Graham Greene (42 page)
Authors: Richard Greene
I saw more of Cuba than ever before, driving all the way to Santiago & Guantanamo, & Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother, gave me a military plane to take me to the Isle of Pines. Altogether it was quite a show […]
Here Greene complains to Sir William Haley
(1901
–87), editor of
The Times
, about the newspaper’s failure to report the mysterious murder in Morocco of Yves Allain, who had fought in the French Resistance and was known to Greene through his work in intelligence
.
21 November 1966
Dear Sir William,
I was a little surprised that up till now you were unable to publish even the small obituary paragraph which I wrote to you on the death of my friend Yves Allain, one of the most heroic resistants in Brittany who was decorated by the English and American governments. I cannot help feeling that he deserved more than Peter Baker!
Your obituary editor apparently was disturbed by my phrase ‘brutal murder’, and wanted documentary proof which I now attach, in the form of cuttings from the
Figaro
and
Le Monde
. I had assumed that
The Times
were aware of what goes on in the French Press.
I enclose also a card of his funeral service which lists Allain’s decorations.
I would like to have these cuttings returned to me whether or not you publish the paragraph, but I would like also to know whether it is to be published as otherwise I would wish to write at greater length elsewhere – it seems to me deplorable that not a single English paper should even mention the murder of a man who rescued during the war more than a hundred allied airmen.
Yours sincerely,
Graham Greene
Greene’s obituary of Allain was published on
24
November
.
51 La Résidence des Fleurs, | Avenue Pasteur, | 06 Antibes. | April 30 [1967]
Dearest Catherine,
[…]
Yesterday I went to the film of
Ulysses –
a deadly bore in spite of the verbal shocks which made people shout out ‘dégôutant.’ One came out depressed with a headache. I had tried to reread the book
in preparation & found it a big bore like the film – really one of the most overrated classics. So instead I’m rereading Trollope’s political novels.
[…]
as from: 51 La Résidence des Fleurs | Avenue Pasteur | 06 Antibes. | 30 May 1967
Dear Bernard,
[…]
Baptiste, to whom you introduced me in the lunatic asylum at Santo Domingo, came down here during the last days of the filming of
The Comedians
with a man whom I did not take to much. He had been an officer in Duvalier’s army until 1964 and I didn’t trust him a yard. Poor Baptiste under his influence seriously thought that he could get some 80,000 dollars out of the film stars to – partly – finance an attack on Haiti. Unfortunately our director had lost some 50,000 dollars in giving mistaken support to Père Georges and the news had got around. I did my best to help them, writing personal letters to the Burtons and to Guinness, but there was no response. I sent Baptiste a small cheque to help him continue his search, but with my responsibilities I could do no more. I was also very suspicious of the other man. Perhaps I am learning suspicion from the Haitians themselves.
[…]
Fred Baptiste was born in the town of Jacmel. His brother Rénel (sometimes spelt Reneld) was also a rebel leader. Graham first met them in January
1965
in their camp at an abandoned insane asylum near Santo Domingo. In
1964
Fred Baptiste led a failed invasion of Haiti. In April
1965
he and his commando joined and fought beside the Constitutional forces in the Dominican civil war. In
1966
he left the Dominican Republic to travel in Europe and went as far as China seeking support for a new venture against Papa Doc. The brothers were captured in
1970
when they infiltrated into
Haiti. They then disappeared into Fort Dimanche, Duvalier’s place of torture and execution. Graham made repeated inquiries on their behalf, but Fred died, insane, of tuberculosis at the age of forty-one on
16
June 1974; Rénel would die, at thirty-five, of the same disease on 19 July 1976
.
22
Father Jean-Baptiste Georges was a former Duvalierist who tried to organise a small invasion from Florida. Peter Glenville gave him the
$50,000
donation. Georges obtained more money by selling documentary rights to CBS for the hardly secret expedition. In early 1967, customs officials seized their equipment and arrested him. The episode came to be known as ‘The Bay of Piglets’
.
23
La Résidence des Fleurs, | Avenue Pasteur, | 06 Antibes. | Aug. 22 [1967]
Dearest Carol,
[…]
I had a nice fortnight’s holiday in Anacapri, doing no work at all, but I arrived to find the island on fire, all the way along the mountain. I wanted to go down to Capri for dinner but found the road blocked, and we remained cut off for two days. I watched the fire till midnight, then went to bed and was woken at 3 by the sound of the flames which had spread to above my end of the village. Water, fire brigades, Bersaglieri, American soldiers and Carabinieri were sent from Naples and at last got the fire under control. Luckily there was no wind or the village would have been wiped out. The flames got to within 30 metres of a big hotel at the entrance, and all the guests had to pack and be ready to evacuate in the middle of the night. In Anacapri the priests brought out San Antonio to show him the fire and in Capri his rival San Constanzo. People queued up to kiss San Constanzo and wipe his face with their pocket handkerchiefs. […]
Graham wrote that many who dwelt on the cruelty of Evelyn Waugh’s character had left out another side which was extraordinarily kind and seen him only ‘as a sort of sacred monster’
.
