Hotel Mayflower

15 Central Park West

New York, New York

December 24, 1938

My dear Mr. Howe:

I just got a note from Mr. Halliday telling me that you do not know when to publish “Pastor Hall”. After extended reflection I think it is a mistake to wait till the play is produced. If I may make a suggestion: publish the play as quickly as possible. I really had hoped that it could be done before Christmas. But don’t hesitate to do it soon afterward.

You never told me how you liked the play in its new version. Please do so. Perhaps you have already read in the papers that the action for Spain is on its way. I am sending you a few clippings. It was hard work which took more than two months in this country from morning to midnight, but the success outweighs the effort. Now I shall be free for my own literary work and I think I have deserved it. I hope “Time – My Companion” will be ready for spring publication. As I told you, I have already the conception of a new play, but there is one question which I have to think over carefully – whether it would not be right if the inter-governmental action for Spain becomes a reality on a large scale, to write a special book about it. But this is a question which I cannot decide now.

I hope to be back in England in the second month of the year. There is another thing for which I want your help. Random House is going to publish “Blind Man’s Buff” and “Pastor Hall” both plays in one volume. Random House is waiting desperately for the final corrections of Spender’s translation of “Pastor Hall”. Could you arrange with him to have one copy ready for printing sent immediately? In case you haven’t the music for the song of the Moor Soldiers which has to be included, I am sending you a copy. I hope Spender has altered the song in the meantime. I learned that there is also a popular translation of the song already printed in America.

Wishing you a merry Christmas and a good New Year,

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Howe

John Lane, The Bodley Head

9 Galen Place, Bury Street

London, W. C. 1.