THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

The White Gates,
Dorking, Surrey.

15th April, l953.

Dear Frank,

As regards my song, “The New Ghost”, my personal belief is that it is my best song, but that does not necessarily make it a commercial success, so I hardly like to press for a reprint of it under these circumstances.
I must look round and see if I can find another copy of my own to send to Miss Southwell.¹
Yours sincerely,

R Vaughan Williams

(R. Vaughan Williams).

Alan Frank, Esq.,
Oxford University Press,
44, Conduit St., W.1.

1. Written in response to a letter from Frank, who had been asked to send a copy of ‘The New Ghost’ to a Miss Southwell, telling him that the only song from Four Poems of Fredegond Shove still in print was ‘The Water Mill’ and offering to reinstate ‘The New Ghost’ and the other two poems as separate songs if VW would like them to. Notes on this letter indicate that they did so. Writing to George Parker in June 1952 VW said of ‘The New Ghost’: ‘It is one of my own songs that I like the best myself.’ See VWL2439.