John Masefield replied or wrote to Dorothy Bull eighteen times in 1917. He wrote twice from London, wrapping up the business of Bull's gift to wounded French veterans, and seven times from France while conducting unpaid battlefield research along the Somme and, finally, nine times from his new family home on Boar's Hill near Oxford, UK. His letter to Bull on the 20th of April is uncharacteristically sad in tone. His letter to Bull on May 8th includes an apology. And on Sept 13th, Masefield tells Bull his primary wartime objective is to help "make America + England lasting + understanding friends".