Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
World War II. Second and Third American Tour (1939–1945)
WORLD WAR II. SECOND AND THIRD AMERICAN TO U R ( 1 9 3 9 - 1 9 4 5 ) 1 943 4 July - Letter to Boosey & Hawkes. 30 July - He writes for his son Péter s birthday about good wishes in a sad mood: “People wanted all of these things from their God and they had the faith that they might even come true ... But the good sweet god has long since taken his hand off the world, otherwise things wouldn’t be the way they are but quite different.” 31 July - He gives Ralph Hawkes an account of his work and state of health. Around 15 August he begins composing after a long silence: he begins writing the piece commissioned in May, Concerto. 16 August - He writes his wife who is on vacation again in Riverton: “nothing, absolutely nothing remarkable is happening at all”; and to Dr. Gyula Holló: “ There is no change”. - This is how he writes his son Péter about his health condition: “As for me, doctors keep on tinkering with me, to no avail at all. Back’s sarcoid cannot be proven, so this hypothesis was also eliminated. The same happened with Monilia. However, they keep on investigating....” 17 August - He thanks Wilhelmine Creel for her offer to help, if she accepts a manuscript from him in return. 21 and 31 August - He writes Boosey & Hawkes. 23 August - He writes a letter to his son Péter: “ ... I wrote Bátor that immigration was out of the question; I: have got neither money nor health; you: have got no money....” 1 September - Suddenly there is a slight good turn in his health, his fevers abate. 25 September - He writes from Saranac Lake to Israel Rappaport in New York (who is treating him upon assignment by ASCAP) that in midOctober Violin Concerto will be performed in New York, which he wants to listen to, so he wants to return. Seen that they have no flat, he asks to be informed about possibilities of accommodation in a previously suggested “nursing home” (sanatorium). 26 September - He writes his son Péter that he hasn’t had high fever for 483
