“I have just got the proofs of Chapter V. I am an unnatural parent—I yawn over them. But I could do something to them while I am in the country and thus break the tedium of a holiday, if I might have the Glazebrook notes.” He could not take—what he badly needed—a real carefree holiday. “I am taking down Chapter VI for a week into the country, where American and other visitors to Oxford can’t call on me at 11 a.m. I hope to finish it.”
At last came the Preface.
“I am drafting a Preface. What is our office called?... The Preface, I think, will be very brief, and will try to avoid the sin of prefaces, which mostly speak with the voice of a hen when she has laid an egg.... Some civilians must be mentioned. C. G. Grey certainly, and I should like your opinion on the others....”
The question of names in the Preface was debated. Wherever possible they were instead acknowledged in the text.
“I enclose a draft Preface. Will you see what you think of it? It gets into a flowing style before it ends, but the important thing is—does it say all it ought to say?
“I am jolly glad to be relieved of the necessity of giving long lists of helpers’ names. They only cumber a book, and are tombstones that are read by none but the corpse.”
There were still a few outstanding questions. The index was one which caused a certain amount of discussion. He was anxious not to have an index for each volume. He contended that there must eventually be a final index and that this could only be made by combining the indexes from each volume which he thought was clumsy. So it was decided not to have an index, but instead to have rather full summaries of each chapter.
Another question that was debated was that of maps and illustrations. He was all against a lot of illustrations. He thought they were unnecessary for a good book and useless in a bad one. There was talk of a large map of France to go into a pocket at the end of the book. Some sort of a map was necessary to illustrate the chapter dealing with the early days in France from Mons to Ypres. “I am still in favour of the one page map wherever possible—and I hate the pocket business. Map-makers care nothing about books. A book with a pocket is not a book.... The chart-makers who are admirable want a book to help the maps. I want maps to help the book. If stuff is good to read you don’t break it off repeatedly to look up places on a map.” And the question of type for the book, “Will you settle the type?” he wrote, “I am tired of my own open-mindedness.” And then sending a specimen page from the Clarendon Press, “This is the page, I think. I like the old-fashioned uniform type—it does not depreciate quotations as the modern system of mixed types or closer spacing does. If you agree, can we fix it up?” Then came the death of General Sir David Henderson at Geneva and of Air-Commodore Maitland in the R38. Emendations were made in the proofs. “I have added a kind of summary on Henderson, rather bold I think, but true and appreciative. I call him a white man which he was. If I can find the time I will write an additional bit on Maitland to be added in Chapter V.”
The following day another letter enclosed the bit on Maitland. “Here is an obituary (so to say) of Maitland. It does not half express my admiration. He was as quiet as a Quaker, and as considerate as a hospital nurse. I wonder if he ever knew fear. It sounds extravagant but I don’t think so—not even in the R38.... Will you have it added to the proofs? So things go on, by degrees.”
In December he hoped that we should be able “to send proofs to all the big-wigs before Christmas.” In January, “I want to hear that the book is finally in the hands of the Press and that you are going to be married.”