Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin
Page 46
Let me know about Kenya. I may be of help. Please stay in touch throughout the summer (ours if we have any!) and let’s hope to meet in the fall.
Love to M[argaret] as always, and to you
Bruce
PS Papa Hemingway, I suggest, did stay at the Ritz: not in the early days perhaps, but certainly later. I wish you’d been a fly on the wall at the International Hemingway Award, at the Paris Ritz, of which I was one of the judges!810
On 28 May 1987 Tom Maschler sent a finished copy of The Songlines to Chatwin at Seillans. ‘Dear Bruce, Here it is. This is a fabulous book. Your best to date and that is saying something.’ It was published on 25 June 1987 and dedicated to Elizabeth.
Foremost among those to whom he sent a copy was Robin Lane Fox. ‘Bruce wrote to me: “This is a failed attempt to write the book that you above all people believed in. But time is short. Of course, it’s fragmentary and probably baffling and you never expected it would have anything to do with Australia, but I send it to you in the hope there are snatches which will make you remember what you loved.”I wrote back: “I think you are better in fragments than in a full-flown novel, but best of all I thought you were better in full-blown features.” ’
To Michael Davie811
Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 24 June 1987
Dear Michael. Thank you. Thank you especially for rescuing me from the ever-increasing horde of travel-writers. We’re here for most of July – after the 8th or so . . . so as we’re in walking distance from Ewelme. Bruce
To Colin Thubron812
as from: Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 9 July 1987
My dear Colin,
Well. That was way in excess of any demands of friendship, etc! I am most touched and grateful to you on two main counts: a. that you took the point, and, out of that chaotic mass of material, managed to extract the sense of what I would liked to have said (rather than did say, which, of course, is quite another matter.) b. that you should have had to spend such amounts of time and energy. People seem to have no idea just how long it takes to put a piece like yours together.
Anyway, here’s to you – and I’m sure that China will be as rewarding – and more – as the Russians. I can’t wait!
We seem to be haring around the fringes of the Iron Curtain all summer: then back here – end of September when we must meet up.
Incidentally: one little thing I did not put in. When visiting the excavation at Swartkrans with Bob Brain, one of the questions uppermost in my mind was man’s use of fire: the myth of Prometheus is absolutely crucial, to my mind, in understanding the condition of the First Man – since it is with fire that Man could adequately protect himself at night from the predators. When I was an archaeological student, it was accepted wisdom that fire – that is, domesticated fire – was late in Africa. 70,000 was the first recorded date as opposed to 500,000 from the Pekin[g] Cave. On the other hand, many excavators in Africa have hoped – and even thought they detected – traces of fire among the remains of Homo habilis, our first ancestor.
Bob and I discussed the pros and cons of the first hearth over lunch. Then, in the first few cubic centimetres which we – or rather the foreman George [Moenda] – excavated that afternoon, there were some fragments of bone which looked most definitely charred! Since the level in question would date somewhere close to 2 million, I got very excited – though he, sanguine as ever, was inclined to pooh-pooh the discovery. This morning, however, I had a letter in which he says the bones were definitely burned. In other words, I may, conceivably, have turned up at Swartkrans on the day the world’s earliest hearth was found.813
Time – as you say in your piece – will tell!814
As always
Bruce
To Charles and Brenda Tomlinson
Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 14 July 1987
Dear Charles and Brenda,
How kind of you to write! All in all The Songlines is a pretty odd production: the fact that I wrote the last chapter just before what was all but the last gasp gives it a very rough quality – to say the least! But I have an idea that what’s written is written with all the glaring defects: and if I’d tried to deliver everything I had in mind, the result might be even more incoherent than it is.
When in Yunnan, I bought a number of these little marble plaques: which were set into screens and have Taoist overtones. They’re not very old: mid 19 century at best, but they do preserve the feeling of mountain poetry a little. The poem on this one roughly translated is
The clouded cliffs jut up
jaggedly in ragged points
Hope you like it. We’re off to Czechoslovakia via the Bayreuth Festival – Lord preserve us!
much love B & E
To Murray Bail
Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 17 July 1987
Holden’s Performance [Bail’s new novel] has just reached me – and is going to Czechoslovakia on Mon. I am ⅔rds through a piece of wild ‘Pragueois’ writing which I hope to finish by the end of the year. Vague plans may mature for an Australian winter (ours) but I’m not sure. As always B
Lots of mistakes in The Songlines too but the Sydney office saved me from the worst Australian ones.
