508
PA RTISAN REVIEW
remember the glorious sense of power she gave us. We were free.
All roads were open to us. There was nothing we could not do and
we would know the right moment when it came.
Such were th e peaks from which we sought to soar.
To De Silver:
[I was advised} to get Joio into another ward as he was much too
clever and nice to be there.
...
[ do not know which is worse-to be fastened to someone's coat–
tails or to have them fastened to yours. As you have the biggest
coattail riders in the world
1
suppose you know the answer, and as
T
hate hanging on and hate equally having cargo of my own,
T
think
I will go sit on a steeple and ponder this.
Do
you want to join me
in buying a cooperative steeple?
Expect to be settled or permanently unsettled by Saturday. Proba–
bly on the steeple.
To Monroe Stearns, editor, Bobbs Merri ll :
The dowdy and soppy aspects of Dickens have been drummed into
us for so long that the sheer wit and brilliance of many passages
have been neglected.
T
don't mean the jolly Pickwickish sort of
thing but the kind of wit that later became peculiarly Bright Young
Englishman wit-the Noel Coward school. The reason for the
durability of these bubbles is that they are actually not superficial
or mere smart fizz but are genuine champagne from the very best
grapes and the very best-manured soil.
To Stearns:
Frankly
[
don't think either Joe [who had just died in
f962}
or 1
could have gone on much more. We were both putting on a show
for each other of Retirement can be Fun and the costumes and
scenery were frayed, the stars gasping their lines. I'm glad he came
back for the first reprise, anyway. Booth would have approved.
Jerrold Hickey
