STOLL THEATRES CORPORATION LIMITED.
DIRECTORS:
CRANBOURN
PRINCE LITTLER, C.B.E. (CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR)
MANSIONS,
LORD RENWICK, K.B.E.
J. M. BARHAM.
CRANBOURN
S. BIRK.
STREET,
TOBY ROWLAND.
L. BENJAMIN.
LONDON, W.C.2.
JACK GILL.
TELEPHONE: O1-437 2274
SECRETARY:
16th January, 1973
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
Portslade Productions Itd.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
Thank you for your letter.
By all means use my
name and if they get in touch with me, I will be as helpful
as I can. I hope things go well with you and that your
project is a great success. Keep me in touch.
All best wishes for this New Year,
Kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
bly
Toby Rovland


Dear Sirs,
I would be grateful if you would alter
our downstairs fixed telephone to two points
and a portable handset, as we have already
discussed over the telephone.
I enclose an authorisatioh to act on
behalf of the G.B.Fischer General Trust in
these matters.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


LEON GLUCKMAN (LONDON) LIMITED
LYRIC THEATRE OFFICES 5 ARCHER STREET LONDON WIV 7HE
15th January, 1973
Maurice Rowdon, Esq. 9
Portslade Productions Ltd.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S. W.6.
Dear Maurice,
Thank you for your letter about your application to the
Provincial Theatre Council. Certainly use my name. I
hope it will help you.
Naturally, I cannot speak for Toby Rowland to whom I
suggest you write personally.
I wish you every possible good luck with the presentation
of the play.
As always,
Yours sincerely,
Alu
Leon Gluckman


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
8 Storey's Gate, London, SWI
Tel: 01-930 5378/9 Cables: Bandwag, London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
15th January, 1973
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear
hamice,
I am enclosing our cheque for £450.00 made
up as follows. Please let me know immediately if it
does not agree with your records.
Received from:
WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON LTD.
Part advance on delivery
as agreed re:
LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT
Less Commission 10%
Yours,
Sannd.
REGISTERED NUMBER 1002046 LONDON
REGISTEKED OFFICE 9 HARLEY STREET LONDON W1
DLB/BSH: encl.cheque
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


WITH COMPLIMENTS
THE SPOTLIGHT
42/43, Cranbourn Street,
London, WC2H 7AP
telephone 01-437 7631
telegrams RODMIL, LONDON, W.C.2
THE SPOTLIGHT
CASTING DIRECTORY FOR
STAGE, SCREEN, TELEVISION and RADIO
ANCASTER HOUSE, 43 CRANBOURN ST.
LONDON, WC2H 7AP
TELEGRAMS AND CABLES: RODMIL LONDON W.C.2'
RECEIPT
Date.
Rdl ladelredilld
TO ADVERTISING
atoDiesle
gpe)sTerbiedds
TO BLOCKS
RECEIVED
TOTAL
WITH THANKS
THE SPOTLIGHT
PARAGON REGISTER-LAMSON PARAGON


Dear Leon,
I have to apply to the Provincial Theatre
Council as a manager before depositing a
sum of money with them for our show coming
to the Arts. They need 'two names known
in the Theatrical profession' to whom ref-
erence can be made, and I have named you
(and Toby Rowland). Is this all right?
Our company account is at Barclays, 137
Brompton Road, S.W.3, if this is relevant.
Hoping all is well with you,
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Leon,
I have to apply to the Provincial Theatre
Council as a manager before depositing a
sum of money with them for our show coming
to the Arts. They need two names 'known
in the Theatrical profession' to whom ref-
erence cane be made, and I have named you
and Toby Rowland. Is this all right?
Our company account is at
Brompton Road, S.W3, if this 2erelys,.. is
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Manager's Application for Registration
Dear Toby,
We have a show coming in February at the
Arts and I have to register with the Provincial
Theatre Council. I have used your name and
Leon's as 'two persons known in the Theatrical
profession to whom reference can be made'.
I do hope this is all right.
Our company account is at Barclays, 137
Brompton Road, S.W.3 if this is relevant.
I hope you are flourishing!
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


"MAHLER"
Dear Mr Dalzell,
I have pleasure in enclosing a contract
for Edith Macarthur's signature.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


"MAHLER"
Dear Jokn,
I enclose the Manager's Application for
Registration, and also a cheque for fifty
pounds in consideration of the payment due
to you for the first two weeks of January at
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Registration as Theatrical Employers
Dear Sir,
I wonder if you would kindly insert an
advertisement as follows in the next two editions
of the STAGE:
THEATRICAL EMPLOYERS REGISTRATION ACTS, 1925
and 1928
Notice is hereby given that Maurice Stanbury Rowdon
and Nicholas John Kimber residing at 5 Tamworth
Street, London, S.W.6 and at 5 Thurloe Street,
London, S.W.7 respectively, and carrying on business
under the name of Portslade Productions Ltd intend
to apply to the Council of the London Borough of
Hammersmith for registration under the above-named
I enclose a cheque for six pounds.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Theatrical Employers Registration
Dear Sirs,
I wonder if it would be possible for you
to insert the enclosed formula


"MAHLER"
Dear Miss Dobson,
Further to our telephone conversations
I would like to take a page in your
for the LSO concert (Mahler 9th) at procRoyal Royal
Festival Hall on February 6th. I shall send
the block to your printers as soon as poss-
ible.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
Miss Anne Dobson
London Symphony Orchestra Ltd
I Montague Street
London
WCIB 5BT


Dear Sirs,
I would be grateful to receive the current
Spotlights of actors and actresses.
Would you please send me the new actress
Spotlight in April when it appears, thus making
three in all, for which I enclose a cheque for
We would also like to make this a perman-
ent order.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Sirs,
I would be grateful to receive the current
SPOTLIGHT of actresses


Dear Mr Wright,
Further to our telephone conversation
yesterday, this is to confirm that we would
like to take out a page to advertise a prod-
uction in the programme for the Royal Phil-
harmonic concert on February 13th. I shall
furnish the block for this by the Ist Febr-
uary.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
Mr David Wright
Bernard Battley Printers
37 Old Town
Clapham
London


"MAHLER"
Dear Gert,
Just a word after our phone conversation
today.
We are opening with the above play at the
Arts Theatre, Leicester Square, on February I4,
with Vladek Sheybal playing Gustav Mahler and
Edith Macarthur playing Alma. The director
is Peter Watson, and the set'will be designed
by Kit Surrey. A special musical décor is
being composed by Peter Paul Koprowski.
Rehearsals will start next week, around
January I5.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


"MAHLER"
Dear Gert,
Just a word after gur phone conversation
today, in case you have/any ideas for this.
We are opening at the Apts Theatre, Leicester
Square, on Wednesday February 14, with Vladek
Sheybai playing Gustav Mahler and Edith Mac-
arthur playing Alma. Director is Peter Watson,
the set is being designed by Kit Surrey. A
special musical décor As being composedi by Peter
Paul Koprowski. Rehearsals will start next
week, January I5th.
Yours ever.


ODANTI SCRIPT SERVICES
41 - 45 Beak Street,
London, W.1.
Tel: 01
INVO OICE NO: 2498
Rorelade Redutmlts,
5, Namok Rond,
Lada S.6b.
To: Typing and Printing:
Name of Play/ Film:
Nallar
No. of copies: 20
No. of pages 4to/ fs cap. @
bopagn 2 35R
To: Binding @ 13p per copy: :
We wish to inform our clients that we can only extend credit for 21 days.
Please make cheque payable to: "ODANTI SCRIPT SERVICES" and remit
to above address.


Dear Mrs Snith,
I believe you require a testimonial of
Mr Colin Muscutt's charedter.
I have known Mr Muscutt and his family
for some years and have always found him a
most reliable and r trustworthy person.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mrs Smith,
I believe you require a testimoniel of
Mr Colin Muscutt's character. I have known
Mr Muscutt for some years, Mr Muscutt and
his family for some years and have always
found a most reliable and and trustworthy
persone
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


MAHLER
Dear Mr Blodget,
After my telephone conversation today, I
have pleasure in ecnlosing the above script for
your attention and, I hope, that of Lee Remick
when she returns.
We are opening at the Arts theatre on Wed-
nesday February I4 for a run of three weeks, and
an option for a further month. Rehearsals will
begin around January 20. Vladek Sheybal will
be playing Gustav Mahler. The director is Peter
Watson. A special musical décor is being composed
by Peter Paul Koprowski.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


MAHLER
Dear Dorothy,
I just called you today to say we are opening
MAHLER at the Arts on February 14th. Funny you
should dislike the end---the director and I changed
it when when we went through the script, and Alma
ends the play with a long speech. Everyone is
getting very excited, and I hope you come along and
see us.
Last night at a performance of Mahler's 6th
symphony v1, dek bullied me remorselessly into asking
you YET AGAÎN if you still do not want
play ALMA.
So in great emberrassment I am putting k to you,
as from a number of choices we have still not clinched
the girl.
My show by the way may be the last straight
thing at the Arts, and I hope to make something of
a to-do about this scandalous decease of great
theatres. MAM have bought it as you probably
know and will most likely have it empty for two
years before they tear it down.
With warmest good wishes,
Maurice Rowdon


MAHLER
Dear Miss Macarthur,
I have just spoken to your agent who advises
me to send you the enclosed script direct.
This is a two-hander which will be opening at
the Arts theatre in London on February I4 for arun
of at least two weeks. Vladek Sheybal will be
playing GUSTAV, and we would like to ask you to
consider playing ALMA. Peter Watson, whom I be-
lieve you know, is directing, and is very keen to
have you.
Rehearsals will begin in London on January
22nd or perhaps a week or so earlier. We are
aiming at a transfer.
Naturally we would like to know how you feel
about this as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


ODANTI SCRIPT SERVICES
41 - 45 Beak Street,
London, W.1.
INVOICE NO: 2483
Maunià houden
Stannortt Sreet
Sw-6
To: Typing and Printing:
Tuh Tich"
Name of Play/ Film:
No. of copies: /2
No. of pages 4to/ fs cap. @
pages
To: Binding @ 13p per copy:
We wish to inform our clients that we can only extend credit for 21 days.
Please make cheque payable to: "ODANTI SCRIPT SERVICES" and remit
to above address.


Theater Impresariaat
INTERNATIONAAL LTD.
DIR. JAN DE BLIECK
Telegrams: Impretheater
DEN HAAG,
June 29th 1972
68 Oostduinlaan
Tel.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.
5 Tamworth Street
London S.W.6
E NGELAN
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
"A Song of the Earth"
Thank you for your letter of June 27th.
Your idea sounds interesting, particularly for
Germany, but I should have to see the show first
before giving any opinion as to the possibility
of a continental tour. Please let me know when
and where the production can be seen.
Yoursibincerely,
Jan de Blieck


MAHLER
Dear Mr de Blieck,
Referring to your letter of June 29th last
on the subject of the above production (formerly
called A SONG OF THE EARTH), this will be having
its world première at the Arts Theatre, Leicester
Square, on Wednesday February I4 next year
Curtainrise will be at seven o'clock on the
first night. Subsequent performances will go up
at eight o'clock. The initial run will be for
three weeks.
I do hope you will be able to come and see it.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Portslade Productions Ltd.
Directors :
5 Tamworth Street, London, S.W.6
MAURICE ROWDON
NICHOLAS KIMBER
MAHLER
Dear Gert,
We arranged that I should write to you as
soon as I knew my dates for this show. MAHLER
will be opening at the Arts theatre Leicester
Square on February I4 next year. We shall ber
having a preview the previous evening. Vladek
Sheybal will be playing GUSTAV MAHLER and either
Fenella Fielding or Dilys Hamlett ALMA. Peter
Watson is the director.
The musical décor (in
which all natural sounds are rendered musically
and MAHLER is heard thinking towards his themes)
is being composed by a young Polish composer
called Peter Paul Koprowski who is teaching at
the moment at Toronto university in Canada.
As you probably know, some very remarkable
things have happened on the Arts theatre stage
in the past. One can feel the ghosts as one
walks across the stage.
Please let me know what kind of link-up
you think would be possible, if any.
Best wishes for the New Year for you and
all yours, also from Annette,
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


MAHLER
Dear Gert,
We arranged that I should write to you as
soon as I knew my dates for this show. MAHLER
will be opening at the Arts theatre Leicester
Square on February I4 next year. We shall be
having a preview the previous evening. Vladek
Sheybal will be playing GUSTAV MAHLER and either
Fenella Fielding or Dilys Hamlett ALMA. Peter
Watson is the director. The musical décor (in
which all natural sounds are rendered musically
and MAHLER is heard thinking towards his themes)
is being composed by a young Polish composer
called Peter Paul Koprowski who is teaching at
the moment at Toronto university in Canada.
As you probably know, some very remarkable
things have happened on the Arts theatre stage
in the past. One can feel the ghosts as one
walks across the stage.
Please let me know what kind of link-up
you think would be possible, if any.
Best wishes for the New Year for you and
all yours, also from Annette,
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


MAHLER
Dear,


Dear Stuart Burge,
I enclose a script called CHRISTOPHE.
Would you consider directing this for us?
I am thinking of a date next year, perhaps in
the autumn. If
found the script to your
taste we could bIOE a company to Nottingham
perhaps on a guarantee basis, or else start it
off in London.
You will see that the play calls for a
mainly dark cast but I visualise white actord
with pigmentation symbolised in some way.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
Stuart Burge Esg.,
Nottingham Playhouse,
Nottingham.


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WINCKWORTH & PEMBERTON
SOLICITORS
30, OLD QUEEN STREET.
(BY COCKPIT STEPS)
ADAM LEIGH PEMBERTON
MICHAEL H. PENN
STOREY'S GATE.
FRANK E. ROBSON
WESTMINSTER.
JOHN G. UNDERWOOD
LONDON SW1H 9HY
CONSULTANT
PETER WINCKWORTH
AND AS TROLLOPE & WINCKWORTH,
TELEPHONE
AT 19 BEAUMONT STREET, OXFORD.
(OXFORD 41974)
JGU/LMK
15th December 1972
Dear Mr Rowdon
Thank you for your letter of the 14th December and I
acknowledge receipt of your cheque for £85.
Yours sincerely
Smaliudinad
M Rowdon Esq
Portslade Productions Ltd
5 Tamworth Street
AK fort - - mshe
London SW6
far cansmue, K
al euanurou uit
hr 173


AUTHORS
Bolt
Watson LTD
AGENTS
8 Storey's Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-930 5378/9 Cables: Bandwag London SWI I
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
23rd November 1972
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
THE SPANISH TERROR
A quick round-up: Ober gave Harvey Ginsberg one last
chance with this, and Putnams are now out of the picture.
They are trying Scribner's next. Claire thinks we shall
probably have to refund the Putnams advance when another
sale is made.
Ben Glazebrook tells me he is waiting for a reply
from you to his letter of the 17th. Which is fairly
recent, so perhaps that's in hand?
Yours,
DLB/MYS
banl
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


THE ARTS COUNCIL OF GREAT BRITAIN
IOS Piccadilly, London, WIV OAU
TELEPHONE : 01-629 9495
TELEGRAMS: AMEC, LONDON, W.1
SNT/CG
CHAIRMAN: PATRICK GIBSON
15th December 1972
SECRETARY-GENERAL: SIR HUGH WILLATT
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of the 15th enclosing two copies of
A SONG OF THE EARTH, which sounds a very interesting project. I will
see what my committee think, and let you know in due course whether
we will recommend' "for a guarantee.
Yours sincerely,
Sua hle
Susan Tyler
Drama Officer
Maurice Rowdon,
Portslade Productions ltd.
5 Tamworth St.,


30 Old Qucen Ineel,
JGU/IMK
Mestminster, S. Wl.
27th November
Nicholas Kimber Esq
Vess - py Winckworth
di Pemberton
SOLICITORS
"Song of the Earth"
YTofsional Chargas relating to taking
your instructions in the matter of investment
in a production of "Song of the Earth", in
conjunction with Mr Maurice Rowden; including
taking your details instructions conferring with
Mr Rowden's solicitors; perusing the proposed
draft agreement; re-drafting the agreement;
attending you on your calling; corresponding
with Mr Rowden's solicitors; long conference
on the 15th August, and again on the 16th
August; sending you copies of the private
agreement, and the agreement between Mr
Rowden and Portslade Productions.
Dishursomonts:
Letters, Massengens, Jalyshones, ele.


SINT
Dear Mr Underwood,
I enclose a cheque for &85 as arranged with
Nicholas Kimber.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
John G. Underwood Esg
Winckworth and Pemberton
30 Old Queen Street
Storey's Gate,
Westminster,
London
SWIH 9HY


WINCKWORTH & PEMBERTON
SOLICITORS
30, OLD QUEEN STREET,
ADAM LEIGH PEN ME BI E F R1 TON
(BY COCKPIT STEPS)
MI AEL H. PENN
STOREY'S GATE.
FRANK E. ROBSON
JOHN G. UNDERWOOD
WESTMINSTER,
LONDON SW1H 9HY
CONSULTANT
PETER WINCKWORTH
AND AS TROLLOPE & WINCKWORTH,
TELEPHONE
AT 19 BEAUM ONT STREET, OXFORD.
(OXFORD 41974)
CALP/SU
16th August 1972.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
As arranged I enclose herewith two copies of the
private agreement with Mr. Kimber and the agreement
between yourself Mr. Kimber and Portslade Productions
Ltd.
As arranged I shall be grateful if you would kindly,
having read them, take your Solicitor's advice on the
amendments and either he or you should let me know
whether or not you agree so that the agreements may be
finally completed for signature.
I have at the same time sent copies to Mr. Kimber
for his approval and agreement.
Yours sincerely,
Alam hoyt lanhula
M. Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, SW6
Encs:


Dear Sir,
I wonder if you would credit
personal
joint account (M.S. and A.B. Fadstony number
90800740 with the enclosed cheque for £42.55.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A SONG OF THE EARTH
Dear Susan Tyler,
I enclose two copies of the above full-length
play which will open February I2 next year at the
Arts theatre Leicester Square, subject to finalis-
ation of contracts. We would like to apply for
an Arts Council guarantee against loss. It is a
first production, director Peter Watson, with
Vladek
playing Gustav lahler and Fenella
Fielding aphoybel Mahler, again pending agreement on
contracts. It will be a three-week run. The
play will be re-titled MAHLER,
My work has been guaranteed
the Arts Council
on two previous occasions, before bI formed my own
management.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A SONG OF THE EARTH
Dear Tony,
I enclose a copy of the above, as you asked.
The play will be re-titled MAHLER by the way.
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


DIAGHILEV
Dear lony Godwin,
I have just come back from my Diaghilev
mission in Cannes and Paris, and enclose the
research memo which we agreed I should do.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


THE FALL OF ECSTASY
WHEN THEY CEASED TO FAST


Prrible
Jil berott
Wanda
Rolta
Hamlitt CPali watso)
Pyd feale,


JILL BENNETT
18th May 1972
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Firstly, thank you very much indeed for sending
me "A SONG OF THE EARTH". I really liked it very much.
The problem is that I am unable to make a quick
decision because I am not certain of my commi tments
after "Hedda Gabler" and at the present time rehearsals
are extremely hectic and I've had little spare time,
so I am afraid it looks as if I won't be able to play
Alma. But thank you so much for thinking of me.
I also feel I must point out, as you must have
thought me very rude, that my agents did not tell me
either that Vladek Sheybal, whom I greatly admire,
was playing Gustav, or that you were in the process
of setting it all up at Edinburgh, and I was under the
impression that there was no urgency to make a
decision, otherwise I would have pointed out the
problem immediately. Please therefore accept my
apologies for the delay in replying to you.
Thank you once again for letting me read the
play.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Bernoly
Jidl


RETRN
Prypare Belesy tn Oichola
: Mayfsi huto chucltet L
Rn -
Spaninn -
Temr,
Snyr O te Eud a L Wwl


Portslade Productions Ltd.
Directors :
MAURICE ROWDON
5 Tamworth Street, London, S.W.6
NICHOLAS KIMBER
Malh
Ivesmeit 1500-p0s. IuV
uvile mieshine
Porducton compay
shous LiH Nan
7500-1200. à + srage
Rox Nunlu
loo7A


Porducto : coufeg uviles uvermal
f50s ous 1
sry hou ith ran
box Numl


Portslade Productions Ltd.
Directors :
5 Tamworth Street, London,
MAURICE ROWDON
NICHOLAS KIMBER
PRODUCTION
PLAN
MAHLER
INVES TM ENT
SCAHE:
loe %f
tlo, 000
lo 6


John de Lannoy
II The Aldwych
London
Dear John,
I enclose a cheque for &50 in consideration
of your inttial work on the MAHLER play.
Nearer to the opening date I shall be calling
on you for various services, and we shall review
these from the payment point of view as we go along.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Hancock,
Thank you for the telegram last week, and I
was sorry you were unable to come owing to the rail
strike.
I shall be out of England for a few days and
will contact you again as soon as I return.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


the
109A Regents Park Road, London, N.W1.
bouff
Telephone : 01-586 X0300
14th November, 1972
Maurice Rowdon,
Portslade Productions Ltd.,
5 Tamworth St.,
Dear Maurice,
re: "Mahler"
We have been having a big think about our policy
here from the New Year onwards.
What we have decided basically is that from 7 p.m.
to 11 p.m. we will be a catering operation with different
little things happening on various nights of the week.
At the same time, at around 11.30 each evening,
we shall present major attractions such as Martha
Shlamme, one-act plays etc. which will run for two or
three weeks or even longer.
This being the case, we shall be quite happy to
negotiate with you on the basis of "Mahler" filling
this late night spot, but I have a feeling that this is
not what you want. Perhaps you would be better with a
legitimate theatre for this particular production and
approach us with a late night revue or similar show.
Yours sincerely,
ROY GUEST


Portslade Productions Ltd.
Directors :
5 Tamworth Street, London, S.W.6
MAURICE ROWDON
NICHOLAS KIMBER
VLADEK SHEYBAL
Dear Roy,
I enclose two copies of a brief profile of
Vladek, together with a copy of a feature article
on him and one photograph.
I promised you two photographs but find that
the others are out. I shall cail these in and
let you have another as soon as possible.
I'm glad you enjoyed Vladek's songs and that
we agreed that you should take his tape of these
along with you and try them on a record company,
on the understanding of an option that will last
until December 22nd next.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Portslade Productions Ltd.
Directors :
5 Tamworth Street, London, S.W.6
MAURICE ROWDON
NICHOLAS KIMBER
VLADEK SHEYBAL
Vladek Sheyball gas already a star of the Warsaw
theatre when he came to this country twelve years ago,
and had won the Polish equivalent of the Oscar in his
twenties. He played a leading part in Wajd's famous
film CANAL. since then he has made something like
fifty films in the West, either feature or TV. He is
one of Ken Russell's favourite actors, and has appeared
in his Debussy as the lead (BBC/TV), in WOMEN IN LOVE
and THE BOYPRIEND (as Cecil B. de Thrill). Vladek has
been a producer at Granada Television, and directed a
number of shows for both the BBC ("Pagliacci") and Ind-
depent Tadevision. He has appeared on the London stage,
notably at the Hampstead Theatre Club. His other films
include To Russia with Love, Leo the Last where he co-
starred with Hastrolanni, Puppet on a Chain and current-
ly The Innocent Bystanders.
Vladek has had a chequered life. He spent part
of his youth in a German concentration camp, but managed
to escape the death chamber. Apart from Polish, he
speaks French, English and
He knows the Europ-
ean scene with an intimacy tantt: that
most important in
this kind of cabaret. He came to England penniless but
under Neville Cognhill's aebis started a drama school
at Oxford. Patrick Garland was among his pupils. He
gave Michael York his first acting part at the Bromley
Theatre Club which he ran for a time.
Altogether he has the panache and drive and
absolutely self-assured know-how to fill any hall in
Europe or the States.


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The motto of Giovanni di Averardo de' Medici's bank
was Col nome di Dio e di buon Ventura, 'in the name of God
and good fortune'---which could not expressed better both
the faith and the haunting doubt of the whole Renaissance
enterprise. It was in the name of both that he educated his
son Cosimo. As a young man Cosimo travelled throughout
Europe on 'ambassadorial' missions, and soon began to see that
he represented not only
TENASS
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Constable dos Company Limited
Constable Publishers
10 Orange Street
London WC2
Telephone: OI-930 080117
Telegrams: Dhagoba London WC2
Chairman do Managing Director:
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.
Benjamin Glazebrook
5 Tamworth Street,
Directors:
Grover, Noel Holland
London
RAA Holt, Miles Huddleston
Paul N Marks
17 November 1972
Dear Maurice,
I am indeed still in the lands of the living. I am glad to hear
that you would like to 'collate the MS. f of THE SPANISH TERROR finally
now - does this mean that you have re-written it, or parts of it? I ask,
because some while back, and before you sent in your revised first
chapters, I gave the typescript to a copy editor who has come up with a
great many stylistic and other suggestions. She may go beyond what you
are prepared to accept, but I think you ought to see what she has done.
She writes, "There is much good material in the book: I wish Mr Rowdon
had done more than"try and reconcile the religious fervour of the Spanish
(especially of the crown) with the atrocities committed in the name of
catholicism. It is an issue that has great relevance today, and it clearly
interests the author, especially in relation to Philip II. A few more
personal documents - letters, memoirs - would have been of immense
interest. Mr Rowdon implies that Charles V did not entirely endorse the
atrocities committed in Mexico and Peru by the inquisitional courts there,
but he does not go deeply into this. I wish he had done more to explore
the Spanish state of mind and, above all, motivation behind its empire-
building. Such exploration would have clothed the bare bones of history
with some flesh, which a book aimed at the general reader needs.'
She also writes, "(I do find) the book confusing at times. After care-
fully going through Chapter I, I am still not clear as to the state of actual
prosperity of Castile at the time of Ferdinand's and Isabella's marriage
and whe ther the wool-trade there was flourishing or whether it had been
completely taken over by the Genoese or not! Also, it takes some careful
reading to establish that Catalan empire-building in the fourteenth century
had been reduced to poverty and obscurity in the fifteenth. 11
So she obviously finds, as we do, that some further clarification is
necessary. Could we have a meeting very soon, and I will show you what
she has done? Then if you approve, broadly speaking, I will ask her to
get in touch with you. You may, of course, have done a great deal more
work on the typescript yourself.
Yours ever,
Beu
Dictated but not signed by
Mr Glazebrook


Room
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(Ner BBC)
hm 84
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33 Rose n.
Coveri Gdn
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Alusol Fres Thde
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cashe
TRAMVR
fer Inn
26 clue
Duk 2
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HEATING ENGINEERS
Directors :
G. MITCHELL & SONS, LTD.
G. MITCHELL, M.S.E.
L. MITCHELL
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GAS BOARD AND OIL COMPANY APPROVED
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Dear Hr. Rowden,
We would remind you that the balance of £436. 00. owed to us for
central heating work, is still outstanding. We regret that unless payment
is received withmtwenty-one days, we shall have to take legal advice
regarding this matter.
Yours sincerely,
lhel
G. Mit tchell


Re: 5 Tamworth Street S.W.6
Dear Mr Mitchell,
I have several times pointed out that the
plumbing and central heating work on the above
site has not been satisfactory, and in fact you
have come back several times to replace the
electrical appliances and thermostats, not to
mention the pump. But the matter is still
not finalised.
On several occasions this house has been
without water-supply this summer due to the
placing of the primary flow pipes from the
cistern. I have many times pointed out a
dangerous air-lock in the hot water system,
which we cannot accept and about which you
have done nothing, but this is a small matter
compared with the total cessation of cold
water whenever theshower is used with both
taps on. During my absence on the Continent
the supply has been off a number of times,
with resultant confusion for the tenant. It
is off again
for the secondtime since
my return. todevlifo You
understand that this kind
of thing could involve the Trust in consider-
able loss over and above what its has already
suffered.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Re: 5 Tamworth Street S.w.6.
Dear Mr Mitchell,
I have several times pointed out that the
plumbing and central heating work on the above
site has not been satisfactory, and in fact you
have come back several times to put it right.
But the matter is still not finalisede
On several occasions this house has been
without water-supply due to the placing of the
primary flow pipes from the cistern. I have
many times pointed out a dangerous air-lock in
the hot water system, but this is a small matt-
er compared to the total cessation of cold water
whenever the shower is used with both taps ons
During my absence on the Continent the supply
has been off a number of times, with resuitant
confusion to the tenant. You will understand
that this kind of thing could involve the Trust
in considerable losse
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
for G.B.FISCHER GENERAL TRUST


THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Ben,
Dennis Hamilton tells me he had the pleasure
of seeing you, so you must be alive. I have ex-
panded THE SPANISH TERROR even further, in the
interests of making its theme unassailable, though
the additions only amount to a few pages. I'm
sure you agree that it is important to get this
book right, as simply a rehash of other people's
history books is what nobody wants, and a book
like this which in some ways presents new ideas
has to be soundly supported. It takes a long
time to garner the right facts, but I think it is
done now. Iwould love to collate the MS fin-
ally.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


MAHLER
Dear Antony Howell,
We talked together this morning on the
possibility of bringing the above production
to the Global Village. This is a two-hander
on Gustav and Alma Mahler, with Vladek Sheybal
and Fenella Fielding, director Peter Watson.
I am looking for a three-week run round
about end January or all of February.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
PS I ought to point out that this production
would be a worid première.


