60
PARTISAN REVIEW
often biller things I used
to
say with wha t I now regard as fri gh tful
arrogance and lack of Christian charity." Indeed, as soon as he
had
recovered from the very bad start and we had set out on the tour
ranging from Tucson through a lmos t every canyon and desert, I saw
tha t hi s sp irit
was
transformed since his las t stay in London , and the
usua l travel therapy restored his hea lth. He was hi s amused and
amusing pa ternalistic self th roughout the tri p and , as he described it,
had become self-reliant. He ta lked of fini shing a novel (the first ta lk of
work since we h ad known him, for Helga Greene had some time
previously in 1956 become his agent and was encouraging him with
plans). T he upset about the marriage disappo intment had calmed
down ; though he was intending ma rriage somehow in the futu re,
talked of the possibility of a T exas di vorcee and o f another very ni ce ex–
wife o f a fri end , or simpl y hoped with Mi cawberi sh op timi sm, some–
one woul d turn up. He would li ve in
La
Jo lla, " but emphaticall y no t
alone" he sa id with cheerful self-confidence. I left him happil y p lan–
ning a longer stay in Pa lm Springs and myself went off on a round of
visits ending up in Los Angeles on New Year's Eve with my friends
Professor and Dr. Edward Hooker; where I sta rted practising aga in for
la ter concerts.
Evelyn Hooker is a psychologist, and as we were very cl ose fri ends,
I asked her prognos is about Raymond 's fight for recovery, so tha t when
we heard he was to a rrive in Los Angeles on January 6th she was
sympa theticall y looking forward to mee ting " the impa ti ent pa tient,"
as he sometimes call ed himself. I was now ra ther keen to get back to
work , to stay on with the Hookers practi sing the p iano, but meanwhil e
Raymond had with grea t solicitude wrillen to Stephen urg ing him to
use hi s influence
to
persuade me
to
stay in the desert until I was "reall y
we ll " for he was, as always, very concerned for my health and p ianisti c
career, and eager to do something in return for the earlier help he fe lt I
had been to him. He had always regarded hi s ro le as tha t o f pa tron ,
tho ugh hi s ideas of a musical career were unrealisti call y Ho ll ywood.
He was very impressed that I played concertos a t the Roya l Albert Ha ll
or on telev ision but cu rio usly enough he never heard a concert o f mine.
When Raymond arrived, the Hookers were bo th so alarmed by hi s
once more being in a tota ll y unsteady and di straught sta te tha t they
tried to di ss uade me from looking after him, since I was myself still in
need of rest, and their opinion was tha t he very much needed the sort of
psychia tric care which I was no t equipped to g ive. However, I had by
now already promised a short visit and feared di sappo inting him in his
present precarious sta te. Chri stopher Isherwood was an admirer of
Raymond 's powerful evoca tion of Los Angeles in all his novels so