To Jean-Claude Fasquelle
Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 17 Juillet 1987
Dear Jean-Claude,
I know you’ll be on holiday, but could your secretary send a copy of Les Jumeaux de Black Hill to:
M. E. Bavanoff-Rosimé, Chateau de Bellevue, Meaulne, St Bonnet-Tronçais.
This is the son of a most astonishing Russian constructivist sculptor of the early Soviet period whom I met by chance at Vichy. See you in the autumn,
Bruce
To Sunil Sethi
Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | [July 1987]
Lovely to get your card. Yes. The Songlines – Lord knows how or why is No 1 on the best-seller list – for this week!815 Not next week! I seem to be the victim of hype – all a bit of bravura on my part to demonstrate that I was in the land of the living – but very bad for the head. We are off to Deutschland on Monday to the Bayreuth Festival and then to Czechoslovakia: the scene of my next novel! E is commissioned to write a guide to Rajasthan816 so will soon be back – after New York and Madagascar! Much love as always B
To George Ortiz
Prague (now Vienna) | Czechoslovakia | 7 August 1987
I am sorry I never made it to Geneva: our arrangements in July got a bit out of hand. Now they are even worse: Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Rome, London, New York, Toronto – all in the space of a month. The Chatwin yo-yo is functioning again. But in the autumn, I promise, a special trip to see you – and catch up.
As always Bruce
To Murray Bail
Austria | On the road | 7 August 1987
Holden’s Performance saw us through some fairly dismal days in Czechoslovakia. It’s first rate, and you should be highly pleased with it. The sound you make on paper was like having you in the next room, mate! It was then grabbed from me by the leading young publisher of Prague, Jan Zelenka, and fell into good hands. Vague plans for Sydney in Jan. As always B
To Nicholas Shakespeare
Steiermark | Austria | 7 August 1987
Whew! The grimness of Czechoslovakia has to be seen. We spent the past week in flooded mosquito ridden campsites overrun with tourists from the D.D.R. Not a bed to be had! In the end we dived for the luxury of the Hotel Sacher in Vienna – never mind the price! Lovely dinner! Bruce
To Ninette Dutton
Steiermark | Austria | 7 August 1987
Probabilities817 came with us to Prague. First rate! Exactly the right tone, speed of execution etc for the subject matter. And I now know far more about you! I particularly liked ‘A Day To Remember’. Mucha818 was away. His wife – ? or not wife – told me to call back the day we were leaving but wasn’t there.
Much love B
On his way to the Harbourfront Festival in Toronto, Chatwin stayed in New York where he had a meeting with the London-b
ased literary agent Gillon Aitken and his New York partner, Andrew Wylie. In September, in a much-publicised split, Chatwin and Salman Rushdie decided to leave their London literary agent, Deborah Rogers, and move to Wylie, Aitken and Stone.
To Deborah Rogers
Homer End | Ipsden | Oxford | 16 September 1987
My dear Deborah,
It is with deep sadness, not to say grief, that I sit down to write to you. You must believe me when I say that what follows is not a decision I have taken lightly, or without anguish. It is, however, irreversible. For some time now I have felt the need to have my affairs coordinated in the hands of a single person and have appointed Andrew Wylie, of Wylie, Aitken and Stone, as my sole agent for world rights.
He has also agreed to take charge of the back-list and all the negotiations pending. I will write to George and Anne819 from Italy, but the post will take several days. And if this letter seems hopelessly inadequate, cruel and short, it is because I simply do not know how to go on . . .
with all my love to you
Bruce
To Greg Gatenby
Chateau de Seillans | Seillans | France | 20 September 1987
My dear Greg,
I hope I didn’t seem too gaga or remote in Toronto.820 There’s something about a book tour – which pray God, I never do again! – that stews one up into a fever. My albeit fleeting impression of Canada was 100% in favour – I really had the best possible time – and, who knows, might easily want to immerse myself in the Yukon.821
As always, Bruce
– and I am also very sorry for the cock-up over the time etc.
I see you’ve got my old friend Charles T[omlinson] coming – who as my next door neighbour saw that work of mine in embryo.
To Gillon Aitken
Chateau de Seillans | Seillans | France | [September 1987]
Dear Gillon,
. . . I’ll also be writing to Jean-Claude Fasquelle at Grasset – with whom I’ve always had a good time. The atmosphere at Grasset always amuses me intensely. I have informed [Roberto] Calasso who thought it, incidentally, a most sensible move,
As ever, Bruce
To Jean-Claude Fasquelle
Chateau de Seillans | Seillans | France | [September 1987]
Dear Jean-Claude,
You may have learned – or will do soon enough – that I decided to move my affairs from Deborah Rogers to Wylie, Aitken and Stone. You should perhaps know that I have a long-standing relationship with Gillon – although, until recently, there has never been any question of my joining him. I have, for some time, felt that he was the best person for the job, but this is between us . . .