Dear Mr Hancock,
Thank you for your letter of the 8th.
It would be a pleasure to see you when
you come up for
meeting on the 23rd.
I shall be here YOTE the morning expecting
you.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Hancock,
Thank you for your letter of the 8th.
I look forward bo seeing you here on
Thursday morning, 23rd November.


MAHLER
Dear Mr Wright,
I had a phone conversation with one of the
theatre staff on the above production and she
advised me to write to you. I am looking for
a theatre for early next year and would at least
like to be in the running for a three-week date
should one of your. productions fall through in
January or February. This is a two-hander on
Gustav and Alma Mahler, with Vladek Sheybal and
Fenella Fielding, director Peter Watson.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


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Osbarie Ame
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cl te fopr Wich auived
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Ku Nichda


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fab handoy 6#Nov
MM Era Neura th
Thober Y Hudon
Tuesday 7h November
Hia rougons SJ: VIEATT Berjer #8 Bosg*
ESTORGIA


Skyoule
39/40 Albemarle St. wil
837 SO9S
118 Kings Cnes Rd
Rox Travel


A. A. C. JACOBSEN, C. ENG. F.I.P.E.
TELEPHONE IVER 546.
NO 15, THE POYNINGS,
LONDON AREA DIAL 490.
IVER, BUCKS, SLO 9DS.
Ref : CMJ /2222/ROW.
1972 October 5th.
Maurice Rowdon Esq.
5, Tamworth Street,
London S. W. 6.
Dear Maurice,
You will recall that on June 12th we wrote to Mr. Klug
about Mr. Fischer. We do not need to take this any further, but as a matter
of courtesy I would like to write to Mr. Klug and say that the matter is closed,
if this is the case.
I have heard nothing further from the Engineering firm
controlling the corner site adjacent to the Church, and would like your confirm-
-ation that this matter can also be considered to be closed.
Lastly, you and I have had several discussions on the relativity
of a Theatre Centre to a Development. What is the next step you have in mind
for establishing a base ?
I am now on very good terms with Hillingdon and Amalgamated
Developers, and could probably get you a lease on nomInal: terms.
I have not seen Lucette recently. I met up with Mr. Tomsett
yesterday, and assume you are on an extended holiday and that you will be making
contact anyway.
Best personal regards,
- de yor up
Toy
Tony.


Deepdale Printing Co., Essex Street, Preston. Tel. 58902
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Forecast the total attendances at Association
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(4) Only forecasts shown on counter-
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1972 to count.
(5) The NABC Club Week Committee's
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(6) The result will appear in the
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Copies of result sheet can be obtained
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London, WC1B 3JJ
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF
BOYS' CLUBS
1972 Club Week Competition Rules
(1) The official figures provided by the
Football League only to count.
(2) The person forecasting the correct,
or nearest, attendances will be adjud-
ged the winner.
(3) If more than one person makes the
same winning forecast the NABC Club
Week Committee will decide how the
prizes shall be awarded.
(4) Only forecasts shown on counter-
foils: returned to local NABC organisers
by the first post on November 13th,
1972 to count.
(5) The NABC Club Week Committee's
decision in all matters shall be final.
(6) The result will appear in the
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on Monday, 11th December, 1972.
Copies of result sheet can be obtained
by sending s.a.e. to 17 Bedford Square,
London, WC1B 3JJ


061-432 Telephone 1611
NORRIS HEATON HILL FARM MOOR
STOCKPORT
CHESHIRE
SK4 3LN
2seplonla (972
Mr.Maurice Rowde,
S.Tamunth Shreet,
London.5.W-6
Deor Sir,
tink
all 4 must apdleyige -
not
lettor
for
neplying
Your
neply Ls
T sin mde danancial
Yrur
dalad 20"June e'Bochor
LE frr Bastricad Mrohuction.
g mmpoe
nou
Axny
ttol uo fully -
int
am atill mot sintorested un Jtha
theatre.


You munt striously Je in the
Sheahne fusinen and 8 a uondaed
f You Rad any other Mogets un
mind. g Rare endoed a stamped
addrered omalope Por your Pind
reply.
Your Pautlf.lly,
Hary Hancock.


ONVISYEWO
O D
Dear Mr Hancock,
Thank you for your letter of the 21st
September which by chance was not sent on
to me so that I read it only a few days ago
on my return to England.
Of course we are planning productions
all the time and if you would be interested
in investing two or three thousand pounds
and sharing the equity on a particular pro-
duction please let me know.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
ONVIBEVIWO


Dear David,
LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT
I delivered two copies of this to Yony Godwin
at Weidenfeld today. The deadline was actually
October 3Ist but they said take two or three more
days if you will, he being abroad until next week.
THE SPANISH TERROR
I forgot to tell you that I did send this to
Claire Smith at Harold Ober and she acknowledged
it. That would be about six weeks ago. May be
you have been in touch with each other on it.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT
Dear Tony Godwin,
Just to say that I delievered two copies of
the above to your secretary today.
The script is divided into three untitled
parts. It may well be that it will look better
divided into titled chapters but I thought I
would leave this until iater as it seems a design
matter,
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Peter Paul,
Annette sent you my little tape
and
now I am enclosing the playscript, which biesterdayi I
calling MAHLER. I have marked ail the places where
sound is geeded, from number I onwards. If possible
please send me one tape with all ths sounds in consec-
utive order, each one divided from the other by a
slight pause so that we can switch on and off on the
theatre equipment. We shall have excellent sound
equipment this end by the way.
Production will not be until February earliest,
due to difficulties here of getting the right theatre.
Please do not mention anything to Marina in any
letters you may write to her. Her mother is very
much opposed to this play, and I do not want to make
difficulties for her.
I am told that this play needs to be read 2 or 3
times for its value to emerge---I mean particularly
its rhythm.
Please let me know what your expenses are (studio
etc) before you incur them. We have very little money
but Ihope enough. I shall give you &50 to start with
then some more if the expenses are not high. I do
need this by the middle of January latest. Will you
please telegraph me at once if you do NOT want to do
it, or if you CANNOT do it.
Love to you both---does Eva still play her scales
up and down?


Dear Nicholas,
I was most sorry to hear yesterday that you have
been ill, and I do hope you are making a good recovery.
This letter is just in case I get a decision from
the Roundhouse in the next days for a date towards the
end of February. They seem to likethe idea of this
kind of play, I mean the Mahler, and with 700 seats we
could come away with £500-8800 a week in hand and all
expenses paid, on 60% capacity houses. It more and
more seems to me that to go into the Open Space and
lose definitely even if playing to capacity houses is
wrong, particularly since one can have a particular
kind of success which does not trensfer easily. The
"Space is by the way dark at the moment, as Maro-
oren quarrelled with Hailiwell and took his play off,
So we could have had this date after all. But perhaps
it is providential.
The Roundhouse will cost about E1200 a week, with
their production manager coordinating things, and back
of stage staff, FOH and full facilities. We supply
only our stage manager. We get a complete operating
theatre with enicellent sound equipment. I think I
will call the play MAHLER. They have a good many
concerts there as younknow, which is perhaps
they
feel it would be a good venue for this play. why like
the feel of the stage, and the auditorium can be arranged
for each production differently, so we can juggle with
the seating if the director feels he is losing intimacy.
A three-week run will therefore cost &3600 (gas,
electricity by the way all in),, and we have to foot the
designer's biil, and the actors' wages, the director
and so on on top of that. And publicity. I make a
total of &5000 for the whole run, rehearsals included,
if I squeeze hard on expenses; and £6000 for a prod-
uction without worries. At 60% capacity audiences
we get in £2520 a week (7 performances, two on Saturday
evenings), and thus come away each week with 82520
minus say E1700 or 82000, according to whether we invest
85000 or 86000.. If nohody came and we pulled out


after the first week we would still not lose as much
as we would on a successful run at the Open Space. I
am very reluctant not to translate success into money
especially on our first production, much as I like the
Open Space and Thelma, I think Fenella alone capable
of brining in more than I00 people a night.
all this rests you, by being a change from
your Lohbope, work.
May I therefore go ahead if "Roundhouse say 'come
in', and lay down the fist week's deposit of €1200.
Of course I need to discuss a lot both with them and
actors' agents, director etc before it cometo signing,
but I want to have your assent or otherwise first so
that I know what I am doing. I shall then leave the
huts and bolts of the contract to Jogn de Lannoy who
cannot be fooled on any theatrical business.
We need to build
further investment to £5000
or £6000 between now and February. A farmer Hancock
has written to me asking if we still have room for
development, and with your assent I shall write and
say this is possible. You and I would have to dis-
cuss how we arrange bringing in others. I imagine
with the kind of contract you were given on the venture
you were telling me about. I mean a simple share in
the production.
I shall send you another playscript by separate
cover called CHRISTOPHE. If you like it we can then
discuss plans for putting it on next year.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


PORTSLADE PRODUCTIONS LTD.
Barclays Bank Limited
STATEMENT
OF ACCOUNT
BROMPTON ROAD
THE SECRETARY,
PORTSLADE PRODUCTIONS LTD,
24 CASTLE ST
DIARY
EDINBURGH 2
POST
CUSTOMER'S NOTES
DETAIL
PAYMENTS
RECEIPTS
DATE
BALANCE
BALANCE FORWARD
21SEP
DIV DIVIDEND
STO STANDING ORDER
BGC BANK GIRO CREDIT
DDR DIRECT DEBIT
OVERDRAWN BALANCES ARE INDICATED BY THE LETTERS DR


22nd October 1972
A SONG OF THE EARTH
Dear Mr Jay,
Further to our telephone conversation this
morning I wonder if there is a chance of booking
your hall upstairs for some time in January 1973,
for a short run of the above two-hander play.
This is on the subject of Gustav and Alma Mahler,
who will be played by Vladek Sheybal and Fenella
Fielding. The director will be Peter Watson.
There will be a musical decor specially composed
by Peter Maxwell Davies.
The play calls for no complicated séts, or
changes of set. The hall would be most advantag-
eously used for this play in its whole length, with
the audience sitting as at present.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Re: 5 Tamworth Street S.W.6
Dear Sir,
Your letter of 29 August was forwarded to me on
the Continent, and I find your second letter of 19
September on my arrival here.
It appears that simultaneously with threatening
ourselves with legal proceedings (before presenting
us with a bill, or having specified the services rend-
ered), you are actually proceéding against the builder
Messrs Brimfield.
Now you surely cannot hold that two people are
responsible for paying one bill, and take proceedings
against both.
I saw the District Surveyor's letter to Mr Brim-
field explaining that ignorance of the law was no excuse
for infringement. But it would be impossible even for
a student of legal and constitutional history to carry
in his head even ten years of law. And you yourselves
have apparently not learned the law very well, since
tell Mir Brimfield in a letter that he must pay the 1Yu
if we do not agree to do so, and you tell us that we
must pay it if he does not agree to do so.
So what, Sir, is the situation? Does the law
contradict
or have you and the District Surveyor
failed to learn iateettro
I believe Mr Brimfield objects to paying because
work on this site was stopped
the District Surveyor
on the grounds that drawings aby the appropriate build-
specification had not been submitted. In fact Mr
SFE.FOSA had taken them to the District Surveyor's office
himself two to three weeks before. The documents were
found, and he was shown to be right. But by that time


he had had to call his men off this site, with some
loss to himself and a considerable loss to this Trust
of hundreds of pounds, as it turned out.
It seems to me that to present a bill long after
the job has been done, and without previous warning
(for one usually pays for services one contracts to
have) is a good way of keeping the courts busy. A
contractual document at the outset of operations
MEd help matters, and there should be some clarific-
atioh of the law as to who really is liable to pay.
I am, Sir,
Your Obedient Servant,
Maurice Rowdon
for G.B.FISCHER GENERAL TRUST


Greater London Council
Solicitor and Parliamentary Officer, H. F. W. Wilson
Legal and Parliamentary Department
20 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7SS
Please address any reply
to ROOM NUMBER 808D
Mr Rowden
5 Tamworth Street
or telephone 01-633 5156 or 5024
SW6
my reference LP/03/9300
your reference
Dear Sir,
LONDON BUILDING ACTS 1930/1939
SEP 1972
5 TAMWORTH STREET
Referring to my letter of 29 August 1972 to which I have not received a reply,
you will no doubt appreciate that this matter has been passed to me with the
view to legal proceedings being taken in order to recover the fees due to the
Council herein.
In the circums tances I shall be glad if you will let me have a remittance for
£11 at a very early date in order that this matter may be disposed of and the
need for such action by me obviated.
Yours faithfully,
tuilsaner
Solicitor and Parliamentary Officer


PORTSLADE PRODUCTIONS LTD.
Barclays Bank Limited
STATEMENT
OF ACCOUNT
BROMPTON ROAD
THE SECRETARY,
PORTSLADE PRODUCTIONS LTD,
24 CASTLE ST
DIARY
EDINBURGH 2
POST
CUSTOMER'S NOTES
DETAIL
PAYMENTS
RECEIPTS
DATE
BALANCE
BALANCE FORWAI RD
23AUG
Barclays Bank Limited
ADV
LIA
CREDIT
Poblade Paducders
account
3alc
Aoyed Snthon
DATE.
INITIALS
ald22
ACCOUNT NUMBER
DIV DIVIDEND
STO STANDING ORDER
BGC BANK GIRO CREDIT
DDR DIRECT DEBIT
OVERDRAWN BALANCES ARE INDICATED BY THE LETTERS DR


PORTSLADE PRODUCTS LTD
Barclays Bank Limited
STATEMENT
OF ACCOUNT
BROMPTON ROAD
CUSTOMER's NOTES
DETAIL
PAYMENTS
RECEIPTS
DATE
BALANCE
ADVICE ENCLOSED
DIV DIVIDEND
STO STANDING ORDER
BGC BANK GIRO CREDIT
DDR DIRECT DEBIT
OVERDRAWN BALANCES ARE INDICATED BY THE LETTERS DR


Your Ref; CHW/HGB
August 19th 1972
Dear Sir,
Herewith the Certificate of Registration and the
Articles of Association of the above company, to join
the other documents already lodged with you.
Yours faithfully,
Maurice Rowdon


BARCLAYS BANK LIMITED
BARCLAYS
Brompton Road Branch
137 Brompton Road, London, SW3 1QF
Telephone: 01-584 3621
CHW/HGB
16 August 1972
M.S. Rowdon, Esg.,
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON. S.W.5.
Dear Sir,
Further to our telephone conversation, we enclose
our Appointment of Bankers forms for your completion and
return to us.
We look forward to receiving these, together with
the Certificate of Incorporation and Memorandum and
Articles of Association in the near future.
Yours faithfully,
for BARCLAYS BANK LIMI TED
ASSISTANT MAN. AGER.
THE TO QUEEN'S INDUSTRY AWARD


Dear Sir,
Further to our telephone conversation of yesterday
and your letter ref CHW/HGB of 16 August, I wonder if
you would kindly hold the enclosed Memorandum of the
Company and the cheque for three thousand pounds made
out to the Company, until the arrival of the Certificate
of Incorporation, the Articles of Association and the
Appointment of Bankers form in a few days.
Yours faithfully,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dearest Thelma,
Herewith the script for Charles Marowitz. I think
it could be tremendously profitable for the theatre and
I'm sure we could come to some good participating arr-
angement. I intend a German and States tour, the two
artists know this. Gert Kalkenberg at Cologne television
will be sending over a crew, Jan de Bieck will be seeing
it, Echo productions in the States are keenly interested.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon
PS The, sound side will be composed new---Mahler 'thinking
towards' his music, perhaps electronically---no schmalzich
record excerpts.


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 4791 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
14th August, 1972
5 Tamworth Road,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
THE FALL OF VENICE
I'm sorry to say that Weidenfeld have run out
of steam on this one, and in the usual way propose
to sell off their remainder stock of 584 copies at
42p per copy. Before they do so, would you let me
know fairly quickly if you would like any copies
yourself at this price?
Yours,
DLB/BSH
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


LEON GLUCKMAN (LONDON) LIMITED
LYRIC THEATRE OFFICES 5 ARCHER STREET LONDON WIV 7HE
31st July 1972
Maurice Rowdon Esq. 9
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
I hope all goes well with your two
hander.
I found the enclosed on my shelves, and hasten to return it to
you.
Best wishes,
lon


PORTSLADE PRODUCTIONS
Dear Mrs Herbert,
I enclose the registration form for the above
company, with a cheque for S42.55.
I understand that the Company will be register-
ed at your address and that an annual fee of E10.50
will be charged to us foz this service. I also
understand that Company accounts must be sent to you
annually for filing.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


M A W ELLIS WARNE & CO
LJ.BENTLEY A.G.WARNE P.P.PARKER P.L.CROSSE A.N.HUNT 1.W.M.JOHN J.W.EVES
CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS
4 GRAYS INN SQUARE GRAYS INN LONDON . WCIR 5AU
TELEPHONE: O1-242 9593
TE L LE EG GI RAMS : SUBSALT LONDON w C
TELEX: 267687
YOUR REF.
OUR REF. 1486B/AGW/AA
27th July,1972
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5, Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of 26th July.
I shall be happy to see you next week before
your departure. Would 4.00 p.m. on Tuesday the
1st August be convenient to you ?
If I do not
hear I will expect you at that time; otherwise,
please telephone.
Thank you also for your suggestion that we
advise Mr. Sheybal; I will have a word with you
about this also when we meet.
Yours sincerely,
ARf * lee
Arthur G. Warne.


OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
SOLICITORS
PETER F. CARTER-RUCK
JOHN C. GOW
ESSEX HOUSE
JOHN L. KIRKCONEL
JOHN E. PAYNE
ESSEX STREET
GORD ON D. CALDWELL
STRAND
GEOFFREY L. WICKS
ANTHONY J.H. WICKENS
LONDON WC2R
PAUL R. DAVIES
3AQ
TIMOTHY J.L.COX
JULIE A.SCOTT-BAYFIELD
NICHOLAS N.J. SMITH
DAVID A.CRICK
HICKSOLOR LONDON w.C.2
PHILIP J.A.HAWKES
TELE EX 22533
ROY A.FURNESS
CELIA M.M.HUNTER
ANDAT
DOROTHY E.F. CLIFFORD
4 RUE D'ANJOU
PARIS VIII (ANJ1304)
31st July, 1972.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
Fulham,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Yourself and Miss Anna Mahler
Thank you for your letter of 26th July
with its enclosures.
Your letter struck just
the right note.
I enclose copy of John Murray's reply
to my letter of 21st July.
It might be useful if
you could recall any passage which you have quoted
verbatim.
I believe that you mentioned a letter
which you used for dialogue.
Could you please tell
me the subject matter so that I can trace it in the
book and compare it with your play.
I note that Mr. Murray uses the phrase
"text over which Miss Mahler has control" and am


uncertain whether this was deliberately vague
or a loose way of saying that she owns the
copyright.
I find it surprising that as
an experienced publisher, Mr. Murray does not
specifically claim that Miss Mahler owns the
copyright, if this is so. I have therefore
put the direct question to him.
Yours sincerely,
John E. Payne
Enclosure : 1.


JOHN MURRAY
50 Albemarle Street London W1X 4BD 01-493 4361
26 July 1972
Oswald Hickson, Collier & Co.
Essex House
Essex Street
Strand
London W.C.2R 3AQ.
Dear Sirs,
"The Song of the Earth" by Maurice Rowdon
Thank you for your letter of July 21.
We agree with much that you have said in your letter but
it might be possible for Mr Rowdon himself to make quite sure that
he has not quoted verbatim from text over which Miss Mahler has
control.
We are glad to hear that Mr Rowdon is writing direct to
Miss Mahler and we feel sure that direct communication is the best
and quickest means of solving the problem. It hardly seems necessary
that we should also communicate with Miss Mahler but we would certainly
do so if Mr Rowdon cannot solve the problem direct.
Yours sincerely,
John Murray (Publishers) Ltd: Jobn Murray, Kennetb Foster, Leslie. A. Miller, Simon Toung, Kennetb Pinnock, John R. Murray


OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
SOLICITORS
PETER F. CARTER-RUCK
JOHN C. GOW
ESSEX HOUSE
JOHN L. KIRKCONEL
JOHN E. PAYNE
ESSEX STREET
GORDON GEOFFREY D. L, CALDWELL WICKS
STRAND
ANTHONY PAUL R. DAVIES J.H. WICKENS
LONDON WC2R 3AQ
TIMOTHY J. L.COX
JULIE A.SCOTT-BAYFIELD
NICHOLAS N.J. SMITH
DAVID A. CRICK
HICI R LONDON w.C.2
PHILIP J. A.HAWKES
TELEX 22533
ROY A. FURNESS
CELIA M.M. HUNTER
ANDAT
DOROTHY E.F. CLIFFORD
4 RUE D'ANJOU
PARIS VIII (ANJ1304)
4th August, 1972.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
"A Song of the Earth"
Thank you for your letter of 1st
August.
As promised, I enclose copy of John
Murray's letter.
In these circumstances, I do
not think it is necessary for you to write to him.
It appears from Anna Mahler's reply
which you read to me on the telephone that she
objects to the theme of your play but does not
specifically allege infringement of copyright.
I should have thought that as you have specifically
raised the question of copyright, she would have
seized on this had there been the slightest
suggestion of infringement.


As I explained to you on the telephone,
there cannot be copyright in either incidents or
ideas.
Miss Mahler, or the owner of the copy-
right in her mother's book, would have to prove
that you had reproduced passages.
There may be
odd passages where you have either consciously or
unconsciously used material in the book; you
mentioned one of these in your letter.
therefore suggest that it might be a good idea
if you went through your play and the book and
made a list of any passages in which the texts
closely correspond.
As I have already indicated,
it would take me some time to prepare a
comparative analysis of the two books and could
cost you about £200. because of the time involved.
In my opinion, it is unnecessary for you to incur
that expense.
Even if there is no real ground to
support a claim for infringement of copyright, we
cannot prevent Miss Mahler from commencing
proceedings.
I suspect, however, that if she
consulted a reputable and knowledgeable solicitor,
she would be advised against commencement of
proceedings.
Assuming, however, that she did
issue proceedings, she could apply for an ex-parte
interim injunction.
When the injunction had been
served, you would have the opportunity of appearing
by Counsel a few dayst later to apply to have the
injunction lifted.
An ex-parte injunction would


not, however, be granted unless Miss Mahler
could produce prima facie evidence of infringement -
a mere bald assertion to that effect would be
insufficient.
She or her lawyers would have to
do their homework and show the judge some passages
in the two works.
If, however, an ex-parte injunction
were granted, we would apply to have it lifted.
At the same time, we would also apply for an
order that Miss Mahler should pay into court such
sum as the judge might order by way of security
for costs.
A defendant is entitled to apply
for such an order against a plaintiff who resides
outside the jurisdiction of the English court.
Although the result of litigation can
never be predicted with any certainty and legal
advice is, to some extent, bound to be subjective,
I consider that it is a reasonable commercial risk
to produce your play without fear of an injunction
restraining you from doing so.
If you have any
further queries, please do not hesitate to let me
know.
Yours sincerely,
John E. Payne
Enclosures :


JOHN MURRAY
50 Albemarle Street London W1X 4BD 01-493 4861
Our ref: JGM/fg
Your ref: JP/VH
1 August 1972
Messrs. Oswald,Hickson, Collier & Co.,
Essex House,
Essex Street,
Strand,
London, WC2R 3AQ.
Dear Sirs,
"The Song of the Earth"
by Maurice Rowdon
Thank you for your letter of July 31. In answer to the
query in your last sentence, we did mention that in the course of
publishing "Mahler: Life and Letters" we have reason to believe
that the Mahler copyrights rest with Miss Anna Mahler, although
the copyright of the editorial matter rests with Donald Mitchell.
Yours faithfully,
No ach ueeded
John Murray (Publishers) Ltd: Jobn Murray, Kennetb Foster, Leslie A. Miller, Simon Young Kennetb Pinnock, John R. Murray


BBC tv
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
KENSINGTON HOUSE RICHMOND WAY LONDON W14
TELEPHONE 01-743 1272 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
21st July 1972.
Dear Maurice,
As my office was fast disappearing under
heaps of paper, I had a mammoth clearing-up
session to-day, including of course masses of
paperwork to do with 11 The Fall of Venice"
which I've moved about with me for the past
two years!
I've kept, of course, a couple
of copies of everything for the records, and
thought perhaps you might like the enclosed -
if you don't already have them that is.
However, if they're of no use to you, please
throw them out as I've plenty for the records
here now.
I do hope you're both well.
No doubt
you're in Italy at this precise time i I
tried to telephone you before sending this
all off in case you didn't want it, but there
was no reply.
I do hope the weather is being
kind and that you're both having something of
a rest.
I go filming in Florence for the
Henry Moore Exhibition from the 21st to 31st
August.
If you were there at all, I'm staying
at the Continental.
If not, I may get the
chance to telephone your Italian home as I seem
to remember it was quite near Florence - I might
even get out to see you!
(Always assuming you
don't mind that is).
Best wishes,
Ana


Bolt 86 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 4791 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
1st August, 1972
5 Tamworth Road,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
THE SPANISH TERROR
Well, well, clearly a case of angels fearing
to tread! Ben Glazebrook has sent me a copy of his
letter of the 31st July to you together with an unexpected
cheque for £200, and here is ours.
Well done you! Tnis
really is one of those cases where the author can do what
the agent really cannot.
I hope your letter to Harvey Ginsberg is as
effective!
Yours ever,
au a
DLB/BSH
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


Bolt 86 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 4791 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
Maurice Rowdon Esq., 9
1st August, 1972
5 Tamworth Road,
London, S.W.6.
Dear
hamiee
I am enclosing our cheque for £180.00 made up
as follows. Please let me know immediately if it does
not agree with your records.
Received from:
CONSTABLE PUBLISHERS
Balance of advance due
on publication re:
THE SPANISH TERROR
Less Commission 10%
Yours,
DLB/BSH:encl.cheque
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss Lorsamage thereto


THE VENICE IN PERIL FUND
(The British Committee for the Preservation of Venice)
18 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE LONDON SW1
TELEPHONE 01 930 2591 and 01 930 4575
PERIL
July 27th, 1972
CHAIRMAN
The Viscount Norwich
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
VICE-CHAIRMEN
Thenk you very much for your letter of
Sir Ashley Clarke
The Lady Thorneycroft
July I9th, giving permission for an extract from THE FALL
HON. TREASURER
R. H. Grierson, Esq.
OF VENICE for a Venice In Peril Fund anthology.
HON. SECRETARY
Mrs Humphrey Brooke
We are most grateful for your assistance
EXECUTIVE Robin Allen, COMMITTEE Esq.
and will make ell the due acknowledgements.
Lady Clarke
Mme B. Daudy
Yours sincerely,
The Duke of Grafton
D. Mack Smith, Esq.
J. Allan Pearce, Esq.
Eipaleth
Nufiruha
John Pope-Hennessy, Esq.
Denys Sutton, Esq.
Elizabeth MacFerquhar,
G. S. Tucker, Esq.
HON. MEMBER
Perk Cottage,
Professor John McAndrew
Minstead,
Lyndhurst,
Hampshire.


