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21 January 1929
42 York Terrace, Regents Park
Dear Professor,
You may be sure I would have written earlier to thank you for your two letters, but it has required all my energy to cope with the immediate exigencies of life. Things are now going better, I am glad to say. My wife's pneumonia proved to be a mild one and she is already out of bed. I have been ill and sleepless from pain, but am beginning to recover; since Christmas I have not been able to walk farther than the front door. But it will soon all be a thing of the past.
Your letter gave me the greatest possible pleasure and I thank you for it with all my heart. It will always be kept as a treasured memento of what has made my life most worth living, my relationship to you and your work. Yes, I remember well the talk at Worcester Station, exactly what you said and what I replied. Shall I ever write an autobiography,1 I wonder? I could relate many interesting things.
Your most characteristic answer about the American “stunt” amused me greatly, it was like a gem. Your arguments were so much what I had expected that I asked myself why I had bothered you about it [at] all. I suppose I was more loth than you to have it done badly, was impelled to accept it for that reason, but feared you would disapprove of my doing so. I have written a non-committal reply, pointing out the difficulties in the way (also of the unequal translations, etc.) and will see what happens next.
In the meantime another American wants me to describe the pure psychology of ψα in 10,000 words for a volume called “Psychologies of 1930”—a successor to “Psychologies of 1925.” They are a queer busy people. No wonder they never do anything. I am trying to get Flugel to do this instead.2