Letter from Edward Thompson to Margaret West (27/03/1935)

  • Image of typescript letter from Edward Thompson to Margaret West (27/03/1935) page 1 of 1

 

[[1]]

 

[[MS 2750/487/30/]]

 

March 27, 1935

 

Dear Mr. West*1,

 

[the left hand margin contains a note in shorthand]

 

'Suppressed', of THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MEDAL, means only that it was long kept unpublished, until Mr. Siegfried Sassoon, Mr. E. M. Forster, Professor Gilbert Murray and Mr. Leonard Woolf persuaded me that it should be published. I am not sure that your correspondent*2 is entitled to this information. It is an idle person that troubles a publisher's office to ask if he can get information of an author in 'Who's Who' - most of us have energy enough to turn over its pages for ourselves, and it is in most public libraries.

 

If you think fit I have no objection to the information in this letter being passed on to him, though names should be suppressed, for 'a number of well known writers etc.'. But I do not feel inclined to write direct, for I do not know what the writer is after. You can tell him the book is suppressed in India officially, as are others of my writings, I understand. The Indian Government has a low standard of sedition.

 

Yours sincerely | E. Thompson [signature]

 

 

* Endnotes

 

1. Despite the title 'Mr', this is Margaret West.

2. This refers to Elstob.
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Reproduced with the permission of the estate of the author, courtesy of Penguin Random House Archive and Library. Held at the University of Reading Special Collections.

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Source: MS 2750/487/30

Image Rights Holder: © Estate of Edward Thompson

Letter from Edward Thompson to Margaret West (27/03/1935)

Author:

Edward Thompson

Library:

University of Reading, Special Collections

Archival Folder:

MS 2750/487_The Other Side of the Medal

Related To:

The Other Side of the Medal

Thompson refers to the letter sent by Elstob [MS 2750/487/29] stating that he won't write back directly, explains that it was suppressed from being published until other writers including Leonard Woolf persuaded him to publish. Although he thinks the writer of the letter could have found this out himself, so he does not think he is entitled to the information. Thompson feels that if The Hogarth Press will pass on information they should leave out the author's names and allows the press to tell Elstob that the book is suppressed in India as are some of his other writing

Typescript