Constable do Company Limited
Constable Publishers
I0 Orange Street
London WC2H7EG
Telepbone: O1-930 080117
Telegrams: Dhagoba London WC2
Chairman es Managing Director:
Benjamin Glazebrook
Maurice Rowdon, Esq. 7
Directors:
5 Tamworth Street,
Noel Holland
London S. W.6.
RAA Holt, Miles Huddleston
The Hon. Jobn Jolliffe
Paul N. Marks
24 July 1972
Sca Aiaune
THE SPANISH TERROR
No, I did not mean to suggest that we should have no illustrations;
I think we should have at least twelve. These to be in addition to maps
and genealogies.
Uuk


OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
SOLICITORS
PETER F. CARTER-RUCK
ESSEX HOUSE
JOHN C. GOW
JOHN L. KIRKCONEL
ESSEX STREET
JOHN E. PAYNE
CHA RLI ES E. MILLS
STRAND
GORDON D. CALDWELL
GARETH H. H. GOLBY
LONDON WC2R 3AQ
GEOFFREY L. WICKS
ANTHONY J. H. WICKENS
PAUL R. DAVIES
TIMOTHY J.L. COx
(10 LINES)
JULIE A. SCOTT-BAYFIELD
HICKSOLOR LONDON w.c.2
NICHOLAS N.J. SMITH
TELEX 22533
DAVID A. CRICK
PHILIP J. A.HAWKES
ANDAT
ROY A. FURNESS
4RUE D'ANJOU
CELIA M. M. HUNTER
VIII
DOROTHY E. F. CLIFFORD
PARIS (ANJ 1304)
12th June, 1972.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Yourself and Miss Anna
Mahler
I enclose copy of my self-explanatory
letter to John Murray and will let you know when
I have received his reply.
I should, of course, be grateful if
you would please notify me if you receive any
correspondence from Miss Mahler.
I confirm my oral advice that there
are circumstances in which a dramatic adaptàtion
of a book can constitute an infringement of
copyright even if the former does not reproduce


a single sentence from the latter. My
tentative opinion is that although the play
inevitably mentions incidents referred to in
Frau Mahler's biography, there does not appear
to be an infringement of copyright.
From my
reading of your play and a superficial perusal
of some of the passages in the book, it seems
to me that you and Frau Mahler treat the
subject differently.
If, however, it transpires
that there are a substantial number of passages
in your play which closely correspond with
passages in the book, it may be necessary to
make some textual alterations.
Yours sincerely,
John E. Payne
Enclosure : 1.


COPY
OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
ESSEX HOUSE,
ESSEX STREET,
STRAND, LONDON,
WC2R 3AQ
JGM/fg.
12th June, 1972.
PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL
John Murray, Esq.,
50 Albemarle Street,
London,
W1X 4BD.
Dear Sir,
"The Song of the Earth"
by Maurice Rowdon
Mr. Maurice Rowdon has consulted us
about your letter of 7th June.
He is surprised at and regrets to
learn of Miss Mahler's distress. He hes known
the Mahler family for some years and, as an act
of courtesy, Mr. Rowdon sent Miss Mahler a copy
of his play. He has received from Miss Mahler
no comments on his play apart from a cable in
which she expressed strong disapproval.


COPY
OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
ESSEX HOUSE,
ESSEX STREET,
STRAND, LONDON,
WC2R 3AQ
In order that we may advise Mr.
Rowdon, we should be grateful if you or Miss
Mahler would please indicate in what respects
it is suggested that "The Song of the Earth"
infringes the copyright of "Mahler: Memories
and Letters".
Yours faithfully,


OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
SOLICITORS
PETER F. CARTER-RUCK
ESSEX
JOHN C. GOW
HOUSE
JOHN L. KIRKCONEL
ESSEX STREET
JOHN E. PAYNE
CHARLES E. MILLS
STRAND
GORDON D. CALDWELL
GARETH H. H. GOLBY
LONDON WC2R 3AQ
GEOFFREY L. WICKS
ANTHONY J. H. WICKENS
PAUL R. DAVIES
TIMOTHY J. L. COX
JULIE A. SCOTT-BAYFIELD
HICKSOLOR LONDON w.C.2
Michael
NICHOLAS
Audsm,
N.J. SMITH
TELEX 22533
DAVID A. CRICK
PHILIP J. A. HAWKES
ANDAT
ROY A. FURNESS
CELIA M. M. HUNTER
4RUE D'ANJOU
DOROTHY E. F. CLIFFORD
PARIS VIII (ANJ1304)
20th June, 1972.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Yourself and Miss Anna
Mahler
I enclose copies of John Murray's
reply to my letter and of my rejoinder.
As the preparation of a comparative
analysis for two works will be a heavy and
expensive undertaking, I do not think it
reasonable that you should incur the fees
involved which could be in the region of 200 or
300 guineas.
This may ultimately be necessary
but I wish to test whether Miss Mahler is willing
to substantiate her complaint or is merely
stretching a bow at a venture.
Yours sincerely,
John E. Payne
Enclosures : 2.


JOHN MURRAY
50 Albemarle Street London W1X 4BD 01-493 4361
JGM/fg
14 June 1972
Your ref: JP/VH
Messrs. Oswald Hickson, Collier & Co.,
Essex House,
Essex Street,
Strand,
London, WC2R 3AQ.
Dear Sirs,
"The Song of the Earth"
by Maurice Rowdon
Thank you for your letter JP/VH of 12 June.
Unfortunately we know little more than yourselves about
Miss Mahler's reascns for asking us to write to Mr. Rowdon.
We have written to her for more information but meanwhile
it might save time for Mr. Rowdon and yourselves to check whether or
not the question of copyright is involved.
as far as we Can
We would be glad to assist/in solving the problem which
appears to have arisen.
Yours faithfully,
John Murray (Publishers) Ltd: Jobn Murray, Kennetb Foster, Leslie A. Miller, Simon Young, Kennetb Pinnock, John R. Murray


COPY
OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
ESSEX HOUSE,
ESSEX STREET,
STRAND, LONDON,
WC2R 3AQ
JGM/fg.
20th June, 1972.
John Murray, Esq.,
50 Albemarle Street,
London,
W1X 4BD.
Dear Sir,
"The Song of the Earth"
by Maurice Rowdon
Thank you for your letter of 14th
June.
The suggestion in its third paragraph
might save time but would also involve Mr. Rowdon
in considerable expense in the compilation of a
comparative analysis of his play and Alma Mahler's
biography of her husband.
If Miss Mahler is
claiming that there has been an infringement of
copyright, surely she should have some idea of
the passages constituting the alleged infringement.
There must, of course, inevitably be incidents in
the life of Gustave Mahler which are dealt with in
both works.
"The Song of the Earth" is a product
of our Client's own independent labour.


COPY
OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
ESSEX HOUSE,
ESSEX STREET,
STRAND, LONDON,
WC2R 3AQ
If Miss Mahler would indicate the
passages in her mother's book which she considers
have been infringed by our Client's play, we will
be better able to consider and advise Mr. Rowdon
on the complaint.
We welcome and thank you for your
courteous offer of assistance.
Yours faithfully,


COPY.
OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.,
ESSEX HOUSE,
ESSEX STREET,
STRAND, LONDON,
WC2R. 3AA
JP/MK
21st July 1972.
John G. Murray Esq.,
50 Albemarle Street,
London. WIX 4BD.
Dear Sir,
"The Song of the Earth"
by Maurice Rowdon
We have now had an opportunity of discussing
your letter of 5th July with our client.
as Miss. Mahler suggests that certain passages
in our client's play had been taken verbatim from her
mother's book, we should have thought that she could
indicate some of the rellevant passages.
If you could ask her to do this and we are
satisfied that there are infringements, we will edvise
our: client to make the necessary alterations.
We hope that you will explain to Miss. Mahler
that a mere assertion of infringement of copyright,
without specifying any of the passages allegedly in-
fringed, it cannot be taken seriously.
You can aseure Miss. Mahler that if there are
any passages to which. she specifically objects, our
client will sympatheticslly consider her objections
and, of course, alter any pasanges which we advise
could constitute infringement.
cont.


Mr. Rowdon is himself writing to
Miss. Mahler.
cours faithfully,


OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
SOLICITORS
PETER F. CARTER-RUCK
ESSEX HOUSE
JOHN C. GOW
JOHN L. KIRKCONEL
ESSEX STREET
JOHN E. PAYNE
GORDON D. CALDWELL
STRAND
GEOFFREY L. WICKS
ANTHONY J.H. WICKENS
LONDON WC2R 3AQ
PAUL R. DAVIES
TIMOTHY J.L.COX
JULIE A.SCOTT-BAYFIELD
NICHOLAS N.J. SMITH
HICKSOLOR LONDON w.C.2
DAVID A.CRICK
TELEX 22533
PHILIP J.A.HAWKES
ROY A. .FURNESS
AND AT
CELIA M.M.HUNTER
DOROTHY E. F. CLIFFORD
4RUE D'ANJOU
PARIS VIII (ANJ 1304)
JP/MK
21st July 1972.
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S. W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Yourself and Miss. Anna Mahler
I enclose a copy of my self explanatory letter to
John Murray.
Could you please send me a copy of the letter which
you have written to Miss. Mahler.
Yours sincerely,
John E. Payne
Enc: 1.


OSWALD HICKSON, COLLIER & CO.
SOLICITORS
PETER F. CARTER-RUCK
ESSEX HOUSE
JOHN C. GOW
JOHN L. KIRKCONEL
ESSEX STREET
JOHN E. PAYNE
GORDON D. CALDWELL
STRAND
GEOFFREY L. WICKS
ANTHONY J.H. WICKENS
LONDON WC2R 3AQ
PAUL R. DAVIES
TIMOTHY J.L.COX
NICHOLAS N.J. SMITH
JULIE A.SCOTT-BAYFIELD
HICKSOLOR LONDON
DAVID A.CRICK
TELEX 22533
PHILIP J. A. HAWKES
ROY A. FURNESS
CELIA M.M. HUNTER
ANDAT
DOROTHY E. F. CLIFFORD
4 RUE D'ANJOU
PARIS VIII (ANJ 1304)
MH/KC
28th July 1972
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Following our meeting last Friday, I now enclose
two copies of an agreement between you, Mr. Kimber, and
the proposed company 9 and also a subsiduary agreement
between you and Mr. Kimber, which no doubt you will
consider and discuss with Mr. Kimber.
I am sending a copy of the agreements to Mrs. Scott-
Bayfield, and if she has any comments, or feels that
further items should be included, I will let you know.
Meanwhile, if you would like to discuss the drafts with
me, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
ladou :
M. Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.


G. P. PUTNAMS SONS
200 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016
Mr. Maurice Rowdon
5 Tamworth Street
London S.W. 6
England
Dear Mr. Rowd an:
I have now had a chance to make fair progress with your revised
version of THE SPANISH TERROR which I am returning to you herewith.
While the present version is certainly a good deal more organized
and coherent than the previous one, I'm afraid it's still a bit too
much "all over the lot" for me to think this is a book we should
take on. Quite frankly, in addition, the writing does not seem
strong enough for the book to gain much attention. I have anno-
tated the pages of the first chapter fairly heavily but did not
feel free to continue marking up your manuscript. I hope the
notation may illustrate more precisely what I am saying in this
letter. Some special comment might be made about the inordinately
large number of sentences that begin with "it was" or the equivalent
thereof. The repetition of such sentences makes for both loose
writing and dull, inexact reading. Should you want to try another
go around I would be happy to consider the attempt but I'm sorry
to say that I find the present version still unacceptable.
Sincerely yours,
Harvey Ginsberg
Senior Editor
HG/nm


THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Ben,
It was good of you to revise the contract for this
book, and I enclose it with the new clause 5 (f) initialled.
I aon't fecl hard done by but the book was under-
financed, which caused trouble from the beginning. There
was no way of foreseeing this at the time of signa ture-
I thought it would be a quick and straightforwerd job.
To compare with the kind of figures I work in, last week
I signed a contract with an advance of 81500 on the British
side alone, for a 65-000 word book stipulated on contract
to involve 2-3 months work only. Please note I am not
blaming you for preparing a contract I was in full agreement
with at the time. I did send my agent an SOS for more
money when I was half-way through the book but apparently
he dian't pass it on either to you or Putnam's. Or perhaps
he did. From thon on it was a natter of me financing it
with other wozk, not the best way of writing a book like
this.
Thank you again for revising the contract.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon
PS To be realistic I don't thitk more money half way
through would ave got the book home any sooner, It
probably had to go through an unthinkable first version.


a A Song of the Earth -
Dear Mr Payne,
Thank you for your letter of 31st July, with
enclosure.
The speech I was thinking of---virtually a paraphrase
of part of one of Gustav's letters to Alma--is on P.35 of
my playscript and begins, 'You know, they just don't und er-
stand...' The actual paraphrase begins, I think, with the
words, 'What could they make...? To me it sticks out like
a sore thumb and I have always wanted to revise it.
How it would be possible for a writer to keep to the
dramatic line of his dialogue while lifting whole passages
out of someone else's book I don't know! Perhaps she
doesn't either.
I enclose a letter of mine to John Murray which is
self-explanstory. With another publisher in the field
he might come clean more readily.
Youns sincerely,
Haurice Rowdon


Constable do Company Limited
Constable Publishers
I0 Orange Street
London WC2
Telepbone: O1-930 080117
Telegrams: Dhagoba London WC2
Chairman do Managing Director:
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
Benjamin Glazebrook
Directors:
5 Tamworth Street,
DF Grover, Noel. Holland
London S. W.6.
RAA Holt, Miles Huddleston
Paul N Marks
31 July 1972
Jea Marce
THE SPANISH TERROR
In view of the fact that our original offer for the British and
Commonwealth rights was an advance of £500, and you have already
had £550, the allegation in the last paragraph of your letter of the
29th that we are "starving you to death" looks a bit melodramatic. j -
The point of paying an extra £250 if an American publisher were found
was that we would have been able to arrange a co-production and thus
cut our costs. After Putnam backed out this was no longer possible
(but they may not have come to a decision yet about the revised
version).
Anyway, I agree to revising the contract SO that the advance
clause reads 'A sum of £750 (seven hundred and fifty pounds), £550
(five hundred and fifty pounds) of which has already been paid and
£200 (two hundred pounds) of which is payable on delivery.' Would
you please initial clause 5 f) of our copy of the contract, and return
it to me, and I also enclose a copy of the revised clause, which I
have initialled, for you to stick over your copy of the contract.
From England and America you will now have received over a
thousand pounds, SO I hope you don't feel too hard done by.
limms Gh
BfL
f) A sum of £750 (seven hundred and fifty pounds), £550 (five hundred
and fifty pounds) of which has already been paid and £200 (two hundred
pounds) of which is payable on delivery.
Bley


THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Ben,
I ought to have written to you about this
myself but left it to David Bolt as it is a
money matter. You wrote me (January 18 1970)
that you would let me have the rest of the
advance on delivery of manuscript. You even
offered me part of it after we had agreed that
the book needed redoing. what has come unstuck
since? I hope it isn't your confidence. A
book is all the better for being tough to write.
It still needs a final touch, and rewriting in
the opening pages, but that is no reason for
starving me to death.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Mr Ginsberg,
As you may know, Constable seem very happy with
this book. I have now had a chance of examining your
comments and I agree that stylistically there is some
ironing out to be done. I think too that your comments
would be taken of care of by this alone.
To take a few examples, one has to go on talking
about Catalonia as a separate province because its ad-
ministrative machinery remained separate after absorp-
tion into Aragon. You delete 'independent' in the
phrase 'independent Navarre' but this state was quite
indepehdent of the rest of Spain. There seems to me
no contzadiction between saying that a concentrated
wool industry was rendering Castile 'barren rock' and
saying that the industry was very prosperous. I
never say that the humanists were not nationalistic,
as you suggest, though at the same time that is not the
word I would use about them: I do say that they advanced
the idea of a united Italy, a united Spain.
This was
not the same as what Henry V111 and Luther were advocat-
ing: here the word nationalisi dbes apply. You ask
did the Church sanction 'five wives' but of course con-
cubinage is as old as the Church.
Sixtus 1V's nephews
were probably the bastard sons of a friar. The wives
of my narrative simply needed quotes.
That the reader doesn't at once understand is my
fault and not yours, but nearly all your criticisms are
of this textual nature. I am sure you will agree that
though the first chapter is difficult, because so many
different problems have to be put to the reader, the
rest of the book is now a smooth and continuous narrative.
Alsc the book breaks a lot of new ground, which
makes for tough writing in the first draft. I feel
that the basic themes---i) that really Christendom never
achieved a civilisation and ii) that the modern age which
began in the sixteenth century was (and is) necessarily
a failure becanse of the insoluble problems on which it
was basedi (violence being the source and not a side-
effect of its organisation)---should be brought out clearly
in the first pages instead of being allowed to simply
evolve in the course of the narrative.


The impact of the book does depend on the opening
chapter. Naturally it is the most difficult to write
because not only does the new ground have to be suggested
but the reader has to be introduced to the old. Can I
convince you that this entirely a stylistic matter,
apart perhaps from a few new introductory passages?
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 6975 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
27th July, 1972
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
THE SPANISH TERROR
I duly wrote to Ben Glazebrook asking if he would
pay the balance of the advance, as I understood he had
agreed (with you) to do this: he tells me that he thinks
I've probably forgotten the terms of our contract, and
in a nutshell wants to wait until we've had a word from
Putnams on the revised version before paying out any more
money.
Needless to say I had already checked the contract
carefully and if we stick to the letter of this you have had
£50 more than is due to you, even if we include what is due
on publication. What you were actually due for was £300 on
signature, which was paid, and £200 due on publication I they
actually paid £250 - and another £250 on signature of an
American agreement. Nice point, because technically the
American agreement was signed in September 1969. But we
both know that all is not well at Putnams.
Do we leave it for the time being? Honestly
Maurice, I think we will have to.
Yours,
DLB/BSH
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


Song of the Earth'
Dear My Payne,
Thank you for your letter of the 21st.
I enclose as you requested a copy of
my letterto Miss Anna Mahler, together with
the registered slip.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Warne,
I am sorry you had the bother of my Financial
Times advertisement recently. As you predicted,
my agent could manage it adequately, and the results
were fruitful.
I would be grateful to review my situation with
you, since my visits to England are now more than
brief 'co onsultations', and I may within days be start-
ing a production company here,
Secondly, the film actor Vladek Sheybal with
whom I have worked extensively, and who feels that
his tax affairs are not in the right hands, would
very much like to seek your advice. If you are
willing to give him a consultation you may wish to
contact him at his address:
Vladek Sheybal
Stanley House
Farm Lane
London
would it be possible for me to see you this
coming week, since I shall be leaving England again
the week after that?
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Ben,
Thank you for your letter of 19 July
which was something ofa relief.
You mention maps and genealogies, does
this mean you will not need a list of suge-
ested illustrations? I did prepare one.
I am back for about a couple of weeks.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear David,
Thank you for your letter of the 20th. I
enclose the LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT contract duly
signed and initialled.
Ben Glazebrook agreed
letter to me last
year to pay me the rest of M2l SPANISH TERROR advance
bn acceptance. The time has therefore come to
pick up the remaining---I think---6200. I am
writing to him today on illustrations etc but not
moneyo
As to the letter you have from Harvey Ginsberg
this is hot his rejection letter on the new version
of this year. But I amgine it makes no odds to the
issue.
Yes, indeed, the Financial Times advertisement
was most fruitfui, and many thanks for your part
in it.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 6975 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
20th July 1972
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
LORENZO THE MAGNIFICENT
Here is the contract signed by Weidenfeld for you to
keep; together with the usual copy for your approval,
signature and return to us for the publishers. Actually,
I think we've come out quite well over this!
I find I do have the letter Harvey Ginsberg wrote to
you on May 6th 1971 (sorry if you've been searching for it).
I think the best thing is for me to write through Ober with
the Constable news, give Harvey another chance to reconsider,
and if he's adamant, let Ober disentangle the contract and
try elsewhere on their side.
Obviously we want an American to come in on coproduction
if possible, and soon.
Any luck with a backer for the stage production?
Yours aye 9
a d
DLB/MYS
as they
herselanse 4(6)
rs. Pieasesipn
have done. L.
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
Casa Campardi,
53037 San Gimignano,
(Siena)
ITALY.
19 July 1972
Stn Mamier
Ido apologise for being so long in writing to you about THE
SPANISH TÉRROR. There is no doubt that it is very greatly improved
in its new version, and I can now confirm that we would like to
publish. Iam sure you have ideas about maps and genealogical trees,
both of which will greatly help the reader to follow your narrative,
and perhaps you could send me a list of what you suggest in due course.
I still have reservations about specific passages, but nothing that can't
be ironed out. The main thing is that the narrative is much tighter
now and most of your sentences hold a full charge of meaning, which
seemed to me maddeningly absent in the first version.
Iexpect you are in the Tuscan hills, but I am sending a copy
of this letter to your London address as well, just in case you are not.
All being well, we would hope to publish next April or May.
Cc: Mr David Bolt
London Address V


POLYDOR LTD
17/19 Stratford Place
London, W1N OBL
M. Rowdon, Esq.,
5, Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.
10th July 1972.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
A Song of the Earth
Thank you for your letter of 4th July 1972. I am pleased to hear
that you have obtained the financial support you needed for your
production.
I am afraid we have no studio facilities available and therefore
cannot help in this form of collaboration. All our major recording
projects are undertaken in Germany, and if we do record here we
have to hire a hall and bring in equipment. I am sorry we cannot
help you.
Yours sincerely,
PETER RUSSELL,
Classical Marketing Manager.
Telephone: 01-499 8686
Telegrams & Cables: Polydor, London, W.1.
Telex: 27133 Polydor (Ldn.)
Managing Director: John Fruin
Directors: Peter Erdmann (German)
Steve Gottlieb
Werner Vogelsang (German)


Gilbart Prizewinner in Banking
"Brooklands",
Friars Close,
Ref. LA/97
Shenfield,
Brentwood, Essex.
Tel: Brentwood 352
M. Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
11 July, 1972
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of the 28th June.
As a financial practitioner the main point in my writing to you was to
judge whether I could be of assistance in securing the finance you need
and in this connection I wonder whether you would also consider the
possibility of straightforward loan monies. In any case perhaps you
would let me have sight of your latest Accounts, together with the
following information:-
the age and experience of your management;
whether any security could be provided to
cover the finance you need; and
the name and address of your bankers.
Perhaps you would also let me know the total amount you require.
Yours sincerely,
ACoC


A. A. C. JACOBSEN, C. ENG. F.I.P.E.
TELEPHONE IVER 546.
NO 15, THE POYNINGS.
LONDON AREA DIAL 490.
IVER, BUCKS, SLO 9DS.
Ref : CMJ /2085 /ROW.
1972 July 17th.
Maurice Rowdon Esq.
5, Tamworth Street,
London S. W. 6.
Dear Maurice,
We shall be on the continent from July 26th to about August 12th.
If there is anything urgent outstanding, perhaps you would give
me a ring.
Best personal regards,
Tony Jacobsen.


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 4791 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
12th July, 1972
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
THE FALL OF VENICE
Here's a batch of correspondence from Weidenfeld
and The Venice in Peril fund which I opened in case we could
deal. In fact I'm sure you'll want to let them have the
use of these extracts for free, but as you'll be back soon
I thought you'd like to deal yourself.
I'm sending the contract off to Weidenfeld today
for the LORENZO book.
Yours,
Phr A
DLB/BSH:encl.
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


VENICE IN PERIL FUND
Dear Miss MacFarquhar,
I have just received your letter of June
21st and a letter from Messrs Weidenfeld with
your request to use an excerpt from my book
THE FALL OF VENICE for a Venice In Beril anth-
ology.
I would be most happy for younto use the
extract you mention free of charge and I wish
your project every success.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


THE VENICE IN PERIL FUND
(The British Committee for the Preservation of Venice)
18 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE LONDON SW1
TELEPHONE 01 930 2591 and 01 930 4575
PERIL
CHAIRMAN
The Viscount Norwich
VICE-CHAIRMEN
Dear nr. Rowdon,
Sir Ashley Clarke
- Ceen
The Lady Thorneycroft
Reunlly 1 eave
HON. TREASURER
R. H. Grierson, Esq.
edibor
askad bo oct
HON.
lonorary
SECRETARY
Mrs Humphrey Brooke
EXECUTIVE
nthology
COMMITTEE
tor
comfiling
Robin Allen, Esq.
Lady Clarke
Keril Fund. We lofe
Mme B. Daudy
Verice
The Duke of Grafton
- bilubions
D. Mack Smith, Esq.
include
unluntong
J. Allan Pearce, Esq.
John Pope-Hennessy, Esq.
temporarg unters o Venica,
Denys Sutton, Esq.
G. S. Tucker, Esq.
frm
We slmuldl be most
HON. MEMBER
Professor John McAndrew
afpreciative, 4 yon were willing tor
cr sechon
bo refrroduce
trom
book "The fall Vemnice" -o
Trop 132 at lle begin ning st tchafti
6o Page 137 Line 8 n fennd
pegaatim
We slirula
ahe
Clu clue achnowlatge
Yours sincarely.
laefarmuha
Engalett
Pleare reflyb Miss E. naforpbo
Park loltage,
Minstiad,
Aynlhunt
Hamfilie.


