1987-09 (September)

Tuesday, September 1st

Bank; cashed $250 check—part for Hugs (going-away money) part for Margaret. Tailor (Penelope’s); left 70 year-old hacking jacket to be repaired for Hugs. Paperback book store; got Erasmus’ Praise of Folly, which I’ve never read. Royalty check from Rosen, $9,486.88 (Vintage; $10,540.97, minus Rosen’s 10%); returned to bank after lunch + deposited it into my account. (This followed frantic search for my Lancia key which Hugs had misplaced. Found it in back pocket). At 6 oclock, put Hugs on Piedmont flight for New York. Sorry to see him go; month-long visit seemed more like a couple of weeks. Walked two miles in 31 minutes; played Brahms’ clarinet trio + sonata.

Wednesday, September 2nd

Phone call from Jay Tolson, who just finished Xeroxing Walker’s letters to me; says he’s planning a book on the letters, mine + Walker’s, to cover the decades, 1960-1980. Told him I don’t mind. Read Truman Capote’s posthumous unfinished novel Answered Prayers. Both better + worse than remembered from early excerpts.Received insurances check for $738.94;“Lightning loss” by workroom air conditioner. Represents total, minus $500 deductible. Bank, after lunch; deposited check. Walked 2.5 in 42 mins; played Berg. Violin Concerto + Chamber Concerto.After supper, watched a repeat of Ken Burns’s “Huey Long.” Holds up well.

Thursday, September 3rd

Plumbers here most of the morning, fixing the two downstairs + one upstairs toilets. Maybe the $40 monthly water bill will come down—unless there’s leakage elsewhere. Wrote to Loomis thanking him for books. Also to Louis Rubin agreeing to join in his founding a Southern Institute of Letters—against my XXXXXXX + better judgment, but for personal friendship reasons. Dinner at Polo Club with Elinor giobbi, who is here (without ed) for a show of her paintings this weekend.

Friday, September 4th

Hang-up phone call at 6:40. Coffee + cereal, then breakfast when Sarah got here at 7:45. Reread Euripides’ Bacchae, which I like more with every reading—though I still like his work least of the three great greek playwrights. After lunch, Book shelf; exchanged three gift books for Bloom’s Closing of the American Mind+ Solomon’s Jackson Pollock, both hard-cover, + three soft backs: Chekhov’s Kiss & Other Stories, Dante’s Vita Nova, + Philip Roth’s Zuckerman Bound.

31st Wedding Anniversary Saturday, September 5th

Thirty-first wedding anniversary; gave gwyn $500 for getting the yard back in shape. Hope she’ll keep book on it for tax purposes. Read most of Pollock biography—a great mystery, as art mastery nearly always is. Walked 1.5 in 26 mins; played Berlioz songs, “Les Nuites d’Eté.”XXXX Baker.