THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

13 Cheyne Walk
S.W.3

Jan 13 [1925]

Dear Dent

I had a letter from Steuart¹ the other day – he seems to be getting on 1st rate. Don’t you think he ought to have another 6 months? I send another contribution to the fund.
I’m v. sorry if I am foolish about the internat:² – But I can’t face sending in works to be “sat on” – I’ve never done so (since I was quite young)* – If anyone honours me by asking to do a work of mine I feel honoured – but I never ask them.
Yours very sincerely

R. Vaughan Williams

* An apparent exception is the L. Symphony³ – but I was under the impression that the Carnegie people were asking to publish it – not that I was sending in for a competition or I sh^d never have sent it in.

P.S. I have nothing against Ansermet⁴ – he was the only adjudicator whose name I knew.

1. Steuart Wilson. This refers to the aftermath of serious injuries suffered by Wilson in the war, in which he lost a kidney and part of a lung.
2. Dent was the first President of the International Society for Contemporary Music and asked VW to submit a work to be considered for performance at the ISCM in Prague. VW must have given in gracefully, for A Pastoral Symphony was eventually chosen for performance.
3. A London Symphony
4. Ernest Ansermet, founder in 1918 of L’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.