| Content Description | Begins 'I was so thrilled and stirred by your news!' [publication of and £250 award for 'Open the Door!']; the 'money would be a god-send, because 50 £1 is not much for a lifetime' [in May 1920 Carswell sent D.H. Lawrence a cheque for £50]; suggests that they [the Carswells] come here [Fontana Vecchia]; she is 'frightfully glad that' she [Carswell] 'will be no longer sad and alone'; signature 'F' is overwritten with a note that the Eders [Dr Montagu David Eder, psychoanalyst and his wife Edith] are coming and suggests the 'Sunday after' for Catherine to visit.
Date: the letter was originally undated and has been dated '1915', possibly by John Carswell; the letter was probably written May 1920; Frieda's reference to '50 £1' is likely to be the £50 cheque which Carswell offered D.H. Lawrence and which he subsequently burnt; the 'news' referred to is the publication of Carswell's novel 'Open the Door!' (Andrew Melrose Ltd, 1920) and the £250 prize which it won in April; reference to 'L's letter' is perhaps that of the 12 or 28 May 1920 (See Boulton, 'The Letters of D.H. Lawrence', vol 3, pp 524-25, 533-37). |