24
This has been Greene’s own fate at the hands of some of his biographers. In this letter, he relates anecdotes about Waugh to Christopher Sykes
(1907
–86), whose
Evelyn Waugh: A Biography
appeared in 1975
.
29 August 1967
Dear Christopher,
I was delighted by reading your broadcast programme on Evelyn in
The Listener
which could hardly have been better done. One or two points occur to me which may be of use to you as a biographer. Evelyn when he told me of the plane crash in Yugoslavia always said that he was flying to join Randolph. He remembered nothing of the crash, but after the crash found himself walking through a field and to his astonishment, because he had no idea where he was, saw Randolph walking towards him through the field carrying a drink! He never mentioned that Randolph was a fellow passenger. He also used to tell me that he found he was put off alcohol completely by sharing a hut with Randolph in Yugoslavia because the smell of Slivovitz coming from his companion was too strong for him.
Evelyn on Tito. Evelyn used always to say that Tito was a lesbian who had lived in Paris at the period when it was fashionable for lesbians to have their breasts removed!
I always disbelieved a little in the stories of Evelyn’s rudeness at parties and used to deny such stories until one evening when Carol Reed invited Evelyn, myself and Korda, who was then living with Alexa, to dinner. Suddenly at table Evelyn developed an extreme anti-Semitic rudeness towards Korda. The next day I was with him in a taxi and I said, ‘Why did you insult poor Alex like that?’ He said, ‘He had no right to bring his mistress to Carol Reed’s house for dinner.’ I said. ‘But I had my mistress with me.’ Evelyn’s reply was, ‘That is quite different. She is a married woman.’
It’s only after a good lunch and reading
The Listener
that I send you these notes with affection.
Graham
After their writings were smuggled abroad and published in the West the dissident satirists Andrei Sinyavsky
(1925
–97) and Yuliy Daniel
(1925
–88) were arrested in
1965
for anti-Soviet activities. Their widely publicised trial in the following year ended in sentences of hard labour
.
1st September, 1967
Dear Sir,
I would like all royalties due to me on my books, and any money deposited in my name for past royalties at the Grand Hotel, Moscow, to be paid over to Madame Sinyavsky and Madame Daniel to help in a small way [with] their support during the imprisonment of their husbands.
Yours very truly,
Graham Greene
The poet George Barker
(1913
–91) sent Graham a prayer candle and a sonnet
.
130 Boulevard Malesherbes, | Paris 17. | Sep. 13 [1967]
Dear Mr. Barker,
Thank you very much for the candle. I half-believe myself in prayers & candles, & at least they do no harm – which cannot be said of many human activities. I like sonnets too – but rather as I like cheese. Not Roquefort, not Day-Lewis. Brie yes, & Hopkins – & sometimes Auden when mature.
I’m writing a small bit of autobiography myself. It’s something to fall back on when the imagination begins to fail. No more disgusting to my mind than old age itself.
Thank you again for the candle.
Yours,
Graham Greene
Four months after the Six Day War, Graham visited Israel. In the company of UN observers, he visited the area of Ismalia on 27 September, only to be caught in an exchange of fire, which spread from there along the length of the canal from Kantara to Suez.
25
Dan Hotel | Tel Aviv | Sep. 29 1967
Dear Marie,
Returned here from the Canal to find your letter and C’s two. Thank you so much. I came back from a battle! I do seem to have a nose because I stumbled on the worst point of the worst incident in two months. For more than two and a half hours in the sun I had to lie with my companion & our driver on the side of a sand dune with artillery (anti-tank guns), mortars, & small arms fire. Alas. I’d only had lemonade for two days – I could have done with a whisky. As we were within a hundred yards of the Israelite artillery who didn’t know we were there & which was the Egyptian objective, I really thought I’d had my last game of roulette. However we survived! My companion had a small chip out of his cheek from shrapnel & I nothing worse than a sore on my elbow from all those hours on the sand!
Now I’m off to Jerusalem & the Syrian border. A ready made article on the Canal & the U.N. observers!
26
Much cheered up.
Love
G.
The release of the film of
The Comedians
, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, drew a noisy complaint from Duvalier’s ambassador to the United States, who described it as ‘A character assassination of an entire nation’ presenting Haiti as a country of ‘Voodoo worshippers and killers’. Its object, he claimed, was ‘disgusting and scaring the American tourist at the beginning of the season. Haiti is one of the most beautiful, peaceful, and safe countries in the Caribbean.’ The producer and director, Peter Glenville, looked to Greene for a response
.
[2 November 1967]
Suggest following: The ruler of Haiti, responsible for murder and exile of thousands of his countrymen, is really protesting against his own image in the looking glass. Like the ugly queen in Snow White he will have to destroy all the mirrors. But perhaps someone with a sense of humour drafted the official protest with its reference to ‘one of the most peaceful and safe countries in the Caribbean’ from which even his own family has fled.
27
I would like to challenge Duvalier to take a fortnight’s holiday in the outside world away from the security of his Tonton.
Love
Graham
1
The Comedians
(1966).
