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29 February 1920
The Plat, Elsted
Dear Professor,
Thank you for your letters of Feb. 8th and 12th, which I was glad to have. You are right about my Father. It is a significant change for a man to make from a Sohneinstellung to a Vatereinstellung,1 but it is being facilitated with me by the circumstance that my wife is now pregnant, at which we both rejoice.
I am familiar with H. Ellis' works and methods of repudiation; they are hard to deal with. His address is not with me here, but I will send it on returning to town. I enclose a review of Totem und Tabu by R. R. M., evidently Marett the Prof. of Anthropology at Oxford2 and leader of the pre-animistic school of religious psychology. Retribution has swiftly overtaken the Harvard Professor, Southard, who dealt so unfairly with your War article, for he has just died of pneumonia, [at 44].3 Yesterday our dog, a specially valuable creature and one to which we were extremely attached, was suddenly killed in the lift. And so the tale of death goes on.
Mrs. Putnam has given permission for the Press to make a book of her husband's ψα papers,4 and even offered to bear part of the cost (which I have gratefully accepted, suggesting a quarter, to be raised by her and his friends).
I have now cabled three times to Brill saying how urgently we need his article, for Rank cannot begin any printing till all the MS is collected. The journal is eagerly awaited and should have a good sale. I am only anxious lest Tannenbaum should steal our title, which would be hard to replace; he is sure to exploit the name ψα. As to Bernays: perhaps my memory has made a tendencious alteration, but it tells me that when I saw you in October you had received B's offer but thought you could alter it in favour of the Press. It is a great disappointment, for, having overcome the main difficulty, with Brill, I hoped we could begin on the projected Standard Edition of collected works, with just the Vorlesungen and Fünf Vorlesungen as the first volume. Now our