System Number: 07832
Date: [20/27 September 1895][1]
Author: JW
Place: Lyme Regis
Recipient: Joseph Pennell[2]
Place: [London]
Repository: Library of Congress
Call Number: Manuscript Division, Pennell-Whistler Collection, PWC 272/8/5
Document Type: ALS
Royal Lion Hotel - Lyme Regis
Dorset -
My dear Joseph -
There seems to me to be some tangle somewhere - or is it all right? - -
What I had settled was a Nocturne - either reproduction, or special drawing if I ever get up to London - for Henley's[3] book -
Now that is surely not the same as the one you write to me about? -
I should like to do something for [p. 2] the book you are so interested in too - but if you knew how little chance I have had to think of anything! -
My wife[4], you know, is still far from well - and for weeks, if not months, we have been travelling -
This place seems to do capitally - and we shall stay here probably while the warm weather lasts and then come up to town before I return to Paris -
Write us a jolly letter -
I see, from the cuttings that have been sent on, that the papers have been trying to draw me about my Venetian Prize[5] -
Of course I shan't write, but I think you and Mrs. Pennell[6] might say something[7] to the effect that the prizes were not numbered according to rank at all -
There were ten prizes in all - and each was a separate offering from a distinct body - as you will see from enclosed official paper -
Also each prize was subject to certain different conditions - so that some were for Italians only - and others for Venetians only - and others only for work that had never been exhibited before -
Mr Whistlers prize was seventh on the list - thats all -
[p. 3] Somebody has carried off the ink! -
Goodbye -
Our kindest regards to your wife and yourself -
Always Yrs
J McN Whistler
I am writing to Henley -
You might send us back the list -
This document is protected by copyright.
Notes:
1. [20/27 September 1895]
Dated by the references to Venice and Lyme Regis.
2. Joseph Pennell
Joseph Pennell (1860-1926), printer and illustrator, JW's biographer [more].
3. Henley's
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), journalist, poet and writer [more].
4. wife
Beatrix Whistler (1857-1896), née Beatrice Philip, artist [more]. She had cancer.
5. Venetian Prize
JW had heard from A. Fradeletto on 9 September 1895 of the award for Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl (YMSM 52), #05933.
6. Mrs. Pennell
Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855-1936), née Robins, JW's biographer [more].
7. say something
From 'say something' onwards the letter is written in pencil.