THE VENICE IN PERIL FUND
(The British Committee for the Preservation of Venice)
18 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE LONDON SW1
TELEPHONE 01 930 2591 and 01 930 4575
PERIL
CHAIRMAN
The Viscount Norwich
VICE-CHAIRMEN
Dear Siv
Sir Ashley Clarke
The Lady Thorneycroft
1 erave Leen asleed 6o ast
HON.
Raunthy
TREASURER
R. H. Grierson, Esq.
hmor
- editor in
HON.
compiling
SECRETARY
Mrs Humphrey Brooke
tholoyg
tlo Vemice Ln Peril fund.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Robin Allen, Esq.
Go cn cluole
Lady Clarke
lope
voluntary
Mme B. Daudy
-o ubilitions
con lampora
The Duke of Grafton
from
unilas
D. Mack Smith, Esq.
on Venica.
J. Allan Pearce, Esq.
John Pope-Hennessy, Esq.
We slrould Le nose -
J ati
Denys Sutton, Esq.
G. S. Tucker, Esq.
d tle
ath 6
HON. MEMBER
yon
Professor John McAndrew
refrod 1 &
from te Fallo Venica ly Maurica
Rourdon 1970. Tae ecbuct is
Chaftr t0 Tera City 7 Muric
fageisathre leguning to Paga 137 Lineg
pefarabion: We slould
2 Clee
"famid
all the olue rcknowledlye
Yours sincarely,
Eligabetl Machimnha
Pleare reflyb
Miss E. Macforpubar
Park lottag,
Misstead,
hyndhink
Hamfilise


July 5 1972
Miss E MacFarquhar
Park Cottage
Minstead
Lyndhurst t
Hampshire
Dear Miss MacFarquhar,
Thank you for your letter of June 21st. We should be very happy
for you to use extracts from THE FALL OF VENICE by Maurice Rowdon
in your anthology for the Venice In Peril Fund free of charge.
I am however forwarding your letter to Mr Rowdon and am esking him
to confirm direct to you that he is happy for you to use the
extracts as well.
Yours sincerely,
Kat therine Fox
Foreign Rights Department


Weidenfeld
GEORGE
Nicolson
LIMITED
5 WINSLEY STREET OXFORD CIRCUS LONDON WIN-7AQ - TELEPHONE : 01-580 7941
TELEGRAMS AND CABLES: NICOBAR LONDON WI TELEX: 262512
5 July 1972
Mr Maurice Rowdon
Bolt Watson and Co
Chandos House
Buckingham Gate
London SW1
Dear Mr Rowdon,
I am enclosing a copy of a letter from The Venice in Peril fund asking
to use extracts from your book THE FALL OF VENICE. I am also enclosing
a copy of my letter to them from which you will see we are happy for them
to use the extracts free of charge but that they must for confirmat tion
from you.
I do hope you too will be happy for them to go ahead on this basis and
I would be very grateful if you could confirm this to them.
Yours sincerely,
kalinbzue Tox
Katherine Fox
Rights Departmentl
Enclosure:
Chairman & Managing Director : SIR GEORGE WEIDENFELD. Deputy Chairman: : ANTHONY GODWIN
Assistant Managing Directors : K. A. LILLEY A. R. MILES, A.C.I.S. (Secretary)
Directors : H. H.COUDENHOVE (Austrian) JOHN CURTIS CHRISTOPHER FALKUS JEREMY HADFIELD GEOFFREY HOWARD
R.A.HUSSEY : D. A. KNIGHT : B. J. MACLENNAN NIGEL NICOLSON : JULIAN SHUCKBURGH


Constable do Company Limited
ConstablePublishers
10 Orange Street
London WC2H7EG
Telephone: O1-930 0801/7
Telegrams: Dhagoba London WC2
Chairman do Managing Director:
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
Benjamin Glazebrook
Casa Campardi,
Directors:
Noel Holland
53037 San Gimignano,
RAA Holt, Miles Huddleston
(Siena)
The Hon. Jobn Jolliffe
ITALY
Paul N. Marks
September 27, 1971
Dra haue
THE SPANISH TERROR
I understand that David Bolt has shown you my letter of August
20, and that you are broadly speaking in agreement with the points
we raised. Could you confirm that this is so? I am having the
typescript sent back to you by separate registered post.
Aur C
Rfa


16 Pepys Close,
Milton Road,
Ickenham,
UXBRIDGE,
Middlesex.
12th July 1972.
Maurice Rowdon Esq;
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you very much for sending me "The Song of the Earth"
to read. I found it very moving and I am sure it will be
a great success when it is staged.
Unfortunately, some of my existing commitments are proving
more onerous than expected and I shall be unable to become
a backer of "The Song of the Earth".
Thank you again for letting me see the mss. I hope you are
able to present it this autumn and that it gets the great
reception it merits.
Yours sincerely,
Watling
T. F. WATLING


Diaghilev
Dear Tony Godwin,
Arnold Haskell has given me a letter of
introduction to Serge Lifar and I'd like to
stop in Paris on my way to Italy for that.
However, I am worried about the finances,
and wouid prefer to wait for the LORENZO
contract to come through before leaving. I
don't want to breathe down your neck on this
but would it be possible to sign me up this
week?
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr Russell,
Thank you for your letter of 30 June,
together with the photographs of Fenella
Fielding and Vladek Sheybal.
This production is at the point of being
fully invested, so at the moment I see no
need for further financial participation,
I would be very interested in a different kind
of tie-up with yourselves, perhaps involying
Peter Maxwell Davies in his electronic décor
for the show, and in the form of mutual pub-
licity. It does seem a pity to waste the
attention on Mahler, especiaily
I plan to
tour the show in Germany. I Zont, want to
breathe down your neck on this but it is poss-
ible that something by
of collaboration
might occur to you, if oEY, in the form of
studio facilities.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
Peter Russell Esq.,
Polydor Ltd.,
17/19 Stratford Place,
London,
WIN OBL


POLYDOR LTD
17/19 Stratford Place
London, W1NOBL
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5, Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.
30th June 1972.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
A Song of the Earth
Thank you for your letter of 17th June about your forthcoming
production of 'A song of the Earth'.
We have considered the possibility of assisting you financially
very thoroughly, but unfortunately our budget for this sort of
activity is very limited and has already been fully allocated.
I therefore very much regret that we are unable to help you.
I am returning the photographs of Vladek Sheybal & Fenella Fielding
and wish you every success in your venture.
Yours sincerely,
PETER RUSSELL,
Classical Marketing Manager.
Telephone: 01-499 8686
Telegrams & Cables: Polydor, London, W.1.
Telex: 27133 Polydor (Ldn.)
Managing Director: John Fruin
Directors: Peter Erdmann (German)
Steve Gottlieb
Werner Vogelsang (German)


Toby Rowland Esq.,
Stoil Theatres Corp. Ltd.,
Cranbourne Mansions,
Cranbourne Street,
London,
Dear Toby,
It was good to see you again and to
discuss my project for a new 400-seat theatre
in the Fulhem/iemmeramith area, if possible
on a riverside site.
I understand that you might well be int-
erested when the time comes to enter into some
kind of association with myself or the propriet-
ors to ensure that the theatre operates as an
all-the-year-round rent-yielding enterprise.
I believe such a theatre might well
become an important venue for try-outs, and
therefore help to simplify your task of filling
thirteen West End theatres with shows.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Messrs Brimfield Builders
94 Keston Avenue
Old Coulsdon
SURREY
Dear Mr Brimfield,
Thank you for letting me see the
enclosed.
It looks as though this is a Greater
London ruling and there is no way round
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


BBC
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
BROADCASTING HOUSE LONDON W1A 1AA
TELEPHONE 01-580 4468 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDONPS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
Reference: 01/CT/BWBT
24th May, 1972
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of 15th May, 1972 regarding promotion
ma terial for OMNIBUS:THE FALL OF VENICE.
I have spoken to the producer who has now given me more details of
this work and in view of what was involved I can amend my offer to one
I enclose one of our standard letters covering this and if you are
willing to agree to the terms would you sign and return one copy and I
will au thorise payment of the fee.
Yours sincerely,
fudthrue
(Brian Turner)
Copyright Department.
2 Enclosures.


BBC
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
BROADCASTING HOUSE LONDON W1A 1AA
TELEPHONE 01-5804468 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
Reference 01/CTBWBT
24th May, 1972
Name of Programme: OMNIBUS:THE FALL OF VENICE
Project Number:
Service:
BBC-1
Nature of Contribution: Promotion material and a draft billing for above
programme
Maurice Rowdon, Esq., 5 Tamworth Street, London s.w.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
The BBC would like the right to use as desired in connection
with this programme your contribution as set out above, and for this
I suggest a fee of £20,
If you agree, please sign and return one copy of this letter.
The second copy is for your retention.
Yours sincerely,
kerltrine
(Brian Turner)
Copyright Department
To: Copyright Department
I accept the terms set out above:
Signed.
Date.


J.Stone Esge,
419 Mile Oak Road,
Portslade,
Sussex.
Dear Mr Stone,
In the course of our discussions together we
have proposed to set up in association with each
other a company for theatrical productions to be
called Portslade Productions or other suitable
name. It is understood that you will contribute
£3650 in the first instance to the Company, and
that I will contribute the equivalent amount in
the form of expertise, play property and founder's
shares. It is agreed that we shali share the
equity 50/50.
It is also understood that when a show needs
financing beyond the sums stated above we shall
at our discretion increase the amount of our finan-
cial commitment or sell shares in the particular
production involved to outside investors by mutual
agreement, if this is legally possible.
It is understood that the artistic policy of
the Company be entirely in my hands and that I
shall have the sole running of the theatrical side
of the business. It is further agreed that general
policies as to the manner of financing a project
be determined by mutual agreement.
It is suggested that the Company put its
account in the hands of Barclay's Bank Ltd., 137
Brompton Road, London, S.W.3.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


THE NUFFIELD THEATRE, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
Postal code: S09 5NH
Business Manager: Joan H. Abbs Tel 59122.
Box Office 55028
Technical Manager: Stanley Rixon Tel 59122 & 56440
29 June, 1972
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of 20 June concerning the production
'A Song of the Earth' which you propose to tour in the autumm. Unfortunately
all our dates are now booked and unless there is a last-minute cancellation,
I cannot see the possiblity 48 our having the play here.
Yours sincerely,
Joan
bhoho.
Joan H. Abbs,
Business Manager.
Mr. M. Rowdon,
5, Tamworth Street,
London, S.w.6.


THE ROSE HOUSE
HINDHEAD
SURREY
VEGETARIAN GUEST HOUSE
Tel. Hindhead 389 Station: Haslemere
Ucicce cece -
Slci 1G Z
Dear Mrs Rowden,
Just a line in case by any chance you and y
your husband were contemplating coming along fairly soon to
say that we are closed until February 1dth for accounts 9 decor
-ating etc., However we are taking bookings for the week-end
of thellth and from then onwards and do hope to have the
pleasure of seeing you both.
Hindhead looks absolutely marvellous when
there is snow so I hope you will not be put off if we do get
anow later on,, - we really can offer you some supberbscenery.
Kindest wishes to you for the New Year,
Yours sincerely,
Mrs adoux Nicholson.)
Ac ( CCCCC
Tichelce


101 Seymour Place
London, W.1
Dear Patients and Friends:
For many years I have been considering starting a homeopathic/naturopathic
nursing home. I have become increasingly frustrated by the space limita-
tions of 101 Seymour Place and my inability to take on a medical assistant
and other staff which would enable me to better serve you.
In addition, I need the facilities to carry out research and teaching and
to develop my particular field of medicine. The nursing home would be able
to facilitate the treatment of chronically ill patients, which at present
no other similar establishment is able to provide.
I am now implementing plans to operate such a health centre/hospital/nursing
home in the country near London. As far as I am concerned, a suitable prop-
erty must be found and made operational by 1974 if I am to continue my prac-
tice in the United Kingdom. I would continue my London practice and spend
several days each week in London.
In summary:
WHAT: An international health centre with 40 patient rooms; medical and
clinical staff and equipment for diagnosis, treatment, research
and teaching.
WHERE: Within 40 miles of London, preferably between London and Oxford or
London and Portsmouth.
WHY:
There is presently no health centre/hospital/nursing home in the
U.K. where my patients can follow courses of treatment prescribed
by me, or by other unorthodox and qualified doctors.
WHO:
There will be an operating and governing body, and I would serve
as Medical Director. I would anticipate being able to provide
some places for patients of other homeopathic doctors.
WHEN: Operational not later than 1974.
HOW: I wish to form a working committee to help bring this plan into
actuality and would welcome your participation, ideas and any
information as to a suitable property.
I should be grateful if you would fill in the enclosed questionnaire and
return it accordingly.
Very sincerely yours,
Dro C. H. Sharma


Gardner Centre
for the Arts
Director Walter Eysselinck DFA
Administration University of Sussex
Deputy Director Alan Daiches
0273-685447 Falmer Brighton
Musical Director Laszlo Heltay
Box Office
Administrator Alwyne Scrase Dickins 0273-685861
BN1 9RA
ASD/DD
27 June 1972
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
A SONG OF THE EARTH
Thank you for your letter dated 20 June.
It sounds a very interesting project but I think it
might present problems for us with regard to dates and
money.
You mention a run in the early autumn and this simply
would not be possible for us. Our.own repertory season
runs until 21 October.and thereafter the theatre is almost
fully booked until theend.of. the Autumn Term, i.e.
16-December. Most. of the bookings are confirmed.but a
couple of weeks are only pencilled in at the moment.
Apart from this, there are a couple of one or two night
spots unbooked.
Perhaps you could be more specific about how many
performances you are looking for and how flexible you can
be over dates.
Could you also let me know what financial arrange-
ments you.had in mind. We. are not in a position to offer
much in the way of guarantee and normally operate. on a
shared risk basis with-us-providing the theatre, technical
supervision and assistance, FOH staff. and facilities and
printing and publicity costs, with the visiting management
responsible for providing us with a 'package' production.
Could you let me. know what you feel about this fairly
soon as I must get the next season finalised shortly.
With best regards,
Yours sincerely,
Alwyne Scrase Dickins
Administrator.


Thames
Television
Thames Television Limited
Thames Television House
306 Euston Road
London NW1 3BB
M. Rowdon Esq
5 Tamworth Street
London SW6
Dear Mr Rowdon
Thank you for your letter about a possible programme on
Italy. We have no documentary slots immediately
avialable but I would certainly be willing to hear of
proposals for programmes that are not too costly.
I am just off on holiday but perhaps you would care to
give me a ring mid-June.
Yours sincerely
belle
Baban
Ian Martin
Executive Producer
DOCUMENTARIES
(Dictated by Ian Martin and
signed in his absence)
Grams Thamestel London NW1
Thames Television Limited
D.R. W. Dicks
Telex 22816
H.S. L. Dundas DSO DFC
Directors:
Bernard R. Greenhead OBE
Lord Shawcross PC QC (Chairman)
Clive May FCA
Howard Thomas CBE (Managing Director)
Brian Tesler MA
George A. Cooper
Humphrey Tilling
John T. Daveyl FCA
Colin S. Wills MA ACA


Song or the Earth'
Dear Mr Coyle,
Thank you for your enquiry about my
advertisement in The Financial Times of 20
June, 'Backer required for theatrical prod-
This is a show with Fenella Fielding
and Vladek Sheybal, director Peter Watson.
Sound-décor by Peter Maxwell Davies, I
would be interested to hear of any way you
could assist mee
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Re: 5 Tanworth Streets S.W.6
Dear Mr Mitchell,
The Trust feels that the extra charge for the
outside drain on your bill arises from your not co-
ordinating wit th the Inspector, and your workers on
two occasions missing an appointment with him.
say that a grant was applied for at the beginning mnez
the operation and that this was known to you months
before work began. In any case,. all drainage work
should comply with local regulatians.
They also say they are dissatisfied with one or
two aspects of the plumbing, for instance the placing
of the bath in such a way that it moves, having been
insufficiently levelled at the outset. This means
there is constant dampness round the floor and that
any putty-mixture put bet tween the tiles and the bath
is ineffective for long. Of course I myself have
mentioned the dangerous amount of air in the hot
water pipe, which is sometimes sufficiently strong
to almost knock a cup out of one's hand, This is
the kind of apparentiy unimportant detail that colours
the Trust's attitude. They were expecting a sound
job all the way through and relied on me to
I myself realise that may have been rather 1884 down by
the men you contracted out to, and that this is no
reflection on your own standards.
The Trust are studying the bill and I have
it to them to pay the outstanding amoung minus eput
extra for the outside drain, as you suggested.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Dr de Blieck,
The British Council has advised me to write to
you on the subject of the above show, as one of
objectives in setting it up is a tour of the Contin-
ent.
This is a two-character play on the life of
Gustav and Alma Mahler. Alma will be played
Fenella Fielding, and Gustav will be played by Todek
Sheybal (WOMEN IN LOVE, THE BOYFRIEND etc). It
wili be directed by Peter Watson.
Feter Maxwell Davies, whose new opera will have
its première at Covent Garden this coming month,
will electronically 'design' the sound-effects and
the music in such a way as to show Mahler 'thinking
towards' his own themes.
I wonder if this sounds sufficiently interest-
ing for you to handle.
I have a home in Italy and we could perhaps
meet some time in late July or August at some mutually
advantageous place.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Song of the Earth'
Dear Mz Kimber,
Thank you for your enquiry about my advertise-
ment in The Financial Times dated 20 June, 'Backer
required for theatrical production...'
The above show is a two-character play wi th
Fenella Fielding and Vladek Sheybal (WOMEN IN LOVE,
THE BOYFRIEND). It will be airected by Peter
Watson, It deals wi th the life of the world-famous
composer Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma, Peter
Maxwell Davies, whose new opera will be having its
at Covent Garden this coming month, will
tmEr the sound effects and the music. There
will be a brief pre-West End tour, with the Contin-
ent and the States involved later.
If this interests you I wonder if we could
meet to discuss the budget and the dates. I would
be happy to come to Stockport if we had a word
together on the telephone previously.
Yours faithfully,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr Kimber,
Thank
for your enquiry about my advert-
isement in rou Financial Times dated 20 June,,
'Backer required for theatrical production...'
The above show is a two-character play with
Fenella Fielding and Vladek Sheybal (WOMEN IN LOVE,
THE BOYFRIEND). It is to be directed by Peter
Watson. It deals with the life of Gustav Mahler
and his wife Alma. Peter Maxwell Davies, whose
new opera will be having its première this coming
month at Covent Garden, will "design' the sound-
effects and music. There will be a brief pre-
West End tour, with the Continent and the states
involved later. Naturally a twowhander is most
economical for touring.
If this interests you I would be grateful if
you would telephone me. We could
then
meet to discuss the budget and the Beceage
Yours faithfully,
Maurice Rowdon


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 6975 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
15th June 1972
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
I had to write a fairly guarded letter to
The Financial Times, to avoid having them leap to
the obvious conclusion that we are associated as
a firm with the stage production, but I'm sure it
will be quite adequate for their requirements.
I don't much like the idea of your being
agent-less on the film and T.V. side.
I've ne ver
quite worked out where things went wrong between you
and Margery Vosper, but surely she would be very well
capable of handling what you call your minimum
commitment?
As soon as I hear again from Tony Godwin on
LORENZO I'll come back to you.
Yours,
Jar
DLB/BSH
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


MERMAID THEATRE
PUDDLE DOCK UPPER THAMES ST BLACKFRIARS LONDON EC4
Telephones: BOX OFFICE 01-248 7656
RESTAURANT 01-248 2835
OFFICES 01-236 9521
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.w.6.
16th June, 1972.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for sending A SONG OF THE EARTH. I enjoyed reading the
play which is certainly successful in maintaining interest in only
two characters I the relationship merges powerfully. However I am
afraid that we cannot offer to come in with you in a production of
it here. Our plans now take us up to the end of the year.
However thank you for letting us read it and best of luck for its
production.
Yoyrs sincerely,
an Sach an
ALAN STRACHAN
Associate Director.


A. A. C. JACOBSEN. C. ENG. F.I.P.E.
TELEPHONE IVER 546.
NO 15, THE POYNINGS.
LONDON AREA DIAL 490.
IVER, BUCKS, SLO 9DS.
Ref : CMJ/1994/ROW.
1972 June 12th.
Maurice Rowden Esq.
5, Tamworth Street,
London S. W. 6.
Dear Maurice,
I confirm our conversation last week in the course of which
I explained that I had approached Mr. Klug on your behalf with regard to the
interest of your father-in-law, Mr. G. B. Fischer, in investing at least £120, 000
in a property situation in the U. K.
I explained to Mr. Klug that Mr. Fischer was a man of mature
years and was originally a native of Berlin, and who was forced to leave the
country due to the Nazi regime, and who now has U.S.. A. nationality, but is
domiciled in Italy with interests in Switzerland.
Mr. Klug authorised me to say that he would be pleased to have
a discussion with Mr. Fischer when he is next in England, and pointed out that
this should really be on the basis of a reciprocal exchange of opportunities.
In return for offering participation in a development in the U. K., some form
of participation should be offered in some acceptable enterprise on the Continent.
Incidentally, I entirely agree with these sentiments, and if your
father -in-law accepts this and has a worthwhile proposition to make, I would be
delighted to effect the introduction when he is over here later in the year.
Best personal regards,
Tony Jacobsen.
C.C. I. Klug Esq.


A Song of the Earth :
Dear Sir,
I am setting
a two-hander stage
production on the Hra of Gustav and Alma
Mahler for a tour of this country and am
wondering if you can help me in the matter
of an eventual tour of the Continent.
Fenella Fielding will be playing Alma,
and Vladek Sheybel will play Gustav. Peter
Watson is the director. Peter Maxwell
Davies will be electronically designing the
sound-effects and 'Mahler thinking towards'
his own music.
Naturally I am talking in terms of
next year, as far as the Continent is con-
cerned,
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Mz Dickins,
Further to our telephone conversation
ten days ago I am writing to you on the subject
of the above production, which is a two-hander
stageplay on the life of Gustav and Alma Mahler.
I would be most grateful 'to know if a zun at
your theatre would be possible.
Fenella Fielding will play Alma, and Vladek
Sheybal will be playing Gustav. Thé play will
be directed
Peter Watson. Peter Maxwell
Davies will bz elecrtonically désigning the sound
effects and *Mahler thinking towards' his own
music.
I'have not yet found the première theatre
but am looking for a date in the early autumn.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Miss Abbs,
I am writing to you on the subject of the
above production, which is a two-hander stegeplay
on the life of Gustav and Alma Mahler, I wonder
if a visit to your theatre would be possible dur-
ing the tour.
Fenella Fielding will
Alma, and Vladek
Sheybal will be playing Dutley Thé play will
be directed
Peter Watson. Peter Mexwell
Davies will bo electronically designing sound
effects and 'Mahler thinking towards' his own
music.
I have not yet found the première theatre
but em looking for a date in the early autumn.
would an autumn date be possible at your theatre,
assuming that the production is of interest to
you?
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth -
Dear Mr Russell,
I am writing to you on the subject of the above
production which is a two-hander stageplay on the life
of Gustav and Alma Mahler. I am looking for a date
in the early autumn, and am at present in discussion
with the Mezmaid theatre, the Yvonne Arnaud theatrein
Guildford and the Open Space in Tottenham Court Road.
Fenella Fielding will be playing Alma. Vladek
Sheybal will be playing Gustav.
The director will be Peter Watson.
I am hoping that Peter Maxwell Davies will be
designing the sound effects and music in such a way
as to form a unity with Mahler 'thinking towards' his
own music.
While I am also aiming at the West End this
première will be the launching
for a tour not only
of this country but the CODEREOEN. and the United
States. Naturally a two-hander is most economical
to tour.
Do you see in this production
possibility of
a tie-up with yourselves, either in tho form of collab-
orative publicity or a financial participation?
I enclose photographs of the artists.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


'A Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr Kirkwood,
As arranged I enclose the rest of the
documentation on this production.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
PS Vladek Sheybal's letter, you will
remember, is with the production budget I
left with you.


A Song of the Eerth'
Dear Mr Russell,
I am writing to you on the subject of the above
production which is a two-hander stageplay on the life
of Gustav and Alma Mahler,
Fenella Fielding will be playing Alma, Vladek
Sheybal will be playing Gustav.
The director will be Peter Watson, who
the Yvonne Arnaud theatre in Guildford and Obepra on to
the Welsh "ational theatre.
I am hoping that Peter Maxwell Davies will be
designing the sound effects and music in such a way as
to form a unity, with Mahler 'thinking towards! his
own music.
I am looking for a date in the early autumn, and
am at present in discussion with the Mermaid theatre,
the Yvonne Arnaud in Guildford and the Open Space
theatre in Tottenhamd Court Road.
While I am also aiming at the West End this
première will be the launching pad for a tour not only
of this country but the Continent and the United States.
Naturally a two-hander is most economical to tour.
Do you see in this production
possibility of
a tie-up with yourselves, either in the form of collab-
orative publicity or a financial participation?
I enclose photographs of the artists, and photostats
of the letters of coneent.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Production Manager
Gordon Marshall
Director and Administrator
House Manager
Laurier Lister
John Stephenson
YVONNE
Secretary
Chairman
Mary Chidley
A. W. Graham-Brown
ARNAUD
THEATRE
Millbrook, Guildford, Surrey. Telephone : Guildford 64571/2/3
MANAGEMENT LIMITED
June 12th 1972
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
THANK YOU for your letter of June 10th, and for sending me a copy of
A SONG OF THE EARTH, which I shall look forward to reading. When
I have done so, I will let you know whether I think the play might be
suitable for presentation here.
Yours sincerely,
Cusi El
Maurice Rowdon, Esquire,
5, Tanworth Street,
LONDON, S.W.6.


Dear David,
The Financial Times
I enclose Warne's photostat of the Financial Times
letter to him. The reference letter, as you say, would
ideally come from a dramatic agent but I am stili without
a base in this respect. I did of course take up your
suggestion to speak to Jenne Casaroto but she is quite
simply, even quite helplessly, unable to take on even the
minimum commitment I require of her, namely simply to
overseer contracts when they are ready. CMA have halved
staff as you know and 'let us talk again in three oz
four months' she says.
Lorenzo the Magnificent
I am most excited about the Lorenzo project, in
case you fear that the above activities interfere with
my writing life.
Diaghilev
I have been in touch with Arnold Haskell, who is
probably the world's leading authority on Diaghilev.
He promises all the help he can give me, which is of
course a great
especially in the matter of person-
al introductions. boosty have
a few pages for Tony
Godwin on the Sources but AtTer have more exploring to
do. The quickie will help me to do this thoroughiy and
coolly.
Both projects show me how deeply bored I was
the
Spanish theme. As a Hollywood writer said to me tze
other
If you don't feel the fascination you can't
obnerdoite it.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr Strachan, :
Further to my letter of the 10th inst
and our telephone conversation earlier today
I am enclosing a copy of the above script
for your attention.
I would of course much appreciate a
quick answer on this as time is getting short
for an autumn production.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
PS The advance appeal of this production lies
in the immense popularity of Mahler, e specially
among the young. I expect solid publicity to
accrue from the cooperation of London orchestras
and EMI records with whom I am in touch.


Dear Toby,
You may remenber we once or twice
discussed a project I had for starting a
new London theatre.
These plans of nine have now matured
into a project with very substantial backers
interested.
You promised to give me the benefit of
your vast experience when I was ready. Can
we therefore talk?
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Diaghilev
Dear Mr Haskell,
You were good enough to allow me to teke up
your time on the telephone yesterday on the subject
of Diaghilev. I feel I still might be able to ex-
plore persenel aspects of Diaghilev which not yet
been charted. I was fascinated by Serge Lifar's
book on his own life---his account of meeting you
again after the last war, among other things. I
do find him illuminating in an awful lot bf things
(like Hitler's appearance). And I would like to
hear all the fantasies he has surely been w eaving
in the last few years. Do you think he would see
me? I was TV filming in Venice two years ago and
one of the my actors, a Pole, went down on his knees
in a puddle to him, in the Fenice square. They
exchanged addresses, so I can get to him direct I
think. But a word from you would be the strongest
of all. I feel Lifar respects you tremendously.
I suppose liars always
the truthful. After
all one must have studied acdepest truth a lot to weave
and manipulate it so cleverly.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr Lister,
You may remember that we spoke together
over the telephone last week on the possibility
of my bringing this production to Guildford.
If I may recapitulate, this is a two-hender
with Vladek Sheybal playing Gustav Mahler and
Penella Fielding his wife Alma. Peter Watson
will be
and I am hoping that Peter
Maxwell LrcbeRn Davies
be designing the music and
sound effects side without recourse to gramo-
phone excerpts.
Since I may not find a home for this
production before the end of this
and
since it is always possible (I 1m29053 that
one of your dates between now and Christmas
may be altered, I would greatly appreciate it
if you would give the script your attention,
so that we could establish this early if thére
is an interest. I am especially anxious for
this as my backers seem to have a strong pre-
judice in favour of your theatre.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mz Strachan,
I have been tzying to reach
phone but
I think the quickest way is to hiee to you. I
would like to discuas with you the possibility of
bringing a production to the Mermaid which I am
in process of setting up. It is a two-hander
based on the life of Gustav and Alma Mahler.
Vladek Sheybal will be playing Gustav and Fenella
Fielding Alma, with Peter Watson directing. I
am hoping that Peter Maxwell Davies will be design-
ing the music and sound effects. I am aiming at
a date in the early autumne
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Maurice Rowdon
June 7 1972
Classified Advertisement
I would be grateful if you would insert
the following line advertisement in tomorrow
Thursday's edition as per our telephone con
versation this morningt
Backer required for stage production with
stars. 83000 will secure 30% share for
suitable investor. 01.385.4003


BARCLAYS BANK LIMITED
BARCLAYS
Brompton Road Branch
137 Brompton Road, London, S.W.3
Telephone: 01-584 3621
RNC/JMF
6th June, 1972.
M.S. Rowdon Esq.,
5, Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.
Dear Sir,
With reference wi th your letter dated the 31st May,
we acknowledge receipt of the following documents which we
shall be pleased to hold on your behalf for copyright
purposes:-
A filmscript called T AFTERWARDS' I
A Playscript called 'AS SONG OF THE EARTH'
Yours faithfully,
for BARCLAYS BANK LIMITED.
Nideebul
Manager.


