T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 383

To James Hanley, 10. 9. 31. Plymouth 10. IX. 31 Dear Hanley Only a scratch: Busy over my eyes on R.A.F. work, due to short-handedness through the Schneider cup de- tachments, and to the presence of a squadron of visiting French Flying Boats. The record came, & was a new one to me. Good: very good. When I get a chance to reach my store of records in a cottage in Dorsetshire, I am going to make a register of other Wolf records I have beside your list. There are about a dozen more, some very good. It is excellent news that you like him. I find his lieder the best ever written. The proofs are read for the first time, but I can't deal with them in a hurry. "Rubbish" (dangerous title) I had fears of course. The Opening (and) story is superb: but the highest pitch in the book is the "machin...e, which up to about 30 lines before the end was flawless and perfect, with a serenity & smoothness and humanity that marked a better- - thing than anything of yours I have ever read. But the girl's killing seemed to me out of key. I don't like compositions to end on a crunch: you should have married her instead: there is one cot left. However disregard this. I have a politician's sense of the deadlines: of under-statement; and a dislike of climax: and I would make an art-form of them! Yours T E Shaw Any good my running away on Sunday afternoon (13th?) I have a motor bike, which usually works. * and will come back this week, I hope. T E S.