March 24, 1920
     [Thoughts on the Art of Aubrey Beardsley & Richard Strauss written on side next to a large bracket indicating from So to Salome]
    So much is an artist’s mentality wrapped up in his work that the least perversion in his makeup will be expressed in his art. To express the true beauty, lower & wildness of nature, the vital conflict of life that takes place there, his own mental life must be exactly like it; there must be a calm seriousness about his thoughts that control all his passions and desires, which must be normal. Otherwise his work will be an abortion, like the hideousness of “Salome”
     I had thought that five years ago my “dawn” has that summer’s worship