It was a disappointment for a Friday morning to find no letter and to have none this week; but I hope you observe that I have become less querulous, however I feel! and so I count the hours patiently until Monday. AndAlbert, Heinrichvisits TSE;a1 an annoyance to find this morning that Dr. Heinrich Albert2 andAlport, Dr Erichcalls on TSE;a4 Dr. Erich Alport are coming in to see me, in succession. YesterdayPenty, Arthur J.Means and Ends discussed with;a4 a very busy day – lunch with Mr. Penty to discuss his book,3 thenEnglish Church UnionLiterature Committee;a1 a committee meeting at the English Church Union, which is just round the corner from here, all the afternoon, to consider publication matters arising out of the Oxford Movement Centenary next year; and finally to the end of a tea party at the Three Arts Club. AndMorrell, Lady Ottoline;b5 to-day tea at Ottoline’s again.
I finally cabled to Murdock, who cabled back that confirmation of the appointment had been mailed to me six weeks ago – either it went astray or else he means his own letter which was not a confirmation but merely a confident assertion that the appointment would be confirmed. However, he says another letter is following; so I have no longer any reason for doubting; though, as I said, it seems incredible that I should ever get there.4
I feel now of course a kind of deadness after the first excitement (which is partly I dare say just ordinary fatigue); no doubt the beginning of work on the lectures will help. But I cannot do more than think of a subject until April, because I'Modern Dilemma, The';a2 have to write my four broadcast talks for the four Sundays in March, on ‘The Modern Dilemma’, whatever that is; and I have not begun yet. My vanity wishes that these also could be heard in America.
Now it is Saturday: I had not time to finish yesterday, and felt so vexed that I came in, having to go to the bank anyway, to finish it; though it has missed the proper mail and will probably arrive with next Tuesday’s letter – still, I like it that sometimes two letters should arrive at once. AndFaber and Faber (F&F)tranquil Saturday mornings at;a6 I like to take a Saturday morning here; it is very quiet, no directors to talk to, no visitors to interrupt and no telephone calls to annoy. Andwinterin London;a2 to-day a beautiful sunny day, withEnglandLondon;h1eternally misty;a7 the faint mistiness which never leaves London except in very hot summer spells; butEnglandthe English weather;c3suits mistiness;a2 it does not suit London or the English landscape to be without it.
IHodgson, Ralphan afternoon's conversation with;a5 got very tired yesterday afternoon talking to Ralph Hodgson at the Morrell’s [sic]; a delightful man – thedogsendear Hodgson to TSE;a3 conversationbirdssongbirds;d1TSE and Hodgson discuss;a1 this time was chiefly about dogs, song birds, and cruelty to animals – but I do find nowadays that social conversation is very tiring: I suppose that is merely general mental fatigue; I find myself longing for even a week, by myself in some comfortable country place, at liberty, with no practical anxieties, with no one to talk to except village people. IAmericaSt. Louis, Missouri;h4;a4 have had a notion for next winter, as I seem to get a holiday from Christmas to February 1st: of going to St. Louis for a few days directly after Christmas, andAmericaNew England;f9in TSE's holiday plans;a4 then trying to go off by myself for a couple of weeks in some retired New England spot. Do you think that such behaviour would be considered odd? not that that matters if it can be carried out. Sometimes I wonder whether I have become incapable of either solitary leisure or of continued work on one subject for any length of time; it is so long since I have had either. I believe firmly that everyone ought now and then to make a complete break, for at least a few weeks a year, from his ordinary life – not merely pursue the same life in a different place – and if possible, quite away from friends, relatives or fellow workers. IChristianityretreat and solitude;c9;a1 once made what is called a ‘retreat’ in the Church. It consists of a few days in a religious house with a few other ‘retreatants’ of the same sex, with regular periods of discipline in meditation from a priest trained specially to conduct such exercises. The universal rule of procedure is that during the whole time you may speak to no one but the directing priest himself, which comes to perhaps half an hour’s conversation during the day. Most people find at first that after about 24 hours they pass through a period of bursting to talk – similar to the feeling of hunger which comes during complete fast and which then passes away; but I found only a sense of pure relief, during the three days, at not having to speak. Alas, I have never been able to get the time for another such retirement.
I must stop now. At any rate, I have something to put in the pillarbox addressed to you, and that always give[s] me some satisfaction, no matter how poor the contents. Que Dieu te protège et conduise.5
1.Misdated ‘1931’ by TSE.
2.HeinrichAlbert, Heinrich Albert (1874–1960), German civil servant, businessman and diplomat (as Commercial Attaché to the USA in 1914–17, he was accused of espionage and sabotage). He opened his own law firm in 1924; and it was perhaps in his capacity as lawyer that he came to discuss with TSE Erich Alport’s claim that Stephen Spender was on the brink of libelling him in his novel ‘The Temple’, which Geoffrey Faber and TSE were interested in publishing with F&F.
3.A. J. Penty, Means and Ends (F&F, 1932).
4.TheCharles Eliot Norton Professorship of Poetryannounced in the American press;b5Charles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)
5.Numbers 6: 24: ‘The Lord bless thee, and keep thee.’
2.HeinrichAlbert, Heinrich Albert (1874–1960), German civil servant, businessman and diplomat (as Commercial Attaché to the USA in 1914–17, he was accused of espionage and sabotage). He opened his own law firm in 1924; and it was perhaps in his capacity as lawyer that he came to discuss with TSE Erich Alport’s claim that Stephen Spender was on the brink of libelling him in his novel ‘The Temple’, which Geoffrey Faber and TSE were interested in publishing with F&F.
1.DrAlport, Dr Erich Erich Alport (b. 1903), educated in Germany and at Oxford, was author of Nation und Reich in der politischen Willenbildung des britischen Weltreiches (Berlin, 1933). In the early 1930s Geoffrey Faber often sought his advice about German books suitable for translation into English.
4.RalphHodgson, Ralph Hodgson (1871–1962), Yorkshire-born poet; fond friend of TSE: see Biographical Register.
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
11.ArthurPenty, Arthur J. J. Penty (1875–1937), architect (he was involved in the development of Hampstead Garden Suburb), and social critic influenced by Ruskin, Carlyle, Matthew Arnold and Edward Carpenter, as well as in part by G. K. Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc, was an advocate of guild socialism, anti-modernism and anti-industrialism, agrarian reconstructionism, and Anglican socialism. A regular contributor to periodicals including The Guildsman, G. K.’s Weekly, The Crusader and The Criterion, his works include Old Worlds for New (1917), A Guildsman’s Interpretation of History (1920), and Towards a Christian Sociology (1923).