An archive of journalist and editor, James Good',s letters to Robert Lynd, essayist, and Sylvia Lynd, poet and novelist

See his obituary in The Times, 5 May 1930. 90 ALsS and one ACS to RL and SL. Totalling 192pp., 4to; 17pp., 8vo; 223pp., 12mo. Two signed 'Seumas', the others signed 'James W. Good' or 'J. W. G.' Mainly from 24 Herbert Place, Dublin, but also from 35 Waterloo Rd, Dublin, and other addresses, and on letterheads of The Freeman's Journal; The Northern Whig Office, Belfast; The Republic, Belfast;Uladh. The letters to the separate recipients as follows. To RL: 44 ALsS; 30 between 1908 and 1928; the other 14 undated. Totalling 63pp., 4to; 17pp., 8vo; 121pp., 12mo. To SL: 46 ALsS and one ACS; 39 between 1916 and 1930; the other 7 undated. Totalling 129pp., 4to; 102pp., 12mo. In a note MG describes Good as the Lynd children's 'unofficial godfather', and also present are two ALsS from Good to the Lynd's eldest daughter 'B. J.', 1921 and 1929, and a photograph of an individual (Good?) staring at a bust of himself. With two sets of typescripts of Good's letters. The first set, comprising 259 4to pages, is accompanied by a TLS by the typist, Betty Kiossoff of The Fleet Typewriting and Translating Service, dated 22 December 1934; the second set, of around 30 folio pp., is accompanied by an invoice by typist Redwood Fryxell, dated 28 September 1979. Both sets contain transcripts of letters to 'Walter [Riddall]', the originals of which are not present. The second set of transcripts are in an envelope addressed to Dr Brian Kennedy, with the note: 'Letters from a godfather | Typed transcripts | Used for Paul Henry book' (i.e. S. B. Kennedy, Paul Henry, Yale, 2000). The correspondence contains numerous references to Henry - habitually 'neck-deep in worries' - particularly among Good’s letters to SL. In 1919 he writes that Henry is 'finding it rather an uphill fight in Dublin, but he is clinging on grimly'. And a year later (9 August 1920): 'The Henrys are at present exhibiting with Jack B. Yeats, E. O'Rorke Dickey & others in a show at Stephen's Green. I'm glad to say they have sold a couple of pictures, and are tremendously pleased with themselves, though the money won't carry them far. As I anticipated Mrs. Coffey is beginning to get on their nerves, and they are already talking of looking for a new abode.' In additon to personal news, topics include Irish domestic and political affairs (strikes and trades unionism, sectarianism), and above all, to the journalistic world in Britain and Ireland. The doings at the relaunched Irish Statesman, which Lynd nearly edited, and of which Good acted as Deputy Editor under George Russell (‘AE’), are described in detail. There are numerous references to friends in common (Boyd, Bulmer, Riddall) and to literary figures (George Moore, AE, Lennox Robinson). Two extracts give good examples of the frank tone of the correspondence. Among the literary gossip is an amusing explanation of why Good thinks Sean O'Casey will decline the 1926 Hawthornden Prize: 'My own opinion is it's not a question of principle so much as of vanity. O'Casey is as bald as a coot as a result of a blasting explosion, and he never goes to any place where it might be necessary to take off his cap. A wig I think wd. solve his problem. He informed me, however, that if he deserved a prize he ought to get it without having to go up like a boy at a school distribution.' (In the same letter he describes how the Abbey Theatre 'has suddenly become fashionable since the coming-of-age show'.) And in an undated letter Good writes from Belfast: 'In addition to many other strange birds of passage we have hd. E. M. Forster, the novelist, in Belfast lately. He thinks the city, or rather the Arts Club crowd, is like Italy. I hope for the sake of our holiday that he's fearfully & wonderfully wrong.' Good’s affection for RL is apparent throughout. On 1 February 1910 he writes to RL following the birth of his first child: 'I've been trying to think of you as a father, but I can't quite get the hang of it yet, for there comes bobbing up to spoil the picture the loafer with whom I used to go to battle at Craigaird and drink bad claret on the sand, as if it were nectar.' His praise of RL's work is constant. On 21 March 1915 he tells him: 'I'm glad the notice of the book satisfied you. It didn't quite satisfy me, for I enjoyed the essays much more than what I wrote suggested.' On 22 September 1916 he tells RL: 'I was astonished to hear you were thinking of leaving Hampstead and going to some weird place in the country, miles from anywhere. You, I know, are quite capable of retiring like Carlyle to Craigenputtock, but somehow I don't see Sylvia in that setting.' On 