John Munting to Elizabeth Drake
15a, Whittington Terrace, Bayswater 17.2.29
Darling Bungie,
You have seen the reviews, of course! Bless my heart and soul, what has happened to the people? Of course, it was all started by that tomfool at the Guildhall (I don’t know why Cabinet Ministers should be the only people who can sell one’s books for one nowadays)—but oh, my lights and liver! Oh, goroo! goroo! The silly mutton-headed G.P. is walking into the blooming shops by thousands and buying the thing! Paying for the thing. Shoving down their hard-earned seven-and-sixpences for it! Lord help us—what have I done that I should be a bestseller? Is thy servant a tripe-hound that he should do this thing? First edition sold out. Presses rolling out new printings day and night—Merritt nearly off his head and saying, “I told you so.” Blushing author besieged in his charming Bayswater flat (!!!!)—Remarkable portrait of blushing author by that brilliant young artist Mr. Harwood Lathom (done in a fit of boredom one afternoon when the model hadn’t turned up) being scrambled for by four Press agencies, two literary hostesses and an American lion-tamer! Everything gas and gaiters! Worm-like appeals, from publishers who turned Hercules down, for the next contract but seven, and the Wail and the Blues and the Depress and all the Sunday Bloods yapping over the phone for my all-important, inspired and inspiring views on “What does the Unconscious means to me?”—“Is Monogamy Doomed?”—“Can Women tell the Truth?”—“Should Wives Produce Books or Babies?”—“What is wrong with the Modern Aunt?”—and “Glands or God—Which?”