Aldwinckle, Eric, Letter, 2 November 1944

Letter, Eric Aldwinckle.
Description: 
Letter to Harry Somers, Letter I

Tabs

Case Study: 
Creative Dialogue Across the Ocean: Eric Aldwinckle’s Letters to Harry Somers
Creator: 
Aldwinckle, Eric
Source: 
letter
Date: 
2 November 1944
Place: London
Collection/Fonds: 
Contributer: 
McMaster University Libraries
Rights: 
Copyright, public domain: McMaster University owns the rights to the archival copy of the digital image in TIFF format. Reproduced with the kind permission of Margaret Bridgman.

Identifier: 
00001607-4
Language: 
eng
Type: 
image
Format: 
jpg
Transcript: 

Fruit was plentiful and at no cost. They had no market for it all and were always giving it away, these Flemish people. Clean people. Good people. Not as handsome as the French but more open and more generous in spirit. But I must take care lest I judge a people by the few that, at the most, one man can meet. I must remember there was not the damage or blood in Belgium. Brussels was like a peace city, though now, food is becoming a serious question. War is difficult about food. We were well fed I must say. Our airfield had the best chef in the airforce. A much coveted artist in other fields. I cannot write coherently about this past month or so. It is full of bits and pieces with long dullnesses and I have not gathered it all together yet.
My mind goes back to a more concrete expression which I hesitated to send you but which I will now. I have written it over so many times paring it down to the most complete and as I have so often wished to send it you I cannot now remember if I really have sent it you before. I hesitated because it is not beautiful. It is not inspiring. It is an example of the many truths which surround or lay beneath some of my paintings which pleasantly spoke only small parts of the truth, being unable to contain the rest. Please read each line as a separate thought and dwell on it for a moment before going to the next if you want to get a proper picture of it.