12 November 1917 he writes to RL in St Ives: 'You were right, I think, to decline the Nation job, and I hope it will suit Tomlinson. [...] Is Sylvia working on another book or are family cares too much for her? The babes, I suppose, are no longer babes, to themselves at least.' A letter to SL, written on 26 May [1923], and torn in pieces [by an angry SL?] concerns RL and the editorship of the relaunched Irish Statesman: 'I'm frightfully sorry for myself that Robert and you aren't coming to Dublin, but I'm rather glad for both your sakes that the paper hasn't worked out as you expected. H[ugh] P[lunkett] is quite impossible as a paper proprietor, his policy is hopeless, politically, and Robert, mild-mannered as he is, wd. soon have been hiring professional gunmen to deal with the alleged Editorial Board.' By 1926 the Irish Statesman's affairs are in disorder: ''The controversy between Plunkett and AE has subsided. AE Asked me formally if I wd. take over the political side, and I refused.' And in 1927 things are worse still: 'I'll be still merrier next month, for AE [the editor George Russell] is going on holiday - as usual to Donegal. He wants a rest badly, as he's fagged out with overwriting himself in the Statesman. He does it to save money in contributor's fees, but it is wretchedly bad economy, as everybody complains that AE is splattered all over the paper.' Politics plays a great part in the correspondence, and in 1904 Good states his position regarding the Irish situation: 'Theoretically I believe in Sinn Fein, at least I suppose I do, but in practice I wd. fight for anything that wd. shake Ulster out of a rut, no matter whether it agreed with Sinn Fein principles or not. I don't know how you feel in London but here at times it is perfectly maddening to see chance after chance slipping past and to have to sit reporting stupid meetings or pretending to review rotten books.' In 1912 he writes from Ulster of Carson's 'bluff': 'We've had a very lively week here, though really the average Belfast-man knows as little of what is happening as the average Londoner. Only from official reports supplied to the Press does the man in the street glean any knowledge of the Provisional Govt which he is expected to love, honour & obey. I don't know whether it has hoodwinked English voters, but here in Belfast it's pretty plain that the new Central Authority is only the old Ulster Unionist Council under another name. [...] The Liberals or some of them talk of the inevitable bloodshed that'll follow the passing of Home Rule, but they forget that in Belfast & Derry the fighting will be as bad if by any chance the Bill is abandoned. The Nats in Ulster haven't talked abt. arming, but in Belfast at least they're as well armed as the Unionists, & if Devlin were to slacken his grip to-morrow,as he wd. if the Bill collapsed, we'd have a flare-up such as Belfast never saw.' And in 1917, from Dublin: 'Politically everything is in chaos. The Convention is grinding away, but the Ulster Unionists are screwing up their courage to smash it if Sinn Fein does not oblige them with another rebellion.' On 7 July 1923, in a letter to SL signed ‘Seumas’ he writes bitterly of Ireland: ‘Mrs. Green is frightfully worried about the Flogging Bill. As a good Liberal she cannot grasp the fact that she is living in a country which has bn. Thoroughly, though I hope not permanently, brutalized. Tell Sheila & B. J that I’ve met some weird lunatics since I came back. There’s no use of mad Sheila coming here while we breed Marie Comerfords.’ Much of the correspondence is devoted to Good's own journalistic activities. In 1916 he writes: 'By the way, since I saw you I was offered a job on the Freeman as leader writer and literary editor. The paper is being reorganised, & Paddy Hooper who was boss in the London office has bn. made editor. He offered me the post, & it was backed up by Devlin who is I think the new power behind the throne.' In August 1919 he asks RL: 'Did you hear about the Freeman? Owing to the bank stopping the overdraft, the present company has to wind up, and we are now in the market for the highest bidder. Hooper has hopes of getting the paper bought by someone who is not violently opposed to the existing policy, but I have my fears Sinn Fein may slip in.'On 22 October 1918 he writes to RL: 'I'm slaving away at a book about Ulster for Maunsel's. Sometimes I fear I'll never get it finished or if I do that no one will read it.' In 1929 he complains to SL of being 'really desperately rushed', and comments on Irish politics: 'I'm so close to things that they get badly on my nerves. From the range I look at Saorstat Eireann the blots and blunders obscure everything else.'