The Man with the Golden Typewriter (40 page)

FROM LIEBERT

June 19th, 1961

Dear Mr. Fleming:

If, in the cable just now sent, I had given free rein to my reactions on getting your letter this morning, the cable would have bankrupted me. So I settled for “overwhelmed”.

I cannot imagine an offer more exciting, or put in more generous terms. I will do everything I can with the script, and if you feel when it returns that I have done little, that will be because it seemed good as it was, and not through reluctance.

I must go west for a speaking engagement on 6th July, and I will airmail the script back before I leave, so you should have it easily by the 10th.

Grateful as I should be, I hope you will not indulge in a present, for the pleasure and pride I have in the offer to go over the book are more than sufficient reward. The fact that I am doing this work will be graveyard so far as I am concerned.

If you could spare a day to come to New Haven while here (90 minutes by train from N.Y.) we could meet and you could see both the Yale library and my own collections, and I could promise you food and drink fit for a Bond. If you can't spare the time, I would eagerly come to N.Y. In any event, let us meet.

Renewed thanks and cordial regards.

TO LIEBERT

21st June, 1961

Dear Mr. Liebert,

Thank you for your delightful cable and charming letter and I do hope you are not at this moment cursing your generous impulse.

But once again I abjure you to be as tough as hell with this book, as I am not at all satisfied that the peril represented by the gangsters is nearly
powerful enough, or that the realism, though it may get by in England, will stand up to informed readership.

I am afraid it is bound to be a much heavier job than you could have expected, and I shall not be surprised if you are forced to rewrite whole pages.

But, anyway, there it is, and the gift is already on order from Cartiers so I am afraid there is no escape however powerful your nausea.

Incidentally, the Albany call sign is WGY.

Naturally we must meet when I get to America, but as I am semi-convalescent I shall be going straight up to Vermont to a millionaire's farm belonging to an English friend of mine, John F.C. Bryce [Ivar Bryce], who is married to an American and lives at Black Hole Hollow Farm just across the border from Cambridge, New York State.

Anyway we will fix up a meeting in due course and probably spend a great deal of time roaring with laughter over this extraordinary project.

With my warmest thanks and best wishes for your dreadful labours.

FROM LIEBERT

July 5th, 1961

Dear Mr Fleming:

Viv returns to you airmail registered under separate cover tomorrow. I fear you will find her not as much a changed girl as you hoped – partly because I have not been able to shake loose as much spare time to work on her as I wished, and partly because I am a much better editor than a collaborator. I would have liked to try some re-write, especially about the gangsters, which I agree is the place it is needed most, but by the time I had done what I knew I could do and so did first, the English/American transition, there was no more time.

A little about what I did do. There are two levels of correction, one in red (for the redcoats) of changes I think should be made both in the English and in the American editions; and a second in blue (for the Atlantic) of changes for the American edition only.

The changes are of several kinds: (1) matters of fact; (2) within dialogue by Americans, changes to American current usage fitting to the character speaking; (3) in Viv's story, changes of English expressions that would either mystify American readers or, though perfectly plain in meaning after a second's thought, would nevertheless obtrude on and slow the narrative pace. I have left Viv enough Anglicanisms of the kind most familiar to Americans so that they will remember she is Canadian and English-schooled, but have, I hope, pruned enough unAmerican from her so that most American readers will feel that she is simply speaking naturally.

I wish I could come up with better names for the gangsters, because here especially, I think, they have a literary flavor. ‘Horror' seems to me a bookish word, and I am put off by the feminine ending in ‘Sluggsy'. ‘Slug' would be better, or ‘Hot Shot': both are names of real underworld characters of the past, who were notable shots. One very tough thug a while ago was named ‘Chiller', on the same ground as ‘Horror', but I don't know that I like it much better.

My reaction to the whole book is that it is good but different. I like the Viv half of the book, and think the story is vivid, observant fiction; some of your Bond devotees may find it not the Fleming they expect. The second half is Bond enough for any devotee.

