Page:FM Bailey letters from LA Bethell.pdf/9

 backboneless wobbler Baldwin to give him his official approval. But B. is at the mercy of the latest wind that blows, and will never be a leader. There doesn't seem to be a man left in this distracted land of ours. Anybody who took his courage in his hands, spoke up, and shamed the devil, could be leader of our Party. The whole nation, if only we would realise it, is sick of parliament – Socialist, Rad. or Tory – and is simply aching for a Dictator. I think we shall have to borrow Mussolini before long.

Yes – this anthology is the hardest work I've struck: over two or three quarter million words slogged through, analysed, and recorded – and only 134 articles selected. About one in five is the average I estimate for

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inclusion – your “Day in Tibet” is earmarked for the “Frontiers” volume: your “Takin” for the “Shikar” volume and your “Beetle Game” will join the one volume which contains the smiles, a volume called “In Lighter Vein”. I've only worked up to mid1915 so far, and three months work behind me: it will be the end of May before all is finished – and then comes the proof correcting of 12 × 100,000 words – and a Preface to be written to each of the dozen volumes. On top of that comes the correspondence with 70 or 80 separate authors on rights of reproduction. Purely for your own information (and don't let it get about before the time is ripe, or it might set the more grasping one's thinking, and planning bigger prices) we are going to offer each author £5 for right of reproduction – in each article

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reproduced. They ought to agree as it will be a bit of unexpected jam on the bread and butter they've already drawn at the time of first publication: and, anyhow, if a fellow is notified that his stuff has been “selected” for the Anthology, he ought to feel pleased enough to make him accept the fiver with a smile. Anyhow, there will be no fudge about the “selecting” part, anybody who gets in will find himself in damned good company: as I say, about four out of five get turned down. Of course, I am not the last word: the brothers Blackwood will have the final Yea or Nay after I've put up the summary of each volume, and they've read each through. But I expect they'll have only minor corrections to make.

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Very little other news – my boy has broken down, and we've had to take him away from Stowe after three years – leaving and breaking arrangements all to blazes: I've got him down for Trinity, Cambridge, but it rather looks as if he wouldn't be fit for much more.

Have you seen O'Connor's new book – “On the Frontier and Beyond” – you remember him with Younghusband, of course. The R.G.S. have asked me to review it when their copy turns up. Visser read an excellent paper on the Karakorum the other day: he's quite a workman, with a hard-working wife. The two of them sail up crags like goats – and they seem to prefer glaciers to dry land. Something new to me is Hollanders – who live in endless flats at home.


 * Best of luck, Bailey