Augustus John (143 page)

54
  John to T. W. Earp, 20 March 1947.

55
  Introduction by Daniel George to
Finishing Touches
,
p. 9.

56
  
Ibid.
p. II.

57
  John to Daniel George, 19 October 1950.

58
  John to Clare Crossley, 9 May 1952.

59
  ‘Augustus John’ by Sir Desmond MacCarthy,
Sunday Times
,
2 March 1952; ‘Memories of a Great Artist’ by Sacheverell Sitwell,
Spectator
,
7 March 1953, p. 302; ‘Augustus John’s Self-Portrait’ by Henry Williamson,
John O’ London,
March 1952, pp. 296–7. See also ‘Self-Portrait’ by Harold Nicolson,
Observer
, 2
March 1952; ‘Augustus John: A Self-Portrait’ by Denys Sutton,
Daily Telegraph,
8 March 1952;
The Times,
5 March 1952; ‘Painting with a Pen’,
Times Literary Supplement,
21 March 1952. The book was also well received in the United States where it was published by Pellegrini and Cudahy. See, for example, ‘Magic-Lantern Show’ by Joseph Wood Krutch,
Nation,
pp. 277–8. See also Quentin Bell in the
New Statesman
(20 November 1964), p. 797.

60
  
Listener
(20 March 1952), p. 476.

61
  Harlech Television, 18 July 1968.

62
  Julian Maclaren-Ross ‘Sfumato’
The Funny Bone
(1956), pp. 25–9.

63
  John to Daniel George, 11 August 1954.

64
  ‘The piece called “The Girl with Flaming Hair” – a young woman picked up in Tottenham Court Road – might very reasonably be allowed a place in Villiers de L’Isle-Adam’s “Contes Cruels”,’ wrote Anthony Powell in the
Daily Telegraph
(3 December 1964). For some of John’s correspondence with Daniel George over
Finishing Touches
see Catalogue 158 (1981), Rendells Inc., Newton, Massachusetts.

The first impression of
Chiaroscuro,
costing 30 shillings (£1.50), was 10,000 copies. It was published on 3 March 1952, the unsold stock being converted on 25 April 1955 to a cheap edition costing 15 shillings (75 pence) which went out of print on 4 November 1968. An edition published by the Readers Union early in 1954 of 31,792 copies was produced independently of Jonathan Cape.
Finishing Touches
was published on 12 November 1964 and cost 25 shillings (£1.25). The first impression ordered was for 3,000 copies, and a second impression of 750 copies was printed on 8 June 1965. The two volumes were amalgamated in 1975 and brought out by Cape under the title
Autobiography
in an edition of 2,000 copies costing £6.50.

65
  See Cecily Langdale
Gwen John
(1987), p. 130 n. 11.

66
  Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt, 17 July 1930. NLW MS 21468D fol. 176.

67
  Cecily Langdale
Gwen John
p. 130 n. 1.

68
  Augustus to Edwin John n.d. (1 January 1940). NLW MS 22312C fol. 19.

69
  Augustus to Edwin John n.d. (1 May 1940). NLW MS 22312C fols. 28–9.

70
  Augustus to Edwin John, 22 January 1942. NLW MS 22312C fol. 49.

71
  Augustus to Edwin John, 5 July 1944. NLW MS 22312C fol. 52.

72
  Augustus to Edwin John, 22 August 1944. NLW MS 22312C fol. 53.

73
  Augustus to Edwin John, 4 March 1946. NLW MS 22312C fol. 57.

74
  Augustus to Edwin John, 11 September 1946. NLW MS 22312C fol. 62. Edwin John was then living in the village of Mousehole, Cornwall.

75
  Augustus to Edwin John, 30 November 1946. NLW MS 22312C fol. 65.

76
  Edwin John to Augustus, 24 December 1951. NLW MS 22782D fols. 20–1.

77
  See NLW MS 22782D fols. 18–25, 22312C fols. 27–77.

78
  
Winifred Shute to Augustus John, 3 March 1956. NLW MS 22782D fol. 125.

79
  Instead of a memoir Augustus reworked his Matthiesen catalogue essay as an article in
Horizon
Volume XIX No. 112 (April 1949), pp. 295–303, and this, with some revisions, appeared in
Chiaroscuro
pp. 247–56; later his
Burlington Magazine
contribution (Volume LXXXI No. 475 [October 1942]) was reprinted in
Finishing Touches
pp. 79–81.

