Paris

5 February 1963

Dear Dennis [Duerden],

It was good to be able to take part in your ICA programme. Dipoko was particularly excellent and it was worth bringing him along. Maybe the problem was we tried to cover too wide a field such as the questions represented.

What I am writing about mainly is on a different matter altogether. I was very angry the day we talked about the bulletin – the three of us in the car. And I felt so depressed that I went to your house to collect my bags.

The thing that depressed me so much was the way you insisted that Lewis should not do the Bulletin even in his free time because not only did you ‘control’ his out-of-office hours but you think he will serve you better if he does creative writing during that time. And this, after Lewis had offered to do it in his free time. Inasmuch as I am the last person ever to want Lewis to do a job like the Bulletin for peanuts, you are the last person I ever expected would have it in him to take on someone as a protégé. Frankly, it reminded me of the ghastly liberals of S.A. who love to protect their ‘natives’ and to think for them. An unfair image? Maybe; but there it is. And Lewis's silence made me wonder if you had thought it all out together before. But how could he then offer his services for £50? More important still, Lewis, on his own account, does articles for the press and this is what would have to be postponed if he did the Bulletin, not creative writing, although you say it would help you if he did this during his free time.

I should imagine Lewis is perfectly able to decide what is good for him. That's his own affair. I shall not represent his demand for £50 to John Hunt as I thought I would: not because I think he is worth less, but because you are both arguing on different premises and the spirit of the whole Bulletin has been muddied by this and I shall, without detracting in any way from Lewis's greater ability to do the Bulletin, take it back to edit it myself.