• Letter ID: 1685
• Addressee: Tennant, Stephen
• Date: 1944
• Repository: Yongue, Patricia Lee, Private Collection

To Stephen Tennant, n.d. [late 1944] ; Yongue , copy, not original.

Received his letter dated December 8, 1943, but the postmark is October 17, 1944. How can he ask what she thinks of Jane Austen and Emily Bronte? Anyone with good sense knows they are both wonderful, though in very different ways. Believes he would not like George Sand. She was a wordy, moralizing writer and almost never sincere. See "A Chance Meeting" in Not Under Forty re. George Sand. How can he say the public is never deceived? They always are! Not humanity in the long run; after two or three centuries the sound writers last, others don't. Those who last comprise the "great tradition." While ill, read Chaucer and he made her want to get well again. That's what a "great tradition" means. Why does he imagine she does not value critical writing? Is now going to talk to him very directly. Why did he begin Lascar if he wasn't going to persevere on it simply for the joy of doing so, not for any other reason? It's been ten years now. Why hasn't he written it? Quit talking about it and just do it! P.S.: When he writes again, please leave a wider margin.  W. S. C.   [Stout #1685]