ruminative, accustomed to power and so on. Good laugh. Good story.

Zeppelin hysteria

Monday, October 18th., Comarques, Thorpe-le-Soken.

Capt. K. and Capt. B. stationed here, recounted the Zeppelin attack on their camp in Epping Forest. It was apparently brought on by a light in the Officers' mess. It seems that the Zeppelin hung over the camp. It dropped several (4 or 5) explosive bombs right in the camp, a few feet (under 20) away from where K. actually was. None of these bombs exploded. They buried themselves 10 feet in the earth. They were excavated without accident. K. said the soldiers used pick and shovel in digging them out with perfect indifference to the danger. the Zeppelin also dropped a number of incendiary bombs which the soldiers put out as they fell. It seems to me that the fact that incendiary bombs were dropped shows that the Zep did not know that it was over a tented camp. The object of setting fire to tents is not clear at all, as the men could easily get away, and the damage would be inconsiderable. The explosive bombs weighed one hundredweight each, and the incendiary bombs about 15 lb each. K. said he could not assert that he actually saw the Zeppelin. He said the men saw whole fleets of Zeppelins. Apropos, Rickards related last night that Webster came across a crowd in the centre of which was a man pointing to the sky and raging excitedly: "There she is! She's hit! She's hit!" Webster said: "You think that is a Zep. but it's the moon." The crowd dispersed

Additionally for October 18th., see 'Time to write' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/time-to-write.html

I can now do five full days of my own work at home, excluding Sunday. It is a great stroke of business, well managed by me, and I feel like a man suddenly enriched who is not quite ready with a scheme for spending. I hope to devote at least three whole days a week to "Anna Tellwright" and to resume this Journal with regularity. I shall cease now to work at such high pressure as I have been driving at during the last six months.

In Antwerp

Friday, October 17th., Grand Hotel, Antwerp.

This morning: absolutely perfect October weather. Musee Royale. very fine old masters. Modern side rotten. Market Place. Endless time on chimes from 11.30 to 11.41. We went into cathedral - and the carillon started again for 11.45. Big pictures in cathedral veiled in green. Louche-ness of ecclesiastical attendants. Market afoot in Market Place.

After lunch we visited port. Finest thing in Antwerp. We were first struck by little brasseries along good main street, each with a little grue, aproned and nu-tete, sitting outside sewing, to attract; they must be extraordinarily attractive to sailors. Scores of these places. Glimpses of streets encore plus louche. Immense impression of travail. 30 miles of quays. new basins still being constructed. Bridge from one road to another opened for passage of steamer. Much traffic held up on both sides. By the time it is closed again, hundreds of workmen collected, and dozens of heavy wagons. Some men chewing monstrous lumps of bread. 

Red Star liner Lapland  had arrived from U.S.A. Long processions of returned emigrants therefrom; some stupid, some full of character. One procession solely men (with a long camion in the middle full of their handbags); another both of men and women; all had little round discs on breast.





I saw one steamer move out (scraping her side all the way) and a larger one come into a basin with 4 tugs. Immense area of port. Superb view of Antwerp with spires from one spot, over blue water. Magnificent sunset; all masts and derricks gradually became black and silhouetted. drove back to town passing through 2 streets full of cafe concerts. Same effect of silhouette against superb red and orange. Port full of grain and wood.


Additionally for October 17th., see 'A writer's day' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-writers-day.html

I printed the title page of the MS. of "Riceyman Steps". I have no longer the interest keen enough to do an elaborate title page; but for a simple one the title page I did was not too bad.

Beggars

Thursday, October 16th., Cadogan Square, London.

I noticed last night for the first time that the lamps in the Square at this date are lighted by lamplighters.

Dinner party at Wells's last night. This party was apparently got up to meet Margaret Sanger. G.B.S. left silently immediately after dinner. Mrs. Shaw stayed on. E. W. McBride, zoologist, is a very jolly, boyish, comic-looking clever old man.

Ernest William MacBride (1866, Belfast - 1940, Alton, Hampshire) was a British/Irish marine biologist. A defender of Lamarckian evolution, MacBride's specialism was the morphology and embryology of the Echinoderms. MacBride supported Paul Kammerer’s claims to have demonstrated Lamarckian inheritance in the Midwife Toad. MacBride took an active part both in the affairs of the Linnean Society which he served as a member of its council and as Vice-president, and the Zoological Society where he also served on the council for over thirty years and acted as Vice-president.

This morning two black nuns, heavily draped, begging in Ovington Street. They walked up the narrow front steps exactly side by side. The senior held the book, morocco bound. The junior rang the bell then they stood side by side, the junior with crossed arms. While waiting they faced right angles to the door. At one house they were evidently refused at once. They descended the steps side by side. At the next house they stayed a minute or two and probably got something. Meme jeu. I saw them mount the steps of a third house.

The day before yesterday I was passing down towards King's Road, when a shabby young man with three medals on his coat held out a bag to me. I am always inveighing against the sin of charity in the street; but there was something painfully silly and futile in the aspect of this young man, and I stopped., and said "Look here, I object to this sort of thing. However ..." And I threw 6d. into his bag. "Good luck to you sir," he said, foolishly. I then noticed another young man with a barrel organ in the gutter, and the organ started disgustingly playing. A rotten lapse on my part.

Additionally for October 16th., see 'Art' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/art.html

London yesterday. Show of French drawings about the war at Leicester Galleries.

On being loved

Tuesday, October 15th., Comarques, Thorpe-le-Soken.

Today I went through all first two books of cocotte novel, and fairly well pleased with everything except last chapter or so. I tabulated all my information and ideas afresh.

Some time ago, from Sharpe, a story of a girl with money, who was forbidden by her parents to marry a certain man. The latter afterwards became engaged to marry a poor girl. The rich girl bought lingerie for the poor girl, and generally looked after her trouseau, even to inserting blue ribbon into the neck of the bride's nightgown in order 'that she might look nice for him'. Finally the rich girl took a cab to the wedding.

When George, not loving Eva, is loved by Eva he finds her caresses and endearments nice but rather a bore. he finds them rather a tie. But when, by chance, Eva's manner becomes cold for a space, he resents (privately) the absence of warmth; he feels its loss and wants the warmth again. Note this. His attitude is fundamentally egotistic. He likes a creature to be absolutely wrapped up in him; he likes to be the centre of a creature's whole existence, but is always resenting the tie; always wanting to be both free and bound at the same time.

Additionally for October 15th., see 'A reader's burden' -
http://earnoldbennett.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/a-readers-burden.html

I have been extremely fond of reading since I was twenty, and since I was twenty I have read practically nothing ( save professionally as a literary critic) but what was "right". My leisure has been moderate, my desire strong and steady, my taste in selection certainly above the average, and yet in ten years I seem scarcely to have made an impression upon the intolerable multitude of volumes which "everyone is supposed to have read".