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INTERLUDE II – LECTURE TOURS After scarcely a year at Whitestone, the Edes arrived in New York on New Year's Day 1938 for a seven-week lecture tour of the United States. What was Ede's motivation? Primarily, it seems, to encourage viewers to appreciate art. Specifically, however, Ede wanted to introduce those artists dear to him who might be unfamiliar to American audiences: Gaudier-Brzeska, Ben and Winifred Nicholson, David Jones, Christopher Wood and Alfred Wallis. Like the young director of the National Gallery, Kenneth Clark, Ede understood how to capture his audience's attention and harness the theatrical effect of lantern slides. Ede's lectures were meticulously prepared. Speaking directly, he often employed anecdote. Ede also frequently anthropomorphised objects. Thus, Ben Nicholson's 1924 (goblet and two pears) became a 'Renaissance Annunciation', while the subject of 1925 (jar and goblet) became 'friendship'. 31 Aptly, a later lecture was entitled 'Pictures Are Like People'. 32 In spring 1939, Ede undertook a less successful US lecture tour alone. He tried to enlist, when war was declared, but was refused. Recalling the role he had played in 1916, when posted home from overseas service to teach officer cadets at Trinity College, Cambridge, he devised a plan to help British servicemen. At Cambridge, Ede had opened his rooms on three evenings each week for discussions on art, music and literature, or simply for light conversation. 33 In Tangier, he invited five servicemen from nearby Gibraltar for three days at a Whitestone, Tangier. Courtesy Kettle's Yard. 31 Ede, A Way of Life, pp. 226, 225. 32 Ede, 'Pictures Are Like People' 1942-43, Kettle's Yard Archive, KY/EDE/4/3/2/1. 33 Freeman, p.21. 12