Details
SIEGFRIED SASSOOON (1886-1967)
A 2pp. a.l.s., signed with intiials, Heytesbury House, Wiltshire, 21.7.41., to H.M. Tomlinson expressing his personal feelings about the Second World War: 'As you rightly remark, the Carlton Club is in a quandary; but their state of mind is irrelevant, and one can only pray that we have reached the turning point, & that the tyrannized smaller nations will begin to lift their heads and take notice that the swastika is only a thing of the moment & the British Lion a permanancy. (Also the Stars and Stripes, the Comforter.) I begin to see a pattern in the proceedings, as in 1914-18 .... ' He also comments on the progress of his book, and the comparative idyll of his home: 'The things that matter to me are like dewdrops on a spider's web -- not observed or valued by the general public. I suppose it is the result of leading such a secluded life ... Think of me sitting in a wicker chair in our porch watching a bumble bee exploring the honeysuckle -- how restful! Think of all the platforms whereon G.B. Shaw has appeared and successfully spoken -- what do they all amount to now? '; and an earlier a.l.s. to Tomlinson, dated 19.3.39, also discussing the war, expresing some sympathy with 'the poor unfortunate decent Germans' and his sense of personal despondency ('I feel somehow impotent and unwanted'). (2)
A 2pp. a.l.s., signed with intiials, Heytesbury House, Wiltshire, 21.7.41., to H.M. Tomlinson expressing his personal feelings about the Second World War: 'As you rightly remark, the Carlton Club is in a quandary; but their state of mind is irrelevant, and one can only pray that we have reached the turning point, & that the tyrannized smaller nations will begin to lift their heads and take notice that the swastika is only a thing of the moment & the British Lion a permanancy. (Also the Stars and Stripes, the Comforter.) I begin to see a pattern in the proceedings, as in 1914-18 .... ' He also comments on the progress of his book, and the comparative idyll of his home: 'The things that matter to me are like dewdrops on a spider's web -- not observed or valued by the general public. I suppose it is the result of leading such a secluded life ... Think of me sitting in a wicker chair in our porch watching a bumble bee exploring the honeysuckle -- how restful! Think of all the platforms whereon G.B. Shaw has appeared and successfully spoken -- what do they all amount to now? '; and an earlier a.l.s. to Tomlinson, dated 19.3.39, also discussing the war, expresing some sympathy with 'the poor unfortunate decent Germans' and his sense of personal despondency ('I feel somehow impotent and unwanted'). (2)