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 6975 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
9th June 1972
Maurice Rowdon Esq. 9
5 Tamworth Road,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
Can't get you at all on the telephone L
Would you be interested in doing a quickie on LORENZO THE
MAGNIFICENT for Weidenfeld? About 65,000 words, and it should
take 6 months at most. Illustrated - pretty lavishly, I'd think.
If you are interested I'll tell Tony Godwin, who will then
cost the thing and come back with a firm offer.
This is, of course, in response to our request for some-
thing to plug the gap before DIAGHILEV.
Yours,
ban
DLB/MYS
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr Stiff,
London Management might be interested
to know that ALMA in this production will
be played subject to contract by Miss Fenella
Fieiding.
I already mentioned that Vladek Sheybal
will be playing GUSTAV.
The play will be directed by Peter Watson,
He began under Laurier Lister as Guildford
and went on to the welsh National Theatre.
He is now connected with the Open Space
theatre and I have very high hopes of him.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Gertrude,
Further to my letter and presentation
blurb of 25 May Fenella Fielding will be
playing the part of ALMA.
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


Stanley House
Farm Lane
A Song of the Earth'
Dear Maurice,
I have read the above: playscript with. great
pleasure and will be delighted to play Gustav.
I understand that all being well we shall be
starting rehearsals towards the end of this coming
July.
I agree to a salary during the run of £100 a
week, subjeft of course to contract.
Yours ever,
Madel
pheyhaal
Vladek Sheybal


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr White,
Yesterday I asked Miss Fenella Fielding if
she would like to play the part of ALMA in the
above two-hander, a copy of which I am enclosing
for your attention.
My prospective backers are accustomed to film
financing and I would therefore be grateful if, in
the event of Miss Fielding liking the part and the
play, I could have a letter from her or from your-
self to say that she is interested. It would also
be useful if you and I could agree roughly on a fee,
subject of course to contract, since I have budgetted
the production to a fairly definite amount.
GUSTAV will be played by Vladek Sheybal. The
Eirector will be Peter Watson, a young man of whom
I have high hopes and who has been for the last six
years at Guildford, Welsh National Theatre and, now,
the Open Space.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


LARRY DALZELL ASSOCIATES LTD.
14 CLIFFORD STREET
LONDON, W.1
DIRECTORS
CABLES: DALMAR LONDON-W 1
PATRICIA LARRY MARMONT DALZELL
30th May 1972.
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth St.,
London S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
THE SONG OF THE EARTH.
Geraldine McEwam and I both thank you for letting us read this
script. We both feel, however, that it is not what she is
looking for at the moment.
Ypurs sincerely,
Kuskandt
PATRICIA MARMONT.
LICENSED ANNUALLY BY THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER


Stanley House
Earm Lane
London
A Song of the Earth' :
Dear Mr: Rowdon,
I have read the above playscript wi th great
pleasure and will be delighted to play Gustav.
I understand that we may be starting rehearsals
towards the end of July.
I agree to a weekly salary during the run of
£100,, subject of course to contract.
Yours sincerely,
Vladek Sheybal


Stanley House
Farm Lane
A Song of the Earth'
Dear Maurice,
I have read the above playscript with great
pleasure and will be delighted to play Gustav.
I understand that all being well we shall be
starting rehearsals towards the end of this coming
July.
to a salary during the run of E100 a
week, auggeer of course to contract.
Yours ever,
Vladek Sheybal


Depositing for Copyright
Dear Sir,
I wonder if Imay deposit a filmscript
called AFTERWARDS and a playscript called A
SONG OF THE EARTH with you, as I am told by
the League of Dramatists that this is the
only effective way of ensuring copyright prior
to production.
I enclose one copy of each property.
I would be grateful for a formal receipt.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


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IRENE


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Gertrude,
Annette tells me you would be interested
to see this script and I am enclosing a copy
herewith.
I also enclose a blurb about the presentat-
ion which I think will interest you.
With best wishes,
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
GUSTAV will be played here by Vladek Sheybal.
His acting may be known to you from films. Currently
he can be seen as Cecil de Thrill intKen Russell's
THE BOYFRIEND. He is an actor of great originality
and panache, and is just as much at home on the stage
as before the cameras.
I am. offering the part of ALMA to Geraldine
McEwan. You may remember her performances at the
National Theatre here, notably with Laurence Olivier
in THE DANCE OF DEATH, as his wife. She is an actress
of unusual subtlety, with perfect timing and a fine
comedy side, very gamine and capable of the rapid
switches that this script requires. Like Sheybal
she is in her thirties.
Peter Maxwell Davies will be coordinating sound-
effects and music in such a way as to present an overall
and integrated sound design for the whole action. I
hope his work will do somewthing towards making a new
form in the theatre, where the sound is for the first
time designed precisely as the decor is, incorporating
bells and drum-taps and traffic and crowds and wind
into the overall sound design, perhaps with electronic
methods. Mahler will be heard 'thinking towards' the
themes in his work, so that in fact we shall not have
recorded excerpts from Mahler performances as the script
at present suggests. I don't know if Maxwell Davies
isknown in the States. A new opera of his is coming
up at Covent Garden this July.
The director is Peter Watson, a young man I have
procured from the Charles Marovitz stable at the Open
Space theatre. I think very highly of him, especially
of his powers to coordinate the at times very complicated
requirements of sound and light and action.
I am hoping to arrange a concert tie-up as well, to
echo the première and the tour. It seems to me that
there is need of an exhaustive performance of Mahler in
a series of concerts or even a Mahler Festival, rather
than random performances with the work of other composers.
He did after all write the longest symphony in musical
history. As Barbirolli once said, a conductor should
absorb a Mahler symphony for two years before he tries
to progect it. There is very strong interest both here
and in the States in Mahler, especially among the young,
and I think the need for deeper and more prolonged ex-
plorations of his work is generally felt.
An economical two-hander could thus, with a good
musical tie-up, become the centre of a very big enterprise.
As to the script itself, a first reading is made
easier if one realises that the changes of scene (May-


ernigg to New York to Vienna) and changes of time
(1901 to 1911 and back again) are always so to speak
invisible, and may take place inside a speech, so that
only the actor can convey them by his movements and
expressions. The script ranges over the whole of
ALMA's life (and beyond, so that at certain points
she is a spectator of her own life, after death).
It is thus very much designed as a tour de force
for the actor and actress, requiring no outside aids.
Maurice Rowdon


Song of the Earth'
Dear Miss Marmont,
Further to our telephone conversation today
I am enclosing the above script for Miss McEwan's
attention. The play is a two-hander on the life
of Gustav Mahler the composer and his wife Alma,
Vladek Sheybal will be playing GUSTAV. Peter
Watson is the director.
The Edinburgh dates, if my negotiations for a
theatre succeed, are August 20 to September 9 1972,
as a launching pad for an extensive tour. Rehearsals
will be in London.
A first reading of this script is easier if it is
realised that the changes of scene (Mayernigg to New
York to Vienna) and changes of time (1901 to 1911 and
back again) are always so to speak invisible, and may
take place inside a speech, so that only the actor can
convey them by his movements and expressions. The
script ranges over the whole of Alma's life (and beyond,
so that at certain points she is a spectator of her own
life, after death). It is thus very much designed as
a tour de force for the actor and actress, requiring
no outside aids.
The music and sound effects will be coordinated
as a total concept by Peter Maxwell
The
music will be heard taking shape in Paxiory, 's mind,
perhaps by electronic means, arather than there being
fully orchestrated excerpts from his work as the
script suggests.
Naturally in the circumstances I would be most
grateful to you if I could have a quick decision.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


FROM SIR NICHOLAS SEKERS, FLAT C, 57 PRINCES GATE, LONDON, S.W.7
TELEPHONE: 01-581 0368
18th May, 1972
u froe
Delayed thanks for your letter of the 9th May which arrived
during my absence.
Unfortunately as a result of circumstances which are not the
most pleasant, I am not resident in Cumberland any more.
On the other hand the Rosehill Theatre is carrying on and is
flourishing.
I still take part in the management, but during the
next few weeks I will be absent professionally and I don't want to
cause any delay.
I have posted your letter with the manuscript and a copy of the
enclosed letter to Jonat than James Moore, Manager of the Rosehill Theatre,
and I hope you will hear from him in a very short time.
Indeed Ralph Thorpe is a friend of ours. We heard from him last
from Japan after a stay in the Near East and then India. He was due to
mee t his mother and go on with his writing, but unfortunately we have been
without news of him for months and months, which rather worries us.
We know of you professionally and we heard so much of you: from Ralph.
At the end of May/beginning of June when we are much more regularly
in London please give us a ring, it would be so nice to see you..
sid
Hien
lelle
Liol
foars
mle


ISELBA S.r.l.
Marina di Campo, I8 Gennaio 1972 -
3 J
bemims lugsen,
scusami se scrivo a macchina, ma è solo per
farmi intendere perché la mia scrittura è quasi indecifrabile !
E scusami se ti scrivo anche per chiderti qualcosa O con 1'ocgasione :
io sono vice-presidente dell'Associazione Albergatori Elbani e mi occupo
della parte pubblicità : cosi tempo fa. ho messo insieme un piccolo testo
che abbiamo inserito sul Supplemento del. I° Gennaio del "The Times" 9
tutto sulle piccole isole del Mediterraneo : io non ho.visto ancora
y of
questa pubblicazione perché . , anche con la prenotazione. a Firenze, non
siamo ancora riusciti ad averla ; quindi non ho visto se hanno pubblicato
tutte le fotografie che ho mandato e che hanno fatto del testo ( già di
per sé bruttino , con la traduzione in inglese
Se puoi, potresti recuperarmene almeno una copia e mandarmela ? Grazie
Tale pubblicità tuttavia sembrache.abbia avuto molto successo e. abbiamo
ricevuto già molte richieste di ulteriori informazioni e chiarimenti, per
una decisione per le prossime vacanze di qualche inglese in più qui da noi,
e fra 1'altro abbiamo ricevuto una lettera pda qualcuno che vorrebbe fare
un film all'Elba - .
a Io te ne metto qui una copia fotostatica e vorrei sapere se tu puoi
indagare sulla serietà e la qualità della Ditta, per considerare 1'op=
portunità anche magari di invitarlo per alcuni giorni, sempre considerando
il ti4po di lavoro filmico che intende fare sull'Elba o con 1'Elba .
Se tu ii conoscessi, lui e la sua compagnia (americana almeno nel nome e
nello stile ) sarebbe una bella cosa : io per ora gli ho risposto generi=
a camente e interlocutoriamente -
Le mie notizie attuali sono. queste : domani.vado a Firenze e domani sera
1 sono (attivissimamente) a teatro con Tutti e Goffi per il. Ballo in Maschera
con Muti, giovedi vado a Roma, dove dovrebbe anche tornare, da Portofino
dove si trova , Giorgio che è ammalato da. prima di Natale e non si sa
ancora bene di che cosa, ma non è stata certo una cosa semplice e temo
che non sarà facile per lui tornare presto al lavoro normale : ora, a Roma,
deve andare per visite e controlli e decisioni . Quindi.io, dovendo es=
sere a Roma per lavoro, costretta sempre a mettere insieme il Diavolo don
1'acqua santa , vado a Roma per alcuni giorni; poi, se tutto va bene,
torno qui fino alla fine del mese e poi, finalmente. a. Venezia . Ma non
1OAPITALE SOCIALE LIT. 80.000.000 INT. VERS.
la volevo neppure scrivere questa parola !
SEDE SOCIALE: PORTOFERRAIO 57037 ISOLA D'ELBA
SEDE AMMINISTRATIVA: FERRARA 44100
Vmabulo orr A
use
SUCCURSALE DI AMMINISTRAZIONE E RAPPRESENTANZA:
ushye
MARINA DI CAMPO 57034 - ISOLA D'ELBA ALBERGO ISELBA
Wde -
o'tilho
TEL. 97096-7-8 MARINA DI CAMPO
TELEGR. ISELBA ISOLA D'ELBA
<n hs' Suf
L 3 S foie
3 R
fone
Shor


John Kennedy International Ltd
Subsidiary Companies:
XANADU PRODUCTIONS LTD.
XANADU RECORDS LTD.
XANADU MUSIC LTD.
RAMA RECORDS LTD.
Please reply to:
IClarence Terrace,
Regent's Park,
London, N. W.1
3rd January 1972.
Associazione Albergatori Elbani
57037 Portogerraio - Calata
Italia, 21.
Dear Sirs,
Having seen the advertisement in the Sunday Times supplement on 'Elba',
we are interested to receive further information on Elba.
Our company will be shooting a film - probably in September - of this
year. The location should be Italian, the beaches quiet and the sea very
clear, as several sequences in the film will be underwater shots. The
script also calls for a harbour, typically Italian seaside town and village
shots.
I should be grateful if you would send me photographs, brochures, weather
information (i. e. best months for sunshine) and if you could give me a
rough idea of how crowded the Island is during the summer months, plus
any other information you think may be relevant, it would be a great help
to us.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely, Cindls Malorold
Cindy MacDonald
John Kennedy Înternational
43 Welbeck Street - London PWI -
Telephone: 01-402 6548/9


GERARD HOLDSWORTH PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
DIRECTORS: C. A. HOLDSWORTH, D.S.O., O.B.E;P.H.PILMER-SANKBY; M. V.HOLDSWORTE, AR.C.h.
D.G.EBLLY;E.ROLIVER
31 PALACE STREET, LONDON, S.W.I
TELEPHONE: 01-828 1671
PFS/EC/GHP
14th March, 1972.
David Bolt, Esa.,
Bult & Watson Lid.,
Chandos House,
Buckingham Gate,
Dear Mr. Bolt,
I write to confirm that your client,
Mr. Maurice Rowdon, is prepared to adapt and where
necessary to re-write the commentary of our film
at present entitled "IN PRAISE OF SMALL THINGS".
The commentary that he writes should
follow in a broad sense the draft commentary given
to. him, and should fit the picture shape as shown
to him on 7th March and during the cutting room
session on 13th March.
T confirm thar for this service we will
pay to you on his behalf the sum of £110.00 (One
Hundred and Teri pounds) and I have pleasure in
enclosing herewith our cheque for half of that
figure.
The remainder will be paid on satisfactory
delivery. I confirm that in consideration of this
figure Mr. Rowdon will assign if required any copyright
he may have in the work to ourselves on behalf of the
Sponsors, the Diamond Trading Corporation.
We for
our part will use our best endeavour to ensure that
he has a credit on the film as released as Commentary
Writer.
/Continued


BBC tv
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
KENSINGTON HOUSE RICHMOND WAY LONDON W14
TELEPHONE 01-743 1272 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
25th May 1972.
My dear Maurice,
As promised, herewith the 'stills'
from "The Fall of Venice", which I hope
you'll find useful.
The colour transparency
shots were of course, taken by the Cameraman,
Peter Bartlett, and if reproduced I suppose
strictly speaking he would be due some
Copyright, but I think it was all so long
ago we could discount that.
(That's just
between you and me though!).
Do let me know if you can manage lunch
some time when you're not too busy as it would
be nice to see you.
My love to you and Annette.
Yours,
iaw


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Mr Stiff,
Thank you for your letter of the 22nd, and
for passing on my project to London Management.
I had in mind, on the musical side where
your agency is directly concerned, something like
a series of Mahler concerts or even a Mahler
festival to open with the stage presentation,
though I am aware that such things may take even
longer to arrange than theatrical productions.
I think something of this kind, boldly
conceived, might make a great hit, given the
feeling that exists today, especially among the
young, for Mahler. There seems to be a general
need not for random performances of Mahler,
placed with Brahms or a Mozart concerto, but
a thorough and complete exposition of his work,
preferably under one conductor. I am discuss-
ing the same possibility in the States, where
the emphasis seems to be on a college tour.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


MI ER OF THE ASSOCIATION OF EUR RC OI P PEAN CONCERT MANAGERS
WILFRID VAN WYCK
(WILFRID VAN WYCK (CONCERT REPRESENTATION) LTD.)
A DIVISION OF LONDON MANAGEMENT
DIRECTORS: WILFRID VAN WYCK (JOINT MANAGING) WILFRED STIFF (JOINT MANAGING) DENNIS VAN THAL RO ONALD RICARDO
CONCERT AGENTS
WILFRID VAN WYCK (CONCERT REPRESENTA-
235/241 REGENT STREET
TION) LTD. ACT AS AGENTS ONLY, AND CAN
ACCEF P T NO RESPONSIBILITY AS PRINCIPALS
LONDON WIA 2JT
CABLES & TELEGRAMS:
ALLEGRO, LONDON, W.1
LICENSED ANNUALLY BY
OFFICE HOURS 10-5.30 SATURDAYS 10-12
THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER
ALL COMMI 1UNICATIONS TO BE ADDRESSED TO THE FIRM
Ws/eab
22nd May, 1972
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Mr. Van Wyck has passed to me your letter of the 18th May concerning your
forthcoming stage production of 'A Song of the Earth'.
It is a very interesting project but neither Mr. Van Wyck nor I can see
at the moment any way in which we might be helpful.
In the meantime, I am endeavouring to ascertain whether anyone in
London Management, our parent Company, might be at all interested and I
will let you know as soon as they have had a chance to look at your
proposals.
Yours sincerely,
Wilfred Stiff.


Dear Mr Van Wyck,
A Song of the Earth'
I have been advised by your daughter to write to
you about this fortheoming stage production.
This is a two-hander play on the life of Gustav
and Alma Mahler, which I have written with the approval
of the Mahler family. Film rights are involved.
The best thing I can do is to enclose my budget
and presentation which have gone out to my prospective
backers. As you will see, I am recommending that the
production be capitalised at 85000, with an overcall
of 20%. The running bud get will be something in the
region of &1300 a week.
Peter Maxwell Davies tells me that he is interest-
ed in devising and unifying the sound effects and music
for this play.
Iwould be very interested to know if you see a
possible role for yourself in these plans, either in
the form of a financial participation or some kind of
concert-tie upe Naturaily concentrated publicity on
Mahler from more than one source would be most beneficial.
The production will I hope do much to blow away
Visconti's s0-called portrait of the composer in 'Death
in Venice'.
I would be grateful if we could meet to diseus S
this, and I wonder if Wedhesday or Thursday afternoon
next week (May 24 or 25) would suit you.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Maxwell Davies,
I was very glad to hear that you might
be interested to work with us on A SONG OF
THE EARTH. I am therefore enclosing a copy
of the script.
A first reading of the play is easier if
you know already that the changes of scene
(Mayernigg to New York to Vienna) and changes
of time (1901 to 1911 and back again) are
always so to speak invisible, and may take place
inside a speech, so that only the actor can
convey it by his movements and expressions.
You will at once see that your contribution
could be creucial at certain points.
The seript ranges over the whole of
Alma's life (and beyond, so that at certain
points she and Gustav are spectators of their
own life together, after death).
I am approaching wilfred van wyck for
some kind of tie-up, perhaps involving Mahler
concerts, and here too you might see an int-
ersting role for yourself.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Martin,
I wonder if I could interest you in
ideas for a programme on Italy which would
not be too costly.
I have had one other IV credit tmwolly
Omnibus programme on Venice which went out
from the BBC a few weeks ago. I've published
about four books on Italy incluaing the Collins
Companion Guide to Umbriae Forgive the self-
projection but my agent has just retired from
the business.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Turner,
Thank you for your note of the 2nd.
I am afraid I do not at all agree with
your suggestion of &10. I have never been
asked to sell the smallest copyright material
for this kind of sum, especially where it in-
volves re-abscrbing a programme shot two
years previously, as in this case.
I cannot accept less than £25.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A SONG OF THE EARTH
Dear Miss Bennett,
I wonder if you have received a copy
of the above playscript toget ther with cover-
ing letter which I sent by hand to your agent
Barry Krost over a week ago, after talking the
matter over with him by phone.
As I am in process of setting this
Edinburgh you will I am sure understand that
time is very short.
I explained to your agent that Vladek
Sheybal will be playing Gustav in this two-
hander. This is a play about Mahler and his
wife Alma, written with the fullapproval of
the Mahler family.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Tony,
Just to say that I did yesterday send a copy
of my budget and presentation for A SONG OF THE ÉARTH
the Mahler play to Mr Klug. I wrote him a very
cautious letter emphasising that the production was
only in the preparatory stage. I do not want to
seem to lean on him heavily at this point---for your
sake as well.
It looks as though St Martin's Property Company
is looking firmly the other way when theatres in
King Street are mentioned. The Council warned John
Thomsett that this would be so I believe. So I think
we should start on the Willow Wharf (Lavy) site.
we may very well be surprised at the way things click
here. will you make the approach, or shall I
with my theatre scheme? But I cannot promise Boran
the ODPS, only a possibility. The Council will not
contemplate theatre or offices here, but served
with a good cultural deal to embellish the riveralde
they might have another think, If Levy purrs we
might then go along to the Council en masses---you,
me and John Thomsett.
I decided to call rpduction company and theatre
London Lighthouse. At least, that seems to be the
best one so far.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


A SONG OF THE EARTH
Dear Mr Krost,
Further to our telephone conversation this
morning I am enclosing the above script for your
attention. I emclose a second copy for Miss
Bennett.
As I say, we are trying to set this up at the
Edinburgh Festival as a lannching pad for an exten-
sive tour.
Vladek Sheybal will be playing Gustav.
I ought to add that a first reading of the
script may be difficult unless it is realised that
the changes of scene (Mayernigg to New York to
Vienna) and changes of time (1901 to 1911 and back
again) are always so to speak invisible, and may
take place inside a speech, so that only the actor
can convey it by his movements and expressions.
The script ranges over the whole of Alma's
life (and beyond, so that at certain points she is
a spectator of her own life, from after death) and
requires therefore the fullest range of performance.
I wrote the play very much as a tour de force for
the actor and actress, requiring no outside aids.
I enclose a letter to Miss Bennett, with her
copy, which repeats much of the above.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


A Song of the Earth'
Dear Miss Marmont,
Further to our telephone conversation today
I am enclosing the above script for Miss McEwan's
attention. The play is a two-hander on the life
of Gustav Mahler the composer and his wife Alma.
Vladek Sheybal will be playing GUSTAV.
Peter
Watson is the director.
I am in the process of setting the production up
on the Fringe of the Edinburgh Festival as a launching
pad for an extensive tour. Rehearsals will be in
London. The Edinburgh dates, if my negotiailns


A SONG OF THE EARTH
Dear Miss Bennett,
A first reading of this script may be difficult
unless it is realised that the changes of scene (May-
ernigg to New York to Vienna) and changes of time
(1901 to 1911 and back again) are always so to speak
invisible, and may take place inside a speech, so
that only the actor can convey it by his movements and
expressions.
The script ranges over the whole of Alma's life
(and beyond, so that at certain points she is a spect-
ator of her own life, after death). I wrote it very
much as a tour de force for the actor and actress,
requiring no outside aids, so that even the music
could be dispensed with if for copyright reasons it
was not available.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


DIRECTORS:
INTERNATIONAL FAMOUS AGENCY LTD.
LAURENCE EVANS (MANAGING)
MICHAEL ANDERSON
ROBIN DALTON
OTIS S. BLODGET, (U.S.A)
11th May 1972
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, SW6
Dear Mr Rowdon,
"A SONG OF THE EARTH"
Thank you for your letter and I am sorry that I have not had
an opportunity to be in touch with you before.
I did in fact have a long chat with Dorothy Tutin on the telephone
yesterday and feel that you should really know that after a great deal
of consideration she does notfeel that this subject is really for her e
either for an initial "try-out" or with a West End run in mind.
I am sorry if this is going to be a disappointment to you, but
I felt that you should know this and that you should feel free to look
in another direction.
Yours sincerely,
Wha
TIM WILSON
11-12, HANOVER STREET, LONDON, W.1. TELEPHONE: 01-629 8080 CABLE: LIMEY, LONDON
NEW YORK LOS ANGELES PARIS ROME CHICAGO
LICENSED. ANNUALLY BY THE CITYOF WESTMINSTER


A SONG OF THE EARTH
Dear Mr Wilson,
Further to our telephone conversation the other
day, did you have a chance to talk to Dorothy Tutin?
I got her to reconsider the part twice---it seemed
such a tragedy, her not playing a role especially
written for her, and by previous arrangement with her.
There seemed nothing wrong with the play, from her
point of view, and she only seemed to have a slight
reservation about the part of Alma. To be frank,
I don't know what came unstuck in all this, since
when she first got the play she was talking about
finding the right theatre, and not wanting too much
of a big thing made over ita'if it goes it goes'.
This wasn't how I saw a serious production taking
off, especially from the point of view of the backers,
but one does anything for a great lady. There is
no one in England who can command that fine point
between the tragic and the comic as Dorothy can.
Do you think she began to have doubts about playing
opposite Vladek? Yet she knows what tremendous
expefience and know-how that artist has.
Please give me a ring if you can pour light.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Klug,
I have been sending out to prospective backers
the budget for my 'A Song of the Earth' production
which I believe Tony Jacobsen told you about. He
suggested that I also send one to you. I hesitated
about this as I didn't want to take up your time.
But here is a copy enclosed in case it should interest
you at a later date when the production starts warme
ing up.
The incentives are as you will see not great
until the West End is reached and later film rights
involved.
I must be clear however that the production is
as yet only in process of being set up and, as always
in the theatre, nothing
until all at once and
very fast, if it happens happen."
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mrs Coryton Roberts,
Further to ouz telephone conversation
last week I enclose herewith three copies
of A SONG OF THE EARTH together with budgets
and presentation.
I hope your arm is nending fast.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Sir Nicholas,
I am trying to set up a play of mine called
A SONG OF THE EARTH at the Edinburgh Festival as
a Fringe production. In the event of my Einding
a suitable theatre at this late date I would like
to follow the production with a tour. Is there
a chance of including your theatre in this? It
would take place between September and the end of
October this year. My production manager will be
John de Lannoy, who suggested writing to you.
This play is a two-hander on Gustav and Alma
Mahler which I wrote recently with the approval
of the Mahler family whom I have known for some
years.
I have written this script for Vladek Sheybal
(as GUSTAV) and Dorothy Tutin (as ALMA), by previous
arrangement with them both.
I enclose a copy of the play for your attention.
It may be cifficult to follow at first reading unless
it is realised that the changes of scene (Mayernigg
to New York to Vienna) and changes of time (1901 to
1911 and back again) are so to speak invisible and
may take place inside a speech, so that only the
actor's movements and expressions convey it. The
play is designed as an actor's tour de force, and
ranges over the whole of Alma's life, so that the
fullest range of performance is required of the
artists. They even look at their own lives from
beyond death. And while this can be conveyed in
production it may not be at once understood in the
reading.
Is it possible that you are the friend of Ralph
Thorpe? If so I know you already, from a very loving
manuscript portrait. Ralph walked up our garden


path in Italy about three years ago---from out of
the blue---quite magical.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


BBC tv
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1st May 1972
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.
Dear Maurice Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter dated April 24th.
I have asked Contracts to pay you a fee for the
promotion copy you wrote for the FALL OF VENICE.
Yours sincerely,
Aad
(Mike Wooller)
Executive Producer
OMNIBUS


LUCETTE CARTWRIGHT
Dear Leonie Cohn,
I don't know whether this will fall into your
province, but there is a professional and quite well-
known sculptress called LUCETTE CARTWRIGHT who will
be holding an exhibition of her works in the grounds
of her house in June this year. I am a friend of
hers and she asked me if I wouldn't do something for
her on the lines of my conversations with the Venetian
painter Giorgio Valenzin in my Omnibus programme on
Venice which went out a few weeks ago (television of
course). I am trying to arrange something like this
but I also believe Sound to be as important if not
very much more important for things of this kind.
I believe her work might be intriguing for
people since it is apparently without the smallest
contemporary inclination. It is certainly odd to
see a seulptor working rather like Rodin, in the
naturalistic vein. She only does the human forme
She shows people making love, hanging in grotesque
positions from trees, balanced on each other, and
they are always naked. I always say the figures are
not making love, that they arestillborn, and that she
1s necrophiliac in her approach. She wouldn't deny
this perhaps. Someone described her work as 'obscene'
on BBO radio when she exhibited at Aldeburgh Festival
last year. It might make a most interesting discuss-
ion.
She is interesting personally-shows great
determination. She got polio after her first child
andwas told she would never walk again, but she is
walking.
Yours sincerely,


