What advantage would someone have over me who knew a direct route from blue to yellow?

All right. I failed my Wittgenstein save. Let's try this again.

(I seem to have agreed to invent a Wittgenstein drink, although all I know is about it is that it must contain a maraschino cherry in honor of Carmen Miranda and cannot contain anything in honor of all the instant coffee he used to drink. I must research.)

c/o Rhees
96 Bryn Rd.
Swansea
8.9.45

Dear Norman,

You're terrific!—Thanks a lot for the mags. It's nice getting a parcel from you, not only because of its contents.

The one way in which the ending of Lend-Lease really hits me is by producing a shortage of detective mags in this country. I can only hope Lord Keynes will make this quite clear in Washington. For I say: if the U.S.A. won't give us detective mags we can't give them philosophy, & so America will be the loser in the end. See?—I'm still in Swansea & enjoying my absence from Cambridge. My work isn't going well; partly because I've contracted some trouble with one of my kidneys. Nothing serious, but it makes me jumpy & bad tempered. (I've always got some excuse.)—The other day I read Johnson's 'Life of Pope' & liked it very much. As soon as I get to Cambridge I'm going to send you a little book 'Prayers & Meditations' by Johnson. You may not like it at all,—on the other hand you may. I do.

This is all for now. Most of this page & the next page I will leave free in case you want to make any notes. I hope to see you before very long! Good luck! Thanks again!

Affectionately,
Ludwig

. . . I am going to read my magazines.

Laugh and toll so merrily to see the waves go by

1. Of course it finally snows on Leap Day. It's sticking, too.

2. strange_selkie has invented a Wittgenstein drink. It's a very pleasant pineapple.

3. She has also been sending me Horrible Histories. There is nothing to do about this song by Dick Turpin but applaud.

4. I don't think I ever linked to the Pulp Magazines Project, which I discovered last week. They just put up their first installment of Amazing Stories. (Look! There's Street & Smith!)

5. I know the only Ibsen I've ever really liked is the 1973 film of A Doll's House with Anna Massey and Denholm Elliott stealing all their scenes as the secondary couple, but if you call a play The Lady from the Sea and describe it "rather like a mix of Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman," look, I'm going to be interested. (See also the painting by Edvard Munch.) Of course, borderline insanity and amphibious depths have nothing to say to me.

(Did I mention next week's release party for Caitlín R. Kiernan's The Drowning Girl: A Memoir? You see.)