Noel Kavanagh, Esq.,
Hon. Secretary,
The Yeats Association.

Dear Mr. Kavanagh

Thank you for your letter. Ever since the Civil War and the executions, hangings, atrocities, then and later, I have avoided all contact with politicians. I would not wish, therefore, to be connected, directly or indirectly, with any Association in which they take part. I am sorry that your Society has not been kept to writers and sympathisers.

Note: The letter typed is on inexpensive unheaded small letter-paper, folded for the envelope to post-card size using black ribbon and a serif font. 6-8 words appear on each line and the right-hand margin is not observed. There is an accidental space between the first two letters and the remainder of ‘Kavanagh’ in the salutation. This has been emended with a biro crescent under. The signature is written in the same fine-tip biro (with a slightly broken line and some thicker ink-dots). There is no stop after the first-name initial, and the ‘e’ of Clarke falls distinctly below the line. The letter is marked ‘R’ in another hand in the right-hand bottom corner - presumably Kavanagh's token that he has replied. [See original]

This copy and the attached description have been by Bruce Stewart (UU/UFRN), having received the letter among papers of his mother Melanie Stewart [née Le Brocquy] who remembered Clarke as a visitor at her parents house in the late-1930 and 1940s.