As always Bruce
To Deborah Rogers
Chateau de Seillans | Seillans | France | 25 September 1987
My dear Deborah,
I realise this is all very terrible. I know from people in New York and London how upset you are. I know we should some day go over the ground. I know it was a snap decision, for better or worse. I know it’s bound to affect our friendship, and that makes me miserable.
But on one point I must make myself clear. I gather that, on both sides of the Atlantic, there had been talk of Andrew Wylie propositioning me or ‘luring’ me away, either from you or [Georges] Borchardt. This, frankly, is nonsense. Others may have tried it: not him. As you know, in 1976 I deferred to you and to our old association rather than go to Gillon Aitken.822 I have over the years kept in touch with him. One of his clients, whose way of life is rather similar to my own, is the only writer with whom I have an annual ‘state of the game’ conversation.823 You were aware that, for a long time, I felt that communication between myself and Georges Borchardt was at a low ebb: probably my fault as much as his. You knew I felt the need for a change, and you made various suggestions as to whom I should approach. However, in May of 1986, at Joe Fox’s824 on Long Island, I broached the question of U.S. representation with Gillon: at the time I have to tell you I was thinking of using a lawyer rather than an agent to vet the contracts. He told me he had just joined forces with Andrew Wylie, and arranged for me to meet him in New York. We had a preliminary discussion, without there being any question of my leaving you.
Since then, the situation has changed. In one year the status of Cape’s has changed. Sonny825 has gone off to America, Elisabeth [Sifton] has gone to Sonny, and there is the mess – and mess it is! – with Summit Books. I have also been unhappy about the way in which contracts were drafted.
Before leaving for America, I asked you to tell me whether or not I had an option clause on the Songlines contract, so that I would not be in an invidious position while talking to the new Viking team, who, it must be said, have done magnificent things for the book. I still do not know the answer. Instead of which Georges [Borchardt] rang up Peter Mayer826 to arrange with him that I would be following Elisabeth to Knopf. So I may. But he did not have my permission to do this: nor was it an answer to my question. This, I’m afraid, rammed home to me the fact that I have been spending far too much time getting brewed up over niggling matters when I should be doing something else. The temptation to put one’s affairs into a single, coordinated agency became irresistible.
I met Gillon and Wylie in New York, and the rest followed. The fact that Salman [Rushdie] had decided to do the same thing did not enter into these discussions: they did, however, suggest I call him when I got back to London.
I am, however, very sorry to have misled you on one point. I felt it might be easier to break the news that I had gone to Wylie: this is somewhat inaccurate. I have gone, in fact, to the agency Wylie, Aitken and Stone and since I am based in Europe not the U.S. it will be Gillon who will handle the day to day business. As I explained to Anne [Borchardt] in a letter, my trouble is that, under a somewhat bland mask, I am from my Sotheby’s days a rather hard-nosed business pro. Not for nothing did I once draw up a new form of draft contract, revolutionary in its day, which ultimately gave the art auction business a new flexibility. But that’s all old stuff.
In the meantime, can I please ask you that this transition be conducted as smoothly and unobtrusively as possible.
with all my love to you, Bruce
To Ninette Dutton
Chateau de Seillans | Seillans | France | 26 September 1987
An interim p/c collapsing after a very strenuous tour of the US and Canada will be in Seillans chateau de S . . . the whole of Oct, Nov, Dec much love B
To Andrew Wylie827
Chateau de Seillans | Seillans | France | 29 September 1987
Dear Andrew,
I’m a firm believer in the iron fist in the velvet glove. When in doubt, put on a second velvet glove, cheers, Bruce C.
To Deborah Rogers
Chateau de Seillans | Seillans | France | 30 September 1987
My dear Deborah,
I have investigated the story you told me, and I have to tell you it has a perfectly innocent origin, resulting from a phone call I myself made early last summer. The fact that others spread it around was somewhat less innocent, but let that be . . .
I am sorry. I am sad – but the arrangement I have made with Wylie, Aitken and Stone must stand. I don’t want to be put in the position of having to explain myself. Perhaps we should put it down to my ‘incurable restlessness’?828