I suspect that when you see how little I have really done, in spite of many hours of work, you will want to send that item back to Cartier's and buy me a drink. I would of done more if I hadda chance, and certainly your very generous invitation gave me carte blanche to do more. It was the time, not the will that was lacking.

Sorry to hear you have been knocked up – a term of very different meanings on either side of the Atlantic. I hope your visit here and rest will repair the difficulty. Do let me have your American address, so I can at least get in touch with you while you are here. If there is a chance of seeing you, here or anywhere else this side of Calif., I am yours to command.

Tom Guinzburg of Viking, who was here at Yale a while ago, and whom I knew as a student, phoned the other day to ask about my work on the book. I tried to play it close, respecting your wish for confidence, and did not let on I was doing anything to it until he read me part of a
letter from you telling them I was at work, so I presumed then that the secret did not extend to them, if you had told them yourself. He seemed pleased to know that I was working on the script.

No more now as I am off to Ohio for a speech to (rest my soul) a convention of librarians. If I make my address in Sluggsy dialect, it will be your fault.

Just a last word of sincere appreciation for the opportunity you have offered me, so fully and generously. No author could be more open-handed with his opus. What I have come to know about the man I.F. leads me to admire him as much as I have always admired the writer.

TO LIEBERT

12th July, 1961

Dear Mr. Liebert,

I really am most grateful to you for your splendid labours and for your charming and perceptive letter.

I shall pay close attention to all your advices and, from a quick glance, I already see that you have saved me from a thousand otiosities.

Regarding Tom Guinsburg's communication, I felt I had to tell Vikings that I had called on you for help to stop them hacking around on their own. I hope he was much impressed by the weight of the authority I had invoked.

Now, it's maddening, but the united medical councils of London have forbidden me to visit America next week. So the meeting I was so much looking forward to will have to be deferred and a small token from Cartier will have to come to you anonymously through whatever channel I can devise. Since it will reach you anonymously, this is to ask you to accept it as a memento of this curious literary association, which comes to you with my affectionate thanks.

I do hope that our meeting will not be too long deferred, and that if I do not catch up with you in America I may do so in Jamaica when, over
a glass of flaming Old Man's Liqueur, we can discuss cabbages and kings.

Again with renewed thanks for your extreme kindness.

FROM LIEBERT

July 17th, 1961

Dear Mr Fleming:

How utterly rotten for you that your health will not permit you to make the trip here. I do hope this is a passing and not a chronic ailment and that you will soon be free of it.

I will, of course, receive the memento you are sending with warm appreciation, though the privilege of being “in” on the forthcoming Bond and of receiving such gracious and friendly letters from you are quite reward enough.

I am glad that some of my advices seem useful; I abjure you to abide by our understanding that they are only advices, and if you at last decide to reject all of them, I will be perfectly satisfied by their having been considered.

One thing I meant to say in my last, which you have already detected by now: I am a heavy hyphener, and you will probably want to neglect my many insertions of that mark.

Missing the chance to see you here makes me insist we meet in Jamaica. We will be at Runaway Bay from 15 December through 6 January, and back again sometime between mid-March and mid-April. I hope some part of our stay will coincide with yours. Though we have less reason to exchange letters now, I hope you will, toward the end of the year, let me know what your Jamaica dates may be.

Give my regards and thanks to the Hayward and the Carter when you see them; I am sure it was partly their vouching for me that encouraged you to make so trusting an offer as you did. I only wish I had had
more time to tackle the larger aspects, but I felt my first responsibility was to the verbal problems, and when I had done those, the postman knocked.

I remain much in your debt for a stimulating experience backstage with my favourite fiction character. Let us now hope that your vitality (not I am sure broken down by torture or intercourse) will reassert itself as miraculously as Bond's.