Dear Mr Fentiman,
I talked to your assistant yesterday by phone
and she advised me to write to you. There is a prof-
essionaly sculptress called Lucette Cartwright who will
be holding an exhibition of her works in the
her house in June. She asked me if I wouldn Froapder do some-
thing for her on the lines of
conversations with the
Venetian painter Giorgio Valensyn in my Omnibus programme
on Venice which went out a few weeks ago. I would like
to advance her as much as I can, also because I believe
that her work might be intriguing for people of this day
and age, since it is apparently without the smallest
contemporary inclination. It is certainly odd to see
a sculptor working rather like Rodin, in the naturalistic
vein. She only does the human forme She shows people
making love, hanging in grotesque positions from trees,
balanced on each other, and they are always naked. I
always say the figures are not making love, that they
are stillborn, and that she is necrophiliac in her taste.
She wouldn't deny this, I think. It might make an int-
eresting discussion. She was paralysed many years ago
by polio and was told she would never walk again. She
is walking!
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Milligan,
Thank you for your letter of the Ist.
I have spoken to both Les Lovell and the
EMI here in London, and apparently both No.I
and No.2 theatres are let, for the late-night
slot as well. EMI will not let No 3 for live
show purposes, as the stage is too shallow and
they cannot allow the stage to be built out or
lights and cables to be brought in.
If you have anything else remotely poss-
ible I would of course be glad to hear of it.
I am even beginning, to think in terms of
a geodesic dome but don't know where the free
space would be found, or what money it would
involve.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Mr Ginsberg,
I am sending this to you by separate
cover..
It is entirely rewritten and retyped.
There are about 110,000 wards.
I hope it works this time.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Professor Hunt,
Thank you for your letter of yesterday.
I am sending a copy of A SONG OF THE EARTH by
separate cover.
About the actor and actress, as you know film-
ing makes it difficult to pin them down. I saw
Vladek Sheybal yesterday and he will definitely set
aside any period I name for this year. As to Dor-
othey Tutin, she loves the play and loves the part,
and if she loves the director too I see no reason
why shouldn't engage herself to play, before she fin-
ishes her current film with Ken Russell.
I ought to add that I am starting a theatre
company with a group of substantial backers, and
this Mahler production will be its first, as a launch-
ing pad for a tour.
As to the script, a first reading may be diff-
icult unless one realises that the changes of scene
(Mayernigg to New York to Vienna) and changes of
time (1901 to 1911 and back again) are always so to
speak invisible, and may take place inside a speech,
so that only the actor can convey it by his movements
and expressions.
The set is of the simplest kind--it could indeed
be played with none at all. The script ranges over
the whole of Alma's and Gustav's lives (and beyond)
in such a way as to require the fullest range of per-
formance from the actor and actress. I wrote the
script very especially with each of them in mind, to
be as much of an actor's tour de force as anything
else, requiring no outside aids. Even the music
could be dispensed with if for copyright reasons it
was not available.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Sir Isiah,
Many years ago you came to lectume at Bryn Mawr
College, Pennae, and I was one of the awed undergrad-
uates. I remember you weze rather a sensation among
us. You were lecturing on Vico.
I am nowadays a sculptress and have done a number
of eminent heads. Among them is a portrait bust of
Benedetto Croce suggested by the family and bought by
the Istituto Storico in Naples.
I am writing to you for two reasons---first
because I would very much like to do your portrait
and secondly I would like to see a copy of the Croce
bust somewhere in Oxford, because it seems to me this
great man should have a place there. Do you by any
chance have an idea of how I could go about this?
My husband and I have a farm in Tuscany and I
could do your portrait there as I hear that you too
spend some time in Italy. I would leave you free
to buy the head or not, but if you did I would like
to keep a second copy.
Yours sincerely,
Nanette Rowdon


BBC
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Reference: 03/D/MJE
28th April 1972
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of 26th April.
Mr. Esslin is abroad at the moment but if you would
like to send me the verse piece called THE STEEL CANTICLES
I will arrange for someone to look at it.
Yours sincerely,
2RDunsbra
Secretary to Martin Esslin
Mr. Maurice Rowdon,
5 Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.
ERD


BBCtv
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5th April, 1972
Dear Mr, Rowdon,
Your letter of 23rd March, 1972, to Mr.' Bill Cotton, has
been passed to me,
I am sorry to be a bit negative in this reply, but the
chances of acceptance of a period comedy series are, I'm afraid, rather
remote. As you know, we have "Clochemerle" running on BBC-2 at the moment,
and later this year it will be transmitted on BBC-1 as a repeat. We are
also committed to a series of "Feydeau Farces" for BBC-2, and I think that
just about covers the period comedy field, Certainly, if you have one of your
scripts fully written-up, I would be delighted to read it, but in the meantime
I can only suggest that you offer your series to our Drama Department who might
have more opportunity of production than we have.
Yours sincerely,
ILUHON
(Duncan Wood)
Head of Comedy,
Light Entertaimment, Television
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S:W,6,


BBC tv
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re: JD/SH
22nd February 1972
Dear Maurice Rowdon,
Thank you so much for your letter.
I well remember our
meeting.
The situation about Marino Marini is that Norman Swallow
has already bought a film about him made, I think, by a German
Television Company and someone in this Department is currently
preparing an English version of it. Between ourselves I did
not think it a very good film and rather regretted that we had
not done something ourselves since I have a high regard for
Marini.
But alas we do not always get in first.
Yours sincerely,
(John Drummond)
Executive Producer,
BBC-2 Arts Features.
M. Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London,


DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA
THE UNIVERSITY
PROFESSOR
HUGH HUNT
MANCHESTER M13 9PL
TELEPHONE 061-273 3333
EXT. 608
27th April,1972.
Maurice Rowden,Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice Rowden,
Thank you very much for letting me read your play,
A SONG OF THE EARTH, which I find extremely interesting and
I would think might be a profitable venture, but I am afraid
it is just not 'my cup of tea' as a director. It is a play
which requires a director with strong technical abilities in
its mixing of sound and script. I also regret that much as
I admire the skill with which you have pieced together this
relationship between the two characters, I personally do not
feel sufficiently interested in the characters themselves to
involve myself fully in the subject.
Please understand that my judgement is purely
subjective and has nothing to do with an evaluation of the
play as such.
Yours sincerely,
Mwik luwr
HUGH HUNT.


Dear Dorothy Tutin,
I am enclosing a copy of A SONG OF THE
EARTH,
Do do do say yes. It would be so good
too with you there in Edinburgh and the film.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


THE CHICHESTER festival THEATRE PRODUCTIONS COMPANY LIMITED
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Chichester Festival Theatre,
A.T. SMITH (CHAIRMAN)
THE EARL OFE BESSBOROUGH
Oaklands
V. W. J. BEHRENS
Park, Chichester, Sussex
L.E. EVERSHED-MARTIN, O.B.E.
MRS H. GESTETNER,O.B.E.
Telephone: Box Office
Administration
G. W. MARWOOD
DIRECTOR SIR JOHN CLEMENTS. C.B.E.
GENERAL MANAGER DOREEN DIXON
SECRETARY R. H. MOSSE
24th April 1972
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
8 Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Robert Selbie has asked me to thank you very much
for sending him the script of your play "THE SONG OF THE EARTH"
about the Mahlers, and he will be writing to you again shortly
to let you know his reaction.
Yours sincerely,
Penelope Dasby
Penelope Darby.
Secretary.


Dear Mr Esslin,
I have a long verse piece called THE
STEEL CANTICLES which is for two voices
and percussion (perhaps also music like
say Hanns Eisler's). It is meant for
dramatic delivery and therefore I think I
am right to come to you and not tothe
Poetry side.
It is not easy to read, being something
of a departure, but would prove I think
easier for the ear than the oye.
May I send it to you?
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Walker,
Further to our telephone conversation
this morning I am writing to give you details
of my Mahler production. This is a two-
hander play written for Dorothy Tutin and
Vladek Sheybal, on Gustav and Alma Mahler in
their life together. It is being planned
as a Fringe production at the Edinburgh
Festival. At present the likely director
is Hugh Hunt. The plan is to use the Edin-
burgh production as a lanching pad for a
tour of Britain. Economically of course
a two-hander requiring the minimum set is
the cheapest shape a tour could take, and
I wonder if you would be interested in taking
a participating interest on the financial
side, and in arranging some kind of tie-up
on the musical side.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
DENZIL WALKER
I8BS T -TILLETT
124 WIGMORE STREKT
Witt
OAX


DEPARTMENT OF DRAMA
THE UNIVERSITY
PROFESSOR
MANCHESTER
HUGH HUNT
M13 9PL
TELEPHONE 061-273 3333
EXT. 608
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON, S.W.6
24th April 1972
Dear Mr.Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of 10th April.
I am unable to give you an immediate answer, since
I would like to know whether in fact Dorothy Tutin and
Vladek Sheybal have accepted engagements for your play,
and what arrangements you feel are likely to arise from
your suggestion of a "fringe" production.
Secondly, I would naturally like to read the play
before giving a final answer.
Yours sincerely,
Nuik Bont
(HUGH HUNT)


Constable do Company Limited
Constable Publishers
IO Orange. Street
London WC2H7EG
Telepbone: O1-930 080117
Telegrams: Dhagoba London WC2
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
Chairman do Managing Director:
5 Tamworth Street,
Benjamin Glazebrook
London S.W.6.
Directors:
Noel Holland
RAA Holt, Miles Huddleston
The Hon. Jobn Jolliffe
Paul N. Marks
April 24, 1972
Drm Mamive
I was delighted to get your new version of THE SPANISH TERROR
and I'll come back to you when I have read it.
Gyaus
Bpu


GERARD HOLDSWORTH PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
DIRECTORS: G. A. HOLDSWORTH, D.S.O., O.B.E.; P.H.FILMER-SANKBY; M. V.HOLDSWORTH, A.R.C.A.
D. G. KELLY;J. P. F. OLIVER
3I PALACE STREET, LONDON, S.W.I
TELEPHONE: OI-828 1671
AB/GHP
24th April, 1972.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Road,
LONDON, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
I expect that by now you will have heard the
sad news about our film from David.
Following detailed instructions from De Beers,
the film has been totally re-shaped, and they themselves
have supplied the words which they wish spoken.
Patrick has asked me to tell you how sorry
we are about the way things worked out in the end,
but we would both like to thank you most sincerely
for all the time and effort you put into the work.
With all best wishes from us both.
Yours sincerely,
An-e
Anne Brunker


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19th April 1972
Dear Maurice Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter of 12th April.
I am glad you did write because it reminded me that I had intended
to get in touch with you about your query for payment for the promotion
and billing for THE FALL OF VENICE.
It is the producer's responsibility to provi de both the promotion
material and billing, and it was therefore with some surprise, that I
heard about your request for payment, and also that you had been asked
to provide the copy.
I have asked John if he would have a word with you but up until a
few days ago, obviously hadn't done so.
As the programme was massively over budget, I doubt very much whether
we shall be able to arrange a fee but I will do my best.
Entries for all festivals have to have the general approval of the
Managing Director or the Director of Programmes. I am sorry to say that,
as THE FALL OF VENICE was rather unsuccessful with bot th audiences and
television professionals, to put up the idea might, under the circumstances,
be rather tactless.
Kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
Inelale
(Mike Wooller)
Executive Producer
OMNIBUS
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6.


Dear Mike wooller,
THE FALL OF VENICE
Many thanks for yours of 19th inst.
I don't see what help a phonecall from
John could be in this case of copyright
material which hasn't been paid for. It
looks as though someone else has been taking
my copyright work round the BBC as his own,
and perhaps even being paid for it, and
clearly I am not going to allow that. The
'massively' higher budget than expected on
this programme is an internal matter for the
BBC had has nothing to do with the infringe-
ment of copyright.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Longman
Longman Group Limited 74 Grosvenor Street London W1X OAS
Telephone 01-499 7911
Cables & Telegrams Longman London W1
A/PC/MS
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
14th April, 1972
Dear Maurice Rowdon,
Diashilev
Thank you for your letter of Ath April. I can only say that
it would only seem fain to offer some payment had I independently
decided to approach you to do a book and had then decided against
it having seen the treatment. However, that was not the case.
Your agent suggested your name, and we could not have reached any
decision here without seeing a treatment. I am afraid we do not
offer payment for synopses submitted on these circumstances, nor,
as far as I am aware, does any other nublisher.
Yours sincerely,
senrfar Inen I
Peter Cerst


THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Ben,
I am delivering this now---entirely
rewritten and retyped.
It makes I think about 110,000 words,
inserted pages included.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mike Wooller,
I've been promising to write this letter for what
seems weeks nowe A group of Venetians happened to be
here when THE FALL OF VENICE went
and urged on me
that this was 'authentically vent-enty in a way few
English viewers, even those who knew Venice quite well,
could appreciate, and that the film must be seen in
Venice. One of them will soon be working on the Biennale
and tells me-e-what I didn't know---that TV documentaries
are considered. Now when we were shooting the film the
president of the chamber of commerce invited me to meet
the official who deals with this, who also urged me to
get the film submitted, but I lost touch because of the
pressure of the film itself. The Venetians say it
need only be cut to about 40-45 minutes for submission,
reducing some of the long interviews. What can I say,
in so far as being simply the writer and deviser I have
anything at all to say? You will probably answer that
it is all in the hands of BBC Enterprises now, which will
remind me of how Falkenberg of Cologne TV told me be had
made an offer for CIVILISATION and was told three motths
later that 'unhappily we haven't sold it in Germany yet'.
Anyway, I've told you. Looking at the film again
I didn't find it successful---but an interesting try.
With best regards,
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mike Wooller,
I've been promising to write this letter for what
seems weeks now. A group of Venetians happened to be
here when THE FALL OF VENICE went
and urged on me
that this was 'authentically wenorgaty in a way few
English viewers, even those tho had visited Venice,
could appreciate, and that tle film must be seen in
Venice. One of them will sdon be working on'the Biennale
and tells me---what I aidn't know---that TV documentaries
are considéred. Now when we were shooting the film the
president of the chamber of commerce invited me to meet
the official who deals with this, who also urged me to
get the film submitted, but I lost touch because of the
pressure of the film itself. The Venetians say it
need only be cut to about 40-45 minutes for submission,
reducing some of the long interviews. What can I say,
in so far as being simply the writer and deviser I have
anything to say at all? You will probably answer that
it is all in the hands of BBC Enterprises now, which will
remind me of how Falkenberg of Cologne TV told me he had
made an offer for CIVILISATION and was told three months
later that 'unhappily we haven t sold it in Germany yet'.
Anyway, I've told you. Ldoking at the film again
I didn't find it successful- m-but an interesting try.
One artist friend said she thought everything about it
was appalling, and 'just not TV.
with best regaris,
Yours,


Dear Mr Selbie,
I feel your Festival programme may be
complete for this year but I thought I would
ask you if there is a chance for a two-hander
of mine written for Dorothy Tutin and Vladek
Sheybal, with Adrian Brine directinge It is
about Aima and Gustav Mahler, and I wrote it
by previous arrangement with the actor and
actress, and the Mahler family.
The set is of the simplest kind---it could
indeed be played with none at all. The script
ranges over the whole of Alma's and Gustav's
lives (and beyond) in such a way as to require
the fullest rangeof performance from the actor
and actress. I wrote the script very especially
with each of them in mind, to be as much of an
actor's tour de force as anything else, requiring
no outside aids. Even the music coulg be dis-
pensed with if for copyright reasons it was not
available.
I am keeping my fingers crossed!
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


Dear Mr Selbie,
Following our phone conversation
yesterday I am enclosing the script about
the Mahlers.
I ought perhaps to add a word that a
first reading may be difficult unless one
realises that the changes of scene (Mayernigg
to New York to Vienna etc) and changes of
time (1901 to 1911 and back again) are always
so to speak invisible, and may take place
i nside a speech, so that only the actor can
convey it by his movements and expressions.
A number of people have only 'got' it on
second reading.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


April 10, 1972
Dear Professor Hunt,
Forgive me invading your privacy.
Could
I ask you to consider directing a play of mine?
This is a two-hander written for Dorothy Tutin a
and Vladek Sheybal, on the life together of Alma
and Gustav Mahler.
I wrote it by previous arrangemtn with the
actor and actress and the Mahler family.
I am trying for a fringe production at the
Edinburgh festival, as the beginning of a tour.
Yours sincerely,


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Mr Milligan,
I have been advised by Mr Thomley to write to
you about a play of mine written for Dorothy Tutin
and Vladek Sheybal. This is a two-hander on the
life of Gustav and Alma Mahler. I wrote it by
previous arrangement with the actor and the actress,
and the Mahler family. The director was to have
been Adrian Brine but he is tied up in the Nether-
lands, and I am hoping to persuade Giorgio Strehler
to come over and direct it, since he is free at the
moment of the Piccolo Teatro and will not be taking
over the Salzburg Festival until next year. I can
well imagine that the fringe programme is already
full but I thought I would write and ask you if
there is a chance. I can of course come up to
Edinburgh and discuss it if necessary.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
DIAGHILEV
Dear Peter Carson,
Thank you for your letter of 22nd March addressed
to me care of my agent.
It seems to me that at no point in your letter do
you deal with the matter I wrote to you about, namely
payment for a solicited treatment. No one, naturally,
asks you to assess an author's capacity to write a book,
or the nature of the proposed book, without a treatment
before you.
This has nothing whatsoever to do with the
payment.
In the other media many if not most ideas these
days emanate from the producers, who then cast round
among authors or their agents for someone suitable to
write a treatment on the idea. They cannot then say,
are trying to say, that the author or his agent
is von a sense' putting forward the proposal and not
they themselves. The proposal for a Diaghilev book
was presumably not sitting in my agent's file for nothing.
Nor were you look for any author. You solicited
a treatment from me not simply because I was an au thor
and liked the idea of doing a book on Diaghilev but also
because of the nature of the eight or nine books I had
already published, and, presumably, because of the stand-
ing of the agent representing me.
Certainly, with every new treatment that comes in
your ideas for the book become more and more definite and
better-informed. For this service you propose to pay
nothing.
To take an example, when a property developer asks
a consultant to research a group of buildings for him,
he pays a fee. It would not inflgence the fee that he
later decided not to buy the property. He could not
out of his obligation by writing a charming letter
Eet the consultant saying how well he had done his work,


and how sure he could be of interesting another property
developer.
It is entirely irrelevant to the transaction between
you and me that my treatment may attract other publishers.
Weare simply discussing payment for work solicited and
work done.
I therefore expect from you a payment of at least £100.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth. Street
London
Dear Mr Cotton,
I wonder if I can interest you in a series of
six thirty-minute plays set in France at the beginning
of this century, in a comedy vein. These are my
adaptations of a book of that period.
I have had one other TV credit---THE FALL OF VENICE
which went out in Omnibus a couple of weeks ago. I
have published about eight books and had two theatrical
productions.
has just retired and I hope you
will forgive me "Yr agont have written to the wrong depart-
ment.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


BBC tv
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
TELEVISION CENTRE WOOD LANE LONDON W12 7RJ
TELEPHONE 01-743 8000 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
27th March 1972
M. Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street
London, S.W.6.
Dear Mr. Rowdon:
Thank you for your letter this morning.
You have, I think, directed it to the
wrong department.
All my output is at 50'.
What I suggest you do, therefore, is to
send this to the Head of Comedy, Light
Entertainment Group, who deals with this sort
of thing.
Yours sincerely,
Drtpdul
(Andrew Osborn)
Head of Seriee, Drama, Television


Longman
Longman Group Limited 74 Grosvenor Street London W1X OAS
Telephone 01-499 7911
Cables & Telegrams Longman London W1
A/PC/MS
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
c/o Bolt & Wa tson, Ltd.,
Chandos House,
Buckingham Gate, S.W.1.
22nd March, 1972
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Diaghilev
Thank you for your letter of 21st March. I quite understand
your annoyance at the length of time which it took for me to
vacillate towards a negative decision. However, I don't really
see that we should feel bound to pay you for that treatment. I
told David Bolt, and then later yourself, that I had been looking
for some while for an author for a biography of Diaghilev.
Certainly, I did not want a book by a ballet expert, nor do I still.
However, I have always said that what I thought was reouired was a
book that could be presented as definitive. David Bolt suggested
your name, and therefore I saw you, talked to you, and asked for a
treatment. If the name of an author is suggested I unless it is
that of Kenneth Clark on Leonardo's drawings - I don't see how one
can make up one's mind without having a treatment of the subject in
ouestion. The reason we had our discussion was that David Bolt had
suggested your name, so in a sense it was a proposal put forward by
him.
I have no doubt that the book you would write would be
perceptive, attractive and well-written, but I don't feel it would
amount to the biography in depth which I feel is needed, more
especially since the recent publication of Buckle's Nijinsky, which
although covering only one aspect of Diaghilev's life, is far, far
better than I thought it could be.
Moreover, I don't doubt that David will have little difficulty
in placing your very publishable proposal elsewhere.
Yours sincerely,
me (
Peter Carson


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Mr Osborn,
I wonder if I can interest you in a comedy series
of six thirty-minute plays set in France at the beginning
of this century. These are my adaptations of a book of
that period.
I have had one other TV credit---THE FALL OF VENICE
which went out in Omnibus last week. I have published
about eight books and had two theatrical productions.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


STOLL THEATRES CORPORATION LIMITED.
DIRECTORS:
PRINCE LITTLER, C.B.E. (CHAIRMAN & MANAGING DIRECTOR)
CRANBOURN MANSIONS,
LORD RENWICK,K.B.E.
J. M. BARHAM.
E. S. BIRK.
CRANBOURN STREET,
TOBY ROWLAND.
L. BENJAMIN.
JACK GILL.
LONDON, W.C.2.
TELEPHONE: 01-437 2274
SECRETARY:
8th February, 1972
Maurice Rowdon, Esqo,
5 Tamworth Street,
London, S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
"Christophe"
Thank you for your note. We have only one script here
in the office which I am enclosing with this letter. I am sorry,
but I cannot find a second one. Perhaps Leon had it.
I do hope things go well with you. I am off to New York
at the end of the week, but why don't we try and meet next month
and catch up on each other's news?
Kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
ala
Toby Rowland
Enc.


5 Tamworth Street
London
DIAGHILEV
Dear Peter Carson,
You may remember that in the first days of
December last year the question of my writing a
treatment for a biography of Diaghilev arose
between yourself and my agents Bolt and Watson.
The idea for a Diaghilev biography was yours.
Indeed, some months before you had negotiated
with another writer on the same subject, but
nothing had come of it.
You wrote to me on December 12 last asking
me for my 'further thoughts' on the book, which
meant, as you and I had already agreed when we
met, a treatment. I sent this 8000-word treat-
ment to you (with a copy of my FALL OF VENICE
which you had also asked for) on January of
this year. You had already pointed out to both
myself and my agent that you did not require an
Texpert'--premumably an expert on ballet---for
this book.
You then took what is to me, used as I am
to working in other fields, the astonishing
time of almost two and a half months to decide
that you had cooled towards the idea (your own
expression) and now did require an 'expert'.
I see nothing wrong in your change of attitude
but I do feel that you should pay some kind of
option money, at least &100, for the intensive
work put into the preparation of that treatment.
One simply cannot write a professional treat-
ment of the briefest kind (and this was not
brief) without extensive reading and cross-
checking.
Had my agent simply sent you a synopsis
unsolicited, that would of course not have
involved payment of any kind. But in thés
case I do not see that your position is any


different from that of a television or film
company which suggests a subject to an author
and solicits a treatment from him.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Bear Maurice,
Many thanks for the PAST AND PRESENT which
was very useful. Of course if one knew everything
one could produce the perfect synopsis, but then
the book would be ready tool
I wonder if I told you that my Venice programme
will be going out on March 19 Sunday evening Omnibus.
Yours efer,
Maurice Rowdon


Bolt 80 Watson LTD AUTHORS' AGENTS
Chandos House Buckingham Gate London SWI
Tel: 01-222 6975 Cables: Bandwag London SWI
Directors: David Bolt Sheila Watson
13th March 1972
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Road,
London. S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
As Ann Brunker has no doubt told you, I got them
to agree to make it €110 for your work on the script
of IN PRAISE OF SMALL THINGS - just to cover our
commission, more or less! Ann is going to send me a
draft contract and we'll need to discuss the wording
of the credit.
THE FIRST CHRISTIAN MONKS. Our German associates
say your synopsis "makes very interesting reading" and
they would like to go ahead now to see if they can find
a publisher. Which is nice, although it may well confuse
the issue since it isn't going to help Maurice Temple
Smith!
Yours,
DLB/LH
Although every care is taken of MSS while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for loss or damage thereto


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear John Drummond,
You may remember we met about the time I was on
THE FALL OF VENICE.
I've heard from Pem Stone about Johi Read's GABO
film, and the series TWENTIETH CENTURY MASTERS.
I thought I would ask if anything is planned on
Marino Marini. I know him well and I am sure he would
overcome his dislike of publicity to do a programme
for me. Is there any chance?
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Sheila Lemon,
I enclose a filmscript AFTERWARDS and a stageplay
CHRISTOPHE.
Patrick Garland and then Toby Rowland got me to
mess the latter about. The idea was to st tart it off
in New York with James Earl Jones in the title role
but he had just signed up for another play on Christophe
(which he then walked out of). I am giving you the
first version, miadly revised. And I believe now it
must be done with a white cast.
I've done an OMNIBUS on Venice which is going out
March 19. Vladek Sheybal playing Casanova.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon
PS My book agent is David Bolt of Bolt and Watson
and he would have to come into the AFTERWARDS picture
as I have drawn it from a novel I published.


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Toby,
Do you still by any chance have the two copies
of CHRISTOPHE from last year? I would be glad of
them back if you have. It is more the original
version I am after.
I hope you are well and not too overworked.
Is Leon stili around? I hear he got a bad dose
of flop.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Your Excellency,
My friend Lena Eichlerowna told me in Warsaw
recentiy that if I needed any form of help connected
with Poland I should get in touch directly with youa
My father-in-law, Gottfried Bermann Fischer,
writes me that he is in urgent need of his birth
certificate. You may know of him as the publisher
in Germany of Thomas Mann, Stefan Zweig, Kafka etc.
He was born in Gliwice on July 31 1897 and later
became an American citizen. All his attempts to
find his birth certificate have so far failed.
However, a friend of mine in Poland has visited
the Glwice archives and ascertained that the birth
certificate is still there. He was unable to obtain
a copy himself, and tellsme that only your Enbassy
would be in a position to obtain one. Do you think
it would be possible, Sir, to procure a copy from the
archives and have it sent to me here?
I enclose the full particulars of the birth
certificate in question.
I am, Sir, Your Obedient Servant,
Maurice Rowdon


BOLT & WATSON LTD
authors' agents 01-222 6975
STATEMENT
Chandos House,
Buckingham Gate,
London. S.W.1.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Road,
London. S.W.6.
19th March, 1971
I enclose out cheque for £675.00 made up
as follows:
Received from:
Maurice Temple Smi th Ltd.,
advance on signa ture of
MONASTICISM
less 10% commission
Siote
bardbu
Soiok
Director
wil.
VEEF
DLB/LH


Patrick Garland
77 Addison Road
LONDON W14
December 1st, 1971
Maurice Rowdon Esq
5 Tamworth Street
LONDON SW6
Dear Maurice,
I got a lot of pleasure reading your play.
I am afraid that I do not want to do it myself,
but I am sure you will be able to put it on
somewhere, especially if you have Vladek and
Dorothy Tutin. I think there is a danger that
too much dramatic weight is thrown onto the music
although when writing about musicians, there isn't
very much else you could do. It would require
very imaginative direction and very elaborate
sound effects and being a Mahler enthusiast, I do see
a way where it would work emotionally if the music
takes over from the actors on stage. I suppose one
reason why I am a little apprehensive is that I know
from bitter experience, that it is very difficult
to get any kind of music-clearance for the amount
of Mahler you are going to use. It might be an
idea to try to approach somewhere like the BBC
in the hopes that they would put it on an"Omnibus"
programme first. They have an agreement with the
Musicians:Union which means that they do not have to
pay full rates for recorded music put on stage.
I believe, tbree minutes is the maximum allowed
and the Musicians' Union is assiduous in checking up.
I thinn this is your best play so far, and
I hope you succeed in seeing it performed publicly.
Aomn,
fatvicm


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Norman,
Thank you for yours of 25 December last
year. What I am saying is that delaying any
programme---even ones like MILTON---two years
or more is wrong. When there is topical
material it is scandalous. The BBC could like
most publishers sign a clause in its copyright
agreements obliging it to show a film not more
than one year after completion and approval.
Of course there would then be ways of playing
with the term 'approval' as publishers do, but
the principle would be there.
The last person I hold responsible for
the delay is you. Otherwise I could blame
you for the budget difficulties.
Your 'Oh goodness!' tickled me---coming on
a mild enquiry about a film after five years of
discussion.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


Lonanwo Tamworth Street
DIAGHILEV
Dear Peter Carson,
I am enclosing herewith the treatment for
DIAGHILEV. We agreed that I should just set
down my thoughts on this book but I thought it
advisable to add a rough breakdown of the chap-
ters or sections as well, for clarity.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


BBC tv
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
KENSINGTON HOUSE RICHMOND WAY LONDON W14
TELEPHONE 01-743 1272 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
23rd December, 1971
Dear Maurice,
Oh goodness!
I'm not, thank heaven responsible for the inaccuracies of
your 'bush telegraph'. All I do know is that I have alone been res-
ponsible for the delay in transmitting 'The Fall of Venice'. The
initial delay was due to the fact that it cost more than was
originally allowed for, and had to be postponed from one financial
year to the next. Later delays were caused by the reason I gave in
my last letter, and of course my judgement in the matter could be
quite wrong.
As for the mysterious 'pre-view' you mention; well, the
'Casanova' people asked if they could see it and I actually agreed.
I've no idea what they thought of it, nor does it much matter. In
view of what you say about them 'picking your brains', perhaps I
should show them your letter so that they can reply? Please advise
Your date of 'week 9' seems to me, by the way. But your fears
that transmission will be delayed until 'autumn 1972 or even spring
1973' are quite unfounded.
What else can I say?
All the best for 1972, despite all this.
Yours sincerely,
Norman Swallow
M. Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
London S.W.6


Longman
Longman Group Limited 74 Grosvenor Street London W1X OAS
Telephone 01-499 7911
Cables & Telegrams Longman London W1
A/FC/MS
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
1 Tamourth St.,
London, S.W.6.
14th December, 1971
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Diaghilev
I promised to send you a copy of Ronald Bryden's earlier
treat tment, which I am afraid has got mislaid. It was basically
a thematic one.
Anyway, I look forward to your further thoughts in due
course, and to getting a copy of your Venice book.
Yours sincerely,
larer
Peter Carson


5 Tamworth Street
London
THEMES AND HUDSON
Dear David,
I suggest a series of small books suitable
for the package-tour trade. For instance Messrs
Sotheby have started Bunning foreign art-tours in
partnership with a travel firm. The brochure or
guide intended for their tourists in Tuscany was
so ghastly, having been written by the travel agent's
courier, that it had to quickly rewritten by someone
in the fimes-Sotheby Index department, on the basis
of his recent ten-day visit to Florence and other
places (as my guest). The COLLINS COMPANION GUIDE
type of book will always have its public, but the
package-tour has not yet got as far as I know its
literature. People want a snappy but serious and
reliable short and pocketable guide to all the things
they should see. Sotheby as the world's major art
dealer could not afford to put out a brochure on
Siena which failed to mention Duccio. A very clear
map could act as frontispiece, showing the towns and
villages described. Each book, printed in a large
clear fount, would deal with a major town and its
environs (FLORENCE, PERUGIA, VENICE, MILAN) rather
than a province, since people generally have only
the vaguest idea of where provinces begin and end.
Length about 20,000 words with black and white re-
productions to keep the price down. They would
look something like those small Vista Studio books.
A quick reference but with stout boards.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Re: Overdraft
Dear Mr Rixon,
Further to our conversation yesterday,
the sum of one thousand pounds will be wired
from the Schweizerische Bankgesellschaft in
Zurich this week, for the credit of my account,
on their receipt of written instructions.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
DIAGHILEV
Dear Peter Carson,
Thank you for your letter. So I shall
go ahead and write something down without wait-
ing for the other synopsis.
The copies of my FALL OF VENICE which I
ordered from Weidenfeld still haven't come after
two weeks, but the sales department are sending
off new ones today. If even they don't arrive
I shall borrow a copy from their library so that
you will have it over Christmas. I keep my own
copies in Italy.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


BBC tv
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
TELEVISION CENTRE WOOD LANE LONDON W12 7RJ
TELEPHONE 01-743 8000 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
30th November, 1971.
Dear Mr. Rowden,
Miss Shubik is currently away filming
and has asked me to deal with her correspondence.
Thank you for letting us see your play THE
UNEXPECTED WEDDING GUEST.
Although some aspects of your piece
were good, I felt Kate, for example, who shoulders
the burden of the baby, getting a degree and
supporting Gordon with apparent equanimity, does
not exhibit that kind of strength of mind early on
in the play.
Also, the perents were written with
less accuracy than I thought necessary.
They seemed
in certain important respects to lack detail.
I'm sorry I can't be more positive but I'm
sure you would prefer me to be honest.
Yours sincerely,
Rasmalites
(Robert Walker)
Script Editor
'PLAY FOR TODAY'
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5, Tamworth Street,


c/o 5 Tamworth Street
London
15 December 1971
Re: 5 Tamworth Street, S.W.6.
Dear Sirs,
The work of improvement has now been
completed on this property and we wonder
if you would kindly arrange for the final
inspection.
The Metropolitan Water Board has
already inspected the property and approved
the arrangements.
Yours faithfully,
G.B.FISCHER GENERAL TRUST CO.


