TO VICTORIA OCAMPO

As Greene was preparing for another journey to South America, he was visited by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (1904–73), who had been appointed ambassador to Paris by President Salvador Allende.

[Antibes] | 1st June 1971

Dear Victoria,

I hope by now you have received the letters in which I thanked you for your introduction to Neruda. I am never quite sure whether it is safest to send to you in San Isidro or to the office – I have a feeling that the office sometimes may suppress letters which are mere acknowledgements. Anyway I went and had lunch with Neruda and to my astonishment found myself rather liking him. Perhaps he was showing his best side. Within half an hour we were Graham and Pablo to each other. He has sent a telegram to Doctor Allende asking him to receive me and I expect I will hear the result in a few days.

My plans are beginning to form and I do hope you will be able to be part of them. I have to go to the States for a few days round about the second week of September and then I would propose to fly down to B.A. if you were there. I would rather like to get in touch again with those young would-be clandestine Catholics with whom I had spent an evening – do you remember? – on my first visit. They might be able to give me a contact or so in Montevideo because that is where I would like to go after seeing you for a short visit. Then I would like to fly over to Chile and spend three or four weeks there. Neruda seems to think that by the beginning of October it would be warm enough to go down to the farmlands in the south which seems to be the trouble centre now. Of course if you were not around I might reconsider the whole programme because it is mainly an excuse to see you and San Isidro again.

Love,

Graham

It is surprising that there was no earlier friendship between Greene and Neruda as Neruda had spent 1952 as an exile in a house in Capri owned by Greene’s friend the historian Edwin Cerio. The film Il Postino (1994) is based on this episode in Neruda’s life.

Date: 2015-02-03; view: 637