July 22 Thursday – In Weggis, Switzerland Sam wrote two letters to Chatto & Windus, the second not finished till July 24. In the first:
Let us drop this impossible thing. Cable Bliss for sheets.
It will not answer to try to produce the book from the original MS. It cannot be done. It is perfectly lousy with errors and foolishnesses which are not in Bliss’s copy. I can’t endure to read another chapter of it. I must go straight & telegraph you.
After his signature Sam listed thirteen items (probably corrections) for C&W to make [MTP].
Sam began a second letter, which he added to on July 23 and 24. He complained that the printers didn’t pay “strict enough attention” to his punctuation. “Their commas are too handy; I hate commas” [MTP].
Sam’s plans were to occupy the writing-room rented in the Villa Tannen the day before; see July 21.