BBC tv
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
KENSINGTON HOUSE RICHMOND WAY LONDON W14
TELEPHONE 01-743 1272 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
6th December, 1971
Dear Maurice,
Of course we are putting out THE FALL OF
VENICE!
We did in fact have a great deal of heart
searching, wondering whether to place it before
or during the present 'Casanova' series.
balance we felt it would be unwise to have two
different characters as Casanova closely together;
and also that Casanova would get a vast audience,
and that we could cash in on this when we presented
our film.
The second point certainly has been made,
and I suspect that when we do present our filmy
which will be sometime in the first quarter of the
new year, its potential audience will have incre-
ased.
Best wishes,
Norman Swallow
M. Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON,


5 Tamworth Street
London
THE FALL OF VENICE
Dear Norman,
I am only sorry that this film has got
caught up in BBC politics. It isn't a film
about Casanova, or even primarily about
Casanova. And to delay a film which is at
least half topical for two years seems to me
reckless.
One hears a lot along the bush telegraph,
I suppose because no one in the BBC bothers to
keep those whose energies it uses from the out-
side properly informed. The bush telegraph
syys that THE FALL OF VENICE was given a preview
inside the BBC together with one or more of the
current CASANOVA series. The story goes on that
our film was given a 'lynching' by those present,
particularly in the matter of Casanova's perform-
ance. It was 'decided' (this I do not believe,
but we will get to the end of the story) that you
simply could not show two Casanovas together, and
one must go, for good.
Now THE FALL OF VENICE took about two years
to get off the ground, even to the shooting
yet it was possible (as if the early delays BERERIE
enough) for the Drama department to pick the brains
of at least two people from THE FALL OF VENICE
crew (one of them mysself), shoot a series of six
films and show them, all at the expense of THE
FALL OF VENICE.
You tell me that the film will be shown in
the first quarter of next year. Bush telegraph
says in the 9th week. Now if a Casanova public
has come into being, it hardly justifies putting
out another film 'on' him three months afterwards.
Three months---if you are going to think in pub-
licity terms at ali---is a long long time. Are
we in fact going to go through the same drill as
for the past two years, since the shooting? Will
we find that after more heart-searching, (and
ecially with OMNIBUS going monthly) that it MsT


have to be shown in Autumn 1972 or even Spring
1973, by which time the topical material will
certainly be out of date?
Vladek Sheybal tells me that on the BOYFRIEND
set Ken Russell happened to say that he'd heard
John Gibson had made a first-class film on Venice.
Further conversation on it was necessarily about
'the film that was never shown'. And on number-
less occasions the same thing has happened to me,
with more damaging professional consequences than
those for an actor.
You see, nobody outside the BBC, where the
politics appear to be so thick, knows what heart-
searching is going on inside. All they know is
that work has been done and there is nothing what-
soever to show for it.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Mr Sparrow,
Forgive me for writing to you out of the
blue but Ian Greenlees who as you know runs the
British Institite in Florence thought that you
might be interested in a project of mine. I
am a sculptress and was recently asked by Bene-
detto Croce's family in Rome to do a portrait
in bronze of Croce from photographs. The
Italian Liberal party has now bought this on
behalf of the Croce Institute in Naples and I
wonder if a second copy of the portrait could
not be installed at Oxford. Do you yourself,
as one of those who took a great interest in
Croce's life and work feel that there is a place
at the university for such a sculpture?
I would happily send you a photograph of
the bust.
Several people in Italy who knew Croce well
tell me that the portrait has caught his spirit.
Yours sincerely,
Annette Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Norman,
I wonder, could you drop me a line to say
if the BBC wiil be definitely putting out THE
FALL OF VENICE?
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
CHRISTOPHE
Dear Jonathan Hales,
I am writing to you about a play of mine
called CHRISTOPHE which calls for a coloured
cast.
This play went to your predecessor at
the Court who wrote me a very positive letterx
about it, saying he thought in the end that it
possibly read better than it would play. I
was just off to do a film in Venice and lost
his letter and didn't follow it up. Toby
Rowland persuaded me afterwards to revise the
script, which I did---this was supposed to be
for James Earl Jones in New York, but Jones
had already found another play on Christophe
(which he subsequently didn't do either). I
still think this is very much a Court play.
Do you think you would read the new version
and let me know if you agree?
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


as from/ Casa Campardi
53037 San Gimignano
(SIENA)
Italy
AFTERWARDS
Dear Sandy Whitelaw,
I gave a copy of the above script to Stefanie.
It looks vast, I know---but I felt it is either a
big film or nothing at all, and it will be cut any-
way.
GRIGG is a sort of Henry Fonda only perhaps
more rugged and ruthless. LOUISE might be very
good for Shelley winters. Perhaps GLEN for Michael
York if he were under a very exacting director.
I'll be back in England for a few days atthe
end of July, meanwhile my best wishes.
Yours,
Maurice Rowdon


asfrom / Casa Campardi
53037 San Gimignano
(SIENA)
Italy
AFTERWARDS
Dear Mr Rae,
I enclose the filmscript AFTERWARDS.
Your
secretary was good enough to phone me to say you
were away. The script looks vast, I know---but
I felt either it is a big film or nothing at all,
and the cuts will happen anyway.
Sandy Whitelaw at United Artists is the only
person with a copy, apart from Vladek Sheybal who
I thought might be a good Palermo. Apart from
the American characters (LOUISE Shelley Winters?)
I saw Michael York as GLEN provided he was in
very competent hands. I shall be back in England
for a few days at the end of July. With best
wishes.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Re: 5 Tamworth Street, S.W.6.
Dear Mr Mitchell,
I have today received your invoice dated
10th June. I hesitate to present this to the
Trust and will specify their current reservations
in the matter.
Two radiators are leaking.
One radiator is
without a cap. There continues to be more than
the usual and expected air in the heating system,
and the bathroom radiator continues to function
erratically. The domestic hot water system
splutters with air, which can be dangerous as well
as inconvenient.
The lavatory has been leaking for three weeks
or so without attendance.
No insulation---specified in your written
estimate No. 699/70---has been laid in the two
roof areas.
I am told that neither the Gas Board nor the
London Electricity Board are likely to accept the
loose wiring and attachment round the gas boiler,
and that the outlet, which send s fumes into the
bedroom, may not be passed.
I must also respectfully point out that your
workers refused to work on this site, despite
daily phone calls about the leakage and stench in
the lavatory, on the grounds that they had received
no instructions from you.
Your workers smashed part of the new gas cooker
three weeks ago and failed to rectify the damage,
though they promised to do so at once. The piping
in the kitchen area does not seem to be quite satis-
factory, being loose. The Health Inspector described
the external plumbing on the outside kitchen wall as
"disgraceful', and the plastic pipes have still not
been secured to the wali and are floating. Nor has


Nor has the waste-pipe been extended to the roof
according to the Health Inspector's requirements
which he has stated two or three times in the last
few weeks.
As you know, the Health Inspector refused to
pass your drainage arrangements, and made two app-
ointments with your workers to establish the design
before completion, but I am told they did not
attend. The Health Inspector also claims that no
drawings were submitted to him, despite his a sking
for them, and that the drawings you gave me were
imadequate.
Five days ago you promised that workers would
be dealing that afternoon with the lavatory, the
roof insulation, the radiators etc but nothing
materialised: someone was in the house until six
in the evening.
Also the kitchen remains unequipped for
washing machine and dishwasher, despite the fact
that these were discussed as long as six months
ago.
There is an outlet pipe protruding from the
lower roof and entering the gutter loose which
may not be satisfactory.
You will appreciate that the Trust which owns
this house feels that there has not been adequate
supervision in this work. In view of the above
it cannot contemplate setlling the rest of the bill
until there has been completion, followed by full
inspection from the Gas Board and the Health
Inspector of the local Council.
It feels that a
very adequate sum, namely over twenty percent of
the total, has already been advanced. I am there-
fore returning the invoice herewith.
Yours faifhinjly,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tanworth Street
London
Dear Mr Rae,
I wonder if I could end you a filmscript
called EFTERWARDS which will be coming from the
printers in a few days.
David Higham Associates
split up recently as you know, and I went with
David Bolt for my book rights. He tells me he
is now in association with you for films. This
script is based on a novel I published three or
four years ago. I shall be taking it to Eva
Redfern at Paramount and also to Uni ted Artists,
unless you shout no at me. My phone number is
385.4003. I am leaving for Italy on the 26th
and would be very glad to have a word with you
on all this before then.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


DAVID HIGHAM ASSOCIATES, Ltd.
DIRECTORS:
Telephone: 01- 437 7888.
Authors' Agents.
DAVID DOVID HIGHAM BOLT Managing
Telegrams: HIGHLIT, WESDO,
SHEHLA WATSON
LONDON.
5-8, LOWER JOHN STREET,
HILTON BRUCE HUNTER AMBLER
Cables HIGHLIT, LONDON- W1
GOLDEN SQUARE,
JACQUELINE KORN
A. J.CROUCH
LONDON, W1R 4HA
Accountant & Secretary
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
15th June 1971
5, Tamworth Street,
London, SW.6.
Dear.
Mra. Rowdons.
We have pleasure in enclosing.herewith our cheque value. &33.75.
forwarding to yourbankers
representing the amount due to you in accordance with the undermentioned
statement.
If any details do not agree with your records, we should be glad if you
would notify us immediately.
Received from:
Payment for possible 75 minute TV play
"MY HUSBAND MY HUSBAND"
First half fee due on signature
Less 10% commission
Yours very truly,
Secretary.
AJC/KB


BOLT & WATSON LTD
authors' agents 01 222-6975
Cables: BANDWAG LONDON SW1
Chandos House,
Buckingham Gate,
London S.w.1.
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Road,
London. S.W.6.
14th May, 1971
Dear Maurice,
THE SPANISH TERROR
I had lunch with John Jolliffe of Constable yesterday,
and while in the office had a useful talk with Ben Glazebrook.
He'd had Harvey Ginsberg's letter of course but wasn't as
discouraged as I had frankly expected. Ben feels strongly
that the opening part of the book isn't right, which as you
know I agree with! I think he feels it could more or less
be scrapped as the book is long anyway. I'm not quite sure
how this would work out. But the main think is that Ben
feels the book can be got into shape and he will be producing
some guide lines for the kind of revision he thinks necessary.
He's telling Harvey that, which ought to help. I suppose a
lot depends on how extensive the proposed revision turns out
to be, but I think we ought to wait until he's produced his
notes, don't you? The positive side is that Constable
evidently have no intention at all of abandoning THE SPANISH
TERROR or you. I know, because between ourselves, I asked.
Yours,
DLB/LH


Tel:
Code:
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
200 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK, N. Y. 10016
POUND
GPPS
March 24, 1971
Mro Maurice Rowdon
5 Tanworth Street
London SW6, England
Dear Mr. Rowdon:
The manuscript for THE SPANISH LERROR has now arrived and I will
be getting back to you shortly once I have had a chance to go
over it.
Sincerely yours,
Sirel 7 VA
Harvel Ginsberd
HG:dk


Stanley House
Farm Lane
London
Dear Anthony,
I am enclosing a play called ELAINE which
has been written with you and the Polish actress
Lena Eichlerowna in mind. would you care to
read it? Nothing is fixed yet but if you like
HAROLD and the whole idea, we could go from there.
Maurice Rowdon, the author, was with Eichlerowna
in Warsaw last week, and she told him she would
be happy to play the part in English. She is
coming over to play opposite me in a BBC play by
the same author.
Lena Eichlerowna, whom I'm sure you have met
in warsaw, is perhaps our greatest actress, so
great that the régime does its best at the moment
to keep her off the stage. You may know that
Brecht thought her the finest actress alive, and
wrote hislast---unfinished---play for her.
I am so pleased to hear about your fantastic
success on Broadway. Dorothy Tutin rang me the
other day to say she had seen you and me in your
TV series, and that we seemed to work together
beautifully. Isn't that nice?
I am considering directing ELAINE myself---
would you consider me as a director?
Yours,
Vladek Sheybal


Administration: 8 Market Passage
THE
Cambridge CB2: 3PF
CAMBRIDGE THEATRE
COMPANY
Telephone: (0223) 57134
Director: Richard Cottrell
Administrative Company Manager: Derek Snook
Vladek Sheybal Esq
Stanley House
Farm Lane
Londen SW6
My dear Vladek
I am se serry net to have called you, but I have been very tied up with
rehearsals and am now in Cambridge. However, I thought I should return
ELAINE without further delay.
I am really sorry I den't like the play e it would have been lovely to work
with you and wenderful to attractaa great actress to England fer the first
time, but I just feel that I have read it all before. It's net that there
is anything wreng with the play it is well constructed and the characters
are clearly drawn - but it doesn't excite me.
De let's meet again seen.
With much love
Richard Cottrell
Directer
Boardof Directors:G. Laurence Harbottle (Chairman);T.A. Bird; Andrew R. Blackwood; Richard Cottrell; ;John W. Elven; Bill Gray; Dr Christopher. Johnson
Toby Robertson; George Rylands; Norman Tobin;J. b.Tunnicliffe: ;Alderman P.J. Warren
Cambridge Theatre Company Limited works in association with thel Prospect Theatre Company and the Cambridge Arts Theatre Trust


PETER DAVIES
Directors
LTD
DWYE
Telephone
EVANS (Chairman)
D. E. PRIESTLEY (Managing Director)
MARK BARTY-KING
PUBLISHERS
J. W. DETTMER
C. S. PICK
15-16, Queen Street, Mayfair
Telegrams:
Secretary
London, WIX 8BE
PEDEBOOKS, LONDON, W.1.
MBK/MK
18th January, 1971
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON, S.W.6.
My dear Maurice,
I was thrilled to get your letter this morning. Derek
and I were talking about you the other day, and suspected
that you were back in this country and probably in the toils
of moving. I hope everything is working out well for you.
We're still at Sydney Street but work has finally (thank God)
begun at World's End, and it looks as if we may be able to
move in at about the end of March.
I have sent the two Ralph Thorpe typescripts to David
Bolt.
Do call me when you are reasonably free again, as we are
both very much looking forward to seeing you and Annette.
Love and best wishes,
Yours,
Mark Barty-King


Patnce Gathend
Plat 2
Addisoh Rd


5 Cranbourne Court
Albert Bridge Road
London, S.W.11
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter and renewal of your subscription.
Apologies for delay in reply.
I handed your STEEL CANTICLES to Peter Dale as he is
guest editing the next issue of Agenda. He will
send it back if he doesn't want to use anything from it.
Yours sincerely,
Wilhiom Cookson


Stanley House
Farm Lane
London
Dear Mr Poulson,
Adrian Brine suggested I get in touch with
you about the enclosed play ELAINE by Maurice
Rowdon.
It would greatly interest me to direct this
script and I wonder if there is a chance at your
theatre in the Autumn season. My plan is to
bring Lena Eichlerowna over from warsaw to play
the lead, in English.
As you may know she is
considered Poland's greatest actress. Brecht
wrote a play for her but died before it was
finished.
I think there is a strong chance of a West
End transfer here. I have directed and played
opposite Eichlerowna many times at the National
theatre in Warsaw and feel that she might have great
appeal in this country.
BBC Television recently commissioned Maurice
Rowdon to write a play on the Polish community
here, and he suggested Eichlerowna for the lead
in that too. So this would mean some useful
preliminary publicity.
Yours simcerely,
Vladek Sheybal


Stanley House
Farm Lane
London
April 7th 1971
Dear Mr May,
I am enclosing a script which it would greatly
interest me to direct, and I wonder if there is a
chance at your theatre this year.
It has been written for Lena Eichlerowna, and
my plan is to bring her over from Warsaw, to play
the part in English. As I am sure you know, she
is perhaps Poland's greatest actress this century.
She knows the script and will be playing it at the
National theatre in Warsaw, in Polish.
I think there is a strong chance of a West
End transfer in this play (it was Toby Rowland who
suggested to Maurice Rowdon that we try you),
and I think that Eichlerowna could create a sensation
here. I have directed her and played opposite
her many times at the National theatre in Warsaw,
and I feel she might have great appeal in this
country too.
BBC television recently asked Maurice Rowdon
to write a teleplay on Polish émigrés here in
London, and he suggested Eichlerowna for the lead.
This would mean some useful preliminary publicity.
Yours sincerely,
Vladek Sheybal


his + Cwelges
E13
av kouie
legy
betieer 1-3 May
(in Paris).
cumeralw Lees
à 1
ETMON
previously.
Veuice fasts Weeley)
To the Head (or Acting Head) of the household:
I recently delivered a Census form for you to complete
on Sunday 25th April. I have since called several times
to collect the completed form but have been unable to
find you at home. As the completed form is needed very
urgently will you please be good enough to post it to me
immediately, in the attached envelope.
In case the form has been mislaid I am leaving another
one.
You have a legal obligation to fill in the form in
respect of your household and, as you will see from the
notice on the front of the Census form, there are
penalties for failing to do SO.
Census Enumerator


5 Tamworth Street
London
4 May 1971
THE STEEL CANTICLES
Dear Mr Cookson,
In a letter of 13th December last year you
wrote me that either the CANTICLES would be used
or sent back to me.
Neither happened.
Could
you look into this and let me have the script if
you don't need it?
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


DAVID HIGHAM ASSOCIATES, Ltd.
DIRECTORS:
Telephone: 01- 437 7888.
Authors'Agents
DAVID HIGHAM DAVID BOLT Managing
Telegrams: HIGHLIT, WESDO,
LOWER
HILTON SHEILA AMBLER WATSON
LONDON.
JOHN STREET,
BRUCE HUNTER
JACQUELINE KORN
Cables: HIGHLIT, LONDON-W1
GOLDEN SQUARE,
A. J.CROUCH
Accountant & Secretary
LONDON, W1R 3PE.
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
Flat E
42 Elm Park Gardens
London SW10
26th. April 1971
Dear Maurice,
This is to confirm the bit about the outline for the Television
play which you are doing for Irene Shubik. The BBC have agreed to
£75.00 for the outline, which will be set off against an overall fee
of £800 for the full script if they wish to commission it. I have
asked them to issue a contract and we'll have it for your signature
next week sometime.
Bruce is out of hospital now and is going to France on Monday. *
After that my social life will be a lot easier and I hope that you
Sorel
will come up for dinner one evening next week, I'll - phone you on
Monday.*
aevel
Love,
Although every reasonable care is taken of MSS. while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for any loss or damage thereto.


5 Tamworth Street
London
April 22nd 1971
Dear Ben,
I got your letter on my return from Venice.
I don't think yau were wrong to sedd me the photo-
stats. I fact I learned a great deal from them.
While saying 'you failed to understand' certain
sentences I should have added that the fault was
entirely mine. I don't mind getting into arguments
ifI have to---but not with people I'm in perfect
agreement with!
I had a word with Harvey Ginsberg over the
phone and it seems he is haying the same difficulty
as you over the first chapters. My agent has a
good system with difficult bits---he skips them.
My father in law used to call it diagonal reading.
I remember being in his room years ago when he
bought an unknown play over the phone---it was
called Look Back In Anger. He felt he had to buy
it. And he hadn't even read it.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Mr Ginsberg,
Thank you for your letter of 6th May.
Do you prefer me to look for another publisher
and negotiate another contract, or does the
book interest you sufficiently to advance me
the money due on delivery so that I may revise
it for press? I don't agree that the MS is
unpublishable in its present state, nor does
my agent here, but of course it does need
drastic revision. My last book THE SILVER
AGE OF VENICE did well in the States and I
remember the same pre-publication doubts.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Mr Ginsberg,
Further to my phone call, the feeling here seems
to be that on the whole the first chapters of the book
are a colourless bore.
It looks as if the book can
only be seen by reading the second half, at the moment.
Ben Glazebrook at Constable took a month on the first
100 pages, and a few days on the rest. I don't think
there is a depressing amount of work to do but some
cutting (I have 20,000 words to get rid of if necessary)
and a rewrite of the early chapters.
I wrote these
last and they show mental fatigue.
I hope this helps you climb those ugly sentences
to the heart of the book.
Sincerely yours,
Maurice Rowdon


Stanley House
Farm Lane
London
Dear Ewan,
Here is ELAINE which we were talking about.
Maurice Rowdon will be going to warsaw in May with
the television play commissioned by Irene Shubik
(BBC/TV) which he is writing especially for Lena
Eichlerowna. Miss Eichlerowna will be playing
ELAINE in Polish by the way, at the National theatre
in warsaw.
We are aiming at a West End transfer.
Toby Rowland knows ELAINE, and he and Rowdon are in
constant touch.
Once again I would like to convey to you that
I have a feeling that the whole venture with Lena
Eichlerowna might become a sensational thing in
London. She definitely has the quality of creat-
ing a sensation round her.
One of her greatest
admirers was berthold Brecht. He never missed a
first night of hers, and always flew to warsaw for
He called her the greatest actress in the world
and started writing a play especially for her, to
be done in East Berlin, but he died before it was
finished.
I took the liberty of coming to your theatre
yesterday, Sunday, and thanks to the kindness of
your AFM I had a good look round. I think it is
beautiful and you have done miracles. Especially
that I remember our convers,tion at the Hampstead
theatre club about your projects, which then seemed
to be so much in the clouds. Well you did it!
I await a word from you after you have read the
play and I do hope it is suitable for your theatre.
I am free for the next ten days but will be heavily
committed after that in Ken Russell's latest film
(I'm playing with Twiggy!)
Yours,
Vladek Sheybal


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Lena,
I now hear that you have read ELAINE.
would feel very happy and privileged if you would
consider perhaps playing it in London. A few
days ago I discussed the possibility of a West
End commercial production. It would however be
necessary to start the play in the provinces, at
one of the subsidised theatres, to prepare it for
transfer to the West End. As you know, the sett-
ing-up of these things takes much time, but I hope
our efforts will be successful.
BBC Television asked me recently to werite a
75-minute play on the life of Polish émigrés here
in London, and I suggested you for the leading
female role. They agreed that it was a good idea
but added that Equity, the trade union, might not
accept it. But this too is only in the aiscussion
stage, and as you know the entertainment industry
tends to change every day.
But a television programme would be a good way
of preparing an image of you for the British public,
I am changing ELAINE into a Polish or perhaps
Russian woman to make it possible for Equity to
allow you to work here, and also I think to improve
the play.
I may come to Warsaw but I feel I know you
already, from many ardent descriptions, and there-
fore I would prefer to come when the theatre and
TV plans are more solid.
Thank you for reading ELAINE, and above all
for entertaining the idea of playing it yourself
here.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


TELEP HONE
ABCSTUDIOS, BOREHAM WOOD
EMI FILM PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
DIRECTORS:
BERNARD DELFONT, CHAIRMAN
BRYAN FORBES, MANAGING D OR
EMI-MGM ELSTREE STUDIOS,
D. J. GOODLATTE
J. L, HARGREAVES
PETER KING
BOREHAM WOOD,
E.A. MAXWELL
J. H. MCDONALD, C.A.
R. H. NORRIS
HERTS.
JOHN E. READ. F.C.A.
HOWARD THOMAS, C.B.E.
Managing Director's Office
SECRETARY: F. w. ADAIR. F.C.I.S.
BJF/MR
Mr. Maurice Rowdon,
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON, S.W.6.
18th January 1971.
Dear Maurice Rowdon,
INCURABLE
I have now had an opportunity to read Vladek's screenplay
which I read with great personal interest because I think
it is an intelligent piece of work. However I can only be
totally honest and blunt with you and say that in my opinion
there is little chance of it finding a home as a first
feature film, in today's depressed economic climate. Even
with the Suggested Anglo/German co-production deal, I cannot
move my own Board to consider even part finance. It is my
firm personal opinion, for what it is worth that you would
be best advised to try and pursue placing it as a television
production on, preferably, BBC 2.
I hope it goes without saying that I don't enjoy disappointing
you and an old friend like Vladek.
Kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
auh
BRYAN FORBES
Encl/
A member of the EMI group of companies


DAVID HIGHAM ASSOCIATES, Ltd.
DIRECTORS:
DAVID HIGHAM Managing
Telephone: 01- 437 7888.
Authors'Agents.
SHEILA DAVID WATSON BOLT
Telegrams: LONDON. HIGHLIT, WESDO,
5-8, LOWER JOHN STREET,
HILTON BRUCE AMBLER HUNTER
Cables: HIGHLIT, LONDON- WI.
GOLDEN SQUARE,
JACQUELINE KORN
LONDON, W1R 3PE.
Accountant A.J.CROUCH & Secretary
Maurice Rowden Esq.,
23rd December 1970
5 Tamworth Road,
London S W 6
Dear Maurice,
Just to say how much I enjoyed reading that
splendid letter in the T.L.S. Nice that they
publisMrithout (I imagine) cutting.
Yours ever,
bart
DLB/TF
Although every reasonable care is taken of MSS. while in our possession we can accept no
responsibility for any loss or damage thereto


5 Tamworth Street
London
INCURABLE
Dear Mr Forbes,
I have just heard from Germany that, in the
event of a good tie-up here, we might eventually
expect a hundred thousand dollars from them.
This isn't much, but I thought I would let
you know while you were still considering the
script.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Ben,
I've just written to Harvey Ginsberg at
Putnam to ask if he will pay me the rest of
the advance due on this book on delivery and
not on publication, provided he sees no huge
problems in the text. Can I ask you to do
the same?
The typist is wrestling with my handwriting
at the moment. Allowing for correction, I
th: ink the script should be with you by the end
of February. I think we should lunch together
after you have absorbed it, and we shall see
if you agree with me on my ideas on how to
project it.
Yours ever,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
THE SPANISH TERROR
Dear Mr Ginsberg,
You were kind enough to write to me last
year suggesting that I get in touch with you
if I need anything. THE SPANISH TERROR is
finished now, and the typist is wrestling with
my handwriting. Can I possibly get an assur-
ance from you that you will pay me the rest of
the advance due on this book on delivery and
not on publication, provided of course that you
see no huge problems in the text?
Allowing time for correction I th ink the
MS should be with you from Harold Ober towards
the end of February. I hope you and Ben Glaze-
brook can coordinate on your criticisms. As
I told Ben last year, I'd like to avoid two sets
of criticism which might not tally. But I'm
certain you've both already thought of that.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Mr Richter,
Your offices are in the house where I first
met my father-in-law Gottfried Fischer, some years
ago. For this reason I know your name and am
writing to you.
I am a writer working here in the theatre,
television and films. what are the chances of
coproduction with Berlin television? Could you
possibly let me know if you or a colleague (Alfred
Berndt?) have thought of coproducing with, for
instance, the BBC or a private company here on
55- or 75-minute drama?
I have just been involved in a BBC coproduction
with Bayerischerundfunk (Studienprogram) but they
are not sufficiently well-financed to take the cost
of dubbing and lip-synch which are involved in drama
as opposed to documentary. I am looking for co-
productions in very serious drama, which will inter-
est both English and German audiences, and occasion-
ally the kind of documentary that is called the
'dramatised documentery'.
I can cometo Berlin at any time. Forgive me
not writing to you in German, but my German is only
fit for very close friends and relatives.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


3/ scripts(including The Safety Pin") from
Stephanie Randall,
37-41, Mortimer Street W,1.(United Artists Recordi
IInd Floor.
Hemdale Group,
39,South Street,W.1.


