1184 From Edmund Blunden, 9 June 1951

Virginia Water, Surrey

My dear Gerald,

[…]

Today I have the enclosed from Knapp-Fisher, which as you know is quite understandable, & which leaves Gurney's friends at liberty (in more than a legal sense) to try anywhere with the book.

If financial support is requested, my guess is that it would have to be something far beyond £150. I am going on the case of Gordon Bottomley’s poems & his bequest of £1000 for the publishing of them – I have not yet heard that any publisher is attracted even so.

The next thing then is (for me) to send the proposed Selection and the revised Introduction to Marion Scott, and I shall be thoroughly happy to ‘take notice’ of anything that she judges necessary in revision, correction, excision etc. Meanwhile I will sound Rupert Hart-Davis privately. I have also C. Day Lewis in mind, for he is a publisher to some extent, & he may probably know Gurney as poet and musician. […]

When Alan Porter & I were reviving Clare we were artful enough to get some articles on him and the MSS into various journals. I wonder how that notion, applied to I. G., would strike Marion Scott. It would of course have to strike some Editors also. Such preparation however would be desirable.

These notes by M. S. are exactly what I want, and I could do with any number of them. I was aware that the Memoir so far slipped past various points for want of precise knowledge; this I had to endure in writing of Wilfred Owen. Even where no apparent use of such notes gets into the final form they are a protection from nonsense & muddle. I will take it that M. S. will either approve or disapprove my revision & all will be plain sailing then. So I keep her pages until I’ve moved up a little.

No need to say that I rejoice in what she says upon the Introduction, of which her judgement is the most acute and experienced we can name.

Paulo minora canamus I’d gladly hand I. G. the decoration which might just have made the difference to his ease of mind, but I am happy to read you on the subject.