Letter from Edward Renouf to Anny Schey von Koromla

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Vienna – Wednesday

Dearest Annerl!

Early this morning I packed my rucksack with the intention of travelling back to Vienna and then on to the Kaulas. But Henriette didn’t want to let me leave. She said Eva Weiss herself would very soon be coming to Vienna and that I wouldn’t be putting anyone out if I were to stay out there. So I just came back to pick up the post. It was kind of you to send me the memento of ‘our’ abbey. And your two lovely letters told me far more than you could ever have consciously known.

The intimacy that’s been my support and the very bedrock of my life for the last two years cannot be taken away from me! Even just the thought of any radical change fills me with an almost unbearable sadness and loneliness, and if fate should attempt to cut me off, I shall defend myself tooth and nail! But it seems all I really need to do is work hard. Believe me, there’s no surrogate or substitute for the one human connection that, even just thinking about it, I know I couldn’t do without. And while I might need other people to expand and refine, to test and exercise the mind, those people will never reach the core of my being, which still resides, untouched and unchanged, in the place where it came to rest two years ago, under the beating alpine sun and the nocturnal stars of June.

I want to keep writing but I must stop because Henriette will soon be here to take me back to Hinterbrühl.

Everything – – ! Everything – – – – !

Yours

PS I trust we’ll be in Alassio on the 15th and have sent letters to the USA giving the address there as my address for the summer.

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