[ilds] Attn: James Gifford

[James Gifford]

Hello all,

I received a missive over the telegraph from Tennessee that might solve 
this riddle...  As was also tapped out over the line, this passage is of 
course qualified by "It wasn't true, and he knew it," and there's the 
ever so lovely "this needs a new paragraph."  Which is to say, I keep my 
tongue in my cheek even just reading it!

I hope this solves the riddle.

All best,
James

----->
A clipping from the Home Office:

"He told himself that Thrush had a vicious, thirsty little French face; 
but it wasn¹t true and he knew it. He felt as if his brains had cooled 
and dripped into his socks. He could have written an ode called "A 
Castrate's Tears beneath the Shears" -- but the tone was wrong and he 
delegated this to Sutcliffe who would come along in good time with his 
own brand of snivel. And then, on top of it all, to be unfair to poor 
Paris which all of a sudden became loathsome to him. He noticed now the 
dirty hair, cheaply dyed, and never kept up from meanness ­-- so many 
brassy blondes with black partings. And in August the refusal to shave 
armpits. The town smelt like one large smoking armpit. Acrid as the 
lather of dancers. And then the selection of sexual provender ­ 
perversions worthy of wood-lice. Well, he had come there for infamy in 
the first place, so what the hell had he got to complain about? He would 
die, like Sutcliffe, in the arms of some lesbian drum-major, dreaming 
nostalgically of hot buttered toast between normal thigh and thigh. 
Indeed he would go further and become a Catholic and enact the funky 
deathbed scene ­ the spider on the ceiling and the shadow of a priest 
and a notary. It wouldn't do, said the voice of Constance, and he knew 
that it wouldn't. Eheu!" (Livia 71-72)


On 2015-02-10 7:32 PM, Len Worman wrote:
 > Dear Sir; I recently corresponded with Ian MacNiven,
 > who told me he was forwarding my original letter to
 > you. I am endeavoring to discover where in LD's
 > writings there is a quote regarding how he found,
 > after the war, the women in Paris not shaving their
 > underarms or using deodorants and ,  therefore,
 > being smelly. I had this section in my vast LD
 > library once but it was destroyed in a house fire
 > and, for personal reasons, am anxious to find it
 > again. I hope you can help. I am a long time sincere
 > fan ever since I read that first review in the NYT
 > of "Justine". Thank you very much. Len Worman.
 > (lenworman at gmail.com).