80
  
Finishing Touches
p. 81.

81
  John to Pamela Grove, 25 February 1945.

82
  John to Sylvia Hay, 5 June 1959.

83
  Marie Mauron to the author, 1969.

84
  
Chiaroscuro
p. 261. See also
Horizon
Volume XVII No. 102 (June 1948), p. 438.

85
  
Chiaroscuro
p. 262.

86
  
Horizon
Volume XVII No. 102 (June 1948), p. 440. In a letter to Matthew Smith (5 December 1946) he wrote: ‘I thought the country as good as ever but didn’t do anything with it.’

87
  William Empson to the author, 6 December 1968. See also Hugh Gordon Proteus
Listener
(3 December 1964), pp. 902–3.

88
  John to Cyril Connolly, 5 November 1949. McFarlin Library, University of Tulsa.

89
  
Chiaroscuro
p. 264.

90
  John to T. W Earp, 20 March 1947.

91
  Augustus to Edwin John, 29 November 1947. NLW MS 22312C fol. 72.

92
  Augustus to David John, 22 June 1942.

93
  
Socialist Leader
(18 September 1948). See also
The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell
Volume 4
In Front of Your Nose 1945–50
(1970 edn), pp. 595–6.

94
  There were only two issues of the
Delphic Review,
Winter 1949 and Spring 1950. John’s article ‘Frontiers’ occupies pages 6–11 of the first issue.

95
  John to Bertrand Russell, 6 February 1961. ‘Very disappointed,’ he had cabled Russell. ‘Had looked forward to jail.’ See Caroline Moorehead
Bertrand Russell
(1992), p. 509.

96
  
The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell
Volume III
1944–67
(1969), p. 118. See also p. 146.

97
  ‘The Great Bohemian’,
Time and Tide
(9 November 1961).

98
  Breon O’Casey to the author, 7 September 1969.

99
  Nicolette Devas
Two Flamboyant Fathers
(1966), p. 277.

100
  
Stephen Spender Journals 1939–1983
(ed. John Goldsmith 1985), 1 July 1955, p. 157·

101
  John to Sylvia Hay, 7 September 1956. In the collection of Professor Norman H. Pearson, Yale University, New Haven.

102
  John to Cyril Clemens, December 1955.

103
  John to Sylvia Hay, 7 January 1959.

104
  John to Hope Scott, 3 October 1950.

105
  John Rothenstein
Time’s Thievish Progress
(1970), pp. 24–5.

106
  Diana Mosley
A Life of Contrasts
(1977), p. 89.

107
  Harlech Television, 18 July 1968.

108
  John to Alan Moorehead, 31 March 1952.

109
  John to John Davenport, 11 March 1956.

110
  John to Joe Hone, 4 February 1956.

111
  John to D. S. MacColl n.d.

112
  John to Kelly, 23 July 1952, 20 May 1952, 2 July 1952, 15 March 1952; Kelly to Earp, 20 January 1954; John to Kelly, 30 September 1953; Kelly to Earp n.d. (1954); Hugo Pitman to Kelly, 12 August 1952. Royal Academy.

113
  
Sunday Times
(14 March 1954).

114
  
Kelly to John, 10 February 1954; Kelly to Lady John Hope (Liza Maugham), 2 June 1954; Kelly to John, 28–9 June 1954; Kelly to John, 1 April 1954. Royal Academy.

115
  Dorelia to Kelly n.d. (March 1954). Royal Academy.

116
  John to Kelly, 16 March 1954. Royal Academy.

117
  
The Times
(13 March 1954).

118
  John to Hugo Pitman, 27 December 1952.

119
  John to Hugo Pitman, 10 November 1954.

120
  John to Dorothy Head, 16 November 1954.

121
  John to Mrs W. M. Cazalet, 16 June 1941.

122
  Augustus to Simon John, 14 September 1944.

123
  John to Michael Ayrton, February 1961.

124
  Augustus to Caspar John, 7 January 1955.

125
  
Best of Friends. The Brenan–Partridge Letters
(ed. Xan Fielding 1986), p. 209.

