[Geraldine Hodgson; James Elroy Flecker] Substantial Autograph Letter Signed G.E.H. [Geraldine E. Hodgson] to Edith [not identified], exclusively about James Elroy Flecker, anticipating her biography of Flecker, published the following year.

Twelve (12) pages, 12mo (3 x bifoliums), good condition. She starts by saying that perpetual illness and being tired of Bristol first drives her to write to her. From then on she concentrates on Elroy Flecker to a correspondent who must be equally an enthusiast and with whom she shares private information. Yes, I wish I had known in time that you & I could have gone to Hassan [underlined]. I would not have missed it with you. I am half afraid I cannot elucidate the West Gate. | Gates of Damascus [underlined] was one of the poems he revised much [she quotes Flecker from Goldring's work on him] [...] The next is information out of the letters [underlined] confided to me: so keep it to yourself till the book [her biography published in 1925] is out. She then quotes extensively from the letters, giving a commentary and making points. After some discussion of the Cyclades and Crete she summarises Flecker's interest in Mediterranean islands: Flecker was (a) saturated with classical stories (b) [saturated with] Eastern stories (c) [?] in modern French Poets (d) an eager collector of AEgean legends as he & his wife boated among the isles of Greece (Santorini was one he [fished off?] & especially loved) | I think myself he tended to use all his phantasmagoria of pictures & colours & emotions as he wishes. [Key words underlined] He never was an exact scholar; he never had the slightest wish to be! I have stressed that in his book. Other men's work, creative thoughts interested him - so far as they stirred his own. She anticipates the publication of her book and the release of more letters to her by his mother (which the mother would not give to Flecker's wife). One book would have been wisest, but was unfeasible. I have done what I could. It is finished, & now has to be fought for to be got out unhacked up!. She then gives makes further comments on Flecker (Oh Edith, they wasted [underlined] him! £500 a year would have saved a genius. It is a heartrending story. I could hardly see to write [underlined] some of it. Further insights follow including the statement that Flecker's first wife could not abide her.