Andrew,

Thanks for the Christmas gift--just read through the first page of the Morgue. I'm very lucky it's so quiet at work today, as I'll soon be at the others;) ...it strikes me again reading this how perceptive and sensitive Peter LL.D. was about things, and what a dubious gift this must have been in someone with his familial background...

Anna

There is much shouting and rejoicing throughout the land!  

I know this subject has been pondered on and debated exhaustively, but I did want to ask about this comment Nico makes in his 12-29-1975 letter to AB regarding Michael's death: 'he and Rupert banged on somebody's door on the way to the river and said "Come on out and bathe"'. Wondered if anyone knows anything more about this, as it is the only reference to this incident I've found? I'm wondering specifically who's door this was, and if they had anything more to say on the subject? I know it is very arcane, and really isn't important in the larger scheme of things, so I am a little relunctant to bring it up, but the incident certainly does (in my mind, and apparently in Nico's as well) sway the evidence of the death towards "natural causes" and away from suicide, for pretty obvious reasons.

I wanted to share two passages from a rather boring and tedious book I have been reading entitled “Memories” by Ethel Barrymore (published 1955). This book became a lot more interesting to me when I realized there was a connection to JMB. Ethel apparently starred in several JMB plays (Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire, The Twelve Pound Look) and was at one point engaged to Gerald du Maurier.  I don’t think she knew anyone in Our Story that well (eg she thinks Peter was the eldest Davies boy) but I thought these two passages might be of some interest to everyone—they might be quoted somewhere else, if so, I apologize.

“When James Barrie had a cricket week – artists versus writers—Harry [Graham] was there as an author, along with many others. Some of us stayed at Barrie’s house and the overflow stayed at an inn. We all ate at the house—in the garden, in the sitting room and in the dining room. There were a great many of us: Edwin Abbey in white flannels, rather fat, dashing around catching cricket balls, or rather not catching them; and Maurice Hewlett, playing cricket rather romantically. And, of course, Barrie himself. It was a wonderful party. After cricket when we came back to the house Barrie used to play croquet on the lawn. Little Michael Davies, the grandson of George du Maurier, never left Barrie’s side. He was about four or five years old. Barrie, with his pipe in his mouth, holding a croquet mallet in one hand and the other clasping the little boy’s hand, would walk quietly all over the lawn. The little fellow never left him, and he never left the little boy if he could help it.”
…
“I remember how Barrie and Mr. Frohman used to sit together hour after hour in Mr. Frohman’s rooms in the Savoy Hotel in London , sometimes talking and sometimes not uttering a sound for, oh, spaces of time. Often I would be with then and would wonder what they were thinking about, if anything – Barrie eating his little pipe and Mr. Frohman smoking many cigars, and not saying a word.
One day after Barrie had gone Mr. Frohman said, ‘Wasn’t he wonderful? What do you suppose he was thinking about?’
I was still pretty young and I said, ‘I don’t suppose he was thinking about anything.’
Mr. Frohman didn’t like that.”

Sorry for not including this in my original post.

I found the exact version of "Japanese Sandman" (by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra) available for listening here: http://nfo.net/ogg.htm. Once again, you are required to install something, but it didn't do anything bad to me!

A very enjoyable tune, too...

Andrew --  I want to thank you again for what I am sure has been an enormous amount of work. The site is a bountiful treasure trove as-is. And yet I know the prospect of so many more letters makes even the non-greedy amoung us salivate...but patience is a virtue. If you honestly do need help with anything, though, just let us know...you have a little army of cult followers at your disposal.

Also, I was very excited and happy to hear about the prospective Area I DVD release of JMB&TLB...