126
  Augustus to Edwin John n.d.

127
  Gerald Brenan
A Personal Record
(1974), p. 356.

128
  Augustus to Caspar John, 7 January 1955.

129
  John to Clare Crossley, 12 January 1955.

130
  John to Sylvia Hay n.d.

131
  John to Matthew Smith, 22 December 1948.

132
  John to Count William de Belleroche, 5 September 1956.

133
  John to Matthew Smith, 5 September 1956.

134
  John to Matthew Smith, 24 December 1953. In a letter to Caspar John of about the same date (NLW MS 22775C fol. 10) John wrote: ‘I have been much distressed by the death of Dylan Thomas and have managed to write a note about it for a paper called
Adam
in an edition wholly devoted to the Poet.’ John’s essay, ‘The Monogamous Bohemian’, appeared in the January 1954 issue of
Adam Literary Magazine,
and was reprinted in E. W. Tedlock’s
Dylan Thomas – the legend and the poet
(1960). Another essay by John, originally appearing in the
Sunday Times
(28 September 1958), was reprinted in J. M. Brinnin’s
A Casebook on Dylan Thomas
(1960), and in
Finishing Touches
pp. 108–15.

135
  John to Count William de Belleroche, 21 June 1956.

136
  William Gaunt to the author, 16 October 1971.

137
  One of Matthew Smith’s portraits of John is at the Montreal Museum of Fine Art; another at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art; and the third, which was sold at Sotheby’s on 13 May 1987, is privately owned. John’s portrait of Matthew Smith is in the Tate Gallery.

138
  Peter Quennell ‘Augustus John’
Harper’s Bazaar
(February 1952), p. 45. Photographs by Cartier-Bresson.

139
  Lucy Norton to the author, 1973.

140
  John to Matthew Smith, 1 July 1959.

141
  BBC
Panorama
,
4 November 1957.

142
  
Sunday Times
(18 January 1953).

143
  John to Eric Phillips, 9 December 1952.

144
  John to Joe Hone, 9 February 1956. It was purchased by a number of subscribers, headed by Hugo Pitman and Lennox Robinson, and unveiled at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in November 1955.

145
  John to Mary Anna Marten, 31 January 1953.

146
  John Rothenstein
Time’s Thievish Progress
p. 15.

147
  John to Joe Hone, 9 February 1956. See also
Tenby Observer and County News
(15 October 1954).

148
  
Bernard Shaw. Collected Letters
Volume 4 (ed. Dan H. Laurence 1988), p. 794.

149
  
Letters of John Cowper Powys to Louis Wilkinson 1935–1956
(1958), p. 336–7, 8 December 1955. The drawing is reproduced as frontispiece to this volume.
Powys reckoned John to be ‘one of the 3 great men I’ve met in my life’, the other two being Thomas Hardy and Charles Chaplin. He was particularly pleased that John had also done a portrait of his brother T. F. Powys (1933). ‘So two of the Brothers Powys will be seen by the next and the next generations as the great artist saw them,’ he wrote to G. Wilson Knight (14 July 1958).

150
  Thornton John to Augustus, 25 June 1959. NLW MS 22782D fols. 119–20.

151
  Augustus John to Winifred Shute, November 1959.

152
  John to John Davenport n.d. NLW MS 21585E.

153
  Augustus to Caspar John, 6 May 1960. NLW MS 22775C fols. 41–2.

154
  
Tenby Observer and County News
(30 October 1959).

155
  John to Tristan de Vere Cole, 5 February 1956.

156
  
Maurice Collis: Diaries 1949–1969
(ed. Louise Collis 1977), p. 55, 9 September 1953. ‘His face was very expressive, like an actor’s. He had very great charm. Affection, intimacy, indignation, sadness flitted across his features. There was emotion of some kind showing all the time… not intellectual, not kind, not even very intuitive or sympathetic for others but human and greatly experienced in life. One sees very few Englishmen with such faces in the upper classes, but tramps, beggars and poets (old style) sometimes have that look.’

157
  John to Sir Charles Wheeler, 11 April 1960.

158
  Roderic Owen with Tristan de Vere Cole
Beautiful and Beloved
(1974), p. 225.

159
  Fergus Fleming
Amaryllis Fleming
(1993), pp. 150–1. See also pp. 179–81, 199. Eve Fleming did not in fact marry Lord Winchester, who remained married to Bapsy Pavry. ‘When I saw the announcement in the Times I received quite a shock,’ John had written to her (23 July 1953). ‘…As the Marquess remarked to some journalist it was quick work on his part.’ NLW 21622D.

160
  John to Daniel George, 28 September 1952.

161
  John to Alfred Hayward, 13 June 1952.

162
  John to Doris Phillips, 9 December 1952.

163
  Augustus to Edwin John, 30 May 1954.