7 July 1969
Saints Cyril and Methodius Day
Dear friend,
Thank you for your letter and card from Gubia, which has been forwarded to me from Chicago. I’m not sure where to start. I have so much to tell you. I would have liked to write sooner, but I didn’t know your travel itinerary; also, I don’t like to take the initiative. But I wrote to a friend in Rome and asked him to seek you out and give you a little gift from me. It’s amazing how intelligent people can mess things up. He looked for you at the exhibition and at the hotel, where he was finally told you had already left. Why he didn’t leave a message for you to call him is quite beyond me. I was really sad when I found out.
I hope you will get a chance to see America after all and when you do, we could meet up. Madame Eurydice reviendra-t-elle des Enfers? My dear friend, that’s not literature, unless it’s the real, living kind.
The end of art. You’re right. I saw your image in the Nové knihy [New Books] weekly, and I must say you look unrecognizable. But when I saw your name under the image, I began to see your resemblance a little – in any case the artist was only trying to show your intellect. Picasso’s portraits look much more like the actual person.
To think that Gross and his generation are now old men – but Rykr used to say: mark my words: one day, Chalupecký will grow a beard and push a baby carriage around with art in it instead of a baby. Rykr always saw things clearly – if it hadn’t been for the illness. But I want to remember him only as the man of his paintings and a friend of Chalupecký.
Thank you, sincerely, for taking an interest in my poetry. Surely you must know how much it means to me. I've written a lot this past year; I probably would have been writing even without your encouragement, but certainly not as much or with as much gusto. I’d like to get it published. I thought it might be possible to publish it back home – I hear that they are publishing Blatný. But I’d hate to inconvenience people. I think I could self-publish it in Rome. I don’t care so much about the money as I do about the whole matter of limited readership, etc. I would be happy to give you a copy, even if it were published in Rome, but I don’t know whether you would like me to do that.
Please give my best to your wife Jiřina. As ever,
Yours,
Součková
P. S. L. Radimský
205 East 82nd Street
New York, NY 10028