7、December 8,1949

                    14 East  94th St.
                    New York City
                    December 8,1949
Sir:
    （if I feels witless to keep writing
“Gentlemen” when the same solitary soul
is obviously taking care of everything
for me.）
    Savage Landor arrived safely and
promptly fell open to a Roman dialogue
where two cities had just been destroyed
by war and everybody was being crucified
and begging passing Roman soldiers to
run them through and end the agony.
It’ll be a relief to turn to Aesop and
Rhodope where all you have to worry
about is a famine. I do love secondhand
books that open to the page some
previous owner read oftenest. The day
Hazlitt came he opened to “I hate to
read new books,” and I hollered
“Comrade!” to whoever owned it before
me.
    I enclose a dollar which Brian
(British boy friend of Kay upstairs)
says will cover the /8/ I owe you, you
forgot to translate it.
    Now then. Brian told me you are all
rationed to 2 ounces of meat per family
per week and one egg per person per
month and I am simply appalled. He has
a catalogue from a British firm here
which flies food from Denmark to his
mother, so I am sending a small
Christmas present to Marks & Co. I hope
there will be enough to go round, he
says the Charing Cross Road bookshops
are “all quite small.”
    I’m sending it c/o you, FPD, whoever
you are.

                    Noel.
                    Helene Hanlf

注释：
/8/ 英国货币先令的表示方法，表示8先令。
小知识科普：1970年以前采用旧制，1英镑=240便士（1先令=12便士，一英镑=20先令）。 自1971年起实行，1英镑=100新便士(New Pence)。
Denmark 丹麦（丹麦王国）
c/o 由…转交，in care of ...
Noel 圣诞节(尤用于歌曲和贺卡)
1949年为二战结束的第3年，二战后欧洲国家受到重创，食物都是定量配给。

哈哈哈，看到这里好想立马就接着看下封信，看看FPD收到礼物是什么反应。但是，为了保持每天更新一篇的习惯，我忍！（🤣其实也没有人知道我有没有偷偷去看了）