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[[MS 2750/487/18/]]

[pre-printed letterhead] SCAR TOP, BOARS HILL, OXFORD.

Jan. 19. '[19]26

Dear Mr. Woolf,

I've given up my press-cutting agency, partly because when a book is done it's done & it's best not to waste time over it, partly because I got such sheaves of para[graph]s merely announcing that another batch of those sixpennies were out. But an agency that is wanting me to renew my sub[scription] sends these two cuttings from India. They may be of use to you, if they havent [sic] come y[ou]r. way already - the Civil & Military Gazette is amazingly generous!

I must say, as I said to Gilbert Murray, my people is a very great people. I dont [sic] think there's a nation in the earth that'll stand the straight speaking that we stand. The book has really had a v. magnanimous reception.

All of which gives me qualms about that American edition. I know, as you do, that the Medal, being largely non-copyright matter & also offering such temptation to anti-British centres, w[oul]d. probably have been reprinted in partial and mischievous fashion. By refusing Harcourt Brace's request, I c[oul]d. have cleared myself of technical responsibility. But - to a man who keeps any sort of ethical outlook on life - mere technical non-responsibility makes little appeal. It's better to say, Yes, I did it; but I did it in this way. All the same,....I wish Americans w[oul]d. leave our sins alone...folk like that awful Mrs. Thompson Seton, author of y ^'Yes, Lady Sahib' & many other poisonous books...you've no notion how they drive us crazy in

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India with their pert self-righteousness. I'm sure my countrymen resent it savagely, though they say little. I wish it had not been necessary to have an authorised American edition. I feel unclean about it. Anyway, the Preface gives some if them something to be annoyed about on their  own account.

You'll think I'm morbid; or imbecile.

Yours sincerely | Edward Thompson [signature]

[*I suppose the Medal has had some sale in India? It must have had a good deal of notice, for I got a letter from [1 word illeg.] yesterday, in wh[ich]. he said 'You are in disgrace with your own countrymen at present, for wh[ich]. you have my congratulation'. I shall be interested to know what Andrew's reaction is. He's quite likely to be extensively annoyed by two or three passing remarks which suggest that Indians are not perfect historians & so on. Tagore^*1 told me, a fortnight ago, that he was in S. Africa.

This notice from the Civil & Mil[itary]. Gazette is really v. remarkable. That was the paper (as you know) that started Kipling's career.*]

* Endnotes

1. Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Bengali scholar and social reformer; Associate of Thompson; awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.