Letter from Edward Renouf to Anny Schey von Koromla

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Sunday, 5 October

Dear Baroness Schey!

Half of me says it would be right and proper to send you a cheery letter – and so that half is eagerly seeking out amusing incidents and coincidences; but these are being obscured and chased away by the other half, which is buried in autumnal doldrums. But perhaps my sleepiness has something to do with being cosy. For me there’s nothing cosier than nature putting itself to bed in the autumn. And when I’m surrounded by nature at this time of year it makes me think of intimate homeliness (and not just when I’m sleeping!); an almost religious tranquillity between four warm walls (even with the windows closed!); a deep armchair; a broad divan with plenty of cushions; a reading lamp and its warm, golden light; soft, loose woollen clothes and nothing but the trusted, reassuring company of people who are patiently but persistently trying to find external form for their internal selves – art. Quiet days, long evenings and nights. Clifford and Ellen’s Robinsonade on their island!

The gloom that’s gripped the half of me is a sentimental affair. In practice the soul can’t appropriate the comforts of nature, so it has to keep company with the migrating swallows, or the diligent American hens which, blinded by the electric light, keep clucking and laying through what they think is an eternal summer – but that’s enough beating about the bush!

Anyway, I’ll be coming to Munich on the fifteenth, perhaps sooner. In the meantime I’ll be revising and editing the novellas to ensure there are no pale cheeks and trembling muscles to make the stories pale and tremulous. Looking in the mirror I can see the melancholia at the end of my nose – may it remain superficial! The deeper, surer self sends his regards.

– – – Edl – – –

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