[No surviving envelope]
YourHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH sends TSE provisions;f3 surprise parcel arrived last night, with a very welcome and practical inclusion: things like butter and bacon – anything in the way of fats – particularly valuable now. Powdered milk also, in view of the fact that owing to the drought the cos [cows] have been yielding very little this autumn, and people with supplementary rations have not always been getting them. But, my dear, I do not want you to do any more of this. While it is generally true that it is one’s friends who can least well afford it, who send the parcels, I have one or two sources of supply that I can depend on from time to time; andEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister);f3 a parcel from you or from Marion causes me a particular pang. IAmericaand post-war cost of living;b8 am so worried about the rising cost of living in America, and the straits of people with small fixed incomes – the remains of the gentlefolk for the most part – that I had rather go short than have such gifts from such people. And especially as you are starting a new establishment, I want you to see how you get on in making things meet. You say you have had no new clothes, but merely a re-furbished wardrobe: and I have got a new heavy winter suit, some more woolen underwear and woolen shirts, andEliot, Theresa Garrett (TSE's sister-in-law)sends TSE Henry's old greatcoat;e3 Theresa has sent me a warm greatcoat which belonged first to her brother and then to Henry, together with earmuffs. I am better off for wardrobe than I was a year ago.
Iappearance (TSE's)teeth;c2remaining upper teeth removed;b4 go to the nursing home on Friday, and emerge on Monday, presumably with my new teeth ready to eat. The nursing home is not absolutely necessary, but it makes everything easier, and simplifies the problem of what to eat during the first two days. I expect to be occupied as usual from Tuesday. Also, my doctor thinks it is a good thing for me to be in the home, as I am likely to run a slight temperature: that was what bothered them after each of my operations, so that they kept giving penicillin and oxygen.
Theretravels, trips and plansTSE's scheduled December 1947 visit to Marseilles and Rome;g2;a3 is no news except that I shall not be wanted at Aix until nearly the end of November. I hope that it will not be very cold then. This'Edgar Poe et la France';a3 gives me ample time to re-write my lecture on Poe, of which I have finished the first draft, and (what is more difficult) to prepare my little speech to be translated into French. I intend to fly (omitting Paris altogether) which saves worry over the possibility of being held up by railway strikes on the continent. The international situation seems to get slowly worse, but I do not suppose that any crisis will be reached until next year.
AlsoPrinceton Universityand TSE's Institute for Advanced Study position;e3, I have heard from Aydelotte that Princeton will be glad to have me for a couple of months in the autumn of next year; and with the living expenses they allow me I ought to be able to spend several weeks in Boston – partly at the beginning and partly at the end, I hope – without having to undertake extra lecturing. WhileHarvard University;c6 I could wish that the engagement was further North, a visit of that length at Harvard would not be without difficulties, as there would be so many people whom I should have to see at least once, and a group of people whom I should have to see several times, that it is is always difficult to see enough of the very few.
I hope that by that time I shall have been able to accomplish some work.
TheNason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldinebut remembers;b2 day after I wrote to you, there came a letter from the faithful Meg. It seems that she and Doreen had had a skid: the car was a good deal smashed up; Doreen was thrown on her head; and Meg has since been very busy looking after the shop and nursing Doreen too! But they are bravely intending to carry out their holiday expedition to the Lakes, in a borrowed car; and Meg has now sent an enormous cake, which will be cut at my book committee (now an annual ritual, as the cake has never failed) this afternoon. MegSwan, Ethela 'saved soul';b1 is a very plucky girl, and I believe, like Miss Swan, a saved soul.
Now do spend your money on FOOD FOR YOURSELF.
I have not yet traced the new address in one of your letters!
1.Marian/MarionEliot, Marion Cushing (TSE's sister) Cushing Eliot (1877–1964), fourth child of Henry Ware Eliot and Charlotte Eliot: see Biographical Register.
1.MargaretNason, Margaret ('Meg') Geraldine (Meg) Geraldine Nason (1900–86), proprietor of the Bindery tea rooms, Broadway, Worcestershire, whom TSE and EH befriended on visits to Chipping Campden.
2.EthelSwan, Ethel Swan, a Faber & Gwyer ‘pioneer’, joined the firm on 12 Oct. 1925, as telephonist and receptionist, retiring in 1972 after 47 years. PeterSwan, EthelPeter du Sautoy's tribute to;a2n du Sautoy reported in 1971: ‘These duties she still performs with admirable skill and charm … SheJoyce, Jameson the phone to the F&F receptionist;c1n has an amazing memory for voices and it is certain that if James Joyce were to return to earth to telephone a complaint (he called us “Feebler and Fumbler”) she would say “Good morning, Mr Joyce” before he could introduce himself, as if he had previously been telephoning only yesterday. Many a visiting author or publisher from overseas has felt more kindly towards Faber & Faber as a result of Miss Swan’s friendly recognition’ (‘Farewell, Russell Square’, The Bookseller no. 3410 [1 May 1971], 2040).