Until we meet, when I will be able to express my gratitude and admiration in person, believe me,

Faithfully yours,

[PS] You must tell me one day what books you collect.

FROM LIEBERT

July 27th, 1961

My dear Fleming:

The chaste and handsome product of MM. Cartier has just arrived, and is so beautiful that it makes even signing checks a real pleasure.

I find my cyanide fits very neatly in alongside the ink-holder, and I think my thermite people will be able to make up a package just like the ink-tube, so you will see how handy it will be for everyday needs. And as soon as I have the Yale library filmed in microdot, I can close up shop and move to Jamaica with my pen and my swimming trunks.

Seriously, it is a very generous and much-appreciated gift, and I am proud both of its beauty and of its source. Adding it to the fun I had with the MS puts me deep in your debt. Thank you.

I hope your ailment has abated, and that if it does not permit you to come here, it will at least allow you to get to Jamaica later in the year. We will be there 15 December through 7 January and greatly hope this will synchronize.

I hope you will accept the enclosed piece about an item in my collection; I think you will like the fine photographs.

With renewed thanks and warm regards.

TO LIEBERT

1st August, 1961

Thank you very much indeed for your charming letters of July 17th and 27th, and I am glad that the pen has arrived and that you are pleased with it. In fact I find the ball points rather fine, but Cartiers were adamant that they could not get a broader one for you.

I have just this minute been talking to Jonathan Capes who are ecstatic at receiving the cleaned up manuscript so swiftly. And I do thank you most warmly again, not only for the trouble you took, but for your rapidity.

There is more I wish you had done to the book and I am still not very happy with the gangsters, but I accepted I think every one of your suggestions and now the little book must fly on its own.

Incidentally, I am also a great hyphenater and you picked up several I had missed.

I haven't had a chance to talk about you to Jack Carter or to John Hayward as I have been up to my uvula in miscellaneous mundungus since our correspondence began. I was warmly influenced by the kindness and perception of your first letter.

Alas, it is most unlikely that I shall be in Jamaica before January 10th, but I will let you know my plans nearer the time. In any event we will certainly meet in due course in one continent or another.

Thank you very much indeed for the Johnson's Head, which I shall take home and read this evening. I must say I am enchanted by the photographs of the bust, what a splendid face!

Having read it I propose to pass it on to John Hayward with a suggestion that he might care to reproduce it in the Book Collector. So please write if you would have no objection to this happening.

FROM LIEBERT

August 4th, 1961

Dear Mr. Fleming:

Footnote to Chap. I., requiring no reply.

I hope the garbridge (see OED s.v. mundungus,
^*
1st quote; a delightful spelling I shall always use) has dropped below the uvula, to the jejunum or even to the levator ani.

John Hayward is welcome to use the piece if he wants it, but if so I would welcome the chance to make two small changes, so ask him to let me know direct if he is going to print. He is indeed a law unto himself; I always say he may have a weak constitution but his by-laws are iron. Give him my love.

May the serious work prosper. May it and health allow you to come south in January. End of footnote.

^*
Thank you for this lovely word.

FROM LIEBERT

January 16th, 1962

Dear Mr. Fleming:

The stars are indeed unkind to me, to take me away from Jamaica just as you arrive. We had a wonderful month in Runaway Bay, and return wondering why we insist on living so near a pole. Middles are so much better than ends, in everything that counts: women, and bottles of claret, and cigars, books, age, life, and even earth.

We saw in The Gleaner that you were filming “Dr. No” and we look forward to seeing some of our favorite Jamaica landscapes in it. The Runaway Bay caves and the phosphorus lagoon at Glistening Water might supply good locations.

I hope the sun and the sea will restore your health, as it has ours. We envy you the days ahead; drink a Red Stripe for us.

Don't trouble to reply. When we are next in London or Jamaica, we will inquire whether you are nearby.
Favete astrae
.

Signed with
the
pen.

FROM LIEBERT