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Vienna IX, Berggasse 19
January 6, 1936
Dear Sir
A few months after our revered friend Romain Rolland has reached his seventieth birthday, I shall be eighty. I am afraid this must be my answer to your suggestion. I would like to give, but
have nothing to give, and the production of something new in response to need and occasion is not forthcoming at this time of life, at least not from me. As recently as a year ago I succeeded in writing something1 that would have been of special interest to R. R., but it suffered from one defect which prevented it from being published, and since then my ability to produce has dried up. It is probably too late for it to revive again.
If there is something that makes this refusal easier for me, it is that “all reference to politics” has to be excluded. Under this paralyzing restriction—not being allowed to follow my urge to praise his courage of conviction, his love of truth and his tolerance—I couldn't do anything, even if I were in my prime.
On January 29 I shall tell him in a few lines that I am thinking of him with affection. Thanks to your letter I now know the date.
With best wishes
Yours sincerely
Freud
See note 2 to letter of Sept. 30, 1934.