Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
World War II. Second and Third American Tour (1939–1945)
1 941 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE 8 September - From New York he writes University president Lee Paul Sieg in Seattle; he thanks him for having accepted his conditions, and asks again for a one-year postponement of his start at work. 10 September - He writes from New York to his wife in Riverton: “I started the transcription of Suite No. 2 and got to two-thirds of the first movement so far. I hope its good. [Transcription for 2 pianos of Suite No. 2, Op. 4.] My shoulder is basically unchanged. Sometimes I feel it more, sometimes less. I can play the piano”. 13 September - He writes his wife, on the 15th Ralph Hawkes about all the discomfort and inconvenience surrounding him in the USA. 27 September - The political movement “For Independent Hungary” is being formed in the United States. Bartok will also be drawn in to a certain extent later on. 28 September - He writes Hans W. Heinsheimer regarding String Quartet No. 6 and the translation of one of his choral works, and sends him the programme of his concert planned for October in Aurora (State of New York). 4 October then again on the 8th - He writes Ralph Hawkes, and on the 7th a procrastinating letter to Lee Paul Sieg in Seattle. 8 October - He thanks Frigyes Reiner for the sent guarantee papers which he already forwarded to Washington. - He thanks Carl P. Wood for his help in the Seattle preparations and asks for a meeting during his approaching Western tour. In the meantime Péter Bartok received his American visa. In view of him becoming liable to military service after 1 January 1942, he absolutely had to leave Hungary till then. 16 October - For the emission of an Italian transit visa for his son Péter, Bartok asks Washington Ambassador for Hungary, György Ghyka to intervene via the Hungarian Embassy in Rome. 17 October - He writes Wilhelmine Creel in Seattle that he will go there at the end of November and he can give her piano lessons. - He is complaining 472
