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39, Elsworthy Road, London N.W. 3
28. 6. 1938
Dear Meister Arnold,
Do not let yourself get worked up about the Nobel chimaera. It is only too certain that I shall not get the Prize. Analysis has several very good enemies among the personalities upon whom the award depends, and no one can expect me to hold out till they are either converted or have died out. So though the money would be very welcome after the way the Nazis bled me in Vienna and since neither my son nor my son-in-law is a rich man, Anna and I have agreed that one is not bound to have everything and so we have decided, I to renounce the Prize and she the journey to Stockholm to collect it.
Everything is going very well with us, or would be, if the distressing news from Vienna and the continuous appeals for help, which only serve to remind one of one's own helplessness, did not stifle every feeling of well-being. This is no topic for a short letter.
We posted your letter to the Home Office and though we were curious, we were decent enough not to open it.
I am enjoying writing the third part of Moses. Just half an hour ago the post brought me a letter from a young American Jew imploring me not to deprive our poor unhappy people of the one consolation remaining to them in their misery. The letter was friendly and well intentioned but what an overestimation! Can one really believe that my arid treatise would destroy the belief of a single person brought up by heredity and training in the faith, even if it were to come his way?
To come back to the Nobel Prize: it is scarcely likely that