Spencer Heath Archive

Item 1209

Carbon of letter from Spencer Heath, Roerich Museum Apartments, 310 Riverside Drive, New York City, to Mrs. C. J. Lycett, Camelot, Broad Lane, Wedensfield, Staffs., England

December 6, 1935

Dear Nellie Bicknell:

Here at long last is the beginning to take form of the letter that I have had in my mind and heart and imagination ever since you made the great change in your life that can lead to such vivid excitations, such wonder and beauty and fulfillment of life, or can lead to such dull frustration, misery and despair. Some of us are happily endowed with great integrity of spirit, enormous capacity of good will and a willingness, even a sincere desire to lose ourselves to and in all that uplifts, re­creates and inspires. When one of the parties to a marriage has so much of this ideal endowment as has always been manifest in you it is almost impossible that the great adventure should fail, and if the other party has even a modicum (and I am sure it is more than this), then everything is set for fair voyages to wonderlands of dis­covery and joy.

So here are the belated congratulations that I know must be yours not alone for the high realizations of romance but for all that further fulfillment that must have come to a woman like you out of the throes of mother­hood and all its creative pains and joys. I have no doubt you are enjoying the little new life in a thousand ways.

Probably Ada has told you this is my third winter in New York. I have been doing a little teaching at the Henry George School of Social Science and doing a little speaking and leading discussion groups at other places, and I have spent most of the summer times here also. Last summer I have my Beatrice /in/ a summer school course at Columbia University and we had a fine time going around together and to dances and such things. Last winter I had Lucile visit me for a month or more and had a good time with her too. I took dancing lessons and became proficient enough to get occasional compliments although I have not taken on any of the more complicated steps. In my teaching and thinking I have developed some striking contributions to sociological theory which a great many people urge me to publish in book form, but so far I have not felt enough inspired to go through the solitary labor of it alone. It seems as though nothing is worth doing unless in company with other people and I am afraid through the years I have lost whatever little skill I ever had for cultivating friends or intimates of any kind, especially the kind that I most desire. I still maintain Elkridge at heavy cost but as I can have no joy in it I seldom go there and usually regret it sharply whenever I have done so.

Well Nelly I often think of you and the good times we had when you were over here. You seemed to get such a large and wholesome enjoyment out of everything, it was a great pleasure to take you about and have your good-natured company and fun. It is grand to associate with anyone who finds pleasure and beauty and delight in so many things and makes life really worth while,

I have a one-room apartment on the ninth floor overlooking Riverside Park and the Hudson River. It is rather large and well-furnished, bachelor style, with a lovely tiled bath room, two clothes closets and a modern kitchenette with electric refrigeration and cooking appliances. For four days we have had howling winter winds up and down the river and I have been virtually confined to my apartment for more than a week with a hard cold which the doctor promised would leave me if I would take care of myself for a few days, so I am only going out when I feel obliged to do so.

Ada writes me that she has been neglecting you. I hope she has caught up by now with her letters. She is always a very busy person and she gets a lot done without much encouragement or help and with few oppor­tunities. She is impulsive and short-tempered at times but she has a beautiful spirit and a genius for making people happy about her. I would give almost anything to have her Aunt team up with her and make Elkridge a prosperous place and a happy place for me and everyone else to go to. But the Aunt is so full of self-regarding she is always defending herself against imaginary plots and conspiracies and keeping herself so full of self-cultivated hate and resentment that even the fine offices of love and friendliness are misconstrued. Ada seems to have a very good position now with Mr. Bull in the brush business but it is dreary for her to live in the unheated cottage and have so much stress and inconvenience with transportation to and fro.