2
Among the colurful residents of Anacapri was Elisabeth Moor (1885–1975), the ‘Dottoressa’, an eccentric and outspoken Austrian physician. Her practice included many of the ordinary people who sometimes paid for her services with fish. Something of her personality may be found in Aunt Augusta in
Travels with My Aunt
.
3
Greene had known the producer and director Alberto Cavalcanti since the mid-1930s, when he was an associate of John Grierson at the GPO Film Unit. In 1942 he directed
Went the Day Well
, a film based on Greene’s story ‘The Lieutenant Died Last’. See Adamson, 32–3 and Falk 25–6.
4
Greene’s bibliographers have not recorded such a review. More likely, Greene had been teasing Waugh, as he did occasionally in his novels. For example, in
Our Man in Havana
, Dr. Hasselbacher refers to the hero of Waugh’s first novel
Decline and Fall:
‘“Now if my friend, Mr. Wormold here, had invented you, you would have been a happier man. He would have given you an Oxford education, a name like Penny-feather …”’ Wormold and Waugh are both storytellers, but the parallel between them collapses as the reader tries to imagine the author of
The Loved One
selling vacuum cleaners. For his part, Waugh signalled to Greene’s fictional world when Guy Crouchback sailed past Freetown at the same time as Scobie was ‘demolishing partitions in native houses, still conscientiously interfering with neutral shipping’. See
Men at Arms
(Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1964), 233.
5
The theatrical producer Hugh Beaumont (1905–72), Managing Director of H. M. Tennent.
6
For an engaging portrait of Diederich, see D. T. Max, ‘The A-List Archive’,
New Yorker
(
11
and 18 June 2007), 68–71.
7
Father Jean-Claude Bajeux, who was working with Haitian refugees. ‘Duvalier had killed his family and he was not talkative on our border trip.’ (Bernard Diederich, e-mail to RG, 29 January 2006.)
8
Information from Peter Winnington.
9
Pope Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini), who had earlier shielded Greene from the Holy Office (see pp. 203–6).
10
Meakers was a now-vanished chain of men’s outfitters in the West End. Their shop at 47 and 48 Piccadilly was on the north side of the street adjacent to the entrance to Albany (information from Bruce Hunter).
11
In 1963 the constitutionalist president of the Dominican Republic was overthrown and replaced by a military-backed civilian Junta. In 1965 there was a rebellion to restore Bosch, but an American intervention in April, involving more than twenty thousand troops, left the government in the hands of Joaquín Balaguer, a close associate of the former dictator Rafael Trujillo. A conservative, he dominated the country’s politics from 1966 until the 1990s. (E-mail from Bernard Diederich to RG, 25 February 2007)
12
Amory, 635. Waugh makes a similar remark to Diana Cooper; see
Mr Wu and Mrs Stitch: The Letters of Evelyn Waugh and Diana Cooper
, ed. Artemis Cooper (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1991), 324.
13
Companion of Honour, announced in the New Year’s Honours list.
14
Graham is comparing the con-man Jones in
The Comedians
with the charming swindler Thomas Roe (see p. 256).
15
‘clod’ in the original seems to be a dictation error.
16
The Vendor of Sweets
.
17
Macleod’s volume of verse from 1930 was entitled
The Ecliptic
.
18
While students, Greene and Macleod had long talks in the meadows at Oxford. See p. 255.
19
In 1957 Greene met Haydée Santamaria in Santiago. She was one of two women who had participated in the disastrous attack on the Moncada Army Barracks on 26 July 1953. She was captured and tortured, and she lost her brother and fiancé in the attack. She later ran Casa de las Américas, an artistic institution and publishing house. She committed suicide in 1980.
(Ways of Escape
, 190; further information from Bernard Diederich.)
20
Carlos Franqui (b. 1921) ran the official newspaper
Revolución
and was Castro’s chief of propaganda; he went into exile and broke with the regime by 1968. He was the author
of The Twelve
.
21
Raul Milian (1914–86) and Rene Portocarrero (1912–85) were expressionist artists, and shared a house. Portocarrero wept at Greene’s departure in 1966 (Greene to Michael Richey, 27 January 1986, Georgetown University).
22
Bernard Diederich,
Le Prix du sang
(2005), 386 and passim.
23
Diederich and Burt, 363–5.
24
Ways of Escape
, 201.
25
See Ways of Escape, 211–19, and
New York Times
, 28 September 1967.
26
‘An Incident in Sinai’,
Sunday Telegraph
(25 October 1967), incorporated into
Ways of Escape
, 211–19.
27
Papa Doc’s war on the film
of The Comedians
followed soon after his scheme to kill Colonel Max Dominique, the husband of his eldest and favourite daughter, Marie-Denise. Her protests combined with those of his own wife, Simone, caused him to relent. The couple were exiled to Spain with his youngest daughter (also named Simone). However, Max was soon condemned to death
in absentia;
indeed, nineteen officers associated with him had already been shot. Two years later, the family patched things up with Papa Doc publicly embracing Max in a cheerful reunion scene on his return to Haiti. Both sisters were present when Papa Doc died in 1971. (Information from Bernard Diederich.)