Directors Patrick Garland and Charles Osborne
POETRY Advisory Director Ted Hughes
Press Officer Kenneth Thomson
INTERNATIONAL 70
The Poetry Book Society Ltd 105 Piccadilly London W1V OAU Telephone 01-629 9495
June 21st. 1970
Dear Mr. Rowden,
Thanks SO much for sending me this play. It
is enormously impro oved, I think, although you could still do without
the opening in flashback with the tourists.
I'm afraid I do not want to direct it myself, as
it isn't exactly what I'm looking for - also I'm terribly tied up
with three plays, one of them an adaptation of my own, until
mid-1971.
Why do you not try Nottingham Playhouse, which
is always on the quest for new and ambitious plays? Or, possbbly
Chichester, and the National Theatre?
Please forgive my brevity, but I have arrived back
with a great deal of work in front of me, and no time to get any
of it done.
I hear that Wladek's "Casanova" was splendid -
I hadn't realised you were also involved in that i I do hope it goes
well.
Yours sincerely,
hhiclt Candans
Ps, 1
nas v vite P
b fand ml
yon
your play
all li
to Gerael.
Ray


Closta Slhain


5 Tamworth Street
London
INCURABLE
Dear Dr Jedele,
As the producer of the film INCURABLE I am
hereby authorising the director VLADEK SHEYBAL
to talk with you about the setting up of the film,
the casting and locations etc.
I hope to come to Munich soon and if this
film interests you we could perhaps then discuss
the terms of a coproduction.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


BAVARIA ATELIER GESELLSCHAFT MBH
BAVARIA
Bavaria Atelier Gesellschaft mbH 81 Munchen 90 Postfach 90 02 29
COPRODUKTION
Mr. Maurice Rowden
5 Tamworth Street
Firmensitz:
8022 Geiselgasteig
Bavaria-Film-Platz' 7
LONDON SW 6
Fernruf 64 49 91
Telex 05 23 254 bavat d
Drahtwort: Bavariaatelier
ENGLAND
Ihre Nachricht vom
Ihre Zeichen
Unsere Abteilung/Zeichen e Durchwahl
Tag
Copr-Wi/sti
Dear Mister Rowden,
I will be in London in the first week of January and will
contact you on that occasion. Maybe you can then screen the
"Fall of Venice" for me and we can discuss that production.
Until then I am
yours sincerely
Virl
(Dr. Karl Heinz Willschrei)
Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrats: Josef Hermannn Dufhues
Geschaftsfuhrer: Dr. Helmut Jedele, Generaldirektor Walter Pindter Dr. Heinz Savelsberg
Sitz der Gesellschaft: Munchen Handelsregister Munchen: Abt. B/ Band 611 4834


ABCSTUDIOS, BOREHAM WOC OD
EMI FILM PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
DIR ORS :
BERNARD DELFONT, CHAIRMAN
BRYAN FORBES, MANAGING DIRECTOR
EMI-MGM ELSTREE
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Managing Director's Office
SECRETARY: F. w. ADAIR, F.C.I.S.
BJF/MR
Mr. Maurice Rowdon,
5 Tamworth Street,
LONDON, S.W.6.
1st January 1971.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
This is merely to acknowledge with thanks safe receipt
of Vladek Sheybal's script INCURABLE, which I will pass
to Mr. Forbes immediately for his personal attention.
Yours sincerely,
Magorel cocves
M. Reeves (Mrs.)
Secretary
A member of the EMI group of companies


ONI
ABCSTUDIOS, BOREHAM WOOD
EMI FILM PRODUCTIONS LIMITED
DIRECTORSI
BERNARD DELFONT, CHAIRMAN
BRYAN FORBES, MANAGING DIRECTOR
D.J. GOODLATTE
EMI-MGM ELSTREE STUDIOS,
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WOOD,
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R. H. NORRIS
HERTS.
JOHN E. READ, F.C.A.
1, M. SCOTT. C.A.
HOWARD THOMAS, C.B.E.
Managing Director's Office
SECRETARYIF. w. ADAIR, F.C.I.S.
BJF/MR
Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
5 Tamworth Street-
LONDON, S.W.6.
10th December 1970.
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
THE SAFETY PIN
Can I respond immediately, if briefly, to your kind letter.
Of course I would be interested in reading Vladek Sheybal's
original film script. So please sent it to me when you
have a draft you consider to be more or less definitive
and I will give it my personal attention.
Kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
luh
BRYAN FORBES
A member of the EMI group of companies


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Paul N Marks
December 23, 1970
Da Mavel
THE SPANISH TERROR
That's very good news, and we must meet for lunch after
Christmas when all that cold turkey is finished.f
A very happy Xmas.
Vane


THE TIMES
LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.4
Telephone: 01-236 2000 Telex : 26 2622/3
16th November 1970
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Mr. Denis Hamilton has passed on to
me a letter from you on the Arts Council.
As it stands it is much too long for pub-
lication. I have accordingly taken the
liberty of reducing it and putting it into
type. If you approve of this shortened
version, then I will do my best to get it
Yours sincerely,
lu - hu
hod
Arthur Crook
Editor
Maurice Rowdon, Esq.,
Casa Caupardi,
53037 San Gimignano,
Siena,
Italy.


5 Tamworth Street
London
31st December 1970
INCURABLE
Dear Mr Forbes,
Thank you very much for your letter of the
10th.
I have pleasure in enclosing Vladek Sheybal's
script which was originally called THE SAFETY PIN
and has the present working title of INCURABLE.
With best wishes,
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


DAVID HIGHAM ASSOCIATES, Ltd.
DIRECTORS:
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Maurice Rowdon Esq.,
14th December 1970
5 Camworth Street,
London S.W.6.
Dear Maurice,
STEEL CANTICLES
As you know, I've been funking this one, and still am.
But I did send it off to one of our readers who is pretty expert
(insofar as one can be expert) on poetry, and I'm enclosing his
report. This is probably a good example of how an agent loses
an author through being too candid. Except that I didn't write
the report, and some of it seems to make a certain sort of sense.
Of course I'm not at all inclined to take the advice in
the last two lines, and you must bear in mind that the reader,
ignorant fellow/though he is in other spheres, doesn't know at
all who you aret But when we meet
which
will be
eypes
next,
I hope
soon, can we have another look at STEEL CANTICLES and decide
where and at what, we are aiming?
Yours aye,
DLB/TF/ENC
Sanns
Although every reasonable care is taken of MSS. while in our possession we can accept no responsibility for any loss or damage thereto.


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5 Tamworth Street,
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April 1, 1971
Den Mamice
I thought I ought to get something on paper about my reservations
on THE SPANISH TERROR before we meet on Monday. I am sorry
to say this,but there seemed to me to be a lack of precision in thought
and language in the early chapters. If other readers don't feel this,
then it is probably a failure on my part to get the hang of your style.
I do feel that in a book on such a fascinating but amorphous subject the
reader must be given very clear landmarks to start with.
It seemed to me a mistake to begin with a description of 'terror'
in such general terms. My own instinct would be to start at page 7
of the typescript 'The Emergence of Spain' etc.
On occasion after occasion in the early chapters I found myself
unable to follow your train of thought, and the pleasure of reading was
thus greatly diminished. From chapter twelve on is altogether a
different reading experience. The writing is much tighter, and the
narrative orderly and logical.
I feel quite awful to write to an author of your eminence like
this, but I am greatly encouraged by chapter twelve onwards, which
I had not read when I talked to you on the telephone.
honst


Ane all hise pacahtocs Cales, hecesar
1. Theeanin of the 'S: anish terrcr' a re.tal terror of
the kind ramil: ar to vhe bhentieth century
be uamal
Muse lons huuis hhus hu an ulnbh Mautus hum
dint apneal 65 lu huwioti Can w- fall abvul Lu 2
ciatin lut
In he murier-plots and intricues that went O1 in
every part of - urope between 1550 and 1650 Oie 1 ower WES
nearly a. nays - nvolved and that was Spain. Ine Sps alist.
terror W1s the powel vielded not only (peraarileast
Dy Syaniah armies ai a galleons but by money a nd perscnel
influenc. and E n eliborate siy-syster, above all in en Ul-
swerving catholic OI tiodory, wlich came rom the striing
aystical energu of the Spanish people esawole. Out of
their enersy tle Spanish erpire was mace, ind tle 'terront
was tc IL ethod - evclved for the first tine in the sixteenth
century - d for the first tine by Philip I -: by which
people's ainds could be i.fluenced and intinidated at a
great distance withouy the deployment of Hirst armies. But
ihad? fe was no 6 the work O1 Fhilip alone, just is the empire was
Hw con
not. Bo St the empire and Gunwittingly) te terror vere
uar und? tw dw Lun 'nupai an Guushe
fanw-snults
Ishk repared py his father Charles v, the Eoly Rc man engercr-dtshav-se
mutrig!
He provided (ardhe aeant to provide) his son with a perfect
instrument of E overnnent. He made it possible to create the
Spanish empire out of the Hapsburg empire. ihis does not
mean that he destroy ed or even tnbarted the I apsburg interest,
but that he found in Spain the only possible leader for the
kind of ompire he had in mind, which was a CL ristian
community held togetier not by armies or ever useful dynestic
marriages but by a S lared religion which pirvaded every cetail
of daily life, wheth er in Bohenia or New Mexico.
The reign 3 of Charles V and Philic II ere the
story of how SJ ain's imperial powar was built and consolidated,
a #E M F EE


and also of ho ! the Jesuit movement came ints being as te
ecclesiestical arm of this imperial operatica without the
slightest direct conection between that mOv emeit and
either sovereign, O2 even acinowledgement oI Spain's special
role on the part of the Jesuits. The empire ani the Jesuit
(on bin cl
order (rere simply one and the sane eifort)to stabilise
catholic Europo and, by plots and_esyionace, by infiltration
into every cou:t, by bribery aad assassinetion, by education,
unplantrd
to root out evel rything achieved by protestars action. T1 le
'Spanish terroz' was thererore tiat subtle a id deterninei
projection of ower throughout Europe and th 2 New World vhich
culm nated in the staying of tie protestant nf.uence - in
what is sometines called the catholic restorition. This
restoration reached its climax, and found its leader, in
Philip II. Hi: detachment, his devoutness, . is unsparing
a Precise uflecti
self-dis:ipling were (precisely an ideal imag of Spain in
his tine. He came as near as anyone ever has tor centrulising
in his ovn person a mass of aspirations - avorid emj ire
intended as the embodiment ofa religion. Ti.e Jesuit novement
and his cool pu rsuit of power, were (though tie ey rarely as reed
with eac. 1 othe:) designed (torards)the sane mys stical end, and
this fae was ihe source of their success. Ihilip and tie
Jesuits Laid the foundation, in practice and principle, cf
modern politics
In our world, the sane prircirles are
applied, whether in communism or laisser-faire capitalisa. or
kough
nazism,/uithout it being thought necessary to add the nan e
he swat 4
of God. And tl is change too (paradoxically A thet wits the
protestant revc lution and the catholic restor ation) came
about in the sixteenth century: the name of God slipred sway
fron political action and social life - or re ther, the name
was all that re naine 3. The most bitt rly coctrinal epoch
Hany d Ale


that there has ever been in Christian histoy served to
ICm
remove the doct trine - all Christian doctrine, rrotestant bathere
or catholic - from the arena of action and C! aily life. A
secular society care into being; the princiles of terror
that weze evolved renained, but the ends thi y vere intended
to servo did not. And this was the work equally of the
protestants and the catholics, with zeal anie me rtyrdon on
both sides.
di hf
Whuch Me,tuhu
'When this country moves,' a Spanish historien Say, ir?
once sai.d, 'the whcle earth trembles'. In I. lot after plot
in ever, counury, for well over a century, Spanish money
Hat
and Spanish pri iests and Spanish agents codicted a some T imes
hidden and solietimes open war against herus.. Tle 'terror'
was in the foim not mainly of military invasior or reprisal
(althou l this was bad' eacurh in the Fetheriands under the
governotship of the Duke of Alva) but anunip pecified and
therefore, in that, all the more feariul ntimidation. It
was a muntal terror of the kind we ourselves have come to
know.
The emergence of Spainas a sigie rower(reelly)
began with the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469,
by uniting Cai tile and Aregon into one kingiom. It meart
not sim ly thit a sea-faring people had joir.ed a landed
people, but that religion and politics hau ecome integrated
as nowhere elie in Europe. It was the Church that made the
union possible, by being the only irstituicn (the only way,
of life, shared by the two very different aid independe. B
Relifion
minded.woples. E/therafore became a poiiticel factor, a
discipline holding urruly netures. togethe:. And this wa s
how the clergy becane an obedient-branch of government ES
4 à - - Fo


it did nowhere elsc. It neant that Spanish government
becane synonynous vith the persecution of u iorthodor: belief.
The 3paiish adminis tration as it came to be perfected during
moid (pl ?
the sixueenth centi rJ was a code of behavic ir which the
Spaniard personified better than any body. and it WaS tis
behaviour which influenced the L est or the vorld. The
'stiff' Spaniard, the 'haughty' Spaniard wa; in himself the
image o:? a new epoch where life was for the first time
guided Dy the mind and not by the faith or she family or
T lorgut uth haul- fusk Sau hl i t lngca da hGw
even the conscience. He was the end of med.aeval society. Surihy
And people imitated him. And for. himself Sain was the
only (alid country there was. Even Philip could not bear
more than a few days outside Castile.
You cannot terrify humanity for ong by force
of arms. You have to command respect. A ad the Spaniards,
whether in the Church cr royal courts or ariy headquarters
or spy ings, inspired respect and awe, eve: 1 superstitious
awe, ani therefore venomous hatred. It was the first time
single ilen aroused collective attitudes. Tiat is to say,
spemree were the image of sonething mental, and, they provoled
mental reactions. As they overlooked the hi uman.being for
the idei, so they vere overlooked_for the rigine they were
the wal ing auvertisements'of It was : the irst time that
ti uas
fm your enany cO ild be someone against whom foun hadno personal
ho Chafe ?
argumenu, and against whom nothing)even of a tribal nature
could by brousht. The Spaniard meant an orhodoxy of ideas
which you eitier loved or were moved to hat:ed and terror
by, but which in either case you probably for ared. French
catholiss were never quite sure whether a S aniard vas
preferale to a prctestant - in Paris at Lenst.
lilu is Sarnul fuls
I And I hau- 6 cead Or saihru
befue £ gtt ee SusR.
a Na
LA - ah


2. Charles V' upbi ging was hu manist and ion--nati nulist
Charles inierited te throne of Castile and Aragon
throuzh the deith o1 iis grandfather Ferdina id of Arigon, and
he was later elected lioly Roman emperor. Te was boril in
Ghent in 1500 of Fhilip the Fair (a Lapsburg) and Joanna the
Mad (of iragon and Castile). He had Spanish, French,
Burgundien, Flantaganat, Flenish, Portugue ese and Gernan blood,
and probably some Jewish and Arab as well. Thus the Hapsburg
inheritane cane to him through his fat ther (in the form of
the Netherlands) and the Spanish through his mother. When
he was still a baby his parents noved to Spain, and he was
left in Flanders to be brought up by an Engl ishwoman,
Margeret of Yo:k, the widowed Auchess of Bur sundy. That was
how little anything like national distinctic 1S existed at
Charles's birti. There were dynasties, and larriages bei tween
dynasties, and trade-agre ements or military illiances that
underpinied the marriage-agreements. 3ut la. guage, the hub
round wb i ch national reeling collected, was 1ot yet idenvified
with state power: it was a fluid thing, and Jatin was still
the shared medium ot communication. It was luring Charles's
life the L verniculars, and with them natio dal avareness,
became iaportat. Gradually, as the king of Spain, he learned
Ais aussensss
to make use of a - to see it as the most valuable asset of
governmeat. (s ain was perhaps the first successful nationalism
in the Caristi an world. This changed entire Ly the structure
even of its OW 1 society, and brought dynas tic power to El
end everyw where. It was Charles's'son Philip who lived i1 full
consciousness of this.
eary,
Charles's first b ckground was th erefore Burgindien-
English: the tuo countries were En any cage traditional allies.
Itit au Granple
a uatinalisu.
Jae
Can
couty be
WE a l T S 7 e


Lafair
His father Philip/did when he was sir, and 1 is nother went
irretrievably mad as a result. The Estates cf tae empire
Charlein gmadtote Holy Romas eufure)
appealed Jias imilin/to take over the gover ament of the
Netherlands, and he appointed his daughter Mergaret of Austria
to be not only regent but foster-nother to Charles and his
sisters. The part of the father was taken by some one who
though also a Burguniian was less anti-French than Margaret,
and more inclined to direct Charles's interests as a future
ruler towards Italy - the Great Chamberlair at the Burgundian
court, Guillaume de Croy, Sieur de Chièvres. Margaret had
been twice-widowed: iier second husband, the Luke of Savoy,had
died when she was twenty-four and still childles3. Henry VII
of England wanted her in narriage, but she ref fused, probably
because she saw the importance of her rolitical role in the
Netherlands. When Sie settled there she brought advisers
from Savoy and Franche Conté (Laurant de Gcrrevod was later
one of the imperial advisers). Her closest I: inister was
Mercurinc Gattinara; he had been her state leryer in Savoy,
and later became Charles's chief minister in 3pain. Charles
and his sisters called Margaret both aunt End mother, and
always SI oke French to her.
Char les's education was in the Lands of several
men I Adrian of Utrecht, Robert of Ghent, E. Spaniard called
Luis Vaca and Charles de Poupet (Lord of Le Chaulx, also a
councillcr in Spain later on). The youngstargins shared his
AAE
classroon ss Kaximilian Sforza and John of S: axoay, as his
pusmal
pages of Lonour. Hsoveraor and lord caemuarlain, Chievres,
was a kni ght of the old Burgundian' Order of te Golden Fleece,
and perhe S S the main intellectual influence c1 Caarles's life.
Chièvres was quite possibly his model of what a statesman
should be, namely knight, diplomat and ruler in one.
Erer


By lis fat ther's death Charles was Duie of Buryundy,
which in later years aade hin Frence's chier enemy. As ar
as conscious policy was concerned, his strus le to win back ancient
Burgundy, or rat ther those parts of it lost t) France by
Charles the Bold (fither or liary of Burgundy, Charles's
grandmotier) was the chief theme of his imperial reign: it
was not the mot potent one. It cut right across the Ereat
new fact of lie - Lavional feeling. And perhaps it was the
basic reason wly - cer: leting his forces and vasting his
money - he could not beat the Turks and 'lib rate'
has always
Constantin nople as heli anted to. hares a ne iaeval(conc ern,)
out of tune wi h the rest of his policy, whic h was forced to
be modern simply by virtue of the problens he fcund in front
of him, particilarly in Germany. Erasnus tried to persuade
him to give up some of these 'old rights' but he never agreed.
He preseited his son Ihilip with a modern state almost in
spite of himself.
He kad a rat ther serene nature, perhaps more so
than his son; though he had outbursts of ail r which his son
ATuse
did not.it The
father'san
et was tht
trghs,
son's
rugged and careless,
resepved,
controlled, cor centrated,
Theson was mentally restless,
benead
mcer his reserve. Both developed great deta chment early in
life and thougk t out their problens (and cioce their loyalties)
behind it. Charles was! more the mediaeval man. He thought
in imnediate, kuman terms; the family and the tribe (embodied
in the dyhasty) were still close; for him E. spiritual
community was enacted every day in the cour ts and audience
chambers. Philip was the mind of his empire. His enactuents
were ideas. His: dep.loyment of araies and cip lomats and spies
and murderers was meil tally planned, directed Cron a centr al


Do lwn learnan unluotin )
idea which nevor leit him. But the empire a 1d the state of
Spain could never have been built at way: that was done by
his father. Charles did everything with patience, listening
and biding his time, E always happy with a settlement
'Bokm wses How.
wherever IHE posiiule.) Peraays Philip Ge arned)his well-
hohr
nigh obsessive inclinaticn to delay orders aud decisions from
Lafatge But then the best political minds alwars tend to shun
quick decision.
Titian's portrait of Charles gives his eyes Wa armth
and observatio.l, anc a certain quiet enjoyme.t; tiey are
ayp
tolerant, watc.ful, steacy)- E above all detached. He was
a snall man, with the typical thrust-forward Hapsburg chin,
which made his face slant strangely - Cranach's portrait of
him shows this to the point of caricature. Ie was not
attractive as a child - his Erandfather Maxinilian found
nothing lapaburg ab: ut him except his .ove of hunting.
Ferdinano, his Spanish grandfather, was dead--set. against him
inheriting the Span.sh throne, and did every thing he could to
make it unlikely: he hoped that some way would be found for
Charles's younger brother Ferdinand to reirn in his place,
while Chorles stayed in the north looking af cer the Duchy of
Burgundy and tie Netherlunds. He even named Ferdinand (vho
grew up in Spain, and was the nuch more pcpu Lar choice for
Spaniard , , who at luast knew his face) ree ent after his own
death, until such time as Charles should come down from
Flanders I hoping that Charles never would. By a will of
1512 he refusel to recognise Joanna the MEd'3 rigat of
succession to the t rone, as she was clearly unfit to govern:
and throuch her alone Charles wold be interiting the throne.
's court
Charles/in Flanders did all it CO ild to remove
Ferdinar 's prajudice. It sent down Adria n of Utrecht, me


5 Tamworth Street
London
Dear Professor Mellors,
I was at BBC television the other day, in the
Arts Features department, and happened to mention
that I wanted to help a young composer called Peter
Paul Kropowsky who has just escaped from Poland.
The producer I was talking to thought you were the
best person to write to---whether for adVice or
direct help. Hywifeend I heard a tape of four
or five pieces of this young man's work (he is twenty-
three) and biard very struck by the authority and
latent power.
He is a modern---though not electronic.
Nadia Boulanger has written a note to say that any-
one who helps him helps her, or words like that.
At the BBC they told me not to stress this, as she
is considered no judge of composers. Well,that
meybese But judgeof somekind she must be.
Can you offer any sufgestions, please? I am send-
ing some of his work to Germany, but it is less a
performance than sheer survival that he isafter.
He and his wife left Poland separately, by previous
and
Lputz
plan,
married in London.
fem-e-writer and
Juk . red-
would notwrite this uriess felt some thing very
powerful in him, and selfless.
ratg,
Sincerely yours,
A L
Maurice Rowdon


COPY
5 Tamworth Street
London
THE SAFETY PIN
Dear Mr Forbes,
I wonder if I could interest you in an
original film script by Vladek Sheybal on a
coproduction basis with a German company.
You will certainly know Sheybal's acting,
and perhaps his powers as a director too.
We-worked.together recently 51
EilmI wrete
forthe-BBe, and decided 0 bui
up a series
ofTV and-feature Ime-tegether,
Michael York has read the first dfrat
of the script and is very anxious to play the
lead, if necessary on a shoetstring fee.
Jerzy Lipman (KANAL, GENERATION, ASHES
AND DIAMONDS, KNIFE IN THE WATER) would direct
the photography.
The script is provisionally called THE
SAFETY PIN, and I am working on the final draft
with Sheybal now. It will be ready Printed
by Chrsistmas.
Sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


5 Tamworth Street
London
THE FALL OF VENICE
Dear Dr Willschrei,
In a letter to you recently I told you about
a BBC production called THE FALL OF VENICE which we
did in co-production with Sweden and Munich tele-
vision, and which I hoped you could see when it
went out over the Third Programme in Munich. We
have just heard from the Bayerischerundfunk that
this will not be shown after all asthey find there
is much more lip-synch than they expected, and the
dubbing costs would be too great. They tell me
that they were looking forward to a straight docum-
entary based on my book of the same name, on to
which they could have fitted another Voice Over in
German. They thought of sending out the programme
in English as the latest example of a costly BBC
production which was at the same time a new line
in documentary film-making, a new style. But
naturally this film, to reach a large audience,
must be completely dubbed and produced as a German
article.
No doubt the BBC will be approaching other
television companies in Germany which have better
dubbing facilities but in the meantime I thought I
would approach you privately, to see if you were
interested in seeing this 55-minute film from a
buying point of view. To my mind it could easily
go out under the heading of Drama. We took out
to Venice the most sumptuous costumes and used---
apart from our two actors---a great many extras on
the spot, some of them very beautiful. It might
be that this work is much more of a First Programme
feature than a Third Programme documentary (in this
country it is going out on BBC 1). We have tried
all the time---the director and I---to avoid anything
like the straight documentary approach, and the fidm
tells a story---the story of two actors arriving in
Venice to play costume parts, and then the story of
the parts they play.
If I have a reaction from you I can then talk
to the Head of Arts Features at the BBC and he would
take the matter on from there.
Yours sincerely,
Maurice Rowdon


BBC tv
BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
TELEVISION CENTRE WOOD LANE LONDON W12
Ext 2881 TELEPHONE 01-743 8000 CABLES: BROADCASTS LONDON PS4
TELEGRAMS: BROADCASTS LONDON TELEX
TELEX: 22182
11th December 1970
Dear Mr. Rowdon,
Thank you for your letter following your
conversation with Vladek Sheybal.
I suggested to Vladek that I would like
a play about ex-patriot Poles in London, and
he felt that you might be the writer with the
most insight into this community.
I am sorry to say that I am not pers-
onally acquainted with your work as a script
writer.
Would you like to come and have a
talk about this? If so, perhaps you could
phone my secretary to arrange this.
I am now
clear of my studio committments, which prevented
me from making an appointment before.. If you
have an example of one of your scripts that I
could look at, that would also be a great
help.
Yours sincerely,
(Irene Shubik)
Producer
PLAY FOR TODAY
Mr. M. Rowdon,
5 Tamworth Street,
London S.W.10.